Chapter 7: 'City' is an understatement

Rex and Malix paced restlessly back and forth in the main room of the ship, expressions of worry spanning both of their faces. They stopped for a second, looked at each other, looked back down, shook their heads, and continued their pacing. They had finally made it to the planet's coordinates and were ready to fight their way to the DNA altering chamber, expected just a simple lab, similar to the type that he had encountered with Alicia, or a small settlement. When they teleported down, they didn't see a 'small settlement.' Small settlement is considered and understatement. It was HUGE! There were buildings and labs and houses and everything was all seemingly run by technology. There were flying cars and automated streets with moving sidewalks as well as containment areas and paths that led down into subways. And all of this was glimpse just from the front gate of the city.

No, not city.

'City' is an understatement.

Even Metropolis seemed like a bit of a weak word compared to this place.

But this wasn't the issue. Well, the MAIN issue. The main issue, is how they plan on getting to the location where they could turn Malix back into a Human, and getting out WITHOUT dying. That last bit was the hardest part of this task. Another notable piece of information is that the whole outer portion of the Metropolis was covered in guards with high-tier looking armor and guns that Rex would rather not get shot in the chest with. The two Florans were clearly underpowered in just about everything compared to the Apex; firepower, melee weapon, gear, this was looking more and more like an impossible task. Eventually the Florans stopped pacing in their tranced path on the ship and looked up at each other. There wasn't much else an option but to try, as horrible an idea that sounded. Rex felt that the rest of the planet would have already been stripped of ores and any other valuable materials that would give them any sort of advantage, as well as the fact that, due to his lack of focus, they had run out of fuel. So there was no going to different planets and gathering materials.

They nodded in a silent agreement and faced the teleporter, hearts beating at AT LEAST the speed of sound. Drawing their underpowered weapons, they walked into the teleporter, activating it, and shortly after being engulfed in the bright red light of the teleporter's beam.

• • •

The Metropolis always seemed to literally take the breath out of Rex's mouth and put it somewhere else where he didn't have access to it, every time he even so much as glanced at it. He fell backward on the grassy layer that cover the small mountaintop that the two had beamed down on, suffering from a literal loss of words. Malix ran over, thinking it was some serious issue, but ended up simply helping his overwhelmed friend to his feet, earning a meaningful 'thank you' in the process. The two faced the seemingly planet-sized City once again, this time scanning the surrounding area for an entrance that could be used tactically. Assuming that they would quickly be spotted from this type of approach, they began to trek around to the different gates of the Metropolis, trying to find one that would be easier to get through. Due to the fact that there were only four gates, the journey from one to another lasted hours, and eventually it became dark, cuing the unearthly screeches and growls that came along with it.

Suddenly, Rex realized this could be used to their advantage, as they had neared a gate, seeing that there was a very small light source that the guard could use to see. Very small. He pulled out one of the guns that belonged to the Apex that had attacked them, aiming it at the guard's head. Normally Rex wasn't all for this 'killing' thing, but sometimes it was just simply necessary, and the demon inside of him had a slightly bigger influence on his actions, so he wasn't expected to feel sorry for his target's death. The trigger was pulled and the shot was fired, followed by the once standing Apex guard to quickly tumble to the ground and lay there, motionless. Malix smiled at this success, and Rex ran over, dashing through the gate with his friend right behind him. They had no time to stand around and have a celebration for the small victory, as it was only a piece of a bigger whole.

Unfortunately, Rex stopped anyways, unable to help looking around at EVERYTHING that was going on around him. There were giant neon billboards and signs hanging from atop the silver buildings. The streets were crowded with Apex, all staring at him and his friend with concerned facial expressions, some bringing devices that looked like communicators to their mouths. This fact passed over Rex briefly, as he continued his scan of their current position. There was a small park with a fountain and a statue of a very odd-looking Apex figure in the middle of it. He noticed there were more of these small parks, varying in shape and size, scattered throughout the Metropolis. Rex's feelings of wonder and awe were all ruined when Malix grabbed him and ran, as they heard yelling and shouting behind him.

"There it is! FL-H14!" A burly voice said behind them somewhere.

"FL-H14? The only experiment to survive?" Another asked, curiously.

Rex could begin to see that the people talking were Apex in armor similar to the ones that guarded the gates, giving chase. However, unlike the Apex at the gates, these ones were equipped in melee weapons instead of guns, probably to lower the chance of accidentally brutally shooting a random city folk. There were a LOT of guards though, and this became a bit worrisome.

"Halt, intruders! I promise your death will be swift and painless." A guard shouted, rapidly gaining on them.

