The Trade Read online

  First published in Great Britain 2011

  by Egmont UK Limited

  239 Kensington High Street

  London W8 6SA

  Cartoon Network, the logo, GENERATOR REX and all

  related characters and elements are trademarks of and

  © 2011 Cartoon Network.

  Written by Barry Hutchison

  ISBN 978 1 4052 6101 2

  eISBN 978 1 7803 1095 4

  Printed in Great Britain

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright owner.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  TOTAL RECALL Quiz

  Sneak Preview

  CHAPTER 1

  FLUUUB!

  HIGH ON A GRASSY VERGE in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, something was growing. It was a man. At least, it had been.

  His arms and legs were swelling, puffing up until they were several times their normal width. His whole body bulged, growing larger and more bloated with every second that passed.

  Other park visitors began to scream and wail and run for their lives, as the man’s skin became slick and gloopy and his limbs were drawn into his now bus-sized body.

  Inside him, microscopic machines called nanites were altering his molecular structure, turning him from a human being into something new.

  And into something revolting.

  Rex yawned. He was curled up on a chair inside a Providence tank, wishing he were still in bed.

  ‘Eight a.m.?’ he groaned. ‘Seriously? Who goes to the park at eight a.m.?’

  Over by the door, Agent Six jabbed a series of buttons. ‘Half of San Francisco,’ he snapped, ‘so we need to keep civilian casualties to a minimum.’ He turned and glared at Rex through his sunglasses. ‘Which means I need you awake.’

  ‘I’m awake!’ Rex protested. He stood up, stretched, then yawned again. ‘But seriously – eight a.m.? Someone needs to teach these Evos how to tell time.’

  Agent Six flicked a final switch and the door slid open. The sound of screaming and gunfire immediately filled the inside of the tank. Six stepped aside. ‘Be my guest,’ he said, motioning for Rex to lead the way.

  ‘Ew,’ Rex winced as he stepped down from the tank, ‘what stinks?’ He looked up and spotted the giant slug-like monster squirming on the grass just twenty or so metres away. ‘Oh. Yeah. Forget I asked.’

  Gunfire roared around them as a squadron of Providence Agents opened fire on the Evo. The Agents’ bullets passed through the creature’s jelly-like body, before emerging harmlessly on the other side.

  A woman in a white lab coat stormed out from within the tank. ‘Tell them to stop shooting,’ Dr Holiday barked. ‘That thing’s unstable. Hit it in the wrong place and it pops like a balloon, then everyone here gets covered in nanite soup.’

  Six raised an arm. The sound of gunfire immediately stopped.

  Dr Holiday sighed with relief. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Looks like it’s all down to you, kid,’ said Six.

  ‘So, what’s new?’ Rex asked. ‘Anything special I need to know?’

  ‘Don’t get killed.’

  ‘Thanks,’ replied Rex. ‘I’ll bear that in mind.’

  With a whirr and a clank, he put the nanites within his own body into action. Two enormous robotic fists grew from Rex’s arms. He clanked them together a couple of times, testing them, then ran closer to the wriggling slug-beast.

  ‘Hey, Gloopy,’ Rex cried. He pointed to a small “KEEP OFF THE GRASS” sign sticking out of the ground. ‘Can’t you read?’

  BEEEUUUK!

  The Evo’s mouth opened and a spray of bright green gunk erupted from inside it. The gunk hit the sign, turning it into a sizzling pile of goo.

  ‘OK,’ Rex said, ‘I’m going to take that as a “no”.’

  Raising a metal fist, Rex charged. One good, solid punch should be enough to knock the Evo out, he reckoned. After that, the rest would be easy.

  Halfway there, Dr Holiday’s voice crackled in his ear. ‘Pop like a balloon, remember?’

  ‘What? You mean I can’t even – Whoa!’

  Another spray of green slime spewed at him. His robotic arms retracted back into his body and a pair of jet turbines extended from his shoulders. With a roar, the Boogie Pack lifted into the air just as the grass at his feet dissolved in a puddle of sludge.

