SEVERAL MONTHS PRIOR

It hadn't been so much as a week since the conclusion of the Nanite Event, yet it seemed that not even the resolution of history's greatest calamity would deter the reemergence of the deranged monsters and terroristic criminals that were once so plentiful in the world; or at least, the world before it was plagued by their literal counterparts. It was only a matter of time before such events would once again become commonplace, but it would seem that there were those who were more than eager to take advantage of a world laden with vulnerable Nanites.

And of course this pursuit attracted the attention of many undesirable people such as the madman who was operating the robot that was raiding a former Providence shelter for EVOs. But just as the wicked would never rest, neither would Providence as they continued to deal with situations such as those; but by no means was it the organization's responsibility to be involved with such affairs since they were no longer being financially supported to do so.

So as a result of nearly every military and law enforcement group stretching themselves thin trying to provide assistance everywhere in-between their local communities to the entirety of their states, every person who remained at Providence were those who felt obligated to continue operations and swore to provide their efforts in dealing with the larger threats. From there the organization would divide itself into several divisions which were split even further into squadrons and parties, with Rex's fledgling group being the only ones available to accept a high-profile transmission which had already led to dozens of other professionally trained grunts being incapacitated.

By the time they had arrived at the scene most of the civilians had already been evacuated and those who remained were being led out of the region of conflict with utmost urgency. The contraption responsible for chaos was actively rampaging inside of the center-sized shelter, scouring each and every enclave for something that was unquestioningly bound to be of marginal importance; and if the man behind it all was following the trend of many of those before him, it was probably for some remnant of an EVO sample with the intention of performing illegal experimentation.

Once the scientist behind the disturbance caught sight of the backup, chiefly Rex, entering through the archway he had created, he foolishly tried charging at them only to have that plan shut down by a single blow from one of Rex's machines. After slamming into the floorboard and realizing the futility that was further engaging in the battle, he took control of the robot and made for a hasty escape out of the shelter, bursting through another wall and creating a hole that was just as large as the first. He had the advantage of a few dozen meters in his escape before the agents were right behind his trail just seconds later, with Noah, Circe, and Bobo opting for a ride with Rex whereas the remainder of the group lagged right behind inside of a Providence Tank.

The cumbersome size of the robot made it excellent for dealing with basic Providence grunts and breaking into public spaces with relative ease but overall terrible for navigation and maneuverability. It couldn't outpace a Providence standard tank, it couldn't seamlessly turn corners as smoothly as Rex could, and it couldn't brake itself whenever the Scientist foolishly continued to look back at his pursuers and not notice his path straight into the closed-off barrier of a tunnel.

He crashed violently into the wall and considered himself fortunate to have had the foresight of installing airbags into his machine, but not even that could cushion the blow that was being captured and detained by Providence. The punishment they had in store for his number of crimes would surely be ruthless; but even that paled in comparison to the actual torture he knew he'd endure from his employers once they got their hands on him. He didn't really consider himself to be a main of faith as much as he did principle and logic, but if there truly were fates worse than death then he was certain that they could cause it to happen.

"I wasn't sure if we could catch up with him at first, but it looks like our plan was concrete!" Tuck joked while hopping out the back of the tank to inspect the wreckage.

"Seriously, Tuck? That's the best you could come up with?" Sighed Skwydd as he exited the Tank and joined the rest of the group already surrounding the scientist.

"Keep making your jokes. You will all get what's coming to you soon enough." Growled the scientist while his hand began to creep all over the surface of his navigation system.

"That would be our line." Claire added while pulling out a tablet. "Let's see here…Listed on your record we have multiple counts of arson, theft, burglary, robbery—and yes there is a difference." She directed at Tuck who put down previously raised hand. "In addition to several other counts of trespassing, fraud, forgery, money laundering, embezzlement of funds, and disturbing the peace." Each finger swipe of the device adding another criminal charge to the list. "Sounds to me like you'll be locked away for quite some time!" She stated with faux smile.

