OOC: Empatheias Application

[deusrexmachina]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Straya
Contact: straya
Age: 30+
Current Characters: Dezel


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Rex Salazar
Age: 17*
Canon: Generator Rex
Canon Point: At the very end of "End Game, part 2" (canon completed, no updates will be necessary)

Background: Overall Series Information via Wikipedia | Rex's Page at the GR Wiki

* Of note, the GR Wiki lists Rex as being 16 years of age, however the passage of time in canon gets wonky at points. Rex is 15 years of age at the start of season 1 and apparently turns 16 before the start of season 2 in the episode "Promises, Promises." ("Apparently" because his exact date of birth is unknown and they are using his anniversary with Providence as his birthday.) However, there is mention of at least 6 months of time passing between his "birthday" and an early season 2 episode, "Waste Land." Another 6 months is added during a time skip that takes place at the end of season 2 during the episode "Lions and Lambs." For this reason and because I'm taking him from the end of season 3, I'm listing him as being 17 years of age.

Personality: Most of who Rex is as a person is who he has become over the last two or so years of his life. This is because when he was found at age fourteen by a mercenary named Six and taken in by Providence, his memory had been wiped. While he retained learned skills such as how to read and write, the names and faces of everyone he knew prior to the blank out were gone from his memory. In fact, the only name he remembered was his own and not even all of it. Unfortunately, the blank out Rex experienced just prior to being found by Six was not even the first time he had been struck down by amnesia. There are two concrete incidents of blank outs occurring (one before he joined Providence and one at the start of the Nanite Event nearly five years prior), but we are given to believe throughout the series that his memory has been wiped several times over a period of roughly four years.

Who Rex is during the series is different from who he was a child, before the first onset of amnesia. Likewise, the person he is now is also different than the one who joined a Hong Kong-based crime ring prior to his time with Providence. Rex is a solid example of "nature versus nurture"; at his base, he is always a survivor and someone willing to take risks, but outside influences are what make him either a selfish person or someone who is willing to give himself for a greater good.

Away from his job of chasing, catching and curing EVOs, Rex is almost everything you'd expect from a highly social, extroverted teenager in his age range. He likes to hang out with friends, go to the mall, watch movies, read comics, play sports and video games, and try to seek out as much normalcy as he can get his hands on at any given time. While he values his role as someone who fights for those who can't, he's still a kid at heart and one who wants to live his life as fully as possible.

In terms of Rex's general social life, he's always up for meeting new people and forging friendships. He's also demonstrated that he can be good with younger kids and despite being the youngest of two brothers in his own family, he seems to have what it takes to play the part of an older brother, himself. Not to be forgotten is that Rex is also a flirt when it comes to girls around his age who catch his eye, even though he's only so-so at flirting due to trying too hard. Corny pick-up lines were common in his less than successful attempts early on in canon, though fortunately some of that behavior seems to have fallen by the way side as he's matured a bit throughout the series. Still, even when he is putting far too much effort into hitting on a girl, he usually comes across as far more "adorkable" rather than creepy, though that isn't to say his attempts can't get tiresome despite his dorky, nerdy charm.

For the most part, Rex doesn't allow the negative opinions of strangers to affect him, partially because that would affect his ability to do his job. Some of this emotional toughness was built up due to the prejudice against EVOs in his own world, but while he has learned to cope with the idea that not everyone accepts him, Rex does desire praise and acceptance from those closest to him and he likes to be thanked when he's done a good job. Though even when something does take him down a peg or two, he's also not one to angst much or for too long; he's the resilient sort and bounces back fairly quickly. On the whole, he tends to be a rather optimistic individual, despite everything he's seen and been through.

That said, the life Rex has led (and can recall) up to this point has forced him to grow up rather quickly. Though he's young, he's also a qualified field agent with a good deal of combat training and experience, thanks in part to teaming up with Six. Rex is adept at thinking on his feet and improvising in tough situations, and while strategy did not used to be one of his fortes, he's gotten better at working out plans before leaping head first into a life or death situation.

Not surprisingly, Rex doesn't like being treated like a tool or a weapon. This goes back to his earliest days at Providence when he was kept confined to a small room about the size of a large walk-in closet, under lock and key when not being trained, in the field or undergoing medical testing. In the eyes of White Knight, the leader of Providence, Rex wasn't anything more than a weapon that needed to be put away when not in use, not to mention one that was expendable should Providence lose control of him. So while Rex may describe himself as a living weapon from time to time, the description is meant to boast his fighting prowess over all else.

