Vox Gaiden was a two-part companion to the PBC Productions short, Colossal Epic Battle. Depicting the short's prologue and epilogue, this project teamed the R-Vanguard with the cast of The New Adventures of Captain S as they faced both the Zodiac Corporation and Meep Mop (from PBC's History Science Theater). As of September 2009 however, the project has been put on indefinite hold.

Contents 1 Story 1.1 Part 1: Crisis! Defeat The Cardboard Destroyer! 1.2 Colossal Epic Battle 1.3 Part 2: Great Clash! The Friendship Combo Breaker! 2 Production History 2.1 Cast 3 Arc Significance 4 Notes 5 Links

Story Edit

Part 1: Crisis! Defeat The Cardboard Destroyer! Edit

Months after the events depicted in Autumn Blitz, a normal day on-board RaiDecker is disrupted when an intruder infiltrates the ship. Communicating through one of the terminals on RaiDecker, the intruder reveals itself to be Meep Mop. He demands that RaiDecker cease its "light pollution", even though they're at an altitude that can barely be seen from the ground. Naturally, our heroes refuse...and are met with a volley of Disruptor Cannon blasts. Mike attempts to fight him as Gaijinder but is repeatedly knocked back to the other end of the room. It's there when Mike and Mai hatch a plan to use the new Delta Phoenix configuration with the GranMachines and Rai-Eagle. To buy them some time, Mike tricks Mai into activating her Battle Mode while he and Sylene make their escape to the hangar.

While prepping for launch, Sylene remembers Meep Mop's true nature; a dangerous neat freak, legendary for the famous "Mars Crater" incident which was dubbed "The Second Coming of Roanoke". After verifying the information in the archives, Deck shuts down from the extensive damage RaiDecker takes from Mai and Meep Mop's fighting. The Delta Phoenix tries to take out Meep Mop but fails as he jams the gunports, causing a backfire. Mike and Sylene barely survive while Meep Mop escapes, RaiDecker now greatly crippled.

In a last act before going offline, Deck gives the team coordinates and an estimate of where Meep Mop will go next: Baltimore, Maryland. As it turns out, according to RaiDecker's archives of future history, Meep Mop will try to find its creator and then level the Baltimore Convention Center during Otakon 2008. With their defenses crippled, Mike sets out for Otakon, hoping to finish the fight once and for all.

Colossal Epic Battle Edit

Mike is in the midst of his search for Meep Mop at Otakon when he stumbles upon a man who may in fact be Meep Mop's creator; Professor Science from PBC's History Science Theater shorts.^[1] Their encounter is cut short by Meep Mop who attacks the both of them. Their fight gets interrupted by Captain S who suddenly appears on the scene, only to be thrown into a pillar for his trouble. Before he can even respond, Mike is slammed into the ground by Meep Mop, who then grows to colossal size, wreaking havoc on downtown Baltimore. With DaiRaiGou disabled, Mike uses a newly developed CosFight System, turning into a giant sized Wheeljack cosplayer from Transformers and facing off against him, the fighting ending in a cliffhanger.

Part 2: Great Clash! The Friendship Combo Breaker! Edit

Starting from where Colossal Epic Battle left off, it turns out that the short was a dramatization of a much more extreme battle. Defenseless against Meep Mop, Mike in his Cos-Fight form is slammed down to the ground, reverting back to normal. As he gets back up, he comes face to face with Chad Belmont, AKA Captain S before they both are confronted by Meep Mop and Professor Science. The good Professor tries to convince Captain S that Mike is a wanted criminal and asks for his assistance in "taking him in". When he tries to resist, Mike is knocked out by Meep Mop and dragged along while Chad tries to contact the S-Team through his apparently malfunctioning Game Gear.

As it turns out, the Mars Crater incident punched a hole through Space-Time that for some unknown reason, causes a rift to open into Videoland. While on patrol, Chad is sucked through the rift and sent hurdling through time into the future. Back in the 90's, Lunk is off at Soccer Camp, Stacey is elsewhere, and Becky (along with Head) is frantically trying to find a way to get a hold of Chad and bring him home.

Mike comes to and learns from Chad that Professor Science is contacting the Zodiac Corporation who intend to take him in at last. He tries to convince him that the Zodiac is up to no good but is cut short by the Professor who Mike reveals to be none other than Ami. She tells Mike that the entry in the archives pertaining to Meep Mop looking for his creator was doctored by the Zodiac who somehow managed to hack into his hard drive. As fate would have it, the Zodiac found Meep Mop who had arrived in the past several days ahead of Chad, giving Ami the perfect opportunity to get her revenge on Mike. Now convinced of Mike's claims Chad frees Mike and the two of them attempt to take Meep Mop and Ami on.