"I would rather not." Rex yelled back, which actually stopped the Apex in his tracks, as he picked up his communicator and spoke into it. Rex used his wolf ears to single out his voice, and find out what he was saying.

"This one can speak proper grammar… What do I do about him?" He asked his transportable communication device. After a small amount of time, he nodded. "Capture and contain, understood." He put the device away and continued to give chase.

"Losssst… Him…?" Malix asked, looking slightly back as Rex realized that he was still being dragged behind his Floran friend.

"Lossst him? I wouldn't say lossst…" Rex replied, still feeling iffy about the fact that the pursing Apex just stopped when he talked. He also noticed the longer 's' thing that he did.

Rex actually ran along with Malix at this point, running into a building that looked like it was a hotel. They looked around rapidly once inside, spotting something that looked like an elevator. The two pushed the button to call down the lift repeatedly, but the Apex guards were closing in behind them, so they were forced to take the stairs. The two Florans ran up the spiral staircase swiftly, as they barely passed by multiple doors that opened to reveal more Apex guards just at the last second, being able to narrowly avoid them. They were, despite being apes, bloody terrible at keeping up with Rex and Malix as they climbed the stairway upwards. Guess they're too evolved now. Upon coming to a door, Rex opened it and closed it behind them, ramming the door which caused it to fly down the stairs, taking any Apex it collided with, with it, effectively buying them some more time.

They had made it to the roof, but then they realized that there was no place for them to go now. Rex and Malix looked at each other, expressions of worry spanning their faces. They ran over to one of the edges of the room, looking over to see other buildings that actually didn't look that far from their current position. When the Apex finally made it through the door to the roof and hurriedly ran towards the two, this triggered Rex to grab Malix's arm, and jump off of the roof to the nearest building. Landing on another building rooftop, they took off running, Rex mostly dragging his very shaken-up friend who obviously didn't like the idea of jumping from one roof to another. Tough luck, Rex had no intention of being captured.

The Apex on the building they had just jumped from attempted to follow them. One jumped but fell between the gap between the buildings, and Rex did not want to see the end result of that attempt, assuming it would be a little messy. One of the other Apex guard successfully made it onto the building that the Florans were on, but landed belly-flop style with a splat, which looked just as painful as it sounded. The third Apex looked around worriedly, obviously not wanting to share the same fate as the first too. Rex knew he shouldn't do what he was going to do, but he walked over to the Apex that landed on the building anyways, to make sure that he was still breathing, which he was. Rex quickly placed a crafting table down and crafted a bed with some of the wood that he had. He used his matter manipulator to place the bed and used an axe to pick back up the crafting table, which popped into his bag. He then dragged the Apex into the bed that he placed on the building roof, and proceeded to grab Malix again and jump to the next building. He had the intention of killing or letting people die, despite the demon side of him willing otherwise.

This building was the shortest one, as there were no more to jump onto, so they were basically trapped, unless they wanted to try to jump to the ground from where they were, which would probably kill them. Malix started freaking out, thinking they were going to eventually get caught, as Apex guards were visible, jumping from the building that they had climbed. Just as the Apex were about to jump to the building that Rex and Malix were on, the Blue-haired Floran pulled out his matter manipulator, remembering the mass amount of dirt that he had no use for, and began to construct a bridge over the city folk that were far below them. He could tell that they were ALL looking up at them, staring. There was just one problem with this, the Matter Manipulator's path was fairly narrow, and Rex was afraid of heights. He DID, however, occasionally turn behind them to place a wall that separated them from the advancing guards.

He made a sort of stairway upwards, so that they could try to scope out the different labs from the air, until, that is, Rex ran out of dirt to use. He put the manipulator and started using his pickax to recollect some of the dirt, followed by putting that away, and dragging out the Matter Manipulator again to create a sort of platform. They would have to fight. As he finished, The two jumped onto the platform, weapons ready, as the Apex used their weapons to break through the last of the dirt blockades, approaching them. As the two sides neared each other, and each prepared for a battle, Rex felt something weird, something, familiar. This seemed like a bad time for that to happen, but it stopped him from raising his weapon. Malix was confused by this, and looked at Rex, who then signaled to put his weapon down. Reluctantly, still unsure why, he did so, and the Apex did the same. Then the guards surrounded them into an enclosed circle, lightning objects, that looked like tasers, in their hands. they then proceeded to use them to zap the two, knocking them both unconscience.

