He wiped off the dust, the metal skeleton attached to his spine made a loud screech, followed by a whirring that progressively slowed, he tapped the screen on his wrist and the HUD flashed an empty red battery. He pressed a few buttons, like a manual override but still nothing. “Hey Kaitlin!” he yelled through the old rusty shack “What could you possibly want Peter?” She demanded, storming through the halls. “My R.E.X is down! Its out of battery!” he said, worried. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him firmly, “look Pete, and I have an extra battery but after we get this cube, were out of here alright? Were In this mess deep enough.” She said with a strict tone in her voice, “Yeah, I agree but this cube could end it! Stopping the corruption, the uprising!” he said excited. He took the battery and rebooted his R.E.X (Remote Exoskeleton X series) and with a great whirr and a loud grunt. He punched the iron box, the iron clashed making large sparks. Peter’s hand had pierced the box like a knife in warm butter with the help of the 200 Horsepower gears along his suits arm. They walked out of the house and stepped outside, breathed in through their gas masks deeply and smiled at each other. They made a long embrace, but shortly after they stopped hugging something big hit them, something unfortunate, an EMP wave surged, shutting their R.E.X’s down, that event was shortly followed by a blow to the head knocking them both unconscious.

48 HOURS EARLIER…

Peter quickly shoveled the food into his mouth and strapped on his R.E.X, grabbed his hover board, ran outside, powering on the board that shot small red beams of light onto the ground as an effect to wow the eyes. He had modified it, to reach speeds up to 60 mph in under 3.5 seconds. The board was glossy white, with orange rubber and plastic straps to hold him. The back thruster was thin yet powerful as it emitted 600 horsepower jets powered by natural oils. He zipped down the street, occasionally waving and giving a “hello” to those that he knew in the small isolated city that he had been raised in, which was replicated to be like the thousands others under the large glass domes that shielded from Air from older earth considered to be ridden with air born poison.
He stepped off the board and quickly walked up the steps, guiding himself with the handrail leading up to Kaitlin’s door, he always had a small crush on the girl he considered a sister, but that didn’t stop him from enjoying the times they spent past the dome. “Oh hi Peter!” Kaitlin’s mother responded happily after seeing the boy’s face standing in front of the door, “Hello Mrs. Hawthorn! Is Kaitlin there?” He responded, smile wide across his face. Mrs. Hawthorn eyed the boy up and down a few times before telling Kaitlin that he was here, Mrs. Hawthorn was always suspicious of Peter because of the way he lived life “on the edge” in her eyes. Kaitlin ran down the stairwell R.E.X already equipped she ran up and hugged him, “Ready Pete?” she questioned anxiously “Well if I wasn’t then why would I be here Katie?” he mocked, “Well you two kids have fun, but little girl you have to be back here by 8:00 sharp. You hear me?” Mrs. Hawthorn commanded strictly. “Yeah Mom! Whatever love ya!” Kaitlin said, smiling at Pete while strapping on the last bit of her hover board, “so where to Pete?” Kaitlin questioned, tilting her head. Pete messed around on the touch screen on his wrist, a full-faced gas mask maneuvered itself to his face, clicking when it reached the point of full purification of air “well today, how does outside the wall sound?” Pete said, taking loud, large breaths as the gasmask emitted the CO2 from the inside of the mask. Kaitlin’s eyes stretched as far open as they could; she batted her eyelashes quickly, trying to make sense of what she heard “Outside of the wall! Peter are you absolutely insane? If we get caught we go to the hyper-cell! I can’t risk that!” She said firmly, crossing her arms. He carefully took her hand and led her towards the door “I’ll make sure we don’t get caught, if we do just say I went crazy and kidnapped you. Its believable, due to the fact I’m crazy in every ones eyes,” He said, reassuring her and holding her close.
He said “Snake cables” and a few loose cables fell from his R.E.X, he hooked them into the air purification center computer input jack, he typed a few things into the screen, and the numbers “8.7.4.9.” appeared onscreen, followed by large green letters saying “ACCESS GRANTED, LEVEL 7 CLEARANCE.” A large beep came from the door and a buzzer went off as the large door swung open to reveal a small chamber in which fresh air can be pumped out, and poison air matching the environment will be pumped in, to not waste precious, clean oxygen. The lights faded as the room was filled with a steamy looking cloud of depressurization gasses, the lights shut off, and the door made a heavy creak as it let the light of an abandoned world pour in.
