Thanks for the reviews: Niobe's Pen, Anonymous, Lilly, Emma, DevissiTRHW, SqeeFreak, Phantomgirl96 and Peacexfreedom.
Okay, the next chapter I'm just finishing up the editing and will be posting it up within the next 3 hours, and then it's just the epilogue left.
Chapter 13
Five seconds ago Fell had turned off the life support monitor. Now feeling like she couldn't move fast enough, Holiday shoved him away and Six grabbed him, threw him against the wall.
"You, get out," Holiday snapped at Fell's assistant, her eyes alight with rage. The girl stared at her then scrambled to her feet and fled through the open door.
"Six, open this." Holiday tossed him a small plastic case. Then she turned back to the life support machine and tried to turn it back on.
"System failure," a voice said softly from beside her. It was a voice entirely void of emotion but unmistakably Rex's. She looked down at Rex, in time to see his lips move. "Reformat initiated—"
"Six!" She grabbed the case from him and broke it open in her rush, took the injection needle out from it and thrust it into Rex's chest, right over his heart. "Come on!" she started CPR.
The heart monitor kept up its whine until Six felt like he could slice it into pieces.
"Come on!" Holiday yelled, pressing her hands over Rex's heart and pushed. "Come on!" a dry sob entered her voice.
Six cast his eyes around the room desperately for anything that could help, saw the crash trolley in the corner, ran and grabbed it, pushed it over to Holiday.
"I can't!" she yelled at him. "His nanites won't allow that kind of resuscitation."
"Screw the nanites, save Rex," Six snapped.
"Then take off anything metal and put it well away," she growled, grabbing the crash equipment, put the gel onto Rex's chest, charged up the defibrillators and barely gave Six time to throw his katanas into the corner.
There was a flash within the room, Six couldn't see for a moment. Then pretty much every machine in the room was smoking and broken and somewhere in Providence an alarm was blaring.
Holiday threw the ruined equipment down onto the floor and continued CPR. "Take his pulse," she ordered Six.
He grabbed Rex's wrist, pressed his index and middle fingers to the skin and listened, waited, the most intense seconds of his life, trying not to let anything distract him.
There.
A throb. Another throb. Light as a butterfly's wings but it was there.
He actually sank to his knees. "He's got a pulse."
Holiday threw her arms around Six and hugged him tightly and started laughing, giddy, but pale with shock. Then a moment later her cheeks coloured and she stepped back, busied herself with pushing back a stray strand of her hair from her eyes and then pushing the broken machines away from Rex. "It's going to have to be up to him now," she commented, her voice barely steady. "Knight barely allowed me this equipment as it was."
"Does it matter what he allows right now?" Six's voice was neutral edged with cold.
"For now, Rex doesn't need it anyway. He's breathing on his own." A smile twitched at her lips and she looked at him, "He's actually doing better. He has a real chance."
From behind them, Fell laughed hollowly and got up, leaning heavily against the wall. "You fools. You sentimental fools."
Holiday turned, startled and guilty at herself for forgetting about him. "Haven't you done enough damage?" she said coldly.
"No." he pulled at the neck of his shirt like it was tightening. "I really haven't." he squeezed his eyes in pain. "Kill me, Agent Six. Kill me before I kill one of you."
"Don't you get it?" Holiday said angrily, rounding on him. "You're done, Fell."
"Oh I know I'm done, Doctor Holiday. I'm done as a human being." He fixed his eyes on her. "That is why you should kill me right now." Then his eyes, that pale colour, darkened, and the pupils began to bleed outwards, the irises bled out into the whites until his eyes were solid crimson. He fell forward onto all fours, his body crunching painfully.
"Kill me!" he screamed, his voice rising inhumanly into a screech that hurt the ears.
"Holiday, get Rex," Six snapped.
"But the equipment!" Holiday said.
"You said it, he can cope without it. He cannot cope with more internal injuries from Fell." Six ran to his thrown-down katanas and scooped them up, then stood before Fell, waiting tersely. "Go!"
Holiday pressed the communicator in her ear. "Knight, I need one of your soldiers here right now. Quit trying to kill Rex."
"Dr Holiday," Knight sounded only casually annoyed through the communicator. "Is Fell that incompetent?"
"Fell is turning EVO," Holiday replied coldly. "Now send us some freaking backup right now!"
"I'm afraid that won't be possible…Six incapacitated the majority of them with his stunt and sent plenty of the others to the secondary infirmary. You are on your own." Holiday groaned in desperation at that and fought the urge to hurl the communicator against the wall.
Fell's hands clenched and contorted, stretched and crunched. The head bowed, then crunched further forward, the jaw bulged, fangs curling up and out. The crimson eyes stretched out across the skull. The nose flattened into slits. The clothes tore as metallic spikes bulged out of his back like fur. It bulked out, its body lengthening until it towered over Six, its spikes scraping the ceiling.
All too soon it was done, the human Fell was gone.
EVO Fell gulped in its first wet gulp of air, and then looked down at Six. It growled, trying to stretch more, then bucked, tearing out a chunk of the ceiling, giving itself more space.
