Remembrance

Jack and Hannah are in the midst of escaping from a rampaging shivat which appears quite keen on making them into its breakfast. The two squabble over who was responsible for landing them in this fine mess, but arguing isn't going to save their lives - badass stunts is what saves lives! Roaring at top speed, Jack flies the Cadillac over a crevice...

And crashes straight into some rocks. With the back tires not touching the ground, they bail and head for a high rock and climb up via grappling hook, just as the shivat crosses the pit and snaps at them. Unable to reach them, it begins banging its head against the rock in hopes of knocking them down.
 

This shifts a mass of rubble located near the top, causing a strange white object from within to fall out and bounce off the shivat's head. The slither turns tail and flees, granting the two to investigate the object; Jack believes it's a storage pod and wastes no time in cracking it open with a crowbar, despite Hannah's warnings that they don't know what's inside. With a little dosage of brute force the capsule opens, air whooshing out as it does so, its casing lined with technology and gadgets, and in the centre of it all...

... is a man!

Jack and Hannah marvel over this sight and wonder what kind of purpose the man and his pod would have had; the mechanic once again guesses that the pod was from the ancient times, judging by the level of technology, and suggests it was probably a life support system. Without warning, the man's eyes open and he rises! After introducing himself, Adamas ponders how long he's been in the pod; when asked, he reveals he was first sealed inside back in the year 2027, and is able to remember the time of sealing right down to the exact minute.

Our 26th century heroes are surprised by this, and Jack immediately wonders if he was sealed due to some kind of catastrophe, but they don't want to rush him with questions right now, and they're needed back at a settlement. They seal the pod back under the rubble for safekeeping while Adamas helps get the Cadillac back on its wheels.
 

On the way to the settlement, they see that Adamas is not immediately familiar with slithers, commenting that he "thought they were extinct," but that's as far as his discussion on the matter goes. Upon arriving, Jack is reunited with old friend Cap Tras and asks him if he can look after Adamas, believing Scharnhorst will want her hands on him. However, Cap tells him he's come to the wrong place...

Scharnhorst secured the salvage rights to the nearby ruins after trading equipment with the settlers, so she, Fessenden, Hammer and his cronies are investigating that area. They had hoped to find some interesting goods in the buildings, but they've all been picked clean - except for one, due to it being apparently impenetrable, and Fessenden is worried that excess force could damage the contents inside. Hammer gets bored of this and decides to spy on Jack and company.

Jack and Adamas are examining the irrigation equipment Scharnhorst handed over, but since they're leaking he believes they're busted. Adamas claims that it's actually the pistons in the machinery, and they're working so hard that they're overheating.

With the machinery threatening to explode, the three others vamoose to a safe distance, but Adamas remains behind and grabs a large steel shutter door, wanting to muffle the explosion so it doesn't set off the nearby fuel tanks, despite Hannah's pleas not to. It explodes, blasting Adamas to the ground with the panel crushing him... but he's fine! Hammer observes the whole thing and Scharnhorst is interested. Very interested.

Jack expresses concern to Hannah - for spending six hundred years cooped up in a pod, he finds it odd that Adamas is so strong and has such insightful mechanic skills; Hannah brushes it off as jealousy. She decides to chat with Adamas, curious to know what his history is, but he has no memories besides one word: Archimedes, which he claims means "peace." Suddenly, Scharnhorst and crew roll in on a truck, claiming Adamas is an intruder and declaring him under arrest!

Hannah and Adamas are scooped into Jack's Cadillac and escape, busting the truck's tires before they leave; Cap is not at all chuffed about Scharnhorst causing trouble on his land, though she reminds him if Adamas is not brought to justice she will place the blame on his settlement.

Jack finally drops a bombshell on Adamas, stating that it's been six hundred years since he was placed in the capsule. "Fascinating," he replies. Jack begins to query him if there's more to him than meets the eye...

OH SNAP SHIVAT ATTACK
 

They make haste, though the shivat is quite intent on catching them this time, managing to catch them off-guard by ramming them from the side, crashing the car in the process. Hannah and Jack are winded, though Adamas appears fine and capable of standing, but the shivat is going straight for him! Who can save him?!
 

Holy shit.

Jack's first reaction isn't about what a totally badass feat that was, but rather about the mild damage Adamas took to his arm in the process - the man's a machine! Literally! Adamas reveals that he was programmed by the army to be as human as possible, and the fact he is a machine was meant to be kept a secret.

Scharnhorst and crew have been following the trail of Jack's Cadillac... backwards. They've found themselves at the land Jack was chased by a shivat before they first found Adamas, and thus notice a suspicious stack of rubble...

