04x17 - Sickening Yet Beautiful

[bunniefuu]

Alright.

We're ready to fly. Now.

This is Stanley's final pursuit.

The repaired plane will be here soon.

But all we've got to do is make it to the other side of those mountains, right?

Right.

Straight to the Amazon.

Its famously ridiculous tree cover is the perfect barrier.

It should effectively keep us out of Stanley's crosshairs.

Sure, sounds great.

Let's just hope there truly is a dense unglejay on the other side.

There totes will be!

Enough chatter.

Let's get to crafting this bad boy.

Our science-born transport vessel.

Let's make a ropeway.

Well that's terrifying.

Talk about steep.

We'd definitely die a terrible death if we tried crossing without a ropeway.

Good thing death-defying leaps are my specialty.

Has she lost her arbles-may

In case you forgot, I'm an expert.

I have years of training from fetching hot spring water for Ruri.

I made that trip several times a day.

None of this would be a problem if I were the only one who had to cross.

But even I can't carry everybody and our bikes.

So what should our next move be?

Um, we're calling this teeny-tiny string a ropeway?

Not quite.

This is just our guide.

We'll use this rope to pull the cable across.

Holy crap!

We sent Kohaku hopping away without a phone, so how could we give her instructions?

Hey, did you forget the part about the enemy plane coming our way?

Using the radio would mean broadcasting our exact location to them.

We have a rope, which also means we have a landline.

A landline?

Hey, can you hear me?

Lioness ?

Shut it!

It's a string phone?

Oh, I remember making those!

Always nice to have low-tech options in a pinch.

Stretch a cable and slide some pulleys back and forth.

Huh, it's actually quite simple.

It's the same way they do cable logging in the timber industry.

Yeah, all we have to worry about is the weight.

It's fine! Send us!

Tsukasa and I will go first to reunite the power team.

Between the three of us, we can easily pull over a hundred kilos.

Think again, you big oaf.

We've got engines and tires.

We'll let our tech do the pulling.

It's this cable that we need to be worried about.

Woven from carbon and iron.

Strong yet lightweight.

Rather elegant, but...

What's the maximum load on the Kingdom of Science's ropeway?

The limit is somewhere around 160 kilograms.

We'll need to take our equipment apart to make it work.

And we'll also have to cross two at a time.

It'll be fine, we'll just have to pair up based on weight.

Luckily, we already weighed everyone and wrote down the results!

There's more to it.

It's too dangerous to go by weight alone.

The problem is Xeno.

Imagine if something like this happens.

We carelessly pair up and Suika winds up all alone with Zeno.

Point made.

It's looking like we have a real-life river-crossing puzzle on our hands.

So, uh, what kind of puzzle is that?

You're a simple traveler.

Trying to carry three conflicting things across a river.

You have a fox, a chicken, and lastly, some corn.

You can only carry one of them across at a time.

If you take the corn over first, you're leaving the chicken and fox alone.

And that poor chicken becomes fox food.

But if you take the fox over first, you're leaving the corn and chicken behind.

Scoring the naughty chicken a belly full of corn!

Correct.

The trick is finding a way to get everyone across safely.

Mecha-Senku, drop it in!

If you haven't already, try this famous Brain Buster!
[Solution after the end Credits]

The big question is who to pair Hyouga and Zeno with.

We can't ignore the past.

Hyoga literally k*lled Tsukasa for his ideals.

I don't know what Hyoga and Xeno are thinking right now

but we shouldn't leave them alone together.

There's always the possibility.

You and I are cut from a similar cloth, Dr. Xeno.

Let's join forces and curate a kingdom of superiority.

Now is the perfect opportunity to rendezvous with Stanley and the others.

Yes, a rather elegant proposition.

Make this make sense for me!

You're saying Hyoga k*lled Tsukasa?

That's crappy!

You people have a super freaky definition of friendship, you know!

I don't disagree.

We're complicated, but some context might help.

