Signas stood over the body of Bass with some disappointment. He and Bass, as well as Alia, Roll (still looking terrible), and (off to the side) Zero, were all in the main laboratory. Alia was busily trying to get Bass in decent condition again, all while doing her best to not look at Zero. Several of Bass' parts had been replaced by Dr. Inafune years ago, but there was still a lot of cheap museum technology holding his joints in place. But Alia was the closest thing the Maverick Hunters had to an expert in old robotics, so fixing most of Bass' problems wouldn't be too bad, at least for a quick repair. She was already thinking of ways to upgrade him, and there was plenty of room for improvement.

"I'm going to have to wait to upgrade him." Alia explained to Signas as she worked. "He'll need to be able to use standard modern parts, but for right now I just want him to work. He told me before he shut down that he wanted to be there when Roll was activated, but after a preliminary examination, I saw that I don't know how to get Roll operational. Bass also said that she would live, so I think he knows something that I don't about oldstyle robots. I really want to get started on Roll as soon as possible. It scares me leaving her in a body in that condition."

Signas nodded. "It would do X a lot of good if Bass could fix her. Simply finding her in the first place has boosted X's confidence already. But I was going to have you delay his upgrades in any case. Bass has already proven to be very irrational, and if he can't be kept in some sort of order...I'm not sure what we can do with him. We'll have to put him on some sort of probation-"

"No." Zero immediately spoke, coming out of the shadows. "Don't do that to him. You should make him a full-fledged Hunter."

"Zero, you know this behavior of his can't continue. We have to do something about it if he can be a Hunter."

"I'm aware of that, Commander. But the cure for that is to trust him, not restrain him." Zero explained. "Probation would only make him rebel even more. Older robots are very simple - they have a directive they must follow. Bass is a fighter. That's all he knows. Besides...I have reason to believe he was going to kill himself." Zero's throat caught, but he forced himself to finish. "Please, don't make this harder on him than it has to be."

Signas was clearly shocked, and his pitying glance fell in the direction of the deactivated robot. But his discipline never left him, and his eyes returned to Zero with a more serious concern. "Is that your recommendation as a Hunter?"

Zero knew that the Commander could not accept a decision based on emotion, but he was firm. "Yes."

"Very well." Signas nodded. "We'll have him upgraded and tested at the proper time to determine what class fighter he is, though I suspect he'll score high. Alia, how soon can you have him operational?"

"In a couple of minutes." Alia said as she grabbed a welder from the side table. "Just give me time to fix a couple of these clamps."

"The brave heroes have returned from their expedition!" Axl announced as he and X (who was rolling his eyes at his friend's commentary) entered the laboratory.

As X joined Signas and Zero, Axl automatically went over to Bass, ignoring the sparks that flew outwards as Alia welded. He didn't notice for a moment that X was gesturing to come over to their group, and even then he went a bit reluctantly away from his "father's" side. Zero followed along, and happily Axl didn't seem repulsed by him. Axl smiled just as he always did at Zero, like a little boy trying to look important. It was awkward, but endearing.

"What have you discovered so far?" Signas asked as the others gathered around him.

"Whoever these Mavericks are," X answered. "They're very organized, to say the least. The tracer on Sors has led us to a heavily armed base disguised as an old rocket storage facility. But as these Mavericks had a smaller base of operations in Giga City, as Zero and I found out from the three Mavericks Bass destroyed. While we suspect that this one, located on the south side of Arcadia. An immediate attack on the place would not have been wise, so I had plainclothes officers start guarding the place while we began a more comprehensive plan of attack. We're not going to fight them on their own ground without a plan."

"Good." Signas nodded. "So did you get anything significant from Sors about the layout of the base?"

"Not much." Axl piped up, going to the nearest computer and loading up the information they had managed to record from Cathartidae. "We managed to get a little bit about the entrance Sors took to get inside, and it looks like there's auto cannons everywhere! Plus, there's something weird going on with the walls. They're double reinforced, and it looks like they'd take a lot of damage to fall down."

"It sounds like these Mavericks expect a lot of retaliation from us." Signas noted, his hand gently scratching his chin. "They possibly have something in mind that will attract a lot of attention and potentially cause a lot of casualties."

"And that's the problem." X said. "They're still in Arcadia, and a direct attack would not be successful, not with so many civillians around. What we need is someone on the inside who can cripple their security systems and contain as many of the Mavericks as they can, while several Hunters on the outside keep the place surrounded."

