**FYI, a recap included at bottom for related info from my earlier chapters.

Chapter 20: Flatlined

(In the midst of Razarul take down, Rex encounters an old nemesis, who seems a bit different from before...)

Glowing streaks of amber, like lava trails down the mountainside, criss-crossed over the EVO's form in disarray. It carried an extra thick maroon armored plating around its chest and back, protecting a core system that allowed it to siphon different types of energy from its surroundings and convert it into his powered shots.

It was Dynamo-Meta, an EVO that was originally a member of the consortium –*Sir Anthony Haden-Scott. It was no wonder then, those Interpol witnesses called it like Zeus and Hephaestus combined.

Only its coloring was slightly different from before. It was now stained a deep red as if its original, charcoal black body had been roasted over hell's fire for a prolonged period.

Without waiting for Six's cue, Rex sped forwards on his Slyder at the same time that Dynamo-Meta drew fuel from the nearby vehicles, sucking it up like a vacuum machine, before blasting red hot fire at the side of the barrack.

Shadow and the three other Providence officers moved in get Donny out, who was shouting cries of curses and outrage at what had melted a giant hole in the metal wall. Razarul men intercepted Shadow's team and they engaged in a gun fight.

"Ahh, the blasted Providence, just in time. Meet our latest investment, curtesy of Modifier himself," the hoarse voice, which probably belonged to the leader or an important figure of Razarul, announced proudly. "You guys and Donny can meet your fates together with a friendly greeting from us."

"W-What do you think you're doing? You can't do this, I've been providing you with lots of support and have been supplying you with high tech firearms!" Donny protested. "The Razarul still needs my resources."

"Yes, indeed, but unfortunately, I'm afraid we can no longer maintain the relationship."

Dynamo-Meta aimed an open palm at Donny but Rex has neared and caught Dynamo-Meta with his whips, hurling it off to the side. The EVO flew thirty yards, burrowing into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust and rocks.

Captain Calan ordered for all troops, except for two squadrons which were to remain at the pass, to close in and engage the Razarul. It was just as well, since the Razarul mercenaries became a mad scramble when Rex appeared, firing at him from all direction.

Rex could see how lethal and dangerous their weapons were –laser guns and pellets that released electrical currents on contact to electrocute the victim, and pellets that split mid-air and exploded into a barrage of mini explosions. It was almost overwhelming, even for Rex, who luckily, had his energy shield in a bubble around him to protect from the onslaught.

There were sounds of scuffle and gunshots coming from within the barracks but Rex wasn't given the chance to check. Dynamo -Meta had gotten up, so Rex had to trust that Shadow and his other men could handle the situation inside.

Dynamo-Meta sent a fiery dragon charging towards Rex. He braced himself and fortified his shield, hence the flaming beast ruptured against his energy beam. It spilled harmlessly all around in a fountain of blinding red and orange, but the heat was unbearable, cooking Rex like he was within the heart of a volcano.

Rex trembled from the effort of keeping his shield up against the firepower that surrounded him. Finally, Providence squadrons reached within firing distance –in good timing. They met the mercenaries head on with weapons and hand-to-hand combat, taking them off Rex's back. It took the stress off Rex so he could direct all his energy field in a stronger pane to block the Meta-EVO's firepower. He steadily pushed back against Dynamo-Meta's firepower to take his fight further away from the rest of the guys for their safety.

A quick scan back at navy colors clashing with monochrome, Rex grinned as out from the corner of his eyes, he spotted that familiar thatch of pale golden hair, shining in the sun. Never mind that majority of the other Providence officers also had blond colored hair. Rex was able to pick Noah out from the large scramble of bodies fighting around, just from the way he moved. Noah dodged the Razarul guys with slick moves he had displayed in basketball competitions. He ran, jumped, ducked and rolled like he'd springs on his feet, flexible coils in every body muscle and fire at his heels. Noah was wary and watchful like a boxer, graceful like an acrobat, and an excellent marksman like Six, taking out the enemies weapons by aiming for their hands.