How about I give you a quick little rundown of our overly complex relationships?

Hyoga k*lled Tsukasa, but it didn't stick.

Oh, and before that, Tsukasa k*lled Senku.

To be fair, later Senku k*lled Tsukasa.

Xeno also k*lled Senku, but not really.

That's a heck of a lot of k*lling!

Well, I suppose when you lay it all out like that...

So the big problem we've got to solve for is Xeno.

Whoever carries him across has to be someone from the battle team

because things could get real bad real fast if he tries something.

That's incredibly risky.

Both pairs are over 160 kilos.

Should I jump back down to where you are?

Let's try to avoid reenacting the river crossing puzzle.

Zeno and Hyouga could cross together!

We were just talking about how that's the worst possible pair we could think of!

It's the logical choice.

Our schedule's too tight to fuss about seating assignments.

Here we go!

Okay, we are almost done.

Suika!

That was way too oseclay!

We can always count on Kohaku to leap headfirst into danger and save the day.

This is bad.

No one up here can fight.

We're completely at Hyoga's mercy on the edge of a cliff.

Hyoga knows he's in the perfect position to betray us without risking anything.

I'm defenseless.

I can't fight while holding Suika.

He could reach out
his hand and end us.

That's a good boy, Hyouga!

I'm a fan!

I'm so Team Hyoga!

You're all pals, even though your relationship diagram's a hot mess and that is totes sending me!

It's true.

We have a lot of history.

We're just a stone's throw from where this mess began.

This kingdom of ours.

Of science.

We're united.

We're all on the same team!

Come on, Mother Nature!

You'd better not let us down!

If we're going through all this trouble, cough up that tree barrier!

Hell yeah!

They've got no hope of tracking us down in there!

We made it to the great Amazon jungle!

And that means we're done!

Now we just speed our way through the South American cross-continent jungle course.

Thanks to the Amazon's epic tree cover, Stanley's fighter plane poses no threat to us anymore!

They managed to evade us.

For now.

But the game would have been far too easy if we had just sniped them in the desert.

We have no choice but to concede round one to the fledgling science team.

That's fine by me.

That wasn't our main reason for coming here by plane.

It was for those tire tracks.

They tell us the exact route their ragtag crew is taking through the jungle.

How do we know those motorcycles aren't another decoy?

We put the pressure on them.

That's why.

It forced them to ride straight there.

He even sent unencrypted radio signals broadcasting our plane repairs.

I know one thing.

Captain Stanley is playing a game he absolutely can't lose.

We'll have them soon.

I know which way the science brats are running.

We're home free!

No more dodging bad guys!

Now we can finally head straight to our goal, the petrification place!

It's called Manaus.

It's in Brazil, which is east of here.

Great!

Then it's full steam ahead to Brazil and that Manau place you mentioned.

You're spot on about our next course of action.

But it's trickier than you realize.

Our feeble human bodies don't stand a chance against the Amazon.

I'm 10 billion percent sure we're gonna die.

You could have told us that a long time ago!

Bugs from hell crawling around at our feet

parasitic sand fleas, vampiric stink bugs

and giant leeches all competing for the k*ll.

But thanks to human ingenuity and our own scientific crafting

we can power up our fragile bodies with these.

Rubber is amazing!

I can't believe it!

The water goes around the boots instead of right through them!

With these, we'll be there in no time!

These things look pretty tasty!

They're gigantic!

It appears to be jackfruit.

They're the largest fruit in the world and yes, quite tasty.

They're remarkably refreshing and have a gentle, delectable sweetness when they're ripe.

Sign me up!

Impressive reflexes!

Hey tree, go easy!

How come you're burning all those plants?

I'm creating an insect-repelling mist using parsley and artemisia.

Amazonian mosquitos are fierce.

I refuse to suffer the same fate as the rest of you.

That's bad.

More bugs everywhere I turn.