"I think I have a plan, but we'll need someone tough for that sort of mission." Signas commented. "Someone who is able to withstand massive damage and still keep going, and isn't going to fall prey to the Maverick Virus."

"I see where this is going." Bass said from behind, startling them as Alia let him up from the repair table. Bass joined the group, and Axl tried not to show how excited he was as the dark robot walked up beside him. "I'll do anything that involves killing bad guys."

"He didn't say he wanted you for the job." X said, looking down at Bass uncertainly. "And you need extensive upgrading. You're obso-"

"He was thinking it." Bass abruptly interrupted, scowling at X before he turned to Signas. "Weren't you?"

"Actually I was." Signas admitted. "Since the Mavericks already know you, you'll be perfect for what I have in mind. And your armor is ridiculously advanced. You have some technical background, don't you?"

"I know what my technician made me learn." Bass said, cringing at the thought of having to use computers. "You're trying to get rid of me, aren't you, you straightlaced bastard?"

Though the dark robot's face was serious, Signas recognised this as a joke. "Yes, I'm afraid I am. You're a nuisance."

"I knew it." Bass smirked. "So what's the plan?"

-t-

"We found him, we found him!" The two floating robot heads shrieked as they dragged their black and gold victim along the floor with their electro-kinetic powers. "Dire, Dire! Look what we brought!"

That plan sucked...stupid Signas...

Bass dizzily looked above him as he tried to make out where he was. He could see that he was in some sort of long hallway, and several auto-cannons were aimed, armed, and pointed in his direction. That was basically all he could make out, other than the two robot blurs that hovered over him, one more like gold and the other like silver. Bass groaned.

All at once Bass' vision was filled entirely with the face of a stranger, apparently the "Dire" that Bass' captors were talking about, or so he guessed. Though his vision still wasn't working properly, Bass managed to see that the face was a dark tan, and had teal markings that went under the stranger's eyes, then bent backward over his cheeks. His armor was black and red, and he had a teal hat that swooped down a little over his eyes. That was about all the details he was able to make out, other than the fact Dire seemed disgusted by him.

"Ping! You idiot! You left him activated!"

"No, he did!" one of the heads yelled.

"Nuh uh!" the other yelled back. "It was him! I didn't do it!"

Growling, Dire reached down and shut Bass off. Everything went black. What felt like an instant later, Bass was upright again, and in some sort of central room. He noticed that his self-repair functions had not only reactivated him, but fixed his vision errors. He was able to clearly see that he was held by thick metal clasps to the back wall of some internal room, one that was very vast and had huge pillars supporting whatever was above. Bass knew that this was some sort of basement - those pillars were a dead giveaway. Far in the distance, the Maverick he had seen earlier was working at a computer that held several monitors. The two floating robot heads were there, floating and jiggling in the air above Dire's head.

"So if we keep him alive," the humanoid, samurai-ish Maverick explained as he pulled a hand through his bright red hair. "Then X will certainly try to come find him and we can kill him then. It was a stroke of luck you managed to get him, Duplicitious. Good job there. Once we get him in our clutches, then we can kill him without all those unnecessary fiends we called allies. I do miss Recluse Stradivarius and his sane conversations, though."

"Aw, you can have a sane conversation with us!"

"Yeah, we're a funny guy!"

Dire rolled his eyes. "Um, right. Oh hey there, look, he's up."

"We didn't forget this time!" Both robot heads screamed together at Dire. "It was all you!"

"Shut up, both of you. I did deactivate him. He's obviously got some decent programming. Now that he's restrained, it doesn't matter. So calm down."

The two heads wiggled in the air, but were otherwise silent as they followed Dire along on his walk to their prisoner. Bass had the feeling that Dire was somehow trying to be silently imposing, but it worked like a square wheel. Bass was more tempted to growl than grovel.

"Greetings, Bass, I am Dire Minuet." the Maverick boss said. "You look quite antiquated for a skilled murderer. I might like to fight you myself, were I bored."

Bass tugged at his arm restraints. "Then get these things off and let's fight."

Dire snorted, grinning a bit as he leaned forward. "Do I look stupid to you?"

"Yes."

"Well I can assure you that I am not." he said a little more huffily, straightening. "Those cuffs are going to stay on. Besides, if you can be taken down by my...quaint farceur Ping Duplicitous, then quite frankly, you're not worth my time."