There isn't much out there that truly rattles Rex to his core, as he's faced down a number of nasty situations before and most certainly qualifies as a thrill-seeking adrenaline junkie. He's been swallowed alive by larger EVOs, jumped headfirst out of airborne transports and was nearly killed several times over on Prom night by his own date.

What does scare Rex is the idea of losing or failing the people most important to him in the life he's managed to build thus far. His memories are also very dear to him. This is an extremely important point to keep in mind, given his reoccurring bouts of amnesia. The few memories he has of his life before Providence, restored by his new Omega EVO mode, are really only fragments of a larger picture. What other images he has of his life and family are the photographs shown to him by his brother or the videos/photos he's found at sites like his family's old ranchero and what remained of the underground Abysus labs. Caesar is Rex's only known remaining blood relative, and Six, Holiday and Bobo have come to be something of an adopted family for the teenager. In fact, Rex has verbally acknowledged Six as the closest he has to a parent, now. As there is no replacing any of that as easily as replacing lost or damaged material possessions, Rex places an extremely high value on both those closest to him and his experiences. Yet, interestingly enough, even for as much as his memories mean to him - his very sense of self - they are something he is willing to give up if it means making sure those closest to him and the world remain safe. Likewise, he's willing to sacrifice his body and life as much as his mind for the same causes. As a result, loyalty and courage are two of his strongest defining traits.

Given what Rex witnessed and experienced involving the collaring and enslavement of EVOs, he doesn't shy away from defending those who are innocent, yet "not normal". In the case of many EVOs, they were still people, just different and different isn't necessarily wrong, especially when they had no control over the changes they went through. After all, if you have to judge, isn't it better to do so based on who someone is rather than what they are? This was not something Rex understood particularly well at series start, but is something he's learned throughout canon.

Regardless of what life lessons he's already picked up, Rex has more than a few moments of immaturity as he is still a teenager and one who will make poor choices now and then. Sometimes said poor choices involve showing off, something Rex has a bit of trouble resisting depending on who he's around. Talking himself up and making note of his good looks aren't uncommon for him, either. Not being so impulsive is another issue he's had to work on and, at times, he may have difficulty taking a situation or an opponent as seriously as he should. Though what may appear as too much confidence on his part may also serve as a defense mechanism in some cases. When he was younger and prior to becoming bolder and braver, he used jokes and made light of dangerous situations in order to push aside his fear so he could function.

Hand in hand with his somewhat impulsive nature, patience is something else Rex has been working on and getting better with over time. All night stake-outs used to be difficult for him to get through, for example. Still, Rex remains a real go-getter at heart, someone who can't stand to sit around and do nothing while things are going to hell in a hand basket. Whether it's words, actions or both that are needed in a situation, he typically wants to be right in the thick of it. This can sometimes get him in trouble, especially if he's emotionally compromised in such a way that he can't plan well enough to deal with a dangerous situation or act on his feet once in the middle of it.

When it comes to those he does have to combat, Rex is an individual who would rather save lives than take them whenever possible. That in mind, death was reserved for those EVOs who were not only incurable, but too dangerous to contain until a permanent cure was found. Likewise, death was not something Rex really wanted to bring down on a large part of his personal rogues gallery, either. When you caught a villain, you had them put in jail to serve punishment. That's the way it's supposed to work. In some cases, though, Rex was willing to grant those who were against him a second chance and the opportunity to change for the better. While it was not something he understood as a fifteen year old, a year or two in the field have taught Rex that the world is not black and white, but rather cast in shades of gray. Someone's personal history, the influences in their life and circumstances beyond their control can sometimes cause people to go down the wrong path. It's a path Rex himself once walked in another life as a lieutenant to one of the most feared crime bosses in Hong Kong. It's also a path Six has been down as an ex-mercenary, someone who found a living in paid bloodshed as an alternative to living on the streets in his younger years. However, make no mistake about it... Give Rex a solid reason to hold a grudge or commit a crime that's unforgivable in his eyes and no second chances will offered. If death is something Rex does feel necessary to deal out, he'll seek to do so in combat. Even so, this is a line he walks carefully... He doesn't want to end up being just like those he has to fight.

