User blog:GamerNerd i/Transcript: Home Lawn Defense Systems - Act III

Ready, Set... Nah, I won't spoil it for you. But you probably have an idea what's coming. Oh yeah, I've been forgetting to leave links here too. Here's my first encounter, this one's where I first see their powers, and here's the first Act, as I will from now on call it, of this mission. There is a lot of action in this one, including a display of the full extent of the Recreators' powers... And the price that comes with using them.

Now, on with the show! Or at least my mediocre description of it.

Transcript

This one starts unconventionally. The camera slams through a door in the greenhouse. Inside is the same guest room as before, except this time the two Recreators are asleep on the bed. (Yes, there was one bed, not two... Didn't I tell you before?) I assume it's night, since the greenhouse windows are dark. Rotom rushes toward them, sounding very panicked.

"Zzzrt! Zleepyheadzzz! Wake up! Peazzzooter needz you!" Neither wake up, but N stirs. Ai sleep talks inaudibly. Rotom is only getting more agitated. "Hey! Guyzz! Come on!" Still nothing.

Then a yellow bolt arcs from two electric-blue arms on either side of the screen and shock both kids. N yelps and sits straight up. Ai involuntarily rolls off the bed and hits the floor with a thud.

"Rotom, you motherf-" He looks directly at the camera and notices it's recording. "Funnel! Really?"

"What was that for?" N demands. Her hair is comically charged with static, so she vaguely looks like a lion.

These reactions, combined with Ai's Mario and N's Lord of the Rings PJs, would've made the scene seem like something out of a reality TV show. I had to stop here to laugh at how ridiculous this looked.

As usual, Rotom sounded only slightly sorry. "Zzorry... But thiz izzz zeriouz! There'zzz a huge robot heading towardz us! Peazzzhooter wants az many az pozzible on alert! Meaning you guyzzz too!"

N skeptically glanced at Ai. He seems to curse himself. "It's Zomboss," he says. "He usually launches attacks at night. Let's get out there. Without someone to organize them they won't stand a chance." He quickly grabs the View and rushes out the door, pausing only to put on some slippers. N grabs the Tome and rushes out in a similar fashion. Rotom follows close behind, buzzing worriedly.

I wondered why they didn't change into their summoning garments. After thinking about it for a second, I concluded that Ai probably has access to a process known as transmogrification, or transmog for short, that appears in Diablo. It changes an object's form while retaining its properties, which includes... Whatever energy magnification is required for channeling. So those PJs were probably their transmogged robes. (I'm pretty sure N has her own form of transmog, but the D3 version was the first that came to mind.)

Anyway, the three rush out of the greenhouse and into the portal back to the house. As soon as they cross, thundering footsteps cause the earth and the camera to shake, although the latter was probably just Rotom. Peashooter drops in from above out of nowhere.

"Aidan! Nadia! We need you guys!" He is incredibly worried. "Zomboss is already on the roof, and we can't get through to the others. The commanders are the only ones out there!"

Ai takes Peashooter on his shoulder and summons a remote with a single button. "Don't worry," he says. "N and I can take him. Let's see how bad it is." He presses it, and in a purple poof the two vanish. With a thwip, N shoots a white string that latches onto the roof, and she is on the roof. Rotom follows, and Peashooter and Ai are already there as well.

Ai is looking at a terrified Peashooter. "Yeah, you'll have to deal with that eventually. So, how big is..." Peashooter timidly points away from himself. Ai looks in that direction, and a red exclamation mark appears above his head accompanied by a loud sound. "This... thing... By the Burning Hells, it's a lot bigger in person."

Rotom pivots to focus on N, who is similarly shocked. "Holy giant robot, Batman..." And at this point, Rotom himself actually glances at this awe-inspiring machine. He immediately took cover behind N. I personally almost fell out of my chair.

