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The amount of times White Knight had left his office since the start of his role as the Director of Providence were in single digits.
The reasons were obvious. Most would point to one immediately; as a nanite-free individual, he needed to stay away from any risk of breaching. Some would point to agoraphobia – and while that could be considered true, he thought of it a different way. He could not fail, as a pillar of humanity. He had to be protected. Secreted away to a corner of Providence Headquarters, behind layers of alloy and weaponry, near the middle of Nowhere.
Even before the largest alien invasion the world had ever seen, there were nanites and EVOs. Other aliens. Cryptids, unidentified monsters, groups barely better than common mercenaries running wild... frankly, everyone else was insane for not taking it all more seriously. When he himself was a hired gun, all those groups were but a tiny, if annoying, footnote to what he needed to kill with Six.
(Not that he had any more respect for them nowadays.)
On paper they were all rallied together against Planet Fusion, but where did that leave more terrestrial problems? Ones that did not conveniently go away when an alien invasion appeared?
Underfunded, understocked, underrepresented. It gave him a headache. EVOs were as much of a problem as they were a year ago, yet they were meant to make do with slashed budgets and less respect than your average kid with a gun partnered with some sort of miniature thing out on the frontline.
Being stuck in a sterilized box was bad, but being outside as the world's only nanite-free individual – not to mention the leader of a major paramilitary organization – was simply painting a target on your back. Leaving was something to be done only while absolutely necessary.
And in those rare times when he was outside, he didn't have a chance to bask in the sun's glow.
White Knight was in the flurry of combat. In front of him was a tentacled EVO, lashing against concrete and asphalt, throwing nearby cars and rubble with reckless abandon.
When one thrashed too close, he aimed and fired at it with a laser, or pushed it back with his exosuit. The kid with the alien watch – something or other Tennyson, he was related to Magister Tennyson of the Plumbers – was in direct combat somewhere outside. Other kids surrounded the EVO. He held back from going into the chaos with them. Attacking an EVO while there were other perfectly healthy combatants to attack for him was not conducive to his safety.
Besides, he had another reason to remain on the backline.
Ironically, today was meant to be a conference dedicated to the subject of EVO research instead of an EVO free-for-all. White Knight was there as a formality. Professor Utonium and Doctor Holiday (decidedly noncombatants) were the actual people of interest.
He had been slightly surprised when he had seen Utonium there. Enough of that surprise leaked into his expression for Utonium to ask if he needed anything, and then cringe as he realized who he was talking to. Knight had decided to humour him and ask.
"Bioengineering isn't exactly… a well-loved subject, nowadays. It never fully was accepted in the first place." The professor had nervously laughed and answered, under White Knight's gaze. "Though I don't study nanites directly, it certainly affects my areas of practice. It wouldn't hurt to learn! And I feel a certain, ah, kinship to the scientists."
Modest, he thought. Or utterly unaware. Even if he wasn't an EVO scientist, the professor knew enough information useful to nanite study to still be an asset to his organization.
There was also a skeleton crew of Providence guards, more additional scientists and engineers than anything. He had wanted more. The symposium running the Townsville EVO Research Conference had emphasized less of a ‘military presence’ and assured him their security was top-notch. Now that the Providence contingent was down to the researchers, the assault vehicle's crew, and injured soldiers unable to fight, he had wished he pushed for more.
Other than them, there were a gaggle of kids that happened to be there, packed into the back of a Providence assault vehicle. The reason they were there he was unsure of. There always seemed to be (frankly too many) children jumping across the streets nowadays.
He had to protect them all, as was his role. He knew his fragile nanite-free position meant nothing when he was the only armoured, armed person in the group.
Granted, Holiday had the mandated combat training (a fact she was not letting him forget), but even she knew when it wasn't her battle to fight. If she was forced out into the field, it would only be in an emergency situation. And Knight would not allow that to happen.
Another shake rocked the vehicle, the on-board engineers frantically trying to get the thing moving. Beside him, he saw a beam from the Tennyson kid lance through the air to hit a tentacle. The damage healed instantly. Someone screamed behind him. Knight narrowed his eyes.
"Everybody in the back of the vehicle – what is your current condition?" He barked, wary at the receding appendage.
"Utonium and I are fine, for now." Holiday's voice quickly chimed in. He glanced – Utonium's back was to him as he looked at the internals of the vehicle. Knight narrowed his eyes, mentally noting down to check exactly what he changed afterwards.
"Hey! Let us out!" The kids this time.
"Not until we're either in safer territory or this EVO is –" Knight paused. "Cured."
"Safer territory? What, for our own safety? Don't lump us in with them! Let us out!"
"You want to die out there?"
"Look at us! We can handle it!"
He took a closer look at them. The bald one currently yelling at him had what looked like a crudely fashioned fake gun made from planks of wood in his hands. He would be a blood splatter in a heartbeat.
"Frankly, if the teenage superheroes fall in the frontline, I am going in first."
"That's–!" The bald one again. He seemed to forget that they were in an active battlefield to ponder what White said. "That's quite agreeable, actually… but we will be there to support you!"