"You children certainly enjoy acting all high and mighty, don't you?" He growled in response before taking on a mocking tone. "Oh, look Mommy, we took down the big bad threat and saved the day~! Oh Daddy, does it matter if we had an EVO on our side? Feh. How pathetic you all are in the face of real danger, especially when only one of you still has your freakish powers to back up your absurd moxie." he finished ranting with a discrete push of a button. At first it seemed as if the group was put off by the comment, but it wasn't long before they began exchanging snickers and breaking out into absolute hysterics.

"Ohh no~! Someone hold me, please!"

"I can't, I'm too busy quivering in my boots!"

"Did anyone else feel a sudden chill go down their spine?"

"Brr! I'm practically frozen in terror!"

"H-hey," snicker, "knock that off you guys!" Even Kenwyn, who was normally the most focused and reserved member of the group couldn't muster to suppress a giggle; but Bobo was exempt from the amusement and glared at the scientist harboring some apparent feeling of disgust while Circe kept her face passive and began to stride towards the scientist.

Before her advance could be questioned by anyone in the group, they all received a sudden call to rendezvous at their drop off point and to leave the scientist in his place for someone else to pick up. Rex went ahead of the others in order to personally inspect the Tank for any performance issues as he intended to do prior to engaging in the chase while the rest waited for Claire to finish sending out the report. After one final swipe, everyone was prepared to take off until they heard Circe slam her palm against what could only be described as the hood of the robot. With the exception of Rex who was already inside the tank, the group turned around in their place to see what the sudden commotion was about.

"Oh, struck a chord did I? Now which part of that statement did you have an issue with? The bit with the parents, or the one surrounding your current power struggle?"

"It would be the part when you began to open your mouth, actually." Circe asserted. "All this talk about control and family as if someone like you could even comprehend the sorts of things we've been through over the past six years. And then there's you acting like you're some big threat when you're not even the one pulling the strings." She hissed.

"Well, you're certainly not wrong." He chuckled while positioning himself upright, placing his arms behind his back despite it appearing to be so painful that it caused him to wince doing so. "But who's to I'm the only puppet in this little show?" Everyone was confused by his cryptic comment and it was only in dead silence that they were all able to discern the sound of a faint beeping noise. Everyone was brought closer to robot in their search for the source of the sound, but Circe was the first to notice that the sound was coming from it directly and that the beeping interval was steadily increasing. Her eyes widened in response, and when her eyes met the scientist she saw that he adopted a smug expression of victory as he gave a little wave with his hand.

She swore internally before whipping her head around and yelling out to her friends to "TAKE COVER! THAT MECH IS A BOMB!" Everyone instinctively did as they were told, but she herself was unable to make any distance with the Scientist suddenly lurching forward and grappling on to her arm. She desperately tried shaking him off to no success until she finally elbowed him in the face and sent him back with a bloodied nose, but by the time she had escaped the beeping was already beginning to sound like a solid hum—signaling the imminent blast.

Within seconds everybody else had already retreated to the confines of the tank, Noah being the first one to burst in and warn Rex of the imminent explosion. After doing a quick scan of everyone who had just arrived and noticing that Circe was the only one not present, his body and mind alike shifted into high gear in order to intercept her before it was too late. He has shoved everyone else out of the way, but by the time his head popped out of the exit he saw her only meters away and began constructing his «Block Party» in order to shield her from the blast.

But unfortunately, despite her near proximity she was still nowhere near close enough to being within the radius of Rex's protective shield, and by then the robot had already self-destructed and sent fragments flying everywhere. The majority of the components ricocheted off of the environment and pierced into the ground and side of the Providence Tank, the scalding heat so intense that it even penetrated through Rex's force field whereas the more tangible objects bounced off. The cancerous smoke that lingered afterward enveloped the eyes and lungs of any living being present, which may have only been himself as far as Rex knew.

He reeled in his gauntlets and brought out his «Boogie Pack» in order to completely clear the smog. Once the turbines' job were done the machine returned inside of Rex's body—and at that very moment he felt a similar sort of contraction take place with his own heart upon witnessing Circe collapsed on the ground in an ever increasing pool of blood. She laid on the ground, barely capable of lifting up her head and one of her arms without violently shaking and trembling as if it had meant her death.

