I haven't forgotten the story, promise. This chapter just took ages to sort out! The next chapter should hopefully be ready VERY soon, especially with the weekend ahead to give me the time needed. I'm also having to fight the urge to start work on the next story I have planned, as that has to wait until Don't Look Back's finished. For now the 3rd GenRex story has a planning title of Past Saving, and has been great to plan out.
Thanks for the reviews: Peacexfreedom, Phantomgirl96, Honest, Lilly, xangabell, xxXDanniXxx, and Emma.
Asleep
Chapter 12
Rex knelt at the edge of the flat roof of one of the taller buildings, watching the scene below intently: a Providence truck, scruffy and dented, was parked at an angle in the road and twelve soldiers ranged around it restlessly, rendered anonymous by their uniforms. Hunter Cain, the EVO hating hunter and apparently working for Fell in this reality, snarled orders at them. "Fan out. Find the EVO scum. You can shoot it in the arms or legs or else in non-vital spots. Fell still wants it alive to cut into pieces. You and you, with me."
Obediently the soldiers spread out to search, testing all the doors of nearby buildings to eliminate them as hiding places, kicking over the larger trash cans and shining torches inside them.
As if I'd hide inside a trash can? Rex thought insulted and turned his attention back to the truck. He couldn't see enough of its dark interior from here so he activated Boogie Pack and dropped down, not caring about being seen—though he did care about being shot.
He tackled Hunter straight off, kicking him in the chest and grabbing the barrel of his rifle, jerking it up, the muscles in his arms straining. Hunter's breath stank of beer and meat as he panted heavily, pushing back against Rex, slowly forcing the rifle back down, Rex gave one last burst of energy to shove the rifle against the truck wall, giving him time for one glance inside it then he de-activated the Boogie Pack and activated his Ride, speeding away from the soldiers.
"Get him!" Hunter roared. Two of the soldiers grabbed what seemed to be motorcycles from the back of the truck, and within moments were pursuing Rex down the roads, rounding the corners and catching up way too quickly.
Rex drove straight through one of the chain link fences that divided an alleyway from the street, de-activated the Ride as he leapt, landed heavily, activating Smackhands on his left arm only, and clawed the manhole cover up along with a chunk of surrounding concrete and jumped down into the sewer, landing with a splash.
"Down there, sir!" one of the soldiers shouted, pointing his blaster down the hole.
Hunter's face loomed in the hole, staring down at the tunnel just as Rex disappeared around a corner.
"Don't come back until you have him," Hunter snapped, and six of the soldiers hurried to start climbing down the ladder, and splashed after Rex.
Rex wasted no time, running, following the tunnel to the next junction of four tunnels, took the East tunnel, followed it for seven metres to another junction of three tunnels and took the South tunnel, following it until he found a rusted ladder affixed to the wall. He grabbed the rungs and climbed, pushed at the manhole cover. First it didn't budge. He activated Smackhands and pushed the manhole cover up as quietly as he could.
This road, Edgar Road was pretty much around the corner from the truck. He jammed the manhole cover back into place and cast his eyes over the locked up shops. There was the burger joint where he sometimes snuck out to play arcade games and have a decent cheeseburger.
His stomach rumbled miserably. His nanites were probably starving too. "Sorry guys," he told them sadly. "I don't have time to break in, fire up the grill and do a burger and fries." He decided he'd better limit what he did nanite-wise before he fell down exhausted. He'd been lucky to get away with this many builds in one night since the time he drank ten bottles of mountain dew on a bet from Bobo…
Wait a second…maybe there was something worth breaking into a burger shop for…he ran to it, activated one Smackhand and forced the metal shutters up, then kicked open the door and ran to the drinks fridge. He grabbed an armful of fizzy drinks, cracked open the first and drank. Energy immediately flooded his limbs, so fast that he was nearly dizzy. It wasn't as good as having something to eat but it was pretty close.
He trotted back to the street where the truck was parked at a crazy angle on the road. Hunter Cain wasn't in sight, that was good. There were three soldiers though standing guard by the truck. Rex crept closer, staying in the shadows, until he could see more of the truck. There was the satnav affixed to the truck dashboard. That'll have the location of Providence Base in it, Rex knew.
Now to get rid of the guards and nick the truck, he told himself with a small smile.
