The story continues the following afternoon. It's the end of the school day, and it's not Lan but Mick who's feeling down over what happened in the Undernet. Megaman assures everyone he's fine, and Mick perks up enough to challenge Lan to a race to the school foyer. Poor Tab has no idea what any of this is all about.
Once outside Lan and Mick find the skies to be unnaturally dark. Before their, uh, eyes, the weather starts to wildly fluctuate, shifting from dark to sunny to freezing before finally settling on dark skies and severe winds. We're automatically brought to Lan's home, where he finds Haruka watching a news report on the wild weather. As per the long and hallowed series tradition, something's gone wrong with the weather control systems at Sky Town, but the admin of the facility is at least trying to assure people that the weather will soon return to normal. While his mother goes off to busy herself with housework, Lan and Megaman happen to catch a glimpse of Iris on the TV screen. So they hatch the genius move to going there to see if they can find her.
However, that's going to wait. New jobs come first!
Job 5: Get the Chip!
This is easy. A Navi by the merchant in Seaside Area 3 who wants a Doll Thunder 1 A, which is gotten by S-ranking Scare Crows. The reward is a Regular UP 1.
Job 6: Daughter Worry
An overprotective dad in Green Town wants us to see if his daughter's boyfriend is right for her. His method? Having us crash their online date and seeing how he responds. The daughter will certainly appreciate that. Anyway, the date location is Seaside Area 1, and once there Megaman finds a Punk Navi already harassing the couple. The boyfriend's a bit of a flake, but eventually he does grow a pair and yells at the thug to bug off. It's only then that Megaman realizes that the Punk Navi is a “real” bad guy and has to fight him. Afterwards the truth comes out and the daughter expresses the understandable desire to have her father accept that she's grown up now. Reporting back to the father has him reluctantly agree, and we're given another Regular UP 1 for helping him.
Job 7: Stop Him!
Back to Green Town again, this time because a girl is afraid that her older brother is researching viruses for nefarious purposes. His Navi in Green Area doesn't help his case either by siccing viruses on us when he gets annoyed at Megaman poking his nose in his business. After the battle the operator clears the air by explaining that he's actually a virus researcher for the local university. Poor Communication Kills. The reward for this job is Big Bomb P.
While we're in Green Area, Judgeman EX is found in a corner of the second area, west from the entrance. His chip has him attack with Bind Chain, and since it retains its ability to pierce through guards and invisibility it is quite a useful chip.
Job 8: Loan Collection
A loan shark Navi on the Green Town homepage wants us to deal with a particularly troublesome client who refuses to repay his debts. The guy's a red Punk Navi that's loitering around the merchant in Central Area 2. Confronting him about the loan results in a virus battle, and when he loses he promises that he'll pay up. Instead he tries to skip out. Cornering him at the Seaside Area 3 merchant results in the same routine, but upon losing a second time he finally agrees to pay up. Our reward is 5000z.
Job 9: Diet Goods Money
So a boy at Lan's school claims to have bought some dieting goods and claims that he's been ripped off, even stating that they actually caused him to gain weight. The salesman Navi in Seaside Area 2 is not only Obviously Evil, but threatens to sue us for defamation when we confront him. So the solution? Go back to Green Town for the third or fourth time in this update to enlist the help of a Large Ham of a lawyer who is shocked and appalled that anyone would dare scam a young boy. After a rallying call of “Justice wins!” he promises to “bury that merchant up to his CPU in lawyer Navis!” and indeed when we go back to Seaside Area the merchant's being hounded by lawyers. He surrenders and the reward for this job is another 5000z. Justice wins!
With that interlude out of the way it's time for another one. Despite the weather at Sky Town being absolutely terrible Ann Zap is still holding her “elec operating class” down on the helipad. It's here that we learn why her name sounds so familiar: she's actually the wife of Count Zap, the WWW agent from the very first game who put us through the hell that was the Power Plant Computer. Apparently he was arrested some time afterward, and the Zap family fell into ruins. However, Ms. Zap has no feelings of animosity towards Lan, she's just focused on restoring the family's reputation.
