Alright, my minions, I've come back from the dead to write another
EXE guide. Once again, it damn near drove me nuts. And yet again I've
left out some goofy ASCII art at the top of my guide. Don't like that stuff
at all. This was a bare bones guide made as I played along - as I did with
EXE4 - so don't expect me to say what's in the GMDs of every area, what
every PMD holds, where every HP Memory is, and so on. I'm sure other
guides of the in-depth variety will eventually come along to do that. This
is just a simple walkthrough for those who have little to no knowledge of
the Japanese language and need help going through.

I'd like to really start by thanking the whole of the ToB forum. Many times
I got lost or stuck and was pointed in the right direction by others. They
also helped to keep me from quitting like twice during two highly annoying
parts of the game.

You people should know how to play EXE by now. If you aren't, go play
one of the first five. This thing's a straight-up walkthrough. It's not like
the controls need to be stated or anything....

...Oh, alright, here:

D-Pad: Well, you move things with it, kids. That's kinda what it's THERE
for. :o
Select: Used in the final area to switch between Navis.
Start: Pauses/Brings up menu
A: Examines things/Use Chips/Hold to charge certain chips when in
certain Soul Unisons.
B: Uses your Buster attack, hold to run. 
L: Get info from Netto/Rock/etc...Also used to turn around in Liberate
Missions.
R: Plug-In to things. Also used to turn around in Liberate Missions.

I'm sure I'm forgetting really dumb things... but really, the controls
are about as simple as they could possibly be. And I explain things
better as the guide goes. 

And to anyone who doesn't like me using the real names for the characters:
Bite me. I play the Japanese versions, not the messed-up US ones. If all of
us could learn the names, so can you. Don't come to the forums asking
dumb questions. "Where is Afrikku" was asked many times on the EXE4
boards. They changed it to "Netfrica" in the translation. Now is is really
THAT hard to work out where that is?

As with before, bring Ye Find Box up and enter any of the four-character
codes after a section to jump down to it. Got it? Allllrighty!

Also, I expect you people to at least have a basic kana chart ready
for one of the first series of puzzles. Don't come to the forums and
ask how to do it. I jotted up some half-assed diagrams showing
which pieces to take. Now then... the guide's been broken down
into the following parts:

3.1: Another Day, Another Problem    - [adap]
3.2: The Word Puzzle Blues           - [labs]
3.3: A Frosty Situation              - [lib1]
3.4: Life's a Beach                  - [swim]
3.5: Island Liberation               - [lib2]
3.6: Little Black Rainclouds         - [pooh] 
3.7: Wind and Rain                   - [gyro]
3.8: Fight and Flight                - [lib3]
3.9: Blues Brother                   - [blpi]
3.10: High Seas Thievery             - [ship]
3.11: The Darkness Within            - [lib4]
3.12: The Start of Something Big     - [srch]
3.13: Double Agent                   - [dbla]
3.14: Ready, Aim, Fire!              - [nnja]
3.15: Cosmic Allignment              - [lib5]
3.16: Dogcatcher                     - [gau!]
3.17: Meddling Kid                   - [medi]
3.18: Shadow Sword                   - [lib6]
3.19: Darkness Purge                 - [bomb]
3.20: The Breaking of the Fellowship - [lotr]
3.21: Sins of the Father             - [grey]
3.22: Finale                         - [over]

=============================================
3.1: Another Day, Another Problem    - [adap]
=============================================

Our hero, the great Hikari Netto... begins the game asleep. Yeah, like
that's new. After Rock wakes him up and he gets his PET, he begins to
Plug-in, but Haruka calls for him from downstairs, interrupting the
process. Once you're in control, you'll get an e-mail [#1: Net 
Battlers] and Rock'll tell you how to access it.

Head downstairs and talk to Haruka when you're ready. Seems you're
going to be delivering a Stew Recipe to one of her friend's Navis.
It seems to be hanging around Akihara Area 2. You should know the drill
by now, folks. It IS the fifth game. Head upstairs and tap R by Netto's
PC to Plug-In. Snazzy animation, huh?

Check out how weird the area is! And, of course, there's that pesky
trio of Tutorial Metools up ahead. Urrrrg. Capcom, you dorks, it's
the FIFTH GAME! Who's gonna start the series HERE? 

Tutorial #1: [Metool x2] The Custom Window will be explained here. As
will the basics of chip codes and such. Select both Cannon chips and
select OK. Blow the Mets up.

Tutorial #2: [Metool x3] Support Chip time, kids. Select Area Steal,
then Wide Sword, in that order, and take out the first two Mets. Pick
away at the third's HP until you can bring the Custom Window back up.
Take out the Mets however you want. 

Tutorial #3: [Metool x3] Counter/Full Syncho time. Select the Cannon,
then both Air Shots, in that order. Counter the first Met by shooting
it with the Cannon right as it pulls its pickaxe back. Do the same for
the other two using the Air Shot chips. Their power will be doubled
if you counter right, and you'll be able to drop all three Mets if
you have good timing.

Well, now that THAT mess is over with... on to that recipe delivery!
Head through the portal on the far side of Nettos' Home Page to enter
Akihara Area 1. Weird looking, ain't it? The green path's the one you
wanna follow to get to the next area. But explore a little if you want
and get some zenny/chips. 

In Area 2, there's a Netdealer selling the following:

HP Memory:      1000Z
HP Memory:      3200Z
Vulcan 1 C:     500Z
Spread Gun *:   3200Z
High Cannon E:  5000Z
Long Sword C:   6000Z
Custom Sword E: 6800Z

Anyway, follow the green path until you see Gutsman and Glyde chatting
with one another. There's a zigzaggy path past them that leads to the
Netdealer and a portal. Take the portal to go to a Kitchen HP. In the
center is a pink Navi. Talk to it. You'll deliver Haruka's recipe, get
an E-mail from Yuuichirou, and automatically Plug-Out. You'll then get
the same E-mail to read at your leisure.

Go tell Haruka you'll be leaving, then head out of the house. There's
a Regular Up in the doghouse, so grab that before going anywhere else.

We've got some inviting to do. Meiru-chan's house is closest, so go
let her know. Then do the same for Dekao and Yaito. Check out the
Higure-ya while you're at it. Higure's done some serious overhauling
to that shop! Too bad it's closed right now. After you're done telling
your friends about what Yuuichirou has planned, head for the Metro
entrance for a cutscene. 30 minutes later and everyone shows up. Dekao
is, of course, late. 

For all intents and purposes, this is the outer section of the Scilab
area. Scilab's shorter than the real name, so let's just use that. Head
up the stairs and a cutscene will play, showing the four entering. It
then scrolls down to the street to show a suspicious black car parked.

"...Jikan da na."/"...It's time."

THAT doesn't sound good. There's some kinda weird plans that're about
to get carried out. 

Anyway, there's some interesting stuff inside the SciLab, which looks
a-prettypretty good now. Head upstairs all the way and go through the
door there to get to Yuuichirou. Unfortunately, the absent-minded
professor here's lost his ID Card and the computer's security won't
let him access it without it. Being the lazy sod he is, he has Netto
go and get it. But before he can find the thing, a security alarm
sounds.

Seems some rogue Navis have popped into the Ichibu Area. And then a
weird round thing rolls in. Gas bomb. From stage left comes a trio of
people who look like they just stepped off the set of the latest
sentai series. Oh, look. It's our old friend Dr. Regal, fresh from
being retconned back to life. Looks less goofy now, at least. They
kidnap Yuuichirou and take the PETs from Netto's friends. None of them
see Netto, though. Well, another wacky opening is done. It's time to
get down to business. Regal's kidnapped Yuuichirou and that ain't
kosher.

=============================================
3.2: The Word Puzzle Blues           - [labs]
=============================================

Netto awakes in bed, Haruka at his side. Seems he's been out quite
awhile, too. After an annoyingly long sequence where Netto's brought
up to speed, he Plugs-In to his PC. 

All is not well on the internet, though. Akihara looks like hell on
toast. Head through to Area 2. Remember where you saw Gutsman and
Glyde earlier? That big, square platform? Head there and talk to the
Heel Navi to get into a fight. Afterwards, Netto demands to know if
his dad's alright. After some dialogue, he escapes through the gate
behind him. Rock tries following, but the gate lowers again. An E-mail
comes through from the Lab, though. Looks like it's official - Nebula
is back. Hoo-rah.

Go downstairs and talk to Haruka. Netto tells a white lie or two. We
have business to take care of. The local law enforcement and military
are useless - WE know that. Meiru-chan's outside the Metro station.
Talk to her for a Roll chip and her P-Code. Enter the Metro for the
nice new map layout. Head for SciLab and go inside. There's some
trouble with the Main System, it seems. Head upstairs to Yuuichirou's
office and examine his PC. THERE'S that ID Card! Head into the Main
Operate Room. Head up and Plug-In.

Main System Area 1. Head through until you reach the program next to
a three-digit code. You gotta rearrange the numbers. It's not that
hard, but you have to do it right or you'll get into a battle. The
number you're looking for is 762. Continue through and you'll reach
another three-digit code. This time it reads "Koin" - Coin. You need
to change it to read "Inko." Might I suggest a kana guide for this
section? There's an HP Memory in a BMD past this second puzzle.

The next puzzle has TWO segments - oh joy. Kisata and Uginu. THESE
don't make sense. You want Tanuki and Usagi. This one's a bit tricky,
though. Alright, check out teh crappy diagram.

[Ki][Sa][Ta] [U][Gi][Nu]

This is how it starts. 

Now take Gi and move it where Ta is.

[Ki][Sa][Gi] [U][__][Nu]

Then put Ta where U is.

[Ki][Sa][Gi] [Ta][__][Nu]

Take the U over where Ki is.

[U][Sa][Gi] [Ta][__][Nu]

Now put Ki where Nu is.

[U][Sa][Gi] [Ta][__][Ki]

Finally, stick Nu in the empty space.

[U][Sa][Gi] [Ta][Nu][Ki]

Usagi/Tanuki. Victoly! Well, the Tanuki path has a locked gate, so
take the Usagi path. Walk a bit and you'll hit a purple floor switch.
Step on it to open the Tanuki gate. Head on through to Main System
Area 2.

