Part 64: Plata-Knight!

DiveMan explodes, unlike BlastMan, and that's the end of that. As someone pointed out in the thread, however, wasn't the director already stuck inside the Alligator cage?



Best not to think about that, I suppose.



How did a guy that rotund even get up there in the first place? Or get down without Lan noticing? Maybe he's partially an acrobat, given that he worked with the animals in shows. That bulk might be all muscle.



Blackbeard is just despicable at this point. Maybe he could have had some sympathy for just wanting to put on a good show, but taking Mick hostage crosses the line.



About time. Not as bad as 4, but MMBN6 takes a while to get to the main conflict of the game. "Organization", eh?



No time to speculate, though, Blackbeard has all the bargaining power here.



Of course, when all seems lost for Lan, there's always going to be someone to help.



The Revenge of Plata-Knight! The "Feeding Time" chime wouldn't work on Fanny the Elephant Seal, because he likes the ball more than he likes food, remember? And Plata's already demonstrated enough smarts to escape the Aquarium before...



CHAAAARGE!



Animals have a wonderful way of working out as agents of Karma, don't you think?



Cyber City's police squad are more active in this game than the Official Netbattlers.



It was a team effort, really. Plata saved the day here, that's the real heroic thing. I mean, MegaMan beating the heck out of things until the problem is solved is just routine at this point. How often do penguins get the limelight?



Considering they're in 6th grade, I can only imagine Lan making "penguin girlfriend" jokes to tease Mick later on. Although, Plata is male. Penguin Boyfriend, whatever. These are tolerant times.



Well, that's a bit of a non-sequitur.



He's escaped already! Dammit, that makes two criminals who've gotten away!



Plata hides behind the Director and Lan in fear.



Blackbeard is a master of disguise! I always knew Mysterious Fat Guy was up to something!



That was kind of cruel, Mick.



Necessary though, considering Plata's home is the Aquarium and Mick can't take care of Plata forever.



Time for a cut to the villains!

MMBN6 replaces the HeelNavis that have been around since MMBN3 with PunkNavis. I like their design more, HeelNavis were getting stale. And considering what they get up to, "PunkNavi" suits them a lot more, since quite a few of them are just, well, punks. Plenty of them are actual villains, but some are just NPCs, and some are even quite helpful.



"The organization" has already received news that Blackbeard failed. They're not too worried though, it was just random anarchy that served as a distraction while they worked towards their goals.



We get the name of the next villain we'll be metting: Yuika. Her and her Navi are easily the most horrifying things in the whole series.



As if it isn't obvious who "they" are. Still, the beginning of the game is just about over, the real meat of the story begins soon.



So, Dr. Blank is responsible for that...atrocity... That's something I don't even want to think about.



Food for thought. Once this cutscene is over, we finally regain control of Lan at the end of the day.



I can never resist a good battle, so I take a bit of time to grab some goodies offscreen before continuing to the next day.



Yet another thing the patch by MegaRock and Prof. 9 changed was the classic circular P.A. chip graphic. Now it's a stylized "PA". It actually took me a second to recognize what it was, I at first thought it was a graphical glitch!



I got kind of unlucky with the BlastManSP fight, I kept getting all my support chips and none of my offensive chips. Oh well, an 8 is okay, I guess. I'll have to S-rank him eventually.



Heading to bed to initiate the next day, we get a nightmare sequence. MegaMan is desperately fleeing from...something.



The CyBeasts! Falzar in a dashing shade of magenta, while Gregar opts for a classic blue. Despite their feud, they both seem content to attack MegaMan, go figure.



Wonder Buttchin powers activate!



Form of falling asleep in the middle of class! Oh god, I sympathize with you Lan.



Mr. Mach is not amused, although his attitude and sarcasm are pretty entertaining.



Actually, this makes me wonder if in the original Japanese version this was an English class or whether it was a, well, Japanese class.



That's bad.



That's worse! Oh god, that's torturous!



And so, after school, Lan gets held late writing 3000 words total.



Consolation prize: We're going to be getting a lot of great stuff. First off, we get an email from the Aquarium Director thanking us, but he's also attached something new to MMBN6!



It turns out that the Aquarium Director is a programming hobbyist. Meet the TagChip system, something that's beautiful in its simplicity and effectiveness.



If you tag two chips, when one of them appears in the custom screen in battle, the other one will follow immediately after it.



As a lover of chip combos and folder fluidity, this is a godsend. Imagine setting your Regular Chip to be one part of a P.A., then tagging the other two parts. Bam, easy LifeSword! As useful as the TagChip system is, it has the major limitation that the two chips' combined MB value (also used for determining what you can set as your Regular Chip) can't exceed 60.

Overall, a very welcome addition to the series. A pity this is the last game...



As an example of it in action, I've tagged WideSword and LongSword for now, since my folder pretty much lacks any combos this early in the game.



Anyway, time to go turn in the 3000 words of evil to Mr. Mach. There's a point in this, however.



We have a visitor!



Oh. Oh no. No no no.



NONONONONONONONONO! THE TAINT. KEEP IT AWAY!



NAVIS DO NOT NEED TO BREATHE! Washing Machine. Blub. More Twins!



Tournament fight afterwards, yes.



Why do you haunt me, MMBN4? I sawed you into like, 5 pieces! Die, monster, you don't belong in this world! Is it because I inhaled some of your dust while sawing and laughing? Is that it? Your corporal remains forever nestling within my body, like a curse until the end of my days?



"I DIDN'T GET WHAT I WANTED FROM A VENDING MACHINE MY LIFE IS A PIT OF INFINITE DESPAIR"

Okay, yeah, I'll admit, Shuko's gotten herself some Prozac derivatives or something since the last time we met.




And don't antidepressants cause drowsiness and by proxy reduced coordination? Shuko's probably stumbling around even more now.



Anyway, before meeting with her, Lan has to go get his stuff from the classroom.



Nksor! Of all places!



We would have been in pretty deep trouble if you hadn't led Lan to that CopyBot, Nksor.



Lan: Master of Small Talk.



This line has deep metaphorical significance.



Cutting the update here! You guys have fun with Iris' revealed name!

It's also because we get the first Cross next update, and that means that the deadline for PlasmaMan's Navi Design contest is quickly approaching. Any last-minute submissions, now's the time!