Part 93: Story Time.

We cut back to Ito, Vic, and Yuika. They're so pathetic by this point. No Cybeast, and they don't even have a base anymore. They just sort of meet at Seaside Town next to the Aquarium.



A new plan is hatched. Yuika and Ito immediately bring up the issue of Colonel and Baryl being strong enough to kick all three of their asses.



However, Vic remembers seeing something important back during the Sky Town incident. Can you remember what it was?




They're going after Iris now as a hostage. Or, rather, they'll be trying to. Given their track record, you might be able to guess how this is going to turn out.



It's nice of them to tidily summarize the entire cutscene for the viewer, don't you think? I could make a storyboard consisting of these sorts of pictures for the game.



Meanwhile, Wily is quite surprised that we've beaten Colonel. Colonel was basically Wily's trump card, much like how Bass was in MMBN3.




Speaking of MMBN3, Wily seems to be reminiscing about it.



As usual, Wily bursts into a fit of evil laughter. Some things never change.



Although he's apparently getting a bit old for maniacal cackling. It's really tough on the old lungs.



The last key to Wily's plan isn't present, so that's what he'll be after for now. He's got the Force Program, a Cybeast, and whatever it is he's been working on up until this point.



A few days later, the students have started to wonder where Mr. Mach has gone. He hasn't shown up since he told us where MegaMan went.



Yeah, that'd go over rather poorly, so for obvious reasons, Lan's been playing dumb. A role he fits into very naturally.



Suddenly! What are those SecurityBots DOING? Well, they've probably been hacked, admittedly. We never did see what happened to JudgeMan and ElementMan.



Lan addresses them, as I have been, as the ex-WWW members.



Finally, a name to refer to them with! Yuika is indignant that we'd be thinking otherwise! Although considering it's just the three of them and a handful of henchmen Vic mentioned once offscreen, it's not much of an organization.




Seriously, look how proud they are of their new name. The name is...





The sinister music that'd been playing up until this point comes to an immediate halt.



For the sake of having a name to refer to them with, I'm going to call them Team Rocket for this little screwup incident. They've officially been demoted to comedic failure relief squadron.



Bickering immediately ensues, to drive the point home. For what it's worth, I think all three names suck. I love how Lan, Mick, and Tab just stand there in disbelief as Team Rocket make a bunch of idiots out of themselves.



Seriously, these three make a better comedy team than they do villains. Yuika is obnoxious, Vic is the hotheaded argumentative one.



Ito half-heartedly tries to keep the other two in line and has no chance of ever doing so.



And he's really no better than Yuika or Vic.



Lan, presumably out of a mix of pity and exasperation, interrupts their infighting and gets them back on track. The sinister music resumes as if nothing happened, arguably making this whole thing even funnier.



This being a JRPG, the expected response follows:



Yeah, woo, nobody saw that reaction coming.



Vic manages to clarify for our dimwitted protagonist. It would be hilarious if Lan accidentally sent them after Mayl. Wacky hijinks with Vic using his disguise kit to make Mayl look like Iris and Yuika taunting Baryl with her while the disguise falls off would surely ensue.



Note: This is what Lan says after blurting out Iris' name. Smart move there.



Ito figured this would happen, and we finally see what JudgeMan's been up to.



A creative mastermind Ito is not. Yes, JudgeMan has evidently screwed up the JudgeTree again, or at least subverted its control over a handful of PunishmentBots. You have to wonder why Green Town even bothers with the thing anymore.



The flaw in this situation is that Lan really has no idea where Iris is. We haven't exactly been to her house or anything.



Team Rocket attempts to torture the information out of Lan, which is a complete failure because, again, even he has no clue.



And don't quote me on this, but I imagine 11-year olds don't handle being electrocuted very well.



Still, they managed to knock Lan out, so this is their perfect chance to snag MegaMan back. I already spoiled it last time, we don't have to rescue MegaMan again.



Mick and Tab stand in the way, but really, it's more of a symbolic gesture than anything. Two kids versus a squadron of law-enforcement robots armed with electrocution claws.



Fortunately or unfortunately, Iris shows up.



You'll see a bit of an error here. Iris gets surrounded by the PunishmentBots.



