Exponentially Variegated Organism



An Exponentially Variegated Organism (E.V.O.) is an organism that has had its intracellular-nanites activated.

Overview
Five years prior to the current timeline, a massive explosion released nanites into the atmosphere, infecting every living thing on Earth. These nanites randomly activate inside their hosts, mutating the subjects into monsters known as E.V.O.s. While the majority of transformations can be cured by Rex, a few are incapable of being cured.

Sometimes, the nanites can affect the hosts' minds, making most E.V.O.s mindless creatures that know only destruction until they are cured, posing a threat to human survival. It is possible for other E.V.O.s to retain their minds and use their abilities however they want, like Circe or Peter Meechum. To combat the E.V.O. threat, the organization known as Providence was created.

Public reaction to E.V.O.s has been varied, with many people viewing E.V.O.s as dangerous and savage. Any sane E.V.O.s have been mostly met with fear and suspicion due to the behavior of mindless E.V.O.s. Recently, attitudes towards E.V.O.s has been shifting to a more tolerant level. It is revealed that some people are willing to live in areas where E.V.O.s exist, saying they have a right to the area just as any person and so long as the two groups don't bother each other, things have worked out fine. Rex met a group of performers who were a mix of human and E.V.O. whose leader was making it his work to promote cooperation between humans and E.V.O.s.

Human E.V.O.s


These E.V.O.s all started off as regular humans, but once their nanites activated, they were mutated. Most are mindless monsters who barely resemble what they did before turning into an E.V.O. and attack anything, including former friends and family (e.g. the Doctor Holiday's sister or Father Jose).

Although rare, some humanoid E.V.O.s are still aware of themselves and have a relatively human appearance (e.g., Rex's gang members, Breach, Quarry, etc.). However, the most rare E.V.O.s of this kind are those who look exactly like humans as long as their powers remain inactivated (e.g., Rex and Circe). There is currently an E.V.O who always looks completely human even when he uses his powers (because his powers actually cancel out other nanites, creating a deadzone). His name is Fitzy Feakins.

Animal E.V.O.s


These E.V.O.s are very similar to their human counterparts. They started off as regular animals but changed once their nanites were activated. Some of them became physically superior and more aggressive.

A rarer occurrence is when the individual gains an immense intellectual boost along with a more humanoid shape (e.g., Bobo Haha).

Arthropod E.V.O.s
These are E.V.O.s with arthropod characteristics, such as insect-like qualities. They can be dangerous because individual members of the swarm are connected; an entire nest will go E.V.O. if one submits to change. Examples include Swarmers, Lomitles, and Liants.

Plant E.V.O.s
These E.V.O.s were simple plants until their nanites activated. They seem to have been mutated into carnivorous plants, such as Blinky, and are able to move their roots and branches at will.

Alien E.V.O.s


This type of E.V.O. is the rarest. While imitating the Ultimatrix, Alpha became several different alien lifeforms. The most notable examples would be Alpha Heatblast, Alpha Four Arms and Alpha Humungosaur.

Incurable E.V.O.s
These are E.V.O.s whose nanites have been changed beyond repair, or have evolved beyond normal curing methods. Examples include: Cricket, Tuck, Skwydd, One, etc. Most seem to have some awareness and human-level thought processes.

Virus E.V.O.s


Virus E.V.O.s are microscopic organisms that have been altered by the nanites and developed a form of symbiosis with their host, usually another E.V.O. They will do anything possible to protect the host, and in turn, to protect themselves. The only example of this bizarre symbiosis is Patient Zero.

Ghostly E.V.O.s
These E.V.O.s can change into an invisible cloud of nanites. Strong magnets and ice are effective in pulling the E.V.O. back together to be cured.

Genetic E.V.O.s
These are E.V.O.s whose nanites effect or have been affected by dormant traits in their genetics that create bizarre characteristics in the E.V.O. Rex met a small community of werewolf-like E.V.O.s in Mexico. In their case, the nanites interacted with dormant "Werewolf Syndrome" genes in their bodies, creating an E.V.O. mutation that takes hold at night and reverts at sunrise.

