#cronoverdose 2026

[hexusproductions]

Cronoverdose 2026, Day 15 + 17 - Watchdog + Bombs

Word Count: 1298

Author's Note: I was really excited for this one, it's been a while since I've gotten to write something starring Luna or DD. Readers advised, there's a bit of gore in this one!

“Ah-! Hsss…” Lady Luna sucked in air through her teeth. Her shoulder lurched forward into her palm of its own accord.

“This’ll take longer if you keep squirming.” Doctor Dalmatian complained from his place behind her. With one boot firmly on the ground, one knee perched on the sofa Luna was sitting on, and his hands occupied by scissors and a pair of forceps, comfort was clearly the last thing on his mind.

Luna’s stomach lurched. Her entire left shoulder throbbed ceaselessly, an even rhythm that thundered over any other thoughts. Her hand had only been there for a few seconds and it already felt slick and sticky. She swallowed down another wave of nausea and answered with a weak smile.

“Sorry.”

She heard Dalmatian grunt under his breath before he shifted to get back to task.

Luna’s shoulder was a localised crater. The jagged hole had ruptured through nerve and tissue, and what remained glared back at Dalmatian, raw and red against her dark skin. It was a wonder she could still move it at all.

Focus steeled and hands steady, Dalmatian resumed the painstaking process of using the forceps to peel back the tattered bits of Luna’s costume from the wound. The congealed fabric fought against him, and he didn’t miss the whine Luna bit back, or her hands clenching around the sofa’s seat cushion, as he had to maneuver deeper underneath to finally pry the material free. A few snips of the scissors and the discards were put with the others in a medical waste bin beside his foot.

“Relax that hand.” Dalmatian pointed the scissors firmly towards Luna’s left hand. She immediately complied, reminded that the attempt to release her pain was putting more strain on an already precarious body part. She shook her head, and instead bounced her foot against the carpet, frustration vented between gritted teeth. Snip. Snip. Even while it was impossible to focus, the sounds of Dalmatian working away were far louder to her enhanced hearing.

Dalmatian braced a hand on her other shoulder. Frayed threads had buried themselves deeper, and when Dalmatian slipped them free, it felt like a knife slicing through her flesh. Luna let out a strangled yelp. If it weren’t for her own willpower and Dalmatian’s hand on her other shoulder, she would’ve jerked away again. Luna tensed every muscle until she was shaking, and squeezed her eyes tight.

“I’m good, I’m good…” She managed as she felt Dalmatian straighten up behind her, “Mm-! I’m good…”

Despite her best attempts, her breathing was coming out quick and shallow. Her head dropped as the best substitute for curling in on herself. Luna was doing her best to power through it, but whenever she opened her mouth even slightly, whimpers and the politest of curses escaped.

The valiant effort did not go unnoticed and Dalmatian once again fell still. His hand was steadfast on Luna’s trembling frame. It was impossible to read his gaze through the opaque lenses of his domino mask as he looked at her. A moment of silence passed. Then Dalmatian softly clicked his tongue with a restless glance to one side of the room.

Leaning forward and further into her view, Dalmatian’s usually harsh tone receded from his voice, leaving it soft and quiet.

“You’re doing great, Luna. We’re almost done.” He told her, “Just hang on a little longer. You’ve handled a lot worse than this.” He pushed a few strands of her long hair aside - it was purely to keep them from falling into her open wound, but she didn’t need to know the difference - and gave her uninjured shoulder the lightest squeeze for good measure. Luna sucked in a deep breath and nodded.

“I’ve handled way worse than this.” She echoed with a kind of clarity; remembering that she had, literally, been through worse than this before.

“Mm hm.” Dalmatian nodded. He let Luna breathe for a minute while he surveyed the injury. Every exhale was shaky, but the other exclamations of pain peetered out, and she sat up. “Are you ready?” She nodded with a thumbs up. Dalmatian resumed clearing away foreign material, albeit at a slightly slower pace. He couldn’t have possibly been more careful, but this could perhaps make it more bearable. Luna focused on keeping her breathing steady and only winced occasionally.

After the larger pieces were cleared, Dalmatian leaned in to scrutinise the area for any wayward threads, a task made more difficult by Luna’s costume being predominantly red.

“Harley and Gepetto are following up on Sector.” He reassured, “They’ll find something.”

“Good. Good. So Harley’s here? I didn’t…I didn’t see him when I got back.”

“He went to find Gepetto as soon as he saw you. Brace yourself-” One awkward angle and a knotted thread came free to join the others in the waste bin, “He had that look in his eyes again. Like he was ready to go out there and get Crono himself.” Luna pulled a face before speaking again. The conversation was working to distract her.