He watched them for a little while, in their uniforms there was nothing distinguishing about any of them so he labelled them #1, #2 and #3. #1 kept his walkie-talkie in the truck, what a moron. #2 held his in his hand all the while, and kept looking around. A bit jittery, eh? And #3 had his walkie-talkie clipped to his belt.
"Nothing to report, sir," #1 said, sitting at the wheel.
Rex activated his BFS and charged #3, slashed the walkie-talkie from his belt and with a skilled flick sent it smashing into the side of the truck, then whirled and punched #2, grabbed the walkie-talkie from his hand and threw it down on the ground and stamped on it. Then he ran at #1 who was hurriedly shoving the key into the truck ignition.
"Hey, thanks for that," Rex exclaimed, climbing in the passenger seat then kneeling on one knee, used his other leg to kick him out of the other side. The soldier rolled as he hit the ground.
Rex scrambled into the drivers seat, the fallen walkie-talkie crackling. "Johnson, what's going on?" a crackly Hunter Cain demanded from it.
Rex picked it up. "You just lost your truck," he said, then threw the walkie-talkie out of the truck. He jammed his foot down on the accelerator and drove, his hand on the steering wheel, his other hand on the sat-nav. He pulled up the last recent directions, found the most common one and selected it.
Above from the sky, mechanical blades chopped: a helicopter. The shadow soon cast itself over the truck as Rex sped out of the city, down increasingly bumpy roads. The map beeped as it came up, and Rex drove faster. Hold on, Six, Holiday, he thought, a grin growing on his face as he steered the truck out of the city, over increasingly rough and parched terrain under a velvet night sky.
Above, the helicopter pulled forward to hang over the truck, Hunter Cain stood in its doorway, one hand hanging onto the frame, the gun in his free hand. He screamed something abusive at Rex but the helicopter thankfully drowned out his voice. Headlights splashed over the truck from behind, a pair of motorcycles had joined the chase, Providence soldiers on them.
"Open fire!" Hunter screamed, and the truck began to shake with the force of bullets and blaster fire.
"Oh fine," Rex grumbled. "Sheesh, just because I don't have a driving license…" he yanked the satnav free, and powered it with his nanites, opened the driver door and kicked it out, then dove out, activated boogie pack and flew up in a slanted direction as the soldiers continued shooting the truck. The truck slowed to a halt but it was still a while before they stopped shooting. Rex's ears were numb long before, but he continued on his way, following the satnav in his hand.
It was a pity, he'd really wanted to drive the truck through one of Providence's buildings the way it was done in the movies. Oh well. He flew faster than the truck drove anyway.
Ahead finally a lone building rose into view, surrounded by a sea of vehicles and a line of barbed wire fence. He flew over it and landed gently on the ground amongst the parked trucks.
He strode towards the building, to the nearest door. He pressed his hand to the retina scanner and put his nanites to work on it. "Honey, I'm home," Rex called mockingly as the door opened. He stepped inside and the door snapped shut behind him.
Immediately a guard rounded a corner and began firing. A speaker above crackled to life. "Rex, I've been expecting you." It was Fell of course.
"That's cool, I've been expecting you all too," Rex replied and gave the nearest security camera a careless salute. Then he activated smackhands and tore the camera from the wall.
The guard tossed a canister of smoke gas into the corridor, it rolled to a halt by Rex's feet and began spewing out smoke that quickly filled the air until he couldn't see.
Rex quickly activated his boogie pack, the corridor so small that his wings were painfully pressed against each wall, but he just needed the turbine engines to whip away the smoke.
"I don't have time for this," Rex told the guard and activated his Ride, took off down the corridor. He punched the guard out cold as he sped past. This Providence was a bit less tech-y than the Providence he'd grown up in. There were metal doors, not sliding doors, and they had locks, not retinal or fingerprint scanners.
The floors were also less white…actually they were just that cheap kind of granite, like the janitor's basement at school. He caught glimpses of pretty sparse labs. Wow, Holiday worked in these kinds of labs before I came along? Just wow.
He followed the corridor towards where he knew Holiday's lab would have been, and particularly the Petting Zoo. He knew from what Six had once told him, that that was where they'd used to keep the captured EVOs in cages, and the molecular dissection chamber. A shiver went up his spine as he approached the pair of doors. He deactivated the Ride in front of it, reached and pushed the doors open.
