Cutscene Ralph’s mobile home: Dani has cleaned up #
GEAR 2
A few days later, we see Ralph’s house, which is a mobile home in a small neighborhood in the desert area, it’s evening, the sun is setting, and we see Ralph’s car parking by the house’s side. Ralph leaves the car and enters his house, surprised to see everything tidy.
“Boy… My house hasn’t looked this clean since I bought it” Ralph said
“Hm! You’re welcome” Dani shows up wearing a maid uniform
“You did this, Dani?”
“Of course I did! If I’m going to live here, I’ll make sure it’s clean”
“You didn’t have to…”
“Yes I had. It was way too messy and I couldn’t leave it the way it was”
Ralph smiles, not knowing what to say at first, until he finally responded “Thank you”
Dani gets surprised, then looks away, pouting and blushing “Why are you thanking me? I just did my job…”
“No, seriously, you didn’t have to do all that work and you still did it… Thanks a lot”
Dani kept pouting. “Stop spoiling me…”
“Anyways, where’s Bailey?”
“Um… She was a little-”
Cutscene Stacy phones: the base is on Europa #
Suddenly, Ralph’s phone rings, he picks it up and checks who is calling him. “Stacy?” He asks himself and answers the phone.
“Driver, I have news for you”
“Stacy? When did you get my number? How are you even calling me?”
“You connected your phone to your car’s multimedia central, so I took the liberty to install myself in your phone as your virtual assistant”
“Oh… Could’ve asked beforehand though”
“My sincere apologies, driver”
“So, what are the news?”
“I intercepted signals from alien spaceships nearby and after a few hours, I found their base”
“Cool, where is their base?”
“Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter”
“Wait, what?! Damn, and I was thinking aliens set bases in Antarctica… Guess not. What am I supposed to do now?”
“Invading their base and destroying their resources is currently the only option available”
“I mean, how am I gonna get there? Can the Horse Power fly?”
“No”
“Then how am I supposed to go to space? I’ve never flown a plane, let alone went to space…”
“I located a military base 360 miles from this point, in this base, you will find plenty of spaceships capable of taking you to Europa; the coordinates are set in your GPS”
Ralph quickly opened the GPS and saw where exactly the military base Stacy mentioned was located… That put a motivated smile on his face “Area 51 huh? Now that’s interesting…”
Choice CHOOSE YOUR COMPANION #
CHOOSE YOUR COMPANION
(IF DANI IS CHOSEN)
“Hey Dani, since you too want to kick those aliens’ asses, how about you come with me to invade their base and finish them off for good?”
Dani is surprised, then she smiles with motivation “Yes! Yes, I’m coming with you! Just tell me when!”
“The good news is that I know where their base is, so we can just go whenever you’re ready”
“I’ve been ready for this moment for months! We can go now!”
Cutscene Leaving Bailey at home #
“Let’s get going then” Ralph proceeds to Bailey’s room and sees her in bed using her laptop “Hey Bailey, I’m going out with Dani for a while, would you mind waiting for us?”
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me”
“Oh yes I worry about you, so I’ll just let you know: there’s canned food, frozen food and noodles in the kitchen, you’ll know where to find them, and if you feel unsafe, I have a rifle in my room, also easy to find”
“Oh, that’s nice, I can’t cook for shit anyways. I’m a hippie though, I don’t use guns”
“At least keep the door locked then, I don’t want you getting hurt because you don’t wanna use guns”
“If anything bad happens, I’ll call the police”
Ralph sighs “Sure…” Then he pulls up his phone and opens Stacy. “Stacy, can you still keep an eye on her while we go?”
“Yes, driver, I will connect myself to her laptop and keep a surveillance without her knowledge”
“Thank you” Ralph then looks at Dani “Let’s go”
Cutscene The six-hour drive #
They both leave the house and get in the car, the camera shifts to the hood perspective and we see both of their faces. Ralph asks: “You sure you’re ready to go? It’s gonna be a long way before we get there”
“How long are we talking?”
“Six hours”
Dani gets shocked “Six hours… Ugh… No, that’s okay. I’ve waited months for this; six hours is nothing”
“Last chance! Don’t you wanna go to the bathroom”
“No, I’m ready. We can stop on the way for this or to eat if you want”
“Alright then, here we go!”
