We pick up at Mission Control, where Baryl has called the entire team together for the first time. There are three reasons for this, he explains. The first is so that the operators can all meet each other. The second is that we have a new teammate. Without even having to do a dungeon and fight them, imagine that.
Much to Lan's surprise the newcomer is a familiar face: Higsby from ACDC. Apparently he somehow found out about Team Colonel and begged to join. Why? To become a man, in his own words. And not only does Baryl appreciate the sentiment, but also Numberman will be a valuable asset to the team with his analytical and hacking skills. So, with that taken care of Baryl outlines the team's next mission, to liberate End Area 5, and gives Lan the second chip folder. But there are some things that I have to take care of first before rendezvousing with the others. The first is to revisit the Queen Bohemia and wherever else I ran into BMDs with HP Memories while operating Colonel since now Megaman's back. The second is to read an email sent by an anonymous sender concerning a new power that Megaman has now that he's driven off the darkness: Chaos Unison.
Chaos Unisons are palette-swapped Souls that are activated by uniting with Dark Chips. Chaos Unisons retain all of the regular Soul's passive attributes, but their charge attack becomes the Dark Chip sacrificed and it can be used freely. When fully charged the ball of energy that appears will fluctuate between green and purple. If the button is released when the charge is purple, the Dark Chip attack will be executed, but it's green, then Megaman's Dark Soul comes out to take potshots at him with random chip attacks for a short period of time. So there's a degree of risk involved, but there are ways to make it easier on yourself, like hitting pause to check your timing. Chaos Unisons only last for a single turn. So in short, they enable the player to use Dark Chips free of the HP penalty and the bad karma. Finally, you can only use a Chaos Unison if you have the normal Soul already, so I can only use Knight Chaos, Shadow Chaos, and Tomahawk Chaos at the moment.
And Tomahawkman has been added to the Party Battle System. His support ability has him use Tomahawk Swing, while his combo attack is with Knightman, called Knight Throw. Tomahawkman lobs Knightman three panels ahead, damaging that one panel and cracking all surrounding ones. His Alpha form is on a platform in End Area 1, and his Beta is later found in SciLab 4. His chip attack is the trusty Tomahawk Swing. Hm, there's also an invisible pathway I missed before that leads to a Heel Navi who's selling Dark Drill D for 3000z. Next up, the program merchant unlocked by inserting Battle Network 3 makes an appearance here:
- Speed + 1 – 1500z
- Charge + 1 – 1500z
- HP + 500 – 12000z
I expected the selection to be more exotic than that.
At the back of the area is another small invisible path that leads to a teleporter, which takes us to a familiar-looking, dark part of the Net. We're in the Undernet, in a secret part of Undernet 1 to be exact. There's nothing here but a skull door and the Navi Larkman, who calls himself the freest Navi in Cyberworld. He's an optional boss and the second of this game's create-a-Navi contest winners. His original name was Swallowman, and I dunno why the name was changed since he clearly resembles a swallow and not a lark. Who knows what goes on in the localizers' minds sometimes?
Larkman
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HP: 900
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Lark Cutter – Larkman shoots a bird-shaped air slash down one row and back on another for 80 damage.
- Lark Drive – Larkman flies around an alpha-shaped set of panels for 100 damage.
- Lark Dive – Larkman swoops down one row, dealing 80 damage and destroying any chips or Program Advances in Megaman's queue.
Larkman's a pretty speedy opponent, and his damage output is a cut above what we've seen so far. Lark Drive is his deadliest attack not only because it hurts, but it has an unusual range and comes out very fast with little warning. Lark Cutter can also leave you hurting if you're careless enough to get hit by the same projectile twice.
Winning gives us Larkman S. This chip has him execute his Lark Drive attack. Combining his DS or SP chips with two Katana 1's activates the Wild Bird Program Advance, which is the same as Lark Drive only much more powerful and hits multiple times.
As an aside, there's another new panel type is introduced, or rather reintroduced, during this segment, magnet panels. Unlike in Battle Network 2 where they simply drew Megaman towards them, here they'll immediately push him onto an adjacent panel if he steps on one.