E.V.O empires
There are so many E.V.O.s in the world that some have banded together to create communities, colonies, and even countries. In a typical E.V.O. empire, one "intelligent" E.V.O. (an E.V.O. that was able to retain its mind after the E.V.O transformation and can control its powers) rules by manipulating/controlling the other "instinct driven" E.V.O.s to do its bidding. Five E.V.O. leaders have been shown: Quarry (criminal empire in Hong Kong, later disbanded ), NoFace (Bug Jar), Van Kleiss (Abysus), and Serge (Aquania).

Aquania


The largest E.V.O. empire seen so far is Aquania, which is twice the size of Texas. It is located in the North Pacific underneath a place called "Trash Island", which consists of the combined amount of trash in the Pacific Ocean. Because of the unusual amount of nanites that contaminated the ocean, the number of E.V.O.s since then have skyrocketed, creating many new species. Their leader, Serge, who was once human at an unspecified time, was transformed into an E.V.O. but retained both his sentient mind and his sanity. Soon after, he realized he had more in common with these new aquatic animals than people, and used their natural instincts to build the city out of the garbage that settled there, turning it into coral. He also used E.V.O. anemones to turn both plastic garbage into food and energy for the city. Aquania is the least known E.V.O. empire to date, as only two people outside of Aquania know of its existence (Agent Six and Rex Salazar) and they swore to secrecy once they knew that Serge only wanted to be left alone and clean the ocean.

Abysus


Another known E.V.O. empire is Abysus, the site of the Nanite Event. It is ten miles wide and located in an unspecified location. Everything there has an abundance of nanites, including the soil. Since it is the site of the Event, most if not all of the human population living there was turned E.V.O. and those who didn't were either evacuated or killed. After the Event, Van Kleiss eventually took control of the E.V.O. population and whatever government was left of Abysus, declaring it a safe place for E.V.O.s.

Abysus has its own army, one made up of a large force of mindless beasts and a much smaller and more intelligent special unit called "The Pack". Abysus is the most aggressive E.V.O. empire, and also the most known as it is now not only an enemy of Providence, but of the world. Its former leader was Van Kleiss, but after his disappearance, Biowulf took charge and has done so for the six month gap. Recently, Abysus has been overrun by Providence as most if not all of its population was captured and collared. Even Van Kleiss' castle was disassembled by the Keep.

Hong Kong
Another empire that has made itself an inconvenience to Providence was located in Hong Kong and run by Quarry, a crime lord. While he didn't control the city itself, he was the prominent leader of the Hong Kong underworld. Recognizing the value of E.V.O.s in such matters, he assembled a crime empire made of E.V.O.s, which was later disbanded. Quarry tried to resurrect his empire by creating an E.V.O army with control collars but he was stopped by the effort of Rex and his friends.

The Bug Jar


Another E.V.O. empire is the former site of Kiev, Ukraine, nicknamed the "Bug Jar" by Providence. The city became isolated from the rest of the world shortly after the Nanite Event, where the Earth's magnetic fields funneled a huge amount of unstable nanites from the Event in the atmosphere to the city, turning the majority of its people into E.V.O.s. Because this happened in the early years before Providence found Rex and was still ill-equipped to handle the amount of E.V.O.s, they evacuated as many human civilians as possible and put a giant, one-way force field over the city and renamed it the Bug Jar.

The Bug Jar probably has the largest population of mindless E.V.O.s but they can be controlled by their leader, NoFace. Its E.V.O. population rivals that of any other empire and it is also fairly well-known, considering it could have been the very reason for Providence's existence or at the very least its first assignment. However, the Bug Jar has since been transformed into a deserted wasteland after Alpha destroyed all known lifeforms in it.

Curing
Curing E.V.O.s seems to be the primary reason that Providence views Rex as their secret weapon, since he has the ability to use his own nanites to extract the nanites infecting other E.V.O.s.

