Rex let out a cheer as he zoomed out onto the streets, feeling the cool wind brush against his dark hair as he escaped the vicinity of the mall. The sounds of surprised screams became more and more distant as he sped onwards, quickly forgotten as the boy made a few sharp turns. The most important thing now was to get back to Base and get some relief from constant surveillance.
But an ear-piercing screech jolted him right out of his thoughts.
Rex twisted his head to find a massive blue EVO lumbering after him, knocking cars aside and slowly catching up to his speed. It seemed like mindless rampaging at first, but upon taking a closer look, the teen spotted a familiar metal collar around its wide neck. He shuddered at the memories the mind controlling device brought up, and drove faster to avoid being caught. Luckily, despite the size and strength of the EVO, it wasn't quite up to par in terms of speed.
"Doc," the boy called out, pressing his earpiece, "You there? My biometrics are up again."
The woman's voice crackled into his ear a few seconds later. "Yes, I can see that. Are you alright? How did you manage to escape? You need to come back to Base immediately."
"I'm trying, and right now, I'm being chased by one of Black Knight's pets. It's too slow, so I'm not worrying much."
"Hurry, Rex. And I still have to find White Knight. It's starting to worry me about how he hasn't responded yet."
The teen groaned and switched off the connection, feeling a small twinge of guilt. It wasn't at the fact that he killed his abuser, but rather, the effect it had on people he actually cared about. He supposed that it was only a temporary issue, however, and that it was only a matter of time before they got over it. White Knight had undoubtedly caused tensions with Holiday and Six as well, so they'd surely manage to live on easily after eventually realizing the man wasn't coming back.
Right?
"Apprehend the subject," an unfamiliar voice spoke, rousing him from his thoughts. Rex turned his head to find himself almost surrounded by pawns who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
"Move, or I'm ramming you all off the road!" the young EVO threatened, preparing to attack. "I don't have time for this!"
"Black Knight is giving you one last chance to come under her supervision or we'll capture you, as well as the silver EVO. You've lost your extra time privileges."
"I don't know where the damn thing is!"
Rex scowled and leaned sideways so he could swerve into the soldiers on both sides, watching their bodies roughly scatter across the pavement. He didn't want to be so vicious, but they were so irritating, all he wanted to do was swat them off like flies. Unfortunately, despite the fact that he'd thrown off the dark pawns, the giant blue EVO was still raging after him.
The teen tried to make a turn into a left fork of the road, but the moment he did, the EVO let out an enraged shriek and began to run at a speed he hadn't anticipated. Rex's eyes widened at the sudden change, estimating that it must have tripled its speed in only ten seconds. It startled him enough to make him drive in a straight line again, forcing him to completely forget about the turn.
"Rex!" Holiday's distracting voice piped up again, "Do you have any idea where White Knight might be? His communications are completely cut off!"
Rex narrowed his eyes at the horrible timing. "I have no idea where he is. Maybe the EVO he went after scratched up his comm link or something. I really don't know. Kinda busy here!"
"Sorry. Make it here safely. If the EVO is as slow as you say it is, you'll do just fine, Rex. Come quick."
Rex sighed and attempted a right turn, but this time, the creature behind him tripled its pace again, only slowing down when he finally moved back into driving in a straight line. The boy the. drove even faster, utterly confused at the EVO's strange behavior. It moved quite quickly- even faster than Rex- only when the teen decided to try switching directions. But as he watched the street signs and buildings appear into view before him, he realized exactly what the EVO was commanded to do.
Corral him back to the intersection from that morning.
Black Knight stood atop a pile of wrecked cars, motioning for surrounding pawns to restrain the blue EVO. Rex tried to swerve out of the way, but a multitude of pawns launched themselves off the wreckage and captured him as well, holding him into place.
Before the teen could activate his wings to shake them off and fly away, yet another nanite signal blocking ring was shot at him- this time onto his leg, preventing the aerial escape. Rex let out a scream as a hoard of soldiers latched onto him like a pool of leeches, forming a ring around him that aimed at least fifteen guns in his direction.
Black Knight hopped off the cars and onto the ground, smirking as she made her way towards the young EVO.
"Going so soon, Rex?" she asked, her voice prideful. "What happened to your ideas about backstabbing?"
