Part 7: Discount NASA

I wonder what horrible awful thing will happen now.

Your gameplay?



Oh, it's just this dork.





Aaron saunters up. You can tell it's late at night because there's no music playing.


: Y-Yes...
: Really into your work, huh? Good for you! By the way, you came up with a name for that flying pack you are developing, right? Um, what did you call it again?
: ......It's called the FlapPack.

It's like pulling teeth with this guy.





Tom absolutely refuses to say anything at all. We've all known that guy, and Tom puts him to shame.

Fuck you, Tom.






Aaron please stop helping. You aren't.

I do know an "Aaron". Always a busybody. Trying to make everyone else their own definition of perfect.





Again, multiple times we've been told BrotherBands are super important and you shouldn't rush into them. How long has Boreal even known Tom, anyway?

"add fren plz" Maybe the company encourages this for other reasons.


: Wh-Why would you suddenly...?
: Ah, don't be so shocked, please! The idea just popped into my head. We've known each other for a long time, but we never really talk outside of work, so, well...
: Is... Is... Is that an order from a superior?

Seriously, that's a good question. There's a reason why you shouldn't get too close to your boss at work. Outside work they might be the nicest person, but at work they're still your boss and the power disparity is still a thing.


: Ha ha ha ha! No, no, no. Please don't take it the wrong way. I just want to get to know you better.
: Get to know me better...

Then talk! Go drink outside work! Become Facebook friends, not this weird "you can only have six" version of it.

File a complaint with HR.


: I treasure making friends with people more than any successes I may have at work.
: ......
: Ha ha ha. I probably spoke too frankly, huh?


: (Maybe he won't betray me...) I don't mind... ...forming a BrotherBand.
: Oh! Really!? Then we can form one right away! I'll warn you, my secret packs quite a punch!

What could his Secret even be? "My best friend got lost in space"? Everyone knows that.





It took them a few hours to chat about their secret? I saw that entry field, there are more characters in a tweet than there are in that thing.


: (But... I still feel uneasy... What if he betrays me... Just what if? It'd be like that time all over again...)

Ooh, backstory.


: You're in pain, aren't you?
: !!? Wh-Who's there!?



Hmm. A portrait-less text box and a flash of white. This bodes well.



What a surprise, it's an EW alien.

Bull, and now bird. Do I need to take off with different puns now, Yeti?


: A-Aaaaah!!
: Don't be afraid. I understand how you feel. Heh heh heh...
: Wh-Who are you!?


: You can't trust deeply in others. Because of this, your heart aches severely.
: ...!
: And the source is something in your past... Am I correct?

Look at this smooth-talking fuck. I can just imagine his voice in my head, all oily and slick. Like a salesman who really wants to sell you something he knows is bullshit.

Oh look, it's Giver's bird.


: I had a horrible experience... All because I believed in someone... B-But how did you know?
: Like I said, I understand you. Come, tell me about this horrible event.



And unsurprisingly, Tom falls for this fake friend bullshit hook line and sinker, immediately spilling his guts to the weird bizarro bird thing that appeared out of nowhere. At least Bud had the excuse of being kinda stupid.


: Among my peers, I was named the best engineer. Within a few years, I had brought a number of major projects to success.
: Did you enjoy your work?
: Um, well, I guess. But...
: But?

Either way, the backstory is taking place in the monochrome Flashback Zone, depicted here by a pure black background. What a visual treat.

Mega Man games are generally low budget with a small development window.



: Ever since I was young, I loved to study, and... as an adult, my research was my life. S-So... Well...




Things really aren't going well for slightly younger Tom, huh.

: You didn't know how to befriend other people?
: Y-Yes, exactly. I didn't have anyone I could call a friend.
: How sad and lonely you must have been.
: But one person did reach out to me.


: He was my boss at the time. He said... "We can be good friends, you and me," but... that wasn't all... He asked me to form a BrotherBand with him.
: You were really happy, weren't you?
: Yes! Of course! I-It was my first BrotherBand ever! B-But it was all just an illusion.


: the thing I was working on was leaked and it spread throughout the world. I was shocked. The prototype was exactly the same as mine.
: You mean your idea was stolen?
: ...Yes. And it wasn't a stranger who leaked it...


