Disclaimer: The Evo King Does Not Own Anything! Hell, The Device I'm Using Ain't Even Mine! So, Don't Sue Me! I'm Already Broke As Hell!
Chapter Two: "Aftermath"
"No...No... How...?" Caesar couldn't believe this. He just escaped a life ending explosion and now he has to deal with his little brother's amnesia problem.
"Do you... Do you remember me, hermanito?" Caesar cocked his head forward, so that he can her Rex's voice clearly.
The dark crimson eyed boy felt uneasy. He woke up and suddenly he remembers little to nothing. The guy in front of him was not giving him `big brother` vibes, it's more of `stranger danger` vibes.
So, he scooted back, but came to a stop once his back was firmly pressed against the wall.
Caesar noticed Rex's unwillingness to talk to him any further and frowned. He had witnessed Rex losing his memories before, he presumed it was a side effect of the nanites inside him, but those times were like a hangover.
Before, Rex only forgets a day's worth of memory, sometimes even 48 hours of it, which The Salazar family was displeased by but it's either that or death, but never in those times have Rex completely lost all of his experiences.
So, imagine Caesar's surprise that day has arrived...of course it had to be this day!
"Listen, brother..." Caesar began, leaning towards Rex cautiously. "I know you're panicking right now but–"
"Panic?" Rex perked up and gave the stranger a pouting look. "I'm as calm as I can be, pal! Who are you anyways? You keep telling me I'm your `bro`, when we don't look nothing alike!"
Falsehood. Rex did see the physical similarities between him and the stranger, however, he shrugged that fact off as a coincidence. He fully believed that this guy right in front of him was just trying to sway him into a trap.
"Rex, please. No need to be scared, I'm only trying to help you." Caesar assured precisely and clearly.
"I'm. Not. Scared." Rex narrowed his eyes as his features conveyed a serious face that is ready to take on great threats.
"Rex." Caesar brought his hand up and was going to grab Rex by the shoulder. The younger Salazar was immediately alarmed by this action and scooted back a bit further but that was all in vain as his back was still pressing against the wall.
"I'm warning you." Rex's dead serious tone of his voice and his words had fallen into deaf ears as Caesar still continued to take a hold on to Rex's shoulder for his little brother's sake.
All of a sudden, when Caesar least expected it, the same shoulder where he was gonna hold suddenly grew out a silver tendril.
At the end of that tendril began forming a metallic gauntlet. The gauntlet had a black, silver, and violet color scheme to them, it also had three thick metal fingers.
That said gauntlet took hold Caesar's wrist instead, and twisted it slowly which shot a painful sting through him. The metallic hand didn't give a care about what he was feeling as it continued to turn distort.
"ACCKK!" Caesar's face morphed into a pained one. Other than the pain, he felt confused. Since when was Rex able to do...this?
With one look on Rex's face told Caesar that he didn't. Rex looked just as surprised as he was. This must be the nanites inside of him activating and protecting him from what he deemed as a threat.
Caesar fought back the pain with all his will. "Rex, stop...?"
Rex snapped out of his confusion and by instinct he managed to stop the metal hand's movement, with it coming to full stop. It didn't necessarily let go of Caesar's wrist, it just ceased twisting it.
Rex was surprise by this. It felt like the gauntlet obeyed to what Rex was thinking. Sure, the guy was a stranger, but he hasn't done anything to hurt or manipulate him.
Hell, ever since he woke up, the stranger had done nothing but to...comfort him? Rex just thought that he was being baited into a false sense of security.
Caesar finally relaxed, sighing in relief that Rex came around. He turned to him when all sense of sound was mute. "Listen, Rex, I'm not a threat. Promise! Just let me go, and I'll tell you everything..."
A moment of silence came between the two as Rex internally contemplated on the stranger's offer.
He wasn't completely on board with him but if he ever tried to backstab him, Rex will make sure a twist of a wrist only going to be the only punishment the stranger would endure.
He doubt that would happen though, the guy looked...friendly enough?
Rex huffed. "Fine...but don't get any funny business." As he stood up, the silver tendril sank back into his shoulder, which felt a little disorienting, but he'll probably get used to it.
Caesar rubbed his swelling wrist to ease out the pain, it was working but very slowly, and got on his feet too. He took easy steps forwards to his little brother to see if he was comfortable with him around. He didn't want to make Rex uncomfortable in such trying times.
