Part 3: GAS-POWERED WATER HEATER
Right! Let's get back into the action!
Eh..? OH!
Yai is possibly dead, so we'd better be the first to loot her house. I mean rescue her. Yai's our best friend, after all!
Operation "never tell Lan's mum anything" is in effect.
Here's Yai's house. You can tell which one is hers because our other best friends Dex and Mayl are right out front, waiting for us to come save the day.
Which we will get to!
Well you know, it's an RPG, everything always needs to be done, but hey there's no timer so-
Nah, there's nothing worthwhile here anyway (also: still fairly poor). But yeah, here's your out-of-battle item inventory. MiniEnrg restores a little health, FullEnrg restores health to max, and one day I will be able to buy Unlockers because you really should never be without one (unless you love backtracking).
Right, right! Back to the important things!
Generic NPCs! No wait shit that wasn't what I was meant to be doing was it
: You guys wait here! I'm going inside, so just stand back!
: Are you sure about this? Shouldn't we all go in together?: No! We can't all risk our lives! It's too dangerous! But have no fear! I'll be back in 5 minutes, tops!
Ominous! But I'm not worried, Dex is on the case. He's a very reliable and capable friend.
Oh no! Something must have happened to Dex... with Yai down, that means Lan's two-thirds of the way to being friendless! We... should do something about that. Mayl's got the same problem as us (and she's zLicensed like us, so obviously capable), maybe she can help out!
Yes no OK then.
: Huh? The door locked behind us!
: Yai! Dex! Can you hear me?: Wait! Lan!? What's that smell?
Whoah. Whatever it was smells so bad that it triggered Lan's blink animation and is smellable from the Net. I guess MegaMan.exe's pet has a smelling attachment. That makes sense, Yuichiro is a very thorough crazy scientist.
-insert fart joke here-
Points for a decent translation, rarer than they should be in this series.
: OK! Your PET has a gas sensor on its screen now! See?: Thanks, MegaMan!
That's right. MegaMan not only has the ability to smell, he has a.. uh... some sort of gadget that lets Lan see the gas. Now, you might think this is kind of ridiculous, but may I remind you-
Totally plausible.
So let's move on! While I was handwaving away any objections to the plot, we got an email!
Mayl? If Yai's dead you're my new best friend.
Roll isn't just great, it's the best chip I currently have. Stops time, does 60 damage to the closest enemy on the field, and restores your HP? Yes please. This is going straight to my folder. We're now more than ready to take on Yai's gas problem! ...haha
Awesome. Anyway, we're headed down the hall to the bathroom, since that's where Glide said Yai was.
Lan is so shocked by what he sees there, that he forgets proper grammar.
but he probably sees Dex surrounded by gas on a regular basis. Oh that must be why Mega's gas sensor was deactivated initially
: Wait, didn't Glide say something about the water heater?: Right! The gas-powered water heater!: Let's check it out, MegaMan!: OK! I'll go check the gas-powered water heater program!GAS-POWERED WATER HEATER
GAS-POWERED WATER HEATER
Megaaaa you're not looooooking!
: Well something's got to be messing up the program!: I know! I'll be careful!: Right! And hurry!
Excuse me, I think you'll find it's a gas-powered water heater program.
Oh no! There's nothing sadder than a sad Mr Prog. Now I'm sad too. Let's solve all our problems at once, and-
Solve this dungeon!
So, this dungeon! As this Mr Prog is about to kindly demonstrate, this dungeon has a gimmick. Around the gas-powered water heater, there are these pipe-things that spit out pink gas clouds at regular intervals. This one's in the middle of forming a cloud. If you get hit by one, it throws you out of the way, so in this case the Mr Prog is about to get knockeddown that wire-mesh pathway. So, dodge them, or you need to get around the back of some of the pipes to turn the cyberknob (seriously) and turn it off.
Easy! Unless you are for some reason running it on a computer that can't handle three button inputs (run+down+left, for running diagonally past this particular pipe). Then it is highly fraught. I do not recommend this at all.
So in a way completely unrelated to my previous paragraph
Somehow I ended up in the same place as the Mr Prog who got blown away by the pink gas cloud.
There's a path around the other side to the blue mystery data though.
This is just the first dungeon, so even if you are *cough* impaired, you can find your way through the dungeon no worries. Not that I would ever imply such a thing about GutsMan, that image is just a coincidence.
GutsMan...