Oh goody. More puzzles. Nyamun Nomiboki. This SHOULD read Kyanon
Minibomu. Canon/Minibomb. 

[Ni][ya][Mu][N] [No][Mi][Bo][Ki]

Take Ki and move it to Ni.

[Ki][ya][Mu][N] [No][Mi][Bo][__]

Take Ni over to where Mi is.

[Ki][ya][Mu][N] [No][Ni][Bo][__]

Put Mi where No is.

[Ki][ya][Mu][N] [Mi][Ni][Bo][__]

Take No to where Mu is.

[Ki][ya][No][N] [Mi][Ni][Bo][__]

And finally, put Mu in the empty space to finish. 

The Cannon path has a gate, so take the Minibomb path. Yup, another
purple switch. Now head down the Cannon path. Head along and you'll
reach yet another word puzzle. THIS time there are THREE places! Each
is only three characters long, however. Here we go again.

[Bi][Ma][Te] [Gi][Yu][Ta] [Mi][Bu][Ko]

That's the starting position. YOU want it to read Migite Koyubi Mabuta.
And here's a-how we do it. First, take Mi and put it where Bi is.

[Mi][Ma][Te] [Gi][Yu][Ta] [__][Bu][Ko]

Now take Bi and put it where Ta is. 

[Mi][Ma][Te] [Gi][Yu][Bi] [__][Bu][Ko]

Take Ta and put it where Ko is. 

[Mi][Ma][Te] [Gi][Yu][Bi] [__][Bu][Ta]

Now take Ko and stick it where Gi is. 

[Mi][Ma][Te] [Ko][Yu][Bi] [__][Bu][Ta]

Now take Gi and put it where Ma is. 

[Mi][Gi][Te] [Ko][Yu][Bi] [__][Bu][Ta]

Finally, take Ma and stick it in the empty space.

[Mi][Gi][Te] [Ko][Yu][Bi] [Ma][Bu][Ta] 

Right Hand, Little Finger, Eyelid. DING. Mucho gracias to Magena
Galaxy for providing me with the proper order. Urg. I hate these
things. 

Mabuta has a purple switch behind it, so hit that first. Migite also
has a switch. Hit THAT. Now the two gates beyond Koyubi are open. So
head through there. Head past the >>>> path and grab the BMD. It has
a Full Energy. Now go back and slide along the >>>> route. After two
of these, you can continue to the southwest or go through a one-panel
>>>> thing. Don't take that, it'll send you back. Head southwest. A
Spreadgun E is in the BMD along that path. 

Oh look. Yet ANOTHER puzzle. Thankfully it's a number puzzle. But the
program seems to be spazzing out on us and won't be of any help
whatsoever. You need yourself...a memo! Head out of the room when it
cuts to Netto and go to Yuuichirou's office. Inspect the coffee table
to get the memo you're after. The code is 53214. 

[1][2][3][4][5]

Take 5 and move it to spot 1.

[5][2][3][4][_]

Now take 1 and put it where 3 is.

[5][2][1][4][_]

Now put 3 where 2 is.

[5][3][1][4][_]

Now put 2 where 1 is.

[5][3][2][4][_]

Put 1 where 4 is.

[5][3][2][1][_]

And finally, stick the 4 in place. 

Now save and head forward. Rock runs up the slope ahead to the Main
System. But there's no one there! Rock looks around and suddenly hears
a voice. ...Blues?! 

#########
BLUES.EXE
#########

HP: 300
Attacks: ...Oh, just look at what he has for every OTHER game. It's
not like he changes tactics. OMGZ HE HIT U WITH TEH SOWRD!!

Anyway, Blues seems to have eaten a large breakfast of ram chips or
something, since he's really, really slow. Take him out with whatever
chips you want and use Roll if your HP gets down too low. 

Turns out he was testing you. 

"You've passed... Rockman."
"Passed? Whuchutalkin'bout?"

Well...it seems something odd is going on and Enzan's behind it. Once
you're in control of Netto, head through the door leading to the second
part of the Main Operate Room. 

Enzan's building himself a team of Navis to help save teh intarweb.
Then he goes and asks if Netto wants to save his pops. Then he talks
about fighting the Dark Chip Syndicate, Nebula. He brings up the Team
of Blues and then goes into a bit on Liberate Missions. He mentions
Akihara 3.

Before he leaves, Netto asks if his papa's alright. But Enzan doesn't
know. Time to go home for now. Head upstairs and go to bed. Day 1 is
over.

=============================================
3.3: A Frosty Situation              - [lib1]
=============================================

The next day...

Enzan calls and basically states that it's time for the first Liberate
Mission. We're to meet up with Blues in Akihara Area 2. Netto will
Plug-In Rock on his own. 

Head to the Big Platform in Area 2. Blues is waiting. Talk to him to
trigger the next cutscene. After awhile, he says it's time to start.

"B..but the door..."

Blues smites it with a single slash. Guess he HADN'T had breakfast
today. When you head to the edge of the area, Rock will ask if you want
to start the Liberate Mission. Choose 'Yes' to begin. 

Blues and Rock walk through to Area 3, which is polluted with Dark
Panels. Blizzardman's at the end, so it's him that's causing this
chaos. Blues explains how to deal with the panels. You walk up to
them and press A. Then you delete the viruses within. You have 3
turns in which to beat these viruses, or else the panel is not
liberated. Got that? You can switch between your characters with the
R button and use the L to scroll around the area. Got THAT? Right.

Player Phase 1! Move Blues and Rock up to the panels. Go up to one.
Blues has two main options - Liberate and Wide Sword. Liberate takes
out the panel just ahead and Wide Sword clears an area the side of a 
Wide Sword's slash. Got that? So get into battle using whichever you
choose. But be careful. For each special command (Wide Sword) you use,
you lose an Order Point. You can regain some later on, but that's in
awhile. For now, let's get into our first battle.

You'll be in the center two columns with enemies on either side of
you. The Custom Window will automatically open when it's full and you
have three turns to blow up everything or else you fail to liberate
the panel. You can turn using the L/R buttons.

That's the basics. 

That being said, there are special places on the map that you may have
noticed. You'll get one points out after the first battle. Dark Holes.
One's right behind the first miniboss. You have to deal with all of
these to fight the boss. Anyway, if you used Blues like I did, his
turn is over. So move Rock on up and to the next dark panel. He can
Liberate or use Long Sword...which does like you'd think it would.
Think of these special attacks in terms of their damage area in 
battle. Long Sword will take out two panels vertical to one another.

Anyway, since there's only one, Liberate. 

After you've finished Liberating the panel, it's time for Darkloid
Phase 1. But they won't really do anything this time. He and his
minibosses stay in place. It's up to you how you want to get through
this mission, folks. Feel free to use either Rock or Blues however
you want. I'm just gonna write up what *I* do. 

Blues to the Miniboss. Fight! 

Garbeast? ...Guardian Beast? Ah, I dunno. But it has 120HP. Very easy
to dispatch in three turns. Especially since Blues has a special 
Fumikomizan chip. He moves around fairly quickly and attacks with a
+-shaped burst of fire. The panel he's on will clear once you've beaten
him, giving way to the Dark Hole. This isn't gonna be easy. You'll
fight a pair of Canodumbs and another Miniboss while in the center
two columns. It's probably easier to let Rock clear normal panels and
leave the tough stuff to Blues. His Wide Sword charge shot takes
care of things much more easily than Rock's wimpy buster. FAIL to
Liberate a dark hole and it'll generate more minibosses. Huzzah.

Liberate in ONE turn and all panels around your character will be
Liberated, are well.

Anyway, there's a double dark panel set up ahead. Use Rock's Long
Sword on them. 

Afterwards, Netto will wonder what the [?] squares are. Seems they
can heal you up. If you want, go up and tinker with it. It'll cost
a turn to Liberate the Dark Panel in front of it, though. It won't,
however, cost a turn to use the [?] panel itself.

You'll get a roulette of things that you can get from the space. I
got a heart out of the deal... which was useless since Blues wasn't
hurt. 

Anyway, take Blues and go on ahead. Either liberate the panel in front
of you or Wide Sword the area. 

Next turn, have Rock destroy the Miniboss and have Blues hit the Dark
Hole space. If you didn't get a 1-turn Liberate, you'll still notice
the whole area got cleared. Every space next to the Dark Hole will do
this, no matter how many turns you use. 

Well, we've got both minibosses and Dark Holes cleared. There's one
more [?] space and then it's on to Blizzardman. Clearing the Dark
Hole cleared a path that can lead you straight to the Darkloid. He'll
turn all the spaces around him to dark panels, though. 

Got me Invincibility out of THAT one. You'll know you get it - your
team will glow green. Anyway, take Rock over and clear the space in 
front of Blizzardman. 

Now, if you've followed the directions, you should be at Blizzardman.
Have Blues run up and Liberate the space. You'll have the three-turn
limit for bosses in Liberate Missions... but don't worry. You don't
have to BEAT him within three turns. Any damage you do with one
character will transfer over to the next turn. So if you take off
100 of Blizzardman's 400HP, he'll still only have 300 the next time
you liberate his space. BUT... you have to beat him within YOUR turn.
If Darkloid Phase comes up, he'll regain all HP. So you gotta pull a
1-Phase Kill with your team. Ready? GO!

###############
BLIZZARDMAN.EXE
###############

HP: 400
Attacks
=======
Snowball 1: He'll roll out a pair of snowballs at you.
Snowball 2: Blizzardman himself will become a snowball and roll at
you. He'll strike the back row and cause a pair of snow drifts to
build up on two random panels on your side... With those there,
you lose access to the panels. They will, however, eventually melt. 
Frost Breath: He'll jump to the front column on his side and try
breathing ice on you. 

Strategy: Well, you have TWO columns and he has FOUR. That's not
proper cricket, that isn't. Load up Fumikomizan and get ready to hit
frosty with it. If you don't kill him within one phase, he'll heal
and drop a pair of snowballs on you, doing 40 damage per Navi. Blizzy
doesn't really DO much... so attack as you feel. Just don't slack off.

