Rex flew into the air and onto the top of the nearest building, excited to see Black Knight calling off her troops for the moment. He supposed she thought he wanted to join her again. He was by no means brainwashed by her friendly attitude, however, and knew exactly what kind of a person she was. Black Knight could pretend to be nice all she wanted.
The boy had bigger things to worry about.
"White Knight!" Rex shouted into his earpiece, alerting his boss back at Base. "The EVO just took out Six! I can't do this alone, and I really need your help!"
White Knight, shocked to hear of the fate of his green worker, instantly responded. "What's his status?"
"He's just knocked out," the boy replied, watching the silver EVO cause further havoc in the streets. "He still has a good heartbeat. But you need to come quick! Even Black Knight's threatening to take it into her control!"
"You can't cure it yourself?" his boss replied agitatedly. "I need to hold this place down for my protection and for the Base itself! Do your job!"
Rex scowled, unwilling to fail his personal mission. "It just took out Six, and bruised me! Plus, there are people dying here! Holiday can hold down fort!"
"Fine!" White Knight snapped. "Keep the civilians safe until I get there! Keep Six safe!"
Rex let out a whoop of cheer as the comm link went dead, feeling completely satisfied. He felt like a master chess player, understanding the joy of having all of the pieces in his control. For once, he was in charge, bound by no laws from anyone on Earth. It felt amazing to be free.
He could feel all the regrets about his plans melt away.
The teen dived back into the lower parts of the city, swooping in to rescue anyone who was caught in the hazardous intersection. He cleared up the cars with his Smackhands, placed people safely in nearby apartments, and even landed them on rooftops. Adults and children cheered alike as they were pulled out of danger, chanting his name like an ecstatic cult.
It almost made the boy feel guilty for what he'd forced them into.
After twenty minutes of saving the locals, he finally spotted White Knight in the crowd as well, shining suit of armor and all. His boss was clearly eager to apprehend the silver EVO, pushing away cars and entering the scene with metaphorical guns ablaze. Rex chuckled and swooped down to fly at eye level with the angry man.
"How is our laziest worker on the team?" the boy joked, dodging a tire the raging EVO had thrown from a distance. "This one's the perfect strength match for you, just a heads up."
"We need to lure it away from the people," the man retorted, ignoring the subtle jab at his earlier words. Rex shivered, recalling how eerily similar Six's commands had been. Then again, they were more experienced with protocol than he was.
"I think I know a way," the young EVO began, adrenaline coursing through his entire body. "There's a hole in the streets that leads to abandoned subway lines just under here. We can take it there."
"Why didn't you do it earlier, then?"
"Too busy saving Six."
White Knight rolled his eyes but agreed, knocking away cars to get to the EVO. Rex used his Smackhands to pull on the EVO's many legs, and with the help of his boss, dragged it to a hole leading to the underground. Every time the man in white attempted to damage the creature as much as he could, the teen blocked his efforts and insisted they were accidents.
He couldn't let the EVO die, after all.
"You keep getting in my way!" White Knight shouted at the boy, finally wrestling the creature into the dark passages below and jumping into them himself. Rex pretended to look shocked.
"I'm sorry!" the boy fibbed, pushing the EVO deeper into the dirty tunnels. "I didn't mean to! I was just trying to make sure the civilians weren't gonna die too! This thing's really violent!"
His boss snorted. "It's hardly anything you couldn't take care of. Maybe if you woke up earlier, this would be over and done with!"
"Yeah, but- AAAH!"
Rex dodged a spiky leg from the creature, narrowly avoiding being cut in half. The same couldn't be said for White Knight's suit, however. A large, bloodless gash formed in the tough exterior of the metal suit, surprising them both.
"Get this thing subdued!" the man shouted, hearing the suit's programmed voice informing him of the damage. "I can't go EVO! I'm the only one with no risk of losing my humanity! Kill it!"
Rex used his Slam Cannon to shoot a moderately sized chunk of rock at the silver EVO, forcing it onto the tracks, then pushed White Knight into safety. "Look! I've got nanites, okay? Let me help you repair the suit. I promise I won't let them enter your body!"
White Knight scowled. "How can you be sure you don't accidentally let the blasted machines into me?"
Rex frowned. "Hey, I wouldn't do that. I know we aren't exactly super friendly with each other, but you can trust me!"
