so even with the KH story up, i didn't forget about my baby! this one took me a long time because i did add my own stuff to make the episode less time skippy because i'm bad at doing that and i also find it annoying so hopefully everything flows alright and if it doesn't please tell me!
anywhooooo hope you like!
Chapter 10: Plaguing the Mind
It was a beautiful sunny day in the city and Spencer was enjoying every last second of it outside in her family's backyard. Her aunt and uncle and her were setting up a picnic table outside for them to enjoy the nice day together. They haven't seen much of Spencer in a while due to Providence's strict schedule and grounding rules. Jake, Spencer's cousin was inside getting some of the food together.
"We're so happy you could stay the night." Spencer's uncle messed up the top of Spencer's head slightly; making her let her hair down when it was too much to keep up.
"Well, Providence doesn't know, and what they don't know won't hurt them." Spencer laughed as she was setting up the silverware.
"Now honey, should you really be going behind their back?" Her aunt worried, always one for the rules since she works in a hospital as a nurse.
"Hey I'm not the only one, and besides I need the freedom every once in a while to keep me sane, and to keep me going back in a sense." Spencer explained, not liking the idea herself but she was going to go bonkers if she stayed in her bleach room surrounded by bleach hallways. Her uncle shook his head and grunted.
"That Providence…"
"I know you're not their biggest fan, but honestly they've been pretty decent to me, I have more friends now." Spencer rested a hand on his shoulder as they all began to sit down together. "Even a purpose. And the plus side, I can better control my powers now, I can control when I go full E.V.O."
"Full E.V.O.?" Her uncle asks curiously and also tentatively, since he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
"Yeah, that's when I was covered in fire before, but with my special suit I don't have to worry about buying a new pair every time it happens." Spencer reasoned, knowing it wasn't completely perfected yet but it's been improving.
"We are very proud of that, but we don't want you turning into a soldier or anything." Her aunt pointed out.
"Violence is inevitable when you're like me and Rex, auntie." Spencer resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"Oh you know me," Spencer's aunt yawns, "I worry."
"Goodness, I'm catching your yawn." Her uncle spoke up as he stretched and let out a long yawn.
"Did you guys not get enough sleep last night?" Spencer complains as they begin to slouch slightly. The two yawn again.
"No we had, plenty of sleep…" Spencer's aunt decided to put her head down in between her arms as she closed her eyes slowly. Spencer's uncle on the other hand leaned back in his chair and almost fell backwards, if Spencer didn't catch him in time.
"Hey, why do you guys get to sleep on the job and I can't?" Spencer joked when she thought this was some sort of prank, but when she heard her uncle's undeniably loud snoring, she realized they really just fell asleep on her. "Guys…?" she tried shaking them awake, not wanting to believe that they were this tired, but they barely budged. It's not like they turn into rocks when they sleep, last time she slept over she remembered them being easily awakened. Spencer fearing the safety for her family runs into the kitchen to get Jake's opinion.
"Jake! Something's…ah!" She shrieks to a halt when she finds him covered in condiments on the ground, thankfully it was ketchup and not something else. She turned off the stove and kneeled down to his sleeping form. "Wake up, wake up!" Nothing was working again and she was getting nervous. She rushed to the front door to see Providence agents who were fighting an E.V.O. not too far away asleep, while the E.V.O. was running free. "You wanna fight tough guy, fine, pick on me!" She yelled to the E.V.O., usually she would avoid urging E.V.O.s to fight her but this time she was ticked. He comes charging forward on all fours, covered in eyeballs and dripping with a greenish slime, she pushes it back with a wall of fire as she flies into the air. "I swear if you're the one that did this…" She swoops down when she sees that he doesn't seem to be too affected by the fire and knocks the monster out with a big shove into the concrete. When she bends down and sees that it's unconscious but still the Providence members near by are unconscious, she realizes it wasn't the E.V.O. causing the problem.
"Still nothing…" Spencer starts to freak out more than she'd like to. She flies into the air without a second thought and gets the comm. link up and calls, "Rex!"
"Spencer?" Rex picks up almost immediately when he hears how anxious Spencer sounds. "Hey, what's going on?" Spencer was going inhumanely fast as she needed to see someone awake.
"My family, they're not waking up." She looks around at the fading city but seeing cars stopped in the middle of the road, some veering off but none to be in trouble. "Everyone's asleep!"
"What?" Rex questions curiously as the predicament does sound a bit far fetched. Rex was walking down a hallway as he was speaking to Spencer and when he turned the corner he stepped on a hand and when he realized who it was on the ground he freaked. "Six! Six, wake up!" Rex sounded pretty shocked and anxious on the comm. link, Spencer now realizing that Rex finally was being hit with the reality of the situation. "What's going on?" Spencer finally lands roughly on the strip that leads into the HQ of Providence and she's running frantically through the hallway. She talks into the comm. link again to Rex.
"Rex I'm at the base, where are-"
"Here!" Spencer's head whips around to see Rex running towards her and he stops short when he sees how upset she looks and she realizes too that she was shaking and feeling faint.
"Rex." Spencer croaked and then fell to her knees, barely able to keep standing. Rex kneels down next to her to make sure she was okay and not going to fall asleep on him too. "What's happening? Why is everyone falling asleep?"
"And, why aren't we asleep?" Rex asked curiously.