The rest of the group immediately began to climb out only to freeze in place after witnessing the state Circe was in. Rex cried out her name with a heart-rending shout, the soles of his shoes burying into the ground as each step of his sprint brought him closer to her. He collapsed beside her and immediately tried to apply pressure to the wound while also desperately trying to get her to say something, anything to set his mind at ease and reassure him that she would be fine; but he received no such response with her loss of consciousness. He was simply there with her blood on his hands, hopeless.

Powerless…

Rex reopened his eyes after he finished recalling that all-too familiar experience from several months ago, choosing to brush it aside and remind himself that free falling towards the ground at God-knows what speed was probably not the best time to be reminiscing on the past. However, it did serve as an invaluable reminder for what his true purpose was, as he still considered himself to be nothing more than a living weapon at the end of the day.

Despite the fact that his unique Nanites provided him with a great deal of resiliency and strength, it presented him no methods of providing other people any sort of recovery past curing them of their active Nanites; and so that fact became a harsh lesson that he wouldn't soon forget, especially after what had just occurred at the Jet. But it would be one that he would have to reflect upon after dealing with the one who was currently targeting him and his friends.

And as if the villain was queuing in on his thoughts, a familiar noise began humming within his own head which was then followed by a brief flash of light down below. Deducing that it was the enemy firing off some sort of weapon, he summoned his «Block Party» and raised his shields to block the beam. But just as it had during the previous attack the shield shattered and disintegrated after a single instance, prompting Rex to question how his own machinery was so vulnerable to whatever it was that was attacking.

He could only assume that there was some sort of Nanite disruption technology involved, but the issue with accepting that theory came with the implication that there was a being out there who had access to sophisticated weaponry designed to combat him and him alone. All the while, any personal enemies that he knew were capable of that were either missing, cured, or imprisoned…so whoever was responsible for this assault was either a clear exception to one those categories or potentially a new opponent all together.

After blocking another shot with his «Block Party» he considered taking the offensive route instead, and with the assistance of his goggles he was able to get a clearer visual on his target and saw that it was some sort of Scorpion-like mech with the tail serving as the laser artillery. After pinpointing the contraption's weak-point at the joint where the weapon was attached, Rex constructed the «Sky Slyder» in exchange for the «Block Party» while calculating a trajectory for a projectile to fire.

The Scorpion continued to fire several more beams at him within the span of seconds with Rex opting to predict and dodge out of each lasers' way rather than to continue facing them head-on. After the firing began to slow down to a halt, Rex used the thermal vision on his goggles and confirmed that he had exhausted the weapon and caused it to overheat. Taking that as his opportunity to strike, he stabilized his «Sky Slyder» from its downward spiral, overclocked it to its highest speed, and then dismounted from the build with a seamless backflip. The board was launched at the mech with an incredible velocity with the precision of a thread traveling through a needle; making a clean slice off of the tail and thereby disabling it. But the mech itself, however, only stumbled slightly in response and still remained entirely operational.

Clearly underestimating the construction of the mechanical frame before him, Rex whipped out his «Smack Hands» only a building's height away from impact—and after reeling back his right fist as far back as his body could muster without strain, he pummeled the mech with so much power that a crater sinking several feet into the ground was formed; the force of the collision spreading dust, pebbles, and fragments of windows across several blocks.

When the cloud finally began to clear, Rex brought back in his «Smack Hands» and pulled up his goggles in order to clearly inspect the damage he had dealt. But to his surprise, his attack didn't budge the shell all and it appeared that the frame itself was in fact much sturdier than the attached gun. "So I'm guessing this mech is just like the rest we've been fighting?" He could only assume that it was because of its particular structure that the majority of the shock was absorbed, but before Rex inspected the mech any further he rested his hand on its exterior and commanded his Nanites to run throughout the contraption in order to turn it off. Blue lines extended from the placement of his hand, but then began to fizzle out and retract.

