Rex and Roxie shot awake and groaned as they sat up in their seats and Rex wiped the drool from his lip.
"What the?" Roxie asked as she took in the surroundings to see they were in what appeared to be a classroom with tons of macabre dolls posing as students around them.
"Well this is... different," Rex said, standing up from his seat.
"Yeah," Roxie said before reaching her arm out and summoning a sword. "But just in case..."
Meanwhile, on Providence Headquarters, all of the agents were going crazy as red lights blared everywhere and an alarm sounded thorughout the ship.
"Time since we lost contact?" Six asked Holiday over the radio.
"Eight minutes," she answered, running through the halls. "We're keeping all channels open. Why weren't you prepared for something like this?"
"We can deal with the whys later. Right now, the priority is getting the twins back."
"And you too, Agent Six."
"Don't worry about us," Six said as he and Bobo were searching for our heroes somewhere in the desert.
"About you?" Bobo asked. "I'm tropical. Dry heat gives me a rash."
"Just try to find Rex and Roxie."
"Shouldn't be a problem," Holiday said as she opened a door to reveal a holding cell. "We just picked up the last person to see them."
The camera panned past Holiday to reveal none other than Breach chained up to a holding frame by all four of her arms and screaming her little head off.
"Six, a transport is on route to pick you and Bobo up. I'll take care of the situation here."
"Are you sure this is going to hold her?" an agent asked.
"Breach still has her powers, but with her hands restrained, it's going to be impossible for her to tear open a portal big enough to step through. But whatever you guys do, don't touch her under any circumstances."
"Rex to Providence," Rex said over his communicator as he wandered the room with his sister leaning against the wall. "Come in, Providence."
"Hello!" Roxie called before looking at a mannequin. "Anyone here? ...Or at least anyone with a pulse?"
"Man, this is creepy."
Rex and Roxie looked out the window to see they were in some kind of schoolhouse with a few bare trees and the building was surrounded by fog.
"What is Van Kleiss up to, Breach?" Holiday demanded. "Where did he have you send Rex and Roxie?"
"Van Kleiss isn't always in charge of me," Breach answered, her face covered by her hair. "Sometimes I just do what I want. Like right now..."
"Is anyone there?" Rex asked.
"Rex! Roxie! It's good to hear from you. What's your location?"
"That's just the thing, Holiday. We don't know," Roxie said. "But it looks like some kind of messed up private school."
"We can't see anything outside. It's really foggy."
"I have Breach in custody. We'll get her to talk. Don't worry."
"Breach?" Roxie asked. "Well that's just typical."
"One minute, were were fighting some EVO and the next, we wake up in the Dollhouse of the Living Dead."
Rex just picked up a head of a doll and screwed it back onto its body with a creeped out look on his face.
"According to Six, Breach just showed up out of nowhere and attacked. It didn't seem to be related to your mission."
"Where are Six and Bobo anyway?" Roxie asked.
"I wouldn't advise going in there," Six warned Bobo as he jumped up and entered a cave.
"Does the word 'melanoma' mean anything to you?" Bobo asked. "You wanna wait in the sun, go right ahead?"
Bobo just walked into the cave... before instantly hightailing it back to Six.
"On second thought, who doesn't love fresh air?!"
Six looked at the cave and saw a giant scorpion hiss as it moved in towards them.
"The Badlands?" Rex asked as he picked up a basketball on the desk and tossed it to a nearby garbage can, only for it to bounce off the desk.
"Well," Roxie said. "At least we know where they... wait a second."
She picked up an algebra book on the desk she was sitting on and looked at the cover. "I know Rex doesn't normally like being around these, but a textbook here says 'Fillmore School.'"
"Got it," Holiday said. "We're running a search."
"Make it quick," Rex said as they entered the hallway. "The place is wigging us out."
Rex opened a door to see a hallway with a pink bunny suit waiting for them in the center.
"Creepy as hell," Roxie gulped.
"Um, Holiday? If you don't find it under 'Schools' try 'Asylums.'"
"Ugh," Holiday said as the research team searched "Fillmore School" and the results were... less than satisfactory. "Hundreds of hits. We need more information."