"It's an epidemic." Came a deep and strict voice that the two knew all too well. They looked up to see they were near a screen positioned on the wall opposite them and White Knight's picture came up.
"White?" Spencer asks in shock, not understanding why he was listening in on their conversation and how he was able to.
"What do you mean?" Rex asks.
"I mean anyone not an E.V.O. is falling asleep." White reiterated.
"But, why aren't you asleep?" Rex asks cautiously.
"Not even an air born virus can reach me in my office." White answered.
"Lucky you." Spencer growls.
"We need to get to the bottom of this immediately, starting with making sure our assets are covered, particularly-"
"Doc!" Rex and Spencer shout simultaneously as they forget about White's needs and panic as they rush to her lab to make sure she was okay. They burst through the door as Doctor Holiday is beginning to stumble but still able to stand on her feet.
"Don't fall asleep on us." Rex pleads.
"I…I can't—ow!" Holiday complains as Spencer gives her a little shot to the backside to help her stay awake. Then Spencer takes Doc by the shoulders along with Rex and walks her around as Spencer continues to talk.
"I'm sorry but it's for your own good." Spencer apologized as she kept Holiday walking around the lab, making sure she didn't get tired. "You're the brains of the operations, we need you."
"I-I know…" Holiday agreed as she struggled with some device in her hands and then connected to suction cup ends to her forehead. She played with a keyboard before she was completely done programming it. "There…these should help, at least for a little bit." Her eyes drooped closed slightly and little shocks went to her brain.
"What is going on?" Spencer sighed to herself once she understood that Doc was taken care of. White's face appeared on the monitor again.
"I'm getting reports everywhere, everyone's falling asleep in the city."
"When you mean everyone…" Rex trails off, wanting a better explanation.
"I mean even the people driving. We need you out there now!" White yelled harshly. "We're loosing most communication with outside states."
"Roger that!" Spencer gave a fake salute and began to run out the door with Rex on her heels but not leaving before calling over her shoulders, "Caffeinate yourself, Doc."
"I'll be here when you get back." Holiday reassures spencer but still Spencer stops in her tracks and lets Rex pass her, as White has already moved on to giving him directions to a location in dire need of help.
"I know that, but you better be awake is what I mean." Spencer says as she waits for Holiday to nod and then running off and flying into the air, White telling her to head towards the docks.
"The country was infected within three hours. The entire North American continent was asleep in five. All satellites are offline and there's no communication from overseas." White rants into the comm. link for both Spencer and Rex to hear. "The Plague hit Providence before quarantine protocols could be established. Dr. Holiday has managed to keep herself awake using electric neural stimulation, but who knows how long that will last." White growls. "E.V.O.s seem to be immune to the plague, which leaves us with only two agents left to deal with this mess."
"This is gonna be, a LONG day." Rex groans as he was taking care of a shopping center being infested with small but menacing E.V.O.s. Once the situation was taken care of, White went back to barking orders.
"It's gonna be the last stop for those commuters if you can't catch that train." White demanded.
"Yeah I know, but I gotta find it first." Rex complained as he ventured into the subway tunnels, landing on the tracks looking for said train. Suddenly there's a loud horn and lights on Rex's back and he turns around, finding what he was looking for. "Uh, found it." Rex gets slammed with the train but manages to concentrate to make his giant boots to dig into the ground of the subway tunnel in order to slow down the train before colliding into a dead end.
"Rex, report." White shouted impatiently.
"Ugh, mission accomplished." Rex panted when he finally got the train to stop. "I'm heading back to the lab. Aw man I'm gonna be sore for weeks." He groans as he cracks his neck and shoulders.
"I'll meet you there. Cruise line has officially been docked and the crash has been prevented." Spencer announced into the comm. link as she was soaring through the air.
"Ugh, this is seriously wearing me out." Rex sighed as he was using his jetpack to fly back to Providence.
"Do I need to pick you up?" Spencer mock offered.
"Come Rex, pull it together." Rex mumbled to himself when he felt his nanites breaking down, but once he manages to control his self again he replies into the comm. link with, "Nope. All good now."
"Dr. Holiday is heading out to the official break out area now." White mentioned suddenly.
"Guess we'll have to see her later." Spencer sighed when she decided to patch her line to Holiday. "Hey, be careful out there, who knows how much you can take just being there."
"I will. Thanks." Holiday signs off as quickly as she signed on, she knew as well as everyone else she had a limited window to keep functioning, and boy did Spencer feel for her. Even with being physically warn out and even mentally at this point, she knew she couldn't fall asleep, but Spencer knew she could wake up.
"Hey where are you?"
"Don't worry chico I'll be there soon, I know you miss me and all but don't go all diva on me."
"Shut up and get here, I need someone to keep me awake."
"I'm honored." Spencer replied with mock gratitude. She was about to jet off towards the HQ when she saw a bright building underneath her that she remembered Rex occasionally sneaking out to go to or ordering from obsessively. She landed in Taco Bell and ended up getting a burrito that was already made, though a little cold, after a pre-heat from the microwave it'll be good as new. Once she's back at HQ she puts the burrito in the oven, puts it back in the bag, and then throws the bag at Rex who almost misses the pass. "Here, fuel up."
"What's this?" Rex asked cautiously as he opened the bag, which didn't have the label on it.
"You like Mexican don't you?" Spencer asked as she got herself situated in a swivel chair and kicked her feet up onto the counter.
