Chapter 56: Bad Blood

(The Modifier A.K.A Black Knight, has it coming.)

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The strong prevails. The weak gets trampled on.

Since the genesis of human history, that has always been the case. Humans were strong and intelligent, so they preyed on animals for food, and robbed the Earth of her bounty. Stronger humans lorded over others, making themselves ruler of a nation. Strong nations conquered weaker ones. And even in the 21st century, this pattern does not change. Powerful conglomerates acquire other companies.

It was the fundamental law of living. Black Knight was just a living being subjected to this impartial commandment, same as any other person. As such, she never viewed herself as doing anything 'wrong'. Anything done 'wrong' against another, but was done so to benefit herself, was ultimately a 'right'.

She was so staunch in her belief, that she felt no guilt playing out her allies like pawns. They were only as important as yesterday's garbage unless they still had use to her. In the first place, the only ally she really needed, was herself. All other allies were only important as a stepping stone for when she needed it.

Needless to say, her self-centred actions had garnered the ire of the other consortium members. And they had every right to be furious at her. Just as how she got frustrated with their repeated failures.

They had each obtained a fraction of a Meta-Nanite power. So all their powers combined should make them undefeatable. Over and over, they employed different tactics, but they were never successful in battle, save for the *first fight they had. Subsequently, Rex was able to hold them off long enough for Providence to come to his aid. And later, Rex was winning even before Providence arrived.

How ludicrous it was, that all five super-powered EVO beings could not win against a single EVO. It was the cruellest joke that fate played on them – because it laid bare the fact that Rex alone, was the single, most powerful being on the planet. *All because he had the Omega-1 planted inside him, that gave him an endless supply of nanites. It allowed him to continually upgrade his nanite constructs. While the five of their power levels remained the same, Rex's powers and abilities, were growing, becoming more powerful each time they battled.

Most maddeningly still, the Omega-1 was created for compatibility with Rex, and Rex only. The last few years of delving into long and deep research on her own, made that clear. Even without interference from anyone, over six years back while they attempted the *Meta-Nanite infusions, they still would not have gotten the full powers. Because it was meant to connect only with Rex only. The Meta-Nanites could only reach their full potential only with fusion to Rex's Omega-1, within his body. Which was why she and the others only obtained a fraction of that power. It simply just couldn't connect with them properly.

Blast that damn Caesar and the Original Nanite Team, who slyly kept this secret from all others. It wasn't even in Providence research notes when she accessed it *during her time as Head. And it explained why the group had let her do as she pleased, and went along with building the *Cyclatron. *Even Van Kleiss was kept from the truth.

Riddled with disappointing failures, and on top of it, heated arguing, it was inevitable for the group to fall apart. It was no longer beneficial to co-operate. They couldn't, even if they tried – they were all strong headed, like five ram heads butting one another. They each demanded dominance, ego-centricity unable to bow down to others. When Reddick was contained, it was the final straw that led to their break up. But not like she gave a damn. She still kept tabs on them as much as she could, only so she could make it such that they do not interfere with her plans.

It became clear to her, that she could no longer depend on anyone else but herself. She had always been a tactical genius and her fighting prowess was unparalleled (not counting Rex in the picture). On the other hand, weapons upgrade and matters of scientific development had always been tasked to others. Well, no longer. To stand above the rest, and so that none could deceive her again, she had to get her brain cracking on her own. Long she laboured, discreetly, to find alternative ways around of getting stronger without having to siphon powers of Rex's Meta-Nanites, which she knew was impossible to reach. Thankfully, blessed with powers of nanite manipulation itself, she was able to modify them, improving her skill.

She took on work going by an alias, The Modifier, providing advanced weapons to the underground world, to earn a living and as well as to get hands on experience to hone her craft. She eventually found methods that could upgrade her power, and as well as the other Ex-Consortium members, because their core builds leveraged more on the inorganic tech matter of nanite extensions, rather than a biological intercellular mutation like many other EVOs.

However, she was also calculative and cautious with counting her chances of success. She refused to waste too much time and resource upgrading every member of her former alliance. After a prudent selection, she picked Xanubian, whom she deemed most useful for his powers of time. Keeping it secret from others, she bade him to keep silent on their plans, and in return, gave him more power than he could ever have.

At the same time, she augmented herself, morphed into an entity confident to hold her own against Rex for an adequate time. She grew so proficient in tech building, that she was able to create Nanite-Bot versions that mimicked the powers of the Ex-Consortium. She was proud of her achievements, and set her plan rolling in motion, pleased with the prospects of things going her way smoothly without hiccups for the longest time.

