S4E24: Planet of Shadows

'Stranded on a hostile alien world, then Sayan Squad finds themselves being hunted by Captain Hood and The General's Head''. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Sayan Squad must find a safe place to hide if they're to have any hope of survivng. But another evil begins to move against them, as the shadows of Paa start to converge once more...'''

Plot Summary
Hiding out in a set of ruins, the Sayan Squad and the survivors of the Vulture's crash attempted to evade Hood's searching party. It was noted that the ruins resembled that of a modern human city, even though the planet was not an Earth and an Earth already existed in the universe. However, further discussion was interrupted as a search party moved in closer. Amadeus had everyone stand down, as fighting them would alert all the others as to their location, including the Head. Instead, he had everyone follow him deeper into the city, into the darkness.

The further they went, the more unsettled they became. The darkness was truly not natural, and this was somewhat proven when human skeletons were found. Some of the remains were white and decayed, with their hands near their throats, implying suffocation. Some others, however, appeared to have been eaten alive, and their bones were colored black. The Vulture's chief medical officer theorized that the substance was residue from whatever had eaten the humans. This confirmed that while there was something certainly hostile on the planet, it was not the Sayans. Jack and the former bridge operator (whose name was revealed to be Violetta) pointed out the gravity of the group's situation. They were stranded on a hostile and unknown alien planet, with captain Hood searching for them, they had no way to get offworld or to contact the Rebellion, the air was poisonous, they would need shelter, and all in all they would not last very long.

This bout of pessimism was punctuated with the sudden sound of something that was a cross between a hiss and laughter as everyone was watched from a distance. The need for shelter was brought up again, but Amadeus said he wanted to get some supplies from the Vulture before doing so if at all possible. This got Saiyo to suddenly realize that none of them had seen the searching parties in a long time. She rushed to a nearby intersection to get a view of the Head, only to see it pulling away. Fearing that even The General's men may have been afraid of what lurked on Paa, the group returned to the Vulture.

At the crash site, five large monsters were seen. Their heads were described as flat and horseshoe-shaped, with red, beady eyes and a glowing rune at the top. Their boidies had long lanky arms that they walked on like gorillas, with short but strong legs that could let them move nimbly. Long, razor-sharp claws were on their front hands, and their necks opened up to reveal their mouths. Their mouths had three black prehensile tongues, with the middle one being the longest. Worried for what chance they would have against the creatures if even The General's soldiers supposedly didn't want to face them, their next course of action was carefully debated.

Ketsueki believed that they could be taken, but Amadeus ignored his input. Taking matters into his own hands, Ketsueki charged out towards the beast and drew their attention. they were successfully baited into an attack, forcing the Sayan Squad to engage. Amadeus cursed Ketsueki for his actions, saying that he got his wish in the end. Saiyo saw the faintest hint of a smile on Ketsueki's face as he passed by while Amadeus said this.

The shadow beasts put up a moderate challenge for the Sayan Squad. They reacted harshly to fire but otherwise seemed able to resist a lot of what could be thrown at them. In one particular instance, Terminos managed to sever one of the monsters' heads from its body. The body continued to try and attack without its head, and this got Saiyo to investigate the head. She asked it to stop hurting her friends, but obviously it didn't respond. When Arachnos came over to try and attack the head, Saiyo told him to cut through the head, down the middle. Doing so killed the beast in full, and its body went limp.

Once all were dead, Amadeus had the Vulture crew and the Sayan Squad try to see if anything could be salvaged. While this was going on, Pete, Ketsueki, and Olyn tried to ask how Saiyo knew about the monsters' weakness. She was not telling on how she knew, only saying that she had never encountered them before. It was theorized that perhaps Dr. Greenspan implanted that information into his children, but not even Jack knew about the weakness. He seemed just as confused as everyone else that Saiyo knew the information, and she could not look him in the eye.