"Uh, duh." He grabs the burrito hungrily and admires it for a moment.
"I give you full permission to be disgusting and scarf it down." Spencer sighs, knowing he's doing all he can to hold back.
"You are the best, Chiquita." Without another word Rex digs right in.
"Yeah, yeah, at least try to keep the food in your mouth." Spencer turned the swivel chair away from him, still grossed out until suddenly Holiday appears on the other side of the automatic doors. "What's the sitch? Any improvement?" Spencer asks Holiday as she manages to drag herself to her desk.
"She's come up short for finding anyway to reversing the plague." White replies for Holiday. Spencer found it creepy that White always knew when to page in and speak his mind. "I'm counting on her to solve this before the electric shocks damage her brain beyond usefulness."
"This is like spitting on a forest fire." Rex complained as he wiped his mouth, which was covered in cheese and chunks of meat at this point. He takes a big gulp before continuing. "Things are probably going wrong on every city on earth."
"Every life saved counts, Rex." Holiday counters.
"Yeah, I know." Rex sighs.
"I don't know how much longer I can keep this up for." Spencer whines as she leans against the laboratory wall to keep herself stable.
"You have to." White growled.
"I know that." Spencer growled back. "I just wish we had more help." Rex physically becomes more downcast as he thinks about his long time fighting partner, and his monkey friend.
"How are Six and Bobo?" Rex asks a little hopelessly.
"Same as the others, asleep." Holiday switched on the screen and showed the sleeping comrades. "But, Bobo's an E.V.O., he should've been immune like you." "Ugh, I don't have a clue about this thing…gah!" She interrupted by her wakeup system. "And these shocks won't keep me awake forever."
"All the more reason not to waste anymore time." White demanded.
"She's not wasting time!" Rex shouted, not liking that she was getting all the blame for not being able to take care of the situation quicker.
"No, he's right. We've got 60 hours at best before start dying from thirst." Holiday sighs.
"And a hundred or so will die within the hour if the downtown fire spreads any further." White ordered.
"Ugh, back to work." Rex throws the paper bag into the trash.
"Get up to the Kyuga dam now, the floodgates are closed." White turns his attention to Spencer this time.
"That sounds like my kind of job." Spencer sighs as she cracks her back slightly to feel more relaxed. She stares at Rex bitterly and does a fake group huddle with him and lifts her arm in the air. "Break." They head in two different directions as they each have their own mission, somehow White being able to keep tabs on both at them at the same time. As Spencer is shooting through the air with a fiery trail behind her, she begins to see the dam on the horizon.
"Crack it open to relieve the pressure." White orders in her ear a little too loudly that she takes the headphone out of her ear for a moment, almost dropping it in the process. She enters the control room and twists some knobs to relieve the pressure as she was instructed. She was about to head outside to check for cracks when her phone vibrates. She knew it wasn't anyone from Providence because only she, Rex, White and Holiday were awake and they would call her on the comm. link. She doesn't bother to check the caller ID as the phone is immediately to her ear in blatant curiosity.
"Hello?" Spencer had to clear her throat to cover up her confused tone.
"Hey Spence." A surprising voice answered her back and she looked at her phone is disbelief and almost blew a fuse.
"Gabi? You're awake?" Spencer gaped as she was frantically thinking of how she could possibly be awake right now.
"Yeah, but barely. I'm overtired from staying up all night studying for my chemistry exam. What's, going on?" Gabi yawns in between her question and it really starts to worry Spencer, almost making her ditch the dam to check on her friend.
"Gabs, please, you have to stay awake, there's been an E.V.O. virus outbreak. It's not safe to go to sleep." Spencer pleaded as she tried not to sound too panicked by the situation.
"What? (Yawn) Why?" Gabi asked, sounding like she was getting sleepier by the minute. Spencer even had to stifle a yawn since she felt like she was physically getting more tired the more she heard Gabi talk.
"Trust me, just have coffee, do jumping jacks, go on a shopping spree, anything! Just stay awake." Spencer begged, now not afraid to show a little worry in her voice.
"Whatever you say Spence…" Gabi sighs as she and Spencer both know it's going to be a hard journey for her. spencer hangs up the phone and just stares at it for a little bit.
"Don't let your emotions get in the way of your job!" White rudely interrupted her raging thoughts.
"I'm not!" Spencer spat back at White. She jets outside and patches up a crack forming in the dam wit her fire. "See? It's fixed." Suddenly the water starts to splash around above her as she finds that she wasn't alone anymore. A giant fish E.V.O. stupidly got itself lodged in one of the holes releasing water from the dam. More cracks began to form.
"You were saying?" White asked dominantly.
"I'm on it…" Spencer sighs. As she was trying to burn the fish to a crisp, she was getting some new findings pushed into her brain as Holiday was back at the lab working diligently. After releasing red hot flames, the fist was still there, nothing immediately wrong with it besides some minor burns. Spencer assumed the lack of damage was most likely due to its thick skin protecting it from being harmed.
"Hope you like barbequed fish, Doc." Spencer joked as she was trying not to get too pissed off or use too much of her energy on this E.V.O. "I'm serving up a plate, hot." She charges forward into the water and is able to kick the E.V.O. out of the and into the small river leading away from the dam and she gives her all to barbeque the monster and the harder she concentrated the more the fire was starting to affect the monster until it finally wimped out and swam away from the dam. "Yeah you better run." Spencer lands on the ground and slides down a tree and breathes heavily.