Noticing that Caesar was closing the distance between them, Rex reflexively leaned away, not out of fear but more out of...embarrassment. The stranger was being awfully quiet, creating this awkward energy surrounding them.
Wanting to move out of this awkward circumstance, Rex spoke up on a different subject. "Uh... You said you're going to tell me everything, right? Well, I'm waiting..."
Caesar snapped out of his trance and immediately got what Rex was talking about. "Oh, right!" He turned to his heel and walk up to the monitor located in the side of the lab.
Caesar turned the monitor on and spoke up, "Can you please tell me what you remember as of now?"
Rex rubbed his hair as if he was massaging his brain. "Well, all I can remember was waking up in this place you call a pod." Curious, Rex sniffed the place. His face scrunched up and immediately didn't took a liking out of the aroma. "Agh, it smells like something burned in here." Getting sick of the smell, he pinched the holes of his nose shut together.
Caesar fried his eyes off the monitor for a minute and look towards the hanging wire that earlier was spurting electricity. "Well, you're not far off." In comedic timing, the wire popped out small round of bolts, which Rex, to his surprise, instinctively flinched at the very sound of it. "Electricity actually fried the lab. Thankfully, it seems that the lab is still working fine."
Deciding he should just stand the aroma, Rex let go of his nose and continue from where he left off. "I...remember my name though, can't exactly remember all of it. It's just Rex. And that's it... I oddly speak Spanish. Am I spanish or I just learned how to speak Spanish?"
"Not completely. Our mother, Violeta, was born in Mexico City, while Father, Rafael, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, you were born in Geneva, Switzerland, inheriting most of Mother's genes. Continue." Caesar turned back to his computer and typed away while still keeping in open ears.
Rex had fallen to silence. He couldn't recall what his life was before all of this. If he did go far and hard from the depths of his mind, it somewhat triggered something on his senses and left him having a small yet intolerable headache.
He frowned as he did try but you can already guess what happened after that. "...I... That's all I know. Apart from somehow knowing and speaking fluent spanish and my first name..." Rex looked down, saddened.
Caesar sadly sighed and rubbed his tired eyes with his thumb & index finger. This was awful. Really awful. He wasn't confident on tackling Rex's amnesia, his parents were always the one who'd done that part and it seemed to work everytime they do it.
So, then he figured, a simple re-telling of their parents story might be enough to jog up that brain of his. Trying won't hurt nobody.
Looking to his computer even deeper, Caesar dug through his files and finally found his family photos. They were figuratively beneath his many cancelled projects. He was supposed to clean up his desktop but found himself forgetting to do so.
"Rex, come here." Caesar gently ordered, gesturing his hands to walk over to his side. The boy helplessly complied and did so. "Look." Caesar pointed towards the screen, which Rex's line of sight followed. From there, he saw a photo of two adults in lab coats.
Rex quirked an eyebrow, confusion began to leak out through his face.
Noticing his confusion, Caesar simply spoke up with some slight enthusiasm in his tone. "These are our parents, Violeta and Rafael Salazar, whom I was talking about from earlier." Rex perked up in surprise and continued to listen. "Our parents and also me are scientists. We are...were part of a splinter group, to keep people away from our projects, so that our world changing works wouldn't be fallen under the wrong hands."
Mentally, Caesar scoffed. It was ironic how the whole purpose of the secret base was to keep the wrong people away...yet it still managed to be controlled by those exact people.
Rex raised an eyebrow in suspicion. Considering he has amnesia, everything he's saying might as well be bogus...but nonetheless he continued to listen.
Caesar shook that line of thought out and focused on the current matter at hand, which was Rex of course. "The three of us and the group took on one of the most ambitious project humanity has ever made so far; The Nanite Project."
With Caesar changing the current photo to another one, Rex was greeted with a sight of what this nanite looks like. He narrowed his eyes, taking in the design of it. It was shaped like a sphere with pillar-like structures sticking out at different places of the orb.
Just like what Caesar had thought, Rex was feeling something. A feeling of...recognition, A flicker on déjà vu lit up on his face, then recovered.
Caesar somehow noticed that shift in expression. "Are you familiar with this design? You were quite frequently showing up in the lab where we were working, so you must've at least saw this design."
