Monster Rancher Episode 14: Holly's Rescue

This episode continues right where the last one left off, with Genki and his friends setting off to rescue Holly--backed by Falcon and his army of dragons.

It also looks kinda like the famous moon scene from E.T. :p

Genki rides on Falcon's back, moonlight shining. Holly, just hang on, he thinks. We're coming.

Pixie and Big Blue see them, too. "Brave fools," she comments.

The group flies into some clouds for cover, and Genki spots the castle. "There it is! Moo's floating castle!"

On the top floor, Holly is yelling at Moo, still in denial about last episode's revelation that he's her father. "Which part don't you understand, Moo!?"

But she quickly becomes terrified when he approaches her. "Ah, daughter... Moo and I are linked friends."

"Now just back off! My father... was good... and I won't believe that you're that man! No, no, no, no!"

Seeing she needs convincing, Moo speaks. "What if I tell you a little story...about what happened when I left our village?"

Holly remains silent, so he projects images into her mind.

We're shown images of her father trekking through a jungle, using a dagger to cut through vines.

"From the instant I turned my back on the village, I knew what I must do."

"My only thought was to find that legendary Monster, the Phoenix, and I would do it without the help of their precious Magic Stone."

"I had only one desire in mind... revenge!"

Eventually, he came across what appears to be an ancient temple.

"I didn't care about saving humanity, oh no. What drove me forward was the humiliation of being chased from the village where I was born!"

As he tried to open the door, the floor gave way, and Holly's father fell into darkness.

He picked himself up. "Where am I?" Lighting a torch, he continued forward and found a huge, buried structure.

He entered the structure and found countless Lost Disks on the walls.

Moving forward, Holly's father stopped when he saw something strange...

The viewers would recognize it as Moo's soul, from Episode 12, but he had no idea what it was. (Remember, those events happened so long ago no one except Monol knew about it--and it's probable her father thought it was the Phoenix.)

Holly's father approached the strange object and it changed into a maroon Mystery Disk. (It must be the one copy of Beck's Mellow Gold that makes Moo in the games! :P)

He took the disk...

And Moo's soul leapt for him.

Holly's father was transformed into Moo--quite painfully, if his moans are any indications.

When his head finished rearranging itself, he turned around and laughed.

"I had unlocked Moo. We became one. Moo and his powers were unlocked through me."

Outside, the floating castle burst out of the ground.

Moo laughed as he used his new powers to revive all of the Lost Disks on the walls...

and turn them all into baddies.

In the present, Holly falls to her knees. "No..."

"And the rest, as they say, is history."

Moo laughs as she kneels before him, but Holly gets a second wind.

"My father was a good man, and you'll never convince me of anything else! What have you done with my father!? You have to give him back! Now!"

Moo chuckles. "My dear Holly, I am your father, and I have everything I ever wanted. Be happy for me."

"You're not my father!"

"I've always loved power, Holly. Why do you think I was banished from the village?"

That strikes her. "Because you lost the election, that's why they sent you away!"

But as we saw in Episode 8, Holly's grandfather told her that he did banish her father because of his power...  And Moo corroborates it. "No, my daughter, because they feared my power..."

Meanwhile, the dragon army flies through the clouds, approaching the castle. Suezo quickly spots it. "I see it! Moo's floating castle!"

Genki nods. "Good. We'll wait for some cloud cover, and then we'll sneak in." Falcon agrees to the plan... but as they wait for their chance, he cautions them.

"Listen up! The only hope you've got is to get in and out without them seeing you. Otherwise, it's all over. We'll be waiting for you above the cloud cover. ...You be careful, kid."

With that, the dragons dive. Genki and his friends jump off, landing on the castle--though Suezo gets squished by the others. Golem immediately heads for the doors, and though it takes some effort, he forces them open.

They've arrived in Moo's weapons hanger, and luckily, the place seems deserted. Hare says the best thing to do is grab Holly and escape. Golem points out that the castle is huge, but luckily Suezo has a solution--Holly's scarf was left behind, and Tiger is able to pick up her scent.

A Weed walks by, but luckily he doesn't see them, and Tiger leads the way. When two other Weeds do notice them he demonstrates that the secret password is 'Tiger' :P They continue charging their way through Moo's other forces, and eventually reach a door--where Holly's scent is strongest.

 
Tiger blasts it open, but they find Holly and Moo behind a soundproof glass window in an adjoining room--and Moo has grabbed Holly!

Holly winces in pain, and Genki starts pounding on the window, his words muffled by the glass.

Moo offers Holly the world, but she refuses. "I don't want any part of it!" Moo then asks why she thinks he spared her when he destroyed their village. Holly retorts that her father would never think of harming their village, but Moo reveals he knew exactly where she was hiding to begin with.

