Part 15: Success

Geo has now officially dealt with the third boss, and we're now halfway through the main game. How time flies.





Ah, a featureless white room. My favorite.

Think of the possibilities! Open season.



: Where am I...?
: Hey, Geo!


: Where are we? There isn't anything around. When and how did we end up here?
: I don't know...
: You are in your subconscious.



Whoa. Weird glowing ghosts appear one at a time. More importantly, that center one is the same person that talks to us every time we send out a Cipher mail. (To any future archive readers that may see things out of order a little: check the bonus updates.)


: What the!?

Naturally Geo backs away.


: How do you know my name...?

Because you've sent signed Cipher mail, kid. Keep up.

: As for the one in your arm... It's the FM-ian, Omega-Xis, correct?
: They knew even my name... Who are these guys?
: We are they who watch over you. And they who will continue to watch.


: Geo... I sense a strange aura around them. I don't think that's good news for us...
: Then, are they enemies!? FM-ians!?
: We have only come to warn. Right now your existence is very small... However it will determine the ultimate fate of this planet, Earth.
: What does that mean?

Now we have confirmation that Geo is Important To The Plot (if you needed it beyond the fact that he was the protagonist in a Battle Network game).

Yo, sidenote. Anyone wanna check if the order of these guys is switched based on what version of the game you guys are using? Willing to bet the Dragon would be in the middle in Dragon version, for instance.



: ...A dream? What a weird dream... Didn't I have one like that before?

Naturally, it was all a dream. And instead of answering the question, those three glowy things just kinda leave.



: What does this mean?



It means you should stop eating before you go to bed, Geo.


: Yeah, there were 3 strange shadows... And they kept grumbling about something. I didn't understand any of it.

: They kept talking in Foreshadowing or something. Fuck vague plot beats.

Don't you just hate this? They're sages who want help, right...? So, be helpful.

: Well, you weren't the only one.


: When I woke up, my pendant was glowing... Did it have something to do with the dream?
: Well, it also lit up when you made that BrotherBand.
: I wonder what this really is. I don't think it's a plain old pendant anymore. Maybe it's got some special function? Hmm......

: Yeah, the special function of detecting when you're not being a wuss, kid.

I legitimately can't tell if this is actual dialogue or not.


: Well, it's a memento of my dad.
: Well, let's go ask your mom about it.
: OK.

That actually does make some sense. If his dad had it, then his mom should know, right?



But first, emails.



: I feel like I've become just a little stronger since becoming Brothers with you, Geo! You try your best to become stronger too, OK? I'm writing a new song now. When I'm done, you'll be the first to hear it! I promise!

How sweet. Sonia's a good kid.

Oh, look, characters that don't make me tear my hair out.




Alright, two steps into the game and another cutscene. One of my complaints about the game is how it insists on having a cutscene for ten minutes, then giving you maybe ten seconds of control, then ripping it away for another minute or three of cutscenes. It's not quite as visible since this is an LP and I break things up, but the player hasn't had control since the end of the Harp Note fight.

: Did she go out?


: I'm home!
: You're back.

Sigh. They didn't even let me do anything here, just a fade to black.

It's like I'm playing Kingdom Hearts 3.


: Welcome back, mom. Where'd you go?
: Well, actually...
: ...You went to my school!?
: I met with your homeroom teacher. I got a message from him asking how you were.


: It sounds like he's a new teacher. It was the first time I spoke with him. He seems like a really nice person.
: ......
: He was wondering how you were. I'm sure you would like him. So, want to give it a try? Going to school, I mean...
: ...I can't.
: ...Oh, OK.


: I got this pendant from dad, but is it some sort of special device?
: Hmm, you know, I have no idea. I know your dad found it when he was young, but I don't know anything else beyond that.
: So you don't know either, huh?
: I know! Why don't you show it to Mr. Boreal? He knew your dad the longest. He might know!
: Mr. Boreal, huh?

Guess we have our next destination. Let's go talk to Boreal.



Finally, we have a brief moment of control. I did a little stuff off-screen (notably the two jobs left in Echo Ridge that you guys saw in the bonus update 4) so let's keep moving.