After the fight's over, Blizzardman blows up and the whole area is
cleared of Dark Panels. The first Liberate Mission has been a success!
You'll get a Blizzardman B chip for your troubles, too. Blues'll 
Plug-Out after a short talk, and Rock'll follow. 

Meanwhile, Regal will be standing, presumably, in his Fortress of
Doom. He'll mention that the "Official dogs have made their move" 
and such. He doesn't seem too distressed about Blizzardman's failure,
though. One of Regal's sentai goons will appear and report something,
and after a bit more talking to himself, Regal will follow. 

Meanwhile, in the park...

Netto's friends will voice their worry about their PETs and Navis.
Yaito and Dekao leave. When Meiru starts to, Netto stops her and asks
if she's really alright. The two will talk a bit and she'll head off.
Netto will get a big head and proclaim to Rock that they'll definitely
beat Nebula, save papa, and get everyones' PETs back. 

Oh, we got a call from Enzan. There's not another Liberate Mission so
soon, but we've got patrol duty. You'll get another E-mail shortly
after. Head home and Plug-In. *grumble*

In Akihara Area 3, you'll see a Golden Program. If you talk to him,
you can replay Liberate Mission 1 as many times as you'd like.

Head to where Blizzardman was and go past it. When the path splits,
take the upper one. Talk to the Program guarding the exit. Rock'll
ask something about whether the Program's there to help repair the
network. And indeed it is! Rock'll ask if everything's nominal. And
the Program states that everything's groovy, he's working hard, and
that he's doing his best. But it still seems that it'll be a little
while before he's done. Rock reports to Netto, who then calls Enzan
to fill him in.

Enzan will sorta apologize for putting our boys through the trouble of
this. And this amuses Netto. And me, for that matter!

Well, Netto's work is done and now? He wants-a to go swimming! 

=============================================
3.4: Life's a Beach                  - [swim]
=============================================

Netto and Haruka talk over a black screen. Then Dekao sends an E-mail
with his P-Code attached. Head outside and go to the Metro station,
where Netto's chums are waiting. Netto apologizes for being late.

"HI-KA-RI-KU-N!" -- Yaito

Ahh, the beach. The fresh air! The food! The... hey, wait. There's
no fresh air OR food. And the beach looks like it could be populated
by hypodermic needles! Our crew gets off of Yaito's own boat and onto
the dock. Dekao points out a spot of sand. Good for him. He then takes
off. Netto starts, then turns and tells the girls to hurry up. Yaito
huffs and says something akin to "Jeez... boys really are kids."

She then says she and Meiru will change on the boat and orders Netto
not to peep, which embarassed our hero. 

Welcome to Oran Island. Head on down to the beach that Dekao pointed
out. Dekao wants to go back and peep on the girls after Netto says
where they are. PANTSU YABURI! Seems he wants to see some panties!
THIS oughta be an interesting scene in the translation. Rock asks
what the smegma's going on and Netto says something about an ancient
technique handed or...something bizarre like that. Then he talks about
taking off pants. Then mentions pantsu again. Then he mentions being
totally naked. So maybe they're talking about skinny dipping. 

Then Dekao goes on this long spiel and Netto asks him to stop already.

Thankfully, it's too late - the girls show up in their swimsuits.

Dekao's panty/skinny dipping plot has been stymied. Aww.

Yaito's a little speed demon in the water, it seems. While Netto and
Dekao watch from the shallows and Meiru watches from the sand, Yaito
swims around like a crab clamped down on her tush. Then she tries 
playing break-the-piñata with Dekao's face! Then they build a little
sandcastle. But now everyone's dressed and apparently hungry. 

Dekao goes off, probably to do unmentionable stuff under the guise of
looking for food. And we've got ourselves an E-mail. 

Dear Strong Bad,

What would you do if you li--

Er... I mean...

Instructions...
The next mission takes place in Oran Island Area 3. 

Something about being quick. So now we need a place to plug-in. 
There's a little...siren thing up near some mine cart tracks. So
go over to it and plug-in there. 

Place sure is red for the beach, huh?

Anyway, there's two main paths here. One takes you to Area 2... but
the end of that place has a bigass gate. There IS a Vulcan 2 chip in
a BMD, so if you wanna go get it, go for it. To get to Area 3, though,
we gotta take another path. 

There's a slope that leads to Area 1's upper section. Take it. Follow
the green segment to the end and you'll trigger a cutscene where Blues
joins you. Up ahead? A trio of giant cannons that look suspiciously
like recolored Magnums. The two try bumrushing the things, but they
open fire and push the Navis back. 

And after all that, both Plug-Out. 

And then... Fishing? Well, we need to collect gear to go fishing,
then.

First, we need a pole. Go up to the bamboo shoots near the coast and
inspect to get Bamboo Pole. Next, we need something to use as a line.
Good thing someone discarded some nearby. Head down the northeastern
steps and head to the lower-left part of the area. Inspect around the
corner to find the Fishing Line. Head down the stairs to the beach you
were on with Dekao earlier and go over to the waterfall. Inspect to get
some bait. Next, head up the stairs and go to the westernmost point in
the area - over the bridge, that is - and inspect the final tree.

10 minutes pass. No bites. Dekao seems to be doing well.

30 minutes pass. No bites.  Dekao seems to be doing even better.

AHA! A BITE! Whatever it is, it's huge! Awww, but the line broke. And
no one believes him.

Anyway, it seems an earthquake shakes things up.  But not enough to
change the music. 

We need to find some kindling to cook all the fish Dekao caught in any
case. Stupid fetch quest. First, head across the bridge and inspect
that weird little bush thing. That'll be your Dry Grass. Next, go to
the dead tree. You'll get Dead Branches from this. Now go to the main
beach and collect those boards at the end. Wooden Plank get! Now go
talk to Dekao. 

After the meal, it's time to go. We get an E-mail from some scientist
dude. Ahh, it's our Navi Customizer! Took long enough. And then the
launch into the Navi Customizer tutorial begins. It works the same
as in every other game it was in. As usual, you get an Undershirt,
Attack+1 and a Rapid+1 piece. Place them accordingly and hit Run.

But we aren't going home. Not just yet. Remember those mine cart
track things? Follow 'em - the barrier's gone. And sure enough, they
lead to - jajaaaan - a mine! Great. Dekao-tachi start for the first
entrance... but a trap opens up under them! Seems they're alright - 
they're just stuck down a hole conveniently big enough for three
kids. >>;

Head into the ground-level opening and take the slopes up and out to
the switch/plug-in siren thing. You got it, chief - plug-in!

We're back in the red zone. I hope Coleman Francis doesn't tell us
to shove off. Walk forward and pay 1000Z for a Key. Dekao gives us 
call and we plug-out. Now head to the back of the cave and take the
elevator up. With our new key we can unlock the door. Do so and head
through. There's an HP Memory over in the boxes of junk, so grab that
before going out. Head left and into another cave. Head downstairs 
and find another door. Viruses will jump you, so be ready. But when
you beat them and open the door, a rumbling fills the air. Another
earthquake hits, as well. Is it me, or do you guys feel like we're
on a VOLCANIC island? 

The earthquake subsides and Netto calls Dekao to make sure they're
alright. Head outside and go up the slope and into ANOTHER cave.
Inspect the door inside for another virus attack. And, as before,
another rumbling/earthquake session. Dekao calls, but the SubPET
he has breaks up and goes dead mid-call. That can't be good.

Head through the door and go out. Take the first entrance you see and
plug-in to the air cleaner machine if you want. There's a Tornado chip
inside. 

Head up the slope, enter cave, viruses at door, yadayadayada. 

Dekao calls after. Seems he got his gizmo working again. And, on cue,
another earthquake. Take the elevator down when you get control again.
When you go through the next door, you'll hear someone. The screen will
pan over to a woman on top of a REALLY big machine. 

...XD

"OBASAAAAAN!! Doriru tomete!"

"....."

"OBASAAAAAN!"

"....."

"...ONEESAAAAN!"

I guess she doesn't like being referred to as an older woman! XD She
claims to be only 29, though. After a bit of talking, we see that
there's a couple ... things attached to the main drill machine. Guess
what we have to do! 

Dekao calls, yelling for help. I guess we'd better hurry. If we didn't,
we'd be rid of a pervert... but two innocent girls would die with him.
That wouldn't be good. 

And now we see the real trouble. That drill's sending debris RIGHT down
on top of Dekao-tachi. The drill itself is getting fairly close, as 
well. They won't be buried, they'll be shredded! 

Rock Drill #1. Talk to the Program to get the Rock Drill Program. This
lets you punch and destroy rocks with the A button. There's an 
Invisible * in a BMD just past the southern conveyor belt and an HP
Memory not far after. Keep going along the path, across the two short
conveyor belts, and break the trio of boulders. The next conveyor
has grey rocks on it, which take two punches to break. So be careful
here. Keep going on and you'll reach the switch at the back. Go up
and inspect it to shut it down. That's 1 down. Three to go. I feel
like I'm at Castillo. Only without the dumb questions. 

Netto checks in with Dekao - no change so far. 

Run forward and Plug-in to the second power thing for the drill. 
There's a Charge+1 Navi Customizer piece in the first BMD. Continue
along the path and you'll find a Stone Cube chip after conveyor #2.
Past the third conveyor is this thing's switch. Flip it. Still no
change down below, though.

On to #3. There's an HP+100 NCP in a BMD near the top of the long 
conveyor at the start. There's a Full Energy in the next one. There's
a Program with a key to a conveyor belt eventually. Make your way to
the place you use it and turn that thing off. Then you can go up the
conveyor you couldn't earlier. Make your way up that one and flip the
third switch.

Surprise, no change yet.

One left. Plug-in. Cross the giant conveyor belt chain. The first
BMD is an HP Memory. You'll get a Long Sword S in the next one. Make
your way to the conveyor control and flip it off, then head back to
it and continue to the top. Might wanna save - there's a boss fight
ahead.

