Part 5: Episode 5: Sock it To 'Em
Episode 5: Sock it To 'Em
So Grumpos and I were a team now. I didn't care much for the man. He had caned my face and screwed Deanamo over worse than I could imagine. There was nothing keeping him from backstabbing me too. I'd have to keep my eye on him. The only reason I agreed at all is because I feared Detta far more than the old man.
We walked outside of Building 5. Right on cue, Fatima appeared.
Fatima: Just a thought. Or two.
What would I ever do without you? Not that I couldn't figure it out on my own, of course. We would shake down the floater for information on Eddie. Oh, and let me figure it out before you jump in next time. I need to look sharp so Gramps trusts me.
I was also anxious to test out the linguinator. The first alien I saw to talk to was the Bilifiga that made the Syrup Mopper want to vomit.
Oh please no. An alien penis would simply ruin my already lovely day.
Not here, freak. Ok, we're not off to a great start here. Fist time using the linguinator and I get hit on by a Bilifiga. For once I felt sorry for the NoxGuards.
Before we go on, let's get one thing straight. I couldn't look Valesta in the face again after working for this Grumpos. It felt like I had just teamed up with the bad guy. So I took him down to Deanamo's room to force him to make things right.
Yeah, I know it looks bad, but just wait a minute.
I pushed the old man forward.
Grumpos: Die?'
I gave grumpos an elbow to the back.
Grumpos: Settle down, girl. I'm here to compensate you for your efforts.
Much better, old man.
He deserved the little bastard part.
This time I nudged him before he got to open his mouth.
Grumpos: Here you are my brave girl. 200 loonies on the spot.
He almost even made it sound genuine.
How about a little credit, sweetheart? I'm no flake, just ask Yerocan!
You taking notes Valesta?
Even though we were down a few loonies (I had to pay part of the 200 loonies), I couldn't let the girl stay that way. Joining the Resistance and now this'I could hardly believe it myself. I think I even saw Fatima smile for the first time in, well, about a year.
When we were about to go up on the elevator to the Casinox area, I heard the Bippy song coming from above. I looked out from an overlook nearby the Barton Arms apartment.
My first red bipidri picture. Seven more to go.
I ran into the officer who was in a shouting match with the Brebulan last time I passed through. Now equipped with a linguinator, I just had to listen in. If I was lucky, the Brebulan wouldn't try to hit on me.
Weak to tickling. Good to know if I ever tussle with one.
Ghalla's was on the way, so I figured I'd check and see if Deanamo was there.
Will do. Hang in there, kiddo. Ghalla's the best.
What the hell Valesta? Still with the attitude? Your friend isn't mad at me and she's the one MISSING HER LIMBS. Seriously, I got the old man to pay the 200 loonies she asked for. What more do you want from me? I tried giving her back her bracelet again, but she wouldn't talk to me. Looks like I'll be holding onto it a bit longer.
Onward to the fountain overlook to chat with K'Conrad Khk again.
Ok. Time to see what the Aewa knows. Hopefully I can give him some good dirt in exchange.
Ok. What's the deal with this Eddie character?(video) / Backup
Summary: K'Conrad informs Boots that Eddie is a master informant. He practically owns Anachronox since he has dirt on everyone. If Boots wants to find Eddie he should follow a man named Lucko Coldwolf.
I'll definitely be looking up from now on, creep. No wonder rowdy doesn't let them in. Still, he had proven himself to be useful.
Lucko Coldwolf. Let's see. I could ask around at Rowdy's, maybe rough up that jangler and see if he's involved with Detta. I'll hit all the usual spots. I guess it's time to start asking around.
Fatima thinks she's some kind of SenderNet detective.
Fatima, I appreciate it and all, but let me do some of the detective work every now and then please. I let it go back at Building 5, but seriously, it's emasculating.
The Barton Arms was nearby where I shot the picture of the red bipidri, just back around the corner from the overlook.
I made my way down, and, right on cue, Lucko left his apartment. Finally, I would get to do some detective work. You paying attention, Fatima? This is how it's done.
To the spiral area.