Ralph starts the car and hits the road.
We get a few shots of the car driving in the evening, at night, at snack bars where Ralph and Dani stopped to eat and drink while road music plays. They were near their destination when we hear one more conversation between them in the dark road before midnight with no other lights than the car’s headlights. Ralph looks at Dani and starts a conversation.
“So Dani, where are you from?”
“San Francisco… And I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not your average Californian”
Ralph laughs a little “Now why would I think that?”
“Oh please, don’t think I’m stupid, I know very well you thought of me as a rich princess from California… Which by the way, thank you for respecting me enough to still be nice to me, but I’m not like the other girls!”
“Heh. I’m not like the other girls you say?”
“Exactly. As you can see, I’m more than capable of taking responsibility! And I never got along with the other girls in school”
“So you were the type to get along better with the boys?”
“No… Not directly at least. I always behaved myself and didn’t think about those preppy boys or… Ugh, sorry, I don’t wanna talk about those girls”
“You were secretly a nerdy girl, weren’t you?”
She gasps and looks at him with a slightly angry face “Hey! Who are you calling nerd?! You’re the one with a Gundam here!”
Ralph laughs “See? You are a nerdy girl!”
She grunts “Look, just because I played video games and watched anime doesn’t mean I’m a nerd! I… I’m just… Different!”
“Right…”
“I just… I like cute things! I’d much rather play Kyuutmon than spend my whole day on social media watching people scream and think that’s funny! Or listen to Kpop, or…” She looks at him “But I’m not a nerd, I swear!”
“You’re adorable”
She gasps, blushes and covers her face, shaking her head while making noises “Oh shut it, you idiot, idiot, idiot!!!!”
Cutscene Area 51 #
Suddenly, the Horse Power’s multimedia central lights up and a VTuber avatar pops up and says: “Driver, we’re reaching our destination. This unit is powerful enough to penetrate this base’s defenses, but still exercise caution, it’s not recommended to cause chaos in this place”
Dani recovers instantly and asks: “We arrived then? Okay, I’m ready to figh-”
She then looks outside and sees a sign illuminated by the car’s headlights
“Wait… Area 51?! That’s where the aliens’ base is?!”
Ralph smiles “No… This is where we’re catching our ride to their base”
“Catching our ride? Ralph, what are you…”
“Now Stacy, let’s make a badass transformation!”
Cutscene The transformation #
A transformation is about to happen, so we get a classic mecha/megazord style transformation, where the car jumps in the air, the screen turns to magical lasers, then the body of the robot gets formed by nanomachines, then the arms and then the legs, ending with the robot striking a fighting pose and Ralph screams “YEEHAW” while a transformation music plays.
Suddenly, Dani flinches “Oh my God, Ralph, I hope you know what you’re doing! Because invading Area 51 is…”
“Fucking awesome! Let’s do this! Stacy, play some rock!”
“Affirmative, driver”
Robot combat Area 51: military mechs and drones #
Rock music then starts playing and we get to the gameplay part. The level isn’t as big as the previous one, it’s just the base, and it starts with radio messages being intercepted, messages saying “attention all units, an unidentified mech has been detected near the base, deploy security mechs and drones!”
“Wait, mechs?” Dani asks “since when the government had mechs?”
“Passenger, the US government had mechs since 1960, it was during the cold war when they were built by both the United States of America and the Soviet Union, both of which still have mech units for Earth defense” Stacy explains
“Wait, what?! They always had mechs and not once they tried to stop aliens from invading Earth?”
“They did, they just did not reveal to public how many alien invaders they repelled and how many asteroids they destroyed” Stacy answers
“Jeez, that’s a lot” Ralph says “Do they know about the aliens we’re fighting against though?”
“Yes, but they still don’t know about the Europa base or about the Horse Power, which is why they didn’t fight yet” Stacy says
“Well, time for me to take the glory for once!” Ralph says
“Europe? You know we could’ve just caught a plane, right? Where in Europe anyway?” Dani asks
“Not Europe, Europa, Jupiter’s moon” Ralph answers
“WHAT???!!!” Dani says out loud “You can’t be serious right now, how are we supposed to go there??!!”
