Chapter 2~

To say Six was furious would be the understatement of the century. He was practically blazing with how much anger was surging through him right now, his vision a deep red that wasn't helped by his dark tinted sunglasses, and his mind clouded by the emotion. Somehow, his ward had persuaded the ninja into letting him fly a plane alone, a foresight that would never be repeated until the boy turned well into his retirement years, only to fly away from the convoy that was headed to Paradise. Rex was going to be running simulations for hours when Six found him, and then after that he was going to be grounded until such time that he so deemed the boy worthy. Maybe right before he died, or even after, the ninja hadn't decided yet. He might even go so far as to put Rex on toilet duty* for a few months if he found out the teen had left for a party somewhere. No doubt he and the monkey were laughing it up with how clever they were to trick the great Six into letting them go by themselves...

Six took a deep breath to steady himself, looking at the mutilated target dummy that had been the outlet for his frustrations for the past twenty minutes. Apparently he had been so upset he hadn't realized he'd beheaded and de-limbed the poor object until it was already mutilated beyond recognition. He had the vague thought that some lackey would have to tell the mannequin's mother that her mannequin son had fallen in the line of duty before shaking his head clear of the odd thought and leaving the training room for his own quarters.

After making sure that those in the ops center were doing their jobs and locating Rex, the ninja had decided to blow off some steam in the training room onsite. It wasn't as fancy as the one at headquarters, but it had worked for his purposes, and so far had been very effective in letting him blow off said steam. The ninja sighed, he would need a shower now and with the arctic temperatures outside, hot water was a commodity that was first-come-first-serve here. At this late hour, he would have to be happy if he didn't freeze.

Six shuffled around his room until he had gathered all the necessary toiletries, then proceeded onward to the shower room. The halls, with their pristine and uniform whiteness, did well to comfort and relax the ninja. He hoped the running water would do the rest of the work so he could actually help in the search for his ward instead of just fuming in the corner as he was very nearly reduced to doing when he had realized Rex wasn't with the rest of them. Only his strict discipline had kept Six at least appearing calm. Maybe when they found him, Six would make Rex watch as he and Holiday relaxed for a change while the kid was working. It seemed like a fitting punishment for making them all worry and use up valuable Providence resources just to keep finding the boy every other day.

However, once Six entered into the shower room, all thoughts of relaxing flew out the window. There in front of him, Bobo Haha was leisurely showering in a steamy stall while whistling some obscure tune and rinsing the last of the bubbles from his thick fur. Six froze, staring as the chimp slowly realized he wasn't alone and turned to see who had interrupted his bath time.

"Hey, Green Bean, hope you weren't planning on taking a shower, 'cuz this is all the hot water that there's going to be till morning." He took on a conspiratory grin and leaned outward as if he were sharing some deep secret. "You have to bribe the electricians if you want some more at this-Hey!"

Six had heard enough, in the blink of an eye his toiletries were discarded onto the floor as he flew to where Bobo was and picked him up by his furry chest. With no regard to personal space or well being, he got as close as he could while still being able to see the frightened face in front of him to show that he meant business and he wouldn't accept any lies. "Where have you been? Where's Rex?"

Bobo gulped as he stared into the black sunglasses that he knew held no mercy for the likes of him. "I was taking a nap in the cargo hold, I figured Rex was fine driving the plane alone."

"You mean you two didn't leave to some party?" Six asked, raising one dangerous eyebrow, daring the monkey to say something he didn't like.

"What? No way! Rex wanted those surplus nanites gone, you mean he hasn't taken care of that yet? If the kid did something, I wasn't even conscious to help, so don't blame me!"

Six let go, dropping the chimp to the ground before exiting the shower room, all thoughts of relaxing gone from his now nearly panicking mind. "I was afraid of that..."

He had assumed the boy was out with the monkey, a thought that had at least allowed the ninja to think somewhat clearly until now. If Bobo was here, then Rex wasn't just AWOL, he was missing, and with all those surplus nanites, the teen would be all but useless against a threat. Six had to find him, now.