"I-"
The man's reply was drowned out by the tormented roar of the EVO that now charged straight at them. Rex shoved the creature onto the tracks even harder, then placed his hands on the pale suit of armor.
"We don't have time for this!" the teen quickly informed him. "Do you want me to save your life or not?"
"Hurry up with it, then! Stop wasting my time!"
"Oh, don't worry about that, Tighty Whitey. You don't really have that much time left."
Before his boss could respond, Rex sent a wave of nanites into the suit's mainframe, taking over the controls. Quickly, the boy deactivated as many defense systems as he could, from projectile missiles, laser beams, sharp weaponry, and even the basic nanite repelling program. By the time he released his grip on the suit, the pale man was completely vulnerable, his suit ninety percent inactive.
Rex didn't bother with full damage. He'd done enough.
"What did you do?" White Knight hissed, his suit's voice informing him of the forced shutdown. "What happened to my weaponry?"
Rex tilted his head, making a face. "You know I can control machines, right? You let me take control, and now, you've pretty much screwed yourself over."
"Why-"
The silver EVO, only mildly wounded- just as Rex had wanted it to be- lunged at the vulnerable White Knight, smashing the man against a wall. All the pale leader could do was weakly fight back as the creature used its razor sharp teeth to rip his suit away, even if it took plenty of energy. This time, however, Rex wasn't rescuing him at all.
"That must really hurt, huh?" The teen remarked, watching as the man's newly revealed skin slowly got covered in fresh blood. "Ouch. This one's a fighter."
"Why- AAGH- aren't you knocking it OFF?" his boss screeched, immense amounts of pain crawling through his nerves. "Get over here and KILL IT!"
"Nah. I'm pretty sick of you, to be honest. When's the last time you treated me like a human instead of a machine?"
The gears began to turn in the pale man's mind. "Is THIS what this is about? When I get out of- AAAH- here, I'm going to lock you up for the rest of your life!"
Rex stuck out his tongue. "Who says you're getting out? In case it hasn't settled in yet, today's your last day on earth. You could try apologizing to me for treating me like I'm subhuman."
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"
"Murder."
Rex formed a Smackhand and shooed the EVO away temporarily, though making sure it wasn't angry at him- only fearful. He then knelt down to where White Knight lay prone on floor, blood leaking from his mouth, nose, and various wounds. It was a scarlet mess for sure, and he made sure not to get any of it on his clothes.
"So, for your last few minutes ever, I'd just like to let you know that you suck as a leader, and that the world's better off without you," Rex casually informed him. "You don't have respect for anyone who follows your commands, you treat me like I don't have emotions at all, and for some reason, you think it's all okay. But it's not okay."
White Knight coughed weakly, his human figure fatally destroyed by the silver EVO. "You're... you're not going to... get away from this. They'll... know."
"Actually," Rex began, "They won't suspect a thing. After all, the only thing they'll find out is that you were dragged away by a bloodthirsty EVO- that is, if they can find your body. I'll honestly have no idea where our razor sharp friend here will take you. Buen viaje."
"You don't... know what will happen. They're going to... fall apart without me."
"I think we'll do just fine. You're useless."
"You... have no idea what you've... done."
The teen punched the man square in the back of his head. "I'm getting rid of someone who doesn't care to treat me right. Even when I came back after six months, after all the work I've done for you, you said you didn't care that I was gone. As someone without a solid family, do you know how much that hurt? I'm tired of hiding my true feelings behind jokes."
"You're... weak."
Rex pulled back his fist to throw the deadliest punch he'd ever forced in his life, then paused. Instead, he stood up, taking care to not be tainted by bloody filth, and called the silver EVO over.
"Kill him," the boy commanded. "Hurry up."
He stepped aside as the metallic EVO made its way forward, stretching its scaly leg backward then delivering the fatal blow, piercing the man's skull. Rex jolted at the sound of the crunch, and watched as damaged brains began to ooze out of the deceased's leader's head.
"Eh, it's not like he used them anyway," Rex muttered. "Go on, take him."
The boy stepped back, and the EVO snatched White Knight's body up by the waist, prying the rest of the corpse out of the suit like the meat out of a lobster's exoskeleton, and dashing into the darkness of the subway tunnels to enjoy its well earned meal to make up for its troubles.
Rex suddenly felt a cold shiver throughout his body, and couldn't tell if it was from the murder, or just from the temperature of the underground space.
He couldn't undo anything.