"It's a school, but it's not a school," Breach answered from her confines. "But it is a school."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"But Rex and Roxie are too cool for school. And they're no tools. You're the fool."
Holiday groaned, pressed a button on the console and a large glass pane fell down, separating Breach from the Providence team.
"Rex, Roxie, we've got a problem. Breach isn't cooperating. She's freestyling."
"Seriously?" Rex asked as he and Roxie reached the front entrance. "We always saw her as metal."
"We found the front door and we're bailing," Roxie said. "As soon as we find an out of town arrow, we'll-"
And that was when the twins heard a loud growling sounding out from the corridor.
"Um..." Rex said. "We may have to stay after school, Holiday."
The twins lowered their goggles and ran off as Rex activated his Rex Ride and Roxie leaped onto the back as they zoomed across the school's corridors before bursting into the cafeteria to see a little girl being threatened by some kind of giant tick, who immediately turned its attention right to them as Roxie leaped off, summoning her hand blasters with a smile.
Rex activated the battering ram on his Rex Ride and slammed the tick EVO into the cafeteria bar, sending it sprawling forwards as Roxie let loose a flurry of blasts from her weapons at it as Rex smiled to the girl.
"So, is this what the teachers look like around here?"
Rex then burped and Roxie groaned with a facepalm when suddenly, the tick recovered and blasted the twins with a powerful gust of ice, freezing them where they stood, running towards the girl.
Rex suddenly activated his left Smack Hand and smashed the ice around him and his sister, freeing them.
"For your sake, I'll skip the detention joke."
Meanwhile, a large cannon lowered from the ceiling as the pane rose back up into the ceiling and Breach's eyes widened at the weapon in front of her.
"Oh, fun."
"You won't be saying that in a few minutes," Holiday warned.
Roxie slammed her battleaxe down as the tick avoided her, causing the table it wa son to be split in two as Rex slammed his fists at the EVO, sending it crashing into the wall.
Rex then ran in and absorbed the nanites from the tick, causing it to transform back into her human form, a woman in a pink shirt who seemed to be a teacher at the school.
"You're okay, lady."
"You have no idea how glad we are to find other people in this place," Roxie said. "Where are we?"
"You two don't understand," the teacher said.
"She's going away now," the little girl said.
"No, no," Rex said. "The monster's already gone, see?"
The twins then looked at the teacher to see one of Breach's portals form over her and sent her away.
"Okay..." the twins chorused. "What just happened?"
"That one was broken and she always gets rid of the broken ones," the little girl answered.
"Um, Doc?" Roxie said into her communicator. "Rex just de-EVOed someone and it looks like Breach got to her somehow."
"I don't want it," Breach said, seemingly to herself. "No good, no good."
"That's impossible," Holiday said. "She's in here and under complete restraint."
"Impossible or not, that's what happened," Rex said. "We're leaving, Doc. And we've got a student here with us."
"Is there anyone else here?" Roxie asked the student.
"Just the monsters," she answered. "Sometimes we get ice cream if we behave."
"Hey! Just like summer camp, huh?" Rex asked.
The student gave him a blank look and Rex sulked down, defeated.
"Okay, let's try to go find some help," Roxie sighed.
Rex opened the front door and the trio left the school, walking out into the nearby town that was completely covered with fog. As they wandered the streets, however, they discovered the town was completely deserted.
"Doc, I really wish you could see this," Rex said, looking at two rows of empty mopeds.
The trio turned a corner and saw a large pile of ice cream trucks, some of them with the jingles sounding.
"Ice cream, huh?" Roxie asked.
"Hang on, guys. We're trying something new," Holiday said as she turned to Breach.
"Try low, try high, little miss Smarty Skirt," Breach smirked. "Nothing- you'll get nothing from me."
"This may hurt a little."
Holiday activated the laser in front of Breach, and Breach simply flinched and a portal opened that absorbed the blast.
"Reflex," Holiday realized. "She instinctively opened a portal to protect herself. Remember that 'no-touching' rule? Would've made a big mess had I been wrong. That was a probe we shot at you, Breach. You sent it to Helsinki."