They shielded their eyes as they weren’t used to actual light, due to the fact that inside of city X-36B all the light there was artificial, once they had their eyes adjusted, they looked around and were awed by what a world was left behind. In the distance old Ferris wheels and roller coasters were stopped, all power cut, but the thing that caught their eyes was the old abandoned house, around 2 stories with all windows busted, front door closed with a sign that said “In here lies the answers to the truth that thou seek”. They looked at each other and held hands as they walked over to the house, checking to make sure that they weren’t being followed. They wandered in and looked around, quickly noticed the large red arrows painted throughout the house leading to the basement door located under the stairwell. “Should we even go down there?” Kaitlin questioned, frightened, hugging Peters arm “Don’t be such a scaredy cat, I’ll protect you from the monsters” he chuckled, opening the basement door and leading her down the old creaky stairs. A mouse scurried quickly under his feet “Oh Jesus!” Peter yelped at the top of his lungs, respirator struggling to keep up with the quick breaths, Kaitlin chuckled and mocked Peter for this event; she couldn’t stop her uncontrollable laughing. Until they saw the blueprints, and the letter that held the secrets to the modern society that Kaitlin and Peter called home.
They rushed over, R.E.X’s whirring loudly as the sprinting strained the large suspension springs on the legs, and Peter picked up the blueprints and spastically scanned them “wha- What it this?” he said scared and confused “what, what! Pete?” Kaitlin questioned demandingly. He passed the blueprints to her, with a straight horrified look in his eyes, she skimmed them, knowing immediately what this was. These were pictures of their house, in their rooms, with them asleep. The walls had been traced over with certain lines that resembled the metal beams holding it up, and the vents inside of the walls that gave heating and air condition, it showed a marked path with the same red arrows leading inside of the house into each and every one of the rooms, they were being watched, and they knew this wasn’t any normal person. This was an Axeman, a nickname for the crazed mutants who wandered through the barren wasteland, adapted to the air after years of suffering because they didn’t want to become part of the corrupt Dictatorship of the cities of the X series.  Kaitlin put the blueprints down and looked at Peter, worried at what they saw. “Its alright Kate, I can stop whoever is doing this, no matter what kind of creep they are.” Peter said with a stern tone in his voice, “Hey do you see that?” Peter questioned, gesturing towards the old 1990’s computer that lay on the desk, with a document opened.
He grabbed the mouse and scrolled, reading what contents lay on the floppy disk; he read what he saw out loud to Kaitlin “Hello kids, the government you live under is corrupt, the R.E.X industry is going to use those suits they gave you to control those who are weak. You can stop them, if you take the suits in the back of the basement; they are older versions of R.E.X, same capabilities. But there is one thing different, it doesn’t attach to your nerves, you can control them easily. But I’ve given it a certain trait, air packs, basically a jet pack, just more affective with its infinite supply and quick recharge rate. Now go, you must find a cube that lies deep in the ruins of the carnival, about 2 miles out. There’s a wooden shack, grab the cube and run, or they will find you.” Peter trailed off on the last few words, his adventurous side was cowering like a worm in dirt, he was terrified knowing that they had just gotten into something that could change their lives forever.
He ripped off the R.E.X, staring at it and wondering what society would do this, for power and money, he grabbed the secondary prototype model and strapped it on, starting it up and listening to the old battery purr. Much more graceful then the metallic clank of the newer R.E.X that seemed to grow more horrifying as the moments passed, “Kaitlin come here.” Peter demanded, “We have to get that suit off” He said “but Pete! We don’t know who this is! This is my R.E.X were talking about!” She said, frightened. He forcefully pulled her to him and ripped her R.E.X off, “Well if what that person said is true, then put on that beta test now and lets find that cube tomorrow.” Peter reassured her, she strapped on the “new” R.E.X and smiled at the lack of weight it had and how quiet it was.
They peeked out the door, taking precautions as to who saw them, they ran towards the decontamination chamber doors, but as they drew closer the doors depressurized and opened causing the two to hide in a bush, silencing the gas masks. The observed the scientists checking the area before sprinting off down the road towards what seemed to be an old military bunker, they ran into the chamber as soon as the scientists were out of view, they cleaned themselves off and headed home. “Hey Pete?” Kaitlin questioned, “Yeah Kaitlin?” Peter responded, “After we finish doing whatever this is, we should hang out more.” Kaitlin said, stopping at the intersection where they would split to go home. “Sounds like a plan!” Peter chuckled, secretly celebrating inside, “alright well bye Pete!” She said happily, he smiled at her and started to use his hover board to get home, he got back home and walked into his room sitting on his bed and quietly dreamed himself to sleep. He had a dream about him being a hero after stopping the government from being so corrupt, but he soon woke from that dream with a worried expression, he was late to meet Kaitlin at the carnival! “Ugh!” he yelled, strapping on the old R.E.X and sprinting outside towards the gate, he entered the code from the last visit and pressurized the chamber before running west towards the old carnival that held the old shack.