Ralph laughs “That’s what you’re about to find out”
“Oh my God, and I thought this couldn’t get any more insane!” Dani says.
Robot combat The underground facility and the hangar #
The battle continues as military mechs come up to fight the Horse Power and drones that look like military helicopters come to shoot. The area is smaller than the Arizona desert and it has more enemies. Ralph needs to break into the facility underground, where there will be tanks instead of drones, and Ralph needs to keep breaking his way in, until he finds a hangar with spaceships. Ralph looks at the spaceships in awe.
“Goddamn! All these spaceships look familiar! I guess cartoons and movies had direct inspiration from the government, huh?” Ralph says
“Driver, please, take whichever spaceship you like” Stacy says
Cutscene The car absorbs a spaceship #
“Hmmmm… Right, I’m taking that one!” He points at a ship that looks like an F-Zero vehicle
“Understood, starting absorption process”
The robot undoes itself, leaving only the car head to drop on the ground while the nanomachines absorb the spaceship. After this, the machines return to the car and turn it into the spaceship.
Ralph laughs “Now my horse can run through space! Let’s keep going!”
Dani is worried “I swear, I don’t know what else to expect…”
Shooter Star Fox section: leaving the base #
We then get back to gameplay, but this time it’s a Star Fox styled shoot ‘em up section until the ship leaves the facility and takes off to space. Tanks, drones and some mechs can be seen in this section.
Cutscene Space: Earth below, Stacy as a VTuber #
After this section, Ralph tilts the ship vertically, turns the gear lever all the way forward and takes off at extreme speed, going to space in the process. We see Ralph’s excited face through the front window and Dani being a little frightened. After getting into space, Ralph lets the ship rotate until Earth can be seen right before their eyes.
“Yup, it’s not flat in case you still had a doubt”
Dani returns to her pouty face and responds: “Come on, who in their right mind still thinks the Earth is flat?”
Ralph laughs “It’s a nice view though…”
“Unbelievable, we’re actually in space…”
“Yeah… Crazy, right?”
“Yes… As if your car turning into a spaceship wasn’t enough. The interior is identical though, nothing looks different”
“This is due to the driver’s preferences, I figured he wouldn’t like it if the interior was changed” Stacy answers
“By the way, Stacy, when did you become a VTuber?”
“While listening to your conversation with the passenger, I figured I would be much more approachable if I had an appearance, so I did my best to look friendly”
“Heh. You sure did. It’s nice to see your voice coming from a character” Ralph says
“You look professional, Stacy” Dani says
“I’m flattered, driver and passenger” Stacy responds
“Well, gotta get to Europa now. How long until we get there, Stacy?” Ralph asks
“With this ship’s cruise speed, eight hours” Stace answers
“Damn… I should’ve used the bathroom when I had the opportunity” Ralph says
Dani is shocked “Huh?!”
Ralph laughs off “Just kidding, let’s go”
“In the event of necessity of a bathroom, this ship has a bathroom, I can transport you there if you need” Stacy says
“It’s fine, I’m good” Ralph says
Cutscene Eight hours to Europa: a road trip in space #
The two then travel through space as if it’s a road trip.
After passing through the moon and Mars, Ralph and Dani look at the milky way, enjoying the beautiful view of space while a comfortable road music plays. Dani takes a breath and starts talking.
“This is so much to take on… In the span of two days, I was defeated by you in your Gundam, found out that America and Russia had mechs for 60 years, had spaceships with interstellar travel capabilities secured, and I’m in space right now… I never even imagined any of that happening in my life”
“Yeah, that’s crazy. Would you believe me if I told you I never got inside a plane tho?”
“Well yes, that’s not as crazy as you make it sound, some people are afraid, some can’t afford”
“I just like driving is all. Still, didn’t expect it to be that fun”
“Is it fun because you’re flying or because you like shooting things?”
Ralph and Dani stared at each other for a few seconds before laughing together.
“I mean… I just shot down drones, it’s not like I’m some killer… Therefore, yes, shooting down shit is fun. I also like video games, cars and action shows, so are you really surprised I enjoyed it?”
