Hypothesis on the Chronology from Madness Combat 6 to Madness Combat 9

This interpretation proposes that the events between Madness Combat 6 and Madness Combat 9 can be reconciled through a division caused by Improbability. Rather than treating the apparent contradictions between Madness Combat 7, Madness Project Nexus, An Experiment, and Madness Combat 9.5 as simple visual inconsistencies, this hypothesis suggests that they may be the consequence of multiple manifestations of both Hank and Tricky existing simultaneously.

The central idea is that Improbability lightning does not necessarily transform an individual in a linear manner. Instead, it may divide their continuity.

Madness Combat 6: The First Division

At the end of Madness Combat 6, Hank defeats Tricky using, among other weapons, a P90 and a double-bladed axe before throwing him into the abyss. Tricky is subsequently struck by Improbability lightning.

The hypothesis is that this event divides Tricky into two separate manifestations.

One manifestation retains the continuity and memories of the Tricky previously seen throughout the series. This Tricky remains somewhere in Nevada and eventually continues toward the events of Madness Project Nexus.

The other manifestation, directly affected by Improbability, becomes the demonic Tricky encountered later in Madness Combat 7.

This distinction is particularly important because, under this interpretation, the Tricky seen in Madness Project Nexus cannot remember becoming the giant demon from MC7. That transformation belongs to a separate manifestation created by the Improbability event.

He may remember Hank killing him in MC6 because that experience belongs to his original continuity. However, he does not remember becoming the demon, because the demon is, effectively, another Tricky.

Therefore, after MC6, two manifestations of Tricky may coexist: one retaining the memories and continuity of the original Tricky, and another becoming the demonic manifestation that remains in the canyon.

Madness Combat 7: Hank Undergoes the Same Phenomenon

At the beginning of Madness Combat 7, Hank confronts the demonic manifestation of Tricky. During their battle, Hank himself is struck by Improbability lightning.

The same phenomenon may occur again.

The original Hank from Madness Combat 6 is temporarily displaced toward the Other Place, while another manifestation—the Hank of Madness Combat 7—continues existing in Nevada and carries on the battle against the demonic Tricky.

Under this interpretation, the MC7 Hank is not simply the original Hank with a different appearance. He is a manifestation directly produced by the Improbability event.

This newly created Hank continues fighting until Jebus intervenes and kills both Hank and Tricky. Their corpses remain in Nevada at the location where MC7 concludes.

Meanwhile, the original Hank from MC6 remains temporarily displaced from Nevada.

This creates two parallel situations: the corpse of the MC7 Hank remains physically present in Nevada, while the original MC6 Hank has temporarily entered the Other Place.

Madness Combat 7.5 and An Experiment

The events of Madness Combat 7.5 subsequently acknowledge Hank's death. Deimos receives the notification stating that Hank has been terminated, establishing that 2BDamned is already aware of Hank's situation.

After this come An Experiment and An Experiment 2, in which Sanford and Deimos are captured.

These episodes also provide an important detail regarding Hank's posters.

Although these events occur after MC7, facilities in actual Nevada can still contain representations of Hank's MC6 appearance. This can be contrasted with the structures generated by Tricky during MC7.

The environments seen throughout MC7 are directly connected to Tricky's Improbability. Their posters reflect the Hank that Tricky recognizes at that moment, and they feature only Agents rather than the broader military structure found elsewhere in Nevada. These structures can therefore be interpreted as isolated constructions of Tricky's reality rather than locations that continuously update alongside the rest of Nevada.

The facilities seen in An Experiment, however, belong to actual Nevada infrastructure. Their posters can therefore preserve older records of Hank's appearance.

At the conclusion of An Experiment 2, the original Hank from MC6 is recovered through the Magnification Machine, replacing the Half-Mag scientist with the robotic arm.

2BDamned subsequently provides him with equipment visually equivalent to the MC7 outfit.

From this point onward, the original MC6 Hank looks like the MC7 Hank while operating in Nevada, but he remains the original MC6 manifestation.

The distinction between the two only becomes fully visible later in the Other Place.

Madness Project Nexus: The Return of the Original Continuities

Under this chronology, Madness Project Nexus 1 and 2 occur after MC7 and the events of An Experiment.

This allows several chronological problems to be addressed. Sanford and Deimos already know normal ATP units, which makes it difficult to place these events before Madness Combat 5.

Additionally, the external facilities of the Nexus Core can already be protected by improved black-glassed Agents and normal ATP units. The Agents encountered during Madness Project Nexus 1, despite their visual resemblance to Crimson Agents, can be interpreted as upgraded black Agents operating under the A.A.H.W. rather than the original Crimson Agent units associated with the Nexus Core.

In Madness Project Nexus 1, the A.A.H.W. is pursuing Hank while simultaneously protecting or utilizing infrastructure and assets connected to the Nexus Core. This relationship becomes particularly visible later in MPN2, when the Agency pursues the protagonists while Nexus Core containers are being transported alongside the conflict.

The events of Project Nexus therefore occur in a Nevada where information about Hank can already be updated.

This explains why posters and records in actual Nevada locations can represent Hank with his MC7 appearance. The Hank physically operating in Nevada is the original MC6 Hank, but he is now wearing equipment visually associated with MC7.

Unlike Tricky's isolated Improbability-generated structures, these locations belong to actual Nevada and can update their records according to Hank's current appearance.

One of the most interesting details appears during Hank and Tricky's encounter in the Commercial District.

Both characters reference their history and the occasions on which they have killed each other. Hank's line is particularly important:

\> “Remember the time I DID kill you?”

The emphasis on DID makes the line especially interesting under this interpretation.

