User blog:GamerNerd i/Transcript: It's About (Messing With) Time - Act III

//My goal is to make each world 2 Acts. Some might be 3, and I might revisit some worlds later. I might also take a break every few worlds to do something different *cough* Musings *cough cough* PvZH *cough* GW *cough cough*. First break is planned to be after FF.

I've no comment as we go into this one. I'll give a brief recap though; N and Ai just beat the Sphinx-inator. And... Well, that's it.

If you're new to my writings, start here. If you don't need the exposition, start here. If you just want to see all the stuff, then it's in my user page.

Well then, arrrrrre ye ready for this, landlubbers? Because this one is really, really long. Sorry.

Transcript
We're on a ship. I can tell because the wooden room looks like the captain's quarters. Also because the surroundings are rocking slowly. Either way, the room is pretty small, but it's easy to tell that it's a Recreator construct. Why?

Well, for one, there's a huge holographic computer up against the back wall. I don't think you'd find the Lor Starcutter's computer in your standard pirate ship. Secondly, what I'd assumed to be a natural wooden pattern turns out to be the circuit board pattern again. Third, there are also runes floating around. So here we have magic and technology in a realistic pirate ship. Yup, sounds right.

Speaking of sounds, Rotom sounds like he's sleeping. His electronic snoring contrasts with the sloshing waves outside. It's odd that he started recording at rest....

N walks in and seems to notice Rotom's red recording light. "Hey!" She says, tapping Rotom. "What are you doing?" I hear Rotom's electronic yawn.

"Zzzr... Getting some zzzss... Why do you azzk?"

"Because you're recording." She taps Rotom's light. "Did you not notice?"

"I wazzz azzzleep.... Zzo no."

N is silent for a second. "Okay..." She starts. "I'll have to ask Ai to check your host sometime." She turns to leave, beckoning. "But either way, I was going to call you out. We're ready to go, Ai just found the ship." N leaves, and Rotom follows.

Once again the deck proves that this is indeed Recreated. The aforementioned Lor Starcutter's different metallic parts are superimposed over the original ship's wooden framework.

"I'd think that you'd like to know about our seafaring vessel here." N says over her shoulder. "Combination of the Unicorn, once piloted by Captain Haddock's ancestor and the... Lor... Lor something, which was piloted by a magical traitor or something. Either way, the mashup is the Lor Unicorn." She heads up to the ship's bridge, where Ai is steering.

"I'd greet you like a pirate, but I'm a bit busy right now. The tracking device that N planted on Zomboss last time seems to be on that vessel." He points to a much more traditional-looking pirate ship in the distance. "Although they seem preoccupied right now. We'll approach, but be prepared to fend off raiders." He pushes a lever forward and the Lor jets forward quickly. In a few seconds, he pushes it back and the two ships are side by side as the Lor stops.

Sure enough, zombie pirates begin swinging onto the Lor as huge planks connect the two. There are a lot of raiders.

"So, who's the captain? I see a lot of them," N casually asks, despite the horde invading the ship.

"I don't know. I'd assume it's Zomboss, but he's probably still, er, modifying his machine." He pulls a sparkling crown from nowhere and puts it on. He flinches as it seems to fuse with his head. "Nnng... Wow, they're right. Power like this does corrupt." N looks at him skeptically. "Not like I don't normally have this much power, but that sudden rush caught me off guard," he adds. "Now, let's bait the boss out, shall we?" Leaving the wheel, N moves in to steady it.

Ai forms his hands into a heart shape in front of him. At the same time, the oars come out from under the ship and create a similar formation. "Get off our ship!" He flicks his fingers and the oars send a bunch of zombies back onto their boat. Each finger seemed to control a specific oar. His index finger batted a Seagull out of the sky. His pinky smacked a Swashbuckler or two into the drink. The middle finger continually whacked a Gargantuar over the head. The ring finger tossed a Snapdragon into the... Wait a second.

Ai only realized his mistake after it'd happened. "Uh, N? Would you mind..." He points to the Snapdragon in unwilling flight. N looks and says something weird while making a butterfly with her hands. The Snapdragon sprouted its wings and glided to the ground gently. Well, after it spewed fire at the rest of the Zombies, that is.

Ai give N a skeptical look as the Snapdragon lands. "What the heck!" it exclaims. "We're on the same side!"

"Sorry about that," Ai responds tentatively. "I was- Hold on, have we met?"

"Not personally," the Snapdragon says, beckoning to some nearby plants, "But the captain says he saw you once, and I hear that his boss is a close friend."