Y helo thar Magnetman! Straight from EXE 2, it's Magnetman, come to
kill us! After all this BS with drills, you'd think DRILLMAN would be
the boss, huh? Yeah, it doesn't make much sense for a giant magnet to
be dealing with a rock drill. The truth is revealed - that 'oneesan'
is Gauss Magnets' daughter! Tesla Magnets! (*URG*)

Magnet Power - ZENKAI!

#############
MAGNETMAN.EXE
#############

HP: 500
Attacks
=======
Magnet Panel: Not an attack, per se. But at the start of battle, he
turns the corner spaces into magnetic tiles. Don't get stuck on one.
Magnet Shot: He'll fling a magnet that'll do a little half-assed
'homing' on you. Just move one way or another. 
Gravity Ball: It moves slow and it does a better job of homing in.
Get hit and you'll get paralyzed. He likes following this with a
Magnet Shot. 
Black Hole: Mags will open a black hole on the panel you're standing
on. Not good voodoo. Avoid it - it's easy enough to see coming. He'll
hold his arm out and it'll slowly charge. 
Twinrova: (Shut up) Mags will split in two - one is red and one is 
blue. Move up and down to dodge him fast, lest that beefbot kick thine
ass. 

Strategy: Well, you're on an even playing field, so that's good. If
you've picked up some Saboten Balls, Drill Arms, and Pulse Beams, I
suggest using them. They're FUN and they do good damage. And Pulse
Beams are FAST. Crack some of the panels out if you can. It'll help
you move around a bit. Mags moves around fairly fast. A Thunder Ball
chip or three might do some good. Paralyze him them fling a Saboten
Ball at him. He isn't really hard. Just make sure to keep an eye on
your HP.

After the battle's over, Mags isn't willing to accept defeat. Tesla
asks him to stop, mentioning stress. She does this more than once
during this section, so I guess she's got a thing for trying to stay
as beautiful as possible. Anyway, she asks Mags to flip the switch.
The drill is stopped and we've saved the day. Finally. Tesla then
plugs-out Maggie. She tells Netto to hurry and save his friends. He
complies and plugs-out Rock. Continue on the path and, when in the
cave again, go down the elevator.

Head around and make your way to the door. He plugs-in to the panel
by the door. Once in, head to the giant red switch in the middle of
the area. Go up to it and hit it. It'll cause an earthquake that
sends boulders hurtling at Rock! But luckily, Magnetman appears and
erects a barrier that smashes the boulders. After a talk, the two
Navis plug-out. 

Netto thanks Tesla for helping him. Netto opens the door and frees
his friends at last. Yaito seems to recognize Tesla. Dekao-tachi
leave and Netto gets a phone call. It's Enzan. Seems he wants to
try getting through the Oran Areas again. 

Netto and Tesla have a talk and he explains what Nebula's upto.
He says that with Magnetman's power they might be able to actually
GET somewhere this time. Mags seems kinda wary of it, but Tesla
seems to like the idea. Magnetman - Team of Blues Member #3!

=============================================
3.5: Island Liberation               - [lib2]
=============================================

Number of Dark Holes: 3

Alright, grunts, listen up. Go back to the previous screen and plug-in
to that siren thing. Tesla's already there, waiting. Make your way back
to those stupid Magnums. Blues is waiting. Rock says he can get through
the guns. Magnetman appears and takes in the situation. Rock does
the introductions, claiming Mags to have massive power. Blues IDs
Mags as a Gospel Navi, seeming to think the situation is interesting.

The Navis once more take off toward the guns. Mags puts up his Magnet
Barrier and the blasts all target him. While he does this, Blues uses
Fumikomizan on the guns. 

NOW Magnetman seems interested in what's going on.

Head forward and select Yes to start Liberate Mission 2.

Shademan.

Why does it always have to be SHADEMAN?! Where's Django when you need
him? Moreover, HOW is Shademan alive? We killed him once, Django used
the Piledriver on him later... and then his dark version was roaming
the Ura-net! 

Mags has a special battle chip, too. NS Tackle. That'd be the twin
charge thing he does against you. His charge shot throws out a magnet.

This Liberate Mission is a bit different. See, during his phase,
Shademan can target one of your guys, fly over, and bash him for 60
damage! If you want, only Liberate with Rock and Blues. Then use
Magnetman's Magnet Barrier for his turn. It uses an Order Point, but
Shademan can't hurt you on his turn. 

In addition, he has airborn minibosses that can move. Speed is
definitely the key to this. The faster you get through, the greater
the chance of survival is. The airborn minibosses are best left to
Blues. They only have 100 HP and they dive down at you so they'll be
in range of his Wide Sword charge shot. It's very easy getting a
1-Turn Liberate with him. 

Panels that have a little square in them will give you a bonus after
you Liberate them. Order Points, Hearts, chips, etc. 

You might save before a [?] space. That way you can keep trying to get
what you want. Order Points being the best. If you kept your stock
high, not only could you break through the dark panels faster, you
could have Mags defend against Shademan's attacks every turn. 

There's not much to say about this. Just keep slogging forward. Keep
going and eventually you'll reach Shademan. Then comes the fun part...

Even going slowly, it shouldn't take very long to get through it.
If you're under 15 turns, you're doing well. 


############
SHADEMAN.EXE
############

HP: 600
Attacks
=======
Go look at an EXE4 guide. It's not like Capcom bothered changing
them. He'll still bounce all over his area, shoot bats, and fling
pulse beam-ish things at you that'll mess your controls up.

Strategy: You've got two columns. Might I suggest an Area Steal or
three? If you can put the Dream Sword PA together, go for it. Rock
and Blues might have some trouble, but Magnetman can easily pound
Shademan for massive damage. Try and catch him in the NS Tackle.
That thing'll really sting.

When Shademan is beaten, the area is Liberated. Mission 2: Complete.
2000Z Get!

=============================================
3.6: Little Black Rainclouds         - [pooh]
=============================================

After the fight, Magnetman still seems undecided. But Tesla tells him
to go along "For - her - sake!" 

Oh, and Rock's soul is getting all tingly. You know what THAT means!
Yup! We got us Magnet Soul! Blues plugs out and Mags stares off into
the abyss before plugging out, too. Rock follows.

On the dock, the kids say goodbye to Tesla. Netto says he looks 
forward to seeing her in the next mission. The kids board and we
head back to civilization. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Emo talks with Yuuichirou. Trying to get information
out of him perhaps? Torture, perhaps? In any case, Regal calls upon
Cloudman, looking alot like Man-E-Faces from He-man! 

In front of the Ayanokouji mansion, Dekao says something about... an
Ultra Gorgeous Parfait? The HELL does that mean? Anyway, Dekao heads
home and Netto escorts Meiru back towards their houses. A cute little
scene takes place between them. *inhales* KISS HER, YOU BLOCKHEAD! ><

After Meiru leaves, a voice calls Netto's name. He turns to see Beck
from The Big O saunter up to him! Netto asks if he's a Nebula Operator.
Ed Grimly seems to not know what the hell Netto's on about. The two
head to the park. Something about wanting to see our technique. *cough*
What IS it with the meandering hentais in this game?

Goober McBadhair then mentions Yuuichirou. After more dialogue, Netto
goes and plugs-in to the weird pink squirrell. He gets an E-mail after
doing so, discussing the previous Liberate Mission and the Magnet Soul.
Thus begins the Soul Unison Tutorial. Rah.

It's Enzan, come to kill us! I mean... teach us! Electric chips can
be sacked to Soul Unison with Magnetman. The charge shot is a magnet
that draws enemies to the front column. If it hits, it does 50 damage.
Pressing Back+B will freeze any enemy on the same row as you. It only
lasts for a few seconds, though. It's still really fun to use, though.
Additionally, you can charge Electric chips for double the damage! 
Super Thunder Balls!

Head to the upper-right of the area and go through the portal to
reach Squirrel Area 9. ...9? Anyway... um... Head to the back and go
through to reach Area 10. Take the right portal again to reach Area 
12. Through the portal in back to area 15. There's a BMD with a Fast
Barrier NCP in it. 

Plug-out and Plug-in again. Take the left portal this time. From there
go to the back and take THAT portal to get to Area 3. 100Z in a BMD
in the center of the room. Now go through the left portal again. Left
portal again to get to 6. There's a Gun Del Sol A chip in the BMD
here. Now go back through the portal and take the other one. This one
will take you to Area 7. Head to the back. There's an HP Memory in
the next area. 

Plug-out again. Before we go any farther, go behind the Higure-ya.
There's a dude there who'll chat for quite some time before asking
if you wanna buy something for 2000Z. Say yes and you'll get the
Dark Sound chip - our very first Dark chip! Whether you use it or
not is your choice. 

Plug-in yet again. Right portal, back portal, left portal to get to
Area 11. There's a BMD with 400Z in the center. Left portal takes
you to Area 13. There's a Regular Up+1 back there. Return and take
the right portal to Area 14. To the back, ye scurvy wenches! Now
you're in Area 16. Head to the very back to meet up with... Gyroman!

Rock wants to know what the hell's going on. And frankly, so do I.

Outside with Netto and Captain Dumbass, Netto wants to know what he
knows about Yuuichirou. He'll go on and, in generally, be really weird.
Arumono? "Papa ga motsu "arumono"?" ...The hell does that mean? 
Yuuichirou holds the key to life?

Netto doesn't seem to know either. A ton of dialogue will pass, Gyroman
will say "Roger," and dorkboy says "Adios." 

If he gave his name, I missed it. 

But we can't worry about that now. Enzan wants something. And, being
the good little uke duo that we are, we must respond! 

But before we do anything - THE HIGURE-YA IS OPEN! And good lord, he's
expanded the thing! The upper-left has a sale stand with bland chips
being sold:

Minibomb *: 300Z
Vulcan 1 *: 400Z
Barrier *:  600Z

It's nice that they're all wildcards, but still. Who needs a wildcard
Minibomb? Vulcans are nice, though. 