• • •

Rex woke up with a shock, which was probably the electricity still coursing through his body. He stood up slowly and looked around to see where he was. He found that that he was in a sort of jail cell, but a really nice looking one. It looked like they would but a kind or queen in here, which was kind of ironic, seeing how Rex was a prince. There were two luxurious-looking beds, a widescreen TV, a couch, and a sort of video game console in one side of the room, and a refrigerator and table on the other side. Malix had already awoken and was sitting on the couch with something that looked like a soda in one hand. He had a remote in the other, and was watching something called 'Apex News Now,' which wasn't a very creative title. He looked at the lines of text that slowly crawled by at the bottom of the screen, whilst Malix was looking at the female Apex that was talking, because he's a boy, and boys are weird. The sound was probably turned off so that Malix could just stare at her, which sorta freaked Rex out a bit, so he decided to say something in an attempt to break that trance. "Sorry about the whole weapon-lowering thing…" He stared.

"It'ssss… okay…" Malix replied, still staring at the screen. Rex's plan to stop him from doing so was a failure.

"I just had a feeling something familiar was here…"

Now Malix turned around. "Like…?"

"Like I should know someone or something here…" Rex looked around curiously for a bit, before climbing over the back of the couch to sit by Malix and watch the roll of text at the bottom slide by. The text read; 'Experiment FL-H14 finally captured along with Liberator, Three Apex guards were killed by the escapee and Liberator, City under mass panic from Floran invasion…' He stopped reading right there. They said 'city.' City was still an understatement.

Malix turned up the volume, so that they could hear the news reporter actually speak, thinking it would make up for the fact that he was just staring at the girl before. It didn't, of course, but now Rex's attention was drawn to her as well, but not for the same reasons as his Floran friend.

"Today marks the one-hundredth anniversary of this city, and what better way to celebrate than with the capture of the first experiment to survive the species-alter process!" She said, sounding as cheerful as possible. Worry tinted her voice, as if she believed that they would escape and come for her.

Rex and Malix looked at each other blankly, then back at the TV.

"There was also the capture of his partner, the blue-haired Floran, that has the surprising ability to speak proper grammar, making him a famous target to scientist all over the city."

Malix looked over at Rex, who was staring at the TV in anticipation for what she was going to say next.

"And now for the weather…"

Interest was lost.

Rex got up, walking over to the spot where he had first woken up, and sat down, bending his knees and wrapping his arms around them. He sat there for a minute, wondering what that familiar feeling was, and why he felt that if they got captured and brought here, he would be getting closer to the source of this feeling. He just now realized that his inventory was taken away from him, so he didn't have anything that could help them brake out, so he just sat there, trying as hard as he could to relax. This was an issue, and an annoying one at that, but Rex tried to endure it anyways.

Malix had turned off the TV, since the news reporter handed the baton off to a newsman. He had lost interest too, just not in the same way Rex had. He then plugged in the wires necessary for the video game machine to play, grabbed a controller, and sat back down on the couch, crossing his legs over each other. The screen was bright an colorful, characteristics that you would find in an 8-bit game. He searched through the available titles, coming to a halt and selecting one after a bit of scrolling. It was a game by a developer known as ReLogic, called Terraria. He relaxed a bit and began to play.

Ah, you have figured out a sense without my intervention.

A familiar voice said, snapping Rex to his feet, forcing him to look around the room. It's been a while since the disembodied voice had spoken to him, perhaps this was the familiar feeling he had? Then again, the voice could talk to him anywhere, why would it need to be just the prison cell? No, that didn't make any sense.

Perhaps, you should converse with your neighbors?

It hinted, and Rex could feel that the disembodied presence had left his head. He had no clue what the voice meant by neighbors. There was a giant expanse of silver wall separating cells that where next to each other, and the cell in front of theirs had no one in it. Or, at least, he hadn't seen any movement. He walked up to the bars of the cell sticking his head out. At one end of the room, he could see lockers that probably stashed the prisoner's gear, and the other end of the hall was too far for him to see. Then he heard movement, and not just the growls and grumbles from the game that Malix was playing, he heard shifting from the cell across from his. Rex's focus was entirely directed to that specific location, scanning the cell for anything moving.

After a bit, he noticed two figures in the beds, however features were something he couldn't make out, so there was no point in his attempt to look. Just then Malix called out; "Rex… play… too…?" He asked, holding another controller.

Rex declined this, smiling, but his attention was quickly dragged back to the cell across from them, as, movement could be heard. Seemingly, the announcement of Rex's name caused the figures in the beds to get up, revealing a Hylotl male and an Avian female. They both walked to the bars of their cell, staring at Rex, eyes widened and jaws dropped. He returned them the same look of disbelief. It then dawned on him why there was that feeling of familiarity following him around after he entered the Metropolis.

"Rex…?" The Avian asked.

"…I-Is that you?" The Hylotl added.

"Liax? Maria?" Rex replied, a smile forming on his face.

The two nodded, and grins seemed to have become contagious, as all three of them began to smile.

"How are you guys?"