The shoe alone was as tall as either of the kids. The size of the whole thing was comparable to that of King Kong. I could barely make out the glowing eyes and small figure piloting it at the highest point. Although the most impressive thing about it overall was how the heck the house was supporting it. Well, actually, that last thing... The roof was kinda shuddering so I assume it actually wasn't supporting it as well as I thought.

N suddenly grasps a topaz gem and extends the hand holding it. Energies radiate from the topaz to the robot for a few seconds, then the roof stops shaking and N slumps to the ground (er, roof?). She is breathing heavily, and sweat beads on her face; using the gem has exhausted her.

Ai turns around after hearing her hit the ground. "N!" He rushes to her side. "Are you okay?" He looks at the gem she holds. "That stone... that's one of the ones you used when..." She continues to breathe heavily. Ai is genuinely concerned. "I'll take them while you rest. Jump in when you can." He leaves her and hurries back to Peashooter, who has the only other plants with him.

The group is small in comparison to the giant robot towering over them. There are a total of five plants who can actually help, since Peashooter isn't fit for the slanted roof. They are Ice-Shroom, Jalapeño, and the three pult brothers, Melon, Cabbage, and Kernel. (There were Flower Pots everywhere too, but they're minor. In terms of attacking at least.) Peashooter is apologetic. "Sorry, we're the only ones. And I can't help much. The others are elsewhere. The other two humans aren't even around."

"We had to send our troops out to protect Dave's mansion." Melon-pult said. "Apparently there's a massive attack over there, so much so that they had to have almost everyone."

"And the others won't be much help," Cabbage-pult adds. "Everyone else we have here are the Peashooters and nuts. We'll try our best, but..." he stops abruptly and begins staring at something behind the camera.

"And this had to be on my birthday..." Kernel-pult mutters. "I..." He unfortunately is interrupted before he can say anything helpful. "WHOA!!!"

Out of nowhere a huge RV narrowly misses the group and bounces toward N. Rotom makes an alarmed short-circuiting sound. Ai's left eye glows for a second and he jerks his left arm toward the head of the robot. The RV abruptly changes direction before it can hit N, and the Zombot staggers backwards, smacked square in the face. When it recovers, it kneels and brings its head to roof level - close enough to see the operator's face.

"Hey! What's the big idea?" Zomboss demands. "How'd you kids-" His face contorts in confusion. "You're not the same ones who come around here sometimes. Who are you?"

"Pray that you don't need to find out," Ai responds defiantly. He sprouts wings like energy from two new shoulder pads and rises Zomboss' level. He looks surprisingly calm "So, I've got a question for ya... Do you wanna have a bad time?" Zomboss stutters a bit. "'Cause if you don't call this off right now... You are really not going to like what happens next."

Naturally he did what all stupid villains do. "Call it off? This is the most opportune time to launch an attack in the first place! I would never call it off." He tries to smash Ai with his giant robot fist. When the dust settles, Ai is gone. Everyone is confused and/or shocked. "HAHAHA!" Zomboss cackles, "NOW NO ONE ELSE CAN STOP M-"

Then Ai's voice rang out from somewhere. "Welp, sorry man. You brought this upon yourself." A cloth materializes near the fist. It expands and unfurls until a dark blue.... ball... is in its place. It's wearing the cape and a mask. Ai holds a golden, toothed sword in his right hand.

"Giant robot? You summon me for this?" He says in a voice that is not his. Sounds more like the Lego Batman. "You realize that I beat a warrior who was sealed away for his strength right?"

"Yes, I do," Ai's voice responds. "You also get rekt when you got Zerg-rushed by robots." The Zombot stands to step on Ai, but he disappears into his cape and warps away.

"Don't mention that!" The other voice says angrily. "At least I cut their army down to half size!" The cape becomes a pair of wings and he (they?) nimbly dodge the giant robot fists swinging at them.

