Scrapped Draft / White King
Summary: (Scrapped EVO!White) Suit compromised / The artificial female voice intoned, calm in the midst of chaos. He felt a chill run down his back as he tiptoed around the EVO, slow steps to not catch its attention. Sweat rolled down Rex's face. Wasn't it suit integrity compromised? Or was he mistaken? / Nanite breach detected.
Verse: Canon, except also I forgot the monkey again. how does this happen. (this is set sometime after Divide by Six)
Ships: None
Characters: Rex, Six, White Knight, Holiday
Warnings: Blood, gore
A/N: Completely jettisoned this fic after deciding the AU from Black and White is better. Final one's going to be titled Checkmate.
Also Six in Negative Six should have lost his arm after a Breach portal misfire/Biowulf claw slash, me stressing over that is actually the main reason the next part isn't finished yet haha
I'd like to do an Overwatch AU except... Genji and Reinhardt are actually too similar to Six and Knight. Oops. I guess Knight can hang out in the command center and have an omnic double while Six is...still just Genji, I guess.
YellowAngela: thanks! I'm always a sucker for monsters
Guest 1: ah man, where are the EVO fics. I'm actually having a lot of trouble finding them orz (I did find the jungle salamander Holiday one though)
Guest 2: sorry if it wasn't made more clear (past midnight writing with no editing amiright pfpfpfpfpfppf), but Six's arm was lopped off by the little mole thing, not the EVO transformation. although sudden rotting to achieve a 'higher' form is a pretty neat idea, hmm,
EDIT: apologies for the confusion, this is not only unfinished (missing scenes like Holiday becoming director, Six's mission and the entire second half) but it's also not going to be completely anytime soon. totally up for grabs though
"The snake EVO -"
"Snake?" Rex cut off Knight's explanation with his disbelief, eyes narrowed at the screen in front of him. Sure, the EVO had scale-like markings and was limbless, but that was where the similarities ended, "That's totally a worm."
"As I was saying," he glared at Rex, neutral expression replaced with faint irritation, "The snake EVO has been terrorizing the Providence soldiers patrolling Bellwood. While it hasn't properly entered city grounds, the proximity to both headquarters and a dense suburban area is troubling."
Rex screwed his eyes shut, hands in front of him as if it could quell the oncoming worm; the buzzing brought back uncomfortable memories, of going into a nest, of watching a bleach bomb do nothing, of knowing millions will die if Providence doesn't push the bugs back, of almost drowning.
Well - drowning. Then the Omega Nanite forcing his heart to move again, to continue pumping blood.
Clenching his fist, he willed his builds - preferably the Bad Axes but any of them, please - to form.
Blue lines rushed up his arms, and hope welled up inside of him -
Only to be crushed when they flickered out.
Suit compromised.
The artificial female voice intoned, calm in the midst of chaos. He felt a chill run down his back as he tiptoed around the EVO, slow steps to not catch its attention.
Sweat rolled down Rex's face. Wasn't it suit integrity compromised? Or was he mistaken?
The worm dove back into the tiles, right in front of White. He half-expected him to push himself up in spite of his injuries, gauntlet out and laser at the ready.
Curiously, he stayed perfectly still, even in the awkward pose slumped against the wall. The exosuit did fine against the virus when the sleeping plague hit, and that was a huge green sleep-inducing monstrosity - this overgrown earthworm was small fry compared to that.
The beast was circling around White's still form, a living cage that could be easily flown over, or jumped over, or cut apart - another glaring reminder that he needed his biometrics to be back to normal. For now, he needed to watch closely for any openings.
He could see the individual scales on the EVO's body - a sleek layer of armour that protected it from harm, rushing past him -
It slithered close to the ground, the speed enough to shear off Rex's hands if he made the mistake of curing it. While he could regrow his limbs, that had only occurred when his builds were up and that obviously couldn't happen now; there was too much at stake to risk it. How was he going to carry White Knight out with no hands?
With a lot of difficulty.
Rex backed off, desperate for a look on what was happening on the other side. Was Knight back up? Was the worm nibbling on his boots?
His eyes widened.
Above, Rex could see red staining the white of the walls, the white of the tiles -
The white of Knight's exosuit.
The yellow shards of glass scattered across the tiles.
Nanite breach detected.
There was no body for the funeral.
The airtight casket was lifted down into the desert soil; it wasn't listed in Knight's will, but Six said he would have liked it. Nanite-free, even in death.
It wasn't as if any of them could dispute it.