Even the sudden appearance of all the Ex-members gathered around her in confrontation, could not dampen her winning mood. Up in the cold, remote mountains of Siberia, over two thousand meters above sea levels and far from the nearest civilisation, and where the sub zero temperatures were of inconsequence to her EVO form. They have located her main hideout where she operated– took them long enough, as she was about tired of waiting, and also rather surprised that they managed to track her down.

All of them – minus Xanbunian, surrounded her, amongst the black wood bare trees on an uneven, sloped terrain. Roswell and Reddick dared to confront her even without their EVO forms, having had their fraction of the Meta-Nanite extracted by Providence. It left Anthony as the only one in full EVO form. Nonetheless, though left in their powerless, human form, they did not come without preparation. They wore impressive mechanized suits – large, bulky, and well armoured, whereabouts of the origins unknown, suggesting the extent of their resourcefulness and connections, which she knew, but wasn't completely familiar with.

Since the disbandment, the three of them remained under the radar, operating shady businesses while maintaining some semblance of foothold on their original conglomerates. They each have fairly mixed successes, but since she was not entirely interested in their business, she did not take note of the specifics.

So seeing them now, she was fairly impressed. Just a tiny bit, enough to garner a crook of her brow. Even so, their armatures were mere toys compared to her developments. And inwardly, she kept gloating over it as she watched all three heavy weights sink fifteen inches into the snowy ground, even though it was hardened and compressed in this freezing temperature. It cemented that their crushing, robust forms were laden with an extra heavy dose of intent to kill.

Indeed they looked livid, accusing beams where human eyes should be, boring into her. Their stances were hostile, befitting the harsh landscape, and dwarfing the stout, hibernating trees staked around them. By contrast, her more lithe form barely sunk in, snow only dusting across her mechanical-nanite boot. But she kept four of her augmented, mechanical appendages splayed out over her shoulders, coming up and over from her back – a gentle warning for them to approach in caution for she has had some augments done, and would not be an easy fight for them.

To complete the intense scene of their dramatic stand-off, were light sprinkles of snow, the color of deathly ashes, dusting upon them.

After the intense, minute long stare-off contest, Roswell broke the eerie silence with his curtsy greeting, sound purposeful loud and booming, coming out from speakers somewhere in his mech-suit.

"You bitch! Thought you could try to fuck me up, then run and hide, eh?"

She knew he was referring to how *she supplied Blaster Prince with the weapons to destroy his company. No doubt he was unhappy with that. At this stage, with his animosity arising from the dead intent of accusation, she knew it'd be pointless to correct his misconceptions. But she was most loathe to be the party faulted because of *a slippery bastard who had played her twice. So she felt the need to enlighten him.

"You are most misinformed if you think I'm in any ploy with *your son."

"Fuck you! Don't try to deny that you didn't supply Blaster Prince his tech suit. And my sources tell me that you were the one who hooked them up together!"

Black knight flicked her long, snake-like mechanical arms in feigned helplessness.

"A careless miscalculation, I admit, to *introduce Blaster Prince's services to Donny," she disclosed in her robotic tone that pitched lower to sound regretful – which indeed she was most pissed off at herself for her oversight. "But I assure you, I had no idea that Donny intended to ruin your life's hard work."

"Lies! –" he roared, decibel too loud to transmit properly, coming out as a jarring warbled sound instead, "You kept on upgrading his suit so he could fight against me!"

"I hadn't known then, that he had run into you – I thought he crossed paths with only Rex. And it had simply amused me, to see my customer come back for more repairs and upgrades. After all, I get a heftier pay package, you know."

He angrily swung at the barren tree closest to him, causing it to crack. She would roll her eyes if she could – Roswell always was the most short tempered one, his impatience and temper usually one of the cause for their plans to run astray.

"You're enjoying this, you bitch, you want to see me in ruin."

"Not me – it's the ungrateful bastard you sired."

He roared and flung the broken trunk at her. She ducked easily, letting it fly overhead, smashing into the cluster of trees behind her.

"Your anger will be better directed at Donny," she advised coldly, patience running thin. His face was hidden within the dirty green weaponized exo-suit, but she could tell from the stance of the machine that the man inside was an uncontrolled fury. He looked about to let fly a dozen missiles from the row of launchers stacked on the shoulders of his mech-suit, but Anthony quickly shuffled in front of him, EVO arms blocking him, supposedly forcing him to hold back. She wasn't foolish enough to mistake Anthony as wanting to save her life. If anything, he was stalling the fight so he could have a chance at demanding answers from her too.