She then fired the probe, which was sent through another portal and Holiday smiled.
"Bottom of the Atlantic. If we do this enough times, I might see a pattern. And if we can find a pattern, we can find the twins. Or you can give me something."
"I give nothing. Never! I only take!"
Holiday turned to the agents, who fired another probe at Breach.
Back in the deserted town, Rex looked at a pet shop and took off a photo of a pet.
"Doc, there's a flyer for a lost cat here," he said. "We're in Greenville, Ohio."
"Is that... pull up the Ohio anomaly file, now!" Holiday ordered.
"Okay!" Rex said as he pulled down his goggles and activated his Rex Ride while Roxie summoned her motorcycle and pulled her goggles on.
"Next stop: Toledo!" Roxie shouted. "Please keep your hands in the vehicle at all times."
The student said nothing and Roxie groaned and rolled her eyes.
"Sis, I'm starting to think this girl has no sense of humor."
"File on screen," the agent told Holiday, who immediately flew into a rage at what she saw.
"No, no, no! I knew it! I freaking knew it! Rex! Roxie!"
"You'll be safe in no time, kid!" Roxie shouted... when suddenly, she was suddenly on the street and Roxie gasped. "Huh!"
And that was when she and Rex fell off the side of the street and the camera panned out to reveal that the city of Greenville was actually some kind of floating island in what seemed to be endless nothingness.
The twins screamed as Rex activated his Boogie Pack, took his sister's hand and blasted back up to the city.
Breach took note of this and her eyes glowed green and one of Rex's wings exploded, but he instantly rebuilt it.
"Come on, Rex! Get a grip!"
"Rex? What's happening?" Holiday asked as Breach smirked.
As they reached the bottom of the island, Rex's wings broke again as he activated his Smack Hands and gripped the side of the wall as Roxie created two climbing axes and grabbed the wall with a shout of effort.
Rex and Roxie began climbing the wall back up to Greenville, only for Rex to grab a loose piece and was sent tumbling down again, screaming his head off.
"Rex!" Roxie shouted.
Thankfully, Rex activated his Punk Busters and kicked off the falling rocks before he grabbed Roxie and used his left Smack Hand to grip the rim of the city and pulled them both onto the edge.
"Rex! Roxie! What's going on?!"
"Well, Doc, we just drove into a big fat void of nothing!" Roxie shouted.
"What's the deal with this place?" Rex asked.
"It doesn't exist," Holiday explained. "Two years ago, Greenville suddenly vanished and nothing was left but a crater. A day later, every resident was found alive and well in Antwerp. No one found the town itself. You took it, didn't you, Breach?"
"I need a place for my shiny things."
"Of course! Rex, Roxie, you figured it out!" Holiday exclaimed, much to Breach's shock.
"Yeah, I know. I'm a genius," Rex said, before he realized what she said. "Wait, what did I figure out?"
"What Greenville is: Breach's personal doll house. You two are her newest dolls."
"Okay, can we at least say 'action figure?'" Roxie asked with a huff.
"I'm done playing games," Holiday sneered. "Let's see where you're hiding this doll house."
Holiday manipulated the controls and fired multiple probes into Breach's portals.
"Bottom of the Atlantic. Naples. Kigali. Sri Lanka," the agents reported.
Breach smirked as Holiday fired one last probe and Breach gasped as her portal opened and appeared in front of the twins, tearing through a stop sign.
"We have no reading."
"Doc, I think one of your probes just showed up," Rex examined.
"NO! I don't want that!" Breach shouted as Roxie picked up the probe when a portal appeared and the probe vanished.
"And now it's gone."
"Where did the probe go?" Holiday asked. "We couldn't spot it but the twins did."
"You think I'll tell you now? No, no, never, no." Breach denied.
"Keep firing. Ten probes per minute."
"You might make her mad," the blonde student from before said, appearing behind the twins.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" Roxie shouted. "Why would you just jump off my bike like-"
"She likes to watch these ones fight."