"Get back to base. We're on to something." White announced.
"Finally!" Spencer stands up almost a little too quickly and gets dizzy. She takes a breather and then shoots into the air and speeds back to base as quickly as she could.
"So how do we find Patient Zero?" Rex asked, sounding almost as exhausted as Spencer felt.
"That's not going to be so easy." Holiday said unfortunately. "If we can find the frequency that connected Patient Zero to the nanites, we can trace it back to him." Holiday explained. Spencer didn't like the look on Holiday's face, it almost looked like the dark circles under Holiday's eyes were going to be permanently etched into her skin.
"Fantastic, I find Patient Zero, shut him down, and boom, everybody wakes up ready for breakfast." Rex announced happily.
"Yes, no, ugh maybe." Holiday sighs as she grabs her forehead in pain. "Ugh, I'm so tired, I can't think." She looks as if she's about to fall asleep until the electroshocks on her forehead kick in. "Ugh!" She pulls them off her forehead and groans. "And these stupid shocks!" She calms down a little and continues. "I don't know what I'm doing anymore. Maybe I should be studying Bobo instead."
"Easy Doc, deep breaths." Rex chides as he approaches her cautiously. "Is there, anything I can do?" Spencer rubs Holiday's back comfortingly as she didn't know what to say to make her feel better.
"Phew, lost it there. I'm okay." Holiday breathes. "I've modified this scanner to find the nanite control frequency, but it could take hours…" Holiday groans as she pinches the bridge of her nose.
"Dr. Holiday, where's my update?" White growled as he appeared on the monitor.
"Do you really think she would keep it a secret if she found something? She's been working around the clock." Rex yelled.
"And that's the way it's going to be until we can figure this out." White argued back.
"Just give me a moment, I can, find…the…" Holiday faints suddenly.
"Doc!" Rex catches Holiday before she falls to the floor. "Doc…"
"Poor Holiday…" Spencer sighed.
"That's great, she couldn't stay awake an hour or two more?" White groaned.
"Excuse me? You have no right to say that when all you've done is sit on your backside and order us around!" Spencer spat.
"At least she was working on the problem!" Rex agreed.
"She was doing her job and that's what I expect from the both of you." White demands. Spencer and Rex simply look at each other and turn around to walk out of the lab. "Where are you going?"
"To follow Doc's plan." Rex growled. The door closed behind him but he continued to address White anyway. "You can stay there and decide if you're good for anything besides yelling at people."
"Let's get out of here. The sooner we find this freak the sooner this will all end." Spencer seethed as she wanted nothing more to either punch a hole in the wall or in White's face. Rex built his jetpack while Spencer followed him closely as he swerved around the city while looking at the device that Holiday.
"Still nothing!" Rex yelled to the wind.
"I wish she wrote some instructions on how this thing could work." Spencer sighed, but then remembered Holiday's current state and immediately regrets mentioning her.
"Maybe we need to go higher up." Rex suggested. Spencer nodded and looked around briefly.
"And probably towards center of town too." Spencer pointed up to a building with a billboard on it. They got to the rooftop and began scanning the area again.
"We're down to 18 hours before we start losing people." White groaned in the comm. link earpiece.
"Like I don't know that." Rex growled back. He made his boogie pack and started flying, but only for a short second as his nanites began to break down, he landed kind of roughly on the ground and he stumbled until landing on his butt in the middle of a vacant street.
"Rex?" Spencer lowered her body genlty down next to Rex and looked at him cautiously, flying around him curiously.
"What's the holdup?" White whined.
"I just need a second." Rex sighed.
"If you can't handle this-"
"What are you gonna do? Shuffle some papers at me?" Rex interrupts White as Spencer helped him up to his feet. Spencer growled as she was finally starting to lose her shit with White and barked,
"We're the only ones out here doing something so-"
"Back off!" Rex finishes for Spencer.
"Put a hustle on it hotshot, when it gets dark it'll be harder to find anything." White ordered.
"Fine. You want speed?" Rex sped off on his wheels with Spencer hot on his heels, no put intended. When Rex realized there was a pileup on the street he turned to, he could barely shut down his machines and ended up crashing into a truck and bouncing onto its hood. There was a low growl from a few cars away. Spencer landed on top of the truck and put her hands on her hips.
"Great, you woke up the cavalry." Spencer complained. Apparently the E.V.O. wasn't so interested in them and more interested in someone inside another car. The E.V.O. ripped the door off its hinges and started to get a taste for the poor unconscious guy with his tongue.
"Hey, freak face, the buffet is closed." Rex tried forming his metal fists but they broke down almost as quick as he pulled them out.
"Ugh, there's so many of them, what do they do, meet at social groups?" Spencer released some hot flames and when she tried to stop the flames wouldn't die down and were shooting out everywhere, even Rex had to dodge away to avoid being scorched.
"Spence?" Rex called out anxiously. "Spencer, what's happening?"
"I, I can't control it." Spencer strained to say with a steady voice, her heat was becoming too intense, she figured through the pain that she must've used too much of her energy and she couldn't control it any further. Rex tried approaching her but Spencer shook her head violently before yelling, "Stand, back…!" She suddenly exploded into hot flames and Rex was sent back, his clothes steaming as he collided into the side of the same truck he crashed into moments ago. When the fire died down Spencer was collapsed on the ground, her suit charred with the ground around her partially melted.
