Plants vs. Zombies: Infinite Generation is an unpublished Crossover Fan Fiction written by Trocyte V, combining the world of Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, most prominently Infinity Time and the Infinite Robots, with the mechanical design of Gundam and some concepts and suit designs from Kamen Rider. The story is written using a hypothetical game similar to Destiny 2 as a Framing Device, with the protagonist being a player character whose role is assumed by the reader.
Back in 2016, when Infinity Time was discovered, the Plants and Zombies independently busted their way into the strange void-like dimension with the Junkasaurus Rex and the Robo-Cat, only to discover an army of porcelain gnomes and their enigmatic king - along with the Time Crystals, a mystery mineral that holds the key to perpetual energy and resources by being able to rewind time locally to undo their consumption.
With Infinity's potential bounty limitless and easy to loot with the help of the first Infinite Robots at the cost of releasing a new threat hostile to both races, the Plants and Zombies slowly agreed to draw their weapons away from each other, and point them towards the Gnomes and whoever else might come looking for trouble.
Just one little catch - Infinity encapsulates all of time and space. And multiverse theory loves talking about possibilities. Naturally, this sends LEAF and GRAVES waffling between diplomacy, chaos, and everything in between.
Decades later, the original world of Garden Warfare is now a peaceful utopia, though Infinity is still brimming with Gnomes as always, and people are still fighting away from home. Thankfully, the bloodshed has been reduced significantly with the technological evolution of the Infinite Robots, which have now shrunken down into plant/zombie-sized squashed humanoids, and for which some can call down a wide variety of armor and equipment from anywhere in the multiverse at will.
Now, with all of that out of the way, the story turns its focus to the main star of the show: You, or rather the player character of the game, an unnamed test pilot working for a LEAF-endorsed lab called Cosmic Compiler. The group has finally perfected a potentially-revolutionary form of programmable matter, the logical next step after the Time Crystals eliminated resource drain. So of course, they and LEAF attach it to a flimsy-looking Gundam frame, stick you inside it, and subject you to a real mission, transporting a derelict bat-like drone of some kind to LEAF as a live-fire test to demonstrate its functions. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
But when a rogue splinter cell of a local weapons foundry, equipped with Raidrisers come to trash the mission, the drone sputters back to life. Flying to the Extreme and calling itself Rey, it transfers a mysterious energy that upgrades the Extreme's systems to be able to constantly create and rewrite new protocols for equipment and abilities. From there, the dominoes only continue to fall as new enemies threatening countless lives appear out of the woodwork - but with these new powers and the friends you'll make along the way, you might just stand a chance at quashing them all.
Tropes:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: All of the different worlds are set in a not-so-distant future affected by perpetual energy and resources (though one whose progress has or will stagnate at least a couple decades later):
- The World of Peace is set in an undefined amount of decades after the present day.
- The World of Turmoil is set in 2025, ten years after Garden Warfare 2.
- The World of Heroes is set in 2028, ten years after the events of Heroes.
- The World of Desolation is set in 2021, three years after Blover's Komiks underwent a reboot attempt out-of-universe.
- The World of Corruption is set in 2029.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Rustbolt has a full head of hair plus a streak out-of-suit, and his armor is redesigned to be similar to the Exbein Ashe, cape, streamlined layout, and all.
- Adaptation Distillation:
- The Mega Ulorders, used to perform Core Changes with the Core Gundam in this universe, are reduced to the more simplistic Proto Mega Ulorder model and made the complete version due to the eyedropper function being made redundant by eliminating the supernatural elements of the Eyecons (which are now simply data cores.)
- Realistically, even the most basic forms of Kamen Rider Build would be a nightmare to deal with in the hands of someone proficient in technical combat. The story deals with this by eliminating Build's upgrades from Tass's arsenal and having most of the non-MagGhost forms be used offscreen, but does give him an upgrade Sento never had access to in the original series (for obvious reasons): BuildEvol.
- Adaptational Mundanity: Some Kamen Rider concepts that are explicitly supernatural are retconned into being the result of sufficiently advanced technology.
- Arc Words: "The Dark Mirror" arc has different variations of "I am you. But you aren't me," said by both the player's allies and PHASMA alike as they compete for continued existence.
- Blatant Lies: To LEAF-Prime's official records, Tass has nothing but the Pale Rider Cavalry he retrofitted before really getting into the swing of things as a researcher. If you know anything about what the items used in the Vortex Trials are, it's painfully obvious he's cooking the books to avoid scrutiny; Rey even scoffs at the idea that Marius still believes that Tass is a weakling on the field after the latter scrambles without permission.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: After Leo has the Signal Chaser stolen by PHASMA, he stumbles around in the fray until he discovers an injection port in the Break Gunner's Destruction Muzzle. Desperate to regain his power and take the Signal Chaser right back lest his counterpart become Chaser himself, he injects his G-Stream with what is revealed to be a swarm of aggressive nanites that painfully shred his frame and reform it as Machine Chaser.