"What does 'farceur' mean?" the heads asked, buzzing around like electronic bees.

"It's a compliment, and it means..." Minuet whirled one hand about in the air as he put a bit of thought into the explanation. "...A clever person."

"That really means something terrible, doesn't it?" Bass said, blinking dully in the face of the arrogant Maverick.

"Why, Forte, you take me for a liar?" Minuet stuck his nose into the air, pretending to be miffed. "But I don't have time for you. There's an unfortunate troop of those precious Maverick Hunters are trying to surround my little fortress, and I have to go kill them all. Friends of yours? I do hope so. You have a front row ticket to their imminent deaths! And then you, my specimen, will be beautifully vivisected piece by piece so that I can see what manner of misfit you are exactly."

"Uh huh..." Bass registered this information with no emotion at all, other than boredom. "I might be worried about that if you weren't an idiot. I mean, crap, even my ugly little sister could tear you a new one. Speaking of which, it's not hard for her to get in with your two little morons in here instead of being on guard."

That really took Dire down from his high horse. Freezing as this news stung him, he was surprisingly quick to recover. He facepalmed lightly, then laughed.

"How forgetful of me. Ping?"

"Yes, Dire?"

"Yeah, Dire?"

"GET BACK TO WORK!"

Squealing and squelching their mechanical apologies and excuses, Ping Duplicitous fled off down two separate halls, back on sentry duty. Bass grinned behind Dire's back as the Maverick, trying to conceal how annoyed he was, casually went over to a chair and picked up a book, leafing through the pages to his place in it.

"I can assure you that however demented Ping Duplicitious may be, he is quite deft at killing things, Bass." Dire said, feigning his most bored voice. "I hope you hate your sister."

"I sure do." Bass muttered. "Go for it."

"You're a funny one, you are." Dire turned a page. "I hope you're laughing as hard when we launch our new weapon."

"What weapon is that?"

"Heh, you'll see." Minuet's nose wrinkled, and he sat up sharply. "Oh, what a load! What is this trash? Even you wouldn't buy into this nonsense!"

Bass snorted, turning to the side. He didn't care about some stupid book. He just looked around the room, hoping that Dire wouldn't read it out loud. Glancing back, he groaned. Dire was taking in a deep breath, preparing to talk.

"'As it comes to the order of nature,'" the Maverick quoted. "'Nature always finds a place for every type of being, and for every object. Nature's place for the robot is a subservient one. Human beings were designed with great complexities. They don't even understand themselves, so how can they create anything superior to themselves, or even close? The best robot is an imitation of man: its limitations are more than man's. The day may come when people argue exactly what rights a robot has, but whatever rights they gain are all gifts: nature has nothing more for robots other than service to their specific master - the good of their master becomes their good, and and evil master creates evil servants.'"

Bass was starting to get confused. He knew this book. It was Robotics: Futile Questions for the Mechanical Future.

"And that's not even the worst part!" Dire seemed to think that Bass was agreeing with his sentiments. "Listen to this, 'And just as humans can create nothing better than themselves, robots too don't understand their own making - they too can only make things less then they. They cannot survive without humanity. Humanity is capable of innovation, but without their mental capacity, robots will not be able to create a world of their own. And if anyone starts to believe that a robot can handle the mental roles of a human, they will soon find that a metal mind can't be expected to operate on their level, no matter how good the imitation is.' Can you seriously believe this crap, Hunter scum? Who does this - " Dire quickly looked at the author's name. " - Mr. Ben Foster think he is?"

Bass actually smiled a bit. He had almost forgotten about the human name that Crystal Bot had given him. Hearing the book he wrote brought back memories of Bass' favorite days, when he had time to think about pointless philosophy and write about it. There was no time for that now, or even muse over it. He was working. He did grin to see that his book was still popular. And that meant royalties.

"Eh, all that's just theoretical crap from some author a long time ago." Bass didn't feel like telling the Maverick that it was him who wrote it. "Probably everyone wrote about how they thought robots were going to turn out."

"I suppose I take it rather personally." Dire calmed as he smacked the book, leaning back again in his chair. "This fellow doesn't even realize that by reploids being able to build more reploids, that disproves his entire argument."

"Not necessarily. It just means their reploids suck."

"You actually support this nonsense? You really are Hunter trash." Dire tossed the book aside, and it landed on the floor with a thunk and a flutter. "Always sucking up to the humans. Pathetic things. You yourself are not even a reploid. What are you?"