“He might be happy to hear that I threw Crono out a window then.” She chuckled. Dalmatian snorted. Luna perked up and turned her head. “Was that a laugh I just heard?” Dalmatian immediately frowned and bent down to grab a rag from his supplies.

“Maybe.” He said while pointedly concentrating on wiping his hands clean. Luna smiled wide.

“It’s nice! I like your laugh. You should let yourself do it more often.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Dalmatian rolled his eyes and put down the rag. “What did I say about squirming? I need to fix the last of this.” He gestured to her destroyed shoulder to emphasise his point. Luna pulled a different face but she turned her head forward again and held still.

“Alrighty.” She conceded, then added, “Quickly, please.”

Dalmatian cupped his hands around both sides of the wound. A golden glow came to life on his skin, beginning at his fingertips and spreading until it disappeared beneath his sleeves, creeping up so far that it was visible at his collar. The greater amount of energy needed, the more surface area it claimed, and so Dalmatian’s body illuminated the living room in a swath of warm gold.

Within his hands, a rush of vitality ran through Luna’s shoulder, shimmering as if full of the same light. The bleeding slowly receded and the flesh restored itself, growing anew and knitting back together. By the time Dalmatian was done, and the golden glow faded out, Luna’s shoulder looked like it had never been damaged in the first place.

Luna sighed in relief. She stood up and rolled her shoulder experimentally before ending with a flex to admire the substantial curve of her bicep.

“Thank you, Deedee.” She turned and dragged Dalmatian into a hug with a grin. Dalmatian grumbled in surprise but he relaxed into the hug. He wouldn’t admit it to her, but he was feeling a little woozy after using his powers, so he was happy to accept letting her support him for a second. Luna was beaming almost as brightly as his restorative powers as she set him back down and started to turn. “I should go tell Harley I’m okay.”

“Mm. Maybe avoid the hug. He’s probably a little charged right now.” Dalmatian advised, referring to Harley’s electrical abilities. Though they weren’t usually a danger, when the team’s tech and communications guy was particularly stressed, the static he gave off could be a slightly unpleasant shock. Luna nodded and went off towards Harley’s station.

Dalmatian waited until she was gone to drop onto the sofa. He sighed, holding his head in his hand.

A second to rest…alright, that’d do. Dalmatian pulled himself to his feet and started to pack up his medical supplies.

[hexusproductions]

Cronoverdose 2026, Day 16 - Present

(I’m skipping Day 15 for now because I want to combine it with the next prompt.)

I’ve been playing Minecraft again recently, so of course that got me thinking about Crono playing it/playing video games in general.

This may not surprise anyone but Crono is not big into video games. His idea of recreational activities are very physical - DIY, exercise, active activities like the axe throwing I mentioned way back in Day 3. If he did play them more routinely, he’d likely go for games where you have to keep track of a lot of moving parts, e.g. Project Zomboid. Zomboid also gets extra points in that Crono’s preferred fiction genres are post apocalypse and monster horror/thrillers (werewolves, vampires, monster hunters, that kind of thing). I don’t think Minecraft is something he’d try of his own volition; Someone else, someone who’s capable of convincing him to try stuff out of his very rigid comfort zone, would have to get him to do it.

All that being said, if Crono did play Minecraft, you know he would be a mob hunter/miner. Full dwarf mode. He does not care about the monsters and he will get extremely good at combat in order to get resources and protect home base. This would be super beneficial for whoever else he’s playing with since it takes a major danger off their plate. I for one avoid combat in Minecraft as much as possible lol.

Crono’s own base/home starts out as a hole in a mountain (because he was told not to be out in the open at night, and making a hole to camp out in is the most efficient solution), but over time he’d develop it into a proper building and keep adding things, all against the side of the mountain. It’d kind of hit the same enjoyment he gets out of the renovations he makes to his own real house - and here, he gets way more freedom with what he can do.

In summary, he doesn’t play many video games in general, but if he were somehow convinced to play Minecraft, he’d find a few aspects that he’d really enjoy and wouldn’t mind putting hours into.

[hexusproductions]

Cronoverdose 2026, Day 14 - Security

Another info post today! I want to talk about what security means to Crono.

Tartarus Security is an incredibly successful security company located in New Salvation City. It was founded and remains run by Brett Hodgkins. The company’s motto is very straightforward: “Nothing escapes us.”

It is also how Hodgkins, as Crono Sector, is able to act and move about so freely - He has a literal backdoor into almost every major part of the city. An advantage that he is of course happy to lend to the rest of the Villain Alliance, and more importantly, to its leader, the Black Mamba.