"Great. Does the whole entire system have anti-Nanite measurements?" He complained to himself while trying to run his Nanites through the system again, straining his focus at an attempt to disable the machine only to fail once more. However, during that second inspection his Nanites reacted in an unusual manner and instead managed to pick up on a particular signature of Nanites that only he could detect; a signature that could only belong to living organisms. Within the mech he felt the presence of several people inside trying to operate the machine, all of which seemed familiar to him for reasons he could not yet discern…

But before Rex could deduce who those signals belonged to, each one of the Scorpion's legs began to stake themselves into the ground—and then without any sort of warning the base of the mech began rotating with a tremendous amount of torque and effortlessly threw Rex into the brick wall of a building. As Rex began to crawl out of the rubble of the former wall he began to hear a voice projecting from the mech, and though at first he believed that it may have been a simple case of disorientation resulting from slamming headfirst into a wall, he became certain that someone from within was communicating to him through the means of a speaker system—or rather, they were laughing at him using such.

"Now correct me if I'm wrong men, but was that just a person we launched at the wall? Do you gents think that Providence is using people as artillery now? Heh, I'd applaud the ingenuity if it were the least bit effective…" Just as the mysterious leader began wrapping up their sentence, Rex picked himself back up and dug himself out of the pile in order to face the mech, recognizing exactly whose voice that was.

"But hold on a moment, that's no ordinary person! Oh-ho-ho-ho my, NOW things are getting interesting!" He announced as the Scorpion hopped out of the crater and faced directly toward Rex. The front portion of the machine slid open, and in a dramatic display of steam accompanied by an ominous red glow, Gatlocke appeared and hopped on to the front lid of the Scorpion. "Well if it isn't Rex Salazar!" He proclaimed while pointing at Rex in an extravagant pose. "Oh, how I've missed this kid!" He giddily exclaimed in an aside to his men. "So tell me Rex," he turned back to the agent, "how have you been doing recently? Wait, don't answer that, I know exactly what you've been up to these past couple of months! Say, have you been working out? I mean—it may not look like it but you've really done a number to the internals of my mech here. That power of yours has always been so devastating!"

Even though his suspicions had been confirmed, Rex's eyes were still laden with shock and confusion, his mouth was agape at the sight of Gatlocke before him. "Gatlocke. Of all people, Gatlocke?" He spat out with the Anarchist condescendingly applauding Rex's recognition of his person.

"That's my name, don't you worry about wearing it out. And here I was obsessing over whether or not you still recognized me after all this time, but it seems I had nothing to worry about!"

"I would've preferred it if I never had to see your face again. Shouldn't you be in prison, or some sort of mental hospital?" Rex queried while realigning his posture and staring down on his opponent with a face that did not look pleased in the slightest.

Gatlocke chuckled with a closed grin, slicking back his hair with a free hand. "My warden would be inclined to say yes, but you see I have friends in all sorts of places. Care to guess who they are?"

"Yeah, I'm not interested in playing any of your games. But if you'd like to tell me who you're working with right now I might just consider against making you my new personal piñata." Rex threatened while cracking his knuckles.

"There's that attitude I was missing!" Gatlocke exclaimed while pumping his fists into the air. Within the mech, Rex could've sworn that he heard the voice of some person crying out for help, their shrill shriek even catching Gatlocke off guard. Rex looked back at Gatlocke with worried eyes only to receive an innocent shrug in response. Hopping back in to the mech, the front closed back up and the Scorpion activated once more, its legs successfully moving around in response. "If it's a fight you want then it's a fight you'll get. But tell me, do you really think you can land a scratch on this machine without injuring the hostage inside? But more importantly, do you think you can shut us down before your people begin to fire upon us?"

"What game are you playing at?" Rex concernedly thought to himself as he caught a glimpse of a Providence fleet just over the horizon, with The Keep itself on the forefront of the charge. Turning his head back at the Scorpion, he saw that the mech was charging straight at him while all he did was stand there—thinking of ways to take down his opponent before Providence could reach them, and how he was going to do that without hurting the hostage that was inside. Believing that he needed more time to formulate a plan, Rex snapped on his goggles and braced himself for a chase for the first time since the incident with Circe happened. Leaping into the air and creating his «Rex Ride», he immediately spun his build around and bolted off at an attempt to lead Gatlocke away from the fleet.