"Like how you directed a fake copy of me to try to end his life at the *Razarul base?" Anthony questioned in his mechanized voice laced with ire. It turned into mirth on his next sentence. "You didn't think someone as smart as yourself would be out-maneuvered, did you?"

Electricity charged in irritation along the luminous bands across her limbs, causing a pinpoint spark of sudden brightness to race across, displaying her displeasure at his insult. It was offending because it was completely true. And how it infuriated her. She was a tad concerned when she discovered how Donny had ordered Blaster Prince to destroy Roswell. Not because she gave a damn about Roswell, but because she hated the implications it had caused her.

*So she sent a Nanite-Bot, which replicated Anthony's powers, after Donny, just to teach him a lesson. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't counted on Donny's extensive connections. She wouldn't have been able to guess that Donny would call on Anthony for help, thus pitting him and the fake in a face off. She should find Donny and wring his neck between her snaking limbs once she had achieved her priority. Thankfully, the trouble he caused her was of little consequence at the end. Since she was able to redirect the rest of her plans accordingly, to fit the unfortunate mishaps. She had always been one with a contingency plan.

"Or, did you think yourself as too smart, that you recreated fakes based on both Anthony and myself, thinking that you could get away with it without us noticing?" Reddick added on with venom clearly transmitted through the loudspeaker of his mech-suit. "You planned on replacing us with these lousy fakes, didn't ya?"

"Yes, but only so to do the dirty work. You may question my choice of aesthetics, but you have to concur with me, that the Nanite-Bots are disposable."

That much was true, but she didn't let on she dabbled on the fakes in the first place along her self-teaching route on upgrading hers and Xanubian's forms. She had been trying to figure out how the nanites within them controlled their specific powers. And those fakes they saw, were just two of many other former versions she had created in her experiments.

"And they served me well, for running tests that I needed. And it did no harm to you, since you were still detained in Providence prison, and you, Anthony, it hardly did a scratch against you."

Roswell grunted a mechanized sound, like a cross between a pig and a machine grunting.

"Bitch, Xanubian served you well too, so well that he sacrificed himself. Do I have to tell you what a sorry state he is in now? Or, was that part of the plan something that you kept him out of?"

Since they already knew about him being in coma, she didn't bother to cover it up. She didn't try to act remorseful either, since it didn't suit her personality. And honestly, she didn't.

"Well, let's put it this way, though what happened to him was regrettable, it had accomplished the task. He and my Nanite-bot – the one mimicking your powers, Reddick – provided the distraction I –we needed."

Then she went on to explain that in the mad scramble, much of Providence troops became deployed outside, allowing Black Knight to implant a mole within Providence base. However, they were not satisfied with her answer, for which she was also prepared for. They were not born yesterday. They knew she was up to something and that she was not completely truthful.

"There was never a 'we' in your plans," Anthony correctly pointed out, "We were never informed. And if I'm to guess correctly, you plan to re-develop another Cyclatron to reinstall Rex's Omega-1 inside yourself. Logic goes, that it would be sufficient enough to make you far more powerful than all of us combined. And you rather had all that power to yourself, than share it with us."

Black Knight did not refute his claims. It was pointless to give excuses at this stage. Besides, he was correct, except that she would not be able to assimilate all four Meta-Nanites and the Omega-1 into herself. She had yet to get past the fusing issue.

Rex was a perfect merge between his organic, cellular structure and the Nanite collation. She could not penetrate the bio-cellular synthesis deep enough. Hence why she was hard pressed to seek Van Kleiss's help yet again – the demon scientist was a master at bio-cellular development. Except that this time, she would ensure she does not get played out to his treachery.

The others didn't need to know this, since as far as she was concerned, they have fulfilled their roles. She'd be damn to admit her real plans as she did not want to include them in her glory. The last thing she wanted was to repeat the string of failures she had with them. Her five seconds too long silence, was however, enough to confirm Anthony's suspicions.

"Bitch, I'll end you right here and take those Meta-nanite fusions for myself. Then I'll deal with that little unfilial shit!" Roswell barked, and shoved Anthony out of his way, unleashing his firepower.

She moved instantly. Her multiple mechanized appendages which she had kept hidden buried under the snow, burst out from under their covers. They caused a blurring spray of white to blanket her as they shot towards the tops of the barren but widely-spread branches. Her snaking arms coiled around the branches to secure support, then slung the rest of her body upwards.

In a heartbeat, she was up amongst the tree tops, missing the rocketing fireheads just by a palm's length – the near close shave tickling her.

