The Trade (4 page)

‘We've got an out-of-control Evo tearing up the city,' Six said.

‘And you've got a hundred Agents and a dozen tanks already at the scene,' said Holiday. ‘You don't need Rex.'

‘Correction. We've now got seventeen Agents and two tanks. The Evo took care of the rest.' He touched a finger to his ear, listening to a voice on his communicator. ‘Make that one tank.'

‘Not my problem,' said Holiday. ‘I can't let you take him.'

‘And I can't let him stay,' Six replied.

‘Rex,' they both said at once, ‘come with me.'

Rex held up his hands. ‘Look, guys, it's nice to be wanted and everything, but –'

A viewing screen on the wall beside them blinked into life. The ghostly pale face of White Knight appeared. ‘What's the hold up?' he demanded, gruffly.

‘Six is trying to take Rex out on a mission,' Dr Holiday said, hurriedly.

White Knight nodded. ‘I know. I gave the order.'

‘Sir, I really have to object! I don't think –'

‘Objection noted,' said White Knight. ‘But he's going.'

Dr Holiday opened her mouth to say something else, but Agent Six jumped in first. ‘I'll bring him back in one piece,' he said, taking Rex by the arm and steering him towards the aircraft's entrance. ‘Well … two at the most.'

‘Was that a joke, Six?' Rex asked, grinning broadly. ‘You hear that, Doc? Six made a joke.'

Agent Six flashed him a serious look.

‘Um … that
was
a joke, right?' asked Rex, suddenly nervous. ‘Right, Six?'

The door to the aircraft slid closed. Dr Holiday could only watch as the vehicle blasted off, leaving her all alone in the empty hangar.

‘Good luck,' she said, quietly. Somehow, she had a feeling Rex was going to need it.

O
N A DESERTED STREET
in Fremont, California, twelve tanks smouldered quietly. The semi-conscious bodies of almost a hundred Agents lay scattered across the tarmac, groaning and whimpering in pain.

Smoke poured from within shattered store fronts. Cars lay upturned, their metal frames shredded, their windscreens shattered. Somewhere in the wreckage, a police siren wailed once, then slowed to a stop.

In the middle of the street was a hole. It was wide and deep, easily large enough to fit one of the broken Providence tanks. Down in the hole, the scorpion Evo lurked.

‘Now there's something you don't see every day,' Rex whispered, ducking low behind the smoking remains of a pizza delivery van. He gasped, sharply. ‘Whoa!' Beside him, Agent Six went tense.

‘What's wrong?' he hissed.

‘Pepperoni,' said Rex, happily. He reached in
through the broken doors of the van and pulled out a cheese-coated triangle of pizza. ‘Want a slice?'

Steel flashed before Rex's eyes and the pizza left his hand. He looked up to find the slice stuck to the end of one of Six's swords. With a flick, Six sent the pizza hurtling across the street. Rex watched it splatter messily against a wall.

‘Hey, I was going to eat that!'

‘Junk food later,' Six growled. ‘Fight Evo
now
.'

‘OK, OK,' Rex sighed. ‘But when we're finished here, you owe me a twelve-inch deep pan.'

‘Deal,' Six said.

‘With
extra cheese
.'

‘Don't push your luck –'

KER-ASSSH!

A curved stinger, larger than Rex's head, tore through the side of the van. Rex and Six jumped back as the van was lifted into the air. The scorpion Evo hissed at them, angrily.

‘Hi there,' said Rex, brightly. ‘I don't suppose you'd like to surrender quietly?'

The scorpion's tail snapped down. Rex was knocked sideways by Agent Six, just as the van
smashed down onto the road. Six growled in pain as part of the axle slammed down onto his legs, pinning them against the ground.

‘You OK?' Rex asked, reaching down to help Six.

‘Fine. Forget me,' Six barked. He tried to pull his legs free, but they were held fast. ‘Stop
that
thing.'

Rex nodded. ‘You're the boss, boss.' He stood up. The scorpion-creature was larger than the pizza van had been, even before it was smashed to pieces. It had four yellow eyes, each one the size of a football. The eyes were fixed on the helpless Six. Rex knew he had to lead the Evo away.

‘Didn't anyone tell you it's rude to stare?' Rex said, stepping between the Evo and Agent Six. He raised both arms, extended the index fingers, then poked the scorpion in two of its eyes. The Evo howled with rage.

‘You want me?' Rex cried. He ran past the scorpion. ‘Then come get me!'

Rex powered forward, leaping over fallen Agents and sliding across the bonnets of abandoned cars. Behind him, he heard the
tick, tick, tick
of the scorpion's legs as it raced after him across the concrete. With every step, the sound became louder. The Evo was
gaining, and it was gaining fast.

‘So, you can run,' Rex muttered. ‘But let's see if you can outrun the Rex Ride!'

Rex leapt into the air. As he did, an orange and silver hover-bike formed beneath him. The street became a blur around him as he opened the throttle and sent the bike hurtling along the street.

Tick, tick, tick.

Tick, tick, tick.

Rex looked back over his shoulder. He could barely believe what he saw. The scorpion Evo was still gaining steadily, its pincer-legs carrying it along at incredible speed.

‘OK, so you
can
outrun the Rex Ride,' Rex said. He suddenly didn't feel as confident as he had a moment ago. ‘But what if I – Ack!'