Rex wasn't sure. He hesitated to let out any words from his mouth. A somber look spread on his face, as he came to realize. "Yes. But actually no? Ugh~" A hand planted on his now exasperated face. "I don't know~..."
He frowned. A bit disappointed at himself. It was getting in his nerves at this point. Nothing he did was in any way useful. Oh god, another headache was breaching his head again.
His hand swapped to the base of the head in support as a strong headache made it way, racking his brain. The feeling wasn't good, unless if you're a masochist, it felt like an invisible hand was carelessly squashing the insides.
Even though it was subtle, Caesar took notice of Rex's struggle. He saw that he was cupping his head with his eyes glued shut. To add to his case, Rex was even letting out quiet muffled grunts that was no doubt under the influence of something painful.
Caesar did what he had to do. He reached out for Rex and softly laid his hand on his shoulder as a gesture of support. "Rex, Rex." He worriedly called.
Hearing him, one of Rex's shut eyes slowly creak open, still having a hard time. He was greeted with the sight of Caesar who was giving a small warm smile to him. Rex was colored surprise when he found himself feeling...comfort from that smile(?)
"That's enough. Let's take a break, for now. I still have to find out where we are exactly." Caesar let go of Rex and turn his attention back towards his monitor. He closed his documents that contained the photos and went to work as to find their exact location.
Rex just stared at him for a moment. Until his eyes darted around the lab. By just seeing the technologies around him, Rex immediately took interest on what they are and how do they function.
Since they're on a break, Rex decided to find out manually. He only made one step before he heard Caesar spoke, which what lead him to instinctively interrupt his walk.
"Just stay there and relax...Oh! And don't touch anything, I might have forgotten to organize the place, so there might be some left behind hazards laying around. Be careful." Caesar nonchalantly warned.
Aaaannnddd just like that, Rex didn't want to leave this spot...like forever. EVER! He was glued to this spot until the day he dies!
*Spzzt!*
Rex instantly got distraught when the same wire from earlier burst another round of bolts. He mentally let out a `manly` yelp. His body made on its own as he took a step back away from that wire.
Calming down, Rex stayed silent during the duration of the past minutes. It was comfortably quiet with only the sound of Caesar's fingers tapping the keyboard was available. An impatient sigh escaped his mouth, getting quite bored from the silence he endured.
Rex then suddenly thought of something. That something was a question, A question that he hoped Caesar could answer. "Hey...can I ask a question, uuhhh...? I forgot your name."
"It's Caesar." The older Salazar simply replied without looking at Rex.
"Okay, Caesar, do you have any idea of the metal hand that came out of me earlier?"
Caesar stopped typing and side-eyed his little brother. His eyes went a little wide in surprise. "Oh! How could I forget." Chuckling, he light-heartedly chastised him for failing to recall the most important detail of Rex's life. Heh, looks like even without the nanites infused, the Salazars are quite forgetful.
Caesar cleared his throat, stopping his brief laughing fit, and fully looked at Rex. "Those were the nanites inside of you."
"Wait! Those are crawling inside of me!?" A panic induced Rex incredulously yelled. "What are they gonna do to me!?"
As Rex was looking his hands, Caesar shook his head. "Relax, Mijo. The Nanites in you doesn't mostly affect negatively, apart from losing your memories. You see, you were caught in a freak accident, that nearly cost your life. Only way to save your life was an infusion of Nanites, the first batch to be exact... It was risky but it worked. And thankfully so."
Rex was speechless after that reveal. He stopped all motions and processed all of what his brother had said. He almost died? But how?
Realizing something, Caesar cupped his chin. "The Nanites inside of you must have activated on its own when you thought I was gonna hurt you. I heard that Mother added in a code that activates when it's in danger. That must've been the case."
*Beep!* *Beep!*
Caesar snapped out of his thoughts when his computer rang a familiar alarm, notifying him about their current location. "Oh!" Briskly, His full attention shot towards the monitor.
Once he saw it, Caesar couldn't help but be surprise. The location they were at was in a random jungle far away from where the pod left off. "Good news, the computer picked up on our location and it seems that we're somewhere in a jungle... That's unexpected. Well, at least we aren't in the desert."
Leaning away from the monitor, Caesar's eyes focused on the door outside. He took a deep breath before his nose scrunched up. Ugh, Rex was right. The lab smelled like burned metal. it wasn't pleasant to the nose.