"Something not as lame as you." Bass retorted.

"Oh shut up. If you can't answer me straight then I'll be obligated to pull you to pieces now rather than later."

"I'd love to see you try." Bass hissed with perfect honesty.

"Between you and this stupid book I'll lose my mind." the Maverick shook his head. "I mean, of all the books they discovered from a century ago, they publish this trash? It's all propaganda! I bet you Hunters were behind all of it!"

"I'm not a Hunter. I work for myself."

"Yes...right..." Dire's voice oozed sarcasm like magma from a volcano. "That's worked out for you so well, hasn't it? And how is it that every time my allies fight you then you have to be rescued by a Hunter?"

Bass growled. That struck a nerve. A haughty Dire, finished with the conversation since he got the last laugh, got up. He smacked the top of his chair, watching it spin around as he went over to the computer and activated the comm system. Instantly the familiar vulture reploid, Sors Cathartidae, appeared on the screen.

"Sors? Is the trap ready?"

"Sure is, Dire. I was just about to tell you. You can activate the soldiers now. Everything is prepared, and those stupid Hunters are in position!"

"Great." Minuet winked back at Bass before returning to the screen that showed Cathartidae. "Oh, before I forget, keep your eye out for any robots in the area. We have reason to think that Bass'...ahem, 'ugly little sister' is wandering about somewhere."

"WHAT?" Sors exclaimed, making Minuet jump back from the screen. "His 'sister' is ZERO! We don't have a choice! You have to get the soldiers running now!"

Dire's eyes widened, and he immediately started pressing buttons to bring down the security walls that protected the inner walls of the fortress. Then he brought a flute to his lips, playing a dark song that was also a radio transmission. Instantly the walls throughout the fortress began to pull away from their frames, turning into various mechaniloid warriors: ninjas, riflemen, swordsmen and everything in between showed up throughout the entire fortress.

"You know, Bass," Minuet put down his flute as he unsheathed his beautifully shined katana, inspecting it carefully. "For someone who is Zero's brother, you sure were easy to...capture..."

Dire sputtered. By the time he had finished speaking he was turned around, and behind him there was nothing but wall and empty metal shackles. Bass was nowhere in sight, leaving him with the sickening feeling that he was indeed every bit as stupid as he looked. Even worse, the computer alarms started going off, showing that not only were the security walls going up, but the entire computer system was shutting off. One by one the security monitors blinked out, and finally the lights went as well. This wasn't much trouble, because it was still day outside and robots could adjust with their internal beams, but it drove Dire mad to see that he was being so badly taken advantage of. He lucky managed to see Bass pulling out a disc from his computer before the latter fired his first shots off. Dire blocked most of these, but Bass' relentless buster was proving too much for him. He ducked behind his computer to think. That was when the door ripped apart, sliced open by Zero.

"Darn it, Zero," Bass snarled over his shoulder at the Hunter behind him. "I don't need your help!"

"X told me to find you, so calm down."

As much as the two were aggravating each other, they didn't continue the argument. Fighting was something they both took very seriously, and there was still Dire Minuet, staring at the both of them. Zero had his sword at the ready, and Bass' buster was still steadily aimed at Dire. The Maverick looked at the both of them, awkwardly holding his sword as his eyes snapped left and right, not liking either face he saw. But then Dire gritted his teeth in the face of his intimidating enemies, lifting his sword.

And then he ran away.

"Haha!" Bass' menacing joy was evident as he charged after the Maverick. "What a wuss!"

Zero ran also. "Wait, we shouldn't rush into this. We don't know where he's going!"

But Zero had to run if he was going to keep up with Bass. The black and gold robot persistently went after the twisted samurai, gleefully running without caution. Zero followed along behind him, looking to the side to see if there were any threats. But no, the few hallways they passed were empty, and the autocannons hung limp from the virus Bass had been able to install in the Mavericks' computer. Zero looked forward again, and he noticed that they were closing in on Dire Minuet. Or they were before the trap door below their feet opened up, and they both fell several feet down into blackness. Zero automatically clung to the wall, but as Bass didn't have that upgrade, he fell to the bottom of the pit, cursing loudly.

There was a faint shimmering at the bottom of the pit, so Zero could see his brother's outline. Fearfully, he began to realize that they were instant death spikes. More angry than upset, Zero lashed out.

"Oh, you don't need my help?"