"Nope...nope...nope...this? Eh, maybe." Rex tossed the pipe he just found onto one of the growing piles of things he thought he could use, making a loud clang as it settled. One of the piles was for things he could burn if he found a lighter, while the other was full of miscellaneous gadgets that he had somewhat vague knowledge about and he hoped would prove useful. So far it consisted of an emergency blanket he planned on making full use of once he was done, a busted radio, a first aid kit, more things he didn't exactly know the name of, and now a metal pipe that, if all else failed, he might be able to make sparks from to make his precious fire.

Rex had been digging through the items on the ship for over an hour, searching high and low with the wind outside as growing background noise, a task made longer due to the surplus nanites. Every few minutes, they would surge through his system with vigor to protrude from his body like some weird and foreign disease that some inexperienced doctor would have probably quarantined him for. The boy suspected the effects were only magnified by the cold, since machines always worked more efficiently in cold temperatures. This arctic weather was a nanite wonderland, if that were true.

"And now I have Winter Wonderland stuck in my head, as if I didn't have enough-" he gasped and clenched his jaw in pain as a wave of the nanites tried to leave his system accompanied by the familiar high pitched whining that the nanites made. They sounded more agitated, higher in pitch and volatile. The frequency of the attacks was growing as the sun and temperature dropped lower and lower, his earlier theory proven correct. He really had been pushing it by putting the nanite dump off this long, and now he was paying the price for it. At this rate, he was probably going to be a disfigured metal statue by the time he was found, if he ever was.

"At least I don't have to worry about freezing to death, the nanites will kill me first." Rex sighed, looking around at the dismal surroundings of the wrecked airship. He wasn't finished going through the cargo, but right now all he wanted to do was sleep, he was exhausted and the continued attacks by the nanites was not helping anything. With drooping eyes and a loud yawn, he decided to leave the rest of the scavenging for the morning and grabbed the space blanket and the metal pipe he had found before huddling into the corner by his pile of flammable things. He had managed to find a place within the airship that was slightly more shielded from the wind that leaked in through the hole in the hull and decided to make it his temporary "room" of sorts. He set aside a small portion of the pile of flammable things, knowing that he wouldn't want to burn through all his supplies on his first night since he didn't know how long he would be stuck out here, and set to work trying to actually make it burn. After a few tries, he was able to make his tired arms strike the rod against the metal wall hard enough to make sparks and send them skittering into his little pile. Rex blew gently on the hungry sparks, silently encouraging it to grow, and before long he had a decent sized fire that would hopefully keep hypothermia at bay for the time being.

With the comforting crackle of the fire and the wind howling outside, Rex let out another tired sigh before he curled up into a tight ball and tried to catch some sleep, though the process was interrupted when he had to fight off another wave of nanites.

"This is going to be a long night."

*pun is so intended there

Ugh, Six is a hard character for me. So complex...I imagine he would be more worried than anything when it comes to Rex, he does care yaknow. But at the same time, he isn't going to show that to anyone so he has to mask his feelings right?

Well what did you think? I guess it's a little short, but I already have some of the next bit kinda planned out so that's good. Of course, you could totally send in suggestions and stuff. I would be really appreciative of that if you had it, along with critique of course. I was so pleased that some of y'all noticed the imagery I used last chapter, I really stink at it most of the time so I'm really trying hard to get into that habit. Let me know if I go overboard with it or don't put enough.

Omg you guys are just absolutely awesome! I can't believe I got DOUBLE the reviews I asked for. Seriously, y'all are awesome.

Reply time!

Thanks to: YellowAngela, thereal13thfirewolf, fanaticagenrex, and alexina23

Spector vox: you broke me into three reviews, thank you! Glad I could hook your interest and hope to see more of you around!

Rainbow Colours: sadly it is not meant to be that Rex be found so soon, perhaps a bit later, but not yet! I'm glad I caught your attention, come back soon k?

All y'all are awesome!

Edit 12/4/16: Again, nothing major. Fixed some run-on sentences and typos.