Starmen.Net

“It’ll make a nice weapon,” Bronson had said.

And it did. Nothing better than a Drago fang for piercing Drago hide, after all, not that Flint had ever needed to before. But then again, he’d never fought a monstrosity like this before, with its hydraulic metal limbs and its piercing, lightning-fueled eyes. Flint clapped his hat to his head as he ducked under one of its feral slashes, his booted feet skidding in the dusty ground of the plateau, but he did not succumb. Not today.

He could hear Alec’s shouts behind him, as well as Alec’s wince as Flint’s stomach took a puncture wound from the diabolical creature in front of him. Even so, Flint carved out a new weak point from its hide, and it bellowed in fury. The screeching noise echoed in the canyons and compelled Flint to cover his ears.

The creature opened its gaping maw and lunged forward, its remaining teeth glinting a deathly white in the light of noon—

When the creature’s jaw slammed shut, it happened the same way it had less than a day prior, in the hard late-night rain. But Claus pulled his brother back just in time, the two of them yelping as the mechanical jaw missed them by inches.

Their mother’s eyes were wide, horror-struck by the abomination before them. She couldn’t recall ever seeing a beast like that before. If it had once been a Drago, it certainly wasn’t anymore.

“Lucas. Claus,” she said in that firm tone that mothers get when they mean business. “Run. Now.”
“What?” Lucas said, refusing to believe it.
“I said now!!” Hinawa said sharply as the creature stepped forward, catching the hem of her dress and tearing it.

Claus didn’t listen, though. With the mightiest scream his tiny torso could summon, he kicked the creature in its haunch. The creature spun around at once, its massive tail catching Claus on the backswing and throwing him harshly to the ground.

Lucas, on the other hand, stood frozen in terror at the creature, his eyes a horror-struck match of his mother’s.

Hinawa gasped, and her hands clenched into fists. With a scream to match Claus’s, she ripped the hem of her dress from the Mecha Drago’s claws and swept both of her boys up in her arms. They were far too old to be carried like this, but she was a rancher’s wife who was no stranger to manual labor. The adrenaline in her veins gave her the strength to throw them both over her shoulder as she ran.

Behind her, a hydraulic foot slammed down into the mud, sending splatters of gunk into the moonlit depths of the trees.

When the Mecha Drago’s foot slammed town many hours later, it was at the top of the plateau this time, and Flint’s leg was caught beneath it. He cursed as he plummeted to the ground, his knee sprained or broken, and Alec rushed forward.

The Mecha Drago stepped towards Alec, fortuitously releasing Flint from his confinement, but Alec was knocked to the ground by the creature’s mechanical leg as it moved. His bag of herbs spilled open across the sunlit ground, and Flint gathered some of it into a makeshift poultice for his injured leg. He could heal later, after this creature stopped moving.

Flint’s own stick lay discarded on the ground from his fall, so he leaped over the creature’s tail to pick it up again. When he brandished it back, the creature took the blow in the hide where it had been injured.

The night before, when Hinawa had bludgeoned the creature atop the canyon, it hadn’t been injured. It weathered all of her blows ceaselessly and effortlessly, even as Hinawa’s energy began to fade. Grabbing Lucas and Claus by the waist, she stepped over the precipice and skidded down the steep canyon walls, grunting as her knees took the weight of their landing.

“Stay away!” she screamed as she backed further and further towards the river. Ahead of her, the Mecha Drago leaped down the cliffside, leaving massive raking claw marks in the wall as it descended. Entire tree trunks snapped like twigs in its onslaught, and judging by the sound of its roar, it was getting closer.

Hinawa’s foot touched the flow of water. She was already drenched from the rain, they all were, but the icy cold chill sent a jolt of clarity to her mind all the same.

Even Claus had been cowed by this monster, shaking with Lucas by the riverbank. Would the riverbank sweep them away and drown them? Or would it carry all three of them to safety? Hinawa knew little of machines, but she guessed that the river might not be good for the creature that pursued them.

“We’re going to go into the river,” Hinawa whispered, almost as much to convince herself as her boys.
“The water’s too fast!” Claus protested, and he was right. It was. But the Mecha Drago was faster.
“I’ll keep you safe,” Hinawa promised. “Take a deep breath and hold on to my hands. Count of three.”

“One…” Lucas whimpered.
“Two…” Claus followed.
“Three,” Hinawa said determinedly as she pulled them into the rushing current of the river.

The waters of the river were indeed too fast, fast enough to rip the boys from her grasp almost immediately. But then again, the Mecha Drago was faster. Perhaps if it hadn’t gotten its enormous mechanical jaws around her, she could have held on.

The boys screamed as the waters carried them away.

The baby Drago screamed as Flint readied his final blow.

