Part 16: Revenge is a Dish Best Served Twice
AH AH WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON
Courage, m'lad! There's a storeroom on the way down the hall. We can forage for supplies and fortify our position there!
Like, where were you this entire time? Good Lord, woman, there's no time for this! Quickly now!
Yup. Let's label the single most important place in the entire base in large, bold letters. That won't backfire.
Not real surprised.
Well, no. They may be evil, but they're not dumb. Shyeah, right. Have you been fighting the same monsters I have? Hey, what's that?
-targetacquired|broadcast|broadcast- Hang it all! Wha? The jig is up! He's a scout! Then we'll have to shut him up! 
-threatrecognized|defend|eliminate-
AAAAAAAAAAAAA
*bbzzkzkkzpt* Guys! Focus! ... AAAAAAAAAAAAAGood news, everyone! We've passed another checkpoint! And I mean that in the Professor-Farnsworth-from-Futurama sense.
A strike squadron was dispatched to the Guardian's Base while we were asleep, and random encounter damage has rocketed up as a result. This is the next place you'll really feel the pain if you haven't developed your characters properly. Monsters are going to be throwing down for 150-200 a hit now, and you need to both respond in kind and keep your guys upright.
Mercifully, we're in good shape. We have good quality gear after all that work on Apollo's World, our stats are up to snuff, we've got a good selection of damage abilities and spells, and we have both a Cure ability and a Cure spellbook. But man oh man, if you decided to take your foot off the accelerator in Apollo's World, you are going to despise this next part.
More coming! Our position's been compromised! We need to break through! Got it!
OW
Patch yourself up, I got the last one!
We've got a clear path to the exit! go go go GO GO GO
Quick! Get to the stairs!
This guy must be the brains of the operation. Is this really an appropriate time for sarcasm? Oh, I'm sooooo sorry. I guess it's not. 
*WHAP* Hey!
Wow. You are getting some serious mileage out of that thing. I know! Pretty cool, huh?
Ugh... You alright? Yeah. We have to get out of here. Sara can't keep healing us after every fight, she'll totally run out of juice. Actually, I don't drink juice. No way. Yup. Too many empty carbs. Let me make sure I'm getting this. You'll drink everything liquid across all of reality, but you won't drink juice. Eat fruit but drink oil. That's what I've always been taught about dieting!
*gunfire* Mr. Butte!
The New Gods found the base...
Oh snap. We're up against Darkseid?! Er. Do any of you know what he's talking about? Does anyone? Well, never mind! We have to get out of here before it's too late!
Dad status: Met
Dad's actually on par with where we are as a party. His gear's great, though—a high-tier sword, a quality whip, and an SMG. (I'm also kind of sad Captain Butte's class is "Guardian" instead of "Dad.") At any rate, having Indiana Dad in the party makes for a huge difference. There's five targets now instead of four, plus he brings an extra Cure book to the table. Just like that, we go from holding our own to a threshing machine.
The situation's bad. They've got guards at every major choke point. There's no room for finesse on this one, we'll have to bull our way through. Oh, cool. I thought we were gonna change tactics there for a sec.
Another manticore! Nah, that's a griffin. I know what you're doing this time, and it's totally not going to work.
We're clear! Go!
Roy! Mages are weak against physical damage! On it!
...
...dad, we have to talk about—
I have to get you four someplace safe! Once we're out of here, you can yell at me all you want! Believe me, I'm looking forward to it!
Guh! This place is a total war zone! At least the townspeople evacuated in time... Score one for the guardians, huh? Wish I could agree, but it wasn't us. The town was evacuated just before the attack hit. Somebody must have tipped them off.
Wait. Isn't that...?
Hah! You four again. Thanks for the intel, it was real helpful.
Crap! We led them right to the base! Dad... I'm sorry... Oh, dad, I'm so sorry! Bloo blurr I sound like a six year old! Idiot. 
hrk Not a real good call, making fun of his kid. Nope.
Heh. You think you've won?
No! ...
She's like six years old! She needs her dad right now, Roy, even if he's yours! ... Yeah. Yeah! You're right, Zero. Of course he is! Yeah, of course I—wait, what? You heard him! Let's go!