To the fruit stand outside Ghalla's.
Finally something interesting, Lucko is friends with Detta's thugs. See Fatima, my way would have worked too. Still, that didn't take me any closer to Eddie, however.
He turned into the Anachronox Tours area. The plates had recently shifted to make this area accessible.
Finally, he entered a diner deep in the Anachronox Tours area. Good to see my pursuit skills were still sharp.
Inside the Diner(video). / Backup
Chewy and stinky, alright let's think Boots. Where could we find something...
Oh boy, here we go again. Is this punishment for talking with Kiki?
Damnit! Yes, Fatima, I remember the guy with the limp near Zordo's. I guess you weren't paying attention last time we went down there. I already had it figured out, honest. You're embarrassing me in front of Mr. Matavastros!
It's a shame, that's one article I would have actually read. It'd beat any of the trash stories on SenderNet.
I had tried to ignore it, but something smelled horrible in the diner.
Brebulan cuisine. Oh my, I think it's still moving. I'm gonna be sick.
Gramps and I ran out of the diner. To this day I still throw up in my mouth a little every time I see a Brebulan.
The area outside of the diner was surrounded by police tape. I didn't have time to investigate before, since we were following Lucko. Apparently, there had been a murder outside that diner. The investigating officer was a man named Rukh. Rukh and I were pals back when I was living the good life in North Anachronox.
Please let's talk about something OTHER than me coming crashing down from the top.
I guess PAX was better than working for this old man.
Killings? Over drug deals you say? Fascinating, please do continue.
The truth is, I did owe Rukh. Building 5 wasn't too much of a sidetrack, so I decided to help him out before going to the spiral to see about the sock. Honestly, I just wanted nothing to do with the sock. Gramps wasn't too pleased about the delay, but then again he wasn't happy about paying Deanamo. Screw him. I call the shots here. Right, Fatima?
Consulting the picture I had snapped of the registry, I knew that Kewp lived in C7.
The door was locked, but I got it open without much difficulty.
The only notable object in the apartment was a lifecurson on the kitchen counter. I asked Fatima to see if she could interface with it. That's right, I give you permission to investigate. You don't do it all on your own and try to show me up.
Fatima: Just a second. Ok Yeah. I'm inside but most of this data's heavily encrypted. Oh wait, here's something. Last message received.
Fatima: That's all I can find. Sorry, hon.
Great, while you're back there could you fix me a sandwich? All this detectiving has worked up quite the appetite. Hey, don't look at me like that.
I returned to Rukh and told him the news.
Yep, allll by myself.
Rukh's a good guy. That was quite a reward for a simple job. Well, simple with Fatima's help. Now I just have to find some enemies tough enough to make this baby useful.
Note: Never.
Around the corner I heard a distinctive buzz in the air that could only be the sound of a PAL-18. It reminded me of how much I missed my 'bot.
You may help me by dying and leaving your battery behind, BETSY.
I change my PAL-18 to kick your PAL-18's ass, that's what.
Boots: You willing to fork over your PAL-18's battery for cash?
It was a long shot seeing as how creepy this guy was over his 'bot.
I seriously need to get a battery for my bot'
NoxGuard: Here's 500 loonies for a job well done.
I turned in the Brebulan pictures to the NoxGuard who requested them. Until the incident at the diner, I wasn't really planning to hand them over except as a desperate measure. However, Brebulan cuisine must be stopped at all costs. If that means
Upon arriving at the fountain spiral near Zordo's, I quickly located the guy with the limp from before.
Here goes. This has got to be the strangest thing I've ever done.
How do you ask a stranger for an old putrid sock? (video) / Backup
Summary: Boots and Grumpos awkwardly ask the man for his sock and he complies. Except it's funny in the video.
All things considered, that went well. He really was a nice guy, and I almost felt bad for taking his sock. My nose was still not functioning properly after the stench in the diner, so it wasn't painful to carry it around. I did get quite a few funny looks, though.
Before going to the junkyard to meet Eddie and get into the MysTech tunnels, Grumpos suggested I use the MysTech Museum card that I stole from him to educate myself.
