also Lumity and Lunter shipper, I also like platonic aus of Hunter and Luz that aren't Lunter! profile and background made by the-holly-opal 22, ftm/pansexual/aroace, Storyboard artist of the misadventures, oc x canon shipper.
what if Thunderbirds Are Go and Generator Rex does a crossover?
EVIL LAUGHTER. Ohhhhhhhhhh buddy, I've been thinking about this for WELL over a year at this point. Buckle in everyone, I wasn't planning to open the floodgates like this but I hath been asked, and so I shall answer :)
OKAY. So let's start with a bit of background for people who aren't familiar with both shows.
Thunderbirds Are Go is basically a show that's set in the year 2060, following the Tracy family and the work they do as International Rescue. The name is pretty self explanatory, they're a rescue organization that operates globally. Their vehicles are called the Thunderbirds, and their equipment is advanced enough that they can respond to emergencies that might otherwise be impossible to get to in time or would be hard for normal response teams to handle.
Generator Rex takes place in a sort of post-apocalyptic setting; we start the story 5 years after the Nanite Event, which spread microscopic machines known as nanites across the globe. Every living thing on Earth was infected with them, and they can randomly mutate their host into an "EVO"- an acronym that stands for "Exponentially Variegated Organism." A good percentage of the EVOs end up becoming a danger to the people around them, so a paramilitary organization known as Providence was formed sometime after the Event to handle these EVO attacks. The main character is an amnesiac 15yo boy named Rex, an EVO working for Providence that can build machines out of his body and "cure" some other EVOs, reverting them to what they were before their mutations.
So, with that out of the way.
There's two main ways I've considered a crossover au in a combined universe:
Not much is changed about the plots or relationships as they are in their respective shows, but their settings are melded together as is and their stories take place side by side with some overlaps where they could easily fit together. For example: International Rescue would be very well suited to help in Gravity when the space station is crashing- the only way Providence could get there in time was by putting Rex on a space elevator that was not designed for people and was explicitly stated to be lethal to a regular human being. It's just pretty easy to imagine how iR could be helpful in some of these situations, and I could see Rex helping them out as well from time to time. We've seen him voice that he likes being able to use his powers for something other than just fighting for once, let's give more opportunities for that!
As is, there's already plenty of interesting things to explore- from how the Tracys would perceive EVOs, how they'd adjust to the Nanite Event (which, btw, with the way I've aligned the timelines, would take place roughly a year after Jeff's disappearance :3), to their relationship with Rex and their opinions of Providence. I love thinking about how they'd be incredibly concerned about this kid and the way he's treated- the way he's referred to as a "weapon" both by others and himself. He's working for an organization that has a "cure, contain, or kill" protocol for handling EVOs, and he is one. He's canonically mentioned multiple times that he isn't paid, and especially in the beginning he's very isolated. Everyone around him works for Providence- even when he gets his first friend, Noah's actually a spy for White Knight in the beginning so he's still a part of Rex's life that's controlled by Providence, at least at first. I don't think they'd have the power to get him out that situation, but I definitely see them trying to reach out to him where they can. Plus Alan is around his age and I think they could be good friends.
(I do wanna be clear that Rex does have people in Providence that care about him- Holiday and Six do what they can to take care of him, but at the end of the day they still have to their jobs. Really, harm reduction is all they can do. The Tracys aren't gonna know these details from the start though)
There's also the fun possibility for TAG characters to go EVO- we'll get into that more in a bit. (Gladys would be a fun one though; Ned's plant friend can appreciate him in return and take care of him the way he's taken care of her :D)
Also: iR rescuing EVOs!! There's a percentage of EVOs who retain sapience even after turning (or, in the case of animal and plant EVOs, can sometimes develop the ability to communicate with people), and it'd be interesting- especially in the earlier days after the Nanite Event- to see it click in real time for them that...oh. These aren't just mindless monsters. They're still people. We're talking about a family that stuck to their values about saving lives even when it was the life of their worst enemy- any initial fear once they show up and realize what exactly called for their help wouldn't stop them saving them the way they would anyone else.
There's also specific character interactions that would be fun to see, but for the sake of keeping this a manageable length (the original draft of this post was around 2k words, and even after revision it's. Not much shorter tbh) I will leave that for another time.