Magi levels acceptable. Welcome to Convenient Place to Take a Hostage World. Wow, that is ridiculously specific. I know, right?
Wait! Did anyone else see that? Nope. I have no idea what you're talking about. I have to keep my eyes closed when we do this or you won't like it very much Like, I know what I saw! Let's go back! Urp
Told you so. What, do you have some sort of crazy shopping RADAR or something? Ha ha ha! No way!
*ping* IGNORE THAT
Hi! Welcome to the Sky Mall! I've heard of this place. They have some really interesting stuff. Expensive, though. There's no such thing as too expensive. You're just, like, creditably challenged.This is a nice little pit stop between the shock of Town World's invasion and the upcoming fight. It's exceedingly un-SaGa-like to put it here. but if the game's going to show us mercy, we should take advantage of it. You can load up on any 10k tier weapon, plus a few rare odds and ends like gold armor. We do pick up some gold armor and give it to Sara, since she's apparently made of superhumanly agile tissue paper.
If you've never experienced high level FFL/SaGa combat, by the way, you're in for a treat. It's almost always over in three rounds or less. With the escalating weapon tiers, enemy damage, and sheer numbers, random encounters in FFL eventually dissolve into rocket tag—and since we don't have to worry about the limited resurrection system from FFL1, things are going to get even crazier. The game doesn't have to maintain any sort of illusion about your ability to win a fight with your entire party standing, and if you think that hasn't been baked into the combat system, I have a tower to sell you.
Well, here's another chance at your pun, Zero. Dude. Not the time. Woah. Things are getting hella serious now.
So, Butte-san. We meet again, for the first time. No. For the last time. Ooohohoho. Well played. Alright, someone who isn't a weirdo want to chip in here?
Waaaaaah! So no, then.
...went missing and mommy got sick! Mr. Butte said he'd be my daddy until mommy got better! ...oh... Wait, you have two dads? That's, like, twice as good as one dad! I know, right? 
Silence!
What a what? Not now, Zero. No, seriously. I want to know where he was going with that. Well, uh... I was going to say... that... Uh... Well fuck you I'm killing this little girl so there ...
...and run!
Wait! No!
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!
I was so harsh with him... but it was just a misunderstanding, and... and... Roy. We have to get Lynn home. Yeah. It's not safe for a little girl out here.
...the guardians! ?! Heck of a fight, you guys missed out. Owned the shit out of your old man and left him in a gutter somewhere. Wh... Wha... Guess it's time for his son to follow him.
The
is yet another example of the "higher level monster as miniboss" trope SaGa loves to trot out. We have Lynn for this fight, who inexplicably has as many hit points as our hardened warriors of several worlds' experience. 
At least it explains how she was able to get to the bottom of the Wind Cave. She's still every bit as useless as before, but she now has X-Kick, so I guess she winds up before she kicks your shins.Not surprisingly, the Ninja can be a formidable opponent. He's got agility in spades, and he also has Mirror, an ability which boosts his agility even further. Furthermore, he has about 600-800 HP. You can overwhelm him in a few rounds if your stats are up to snuff, but he'll probably have time to take a few chunks out of you along the way.
Unless by some twist of fate, crap abilities, and absolute serendipity, something like this happens...
*blam* *blam* I can't hit him! I can't even see where he is! Stand still you creepo! Nah nah! Can't catch me! Lassen Sie uns in die Diskothek gehen!
oof ...holy crap. I didn't expect that to work.Zero's Blitz ability effectively nullifies Mirror! And it's a good thing, too, because this guy could conceivably juice himself up to the point where we have issues hitting him. If you think that's convenient, though, you ain't seen nothin' yet...
I still can't hit him! He's too fast! Pardon, but I believe I can lend a hand. Sure, now you wake up... Bit of the old power conservation. Necessary annoyance, that. Less chatty, more helpy Roy. Can you take a punch? Wha? If I'm going to help you, you'll have to absorb a blow. Can you give it the old college try? If you can help us win this fight, sword dude, I'll do just about anything. Splendid! Tottle over there and brandish me, then. There's a good lad.
... ... so, uh... Patience, m'boy. And steel yourself. 'kay well. This is fascinating and all, but I'm gonna vivisect you now.