  ‘So, we can’t shoot it or hit it?’ Rex asked, climbing higher above the park.

  Dr Holiday’s voice buzzed in his ear. ‘No. We can’t risk it spreading more nanites.’

  Rex looked down. The slug Evo was squelching across the grass towards the Providence soldiers.

  ‘I’d say reasoning with it is out of the question, too,’ Rex muttered. He took a deep breath. ‘Guess I’m just going to have to get my hands dirty.’

  WHOOSH!

  Rex rocketed towards the Evo, his face fixed in a mask of determination. This was going to get nasty!

  As he passed above the slug-beast, he folded the jetpack back into his body. Almost at once he began to fall. Only the gloopy hide of the Evo stopped him hitting the ground.

  Mechanical feet grew from Rex’s legs, allowing him to grip onto the Evo’s back, like a cowboy on a bucking bronco. The Evo growled as Rex pressed his hands against the monster’s slimy skin.

  ‘Trust me,’ he grimaced, ‘I don’t like this any more than you do.’

  Concentrating hard, Rex absorbed the nanites from inside the Evo. He felt them flow into his body, and as they did, the slug-creature became a slug-man, and then, finally, just a man.

  Standing up, Rex wiped his sticky hands on the front of his trousers. ‘Another one bites the … um … slime.’

  Retracting his Punk Buster legs back into his body, Rex turned to find Agent Six standing in front of him. He was about to speak when the Punk Busters emerged again all on their own. ‘Whoa, where’d they come from?’ he frowned.

  Agent Six raised an eyebrow. ‘Everything OK?’

  ‘Yeah, it’s just –’

  The legs pulled back into Rex’s body. He paused for a moment, making sure they were gone for good this time. ‘Weird,’ he began, but a sudden clanking sound stopped him. The Punk Busters reformed yet again, only this time it was clear that something was very wrong.

  Rex stared at his arms, which now had a huge pair of mechanical feet attached to the end of them. ‘OK,’ he swallowed. ‘This is not good.’

  CHAPTER 2

  AGENT SIX STARED long and hard at the feet on the end of Rex’s arms. ‘Quit fooling around,’ he said, at last.

  Rex shook his head. ‘Um … I’m not doing this!’

  The last word came out as a loud gasp, as the Punk Busters vanished without warning. Rex and Agent Six stood in silence for a few moments. Around them, the Providence Agents were dealing with the crowds and finding a blanket for the man who had, until very recently, been a slug.

  ‘Well done, Rex,’ said Dr Holiday, strolling across the grass to join them. ‘That was some quick …’ She spotted
their expressions. ‘Those are worried faces,’ she said. ‘Why are we doing worried faces?’

  With a metallic clang, just one of Rex’s Smackhands emerged. Surprisingly, it chose to emerge from the top of his head. Rex looked up. ‘I’m officially upgrading my “worried face” to a “terrified face”,’ he announced, quietly.

  Dr Holiday blinked. ‘That’s … unexpected,’ she said.

  ‘You sure you aren’t doing this on purpose?’ asked Agent Six, his eyes narrowing.

  ‘I’ve got a fist growing out of my head!’ Rex cried. ‘Why would I do that on purpose?’

  There was another sound of moving metal and his head returned to normal. Rex felt a brief moment of relief, before his Boogie Pack generated from his shoulders. He barely had time to realise what was happening before the jet turbines activated, launching him straight up into the air.

  Down on the ground, Six and Holiday watched him streak towards the clouds. From that distance, they could barely even hear his panicked screams.

  ‘OK,’ Six said. ‘I guess we’d better haul him in for testing.’

  Dr Holiday nodded her head. ‘I guess we should find a way to catch him first. Any suggestions?’

  THUD!

  Rex slammed down onto the grass. He had metal arms where his feet should be. He groaned loudly as he tried to sit up.

  Six nodded. ‘One or two.’ He turned and pointed towards the closest Agent. ‘Bring me a stretcher,’ he ordered. ‘And make it the strongest one we’ve got.’