Out of the corner of Rex's eye, he spotted three hideous grey EVOs approaching with eyes on their shoulders, but not their faces and mouths filled with hideous sharp teeth.
"Oh, cool," Rex said as he activated his Smack Hands and Roxie summoned her swords to her hands. "Because ew haven't had our lives threatened in the last two minutes!"
Elsewhere, Six ran up and activated his swords, attempting to drive them into the scorpion, only to be swatted aside by its tail.
"You woke it up," Six scolded Bobo, who was trapped in the scorpion's claw. "It's defending its territory."
"Whoa! Well I'll put him right back to sleep!" Bobo shouted, aiming his blaster at the scorpion's head.
"No! Don't! There might be a-"
This fell on deaf ears as Bobo blasted, only for the Scorpion to dodge. The resulting blast hit a wall and tons more scorpions started filing out of the cave, hissing loudly.
"...nest. Nice work."
"Would you believe this is all part of Bobo's master plan?" Bobo asked as the duo started pacing backwards.
"Six to Holiday, what's the status of our transport?"
"Minutes away."
"Sure wish the twins were here right now."
Rex and Roxie dodged and slammed the EVOs around them as Rex smacked an EVO to his sister, who slashed it vertically with her swords before ducking to dodge a swipe and gave out a roundhouse kick with a shout of effort.
One of the EVOs started running towards the blonde student and Rex extended his Smack Hand to slam it into the wall.
The twins stood back to back and looked over their shoulders to see themselves surrounded by three of the EVOs, who leaped up and the twins smiled as Roxie gave a bow to her brother, who deactivated his Smack Hands and then built his Punk Busters. Then, he activated the booster functions in the mechanical legs, leaping up before giving a rocket-powered revolving kick to all three EVOs into the horizon before landing next to Roxie.
"Well, it looks like you're the most popular kid in town," Rex said and the student only looked on blankly. "You... do know how to laugh, right?"
"Creepy."
Holiday nodded to the gun hanging from the ceiling before turning to Breach, who obviously looked exhausted.
"Change your mind yet?"
"Keep going, I don't care," Breach panted. "Just get rid of them like all the things I don't like. For example, I don't like these anymore."
Breach opened a portal from her chest and sent out the same three EVOs into the back of the room, roaring at the agents as the agents drew their weapons.
"Stand down!"
The EVOs charged at Holiday, only for her to swiftly dodge their strikes and she activated the glass wall again, sealing them inside with Breach before she opened the floor beneath them, sending them plummeting to who knows where.
"If getting Rex and Roxie back means I have to tear you apart molecule by molecule, fine! Prep the next sequence of probes: 12 per minute!"
"Hey, Doc! We'd really like to get out of here right now!" Rex shouted.
"I'm not going to let anything happen to either of you. I promise. Just had a little delay. Breach coughed up a few EVOs."
"Uh, three of them?" Roxie asked as the trio walked past a few shops. "Retractable fangs? Breath almost as bad as Bobo's?"
"How did you know?"
"Fought some EVOs just like that a few minutes ago," Rex explained. "I think you might be getting Breach's rejects."
"She said she didn't like them anymore."
"They were broken," the student answered. "She doesn't like broken things. She sends them away."
"Well if I have to spend another minute in this place, I'm the one who's going to break!" Roxie shouted before kicking down a row of mopeds.
"Stop it!" Breach shouted.
"Roxie, what did you just do?" Holiday asked.
"Dominoed some mopeds," Roxie answered. "Got my anger out a little."
Suddenly, the mopeds vanished with a red portal.
"Okay..."
"Do it again!" Holiday ordered.
Rex activated his Punk Busters and gave a heavy stomp to shatter a store window.
"Stop!" the student shouted. "She'll be angry!"
Breach screamed out in anger. "I had those just the way I wanted!"
The three flower pots disappeared and Rex smirked.
"Gone."
"How can she see that?" Roxie asked.
"Maybe, just maybe, when she sucked up Greenville, she never spit it back out," Rex realized.
"A separate dimension only she can access," Holiday nodded. "You have them, don't you!"