The Navi that we will be controlling for this sidequest is naturally Elecman
◊, who's justifiably surprised that Lan will be operating him. In battle his charge attack has him auto-target enemies with lightning, while his chip is Dash Elec Sword E, having him dash up to the nearest enemy and hit them with an Elec Sword attack. Our mission is simple: head from the helipad control panel's cyberworld to Sky Area 2, and from there go to the Net Cafe in Area 1 to recharge the sign there, which is automatically done via cutscene. So far, so good.
But just then the lights suddenly go out and the cafe owner exclaims that the area's lighting must have run out of juice, and naturally it falls to us to go around and collect the area's batteries. The two caveats are that it's pitch-black (though Elecman will generate a circle of light around himself) and that Punk Navis are wandering around the area like zombies. If they catch Elecman his circle of light will only grow smaller. Fortunately this is a much less annoying task than the Power Plant Computer was. We're given some help in the form of emergency light switches scattered throughout Sky Area that'll light the whole place up when stepped on. Once Elecman gathers all the batteries our role is done, since he tells Lan that they can only be recharged with special equipment. Now all that's left is the battle.
Elecman
HP: 900
Element: Elec
Attacks:
- Thunderbolt – Elecman fires a bolt of electricity down one row for 40 Elec damage.
- Sequence Bolt – A series of panels will flash several times before being struck by lightning for 40 Elec damage.
- Dash Elec Sword – Elecman dashes up to Megaman and slashes his column with an Elec Sword, dealing 80 Elec damage.
- Set Rod – Two conductors are set on the field. If Thunderbolt hits them the electricity will fan out in a ninety-degree angle.
It's been a long time since we fought Elecman last and he has been given a fair overhaul. However, he's still rather easy. He moves fairly slowly, drifting over panels instead of the usual warping, so pegging him with slow-but-powerful chips isn't very difficult and as will most bosses Slash Cross makes a mockery of him. But if you don't go for cheap tactics he's an okay boss. Sequence Bolt is probably the trickiest attack, especially on his EX and SP versions where there are many waves of the attack, and Set Rod requires paying attention.
Winning gives us Elecman E, which has him hit any enemy in the 2 x 3 area in front of Megaman with lightning.
Now we have Elecman as our third Link Navi. He can remove the geysers and clouds on the Net. Can't forget about Elec Cross either!
- Megaman becomes Elec element
- Charge Shot becomes Thunderbolt
- Normal chips can be charged to gain a paralysis effect
- Elec chips are powered up by fifty points
Elec Cross has all of the standard Elec transformation features, but since its charge attack is actually powerful it's pretty much the only one to not suck. Elec Beast's
◊ special attack is the same as Heat Beast's, only Elec instead of Fire and the effected panels are cracked.
Now that that's done, it's time to confront the many, many roadblocks that're blocking the way to Sky Town. The first one is that the elevator isn't working, so we have to go back down to the helipad and jack in to the elevator control panel to delete the viruses infecting the console that's in there. This becomes a recurring theme, since once Lan reaches Sky Town proper, the administrator insists that Lan won't foil his plan and tries to bar the way to the admin building by activating the four devices on the path (the air conditioner spits out ice, the heater fire, etc.) so Lan has to go around and jack in to them from behind to delete the viruses inside. It's an inside job!
Once inside the admin building Lan finds the ops room to be deserted, save for Iris disappearing through a side door. Some commotion from a nearby set of lockers distracts him though, but when he opens it the admin comes tumbling out. He insists that his identity has been stolen by the real culprit, and that they're after the Force Program, which is used to generate the power necessary to keep Sky Town afloat. So it being stolen would be catastrophic. We're supposed to head down to the Force Room where Mr. Weather is, but taking the usual path is not an option, for as when we reach it an especially-strong wind gust rips the walkway that leads to the exterior elevator right off of the structure and into the abyss.