: That voice... I knew it.



: And what's with that sour look on your face?
: (*snicker* That's the face he always makes when you guys are around!)
: Aaaaargh! What is it today?

Wow, he finally said what we're all thinking.

This line of dialogue is what Yeti says when I message him.


: ...feel like coming to school?


: How many times do I have to tell you? I'M. NOT. GOING. TO. SCHOOL! Now stop pestering me about it.
: Sorry, but I can't just let the matter drop. I have to get you to come to school.
: ......
: We'll be having a school event soon, and our class is going to put on a play.
: She's our director, script writer, and lead actress! She's covering it all!

Surprising nobody, Luna gave herself all the good jobs.

excuse me. Producer is still open.


: And I was thinking about casting you. For our class play, of course.
: Wh-What!? Don't randomly cast me without asking first!!
: Everyone has to do something for this event, or else it loses its meaning. You're a member of our class, so it's only natural you participate as well.
: Well, that's fine for you, but what about me!?

How the fuck is he a member of the class if he hasn't been to school in 2 years? Geo, logic-bomb her.


: Your role is very important. Veeeeery important. If you don't play your very important role, then the whole play will fall apart.
: But... But I can't do that... I can't act in a play...
: It's like dealing with a stubborn mule.

Hey, it's like dealing with a bull-headed idiot, right?

This is like the bull calling the cow a grazer.


: The set for the play is in the school Gym. I propose you at least take a look at it. I'm sure you'll want to be a part of it then! So come on. Let's go take a look inside!
: But I told you, I don't want to go to school!!
: All you're doing is seeing the set. You're not going to class or anything. You can't say no now, can you?


: ...... Even I have a limit on my patience. You are sooooooo stubborn!!
: YOU'RE the stubborn one! You're the one always following me around, you...





I actually do love this line. Geo's finally standing up for himself


: A satellite is a heavenly body that goes around and around, circling a planet! Your name, Luna, means "moon", and the moon is the Earth's satellite. That's why it's the perfect name for you!


: Who wants to be a satellite to you!?!? I refuse to let you get away today, you hear? Even if I have to tie a Prez flag around your neck, I'm claiming you for today! Whatever you have to do can wait!!
: I'd do what she says, if I were you!


: (...I'll never get to Mr. Boreal's lab... I guess I don't have a choice......)

No, Geo, don't give in! You were so close!

God dammit!


: You promise all I have to do is look at it?
: Y-Yes, that's it.
: If that's all, then I'll take a quick peek.
: !!


: I finally got Geo to go to school! Yay! This is all my doing! It's all thanks to my concern for the well-being of my classmates!
: You're the best, Prez!
: (Good work, Prez! Thanks to you, I can finally see what the inside of a school looks like!!)
: (Wh-Why are you so happy!?)

I'd say not to encourage her, Mega, but I'm excited too. There's a lot of good stuff in the school, and I want it all.

Now you're thinking like a Giver.


: Because I am the Prez after all!
: Yeah whatever, I'm only going to take a look. And then I'm leaving.
: Well, just come take a look at the set. I'm sure you'll want to do the play after that. The set is in the school Gym. Well, let's go!



Well, nothing else to do but go inside. We can't even go to AMAKEN, and there's nowhere I want to go in Echo Ridge. Might as well head in.




: Well, I think the building itself changed a bit.
: They remodeled it recently. It was the principal's idea, I think...

It's a convenient way to make it so that Geo is exploring at the same time that the player is. Not like it really matters, but it's still a nice touch.




Hello, who's this hair?


: Hi, Mr. Shepar!
: School let out a long time ago. You kids should be home already!
: We know, but today's special!
: Please, Mr. Shepar! Just this once!
: Special? What do you mean...?

Maybe it's a cultural difference, or maybe I did a lot of extracurriculars when I was a kid, but it's kinda weird to me that the kids are getting yelled at to go home.

That's just this dude's type. Home and play are important for development, and he gets it.


: This kid is...


