Author's notes:
You know the place Rex first pops out in the first episode before he goes to the vending machine? I cannot for the life of me remember what it's called. It's the concrete structure where if you have a flood that's where the water goes and gets channelled somewhere else? Storm drain? Very large turtle ditch? Flood…..ditch? No clue. I don't live in the city so I haven't had to say the word very often.
Noah was fairly certain Providence had failed to lead Rex to the basketball court. He had been waiting for Rex, mindlessly bouncing his basketball for over two hours now.
At first, Noah welcomed the extra time, his breathing was all over the place from the anticipation of Rex's arrival and he appreciated the chance to calm his nerves down.
He practiced his breathing exercises: a breath in for three steady dribbles of his ball and then breathe out for three more and repeat.
His breathing had levelled out and his breathing wasn't so heavy after that, but after two hours he was panting again.
Noah knew he wasn't supposed to leave the basketball court without Providence's say so, but he needed a break. His arms felt like noodles and his mouth had dried out. Vending machines were nearby, over by the bridge and it wouldn't take him more than a couple of minutes to walk over there and grab himself a drink.
And maybe Rex was there, who knows?
It was before the basketball court if you were heading over here from the direction of Providence's base and the gaggle of teenagers that sometimes hung out there may have gotten Rex's attention before he reached the basketball court.
Now that he thought about it, he could hear a rambunctious conversation in that direction.
Noah quickly ran over to the wall and pressed himself against the bricks. He peeked out to see what could only be Rex with… a chimp dressed in clothes? And a couple of teens Noah recognized to be the local jerks.
He watched as Rex held a hand out and touched the vending machine. Whirring sounds and bright blue circuitry ran down from his arm to the vending machine and a soda shot out, beaning one of the teens in the head. It crashed to the ground and exploded, the soda quickly escaping and squirting everywhere.
The silence was overwhelming as the now empty aluminum can clattered to the ground and fell over.
"That. Was. Sick, dude!" The others yelled out.
The kid that was hit with the soda can sat up and rubbed his head.
"Man, we don't ever need to pay for anything again!" He exclaimed, pushing himself up off the ground. "Ow," he quietly muttered as he grabbed his skateboard.
"Come on dude, let's hit the arcade."
The leader of the teens slapped Rex's back and tried to guide him away from the vending machines.
Well, Noah supposed, now's probably a good time to step in before Rex goes awol on him.
"I wouldn't go with them if I were you. They're just using you as a wallet," Noah shouted out.
Noah stepped out from behind the wall and crossed his arms and tried to look cool.
Rex turned to look at him and Noah held back a squeak.
Rex's eyes were faintly glowing and Noah realized that all the pictures and videos he's ever seen of Agent Rex haven't ever actually captured Rex's image accurately.
As Noah stares down at Rex, all he can think about is that he can't believe Rex has actual human eyes underneath all that glow.
Rex rolls his surprisingly warm brown eyes.
"I wasn't thinking about it," he drawled. "One soda freebie is all the freebies I'm gonna give out. And I can't exactly head out into an arcade looking like this."
The teens quickly turned against Rex at this statement.
"Wow, what good are you if you're not handing out freebies, freak?" the leader bit out and headed out of the vending machine area.
"You'd probably smash all the games like you do the city," another one called out as he followed his friends.
Rex put his hands on his hips and shifted his weight to one foot, like a detective on a tv show being shown the latest murder.
"Jeez, those guys were no fun," Rex said, shaking his head.
"Might I remind you that chimps like to throw Bobo bombs?" the chimp, who Noah had absolutely no idea could speak, said to Rex. "And I had Mexican last night."
The chimp grinned deviously and wiggled his eyebrows. Rex smiled.
"Knock yourself out if you want to Bobo."
"So…" Noah trailed off after Bobo left to go chase the teens. "You are friends with a talking chimp?"
Rex grabs his sides and laughs.
"I'm a giant mech and all you can point out is that fact my friend is a talking chimp EVO?" he laughs out.
Noah shrugs helplessly.
"I mean that part seemed kinda rude to ask about."
"Nah, I don't mind," Rex said. "Most people don't ask anything about it, they just make their assumptions and take them to heart. Want a soda?" he asked, readying his hand over the vending machines, his hand glowing blue.
"Yeaaah, about that," Noah said. "You can't just slam your hands on the vending machine and knock out sodas for yourself without paying. We're doing this the legal way."
Noah reaches into his pocket for his wallet. His hand brushes the small remote he was given yesterday to signal that Rex was with him. He knocks his hand against it, hitting the only button on the remote in what he hopes was a subtle way, and brings out his wallet.
"Which soda do you want?" he looks up at Rex.
Rex shrugs.
"I don't know, a coke? I really haven't had much soda before. My hands are not exactly great at opening up cans without crushing them if you haven't noticed, and my doctor swears up and down that I'm gonna rust if I drink it."
Rex wiggled his hands, accentuating the fact that each of his three metal fingers was the width of one normal Noah-sized hand and ended in round blunted ends. Noah was fairly certain he wouldn't even be able to manage to wiggle his finger underneath a soda tab.