"Spencer!" Rex ran over to Spencer and sat her up slightly, she seemd to be okay besides just being knocked out. The E.V.O. was headed towards Rex again and all he could do was form one of his giant metal boots to kick the monster away. It only sent him a few feet as Rex's nanites broke down again. He looked at Spencer and saw she was trying to wake up.
"I can't, I can't do this by myself." Rex groaned, as he was unable to use his nanites at the time being anymore.
"You don't have to." White said, but it wasn't from the comm. link. Rex was startled, and even shook the still stirring Spencer, as a giant white robot fell from the sky and in between the E.V.O. and Rex. The white robot took down the E.V.O. with ease. Once it was done it turned to Rex and Spencer and the visor over the dome glass came down to reveal White Knight was inside controlling the robot.
"Whoa…nice suit." Rex gaped.
"Thrill me." White mocked, using Rex's catchphrase.
"White Knight out of the office? This really is the end of the world." Rex sighed as he walked over to White, observing the suit with awe.
"I'm trying to prevent that." White countered.
"Ugh…" Spencer groaned as she pushed some loose hair out of her face. "Sorry, bout that…" When Spencer lifted her head to address Rex, she saw he wasn't alone and her mouth would've dropped to the ground if her jaw were unhooked. "Wow…that's, insane." She muttered.
"This isn't exactly a desk job, think you can keep up?" Rex asked coyly.
"I'll manage." White said.
"Okay, but as my sidekick, you need to have a cool name." Rex said as he began flying through the air. "How about Gizmo dude? No, no, no, robo-pants."
"How about, shut your yap and let's save the city." Spencer said as she flew into the air too.
"Nah, too long." Rex shushed Spencer as he continued to think it over.
"Ugh!" Spencer shot up towards him and smacked him over the head and continued on after him calling back, "C'mon."
"Where to?" Rex asked as he and White caught up to her. Spencer stopped in mid air and looked around momentarily.
"How about up there? You can see most of the city from there." Spencer suggested, pointing to another tall skyscraper in the area.
"Okay." Rex agreed and got out the device once the two teens landed. "Nothing…" He growled.
"Found anything?" White asked as he crushed the building under his big metal feet. "Before the satellites shut down, scanners said the plague started in this area. Patient Zero is somewhere down there."
"What do you want me to do? Go door to door like I'm looking for a lost puppy?" Rex asked sarcastically.
"If we don't find and neutralize the source of the plague, we'll need to take drastic measures." White warned.
"That make you glow in the dark kind? C'mon, pass." Rex scuffed.
"There are thirty million people in this city, we can't afford to do that. We can't run the bleach protocol, no matter what." Spencer said with as much authority as she could muster.
"Maybe we can narrow our search." Rex suggested.
"How so?" Spencer tilted her head to him in curiosity.
"He's Patient Zero, right? The first one sick; so maybe he was already at a doctor's office, or a hospital." Rex theorized. White took a moment and some screens showed up on the dome over his face.
"The Keep's records show 8 clinics, 2 major hospitals, and 82 general practitioners." White read.
"See? Now we're getting somewhere. Try and keep up!" Rex challenged as he and grinned and headed off.
"I don't know how Six does it." White sighed.
"Yeah, no kidding." Spencer agrees. Suddenly Rex started to fall from the sky from exhaustion. "Whoa hold it right there!" Spencer swooped down towards him and caught him. "C'mon, you've been doing great so far, we're almost there…you made a big discovery." Spencer suddenly realized she was growing weaker too and could barely hold him up anymore. "Geez, you're heavy, start laying off the breakfast burritos." Spencer placed him as lightly as she could on the ground and in doing so almost tripped and fell on her face when she tried landing. "Go back to boasting about how cunning and smart you see yourself as."
"Sorry, ugh, won't happen again! I-I'm fine…" Rex slapped his face to put himself together.
"Take five, you're useless to me as a zombie." White stated.
"Ugh, no, don't wanna slow things…" Rex was just about to pass out right there on the road when a beeping startled him. "Agh, okay, okay, I'm awake! Make up your mind!"
"Wasn't us, though I wish it was…" Spencer suppressed her giggling at Rex's panicked expression. White then pointed to Rex's jacket and when he checked his pocket Rex found the device that the Doc made.
"It found the frequency!" Rex announced gratefully.
"Halle-freaking-lujah!" Spencer cheered. "Let's go!" they head off towards where the device was leading them, and thankfully lead them to a hospital. As Rex and Spencer were about to walk through the sliding doors, they turned around and found that their robotic pain in the arse companion would have more difficulty.
"Oo, looks like a tight fit…someone needs to lay off the milkshakes." Rex joked.
"Sit back and relax." Spencer winked as she and Rex entered through the sliding doors.
"We've got it covered." Rex said to White without looking back, until he and Spencer both heard a big crash from behind them. When they turned around they saw that White decided to make his own entrance. "You have serious control issues."
"Yeah, no kidding…we're not paying for that." Spencer pointed out.
"Wait here." Rex said as he dragged spencer through another sliding doorway and into the main lobby of the hospital. There were doctors scattered around the place.