The fight is interrupted by the Zodiac's latest creation, Psycho-Controller, the apparent means of Meep Mop's siding with them. She manages to rile Chad up to the point where he is getting beaten badly, Mike trying to help but to no avail, due to their constant arguing. Taking advantage of their discord, Psycho-Controller coarsens Meep Mop via mind control into launching a full beam volley at Chad. Mike spots this out of the corner of his eye and attempts to push him out of the way. The clash results in an explosion--Ami is delirious with joy, Chad and Mike now seemingly destroyed.....

...Until Chad awakens on RaiDecker to Mai who has a slightly puzzling conversation with him. Sylene bursts in, furious that his reckless behavior got Mike injured; As it turns out, Mike jumped in front of Chad, taking a large portion of the blast before the two of them were D-Transfered onto the ship. Before the two of them get to butting heads, Mike appears on the bridge, seemingly better. Once again, Chad's Game Gear flickers on, resulting in the R-Vanguard figuring out that he is indeed from the 90's. Deck and Mai figure a way to boost the signal of the Game Gear so his friends can make contact, allowing Becky and Head to finally get a hold of Chad. The two teams bring each other up to speed about what's going on. Formulating a plan, Head warns everyone that they need to resolve this matter soon, or else the rift will do irreparable damage to the past, present, and Videoland!

All the while, Ami and Psycho-Controller are trying to keep their plans on schedule, a fanboy bothering Meep Mop gives her an idea. ....

Chad, Mike, Sylene, and Mai return to Otakon, being met with Ami, Psycho-Controller, and Meep Mop. Ami reveals Psycho-Controller's mind control powers have turned every cosplayer in the convention into her own personal army, all with the abilities of their respective shows. The plan is still back on track, with the Zodiac ready to frame up Mike for the destruction of Baltimore. Our heroes vow to stop her but not before her Cosplayer Zombie army blocks their path. Mai unleashes her Battle Mode to tag team with Sylene while Mike and Chad head after Ami and the rest. With their newfound teamwork, the both of them make short work of Ami, Meep Mop, and Psycho-Controller.

In a final act, Psycho-Controller unleashes its Enhance Frame, a larger version of itself, while Meep Mop grows to gigantic size once more. Mike and Sylene summon DaiRaiGou while Mai and Chad watch from afar. Right when DaiRaiGou is getting the upper hand, Mike's injuries are revealed when he can't use his right arm to move the cockpit's attack lever. Wanting to help, Chad converses with Becky about a way to use a larger screen to summon something to aid DaiRaiGou. Head warns him that such a feat would tap directly into the Blast Processor, with the potential to burn out his powers and removing whatever possible chance he had of returning home. Chad throws caution to the curb and takes Mai with him to the Dealer's Room.

Back inside, Chad meets a retro game booth owner who is still open in the midst of the crisis. Going on about his belief of classic games being a "gateway to the 90's", Chad asks if he can use his projector but gets sidetracked when offered any game he wants for five dollars. While drooling as the prospect, a TV report of the battle outside comes on, audio from the cockpit being heard from Mai's communicator. Sylene bashes Chad's seemingly abandoning them but Mike defends him, saying he believes that he's going to come through for them. With renewed focus, Chad buys the projector, the proper wires and a certain game from the owner before heading to the top floor of the convention center.

Chad and Mai manage to fend off more Cosplayer Zombies and start the projector, allowing Chad to summon the robot from Michael Jackson's Moonwalker in the nick of time. Sylene saddles in with Mike to take the place of his injured arm so DaiRaiGou can once again join the fray. Together, they destroy Psycho-M, sending Meep Mop to the ground below and reverting him back to normal. Ami, dismayed at her failure, disappears from the scene, simply saying "Lamesauce". Meanwhile, Bastion, having anticipated Ami's massive failure from the start, tells Silvia to prep their ship, the Ominous for what is to be their "final operation"....

Following a massive memory wipe of the convention attendees, the R-Vanguard works with Becky and Head to work out a temporal gateway that will send Meep Mop and Captain S back to their respective places in history. Meep Mop is sent through and appears at site of the Mars Crater, just a few seconds following the blast. After bidding everyone farewell (Mai's being somewhat tear-jerking as she grew rather attached to him), Chad is about to step through when the gate becomes unstable and shuts down, Meep Mop's return having apparently sealed up the rift quicker than anticipated. Contact with Becky and Head is cutoff, leaving Chad to face the possibility that he may be permanently stranded in the 2000's.

Back in the 90's, Lunk bursts through the door (having called for Stacey at Soccer Camp to give him a lift) to find Becky in tears at the fact that Chad is stranded. Suddenly, as if to answer their prayers, Chad and Mike as Gaijinder appear in front of everybody. As it turns out, Chad took the booth owner's words to heart, literally using a Sega Genesis cartridge as a gateway back through to the 90's. Mike is invited to stay but he declines, knowing he shouldn't be staying for long out of fear of interfering with the past. Exchanging farewells, Mike gives Chad a transponder to use an an emergency beacon, should he ever require his help again. he returns to the 2000's while the re-united S-Team grill Chad about the future.

