Before we have Geo leave the suite Mr. Moustache speaks up again to give us a pair of Matter Wave skis (the Weluvski Brothers) that're for guests with Link Power over 20. If we use these skis outside Geo can use them to, well, ski down the slopes and uh...that's all at the moment as the ski lifts are currently shut down. Before heading to Foodtopia there's an ES that I forgot to check before coming out of an ice statue that contains an HP Memory 20. At Foodtopia nothing's changed since we were just there, but Geo gets an anonymous call from someone (shortly revealed by another camera pan to be another one of Rich's attendants, of course) who claims responsibility for locking the group out of their room and says that they'll tell him about the snowslides if he comes to the fountain in front of the hotel. Well, they add “the fountain's ES” but it's never hinted that Rich knows Megaman's secret identity so that's a bit of a plot hole.
It's of course a trap, but Omega wants to go anyway. They don't even have to pulse in, so I don't know why that bit about the ES was necessary, since as soon as Geo reaches the fountain a giant snowball falls out of the sky, and it's only thanks to someone shouting a warning that he gets away unscathed. After his narrow escape Geo meets his rescuer: a girl in yellow ski gear named Amy. By amusing coincidence she happens to strongly resemble the Amy from the Suisei no Gargantia anime that aired last year, tan and all. Geo recognizes her as the famous “Skiing Angel” (even though he'd never seen snow before, it seems) and the others wander over, the boys, Bud especially, starstruck. Amy explains that normally she trains here for skiing competitions, but with all the disruptions on Grizzly Peak recently her training hasn't been doing so hot. At this point Luna speaks up, or rather flies off the handle at Geo, accusing him of talking up girls instead of investigating like he was supposed to, ignoring Bud and Zack when they stick up for him. Well, Geo doesn't do himself any favors, what with apparently not bothering to bring up the phone call and snowball incident just now.
It's only after Luna stalks off in a huff that the conversation swings back to the snowball. Amy said that she saw it just hanging in the air and suspects the abominable snowman is behind it as she claims to have briefly seen it vanish. That's enough for Geo to figure that they're dealing with another EM being, and flipping on the Visualizer shows that there's a virus sitting on top of the collapsed snowball. He manages to get the others to clear out so that he can Wave Change and delete the virus, after which Zack helpfully sends an email letting us know that there are two more crashed snowballs and thus two more virus sets to delete in Foodtopia. Once they're gone we're to head back to the hotel lobby.
Oh yeah, throughout all this the plot doesn't let you do the smart thing and tell Copper about what's going on. If you try talking to him he ironically just says to come to the police if something's odd.
It seems that Geo gets to the lobby before the others, but there is someone there that gets his attention: a white-haired boy clad in black giving him the evil eye. The newcomer brusquely tells Geo that he doesn't belong here and that if he knew what was good for him he'd stop goofing around in the Wave World. Oh, and he can see and hear Omega too. Our surprised protagonist thinks perhaps this boy (who Omega claims has an incredible EM aura) is behind the snowslides, but he denies it, claiming that he has no interest in the hotel. With that said he tells Geo that he's being an interference and leaves without another word. Jerk.
After some brief pondering over the peculiar boy Bud, Zack, and Mr. Gelande arrive and the report is made that the giant snowballs have been taken care of. Mr. Gelande decides to hold an eating contest in Foodtopia to celebrate the resort's reopening and then thanks the boys for making friends with Amy, who's actually his daughter. After he goes off to make the necessary preparations Bud exclaims that he'll sign up for the contest because he wants to impress Amy. I dunno, trying to impress the girl you have a crush on by stuffing your face? Even if it's sanctioned that sounds like something that, even under normal circumstances, can very easily horribly backfire. Before they go off to Foodtopia Geo decides, against Zack's better judgment, to go back to the suite to check on Luna. He can't even get near the giant four-poster bed at the back before she yells at him to get lost.