"I'm gonna outside and take in some fresh air." That's a sentence Caesar never thought he would unironically say, but here we are. Nevertheless, as Rex's line of sight followed Caesar, he made his way to the door.
Before he could open the exit, Caesar turned to his back and looked at his little brother. "You could come with, if you want." Caesar informed.
He didn't wait for an answer as the door slide out of his way. Rex was about to stay, taking his promise `to stay in that spot forever` from earlier a bit too seriously, but his eyes flickered towards the technologies...possibly hazardous technologies. and that's all it took to break that promise.
"No need to tell me twice! Wait up!" Rex sprinted to Caesar. Getting out, Rex's tracks abruptly stopped once Caesar's hand grasped him by the scruff of his neck. "WHOA!"
"Easy, Mijo. One wrong step would make you fall to the ground." Caesar gently pulled back Rex into the platform he was standing on safely. Rex rubbed his nape softly as he looked down. From where they were, they were at least 15 meters up from the air [1].
The platform they were standing on began to slowly made its decent. Once on ground level, Caesar took the first step out of the platform and walked towards the jungle. Rex eventually followed his lead, running up to him and slowing down his pace once he was besides him..
Deciding to stop walking, Caesar's eyes wandered all over his surroundings. It was a peaceful, sunny day. The weather was breezy, a fresh gust of winds came with it too.
The atmosphere that brought the jungle was... surprisingly and thankfully tranquil. At last, he can breath a sigh of relief.
The jungle were filled with a large variety of trees, unruly bushes, wonderful flowers & plants scattered around, and bushy green grass.
The sight was wonderful to look at. Caesar couldn't believe he'd never tried to go outside from the lab from time to time and enjoy mother nature. He smiled calmly.
Caesar looked above and focused on the clouds. There weren't many of it, as the blue sky was clear as a crystal. Caesar winced and immediately bowed down as the sun was hitting his peripheral vision. "Forgot how natural light feels like..." He commented.
Rex was on the same boat as him. Though, he snapped out of his trance when his ears had caught rustling of bushes from behind. He quickly turned to his back, only to find out no one was there.
A look of confusion spread on Rex's face. Was that just his imagination or something?
He decided to ignore it, for now at least as he turned back to his front with a unaffected look, acting like nothing happened.
...Unbeknownst to the two Salazar's, there was something real beneath all the leaves... A shadowy figure emerged out of the bushes and leaped towards a tree branch. From where it was, the figure stayed nice and silent, making sure to hide behind several amounts of leaves that blocked the Salazar's from ever seeing it in the open.
The figure's eyes was blood red. And it glared hatefully at the two human. A hungry growl vibrated from its throat.
{{ To Be Continued }}
*Author's Note*
Hey y'all! Thanks for reading this! I didn't expect to get three reviews. But I'm grateful for that. It helps me out and I crave for it.
So, speaking of which, this is my reply to the comments made on Chapter One;
KagamiPINKAgreste: That's fine, I'm still thankful for your support. It's okay, I'm sure everyone was a rookie at their own fandom at some point in their lives. Hell, I'm currently entering the Resident Evil fandom. Yeah, that's the basically it, Everyone Not knowing or meeting Rex would change everything, and I intend to cover that. Yep, I unintentionally write in a more timed pace and to keep things slow & steady but – if it's needed – I don't mind going in a fast pace. That's Caesar for you, he is a bit...off key...
Spectarbeyond: Thanks for the favorite and follow buddy! I know you have a lot of questions, but where's the fun in just blurting the answers all out? Hopefully all of your questions will be answered in the future chapters. But I will answer two of them; `Will he have more builds other than the ones in the show? Will the colour of the builds change?`
First; I do plan to, but I'm not creative enough to make another build. Second; Yes, however it's just for aesthetics. To exemplify the fact that this is set in a different dimension from canon.
Red Parasite: I'm glad you enjoyed it. Well, if you can't wait then here you go another chapter! I hope you liked it! But I'm sorry that I can't exactly tell you. Looks like you'll just have to wait. I'm very sorry.
[1]: I don't know how tall Caesar's pod is, I roughly estimated it as 15 meters. Possibly the same height as an average Titan from AOT.
And, That's all for this chapter! Don't hesitate to comment! And as always,
Keep It Fizzy!