Part 35: Sudden Exposition

What could have happened here?


...relaxed and spent their private time.

Looks pretty messy. These astronauts really need to clean up after themselves.

Probably pretty accurate to folks on long trips. Who cares about cleanliness past a certain point. One bad fart and it's all ogre.



Hmm? What's that over there?


: ........



: Yeah, this is where your dad, Kelvin Stelar, was during the incident.
: This is where dad...
: That day, 3 years ago...

The incident...


: ...space station, took all of its passengers, and held a trial...
: .........
: The FM King found them all guilty, and sentenced them to death...
: He sentenced them to... No...

That's really not a good thing for Geo to hear.


: I was the jail keeper, as it were. And that's how I met your dad... Kelvin kept poking into my business, and when I'd notice, he'd act like it was nothing. Then, one day... Just as I'd gotten the Andromeda Key, and was about to escape from this station...

I know this is important stuff? But... also, I feel like the room before the final boss really isn't a great time to do backstory. This game makes weird pacing choices sometimes.

Welcome to Battle Network storytelling, friends. Even in 200 years, writers still maintain their same bad habits.


: One way or another, I'm gonna take out the FM-ians. I've gotta get going before they catch me. Didn't know you for long, but it's been fun.

And hey! It's Kelvin's first appearance in the flesh.


: What?
: ...........Can you take us with you?
: What are you talking about? Is your head on straight? You guys are humans. How am I supposed to bring you along?
: Turn our bodies into EM waves. Please.


: ...which you aliens with EM bodies emit, then we should turn into waves as well.
: I guess if you soak up enough Z waves your bodies would lose mass and you'll turn into waves, but...

Isn't that supposed to be a one-way thing? This seems like it might not be a great idea.

Either that or die. Besides, maybe technology can put them back again.


: No matter how small of a chance, as long as there is hope, then we can't give up. Please, Mega...
: You know what my situation is, right?
: Mega, why don't you give up on revenge and come to Earth with us? I'm sure you'd get along great with my son.
: Go to Earth?

Mega, get along with Kelvin's son? Impossible. It'd never happen.

Impossible. Next you're gonna tell me he'll learn to be kind. Nonsense.


: ...you planning on finding your way back? You don't become all-knowing just because you're a bunch of waves. You get lost in space, and you'll be wandering the stars forever.
: I'll send an access signal from my Transer to my son's. If the signal is picked up, then it should guide us to where he is.

Remember the first update, how Geo's Transer suddenly started beeping? Now we have an explanation for that.


: Throw away the Andromeda Key. Come with us.
: Hah, stop. I'm not looking for a place to rest. I have only 1 goal: to defeat the FM King. Sorry, but I'm not taking you guys with me. But if you want to go home that badly... I can change you into wave form.



Mega does do the right thing, in the end. It just takes him a while to find a way to justify it to himself.


: Thank you. I'll get the others.


: ...starting with your dad, into EM waves. Then, as we were escaping from the station... Taurus, who was looking for me, suddenly attacked. It was a violent attack, and when I had a chance to look around, Kelvin and the others had vanished. All that was left was his Transer.


: ...Transer was sending, and followed it. And that's how I ended up where you were, Geo.
: Dad... What happened to him...?
: Taurus's attack was aimed at me, so I don't think Kelvin and the others were hit. I think they're probably still out there in their wave forms, lost...

Taurus kinda just has a turbo-hate for Mega, huh?

"HRRK! ME RED! ME HATE BLUE! CHARGE."


: ...then that means they might be still alive...
: They might be, but the chances are slim...
: I know... But if there's even a sliver of a chance, then I'll keep the hope alive.

Do you get it? It's the thing Kelvin said, everyone! You get it? Huh?

...Who the hell named Geo's mom that?


: We've gotta go protect the Earth from the FM King!
: Yeah. I don't want to think about how to explain it to your dad if he comes back and finds the Earth a mess!
: Yeah!

Well. As much as I'll make fun of the story's writing sometimes, I'm glad we did get to figure out a little bit of what's going on. I would probably been complaining about the lack of bodies if this story beat didn't happen.


...an inter-planetary BrotherBand.

That part didn't work out so well for them.

Stop adding more Facebook friends! Don't you see that social media is bad for you!? Look, this very game agrees!



This on the other hand, will work out much better.


At the bottom it says... "Come home safely dad! -Geo" "Be careful honey. -Hope"

Kelvin has this displayed pretty proudly on the wall.


: So this is where my dad worked...



It might be a little tricky to see right away, but there are a few colored papers scattered on the ground. They're a wave hole, as you'd expect.



Before we explore this area, let's check out the wavehole I opened up.


: *GRUNT* GENERATE! AND GENERATE SOME MORE. IF I DON'T KEEP THIS UP, THE OTHER MACHINES WILL STOP WORKING. I'M WORKING HARD HERE! SOMETIMES I JUST WANT TO TAKE A BREAK! IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK? *GRUNT* GENERATE! AND GENERATE SOME MORE.

Good job, Mr. Hertz! Generate that data!



Seriously, they're being very generous with the max HP. I'm 20 away from four digits.