Despite that Lan's still determined to get across, so his bright idea is to...jump the gap himself. That it a terrible, terrible idea, and thankfully he chickens out at the last second. Since this is apparently the one and only way to reach the Force Room though, he comes up with another solution: have Megaman jump over first using the Copybot that was being used in the last update so that he can catch Lan. That's...not much better.
At least Megaman's smart enough to jump from a higher vantage point, giving him the distance necessary to make it to the elevator platform. Then it's Lan's turn...and this time he thinks to use the umbrella he got from Mr. Weather as a Parasol Parachute...until Reality Ensues and he plummets like a rock.
...Well, I guess that brings this Let's Play to a swift and unceremonious end. Time to move on to Sta-
Oh wait, Megaman still caught him. Welp, let's just...move on...
In the Force Room Lan finds the fake admin at Mr. Weather. Since Lan says that he knows he's an imposter, the guy begrudgingly reveals himself as Vic. I've always found Vic to be a somewhat strange design. He looks like the stereotypical buck-toothed Asian with a cloud-shaped afro, a raincoat, galoshes, and random ninja skills. He was a (crappy) weatherman in the anime, so at least there there was some justification for his theme.
Anyway, again I digress. The reason Vic's here to steal the Force Program is because it's the only program in Cyber City that can generate the energy needed to power the Cybeasts. He doesn't say this in as many words, but that's the idea. His Navi Elementman, the third and final contest winner, is currently inside Mr. Weather, struggling with the security, so in we go.
There's a giant storm raging inside the Mr. Weather Computer, and unlike every other network in the series this one has no pathways, just giant, wide-open spaces. The puzzle involves typhoons that are rampaging through the air, and we need Rainbow Power to get rid of them. How this flamboyant mechanic works is at the top of a ramp in each area sits a small cloud, and upon stepping on it Megaman can fly around on it as if he were Son Wukong. With this cloud we must collect seven pieces of Rainbow Data scattered in the air and on cloud pathways, one for each color of the rainbow. Once all seven are collected, we can emit a trail of rainbow orbs behind us, and use it to encircle the typhoons. Once encircled, they vanish, and once all typhoons in an area are gone we can move up. If the cloud comes into contact with the typhoon it'll turn a shade darker until it breaks, but since it'll respawn at the ramp we can just go back and retrieve it. It's a pretty relaxing dungeon, despite the raging storm.
At the end naturally is Elementman, who like Stoneman has subtitled speech, and his spoken vocabulary consists entirely of permutations of the syllables of “pikari.” To battle with him.
Elementman
◊
HP: 900
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Down Burst – Elementman generates a tornado that spins around the perimeter of the field for 60 damage.
- Meteorite – Meteors hit random panels of Megaman's side of the field for 60 Fire damage.
- Diamond Dust – Elementman freezes a column, dealing 30 Aqua damage, turning the panels to ice, and freezing Megaman.
- Lightning Drive – Lightning bolts strike random panels for 60 Elec damage.
- Tallest Tree – Elementman sends a stream of wooden spears towards Megaman that deal 30 Wood damage and turn panels into grass panels.
- Element Chip – Elementman changes his element.
Elementman takes Darkman's gimmick to its logical conclusion in that he actually changes elements when cycling between attacks, though he can fire off Down Burst at any time. All of his attacks however, are staple attacks that any Battle Network veteran should be already well familiar with, Tallest Tree is basically just Wood Tower with a panel-alteration effect. The only real “new” move in his arsenal is Diamond Dust, and even then it's not much to worry about aside from the freezing. Despite the variety of elements at his disposal, Elementman is a walk in the park.
Winning gives us 5000z.
Elementman does the usual up in smoke routine, but for the, uh, I don't know how many times actually, in the series stopping the Navi does no good for he's already sent the Force Program to his operator. Vic drops a flashbang, but luckily for Lan his escape attempt is foiled by the Mr. Weather animatronic springing to life and grabbing Vic in its hands. With Vic captured, Lan starts to go off to find Iris.