There's a weird little area that seems to house a dice game. But we
can't play, apparently. The 3-chip trader's up near the counter. As
is the Numberman Lotto machine. Go pawn off all those Metguards you've
assuredly picked up over the course of the game so far. Strangely
enough, Higure himself doesn't seem to be present. His lovely assistant
that he hired in EXE4 is behind the counter, though. Now then, what
does our favorite otaku have in stock?

Yo-Yo D:         5800Z
Blind D:         6500Z
Ice Seed A:      7300Z
Gun Del Sol 2 G: 8400Z
Super Vulcan S:  9800Z

Well, inflation sucks, but so do these prices! I ain't paying 5800Z
for a Yo-Yo, yo. Amusingly enough, GDS chips come in "G" "U" and "Y"
codes. >>

When you're done browsing, we need to get down to business. Head home
and Plug-In! Get to Oran Island Area 1 by heading through Akihara 3.
Or go to the island and Plug-In. I don't care. o_o I'm going from
Akihara. Gotta get money for those damn chips somehow, right? Anyway,
head down the slope and around the lower green path until you meet
the Heel Navi. Talk to him to get into a fight. Now head back upstairs
and take the upper green path through to Area 3. I know I didn't
mention it earlier, but there's a shop up here. Second orange path
off the upper green. Expensive, too. Probably WHY I didn't mention
it. Urg.

HP Memory:      2500Z
HP Memory:      6000Z
Air Wheel 1 E:  3400Z
Recovery 80 *:  7800Z
Circle Gun C:   8200Z
Stealth Mine P: 9900Z
Ojizousan O:    10500Z (GUARDIIIIIIAAAAAAN!)

Man. That Guardian chip is tempting. >>; Um... right, sorry. Easily
distracted. Continue along the green path. You'll eventually reach
the platform the Magnums were on. Magnetman's Battle Image is here.
You can fight him whenever the hell you want, yay! I recommend going
against him at least once for his battle chip. You'll automatically
be healed afterwards. 

In Area 3, you'll see another Golden Program. You guessed it - you
can replay the Liberate Mission any time you want. There's a Heel
Navi around here, too. Find and battle. There's a second way in
the back and one near the front, down a side path. 

Behind the one in the back is a NCP Salesbot.

HP+50:          1300Z
Soul Time +1:   3800Z
Mega Folder 1:  4700Z
Self Recovery: 	5500Z
HP+200:         6000Z
Super Armor:    7800Z

Get Soul Time +1 if you can. Increases the number of turns you can
stay in Soul Unison by 1. Self Recovery also looks pretty nice. It's
five pink pieces vertically, though. 

Anyway, head back to Oran Island Area 1 and go downstairs. Head to the
upper-left of the area and go through to Area 2. There are two Heel
Navis here. ("lolz we 2 put teh number of nabiz in teh # of teh eria!")
Just explore around - it's not like they're making an active attempt
to hide or anything. Worse strategy ever. 

When you've dispatched the last of these stupid Heel Navis, you'll
get another call. Seems the Network in Area 3's open now. Maybe I
should've picked a better route. Oh well. Head there and pass through.

When you get to the exit in Island Area 3, though, a cutscene triggers
and another Heel Navi drops in. Onoz, a Heel Navi! Flee in terror, 
it's gonna send SLIGHTLY tougher versions of Mets and Pulse Bats at
us! Kick their collective robotic asses and move on with life.

Rock will head through automatically and Gyroman will drop in after
he's gone for a few moments.

Oh, look. SciLab's internet. Area 1. It doesn't look very healthy,
does it? Well, we don't need Area 1, we need Area 3, so get your
blue butt over there. Is it just me, or do parts of a LOT of places
look similar to areas from other EXE games? The waffle thing from
4 is in SciLab 1 here...and I know I've seen similar areas elsewhere.
Anyway...

When you enter Area 2, you may notice some funky dark clouds over a
section of the area further along. Head for 'em for a cutscene. Rock
tries passing through, but they sling him back. A call comes in. After
all this, it's Plug-Out time. And in comes Gyroman, who apparently
is fresh off the new Transformers movie! Nothing more we can do today.
Head for bed. Day 2 is over.

============================================= 
3.7: Wind and Rain                   - [gyro]
=============================================

The next morning, you wake up to an e-mail reporting a helicopter
sighting. Head to Oran Island. Apparently Magnetman's gone missing.
That's never good. Head through the caves there and you'll see a
scientist hanging around a dead end. He'll sell you the Dark Tornado
chip. Huzzah! 

Also hanging around, near the TOP of the mountain, is Meijin! What
the HELL is he doing there? Who knows. He's Meijin! He shows up at
random with new Navis all the time. Wanna battle Footman?

###########
FOOTMAN.EXE
###########

HP: 700
Attacks
=======
Clones: You'll have to deal with two clones of Footman right from
the start. They block shots pretty well and if they see you, they
charge. Kinda like those stupid sheep viruses from 4. Minimal damage
destroys them.
Forward Pass: Footman'll lob his ball at you. It'll bounce around,
trying to follow you. Doesn't last long. Fakes sometimes. 
Charge: Like his clones, Footsy will barrel forward at you when he
catches you in his sights sometimes. 
Field Goal Kick: Footman kicks the football high into the air. It
slams down in a 2x2 spot. 

Strategy: Footman is really, REALLY easy. Really. You don't need
help with this, trust me. 

Anyway, continue on to the Rock Drill room. Tesla's waiting.

After the conversation, go plug into the Rock Drill. Don't worry - 
the conveyor belts don't work anymore. You shut the whole thing down,
remember? Magnetman's Program is in one of these things and we've
got to find it. In the first of the four sections, you get the
Thought Program. It's at the very end where the switch is. Now
repeat this three more times with the other drill power units.

In the second, you get the Language Program. 

In the third, you get the Movement Program. 

And in the fourth, you get the Attack Program.

Netto will automatically take the pieces back to Tesla. It seems like
it was all for naught for a moment, but Magnetman is indeed fine now.
Mags seems a bit embarassed over what happened. Seems like a certain
Navi who's been tracking up dismantled him. Sure enough, a voice rings
through the cave - it's Charlie, Gyroman's operator! 

Apparently he's done all of this out of boredom. And then he goes and
leaves again! Netto heads after him this time, but comes back shortly.
Charlie's apparently quite fast when he wants to be. Anyway, Netto
says his goodbyes and we cut to the outside of the cave. Yay, we
don't have to walk back! Head for the SciLab. We gotta see if Enzan
knows what the hell's the deal with this shmuck. 

Talk to the kid by the vending machine for a quiz. Answer in the
following order: 

#2 - Speed
#1 - Button
#3 - 10
#2 - 170
#2 - Yakyuu

You'll get Dark Thunder M. That makes the third! Anyway, go on into
the Lab. Head into the room we first saw Enzan in. Enzan reports his
name as Charlie Airster. And here I was hoping for Airmaster. LUCHA!
Uh... anyway, Charlie's from Amerouppa. Apparently the top pilot in
a helicopter group's top team, Red Thunder. Believe it... or not.

Yuh-oh. Sirens. Those're never a sign of happiness. Nebula's attacking
again! Time to hit Akiharanet again. Head home and plug-in.

Now then - the problem's in the Oran Island Area, but they've cut off
access from there. So we have to go in through the network access from
Akihara. Sounds fun, huh? 

Once you arrive in Oran, Gyroman's RIGHT there in front of you. But
he'll go into Gyro Form and pull out. Figures. But I'm sick of these
two showing up. It's time to go after them! Unfortunately, more of
those damn clouds are in Area 1 here and we can't get around them.

But see that Program down there on the brown path? He'll give you
a Mega Vacuum for free! Now run along the lower path and clear out
the clouds. 

White Clouds   - 1
Grey Clouds    - 3
Thunder Clouds - 5 
Golden Clouds  - 1 

Golden Clouds also have an item in them. Be it a chip or cash. But
they might also hide viruses. 

When you get far enough along the lower path, a cutscene will trigger,
showing Gyroman again. But, of course, he takes off running again. And
thankfully, there's a Program right near the entrance to Area 2. He'll
clear out your Mega Vacuum. The Program near the front will be doing
the clearing-out for awhile, so go to it when you need to. The Program
near the back is weaker and thusly can't do so good in clearing it out
for you. But he'll sure try his best. Aww. >>

Shortly after that Program, you'll meet Gyroman again. And GUESS WHAT
HE DOES OMGZ! Follow that asshat! Surprisingly, he DOESN'T go up to
near the giant gate on the upper level. In fact... he goes clear to
SciLab 1. Remember the clouds there? Well, it's time to go suck 'em
up. You'll be heading back to the first Program alot. The two Navis 
in the wafflepath are weaklings. One does the same partial clearing
that the one in Area 2 does. One can't do anything at all.

And this place is PACKED with Grey and Thunder Clouds. Urgh.

Thankfully, there's a working Program off a little past the waffle
bit. And finally, FINALLY, you'll meet Gyroman up the path a bit.
And guess what he does?

I hate you, Capcom.

Chase his ass back to Area 2! ><

And best of all? Only a Half-clearing from the first Program you can
run across. Which is bad, once you actually see the area. And the
NEXT one you run across (behind the golden cloud) is the same! Rrraah!
To clear it properly, just exit the area and return. For some bizarre
reason, your vacuum empties that way. >>; Glitch? Purposely left in?
Beats me. But them clouds return, in any case. --;

So clear... in this way.

Grey Cloud 1 - Right ahead of you. 
Thunder Cloud 1 - You have to.
White Cloud 1 - In front of...
Green Program 1. Half-clear.
Now get over to Program 2. 
After that, hit the Thunder Cloud right near the path that turns
down Program 2's area. Now head over to the upper-right and talk
to THAT Program. IT will totally clear your Vacuum.

Make your way around to Gyroman from there. There are enough Programs
that fully empty your Vacuum now.

And now... finally... finally... FINAALLLYYYYYYY! WE GET OUT REVENGE!

ATTACK!

###########
GYROMAN.EXE
###########

HP: 600
Attacks
=======
Gyro Throw: Look, it's the Magnet Shoot with a different sprite. Yawn.
Only it seems it can go diagonally, too. Kinda like Footman's football.
Tornado: Here we go. He'll get up in your row, most likely the front
column, and sling a twister at you.
Bomb Drop: Gyroman does into Gyro Mode and flies across the field,
dropping bombs at random.
Flying Gunner: He goes into Gyro Mode and fires a machinegun at you.