"Stay still, you... you... you thing!" Zomboss yells in frustration. "You're not supposed to move! You're supposed to stay in one plays while I smash you!" He takes aim with another RV and the plants panic and leap off the roof. Ai leaps toward the RV and spins quickly, sword first. He drills right through, clear to the other side. The RV turns to rubble.

Zomboss grumbles. "Hold him!" He commands as he swings down a set of Bungee Zombies. "Or at least distract him so I can charge this up!" The Bungees surround Ai and begin pummeling him with their fists. In a literal whirlwind, he cuts all of them down as Zomboss returns the head to roof level.

"Try THIS on for size!" The Zombot spews a solid ball of ice that slowly rolls toward them. Ai makes an attempt to cut it, but the sword gets stuck in the ice.

"Meta," he says, "I thought your sword could cut through things harder than ice." He struggles to remove the sword, but it remains wedged in the ball.

"It can, you fool." the darker voice says. "As long as it's not elemental. And ice is a very basic element." They continue to tug on the blade to no avail. "I can't fight without my weapon! How do you expect me to-"

A red laser then penetrates and melts the ice. Both Rotom and MetAi turns to where N once lay.

Flying above the spot is a blond-haired woman whose eyes are glowing red. She wears a familiar red skirt and blue shirt, with a symbol like an S in the center. Behind her is a flowing bright red cape. Her eyes dim, and she speaks.

"What the heck is that?" an adult woman's voice asks. "It's like a living beach ball." MetAi is notable ticked off as he picks up the sword.

"Don't insult this guy, Kara." Ai's voice says. "Let's just get rid of this Lex Luthor ripoff." The two fused Recreators attack Zomboss at the same time.

"GAH! Another one! Stop this!" Zomboss freaks out and presses a bunch of buttons, creating many ice balls as well as fire balls from the Zombot's mouth. N heat visions the ice balls, then takes a deep breath and blows to chill the fire balls.

MetAi nimbly dodges the Zombot's swipes like that irritating fly you can't seem to strike down. He manages to cut the Zombot here and there, although the cuts didn't seem to be doing much. Super N files around in a similar way, bashing the Zombot so hard that dents appear and Zomboss struggles to keep it upright. This goes on for about ten minutes.

"Oh, hey, I forgot!" Ai says suddenly. "Hitting him here doesn't do anything. We've gotta target his head!" The other three voices grumble in exasperation. "Sorry..." Ai mutters apologetically.

The two zoom towards the top of the Zombot and begin to knock it (and the panicked Zomboss within) around. Zomboss begins to throw wrenches at the two in addition to his ballbreathing, RV-throwing, swatting, stomping, and Bungee yo-yoing. Eventually the two back off long enough for Zomboss to catch his breath.

"Think he's had enough?" N asks. "You look tired. We should just stop bullying him already and get to the point." Ai yawns and droops a little.

"Okay. Knock him over for me. Meta, you know what to do." He flies down and lands on the roof, looking up expectantly.

Zomboss is really freaking out now. "N-no! Wait! I'll stop! Don't destroy my hard work! I'll call it off for later! I'll even go easy on the plants! Just leave me alone!" He's doing the whole get-on-your-knees-and-beg last ditch effort cliche.

"Don't worry. This won't hurt or damage you or your bot," responds N. Zomboss genuinely smiles. Then she says, "Well, not permanently anyway. But hey, it's better than us completely wrecking it!"

Zomboss's face falls as she winds up and throws a haymaker in the direction of the roof at the bot. The force of the punch knocks the Zombot over and sends it tumbling downwards, headfirst, toward MetAi.

Just before he is crushed, Meta Knight is engulfed in rainbow-colored energy. He swings his cape, which enlarges and drapes the area in pitch-black darkness. I notice that somehow everything becomes slow motion too. Meta Knight and Ai speak in unison.

"BEHOLD MY POWER..."

