HomeEpisode 5 - The Kid Called Matt
Why do I always think this is episode six? Whenever I go to watch it, I always play ep six's file and then kick myself because there goes the desert raider ep again...
The episode starts with Kiera's?[1] Zi Fighter Hot List. Her featured star this week is RD, who doesn't exactly look happy to be there...more traumatized, if anything. He laughs nervously-"I hate this"-but she doesn't seem to notice, happily telling the viewers about RD's Fuzor-y Zoids while he squirms. The stock footage she puts on shows bits of the fusion sequence, breaking the outside-time-and-continuity rule for transformations. She then proclaims RD to be the top of her top ten hottie list and gloms onto his arm like a limpet. RD looks scared, but Sigma seems to think he likes host-lady...as does Sweet, who's none too pleased about this prospect and shuts off the TV. Her remote-fu is to be feared.
The SHEPG-style music plays, but instead of a meeting, we have a bunch of citizens cowering in terror as Burton's Lord Gale sporks through a building. An old man begs him to stop destroying their homes while a doubtless evil businessman looks on. "It looks like he demolished your apartment building instead of the old refinery," he tells the old guy, tossing him a check for a piddly twelve thousand...something. Even if that's pounds, that ain't much, and he knows it. "Don't you people have something more important to do?" he continues. "I'd hate to see anyone get hurt out here."
The shot of the upset crowd focuses in on a boy being held back by an older lady. We can only presume he's the Matt from the title.
We're thrown into a Zoid battle-Mach Storm versus some random red Saber Tigers, which can never catch a break (though this time they have their little guns back...). Sigma somehow has them on the run from his Boldguard, herding them towards Helmut. The Command Wolf dispatches a couple Tigers post-haste with a blast of its cannons, Helmut leaving the others to RD. Time to show Zaber Fang who's boss, he says, and calls for the Fire Phoenix, the Zero roaring and posing as it did before. Nothing happens. "Fire Phoenix...COMBINE!" he tries again, this time summoning a songbird (possibly a sparrow).
The Tiger pilot proclaims him toast, shooting the still posed Zero point-blank and sending it tumbling.
Whoops.
Back at the Mach Storm base, Hop is none too pleased, asking RD what he was thinking. RD says the Phoenix never showed-it's not like he did it in purpose. Hop says that the Fire Phoenix is replacing one of their Zoids in battle and they can't afford that luxury any more, and RD isn't too happy, saying Hop knows he's the best fighter around. Sigma disagrees, and the two trade insults. So where was the Phoenix, Sigma asks, and RD blames it on a breakdown in communication-maybe he didn't call Fire Phoenix's name loud enough, or maybe it was taking an afternoon nap. Sweet tells them to knock it off and starts smacking RD with a ladle, complete with extra smackage for being an idiot on TV. RD says she's jealous, and she hits him again.
Helmut tells RD (and the six new lumps on his head) that he's pulling his Zi Fighter license for now, and that Sigma will get his missions in the meantime. Hop gets what Helmut is plotting, but neither of the others are happy-Sigma complains he's stuck with RD's work, and RD whines that it's not fair, he shouldn't be punished for being the best, blah blah. Needless to say, the fusing thing has gone to his head, and he storms off in a huff.
And now we have a SHEPG meeting proper, complete with the bad businessman from before, who apparently is named something that sounds like mister Pendergrass. Thanks to Burton's "little mistake", he says, the locals are moving out of the area he wants to develop like rats from a sinking ship. Sandra contentedly fans her cat, leading to fan speculation that the cat is the one really running things. (Or maybe that's just me watching this at 4 AM with a headache.) She wonders how much Savage Hammer can expect to get paid for their help in all this, and Penderwhatsit tells them they're not quite done-there's still a few people sticking around. He still gets out a briefcase full of money, and she grins. Burton suggests "accidental" explosion, Blake says it's too obvious. Sandra asks him if he has a better idea...
RD walks grumpily through city streets, past a TV showing pretty swirly things and to a pink hot dog cart. He realizes just how hungry he is, staring longingly at the food and going through his pockets to find nothing there. The boy from before munches a hot dog, noticing RD and his unhappy no-money-in-my-coat dance. (At least he doesn't take this as an opportunity to strip in the middle of the street, like Bit when he lost that parts order...)