Although —
Teeth ripping apart the rest of the suit, fangs piercing large holes that leaked red.
Both of them were still. Knight didn't have much of a choice, but Rex felt all his muscles lock up; why wouldn't his arms move? Why wouldn't his builds appear when he called for them?
Why couldn't he save everyone?
Holiday and Six were shouting in his ear. The camera sparked on the floor to the right of him. A tail speeding towards his head as the worm dove downwards.
They found Rex sprawled on the cracked flooring, scars on his face already healed by his nanites - weak, he asked the field medics to check up on Knight.
The only problem is that he was missing. So was the EVO.
White Knight was listed as killed in action once Rex woke up and could give his account, stuttering with a distant look in his eye all the while.
The suit was breached. Knight died a 'freak', the same as every other living organism in the world.
If it was someone's idea of a joke, it wasn't a funny one.
"Why do you have a picture of some abandoned docks up?" Rex walked up to the war room's large screen, squinting at it; with a bit more scrutiny, he could see faint wisps of smoke coming up from unidentified black objects and scattered chunks of charred flesh.
Cargo? Someone using the abandoned area as a weapon testing location? This was Providence, though. Maybe it was acidic EVO droppings.
"This is the last known location of the EVO that attacked Bellwood," Holiday zoomed up on the lumpy black bits, a picture of the EVO worm brought up to the right. A rush of anger went through Rex the moment the work came into view and his hands clenched, "And if I'm seeing this correctly, that's the EVO."
"Wait, what?" they couldn't kill it out of revenge now. Rex knew that it was a petty thought, that it was better for the EVO to be eliminated sooner rather than later, but feeling his builds sink into the EVO's flesh would have been highly satisfying.
"Something has taken up residence in the abandoned docks, it seems," she brought up some notes and Rex skimmed through them; the worm had been ripped apart and burned beyond recognition. Without the tag and the teeth, it would have been impossible to connect the charred corpse to the EVO, "Something with high heat generation. I've tentatively given it a Class 1 ranking."
Rex whistled, and turned his head to Six to see his reaction. Nothing but cold determination. "Where is it now?"
"No idea, the satellites haven't picked up this EVO before. It's strange - there's no trace of it before today," Holiday hummed, facing Rex and Six, "Not even blurry pictures on social media."
"Maybe nothing before the worm was a threat to it," whatever it was, it looked powerful - no blood stained the concrete, indicating a rather one-sided fight on the mystery EVO's side, "I mean, if it lived underground or something, having a worm that can go below is a huge problem, right?"
Holiday absently nodded, eyes looking at the ground. Rex sighed, her mind was likely elsewhere.
The sound of various grunts typing filled the silence that followed.
"I can find it. Send me." Six took a step forward, conviction laced in his every word; Rex had a feeling that he'd find a way to go on the mission even if he was in the Providence maximum security jail.
"It's not very active, from what we've seen," Holiday points at her notes, and a picture she had taken from the quick skirmish, "Which is good. Heat and light generation, mixed with high maneuverability and large size would spell a disaster for urban areas. Blindness and burns would render whoever close to it defenseless, then it could swoop in for easy kills."
The hallways of Providence were small; small enough for the dragon to wreck havoc if it ever decided to get up. If. They were all counting on it staying still.
"So it likes to sit in one place and do nothing," Rex grinned. It almost reminded him of -
His smile fell.
The blank screens in the war room, the absence of snappy warnings to stay on track, the sullen mood that hung in the air made White's absence even more noticeable.
"Wait, this isn't -" Holiday tapped a few keys on the screen, bringing up three windows. Lines, dots, a grid, Rex didn't need three PHDs to understand what was in front of them
All of them presented the irrefutable fact that the EVO was on the move.
"It's not stopping, or even slowing down," she turned around to face Six and Rex, pleading, "What would make it start moving?"
"Food?" Rex shrugged; just a hour ago it was hibernating, and the entire area was evacuated. No earthquakes or storms, even no large breezes, by all counts it should have stayed there until Rex was equipped with heat-proof gear and could cure it.
"Where is it heading?"
Holiday brought up the satellite image - it wasn't hard to find the EVO. A blinding ball of light with a line of scorched land was quite noticeable, to say the least. The form was blocked by the generated light, but it was easy to see where the six-winged dragon EVO would be in the blob of white.
"If it continues on that path," Holiday paused, re-reading the destination, "Providence HQ. In half an hour."
A pause for the information to sink in.
