[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klWCNxdHvas][img]https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fusionfall/images/f/f5/Cartoon-Van-Kleiss.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20250518174700[/img][/url][/center]

[center][color=000000]"[b]It's been a long time Rex. Welcome, to Abysus.[/b]"[/color][/center]

Rex stood poised. Ready. [i][color=green]Supporting leg back, at an angle. Feet shoulder width apart. Your muscles like a coiled spring ready to pop.[/color][/i] The training Six gave him running through his head. Watch for the subtle shifts of his opponents, try to spot their move before they made it. [i][color=skyblue]Anticipate[/color][/i] Rhodeys favourite word running through his head. Rex let his arms fall to his side, coiled into fists. He could feel his nanites, brimming with energy, and beyond that he could feel -

[i]That can't be right[/i].

His expression must have changed as the man before him smiled.

[color=black][b]"You feel it don't you? Yes you're right. Everything around you, even the air is brimming with nanites."[/b][/color] The man raised a hand and a root curled lazily out of the ground, buds appearing along its spine and turning to flowers. It curled lazily, and almost lovingly over to the mans hand. Running softly over his hands. Curling around his fingers till a large orange flower resided in his palm, and then the plant retreat almost as calmly back down through the floor and out of sight. The man twirled the flower between his thumb and forefinger, casting it into a spin it raised gently into the air and then as he released it. It floated gently, carried away by the breeze. Bobbing up and down in the air as it spun in a magnificent orange and blue.

Rex raised a cautious eyebrow. [color=orange]"Just who are you?"[/color] The man chuckled as he clapped his hands together, the sound echoing through the empty halls.

The figure turned around, his coat swishing out behind him and he was about to walk away, before he seemed to change his mind. [b][color=black]"Whiplash, Biowulf. Why don't you take our other friend to the Garden? While I see to young Rex here?"[/color][/b]

[color=orange]"Hang on now-"[/color] Rex started, but the Wolf-Man and Faceless man had already grabbed two of Noahs shoulders and led him down a nearby corridor. [color=orange]"Just who do you think you are?"[/color] Rex blustered his way directly upto the man.

The man sighed, and looked directly into his eyes. [b][color=black]"You really don't remember me then?"[/color][/b] Rex didn't even get a chance to answer before the man sighed, shook his head and then began again. [b][color=black]"No matter. My name is Van Kleiss, I am leader of the pack and I have known you for a very long time. Tell me, what do you know of the nanite event?[/color][/b] 

Rex couldn't help it, in many ways he felt [i]compelled[/i] to follow the man, as the two walked away from all the others. Deeper into the heart of the castle.

[color=orange]"Just what I've seen on TV, what Providence have told me-"[/color]

The scoff was audible, and full of distaste. [b][color=black]"Providence. I wouldn't believe a word they said, if I were you."[/color][/b]

[color=orange]"Well you've not really given me much more to go on dude."[/color]

An arched eyebrow in retort. [b][color=black]"Lets rectify that then-"[/color][/b] The man pushed over two heavyset wooden doors, leading them to a large open chamber. Machinery adjorned the walls, seemingly growing out of them. Chairs carved out of wood seemed to sprout from roots, and swayed every so slightly in the breeze that seemed to be a constant companion within the castle. A lone chair sat at the end of the room, on a slightly raised pedestal. A throne? 

[color=orange]"What is this place?"[/color]

Van Kleiss sat on the chair. [i]A Throne.[/i] Raising his arms as if to offer Rex the entire room. [b][color=black]"This Rex, is where it all started. This is where the EVO was born!"[/color][/b]

[hr]

[table][row][/row]
[row][cell]
[b][color=black]It was five years ago. All the worlds most brilliant minds were gathered here, in this very room. I was here, alongside them. We had worked for years on the future of humanity. The Nanite, self replicating self repairing machines. So microscopic they could be entered into the bloodstream to affect repairs that no doctor could be able to perform. 

There were those whose views however, were less altruistic than my own. You see I wanted to fix the world, but in the age of the meta-human, the superhero and the mutant. There were those who wished to control it.

Which is why a group of us banded together. We were invited to an organisation that specialised in keeping groundbreaking science out of the hands of the military industrial complex, something Stark would never allow. The test proved itself here, in this room -
[/color][/b]
[/cell]
[cell]As Van Kleiss spoke Rex allowed his eyes to scan around the room. Letting his eyes wander over every little detail. He couldn't ignore the slight nagging, tingling sensation at the back of his head that somehow, some of this was familiar to him. As Van Kleiss rambled on and [i]on[/i] about the [i]fixing[/i] the world, and how he had been wronged. Which definitely sounded more Super-Villain than Super-Hero. NNone of this infromation was really registering in his brain.

Rex walked over to a nearby panel, he didn't allow his nanites to investigate the technology but he allowed his hand to just rest lightly on the keyboard. Basking in the memory of it, the sense of nostalgia tickling at the edge of his memory. Then the revelation hit him like a slap in the face.
[/cell][/row][/table]
[center][color=black][b]"-When your parents used the prototype nanites to save your life.[/b][/color][/center]