The boy struggled to escape the grip of the soldiers, but failed. "It's just one EVO! Why do you care so much? Let me go!"
"I'll admit, I was looking forward to a small partnership, even if it wasn't meant to last," the woman informed him. "But I really do want that EVO, Rex. Didn't you see the damage it caused, and how powerful it was? You know how much I want it safely under my control."
"So go find it!"
"Where is it?"
Rex groaned, staring in the direction of where he'd helped White Knight push it into the underground subway tunnels. "I don't know, okay? It got away! But it's underground somewhere!"
Black Knight frowned. "You promised to bring it back to me. You're being incredibly-"
"You're being incredibly annoying!" the teen shouted, kicking his legs. "I've got nothing to do for you! I broke a deal, yeah, but it wasn't on purpose! You have a million soldiers to find it, so why don't you send them?"
"My assets are not unlimited, Rex, so I shouldn't have to waste them. I wanted that EVO. And since you broke your temporary loyalty, you should be punished. You know I don't like setbacks."
"Then punish me one to one. Using your soldiers is cheating!"
The woman's frown deepened, then in a flash, switched to a smirk. She motioned for her workers to leave the boy and evacuate the area, then transformed one of her arms into a sword.
"It's a shame we have to do this," she sighed, scratching the blade across the hood of a nearby car. "I thought you were finally coming around. You know how valuable good EVOs are to me."
"I can't believe you're gonna fight me over this!"
"To be completely honest, it's not so much my desire for the silver EVO as it is my desire for you," Black Knight admitted. "I've had my engineers upgrade my collars specifically against mental resistance, amongst other things, and I would love to test it out on your stubbornness. I'm tired of waiting for you to see that White Knight isn't the answer."
Rex stopped in his tracks.
Her confession of attempting to forcefully brainwash him was chilling, and he realized that his earlier guess had been correct. The silver EVO, while not completely useless by itself, had only been a ruse. Perhaps Black Knight had even been waiting for him to come back peacefully only to launch her soldiers at him and kidnap him. But what was even worse was the way her statement about White Knight made him even more on edge.
It was extremely unsettling to share a very strong viewpoint with the enemy.
A quick flash of violet forced him to drop his thoughts and dodge the attack, prompting him to land on the ground. Without thinking twice, he tried to create his sword- only to be struck with a familiar jolt of electricity that destroyed his attempt. He scowled at the metal ring on his leg, then glanced up at his assailant.
"Hey!" he yelled, "Not fair!"
"Oh, but don't you remember what you said?" the woman sneered, replacing her sword with a glowing whip. "Backstabbing is my "thing"."
The teen pulled himself back into his feet and made a fake attempt to punch her in the stomach, waited for her to block it, then landed a harsh blow at her jaw. Watching as she stumbled backwards, he took the moment to rip off the cloth from his pants that the ring was attached to- he didn't dare touch it with his bare hands- and formed a sword that rivaled hers.
"Mm, you're going to be such a good soldier..." Black Knight murmured darkly, droplets of blood leaking from her lips.
The two swung their weapons at each other, lashing out with the shared intensity of their hatred towards each other's resistance. Sparks flew as metal crashed against metal, and from time to time, they continued regenerating their builds to keep up the pace.
But enough was enough.
As they fought, the boy gradually forced her into the direction of the subway tunnels where the silver EVO had entered into earlier. He wasn't planning on killing her, as he didn't quite have the mental energy to take another life, but corralling her into that direction gave him enough leeway to finish the battle.
Black Knight, however, caught onto his plan sooner than he expected.
"Are you trying to lead me towards something?" she asked, swiping at him with another flash of her blade.
Rex dodged the hit and used his SmackHands to grab her body between his palms, give her a quick shake, then threw her near the tunnel entrance. "I might be giving you exactly what you're asking for."
"I know where the tunnels are as well, Rex," the woman shot back, quickly standing up again. "If that's where it escaped to, I'm getting a two for one bargain today."
"You're getting nada."
The teen unleashed his slam canon and shot a giant chunk of concrete square at her lithe body, instantly knocking her out cold. He then picked her up with another SmackHand and threw her into the hole in the street just a few feet away from where she had stood, then sealed the entrance with another chunk of rock.
But Rex knew she'd be back.