Well that's that. Back outside the suite Geo gets a call from Bud asking him to find something called an Eating Machine, apparently a device of some kind that literally shoves food into your mouth. He thinks it'll give him an edge in the eating contest, Geo and Omega think that that's a terrible, unhealthy idea, and I think that something like that shouldn't be allowed. But whatever, we have to ask the hotel staff, and wouldn't you know it but one of the employees used to be an eating competition champion. This woman happens to be on a floor of the hotel that we can only access via wave road, which is a design function I'm starting to dislike thanks to all the backtracking it forces on us. Now it's back to Foodtopia to hand Bud the Eating Machine, a Matter Wave called Fill-U-Upper. It looks like a chef's hat with four miniature Doc Ock tentacles.
Mr. Gelande announces the start of the competition and there are three contestants: Bud, a generic girl, and Zack, who has no idea why he's doing this. The three lay into a huge pile of hamburgers, Bud's somehow-legal Eating Machine doing him no favors as the girl plows ahead, leaving him and Zack in the dust. But Bud refuses to be beaten! He gorges on and starts feeling the burn! And then Omega lets out an exclamation and tells Geo to put on his Visualizer. Geo does so...and sees the FM-ian Taurus
◊ behind Bud. Omega assures him that that's not the real Taurus, just his data hanging around Bud in the form of residual waves (I guess the reverse of the memory data the FM-ians used to Wave Change on their own for the rematches) but it'll still be bad if it and Bud merge...which they do.
So, just so there's absolutely no confusion here, in Star Force 1 Bud turned into Taurus Fire because Taurus preyed on his hidden insecurities. Here he transforms because he ate too much.
Contrivance or no, it's up to us to save the day. After pulsing in Geo discovers when confronting Taurus Fire that he's in a visible zone again (though again, what's the point when wave beings can freely materialize anyway?) and Zack kind of puts him on the spot by going all “Hey look! It's the hero Megaman! He'll save us!” to the panicked bystanders. Let's get this over with...
Taurus Fire
◊
HP: 600
Element: Fire
Attacks:
- Ox Tackle – Taurus Fire charges down one column for 30 Fire damage.
- Fire Breath – Taurus Fire breathes flame down one column for 20 Fire damage.
- Anger Punch – Taurus Fire appears in front of Geo and punches him for 25 damage.
- Flame Tower – Taurus Fire punches the ground, causing spurts of flame to hit random panels before him for 50 Fire damage per hit.
He's not really all that different from before. Well, Fire Breath works a differently now as it's no longer a spread attack so it can be dodged now. The flames stick around on the field for a short while though, so that's something to watch out for. Flame Tower is his only dangerous attack, since it's the kind of thing that'll make you want to move around to avoid getting hit, but doing so only increases your changes of getting pegged. The smart thing to do there is just stand still and block with the shield when Geo's panel is targeted.
Winning gives us the Taurus Fire card, which has him use his Fire Breath attack in the same spread pattern that it used to have.
Just like the last time he was possessed Bud barely remembers anything once he turns back to normal. Once Geo and Zack fill him in he gets all depressed, thinking that he'll never have a chance with her now. But they assure him that everyone at Foodtopia just thought they saw something else as far as Bud-turning-into-a-flaming-cow-monster went (man everyone here must be dumb) so that cheers him up. Zack says it's late, which means it's time to head back to the suite to turn in. But Luna's still pissed at Geo and tells him that he's sleeping on the sofa tonight. Well, as there are only three beds in this room to begin with someone was going to be doing that anyway. Otherwise...where did she think he was going to sleep?!
Going to bed means it's time for the traditional peak at what the villains are up to tonight. Well we see Hyde and Rich (remember him?) meeting outside the hotel to discuss the day's events. They seem to be in cahoots (but it's not made clear why), and the abominable snowman that's been causing the slides that're supposedly driving off the hotel's customers is actually the EM being Yeti inside the Ancient Star Carrier Hyde gave him. He tells Hyde some secret plan to get rid of the blue wave person and then Wave Changes into Yeti Blizzard
◊ to brag about his power. Yeah, you go right ahead and do that, bud.
Virus Listing
- Snow Roll
- These viruses are little yetis that roll down the field towards Geo, accumulating snow as they go until it forms a protective shell that has to be broken before the virus is exposed to attack.
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