It seemed as if the blast had reverberated in the air before the detonation itself had even occurred, the violent shock waves echoing in the atmosphere and within the chambers of any enclosed space within the nearby vicinity. But for some reason unbeknownst to the Providence Agents, the vehicle's framework had actually emitted a sensational hum that kept growing with intensity prior to the explosion's occurrence.
The surviving Jet, shaken up by the violent eruption, suddenly fell into a steep decline that interrupted the remaining members from whatever task they were previously doing, instead forcing them to focus on the terrible sensation that wracked both their bodies and their minds. Noah, Annie, and Claire shared the collective fear that they found themselves in yet another crashing vehicle—which, ironically enough, was the reason they chose not to ride alongside Rex in the first place after previous instances in which their rides had either fallen into the sea or crash landed into the ground. Never mind the fact that Annie had directly been responsible for both incidents…
However, it didn't take the entire group long to come to the realization that it was instead their companions who had suffered such a grim fate, with the bright light they were passing as the only indicator necessary to know that disaster had struck. But just as the smoke had begun to dissipate from the explosion, a figure emerged in addition to all of the rubble flying outwards in its wake with several others clinging onto to it. The figure, of course, was none other than Rex who flew from out the ashes of the group's former vessel with everyone else safely secured within his embrace.
And though he wasn't provided with much time to react to the situation, Beverly's warning was more than enough indication for him to preemptively summon his machines. In less than a second's worth of time he constructed a syncretized build that was comprised of both his «Block Party» and «Blast Caster», with the whip having retrieved the two passengers from the front while the gauntlet in his dominant hand created an energized forcefield that managed to protect the group in its entirety—despite inexplicably being disintegrated by the explosion.
However, the task of protecting his allies did not end there for Rex who recalled his «Block Party» in exchange for a second whip, which was an unprecedented move on his part but one he would use to an equal degree of effectiveness nonetheless. He swung the secondary tendril towards the still intact Jet, the whip careening through air until the very tip had latched on to the rung at the back the vehicle. The group was suspended in midair, trailing dozens of meters behind the vehicle while the bitter wind ferociously whipped at their bodies at full speed.
"Outta the pond and into th' frying pan! And here I was thinking that we'd be able to catch a dang break in a world without EVOs!" Bobo growled out while clinging on to his fez and Rex for dear life. "You don't think that whoever's behind this is another one of those paranoid nutcases dead set on hunting down EVOS, do ya chief?" He shouted over the wind.
Kenwyn began to squirm around in her place as she interjected in the conversation. "Seeing as how we haven't gone a two weeks without some mad scientist or guerrilla trying to hunt the two of you down, that wouldn't come as much of a surprise!"
Rex uttered a quick tsk before turning his eyes up to his partners. "Maybe, but these guys are either real brave or real stupid to hunt me down with Providence by my side, even if they are misguided enough to think that Bobo is still an EVO." He yelled back. "What do you say you we go down there and ask them what they're after?" Bobo took on a sinister grin in response, just as Rex had anticipated.
"Okay, but first we've got to get inside the Jet and let the other know we're alright!" Kenwyn stated as they looked back towards the Jet.
Rex nodded in response. "But right now I'm kind of limited in what I can do without dropping you guys." Understanding that Rex was unable to provide any further assistance, Kenwyn continued to thrash around her body until she was finally able to free one of her arms from the bind that kept them together, and then brought her hand to the communicator nested in her ear.
"Skwydd, Beverly, can you two read me? We need you guys to open the gate, and fast!"
Skwydd's eyes widened in response as he heard his commander's voice, words unable to express his gratitude as he quickly processed that she and the rest of the group were still alive. "O-Oh, right! We hear you loud and clear, Kenwyn!" He valiantly responded. "Beverly, go get that gate gets open while I try to get us to a safe position!" Skwydd then commanded as he stabilized the Jet and began navigating further from the ground.
Upon hearing the voice of both her commander and her co-pilot, Beverly finally broke free from the shock that was brought about by the scene and diverted all of her attention to helping Rex and the others steer away from any more danger. She scanned through the console before her until she finally found the button that opened the back hatch. The exit slowly forced open, but then began to stutter before halting less than halfway through.
"The hatch isn't opening!" Cricket pointed out.
"Yes, I can see that! Let me think!" Beverly worryingly responded. "These Jump Jets aren't fitted with any sort of hydraulics systems, and I doubt it's any other type of mechanical error since the gate didn't show any problems when we first took off." She thought aloud, muttering to herself at a pace that not even Caesar could keep up with whenever he rambled during his scientific pursuits.
