With Lola having now joined the party, the twins rush back to the alcove at the Outer Sativum Promontory. On the way back there, however, more of those strange humanoid creatures begin para-trooping into the surrounding area. And they've brought way more firepower than last time. Upon approaching the entrance to this area, they run into two of these guys powering up what looks to be an electro-golem of some sort, seeing as they power it up by electrocuting it. The newly charged enemy rushes at the party!
A Melded Machine suddenly attacked!
Lana attacks!
SMAAAASH!
The Melded Machine takes 89 damage!
Lola attacks!
The Melded Machine takes 90 damage!
The Melded Machine edged closer!
Lana attacks!
The Melded Machine takes 64 damage!
Lola tried PK Fire α!
The Melded Machine takes 128 damage!
The Melded Machine toppled over Lana!
Lana takes 87 damage!
Lana attacks!
The Melded Machine takes 66 damage!
Lola tried PK Fire α!
The Melded Machine takes 144 damage!
The Melded Machine has fallen and can't get up!
Lana attacks!
The Melded Machine takes 101 damage!
Lola attacks!
The Melded Machine takes 94 damage!
The Melded Machine got up!
Lana attacks!
The Melded Machine takes 102 damage!
Lola tried PK Fire α!
The Melded Machine takes 136 damage!
The Melded Machine tried a punch!
Just missed!
Lana attacks!
The Melded Machine takes 71 damage!
The Melded Machine was destroyed!
You win!
The party gained 280 experience points!
After fighting their way through a horde of those paratroopers and gaining 3 thunder bombs as random enemy drops, they make it to the high-tech outpost, rest up to recover all their HP and PP and finally make it back to the alcove where the stone-faced door lies. Lola inspects the inscriptions adjacent to the face, which depicts a dance of some sort. Lola understands what to do to proceed forward.
"Lana, there's only one way to open the door. Look away."
"Why?"
"Because the dance moves are highly embarrassing. Well, my dance move is, at least."
"Fine."
Lana turns away while Lola prepares to do the dance. She starts by sashaying right to left to right twice, while after each break she does a move that is reviled by many, the dab! As a great man once said "you'll laugh, you'll cry but mostly, you'll laugh." Although, in this case, it's more like "you'll laugh, you'll cry but mostly, you'll cringe."
Lana did sneak a peek at the atrocity that her sister was doing in order to open the door but quickly turns away out of embarrassment. Eventually, the door laughs and opens, no doubt being amused that Lola has humiliated and demeaned herself just to open the way forward.
"So, you did the dab?"
"Were you watching me?!"
"No, it just felt like you were doing something…wrong."
"Well, we can proceed forward now. And all it cost was my dignity and a part of my soul dying."
"You have a soul? Could've fooled me, since you're the scourge of the Loud family."
Upon entering the next room, the twins get blasted with a pastel hexagon which forces them to dodge out of the way.
"These illusions are everywhere! Now they have the audacity to copy my sisters?!"
The twins look up and see Leni, who begins to prepare another PK attack. They rapidly try to convince her that they aren't illusions.
"Oh yeah? Tell me something only they would know!"
"The thing I hate the most is Lincoln reading comic books in his underwear."
"You thought my dream about blood-sucking aliens was real and tried to barricade the door with a dresser."
Leni lowers her hand and the energy for her PK attack subsides.
"Lola, Lana, it's really you!"
"So, what are you doing here, Leni?"
"The same thing as you guys, finding out what happened."
"Since we all have the same goal, we should go together."
"I couldn't agree more."
Leni joined the party!
In the next room, we see a lilac eighth note just floating around off in the distance. The trio approaches it.
"Say, Leni, that blast you shot us with earlier? What was that?"
"Oh, it was a pastel hexagon. It seems to be a very strong psychokinetic attack."
"That's a rare PK attack known as PK Love, which not only is super powerful but it also allows the user to pull the 7 needles to awaken the Dark Dragon, who can either remake or destroy the world. Only 2 people on Earth knew this technique. The twins, Lucas and Claus. But that was in a Japanese video game. This is real life, so I don't think anything would happen."
Lola's eyes light up upon hearing Lana's explanation. Since the twins were the original 2 chosen ones fated to pull the 7 needles, maybe she and Lana can interact with these musical notes! She knocks Lana and Leni away and tries to touch the note. It reacts to Lola's presence.
"With the first tone, begins the story. Found in the Outer Sativum Promontory. Through passing the trials of melancholia, your prize is the tone of Aeolia."
Lola got the Aeolian Tone!
"Yes, I was right! Lana, we're the chosen ones! We have the power to activate these music notes! They HAVE to be important somehow!"
"Stop your delusions of grandeur, Lola. This isn't a video game. There are no chosen ones. I bet anyone could've activated these notes. Now, let's stop wasting time and find some answers."
"Yeah, I'd have to agree with Lana."
The trio proceeds to keep on exploring. During the trek, Leni began to feel feverish. After a while, Leni unlocked a new PK power!
Leni learned PK Fire α!
Proceeding onward, they discerned that a shiny thing is on a lower cliff ledge. They carefully descend to find out what it is. Upon approaching it, a giant scorpion attacks!
The An Sir Scorpion suddenly attacked!
Lana threw the Thunder Bomb!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 112 damage!
Lola tried PK Fire α!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 74 damage!
Leni tried PK Freeze α!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 130 damage!
The An Sir Scorpion coiled its tail around Lola!
Lola's body solidified!