This was not a long-term solution to Rex's dilemma, however, as the Scorpion was already beginning to catch up to Rex who was trying his best to navigate onto streets with less traffic. But in his effort to avoid any collisions with the passerby he lost so much of his momentum that the rear of his bike was impaled by one of the mech's limbs, causing him to immediately plummet to the ground and grind against the asphalt. Hastily he created a new component to replace the one that was wrecked, but as he recovered himself and continued pushing the limits of his bike he reached out for his ear-comm only to remember that his communications line was killed. He was effectively without any method of communicating to Providence the presence of living people inside the machine, making it even more imperative that he bring it to a stop—and fast.

Gritting his teeth and revving the engine even further, beads of sweat formed on his head as he gradually began to distance himself from the Scorpion with his increasing advantage in speed. After separating himself a safe distance away from his threat, he turned around his head in order to scan the Scorpion as it continued to hop across the walls of the many scaling buildings—and it was while the mech was temporarily suspended in the air that Rex spotted what appeared to be an engine located at the back of the vehicle, right underneath where the weapon was formerly located.

"Rex!" Gatlocke boomed with a tinge of irritation to his voice. "While this chase sure is fun and all, I need you to get back here so that we can settle this once and for all!"

"Consider it settled" Rex grunted with a devious grin as he turned his head forward and swerved his vehicle around to a complete stop. For a moment he was idle and hovered in place, but after three winding, consecutive revs accompanied by incredible roars, the «Rex Ride» blasted off with an intense blue stream of fire trailing from the back.

He charged forward at a speed that easily clocked over 300 mph, and though the flames quickly subsided from the vehicle the momentum he took off with lingered on. At the speed he was traveling with he had an extremely narrow window of opportunity to make his move, so he took a moment collect his nerves and exhaled out a steady breath of air with his eyes closed just as Agent Six had instructed him to do so long ago when he first constructed «Rex Ride»; back to the time when he first learned how to control his speed.

When he opened his eyes again he saw that he was less than a dozen meters away from the mech, but during that instance it felt as if time itself had slowed down to a crawl. Releasing his right hand from the handlebars, he reeled back his entire arm back as he began to summon his «BFS», ready to strike down his prey. In one continuous motion Rex flipped over the «Rex Ride» whilst simultaneously deconstructing the build—sending him flying into the air and directly above the Scorpion. With his blade trailing behind him in the air, Rex flipped over as he brought it down on the engine with full force, slicing through the component while shattering his blade into two clean halves. Summoning the «Rex Ride» once more in order to prevent burrowing through the ground, he began grinding against the street and drifted until the build fell apart. As he felt time return to its normal motion, he watched as the mech stumbled and eventually collapsed to the ground in an unexciting manner.

With his breath heavy from the amount of physical, emotional, and mental exertion he put himself through, Rex stumbled as he began to stand up and slowly stumble towards the mech. He stood before the vessel with a great deal of anticipation, but after the mech continued to remain inactive without any sign of a commotion he finally felt at ease just as the Providence fleet had arrived.

The Jets began to descend on both Rex and the mech's position and surrounded them in a circular pattern. But before Rex could locate the Jet belonging to his group, the Scorpion opened up one last time with an excessive amount of steam pouring from out the front. Several fast-acting providence grunts took their positions and had their weapons aimed at the Scorpion, but after Rex cautiously held up his hand and signaled for them to hold their fire, several masked Pirates began to emerge with their arms raised in surrender.

"Stay in your positions," Rex commanded the other agents when they tried to close the distance between them and what they assumed to be all of the members operating the vehicle.
"Gatlocke said that you guys had a hostage with you but neither of them are here right now. Where are they?" Rex demanded to know from the Pirates. The guns were once again pointed at the Anarchists who merely shuffled closer together while remaining silent. None of them seemed too keen on selling out their leader, but before any of them could feel threatened enough to do so Gatlocke himself climbed out of the Scorpion with the hostage in a headlock.

