Part 60: YAAAH TOAST!

Things start off badly already for Lan! An alarm goes off right as he enters the building proper.



Confusion is a bit natural. Zounds, our first crisis already!



A small platoon of SecurityBots arrives to deal with...Lan. Woops.



How about that. Robots in a MegaMan Battle Network game!



They seem pretty reasonable, at least. Much like the rest of Cyber City, Cyber Academy has strong security. I mean, defense robots?



Oh dear.



This isn't going to end well, is it?



MMBN6 has improved dialogue, I think. Why?




Exhibit A. Poor Lan.



This early into the game, and we'll be up against a marathon battle of these things!



Fortunately, there's an intervention before Lan has to defend himself against the school's security. At least they don't have a Captcha to jack in or anything.



We'll be meeting this guy in a bit, and I'm sure he'll be well-received.



Understandably.



Let alone 5! I won't rattle off a gigantic list of dangerous situations Lan's been in, but considering that the last time he faced off with robots like this was against Wily's tanks in MMBN3...

Yeah, this isn't so bad.



This is where we'll get a student ID so this doesn't happen every time we enter the school.



Our savior, who revealed himself to be Lan's homeroom teacher, disperses the SecurityBots.



Before moving on, Lan notices this...thing. More on it later.



Meet Mr. Mach. He's a good guy, and energetic to boot. Popped collar on a track suit, no less. That console he's at controls the SecurityBots, hence why he was able to stop them for us.



He hasn't got a beard, but just look at the pompadour, eyebrows, and buttchin. Yeah, Mr. Mach is pretty distinctive. Distinctive is probably the best word to describe him.



There, our issues with SecurityBots are over.



We can then access the actual "academy" part of Cyber Academy. On the way to class 6-1, Lan's room, we pass by this unfortunate kid. Apparently, a bucket of water on the head is a form of punishment in Japanese schools. I'm sure someone will correct me on that.

Also note the security camera, those are in every room and hall of the school.



Time to introduce Lan to the new class. He's nervous, as you can imagine.



At least he isn't going to be known as "New Kid".



For good reason, naturally. Nobody's ever faced down the SecurityBot squad before him! Although, Lan's confidence in himself integrating into the new school isn't as high.



We'll be sitting behind Mick, who's a bit of a grouch.



And a trouble-maker. Scars on his face and he's only in 6th grade. On the other hand, the game makes it clear that it's mostly Mick trying to act tough. I like to think that he tried to shave his face to be cool and messed up entirely as the source of his scars. That would be entirely within his personality, to give you an idea.



He's pretty mean towards Lan. Probably out of jealousy for the attention Lan is getting, both as the new kid and as the first person to confront the SecurityBots.



At least Lan tries to be nice.



Mick's a bit of a jerk, in conclusion.



Ah, Lan's best subject. This can only go well!



We get a recess to talk to all the other students first.



Here's the only other unique sprite NPC around besides Mr. Mach and Mick. We don't get his name yet.



Gosh, I didn't realize, did you? There's a RegUp1 if you check the grid next to Lan.



You can jack into the blackboard early if you like, Thunderball * is a welcome addition to the folder. It's worth mentioning that MMBN6 has a massive number of *-coded chips, so folders move a lot more smoothly.



After talking to everybody, cutscene time.



Don't even get me started, Mick. Shall I brag about the romhack challenges from MMBN3? BassXX? Cherry-tapping Alpha Omega?



Despite what you may think, Mick doesn't have a custom Navi, so we never NetBattle him.



The blink animation makes a triumphant return to commentate on MMBN6!



After that, Mr. Mach returns, so Virus Busting class begins. All the desks at Cyber Academy have computers built in that are linked to the blackboard computer.



Mr. Mach's Navi has a distinctive way of speaking to match his operator's own personality and choice of appearance.



This is Mick's Navi, who does get a modified sprite and mugshot at least. Never a name though.



Putting us on the spot, eh?



Lan's a bit fed up by now.



The box contains any virus that the teacher deems about at the level of the Navi fighting it. This is a bit of a throwback to MMBN1, which had a device that would generate a virus battle depending on MegaMan's level.

Remember levels? Back from MMBN1-3, when there were PowerUps in addition to HPMemory upgrades, level was determined by how many of both you'd collected. Anyway, this is a one-time thing in MMBN6, so don't expect to see it again, unless the patch added something like that.



I am insulted.



That's no Mettaur! An entirely new virus!



Mick! You jerk, you sabotaged the program to spit out a tougher virus!



OldStove: These furnace viruses move around slowly, trying to get in front of MegaMan and within at least 3 panels of him. Once one of them does, all OldStoves on the field will open their mouths and shoot fire down the 3 panels in front of them at once. This fire attack cracks panels.



Mick's plan backfires (yuk yuk) entirely as MegaMan makes short work of the OldStoves. Earning him and Lan the immediate admiration of the class!



Even Mr. Mach is impressed with that one!



And guess who's getting in a lot of trouble for this stunt? Mr. Mach may be a goofball, but he isn't stupid.



Serves you right, Mick. Mick Jagger. Pun senses overloading...

So, hypothetical situation. Mick uses an Apple computer to play a Flash game based on tenderizing ground beef with a mallet.

That would be a Mick Mac Patty Whack.



After being berated offscreen by Mr. Mach in the Teacher's Room, he's sulking over by the sink. OldStoves don't even appear in random encounters until later in the game, so I'm wondering how he even had one of those to plant. Or maybe the box just had its settings messed with and produced it itself.



Mick is not the most competent guy around.



Gah! Viddy Narcy flashbacks! BE EXPUNGED FROM MY BRAIN!



so cold its so cold bad game unhappy bad bad bad why



Ah, just what I needed, MMBN trivia! The last time we saw a Navi ditch their operator because of a fight was back in MMBN2 during the Job BBS sidequests. That Navi hid out in the empty YumSquare.



Remember, Navis are people too.



We've learned several times before now that children can be led to the dark side in this series. Sean is the most prominent example, but let's not forget Paulie, much as we'd like to pretend that never happened.



He looks like a giant toaster. Trust me on this one, we'll see him next update.



Mick is merely a jerk, not so much a villain. BlastMan? Villain. This isn't going to end well.



Mick is reluctant about all this. I mean, he does have a moral compass. He's not entirely a bad guy.



This is pretty despicable of BlastMan. Mick is a 6th grader, just a kid! He can't handle this kind of thing. And he isn't being given time to think.



BlastMan even gives a countdown, which does actually appear on the screen digit by digit in realtime.



Mick panics and accepts. He was wondering how BlastMan even found him, much less got into his PET, but BlastMan's coercion worked.



Revenge for his humiliation! Punish Lan for looking better! Sound familiar? Trying to be the coolest, most awesome person around...



BlastMan is enthusiastic about his evil, I'll give him that. MMBN6's villains are a lot more menacing than previous ones were. When was the last time we met a confirmed villain before the dungeon we fought them in?



BlastMan has a nasty plan in mind. Unfortunately, it hinges on him not being defeated by MegaMan. We'll see how that works out.