“No… If I had to be honest, using my magic is fun too”
“You’ve been doing this for longer than me, I’ve only had this mech for two days. You know aliens for longer than I do. I mean, I always knew they were real, only now I’ve seen them myself”
“It’s not that impressive after a week”
“Bet”
The two continue to look at the beauty of space. After a few seconds, Ralph touches the sides of his seat. “Well, I’m gonna take a nap. Stacy, wake me up when we get there… Or if anything happens”
“Affirmative, driver”
“You’re gonna stay awake, Dani?”
“No, I’ll rest too, I’m a bit tired after all”
Dani too reclines her seat and the both sleep until they get to their destination.
Shooter Alarm: alien ships over Jupiter #
They both rested well, but it’s a warning alarm that wakes them both, with Stacy telling them the situation
“Warning! Alien ships are on the way to intercept this unit. Engage in combat immediately”
“Good thing to wake up to, let’s get to action!” Ralph says, motivated
The player gets to another shooting sections and shoots alien ships over the surface of Jupiter. Nothing special about this section, except when Dani sees them falling on the planet and says “wow… When they enter the atmosphere, it looks like they’re being sucked and deformed physically…”
“Good eye you have if you notice that much detail”
Cutscene Entering Europa’s atmosphere #
The shooting continues until they approach Europa, which is when the game turns the ship automatically to it and we see a cutscene where it enters that moon’s atmosphere while Stacy says “entering Europa’s atmosphere, starting preparations to land”
“Landing? Ground is safe?”
“Correct. Soil density is good enough for this unit to be driven in its land vehicle form”
Ralph smiles “driving on the moon huh… That’s nice”
Travel Driving on the ice with snow tires #
Europa’s surface looks like an ice desert and makes Ralph and Dani amazed. The ship lowers altitude until it gets close to the ground, which is when it morphs back to its car form. Stacy breaks the silence.
“Snow tires deployed. Gravity is similar to that of Earth, you can drive safely”
“Gotcha”
“Driver, passenger, the air in this satellite is breathable, you can open the windows”
“You sure about that?” Ralph asks
“Driver, I would never put you in danger purposely, especially not in death risk”
“Well okay then, let’s see…”
“Wait!” Dani says, while raising her hand “What is the temperature outside?”
“10 Celsius” Stacy answers
“How much is that in Fahrenheit? I don’t know what the hell is a Celsius” Ralph says
“50” Stacy answers
“Damn… Alaska temperatures… Still curious”
Ralph and Dani open the windows, and to their surprise, the air indeed felt like that of Earth. Not only did they see ice mountains and an icy ground, but they also saw a river on their left, the place looked magical to them both.
“Damn, this place is nice. Perfect place to relax… Not that where we live is noisy anyway”
“Well… It’s certainly quieter than New York, that’s for sure”
“And cleaner”
“Not that that is hard anyway…”
Ralph takes a breath again, appreciating the humid air f Europa. “We really are the first humans to land on Europa, aren’t we?”
Cutscene The samurai by the river #
Dani looks at the river and squints “Ralph, look at that” she points at the other side of the river, so Ralph checks and he sees… A samurai practicing sword arts by the river!
“What the hell…” He says
“I guess we’re not the first ones…”
“Eh… He could be an alien, I’ve never seen a human with green hair before”
“Right…”
“Anyway, are we far from the base?”
“Negative, it is located around 3km from here”
“What the fuck is a kilometer?”
“Driver, please… Would you kindly learn the metric system?”
“Why should I? I’m American, I don’t need it”
Cutscene The truck and the base ahead #
Suddenly, a big truck turns and passes by them, making a loud noise and catching them by surprise, but passing through as if it didn’t notice them. After seeing the truck and getting surprised, Ralph says:
“I guess we’re close enough, let’s keep going”
Ralph keeps driving, and as Stacy meant to say, the base was close, tire marks were getting more visible the more he proceeded. Shortly after, they saw the base, which looked like a gigantic oil refinery. Ralph parked by the side.
“Stacy, this is it, right?”
“Affirmative”
“Anything I need to know before opening fire?”
