"Six!" Rex yelled out as diamond shards came hurling towards the agent with deadly accuracy.
Six pulled out his Magna blades and deflected the diamonds heading straight for him, and winced when a stray shard bit through his cheek.
All around the agents, bright red portals appeared and from them came more showers of diamonds.
The Providence agents inched backwards further and further, trying to find cover from the deadly and expensive projectiles. They found themselves bumping into the various corners of the brick wall behind them. Gigantic hands appeared behind the agents and pulled them into portals.
Out of the corner of Rex's eyes, Rex could see the disappeared agents reappearing high up in the air and their bodies falling to the ground or hitting various walls around the fight.
A whizzing sound brushed past Rex, tearing his eyes away from the agents. Rex stared in disbelief as a portal passed by him and crashed into Six. Seconds later, Six reappeared dozens of feet up in the air.
Rex reached towards the falling agent with his smack hands, intending to grab him and retreat back to regroup with the scattered Providence agents, but he stuttered to a stop as the air in front of him shimmered and burst open in a flash of red.
A humanoid wolf EVO stepped out of the portal in front of Rex, effectively cutting him off from everyone else.
Well, almost everyone else. Noah was cowering behind Rex, looking at the new EVO fearfully. Rex positioned his body to shield Noah from any incoming attacks.
Rex wanted to run out and fight the attacking EVOs, but with Noah here, that wasn't the priority.
Providence's rules for Rex flashed through his head. Save human civilians first, attempt to fight and cure EVOs later, and if Rex ever needed to choose between saving a human and fighting an EVO, go for the human always.
So with those rules in mind, Rex readied himself to defend Noah from the wolf EVO in front of him.
Six and his Providence agents would have to wait for Rex to get Noah out of danger before he could even think about helping them.
Rex swung his fist over Noah's head as the wolf EVO reached out to grab Rex by the shoulder. Rex missed, and the wolf EVO grabbed him by the arm. The EVO shoved Rex, and as the wolf EVO spun Rex around, Rex found himself looking at yet another red portal behind Noah, this time with the gigantic hand EVO stepping out.
"Come with us, Rex. We're here to save you."
The hands EVO beckoned Rex to come through the portal. "Take your friend with you if you need to, but hurry, we can't hold off your Providence agents much longer."
"Van Kleiss awaits," The wolf EVO behind Rex utters in a low voice.
Van Kleiss….the name sounds familiar to Rex. The only way Van Kleiss would be a familiar name to Rex is either because Van Kleiss is a friend of Providence or because Van Kleiss is a foe to Providence, and judging by the EVOs' little display here, Rex was willing to bet it was the latter.
The EVOs seemed to genuinely not want to hurt Rex, though. . .yet. If the EVOs are in cahoots with an enemy of Providence, then it wouldn't be a bad idea to go with them and get some intel.
Holiday could use her tracking system for Rex and track the nanites in Rex down easily. Rex had a voice recorder on him, disguised as another mechanical part of his body, that he could turn on with his nanites. Fully equipped, Rex had everything needed to go with the EVOs and gather some information on this Van Kleiss. But should he take Noah? For an unknown reason, the EVOs were allowing what they thought to be his friend (Was Noah his friend? He'd only been talking with Noah for barely an hour, which was more than time that he had with anybody his age ever. Was that at the very least the beginnings of friendship?) to go with him. As Six once told him, no one adds anything that specific without having some semblance of a plan.
However, there was no guarantee that there was not an ambush waiting for Noah and Rex on the other side of the portal, so he should probably leave Noah here and hope the Providence agents cou-
Without warning, the wolf EVO shoved Noah and Rex into the waiting arms of the hands EVO, and Noah and Rex fell through the portal into the dirt on the other side.
"Welcome to the promised land, Rex."
The hands EVO sweetly smiled at Rex.