"Mmm-hmm. They're my new favorites. Shiny shiny."
"Did you hear that, guys?"
"Sweet!" Rex joked. "I always wanted to be some psycho girl's favorite toy."
"I'm her favorite! You take that back!"
"You're not from around here, are you?" Roxie asked.
"She talks to me. I'm her friend. Everything was perfect until you two came along!"
The blonde screamed as she instantly mutated into a huge brown slug-like creature and Rex pointed at her.
"EVO! I knew it! No wonder you didn't laugh at my jokes."
"Right. That's what gave it away," Roxie sighed. "It's always the cute ones, isn't it?"
"You two have to go."
"Yeah, Breach won't let us go. We're her new favorites," Rex said.
"I'm going to break the both of you now. Then, she won't want you anymore."
The EVO opened her maw wide and the twins recoiled in disgust.
"Okay, that I'm not a fan of," Roxie said as both twins found themselves swallowed whole by the creature, who let out an ear-piercing screech.
Suddenly, a growth built up in the EVO's tail and the twins burst out of her tail thanks to Rex's buzzsaw with a disgusted groan.
"Okay, that is just plain wrong! Not to mention way stinky!" Rex shouted.
"Neither of you will ruin anything else! I make everything just the way she likes! I make her happy."
The twins gasped as the EVO grew her arm to huge proportions and swatted the both of them through a sign before stacking more ice cream trucks on top of each other.
"Uh, Holiday?" Roxie said into her communicator. "I think that we may have just found Breach's interior decorator."
"Rex and Roxie can stack things too. And they're shiny and new. The other one is old. I'm tired of old."
"Rex? Roxie? What's going on?" Holiday asked.
"I think we're being promoted to BFFs," Rex said as he and Roxie used their enhanced strength to push the EVO's arms back. "And let's just say we don't think this little girl is made of sugar or spice."
"And not even close to anything nice!" Roxie snapped. "We're gonna try to cure her!"
Roxie stuck her hand into the EVO, only for her arm to get stuck in the squishy mass and Rex pulled her out with a shout of effort.
"I can't let you two be her favorites!" the EVO shouted, morphing her arms into spikes and striking down on the twins, who dodged her strikes with precise cartwheels.
"Hey, we don't want to be her favorites either!" Rex said.
"Why hold you back?" Roxie chuckled before both twins were swatted away.
"You don't need them. I make things just how you want. I fight the other toys just how you like!" the EVO told Breach.
"I didn't think this place could get any weirder," Rex said. "Take it to Breach to prove me wrong."
Breach said nothing as Holiday turned to her agents.
"Recalibrate the probes. If we do this right, we can force her to open a portal to let the twins out."
"Our transport should be here any second," Six said, baring his swords to the swarm of giant scorpions. "Just don't let these things surround you."
And that was when Six heard loud rapid fire blasts ring out from behind and saw Bobo firing his blasters at the swarm of giant scorpions.
"Did you say 'Let them surround you' or 'Don't let them surround you?'"
Roxie was slammed into a building by the EVO and quickly ducked her head as Rex pushed her back with one of his Punk Busters before morphing his arm into the BFS and slamming it against the EVO's spike arm as his sister quickly summoned her greatsword and pushed back as well.
Rex quickly leaped up to avoid a strike and then slashed down at the EVO, only for her to dodge and he sliced through the pile of ice cream trucks instead.
"Argh! Stop breaking my things!" Breach shouted.
"Rex, Roxie, whatever you're doing in there, keep it up," Holiday said.
The twins gained a mischievous look before splitting off to slice and dice several trucks, causing both Breach and the EVO with them great distress as she moved in to Rex, only for him to build his Slam Cannon and sent her crashing into the roof of another buliding.
"No!"
"We can do this all day, Breach!" Roxie shouted. "Can you hear us?!"
"AAAAAHHH!" Breach shrieked. "You're messing up everything!"
"That place," Holiday began. "Those things inside it. They make you feel safe, don't they? Like a home."
"You don't know anything."