Holly is thrown and wonders why he would do such a thing, and Moo reveals something important--the more evil he does and the more people hate him, the stronger his powers become. He still demands Holly join him, as it's inevitable. Though he can't hear what's going on, Genki yells for Holly not to listen. "Don't let Moo win!"

Tiger zaps the window, but it's useless.

Meanwhile, Holly has a flashback of her father carving wood with a dagger to make her a doll...

The same dagger Moo shows Holly. "Look familiar? ...Go ahead. Pick it up. See for yourself."

She does. "That's my father's..."

"Still don't believe me?"

Genki is still pounding on the window, and Golem's tornado attack finally manages to bust down the door.

The Searchers face Moo head-on, and he calls them fools. "I let you go once, but not twice." Genki then notices Moo has the Magic Stone! Suezo and Mocchi demand it back, but Moo says they don't know its real powers...

Holly asks what he means, and Moo says its real power lies beyond Mystery Disks. Genki wonders how he knows so much about it, and Tiger suspects he can use its power as well. Holly looks rather guilty at this...

Moo decides to showcase its power firsthand--he demands the stone point the way to his original, ancient body, last seen two episodes ago in flashback! The stone crackles with energy, blinding everyone but Moo...

And the floor fades away to a vision of icy mountains. Moo spies one mountain in particular, and as the vision fades, he says he saw it. The Searchers ask if that's where his original body is, and Moo says it won't be long before he's his old self again.

There's a neat reversal of the usual Phoenix-turning-into-an-arrow thing, too.

The Searchers are frightened at the prospect, while Hare asks what the odds are of him actually doing that. Moo says it's looking pretty good, and their situation is made worse when he sics an army of baddies on them! Moo gloats that they'll make excellent baddies.

The Searchers try to run for it, but Moo blocks their way. Moo's unaffected by their attacks, and Genki realizes their only chance is to smash the window and escape, but even Golem's tornado attack can't scratch it.

"Looks like we're gonna have to fight after all," Genki says, and Tiger is eager to wreak revenge on Moo. But when they charge him, Moo looses a shockwave that smashes them into the window.

While they're stunned, Moo grabs Genki! "You...You're nothing but an overgrown bully, Moo," Genki yells. The others try to help, but are smashed into the window again. Moo squeezes tighter as Genki struggles...

And Holly gives in. "Please... Let my friends go! ...I give up." Moo notes how easy it is to give in. "All you have to do is hate me, and the more you hate me the more my power builds! I feed on hate! The hatred will make you baddies; I won't have to lift a finger."

But just before it can happen, a wall of flame strikes Moo, and he lets go of Genki!

It's Pixie!

And she grabs the Magic Stone! Pixie tells Genki to get ready as she fires a barrage of torpedoes at the window spot they were attacking earlier.

The window smashes, but the resulting vacuum puts out the fire on Moo.

Falcon and his dragons dive to catch the Searchers, who jump out of the window, while Pixie holds off Moo.

Moo blasts at Pixie, who manages to counter with a wall of fire...

She strains, but manages to hold on...

"Traitor," he snarls, and with both hands, he blasts Pixie out of the castle, damaging her wings in the process.

Genki and the others are still falling, but the dragons save them just in time! ("Timing okay?" "Perfect!" Heehee.)

Then Genki notices Pixie's also falling, and orders Falcon to rescue her. To make matters worse, a Weed opens fire on them with laser weapons!

Falcon manages to dodge the lasers and save Pixie, and she shows Genki the Magic Stone. "I'm returning the favor," she says with a gentle smile.

The lasers are still firing, and the dragons take cover in the clouds.

A Weed prepares to pursue them with a squadron of Iron Birds, but Moo shuts him down. "Let that trash go! Chart a course north." When the Weed mentions the Magic Stone, Moo says he doesn't need it anymore. "You know where my body sleeps. Take me there, now."

The castle departs, and Falcon notes that Genki's a real piece of work--he even has Pixie on his side, and she was one of the Big Bad Four. They drop Pixie off near Big Blue, who was waiting for them, and Genki tells Falcon he's with them too when the dragon asks if they should attack.

Big Blue thanks them for rescuing Pixie, and Genki says that they all kind of rescued each other, and asks him to tell Pixie thank you. He promises he will.

Falcon also thanks Genki, saying the experienced showed him that by working together, they can beat Moo. Holly sincerely thanks him for helping rescue her, and the Searchers and dragons vow to call one another if ever they need help. They wave goodbye as the dragons leave.

Pocketing her dagger, Holly wonders what it will take to defeat Moo, and Gneki says nobody knows--but all they have to do is keep moving forward together.

And so, with renewed hope, a friend rescued, and a big secret between them, the Searchers set out once more.