The Mystech Museum. I wasn't too interested, but Grumpos insisted.
I had a brief chat with the curator.
Thanks for telling me information that SenderNet has freely available. You are a wonderful curator.
Like TACOs. He tried giving me a job taking pictures of Anachronox symbols around the city and stealing the Anachronox symbol from the Tours building. He wasn't offering much cash for the stuff, so it wasn't very high on my priority list.
Heh. One of the monks from Hephaestus was here too.
Monk: It bubbled up from a deep lava well now called the Mysterium Levant. Later, Mystech was found in the cores of other planets. It gets its title from the strange metal from which it is made, dubbed Mysterium by confounded scientists of the time.
Ok, so if MysTech came from Hephaestus, why would you go halfway across the universe to Anachronox to look at it?
That song'that infernal song'there must be a red bippy here.
Gotcha. Six to go.
A glodent vendor working out of the museum. Sickening. You could hear the little guys cooking in the glowstream. Sparky could hear the cries of his radiated brothers as well. He thrashed feverishly inside my glodent sack.
Nothing else here of note. A few scientists prattling on about who cares what. Blah blah'let's get outta here. Onward to The Junkyard to meet Eddie. Yes, this is the same junkyard as in 'the junkyard 20 gang.' I wasn't scared of the punks anymore. I wasn't sure how old Grumpos would hold up, though.
The junkyard. I could already see some of the gang in the distance.
Easy.
It's amazing the kind of stuff you can find down here. I let Grumpos use the shieldcell since we found it together. I was still holding onto the one from Yerocan.
More thugs, more blaster rounds.
Seriously we tore through the chumps. The old man could actually hold is own pretty well. In fact, the old man had a little trick up his sleeve. He was quite the talker.
He just talked and talked and talked. I almost felt bad for the guy. After Grumps was done, he just sat there, obviously disturbed.
Gameplay Note: Grumpos's 'Yammer' skill can stun enemies. Yammer Time! (video). / Backup
While ripping through the gang, we also found a TACO. People were just throwing the things away.
A few (thousand) fights later, we encountered a tunnel with a strange man in front of it. This must be the place.
Note: Until we get some flashy attacks or something, I'm going to keep combat screenshots to a bare minimum. Although I don't agree with those that would take combat out of the game entirely, it definitely is not interesting enough to post more screens of.
Of course, I would go in to see Eddie. It was pretty creepy inside. All sorts of lowlifes were lined up with their smelly knick-knacks in the hope of answers.
Ok'
Get on with it, man.
'
Me: What's chewy about that?
If a piece of string was enough for Eddie, I was going to feel really stupid hauling this rancid sock down.
That string was no match for my sock.
Floss isn't smelly either. I mean come on guys, it's minty fresh. Certainly my sock would get me to the front of the line.
A gun in a place like this? Probably from someone who tried to attack Eddie. Regardless, it was mine now, much better than Jack's piece.
More strange offerings. They were definitely stinkier and chewier than the string, but, depending on how long the bippy had been dead, they were nowhere close to my sock.
I barged into the room where Eddie resided (video). / Backup
Summary: Boots barges in and is told to wait his turn in line. Eddie decides instead that he will answer Boot's question first. Boots doubts Eddie's abilities until Eddie mentions things about Fatima. Boots gives Eddie the sock, and he chew on it. He says that the doorlord can be influenced by knowing that his brother has a secret.
How the hell did he know about Fatima? The look in his eyes showed he knew more than he was letting on, too. A bit shaken by the encounter, we went on to see the Mephad'in Doorlord. Hopefully the dirt on his brother would be enough.
Here goes.
Me: yes.
Same to you, buddy. Thanks Eddie, you wonderful rotting sock-eating bastard.
We walked into the secret passage to the tunnels.
True to the general philosophy of Anachronox, there was a huge elevator taking us down to the tunnels.
These strange rock formations could be seen all over Anachronox, but they were especially prevalent down here. Perhaps they were related to MysTech. Oh, and there was another glodent behind some of the rocks. Sparky had a friend, but without Stang here to tell me to avoid compansionship, I didn't feel compelled to name this one.