If you had to guess, what would you say is the strongest animal in the Amazon?

It's Tsukasa !

Yeah, that honestly sounds about right.

You're wrong.

I'm nothing compared to the Amazon's strongest.

The king of the Amazon.

The strongest animal on the planet.

It's the army ant.

I'm pretty sure I saw a documentary about those things.

They're the ones that attack in giant swarms and can reduce any man or beast to nothing but bone.

Yay!

WHY YAY ??

Sorry about the tricky trap.

We're capturing them?

See?

It's like Okinawan snake wine.

We use some alcohol to extract essence of army ant.

Oh man, it smells just like delicious homemade fish stock.

Who would have thunk the ant smell like bonito broth?

That's peak!

Like for realsies!

Guess what we're doing with this almighty brew?

Don't tell me!

Splash it everywhere!

I get what we're doing here.

We're using the scent to harness the power of the dreaded army ant to scare everything else away.

I've heard about this sort of thing before.

An old timey remedy.

You know, your dedication to field work is utterly astounding, Chelsea.

Too bad.

I thought we were drinking it.

This way's much better.

Bugs?

Me?

Their juice?

I'm scared!

Miss Luna!

We're here.

The Amazon River!

It's the water slide attraction.

This is the last leg.

A ride straight down the river.

Then we'll finally hit ground zero.

It's really happening!

We're going to find the petrification device that turned humanity to stone!

We all put our lives on the line to make it to this point.

We can't go home empty-handed.

We'll just have to hope that we find the treasure we're looking for.

Yeah, I don't know if you realize how hellish of a task that could be.

Our old friend the Medusa is positively iny-tay

Don't you think it's about time you stop holding out and tell us what you're cooking up there?

This?

It's just an idea I had.

I'd like to find a way to automatically spray the ant extract every so often.

Automatic intervals?

Interesting.

We could use that for the Medusa's light!

Senku!

I just had a stroke of brilliance!

A machine that'll protect us from petrification!

You already figured this out back on Treasure Island.

You remember your trick?

Setting up a system to drop revival fluid?

What if it was automatic?

We doused the stuff on set intervals!

Smart.

But put yourself in Why-Man's shoes for a moment.

We can safely assume you've accounted for things like tricks and misfires.

And you're dead set on taking out humanity.

What now?

Fire the petrification beam several times in quick succession.

In a multi-stage attack.

So you think that's what happened thousands of years ago?

Which would mean that it's fully possible we'll find more than one Medusa at Ground Zero?

It's a mystery.

For now.

Either way, we can finally investigate the scene of the crime.

Time to get excited, guys!

This should be the spot.

It's been four months since we left Japan.

And now, we've made it to the other side of the planet.

To the epicenter of that nasty beam of light that petrified all of humanity.

If Why-Man was so determined to end us

and he actually used more than one Medusa to make sure no one could escape

there's a good chance we'll find more than one waiting for us.

Hey, everyone!

I found a Medusa in the river!

You seriously found the thing already?

That's so bad!

I can't believe we got that lucky!

Luck?

I'm not so sure it has anything to do with that.

You see?

This is... sickening, yet beautiful.

And full of malice.

Let's solve that puzzle.

Everybody ready?

I'm ready!

As a reminder, you're a traveler trying to get everything you need across a river.

Your big problem is that you have a fox, a chicken, and some corn.

But here's the hitch.

You can only cross the river with one of them at a time.

Oh no!

But if you leave the fox alone with the chicken, he'll definitely gobble up the poor little birdie!

That's true.

But if you leave the corn and the chicken behind, the chicken will demolish every last kernel.

We can't let that happen!

So the traveler's gotta cross over with the chicken first!

No offense, but I'm not really a corn guy.

After that, he crosses over with the fox.

Then he takes the chicken back and brings the corn across.

I've got nothing to fear with this fella!

He goes back one last time for the chicken and that's it.

He crossed the river and kept everyone safe!

The End