A flash of light, the sound of metal slicing metal, and a blade slashes through the darkness. When I can see again and the dust settles, I'm greeted by a hilariously familiar scene. The roof, totally intact, with the severely damaged severed head of the giant robot on top of it while the rest of the body slumps over the roof. From the head is a frantically waving white flag of surrender. Rotom curiously peeps into the robot's head to find... an automatic flag waver. And a hastily written note beside a broken button labeled, "EMERGENCY TELEPORTER: DO NOT USE UNLESS YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY AND UTTERLY BEEN DEFEATED, WHICH OF COURSE WILL NEVER HAPPEN." Super N comes up behind Rotom and reacts in frustration to the remains. Then she walks over to Ai.

Where Meta Knight's body once stood, Ai lay unconscious, still in his PJs. N talks to herself... sort of.

"Thanks, Kara. You were a great help." N's voice says.

"No problem. Just give me a call whenever you need me," the adult voice responds. "Although that probably won't be anytime soon." She adult giggles as Supergirl's body dissolves into characters of all languages. As it does, it reveals the teenaged N underneath. When the last of the particles have radiated off her, her eyes roll into her head and she collapses onto Ai.

"Guys, are you okay?" Peashooter nervously peeks over the edge of the roof. "I don't hear anymo- Oh my gosh!" He climbs over and rushes to the two. Rotom draws closer as the other plants approach behind Peashooter. "What happened? Are they..." He looks toward Rotom.

"I don't think zzo. They did... zztuff..." Rotom seems to be at a loss for words. "I think they're juzzt exhausted." He makes a motion to pick them up. "Come on, let'zzz get my big boy and clever girl back to their lodgingzzz."

As Rotom and the plants try to pick the humans up, the Zombot begins to glow bluish white. The unusual thing about this glow is that it gave off no light, it just... shone. In a few seconds, it goes completely white, then seems to shrink into nothingness. Not a trace of the robot is left except for the note. Peashooter and the others are dumbstruck as Rotom picks up the note.

"I... I'll make zzure Ai knowzz about that." Rotom says. "I'll tell him to zzee the recording before he zzzendzz it." He puts the note in some storage container in his host. "Let'zzz go."

From there, the rest of the video is just Rotom and the plants getting Ai and N back to the room and onto the bed. Eventually the other plants showed up to help, and it looked like Ai and N were being carried on a moving carpet of melons, corn, and cabbages. Once they were on the bed, Peashooter and Sunflower were the only plants in the room. I could vaguely hear the other pults inquiring as to what the heck had happened while they were gone.

"Ai told me thizzz might happen," Rotom tells the two sadly. "They did thizzz... thing. He zzzaid that when they do it it drainzzz them."

"Will they be okay?" Sunflower asks as she hugs a concerned Peashooter.

"I think zzzo," Rotom responds. "He said they might be here for a few dayzzz though. And even then they'll be weak." He looks at the two plant commanders. "Do you mind?"

"Of course not! They just saved us!" Sunflower says. "But don't they have things to do at home?"

"I... I don't know." Rotom replies somberly. "I've only been with them for a few weekzzz. I haven't even zzzeen their home world." He glances at the two kids sleeping soundly. "But I don't think they would want me to take them home while they're like thizzz."

"I understand," Sunflower nods. "Well, I guess we'll leave you three now. Have a good rest of the night." The plant couple walk out the door. I hear them tell the others just outside to give Ai and N some space.

Rotom floats near the bed somberly. Letting out a halfhearted giggle, he pushes Ai and N's foreheads together. Then he positions the two' arms over each other in an embrace.

"Oh boy," he mutters in bored mischief. "I'll have to record their reaction when they wake up. Zzzrt..." A glance at the mirror reveals his sad smile. Suddenly his face contorts in guilty surprise. "Zzzrt! I'm still recording! Zzzhoot!" Then the screen goes black.

Final Commentary

First off... Wow. If I'm not mistaken, that drastic change in appearance was the persona channeling that Ai referred to a few recordings back. This gives us a better look at the logistics of it, including its effects on the user's personality and appearance. The appearance does change to that of the character, but it would seem that the host and the character's minds are separate, putting two entities into the same body.