Rex was super thrilled that Noah was here on a mission with him –officially, as a Providence agent. It made Rex feel super charged up, empowered by Noah's powerful, fluid moves.

Noticing that Dynamo-Meta was soon running out of juice because his fire dragon slimmed to a narrow gush, Rex smirked to himself. He quickly armor-plated his arms and hurtled his giant fists and Block Party straight towards Dynamo-Meta, heavily smashing against the Meta-EVO.

Dynamo-Meta grunted in an electronized sound as it reeled back and heavily crashed onto the ground. The Meta-Evo was not done despite being down.

The approaching crackle in the air molecules that hummed against Rex's skin, alerted him to the electrical power that Dynamo-Meta must be absorbing from a nearby exclusive generator which powered the Razarul camp.

Rex was quick to turn round and direct that current away from Dynamo-Meta by creating giant, conducting rods that thrust upwards from his shoulders. His metal rods caught the blinding, chaotic bluish-white streaks that snaked and slashed about the sky, travelling downwards and storming into his entire body. If it were some other opponent, the enormous electrical power would have been advantageous to Rex as he could shoot it outward to electrocute his enemy. But since he was facing off with Dynamo-Meta, who gained power by drawing from external sources, Rex needed to disperse the energy he'd collected. Rex spasmed from the raging force within, eyes seeing sparks and white flashes before he redirected the current into the ground, causing the already cracked and uneven topsoil to break apart further.

"Hmm, very clever," Dynamo-Meta commented in a calm, robotic tone, as it got up, tilting his head sideways as if closely regarding him.

Rex had the strange sense that Dynamo-Meta sounded a bit different from before, but he supposed if its appearance could change, so could the way it sounded. In any case, he didn't have the luxury to think further about it, as Dynamo-Meta drew in more fuel from the further vehicles, arms rotating clockwise at high speeds like a suction fan.

"Oh no, you don't!" Rex objected aloud and touched the fuel midair with his whip, zapping the viscous liquid and setting it aflame in a brilliant, curving arch that sharply descended like fire flowers.

"You should know this place is as good as a dry well for you," Rex smirked and taunted, "Unless you can suck down some lightning from the sky and throw 'em at me."

Without any other source of energy to draw from, Dynamo-Meta's firepower was effectively zero. The EVO could not generate power shots on its own. The only other option was for it to chug rocks at Rex since it also had the power to move solid earth. To prevent that, Rex flew towards Meta-Evo with a flurry of supersized punches and kicks before it had the chance. Dynamo-Meta staggered backwards from the onslaught, seemingly overwhelmed.

Suddenly, shiny black armored plating slid over Dynamo-Meta's body, expanding over the thick armor over its chest, hard enough that it damaged Rex's nanite fist on impact. Rex riveted backwards from the shockwave that travelled up his arm. The Meta-EVO grew in size, caked over with layers and layers of armor. Rex shook off the crumbling pieces of his metal fists and swung his giant right boot to its neck. In a deft move, it caught his metal leg in a vice-like grip, biting into his nanite builds until it met Rex's actual ankle, all the while still increasing in size and height, lifting Rex higher up from the ground.

Rex gave an anguished cry of pain as it felt like his ankle was cracking under the crushing pressure. Just when Rex thought his bones would break into pieces, a missile collided into its shoulder, the impact sending it falling over backwards. It loosened its hold on Rex, and he dropped onto the ground, groaning in pain.

"Rex! Are you alright?" Six called over the communicators, tone tinged with worry.

Rex turned his head to see Six racing over, and Noah kneeling a hundred feet away, balancing the rocket launcher over his shoulders, with a faint puff of smoke trail still ghosting out from the barrel. Noah rested the barrel on the ground and started reloading the weapon when one of Razarul's guys tried to bring a foot down over Noah's head. Rex panicked at first, but Noah blocked the blow in time, catching the other guy's leg and giving a violent twist so the other flipped around and crashed onto the ground. The rocket launcher became abandoned on the ground as Noah was quickly kept busy by a few other Razarul men.

"C'mon Rex, get up," Six ordered, nearly reaching his side.