"Go," Six said softly to Holiday and bared his katanas, then charged the EVO. He'd already analysed the look of EVO Fell: it had metallic armour and worse, it was almost seamless. He remembered the last time he'd dealt with a metallic EVO, it'd had chinks for him to drive his katanas in, accidentally triggering something like an overload. The only good thing about this one was that it wasn't as huge….his katana blades rang off it, bouncing back and he had to be careful to keep from impaling himself on his own blades.
Holiday freed Rex from the covers and the wires. Carrying him by herself though? She may have been strong but not in the way that would permit her to carry a sixteen year old boy.
"Here," a girl whispered, edging into the room nervously. She grabbed Rex's feet. It was Fell's assistant. She hadn't run far enough. Holiday gratefully grabbed Rex under the shoulders and together they carried him from the room, leaving behind the sound of the clang of Six's katanas against the EVO's spikes.
"Why did you help me?" Holiday had to ask as they carried Rex towards the labs.
"Knight told me to," the girl said immediately.
"And let me guess, he told you to help Fell do a live dissection," Holiday said coolly.
"No. He told me to help do a dissection. We dissected EVOs in training."
They had to put him down so that Holiday could press the button to open the door. Nothing happened though. Holiday regarded it tiredly then grabbed the edges and pushed with a last burst of energy. "They didn't train you in ethics though, I guess," Holiday said, drawing a deep breath in order to keep going.
"No. They didn't."
"Get Providence to fund you in a degree on it then. If they say no, tell them you're gone."
"I'm only a trainee. Easily replaced."
"That's what we all start off as." Holiday fixed the girl with a glare. "First you think you'll have to do whatever you have to, to get to where you can make a difference. But you can't be good unless you believe in what you're doing. If you think Rex is purely EVO and not human, your beliefs are wrong. He is sometimes more human than the rest of us. Would you dissect a human?" She didn't wait for an answer, she just picked Rex up by his shoulders again and waited for the girl to pick up his feet. "And anyway," Holiday added. "They may have tonnes of trainees, but they don't have tonnes of geniuses."
The girl smiled faintly at that and they carried Rex into Holiday's lab, Holiday led the way over to the scanner.
"I'm gonna run another scan while we've still got some electricity left," Holiday said.
"What happened to the electricity?" the girl asked.
"Six. Probably when he escaped from Fell's trap. You saw how the door wouldn't open. We're down to emergency power by now. Luckily, the scanner is on the emergency grid as well as the main grid. And here's betting there's going to be more damage."
"From Fell?"
Holiday smiled coldly. "No. Have you ever heard how often Rex is told off for destroying cities while sorting out EVOs?"
"Yes. I've heard."
"He learned it from Six."
Rex opened his eyes: high above him was a corrugated metal ceiling. All around him were EVOs, and he saw out of the corner of his eye Holiday and Six fighting back-to-back, fending off the EVOs. He could see that their strength was flagging. As he watched, one of the EVOs got past Holiday's defences and slashed its claw down her arm, he saw her cry out, the blood sketching a thin line down her arm. He saw...
EVO. About to land on him.
Like a dream, Rex raised his palm, outstretching his fingers to meet the falling EVO, his nanites racing. Pain shot up his arm but the EVO was shrinking, then it was a raccoon bouncing off him.
Despite the overwhelmingly helplessness of the situation with at least twenty five EVOs left to disable, Six still snuck a proud look at him but then they were back in action. Holiday batted off an EVO's claw clumsily with the katana, clearly favouring her injured arm, then leapt and delivered a high kick to its shelled abdomen, knocking it back. Then as though sensing that Rex was awake, Holiday turned and gave him a small smile, the kind of smile that spoke volumes: we're going to die but damn, this was worth every second!
He smiled back at that and got up again, rejoining them in battle. His heart sang with adrenaline and terror but it was okay, if he was going down, he was going down with the two people in the world that meant…well, the world, to him. Six stood slightly in front of Holiday, shielding her and Rex stepped up beside him. "So," he said. Six nodded. "Yes."
Yep, that was their way of saying it: it was good knowing you.
Activating smackhands, Rex grabbed the nearest EVO and threw it bowling-style into the rest of the EVOs. It landed on its side, skidding, its claws gouging the concrete floor. EVOs leapt over it, seeing Rex as the worst threat and Six delivered a powerful slash of his katana. Holiday dodged a spiky EVO tail and then spun to sever it with the katana Six had given her. The EVO screamed, thrashing its tail stump. Rex rushed to Holiday's aid, leaping onto the EVO's back and pressing his hand against its skin, he whipped out the corrupted nanites. It thrashed as it shrank, throwing Rex into Holiday and his hand barely brushed her stomach. For a moment his nanites buzzed in magnetic reaction.
"Whoa," Rex whispered despite the battle. He saw Holiday in a new light.
She pulled him to his feet and he resisted the reaction to wipe his hand against his jacket to get rid of the static.
He looked at her though, his eyes narrowing, then he smiled faintly. He felt awash with understanding; he wasn't afraid.