See, I wasn't kidding about the cyberknobs. Any ridiculous thing you can think of about MegaMan on the internet, MMBN can and will one-up you.
Ah right. The one thing I forgot to mention earlier about this dungeon's gimmick. The gas clouds will blow you clear over gaps, so naturally that means it is something you're required to do.
: No.
I fucking love Mr Progs.
So adorable. But I should probably say 'yes'.
Awww Mr Prog.
But this could be difficult! I bet that-
: Lan!: Yeah! I did it! The ventilator by Dex's feet started!: Hurry and help Dex!: I'm on it!
O OK
Little-known MMBN fact: GutsMan is a proficient doctor. And so:
: ...Guts..GutsMan... Oh... Ah...Uhhhh Ahhhh that was rough. But, I'm...OK now... Sorry...Lan!: No prob!!: But, I can't be indebted to you. Hey! GutsMan!
: ???! Dex!
Hearing GutsMan say '???!' was all the payback needed. But I guess since Dex really should go out and get some fresh air after that (and Mayl is still duly occupied not helping), it's up to Lan and Mega to continue saving the day.
We've got a whole 'nother friend to save, so it's back to the gas-powered water heater for us.
Oh, hey! Glyde! Being Yai's navi, he must know the insides of her house computer systems pretty well! He's probably like halfway to saving Yai already, and we can help each other out.
Oh uh... fair enough I guess, he's not zLicensed like us, so it stands to reason he's slightly less capable.
On the other hand, we're getting more and more capable all the time! It is about time we got some HPMemory. As you might guess from the name, it improves our HP.
I guess we could stand a short stat explanation. In MegaMan Battle Network, Mega's stats are improved by PowerUps like that. HP is obvious, the other three stats relate to his blaster (the default weapon he has instead of using chips), and we'll probably eventually pick up PowerUps for those. Working on the chips in your folder is a better strategy than bothering with the blaster though.
And LEVELUP! Mega's now Level 2. Aaaaand that's fairly meaningless, since in this game it's just an indication of how many PowerUps you have. But hey, RPG elements.
Apart from the HPMemory, there's nothing really important to pick up in here. That blue mystery data is a BugFrag, so meh.
There are some new enemies in the gas-powered water heater. Look at how scary these guys are! ...Actually these guys are kind of a pain in the ass. The WindBox will push Mega into the back row, and the Beetank will fire a bomb that will hit three squares vertical, with Mega in the middle. Now, you can imagine why this would be a problem.
Luckily, the next ventilation program's not far away. What can I say? It's the first dungeon.
Of course we know what Yai said thismorning! She is our very best friend! not that it matters either way, even if you don't talk to her, forget, whatever. MegaMan has all the plot-relevant knowledge
If you'd forgotten that Yai talked about collecting Electopian fans then shame on you. It's Yai, c'mon.
Dex continues to be extremely helpful. I uhhh, guess that unlocking the door for Lan is an ungoing job, because he seems set on just standing there. But he was inhaling all the gas earlier, so that's probably for the best.
Yai is of impeccable taste. But I can only hope that's a replica, because the original's only about a foot-and-a-half tall, and I already worry enough about MMBN continuity without BN-Earth being populated by tiny people living in tiny houses.
And if you don't recognise that painting then I'm sorry, you're probably not high-class enough to be Yai's friend.
Speaking of tasteful portraits!
Yes we are in Yai's bedroom and yes that thing is directly above her head. Ah, the tastes of the upper class. Inscrutable.
We should probably
I mean search for some fans! Here we are. That wasn't too bad. Before I leave though, I'd like to point out just how tastefully decorated Yai's bedroom is. Check out that rug! Bet that came from a rare beast.
(Pokémon reference #3, but at least this one wasn't my fault)
Intense, fan-waving action. If this were a later MMBN game, I expect this would be accompanied by a horrible button-mashing minigame.
But 'tis Battle Network 2, and we can just sit back and let Lan do all the work (or press 'start' and skip it all. That is also a thing you can do in these games).
Lan = best protagonist
Trying his darnedest and getting things done.
Also MegaMan backing him up. Is there anything they can't achieve together (besides a passing grade on Lan's tests)?
Wait what? It's not working.
Everybody sit tight, this game is about to get 80%
...next time
Because my computer can't record sound and I'm trying to figure out how I'll record the boss fight. So. I'll cut off the update for now, and I'll be back later this week with the rest of the dungeon hopefully.
/obligatory bffs picture