  Three hours later, Rex lay on an uncomfortable bed back at Providence headquarters. In the last one-hundred-and-eighty minutes he had been poked, prodded, jabbed, pierced, punctured, tickled, scratched and – briefly – electrocuted. It had not been his favourite morning.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Dr Holiday, shrugging.

  Agent Six frowned. ‘Nothing?’

  ‘Nothing. He’s absolutely fine.’

  ‘Does that mean you’ll stop sticking pins in me?’ Rex asked, hopefully. Six ignored him.

  ‘That’s good news. He can get back on duty.’

  ‘I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,’ Holiday argued.

  ‘Why? You just said he was fine.’

  ‘Because I really didn’t enjoy the pins,’ Rex continued. ‘Or the electric shock.’

  ‘The tests say he’s fine,’ Dr Holiday nodded, ‘but we both know he isn’t fine.’

  ‘Wasn’t really a fan of any of it, actually,’ added Rex.

  ‘We both saw what happened,’ Holiday continued. She looked into Six’s eyes, but all she saw was her reflection in his mirrored sunglasses. ‘Something was seriously wrong.’

  ‘Was seriously wrong,’ Six said. ‘Past tense. You just said it yourself, he’s testing normal now.’

  ‘I’d like to do some more tests,’ Holiday told him. ‘Central nervous system, higher brain function …’

  In one single bound, Rex leapt up from the bed. He stood beside them, back straight, trying to look as fit and healthy as possible. ‘Tests?’ he asked. ‘No tests. Tests done. I’m fine, look.’

  He stepped back and quickly cycled through his transformations. The Punk Buster feet appeared, only to vanish again a moment later. With a twitch of his shoulders, he brought out the Boogie Pack.

  ‘Huh?’ he grinned, turning left and right to show the jetpack off. ‘Looking good, right?’

  There was another metallic whirr and the jetpack disappeared. Raising his arms, Rex produced his Smackhands. He gave Six and Holiday a mechanical thumbs-up and flashed them a hopeful smile. ‘See? Good as new. No more tests needed. Especially not ones that involve sticking pins in my face.’

  Six stared at him, impassively. Eventually, he turned to Dr Holiday. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘You know what I think,’ she replied.

  ‘We’ll keep an eye on him,’ Six said. ‘First sign of malfunction and I pull him back in, but for now he’s back on duty.’

  ‘All right!’ Rex cheered, and then he jumped as the piercing scream of an alarm echoed around Providence HQ.

  CHAPTER 3

  REX AND AGENT SIX stood by the open back door of a Providence aircraft as it swooped low over a city.

  ‘San Jose, California,’ Six said. ‘Tenth largest city in the United States. Population one million.’

  Rex pointed. ‘One million and one, if you count that guy twice.’

  Below them, a two-headed Evo was stomping along a deserted street, tearing through cars with its long, clawed fingers. Both heads looked up at the sound of the aircraft’s engine.

  ‘Evasive action!’ Six bellowed, as the Evo tore a street light from the concrete and hurled it like a javelin towards them. The boat-like aircraft banked sharply left and the metal pole soared harmlessly by.

  But the sudden sideways movement sent Rex stumbling through the open door. ‘Great,’ he muttered, as he plunged towards the ground. ‘Just great.’

  The wind whistled around Rex, whipping at him as he fell. Down below, the two-headed Evo bared twin sets of pointed teeth and let out a roar.

  KA-BOOM!

  A pair of enormous metal feet crunched down onto the street, shattering the concrete. Rex cracked his knuckles. ‘It’s punkin’ time!’ he grinned, swinging his leg just as the Evo hurled itself at him.

  The tip of his metal foot caught the Evo under one of its chins. The monster staggered backwards, growling. Its four eyes narrowed, its claws splayed wide and it lunged once again.

  It was bigger than Rex – much bigger – but it could move fast when it wanted to. Rex barely had time to raise a mechanical knee before the Evo was on him. There was a crunch as the knee was driven into the Evo’s stomach, and both heads hissed loudly.

  But still the monster kept coming. Rex saw the deadly claws swishing towards his face. Raising his arms, he brought out his Smackhands. The Evo growled with frustration when it found its attack blocked.