And though it's been less of an issue lately, Rex can be rather rebellious in the face of authority. If he thinks a course of action is wrong, he will argue against it. He's also not a big fan of rules, depending on what those rules might be and what limitations they involve. Issues with authority were especially evident in Rex's early dealings with White Knight, given back then they rarely saw eye-to-eye when it came to mission solutions and/or priorities. The kid is capable of listening to authority figures, however, and it's typically people who have earned Rex's respect and trust. Rex's trust in Six is absolute, for example. Even when Six lost years worth of his own memories and came within an inch of taking Rex's life, Rex didn't flinch, his faith in his partner so great that he knew Six ultimately wouldn't be able to strike a killing blow. Thus when Six has advice for Rex, he's more willing to listen. Granted, that doesn't automatically mean he won't question what he's told, but it does translate into situations with open dialog and a better opportunities for understanding rather than an outright argument.

Overall, Rex is an outgoing, personable kid who wants to do the right thing. He doesn't want to just survive life, he wants to actively live it and make it count. While he's not perfect by any means, the path he's currently on may potentially lead him into being one hell of a well rounded hero in the future.


Abilities: Broken down into the following categories for the sake of ease...

ACADEMICS AND INTELLIGENCE: Rex is a fairly intelligent individual, perhaps not all that surprising given he comes from a family of scientists. During his week long stint at Noah's high school, he managed to score a 98% on a Trigonometry pop quiz. After that point, Holiday took it upon herself to handle his in-house education on a number of subjects, including science, history and Spanish.

It should also be noted here that even though Rex was raised around family members fluent in Spanish (his father was Argentinian, his mother was Mexican), he hadn't mastered the language prior to the Nanite Event and thus his ability to use it is somewhat lacking. In fact, Caesar often gets a good laugh out of his brother trying to speak Spanish at all, partially because his accent is kind of awful and sometimes his attempts to shove Spanish words (including Mexican slang) into English phrases can come off as just plain silly. Thus Rex tends to understand the language better than he speaks it.

Rex has also proven himself a rather artistic individual, able to use the buzz saw mode of the BFS to cut rock sculptures. He also spent a lot of time drawing as a child and was quite good at it for his age.

After running away from Providence numerous times when he was younger, Rex has gotten to be quite street smart, able to survive on his own for days at a time. He knows how to use his various abilities to get by.

COMBAT SKILLS: Rex's fighting style tends toward brawling and improvisation with his machines, his overall combat skills helped along considerably by a couple of years training under the Sixth Most Dangerous Man on the Planet and experience gained via field missions. When faced with four of the other Most Dangerous People on the Planet (Dos, Trey, I.V. and Five), Rex and Six were able to take them all on as a team and defeat them despite the odds.

When unable to use his machines for whatever reason, Rex is still capable of holding his own. He demonstrated this in season 3 by taking on five Providence soldiers with his arms bound to his sides and not only surviving the encounter, but lasting long enough to free himself and win the fight.

ENHANCED PHYSICAL TRAITS AND IMMUNITY: As an EVO, Rex is stronger, more durable and agile than a normal human being. Not only has he survived being put through walls and falling from more than a few stories up, he's also managed to get up from such incidents and head right back into the fray. Additionally, while his strength increases significantly with the use of his various machines (allowing him to manage feats such as stopping a runaway subway train), even without them Rex is still strong enough to crack concrete with one solid punch.

Rex is also immune to a number of drugs, toxins and poisons. He was able to take giant scarlet cobra sea urchin spine through the right shoulder and survive, despite the venom he was exposed to being enough to paralyze and kill a normal human. This isn't to say he's completely immune to absolutely everything, however. When introduced to Rex's system, the toxin from a chupacabra's claws proved strong enough to start breaking his nanites down and would have killed him in less than a day's time if he hadn't obtained an anti-toxin. (Notably, immunity may be at Rex's discretion, as a particular type of knock-out gas was used by Doctor Holiday in one episode to put him under for nanite offloading and worked just fine. Later in the same episode, the same knock-out gas failed to take Rex down when used on him by an enemy.)

The ability to heal quickly and without scarring is another of Rex's enhanced physical traits. Even in situations where he's injured and beaten into unconsciousness, it only takes a day or so for him to recover. In one instance, his nanites even spared him from death via drowning, keeping his vital organs alive until the OM-1 could restart his heart.