"Ready the cannons," Six speaks up first. The soldiers in the room were shaken out of their stupor by his brisk tone, and the sound of the alarm quickly filled the room, "We will not allow it to crash into headquarters."
White had apparently learned his lesson from Van Kleiss piloting the Keep; the moment the rubble was cleared, he'd put in a new warning signal for "Large Object (hopefully not the Keep again, commit to your job everybody) About to Smash into Headquarters, this is Pretty Bad".
It was... disconcerting, to say the least, to hear his voice fill the hallways of Providence once more.
Rex could only call it a dragon.
Gold-lined scales mixed with pure white features, it was one of the most beautiful dragons Rex had ever seen. Even better than the ones he saw in anime.
It reminded him of snow - stark white, seemingly unending, rippling as the six pairs of wings shifted on its back. The white eyes with gold flecks looked cold, distant; focused somewhere else in the room and thankfully not at Rex.
Well. The snow comparison held up until heat started rolling off it.
Holes - vents? - lined the beast's body, a few dotted around the neck and the back legs, flaring as it yawned. A maw of impressive (and sharp) teeth opened up.
The wall behind the EVO seemed to waver as warmth and light leaked out of the vents - nothing too hot, nothing too bright, but Rex had fought EVOs for years now.
He knew the warning signs.
This was an unseen EVO type, and Rex didn't want to risk being cooked and eaten just for the shot at a quick cure.
Gesturing wildly when the beast was looking away, Rex tried to signal to Six and Holiday on the other side of the lab; they looked at him with confusion on their faces. Well, Holiday looked at him with confusion, Six was as deadpan as ever.
He thrust his hand towards the exit - we need to leave. The vents flared open again, bringing another wave of heat and light, warmer and brighter than the previous one.
Six and Holiday started inching towards the exit, avoiding the EVO's languid gaze. Rex could feel sweat building on him - between the heat, the pressure, and the fear of injury, he couldn't pinpoint which one was the reason.
Probably all of them, on reflection.
The dragon snapped its maw closed from the yawn and the temperature fell again; Rex startled from the noise. It didn't seem to notice, instead shifting its weight to a presumably more comfortable position. Two pairs of wings stretched out before returning to a closed position, while the third pair ruffled before the neck started drifting downwards.
Was it attempting to rest?
Well -
Holiday and Six were out of the lab now, and the temperature was steadily falling along with the conscious state of the EVO.
It wouldn't hurt to sneak a small cure in, right?
"I'm fine!"
Foreign words clawed out of Rex's mouth, forcing their way through his teeth. It felt like vomit rising up his throat; a disgusted, toxic mixture that needed to be thrown out of his body immediately. Gone, it needed to be gone.
He wanted to remove one of his hands, to clutch at his mouth in surprise or to wipe off the sweat building from the heat, but they refused to budge - his entire body refused to move an inch.
A blue glow, bright as if to rival the light coming out of the vents, overtook his eyes.
"Rex?"
Through the haze and the glass, the blurry form of Holiday stepped forwards with a worried expression.
Get back/Go away, they thought in unison; the few moments of control Rex had over his body was used to change his expression to one of complete fear, one that he hoped communicated 'I'm not in control in this situation and you guys need to stay out of this before you get blasted'.
Holiday was pulled back by Six; the heat was overwhelming to humans. Six at least could see them both with his sunglasses.
"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm -" that voice intertwined with his own was so, so familiar, and through the blue and yellow haze of nanites Rex couldn't stop thinking why are you resisting, "I'm free. I'm finally free! You can't take this away from me!"
The EVO thrashed under his grip, blasting out another wave of heat as it roared in rage and fought back the impending wave of deactivation Rex was forcing onto it; deep gouges lined the walls of the lab, leaving equipment sparking and alarms blaring.
The wings beat against the tables, throwing them across the room in an unpredictable fashion; Rex took this time to glance at Holiday and Six who -
What were they doing, moving closer to the door?!
One swoop of the tail -
The largest screen tore in half, glass scattering across the lab floor.
One shard slashed through Rex's jacket, drawing blood that hissed as it fell onto the heated room.
The talons clawed uselessly at the tiles, tearing them up in a desperate attempt to reach Rex. It wasn't as if he could break off and use his builds to smack the EVO into oblivion; he was a sitting duck, at the whims to the beast he couldn't release his grip on.
The glass, the alarms, the helplessness -
It all felt so familiar.
Red splotches bloomed across Rex's arms but his screams of pain died in his throat, blocked by another voice.
Another, hysterical, frenzied voice.
White Knight's voice.