Mr_Crocodile Wrote:First came stone, bronze, and iron. Then came steel, alloys, and silicon. Then came titanium, composites and polimers. The mace of stone never left us, it merely became stronger.

First came the lever, wheel, and pulley, inclined plane, wedge, and screw. Then came the spring, the sail, the clock and the pump. Then came the engine, the transistor, and the atomic battery. The bladed wheel never left us, it merely became faster.

First came the tackle and the chariot. Then the locomotive and the bicycle. The automobile and the plane came then, but were not last. The charioteer never left us, his steed simply became mightier.

The Age of Monsters has arrived, and mankind faces them entombed within gods of progress.

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Notes:
So, I am finally tackling a fully Mecha-centric story anthology in the OtSoT series. Which is crazy considering how long I have been working on it for, and how intertwined Kaiju and Mechs are with each other, both thematically and in the literal history of media.

The first chapter of this fic was originally posted ion the 22nd of July of 202, almost 5 years ago. Since then, I have greatly improved in my writing skills, because of that, the entire thing has undergone an in-depth rewrite that also allowed me to entirely update it to my current vision for OtSoT's lore.

Croc also Wrote:One can hardly believe the kinds of relics that get stolen or even outright forgotten when a nation shatters.
For the youth of Belgrade, one such abandoned artifact may hold the key to saving their homeland.

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Notes:
While Ch1 was a rewrite of a very early story of the OtSoT series, Ch2 is here to kickstart this fic's serialization, get ready for 20 more stories of mech awesomess!

See the end of the chapter for more notes.

I wrote this chapter specifically for Matkoc, one of my editors and closest friends.
He, like the main characters of this chapter, is a Serbian student. His participation in the anti-corruption protests that started in 2024 directly inspired this chapter's tone.

His artwork, on the other hand, inspired this story which you should absolutely check out as well.
As always, thank you for reading. I can't believe I'm using so much Hanna-Barbera stuff...

tealruby Wrote:Hermione’s been a busy Lantern of late. Patrolling, but also envisioning her future in the Corps. Others are making plans too, planning for events and eventualities. One person’s been doing this for years, preparing for the worst of contingencies. He thinks Hermione is the person to join him. Then take his place.
“Not good enough. You’re forgetting what you’ll be facing. Don’t plan for singles; plan for multiples.”

See the end of the chapter for more notes.

Way, way back when sketching out this story, it was just Hermione & Bruce. Now we’re now, and more people are doing things, so we get to see more people planning things. As you can imagine, there’re plenty more planning going on too.

Thanks to a wonderful scene in Ocean’s 8 for a bit of adopted dialogue. Debbie’s practically a supervillain, so I think it fits.