And to make matters worse, the hostage was none other than Peter Meechum's daughter, Sarah—a young girl who appeared terrified out of her wits most likely because of the extended arm-blade that was resting right on top of her neck. It wasn't the first time that she had been kidnapped by some ill-intentioned party, but it wasn't as if she was prepared to relive the horrifying scenario for the second time, either. Though the caveat in this particular situation would probably be Gatlocke's reluctance to actually do anything serious; because if his expression was any indicator of his feelings then it would seem that he wasn't too happy with the way things were progressing neither, though it was nigh impossible to determine what thoughts were going on inside his head.

But the same could be said for all of his men as well, who collectively stopped quivering in their spots as they pulled out a wide variety of concealed, very illegal-looking weaponry and pointed it at Providence. The Providence agents didn't dare to fire upon the pirates as they began to fan out and circle Gatlocke at the risk of their projectiles hitting the center—and just like that the two groups found themselves within a standoff with Rex, Gatlocke, and Sarah thrown right in the middle.

"Gatlocke, you don't want to do this. Put the blade away so that we can sort things out civilly." Rex calmly instructed, hardly able to conceal the fear and anger that was creeping into his throat.

"I'm a businessman, remember? I can't go making deals without some form of insurance!" He explained while giving a light tap on Sarah's neck with the blade. "Although I have to agree that I would much rather be pointing this blade at you rather than some innocent little girl who's unable to fight back. So what do you say to a good old fashioned fight, Rex? Just you and me, for old time's sake."

Rex wasn't sure how to respond to Gatlocke's demands. "That isn't how this works, man." He slowly shook his head in defiance. "Release the girl first. You know I'm going to mess you up either way."

He regretted adding the last part after seeing Gatlocke draw the blade ever closer to Sarah's neck, angrily reminding himself that he had to be careful with his words. "Why are you doing this, Gatlocke? I know that you guys don't have any sort of boundaries, but resorting to this?" He pleaded, gesturing to all of the Pirates.

Gatlocke briefly glanced around at his men before looking back at Rex with a disappointed glare. "There's no need to bring them into this, Rex. They know exactly what they're fighting for, as do I." He confidently stated.

"And what would that be?" Rex calmly asked with clenched, trembling fists.

Gatlocke took notice of Rex's apprehension, and though the Pirate leader appeared to be dejected throughout the entire duration of their standoff, for some unknown reason he still managed to smile at Rex as he pulled aside his arm-blade from Sarah's neck and aimed it at Rex. "Care to find out?" He challenged with his free hand still restraining Sarah.

Several of the Providence agents exchanged glances before settling their eyes on Rex, who slowly approached Gatlocke without posing as any sort of threat. Rex stopped when he was only a few paces away from Gatlocke, staring deep into eyes that were focusing on himself just the same. The pair stood in silence with the tension between them so heavy that Sarah felt like the gravity of the situation would cause her to collapse to the ground. Sensing that Providence wouldn't dare to make any sudden moves, Gatlocke released his hold on Sarah while not breaking eye contact with Rex.

She fled towards the Providence Agents who embraced her with open arms, and after Rex glanced to see that she was in safe hands he brought his attention back to Gatlocke. "I'm a man of my word, if nothing else." Gatlocke nearly whispered with sincere modesty. "Oh who am I kidding, there isn't much more to my personality outside of that, now is there?" He then sighed. "But whether you like it or not we're both in that same boat." Rex was visibly becoming perplexed by his words. "Still don't get it, do you? Actions speak louder than words, Rex. And seeing how you've made it this far, why don't you do me this one favor and prove to me that you're still undefeatable?"

Gatlocke snapped his fingers and the perimeter in which his men surrounded him expanded to provide them a comfortable amount of space to fight in. "You've contributed a great deal to the world over the past couple of months, which is a lot more than the rest of us can say, you know? It's a lot more than the majority at Providence can say, even. But the burden that comes with a great amount of power is not one many would choose to accept, and that is something that you and I understand better than anyone else!" Gatlocke began to point his blade upwards, making the whole scene seem like some sort of sentimental confrontation between them both. "So, Rex, fight me and prove to yourself that you are more than just a machine, and that I— no, that WE are more than just mere anarchists!" He exclaimed with passionate eyes.