"So it must be a software error. But whenever Caesar and I did a second pass on this fleet, the software update he programmed ended up resolving all technical errors bar anything involving the communication systems, so what's the big deal?" She griped when suddenly, the solution dawned upon her. "That's how they've been doing it, the communication channel!" She frantically spoke through the communication line. "Guys, as much as I hate leaving you outside in the dark, we're going to have to temporarily kill the communication frequency in order bypass whatever is interfering with this Jet's systems!"
Beverly didn't receive the clearest of responses provided the interference of the rushing winds in conjunction with the broken transmission, but she pieced together "We trust you" and "Do what you have to" somewhere within the mix. Beverley glanced all over the ship seeking for the terminal that the communications system was linked up to, and traced the wiring that extended from the Jet's console all the way back to the Jet's main deck.
The terminal was hidden behind a panel that seemed securely welded behind the wall, and under normal circumstances it would have taken professional tools to disassemble that particular section. But fortunately enough, Annie had been sitting right in front of said panel, and if Beverly was familiar enough with her friends as she thought she was then she also knew that Annie's presence there would make the task of removing it so much easier.
"Annie! I know this is sudden of me to ask, but I need you to pry open the panel behind you! Everyone's lives depends on it!" Annie was caught off guard by the request and by all of the madness that was unfolding around her without any explanation, but in spite of this she gave a quick nod of understanding and then effortlessly pried off the professionally attached section of the wall.
"Oops. Did you want for all of that to come off?" Annie asked with a sheepish smile. Beverly gave a thumbs up to her friend, as she then turned her head to look at Skwydd and Cricket. She opened her mouth as if to speak, hesitated for a moment, and then began once more with a noticeably unsure look on her face.
"So umm, Tuck, Cricket? Now I'm not trying to be insensitive or anything, having read up on you guy's criminal past and all…But uh, by any chance would either of you know how to work with, cough, wires?" She stammered at a near whisper by the end, feeling flushed in the face under the impression that she may have accidentally offend any of her friends.
But to her surprise, the trio simply snorted to themselves as Tuck then hopped out of his seat. "Please, I've hot-wired more cars than I know how to count! Which isn't very high, now that I think about it…but still!" Tuck gleefully responded, seemingly comfortable with both his less reputable abilities and his lack of an education after having turned into an EVO. He crouched before the exposed terminal as Annie slid out of the way. "Alright, now what do you need me to do?"
Beverley moved passed her embarrassment and proceeded to act as usual. "Think of it like jump-starting a car, except that in order to kill the sub-system without suffering a complete blackout, I need you to redirect all of the power from that circuit to the Jet's primary battery. Can you manage that?" Tuck thought it over for a moment; evaluated his abilities, tested his confidence, and accepted his responsibility for the consequences that would follow should he fail to do the task correctly.
Tuck shrugged. "…Yeah, I think I can manage that." He replied as he began to tinker with the wiring. Beverly grinned as her plan began to fall into place, and once Tuck announced that he was nearly complete mere seconds later, the frequency instantaneously shut down while an electric buzz passed through the system. The Jet turned dark temporarily, but as the lights and controls were restored, the hatch began opening once more. A sigh of relief came from the chests of all the members inside and outside of the Jet, or at least, all members save for Circe who seemed to have the wind knocked out of her.
The group inside the Jet held on to any support they could grasp while Rex closed his eyes and began to focus on his machines. From the base of the whip, a whirring noise resounded as the whip began to spiral and retract into Rex's arm, pulling himself and the group straight into the hull at an incredible velocity. Without any method of slowing himself down, the whip released from the back and the group crashed into the Jet, the sturdy and jagged-edged machinery serving as a cushion to the blow.
Beverly hastily closed the hatch once more, and with Rex's remaining tendril finally deconstructing itself, the Jet's main passengers began to assist their friends off the ground. Noah extended his hand to Rex, Annie and Claire went to Kenwyn, Cricket crouched before Circe, and Tuck reluctantly helped Bobo up, each and every one of the new arrivals embraced in a comforting manner while also bombarded with questions as to what happened to them and how they were currently feeling.
"Truth be told, I think I might've really gone deaf." Bobo complained to no one in particular with Tuck having already wandered over to Cricket once she called him over. Rex let out yet another sigh of relief to himself knowing that Bobo and the rest of his friends were secure for the time being; or at least that was the case until he finally took notice of Circe as well, who was acting unresponsive to Cricket's and Tuck's attempts at gathering her attention.