The room that would have one day been the Petting Zoo was full of cages, and in those cages EVOs paced restlessly, gnawed at the bars or slept, twitching as they dreamed of freedom.
In one cage though, it wasn't an EVO. Holiday lay unconscious in it.
"Holiday!" Rex ran to her and activated smackhands to try and break the lock. It refused to break, he deactivated smackhands and activated BFS, slashed at the lock, but the sword blade bounced off it, nearly smacking him in the face.
Then the door slammed shut. Rex jumped and spun around, then ran at the door, tried jamming the sword tip into the door to pry it open: no joy.
The speaker crackled as Fell laughed. "Have fun, Rex."
A siren began to blare, red light washing over the walls and all the cage doors swung open. "Ah," Rex murmured.
The EVOs emerged from their cages, their eyes fixed on him hungrily. He remembered the first EVO to charge him looked like a cross between a scorpion and a tiger. He remembered throwing it with smackhands, then what looked like a cross between a rhino and a chameleon charging him from behind, then another EVO that felt like a gorilla, wrapping its arms around him and squeezing until smackhands collapsed in pieces. Then it threw him, he rolled across the ground.
A more familiar figure stumbled free from one of the cages and ran to Rex, knelt by him and touched his face anxiously. "Rex?" Holiday's face was contorted in horror. "Oh god Rex, you shouldn't have come here! Where's Six?"
"He should be here by now," Rex mumbled as her face swam into focus before him.
The EVO that looked like a cross between a rhinoceros and a chameleon bellowed and charged them.
"Rex!" Holiday screamed.
The roof exploded and a lone figure dropped down between them and the EVO, landing with finite grace, katanas extended, he slashed, his face contorted in fury, leapt onto the EVO's huge muzzle and blinded it with the tip of one katana, and let loose a powerful kick, sending it veering into another wall where it stumbled and lay, disoriented. Another EVO squealed in rage at the sight of its downed fellow mutant, and leapt at Six, and another was charging him too, and another… Six was already cornered…
"Please, no," Rex found himself whispering. In his world, he had a chance of curing these EVOs. He had the choice to. Six would never have had to be so savage. Holiday would never be in this kind of danger…he leaned against the wall, his right leg hurting and shaking. He waited then he lunged forward, stretched out his arm and grabbed the nearest EVO, felt his nanites kick in with frightening speed, it'd never taken so much energy from him…he gritted his teeth, willing himself to hold on as the EVO shrank to a confused dog that yipped in terror, turned and ran for the closed doors.
Rex stumbled to grab another EVO.
Inside him the nanites buzzed, struggling…
Another downed EVO…
His vision began blurring.
Six dispatched two more EVOs, more surged forward to take their place. He grabbed Holiday's arm and pointed at the abandoned cages. "Hide," he snapped.
She gave him a small look of refusal. "I'm not going to die hiding," she whispered, and slid her hand over his palm.
He placed one katana into her grip, closing her fingers over its hilt. "Survive for us," he said.
On the sixth cured EVO, Rex hit the floor out cold. Six and Holiday moved in to protect him together, fending off the EVOs as best they could. There were still at least thirty EVOs left…
Back in the real world
0.17 minutes left
Rex opened his eyes, his heart beating heavily in his chest. He was lying in a bed, a hospital bed. His confused eyes swept over the infirmary walls. Holiday was by the door, her back to him. Her hand rested on the door controls, particularly the button that would seal the room, the siege mechanism.
We're in trouble here too, he realised. I must be…unconscious in the other place. He was partly glad to be in his own world, the one where Providence actually let him cure EVOs, and didn't pit him against them or try to dissect him…
0.16
Finally Holiday pressed the button and the room light shut off, an emergency light, a soft, eerie red glow, shone down the wall over Rex's head.
"Hurry Six," Holiday whispered, turning to go sit back down, then froze as she saw Rex's eyes were open. "Rex?"
0.15
"I'll wake up soon," he said urgently. "I promise. I've just got to save you and Six." Then he closed his eyes and slumped back.
Holiday stared at him for a moment. He was back in that accursed coma, but he'd promised, he'd promised! He'd wake up soon… she pressed her earpiece. "Six?" she said shakily. "Any progress?"
