Part 88: Mach Speed Mood Whiplash.

That's...that's a thing. Yeah.



At least she's straightforward about it.



Get away from you three, for starters.



No, really. Good riddance.



Meanwhile, with Vic and the others, the ex-WWW agents are gloating about their success.



Mr. Mach promptly tells them that they can do this themselves.



He'll be no part of anything that goes against what Baryl wants.



Honestly, Mr. Mach is probably the scariest one present. BlastMan is pathetic, but the other three clowns just can't be taken seriously by this point.



I mean, yes, they're dangerous, but they just lack a certain...something.



Yuika arrives, quite pleased with herself for having told Baryl exactly how they think of him while offscreen.




Mayor Cain is the 'head priest' of the CultNavis, recall. The 'max power' of the Cybeasts hasn't been demonstrated yet in the game, but you can bet that it's rightly ferocious.



Lan arrives back home a few hours later, and immediately gets an emergency call from Mick. Er, that ain't good.



What's worse is that it's MegaMan going berserk.



Even worse than that? He's been taken over by Falzar as well. So there's a BeastOuted MegaMan going on a rampage in Seaside Town. Just peachy. Off we go, on the double!



No point in asking how the CopyBot enables MegaMan to fly...but look at the people! That's actual human damage done by a Navi in a CopyBot. I think the writers more or less forgot about the whole "weaponry is locked down" thing about CopyBots. Oh well, they're more interesting this way anyhow.



Lan arrives, and confronts MegaMan directly. It's like the DarkMega situation all over again, only this time, Lan is in direct physical danger.



The ex-WWW members can't resist coming to watch the show. Blackbeard raises the valid point that if Lan is around, he might snap MegaMan out of it. Of all people to be the voice of reason, huh?



The thing is, those CultNavis had the time to really power up Falzar inside of MegaMan. The 'spells' aren't likely actual magic, probably just routines that empower the Cybeasts. Not that this series hasn't had plenty of magic running it already.



As usual, overconfidence leads to the villains making a stupid decision.



MegaMan screeches and glows with power!



Before abruptly freezing. MegaMan is fighting Falzar hard, but that isn't why he's suddenly stopped moving.



Iris walks in from off screen and cryptically reveals that she has some measure of control over MegaMan in this state.



A valid question, by this point! Don't expect an answer until more or less the end of the game, though.



This is kind of a bad time for questions though, considering Falzar-possessed MegaMan is right there.



Lan tries his best to encourage MegaMan, and MegaMan responds weakly. He's still in there!



Will MegaMan break free from Falzar's control?



No, actually. But what he could manage to do was flee the scene.



Probably emotional and physical pain, considering what we saw earlier in the game when MegaMan first took in Falzar with the ExaMem.



Great, MegaMan is "somewhere" in Cyberworld. I'll tell you this right now, he's in a new place we haven't been to before.



The ex-WWW panic and scramble away to try and get MegaMan back before we can. This situation has more or less gone horribly wrong for everyone involved.



Well, back to Iris.



Finally, some concrete information!



Ker-interruption...as usual. Jesus, it's so reliable that you could probably just say "I wonder who Iris is?" and it would cause something to happen on the spot.



Lan is indignant that Mayor Cain has the nerve to call MegaMan a monster. Honestly, this cutscene does a good job of establishing just how slimy the Mayor really is. We already know the truth about him, after all.



See what I mean? What a conniving jerkoff.



Now thoroughly enraged, Lan rushes up in front of the Mayor.



Only for Shady to get in the way.



Mayor Cain gets called away.



Time now for Mr. Mach to intervene.



Off we go to Sky Town! I sense the plot twisting like a pretzel at this point!



_{God, why did it have to be heights...} Mr. Mach meets Lan right where Lan and MegaMan jumped off before.



I really wish that the emotion mugshots from DTDS had been carried over to 6. You can just tell how sad Mr. Mach is.




There's the admission.



Mr. Mach's sorrowful confession.



Lan is, understandably, unable to believe what his formerly perky teacher is going on about.



We knew this already, but again. Maybe I'm over-empathizing with the characters, but this cutscene has really great writing.



Mr. Mach, like some other villains in the series, is fully aware of how evil the things he does are. Unlike them, he regrets them all and is utterly disgusted with himself.



Unable to bear it any longer, he's called us here both to confess to his crimes in private as well as help us find MegaMan. I told you we'd be going someplace new.



We've been passing it plenty of times in the game prior to this point.




It all comes full circle, doesn't it?



Lan thanks Mr. Mach, and pleads with him that he has to be a good person if he's helping like this.




Mr. Mach is really, really, a torn-up person past the plucky facade.



Constant guilt.



Mr. Mach's actual reason for doing these things are unexplained at this point, but trust me, he does have one.



Sky Town is a flying deathtrap, we've been over this.



Mr. Mach takes that brief aside as an opportunity to jump down.



Mr. Mach is loyal to the WWW, even if he hates doing evil things.