THE OMEGA-1 NANITE: Having the Omega-1 in his system has essentially made Rex into a walking nanite factory, as the OM-1 is the only nanite with the ability to replicate. The number of nanites produced is within Rex's control and is typically only necessary when an outside influence destroys a significant number of them.

The OM-1 is also responsible for granting Rex the use of six new builds in addition to the six he started with. (See Machine Building below.)

CURE ABILITY: Until the Cure Event occurred, Rex was the only known cure for some EVOs. Not all EVOs are curable, however. Those with DNA-nanite bonds too strong to break are referred to as "incurables."

The curing process involves Rex making contact with an EVO using one or both hands and drawing out the active nanites. This causes an EVO's mutations to reverse, allowing their body to return to normal. The extracted nanites then remain with Rex until such time as they can be offloaded and stored elsewhere. If Rex ends up with too many surplus nanites, the overload results in metal tendrils and what appear to be metallic tumors sprouting from his body. If not tended to, an overload can potentially cause Rex's body to explode, killing him.

TECHNOPATHY: Rex's nanites allow him to interface/communicate with and control technology and machinery. They also allow him to understand binary and determine the functions/purposes of programs and machines. Additionally, Rex has been able to use this ability to cause damages and even overloads, as well as to facilitate jump-starts, repairs and manage reprogramming. This power even goes so far as to allow Rex to take dents out of metal housing, and reconnect severed wires and tubing.

His ability to master machines extended to the control collars created in canon. Placing a collar on Rex only stalled him momentarily before he managed to remove it. He was also able to take off and destroy the collars put on other EVOs. (Notably, even the brainwashing beam that was sometimes used as a preliminary treatment before collar placement was not enough to take Rex down. Thanks to his powers and his sheer will to overcome, he was able to resist the effects.)

To some degree, Rex can apparently communicate with other EVOs using his nanites, though likely only in extreme situations. This occurred once in canon, while Rex was trying to cure One, who was an incurable. Repeated attempts to force a cure, though painful, created a connection between Rex and One that allowed the latter to use the former as his mouthpiece before he perished.

MACHINE BUILDING: Rex has a total of twelve unique builds, six that came with his original set of nanites and six more that came into being thanks to the Omega-1 nanite being bound to his DNA. At of the start of third season, Rex gained the ability to use two builds simultaneously. The first eleven listed machines can be broken with enough force or even severed from his body, but as long as he doesn't experience a crash or wear himself out, his machines can be re-built quite quickly.

Smack Hands - (Original Build) Rock 'em, sock 'em robot fists, can rotate at high speeds to burrow through dirt, solid rock, concrete, etc. Have been used to beat down metal barriers, can be utilized for climbing and throwing heavy objects.

Punk Busters - (Original Build) Super boots with coiled mechanism for super jump ability. Spikes can extend from soles, thrusters in heels for boosted moves like roundhouse kicks.

B.F.S. - (Original Build) Six foot long double edged blade. Has been used in the past to cut large objects in half, such as an armored school bus. Can be converted into a buzz saw.

Slam Cannon - (Original Build) Rear loader pulls in material for use as ammo (dirt, rocks, concrete, snow, etc.) Usually can get three shots out of one loading and can be loaded while Rex is in motion (for example while on the Rex Ride).

Rex Ride - (Original Build) Hover cycle, front opens to reveal a battering ram. Top speed allows it to keep pace with modern day motorcyles. (Probably tops out at between 180-200 mph.)

Boogie Pack - (Original Build) Flight pack, armed with bolas that launch opposite of the turbines. Can be used underwater as a propulsion pack.

Blast Caster - (Omega) Backpack dynamo generates an electric shock that feeds through the whip arm. Rex is dexterous enough with the whip to ensnare missiles and hurl them away.

Funchucks - (Omega) A pair of nunchucks that can be launched out at enemies like a pair of wrecking balls. They create an energy burst shot when both 'chucks are spun and slammed together.

Bad Axes - (Omega) Giant double axes, edges armed with energy blades that can slice large vehicles in half with ease.

Block Party - (Omega) Generates a barrier of super energized atoms that can be sphere, dome or shield shaped. Will guard against physical and energy based assaults. Barrier can be shattered if it takes too much punishment.

Sky Slyder - (Omega) Hover board, sometimes called the Sky Slicer.