Knight looked at him strangely before the assault vehicle was rocked by another hit, this time toppling it to the side. Utonium yelped as he crashed to the new floor and Holiday landed on top of him. The kids were even louder in their screaming, landing in a disorganized pile.
The battle outside was tipping against their favour. Killing the thing would have been easy with the reckless, superpowered teens running around. Unfortunately, they were trying to stall until Rex arrived to cure it.
Between evacuating the area, ensuring the EVO did not shred even more of the surrounding area with its many tentacles, dodging its attacks, holding back on their own attacks (or never going in for hard-hitting attacks in the first place, the soft-hearted kids…), it was clear a considerable amount would need to be spent in repairs if nothing changed.
He was really going to have to do this, huh.
Shooting out of the vehicle with his exosuit's boosters, he crashed into the soft body of the EVO, burning the flesh as his lasers seared it at a closer range. It still regrew – slower – and suddenly he was regretting letting Caesar stay in headquarters to fix whatever it was he wanted to fix instead of going to the conference (he was still interested in it, but he was more interested in his current project). He would have had some harebrained invention to ruin this EVO's day.
Another monster, blue with large moth wings, zoomed into view. Knight had to clamp his instinct to shoot when he saw the watch's symbol on the thing's chest.
"Report!"
It looked taken aback, before turning in midair.
"I'm gonna try to freeze some chunks?" It rasped when it flew close, "Uh, thanks for the assist, Bubbles is busy with getting everybody out of here. Including the animals."
True to word, Knight saw a blue streak zoom by, bird chirps in hand. He frowned. Too kind for her own good.
"It's breaking out of your ice." Knight said, impassively surveying it. "You can't freeze it all before it thrashes out, or another part smashes it."
The HUD in his exosuit reported on Rex's position. Close, but not close enough. He needed a better plan.
"And you either are not strong enough to freeze it quickly, or don't have enough control to not accidentally kill the EVO."
"When you put it like that –"
"Coordinate with me. I will shoot it first." Flexing his fingers and keying in a few settings, he was more focused on getting a good lock on the EVO rather than paying attention to the youth. "When its healing is slowed, aim to freeze the exact same spot."
"Uh… sure."
Unprofessional. Knight's frown deepened.
Despite his misgivings, Tennyson followed instructions well enough. Put up less of a fuss than Rex, at least.
Hopefully it meant Tennyson had more respect for Providence than the average child soldier. Likely it meant Tennyson simply didn't have a plan, and Knight's was as good as any.
The monster flinched away from the combination of searing heat fluctuating to freezing ice, but still didn’t back up. Determined bastard.
Less of the attacks were focused on them, but there were enough thrashes landing around them to make evacuation risky – but not risky enough to make them a priority group for the superheroes to evacuate. The assault vehicle still did not budge. There was sputtering from the internal mechanisms that proved it wasn't for the lack of trying.
White Knight had written it off as a lost cause, given that it was on its side, but the engineers inside seemed to have some sort of plan in mind.
He had to give Utonium an ounce of respect; Knight had expected him to crumble under the pressure of being in an active battlefield. Nothing in his file screamed ‘combatant’ or even ‘trained’ to him, but he supposed being the creator of three superheroes for a city plagued with supervillains would shape up any civilian.
It was less fortunate that the lessened attacks in their area meant renewed attacks in others.
Behind the EVO, White Knight could see new clouds of smoke wisping, then billowing into the sky. He couldn't do anything for the people there, but…
"Tennyson!" He barked, causing the moth creature flitting by to jump from his voice. "I can handle it from here. Your support is needed on the other side."
"Yeah, that's what I was going to do!" Was the only response before he flew off, weaving between each strike of the EVO until disappearing behind its mass.
White Knight could hold out on his own. It wouldn't take too long – Rex was inbound, faster than he usually was, abnormally speeding up. Was he receiving outside help? Whatever it was, it had better be in his after-action report, if he bothered to fill it out.
As he took a defensive stance, keeping an eye out for both the EVO and any rubble that was flung too close for comfort, he heard an odd noise.
Behind him was frantic thumping against the doors of the assault vehicle, followed by indistinct high-pitched shouting and faint scrabbling.
… The hell was that?
Before he could linger on that thought, one rallying cry (possibly) and more pointed noises on the assault vehicle door more obviously gave way to its opening.
"– battle stations!" One of the kids was still shouting as he charged out, leaping into battle.
What were they doing out here?
One of them wearing a hat pointed their makeshift weapon, looking gallant. It didn't do anything when he pulled the trigger.
"It's not – huh? But I just repaired it!" The kid whined. "Replaced the rubber band and everything!"
"Hey!" Another hatted one, this time red, piped up, shaking her own fake gun. Useless, as expected. "Mine isn't shootin' either! Mine, that you looked at yesterday."
"Maybe you should have repaired it yourself then, ever think about that?"
"Well maybe you shouldn't accept trading cards as bribes!"