NNG! *bing* Ugh... Wait, what was that? Quickly, man! While he's still open! *swing!*
Well. That was certainly a thing that just happened. Told you broadswords were better than katanas! Whatever.Revenge is both a unique treasure and a gimmick sword. When activated, it works like the world's worst shield: you wait for an attack, but you get no defense boost for your troubles. If and when someone plunks you, Revenge immediately deals twice as much damage back to them—no saves, no alterations, no hit checks. It's a guaranteed hit, but it only triggers after your guy takes a punch in the face, and it's only useful if that punch is particularly big.
In FFL1, Revenge was terrible. Your guys had limited "lives," so you couldn't risk massive body blows like that. Besides, if you're to the point where you can give up 200 HP to deal 400 back, you've got much better weapons available—ones that won't risk burning through a heart, by the way. The calculus changes in FFL2. Besides the fact your guys can go down in combat as much as you want (as long as you win!), the math behind Revenge has been significantly altered.
It's double the damage of the attack before your defense check.
This is a huge, huge deal. Not so much here; the ninja and Roy are about even as far as stats go. But, you can already see how a 230 HP hit dealt back nearly 500 HP of damage. What this demonstrates is that the reflected damage is calculated before Roy's ridiculous defense levels are applied. Know what else that means? If you have an immunity, you take no damage but still deal double the amount back.
Late Edit: According to Gabriel Pope and Shwqa, the above math isn't quite correct. Damage by Revenge is either (damage dealt*2)+Str or Str*5, whichever is greater. Here, you can see Roy did twice the amount of damage of the Katana attack plus his strength (24). So basically, if the blow gets through, you'll probably do 2x, and if it's blocked completely, it'll do Strx5.
Eesh, that's a lot of algebra.
*sniff* D-daddy... ...Dad... 
Dude. We have to get Lynn home. Yeah. I know.
Mommy!
Oh, Lynn! Thank goodness! Thank you, Roy. You've saved my daughter once again. I'm just glad we were able to get her home. Where's your father? Is he alright? Mommy... Other Daddy's... *sniff* ...oh no.
I'm really sorry. I was a gigantic idiot rushing out of here like that. I didn't even let him explain... No, I know what it looked like. But I promise you, your father was nothing but a gentleman to me and Lynn. Here, he left something here for you... ...?
... Dear Roy. If you're reading this letter, something has happened to me. I hope we were able to see each other one last time. I hope I had the chance to explain—about Lynn, the Guardians, you, everything. I have so much I want to tell you, son, and I don't know where to begin. If you've already met Lynn, you might still be angry with me. Her father was a good man. We had an operation in Convenient Place to Take a Hostage World go sideways on us, and Lynn's father went missing during extraction. When I came to deliver the news, I couldn't tell Lynn. I should've, but I didn't know how. I told her I'd take care of her until her father got back, and now she won't stop calling me daddy. She's too innocent to know how that sounds. If I never got the chance to explain, please don't feel guilty. I can understand why you'd assume the worst. It's been so long, you probably don't even know who your old man is anymore. 
There's something else you should know, and I hope to all heaven you're hearing it from me or your mother first. Roy, you are our son. You will always be our son. Please remember that when I tell you...quote:
I don't know where you came from or who built you. I hope you find out for yourself one day. But, no matter what happens, never let anybody tell you you're just a machine or that you have no soul. You're Roy Butte, Jr., and you have a father and mother that loves you very much. Please take care of yourself and your mother, Roy. Be the man I know you can be. Love, Dad. ... I guess that's it, then. Yeah. Bummer.
...the rest of these pieces, and we're gonna put that statue back together. But this time, I'm gonna do it to honor the hero my dad was. Bitchin'! Heather! There are kids in the room! Yaaaaaay! Roy is the shiznit! 
Lynn! whaaaaaaaat We should get going. There's a lot more Nexus left to visit. Yeah. All that magi isn't gonna collect itself, dooder. Bye Uncle Zero! Bye Roy! *hug* D'awww. Stay safe, kiddo. We'll see you later. Okay, Roy! And try not to pick up any more stray dads while we're gone! Okay, daddy! ...Next Time: Vanity, Thy Name is Asshole