These are the new viruses, by the way. The level 2 Rhino and the level 2 Sticky. But, more importantly, see that black hole virus? This thing is a menace.

Its normal attack is to launch a small planet down the column its in. After a few turns of that, it'll start sucking in, and drain MegaMan's HP. This one does go through barriers, so you can't stop the HP drain.

The problem is hitting it. 90 HP seems like a small amount for a virus this late, right? Well, yes, it is. But the problem is, Grabity's family can only be injured by Sword-attribute attacks. It's one of the hidden status types, like Breaking.

They are also vulnerable to Poison panels, strangely enough. So, use Ophiuca, Wolf Woods (both hits are classified as Sword), or Gemini (the second hit is a Sword attack) Mega cards. Or, just lock on and use a regular sword card.



A 5? That's an F, Yeti.

It got me the card, which was more important.



5 damage increase translates to 30, really. But also it's just a good thing to get.




Unfortuantely for this card, we already have the level 3.



A 7? That's a C. You barely passed.



And this thing. This is one of the few cards that instantly deletes enemies. It's useful to have around if you want to try it, though I don't remember if it works on bosses or not.

It's certainly OK for farming weaker viruses you somehow missed. It's kind of impossible to balance. Make it too good and everything is a cakewalk. Make it weak and it's useless. It's a one-hit kill, so there's no real room for middle-ground. Starforce 3 ran into this problem with the Darkness Hole GigaChip.



Enough of that, let's keep moving forward.



Okay yes, this first. CopyFokx is the second rank of Fokx virus.



Whoops, forgot to take a picture of the card itself. But you've seen the first version, this one is just more powerful.

I'm not seeing S-ranks, Yeti! Better go farm until you do!


: IF YOU HAPPEN TO SEE A VIRUS TAHT LOOKS LIKE A DARK VORTEX, BE CAREFUL! YOU CAN ONLY ATTACK IT WITH SWORD-TYPE WEAPONS. BLEEP-BEEP!

Thank you, Mr. Hertz! This was very confusing to me when I first played the game as a kid.

Useless Hertz tells us after we found the first virus. Shove him out an airlock.



This area has a lot of teleport pads. If you teleport to the first area below the wave hole and then walk down into this spot...

We're flying! FLYING!



There's a hidden wavehole, out here.



The Living Mod. comp is pretty important.



First, because it pushes me to 990 max HP. One more HPMem and I'll be at 1000.


: ALL ALONE IN SPACE... ARE YOU LONELY TOO?



This Hertz is very important. If you say no...


: IF YOU WOULDN'T MIND, PLEASE ACCEPT THIS... IT'S PROOF THAT I AM HERE...




He gives us this. It doesn't do anything useful right now, but it'll come in handy during the postgame.

The only Hertz I feel sad for.



Moving along, the rest of the area is just separated by the jumps.



This is pretty handy. Even if it's a recover card and thus not something I'm interested in using, it's still 300 HP.



The final comp space before we fight the FM King.



This area's pretty twisting.



And, with some very useful items tucked away. I've now officially broken 1000 HP!

But you didn't get all the HP Mems. Your HP is inflated by your Brother Bands. Fake news.



The gate is right at the entrance, by the way. The paths are very tangled up and they all refuse to go over the constellation.



The path to the exit does have this here, though. Not that it's helpful, but it does mean you never need to kill the Grabity for its card.

The game bitched out. It should have made you kill them.





Speaking of viruses! Nothing new, but these are all upgraded viruses from Ophiuca's dungeon. Even if there wasn't only one FM-ian left, we'd know.




Very nice! Though we've had this available for a while thanks to the Cipher codes.

This card is my fucking jam, right here.




200 breaking damage, when my Pegasus charge shot can freeze? I'll take it gladly, thank you.

And this one. Just eat breaking damage, enemy on field. Yes, you.




And the StickyRain2 is already outclassed. I really don't understand why they backloaded the game with so much new stuff this quickly.

Poor distribution planning. Or maybe they thought the final boss was reaaaalllly hard.The final version you fight for 100% completion ain't too shabby if only because he hits so damn hard.



There's also this. More damage, but nothing super special.




At the very end of the paths it finally lets me jump across the constellation. Was that really so hard?



Honestly, these constellations are very similar to the actual constellations in real life. So, you can probably cheat very easily.



Is this shrug emote?



Simple.


: "Snake Woman" is such an unrefined name. I, Ophiuca, guardian of the FM King, will not allow a single vermin like you to get through this final door!!



: The FM King is just beyond this door! We have to get past her! Don't let her stop us here!
: Got it! Wave Battle! Ride On!!
: You don't have the antidote to MY poison!!

Is this a pickup line?



I... I kinda do. And it's called BreakTimeBomb.


: You... accursed Omega-Xis... Androme... Aaaaaah!!




: All that's left is the FM King... and Andromeda! We've gotta hurry!



: Right!



The final door is open, and the FM King doesn't have any more servants to slow us down.

Not a single S-rank to be found this update. I taught you better than this, Yeti.

Just because I'm not showing them doesn't mean they didn't happen. Unless I've really overestimated you and you still don't have object permanence?