More missiles followed, alongside Reddick's rapid machine gun shots that rumbled noisily with an echo over the isolated icy mountains. She swung from tree to tree, fast like a demoness primate with snakes for limbs. Anthony manipulated the dense, cold air around them, sending blast of icy winds to chase after her, slicing up the trunks like a Samurai with a Katana on demon mode. She let out a regaling, robotic laugh as she ducked and dodged the attacks. Really, it was as easy as child's play to her.

Roswell and Reddick had come laden with a chalk full of firepower like crazed mercenaries. It was amusing, that they thought those toys were enough to take her down. Even Anthony, with his EVO powers, as not enough to stand against her. All three of them combined, however, should provide a bit of entertainment.

She was unfazed, easily dodging them, slipping in between their attacks like the frisky wind. Her form was slim, and agile, and her flexible, retractable and extendable arms were fast and fluid, able to weave through the sleeping forest like an otter swimming through stacks of driftwood.

Still, the electrical pulses in her circuits fired rapidly, charging in time with her sped up heart rate. Her body tensed, nerve endings of entwined wires and biological fibrous veins jumping in a mix of trepidation and aggressive animosity. It had been a long time since she actually battled anyone. She had used to test her own upgraded form off-shore in uninhibited islands, but never got to fully test her improved abilities. The fight was a long, quiet wait that made her inner mechanics hum in buzzing welcome. She was eager to battle, to test how powerful she had become, so she was more than happy that her former colleagues have offered themselves up as dummies.

Enough of playing around, she changed tactics, turning from defence to attack. She thrust her arms towards them at bursting speeds, stabbing Roswell's metal shoulder, and breaking through the joints of Reddick's mech-arms. Or, it might have been his real arm, since he gave a cry of such anguish that was music to her ears.

Anthony on the other hand was fast enough to dodge whilst still keeping up his barrage of shots, continuing incessantly, forcing her to duck. She swung from tree to tree using her many free arms, but she kept two coiled around the mech-suits, carrying them along in a wild and violent ride through her rave in between the treetops. She felt them bash through trunk after trunk, thrashing branches, screaming curses of pain and loathing.

A rattling laugh warbled out of her, pleased with their suffering, but her pleasure was cut short by Anthony slicing off her two abusive arms with his wind-cutting attack. She felt no pain – the arms were pure nanite constructs, so she simply regrew them back quickly while eyeing the two who fell in crumpled heaps on the ground with half-dead moans.

"Funny you bothered saving Roswell. I thought you'd always seen him as competition."

"I do, but we have a common enemy now," he answered quite levelly, then uprooted dozens of trees with his earth-controllive powers. No, not uprooted the trees per say, but broke the earth under the thick blanket of snow, cracking chucks of earth around the tree roots in order to rip them out.

They levitated a few feet, snow slipping off in rustling protest. Then he turned the trees toward her like giant pylons, hurling them at her like a mad piñata party. The other two miraculously recovered themselves, and returned to throw their heavy assortment of firepower, testing quite a bit of her stamina trying to dodge whilst attacking all three of them at the same time.

She turned some of her smooth arms into deadly sharp serrated whips, slicing bullets, missile heads and flying trunks before they reached her. The landscape became a blur of exploding bits and smoke and snow, terrain tremoring in terror under their violent battle.

Vision was marred in the cloud of destruction, but instinct directed their fight, dragging into a long battle before Anthony finally turned on the heat, leaving her to stop wondering when he was going to utilize the nuclear-powered juice he had suck up from somewhere and stored at his back.

He slung a beastly, fiery sludge at her, so hot and deadly it burned giant holes into trunks, clean through without resistance. It nearly reached her, since she was also busy with Roswell and Anthony, but she blasted her own energy, two of her flexible arms transposed into a blaster, intercepting Anthony's fire blast with equal ferocity.

Thunderous crackles exploded the air around their clashing powers, stray electric jolts escaping her main outlet and raking her surroundings, whilst flaming spills leapt from Anthony's, melting snow and scorching trees. Blinding blues increased in length whilst furious red receded, Black Knight having pushed more power against him.

At the sides, Roswell and Reddick thought they had the opportunity to finish her off, but her defence senses were all rounded, and she was an efficient multi-tasker. Her dozens of limbs dealt with their onslaughts accordingly, shielding her, and transforming into other types of weapons as retaliation.

Anthony was forced to jump out of the way when her blasts almost reached him, but the stubborn bastard refused to give up. He quickly threw rapid short spurts of molten energy instead, that ricochet towards her like high speed balls of flame. Several of her arms fanned out in a whirlwind in front of her, knocking away the fire balls harmlessly.