Those arguments quickly stopped as the EVOs eyes locked in on the new flurry of movement.
It was going to fall right on top of them. Those random children who foolishly rushed into battle, who White Knight was not obligated to save.
The flesh met his armour instead.
The weight of the beast pressed into him, his exosuit's enhanced strength struggling against it. Cracks formed in the asphalt below, deep grooves where he braced against the ground, straining as he tried to open up a space – any small space that the kids could crawl out from.
"White Knight!"
One of them, he couldn't catch which one through eyes half-closed in exertion and a myriad of warnings on his helmet, shouted before they got up to push against the EVO with him. Then another set of hands, and another, until Knight was certain all five of them were trying to help him.
He didn't know whether to be more surprised that they bothered to know his name or pissed that they were trying, futilely, instead of running.
Another ripple through the EVO brought another cascade of warnings. Shit. They were going to die here. Reporters would find his corpse alongside five equally crushed children.
"Get out of here!" He ordered, desperation creeping into his voice. There was still enough space. Enough time.
"And give up on one of our own?" One said, a flash of green in his vision.
"Not a chance!" Another, the red-capped girl next to him, responded.
"You – you just –" More anger mixed in than confusion, his teeth bared. For Providence agents, saving him would simply be their job. He was a priority, after all, as the company's poster boy. For these people he had never met before, what was in it for them? "Just leave! I'm not one of you!"
Knight had little in common with them. With most other people. That was simply fact.
The group of kids did not, in fact, leave.
Time, and his patience, was running out. He opened his mouth to spit out more choice words, something desperate and with more expletives –
Rex couldn't have arrived at a more opportune moment. As quickly as the EVO appeared – a mound of flesh bursting out of the conference hall, pressing against concrete and plaster until the building buckled to reveal wide-open sky and fleeing citizens – it was gone, replaced by the human that it once was under the receding mutations.
Despite how emotionally closed-off he normally was, White Knight sighed in relief as he kneeled on the ground, shoulders untensing as much as could despite the adrenaline still pumping through his system – at least the sound of him clattering to the ground was buried by cheers from the surrounding children. Their jubilation, jumping and high-fiving each other contrasted with his stoic, reserved nature. He was clearly an outsider, even if celebrating with team members after a near-death experience on a mission was a distantly familiar feeling for Knight.
There was never a truly quiet moment, nowadays. Even in the stillness of the office he had to keep track of so many variables. Though he hoped there would be less disastrous days like this in the future, at least the worst was over. For now.
Slowly, he stood up. First he would need to assess the damage, to the people and to the surroundings. Paperwork. Then he would need to work with the symposium to reschedule the research conference. More paperwork.
He would refuse the invitation to appear in-person next time, even if he was pressured again. White Knight would appear on the screens, offer more Providence soldiers as guards, and nothing more than that. Paperwork in the form of one thinly apologetic email, written neutrally.
Perhaps an email gauging how willing Professor Utonium was to focus more on nanite research. His achievements were impressive and his intelligence wasted in the civilian sector, in Knight's opinion.
"Good job!"
It took a lot to keep him from kicking out of instinct.
The bald kid had clapped the back of his leg as his guard was lowered. "You have shown exceeding amounts of bravery in the field. I was a bit doubtful at first due to your overprotectiveness... but you have truly shown that you have what it takes."
White stared blankly at the kid looking up at him. For once, he was at a loss for words. "Uh."
He was never good at dealing with kids.
"Now that they're away –" The kid dropped his voice lower and looked around, conspiratorially. Knight followed his gaze, and realized he was now surrounded by the flock of children. "Let's talk about why we're really here. I'm Numbuh One. Leader of Sector V, a sector of the Kids Next Door!"
"... Right." No walking out of this one without barreling a kid over, which Holiday had told him looked bad. The Kids Next Door, huh? He had heard about the overly militant band of children from the others. They had put aside their hatred towards adults to combat Fuse, they said. White didn't trust them in the slightest ('as far as he could throw them' didn't work. That was quite far, in his calculations).
They had some sort of technology that was talked about among the scientists and soldiers, but he recalled thinking it was nothing special. Precocious, sure, but the reports of their efficacy must be highly exaggerated.
"Our Treehouse, despite an unfortunate lack of connection with the Moonbase, still has a backup list of any notable cadet candidates. It's been very hard to find you, you know. We don't do this for just anybody! And you have caught our eye!"
"We've been literally watching you!" The one in the flightcap said, smiling as if he hadn't said something insane, and flashing a thumbs-up while doing so.
"We need kids like you in the Kids Next Door, especially now."
"What? But I'm –"
"So congratulations, White Knight! Usually there would be a more formal process involving training in the Arctic Base, but… the War with Fuse, it would be difficult to reach it, and not to brag but Sector V is highly regarded anyways – though you shouldn't go bragging about how you're a member of Sector V yet, you're officially a cadet… working as an emergency full-fledged operative due to said War with Fuse! You understand."
He didn't. He truly didn't.
"So you'll be studying under us! Starting now!"