Cover Art
Lost Memories[]
- Volume 2
- Previous: Lost Memories 5, Meet By Chance
- Current: Lost Memories 6, Electric Sheep In The Cradle
- Next: Lost Memories 7, Message
Overview[]
Back in action, Roger gets into a surprisingly difficult tussle with the mysterious Ram Megadeus roaming Paradigm City. However, Dorothy senses something is off, and soon the 2 learn a major twist as Alex and Angel observe them from afar.
Synopsis[]
We get a brief starting monologue from Roger for this volume:
“This is Paradigm City, A city that lost all its memories, which sometimes,come back like nightmares.”
Dastun looks on disdainfully as Big O confronts the Electric Sheep. The ram makes incoherent noises in confusion as Roger calls action. Roger quips having just woken up and no longer needing to count sheep, before then proceeding to punch the rams’ head into the ground.
Dorothy, through some kind of mechanical instinct, senses something is off with the Electric Sheep and stops the unsuspecting negotiator.
Roger and Big O land multiple more blows, but before the duo can finish the Electric sheep off, Dorothy suddenly senses something is wrong and objects.
Dorothy insists on stopping Roger, allowing the electric Sheep to release a smokescreen.
Just as Big O is about to go in for the kill, Dorothy tugs Roger’s sleeve to stop him. Confused, Roger reassures Dorothy he’s fine and no longer ill, only for the Electric Sheep to emit a smokescreen and run off.
Alex looks upon the city as it's flooded with smoke, impressed by the Electric Sheep's performance.
Roger looks around and frustratedly asks where his opponent is. Alex looks on through goggles from afar as the gas floods throughout the city, complimenting the Electric Sheep’s performance so far. Angel walks over to him and asks how things are going, to which Alex states he’s not just satisfied, but even impressed by a performance from “someone so young”.
The Electric Sheep emerges from it's smokescreen to sneak-attack Big O, prompting Roger and the black megadeus to try retaliating.
Meanwhile, Roger and Big O are stranded and still unable to find the ram, Roger asking once again where his opponent is and noting that even Big O’s radar isn’t working. Just then, Big O is rammed from behind, much to Roger’s frustration.
Dastun reluctantly leaves the job to Big O once again, as the black megadeus is ambushed from behind for the second time.
He tries turning around to land a counterpunch, but only ends up destroying a building and gets angrier, commenting that this opponent is tougher than he anticipated. Debris from said smashed building nearly lands on Dastun. One of his men tells him this is a dangerous spot to be in, only for the colonel to counter that, with this smokescreen impairing everyone’s vision, it’s dangerous to be anywhere right now. He looks at Big O, not wanting to accept that he once again must leave this situation to the black megadeus.
Big O tears away at the Electric Sheep, only for Dorothy to interfere once again.
Big O is then ambushed by the Electric Sheep from behind, its paws covering the black megadeus’ eyes as the ram hitches a ride on Big O’s back. Roger frustratingly states it's’ time to stop playing around, before having Big O grab the arms covering its face and proceed to body-slam the Electric sheep into the ground. Roger declares he won’t let the ram continue this any further, Big O ripping out one of its horns, but then Dorothy interjects again and tells him to stop.
Roger asks the android what she’s talking about as the Electric Sheep slips free from Big O’s grasp, staggering and emitting a strange noise: The ticking sound Dastun observed from last chapter.
Roger's confused as Dorothy stops him the third time, and implies there's a child inside the ram megadeus.
Roger has Big O fire up Sudden Impact and get ready to go for the kill. However, before Roger can land the punch, Dorothy intercepts the corresponding joystick and sternly states this “child” doesn’t want to fight, puzzling Roger as the Electric sheep awkwardly observes the situation.
The Electric Sheep self-destructs.
Alex is also puzzled as he sees all this through his binoculars, rhetorically asking Roger why he won’t finish the job. In the end though, he concludes he’s already collected enough data, before then calling for the self-destruct sequence. With that, the Electric Sheep’s ticking sounds conclude with an explosion that takes Roger by surprise.
