We open with Lan watching a weather report on TV being given by an animatronic figure named Mr. Weather. Lan notes that the forecasts in Cyber City are more like notices since they're always right, and Megaman says that that's because a place called Sky Town controls the city's weather. Controlling...weather... Oh no... Oh boy... An email comes in about round two of the Operator Navi selection test, and what do you know, it's being held in Sky Town. A new destination! There's also another message about how an “Ann Zap” has opened up an Elec operating school there. That name rings some bells...
Tab meanwhile has added two new chips to his stock:
- Full Custom * - 7800z
- Number Ball N – 12600z
The LevBus does not take us to Sky Town directly, but rather to an administration platform that's out on the sea. See, Sky Town is named such because it's actually situated thirty-thousand feet in the air, kept aloft by one little elevator shaft and a ton of stabilizing boosters. You'd have to be absolutely insane to live here, but at least Sky Town itself seems to be more of a meteorological research station than a residential area. At the very least, the game's well aware of how absurd this place is, and lampshades it accordingly. There's a helipad below the elevator with a control panel for it that we can jack in to for a Speed + 1. We can actually meet Ann Zap
◊ herself, standing next to the elevator, but though she is our next Link Navi operator she's not holding class at the moment.
By the way, in Cybeast Falzar instead of Ann Zap you meet Dingo. Since he and Lan act like they know each other, I think that's solid proof that Team Colonel is indeed the canon version of Battle Network 5.
Up the elevator we go, to find that Sky Town's pathways have no safety rails, and the NP Cs are finding it difficult to breathe. And yet, someone in Cyber City thought this was a good idea. Well we know all about how scientists in this universe think already... Along the path to the administration building are a series of devices that we can jack in to, each one representing an aspect of weather. From the top, the fan contains 1600z and the Oil Body program, the air conditioner has a Regular UP 1 and Color Point *, the heater contains 1000z and a Charge + 1, and finally the shower head has a Bug Frag and another Regular UP 1.
The shower head also has a Punk Navi who'll sell us items called Rush Food for 3000z apiece. Once we get these, see-through bone tiles will appear throughout the Net, and each piece of food will cause the Rush virus (known as Mole in the older games) to show up and act as a “human” bridge. These often serve as shortcuts through an area or to provide access to hidden Mystery Data, so they're worth it if you've got the cash to spare.
Inside the administration building is the ops room, where a Navi in a Copybot explains how round two is going to work. In Sky Area there will be judge Navis who'll put us through tougher and tougher virus battles. But first we have to register with Mr. Weather, who's further in. Mr. Weather also doubles as Sky Town's mainframe. Lan and Mick are psyched at the prospect of this round. Poking around the ops room before we go, examining a number of oxygen tanks nets us an HP Memory, while jacking in to them yields a BMD with three Bug Frags, and a PMD with Bug Fix P. We can jack in to the weather observation system for a Regular UP 2 and 3000z. Heading down the designated elevator brings us to the Force Room, where the Mr. Weather animatronic is. It reiterates the rules for the preliminary and gives us an umbrella as a souvenir. Heading outside from there leads to a second elevator, where a Sub Chip dealer lurks:
- Full Energy – 1000z
- Unlocker – 4000z
- Sneak Run – 500
Up the elevator is the Chip Trader Special and an antenna that we can jack in to to access Sky Town's homepage, and from there Sky Area itself. Like Green Area, Sky Area only has two sections, but it's pretty large and there is a fair number of hidden Mystery Data to find. There's even a Bug Frag merchant in the first area:
- Bubble Wrap Q – 24 frags
- Mine S – 36 frags
- Poison Seed P – 48 frags
- Grab Revenge Q – 65 frags
- Neo Variable N – 80 frags
- Bug Death Sword V – 100 frags
We're actually going to have to buy a number of these to get full completion, so I'm not looking forward to grinding out the Bug Frags. Bug Death Sword is the first Giga chip of the game, and the way it works is that Megaman's charge attack will become Dark Sword, at the cost of one Bug Frag per use. Cybeast Falzar players get Bug Death Thunder V, which has the same effect but with Dark Thunder instead. Yeah, I'm never using this one. Bug Frags are scarce enough as it is.
There are four judges, two per area, who'll throw us into endurance battles against SP viruses (the same as Omega viruses in Battle Network 3) and hand out Win Cards upon completion. At the back of Sky Area 2 is an archway framing an exit that leads to the Undernet, and just as I was about to make a snarky remark about anyone being able to blithely enter it I discover that security prevents Megaman from doing just that at the moment. The game had my number there.