This option is, admittedly, the one I've explored the most with my friends 'cause it's really fun to me. Honestly, it's just a really self-indulgent AU where I give Rex a bit of a better upbringing because this kid is already put through the ringer enough as it is
Basically, I had Scott find Rex as a kid instead of Six. It wouldn't be unreasonable; if iR was there to help with the evacuation during the giant mech rampage, or on-site ready to search for survivors in the aftermath, it would be entirely possible for him to find Rex in the rubble. And now Scott's got this 13(-ish) year old kid that he ends up taking home with him, 'cause. Well. What else is he gonna do- turn him over to Providence? Hell no. Before Rex their protocol was only "kill or contain", and I can't see Scott being willing to hand a literal child over to them, EVO or not.
SO. Rex Salazar-Tracy AU my beloved <3. International Rexcue AU, if you will. Giving Scott a son and it's one that can build his own wings and fly, good luck <3. Also he may or may not turn into, y'know, a giant fuck you robot if put under enough duress. Whoops.
No one is really surprised when Scott brings a kid home. They don't know about the mech thing at first, but it's pretty obvious once they actually see Rex's machines. Doesn't really change anything about the decision to raise him though, but it is something they gotta watch out for.
It's just fun to explore what Rex's life would be like if he hadn't ended up with Providence, but with someone like International Rescue instead. He fits right in with the Tracys; he's already got some similar values to them ("Why...why would you help someone like me?" "Because a person is a person, no matter how screwed up they are.") and there's ways he reminds me of some of them (mostly Scott, Gordon, and Alan) in terms of personality, behavior and mannerisms that just. Makes it pretty easy to slot them together
It is also fun to make them wrestle with the decision of having to hiding the fact that there's a "cure" (Rex) from the world in order to protect him, because I can't see them being willing to exploit a kid like that, and how the world fares without any concrete sign of hope for a little longer. And also the guilt of knowing that there are people they could have saved, but didn't, because it was at a cost they weren't willing to pay :). At least until Rex is old enough and makes the decision himself (because I do still think he'd choose to help people), for 3 more years, the world has no "cure".
Also: Virgil and Kayo are EVO now :). I thought it'd be fun to make Virgil a werewolf EVO like the ones we meet in Night Falls that shift from a human form to an EVO form during the night, and Kayo is now Goop™. Originally there weren't more details about how she went EVO, but since Silver described it as a "corrupting goop" when they designed her, I went "heyyyyy that reminds me of something" and now she is, specifically, made up of the same substance as the unstable nanite goop from What Lies Beneath, thanks to getting submerged in it in this AU's version of its events. (EVO Kayo art is by @xsilverberryx)
Now, this obviously isn't everything, but this is already a long post without getting into all the details so here's a few misc. Rex adoption au art/memes and we'll just leave it here for now
Thinking about how me and @littlehollyopal made a fankid for Lupin x Zenigata, because of a treasure Lupin wanted to steal and Zenigata trying to stop Lupin.
Before said treasure yonked some of their blood suddenly, because plot twist the treasure was rumor to take blood from lovers that were struggling in their relationship and gave em a child.
So ya a baby immediately popped out of the treasures hands. 💀
Thinking about how me and @littlehollyopal made a fankid for Lupin x Zenigata, because of a treasure Lupin wanted to steal and Zenigata trying to stop Lupin.
Before said treasure yonked some of their blood suddenly, because plot twist the treasure was rumor to take blood from lovers that were struggling in their relationship and gave em a child.
So ya a baby immediately popped out of the treasures hands. 💀
A while ago I made a design for a sentient Omega Nanite, similar to Alpha’s concept, and I haven’t gone back to this AU since (Because I get distracted easily!). However, I really wanted to do something else with it, so I made this piece!
I mentioned in Omega’s description that she refers to nanites as her ‘children’, and has labeled Rex as one of her children, a special child at that, due to how long she’s been connecting with him. And while she’s mostly chill, albeit a little of putting, she is not someone you want to fight. So here she is, going full protective mode for poor old Rexy. 😅
As I was drawing this, I can up with two versions of this AU and I don’t know which to pick, lol. The first being that Omega builds herself this form during her time with Rex, most likely after the fight with Alpha during the crossover where she got the idea. She basically appears like this one day, perhaps saving Rex, and he’s probably just surprised and struggling to understand what in the heck the Omega has done to themself, but he would eventually grow use to it, as he does with everything crazy in his life.