: You're...
: He's Geo, Mr. Shepar!
: Oh! I thought it might be you, Geo! Well, this is a pleasant surprise! I was just talking with your mom!
: Yeah, I heard from my mom.
: Oh, I forgot to introduce myself.



He technically has a blinking sprite. His eyes crinkle a little bit more. It's barely noticeable.


: ...finally going to come to school! And it's all thanks to my powers of persuasion!
: H-Hey! Hold on!! You promised I only had to look at the set!
: Ahh, that's bullying, you know. Luna, you forced him to come, didn't you?


: I was doing it for Geo's sake...

I can already tell half the thread loves Shepar, if only because he's the first person to directly call Luna out on her harrassment.


: (Liar.)

: (Skirt on fire.)


: ...but you can't bully someone into going. You know... life is full of important things, lots more important than just what you learn in school. That's what I've always believed.



This is a nice sentiment, and it's certainly resonating with Geo, but I think Shepar isn't totally correct.


: ...to him right now that he has to do, right Geo? Something more important than school... That's why I'm gonna wait until he's really ready to come to school.


: Ha ha, maybe I said too much. Oh! I have to get going! I promised my kids I'd be home early and hang out with them today.
: Your kids? You have 6, right?
: Nah, 7!

His poor wife.

Those poor checking accounts.


: Even when they give me trouble, it's really no trouble at all. That's how I feel, anyway. And of course, the same with all of you. Well, see you around, kids. Make sure you all get yourselves home soon too, alright?


: ...if you ever want to talk, you know where I am. See you around.



He heads... back into the school? Not out? Wow, that guy's dedicated.

(pay our teachers more)

I actually agree with this. They get paid like SHIT.


: ...I still think it's better for you to come. It's not good for your classmates if every one of us isn't there. Plus, if you don't come, we can't do the play. Anyway, go take a look at the set, for now.

Again, she's doing it for mostly selfish reasons, but Luna does have a good point or two buried deep within her reasoning.



Finally! Some actual time to explore for a bit without getting into another cutscene!


It's all a part of this school's glorious legacy.

The generic "Our school is great" trophies, plus the umbrella stand. Not sure why there's a bunch of umbrellas here now, since I don't think there's been any rain mentioned in the narration for... the entire game, actually.


If you look real closely, there's a wavehole here!

If you examine it again, the text changes a bit:
It's a statue of the first principal of Echo Elementary. He was a magnificent educator. He is a bit of a legend among teachers.


Students aren't allowed to touch it.

Geo shows his disdain for being forced to come here. Good on you.




Touch this and a teacher is sure to lecture you.

Everything's so shiny and new! Surprisingly, though, none of it has a wavehole except the principal statue.



I remembered to capture the textbox that blocks you from going this way.

I expected a comment showing his character here. Oh well.


...the snack shop lady will try to get it for you.

They can even request stuff, neat.





And that's the main Foyer. Now, you might have noticed something that stands out a tiny bit when I was running around. A certain tile in the ground.



There's a wavehole here, so let's get to the FUN part of exploring.



: HI HI! THIS IS ECHO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL'S FOYER! THE OLD LADY WHO RUNS THE SHOP IS REALLY NICE!

You're nice too Mr. Hertz!

Shut up, both of you.



The Foyer EM road is special for one major reason.



New viruses! First up, and the only new virus on this screen, is Mettenna2. It's exactly the same as you'd expect; more HP, faster, and like Mettaurs from Battle Network, any Mettenna2 will hide under its helmet until it attacks.




It drops the GroundWave2 chip, which is a nice increase to the power. You can see here that it's a 50-point jump in damage; and for now, this is going to be the main way we can get double and triple deletes since it goes through multiple enemies.



Something new that happened without the game mentioning it at all is this card that's been added to our Folder. It's an on-off toggle so you can turn it off if you don't want this card to show up, but it's a good idea!




When it appears in your chip select, a roulette starts and you get one of your Brother's Favorite cards. In this case, it was useless, but c'est la vie.

What you get is always a white card, so basically a freebie. There's almost no reason not to have them unless you're trying to mess with RNG to get you exactly what you want.