What could something so tiny do in the face of such power? What could it do other than scream and cry and wonder when things had turned so wrong? What could it do other than watch its parents die or transform into a killing machine?

What could the boys do in the face of such power? What could they do other than scream and cry and wonder when things had turned so wrong? What could they do other than watch their parents die or transform into a killing machine?

What could the parents do other than die or turn to violence?

Was this what the world had come to?

Years later, a slightly older Lucas walked through the Chimera laboratory. There were Drago skeletons on display, and Lucas couldn’t say where they had come from. One of them came from a juvenile specimen. How many juvenile Dragos were there even left? Did it even matter if this one had been the same one Lucas had befriended or a different one?

What choice did Lucas have other than to die or become a killing machine?

What about Claus?

The children, all of them, were certainly the victims that day, as was Hinawa, but Flint and the Mecha Drago were victims, too. Sometimes violence is the unfortunate last resort of the desperate, not a moral dilemma.

The Mecha Drago, kidnapped and brainwashed and mechanized, did die. The Masked Man, kidnapped and brainwashed and mechanized, also died.

Flint and Lucas won their fights, so they got to live. But make no mistake— they lost, too.

So, I have been bouncing around several ideas about what to write for this funfest. Often, I have so many ideas that I end up mentally blocked and end up doing some poetry.

Considering how long I’ve been around starmen.net, it should surprise exactly no one how mother I adore the Mother series. The surprise comes to others when I mentioned that I have only ever been able to finish EarthBound. While I have avoided any serious attempt to finish Mother 1 (the archaic nature of the game and long-drawn-out grinding always made me feel it just wasn’t worth the energy) I have actively tried to finish Mother 3 and failed for years.

How many times?

Before this funfest, at least five times I can remember. The reasons for this varied from technology issues to a breakup that upheaved my life. The worst time was the month when my best friend lost both of his parents within a three-week gap.

This funfest felt like a sign, FINALLY, I could finish this game that life has actively fought me so that I could never finish. But, just as in years past, I had several unexpected life events pop up. Thankfully nothing that was lasting or the loss of a loved one, but just enough to throw me off kilter and finally fall behind during the playthrough.

But, these were just delays, right?

Nope.

Didn’t expect to buy a new phone during this time.

Or the need to reformat it, eventually losing everything (including two different playthroughs) due to multiple crashes.

Okay, okay, let’s back up and reassess things.

Clearly, the universe is telling me to stop using a phone, so I move over to my laptop. I still have a good week to finish the game in time and write something to post. We got this!

Sadly, we did not in fact have it.

I encountered an endless number of issues trying to get the emulator working, then the emulator playing Mother 3, and lastly having the controller work with both. For reasons I still don’t understand, my PS4 controller died every time I synched it to the laptop. I thought I was going to have to buy a new PS 4 controller altogether, but for some reason, it works with the PS4, just nothing that can easily play Mother 3.

Over the weekend I finally got the game working with a generic USB game controller, and nothing died. Part of me thought about trying to cram the whole game into the 72 hours and just force through… but I feel like it would be a waste of the experience.

All the small interruptions shouldn’t have stopped me from pushing through, but I have had a long history of depression and anxiety. For years I struggled to get my family to believe that I was suffering from things they couldn’t “see.” Even after going to college and having access to resources, I didn’t realize you have to make yourself use those resources. Throw in some autoimmune conditions for spice, and when something doesn’t work out it can be difficult to summon the energy to move forward.

Feeling so anxious about playing a video game because I am not playing the video game already but want to play the video game but I can’t play the video game has always made me feel weird or crazy… but thankfully I am better at surrounding myself with those with empathy and I am also better at being kind to myself.

Part of me just wants to sigh and push off ever trying to finish Mother 3. Another part of me looks back and then looks forward, realizing that if I was going to attempt to finish Mother 3, this would be the ideal week. I thankfully figured out how to use the debug room so even though I lost the dozens of hours I put in, I can at least pick up from where I was in Chapter 5.

This is a story that I have somehow managed to avoid spoilers for, and that I have been eagerly wanting to experience for an absurdly long time. One of the things that has surprised me about the game is how all of it seems to be set on a single island. Due to slight spoilers through general culture, I have heard there is at least one character from Mother 2 who shows up and there may be a couple of species from Mother 1 and 2 that show up.

I’m hoping this will be the week where I find out how (in)direct a sequel Mother 3 might be. Part of me wonders if this takes place before or after Mother 1 & 2.

Does this game take place on an island on the same planet as Eagleland or is this a new world altogether?

I don’t know and the more I think about this, the more I am ready to dive back into the game.

So, dear people of starmen.net, please excuse me while I go attempt to finish a game that my inner 9 year old is stoked about.

If you hear a loud scream from the general direction where I live, don’t be alarmed. It just means the game crashed and deleted itself during the final battle.