Once all four Win Cards have been collected we have to go and show them to the officiating Navi, who's now in Sky Area 2. We've passed, whee. We're given the Vacuum Data item as a reward, which will let us suck up the cloud in Central Area 3 so that we can access Sky Area through it. Megaman soon encounters Mick's Navi, who's sore that they didn't make it. Once again Navi and operator blame each other and Mick's Navi decides to ditch Mick for a while to blow off some steam. It's not long before we get a frantic phone call from him saying that his Navi just got kidnapped by a bunch of guys from the Undernet. Well, the entrance is right over there...
The Undernet's got a lot of torches and something of an angry red color in this game. As always there's good stuff to have here, but in Undernet 1 it's important to make a beeline for the west side of the area, where there's a teleporter that leads to a space called Lab Computer 2. It's the starting point for a Link Navi that we have yet to meet, and it contains a BMD with the second Expand Memory upgrade (the first was in the Judge Tree) so it's good to get it early. Aside from that there's also a PMD containing Step Sword B.
On the east side of Undernet 1 is a single Rush Food tile that can be crossed to reach a security door blocking an exit. The passcode, repeated by a Program in the oxygen tanks earlier, is 729, and heading through brings us to an area called Undernet Zero. Undernet Zero is a rather sprawling place, broken up into three chunks, each accessible from only one specific entrance. There are also a lot of elemental gates to be found, so we're gonna have to drag our Link Navis in here eventually. For now, there's a Punk Navi who'll sell us the WWW ID for 3000z, allowing me to open up the three skull doors I've encountered so far:
- Central Area 1 – 5000z
- Seaside Area 1 – HP + 100
- Green Area 2 – Holy Panel A
Eh, weak. I hope the last one or two out there have something better behind them.
Getting back to what we're supposed to be doing, Mick's Navi can be found sprawled out on the ground in front of statues of Gregar and Falzar. After making sure that he's all right voices shout that “the offering” is escaping, and a bunch of Punk Navis rush up and surround the two. These Navis are part of a cult that worship the Cybeasts, and they uh, try to cast some sort of spell, “UUUU LAAA.” What this does is start to awaken the Cybeast inside of Megaman, bringing him to his knees. Mick's Navi manages to safely jack out, but unfortunately Megaman's now unconscious and in the clutches of the cult.
Link Navi time again. I'm going to grab Heatman as there're some gates in Sky Area and Undernet Zero that he can open. When we get back to the statues it seems that the cultists have just up and left Megaman behind. The fact that he's now in Beast Out form probably had something to do with that. Lan calls out to his Navi to try to rouse him, but the only thing that saves Heatman from a tidy deletion is a hooded and cloaked Navi appearing out of nowhere to bring the bestial Megaman down. The Navi, whom Lan figures to be the one that attacked Colonel in the Judge Tree, reminds him that Megaman is still a danger to Cyberworld and that next time he won't show any mercy. I should've kept a tally of how many times those words have been said over the course of this series. It's almost by rote at this point.
The shrouded visitor takes his leave and then Heatman and Megaman jack out. The next WWW scenario is coming right up, so I shall end here for now.
Virus Listing
- Pulse Bulb
- These viruses look like, well, floating bulbs. Upon aligning with Megaman they will shoot forward, open up, and emit a T-shaped sonic beam that will either paralyze or confuse him.
- Fighter Plane
- The little Gunner soldiers have taken to propeller planes. Their movement pattern is primarily to fly down the field in a straight line, but they'll occasionally stop and strafe it with machine gun fire.
- Wind Box
- Wind Boxes are immobile, and do nothing but constantly blow wind that forces Megaman to his back column.
- Vacuum Fan
- Unlike their cousins the Wind Boxes, Vacuum Fans suck in air instead of blowing it, constantly pulling Megaman to the front of his field.
- Scare Crow
- Scare Crows are generally immobile and don't do anything, but occasionally they'll get hit with a bolt of lightning, causing them to shoot electricity down their row. This'll also restore their HP.
- Snake Arm
- These things are closer to sandworms than snakes, though they're much smaller than the famous Shai-Hulud. They simply leap from panel to panel, occasionally doing so to Megaman's side of the field.
Soundtrack
- Sky Town
- As it takes about three minutes to fall thirty-thousand feet, you'd be able to listen to this track twice on your way down!
- Danger Zone!
- The Undernet theme is "scary" again.