"Hey mister? Aren't you RD, the famous Zi Fighter from Mach Storm?" the kid asks, looking up with big hopeful purple eyes.
RD barely gets out a "yeah, but who are you?" before the kid notices the logo on his jacket and freaks out. "Woah, awesome! You are him! Boy, I saw you on TV and thought you were so cool and now I get to meet you for real you were number one on Kiera's hot list! I really can't believe this is happening to me this is so sweet!", he spits out in a swarm of run-on sentences, RD finally getting ahold of his head to stop his bouncing up and down. RD's stomach growls, and hyper-fanboy-kid asks him if he's hungry. "A little," RD admits, so the kid offers to fix him something to eat. RD looks a lot happier about this prospect, to say the least.
Back at the kid's house, RD is devouring something that looks like rice at crazy speeds and still managing to talk. He thinks it's quite tasty, and asks Matt how he learned to cook. Matt says from his mom, leading RD to ask where his mom is. "She's dead," kid says, and RD chokes, making some rather amusing faces in the process. Kid goes on to tell RD that his dad works out of town because the refinery closed down, and he lives alone waiting for him to come back. RD, for a moment, shares the buh? expression of the viewers, before saying hey, who's he to judge? He doesn't have a proper home either, and he never really knew his mom. He's got a friend who's kind of like a sister, but sometimes acts more like a mother-cue flashback to kid Sweet, smacking kid RD with a ladle. His dad? He barely remembers him, and the last thing he does remember is standing and watching him walk away.
For all the descendant theory people, RD's dad doesn't look a thing like Bit. If anything, he looks a good amount like Matt's dad in the photo before, just with different color hair. Um...
Awkward silence as they both sulk. RD tries to break it by acting all bouncy. The food's got him bursting with energy, he says-he's about to explode!
...and so is Sweet, waiting back at the base with the food she cooked for RD.
Meanwhile, RD is telling the kid about how cool the Liger Zero is. Kid nods eagerly at everything RD says, happily watching him climb onto the table and demonstrate a laser claw ATTACK! RD settles back into the chair, the angle on his legs going seriously weird. The doorbell rings, and Matt walks to the door and back, not saying anything to RD about what his neighbor had to say and looking rather sad. RD seems to pick up on that much, offering him a ride in one of Mach Storm's Zoids.
They head back to base and show up in costume. Seriously.
A pair of masked "invaders" come barreling through the door to the TV/planning room (their costumes say A and B on the foreheads, it's got to be a ref but I don't know what to), spraying fog around the room and cackling gleefully. They make their way to the hangar, pelting Sigma with little round ball things as flung by slingshots. "Would you please cut it out!?" he protests, but the last ball thing is full of pepper and sends him sneezing.
"I thought this was supposed to be a secure facility," Masked Dude A says, pulling off his mask, "but I guess...anyone can get in here!"
"RD!" Sweet exclaims, as if it were really a secret. Helmut tells him the joke's over, but RD says relax, he's just taking a Zoid out for a spin.
Mrow, says the Leoblaze, bouncing out into the desert. Kid stares at the screens in amazement, and RD finally thinks to ask his name. It's Matt, as we all already knew. "Nice to meet you, Matt," RD say, proceeding to explain the basics of piloting a Leoblaze. Nod, nod, and pretty soon Matt has the Leoblaze padding along in an extremely awkward wobble. "Let's see what this baby can do!", he says, and the Leoblaze leaps forward...and falls flat on its nose. Thud, bonk, ow, goes RD, ending up squished at the back of Leoblaze's head. That's what you get for not wearing a seatbelt...
Meanwhile, Blake and Burton stare down the innocent civilians' homes, Penderwhatsit telling them that such a shame, the one kid left isn't home right now. Perfect timing for another "accident".
RD tells Matt he did pretty well for a first try, as Matt proceeds to mimic his every movement like a good little fanboy...at least until he remembers what's going on at home-his apartment's about to be torn down. He asks if RD thinks he could handle the Leoblaze alone, and when RD says it's not as easy as it looks, Matt replies he'll just have to learn by trial and error-he's got to save his home. He gallops off, stealing the Leoblaze and leaving RD alone in the desert.