If we want to see what the cards can be, just head over to the Brother screen in the pause menu. It's useful now.



This shows everything about Sonia that we need. Most relevantly, the Favorites (those six cards selected, which include Harp Note) and the Link Abilities, HP +30, Undershirt and FirstBarrier.



We can also read her message...



And her secret.

The best place for a secret is inside your brain. When will people learn!



Moving along, that's the new stuff taken care of, so let's explore.


: I was placed here after that property damaging incident. If you see any suspicious people, be sure to contact me!

Hahahaha, a red Navi is here to help with the guy who attacks red things. Unless this dude is really strong, I doubt it'll matter.




The Foyer is split into three parts, connected by this central panel. The first part contains the Pulse In point, the red navi, and the exit to the Gym's wave road.



The second part is down from the central part, and holds a couple of goodies for Megaman to collect.



Acceptable, since this is roughly 3 virus battles.




This on the other hand is not acceptable. Useless!

Because you have the BN Blaster. If not, 3 Attack isn't terrible at this point.



We also have access to the Trio's Transers, but they don't have anything new so there's no point.





The warp from the right branch takes us to a segment of road that will eventually lead back to the first part of the area, but also gives access to this BMW and the wavehole.




Taking the warp on the left branch drops us off on a segment that leads to a deeper part of the school, but this isn't Battle Network 1 and so we can't go explore there yet.



Another warp past that launches Megaman to the third area, which as you can see has 1) Nothing of interest yet; 2) a warp back to the central green platform, and 3) a warp back to the pulse in point.



Moving along into the Principal comp, there are no new viruses here. You can encounter Mettenna2 and MonoSword in this place, but if you want more BraveSword chips just go to a different area.



There is this though, so good.


: ...SPACE! I KEEP A WATCHFUL EYE ON ALL STUDENTS AND VISITORS AT ECHO RIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL! ANY STINKERS THAT I CATCH TRYING TO GET AWAY WITH SOMETHING WILL GET THE LIGHT FROM MY EYES SHINED ON THEM. *BEEP BEEP*

It sounds like Mr. Hertz is a good deterrent!

Yeah, this tiny, pitiful thing is gonna stop students from cheating. Fat chance.




The Gym wave road has a lot more interesting things for us to talk about.




There are no Mettenna2s here, but there are FOUR new viruses: ZapKing, Wavyboo, OctoNinja, and BoomBolt. ZapKing and Wavyboo are level 2 viruses of the ones we've seen before (faster with more health and do more damage), but the other two are new.



OctoNinja will jump up in the air, land, and then squirt ink down the column. Any square it touches will turn to grass. The counter timing is just before they shoot the ink.

Edit:

Polderjoch from the thread pointed out that I missed something. Once they're down to half health, the OctoNinja will get pissy and stop jumping; in exchange, it'll constantly be shooting ink down the column. Honestly, though? You should be able to kill these OctoNinja before they reach that point unless you're doing it deliberately.



BoomBolt will hide in its cloud when you're in the same column, so pack quick-hitting chips or indirect ones. It circles around until it's in the row in front of Megaman, and then zaps the squares around itself with electricity. The counter timing is just as its about to start zapping.









It took some work to get these, but they're pretty worth it.









All very good cards here. ThunderBall2 is immediately replacing the ThunderBall1 (increase of 30 damage) and CloudShot1 is just replacing something less good.

If only you had the cincher chip to make it all come together.



The wave road itself is large and open, with one huge square and a couple little offshoots from there.




One such offshoot is a pulse in point. Good to know.


: I'm in the middle of training! It is my dream to become the greatest Delivery Navi in the world! I'm gonna keep on running until I beat the world record!!


: OH, PLEASE LOOK THIS WAY, MR. DELIVERY! AAAAAH! HE SMILED AT ME! CAN YOU PLEASE NOT GET IN MY WAY? I'M CHEERING FOR MR. DELIVERY!

Cheer away, Mr. Hertz! Everyone needs a supporter.

Go wear a miniskirt.





This is pretty useful for slowing the faster bosses down. As long as they don't have FloatShoes or something (like CygnusWing) anyone that steps on a Grav panel is forced to stop for a second and can't move.