Strategy: Kill him. Kill him, kill him, KEEEEEEL HEEEEEEEEEM! He's
slower than one would think, all things considering. They've built
him up to be Quickman Version 2 or something. He's actually fairly
slow. For a more satisfying finish, pull him in with Magnet Soul's
charged shot and then bust into him with the Drill Arm chip!

And after the battle... Blues arrives. He wants Charlie and Gyroman
on the team. Netto (and ME) both think he's insane.  Blues and
Gyroman run off afterwards. They're heading for the Dark Clouds in
the center. Y'know, the ones that busted you up earlier. Looks like
there's a Dark Chip on the far side. Gyro transforms and flies over
the clouds. He drops a bomb on the Dark Chip, destroys it, and the
Dark Clouds dissipate. 

Then Magnetman pops up. It's time to Liberate us some SciLab. 

=============================================
3.8: Fight and Flight                - [lib3]
=============================================

Dark Holes: 4
Target Phases: 9

Cloudman. HE'S the guy we should really be ticked off with. HE'S the
one who planted those damned clouds all over creation. Let's go smite
him.

This Mission introduces something new into the mix - Barrier Panels.
These things need keys to be unlocked. 

Gyroman comes into play here. He can fly over Dark Panels, which is
a plus. His special chip is G-Airforce, which makes him go into Gyro
Mode and drop bombs. His Charge Shot is his giant tornado attack. He
doesn't take to pincer attacks, though, so keep him back with Rock for
basic Dark Panel Liberating.

In short - Gyroman's the worst Teammate so far. Possibly ever. This
is why he ran so much - HE CAN'T FIGHT! x.x

He has -a- use. What is it? It's getting the key to open the Barrier
Panels. Once you get the center clear and can do so, fly Gyroman
along the winding path as far as you can. At the end there's a ]-shaped
set of Dark Panels, the middle of which has an item. Liberate it. This
gets you Barrier Key 1 and opens the center path. 

Now send the rest of your team up and create a wide area for you to
move about when you hit the big platform. I suggest using Rock's Long
Sword first, following by Blues' Wide Sword. 

From there, destroy the Black Hole in the center. That'll free up a
good chunk of space and will most likely kill a miniboss that's 
sitting about nearby. 

The second Barrier Key is in the back. This'll open the two L2 Barrier
Panels on the western side of the center. Two Black Holes remain and
then it's time for the boss. Go send someone to take out the eastern
one while the others work on the western one. 

Once you're finished with this and Cloudman's territory is reduced
to Dark Panels, get ready for the final strike. Take one phase to 
prepare and take out the space in front of Cloudman, then attack the
next phase.

############
CLOUDMAN.EXE
############

HP: 700
Attacks
=======
Thunder Barrier: Thunder Clouds protect Cloudman. They vanish to
simple buster shots. If left long enough, they'll spit out little balls
of electricity.
Lightning Burst: A Thunder Cloud will enter your territory and proceed
to shoot lightning in four directions. 
Rolling Thunder: Thunderman sinks into the ground. He'll reappear as
a giant black series of clouds on your side of the field. Might I
suggest having some Area Steals? Maybe one pre-set? You only have two
columns... 

Strategy: Look, it's Thunderman's aniki! And boy, does it show. 
Cloudman's a REAL pain in the ass. Things seem fair at the start
of the battle... but don't expect that to last. Cloudman continues
Capcom's proud tradition of making a cheap boss that uses objects
to increase its difficulty rather than actual moves and such. Flamemam,
Burnerman, Colorman... Bah. Get EVERYONE at the edge of Cloudman's
territory and choose the bottom option after pressing A. This lets
you regain HP. If you aren't sure where Cloudy's territory ends,
use Magnet Barrier to be on the safe side. If Cloudman attacks you
outside of battle, he'll paralyze the character for one turn. So
Barrier if it happens so you can retreat. I recommend sending your
troops in in this order: Gyroman, Blues, Magnetman, Rock. Weakest
to strongest in my eyes. Navi Chips will be a godsend here, as you'll
probably HAVE to use them to deal a decent bit of damage with those
clouds. Magnetman's chip is especially good. With it and Magnetman's
NS Tackle, you can easily do serious damage. Just wait until Cloudman
stops moving and sends the cloud onto your panels. THEN hit him. If
using Roll, be very careful where Cloudman's positioned and make sure
to shoot any clouds in front of him RIGHT before using her. Magnetman's
NS Tackle and Navi chip both break through the clouds, so you can
fire at will.

Well, the SciLab's safe. And if you somehow managed to beat this
unholy nightmare in under 9 turns... well, you get good stuff, I'm
sure. I got 3000Z. 

After battle, Blues gathers the troops up. And, for whatever inane
reason, Rock's soul gets in touch with Gyro's. Soul #2 getto~!

But something strange happens. A shadow underneath Rock makes Blues
yell at him to try warning him of it...but it's too late. A Dark
Cloud lands on him. Try as they might, the Team can't do anything
and the Dark Cloud takes off with Rock still inside! 

=============================================
3.9: Blues Brother                   - [blpi]
=============================================

"Hey! This way! This way! Bring him on it."

Rock wakes up on some X-shaped slab. Roll, Gutsman, and Glyde are
being kept nearby in an electrified pen. One of the Heel Navis goes
over to basically taunt them about Rock. It seems somehow none of
them noticed a bunch of Heel Navis toting a giant bloody torture
device with Rockman on it in. >>;

Seems they have him under some kinda Sleep Program and that he's
out like a light. He's been surrounded, as well. The black one
says something about a "Human's genetic data." Must be the Doctor
they mentioned earlier. 

Looks like they're gonna torture Rock while he's around. The Doctor
creates a Dark Chip over Rock and forces it into his body. Even with
the Sleep Program enabled, Rock screams out. 

Regal eventually checks in to see how Rock's doing. Doctor seems
keen on having the dark power of the chip eat away Rock's power. 
Eventually, the good Doc mentions Dark Rockman. Must be trying to
rip it out of Rock like Laserman did. That or fully transform
Rock.

Meanwhile...

Netto yells out Rock's name and wakes up. His PET rings. Netto angsts
about how Rock always used to pick up for him when it did that. Whoever
called, Netto didn't answer. Later, after he's dressed, he grabs the 
PET and seems to check for messages. One plays back - it seems Enzan
tried getting ahold of him.

Head over to the Higure-ya and inspect the shelves over on the left.
You can buy a Django D chip for 7000+Z. Go ahead and grab it up if
you have the cash. 

Now, head over to the SciLab. But instead of going into the building,
head off to the right. There used to be a barricade preventing you
from getting past it, but it's gone now. So head through and go down
the stairs on this new screen. This leads to SciLab's docks. They 
even have an itty-bitty lighthouse. Before talking to Enzan, though,
go talk to the woman by the red double doors. Another quiz.

Answer in this order: #1, #2, #2, #1, #2, #2, #1, #3, #2, #3. For your
troubles, you'll get another Dark Chip - Dark Lance. 

There's also a woman near the boat, on the lower level, who'll sell
you Dark Meteo F for 3000Z.

Oh, and remember the old man on the previous screen, staring at the
sign? Dark Sword for 500Z.

Go to Enzan. He says you look worn out or...somesuch. He then mentions
the next mission. Netto echoes him and seems to be royally ticked
that Enzan's talking business when Rock's been kidnapped. The fight
escalates to the point where, over a black screen, Netto punches
Enzan. Seems he wants off the Team. More talk, then Enzan walks off.
Netto reminisces of the past. 

When you regain control, head into the building on the previous
screen and head for Enzan's office. Some talking, then Enzan says
"Hikari, give me your PET." He then installs a Navi Program into
Netto's PET - Blues'.

Enzan then mentions a place called Endo Area 2. (End?) Seems we
get there from the ass-end of Oran Island's Area. He then sends us
on our way.

Well, this certainly is different. We've got Blues on loan to us!
The Navi Customizer isn't compatible with him, though, so what you
see is what you get in this case. He still retains his special
Fumikomizan chip from the Liberate Missions. Go screw around with
him for awhile if you'd like - it isn't much different from how
you use him in Liberate Missions. 

Once you're done and are ready to proceed, head to Oran Island Area 2.
You know that bigass gate on the upper level? Well, you still can't
get through it. We need to hit up SciLab's Area, it seems. 

So head to SciLab Area 3. There's an pink Navi selling stuff here. It
sells both NCPieces and Chips for Bug Frags. Might I recommend both
Auto Running and Millionaire?

Auto Running:    8BF
Fuujin Racket B: 12BF
Millionaire:     22BF
Magma Seed P:    26BF
Float Shoes:     40BF
Poltergeist P:   60BF

Head to Area 4. Near the back - by a purple skull door - is an orange
and grey Navi. He'll ask about a battle. Say yes. After you win, you'll
get the Science Key. Now head back to Oran Island Area 2. You can now
unlock the gate and get through.

End Area looks about as festive as the Island Areas, huh? Anyway, this
is Area 1. We need 2. So continue through the Area until you can pass
to the second. There's a Dealer in Area 1, but that's about it. The
area's like a big maze.

Vulcan 3 L:    5800Z
Mega Cannon G: 7600Z
Barrier 100 P: 8800Z
Wide Blade V:  10000Z
Jealousy J:    12000Z

However, when you get around the exit, a cutscene takes place. Blues
has a bad feeling - something's coming! Dark Rockman appears in front
of him - nice picture, huh? He starts to attack... but Rock breaks
through the Dark control and tells Blues to hurry - that he's being
controlled. 

A trio of Heel Navis appear in front of Dark Rock and he plugs-out of
the area. Then nine more Heel Navis appear. Urf. Normally we'd plow
the road... but Netto seems to think the odds are too unfair. He tells
Blues to plug-out. After all that work, too. Bah! 