"I'm in trouble..." he reflects.
Burton closes in on the apartment, having way too much fun waving his lances around. "Stop!" Matt urges, somehow having mastered the Leoblaze's controls enough to send it barreling the Lord Gale's way.
RD is back at the base, searching for the Leoblaze with Liger Zero's controls and not having much luck. Helmut and Sigma catch him-
-as Matt's Leoblaze grrs bravely, lunging for the Lord Gale and missing. Burton says Matt made the first move so now he can legally defend himself, and raises the Gale's lances again. "Oh yeah? Well, uh, bring it on!" Matt replies, none too confident as the Leoblaze stares down the far pointier Zoid.
Helmut starts chewing RD out for disobeying orders. But RD won't be stopped, saying he met this kid, and they're gonna tear down his home. He's got to help, he says, and Helmut must agree, as we cut back to Matt and the Leoblaze...
...being smacked around by the Lord Gale. The Leoblaze goes down, Burton raising his lances for the kill. He's interrupted by a Laser Claw Strike ATTACK, the Zero slashing into the ground and opening up one hell of a gash with the shockwave. It stomps forward out of the smoke in what would be a nice dramatic scene were the glowy bits for its glowy eyes not terribly misaligned, putting itself between the Gale and the half-squished Leoblaze. Burton tells RD to stay out of this, and RD obviously doesn't agree. He tells Matt to stay back and charges Burton, only to be knocked aside by beam cannon shots.
It's Blake and the BF, of course, proclaiming RD to be all his-to blast, we can only hope. The BF charges and shoots some more, following it up with a nice tailwhipping. The Liger struggles to get up, sparks flying from the console as Blake pumps more laser not-lead into it. The Leoblaze bounds for the BF's claws, perhaps hoping to gum it to death, and is quickly swatted aside. The distraction and Matt's encouragement ("you don't stand a chance against RD, 'cause he's the best!") is enough to get the Zero back on its feet, RD regaining faith in himself even in the face of the Buster Eagle flying happily down to make good old BuF.
RD again tells Matt to get out of the way and rushes the BuF. Helmut's right, RD's realizes-he was being way too cocky. It's time to forget about his stupid ego, he says to himself, and get down to business. The Zero whips out its accountant, bounds past all Blake's shots, and leaps for the BuF as it charges a CPC-until a shockwave splits the air.
"Fire Phoenix? Talk about perfect timing!"
"Skree," agrees the Phoenix, bouncing happily in the air before things go into Transformation Sequence Time. Fuzors combine...Liger Zero Phoenix!
The LZP jets forward and so does the BuF, meeting Diving Laser Claw Attack with E-shield. The resulting shockwave tears up the Lord Gale, neither combatant seeming to notice as Blake swoops toward RD, targeting a CPC at the Zero's head. Cockpit shots must be a disqualification, as Gummy appears on the scene, ordering Blake to cease firing immediately. Seeing that between the Giga and the rest of Mach Storm heading his way he's rather outnumbered, Blake opts for a tactical retreat, telling the Good Guys to go get bent and picking up the battered Gale along the way.
No, really. He says "go get bent". How did they get away with that one?
RD thanks the Fire Phoenix as it flies off, before turning around to apologize to Helmut. Helmut nods understandingly, and Gummy calls down to RD that they've reinstated his license. Sigma can't believe he got off so easy, but that's not quite true-as soon as they're back home, Sweet has RD and Matt cleaning things, smacking RD with the mop handle now. (And she accused him of risking injury chasing the Phoenix?) RD grouches that Matt's having too much fun with what's supposed to be no fun. But Matt has reason to be happy-Hop's said he can stay.
Right on, RD says, cheering up and hugging Matt...now there's someone he can boss around!
[1] Her name's not in the credits, don't ask ME how to spell it. Suggestions/corrections welcome.
Previously: Fuzors Combine! Liger Zero Phoenix
Next up: Ambush in the Wasteland
Back to episode listings