The group draws nearer, led by a Kernel-pult in front. Recognition flashes in its eyes.

"Ye two... I remember ye," the Kernel-pult starts. He glances at Rotom. "And ye too, lil' guy. But not as much as them." Rotom makes a sad sparking sound.

N comes down from the ship's wheel. "I get the feeling you're not the corn I'm thinking about," she muses. "Although I remember Rotom's recording after I got knocked out. You must be one of his, er, underlings, for lack of a better word."

"I'm ol' Birthday's first mate." The pult responds. "Although I'm the kap'n of the squad now. Birthday went on a break overseas - in the present of course - and he told me that he's tryin' some official military-level training as a change of pace." He reminisces for a moment. "Stuff's really changing him, too, and more than any o' us could hope. Looks to be a wholly new plant."

Ai has been silent this whole time, gazing at the sky. N looks at him and opens her mouth to ask him something, but suddenly he throws out and yanks back a chain. He catches the end of it and inspects his pull.

A knifelike point has somehow speared one of the wings of a parrot without harming it. This parrot wasn't like the others from earlier though. It was a cyborg parrot, so to speak. A large egg-shaped attachment hung off one of its legs, and one of its eyes had been replaced by a metal attachment.

Ai looked grim as he stared at the bird. "Zomboss, you little son of a-" He stops abruptly as the egg attachment flashes red. "Mother- GET DOWN!"

Everyone drops as Ai waves his hands in a fountain motion and a star-shaped rift opens above the group. I hear sharp whistling as several round, smoking objects drop into it. Ai points behind him, off the boat, and another star rift opens over the water, dropping the smoking eggs into the sea. Each floats in the water for a brief moment before exploding.

Ai closes the rifts as everyone stands and stares, stunned. Then he turns his attention to the still-hooked bird. "They say," Ai says to the bird threateningly, "That a single leak can sink a great ship," A crystalline sword materializes in his free hand. "I'm not sure how true that is, but come out now, and we won't have to find out." He lets go of the bird, which frantically flies back to the ship. There is silence as he turns back to the others.

"Jeebus, Aidan." N finally says. "Now I know why you like villains so much."

"Sorry about that..." Ai responds hesitantly. "It's just... I hate unfair play." Pointing to the ship, he says, "And Zomboss over there has just proven how much of a cheat he is. That parrot isn't supposed to be here. Granted, he came from this time, but he shouldn't have showed his face."

The Spikerock raises his eyebrow. (Or he was looking up. It was hard to tell.) "And who is this 'him' you keep referring to?"

Ai begins speaking but a voice behind the camera responds before he can. "The name's Deadbeard. Captain Deadbeard to you, landlubber!"

Rotom turns around and there's a pirate, but this one definitely looks like a bigger threat than the others. Especially considering his gun. And that laser parrot too, I guess.

Ai becomes serious again. "And what exactly are you doing in this part of the Pirate Seas?"

"Doin' what I be resurrected to do - piratin'!" Deadbeard replies matter-of-factly. "Although fer once I'm not doin' it on me own terms."

"So, you're not doing this on your own will," Spikeweed quips, "But you still consider yourself to be the captain?"

"Shut yer trap, bottom-feeder!" That one really triggered Deadbeard. "I said it's not me own terms! I remain captain of this here vessel, but I'm harboring a stowaway." He smirks and taps his hook on a nearby board. "In fact, I hear ye two are acquainted with him. And me boss is quite eager to see ye again. So," a small red button comes out of the ship in front of Deadbeard's peg leg. "ALL HANDS ON DECK, ME HEARTIES!!!" He stomps the button before anyone can react, and a huge brown object hurtles straight up out of the ship.

Ai looks up and frantically grabs N's sleeve. "N! The gem! Reinforce the ship, quick! That thing'll sink us if it hits without it!"

N pulls a topaz gem out of her pocket (because it's totally safe to have a physics-altering Infinity Stone in your pocket) and touches it to the ship's deck. It glows orange briefly.

She puts the stone away and goes up to the steering deck. "Just give me a few minutes... At least I didn't pass out this time."

The object hurtles downward, and all the plants brace themselves for impact. It simply hits the deck with a thud. Impressively, there was no other sign of impact. No deck movement, not even a dent in the floor. Just a thud.

Zomboss was surprised too. The one eye uncovered by an eyepatch glanced down skeptically as his giant (mini?) yellow-eyed pirate ship tested the solidity of the wood with its anchor feet.

"I must thank you for preserving my work of art," he finally says, referring to the Plank Walker. "But this would not be scientifically possible."