: That's right, it was my boss - my Brother. You share info back and forth through a BrotherBand, and to be honest, I was tempted to take a few of his research ideas too...
: He almost certainly got close to you... to steal your ideas, didn't he? You were number 1, and that's why he wanted them.

Seriously, didn't he get his ideas registered at all? Isn't that a thing that you do once you have a prototype?

Ahahahahahaha. Tough break, Tom. But opportunistic capitalism still exists in 22xx. A peaceful utopia? I think not.


: I was going to develop everything by myself. And I put even more distance between me and everyone else. I was never going to be duped again.



Basically, Tom was very lonely and then someone took advantage of that to steal his ideas. From there, he became even more paranoid (hence his last name) and probably developed some kind of complex about trusting others.


: ......
: Betrayal is the essence of society. That is why no one is to be trusted. The wisest thing is to look upon everything with distrust.
: Betrayal... is the essence of society...

Sure, we got more information out of this flashback sequence here, but I honestly prefer how they handled Bud more. He didn't immediately come off as a trusting idiot despite specifically noting how he can't trust anyone (seriously, who spills their life story to a bird at short notice), and more importantly it left most of the details up to the reader to interpret.

I have to agree with the spilling your guts bit. It would be better if the bird had already known of Tom's past. Perhaps he listened in earlier. And that mystery could propel us going forward into the next few scenes.




Putting that aside, since I'm sure nothing important will come of it, Geo is finally awake. Mornings must suck for him, huh.


: I have to take a bus to get to Mr. Boreal's lab. *sigh* I totally don't want to go.
: Hey, Geo!
: What?
: If you feel that way about it, why not cancel?
: But...






The game is, all things considered, pretty good at handling Geo's mindset right here. Geo doesn't want to go, but Boreal already went to the trouble of inviting him and setting things up.





At least Mega is still pretty consistent about what he wants to do. He just wants to see cool stuff.



Anyway! New day, new things to explore.

I hope you run into an SP boss and die.



The truck has also been moved over here, if we ever want to go back again.

But, most importantly everyone in town has new dialogue. Since a lot of it isn't very relevant any of the time, I'll be showing the new NPC dialogue only if they've got something important to say.


: ...seems to be a big surfer... The store's not open 'cause he's at the beach.

Like this. Hopefully the shop will be open soon.

Hooray for only one piece of relevant dialogue!



Anyway, RPG obligations out of the way, let's head to AMAKEN.


*honk honk*



: So THIS is a bus!
: Please don't cause a scene on the bus!
: Alright, I got it! I got it! Come on, let's go!!
: *sigh* I wonder sometimes...

I kinda hope Mega punches out some old lady on the bus because she mentioned listening to FM radio or something.

Yeti, that is a fantastic mental image.





...Hm. I wonder how this is going to work out.

Fucking politicians always begging for donations.




We've made it to area two! This game opens up a lot slower than the Battle Network games. You could make the argument that this reflects Geo's own growth as he slowly learns to make connections and bond with others, but personally I just think they wanted to keep the difficulty curve a little bit tighter.





Neat, we've had a look around, let's head back.



Dang.



Mega won't even let us leave without talking to Boreal. There's no escaping the cutscenes, unfortunately.



: ...Hi.
: This is my research lab, the Aerospace and Modern Astronomy Knowledge Expansion Nexus. Or just "AMAKEN" to keep it short.

That's a little bit over the top. You know he came up with AMAKEN first and then came up with something to make it fit.


: ...good equipment here. People hear that the general public can study here, too, so we've got a good name going for ourselves.
: Wow...
: Ready for a tour?

Geo is thoroughly uninterested, but to his credit Aaron isn't letting it get him down.

I know Geo is a recluse and all, bit I'm surprised he wouldn't know about this tidbit. Especially with what the acronym implies.




What? But the sign just said no buses were coming soon!

You can't trust the buses, Yeti! They lie!


: That's 'cause today's a holiday. I asked for a few more buses than usual because there'll be more people coming today.
: Ha ha. My lab is pretty popular as of late.
: ...Huh?

At least the game explains why there's another bus coming - it's a holiday, so Boreal asked for more buses, but they didn't update the schedule because it's for one day only.



Yep. They're here.


: Did you come here to do some studying, too?
: What are you doing here...?
: We're following you...
: B-Bud!