The Hank participating in Project Nexus is the original Hank from MC6. He remembers personally defeating and killing Tricky before the Improbability event.

There is also a particularly specific possible visual reference reinforcing this connection. Inside one of the weapon lockers in the laboratory, a P90 can be found alongside a double-bladed axe.

These are precisely two of the weapons associated with Hank's defeat of Tricky in Madness Combat 6.

This detail does not prove the theory on its own and could simply be an easter egg. However, within this interpretation, it functions as an unusually direct reference: precisely during the storyline where Hank and Tricky meet again and discuss killing each other, the weapons associated with their MC6 confrontation appear together.

This supports the idea that the Hank and Tricky present in Project Nexus are the continuities that retain the memories of MC6.

Hank remembers killing Tricky.

Tricky remembers being killed by Hank.

But Tricky does not remember becoming the demon of MC7, because that experience belongs to the separate manifestation created by Improbability.

The End of Madness Project Nexus

Eventually, the original Hank from MC6 reaches the Science Tower and dies during the final events of Madness Project Nexus 2.

Although he visually uses the MC7-style outfit throughout Project Nexus, his identity remains that of the original MC6 Hank.

This becomes relevant once he reaches the Other Place.

There, external equipment no longer defines his manifestation, and he appears as the jawless Hank associated with Madness Combat 6.

The distinction can therefore be established clearly:

The MC6 Hank participates in Project Nexus while visually wearing the MC7 outfit, but manifests as the MC6 Hank in the Other Place.

The MC7 Hank was directly born from Improbability and retains the MC7 appearance in the Other Place.

With this distinction established, the two Hanks no longer need to be treated as a single character undergoing arbitrary visual changes.

The death of the original MC6 Hank at the Science Tower also establishes the point after which Madness Combat 9.5 Part 2 can occur.

Meanwhile, Madness Combat 9.5 Part 1 can be associated with the earlier death of the MC7 Hank at the end of MC7.

Because the Other Place does not necessarily follow Nevada's linear chronology, both experiences can eventually intersect without requiring their deaths to have occurred consecutively.

This may also explain certain behavioral details during MC9.5, such as Hank's surprise when encountering enemies he apparently has never seen before. The consciousness involved may be following a different experiential continuity.

The Transition into Madness Combat 8

After the events of Madness Project Nexus 2, Jebus survives Hank's bazooka attack and subsequently encounters the Employers.

Jebus rejects their proposal.

Afterward, he returns to the location where Madness Combat 7 ended and begins attacking the Auditor's headquarters from there, initiating the events of Madness Combat 8.

This establishes an important chronological restriction.

At the beginning of MC8, the corpses left behind at the end of MC7 are still present. The bodies of the MC7 Hank and the demonic Tricky have not disappeared.

Therefore, an enormous amount of time cannot have passed between MC7 and MC8.

If Madness Project Nexus 1 and 2 occur within this interval, their entire storyline must have taken place within an extremely compressed period—potentially around one or two days.

This places Project Nexus as an intense and relatively short episode within the main chronology rather than a separate era occurring long before the events of the main series.

Madness Combat 8 and the Beginning of Madness Combat 9

By the end of Madness Combat 8, the conflict between Jebus and the Auditor escalates directly toward the events of Madness Combat 9.

Here, it is essential to distinguish which Hank Sanford and Deimos intend to recover.

The Hank who died at the Science Tower during Madness Project Nexus 2 is the original MC6 Hank, whose continuity proceeds into the Other Place.

However, the Hank whose corpse Sanford and Deimos ultimately recover in Madness Combat 9 is the Hank who died at the end of Madness Combat 7.

That is, the MC7 Hank.

His body had remained at the same location since Jebus killed him alongside the demonic Tricky.

This allows the two sequences of Madness Combat 9.5 to be separated:

MC9.5 Part 1 follows the continuity associated with the death of the MC7 Hank.

MC9.5 Part 2 occurs after the death of the original MC6 Hank at the Science Tower during MPN2.

Eventually, both manifestations can encounter each other inside the Other Place, where time does not necessarily operate according to Nevada's linear sequence.

Conclusion

Under this interpretation, the chronology between Madness Combat 6 and Madness Combat 9 does not follow a single uninterrupted Hank and a single uninterrupted Tricky.

The Improbability events divide both characters.

On one side remain the original continuities originating in MC6: the Hank who is eventually recovered and participates in Madness Project Nexus, and the Tricky who retains the memory of his original conflict with Hank.

On the other side emerge the manifestations directly produced by Improbability: the MC7 Hank and the demonic Tricky.

The improbable manifestations fight each other in MC7 and die together.

Meanwhile, the original continuities eventually reunite in Madness Project Nexus. There, Hank's memory of killing Tricky—and the possible visual reference involving the P90 and double-bladed axe—can be interpreted as remnants of their shared MC6 history.

The fact that the Project Nexus Tricky does not remember becoming a demon is equally important: under this theory, he cannot remember it, because the demon was not his continuation. It was another manifestation of Tricky created by Improbability.

Later, the original MC6 Hank dies at the Science Tower, while the corpse of the MC7 Hank remains available for the resurrection operation that drives the events of Madness Combat 9.

The hypothesis therefore turns the apparent contradiction into its central premise:

Madness Combat 7 and Madness Project Nexus may not be following the same Hank or the same Tricky.

MC7 follows the manifestations born from Improbability.

Project Nexus follows the manifestations that retain the original continuity of MC6.

And although both Hanks can temporarily look almost identical in Nevada because the original MC6 Hank receives MC7's equipment, the Other Place ultimately reveals the difference between them.

MADNESS COMBAT LORE TIMEEEE (MC6-MC9)