Head to Enzan's office. The two talk for awhile, trying to work out
what to do. Then Enzan mentions dynamic power. Then he'll bring up
a 'different mission'...THEN he mentions a lot of weird crap that I
couldn't be buggered to figure out. Before Netto leaves, Enzan tells
him to remember that Rock is their enemy now. But Netto seems to
believe that Rock can fight it. Now then... we need a Party Invitation.
Remember that big honkin' boat down at the docks? Yeah, well, guess
what? 

Well, we could always try asking Yaito, right? She's rich. She'd 
probably have connections to a big company. But noooo. That'd be
too easy! >< Well, who else do we know that seems pretty wealthy?
If you said Tesla Magnets - ...well, who knows. But she DOES have
the Invitation we need, so go to Oran and talk to her to get it.

The party is tomorrow, however. So go home and get some rest. I have
a feeling we'll need it. 

=============================================
3.10: High Seas Thievery             - [ship]
=============================================

Dorkboy seems pretty happy this morning, huh? 

Anyway, get to the docks and hop aboard the Queen... Check? The kana
is Cheiko, so...I dunno. I'll just use Cheiko. Work for you? It better.
Anyway, there's a dude paying attention, so show him your Invitation.
Then he'll ask if you want to board when you head for the stairs again.
This is one swanky ship, huh? Red carpet and all. A cutscene takes
place right inside. 

Well, now that we're inside - what do we do? Well, nothing, since Netto
hears a voice nearby. There's a dude with a heavy Amerouppa-style
accent. When you're in control of Netto again, head the way that guy
went. There's a 10-chip trader near the exit. 

There's an NCP +50 in the Netbattle Machine. There's also a guy with
a unique sprite there. So you know what THAT means. Talk to blondie
down in front and say Yes to get a Stamp Card. What's that? Well, I'm
not entirely sure. But it means we can collect Stamps now. There's one
in the ship's steering wheel, actually. Go grab it. There's another
at the very front of the ship. So have Netto go out and do his Leonardo
DiCaprio imitation. So that makes two stamps. Go inside and check out
the pink chair nearest the entrance to get a third. 

You've found all three there are, so go talk to blondie again. He'll
fork over a 1000Z for us. Hey, anything that gives us cash is never
a bad thing. Anyway, once that's done, the guy facing unique sprite
dude will get defeated on the Netbattle Machine. Spetacularly, from
the sound of things. Blondie conveniently knows some stuff about the
beefy guy and Netto decides to test his luck. 

But before their battle can start, something rocks the ship! Seems
that Nebula's on the move again! Something seems to be happening in
the boiler room. Head inside and go over to the grey door we saw
earlier. It requires a keyword. 11922911. Don't ask.

Once inside, head to the far end of the room. There are four control
panels sticking out, but only the last is capable of letting you
plug-in. And as soon as you're in, a Heel Navi is RIGHT there. Blues
strikes a pose and the bad guy runs off. This area's like the inside
of the squirrell in Akihara Park. Head to the back and-- is that a
Met guarding the exit?! Beat the viruses and continue on. 

From the Radar Room's Area, you go to the Air Conditioner's Area.
This is more of the same. There's a BMD in each of these rooms, so
grab 'em. Nothing special, really. Another group of viruses are
blocking the exit in back here, too. Take the portal to the...
Screw Area? O_o; ...Don't ask me, I just work here. Anyway, head
to the back, searching for BMD as you go. You know the drill.
Now we're in the Engine. Walk a little from the portal to trigger
a cutscene in which you finally catch up to that Heel Navi. 

Heyyy... that was that Amerouppan dude we saw earlier, wasn't it?
He plugs-out the Heel Navi. Netto plugs-out Blues, as well. The guy
who owns the Heel Navi is right down the room from you! Netto starts
to go after him, but Blues stops him. Then, with everything running
smoothly again, the party starts. Before you go, though, plug-in again
and go back to the Engine Area. There's a Submemory in there that'll
expand your Navi Customizer.

Now... go back upstairs and go through the opened double doors. 

You can plug-in to the podium on the stage in here. There seems to
be an HP Memory or something in the BMD, because Blues won't pick it
up. Once you plug-out and talk to everyone in the room, the guy on
stage starts speaking about the Booster System. Trouble is, it costs
300,000,000Z. Well we CERTAINLY can't afford THAT! Netto has to
manually count out just how high that IS.

"One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, one
million, ten million, hundred million... eight zeros?! There's no
way I can afford that..."

One of the other guys in the room proclaims that it's cheap. Seems
to wanna see the goods in action. And sure enough, it looks like we
get a demonstration. Inside the podium, a group of 8 Navis guard
the Booster System. And with Nebula lurking around, something like
this can only mean one thing - it's gonna be stolen. Sure enough,
before anything can happen, the lights go out, the guard Navis get
KO'ed, and the Booster System is swiped.

Netto goes to see if the doorman saw anyone. Apparently he didn't.
I smell a rat. Ahh, but the other people seem to think our Amerouppan
'friend' was the one who did it. Netto runs up and states that he's
a member of Nebula. But the guy claims it wasn't him. 

Welcome to Detective Conan. Your substitute pint-sized case solver
today will be Hikari Netto. Let's find us a culprit. I believe you
have to talk to everyone and investigate everything in the room for
things to continue. Seems to be. It won't take long, anyway. When
Blues asks what you think it is, select the Mirror option. Then you'll
get a few options. It isn't a magic mirror... but the reflection seems
to be weird. 

Anyway, that oddity over with for no, head for the boiler room again.
See that ladder? Inspect it. You'll end up on deck! Looks like 
someone's been knocked out, too. It's blondie the stamp man! He's
alright, but it looks like we've got some pirates on board. Stupid
Nebula. Head past and into the control room. And look who it is.

Rokushakudama Nenji! ...Okay, that cannot be his last name. It's
like, ridiculously long. Oh well.

After a long back-and-forth, Netto will plug-in Blues to the console
in front of him. Oh boy, another gimmick. See that gauge? Well, it's
your digital air. Doesn't even make sense - why would robots drown?
Rust, maybe, but drown? When you head underwater, your air will slowly
deplete. Hitting a whirlpool will spin you out and take a good chunk
of your remaining air. Anyway, down the slope, into the drink, and
take the only real route you can. Like in the Sonic games, there are
little bubble spots where you can refill your air meter. If you run
out, your HP will start draining, instead.

There are also water panels in battle here. They seem to slow you 
down a tiny, tiny bit, but it's nothing serious. Grab the Waterproof
Key from the BMD. Now head back upstairs and unlock the purple gate.
Go forward a little ways and prepare to go swimming again. 

There's a Yo-Yo F in a BMD in this section. The next Key is a little
ways off. Step on the purple teleporter right after it to warp to the
upper platform. That was nice of 'em. Unlock gate 2 and head around
the corner. One more plunge, it seems! The key's down south and west
a bit. There's another warp portal here to bring you topside. Yay!
Unlock gate 3 and head into area 2.

Here, we'll run into a new underwater problem. Heavy winds? >> Waves?
I dunno. But they'll slam you back if you walk into them. So be careful
down there. Head down and past the whirlpool thing, then wait for the
burst of whatsit to pass. You can hold against the force by holding
the run button and the direction opposite that the stuff's going in.
There's a BMD down there that Blues refuses to take. So come back later
with Rock. It's a long way to the Key and you'll face that pesky wind
stuff again right by the portal, so expect to lose your air and HP
here.

The next section is a bit easier, but expect those stupid twisters and
gale force whatevers to still be there. Be careful after you cross the
big platform. There are some nasty winds there. A Regular Up is in the
next BMD. Continue past, grab the Key, and warp up topside. Head past
the newly-opened gate and enter area 3.

This area's underwater section is really big and open. Head south to 
start and you'll have to go through another annoying "omgz u r blown
teh awey" bit to get at the next Key. Bleh. And past those are a pair
of moving twisters. You get Key B after, though. Warp up top and dive
again. Head west this time. There's even MORE annoying bursts of wind
at the end of THIS one. But the key is right after it. Now warp up
top and head east. There's a lot of twisters in this section, but 
nothing drastically tough. There's a ramp near the warp, though. It
just doesn't look very ramp-ish. That'll be Key C. The last we need.
NOW take that warp. Go through the gate and enter area 4.

Yeah. 4 areas of this crap.

There are ICE panels here, though. Oh, and BOMB BOYS ARE DOWN THERE.
-Why- are Bomb Boys back? And underwater?! Capcom, you make no sense!
To be honest, this place is so poorly designed and maze-like, there's
no way in hell I could coherently guide you through it. You're gonna
be down there a long, long time, though. And you'll probably get lost.
And you'll PROBABLY curse Capcom's existance and their complete lack
of creative level design skills. There's an Attack+1 NCP down there,
too, so try and get to it, as well.

But, thankfully, this is the LAST Key you'll EVER need to get in one
of these mazes. Save, then unlock the final gate and...

Okay, what the hell, Capcom? First you have Magnetman tooling around
with a rock drill... now you have NAPALMMAN IN AN UNDERWATER MAZE?!
I -demand- to know the logic behind this! Load your folder with aquatic
chips - this SOB is a fire-type. He doesn't joke around, either, he
introduces himself and promptly attacks.

#############
NAPALMMAN.EXE
#############

HP: 800
Attacks
=======
Floor Gun: A gun rises from random panels and takes potshots at you.
Easily avoidable.
Napalm Bomb: Napalmman lobs a bomb or two over into your area. Their
damage area is a +-shape around where the bomb landed. He can fake out
with this, as many other Navis can and have mostly likely done. He can
shoot one or two, though, so make sure he actually shot something out.
Giant Napalm Bomb: It'll explode in a 3x3 area, so DON'T be in the
center. He has to take aim first, though. So when you see a giant,
green targetting reticule, RUN.

Strategy: Haven't seen ol' lipstick-head for awhile, huh? Anyway, since
we have Blues and not Rock here, things'll be a little different. For
one, we can actually do decent damage with Blues' charged shot! If you
have one or more Blizzardman chips, load them things up! They'll do
200 damage to him! If you have a Bubblewrap chip, use it as soon as
you can. It's as good as being invincible. And it regenerates after a
short period of time. Honestly, Napalmman's surprisingly weak. Drill
Arm chips are nice, as is Magnetman's chip. Especially if you catch
Nappie in the left of his area. Then TWO Magnetmen will crunch him.
Fun stuff.