Rex grimaced as he tried to get up. He lost feeling in his right ankle so he wasn't sure if it was broken. Then when he tried to balance his weight on both legs, he stumbled and cried out.

Shit! This is bad, Rex became anxious, realizing he had indeed broken his ankle.

Dynamo-Meta pushed itself up with drill extensions that suddenly protruded from its back, staking downwards into the ground. Then other bionic-mechanical limbs followed, extending out from its shoulder blades like a spider-like machine, drilling and cutting the ground beneath it and hurling the cut chucks towards Rex and Six in rapid succession. Rex was taken back, but still defended himself on instinct, building his hoverbike –that at least he could manage even with one broken ankle –to dodge the barrage of rocks whilst smashing them into smaller bits with one giant nanite fist.

Six was as agile as a ninja like usual, expertly dodging the onslaught whilst jumping atop the flying chunks like he had zero-gravity, bounding up to the Meta-EVO and giving a knife chop over its bionic extensions. Six's razor sharp magna blades met the metal extensions with a resounding clang, but didn't even cut a hairline into them. Rex was perplexed – not only did Dynamo-Meta suddenly supersized itself to over fifteen feet, it had mechanic upgrades integrated. There was no question Dynamo-Meta had help from Modifier.

"Six, make way!" Noah's urgent tone came over the communicators and Six leapt away from Dynamo-Meta before another missile zipped overhead.

Learning from experience, the Meta-EVO caught the missile with giant grapplers before the fire head struck it and flung it away instantaneously, hence it exploded harmlessly in mid air in burst of light and thick smoke. Rex didn't wait for the smoke to clear –he moved in immediately after, crashing into the Meta-EVO with his battering ram, driving it backwards towards to the nearest ridge. Feet backed against the rock mound, Dynamo-Meta pushed back against Rex with incredible strength.

Multiple weaponized arms also rained down on Rex from all angles with frightening looking drill bits and sharp points. Rex extended the metal plating of his battering ram to form a hood over himself as a shield, leaving a gap at the side to parry the assault with his giant sword. Metal met metal in thunderous clang as Rex clashed weapons with Dynamo-Meta. Rex zipped about on his armored hover bike to dodge the attacks and close in when there were openings. Dynamo-Meta was slow on its feet, but its bionic limbs were swift and agile, so though Rex should have the upper hand of maneuverability and flight, he was actually no closer to taking it down.

In fact, Rex thought how strange it was that Dynamo-Meta did not utilize its flight capabilities. Since it had control over matter, it was able to manipulate air molecules for short periods, giving him temporary flight. Rex could only allude it to its giant form and heavy weight that must have impeded its flight powers.

"Rex, how are you holding up? Razarul has reinforcements coming in from the pass, so Six and I are tied up again," Noah's voice came over, sounding worried.

It brought a smile to Rex's lips despite his exhaustion –it touched him that Noah had space in his attention to be concerned for him.

"I'm fine, just keep those guys busy while I deal with Beefcake here," Rex panted a reply, "Focus on capturing Donny –that snake is not gonna get away this time."

"I've got that covered, Rex," Shadow said over the communicators, "We've apprehended him and we're now heading out the pass."

"Good," Captain Calan's voice came through, "I'll take care of things here. Six, you should follow after Shadow as support."

He went on giving orders to the rest, and the troops responded accordingly. Bobo's loveable insults came through as well, and Rex would have sniggered, if he wasn't so caught up with his end of the fight.

He was getting tired from his erratic, furtive dance with the metal beefcake. It took energy to concentrate on maintaining his nanite builds, so it was hard to keep his eyes on Dynamo-Meta's barrage of weaponized arms at the same time. Knowing he wouldn't be able to keep this up without a break, Rex decided to try something drastic. With intense focus, Rex deftly sharpened his favourite giant sword, realigning the nanites till the sword edge was a fine as a nano-millimeter thick. It was so sharp, Rex should be able to cut clean through anything.

With confidence, Rex circled in and swung his altered blade in a horizontal arc to slice off Dynamo-Meta's mechanical arms. The shrill cry of metal grating into metal pierced the air, but the sound stopped within a few seconds. Much to Rex's dismay, his fortified blade was stuck mid-slice.