"You're crazy." Rex toted while unsheathing his «BFS» and crossing it against Gatlocke's blade. All Gatlocke could do is return a crazy grin in response as he began to take several paces to the right, the two opponents beginning to circle around each other with their swords still in contact. It wouldn't have been difficult for either of them to go against their word and pull off some sort of outrageous stunt, but the both of them had every intention to face off against the other in order to achieve their goal.

Drawing apart their weapons with frenzied expressions on their faces, they both began to swing at each other in commencement of their grand duel.

AUTHOR'S NOTE, and this time it's not as long:

Over 5.5k words written in one session, more than all of the words written in first two chapters combined. Never before had I realized how tiring writing could be...

My writing stamina leaves much to be desired and as of this writing I'm still not satisfied with the pacing of these chapters. But these are issues that I'm certain are overcome with experience, and so, I'll continue trudging forward so that we can get to the better parts of the story!

There is so much more about this chapter that I would like to mention here as well but I'm not sure that the exploration of my personal writing journey really deserves its own segment, so from this point on I'll be leaving those sort of notes on my Tumblr.

Here's the link for any of you interested: post/164654149340/gree-chapter-iii-extras

But as a quick aside before I get into comments, I would like to once again thank all of you for your interest in this project! Right now I'm nothing more than an aspiring director-producer, but the attention I'm getting for this project is the most encouraging thing in the world!

YellowAngela: The people who write and read fanfiction, edit the wiki, talk about this series on sites, and continue to make fan art of this show are the coolest people of all (and I'm not just saying that because I do all of those things already ;) The figurative ashes of this community may erupt into a Phoenix yet, just so long as we continue to stick around and remind others why this series is so special. And speaking of "erupt", yeah, I had some fun trying to fit in as many synonyms of explosion as I could. Repeating the same thing does get dull after a while, so it was a fun challenge trying to alter the text the way I did.

Guest 1: I hope this update wasn't too late for your liking! I go into the reasons for my delay in my Tumblr blog but the TLDR is that I'm prepping to move and beginning a new school year. But even with these obstacles in the way, I hope updates will be more frequent and that I can come up with some sort of consistent schedule, but I won't make any promises due to the fact that I'm terrible with promises.

Guest 2: Perhaps it's my rose tinted glasses, but I've loved just about every Gen Rex fan fiction I've found on here and on AO3. Granted, there were never really stories I wanted to see and there were little more than two writers who worked on more "narrative focused continuations" of the series (gotta give a shout out to YellowAngela and Luminesyra). But those other stories were still enjoyable on their own merit, and if it weren't for them I probably would have never decided to make my own.

As for character development, believe me when I say we will be seeing characters grow, for better and for worse! As for who goes down which route, feel free to take bets; but I certainly agree that the developments this show had is really made it stand out to me. And as for Rex and Six's bond, I definitely want to refine their mentorship situation they have into more of a familial one, but I can't say how long it will take or what obstacles may be in their way…

The road ahead is a rocky one. But for as dark as I plan for this series will get I promise there'll still be plenty of lighter moments too (and that's a promise I can keep)!

Mudkip: Ahh, the designs! The visual details of the series was so incredibly astounding, especially the really minor ones you notice only after re-watching the show for the third time! Truth be told, I wish I could make this series into a full-fledged comic but I wouldn't know how accessible/known it would be, or if I could manage to keep up with it. Still, I'm content with creating my own designs to include in this story as they appear, which should start happening in the next chapter.

As for the second question, I'm going to have to hold off on the answer for a future issue. Sorry, spoilers (I wonder which character said something like that?) But trust me, when it comes time for me to explain my inspiration for the project I will spare no details! Although I will say at its core, this is a story inspired by elements of family, romance, change, weakness, and above all else, sacrifice.