Getting back to End Area, we can get another Dark Chip, Dark Recovery H, from a Heel Navi in End Area 2 after a virus battle. Areas 3 and 4 are where the layout gets really complicated. Heading from entrance to exit is like traversing a maze, and an unsure player would probably want to find and access the area maps. End Area 3 at least has a landmark in the form of a large display of a Japanese castle, allegedly a camouflaged transmission system for Electopia's Net. You can bet that that piece of trivia will become relevant in the future. The entrance to End Area 5 is blocked off by a giant security door, which Numberman gets to work on hacking once the whole team shows up.
Things seem to be proceeding a bit too smoothly, so let's throw a wrench in things by having Higsby suddenly calling things off. Why? Because apparently Ms. Mari's Navi (Inconsistent Dub strikes again in called her by her Japanese name Mariko) is going to take a stroll through some dark cyber-alleys and wants Numberman to serve as bodyguard, and since Higsby is smitten with her, that takes priority over saving the Internet. This scene is a little more rational in Team Protoman, where Raika and Searchman have to guard a foreign dignitary instead. Regardless, Colonel is pissed and tells Numberman that if this happens again he'll be kicked off of the team. The mission is postponed, and everyone goes their separate ways for the time being.
Lan thoughm has something in mind. It's finally time to get cracking on why exactly Regal kidnapped Yuuichiro, and Lan assumes that it has something to do with whatever he wanted to show him on that day. So, over to Yuuichiro's lab we go, but Lan and Megaman can't get access to the main computer as they don't know the password. The solution is to go find Higsby, who's still hanging around the SciLab campus, and have Numberman hack that sucker open. All they find though, is a text file with the message: “To my son Yuichiro. Don't go neglecting Gow! You shouldn't get his fur wet. He's grouchy wet, so if rainy be a nice kid and let him in” followed by a long series of brackets with the occasional black box. That's very grammatically awkward, but for once it's deliberate, as we'll see in just a sec.
So it's a note from Tadashi Hikari about a family dog, but it doesn't seem that there's anything else. Kinda anticlimactic, but Higsby at least had fun hacking in to the computer and he soon goes on his way. Lan's a little skeptical of his father calling everyone to SciLab just to show them that, which means that there's a hidden message to be found.
Figuring it out is sort of like the solution to the tome riddle from Battle Network 3. By lining up the individual letters in the message with the brackets at the end of it, the phrase “doghouse out back” is spelled out by the letters that fall into the boxes. This is referring to the second doghouse on the Hikari property, the one that's always been visible through the dining room window at home but never commented on until now. Or you can take the easier and more sensible route of just asking Haruka about Gow, who confirms that yes, he was a dog that Tadashi owned back in the day. Examining the doghouse reveals the hidden message “Gow is...cleans the air at the island coal mine...something in corner of floor” referring to the air filterer near the top of the Oran Isle mine. What a convenient coincidence that Tadashi apparently liked to take Gow for walks there! Inside it's computer is a piece of Memory Data hidden in the corner, another message about Gow, this time about how he loves “big fish.” Megaman figures out that “big fish” must be referring to the giant fish statues that are on top of the Gargoyle Castle museum in End City.
We can now finally visit End City. It's a tourist hub, built around the giant Gargoyle Castle museum and there's a row of souvenir stands right outside the Metroline station, one of which we can jack in to for a Meta Gel T. And of course there's a Sub Chip dealer hanging around:
- Full Energy – 1000z
- Unlocker – 4000z
- Locate Enemy – 6000z
Curiously enough, Higsby is hanging around the entrance to the castle. When Lan thanks him for his help earlier he has no idea what he's talking about, but still gladly accepts, 'cause who would turn down a thanks? He leaves to go find Ms. Mari (who's never actually seen in the game) and Lan thinks he's confused because he's only thinking of her.
Anyway, Lan can't get in to the castle because according to the guy at the door its systems have been illegally accessed via the transmission display in End Area 3. Lan gets the man to let him in in exchange for clearing up the problem, and we're told that we can access End Area 2 by jacking in to a statue of a horseman that's near the shops. Upon approaching the display, Megaman sees Numberman doing something to it, but he jacks out before he can greet him. Strange, but since when Megaman examines the system for himself everything's normal, so Numberman was probably just fixing it, Lan suggests. Either way, we're then allowed in to Gargoyle Castle.