"Although I'm pretty sure she's lying about that. I think she's just worried about my health."
Noah punched in the number for two cokes into the vending machine and waited until they dropped out and into Noah's waiting hands.
He opened up one of the coke cans and handed it to Rex. Rex thanked him and they sat down looking into the dry drainage system.
"Sooo…" Noah trailed off. "What brings you over to this part of town? Don't you have...EVO fighting to do or something? There's not an EVO running around here I should know about, right?"
"Nah, this place is EVO free for now. I just needed to get out and do something fun. The base is boring so I'm trying to sneak in some fun between the lulls of EVOs."
Rex gently brought up his soda to his mouth and took a sip.
"Besides the way things are looking, I don't think I'll be having much of a good time in the future." Rex looked down at his drink dejectedly. "I keep finding myself in the middle of fighting an EVO, trying desperately to power up my builds and my nanites just stop responding. I'm probably going to be spending the rest of my free time getting retrained again."
"Why aren't your nanites responding?" Noah asked. Noah wasn't sure why nanites had anything to do with Rex's fighting.
"I'm not sure. Doctor Holiday seems to think it's stress or emotion-based."
"Soo, what exactly is so special about your nanites? There's not a lot of official information available to the public about them, but aren't active nanites the thing that transforms people into EVOs?"
Noah the day before had read up on nanites on the internet and had found very little information he could trust. The Providence recruitment site simply stated that there were two kinds of nanites: activated and inactivated.
Most of the world had been infected with inactivated nanites, which shouldn't be able to turn themselves on without their creators turning them on.
However, since the Nanite event was not a planned one, the nanites were incomplete, filled with programming that had no clear end perimeters. Nanites would randomly activate and start up random programs, often clashing horribly.
It's been speculated that the programs to help stabilize moods, help growth defects, and replace limbs are the ones that cause the most dangerous EVOs, but with virtually no surviving notes or survivors of the scientists involved with the Nanite Event, no one can be really sure.
Rex's nanites, Noah couldn't find anything on. They had to be some kind of special third kind of nanite or some incredibly rare combination of active and inactive nanites.
"My nanites are….more complete from the rest of the world's nanites. A different batch you might say. My nanites have far fewer programs installed on them, so there was less to go wrong when my nanites mixed with the rest," Rex started. "Not that nothing went wrong! I'm kinda permanently stuck in this mech," Rex laughed, a little bit of bitterness leaking in.
Noah spat out his soda.
"You're stuck like that?" Noah exclaimed. "I thought you were just being prepared for any time an EVO attacked?"
"Nah, I wish though. The armor is permanently stuck to my skin. White Knight says that it's a good thing and that it means that the world's cure is protected 24/7."
"Man, that sucks," Noah simply said, not sure what to say.
"Anyways, enough about me, what's up with you? What's your story?"
"Uh, well I came out here to shoot some hoops? I don't play for the school basketball team, but it's nice to come out here and mindlessly throw the basketball around. There's a basketball court behind us btw…"
Six watched Rex as he chatted with the Noah boy White Knight hired in an attempt to reel Rex in.
Six thought hiring a friend for Rex was a little much, even if it was on Doctor Holiday's orders.
Well, it was kind of on Holiday's orders. Holiday had been trying to convince White Knight into letting Rex out more and giving Rex more social time.
She'd come to them with a plethora of ideas each time they met up: letting Rex attend a virtual high school, letting Rex join communities online and letting him make friends there, and going to places not for EVO-related reasons, but to enjoy the scenery.
She cited Rex's rapidly failing reports and mental health exams and told White Knight if he didn't allow at least one of her suggestions, Rex might not be around as Providence's one and only cure.
White Knight had continuingly shot down Holiday's suggestions, but it seemed that Rex's continuingly failing missions had him finally take Holiday's hint.
Just... not in a way that Six approved of.
A real-life friend, even a hired one, could be an unfortunate distraction to Rex in his life. He'd have to spend time daily with the friend to continue being friends and to make a difference in Rex's performance. This time could have been used to further train Rex so he wouldn't die the next time his builds failed him.
No matter, the deal was already done and sealed with Noah and his parents. If a gamble was to be made, the gamble was going to be seen out.
An electrical buzzing in the air alerted Six to a sudden surge in activated nanites in the air.
Six leaped out of his hiding spot, Providence agents following behind him.
Rex was startled as Six hit the pavement and Noah stood up, looking ready to bolt at the sudden appearance of Six and his group of agents.
"Rex, it's time to go," Six stated, voice low and threatening.
"Aw, come on Six, just a fe-"
Six slammed his swords into Rex's sides, putting all his weight into them, effectively shoving Rex aside.
A shard of diamond embeds itself in the wall, where
Rex was only moments before.
Author notes:
Noah: ahh im so scared gotta act cool. Be smooth. Smoooooth. Ok this job isnt so bad
Rex: my only reference for 'cool' people is Six, providence agents trying to flirt with each other, and a random noir movie holiday showed me on my birthday