Author's Note: Wow. It's been awhile again. I'm so sorry. I got all caught up in school and just never found the time to get this story back on the road again. But now it is summer break and I have plenty of free time again! I hope to finish this story this summer so I won't leave any of you wonderful readers hanging again. Thank you for sticking around! Thank you for all of you who read, reviewed, and followed this story despite the updates being slow. And a special thanks to YellowAngela for checking up on me through messages.
On with the story!
"So, who was the mole anyway?" Rex asked with a mouthful of mashed potatoes, which got him a reproving glare from Holiday.
"A soldier by the name of Anderson," Six told him while poking at the meatloaf.
"Wait," Rex said leaning forward. "Blonde, big nose, about my height?"
Six nodded.
"Did you know him?" Holiday asked.
"Not really. Remember that time I tried to punch a grunt with a Smack Hand like three months after you started training me? Yeah, that was him."
"You never told us why you did that," Holiday said thoughtfully.
Rex looked down at his food, not wanting to meet Holiday's eye. "I don't know... I guess I was mad at myself that I tried to seriously hurt someone over an insult I had already heard so many times. I think I was already angry over the fact that I couldn't cure the woman he had brought in and he called me a "worthless E.V.O. freak" and I just lost it. And then Six made me run ten laps around the petting zoo 'no machines Rex!'" he yelled in his best Six impersonation, "after yelling at me for like a whole hour which was the most I'd ever heard you talk at once to this day."
"You made him run ten laps?! He was thirteen! You told me it was 5!" Holiday yelled at Six.
"Allegedly 13." Six deadpanned before turning to Rex. "Why didn't you tell me what he said to you?"
"You took your sunglasses off! It freaked me out, dude! That was the first time I saw your eyes and you were so mad!" Rex yelled gesturing wildly. "Plus, I felt like I deserved it, so I didn't really mind the punishment. It was a good incentive to never do anything like that again after how sore I was."
"I stand by making you run laps for that but I would have actually made it five laps if I had known the whole story," Six said straightening his tie slightly, sounding apologetic?
"Eh, it's the thought that counts," Rex said, reaching up to rub his temples.
"Let me get a scan to see if it has progressed," Holiday said when she saw him do that. She scanned him and frowned. "Looks like your nanites are attempting to rebel the protocol again.
"That's good. Glad my head isn't hurting for nothing."
"Has it been hurting this whole time or did it go away and come back just now?"
"Went away and came back. It's kinda just like a dull throb though."
"Okay so not too bad yet," Holiday said. "They might be related to your emotions then, or it's possible that part of your brain is being compromised. You might end up having some mood swings pretty soon, hopefully none too violent."
"Great," Rex answered sarcastically, rubbing his temples again. "How bad do headaches get anyway?"
"You've never had a headache before?" Six asked in surprise.
"No. Is that really that weird?"
"Rex's nanites take care of all injuries, either right away or at an accelerated rate. Which is why he only had the flu for two days while the rest of us had it for two weeks."
"Hey, I did not have it easy! Thanks to the accelerated rate the first day I was non-stop vomiting and the second day I was hacking up gunk every second!"
"In comparison the rest of us worked through those two weeks without any bed rest," Six said no sympathy.
"My nanites were busy what did you expect me to do? Puke on the E.V.O.s? Besides you got your revenge with double training for the rest of the week."
"Couldn't let you get behind," Six said with the ghost of a smirk.
Rex humphed at that and rubbed his temples again, this time shutting his eyes, jaw clenched.
"Let's get back to the lab," Holiday said concerned about how quickly this seemed to be progressing.
Holiday slapped Rex's hands away from his temples for the umpteenth time. Rex was currently laying down on the examination table with wires attached to his head to get a read on his brain activity and was not happy about not being able to rub at his temples. "Rex if you don't stop that I'm going to have to strap you down, I need those on for an extended period of time to get a proper reading on how fast it's progressing. It's only been ten minutes!"
"I'm sorry, I just- ugh!" He gestured vaguely at nothing in particular.
Holiday smiled sympathetically. "Just an hour okay? You can hold on for fifty more minutes."
Rex groaned, "Can you at least turn the lights down, staring at them is just making this worse."
Six pressed a button that shut off the lights in half of the lab, leaving them in considerably lower light.
"Think we can get rid of the noisy beeping machine too?" Rex said as the machine he was hooked up to printed out more readouts, with what was probably supposed to be a smile but came out more as a grimace.
Holiday was busy reading over the data and didn't answer, a deep frown setting into her face. "What's wrong?" Six asked her when she started writing her own notes on a clipboard.
"On a scale of one to ten, Rex, how much does your head hurt?"
"I don't know, a seven? I don't really have anything to compare it to."
"Amazing."
"Why is that amazing?" Rex asked, is voice strained as he fought the urge to hold his head as it throbbed.
"The readings I'm getting would have me or Six writhing in agony. You still can't feel your nanites slowing near your brain?"
"No."
"Fascinating." Holiday proceeded to scribble down some more notes.
"And that's fascinating because?" The agitation in Rex's voice was clearly not just about his head now.
"Because despite you not being able to feel your nanites working, they are preventing you from feeling the amount of pain you should be. Your nanites are still managing to do their job even with all the stress they're under."
"If they were really doing their job I wouldn't be laying here at all," Rex grumbled.
Holiday shot him a sympathetic glance before going back to her note taking as she read the numbers the machine was reading out.
They continued on like that for thirty minutes, Holiday a flurry or notes, Rex a fight to not hold his aching head, and Six a stiff and on edge addition to the side of the medical table.
Rex was beginning to feel nauseous and couldn't wait to be away from this annoying beeping machine. He was feeling tired and just wanted to go curl up in his bed and attempt to sleep despite the awful pounding in his head. His eyes were already drooping as he laid there so he thought he was going to be able to manage it. Holiday's pen scratching the paper and the constant beeping were beginning to lull him to sleep, the pain in his head lessening a bit, and his eyes started drifting shut...
And then all hell broke loose.
"Whaddaya all doing sittin' in da dark for?" came Bobo's unmistakeable voice as all of the lights suddenly came back on.
Rex's eyes shot open at the sudden intrusion and he became immediately disoriented from the sudden bright lights overhead. All at once he couldn't see anything but white, sounds became muffled around him, and his stomach lurched as his nauseousness came back in full swing. He clumsily twisted himself to aim for over the edge of the table as he immediately emptied his stomach contents onto what he hoped was the floor of the lab and not Holiday.
He heard a faint splattering and what sounded like a wheely-chair getting pushed back in a hurry. He felt hands at his shoulders as he heaved, keeping him from falling off the table. He felt smaller hands rubbing his back as he tried to catch his breath and get his stomach under control. He heard Holiday and Six speaking to him but he couldn't make out anything they were saying. He was dimly aware of the lights turning back off and being moved into a sitting up position when he finally stopped heaving.
"Lay him back down, he'll be back to fully aware in a few minutes. Gently though, we don't need a repeat."
Six's face swam into view in front of him as he placed his hands on Rex's chest and guided him down to lay on the table again.
"Just try to stay still."
At that phrase his surroundings shifted, no longer the semi-dark lab but now in a transport hurtling towards Paradise base. He twisted from side to side, impeded by the straps attempting to keep him down as bunches of nanites tried to force their way out of him. Six pushed him back onto the table as his whole body shook from the effort to keep the nanites in. He felt a needle push into his arm, a sedative rushing into his veins.
The last thing he heard was a muffled "Rex? Rex!" And he knew no more.
Just to clarify, Rex is having a flashback to the episode "Frostbite," he is not actually overloading. Thanks for reading!