Mike returns to the present, everything seemingly back to normal for the moment. Without even a moment to rest, Mike heads back to Otakon, knowing that he can't stay away for too long for the sake of the podcast's convention coverage. With just the two of them on the ship, Sylene resumes her initial plan of seeing Mark Musashi for a dinner date, now dragging Mai along as she steers RaiDecker to California. Mai sighs and looks at a photo that was taken after the battle with Psycho-M, saying "at least there are better things to look forward to."

Production History Edit

The project began after the revelation that PBC Productions would be at Otakon 2008. After seeing the Meep Mop trailers, Mike contacted PBC with the idea of waging a live battle against Meep Mop at the con. As luck would have it, Chad Williams of PBC had already been a fan of R5 Central and was more than willing to cook something up. With only 48 hours of prep, the project turned into a short that would be done to coincide with the group's panel. The short would be dubbed Colossal Epic Battle, taking only 3 hours to shoot and edit....only to crash in the middle of editing at the panel^[2] Meanwhile, Mike had the plan of a prologue and epilogue audio drama to complete the story that was teased at the end of the short. A trailer for what was called "Vox Gaiden" was posted on R5 The Live, following the release of Colossal Epic Battle on YouTube.^[3] The original plan would be to incorporate it into that year's Otakon coverage on R5 Central. This, of course, didn't work out.....

Part 1 of Vox Gaiden was met with delays at the last minute, scrapping the plan for it to go online the day before Otakon. The plan then changed for it to be released in tandem with Part 2, delaying it further. Life then proceeded to get in the way as Mike's computer was subject to all manner of technical difficulties, resulting in the abrupt end of Series 4 of R5 Central. The full script for Part 2 would eventually be completed a year later, clocking in at 45 minutes. During this time however, news came of Season 2 of Captain S being canceled^[4], the efforts now switching to make it something of a "last hurrah" for the S-Team. A trailer was made at SGC 2009 that featured Mike and Brett Vanderbrook (Chad Belmont/Captain S in Captain S) promising fans that the project was still on. However, it seemed like they spoke too soon; due to scheduling conflicts with the cast of Captain S, Vox Gaiden was put on hold indefinitely in late August. There is talk of releasing the story in another medium but for the time being, the future looks bleak. Colossal Epic Battle on the other hand, is available to own on Volume 1 of PBC's Filler Friday DVD.^[5]

Cast Edit

COLOSSAL EPIC BATTLE

• Mike Dent: Himself
• Professor Science: Chad Williams
• Meep Mop: Lindsey "Z." Briggs
• Wheeljack: Rosemary (suit)/Darrin (voice)
• Chad Belmont/Captain S: Brett Vanderbrook

VOX GAIDEN

• Mike: Himself
• Chad Belmont/Captain S: Brett Vanderbrook
• Meep Mop/Psycho-Controller: Lindsey "Z." Briggs
• Sylene: Scarlotte
• Mai: Mippa
• Head: Chad Williams
• Becky: Ivy Hong
• Ami: Merodi
• Bastion Solatere: David Ault
• Silvia Aegen: Laura Post

Arc Significance Edit

• This would have been the second and third time Mai's Battle Mode had been deployed. The first instance during the fight with Meep Mop, the second being a response to Sylene telling her to do something or they'll all be killed.

• Ami makes her first appearance here since "The Eyes That Shatter Memories".

• Bastion's final dialogue with Silvia alludes to the events prior to the start of Final 1 - Siren.

Notes Edit

• The roles of both Meep Mop and Psycho-Controller/Psycho-M are played by Lindsey "Z" Briggs. The reason for the double casting comes from a joke during pre-production on Colossal Epic Battle, promising to "kick [Mike's] ass" for making Meep Mop evil.
• Sylene's plan to surprise Mark Musashi comes from a comment in jest made during his interview. He expressed regret that Sylene and Mai couldn't have made it, saying that "they sounded hot" and hoped "something would happen".

• Ironically enough, at the time of coming up with the basic plot for this, the Angry Video Game Nerd AND The Nostalgia Critic had both done videos related to Michael Jackson's Moonwalker.^[6][7] Chad Williams and Mike's inclusion of the Moonwalker robot in the final battle turned out to be one giant cosmic coincidence. To further poke fun at this, there had been plans to approach James Rolfe and Doug Walker for cameos during the climax of the episode. With the cancellation of Vox Gaiden, it's unlikely that this will be pursued further.

Links Edit

• PBC Productions
• The New Adventures of Captain S
• Colossal Epic Battle on YouTube