And beneath is Adamas' pod, complete with an instruction book behind a hidden panel containing all of his code commands. They're aware Jack isn't going to just hand Adamas over to them, but if they have the codes to control Adamas, the tables may have turned in their favour!

Hannah recovers from her daze and is anxious to see Adamas after being told of his run-in with the shivat, but Jack informs her about his discovery. He's now much more wary of the individual - Adamas could be very dangerous, even a walking bomb for all they know, but Hannah believes he's just being petty.

Adamas continues fixing the Cadillac, only for a wahonchuck to show up and desire to pick a fight with him! Hannah bears witness to him grabbing the creature by its tail and flipping it onto its back, before blasting a ray at it from his wrist, causing it to run off in terror. Hannah is overwhelmed by this discovery - she's made careless observations in the past, but this is a doozy! Adamas appears aware of how he can be troublesome to his new friends, and reminds them if they want "rid" of him, he should be given the emergency cancellation command "Socrates."

Scharnhorst and her lackeys finally catch up, but before Adamas can defend himself, Fessenden feeds him a new command - "Emergency Protocol Diogenes." This causes him to enter attack mode and begin expressing hostilities to his former friends, ranging from lasers to missiles. The two flee in the Cadillac to a cave, though a missile blasts the mountain wall and seals it with rubble.

Fessenden returns Adamas to "compliance mode" and herds him on to the truck so Scharnhorst can use him to bust open the bunker back in Cap's settlement. Jack shifts the rubble by tying a rope from his car to the rocks and informs Hannah that they might have to use Adamas' self-destruct command once they catch up with him, as Scharnhorst will no doubt abuse the big lug's power.

The android makes short work of the bunker's door, revealing a huge cache of explosives inside! Fessenden tinkers with him some more, activating his diagnostic mode to reveal every weapons compartment on his body, though is called away by Scharnhorst to identify some of the bunker's contents. Hammer, Vice and Wrench use this opportunity to see what their new toy can do, deploying a heat-seeking missile...

Which aims straight for a nearby volcano, causing it to erupt spectacularly! Jack and Hannah arrive just as this happens and are most displeased with what a catastrophe Fessenden has caused already, preparing to blow up the android, though Hannah uses "Archimedes" as a command, returning him to his original self. Adamas burns the instruction manual, claiming he's in command of his own actions from now on, leaving Scharnhorst, Hammer and the others to drive off in a huff.

Of course, the volcano can't be forgotten about, so the three of them meet up at the clock tower, filling it up with the explosives from the bunker. The plan is to knock it over and block the lava flow (which has conveniently limited itself to seeping down a small valley), though Adamas reminds them it may not work in practise.

Whoops, it doesn't. The tower only tilts but doesn't fall, despite Adamas using his immense strength to push it, leaving Jack to come up with a solution - drive his Cadillac right into the tower and knock down the main support column. This outrageous feat of idiocy is enough to knock the tower down, blocking off the lava flow and saving the settlement from an unpleasant boiling-alive death. Jack claims he will never do a stunt like that again.

However, all is not fine and well. Adamas, having seen how his power nearly caused the loss of many innocent lives, has decided he does not belong in this world. Before he seals himself away, Hannah desires to know what the world was like back in his time. "The world was filled with people; foolish, brave, selfish, loving... all hoping for a better tomorrow. Just like you and Jack." With those parting words, the pod seals itself once more, leaving Jack to block access to its cave. For now.

Hannah is most distressed about her loss - Jack assures her that Adamas will be found again sometime, perhaps when humanity is ready to deal with him. Despite being an android, he had qualities that made himself endearing, though Jack tries to cheer her up; at least she still has him! She is not particularly enthused by that attempt to raise her spirits.

An episode by David Wise, and it shows. Best known for his work on Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other cartoons, the level of ridiculousness feels a little odd in this episode - the source material dealt with stuff belonging to the ancients, but usually those things weren't guilt-ridden Mary Sues.

Adamas and all of his command prompts are basically a big ball of Greek references, particularly ancient Greek philosophers. His name stands for "invincible", and his command prompts include Archimedes (peace), Socrates (self-destruct), Diogenes (attack mode), Aristophanes (compliance mode), Plato (diagnostic mode) and Sophocles, though we don't see what the purpose of that one is. You can probably read about all those guys in a book!

So, does this mean Cap Tras still gets blamed for Adamas' escape? It's all fine and well that the settlement wasn't burned to a crisp, but that still sucks.

For that matter, why wasn't Cap Tras in the arcade game? He's got a freakin' beard, man!

Sensible answers such as "the game was made before the cartoon" or "he probably wasn't even in the comic" will not be accepted should someone feel the need to answer this question.

Also yes I'm probably spelling the dude's name wrong. Sue me.