The Vulture was unsalavable, bad enough that it didn't even have a way for anyone to get in. Just as Amadeus was about to call off the search, however, a light appeared in the sky. This light turned out to be some kind of spherical armed pod that rushed for the rebels. It was not recognized as being one of The General's, and when it lowered itself to greet them all, it was revealed that the pod carried a sole occupant. This mysterious figure asked if the wreckage was theirs, and when he got his answer, he seemed amused. He claimed he was worried "they" had figured out space travel, and then on to say that it had been "a while" since Paa had any aliens. He wondered if they bled the same way everyone else did, and summoned a hoarde of shadow beasts. The figure taunted them, saying they did nasty work against the scouting party he sent out, and wanted to see how well they did against an entire legion. He addressed the creatures as his "pets" and claimed that they were on "[his] world."

Just then, a white hooded figure blasted through the hoarde and attacked the pod, albeit missing. This figure addressed the person in the pod as "X," and X referred to the white-robed man as "Owl." X then said he had some "more important guests" and left everyone to deal with his shadow beasts. Owl informed the survivors that he had a nearby home they could all be taken to if they fought their way through. He also informed them of the shadow beasts' weaknesses to fire and light. During the battle, Owl showed tremendous battle prowess, summoning bladed weapons from nowhere and using them effectively.

Once they were near Owl's home, it was revealed to be an entire fortress with its own defense system that assisted with pushing back the hoarde. Inside the base, the Sayan Squad found the base to be in a state of disarray, and its owner to be a bit loose. He properly introduced himself as Mr. Owl, saying that he had forgotten his real name. He welcomed the rebels to his War Fortress III, and claimed he built it all by himself. When asked what became of the first two War Fortresses, Owl said he built them to protect his chastity, causing much confusion. Owl inquired about the rebels, revealing that he knew little of alternate realities and nothing about The General. He also asked if they came from Earth, and when answered, he replied that he should have expected as such. He claimed that nobody came from earth anymore. When informed of the Sayan threat, he seemed to take it very easily.

Owl explained that the X they met was named Dr. X, and revealed that X was Owl's own dark side, torn from him and given form. Owl explained that he had attempted to personify his dark side, resulting in him transforming into Dr. X. Then he took the next step and tried to give his dark side a body of his own so that Owl may assassinate him, however Owl admitted he failed to consider that X would know everything he knew, including his plans. Dr. X escaped from Owl and used his newfound freedom to tear open a hole to another plane, one made entirely of shadow. This is where the shadow beasts and the toxic air had come from. Dr. X effectively wiped all of humanity out, save for Owl himself and someone Owl referred to as "Storm."

Owl then also explained that the doctor inherited his same technological skill, and as such Dr. X built a massive city of his own, calling it the "Dark Side." Because both were accomplished inventors, both searched for scrap metal to use as raw material. Owl explained that he always wanted to build a ship, however all the scrap he found went to maintaining the War Fortress. Arachnos offered to help him build it, using parts of the War Fortress itself. Owl said no, becuase he would need a place to live. When it was explained he would go with them, Owl refused. He said he needed to remain and take down X, as X would pursue him since killing Owl was one of X's primary objectives. Owl offhandedly mentioned that X probably had ships already to do so.

Dr. X having ships was not previously mentioned, and Owl confirmed that if he had all the time X did, he certainly would have built some. He did not mention this to the survivors because, in his own words, it slipped his mind. It was then decided that they would all help Owl to storm Dark Side and dethrone X, and then steal a ship to get offworld. Vate in particular, however, wanted to make sure Owl was not involved in the planning stages. Owl refused, saying that it was his burden to carry, and also adding that he knew most of everything X had since he was effectively going agianst himself. Vate begged to help Owl plan then, and he accepted, only for the conversation to be interrupted by the sounds of dogs barking. Owl clarified that this was his alarm system, and that mnost likely Dr. X had arrived.

Mr. Owl went out to meet the doctor, who now had a vested interest in his guests, saying other, "more important" guests had requested his assistance in finding them. Owl refused to hand the survivors over (either through a want to keep them safe or because he took X's request literally), and X threatened to destroy the fortress if he didn't comply. Owl continued to refuse, and got ready for battle. The Sayan Squad likewise prepared themselves to fight. X said he wanted to try "one more time" to destroy Owl and the fortress by himself, and summoned a large machine.