- Composite Character:
- Rey is still the violent yet graceful and honorable robotic Kivat from Kamen Rider Kiva, but also takes on Kivat-bat III's nicer qualities and the ability to transfer power with his fangs. His new secondary functions along with his pre-existing traits also make him an Expy of Ghost, if he had a little bit more spine to his character.
- LEAF-Prime's three main commanders are introduced as a heroic take on the users of Dark Necrom using Core Gundams, but they all receive upgrades analogous to the final forms of the Ghost Riders.
- Tass Ilo has the genius and lighthearted personality of Sento Kiryu, but also created dulled copies of his Rider System in the same vein as V-Cinema villain Keiji Uraga/Metal Build, the difference being that the spoofed Fullbottles are meant for mass-production rather than hijacking the original tech.
- The Gaia Heart armor is based on the Anima Armor from Gundam Build Diver Rize, but acts like Alain's Golden Super Mode Necrom Yuujou Burst, explained by having beam reflectors similar to the ones on the 00 Sky installed into the wrists and shins.
- While Aerios is a blatant Expy of the Original Character his story is meant to deconstruct (see Deconstruction Fic below), his actual personality is given some original flair by being blended with the worst traits of Aruto Hiden, particularly during the endgame of the latter's home series.
- Deconstruction Fic: The "Lake of Shadows" expansion serves as a scathing commentary on a fanfic titled The Adventures of Sky Kid and the Unfortunate Implications raised by its spotty writing, something commented on in-universe:
- Aerios represents Sky Kid, whose experimentation and acceptance by LEAF is treated as an early sign of the corruption that would later create PHASMA, rather than helping create a Teen Genius superhero that can do no wrong. Sky attracting a harem is also portrayed as what it really is: child grooming. Aerios shows signs of being used by what he merely thinks is a harem, and indeed completely falls apart when deprived of their attention. His actual combat potential crumbles against multiple targets as well, in defiance of the original fic's insistence that Sky is truly capable of battling all of the zombie heroes at once in a serious context. Lastly, the Herotron completely rewiring Sky's/Aerios's personality now has consequences for him, essentially granting him superhuman intelligence at the young age of 16 but driven to incompetence from the lack of wisdom required to use it. In essence, this version of Sky has the MCU version of Tony Stark's original flaws imparted on him, compared to the original who is deliberately written as The Theme Park Version of Tony.
- Consequently, his rival Ash Kuroshima (representing Chargon) is portrayed as a Noble Demon Anti-Hero who would later become an affiliate of La Résistance, having given up his former cartoon villainy in favor of the much more serious endgame of helping dismantle PHASMA while still maintaining his original goal of defeating Aerios. He also learns to accept that the alternate Green Shadow can't return his love, while still being able to fight for her sake since it's the right thing to do regardless.
- Finally, Aerios is rather anti-climatically stopped for good after daring Ash and some of the others into fighting him with just their drivers by exploiting a physical disability written into Sky's original character: osteogenesis imperfectanote .
- Aside from "Lake of Shadows," there are numerous background details throughout the World of Heroes that illustrate how many basic neutrality and ethical violations Sky Kid's very existence trips, usually through various notices as Aerios and Ash don't have Alternate Universe counterparts in the main worlds. LEAF-7707 eventually sees him as a retroactive Anti-Role Model for how to handle relations with outsiders and their members alike.
- Do-Anything Robot: Rey is built to interface with any form of technology in whatever way he and/or his partner desire.
- Expy:
- Zecon Magellan is more or less Daiki Kaito reincarnated as an Interstellar Bounty Hunter zombie, even being able to transform into a version of Diend whose armor attaches to a custom Lightning Slaughter Dagger.
- Similarly, Kaisha is Tsukasa Kadoya if he fully embraced his villainous aspects.
- The World of Turmoil's inhabitants and some members of LEAF-7707 are based on well-known Original Characters in the fandom, with narrative and appearance details either stripped or added on to avoid being outright plagiarism.
- Framing Device: Told as a hypothetical looter-shooter, complete with mechanics, quests, and items.
- Fusion Dance: Rather than obtaining any form of the Hazard armor or Genius, Tass is able to work with a mechanized and reformed Gauss to become BuildEvol.