Crono is very proud of his security company. It is incredibly important to him. I would dare say it is one of his most prized possessions. While other villains may see their day job as merely a cover for their activities, Crono holds both his responsibilities as Tartarus’ chief officer and his responsibilities as Crono Sector on equal standing, outright referring to them as his two jobs.

He hasn’t run into many issues r.e. his identity being found out. Despite being quite a large man whose main repertoire lies in explosives, Crono can be stealthy when he needs to be, in addition to the aforementioned benefits from his company being so widespread. There was once some investigation into a possible connection between Hodgkins and Crono Sector, but having thoroughly covered his tracks (and with some help from a certain snake), nothing conclusive was found.

Crono doesn’t reflect back on that first investigation fondly, and he came away from it with knowledge on how to improve and better hide what he’s doing, but the situation was likely to happen sooner or later. He was prepared for it.

The second time, however… Crono has a habit of making decisions for the Villain Alliance on behalf of Black Mamba. Their goals are usually aligned, but thinking he knows better than everyone else is one of Crono’s major flaws, even when it comes to someone he greatly respects. The one time, the only time, that Crono overstepped, Mamba made sure he knew it. Mamba pulled some strings and had the investigation into Tartarus Security reopened.

The process was far more brutal this time around, and it lasted much longer. Crono spent day after day making sure that evidence was buried, answering questions, keeping everything running, all without any help from the Alliance. This is a man who has every moment of the day planned out, and his entire schedule was in tatters. He was frustrated, rattled, and as things kept going, he was afraid he would lose something extremely precious to him.

It had been made very clear who was responsible for putting him in this position. Crono went back to Mamba, and out of desperation, did something he never does; He apologised. Took the blame and admitted an error in judgement. And Black Mamba made the whole investigation go away, just like that.

Since then, Crono has been far more careful, and made sure never to overstep that much again.

[hexusproductions]

Cronoverdose 2026, Day 13 - Clockwork

Word Count: 746

Author's Note: This one is entirely just for me and my friend 😁

A canine howl echoed through the halls of the magical archive. Clockwork’s ears twitched and he looked back over his shoulder.

“Moon Bright is here. Don’t waste any more time.” He felt the shadow beside him tremble.

“Work fast then, and you’ll have your wanted tome.” Hushabye slunk around Clockwork, head low and cocked in the direction the howl had come from. Her voice hissed and chittered as she spoke. “...Do you think, perhaps, she came alone?”

“It’s possible, but unlikely. Be ready for anything.” Clockwork turned his attention back to the final set of doors standing before them. They were towering, overgrown with filigree, and locked. He and Hushabye had been working on changing that last attribute when Moon Bright had announced her arrival. A poor decision on her part to immediately alert them. Clockwork resumed taking apart the door’s physical locks, but its magical protections still remained. “Hushabye.”

With soft, slow hoofsteps, Hushabye padded back over to the doors. A sickly golden-green glow blanketed their surface, swirling and flickering in a way that betrayed her distracted concentration. It didn’t surprise Clockwork in the slightest. He had had to drag her back onto task once already. Hushabye was straightforward both in purpose and in price, but she was completely selfish. It was wearing on his already thin patience. His scowl etched deeper into his features and his focus remained unshakably sharp on the task before him.

Tumblers clicked and glyphs fizzled out. No other sound had yet to reach the hallway, leaving the two ponies unaware of how close their enemies were, only sure that they were here. The doors remained sealed tight. Hushabye’s magic sparked as another protection spell consumed itself.

Voices and the thunder of hooves crept into the air, distant, but encroaching closer by the second. Clockwork didn’t waver. But without warning, Hushabye beside him bristled, and then a grin curled across her muzzle.

“There’s more than just the guards and Bright. I know that warm and tending light.” She curled around, doors completely forgotten, as her insectile wings buzzed. Clockwork snorted.

“Go. Do your job.”

Hushabye was practically salivating at the order. In a swirl of golden-green, she transformed into an armoured colt - one of the guards they had incapacitated earlier - and skittered down the hallway.

The voices were clearer now. Hoofbeats bounced off of the walls into a growing din.

Clockwork shot another glare behind him. His jaw clenched. He stepped back, turned around, and reared forward.

SLAM!

He kicked hard against the doors with his hind legs. The metal locks shattered and the wood behind them buckled into a crater of splinters.

SLAM!

The second kick destroyed what had already dented and broke through to the other side. With the doors no longer fully intact, the handful of wards Hushabye had failed to dispel collapsed. Clockwork batted aside the debris and squeezed through the hole he’d created.

