Rex loved his sleep.

Ever since he'd saved the world half a year ago, he'd had a lot more of it. Sure, his training sessions hadn't quite ended, but with all EVOs except for himself deactivated, saving cities was a lot less stressful. Mostly, it had been robot powered attacks that had ravaged cities. Still, all he had to do was shut them down with technopathy and go about his day, relaxing when he wasn't on a mission. It wasn't that he was any less active in his usual playful endeavors, but still...

He never knew how much he loved naps until he got the chance to binge on them.

His bed felt unusually hard, however. The new bed he'd gotten at Providence was something that took a while to get used to, of course, but he didn't think it would take more than a week. Rex could also tell that it was bright in his room, despite the fact that his eyes were shut tight. Bright light permeated through eyelids, making him groan in annoyance. He supposed that Bobo had opened the shades on his recently installed window, most likely to play an early morning prank of some sort.

The idea of said horrid prank immediately intensified when he felt something crawling on his leg.

Rex let out a girlish scream as he jolted awake and shook his leg, desperately hoping the chimp hadn't placed a centipede on him like the other day. Bobo had a penchant for making the boy embarrass himself in public, and the teen's screams usually drew in amused looks from anyone who surrounded him. The young EVO huffed. Surely it wouldn't hurt to prank someone else, would it? Why not bother-

He wasn't at Providence.

The teen instantly forgot about his leg when he realized that he wasn't in his room at all. In fact, he wasn't anywhere near a building- from his view, none could be seen. He looked down to see that his "bed" was actually a wooden bench, and glanced up to see trees shading him weakly from the sun. Surrounded by nature, not a single person was in line of sight.

All he could see was green.

Rex groggily hopped off the bench, his feet meeting a gravel path upon landing. He stood up and stared at it, noticing that it seemed to wind around the forest and disappear behind foliage, making an image of a hiking trail come to mind. It was a smooth and well kept path, indicating that even if he couldn't see anyone, civilization wasn't far away. How he'd woken up in a forest was a complete mystery, but every path led to somewhere, didn't it?

All he had to do was walk.

Rex yawned and inhaled the fresh air, stretching his arms as he travelled through the forest. It was nice to know that no strange EVO could suddenly launch itself at him anymore, and that no tree could become sentient out of the blue and choke him to death. Birds twittered in the air, and the boy could hear the rush of water in a nearby brook soothing his nerves. The teen wondered what he'd done to the monkey to deserve such an elaborate set up.

But a cold chill ran up his spine as he realized he couldn't remember anything before he'd woken up.

Rex ceased his stroll and felt himself begin to panic, though trying to calm himself down. Though it was true he suffered a memory blank, he tried to assure himself that it couldn't be that bad. He remembered Holiday, Six, Bobo, and everyone else in his life, friend or enemy. That meant that his memory was still somewhat intact. The teen came to a quick conclusion that he must have been drugged before being brought into the forest, which served as a decent temporary solution.

He pressed his hand to his ear to call the Holiday on his earpiece, only to realize it wasn't there anymore.

Someone had stolen it.

Rex let out a hiss of disappointment as he lowered his hand, feeling thoroughly frustrated. First, something had crawled on his leg- hopefully, he had shaken the thing off- then he'd woken up in a forest, and was now stuck without any form of communication. Strangely enough, he wasn't dead. Whoever had kidnapped him might have had different intentions than murder if the boy was still able to breathe. Perhaps a new enemy had decided that it was time to-

Noah's birthday!

Rex lightly smacked himself on the face laughed, the sounds of his amusement echoing through the trees. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten his own best friend's birthday. True, he needed to check his phone to confirm it, but Noah had said he wanted a peaceful retreat for his special day. The young EVO has assumed it would be a weekend at the beach instead of the woods, but it wasn't his choice to make. He supposed Bobo had added the extra touches by making them all wake up in the forest, and no doubt had help carrying it out. Maybe even Holiday had joined in on the prank as well.

Perhaps it was a sort of a scavenger hunt, and that they would find things in the trees to carry with them. Maybe a barbecue was waiting at the end of the trail, as would the rest of his family. They would probably be laughing at his initial confusion, then invite him over for the birthday party.

To make sure he wasn't just grasping at straws, all Rex had to do was check the date.

The boy patted his back pocket, his breath hitching when he felt nothing. He tried his other pockets as well, and then rechecked them all a second time, but still couldn't find his phone. He scowled, making his mind up to get back at Bobo harshly for this. The whole set up was simply too annoying for this early in the morning- or afternoon, it seemed- and it was outright treason to take his phone.

As he retracted his hands from his pocket, he caught sight of something unfamiliar on his wrist. Rex peered at it and realized it was a watch, but knew that it didn't belong to him in the slightest. He'd never seen it before in his life, and neither had he seen anything of its particular build either. It was made of silvery white metal, and was so sleek and lightweight, he hadn't even noticed it until he laid eyes on it.

Why would anyone give anyone but Noah a gift on the blonde's birthday?

It wasn't a normal watch either. It seemed far more advanced, with buttons that activated who knows what kind of functions. Rex decided to ignore the buttons for now and to just press one large one that read "TIME". To his surprise, green holographic lettering shot out from a watch and stayed suspended in the air, displaying the date and time. The teen was completely taken aback by the holographic watch's abilities, and began to wonder if it was his birthday instead.

The date was, in fact, Noah's birthday, but something was very wrong. The year was completely off…

By seventeen years.

Rex stared at the date displayed in utter confusion, guessing that he must have accidentally pressed a button and messed up the year setting. He tried to use his technopathy to reset the watch to the correct time, but every time he did, it kept resetting itself backwards by a decade and the same amount of additional years. After a few more moments spent trying to fix the watch, he gave up and rolled his eyes. Perhaps it was a prank watch.

Then, a sentence shot out from the watch and replaced the date.

"You're not changing anything, Rex."

Rex stared at the green text in the air, then watched as the side of the watch opened to reveal a tiny compartment. Inside the minute space lied a tiny green earpiece. The boy hesitantly placed it into his ear, figuring that it was probably the only way to communicate with whoever was somehow controlling the watch.

"Bobo?" the teen asked tentatively, starting to walk down the trail again. "This is fucked up. Don't ever take my phone again."

New texts flashed and hovered in the air. "I am not who you think I am, for now. And I shall do what I please. Tell me. Where do you think you are?"

Rex stared at the scenery around him, and walked faster. "Some forest. I don't know. Who are you? Why are you doing this?"

"Pick only one question."

Rex faltered for a moment, then frowned. On one hand, he desperately wanted to know who gave him the watch. It looked like something from a high tech company, and he might feel more safe if he knew the anonymous kidnapper's identity. But on the other hand, he might be physically safer if he knew why he was there, and what was to come. For all he knew, despite the lack of EVOs, the woods could still be much more sinister than he thought.

Th teen picked physical over mental comfort. "I want to know why you're doing this. I'll find out who you are later."

"Indeed you will," new green lettering read. "I'm doing this for my personal desires. Whether you wish to participate or not will have no bearing on anything, as I am in complete control. For now, I suggest you keep walking."

The watch then switched off on its own, and no matter how many times the young EVO yelled into his earpiece for a reply, none came. If this was a prank, it sure was a horrible one- then again, Bobo had been banned from several countries due to the audacity of his antics. He wouldn't rule out his family, but a voice in the back of his mind insisted that it wasn't any of them.

This was something far more strange than he could imagine.