As per the course, most of the NPCs don’t seem to be too worried, or even aware, that the Net has been taken over. Well, they are concerned, but more in a “this is a real pain the the butt” sort of way than anything more serious. Pretty much the only person who expresses something approaching worry is Mayl, who’s standing by the station to give us Mayl Code and the Roll R Mega chip which also per the course has Roll attack an enemy and then heal Megaman. Off to SciLab!
When we get to SciLab the place is completely deserted save for a guy who runs out in a panic, yelling that the main system is completely kaput. He came through the locked door, so we have to go back up to Yuuichiro’s lab to retrieve his ID, finally. While we’re here we can jack in to the PC at Yuuichiro’s desk for a Regular UP 2 and a PMD with the Bug Fix H Mega chip.
The main system behind the locked door is also unattended, but we can jack in to it for our first dungeon of the game. The aesthetic and music of the Main Computer is quite nice. Calm tunes and lots of binary and Matrix Raining Code, something that Battle Network 4 sorely lacked when compared to its predecessors. The gimmick of this network consists of Block Puzzles – of a sort. Occasionally the path will be broken up by raised blocks that have either letters or numbers on them. A Program will be floating nearby to give out a riddle or hint, and then we have to swap around the blocks so that they spell out the correct word or number sequence, upon which the blocks will sink back into the path and allow Megaman to proceed. It's not a very difficult puzzle overall, the only real complication was one of the riddles being “an animal that lives in tar.” The answer turned out to be “rat” which was obvious in retrospect but not the very first time through. Eventually you'll have to start exchanging blocks between two separate sets and even send Lan to find a memo in Yuuichiro's lab, but still, not too difficult.
Much to Lan and Megaman's surprise the infiltrator's nowhere to be seen when they reach the control panel for the main system. But soon enough a voice commends the two and an unfamiliar caped Navi calling himself Colonel jacks in, and he's prepared to fight.
Colonel
HP: 400
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Screen Divide – Colonel swings his sword, projecting either a diagonal or <-shaped slash onto Megaman's side of the field for 20 damage.
- Colonel Cannon – Colonel fires a bazooka blast down one row that deals 20 damage. If it does not hit Megaman it will instead explode his back column.
First boss, not very tough. Screen Divide might be a little difficult to dodge at times since it comes out quickly and Colonel likes to use it several times in sequence, but with all the HP Memories that the early-game's been throwing at us it's not too big a deal.
After the battle Colonel says that...we've passed. Before Megaman can get any information out of him he tells Lan to come to the back room where they'll talk some more and jacks out without another word. With that, we're allowed to go through a back door in the main system's room that leads to a large meeting space. At the back, standing at a desk is Colonel's operator, a rugged man named Baryl. I believe his name is supposed to be spelled “Barrel” and pronounced “burial” since his Japanese name is taken from Barrel Casket from the Legends series. So he and his Navi manage to reference two series at once. It definitely shouldn't be pronounced that the women's name “Beryl”, at any rate.
Anyway, Baryl explains that he's recruiting people in secret to form a team of Navis and operators with the goal of freeing the Internet and defeating Nebula. While it's not mentioned until very late in the game from what I remember at this point, Baryl and Colonel are high-ranking Officials from Netopia. The infiltration of SciLab was staged, a test to see if Lan and Megaman were worthy of being recruited. Get used to this – despite their resume of achievements it seems that everyone in this game wants to test out Lan and Megaman's power. I suppose some instances might be justified by the aggressors just wanting to witness it firsthand.
But I digress. Baryl sweetens the pot a bit by telling Lan that this is his chance to save his father and defeat Dr. Regal. Lan agrees, and so he and Megaman become the first recruited members of Colonel's Anti-Nebula Corps, from here on out simply referred to as Team Colonel. After taking his PET and doing something to it, Baryl says that tomorrow Lan and Megaman will join him in a liberation mission to free ACDC Area 3 from Nebula. After a reminder that the team is supposed to be top-secret, he dismisses the two.
With the exercise over, SciLab's populated again, but no one there has anything all that interesting to say. So it's back to Lan's room to turn in. As promised, the next day Baryl calls Lan and tells him that today they will be liberating Nebula's stronghold in ACDC Area, ACDC Area 3, but there's a catch: due to some vague handwaving involving Nebula's security, only a single person can operate Navis during a liberation mission and, since Baryl says that he still has to command Officials at a macro level, Lan is going to be the team's designated operator. Cue some self-doubt from Lan about being able to operate Colonel, but Baryl reminds him that after all of his accomplishments in the series there's no one better. Baryl and Colonel are very to-the-point, I like them. So it's time to get on the Net and rendezvous with Colonel.
We meet Colonel at the giant gate in ACDC Area 2 and Megaman still doesn't know how they're going to get it open when Colonel says “Like this.” and simply cuts it in two with a single slash. Heh. He goes on ahead, but before we can enter Megaman prompts us if we want to save. Seems as good a place to do so as any, and next time we'll embark on our first liberation mission.
Virus Listing
- Champy
- Champies are immobile boxers who will warp right in front of Megaman should they align and hit him with a firey punch. Stronger versions will hit twice.
- Cactikill
- Cactikills are also immobile and happen to look almost identical to Pokeys from the Super Mario games. They attack by rolling their heads down one row. Their heads also happen to be their weak point.
Soundtrack
- Seek a Cord
(DS)
- The theme for the Main Computer.
- Black Power (DS)
- The new confrontation theme, whose name I find ironic since most of the time this is used for showdowns with Navis that aren't affiliated with Nebula at all.
- Powerful Enemy (DS)
- Our newest boss theme. Like Nebula's music, I really like the old-school boops in the GBA version.
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