- Foreshadowing:
- The Mega Ulorders attached to the wrists of the commanders' Core Gundams have an opening in the receptacle's frames that neither iteration of the original Mega Ulorder had in Ghost. We later see why this is the case: it's so the extra bits on the Sinspecter and Mugen Eyecon analogues can actually fit into the brace and stay flush with it (in this universe, the Transformation Trinkets used for the brace are inserted face-down.)
- Most Enchant-Mints have a dark green hat; Marius's is pastel-blue with rainbow horns poking out of it, hinting that he's closer to Makoto Fukami than he is to Jered.
- Zecon's constant chasing of the player as Diend is rather odd considering that they aren't analogous to Tsukasa, but it still makes sense since in another world, they are.
- Tass is working on a device resembling a giant canister in his lab when Gauss rudely interrupts. Except it's not the RabbitTank Sparkling, Cross-ZBuild, or Genius Fullbottle. It's a Galaxy bottle, overlapping this trope with Red Herring.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Ash Kuroshima has a vendetta against the plants of PHASMA for ignoring him and his efforts to gain their approval in favor of Aerios, who he believes has put in none of the effort in what it means to be a hero and has everything he wants for seemingly no reason. This initially drove him to be an evil Straw Nihilist, but snapped out of it a while after PHASMA formed. Ash still continues to act this way towards what remains of LEAF in their ranks, and he has a very good reason to, knowing what their treatment of Aerios helped lead to.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Aerios, despite being a Hate Sink, is right to point out that the Infinite Robots are a dangerous form of transhumanism for the plants' identity, effectively abandoning their diverse meatselves in favor of a homogeneous humanoid frame. As a result, his final battle has him demand the player, Tass, Ash, Norrick, and Viri attempt to use their Rider powers on themselves rather than through their IR frame, and fight him then. He and his confidants do this for themselves as well, showing what little honor remained among PHASMA's hierarchy. Despite this, it circles around to being a Hypocrite as his defeat involves him forgetting his flesh-and-bone weaknesses due to prolonged IR use as well, namely his osteogenesis imperfecta.
- Just a Kid:
- Viri mentions having sometimes been treated like this due to her youth (she's in her early twenties, but is even younger than Marius and started shooting up the ranks at about 15, whereas Marius was privately trained in a regular education curriculum and spent his twenties working up the thaumaturgy department's ranks.) Whether or not they had a point is entirely dependent on each individual scenario (and her attempt to defy this bites back hard when discovering Marius's past. She wins the ensuing brawl, but both Marius and the Player Character stab the Gaia Heart with their backup sabers, forcing a shutdown.)
- Part of what's fundamentally wrong with Aerios at his core is the fact that he's this, but uses the argument himself to proclaim his righteousness despite the fact that he keeps on climbing the power ladder higher and higher regardless. This particular flaw sets off a Berserk Button with Viri, who tags along with Ash and Norrick since Aerios's circumstances are a very real and very dangerous case of why power should never be given instead of earned at a young age.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": Downplayed. Although nearly every plant in the game has a surname or first name tied to their species (e.g. Siever, Vulgare), you wouldn't know unless you looked them up.
- Mid-Season Upgrade: Almost every character with a major role in one or more campaigns receives at least one:
- Marius: Sinspectre
- Viri: Gaia Heart
- Leo: Machine Chaser
- Rustbolt: EX-Exbein
- Tass: BuildEvol
- Personality Powers: People with anger problems work best in averting the hazards of the n_i_t_r_o system, since there's no room to force a Hair-Trigger Temper if one already exists. This makes Ash a perfect match for the Delta Kai, allowing him to rain fiery havoc on the enemy without actually going berserk.
- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Norrick was a (normal) LEAF engineer (and the Sinanju Stein pilot/Amazon Neo) who helped mentor Aerios in properly using his wealth of engineering skills. Once the boy descended into delusional villainy, however, Norrick was forced to coldly betray him, destabilizing the Neo Amazons Driver in the ensuing conflict and leading him to regret not planning a better way to cut him off, as it only caused Aerios to spiral further into his delusions.
- The Reveal:
- "The True Cost of Knowledge" reveals that Rey was engineered through the True Gaia Memory sometime before the Dopants were made, which explains his Do-Anything Robot abilities.
- Heavily damaged from an attack by the S.A. king's servants in "Luck," Arven disengages his connection to the AGE-II Magnum and shows his original body to the player, revealing that he and the B.K. Resistance as a whole are self-inflicted Child Soldiers. Coupling with the fact that he is a Blover, many scans and lore entries the player has accumulated up to this point culminate in a second, much darker reveal: the universe that the World of Desolation is a split timeline of was a cheery, cozy place
that the original Arven (or rather, just "Blover") lived a very happy life in with his girlfriend and neighbors, free of any real conflict.