Bass scoffed. He leaped upwards, making it about halfway up the pit before he suddenly went upwards again, to the top and back out to the floor.

"I sure don't!"

Zero leaped out of the hole himself, following his brother in the direction Dire had gone.

"Since when can you double-jump?" Zero called ahead. "And you're immune to death spikes?"

"Did you think I couldn't?" Bass yelled back. "And yes I am!"

Sick of being in the back, Zero used the advantage of his longer legs to take the lead and search for the Maverick, who had disappeared among the twists and turns of the fortress' long hallways. Once he came across an area where he couldn't go forward any longer, but only right or left, Zero stopped a moment to scan and think.

"What are you waiting for?" Bass snarled as he caught up. "Do you see him?"

"No." Zero's distraction was evident as he spoke and as he looked around. "But we've long since had the anti-teleportation field up. The only way he can go is by trying to get past the Hunter containment. If he's trying to get away, then he obviously has something in mind to get past it." Zero huffed. " And we lost him...I'm not picking anything up on my scanners."

"Eh, I've got this tracker code from Dire's computer, and it's either tracking him or something of his." Bass muttered, sending Zero a transmission with it. "Whoever's in charge doesn't trust Dire."

"I thought he was the leader."

"Turns out he's not." Confusion found a home with Bass, and he wrinkled his forehead. "Er...you're getting two sources for the signal, right?"

Zero re-engaged his scanners, putting in the code. "No...I'm getting four...two of them are blipping in and out."

"Three...er, yeah three of them including the weird ones are this way." Bass shoved his thumb to the right hallway. "That's where I'm going. I think you might be able to handle that last one by yourself."

And Bass ran off. Zero shook his head, wondering why Bass had to be so arrogant. He wasn't as strong as he thought he was. Zero didn't give himself any more time to ponder it. He dashed down the left hall. hoping he hadn't lost too much time.

-t-

The reason for all of the strange signals became clear as Bass entered into what turned out to be the eastern pod bay hangar. There were more of the assorted mechaniloid fighters, and for being lower grade machines, they were still no joke. All of their AI was devoted to battle, as it could be seen while they fought the several Hunters that had made it inside the building, Axl included. But this wasn't the real reason behind the strange signals: Sors Cathartidae and Ping Duplicitous were also there, and as Bass tore apart a spearman and two ninja mechaniloids, he realized that the signal had to be a trace code for all of the Mavericks, and that Ping's signal had to count twice, as well as being undetectible while Ping did some of his nastier electrical attacks.

Dang, that means Zero found Dire...erg, well he can fight the stupid coward.

A massive radiowave shriek blasted Forte, knocking him over. Sors, the Maverick vulture-roid, flew up over him, a dark evil gleaming down from over his beak as he stabbed down, trying to hit Bass. But Bass was too fast for him, and he was quickly on his feet and firing back.

"I was nice last time," Bass hissed through his fangs. "But this time you die!"

And Sors was afraid. He hid it as well as he could as he used his wing slasher attack, but even he couldn't block all of Bass' shots. It wasn't long before he collapsed to the floor, smoke steaming up from him as he tried to crawl away, his wings scratching against the tiles. Forte wouldn't let him suffer; the dark robot double jumped into the air, landing full force on Cathartidae's neck. And that was the end of that Maverick, left only on the bottom of the growing pile of broken bad guys Bass stacked up on him.

But there were still plenty of the fighter security-bots to destroy, and Bass took more damage than he liked during the fight. It wasn't so bad, and as Bass completed dozens of headshots and ripped off several limbs, he managed to enjoy himself despite the low amount of damage he was doing to the enemies with his pellets. Punching them in the face proved sufficiently satistfactory.

Glancing over a bit to Axl, he noticed that the young reploid was fighting Ping Duplicitous, and both of the Maverick's heads were circling Axl, trying to gain the best angle to zap the fighter. Without even noticing, a massive sense of worry filled Bass. And yet it was gone only seconds later, as Axl kicked away one head, blasting the other. The first head, the golden one, tried to use its electro-kinetic powers to pull Axl down, but with a cute smirk Axl had grabbed its partner, focusing the electronic energy on the rifleman mechaniloids that were trying to get shots on the Hunter. They flew into the air, crashing quite conveniently into a ninja-bot that was trying to sneak up on Bass. Once that was done, Axl smashed the silver head in his hands, and shot the golden one into shimmering shrapnel.