The difference in the hallway and the archive’s inner chamber was like day and night. The curtains were drawn, and a scattering of dust particles floated in the air, forgoing the outside’s bright and decorated walls for a more claustrophobic atmosphere. Clockwork navigated the chamber’s rows of shelves and boxed artifacts, only skimming over anything that wasn’t what he was looking for as he passed. Clusters of spell scrolls that hadn’t been touched in decades. A statue of two dragons, intertwined, one with glimmering fangs and the other with a ring through its snout. A broken crystal horn. A piece of coal labelled as belonging to the dreaded ice satyr of the north.

Finally, Clockwork came to a podium holding a glass dome. Within it sat a small cushion, and on that, a book. After pausing to examine the entire podium for any safeguards or traps, he removed the glass dome and set it aside.

The book was a thick tome bound and decorated with pressed vines and flowers. Under the safety of glass, it was almost completely free of dust. Crystal scales had either been embedded into or grown from the tome’s spine, dull in the chamber’s low light, and sharp to the touch.

Clockwork took the tome from its pedestal. Without disturbing the delicate elements of its exterior, he placed it inside his saddlebag, and returned the glass dome to the podium. Snakebite was going to be pleased.

Several terrified screams reached Clockwork’s ears from beyond the broken doors. Judging by that sound, Hushabye was also finding her own satisfaction.

[hexusproductions]

Cronoverdose 2026, Day 12 - Babygirl

So it has been...An eventful couple of weeks. Making things, especially daily, has been difficult. But I am going to finish this project if it kills me.

And what a prompt we have to return with! For this one, I wanted to take a real shot at using Picmix. I've seen it pop up a bunch, and I did fuck around with it for a minute, but this is the first time I actually tried making something proper.

I totally feel the appeal. It is so fun slapping silly images and gifs over a picture of MY silly blorbo Crono. Let me tell you though, the exporting process was not kind to me. It kept giving me error messages over and over - I think I had too many elements for it to process. Whoops! - and I ultimately had to start over, severely cutting back the number of images.

Without further ado, the final results! (Both the simpler one that managed to process, and the original that I managed to save [without the gifs working])

(The Crono art itself is from this picrew)

[hexusproductions]

Cronoverdose 2026, Day 11 - Fusion

Today I want to talk about fusions because I really really love fusions. I love the trope of “Two+ characters combine into one new being”.

The two Crono Sector fusions that have the most idea behind them (and are my personal favourites) are Hydra Anachron and the Sandman. Fusions with Black Mamba and Boogie Man respectively. I’ve mentioned them off-hand in the past but here I’m gonna actually go a little further into depth.

Hydra Anachron

My beloved, awful awful man. He is everything I love about Crono and Mamba combined. He’s quiet, meticulous, cruel. He’s still built like a brick shithouse like Crono is but his features are a little less harsh, he retains Mamba’s long grey-streaked hair, albeit its main colour shifted from black to a deeper brown. Hydra is almost perfectly complete. The closest thing to a mutation* he possesses is that he’s got a little bit of a chimeric thing going on where he has a snake coming out of the back of his neck (the snake may be a bit of a malformed extra arm + hand, haven’t decided on that yet). Hydra usually keeps it coiled in a way that keeps his hair back and up out of his face.

(*With fusions, I like incorporating the idea that the worse the relationship between the people fusing, the more it causes some weird mutations and side effects in the resulting fusion e.g. extra limbs or eyes. Very much taking influence from SU’s fusion rules)

The circumstances for Mamba and Crono fusing wouldn’t be difficult in the slightest. As easy as a handshake. They already have an outspoken respect for each other, present a good enough reason and I think Mamba would persuade/permit/twist Crono’s arm into fusing for a short time. They’d act like it’s an equal partnership. It never is. As I mentioned in this previous post about Hydra, there is an overt bias towards Mamba present in virtually every aspect.

Hydra’s powers are still tricky and vague to me. At the moment my main idea is keeping Mamba’s destructive powers but with a more explosive flair - spreading acidic corruption that bubbles and combusts in its wake.

The Sandman

This fucking guy. I have a little bit of a bias towards him because I came up with him (and his main accessory) first, even if he is less thought through than Anachron is.

Sandman aesthetically? Amazing. Sandman from a practical standpoint? Absolute nightmare to deal with. Crono and Boogie Man are complete opposites, so what you end up with is a fusion that is frequently fighting with itself. And Crono’s overbearing willpower causes Boogie’s social-invisibility powers to mutate into inducing intense confusion and mental fatigue in others. Awful experience all-around.