The museum's main floor is stocked with ancient samurai armor, helmets, and katanas that're on display, and we can even jack in to some of them for an HP + 100 program, a Regular UP 2, and an HP Memory. Examining one of the armor displays normally nets a stray Regular UP 1. They even have a hologram of an armored samurai. After crossing an X-shaped beam that appears to be suspended over a pit climbing some stairs takes us to the castle keep where we can jack in to a sliding door for an Air Spin 2 B and a wax figure of the castle's lord to access the place's homepage. It connects to End Area 3, but the passcode for the security cube isn't available yet, but we can at least get the shortcut link. According to a female Official in this room the castle doubles as the monitoring center for Electopia's Net. I would think that would be SciLab's job myself, but I guess not.
From this room we can eventually reach the roof, where the two giant fish gargoyle statues rest. Examining one of their eyes reveals a disk with the next clue: “3rd ACDC, 4th square. There find the way to Oran. Open it's center!” along with a key. How nicely straightforward. Going to the correct spot in ACDC Area 3, that square area that sticks out from the main path, triggers a scene of Megaman using the key to make a door spontaneously appear. Megaman goes through the door and finds himself standing in front of Lan's house.
But this isn't the real world, it's just an image file, just like the SciLab room that was inside of Alpha. Megaman tries talking to some of the people wandering around this virtual ACDC, but they all say the same thing regardless of what asked. The whole place is frozen in time. Given that this was probably what Yuuichiro wanted to show everyone, Lan tells Megaman to look for anything that Regal might want.
As we search, it seems that this is ACDC Town at the time of Lan and Hub's birth, for an NPC mentions how “Dr. Hikari just became the father of twin boys.” Still makes me wonder why Hub's existence was kept secret from Lan. Anyway, as we explore we can see that in the past ACDC had no park, just an empty lot, a closed-down store in place of the chip shop, Yai's mansion was under construction, and another NPC mentions going on a business trip to Netopia with a Mr. Sakurai, Mayl's father. Back behind the Hikari house we can find the storied Gow, who seems to have been designed after the robot dog that appeared in the second episode of the anime. He's apparently a smart dog too, since he starts barking up a storm when Lan calls him ugly.
After wandering around a bit and examining everything the only thing we've learned is that the Hikaris used to own a dog, as Megaman puts it. Nothing that would seem like something Regal would want to get his hands on. Still though, finding the past ACDC was cool, they agree. So Megaman goes to leave the place when suddenly a squad of Nebula Heel Navis enter, determined to tear the place apart to find this mysterious plot device that Regal's after. Even if it's not real, Lan can't stand to see his hometown torn up, so we have to dispose of each of them. Not a problem.
After the Nebula goons are finished off Megaman goes to leave the place for real when he runs in to yet another unexpected Navi: Numberman. Who claims that he was following Megaman because he and Higsby are actually working for Nebula. Dun-dun-DUN! He jacks out faster than you can say “bullshit!” and Lan says that they need to go warn Baryl. Baryl's all “yeah, good work kid” and has nothing more to say on the matter than that. Hopefully that's a sign that he at least has two functional brain cells to rub together.
Time to go home, but first I decide to check out the chip shop, which is surely a front for nefarious Nebula activities! They're now selling a Number Ball N Mega chip out of the showcase for 9600z and have restarted the chip ordering service, finally. Those rat bastards!
After Lan goes to bed the scene switches to Numberman and a generic female Normal Navi in SciLab 4. Megaman jacks in, chuckles, and attacks Ms. Mari's Navi. With the mood no doubt blown up like the Hindenburg, Higsby swears that Lan will pay.
Nebula has it so easy, only having to deal with absolute morons.
Virus Listing
- Wu Note
- Wu Notes are...living shrubbery I suppose. They stay in the back row and generate bushes onto Megaman's side of the field through which they'll poke their long noses through to damage him.
Soundtrack
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