After that, Axl had a moment to check his surroundings, and he noted the lack of mechaniloids. Their numbers were finally being worn down. The Hunter casualties seemed thankfully small. All there was left was to chase down the other mechaniloids still running about and have the Hunters keep up the seal of the perimeter so that no one could escape. Then Axl's gaze fell on Bass, who was still staring at him...and was he gawking a bit?

"Hey Bass, are you just gonna stand there?" Axl said, happily brandishing his pistols. "We've got a lot more Mavericks to shred!"

"Y'know, Axl..." Bass said slowly. "If you told people you were based on me, I wouldn't mind. I might even...like that."

If only for the insanely large grin on Axl's face, Bass half-regretted saying that. But at the same time, Axl's enthusiasm was encouraging, and it reminded Bass of the days when he'd had fans - only this was somehow felt ten times better. Together they ran down the halls, following after the last signal that would surely tell them where Dire Minuet had gone.

\\\\\\

Author's notes:

- Okay, just a mini-update. I had a longer chapter planned, but for the plot's sake I really have to finish up this incident properly, and I'm not going to do like I did for Wily Ga Taosenai and just upload chapters I'm not all into. Speaking of which, I did have to edit Okkusenman after I wrote it, so I think I might go back and edit my other two stories of the trilogy. And I'll have to fix the line divisions...freakin' fanfiction .net.

- Yeah, I'm having a spot of trouble on trying to organize the next few chapters, but...y'know, I think I can do it. Better go make a plan while the thoughts are fresh. I gotta warn y'all, this is gonna be a weird story. And it's more of a drama than an adventure, so it's going to have a different feel from the trilogy. Just to warn y'all.

- Oh, and Teri, I'll change the summary as much as I like :P. We used to do it for every update over in the Starcraft section (ain't been over there in forever...). I miss that. Don't worry, as soon as I come up with one I think is satisfactory, I'll stop.

- "Farceur" just means a joker or "a writer or director of or actor in farce". This is insulting to Ping because he wants to be taken seriously, but he's so goofy and nonsensical that it's hard to do that.

- Lol, so I did write give a part for a reviewer Maverick. Sorry, it's just that I realized that I needed one more Maverick, and Ping Duplicitous inspired me. I don't plan to use any more. It's like writing roles for your friends in the story: you can't really do so well unless you get specific inspiration to do so. But, I'm still doing Mavericks for the rest of y'all, so here we go!

kaelenmitharos

=====Allotrope Chimera

"What delicious stones!"

Allotrope Chimera is a goat with a dragon's tail and spine, and she has a lion's face. Instead of breathing fire, she breathes dust and spits cement. She eats rocks for food, and her dust weapon is very effective at blocking laser attacks. Allotrope loves jewels, and these give her extra power when she attacks. Eating rubies lets her breathe fire, sapphires for water, and emeralds for poison. Players who beat her get the Chimera Force, a thick shield that can erode rocks and certain walls, as well as attack burrowed enemies. When charged, it can create weak walls that block a path unless it is destroyed by buster fire.

This one was hard. I took the "mith" from the name and looked up "myth", and it mentioned Chimeras. Somethin' different.

loneseason

======Stag Equinox

"I shall dance with the stars and sing with a thousand suns!"

Stag loves the sky and the stars, and is obsessed with them. He can fly, and often does on clear nights, though he hates being called "Rudolph". Stag is very graceful, fast, and can blend in with any type of sky. He fights with his hooves, and has the terrible Starlight Eye weapon, a laser that does massive damage. The player gets Starlight Eye when he wins, and this is a laser that can be aimed upwards and downwards diagonally, and it has a ridiculous range.

Finally, an easy one. "Stag" means alone, and an equinox does denote a change in the seasons.

Big Babidi

======Hulking Cucurbida

"What a tasty reploid you are!"

Cucurbida is a huge pumpkin Maverick, and his vines will not let you go. He tries to eat the player, and he shoots pumpkin seeds as his ranged weapon. And in a pinch, he'll lift himself up and drop his entire body on the player. He's very bad tempered, and scary even. The player gets Pepo Vine when they win, and this can be used to swing across large gaps, create a temporary rope bridge over instant death spikes, or grab and swing enemies.

"Babidi" is a character from Dragon Ball Z, and apparently he's based on the fake spell that the fairy godmother in Disney's Cinderella used to make the pumpkin into a coach. Cucurbida pepo is the latin name. So, Babidi, you're a giant killer vegetable. Congrats!