Unfortunately, when his back is turned Mr. Weather suddenly starts smoking and when he looks back he sees that Vic has been freed by Colonel, who's inhabiting the Copybot from earlier. Vic makes his escape with a smoke bomb, and Colonel name-drops the WWW in front of Lan for the first time before he takes a swipe at him with his sword. Lan tries appealing to him one more time, but Colonel's not having any of this former camaraderie stuff and prepares to kill him.
When Lan opens his eyes he finds that he's not dead yet. Iris has come to his rescue, shielding him from Colonel's blade. Colonel's surprised to see her naturally, and tells Lan that his life has been spared for now and leaves the Copybot. When he's gone Lan tells Iris that he owes her yet another one, but before he can ask her who she is exactly Sky Town starts to shake, no doubt collapsing under its own weight now that the power keeping it aloft is gone. Luckily for us, Iris manages to manipulate the Mr. Weather console and brings up Sky Town's backup generators averting catastrophe. Never thought I'd see the day that a system in the Battle Network universe had a failsafe in place. Too bad Iris vanishes again when Lan's distracted by an elevator coming back online. We'll get answers out of her sooner or later, she can't keep this Rei Ayanami teleportation nonsense up forever!
With the scenario done, the narration kicks in to say that two criminals managed to escape from the Green Town jail while all this was going on, and the scene changes to the WWW base where Baryl is chewing out Blackbeard and Ito. Vic and Yuika arrive to make fun of them two, but Baryl shuts both of them down by saying that they're not much better themselves, given that Yuika could only capture one of the Cybeasts while Vic would've been arrested if Colonel hadn't bailed him out. He tells them that the next mission, which will be to capture Megaman and extract Gregar from him, will be their last chance, and to make sure that they do this right, he's called upon an additional agent to assist them. Enter...Mr. Mach.
Well, this is the second big twist of the game. Ito identifies Mr. Mach as Blastman's operator, and his secret identity as a WWW agent actually does explain some of the shady dealings surrounding Cyber Academy during the Judgeman scenario. For what it's worth, it's clear that Mr. Mach does not think much of his role, as he barely says anything during this scene, compared to the other agents who clearly delight in their work. Baryl splits their Navis up into two teams and tells Yuika to have Circusman stay behind as support and then leaves, making it clear that this really is their last chance.
Once he's gone Blackbeard, Ito, Vic, and Yuika blow off some steam at Baryl's attitude towards them. Vic especially is sore that Baryl's their commander despite the fact that he hasn't been a member of the organization as long as the others have. Hey man, Baryl and Colonel have the destruction of Nebula on their resume, what do you have?
So, right then and there Vic and Yuika cook up a plan to betray Baryl, steal Megaman's Cybeast, and ditch WWW. Yuika even says that WWW's financial backer is willing to cooperate with them if they're going to stab the organization in the back. Mr. Mach to not say anything.
The final scene of this update has Baryl handing the Force Program over to who else but Dr. Wily
◊. Of course if the WWW is back than naturally so is the tenacious mad scientist. It turns out that Wily is well aware of the treacherous nature of the organization's backer, but he's not concerned in the least since, according to him, the WWW never needed their help in the first place! A civil war amongst the enemy is brewing, but I think we can all count on the wily Wily not going down that easily.
Virus Listing
- Big Hat
- These small viruses may be named for their large top hats, but their main thing is throwing flashbombs that paralyze Megaman when they detonate. Hitting them with a Wind attack will blow away their large sunglasses, making them vulnerable to the bombs as well.
- Catack
- These viruses are miniature tanks that slowly advance forward and fire a cannon blast that will explode the back row if it doesn't hit anything. Catacks can steal panels from Megaman's side of the field if they are close enough.
Soundtrack
- Break the Storm
- I find this track quite fitting for the stage it plays in. Very tense, even if the gameplay itself is not.
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