"I think we're in the right place." Spencer gaped at the mess. Doctors and nurses were passed out everywhere and the room was covered in what appeared to be vines. Rex approached the wall curiously.
"Interesting…" Rex takes a pen and scratches the material. "Huh…"
"They look like, veins?" Spencer observed. White crashed through another doorway.
"Don't be surprised if we get a bill for that." Rex joked and then looked back at the weird veins on the wall. "I think this is the virus."
"Viruses are too small to see." White argued.
"Yeah, but it's an E.V.O. virus, remember?" Rex countered.
"I don't think E.V.O.s in general have ever followed logistics of science." Spencer agreed. Rex wandered near a curtain that was hiding another area of the hospital and pulled it back and gasped.
"Yeah, we've got the right place." Rex said as he and Spencer looked in awe at the employees on the ground.
"How'd they get infected, they're in HAZMAT suits." Spencer stated.
"Anything can happen with E.V.O. viruses." Rex replied.
"I guess…" Spencer sighed, as she still felt uncomfortable with going further.
"After you." Rex bowed as he opened the door for Spencer who cocked a brow at him.
"Oh no, ladies first…" Spencer said as she grabbed the door and shoved Rex into the operating room. After Rex caught his self from falling he looked up and gasped again.
"Whoa." Rex breathed.
"Shit…" Spencer gasped as well as she was disgusted with the scene before her. They found the patient, morphed and still changing shape lying down on the bed and with the veins of the virus growing and moving from his chest.
"It's still changing, I don't think he's finished going E.V.O." Rex freaked.
"Alright get to it." White rushed.
"Let's hope this guy is curable." Rex prayed.
"Wait…sure this is safe? What if they're like the nanites in Abysus, they almost inflated you like a balloon and made you pop." Spencer asked worriedly.
"We won't know until I try." Rex said.
"Alright…careful." Spencer warned.
"What? You're worried about me?" Rex asked coyly as he turned around and wiggled his eyesbrows.
"I'm worried if you end up falling asleep and then there won't be a way of curing him." Spencer stated firmly with her hands on her hips.
"You do care." Rex cooed.
"Rex…" Spencer growled. Rex gave her a final smirk before turning his attention back onto the patient. He placed his hands on the patients and begins to try and cure him, at first it works and the veins start to shrink and the rest of the body starts to become normal, but then the virus fights back against Rex and morphs the patient into a monster again.
"Wh-What? I don't get it. It's working but it's not, he just heals." Rex stated as he stepped back from the patient slightly in shock. White approaches and holds out one of his guns at Patient Zero. "What are you doing?"
"We're out of options." White stated.
"You can't be serious." Spencer gasped.
"No. I'm trying to cure him!" Rex argued.
"And failing. Back up." White demanded.
"But Doctor Holiday-"
"Is not here…She said he was the key. You tried your way, it didn't work." White interrupted Rex.
"And you think blowing him up will work? That's a huge risk." Spencer argued.
"You're not doing this." Rex stated firmly.
"It's not up for debate." White said as he pushed his missile-firing arm forward.
"No, it's not, because we're saving him! And the country!" Spencer yelled. White fired his bazooka at the patient and thankfully Rex was quick enough to use his metal hand to knock the bazooka into the wall and explode on impact. Rex growled at White's ruthless attempt to hurt the patient and shoves his giant metal butt with both metal fists out of the room and into the hallway. Spencer joined in too and knocked him into another wall with a fiery kick.
"If you vaporize him and it doesn't work, we have no chance to reverse this plague." Rex growled.
"And you're suddenly the genius who can figure it out? We only have hours before people start dying." White stated.
"And you'll kill them for sure if you're not right, you want that over your head?" Spencer challenged.
"Step aside, both of you." White demanded, more firmly than before.
"No." Rex and Spencer argued together as they stepped forward. White attempts to fire another missile at them and Rex rolls out of the way while Spencer blows it up with her fire and creates smoke to cover the space in between White and them. While the cover's up, Rex grabs a huge chunk of the wall that broke off and hurled it at White who destroys it easily but it was another diversion as Spencer then threw a gas tank at White and it exploded as White continued shooting. He stumbled back a little bit from the impact but was able to kill the fire on his armor with a built in fire extinguisher.
"Stop it Knight, before these people get hurt." Rex pleaded as he looked at how dangerously close they were taking the fight to the unconscious doctors and nurses on the ground.
"Just as soon as you step away." White demanded.
"You're insane!" Spencer spat.
"No, I'm doing what's right." White began to shoot again at the booth of them and they took off the ground and were able to maneuver past the missiles better. As they continue battling, Rex and Spencer tackle White through a wall and outside into the hospital's parking lot. They struggle to keep him in place but the robot proves to be very strong and shrugs them off with a stretch of it's arms. As Rex approaches with his fists ready, White takes out a grappling hook from his other hand and catches Rex's foot and drags him around for a bit before Rex takes out his sword and cuts himself loose.
"That wasn't built to fight E.V.O.s, that was built to fight me." Rex announced as he got back on his feet.
"No way…" Spencer gasped.
"It's for out own protection, against both of you." White stated.
"Well let's see how well it works." Rex growled as he got the end of his sword to start spinning. As the two stood at a standstill, Spencer began to rush at White from the side and tackled him into a wall with all her force but was soon sprayed with foam and her flames went out. She fell to the ground and was struggling to get up.
