Rex Salazar

### Relatives

Ben Tennyson (next door neighbour)Taichi NishimuraRin AzumaYae KokonoeOrigami Tobiichi

## Physical description

### Gender

Male

**Rex Salazar** is a 17-year-old, amnesiac EVO with the ability to grow weapons and machines out of his body at will. Prior to the Nanite Event, he was one of the initial recipients of a controlled batch of nanites. Unlike a majority of EVOs, Rex has control over his nanites and is the only known being capable of curing other EVOs. Since childhood, Rex was employed as a secret weapon for Providence, a global organization dedicated to protecting the world from rampaging EVOs.

Unintentionally, Rex disappeared six months into the future and returned to a Providence with a new regime he disapproved of. He willingly left Providence for the time being to join a defect group and rebel against the corrupted organization. While he defeated the Consortium, Rex cured the entire world of nanites. However, Rex reserved his abilities and continued to fight for Providence, which makes him becomes a honours student, and also he remembers his next door neighbour, Ben Tennyson, is a Mark 1 Course 1 Student.

## Abilities

### EVO abilities

Like all living beings on Earth, Rex has nanites bonded to him on a molecular level. Having activated nanites makes him an EVO; however, unlike most EVOs, Rex has the ability to control his nanites at will, allowing him to generate various machinery from his body. He can also use his nanites to communicate with a variety of machines, as well as cure some EVOs of their mutations.

#### Technopathy

Rex is capable of using his nanites to interface with technology, allowing him to communicate with and control it. For example, he first demonstrated this ability to escape the confines of The Keep. Said in his own words, he can "hear them". This can also backfire; hearing too many voices at once will overwhelm Rex and eventually cause him to lose consciousness. After regaining his powers, his technopathic capabilities grew stronger, as shown when he took control of the entire Providence base to disarm hidden bombs. It is shown that Rex's enhanced technopathic capabilities can also allow him to reprogram machines.It has also been proven that Rex can understand the features of a machine once communicating with it. In particular, when Rex used his technopathic abilities on Branden Moses's machine that was claimed to cure EVOs, Rex said he got an understanding that the machine "only lights up and goes *ping*". His technopathic abilities also enable him to disable Providence's control collars, however, they explode after the process.

#### EVO curing

Perhaps Rex's most important ability, Rex can extract the active nanites of other EVOs to cure them. Initially, Rex could not cure EVOs unless they willingly allowed him to extract their nanites. Later, his curing ability seemed to have improved somewhat, as he was able to cure some of Quarry's EVO henchmen against their will. However, it is possible they were simply caught off guard, as the first did not know he was capable of curing EVOs, and the second was unconscious. By his own admission, Rex also had trouble curing non-human EVOs as quickly as human EVOs. However, his skills gradually developed over time, as demonstrated when he successfully cured a Cat EVO that was hunting him and his friends. Rex eventually began to cure animal EVOs without any hesitation. However, some EVOs, known as incurables, have nanites that are completely resistant to curing. When Rex tried to cure a dying incurable EVO named One, the strain was too much for Rex to handle. Other risks are also associated with EVO curing. Rex has a limit to how many nanites from cured EVOs he can carry. If he exceeds this limit, he will begin growing metallic tumorous sacks. Also, if he extracts corrupted nanites, such as the highly unstable nanites in Abysus, he runs the risk of destabilizing his own body. After the worldwide curing event, Rex's curing abilities have largely become obsolete.

#### Machine manifestation

Rex can shape his nanites into a variety of machinery. He uses these for offense, defense, and transportation. The weapons he forms out of his body can be destroyed, but he usually can reform them quickly afterward. Also, if Rex is exhausted, it takes more focus to maintain his weapons; otherwise they instantly disassemble. At one point, Van Kleiss drained away all but one of Rex's nanites, temporarily removing Rex's powers as well. After an MRI, Dr. Holiday discovered the Omega-1 Nanite that Dr. Gabriel Rylander had injected into Rex and identified it as a Control Nanite. Using the supply of inactive nanites he had previously off-loaded in the Purgatory base, Rex was able to reactivate the Control Nanite, regaining his original powers, as well as gaining the blueprints for more powerful machines. Previously, Rex lacked the ability to program his body into building more than one machine at a time. As of now, Rex can allow his nanites to build and use two machines simultaneously.