  Pushing the Evo back, Rex fired a powerful uppercut against one of its jaws. With a squelchy rrrip, the head flew off. It bounced twice on the road, then skidded to a stop.

  Rex looked down at the head. The head looked back. ‘Um … Oops,’ he said. He turned to the head that was still attached to the body and smiled apologetically. ‘We can probably just pack that in ice. I bet they can stitch it right back on.’

  There was a sound like an enormous bubble popping, and another head emerged from within the Evo’s shoulder. ‘Or, you know, you could do that,’ Rex said with a shudder.

  Down on the ground, the severed head was already withering to dust. Up on the monster’s shoulders, the other heads twisted their faces in rage.

  ‘Nice Evo,’ Rex said, stepping backwards. ‘Good Evo.’

  The creature began to advance. As it did, two large, bone-like blades grew from its forearms, stretching out until they almost touched the ground.

  Rex smiled, nervously. ‘Look, can’t we just talk about this?’

  SWISH!

  One of the blades sliced through the air. Rex ducked and rolled, just avoiding being sliced in two.

  When Rex leapt back to his feet, his Smackhands were gone. In their place was the enormous blade of the Big Freakin’ Sword. The blade’s orange metal glinted in the sunlight.

  ‘Not the talkative type, huh?’ Rex asked. ‘Well, it’s your loss.’

  He swung his sword-arm around in a wide arc. The Evo raised its twin blades, only to see them be chopped cleanly in half. The bones shattered as they hit the ground.

  ‘Hey,’ Rex smirked. ‘I did warn you.’

  Screeching, the Evo lunged once more, but Rex was ready. The butt of the sword crunched against one head, then the other. With a low groan, the monster sunk to its knees, then fell, faces first, to the ground.

  ‘About time,’ said Six, who was suddenly standing right behind Rex. ‘Now do your thing so we can get out of here.’

  ‘What? No “good work”?’ grumbled Rex. The Big Freakin’ Sword retracted back into his arm. ‘No “congratul
ations on a job well done”?’

  Six tried not to smile, but a twitch at the corner of his mouth gave him away. ‘Good work,’ he said. ‘Now fix him up and let’s get back to the Keep.’

  ‘OK, OK,’ Rex sighed. ‘But what’s the rush? The sun’s shining, the sky’s clear. I’m sure we flew over a beach about thirty miles back. We could swing back there and –’

  ‘We’re on a mission, not a day trip,’ Six reminded him. ‘But … we’ll see. For now, though, get curing.’

  Rex grinned. Six could be pretty stern, but he did have a sense of fun buried deep inside his designer suit. A trip to the beach was just what Rex needed to forget about the pins-in-the-face experience.

  But first things first. Pressing his hands against the unconscious Evo’s heads, Rex felt the nanites flooding into him. In moments, the figure on the ground began to change. The claws became more like fingers. The extra head slowly sunk back towards the shoulder. The transformation was halfway complete when things started to go wrong.

  ‘Not again!’ Rex cried. His Smackhands had appeared where his feet should have been. He wobbled unsteadily, then both legs slid in opposite directions and he thudded down onto the road.

  There was the sound of machinery moving and the Punk Buster legs wrapped around his arms. Rex stared down at his limbs. He’d never been able to call up the Smackhands and Punk Busters at the same time before, but now here they all were. Just in completely the wrong places.

  Agent Six touched the communication device in his ear. ‘Evac team,’ he barked. ‘Rex is in trouble and we’ve got an Evo stuck mid-transformation. Clean up needed. Now.’

  ‘What’s happening?’ Rex gasped. The machines suddenly felt tight on his arms and legs. ‘It … it hurts.’

  ‘In that case, you can thank me for this later,’ said Six. He summoned an Agent to his side and, with a brisk nod, took from him an extremely long needle. Six flicked the anaesthetic inside the needle and before Rex could protest, slipped the point into what was left of Rex’s right arm.

  For a moment, Rex saw the world go fuzzy at the edges, and then everything slowly faded to black.