The Rookie has had this dream before. The world moves slowly around him as he is helpless under the control of the Cobrattler. He saw the teleporting Eye Goo appear next to the Sniper, but his body won't listen to his mind. The Rookie cannot help his teammate.
The Sniper can shoot a fly from 500 feet away (with his eyes closed), but close combat is not his greatest strength. Against the Eye Goo at this close distance, he is outmatched.
Spying the danger his comrade is in, the Blaster engages his mega weapon. Quickly but silently, he rushes the Eye Goo from behind.
Before the Blaster can finish the Eye Goo, a voice calls from the distance. The Blaster lets his guard down for a moment, but it is enough time for the Eye Goo to teleport away.
The voice that distracted the Blaster belongs to the Rookie. He sounds as if he is right in front of them, yet also miles away. He commands the Mega Monster Fighters to drop their weapons.
As he did when these events played out in real life, and as he has done in this dream numerous times before, the Rookie momentarily resists the psychic power of the Cobrattler.
The Blaster takes this chance to tackle the Rookie to the ground, pinning his hypnotized friend.
The Medic uses this moment to activate his own mega weapon, the mega shotgun, and fires at the Cobrattler. A second shot to the head finishes the giant slithering beast.
The Rookie has had this dream before. Just as in real life, his teammates had saved him from the power of the Cobrattler, but this time things feel different. The Rookie doesn't feel safe. The other Mega Monster Fighters don't look at him as a friend.
Their posture is tense. There is fury in their eyes.
Next, the Rookie is staring down at them, as if he is a giant, towering above them. They aim their weapons, and the Rookie cannot run away. His eyes go wide with terror...
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The Rookie stirs in his hospital bed. Old memories fade back into the past, and nightmares drift away. His friends are no longer trying to kill him. In fact, they are standing around his bed.
"Dude, he's awake! I told you this'd be the day. You owe me 7-Up, Sniper." The Blaster says.
"What... What happened?" The Rookie croaks, "Where..."
"You're back at the MMF HQ" the Pilot says, "How do you feel?"
"I feel like I've been sleeping for months..."
"Naw, just one." The Blaster says, "You gave us a scare alright, falling into that coma and all, but I knew you'd snap out of it!"
"A month?"
"Yeah, so I guess this means you take the record for the most time being out of commission by a Mega Monster Fighter. You just barely beat my record" the Medic says as he enters the room.
"Doc!" the Rookie says as he raises from his bed, "You're alright!"
"Yes, I'm alright. But you should take it easy. People don't just jump out of bed right after a month-long coma!"
"Hey, he's a Mega Monster Fighter!" the Blaster says, "A coma's like a cat-nap for him."
"Even so" the Medic replies, "We still don't know the full extent of his injuries at the hands of the Mega Monsters. He needs rest. Then we can catch him up on all that he's missed."
"With all due respect Doc, I need to clear my head. I've been reliving things I'd rather not while I've been under. A walk around the HQ might actually help." the Rookie says.
"Fine. The Pilot can fill you in one what you've missed, but I want you to take the Nurse with you. When she tells you you've had enough, that's it."
"You got it, Doc."
"Alright, kid, you missed a lot of excitement. Let's head to the training area and you can meet the new recruits" the Pilot says.
"New recruits?"
"Yeah. I guess you're not the Rookie any more!"
"You sure about this?" the Blaster asks after the others have left. "After what the Nurse says she found..."
"Yes, I'm sure. If what the Nurse says is true, bed rest won't do him much good any way."
"Well kid, the B-Team wasn't all it was cracked up to be, but the Commander was right about one thing. We're going to need more Mega Monster Fighters if we're going to beat these things. It's going to take more than the five of us and some back-up troopers to win this war. So far we've found three who were good enough to make the cut."
"First up is the Grenadier. We've combined our Mega-Weapon technology with his hand grenades, and it's made for some interesting results."
"Any Mega Monster that catches what he's throwing around is in for quite the surprise."
"Next is a guy we're calling the Chopper. It was his idea to cross Mega-Weapon technology with his axe. Seems like an odd choice, but it gets the job done."
"And you've already met the Nurse".
"You're a Mega Monster Fighter too?" the Rookie asks. "What's your Mega Weapon?"
"This" the Nurse replies, and activates her mega knife.
"That's a big knife." the Rookie says.
"Yes, and she can use it with surgical precision, as you'd expect." the Pilot adds.
Suddenly the Rookie collapses to the floor. The Nurse tries to stabilize him as his body trembles and his limbs thrash.
Before their eyes, the Rookie changes...
Where moments ago the Rookie lay, now stands a giant, reptilian Mega Monster.
The troopers who had been training turn their guns toward the mutated Rookie. The beast snarls and looks around, confused.