The hover-bike vanished. Still racing forward at breakneck speed, Rex clattered onto the ground, bounced twice, then rolled to a clumsy stop. Winded, he clambered back to his feet. A trickle of blood ran down his cheek, from a cut on his forehead. He ignored it, and focused instead on the enormous scorpion-monster teetering towards him.

‘That's it, big guy,' he spat. ‘Let's see how you like the Slam Cannon.'

Rex waited. Nothing happened. The Evo hurried closer.

‘The
Slam Cannon
,' Rex said again.

Again, nothing.

‘Aw, man,' Rex groaned, before a swiping blow from the scorpion's tail sent him tumbling across the tarmac. A pain, like none he'd ever felt before, suddenly burned through his whole body, but it was nothing to do with the Evo's attack. Something was happening to him. Something bad.

A scream burst from Rex's lips. His back arched and his muscles bunched into knots. A deafening
clanking
and
whirring
of machinery rose up, as his transformations began to activate one after another.

Smackhands, Punk Busters, Boogie Pack; they appeared one after another, vanishing as quickly as they had come. The Slam Cannon appeared next, forming around his shoulder even as the Rex Ride formed around his feet.

‘Wh-what's happening?' Rex cried, as the Big Freakin' Sword appeared briefly at the end of one
arm, and then the other. There was a loud grinding of metal as the Punk Buster feet appeared and fought for space with the Rex Ride. The arm without the sword attached became a Smackhand. Through the pain, Rex realised that every one of his transformations was happening at the same time!

Even the Evo had hesitated, confused by what was happening to the boy on the ground. Deep inside its deranged brain, though, it came to the conclusion that it really couldn't care less. The boy had attacked it, and for that, the boy would die.

Raising its lethal stinger, the scorpion fixed its four eyes on Rex, and crept slowly forward.

‘G
ET UP
, R
EX.
Get up!'

Back at Providence HQ, Dr Holiday was watching events through a CCTV camera mounted on one of the battle-damaged tanks. She had seen Six trapped by the pizza van and Rex's machines begin to malfunction. More importantly, she could now see the monstrous Evo stalking towards Rex, who was now thrashing around in pain.

Another screen blinked into life beside her. Dr Holiday turned and came face to face with a video image of White Knight.

‘This is all
your
fault,' she told him, forgetting for a moment who she was talking to. ‘I told you he wasn't ready. I told you it wasn't safe!'

‘Rex was vital to this mission,' White Knight said.

Dr Holiday threw up her arms. ‘The mission,' she cried, ‘it's always about the mission!'

‘Yes,' said White Knight, flatly. ‘It's always about the mission.'

Holiday folded her arms across her chest.

‘Then maybe we're on the wrong mission,' she muttered, and she turned back to the main screen.

Rex's teeth were clamped tightly together. Veins bulged in his neck until they stood out like blue ropes from his skin. Just a few metres away, the scorpion Evo drew back its tail and prepared to strike.

CLANG!

A pair of katana swords blocked the scorpion's attack. Its four eyes swivelled to find Agent Six staring back at it. ‘You messed up my suit,' Six said. ‘No one messes up my suit.'

The tail pulled back, then stabbed sharply towards the centre of Six's chest. Six stepped sideways and swished the swords down. The scorpion's stinger
clacked
hard against the pavement. ‘Clearly you weren't listening,' Six said. ‘
No one
messes up my suit.'

Six brought a knee up to his chest, then fired a devastating kick against one of the scorpion's front legs. The armoured limb buckled and the Evo stumbled sideways, screeching in pain.

On the ground, Rex was doing more or less the same thing. He cried out in agony as his transformations continued to switch back and forth, there one minute, gone the next.

‘His biometric signs are failing,' crackled a voice in Agent Six's ear. It was Dr Holiday, speaking to him via the communicator. ‘You have to get him out of there
now
.'

‘Kind of in the middle of something here,' grunted Six. He ducked another swipe of the scorpion's tail.

‘
I don't care,
' Holiday snarled. ‘Get Rex and …'

There was a hiss of static, and then another voice broke in. ‘Subdue the Evo,' ordered White Knight. ‘Then you can help Rex.'

‘Yes, sir,' Six said. He twirled his swords in front of the Evo, beckoning it closer. ‘Let's get this over with.'

The scorpion raised its two front legs. Six swung both swords around in a wide arc. The Evo squealed as both its legs flopped down onto the street.

‘That was for the suit,' Six said, before a movement down near his feet caught his eye.

From inside the severed limbs, hundreds of smaller
scorpion-creatures were emerging. They weren't much larger than normal scorpions, but they moved at incredible speed.

Six stepped back as the scorpions swarmed towards him. He
swooshed
his sword down at the ground. Sparks flashed as the blades hit the concrete road surface and five, ten, twenty of the little creatures were sliced in half.

But still they kept coming. For every one Six killed, a dozen more emerged from inside the severed limbs. They were pouring from the stumps on the Evo's body, too, where the legs had been attached. In moments, the road around Six was a heaving mass of legs and bodies and little curved tails.

Six raised a foot and slammed it down on the closest scorpion. It exploded in a spray of green goop. He looked up and met the gaze of the larger creature. ‘And now you've gone and messed up my shoes.' Six raised his swords again. ‘Ugly, this just isn't your day.'

Back at Providence HQ, Dr Holiday was ranting at a viewing screen. White Knight's face filled the
screen. He did not look happy.

‘The Evo isn't important,' she said. ‘Saving Rex
is
. He could die.'

‘And if we let the Evo go, it could kill hundreds,' White Knight replied. ‘Better to contain it now than risk a major incident.'