“Negative. Just engage in combat”
“Really? Not even a quiet approach suggested?”
“With all due respect, driver, but your vehicle has what humans call a V8 engine, which is deemed noisy by most people, why would you even consider a stealth approach?”
Ralph nodded and smiled “that’s what I like to hear”
Robot combat Destroy the alien base #
Ralph then hit full throttle, made the car jump and transformed into the Horse Power robot, while asking: “Stacy, play Scrap Metal”, which is Doom styled action metal, which makes Dani comment on how noisy the metal is.
This section is fairly simple: in this big base, Stacy recommends to destroy everything in sight, be it giant alien robots, drones, tanks, buildings, fuel tanks, barracks and turrets. Pure destruction is the goal. After causing enough damage to the base, a cutscene will play when Ralph is having fun with all the destruction and an alien jumps on the window of the robot’s head, Ralph puts his hand under the steering wheel.
Cutscene Stacy, where is my gun? #
“I hope you like 45 ACP, you-”
Ralph realizes there is no gun under the steering wheel and gets mad
“STACY, WHERE’S MY GUN???!!!”
Dani uses her hand to shoot the alien outside of the window and then asks: “How did you not notice that, Ralph? Right after telling Bailey to keep your rifle by her side?”
Suddenly, a gun made of nanomachines is created and pops up on the car’s console, which Ralph takes, smiles and says “thanks” and starts shooting the aliens who try to invade the car. Shortly after this, Ralph makes the robot stop by the middle of the base with a slide, then he makes it stand, lift its arms and make a sign of the horns with both hands
Cutscene The ground breaks: the colonel appears #
“WOOHOO! Who’s the boss now, huh?!” Ralph celebrates, until he hears a loud noise and feels a tremor that makes the robot shake. Shortly after, something emerges from the ground, breaking it like it’s a bomb, and the silhouette of what looks like a mix of an UFO and a mech shows up as if it’s pulling a shoryuken, then lands in front of the hole with a superhero landing. The Horse Power turns around to see it, and the mech stands up, looking around. Suddenly, a female bossy voice is heard through a speaker:
“My base… It’s a wreck now…” The robot then turns to the Horse Power “You… Invader… You did this, didn’t you?”
Ralph smiles in smug fashion and makes the robot cross its arms “So what if I did? You’re gonna send me the bill?”
“Driver, a reminder that you are still in debt with the junkyard owner”
“Stacy, please don’t ruin my mockery”
The alien opponent puts her robot in fighting stance and continues “I have no idea what is a bill… But I’m certainly making you pay for this mess!”
Boss BOSS: Furious Alien Colonel #
BOSS: FURIOUS ALIEN COLONEL
The fight then starts with the alien mech preparing its drill and charging at the player, and this must be dodged, because if it hits the player, they will get stun locked and the drill causes A LOT of damage (at least 45% damage). After that, the robot will engage with normal fighting moves that can be blocked, but it’s recommended to avoid staying close to the robot for too long, otherwise the alien robot will grab the Horse Power and throw it far, but this can be countered by pressing X in the air once for a normal, harmless landing or pressing X again for a landing eagle, which will hit the opponent. If the player is far from their opponent, it will launch an attack that looks like Luffy’s gum gum pistol, but this can be countered not only by dodging or blocking, but also by pressing R2 near it, which will make the Horse Power grab the opponent’s arm and then use them as a flail to slam on the ground on the other side, this is the boss’ weakness. Another special attack is when the robot starts spinning both arms, which works similar to the Horse Power’s spinning blade and must be dodged or blocked, because this will also stun lock the player. The last attack is also very heavy, as the robot starts hovering like an UFO until it locks on, stays in place, and despite the short height, will land violently, causing a shockwave around it. The last attack can be stopped with a shoryuken, but it will just merely stagger the robot, making it return to its mecha form, along with dealing normal damage.
The fight will be finished with a new move: Horse Dropkick, which crushes the robot’s saucer torso, making it fall on the ground and be scrapped for good. The pilot is found lying on the ground and getting up, she is a military looking alien colonel woman.