I'd also like to say that Rotom really impressed me at the end. I've never seen or heard of a Rotom with that level of maturity. Granted, his prankster side shone through at the end, but I think he deserves a little fun after what he had to do and see.

Oh, that reminds me, I received a different email shortly after the original. It contained the reaction Rotom said he'd film. I assume it wasn't sent with the original because Ai and N didn't want it to be seen. Maybe Rotom sent it himself?

Basically Ai and N wake up at around the same time and see how close they are to each other and how their hands are placed. Both become bright red and turn away from each other quickly.

"S-Sorry. I, uh..." Ai stutters weakly.

"Nonono, it's fine. Just..." N replies in embarrassment.

Then Rotom giggles in the background. Both make frustrated glances in Rotom's direction for a few seconds then seem to go back to sleep. I guess that's how draining persona channeling is. I can't wait to see what other pranks Rotom has planned... Shoot, did I type that?

Trivia / References

• Ai is very good at catching himself so as not to swear when the time is inappropriate.
• Transmogrification is a real thing in Diablo 3, as someone who plays it. It's purely cosmetic and retains any stats the armor had. It's also very good for trolling people into thinking that your gear is weak.
• Ai pulled out a Scientist's Warp remote and used it to get onto the roof. While not possible for players, it's not unusual for an AI Scientist in Garden Ops to use Warp and appear right in front of you, no matter how high up you are.
• N used Spidey's webbing. And... That's it.
• The exclamation mark that appeared above Ai's head originates from the Metal Gear series. It is an indicator that appears above enemies to tell the player when they see something.
• N's statement of surprise originates in a trope used in the Batman 1996 TV series. It has since become a meme.
• The topaz N used to stabilize the roof was the Reality Gem, one of six Infinity Gems. The Reality Gem may grant wishes, which includes altering the laws of physics or logic to the user's will.
• //The plants who were supposed to be helping all appear during the final boss fight against Zomboss in the original game.
• //Crazy Dave owns a mansion. Here, I assumed that the one in GW is the same as the one in the comics.
• Ai briefly makes use of Sans' telekinesis to deflect the RV. His words of challenge to Zomboss are adapted from Sans' own words during the Genoicide Route.
• Ai sprouts angels' wings to talk to Zomboss face-to-face. These specific angel wings come from the Blizzard universe - specifically, Diablo.
• Ai's choice of persona for this fight is Meta Knight, an incredibly powerful warrior who wields the sword Galaxia and is a total badass.
  • Meta Knight's cape is known as the Dimesnional Cape. He can disappear into it to teleport short distances. It also transforms into a set of wings that allow for flight.
  • The "warrior who was sealed away" that Meta Knight refers to is Galacta Knight. He fights similarly to Meta Knight and has a sweet theme song.
  • Meta Knight was also defeated once by an army of robots, during the invasion in Kirby: Planet Robobot. He appears as a boss in this game in the form of a cyborg called Mecha Knight.
  • The drilling move that cuts through the RV is known as the Drill Run. It is primarily used in the Smash Bros. series, as Meta Knight's side special.
  • Meta Knight's whirlwind is known as the Mach Tornado. This one is a much weaker version of the attack that originates from the Smash Bros. series.
  • Meta Knight's final attack originates in the Smash Bros. series as well: Galaxia Darkness. It is his Final Smash, and does ridiculous damage to anyone who is caught in the cape swing.
• N's choice of persona is Supergirl, whose real name is Kara Zor-El. She is a Kryptonian who was sent to Earth to guard her cousin Kal-El, who became Superman.
  • She uses heat vision and super breath. Both are exactly what they sound like.
  • N's punch also exhibits Supergirl's super strength, which had enough force to knock the massive Zombot over.
• //My version of the button is better than Gamester's.