Ah, the traditional 'Idiot accidentally gives away the plan' joke. Hilarious.


: ...this lab is open to the public, right? So it's not odd at all that we are here!!
: ......




Oh, I'm sure nothing weird will happen. At all.

Nonsense.



No. ...Well, Bud's okay, but other than that, no.



: What's this, what's this!? You do have friends after all! I'm happy for you!


: I'm the head of this lab. You guys came at just the right time! I'll give you guys a tour all together! Look alive now! It's more fun that way!

He's really excited to show off his lab to people, I guess. Luna's probably happy with this right now too.





: ...*sigh*... Why won't everyone just leave me alone?
: Heh heh. You're too popular for your own good!

I'm not sure I'd call this popularity, but sure.



Then what's the point...?

To make you whine about it on a dead forum of course.


Hope the owner didn't get heat stroke...

It's frighteningly easy to lose your hat somewhere. Just set it down and then walk away because you don't normally wear one.



A quick glance at the wave road shows us yeah, this place is already way more complex than our home town.


It's appropriate for a place that studies space.


...is really a modified rocket that was once actually shot up into space.

Wait, they managed to retrieve a rocket? And nobody minded that they just turned it into a signal tower? Sure, I guess.


: ...top at all! That is so cool!

At least someone's excited.

Hey kid, wanna ride the thing? I'll push you off. It'll be fun!


...from space?

I'm confused by this flavor text since it doesn't seem to line up with the rest of them. Maybe the intern wrote this one.

Yeah, uh... Yeti did you cut out a box or two...? That seems really weird.


: Hmm?
: I created this special radio tower to search for your father.
: To search for my dad!?
: This tower is sending a signal out into space. I keep hoping Kelvin will pick it up, wherever he may be.
: C-Can you find him?
: It might take a while, but I'm not giving up! One day, I'm going to have some good news for you and your mother! You wait and see!



It's not what Geo wanted to hear. He wanted to hear news right now and this is just empty promises. If anything, Mega is more useful than Boreal right now, because Mega was the last person to talk to him.




We actually have to have this conversation with Boreal before he'll let us move on.



: It is my duty to detect and decipher any incoming signals from space. *Beep whoo*



Further down the line, we have this guy. What's your story, guy?

: If I don't take care of all the machines for the tour groups carefully, it'll be a mess!



Fair enough, he's a janitor. Now, take a look at this out-of-the-way square...



Finally, a wave hole! But we'll finish off the Real World first.

No, you pulse in, now, damn it.


So typical of a place like this. Oops, better not say that out loud...

Don't be judgy, Geo. You have stars and moons on your blanket.

Go pulse in.


: I feel like I could get lost in here!

That's the last person to talk to. Anything interesting to add, Mega?


: Let's go inside!

So, no.



Good.

Finally. Finally. That's one of my gripes with the game; Battle Network let you get into small places just running around in the real world, while this game made them very distinctly separate. So, the interesting and fun stuff is exactly opposite of the run around and talk to people stuff.



: Hmm? Never seen you before. This is AMAKEN's wave, and I deliver data from the next town over!



This whole bit is completely separate from the main part of AMAKEN's wave road. The background is entirely blue sky, and there's nothing to see...


: I'M THE MR. HERTZ IN CHAGE OF TRANSPORTING THIS LAB'S DATA FILES. AH, BUT I'M SO CURIOUS! I WONDER WHAT'S IN THESE TOP SECRET DOCS? I'M SO CURIOUS I CAN'T MOVE!! *BEEP BEEP*

Mr. Hertz no those are classified, you'll get in trouble if you read them...

Read them and get fucking deleted. Just to make Yeti sad.



With a new overworld area comes new viruses. ZapAce are pretty simple, they just wander back and forth and then unleash a homing electric ball. They're almost identical to old viruses from Battle Network 1. Counter timing is as they pull their pincer claw things back to generate the electricity, but before it comes out.

Peekaboo look like the Spooky viruses from the BN games, but they're not. After going back and forth their row for a bit, they'll stop and unleash a slow-moving projectile that confuses (reverses controls) if it damages you. Counter timing is as their hands are moving away from their face but before they shout.

Just be sure to block stuff if you don't dodge it, and they're no problem.

Time to increment the "BN reuse" count. Things like this don't really help as I keep saying.