"Agh!" Spencer grunted as she fell again from the slippery surface.
"I've modified it once you joined Providence, there was no telling if we could trust you either, or if you would escalate to your true E.V.O. state." White stated.
"You wanna see my true E.V.O. state, fine…" Spencer slowly began to burn brightly and the wet ground around her evaporated and everything began to sizzle as Spencer's eyes glowed bright red and her whole body was consumed in flames and the magma began to cover her body, like the firs time she went E.V.O. She knew she couldn't control this form yet, no mater how she tried, but she was too angry at the moment to care. Heck, she wasn't even herself at the moment. She roared into the air with her fiery ponytail flared and she began to shoot fire from everywhere, almost surrounding White like tentacles and sent him back.
"You never trusted me." Rex yelled.
"I don't trust anything with nanites." White argued.
"Everything has nanites!" Rex countered.
"Everything but me…" White stated seriously. Rex paused for a moment to let that sink in, but Spencer not acting so Spencer-like began working on destroying White again and sent him farther into the city. "Didn't you ever wonder why I live in a sterilized box? That's why I run Providence: I can't be corrupted. I'll never evolve into a freak that betrays his team." White said with confidence and authority. "I am the only one that can be trusted!"
"Well here's the update Knight, everybody on the planet has nanites, everybody but you. That makes me normal. You're the freak." Rex spat.
"Go crawl back into your cage where you belong." Spencer seethed, finally returning to her normal self again. White began firing again and fighting back with everything that he had.
"You are unbelievable." Rex complained as he began to fight back. Suddenly their fight was halted when a large explosion mixed with crashing of buildings got everyone's attention and a huge cream-skin covered monster began to make its way out of the hospital the Providence gang was just at moments ago.
"Whoa nelly…" Spencer jaw unhooked as she gazed upon the behemoth.
"I'm ready to hear your theories, Doctor." White caved. Rex made his way into the air as he began trying to shoot the monster down. When seeing that didn't work, Rex tried curing the E.V.O. again but nothing worked.
"It's just like before…it just heals itself, there's no stopping it." Rex concluded after his failed attempts.
"Lemme help." Spencer went for the face of the monster and began shooting concentrated flames at the monster like a fiery blade and was manage to cut open a huge gash in the monster but all it did was squirt out a gross looking mucus. "Oh crap!" The liquid forced Spencer back onto the ground with a thud and as she tried to get back up again, her cut she gave the E.V.O. disappeared, like it was never there.
"Okay…" Rex lagged as he just stared at the mess around him.
"Ugh, this is just gross!" Spencer complained as she tried her best to wipe of the gunk from her body, soon resorting to burning it and then pealing off the hardened pieces.
"Should've let me take him out while I still could." White stated as he got next to the teens.
"Yeah well, maybe if I divide up pieces of his armor, you'll get a decent shot in." Rex suggested.
"Get to it." White ordered.
"Hm…" Rex pondered a thought before stepping back into action. "Pieces…wait, it's lots of pieces."
"Oh no, that's your idea face…that's not a good face." Spencer said skeptically.
"It's working, but on the wrong E.V.O., that's not Patient Zero that's the virus. Patient Zero was under all that gross stuff. The outside part is mutating to defend him; he's commanding the virus to protect him. The plague was his first defense."
"How does this help us?" Spencer asked impatiently.
"Just like Holiday said: Patient Zero is the key. I get his nanites to send out a wake up call, then cure him." Rex concluded.
"And how are you going to get to him under all that?" White asked.
"I need that thing to eat me…" Rex said unhappily.
"Knew it, bad idea." Spencer sighed as she crossed her arms.
"Yeah I know, crazy thing is, it's the second time I've done this today." Rex said.
"You sure this is the only way?" Spencer hesitated to ask.
"I have to try." Rex shot up into the air and got read to enter the monster. He turned back to his teammates and shouted, "Do it!" Both White and Spencer shared a suspicious look but nodded nonetheless. White sent in a missile and Spencer covered the missile in hot flames and it exploded right as it hit the monster, causing the E.V.O. to roar and opening his mouth up. This gave Rex easy access to enter the E.V.O. and get to work. Unfortunately the blast only seemed to stun the monster for a moment as the E.V.O. continued to rampage through the city with no real objective but to cause mayhem. White and Spencer quickly got to work, to see what they could do on the outside to make things better or at least protect much of the city and its people in the meantime. Spencer was sky high, shooting from above and trying to find a weak point while White stayed on street duty and shot from the front. An extension of the E.V.O. sprang forward and pushed White into a far off building.
"White!" Spencer cried as she quickly made her way to him. when she got there, Spencer found White with most of his armor demolished around him and all that was left was a white simple latex material suit with a face mask.
"Suit integrity: compromised, nanite breach: imminent." Spencer heard the suit announce.
"What the?" Spencer asked as she saw White rip off a part of his armor.
"Suit integrity: reestablished." The suit announced again.
"Okay, that's kind of cool." Spencer admitted.
"What's going on out there? You have to keep it still." Rex complained through the comm. link.
"Rex?" Spencer asked as she put a finger to her ear with the comm. link in it. "You get reception in there?"
"Right, next time I'll let it kill me." White replied sarcastically.