Noob-friendly chip, but it doesn't help you learn the counter frames, since it stops their attacks dead. Meaning no counters.




Also acceptable.




What's this? Another one?



You might have noticed it in the background, but there's actually a wavehole up here.


These are needed to light up the stage.



Not much up here. Let's head back down to the gym and explore it properly, now that everything in the waveroad areas I have access to has been explored and collected.




I wonder if I can make it over this.

Very interesting. It's a gym so who cares, but hey, it's pretty neat.



Now, let's take a look at this set.


: A blue outfit with a stripe and a helmet... And... A truck... A smashed-up mail box... What the heck is this play about?


: It's the Prez's idea! She made it all. This is gonna go down in history!
: OK, listen up. I'm only going to tell you this once. The title of this play is...



Damn, another perfect title for the thread.

Mods. Change it to this. TIA.



Geo actually jumps pretty high in the air here.

: Oh, you know of MegaMan?
: N-No, not really.
: MegaMan is this mysterious guy. Whenever we're in a jam, he shows up, beats up the bad monster, and vanishes. He's my role-model!!


: MegaMan has saved me twice now from harm. The first time was the incident with the truck, and then again at AMAKEN. He appears in a flash of light, just like a shooting star... O, MegaMan! Wherefore art thou, MegaMan?

Hmm. It's impressive she knows the line, but also you gotta make sure you don't misquote Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's play were the only interesting ones I read in school. Macbeth was the shit.

: Why is your name MegaMan?


: Huh? Did you say something?
: N-No, nothing!
: Anyway, this play is based on the truck incident. Me, the lead actress, has been abducted by the mad, menacing CowMan... And that's when MegaMan comes to save the fair maiden. You see, it's a very moving story!

Can I be the cowman? Please?



This is the laugh of a man who really wants to disagree with someone but can't quite find it in themselves to say something. Anyway, it's a little bit more interesting that Luna remembers everything. She really shouldn't, according to Mega.


: MegaMan saved you too, you know!?

Get outta here Zack, you dweeb.


: That guy saved us at AMAKEN. If he hadn't, I don't know what would've happened to us.
: I believe in MegaMan! I know he is real and he is out there! And he'll always help people in trouble! Because he's a real hero!



Geo hops again. See, kid, this is why you shouldn't be so obvious about it, now stories are starting to spread.


: ...funny ever since I mentioned him. Are you, by chance...
: *ba-dump*
: ...a fan of MegaMan?

See, this is why the Superman-Clark Kent dynamic is still so powerful today. People see what they want to believe. MegaMan has the same hair as Geo. Same height. And he's acting suspicious today. She suspects him subconsciously.


: (Whew! I thought she was going to say something else...)
: (Hey! Geo! Look out! Up there!!)
: Wha?





Oh shit that's a close one.

: Th-That was close...
: What was that? A stage light!?
: (Geo, your Visualizer.)
: (Oh, yeah.)



: ...*grin*


: (Wait, that means...)
: (He grinned at us?)
: (Alright, Geo, time to pulse in!)
: (We're fighting here? Now?)
: (I'm telling you from experience, guys like that who pull off suprirse attacks are a pain if you don't get them fast. If we let him get away now, we're gonna have to be ready for surprise attacks at any time.)
: (I guess you're right...)



It's kinda funny how he's just been standing there whispering to Mega and nobody said anything for the entire conversation.

: Don't tell me it hit you on the head...?



That's a lame excuse but sure, if it works it works.



Did you notice this creeper earlier?

: Huh? A peeping tom? I... I'm not a peeping tom...

Good lord. Is every update going to have a creeper now?


It may be grass, but this stuff hurts!


The corners are kinda sharp, so you've gotta be careful when moving it.


: Aww, did the falling light scare you?

Yeah, Geo, did your brush with death leave you shaken at all? You wimp.


: I can't believe the light would fall like that.

I can't believe they managed to clear it up this quickly.



This is the closest point to that Jammer, so we'll go fuck him up.

Let's get 'em.