However, my second version for this AU is that the Omega was already structured like this during the nanite project, right after Alpha was booted out by Caesar. So they made Omega more like Alpha in style, but made sure she wasn’t gonna go crazy like him. So in this version of the AU, she kind of hangs around the labs during the nanite project, being tested and in training, needing to get use to her programming and humans around her.
Then, one day while Caesar was trying to do work but also babysitting his brother, he came up with the ‘great’ idea to have Omega babysit Rex instead, as not only could he focus on his work, but this would be perfect training for Omega to understand socializing with humans. Curious, Omega did agree and found herself actually having a lovely time with Rex. Of course, when the others found out, including Caesar and Rex’s parents, they did get angry, and told Caesar he wasn’t being safe. But after sometime they came around with the idea after seeing how taken Omega was with Rex. So it just kind of became a thing of Rex hanging around Omega, given everyone and his family were often too busy to watch and play with him.
It wasn’t until Rex’s lab accident and being infused with nanites to save his life that Omega started to have these parental feelings/urges towards Rex, but was never open about it around the adults long enough for them to catch on.
In this version of the AU, I can imagine after the nanite event, Rex actually already has the Omega who decides to watch over and bond to him after what happened. She mostly just stays in her basic nanite form in him, letting him have control of his powers while she worked her magic on keeping his mutations stable. However, she will sometime, rarely, come out to deal with problems on her own, or if Rex asks for her to come out personally.
What do you think about the two versions of the AU? Not sure which one I prefer.
So, after watching the Heroes United Episode, I wiped up this drawing of a sentient Omega. Inspired by, of course, Alpha!
Omega is very much the opposite of Alpha in many ways. Stable, capable of being gentle and with a feminine appearance. They only acts out in defense and often needs to rely on her nanites to help protect her.
Much like how Alpha labels nanites his ‘brothers’, Omega often calls them her ‘children’, as she does create and guide them. However, this label has been attached to Rex. After spending a long time with him, doing what she could to upgrade and protect him, her views have made her believe that he is one of them and something of hers. This has resulted in her protective nature over him, doing what ever she can to keep the boy safe and alive, no matter what gets in her way.
She also refers to Rylander as her ‘Father’. While a group of scientist made her, he became responsible in watching over her in later years.
While she is stable and mostly not aggressive, she isn’t peaceful and soft during a fight. She will show no mercy and display very deadly and swift battle tactics, especially if you are someone who dares harm her, her nanites or Rex.
She has a curious view towards humans, sometimes even mimicking them and picking up habits she sees. Omega wants to better understand them for herself and the nanites, so they can adapt better to live with humans. Unlike Alpha, she full heartedly believes that machines and humans should co-exist. Unfortunately, this makes her think EVOs are a good thing, when done right of course. Thankfully, she’s never gone and mutated someone, but she will bring up her opinion if the topic is discussed.
Genuinely interested in what y’all think about Breach’s final act in genrex, which is to portal away VK and the pack before they can be cured.
The first time I watched it, I saw this is a sort of “Welp I guess Breach is evil again??” moment, because it seemed like she was getting the pack back together. Taking Biowulf and Skalamander kinda made sense since they never wanted to be cured and are probably the closest people she has to ‘family’, given we never see them explicitly treat her badly. VK, on the other hand…… for a second I considered it more of a “kidnap to torture” thing where she was planning to get back at him since he’s obviously weakened at that moment . But then why not after he’s de-EVOed and less of a threat? Just didn’t really fit that vibe.
And then, if she really was saving VK, doesn’t that kill her entire character arc? From being the creepy schoolgirl ghost horror trope to a fleshed out character shown to be a deeply traumatised, abused and lonely child who was taken advantage of by VK. The end of season 2 was literally a turning point where she chooses to save Rex over VK and maybe realise how shit VK was treating her.
Of course, narratively, that whole thing was to tease the loose end of the pack still being out there, jic the show got a continuation or something. But Breach specifically doing it is driving me insane. She’s so fricking vague and I feel like the writers were doing SOMETHING with her until s3 went off the rails and they had to tie everything up real quick.
ALSO, the way the show is framed starting and ending with Rex doing the same thing kind of points in the direction of “we’re right back where we started but different”, which also makes me think breach really did go back to the pack.
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