The key accessory of Sandman’s design is a pair of clock face glasses. Something like this (sorry that it’s a pinterest link, trust me, you would not believe how long I spent looking for an image with an actual source). I am also going to note that Boogie Man is a tall man. He is the second tallest member of the VA, after Crono, and the bastard wears platform shoes. So Sandman is going to be giant.

Crono and Boogie would not fuse unless they had literally no other choice. "They're going to die or the world will end if they don't" kind of stakes. Crono would adamantly refuse, and while Boogie loves fucking with Crono any chance he can get, he gets skittish about letting somebody else see all his memories and the insecurities he swears he doesn't have.

The hardest part of Sandman is going to be figuring out the performer aspect. Boogie’s whole thing is music, he lives for the spotlight, whereas Crono can’t stand that sort of thing. Again part of the fusion being intrinsically at odds. There’s the possibility that Sandman does find the slim amount of common ground its two components possess, but that’s only going to happen if they don’t kill each other or destabilise & unfuse first.

He does have a theme song though. It is of course Enter Sandman by Metallica.

[hexusproductions]

Cronoverdose 2026, Day 10 - Weapon

Word Count: 567

He enjoyed the repetition of things like this. It was rhythmic. Find the right point, apply adhesives, set the detonators. No timers - not for this. He couldn’t leave anything to chance.

Crono Sector remained completely silent as he worked. Completely alone for a short window of time, the only sound he could hear within the large room was the quiet, familiar ticking of the watches he wore.

The process was all too easy. Practiced to perfection. Knelt down low to better reach into the control console table he had pried open, he packed the piece of furniture’s hollow insides with enough explosives to bring the entire building down.

Being inside of the Justice Crew’s headquarters sharpened his concentration and stoked the anger broiling in a deep pit of his stomach. The Alliance had agreed on the location being off-limits for years. Every second that passed here was a reminder of what had changed, of what had been lost, and pressed upon the importance of carrying things out without a single fault.

The Black Mamba had once again chosen wisely. Crono was incapable of fault - especially in his fields of expertise.

The superhero headquarters was a multi-storied but normal building, not specially constructed for its purpose, so there was no unique trick to quietly breaking his way inside. He shouldn’t have been surprised that a group so barely competent had subpar security measures. If he had known, he would have urged for their removal far sooner. All three of the major members were elsewhere, having proudly bounded into action to protect the city from another threat, their gaudy vehicle tearing down the roads with colours flying.

There was the chance of encountering their elusive fourth member - their identity unknown, only fragments of a voice sometimes heard from the Justice Crew’s earpieces - who Crono had not seen leave the building. If it came to it, Crono would deal with them.

Crono checked everything over once, then twice, making certain that everything was secure and ready.

First went Fester Jester. Inconsequential.

Then Trencher. Notable, especially due to news of the severe injuries he was suffering. But still acceptable.

Then the Boogie Man, joined in one fell swoop by the lesser likes of Miss Vile and Mr Venus. The Vs had successfully been recovered from the crime scene. But the damage was done. The Black Mamba’s patience had worn thin. Crono was in agreement. This group had done enough damage, and the thin ice they’d been skating on for years had finally broken; On His orders, Crono was here to send them plunging into the cold depths below.

Crono pushed the wood backing of the console table back together and fastened its screws tight. With the faint scuff of his thick boots on the floor, he stood up, and made his way back out of the building the same way he had come in. He was careful to leave as little trace of his presence behind as possible, careful of any activity within as he left, and careful of the detonator housed within his belt, ready for the moment he deemed fit.

With a quick glance around him, Crono started towards the neighbouring building that he had been occupying to stake out the headquarters. A steely feeling of certainty settled over his mind and fuelled his every step.

What he had done here would bring an end to the Justice Crew.

[hexusproductions]

Cronoverdose 2026, Day 9 - Order

As should be evident by now, Crono Sector is a creature of order. He lives by a strict schedule and set of principles - even if said principles don’t place morality highly.

It’s why he’s so drawn to Black Mamba, who he sees as bringing a much-needed order and control to the city of New Salvation. It’s why Crono is quick to join Zenith’s side, one of if not the first to do so voluntarily, in the Zenith Arc AU; The planet-conquering (“preserving” as they would put it) robot offers a similar control on a worldwide scale, as well as improvement of the people Crono finds oh-so-flawed.

It’s also why he and Boogie Man are so intrinsically opposed to each other. Boogie Man is, in comparison, a man of noise, chaos and whim.

The Black Mamba may be the secret supervillain crime lord of the city, and in a way Mamba also sees himself as above most people, but even he is a tiny bit more lax compared to his second in command. That’s why he confidently relies on Crono Sector to keep everything running like clockwork.