This machine, called the "Smasher" by Owl, first took on the shape of a large combat robot. However, over the course of the battle, the robot proved its ability to change shape, at the cost of leaving some pieces of it behind. Eventually, the Sayan Squad and Owl whittled down the machine until it was just Dr. X's pod. Dr. X found amusement in the fight, but taunted them when they claimed they had only shown a "fraction" of what they could do, believing it to be a bluff. He then thanked Owl for letting him anaylze the Sayan Squad, and then departed. As he left, he promised the rebels that they would soon see him again, confirming his cooperation with Captain Hood.

The team tried to discuss their next move before Hood did something, but then Owl suggested the go to his old lab. He claimed to have a machine that could pull X back to himself, but was most likely guarded by a large robot and/or monster. He requested the help of the Sayan Squad in getting past the guard, but they were hesitant at first. They wanted to try and assault Dark Side directly, but Owl hung his knowledge of the place over their heads. He said that if they wanted to get off-world, they'd have to help him in his plan first. With that, Owl invited everyone over for dinner. Unfortunately, Owl didn't have any dinner, saying he only had "imagination" to serve them.

Soundtrack

 * 1) Opening Theme - Main Theme (Sonic: Time Attacked)
 * 2) Planet of Shadows - Sky Temple Grounds (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes)
 * 3) Going In Deeper - Dark Agon Wastes (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes)
 * 4) Noises in the Dark - Valhalla (2) (Metroid Prime 3: Corruption)
 * 5) Encounter at the Crash Site - Space Pirates Appear (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes)
 * 6) Vs. the Shadow Beasts - Space Pirate Battle (Metroid Prime)
 * 7) A New Fiend - Inner Sanctum (Gex: Enter the Gecko)
 * 8) The Horde - Space Pirate Battle (Metroid Prime 3: Corruption)
 * 9) Mr. Owl - Anything But Tangerines (Earthworm Jim 2)
 * 10) Vs. Shadow Beast Horde - Remnant of Twilight (Hyrule Warrirors)
 * 11) The Aged War Fortress - Torvus Bog Subterranean theme (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes)
 * 12) Dr. X - Inner Sanctum (Gex 2: Enter the Gecko)
 * 13) Vs. Smasher - Act 2 Boss (Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles)
 * 14) The Threat - Inner Sanctum (Gex 2: Enter the Gecko)
 * 15) Ending Theme - Dream a Dream (Pop It Don't Drop It edit)

Trivia

 * This episode was an interrupted broadcast.
 * Its second part, detailing the battle against X, was a short wrap-up that was delayed an entire week due to a miscommunication.
 * The bridge operator for the Vulture who had gone nameless since her debut in episode 19 finally recieved a first name: Violetta. SDM decided to name her since, even though she had been a constant in the series, her role was no longer valid and he didn't wish to keep calling her "Operator" as a result. This was in contrast to Pete who had been named and debuted before he was shown working on the bridge.
 * This episode marks the debut of Mr. Owl, an old character of SDM's. In the original RP, Mr. Owl was SDM's self-insert, albeit much happier. However, in order to update his character and to better justify the strange events that preceeded the War of Light and Darkness, SDM made his character slightly mentally questionable.
 * Mr. Owl has gone on to be a well-received addition, making SDM reconsider his role.
 * Mr. Owl makes numerous references to a character named "Storm," who is in fact an old friend of SDM's who participated in the original War of Light and Darkness.
 * Her self-named character's absence is in reference to his own difficulties in contacting his friend for this miniarc, but still desires her return for the wrap-up of their old RP.
 * During the battle against Dr. X's smasher, the machine took on various forms all based on Dr. Eggman's boss fights from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
 * In order, the forms are based on the Egg Dragoon, the Aquatic Ruin Zone boss, the Egg Viper, the Angel Island Zone boss, the Marble Garden Zone boss, the Emerald Hill Zone boss, the Egg Hornet, and finally the Green Hill Zone boss.
 * This was inspired by an erroneous belief made by Aurion and Arachnos that the boss would directly reference the Green Hill Zone boss. SDM decided he liked the idea, but expanded upon it, making the boss cycle through many of Dr. Eggman's machines. He found it fitting as he confirmed that Dr. X's modern portrayal is a direct send-up to both Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily.
 * He also claimed he desired to have X perform Dr. Wily's signature eyebrow wiggle.