He got up, slightly unsteady on his feet. Please, I need just a bit more from you, he asked his nanites and it was like they understood as a new burst of adrenaline temporarily wiped out his exhaustion. He was the powerhouse now. He activated smackhands and ran forward, he didn't attack the EVOs, he grabbed Six and Holiday and tossed them into the cage behind him, kicked the door shut to keep the EVOs off them.
"Rex!" Holiday shouted. "Are you insane?"
He gave her a look that was eerily mature. "I don't belong in this world," he said softly. "I want my world back." Then he turned and ran at the EVOs. He waded into them, barely felt each blow. His body moved against it all, his nanites made the builds and dropped them as needed. An EVO charged; he barely felt his body activate smackhands and send it flying. He activated his boogie pack and took off through the lines of EVOs, maybe it was rage, maybe it was urgency, most probably both, but he couldn't feel any pain, the EVOs bounced out of his path like he was a bowling ball and they were the skittles. The doors loomed ahead.
"Rex!" Six yelled, appalled. A small smile grew on Rex's lips. Either he would go through the door or he would die…fifty-fifty chance.
It hurt. This time he couldn't ignore the pain as he crashed through the solid concrete and felt the bite of steel. He landed in a heap in the corridor, his wings mangled and he shook them off and walked, his shoulders aching worst and a banging like a drum inside his head. Soldiers opened fire. He used smackhands and the bullets bounced off his metal. He grabbed one of the soldiers as the others fled.
"Where is Fell?" Rex growled.
The soldier took three attempts; Rex shook him like a rat on the second try until the soldier finally babbled, pointed and Rex dropped him, out of patience. He stormed up the corridor, up a flight of stairs, through another hallway and took the end door into a room that was like an observatory.
A bank of windows looked out over the area that Rex still knew as the Zoo, that he'd just escaped from, he could distantly see Holiday and Six still safe in the cage he'd locked them into, to keep the EVOs off them.
A dissection table stood in the centre of the room. Rex felt a shudder of revulsion move through him, a tiny spark of memory, made distant by the way he'd been drugged back then by Fell himself. Six had saved him back then.
This time I'm on my own.
"Where are you, Fell?" Rex asked softly, but went to the bank of computers.
There were graphs across a few of the screens, their levels fluctuating as he watched, but on one screen there was a report with his details on it: Subject has been confirmed as having suffered black-out. Through nanites? Requires tests.
He wandered away from that, tracing his fingers over the banks of equipment, letting the buzz of computer signals pass through his head. There was a door, it'd been used a moment ago. It wasn't like the other doors, it had a security lock. He pressed his hand to it and the door slid open to reveal a room with a cage in the centre, surrounded by machinery. He advanced on that cage, staring at the EVO within.
It was the EVO he'd fought on the day of the accident that had sent him here: the slug EVO, with its swollen peach-like body. The vile thing lay on the floor of the cage, wires inserted into almost every inch of it. It undulated every moment, maybe in pain.
"Fascinating, isn't it?" Fell's voice was acerbic as he stepped out from behind the cage.
"Why have you got this EVO?" Rex couldn't stop staring at it, feeling sick. "What are you doing to it?"
"Harvesting." Fell ran a hand almost lovingly over one of the canisters attached to the other ends of the wires. "This is the cure, EVO. The cure to you…parasites."
"Cure? It's a slug. What're you gonna do, set it on our lettuces?"
Fell smiled. "It secretes a nanite-specific paralytic solution. It paralyses the nanites, rendering an EVO harmless."
Rex's look changed as he stared at the EVO. "It paralysed my nanites…that thing? You…the stuff Holiday injected me, was from that thing?"
Fell nodded slightly, smiling coldly.
"You tested it on me…you injected me with its slime?" he felt sick, his mouth twisting as he stared at the slime travelling down the wires into the canisters surrounding the cage. "You paralysed my nanites…you put slime into my body? Ew! Ew ew ew ewww !" he felt like spitting on the floor, like he'd swallowed the slime rather than had it injected into him.
Fell smiled. "All for the greater cause. You were proof that it worked in liquid form. I've tested it in gas form and it was just as effective. Now there's only one test left to perform."
"I'm not your lab rat!" Rex snarled, and Fell laughed. "No. You aren't. Holiday and Six are. I needed to test it on human subjects…I was going to test it on a few of the guards otherwise but Holiday and Six…you have to admit, it's perfect."
"No!"
"Too late." He pointed at the windows. "As we speak, the gas is going through the vents. It should begin having effects on their nanites within minutes."
Rex stared at Fell in hatred then grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt, leaned in close.
Even under threat of death, Fell sneered at him. "Don't forget to save your precious Holiday and Six."
"Forget…" Rex's voice rose.
"Ah, have you forgotten the side effect of my pet's poison?" Fell smiled cruelly, even as Rex held him by the throat. "I know about your blackout, Rex. I caused it. Well, the poison caused it. Go, save your Holiday and Six…by the time you reach them, you'll be exposed too. Have fun trying to remember yourself. I'll pick up the pieces…a useful EVO, with no memory. Oh, the possibilities…"
Next part will be posted within the next 3 hours (just tidying it)