"Neither are we," Coconut Cannon mutters. "But who cares?? I can do THIS!" And with that, he fires his explosive coconut, which seems to stagger Zomboss back into "Boss Mode."

"Hmmm... Very well then." The robot opens its mouth and its eye rolls into its head. "CHAAAAARRRRRRRRRGE!!!" Zombies begin coming out of it.

Deadbeard has the real guns though, both figuratively and literally. At his command, Imp Cannons appeared appeared on the side of his ship. Swashbucklers began swinging onto the Lor. Pirate Gargantuars began crossing the planks too. These threats combined with Zomboss's horde led to an assault on two fronts.

"Can you guys handle them? I need to take out the bigger threats." Ai take out what seems to be a can of gas. He turns the nozzle and green smoke spews from it.

"Not in this situation, matey! There's too many!" Kernel-pult is already frantically trying to butter up as many zombies as he can.

Ai points to the ground and a patch of green grass grows on the deck. "Here's your respawn pit." He throws a bunch of seeds in the air. When they land, each one is one of the various plant species in front of him. "Here's your reinforcements. And..." he points near the respawn pit and a glowing green vending machine appears. "Here's a supply of plant food. Got it now?"

The Cherry Bomb brothers grin. "Never through you'd ask..." He jumps right into the middle of the horde. "EXPLODONATE!!!" There's a "POWIE!" and the two hop out of the tall grass, laughing and unscathed. "AGAIN!!!"

Ai smirks as N approaches behind him. "Battle plan?" She asks. She has a golden lasso strapped to her belt and is holding a sword and a shield.

"You take Zomboss. Deadbeard is potentially more dangerous unless you know how to counter him, which I do, so I'll take him." As he is speaking, the gas continues to spread. Ai's form shimmers as N begins to cough.

"Ugh, what is this stuff? I feel light-headed..." She glances at Ai as he takes on a much more, uh, nightmarish form. "Wait, Scarecrow? But...."

"Injustice 2 just came out." Ai's voice is deeper and seems to have some reverb to it. "So in turn, as did this form of Mr. Crane." A hook and chain materialize in his hand. Ai smiles creepily with his burlap sack face. "Why... Scared?"

"No," N replies, starting toward Zomboss. "The gas is just bad for my hair." She puts on a gas mask and leaps towards Zomboss.

Ai snickers as he turns his attention to Deadbeard. The pirate captain is riding a cannon, firing at whatever isn't a Zombie. "I wonder what Zombies fear..." His form melts into fear gas and reappears in a cloud behind Deadbeard.

"BOO!" Ai yells, and a small wave of gas emits from his outstretched "boo" hands. Deadbeard yelps and is knocked off his cannon by the gas. He turns around and glares at Ai.

"Davy Jones came for me once already, ye yellow-bellied knockoff." He takes out his gun. It extends into a sniper rifle. "I've met death, the most fearsome in all the seven seas! What are ye in his face?" He begins shooting.

Ai deflects each shot with a swipe of his metal hook. "But have you met fear itself?" His right arm continues deflecting as he advances, but his left arm slowly morphs into a different set of rags. Soon, his left arm is a notably darker brown than his left. Green liquids run through tubes on it, leading to a set of syringes attached to his hand.

Soon he throws the hook at Deadbeard, who jumps into a nearby barrel. There's a bunch of them that look exactly the same nearby, and all of them begin shuffling around. Slowly they surround him. "Har har... Did ye think I'd face ye alone?"

Ai's face contorts in confusion for a second before realizing what this meant. "Oh, you tricky son of a-" All the barrels explode and Ai is knocked into the air as various other pirates leap out of the barrels. Each looks like Deadbeard, but with a slight difference.

Rotom looks back toward the Lor. N was fighting Zomboss. His robot was back to normal, if you can call it that. N was gliding around him as Zomboss unsuccessfully tried to shoot her down with Imps. Occasionally she'd block one with her shield or counterattack with a few swipes.

"You and your stupid mobility!" Zomboss screams as he tries to shoot her down. "Get down and stand still so I can crush you!"

N smirks. "Pleasure to oblige." She gets on the ground, but by no means does she stand still. Her sword really gets to work. You would think that wood gives in easily to a metal blade, but apparently this isn't your everyday lumber. Impressively, the slices pretty much leave scratches on the wood.

Zomboss yells again and stomps the ground near N in a frenzy of anchor blows. N is caught off guard, but raises her shield in defense. She staggers whenever the shield blocks a hit, but luckily Zomboss's aim is terrible and it only hits twice.