The Pilot stairs straight ahead at the creature, but he looks calm. No one moves, when suddenly:
From seemingly out of nowhere, the Blaster and the Sniper grab onto the creature from either side with their Mega Mechs. The beast fights to break their grip, but they hold strong.
The Medic arrives in his own mech and sprays the creature in the face with a clear mist from the mech's chest. Within moments, the beast goes limp.
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When the Rookie comes to, the rest of the Mega Monster Fighters stand before him.
"Three days after we rescued you from Mega Monster Island, we were attacked" the Pilot says.
"Four troopers from the B-Team that went missing on the Island showed up here at the HQ. They said they were released so they could give us a message."
"These "troopers" were actually Plasma Spiders in disguise. They struck quickly, but we had been anticipating an attack after the events at the island.
"The spiders were subdued, and we were able to conduct some tests on them before their own acidic blood destroyed their bodies. Until now, it was nearly impossible for us to detect a Mega Monster disguised as a human. But now we've isolated the biological keys that reveal them for what they are. After the attack, we tested you."
"We discovered that you had been altered. Your human DNA was being replaced with Mega Monster DNA, and while the change was slow going at first, it began to accelerate. Not long after that, you woke up."
"From what we've been able to learn so far" the Medic says, "Most Mega Monsters are created through mutation. The original body can be transformed into any number of shapes and sizes, and while the brain changes as well, the personalities of the original beings remain unaltered until a synthesized chemical is released into the brain. This chemical is not released until the transformation is complete, where the new Mega Monsters are now completely under the control of their creators. We were able to neutralize this chemical while you were in your coma."
"So far we haven't been able to find a way to undo the physical changes done to a Mega Monster's body, but we know that it's still you inside there. You need to know that if the cure for your condition exists, we will find it. And I promise you, we will do whatever it takes to help you. Whatever it takes."
Soooo..... What did you think of this month's episode? I'm not gonna lie, this was my favorite one so far.
The Mega Monster Fighters had been taking a lot of hits lately, so I wanted to give them some time to heal AND add some new members. I went back to the same dollar store where I got the original 5 Mega Monster Fighters, hoping to find another set of army men with oversized weapons. And while the figures aren't exactly the same style, I was able to find a similar set for some new recruits. I ended up picking this set over a few others, because it has what appear to be female nurse figures. Granted it's hard to get a lot of detail out of an army man figure, but these really do look like female nurses. AMAMOTM was turning into a real sausage-fest too, so I was pretty excited to add a woman to the team.
The assortment of oversized accessories wasn't the greatest. Where the last set had a bunch of guns to choose from, this one came with bolt cutters, binoculars, a canteen, and the grenade, axe, and knife I used in this episode. These aren't the weapons I would have chosen, but it forced me to use my imagination and I'm satisfied with where we ended up.
Some of the figures are obviously based on the sculpts of the figures I found in Australia. I used the Australian figures in the last two episodes, so these new guys looking similar adds some consistency to the world. They're supposed to be from the same team, so it's nice that they can look the part.
I knew I was going to mutate the Rookie into something after the last episode, but I had no idea what that something was. I just hoped I'd find something cool when I went to buy the new stuff for the next AMAMOTM. Well, I think I was moderately successful. I lucked out with the army men and their oversized accessories, but there wasn't a lot to choose from when it came time to picking the new monsters. I ended up going with this dinosaur because he's sort of weird-looking, with his bumpy skin and pink color. Also, it looks like he has raptor claws on both his feet and his hands. That helped make him look a little more "monster-y".
Lastly, I had also wanted to tie off a couple of loose ends that I've left dangling over the course of the series. Back in the first episode (before I found my groove), I ended everything with two cliffhangers. How was the Sniper going to defeat the Eye Goo? Would the Rookie escape from the Cobrattler's control? Obviously it all worked out, because when we joined the Mega Monster Fighters again everyone was hunky-dory. But how did they get out of it? I decided to use the Rookie's coma dream as a means for a flashback. Also, I set up that group of Plasma Spiders a few episodes back, but then I didn't use them. Voila! They attacked while the Rookie was in his coma, so they could be seen in flashback as well. Not too shabby.
Now there's only 4 episodes of AMAMOTM left. After going through and writing this instalment, I actually am starting to get ideas for how I should wrap it all up. But that doesn't mean that I won't still be making most of it up as I go!
And as usual, here are the links to the previous episodes:
EWWW flesh dino! I always love the random coloring on cheap dinosaur toys, but WOW that takes the cake. Just...human colored.
ReplyDeleteSo now I'm assuming The Rookie will be able to transform back and forth at will?
I guess you'll just have to tune in and see!...
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