“Kaitlin!” He yelled, seeing her wait in the distance, in an old bumper car. “”Pete!” she said running to him and hugging him, “alright so where the shack?” he asked her, looking around. Kaitlin let go of Peter and pointed under the Ferris wheel, there was an old rickety shack with stairs that continued low beneath the ground, “Duck!” Kaitlin whispered loudly, pulling him down into the brush. He was about to ask why she did that, but he saw himself, two armed guards were patrolling, and they were talking about, well, them. “If we get ‘em, R.E.X core will be so proud that they will give us a raise!” One chuckled, “but that’s only if we kill ‘em” the other reminded. Peter stood up and used to jump pack to fly high over their heads, gears whirred and bent his legs automatically, preparing for impact. The impact was soft, squishy and included an “oomph!” and two unconscious guards laying on the ground, he looked Kaitlin’s way and saw her running towards the shack, he grabbed a pistol off of the guards belt and quickly pursued her, running into the shack and down the stairs quickly, forcing to stop his momentum when reached the end of the steps.
She grabbed him and pointed at the two paths that were open, she looked at him with scared eyes that told him “where do we go? What do we do?” which he quickly responded to with, “split up, go down that hallway. I can go down the other, if you see anything, holler.” He said, “then you better do the same!” she demanded, they each walked their separate paths, but to their surprise, they ran into each other in the same room at the end of the hall. They chuckled and looked around, there were markings everywhere like “You shouldn’t be here” and “they are already coming”, they tried for at least 30 minutes to find out what was in that room. Peter became furious and punched the crack in the wall, no harm intended to the building. But the weak walls and floor soon gave way to an empty room, huge, with a single table, and a small, glowing, blue, cube. They moaned over the pain, but the R.E.X’s responded with “PAIN DETECTED: ANESTHETIC, ADMINISTERED” they sat for a few minutes until the anesthetic actually started working. Then soon stood up and walked over to the table, but the illusion gave way and an iron box shaped with great detail to look like a lion, housed the cube they needed, but Peter soon fell over, something was wrong.
He wiped off the dust, the metal skeleton attached to his spine made a loud screech, followed by a whirring that progressively slowed, he tapped the screen on his wrist and the HUD flashed an empty red battery. He pressed a few buttons, like a manual override, but still nothing. “Hey Kaitlin!” he yelled through the old rusty walls “What could you possibly want Peter?” She demanded storming over to him, away from the majestic works of art covering the walls that had so greatly intrigued her. “My R.E.X is down! Its out of battery!” he said, worried. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him firmly, “look Pete, and I have an extra battery but after we get this cube, were out of here alright? Were In this mess deep enough.” She said with a strict tone in her voice, “Yeah, I agree but this cube could end it! Stopping the corruption, the uprising!” he said excited. He took the battery and rebooted his R.E.X and with a great whirr and a loud grunt, he punched the iron box, the iron clashed making large sparks, but Peters hand had pierced the box like a knife in warm butter with the help of the 200 Horsepower gears along his suits arm. They walked out of the house and stepped outside, breathed in through their gas masks deeply and smiled at each other, made a long embrace, but shortly after they stopped hugging something big hit them something unfortunate, an EMP wave surged, shutting their R.E.X’s down, that event was shortly followed by a blow to the head knocking them both unconscious.
When consciousness was regained, they were both tied into chairs, very high up in the glass dome, R.E.X core’s base of operation, their HQ. Peter shifted angrily in the chair, but was stopped by a security guard with a large wound bleeding from his forehead, “stop your squirming little one. It will be over soon, we just want to talk” the man said, smirking and chuckling along with his partner and the owner of R.E.X core. “Why are you doing this?” Peter demanded to know “Ah Peter my dear boy, its not about money, or feelings, its about control. We want to be known as great suppliers of soldiers. Yet the best place to find soldiers is somewhere absolutely quiet and peaceful, where no one knows what happening outside!” the tall man exclaimed, keeping his face away from the teens. Peter turned and looked at Kaitlin who was still regaining consciousness. “Oh God! Kaitlin!” Peter yelled, bringing her to full consciousness, “Peter?” She questioned quietly, “where are we?” she said quietly trailing off and looking around. “Were in R.E.X core, this man is the guy we were warned about!” Peter exclaimed, “Ugh Peter could you stop your yapping for just a moment?” the tall man said in an annoyed fashion “No!” Peter said, “Your going to listen here! You let Kaitlin and I go now or else your going to regret!” Peter yelled. “Oh Peter, Peter, Peter, Kaitlin will be fine, you should be more worried about yourself” The tall man said, with a serious tone “Put him in Cryo-sleep.” The man said. “No!” Kaitlin wailed, “No don’t hurt him! Let him go!” she squirmed greatly in her seat, tears streaming down her face. They put a cap onto Peter, it blew a large Kevlar like bubble around him, It soon became ice cold inside of the bubble, becoming colder by the moment. “Kai- Kaitlin…” He said, drifting off “No! No stop!” Kaitlin screamed, she was frantically crying, watching Peter become so helpless. Peter’s vision fogged, and the cries echoed, and everything went black, with the final word “Peter!” echoing from Kaitlin’s voice, being the last thing he would hear for the next 10 years. Until he would wake, hearing the same voice, yelling the same name, as it did when they were teenagers.

TO BE CONTINUED…