"Okay, I'll give you that one." She regains her footing as Zomboss backs up. "That's quite some force you've got behind those anchors." She lassoes a Gargantuar and throws swings it at him.

"Of course," Zomboss smirks. "But that's nothing compared to the full weight of this Zombot!" Zomboss charges right toward N.

Her eyes widen as the Zombot barrels toward her. Even the swung Gargantuar was tossed out of the way by its force. Taking a running start, she slides in the sweet spot between the Zombot's charging legs and sticks the sword straight up through it as she moves.

The cut is clean. Sparks fly from it as Zomboss begins to panic. He begins pressing a bunch of buttons and the Zombot glows its now familiar "getaway blue" color.

N is unscathed as she emerges from under the other end of the Zombot. She gets up, removes the gas mask, and dusts herself off. "Curses," she mutters, not caring that Zomboss is getting away, "I liked these pants. I need to sew them when I get back to base." She turns around as Zomboss disappears. N shrugs and turns to where Ai is battling the 5 Deadbeards. "Where the heck did... Mother of-" She jumps and flies over Rotom's head in that direction, prompting Rotom to turn around to Ai's side.

The situation looks dire for Ai. He's backed up against the railing, surrounded by the pirates taking aim at him.

"Any last words before ye walk the plank, landlubber?" Deadbeard smirks confidently.

"Actually, yeah." Ai responds. He hefts another gas can like the one that's still steaming on the deck. "Hold your breath." He rips open the can with the hook and tosses it into the midst of the confused pirates. I see his form do the gas teleport thing again. This time, he systematically injects each pirate using the syringe fingers on his left hand. He again takes up his position in front of him.

"Yarrr! It's a trap, mateys! Blast the scurvy dog!" They all fire blindly, each shot - flaming, explosive, normal, gross green stuff, and... laser(?) - finds its mark. Ai yelps as he falls over the side.

"Ai!" N jumps off the edge too as the pirates all laugh. But they stop laughing as she flies back onto the deck, looking terrified. Soon, they too are terrified.

Ai's form emerges from off the deck, and it's huge. Even Rotom starts shaking a little bit.

"Well, at least my toxin is working to its full strength now," Ai says evilly. "You Zombies have an incredibly high tolerance for hallucinogens."

He lets out a villainous laugh as he swipes his hook on the ship. The Deadbeards barely dodge it by jumping. "Flee, me hearties! Flee!" All the Deadbeards run to get off the deck, but Ai's huge arm blocks the way.

"Oh no, stay a little longer." He uses his hook to rip a hole in the deck. Naturally, the ship begins sinking. But water didn't come out - bats did. The hole looks like it goes to some other dark place. Ai shoves the Deadbeards in, screaming. Then his huge form dissolves into gas. In a second, he is standing next to N, who is still frozen with fear on the Zombies' deck.

"Sorry you got gassed too," he says apologetically.

"You..." She is still trembling. "Does he really have that kind of power?" She starts to slowly back away from Ai and towards the Lor in fear. "I... I didn't know you had this in you..." She continues to back away. "This can't really be you!"

"N, relax!" Ai tries to put his hand on her shoulder, but she shrugs it off. "You're just feeling the effects of the gas. It'll wear off eventually," Ai says. His hands begin to turn blue, and cold radiates from them. "Get back to the ship. I need to do one more thing." He turns to the hole and fires a ray of frost from his hands into it.

Rotom follows N back. She's really shaken. When Rotom looks back, Ai is on the deck of the Lor, watching the pirate ship sink slowly. It cracks in two like the Titanic. From the crack emerges a small iceberg. Ai shoots some more ice from his hands at it. When the fog clears, the Deadbeards are all frozen solid in it.

Rotom approaches Ai, who turns around to meet him. "I figure this has gone on long enough," he says. "So I'll end it here. We're pretty much just going to send these guys home," he gestures to the plants, "if they want to." He begins shaking his head. "As for N... Well, I really messed up here. That's the problem with the fear gas. It affects everyone, regardless of alliance." He sighs and looks at N through the captain's quarters door. She's curled up in a small ball, looking out the window.

"Well, until next time..." He nods and Rotom turns off the camera.

Epilogue
This part was the text of the email that included the video. There's never any text, so I figured this was important.

"Turns out there was something else that we should have recorded. When we got back to base, one of our monitors showed an interesting break between dimensions. Our recordings were fuzzy, but it looked like a kid. The odd thing was, in every image he held something different. Most of the time he had a cell phone, but he also had various other things too. We're going to investigate this, unidentified "dimension breaker," so to speak. If it's anything important, we'll get back to you."

Huh. Good to know...