"How on Earth are we gonna slow this thing down? Nothing phases it." Spencer asked hopelessly. Nonetheless after a few moments the two got to work again on trying to do anything to stop the monster. Spencer was resorting to throwing cars and miscellaneous debris at the monster, but still nothing worked. "Rex, please tell me you have some good news?" Spencer pleaded into the comm. link.
"I found Patient Zero." Rex announced.
"That's great! Do your thing!" Spencer cheered.
"I'm a little tied up right now…" Rex groaned.
"What?" Spencer stopped mid throw. "Stop goofing around."
"I mean it, I'm literally tied up." Rex yelled.
"Oh, okay. Ew." Spencer shivered as she got some nasty images of the monster's insides attacking. Unfortunately she was too distracted to save White from another body slam. White went flying through multiple cars and ended up through a building. "White!" Spencer followed the trail of debris and kneeled to White once again.
"Suit integrity: compromised, nanite breach: imminent." The suit announced again. White's suit began to start smoking all over the place and there was a crack in his face mask as well.
"Shit…here lemme-"
"No." White shooed Spencer away from him. "If you touch me, the nanites will make their way into the suit faster."
"Isn't there another layer you can remove and it can regrow?" Spencer asked desperately.
"Not enough areas." White physically deflated.
"Shit…" Spencer scratches her neck and then tries to get in contact with Rex. "Rex…" With no answer and the E.V.O. still on the move, Spencer got in front of White and fired up her hands. "I've got your back."
"Why are you defending me?" White asked skeptically. "I wanted to destroy you not too long ago."
"Because all life is precious, even when it's as annoying as you." Spencer answered honestly as she then built up a wall of fire in front of them to prevent the E.V.O. from continuing forward.
"Hm." White mused as he watched Spencer at work. After Spencer almost giving way to the pressure of keeping the wall up, the E.V.O. stopped in place and then exploded everywhere. In the middle of the mass of mush, Rex came forward with a young boy by his side.
"Rex, you did it!" Spencer shrieked as she ran over to him, about to give him a hug, but decided it would be best not to since he was still covered in the mush from the virus.
"All in a day's work. Hey, what's wrong with Knight?" Rex asked as White began having trouble standing up on his own.
"His suit's been cracked." Spencer announced.
"We need to get him out of here." Rex stated.
"Right but how?" Spencer asked. She and Rex both knew they were too weak to get White out of here fast enough without him being infected with nanites on the way.
"Already on it." A voice came from all their earpieces. Out from the shade of the clouds landed a helli-carrier. Once it landed, Six jumped out.
"Six!" Rex and Spencer gasped.
"Hop on." He ordered. Rex and Spencer grin as together they lift up White and help him into the carrier. As soon as the helli-carrier landed in Providence bay, a group of Providence agents began marching into the carrier and transported White to a nanite-free sustainable room to check on how he was recovering. Rex and Spencer waited patiently with Six as Holiday was in the room. After almost an hour going by, Holiday appeared from beyond the sliding door.
"You got him in time, still 100% nanite free. I'm surprised you saved him." Holiday announced happily.
"In a weird way White Knight and us are sort of alike, we're one of a kind, and that's worth something." Rex admitted.
"Very nicely said." Spencer said as she gave Rex a hard pat on the back.
"I'm proud of the both of you guys, not just for this, but for figuring everything out." Holiday said genuinely.
"Well, Rex did the thinking part surprisingly." Spencer joked.
"Ah yeah sure, it was pretty obvious." Rex blushed as he scratched his neck.
"Now if we could only figure out what went wrong with Bobo? I'm afraid the virus triggered a permanent reaction." Holiday lead the two to another room where the chimpanzee was still sleeping on the examination table. Suddenly Bobo jolted awake and yawned.
"Welcome back to the living." Spencer greeted as she stifled her laughter.
"Boy, those guys from the motor pool sure know how to party." Bobo said groggily. "Whoa, how long was I out?" Bobo asked as he soon noticed the shocked expressions on Rex and Holiday's faces. "And I'm starving, who's up for breakfast?" Bobo complained as his stomach growled viciously.
"Lazy bum…" Spencer rolled her eyes as she dragged herself out of the room, getting some well-deserved rest.
"Goodnight Bobo." Rex smiled as he turned off the light to the room and headed out himself. "Ah, ah, ah." Rex said as he ran after Spencer and grabbed her shoulder, turning her around to face him.
"What could you possibly want? Want to gloat about your super brainiac ways today? I would like to do without that for one day." Spencer wished.
"Nope, you still need to hold up your part of the deal." Rex said coyly.
"Aw come on, haven't I been through enough torture as it is?" Spencer whined as she physically slouched.
"Hey! I'm not that bad…" Rex replied with a whiny tone as well.
"You're worse than beginner six-year-olds." Spencer scuffed. She was about to walk away when she saw the look on Rex's face and knew better than to mess with him. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed heavily. "Fine…a deal's a deal." She groaned, lazily walking towards the training room.
"Yes…!" Rex cheered as he fist pumped with a little jump and happily followed after her.
if you're confused about the ending, don't worry, you didn't miss a chapter...it's to be explained in the NEXT ONE! it's a filler chapter coming up but a fun one i hope, and it was meant to be before this one but having two filler chapters in a row wouldn't seem right
hope my writing's still alright! haven't seen the episode for A WHILE! i had all the dialogue pretyped
so hope you liked it - tell me what you thought!