0.14
"I'll let you know," Six's brusque voice was a comfort though the moment after, knowing that that was all the conversation she was allowed to have from him, was maddening.
Alone in the siege-locked room, Holiday took out her laptop from under Rex's bed and booted it up. She kept programs in it that would drive White Knight berserk if he found out, programs to hack into all the security cameras, programs to bypass any filters on websites and much more. She began checking Rex's nanites, using a remote link from the laptop to her main computer.
0.13
Remotely accessing her own computer, she immediately found the crude link from her own programs to what she knew must be Fell's computer. "Oh you want to play that game, do you?" she whispered, her eyes narrowing.
She rapidly set a string of commands into the link, drew up a few files from her own archives and changed her program to monitor Rex's nanites. "Enjoy," she said softly, a cold and wicked glint in her eyes.
0.12
She resumed work on bringing up all security camera feeds in the corridors around the room, just in time to see Fell striding down the corridor towards this room, flanked by a few guards. He stopped before the door and pressed the button to open it, but the siege status she'd enabled kept it locked.
0.11
She saw his face scowl on the security camera, then he stepped back and the soldiers began working on disabling the siege lock, taking out a blowtorch. The noise drowned the silence, the hiss of the blue flame against the doorframe. Siege status wouldn't mean a thing against that…
She was trapped though. She couldn't leave Rex, and she couldn't take him off the machines. She needed him to wake up soon. She needed Six to make the soldiers think twice about entering the room. "Okay, stop thinking about what you need everyone else to do," she scolded herself and went to the medical cabinet.
0.10
Emergency supplies were in there. Luckily no one had thought to revoke her security status over things as small as lab cabinets, so the door clicked open on it. She rifled through the medicines in it, stopping as she found a case of adrenaline. She took it out. It wasn't the best idea, it was risky. If Rex's heartbeat was unstable, adrenaline would make it even more so. However, if it came to it, she would use it.
0.09
She drew a steadying breath and sat back down in her chair, picked her laptop again. She flipped through more cameras throughout the base and stopped on the one that showed Six standing in one of the labs.
0.08
"Hurry," she whispered again though he couldn't hear her as he stood, facing the siege-locked door that Fell had activated to keep him from escaping.
0.07
Six had level 1 clearance across the whole base; even Captain Callan couldn't beat that. He lifted his sunglasses slightly for the retina scanner, and his eyebrow raised when the words access denied flashed up on the screen in red. He turned and strode to the security camera.
0.06
"Knight," he shouted. "I know you can see this, I know you've revoked my clearance. Why? Are you so hellbent on ensuring Rex's death that you can't see that we need him alive? Fell is mad! You are mad if you assist him!"
0.05
Silence. Not that he'd expected anything. At least it was said though.
"Oh yes," Six's voice dropped to conversational standards. "You do remember how I promised never to use my katanas as a tuning fork inside Providence ever again? I lied."
He clanged his swords together, his brow knitting as he focused the magnetic energy at the metal door, then as it reached its peak, he yanked and half the door ripped out, along with a third of the wall.
0.04
He resisted the urge to turn and put his middle finger up at the security camera as he stepped over the rubble and twisted metal. He pressed his earpiece instead. "Holiday?" he demanded. "I'm on my way."
0.03
"Six, glad to hear it," the relief in her voice was tangible. "They're trying to break down the door though…" her voice rose a pitch and in the distance he heard a heavy crash.
0.02
He ran, his katanas folded up and back up his sleeves: he wasn't willing to use deadly force yet, and launched a high kick at the first soldier, then punched the next, and another, hooked his foot around another's knee and yanked, whipping them into a wall, thrust a palm into one soldier's chest with enough force to break a rib or two…
0.01
Fell advanced on Holiday. "It had to come to this," he said sadly. She stood up, her laptop hidden under the bed. "I'm not letting you kill Rex," she informed him, her eyes narrow with anger.
"My dear, he is already past saving," he said, attempting to be gentle. He pointed at the monitor of Rex's heartbeat. It was slowing down.
Fell's assistant lunged at Holiday, a needle of sedative in her hand. Holiday caught the movement and twisted, caught the young woman's arm and pushed her against the wall as Fell reached forward and switched off the life support.