The Electric Sheep ejects a mysterious capsule.
Amidst the explosion, some kind of pod shoots out from the Electric Sheep's’ head, which Dorothy calls attention to.
Roger and Dorothy meet the child who was piloting the Electric Sheep.
Big O catches it in its hand, followed by Roger and Dorothy exiting from the cockpit and jumping over to that pod in hand to investigate. The first thing they notice is a Paradigm Corporation logo on the pod, before said pod then opens up with the last thing they expected.
A control system for the Electric Sheep, helmed by a baby crying profusely. Roger baffledly reaches at the baby, asking if this was who his opponent was before the infant calms down for a moment and grabs the negotiator’s pointing finger.
Alex explains his plan to a visibly disturbed Angel.
Back at Paradigm HQ, Angel and Alex are at a Megadeus hangar, where Alex states that with this new data, he can prove that even an infant can operate a megadeus. A visibly perturbed Angel cites that the ram megadeus was one of their creations, not something dug up from 40 years ago.
Alex explains the Electric Sheep's creation by the 7 homeless men who had memories.
Alex admits this may be true, but it was at least created by people with reawakened memories of that era. As he says this, we see a flashback of the Electric Ship being constructed, with help from the 7 homeless men apprehended who also worked on the Princess Megadeus from Chapter 1, (presumably after they were arrested).
Alex proceeds to go on a closing monologue as we get visuals of his father, Gordon Rosewater, and then a visual of Dorothy holding the child, and then Big O’s eyes lighting up amidst the smoke of the Electric Sheep.
“Whether it was built over 40 years ago or now, I don't think there is any difference in the fact that it was built by humans, even if the pilot itself is a baby with no memory. That sheep moved, that's enough for now, assuming of course, that the Black Megadeus we have now was also a creation of humanity.”
The End
Trivia[]
- Megadeus: Big O, Electric Sheep
- Locations: Paradigm City, Smith Mansion, Paradigm City HQ
- It's possible the reason why the chapter (presumably) refers to the Ram-themed antagonist megadeus of this story as an electric “sheep” might actually be due to a translation error.
- At the very least, this chapters' title card has two spelling errors in it: the words “sheep” and “cradle” were spelled incorrectly as “seep” and “crable”.
- Dorothy once again shows anomalous properties, not only knowing that destroying the Electric Sheep might be a bad idea, but even managing to figure out it was being operated by a child who wasn’t even looking for a fight.
- The self-destruct nature of the Electric Sheep appears to be a Biblical reference to the concept of the Sacrificial Ram, which is used for atoning for past unintentional sins, and how Abraham was told by God to sacrifice his son, only to use a ram instead.
- It’s revealed in this chapter why the 7 homeless men from Lost Memories Chapter 1 weren’t simply imprisoned and instead were sent to Paradigm HQ: They were commissioned to create the Electric Sheep Megadeus to carry out Alex’s experiment.
- Alex’s experiment of seeing if an infant can operate a megadeus might be tied to research looking into the “properties” required to be a dominus of a megadeus, something talked about multiple times in the anime. This seemed to be testing the waters if anyone (particularly him) has the potential to operate a megadeus, or even a Big, rather than merely “chosen ones” whose role is to operate said machines. It also might explain why Alex so proudly claimed to have the properties necessary to be a domineus, since even a mere infant could operate a megadeus according to this experiment.
- This chapter shows a hint of Alex’s more remorseless and psychopathic side since he immensely endangered a child for this experiment, and Angel’s more compassionate and nuanced side is implied by her visible discomfort with this experiment, a sense of humanity further featured in season 2 of the anime. There’s also a subtle hint of the ethical tension between the 2 of them in this chapter, foreshadowing Angel’s betrayal in Volume 6 and getting fired around the time of Episode 16 of the anime, Day Of The Advent.