Now all that was left to do was to grab some MysTech and keep our limbs attached.
There were some creatures in the tunnels, but nothing too scary yet. The Vistin Three-Beam performed admirably.
Weak little bug things. Also easily zapped.
The attack was both dangerous and strangely exhilarating at the same time.
A radiated bat which could also be used as a fuel source. I guess Sparky and his pal are in the clear for now.
We ran.
We fought.
We fought some more. These are called Stare Bears. When they stare at you, you feel weird.
Gameplay Note: This is the winky status. As far as I can tell it slows down how fast the active time bar recharges. It isn't a very serious status effect.
The Vistin Spikehead was a nice upgrade for Grumpos's staff.
Someone went to great lengths to dispose of this TACO.
After aeons of walking, we finally hit a long, ominous corridor which led to a boat. The only way to go was downstream.
Someone had left explosive boxes all over the river.
Gameplay Note: This is just a minigame. Avoid the red boxes, pick up the blue ones.
When we reached the shore, we found boxes of HealGrease and more paths to run down. By this time, we had nearly 30 tubes of HealGrease. I guess Detta was moving it down here to support his own tunnel exploration exploits.
This looks interesting.
Uhoh'The stones formed a gigantic robot. There were 6 platforms surrounding the robot. He faced an empty space between Grumpos and myself.
He slammed the position in front of him and then turned towards me.
I deftly jumped out of the way. This process repeated itself while Grumpos and I chipped away at his defense.
Eventually the robot had simply received too much of a beating to go on and broke down.
Following the path the robot used to be blocking, we stumbled upon an odd object. It didn't quite look like MysTech.
Let's pick it up (video). / Backup
Summary: The stone isn't MysTech, but it is made of Mysterium. As Grumpos and Boots walk away from the tunnels, they run into Detta and a bunch of thugs. Detta demands the stone, but Grumpos plays dumb like he doesn't have it. Detta knows better. Boots forcefully takes the stone from Grumpos to give to Detta. Detta threatens to kill Boots if the money isn't to him soon.
Grumpos is pretty upset that Boots turned over the stone, but still he offers him a business proposal. They would go to Sunder to meet a scientist who was interested in MysTech and running similar tests as Grumpos. If they can unlock the secrets of MysTech, Grumpos assures boots that they will be rich. Boots agrees to travel with Grumpos. Their next destination would be Sender Station, where they could catch a shuttle to Sunder. This is a great scene, you should really watch it.
Outside the tunnels, the Doorlord was gone.
The Doorlord fanboy was distraught that his loverboy had vanished.
So Grumps wanted to take a shuttle to Sender Station? Fine with me. On the way to the Tours building, I noticed that the faint PAL buzzing was gone.
Die Betsy Die!
Me: Can I buy your PAL's battery from you now?
Needless to say, I took it.
Now I needed to get back to my office and boot PAL back up. I felt like a kid again
Alright, let's do this thing.
Welcome back buddy (video). / Backup
Summary: Boots basically just turns PAL on. There's some dialogue that I'm not gonna transcribe. So watch it.
PAL was a bit different when I booted him up again. Maybe this was the quirkiness that people reported. Anyway, more or less it was still the same old PAL, and it was great to have him back.
I took the taxi back to the Anachronox Tours area where I was met by a robot who referred to me simply as 'Enslaver.'
I had PAL try to talk to him.
The shock claws would be useful if we ever got into a scuffle.
The old man wouldn't leave the kiosk. We waited for a while, but nothing could make him budge. Grumpos intervened.
Gameplay Note: Grumpos can Yammer as his worldskill. In battle Yammer will stun an opponent. Outside of battle he can annoy the hell out of people. Let's watch.
STOP! Yammer Time!
We purchased our tickets and proceeded to the terminal. Some crazy was preaching on the street corner.
Poor guy.
Finally, we boarded our shuttle and were off to Sender Station. Hooray.
End: We're off Anachronox!
. The game definitely will start to pick up. Updates may start taking more time depending on how quickly school work piles up.