Rex broke away from Noah and called out Circe's name in alarm, rushing over to her position on the ground so that he could hold her within his own arms. Tuck and Cricket backed away and exchanged concerned looks at one another as Rex began to gently shake Circe at the spot, sporting a reassuring smile that was betrayed only by his concern-ridden eyes and his faltering voice. "Come on Circe, don't you think you're overplaying it a bit? I know that wasn't the smoothest landing, but I got us out of there, didn't I? Please, you've got to say something, anything…"
Circe remained unresponsive. Whatever positivity that remained on Rex's face was quickly dropped as Cricket's hand was placed on Rex's shoulder. She had apparently been trying to get Rex's attention, but was completely being tuned out until she made physical contact with his body and forced him to look her direction.
"…Rex, it's alright! Circe still has a pulse, it'll be alright!"
Claire walked over and dropped down next to Rex. "Chances are it's a minor diaphragm spasm, which probably happened whenever you grabbed her with your machine." She winced as she saw Rex's brows furrow together, prompting her to reassure Rex even further. "She'll be fine in a minute or two, nothing to be worried about. This isn't your fault, Rex." Still, he looked unconvinced and harbored an apathetic expression on his face, carefully brushing aside a strand of hair that was on Circe's face before tenderly passing her over to Cricket.
He stood up on one knee before trudging along to the back of the Jet, everybody clearing out of the way of the distraught EVO. He stopped right before the exit hatch and stared at it blankly for a few seconds as if eyeing down a long-time enemy of his, but in reality, he was simply looking deep in his own reflection as he began rationalizing the next series of events.
Rex placed his hand on the wall of the Jet, and before anyone could protest against the actions he were about to take, his Nanites began to circulate freely from his body and into the Jet, programmed with the sole instructions to 'open'. Once more everyone else inside the Jet held on to some sort of support, with Tuck and Cricket both securing Circe as the hatch became fully exposed.
Noah's eyes widened in horror as he began pleading in order to appeal to Rex's sense of rationality, or whatever was left of it, at the very least. "Rex, are you out of your mind!? You don't know what the heck is waiting for you down there, and in the state you're in, your machines are just going to fall apart before you can even throw a single punch!" Noah cried out, recalling how Rex was unable to summon his machines because of his emotional turmoil—and to protect them both from Beverly, no less. "By the time we reach you, the fight may already be over and we don't know who the winner will be!"
As Noah finished his last ditch effort of keeping Rex in line, Rex looked back at all of his friends with an entirely different countenance then they had expected. He looked back at them with a face that was suddenly devoid of all anger, concern, fear, and even mischief; and in its place there was the representation of what could only be described as a hero. A hero resolute on completing his task no matter the risk; a hero determined to protect his allies no matter the opposition; a hero who would not allow his emotions to get the better of him. Not any longer.
His eyes shone with a flaring passion, which he had covered up with his signature goggles in one smooth movement. His smile, however, still remained visible and bore just as much confidence whenever he mouthed out the words 'Thrill me', as he then jumped out the Jet with a salute.
AUTHOR'S NOTE, and warning, it's a long one:
And so marks the end of another chapter! The hesitancy I get halfway through writing one of these things is unremarkable, but thankfully I trudged through it and finally completed this! A week after intended, granted, but that's still progress!
Also, I really hope that there's any semblance of excitement written within these first few chapters. It's incredibly difficult finding a common ground between writing something engaging and establishing narrative for a really badass moment later on; but don't worry, after the next chapter we will be delving into a political revolution, and while I can't say much on that now, the stakes will be incredible!
But before I get into comment responses, I would like to thank all of you who are reading this series, and I promise it will only get better from here! I have big plans for this project, and there isn't going to be a single facet of this world that will go unexplored.
On that note, though, I would like to take the opportunity to ask all of you what your favorite character, scene, episode, or aspect of the series was, whether you're reading this message on chapter 2 or chapter 20. My writing of this fiction all originated from my adoration of one episode and the many possibilities it opened up, so it would be really interesting to see what you guys liked about the series so that I can try incorporating as much as that as I can into the writing as well! After all, this series if by the fans, for us fans!
Guest: Would you believe me if I told you that I already planned for that? Because I didn't. I had no explanation for Bobo still being the way he was without being an EVO. The continuity of my writing is bound to have more holes than Swiss cheese, but now I've thought of a pretty grim explanation to cover this one up, so thanks for bringing it up!
YellowAngela: It's always reassuring to hear words from you, seeing as how you're the reason I got into writing in the first place! Yeah, there wasn't really much reason for me to abandon the previous story and go 'New 52' on it other than me being flat-out weird, but thankfully you've been keeping up on my shenanigans regardless! I promise, I'm sticking with this series for good!
P.S: I made some minor revisions to the first chapter. Nothing that changes the story or is worth rereading over, but some minor alterations that make the words flow a little bitter.