ic contact.

[unrepentant]

@ skywalker

"Leave a message please."

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Comments

[unrepentant]

It's Ani

And anyway, you opened this door. I'm just trying to figure out how far I could throw you.

[himbomb]

probably still pretty far

[He hates admitting it, but it's true. If he's remembering correctly, this guy is one of those space psychic fucks.]

you've got weird mind-bendy powers like the old beardy dude, right?
what do you guys call yourselves again? the jonas brothers? or was it judas fuck

[THEY ARE JEDI!!! REX]

[unrepentant]

Mind bendy powers have nothing to do with it I'm going to throw you with my arms.

[himbomb]

yeah! right.

[Rex has no reason to act this cocky. He is a mere two hundred and fifteen pounds, which, while heavy, is a much smaller weight class than the likes of Omni-Man or Black Samson. In a match of physical strength, he and Anakin would likely be at a stalemate. In describing himself, it is Rex who makes the mistake in identifying himself as "heavy," as it's not weight but density and all the other cybergenetic cheats that make him difficult to put down.

Even then, Rex was not designed to fight the likes of Omni-Man, for if he were, he'd be unstoppable. Why create the kind of soldier who couldn't be controlled? Rex Sloan, now Rex Splode, had been meant to be kept top secret, a tool for operations more covert than saving the world.

Unfortunately for them, they didn't factor in his piss-poor attitude, and it had ended his untimely escape regardless.]

i'd ask what your bench was, but then i remember ur from a different universe
they probably measure weight in farts or some other fuckass metric

[unrepentant]

Well measuring in farts wouldn't work because you're all hot air.

[himbomb]

some of me is titanium, actually, tyvm

[A very small percent! The alloys that make up the wiring in his forearms are composed of a variety of mixed metals.]

but i happen to like air better when it's hot

[He does enjoy the rush he feels from walking through fires of his own creation. Rex's skin can and does burn, but only at exceedingly high temperatures. Anything less, he wouldn't even be resistant to the blowback from his own explosions, and therefore a completely useless tool. The insurmountable expense of taxpayer dollars and endowment grants that went into the research behind his enhancements would have been a huge waste.

Rex doesn't sit around and think about it, but he's lucky he clearly wasn't the first prototype.]

[unrepentant]

I already know I'm going to regret asking

But how much of you is titanium?

[himbomb]

[Unaccustomed to being specifically probed regarding his corporeal make-up, he's just going to deflect now-]

Not my dick, that's for sure!

[Also because Anakin of all people does not need to know that once upon a time, Rex was just an ordinary human being with great athletic prowess and a knack for stealing things.]

You really want the specifics? It gets messy. 🤢 🤮

[unrepentant]

[Rex you literally started it!!!]

Don't worry prying isn't my style. It's just


How'd it get in there in the first place? Did you get a prosthetic? Plates?

[himbomb]

["Rex You Literally Started It" aka the title of his memoir, which would probably be ghostwritten by Robot since Rex never finished the seventh grade...]

not exactly either of those things, no

[ Rex hasn't discussed the operation with anyone since it happened, not even Eve, and certainly not in detail.]

i had a surgery when i was around thirteen. my body hasn't really been the same since then

it was a good thing, though

it made me stronger

[unrepentant]

Stronger huh?




Did you know that it would?

[himbomb]

yeah

[He can say this with confidence, although at the time he had been afraid. He wept until his eyes were red and his face burned from all the tears. Rex had clung to Radcliffe's giant hands with an iron grip, only letting go when the anesthesia finally overtook him. Even though he'd been reassured that the procedure was likely to be successful, Rex knew that there was a chance he'd never wake up. The thought of dying at that age, before experiencing his first kiss or first love, or really amounting to anything at all...

It had shaken him to the core.]

i did

[unrepentant]

Is that why you did it?

[It's curiosity now that snags in him. Thirteen he said. Is he allowed to think that it's young when Ahsoka had been not much older and leading troops? Demanding that he let her follow him into the war.]

[himbomb]

i'd say yes, but

[He had caught wind of what was really going on and it had cost him. Well, it had cost Radcliffe, mostly. In some ways Rex could say he got off scot free, he had survived to meet the love of his life, and the GDA was able to erase his seemingly infinite number of criminal offenses from his record. In exchange for his service as a fully-fledged, nationally recognized superhero, he would be protected and given refuge from those who wanted him dead.