>not S-ranks. BOI

Their chips. I'll show them off in a little bit!



Anyway, stepping through the portal puts us over the center of AMAKEN Grd. Ground? Grid? Probably Ground.





So, her name is Chatty Ditz, and she really likes email, and her favorite cards are weird lightning bug things. Cool.

We're not seeing her Message right now because she has a quest for us.



The main road splits in two immediately after the teleporter. We'll explore the north path first. (For some reason top-right parses as north in my brain. I don't know why. But I'll probably use the two interchangably)


: I'M AFRAID OF HEIGHTS, BUT... I'M IN CHARGE OF KEEPING THIS TOWER FUNCTIONING PROPERLY. THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE COUNTING ON ME! EVEN SO, I'M STILL SCARED... *BEEP BEEP*

It's okay friend, you don't have to be scared.

Fuck him.



Garbage! Trash!

Now you know how I feel. NOW YOU KNOW.



At least this place has the other new enemy in here. The Wibbledee hops up and down the column a few times, then turns red. The next time it lands, it unleashes a three-column wide wave that's blockable. They're usually on the edge of the screen, so block or dodge. Their counter timing is when they're red, before they land on the ground.



Their chip is WideWave1.

Does someone need to go back to S-ranking school?

Hey unlike you I play games where I don't NEED to S-rank things to get the reward.





There's also another vendor out here with more HPMem. I pick up one, which is all I can afford.

You should have gotten the chain bubble. That's a goood card and useful on TaurusFire SP. Yeti pls.





Oh, huh. His name actually is Guy. Neat.

We won't be seeing his message either, he has a quest.


: LEFT SIDE, ALL CLEAR! *BEEP BEEP!?* YOU THERE! STATE YOUR NAME AND BUSINESS HERE! HUH? YOU'RE NOT A WAVE? YOU'RE A HUMAN? HMM... I'M SUPPOSED TO REMOVE ALL UNAUTHORIZED WAVES, BUT I DON'T KNOW ABOUT HUMANS... HMM...

Keep up the good work, Mr. Hertz!



At this angle, we can just barely see Boreal's Transer.



: I'll never forget the day of the accident. One day I WILL find my friend Kelvin!!

His favorite cards are cannons and missiles, unsurprisingly. Maybe NAZA was also a weapon development center?




Further down the east path, it starts zig-zagging. Hey, it looks nice to me. Plus SrchEye will come in handy when we're trying to track down TaurusFireSP at the end of this chapter.





We can also talk to this old lady, but she's got a quest so no Message yet.



The path splits in two after Millie, so let's head down the north path first.



Ah, that's what I was waiting for. This is the fourth card that I found out here, so I'll go over them.






JetAttack1 is pretty powerful and grants invulnerability frames during the dash, but has a slow startup. So, difficult to time but worth it.

ThndrBall1 uses the attack. Useful for the tracking purposes and paralyze, nearly impossible to deliberately counter with.

GhstPulse1 sends out a wave of sound in a T shape. Think Widesword stapled onto a Longsword. This one is pretty good, plus it gets a free confuse off if it doesn't kill.

WideWave1 just sends out a wave. The water element is welcome for the future rematch against Taurus, and it can hit multiple enemies if they're all on the same row.

BubbleChain1 --> Thunderball1

Yeti messing up.

The only thing messed up here is your personality you little goblin.




There's nothing further this way, unfortunately.




Worthless! Disgusting! I hate it!!

Would you like form a BrotherBand to share our disgust for shit money drops.


: YES, I CAN HEAR YOU! *BEEP BEEP*
: THE ANSWER TO THAT LAST ONE IS "A"!
: ROGER THAT! WHAT ABOUT THE NEXT QUESTION?
: ...HUH? WHAT AM I DOING? I'M SENDING MY FRIEND THE ANSWERS TO A TV QUIZ SHOW VIA THIS TWO WAY LINK.
: OK, NOW HERE'S THE QUESTION!
: OK, I'M LISTENING! *BEEP BEEP*

Look at this Mr. Hertz being a good friend

He's fucking cheating!



This is at the end of the southern path. Finally, something good!

That'll be it for this update since it's starting to run a little long. We'll check out the inside of AMAKEN next time.

Better get BubbleChain1

_{better get deez nuts you clown}