Lana threw the Thunder Bomb!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 110 damage!
Leni tried PK Freeze α!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 128 damage!
The An Sir Scorpion's right pincer broke off!
The An Sir Scorpion swiped a pincer!
Lana takes 36 damage, Lola takes 37 damage, Leni takes 38 damage!
Lola was able to move!
Lana threw the Thunder Bomb!
The An Sir scorpion takes 111 damage!
Lola attacks!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 82 damage!
Leni attacks!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 59 damage!
The An Sir Scorpion tried to impale with its stinger!
Leni takes 88 damage!
Lana attacks!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 93 damage!
Lola attacks!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 87 damage!
Leni tried PK Freeze α!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 136 damage!
The An Sir Scorpion's left pincer broke off!
The An Sir Scorpion furiously stabbed all around!
Lana takes 30 damage, Lola takes 30+24 (54 total) damage, Leni takes 28 damage!
The An Sir's Scorpion's stinger impaled itself into the ground!
Lana attacks!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 86 damage!
Lola tried PK Fire α!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 102 damage!
Leni tried Lifeup α on Lola!
Lola recovered 76 HP!
The An Sir Scorpion can't move!
Lana attacks!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 94 damage!
Lola attacks!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 87 damage!
Leni attacks!
The An Sir Scorpion takes 62 damage!
The An Sir Scorpion became tame!
You win!
The party gained 650 experience points!
Leni's level is now 24!
HP went up by 7
PP went up by 12
Offense went up by 3
Defense went up by 7
Speed went up by 4
After defeating the An Sir Scorpion, the trio look at the item it was guarding. It appears to be a data chip of some sort. Lana picks it up.
"Maybe the answers are on this chip. Lisa has a decryption invention back at our house. Once our camping trip is over, maybe this can finally shed some light on what has transpired."
The trio head back to the campsite, having been satisfied with their expedition.
A mysterious group has begun to make their presence known. Could the one who tried to light the forest on fire belong to this group? Just what is their master plan? What could they have to gain by roboticizing animals and setting the forest afire? Could they have been after the data chip that the An Sir Scorpion was guarding?
It seems something much more sinister is lurking within the shadows…
How can our heroines just sit idly by and allow this shadowy organization continue their nefarious goals, whatever they may be?
The Louds have already lost their mother…
Their smartest sister…
And their only brother…
It seems destiny will unite the Loud sisters' resolve and allow them to continue to pursue the truth.
I wonder…how has Luan been holding up?
END OF CHAPTER 2
Differences Between Decadence and Mother 3:
Mother 3: At this point in chapter 2, Wess accompanies Duster on the return trip to Osohe Castle to make sure they retrieve the Egg of Light. Upon getting to the castle, they find the Pigmask Army already there. Entering the main hall, they charge up a clayman and it attacks them.
In the room after Mr. Passion's boss fight, Wess had to do a similarly embarrassing dance, known as the Osohe Dance, to open the stone face door and progress into the second half of Osohe Castle.
Directly afterward, Kumatora, the "princess" of Osohe Castle, blasts them with a PK attack (presumably PK Freeze α) after mistaking them for intruders.
After climbing up to the 9th floor of the castle, the trio enters the room that contains the Egg of Light but with the Pigmask Army right behind them (literally, they're on the other side of the door) Kumatora decides to just take the Egg of Light so that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. But Wess, being a thief, would know to booby trap the room. They fall all the way down into the basement and have to fight the Oh So Snake.
Thanks to a concurrent event, the trio gets washed up near Wess' house but Duster lost his memory during the ordeal and so he wandered for 3 years. No one has seen hide nor hair of him.
Decadence: Instead of using tanks, these people have soldiers paratroop into the surrounding areas. They even have electro golem clayman-esque robots working for them.
Instead of one Osohe Dance, there are 11 variation dances to open the door. Said dances correspond to the GoNoodle dance remix that Nickelodeon commissioned for one of their commercial bumpers. In Lola's case, her dance incorporates the dab! Since the dab is so reviled by everyone, as well as it being dead, anyone who saw it thought it was cringy. Because of this, I made Lola comment on how terrible it was that she had to open the door by dabbing.
In Mother 3, you can see Aeolia's Needle in the courtyard of Osohe Castle but you can't get to it. Checking the horizon overlooking the needle prompts Wess to explain that when he asked about the needle, the king of Osohe told him to forget he ever saw it. He then tells Duster the needle is not the shiny thing he was supposed to retrieve (that would be the Egg of Light). We learn later that that needle is one of the seven needles sealing the Dark Dragon underground and if it wakes up the world ends! That needle is way more important than an egg that knows everything! Anyway, in Decadence, you can retrieve one of the seven tones, Decadence's version of the seven needles, in chapter 2! If you don't get it now, it would be way harder, since you have to backtrack there in chapter 7 if you didn't get it. Thankfully, Lola's curiosity saved all of us some time.
Instead of the Egg of Light, The An Sir Scorpion guards a shiny data chip that contains all the information the Louds need to solve this mystery. Unfortunately for them, the file is heavily encrypted.
Author's Note: chapter 2 was the hardest chapter for me to write because I think that this is the weakest chapter in Mother 3 (aside from chapter 6, which is so short that I don't even consider it a chapter), yet it introduces the two best characters, Duster and Kumatora, into the overarching story. For Decadence, I had to keep the main gist of chapter 2 while still giving Lana and Leni some awesome moments in this chapter.