As was semi-established by Iris freezing the berserk MegaMan, Iris has some degree of control over machines.



So, the Punishment Robots obey and stand off to the side.



Despite that, Iris doesn't take control of the remaining Punishment Robots and make them back off as well. Even better would be turning them against Team Rocket and handing them over to the police.



So Iris goes along with them for whatever reason. Oh well, no MMBN game is free from the occasional plot screwup.



When Lan wakes up, he's upset, naturally, to hear that Iris has been taken. And no, nobody has any idea where Team Rocket sped off to.



Tab mentions the Undernet BBS. You know what that means! Going on the MMBN equivalent of 4chan is certain to yield information!



La la la, more rare viruses for me!



And speaking of viruses, it totally slipped my mind to explain these guys before.

HauntedCandle: These immobile viruses will create a 2x2 square of fire periodically in MegaMan's field, severely cutting off where he can move. However, offsetting their offensive threat is their weakness to wind attacks, which extinguish their fire. Once that happens, they do nothing and just sit their helplessly. However, they're immune to fire attacks, and any fire that hits them while extinguished will reignite them.



Also, Undernet Battle Mystery Data can yield AntiDamage * chips. As you'll learn very quickly once we hit the postgame, MMBN6 has a huge assortment of incredibly useful chips in the * code.



At this point, I have enough viruses to start putting together some really nasty combinations when it comes time for the Virus Battler segments. KillerEye and DarkMech, anybody?



All along the way to the Undernet BBS are various PunkNavis that have SP viruses waiting for us. They aren't minions of Team Rocket trying to attack us, the Undernet is just full of jerks.



Meh.



As it turns out, someone saw them heading towards the Sky Town admin building. To Sky Town!



I'm actually in the wrong area right here, Team Rocket is at the helipad where we took Dingo's class. However, getting lost yielded the always-amusing suffering of the Sky Town NPCs. I just love how the game itself acknowledges how bad of an idea having a flying weather facility 30,000 feet up in the air is.



Baryl's gotten involved, either by coming to head them off or because Team Rocket deliberately told him they had Iris.



There's a plot hole in this situation I'll address later.



Baryl's unconscious at this point, if it isn't obvious, so that would be the death of him.



Lan shows up, but considering that Team Rocket effectively has a pair of hostages, there's not a whole lot he can do.



Not only is that water deep, it has a rather ferocious current. Yeah, anyone unconscious going down there isn't going to resurface.



I...need...a...HERO!



Could it be?



Asskicking ensues.



Mr. Mach proceeds to beat Vic and Ito so hard they both wind up flat on the ground unconscious.



Yuika makes a hasty retreat, dragging Vic and Ito along with her.



Mr. Mach is still really hard on himself for being a WWW agent.



As has been addressed before, there's very, very few things in the world Mr. Mach cares about more than his students.



Cue the sad music, it's time for Mr. Mach's backstory!



The daughter is never named or seen in the game.



There'd be a supreme sort of cosmic alignment if it happened to be HBD like Mamoru and Hub had, but the disease is never specified.




There you have it.



It's left open to interpretation whether Wily did it out of pity or just so he could get Mr. Mach into his debt. Either way, Wily saved a little girl's life, which is one of the things that sets him apart from original series Wily.



This is what his job was, keeping tabs on Cain, whom Wily had a pretty good idea from the start was a traitor.



The BlastMan incident was a cover-up for an attempt to break into Cain's files. It wasn't just a random attack.



He's particularly disgusted with himself for that one. He even thanks Lan for stopping him.



This should be kind of obvious, Lan.



Durhurr.



Time for the other big question: How Mr. Mach knows Baryl. Another story.



I wonder what he said in the original Japanese version. It seems bizarre that someone from Japan would head to America/Europe for Karate training.




I like to imagine a Jackie Chan-style fight between the two of them, Mr. Mach bringing out a stepladder and jousting with it while Baryl kicks a shopping cart into him.



Mr. Mach thought he was one of the best fighters around, but Baryl mopped the floor with him. They also shared philosophical similarities.



As we all know, there's nothing like fighting to bring out an emotional epiphany in someone.



We won't be learning them until the end of the game, as you can probably guess.








You just have to feel sorry for the poor guy.