Omega EVO Mode - (Omega) Unlike Rex's other machines, this one is a last resort build triggered by extreme trauma, typically when the situation can end up being fatal; essentially, a nanite controlled defense mechanism that is not voluntarily created and one that converts his entire body into a giant robot (somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 feet tall). This form comes equipped with a rocket punch and authorial intent was that it could also utilize the other Omega machines. If this form is too badly damaged for continued use, it will automatically self destruct, leaving Rex alive and laying at the center of ground zero.

As an additional note, Rex's nanite related abilities (machine building, technopathy and EVO curing) can be affected by his physical and emotional/psychological states. When his powers fail during these times, it's referred to in canon as his "biometrics bottoming out", though perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a crash of sorts. While psychologically based crashes are rare at this point in his life, they can still occur if something or someone can manage to play on what fears and insecurities Rex possesses, such as when the EVO shape-shifter John Scarecrow manipulated Rex and got into his head, causing him deep distress and self doubt. Crashes based on physical issues, such as exhaustion, are a little more common. Recovery time in both situations vary, sometimes only taking a couple of minutes or up to as long as a few hours depending on the cause.

COMBINING ABILITIES WITH BEN TENNYSON: During the official crossover between Ben 10 and Generator Rex, "Heroes United", Ben was able to merge with Rex using his "Upgrade" alien form. Upgrade is normally used to, well, upgrade technology, so Ben using this alien ability on Rex allowed him to ramp up his various machine builds so they were much stronger than before. For example, the Smack Hands became rocket fists and the Boogie Pack turned into a jet pack with the ability to launch missiles.

THE META (MASTER CONTROL) NANITES AND THE DOMINION CODE: At the end of the series, Rex gained literal godhood by taking all five linked Meta Nanites into himself and unlocking the completed Dominion Code. This allowed him to bring about a worldwide Cure Event. After the completion of the Event, Rex then ordered the Meta Nanites to permanently shut down, never to activate again for anyone, not even him. While these deactivated nanites don't do anything for Rex post-series, the fact that they exist and are still inside his body bears mentioning for the sake of a completed ability list.


Alignment: THRAS. One of Rex's most defining traits is his ability to be brave, even when the odds are against him, or when it might cost him his identity or even his life. His isn't the audacity of a fool, however. Rather he's someone who does know fear and chooses to overcome it.

Other: Rex will be arriving with the clothes on his back and everything contained within his pants and jacket pockets, which includes a smart phone. Obviously it will be useless for communication of any kind, but if possible I'd like him to be able to have and keep it for use of the other functions, such as the camera and photo gallery. When the battery runs low, he'll be able to use his technopathy to force a charge back into it again.

⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Sample: TDM threads, one and two!


Questions: While Rex did initiate the end-of-series Cure Event, he did not cure himself and thus has maintained not only all his powers, but his active nanites. This potentially includes not only the set controlled/partially created by the Omega-1 that make him an EVO, but also nanites he removed from other EVOs.

In past games, nanites in GR characters have been treated similar to bloodborne pathogens, able to be passed along in blood and possibly other bodily fluids (such as with open wound/blood to wound contact in a fight, blood in contact with mucous membranes, etc.). That said, what's the preference for handling nanites in this case? This is keeping in mind that non-GR characters who become infected do not necessarily have to turn EVO right away or at all, as nanites are prone to activating at random and many people in GR canon never went EVO during the six plus years between the Nanite Event and the Cure Event. Typically, however, the most common type of EVO that people, animals and other living things become are the wild sort that don't maintain a higher level of intelligence and are prone to rampaging. Rex is also able to cure most EVOs on an individual level, though he can't do so until after they've turned and there was never an in-canon solution for removing all nanites from living creatures, save for a one-off, accidental instance involving a molecular dissembling chamber that nearly killed the character in question. There have also been a couple other instances of EVO curing/total nanite shutdowns without Rex's direct involvement (see the above EVO link at the wiki for more info if needed), but were also one-off cases that were difficult for characters in canon to replicate. Granted, there may be some other in-game possible solution that I'm unaware of, though, such as the tech knowledge of other characters or something else within game mechanics themselves.

But anyway, just let me know what works best for you all as the mod team and I'll roll with it, whether or not this kid can accidentally pass on his EVO issues, so to speak!

Finally, let me know what's best when it comes to Rex's full Omega EVO Mode, whether it should be completely inaccessible, should manifest as it normally does or if the size of it needs to be reduced from 40 feet high to more like 10-15 feet or so. Thanks much!