To be fair, Cecil Steadman owed him big time. If Rex had made good on his orders, the man would not be alive today.]

i don't really think i had a choice in the matter

[unrepentant]

[It licks at him like fire does. I don't really think I had a choice in the matter. Anakin has always heard words like that a little differently. They've always landed with more weight, been more dangerously loaded.]

Sounds like one hell of a thing to get mixed up in at thirteen.

[himbomb]

you're telling me of all people?

[That would be the Understatement of the Century-]

yeah! i know. and the damage that was done as a result of all that? permanent! fucked me up forever, but

if i didn't go through with it i'd be dead or in jail by now, so. them's the motherfucking breaks

[unrepentant]

Wouldn't call that much of a choice

Did someone put you up to it? Is that happening to other people?

[himbomb]

look, pal

[Rex could tell him the whole story. How he was the first prototype of his kind to have survived the operation successfully. Eve was from another similar set of experiments, the whole lot of them designed to serve as super-weapons against one another. Duking it out for a bunch of disgusting tightwads in suits, the real supervillains of their universe.]

i was hungry, my parents were shit, and i was tired of being tired
what loser thirteen year old with no future and no friends would say no to a fucking boost? not me! that's for sure

[What thirteen year old boy, tired of being unloved and overlooked, would ever say no to being a superhero?]

the guys before me were duds, so they're dead now
they were outta the picture before i showed up
the fuckwad who scouted me messed with my head and made me think what i was doing was normal. necessary, even
he didn't count on me being smart enough to figure it out
joke's on him- i know killing's a part of the protection game, i'm not stupid
but i'm no murderer
not anymore

[unrepentant]

Hey, I get it.
[A thirteen year old who chooses to be a superhero, an eleven year old who chooses to be a wizard monk. He might not know all the nuance of Rex's story, but Anakin knows what it's like to come from nothing and nowhere. To want out.]

I just wondered if you were able to square things up with those guys after.

Or is that the process for everybody who does stuff like you?

[himbomb]

i blew them up
so it's all good

[He skips the detail where he cried about it. How Radcliffe's death had been an accident, and even though the scientists has designed him to be strong enough to fall from bridges and get back up, that the punch to his nose had still made him bleed.

The physical pain was just that- Physical. Nothing he hadn't endured prior. But when it everything clicked at once, that all the praise and birthday presents and supposedly gentle encouragement were simply tools to get him to do Radcliffe's bidding, Rex had lost it. To this day, trusting people is impossible. He couldn't even trust Eve.]

i don't know anybody who got their powers like i did
not in the exact same way

[Eve's powers had also been designed, orchestrated, but her story was different. It was a part of why they got so close in the first place.]

but there were other experiments, yeah
people with shitloads of money n power blow wads of dough on expensive toys all the time
you'd think they'd be happy with what they've got but NOOOOOO

[Rex has no right to judge. He's the same way with women.]

[unrepentant]

Yeah that's been my experience too. No matter how much money or power people have, they always want more.

They don't know what it's like to really have nothing.


Makes you wonder why those guys aren't here and we are.

[himbomb]

'cause nature would kill 'em?

also! this place seems to operate via wormhole logic

[Rex has had some experience with this.]

so it's random, p much
the clownductor could also be building an army!
that'd make sense! considering how many of us can throw a punch or 2

[unrepentant]

I don't know. Seems like an awful lot of moralists for an army.

[himbomb]

it wouldn't be a bad strategy
they're already havin us work together, so we're all pals mostly
then when they pull out the big guns, some people would be all for it!
they'd probably lie about how they were doing this shit to "cleanse" whatever planet they're tryin to take over
make it a "better place," but for who?

[Someone's had a little too much experience with this to trust the moral redemption bullshit. If anything, Rex would like to evolve so that he will suit the hero mantle better, hate himself a little less, and get off this thing.]

i mean, has anybody in this place hit zero yet?
who,
the
FUCK
has got no problems. zip? zilch???
just think about it! it's an impossible task

[unrepentant]

Sometimes it feels like there's only a couple people here making real progress.

But that's what I mean. Whoever it is, they're the ones who decided what counts as "good personal growth" so if they really were trying to build an army, you'd think they'd give us enough rope to hang ourselves.