He let out a mechanized roar in displeasure, seeing that his energy blasts did not melt her constructs. She shivered inwardly in secret delight. He didn't know that she'd beamed a layer of thin photon to coat her arms, which contra-off his flaming hot attacks.

Honestly, as already mentioned, this is child's play.

But because she was enjoying this rare opportunity to push her powers and see how far she could go, she decided to play with them… for as long as she could, until she broke and ripped them apart.

TO BE CONTINUED….

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Footnotes/ Remarks:

I hope no one is disappointed that the long, drawn out arc revealed Modifier to be Black Knight. Lol. Sorry it wasn't a completely new antagonist… basically I'm really still keeping to much of the original characters from the cartoon because I'm sooo in love with it.

Since the consortium and Black Knight were shown to have escaped from Rex's world wide cure, I thought I should just continue along the lines of a plausible future where they might re-appear. Besides, Black Knight is too cunning and hardy a villain to be erased off so easily. XD

Anyway, I'm getting to how Providence eventually takes her down. Plus, there's the other villain as well haha, that will have his eventual spotlight. It's slow, but it's getting there. So I hope you remain patient.

The consortium members/ EVO names and powers:

Roswell: Meta-Elemental EVO – control fire and ice (elements) detained

Reddick: Gravity- Meta EVO – manipulate gravity detained

Anthony: Dynamo-Meta EVO – control matter and energy

Xanubian: Time Meta EVO – control over time.

Over and over, they employed different tactics, but they were never successful in battle, save for the *first fight they had.: This refers to the very first battle they had against Rex, when they were combined their forms into one. In the original cartoon, Endgame part 1.

*All because he had the Omega-1 planted inside him, that gave him an endless supply of nanites. It allowed him to continually upgrade his nanite constructs.

I think theoretically this makes sense. But I like to think that Rex also had that extra special something in his character that enables him to draw out so much power. Not everyone could tap into the wealth of power they are given yet remain completely sane, or in one piece.

over six years back while they attempted the *Meta-Nanite infusions/ It wasn't even in Providence research notes when she accessed it *during her time as Head. / *Cyclatron. /*Even Van Kleiss was kept from the truth.

This refers to the last few episodes from the original cartoon. Recap that Black Knight coerced the Original Nanite Team to create a power transference chamber to siphon off Rex's powers, but failed (in the 2nd last episode), getting only one-fifth the power because Van Kleiss sabotaged the machine. He later lied to Black Knight that he could help the consortium regain all the rest of the Meta-nanites power (in the very final episode). But ultimately, he revealed his true motive when he tries to snatch the power for himself.

Ironically, the Meta-nanites and Omega-1 proved to be incompatible with him (and in the first place, wouldn't work with the Consortium even without Van Kleiss's sabotage), because those microscopic machines were meant to be compatible with Rex's genetic make-up only. This was the secret that Caesar, Rylander and Meechum kept from Van Kleiss and everyone else, not even recording it down in research notes.

*she supplied Blaster Prince with the weapons to destroy his company. / *a slippery bastard who had played her twice. / "You are most misinformed if you think I'm in any ploy with *your son."/ "A careless miscalculation, I admit, to *introduce Blaster Prince's services to Donny,"

Okay… because the story is shitty long, I'm like meh, I don't know if any of you remember, so here I'm summarizing the mini-episodes that add up to the arc:

In chapters 3 and 4, Black Knight (under the Alias of Modifier), supplied Blaster Prince with his tech suit, and recommended his services as a contract mercenary to Donny J (Roswell's son). At the time, she had no idea what Donny had wanted Blaster Prince's services for. So she kept on with the suit repairs and upgrades for Blaster Prince, until she found out that Blaster Prince was actually hired to destroy Roswell's company.

"Like how you directed a fake copy of me to try to end his life at the *Razarul base?" Anthony questioned in his mechanized voice laced with ire. / *So she sent a Nanite-Bot, which replicated Anthony's powers, after Donny, just to teach him a lesson.

Basically written as it is, pissed off at her own self for her carelessness, she vented her anger by deciding to rid herself off Donny. She never expected however, that Donny had coincidently been in contact with Anthony, and had enlisted his services as a temporary bodyguard. (chapter 20 and 21)

On that note, she also took out her anger on Blaster Prince. Since Blaster Prince wanted his revenge on Noah, he went back to Black Knight for a new tech suit, and learnt that she wanted Noah (and Rex) gone as well. Hence, she gave him the last suit for free, on the terms that he take out their heads. When he failed however, she simply detonated the bomb she had implanted inside (chapter 16, during Noah's college graduation)