No way!

It should have been effortless. Yet Rex struggled to bring the blade the rest of the way through. It wouldn't bulge no matter how hard Rex tried.

And that was when he felt it –that eerie, familiar sensation of nanites rushing over and swamping his blade. Rex was horrified, remembering when he came into contact with nanites like these at the *oil rig. Just like those nanite bombs, these nanites moved like an invasive pest, trying to get into him.

Rex shuddered and released his giant sword build, letting it crumble uselessly over the mechanical limbs.

"Shit!" Rex cursed aloud and clenched his teeth, mind running in frenzy.

How the hell did Dynamo-Meta get such *invasive nanite programming into his system? Mind racing, it hit him – since Razarul declared they got Dynamo-Meta's help through direct contact with Modifier, then the latter must be the nanite engineer who installed it.

Dynamo-Meta kept coming at him without mercy, so he continued parrying, but he became a lot more sluggish as he was exhausted over the energy he had spent to refine the toughness and sharpness of his nanite sword. It took a toil on his nanite levels and his armored hover bike weakened, allowing Dynamo-Meta to puncture a hole through the overhead shield.

"Fuck!" Rex cried aloud and in a fraction of a second recalled back his nanites, letting the hover bike construction fall away into useless heaps of metal junk that quickly disintegrated into dust before the alien nanites could contaminate him.

"This is bad, this is bad, this is so bad," Rex chanted in panic as he rebuilt himself another hover bike and pulled further back.

"Rex, what is happening?" Noah and Six asked in unison over the communicators. Rex had left his lines open so they must have heard his frantic chant.

"This thing, I'm having a little trouble with it-" Rex hated to admit that he was losing, that he couldn't handle a fight, but he was in over his head here, "Anthony's a lot different from before. He's got a lot of perverse upgrades."

"I did notice him operating a bit differently," Six said, sounding thoughtful, "But what's the problem? Just hit him at his weak spot and finish it."

"I could if I could find his weakness!" Rex hissed, "But he has some kind of invasive nanite programming. Guys, it's trying to get inside me."

"Are fucking you kidding me?" Noah sounded really freaked, "Well, get away from it, don't let it get close!"

Rex didn't need to be told that. He completely avoided contact with the Meta-EVO, dodging its attacks and giving it a wide berth.

Rex's first cut into its arms must have activated its invasive programming, because now as he brushed with it, he could sense thousands, millions of nanites eager to swarm him from where they touched.

Rex counted off his options. He couldn't fire at it or it will absorb his energy blasts and use it to power its own attacks. He couldn't exchange physical blows with it either. So how was he going to take it down? To top it off, Rex felt thoroughly flat lined. His basic desire for survival was the only thing keeping his body moving, despite its screams of fatigue and ache. The only other option was for Rex to chug rocks at it. So he forced another good portion of his nanites to form a giant hand like a crane. But before he could dig into ground for his rocky ammo, the Nanite robot caught the back of Rex's hover bike.

Rex cursed aloud and released his bike before the alien nanites could intrude him. He dropped fifteen feet into a roll, pissed that his nanites were wasted just like that. Though he could recall his nanites and reuse them for another build, a good portion would be lost with every transition of form. And he was too exhausted to tap into his Omega-1 to generate a fresh batch of nanites instantaneously.

What should I? Rex was running out of ideas. And he didn't have time to properly think it over.

A large shadow suddenly loomed over as a giant slab of earth, broken off from the ground, swallowed him in darkness and smashed atop him before he could escape, the force crushing.

To be continued…

Footnotes:

*Sir Anthony Haden-Scott:

A member of the consortium. Gained one-fifth of the Meta-nanites' power and has control over matter and energy. Dynamo-Meta is the name I've coined for his EVO form.

+FYI - Recap from my previous chapters+

*Invasive nanites were first discovered by Providence during the oil rig mission. The new type of nanites were installed in bombs that were a challenge to defuse since Rex could not manipulate them. Providence Science Division were also not able to uncover more since the nanites disintegrated after the bombs disarmed.