Cutscene The pilot, the truck and the choice #
“Unbelievable… This invader decimated our unit!” She touched a disc-shaped device on her chest, but that too was destroyed “They won’t know… Blark!”
“I assume that’s how you aliens say shit” Ralph says through the speaker
The alien woman grunts, then looks at the Horse Power’s head in rage and says: “What are you waiting for? Finish the job!”
Ralph makes the Horse Power shrug and responds: “Already did, your base is no more”
Dani quietly asks Stacy: “Stacy, is it really over? All enemies have been destroyed? What about the truck we saw on the way?”
“Yes passenger, all threats have been eliminated. There are no enemies hiding or fleeing, and the truck in question returned to the base and was destroyed”
Ralph looks at Dani and nods before talking to the alien woman again “You pose no threat to me, we’re done”
“For what reason? To leave me alone, stranding in this place?”
Not using the speaker, Ralph said “Well, there’s that samurai near the river, right?”
Stacy responds: “Negative. The samurai is nowhere to be found. She is alone”
“Oh…” She looks at Dani and Stacy and thinks to himself “Shit… What should I do?”
Dani looks away and thinks to herself “I’ve been wanting to finish this for months, and now that we finally have the culprits on the short end, it feels wrong… She is not even a human, why am I feeling so remorseful?”
“Driver, the opponent is injured and powerless, but if you don’t execute her, she will indeed be alone, stranding in this world and possibly starving to death, what will you do?”
Ralph thinks for a minute, until he sighs “I can take you home at least”
Dani looks at Ralph with a concerned expression and asks “Ralph, are you sure that’s a good idea? She’s still our enemy; you destroyed her base”
“If she’s smart, which I believe she is, she will realize we destroyed her base with his mech alone” Dani pouts “…with the help of an angel… And she will tell her race not to mess with us. I mean, there’s more mechs waiting for them on Earth”
“Stacy, what are the chances of this backfiring?”
“The driver presents a reasonable observation, however, it is not guaranteed to work, so I recommend you two to talk her out of it”
Ralph shrugs “sounds like a good deal to me” he then grabs the speaker “What do you say?”
The alien woman looks away; realizes she has no other choice and reluctantly says “Fine…”
Ralph smiles and says to himself “Good! Now get in”
Companion unlocked: alien woman
Cutscene Where is home? Planet Torf #
Ralph leaves the cockpit as the Horse Power reaches out to the woman and gives her a hand, so she gets up and enters the car. We see the robot morphing into its spaceship form and it takes off vertically, quickly going to space. We then see the ship cruising away from that moon and Ralph asks the woman:
“So, where is your home planet?”
She gulps, clenches her teeth while looking away for a second, then answers: “You can take me to coordinates Alpha 6, Sigma 3, Omega 17, Zeta 34, Theta 8”
The ship’s GPS shows the map of the quadrant, the way to the coordinates and the planet being pointed at. Stacy says: “Destination: Planet Torf. A small planet in the solar system of Alpha Centauri, it’s a calm planet with no military or government activity, only farmers living a calm life”
Dani squints and says, “That’s your home?”
The alien woman looks away and answers in a rather unconvincing tone: “Um… Yeah, I’m not from a military background, I just… Well, I just…”
Stacy interrupts her by saying: “Military personnel, I suggest that you do not lie to the driver and the passenger. Planet Torf has no association with any other planet’s military or politics. Please state your goals”
The woman takes a deep breath before giving an honest response: “Fine… The truth is, I don’t want you to bring me back to my home world, because if you bring me there, I will most likely be interrogated and no one will believe my answers. They’ll ask things like why am I the only survivor of the base? Why did the enemy bring me home with no conditions? Did I betray my unit and joined forces with the enemy? Why is my transmission device damaged? I’ll be on a watch list for the rest of my life… I’d rather move to a place they’ll never find and let them believe I died at that unit”
Ralph and Dani look at each other and can’t help but feel pity. Ralph then nods and says: “Well alright then, I’ll take you there. No one will ever know what happened in Europa and no one will ever find you. You died there and your body was never found. We know nothing, right, Stacy?”
Stacy answers: “Affirmative. This data is locked behind our bond”
The alien woman smiles and nods. “Thank you, human”