"I know that you can't have everything, Breach. Rex and Roxie don't belong to you. If you want this to stop, you only have to do one simple thing: let them go!"
"No! They're mine now. My new favorites."
The EVO avoided another rubble blast from the Slam Cannon and wrecked it with a simple swipe and then slammed Roxie into a buliding with her tail, causing her to drop her greatsword and she sat on the twins with a shout.
"Not them! Me! Look at what they do to everything they touch! We had everything perfect, just how you like! Throw them out!"
Rex built his Smack hands up and then lifted the EVO off of himself and his sister before tossing her into another building.
"No! No!" Breach shouted. "Making a mess. I can't have a mess. Everything clean! Nice, nice and clean."
The twins looked to see sseveral portals form and teleport the rubble out of Greenville.
Bobo fired his blasters at the scorpions with obvious reckless abandon while Six slashed at them with his swords.
Thankfully, the portals opened in the air and dropped the rubble right on top of all the scorpions, squashing them and splattering their innards all over Six and Bobo.
"I'm not complainin'," Bobo said and the pair looked up to see the Providence transport appear above them.
The EVO suddenly reappeared and swatted the twins far into the air, sending them crashing back into the boarding school.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Roxie asked as Rex smirked.
Roxie summoned her warhammer to her hands while Rex activated his Smack Hands and the two started smashing and bashing every doll and mannequin in sight.
"All my pretty things," Breach gasped. "Everything's out of place."
Holiday and the agents looked at the grid to see several portals opening up and dropping rubble all across the globe.
"AAAAAAARRRGGGGH!" The EVO shouted, bursting through the front door and slamming the twins back into the stairs. "STOP IT!"
"You want us gone so bad, then you should be helping us!" Rex said. "We just want to go home!"
Roxie shouted out and slammed her warhammer into the EVO, sending her crashing into the wall.
Breach only shuddered in discomfort as Holiday smirked.
"You can end this yourself, Breach. Just let the twins go."
Rex was slammed into the classroom he and Roxie woke up in and grabbed the EVO's tail and spun around, sending her crashing into all the desks and dolls surrounding her.
"We are not staying here alone with you!" Roxie shouted as she gave a flying kick to the EVO's still human head.
Breach shuddered before letting out a bloodcurdling scream, her eyes and mouth glowing red and soon, her entire body was surrounded with a glowing red light.
"Guys, something's happening."
"Um, yeah, we see it," Rex said as they looked up to see all the debris hovering in the air and then their jaws dropped and saw a swirling red portal leading to the interrogation room.
"Doc, we think we see a way out," Roxie said.
"At least, it better be."
"I'll fix everything," the EVO said, holding a model skeleton. "I can make you happy. I can be your favorite. You two ruined everything!"
She then grabbed the twins' legs with her large arm.
"She'll hate me!"
"Too bad for you," Roxie said, summoning her sword before slamming it into the EVO's tail, causing her to scream out in pain and Rex grabbed Roxie before activating his Punk Busters and leaping through the portal and into the interrogation room.
"Breach, it's over!" Holiday said to the glowing Breach.
"My only place. It would have been perfect."
And that was when a massive portal generated from Breach's entire body and in a flash, she was gone.
"Whoa," the twins chorused before Holiday tackled them in a massive hug.
"You know, sis, we should get kidnapped more often," Rex said.
"Don't try to tempt fate, bro," Roxie sighed.
"...And the scorpions. Ugh," Bobo groaned. "As far as the eye could see. There must have been hundreds of them."
"Are you kidding?" Rex asked. "Were you in a whole other dimension? I think not."
"Dead?" Six asked of Breach.
"Hard to say," Holiday said. "It was as if that world she built was the only thing that kept her together. People can be a lot more fragile than we think."
"So, how'd it feel in there?" Bobo asked.
"Strange," Roxie said. "Empty. I've never felt so completely alone before, even with Rex."
"She had a lot of things in there. But things can't make up for people."
"So you feel sorry for her?"
"No way," Roxie said. "Not after what she did to us. It just makes us glad for what we have."
"You mean a lovable simian sidekick?"
"Exactly," Rex chuckled.