Several times now other methods for E.V.O. curing were nearly discovered but complications led to the information being lost:


 * A serum was developed by Gabriel Rylander that activated dormant nanites. Dr. Holiday stated that if they could acquire the serum, then a cure could be reverse-engineered, but the death of Rylander coupled with the destruction of his lab destroyed the information.
 * A team led by Dr. Holiday and secretly assisted by Zag RS developed a self-deactivation program that, when interacting with normal active nanites, shut them down. The nanites were destroyed when the space station they were developed on was destroyed.
 * The former head of Providence R&D, Doctor Fell, stated he could reverse-engineer a cure from Rex had he been allowed to dissect him; however, this would have resulted in Rex's death and thus it was prevented.
 * A machine was developed that could cure an incurable E.V.O. and succeeded in curing Beverly Holiday before it was destroyed in the process.
 * Rex briefly used the Meta-Nanites to cure every E.V.O. on the planet before he ordered the nanites to shut down permanently.

Apparently, Providence has some way of telling whether or not an E.V.O. is incurable. (Doctor Holiday mentioned that her sister was an incurable.) Rex asked if he could help, suggesting he had never tried before and that Providence has a way to test whether Rex can cure E.V.O.s. This is further supported by Van Kleiss saying he was incurable and Rex saying his new nanites weren't.

Apparently, an E.V.O. has to be willing or unaware to be cured or it will not work. For example, Peter Meechum had the power to stop Rex from curing him until he was willing to be cured.

The mutations in E.V.O.s can possibly be undone by reprogramming and fixing their nanites. The Nanite Project was restarted in Caesar's effort to help the E.V.O.s.

Rex used the Meta-Nanites alongside with the nanites in the reactor to cure most E.V.O.s in the world; however, there were still a few left that escaped it.

Controlling
After losing Rex and overthrowing White Knight, Providence took a different approach in dealing with E.V.O.s. The special collars that had previously been used to suppress E.V.O.s' powers were upgraded, allowing Providence to control the creatures.

However, this technique has several flaws. From time to time the collar might malfunction or be destroyed, thus releasing the E.V.O. and returning it to its original mental state. Furthermore, the process of taming the E.V.O. might be painful, even agonizing, if said individual is not willing to cooperate.

Trivia

 * Providence agents used to call E.V.O.s "spoiled meat".
 * The term "E.V.O." was first mentioned by Doctor Holiday.
 * Only two sapient E.V.O.s have ever been known to be unaware of their condition: Rex immediately after losing his memory and Fitzy Feakins.
 * Some E.V.O.s have been known to take on characteristics of completely different species. One example is Father Jose, a human who strongly resembled a cactus.
 * Most E.V.O.s who were human display no clothing, but regain it upon return to their original forms. The exception is the Multi-faced E.V.O., but the man may not have been wearing them when he was transformed.
 * It is not unheard of for curable E.V.O.s to resist curing. Peter Meechum was one.
 * It appears that society accepts that E.V.O.s lack human rights, even if they were once human, if they are non-sapient and cannot be cured. Providence keeps numerous captive E.V.O.s for training exercises, some of which appear to have been human.
 * Some E.V.O.s are unique, whereas others become a genuine breeding species. The rabbit E.V.O. was known to give birth to similar E.V.O.s.
 * During the sleeping plague, E.V.O.s themselves were immune.
 * Extreme willpower can overcome E.V.O. madness, as One proved.
 * Noah as an E.V.O. was destructive, but was playful rather than vicious.
 * Van Kleiss appears to believe that E.V.O.s are superior to unaltered organisms.
 * The Sphinx was actually an E.V.O.
 * Hong Kong was the first E.V.O. empire to crumble chronologically, followed by Abysus and the Bug Jar.
 * Apart from Rex himself, Bobo Haha, Biowulf, Skalamander, Van Kleiss and Breach are the only known E.V.O.s to remain even after the worldwide cure.