After you defuse this walking bomb, Blues tells him to give back the
Booster System. After a lengthy conversation, which involves hibana
and hanabi being used upwards of ten thousand times, Nenji and 
Napalmman decide to fight against Nebula, too. Netto asks Blues if
it's alright and Blues says Napalmman's power COULD be put to good
use. Which can only mean one thing: We're using him to get through
End Area 1.

The cruise at an end and with Netto back on dry land, it's time to
go get Rock back from Nebula! Head to Oran Island and plug-in near
where Tesla is. It's the quickest way to Oran Island 2 and thusly
End Area 1. 

When you arrive, the 12 Heel Navis 'port in again. But WE have backup
THIS time! Napalmman teleports in in front of Blues and stares down
the bad guys. Netto calls out for Napalmman to fire. And fire he does.
Dropping all twelve Heel Navis in one giant explosion, Napalmman clears
the path to Area 2 for us. Napalmman runs on ahead. Save and then get
ready. We're about to get our hero back!

=============================================
3.11: The Darkness Within            - [lib4]
=============================================

Dark Holes: 5
Target Phases: 10

This battle field's butt-ass awkward. I guess the best way to describe
it is that it looks vaguely like a reverse lowercase 'y'...

Anyway, Napalmman's fighting the good fight now. Let's go over his
powers briefly. For starters, he has 300HP. His special ability on
the field is Napalm Bomb, which takes out a cross-shaped group of
panels. It's Wide Sword and Long Sword and then some. His in-battle
chip is ALSO called Napalm Bomb, and it's useless in battles where
you only have the center columsn. Napalmman doesn't HAVE a charged
shot. Instead, he takes over for Gutsman and fires a machinegun when
you hold the B button down. Each hit does 5 damage.

All that being said, this mission isn't that hard. Take Gyroman and
have him take the first square that'll lead to the first Black Hole.
Let Napalmman take out the Miniboss, then have Blues clear the Hole
itself. Then have Maggie take the special panel to the right that's
holding some schwag. Grass panels seem to pop up all over the place
here, as well. So be careful about fire-using enemies.

None of the Minibosses should do anything on their turn. Aside from
a bit of talk, Rock shouldn't, either. 

You may have noticed the Barrier Panels on the field. Means that
in addition to blowing up the Black Holes, we'll have to find the
key. There's one more item panel nearby, but there are FOUR over
near one of the Black Holes. I wouldn't send Gyroman out on his 
own to find it, though. He's still pretty damn weak.

Okay, now if you can, Napalm Bomb your way towards the next Black
Hole. Then have Blues liberate. Next, have Gyroman go up and clear
the space next to the second Black Hole there. Finally, have Magnetman
come up and destroy the Black Hole itself. Partake of ye [?] Panel if
you feel like it.

On THIS turn, the Minibosses might - and probably WILL - attack. If
there are any left since that Black Hole blowout. >>

Anyway, on your third turn, head off towards the Black Hole with the
four item panels around it. Clear the first panel at the bottom in,
then bring Napalm up again the Bomb the path up to the Miniboss. This
will also take out one of the four item panels, but you won't get the
item. Take out the Black Hole. This'll clear the way to the 
bottom-right item panel, which has Barrier Key 2 in it. 

No minibosses should be around you, so don't worry about attack on
their turn. When it's yours again, fly Gyroman over to the top of 
the diamond here and have him liberate THAT item panel. This has
Barrier Key 1. With the Barrier Panels out of the way, we can continue
on to the next Black Holes. 

There's only one left and it's all that stands between us and Dark
Rock. So move Napalmman in and blow a chunk of path clear. Make it
so the center of the cross is on the item panel there. Bring in
Magnetman to clear the Hole. It has a new type of Miniboss. A giant
version of the oldschool knight viruses. It has 200HP and a pretty 
painful range. He can crack panels, too. Be careful around it. 

Now then. You've broken the barrier around Dark Rock and it's time
to get to him. You'll need two panels up from where you've currently
got liberated. Shame we don't have Rock's Long Sword. It'd be perfect
for the job. Bring in Blues to liberate one of the two. 

Even so close to his territory, Rock won't attack. Take out the
remaining panel with Magnetman, and let the rest of your guys heal
up. We'll use turn six to finish Dark Rock off. This is a turn to
prepare. If you want, open a panel that leads to the [?] panel.
Maybe you'll luck out and get temporary invincibility. 

Unfortunately, Rock isn't gonna let you waltz in. He'll almost
assuredly hit you now that the path to him's open. Thankfully
he can only do 50 damage. No side effects or anything. When you're
ready, go up and start the fight.

############
DARK ROCKMAN
############

HP: 800
Attacks
=======
Rock Buster: Rock'll fire his peashooter at you. Onoz.
Cannon: Rock fires... a Cannon at you. Not even a powerful one...
Earthquake: He'll lob an Earthquake chip!
Sword: Yeah, take a guess.

Strategy: Rock'll usually start with pelting you with Buster shots.
If you've got a Navi chip in your opening lineup, use it. Dark Rock
is painfully, painfully wimpy. You wanna know HOW wimpy? Using just
Gyroman - the weakest of the team - I had Rock at 282HP within three
turns. Rock seems to use a number of chips. I suppose he can use
whatever you have - he sped up dramatically and used one of those
Tank Cannon chips right before I finished him off.

As he blows up, Dark Rock calls out Netto's name. The area is fully
liberated and we've won the mission. I beat the mission in 6 phases,
which is WELL under the 10 that's recommended and such. I got a
Full Custom * out of the deal. Not bad.

Dark Rock kneels down, totally smote. Netto tries getting through
the darkness to the REAL Rock... but the darkness is holding on for
all it's worth. Rock gets through for a brief moment before the
darkness flares up again. The screen goes white...

And Dark Rock is still in control.

Blues is awed by the sheer power Dark Rock's showing. Netto tries
once more to get through, but it seems to be in vain. Dark Rock pulls
out a Dark Cannon...  but the real Rock seems to come through again
to stop him from using it. 

Rock and his Dark Side fight over posession of his body. Netto once
more cries out for him, the screen goes white again...

And it looks like the darkness was finally driven out. But Rock's
totally drained. The torture, posession, battle, and struggle for
control has left him on empty. He collapses. Everyone runs over to
make sure he's okay. 

Blues: "...He's sleeping. Fuu... I'm always stuck helping him out."

Blues and Netto talk for a bit and Blues transfers him back to Netto's
PET. 

I think Blues goes on to explain what the hell just happened and talks
of the LAST time this crap happened. Or something like that. In any
case, Napalmman's soul gets all tingly and such now. Napalm Soul
GET!

We've got TWO new souls to toy with now, since we haven't got to use
Rock since we beat Cloudman's mission. The screen goes black and the
day comes to an end. 

=============================================
3.12: The Start of Something Big     - [srch]
=============================================

Rock wakes up after a presumably good rest. 

Meanwhile, with Mean Mister Mustard...

Regal really doesn't seem happy about this. I guess he thought turning
Rock against his friends would cause them to NOT strike back. Idiot.
So who's next to stand against Blues' team of unstoppable Navis?

Cosmoman. 

Regal goes off to look for a report.

After a little progress report on the good guys, we come back to
Enzan standing in front of his four troops. Enzan, Tesla, Charlie,
and Nenji are all assembled. Netto wants to know what's going on.
Seems we still need one more member to be a good, complete team.

And in comes Raika! As antisocial as ever! 

Seems Charlie knows Raika. >> Or at least knows OF 'im. I still can't
properly tell what gender Raika is. Ah well, I'm going with male. 
Anyway, a lot of general chatter goes on before Enzan gets to the point
of all this. 

We need to get to End Area 4. And there's the first mention of the
Ura-net. Hoo lord. If I have to drag Rock through the Ura-net while
Searchman snipes at me again... ><

Go to the Higure-ya and inspect one of the showcase windows. You'll
be offered to by a Number Ball N chip for a whopping 9500Z. 

You'll get an E-mail explaining Gyro Soul, Napalm Soul, and Chaos
Unisons at some point. Chaos Unisons are made by taking a Dark Chip 
with the same type you use to normally Unison with (ie: Fire Chips/Dark
Meteo for Napalm Soul/Napalm Chaos) and sacrificing. They only
last one turn and, if you release the charge shot at the wrong time,
Dark Rockman will join the enemies and attack you.

Well! Are we done dorking around? Good. Head to End Area 4. We've
got business. Area 2 looks a lot prettier now, doesn't it? It's all...
shiny. There's a Heel Navi in Area 3 that'll give you Dark Recovery
if you talk to him. But then he'll send viruses after you. Ass.
Area 4's another of these maze-like sections. You're gonna wanna
get onto the silver upper area. It'll help take you towards the
exit. When you pass the normal Navi on the upper level, head down
again. The silver walkway leads around in circles. You'll come
across a funky pagoda thing. Pass by it and continue through the
next wafflepath to area 4. 

Area 4 isn't very pretty. Nebula's got it by the shorthairs and won't
leggo. The area's a MESS of one-way panels, so getting where you need
to go isn't gonna happen quickly. You can eventually make your way to
the back of the area and get back to an upper walkway. When you do,
head northeast. You'll reach a giant purple gate and a cutscene will
take place. 

But then Searchman arrives! In fact, the whole team shows up! 
Searchman examines the gate. Then Raika pokes his head into things,
mentions Shaaro, and things go balls-up. The team teleports out and
so does Rock. Head for the Lab and go upstairs towards Yuuichirou's
office. Raika's there! Staring at a counter. >>; But he apparently
didn't see us. He takes off shortly. Head into Yuuichirou's office
and head for the bigass computer. Netto'll get some data off of it.
Looks like we're goin' on a hunt. 

But fiiiirst... head back to the drill room on the island. There's
a quiz shmo at the very last room, where your friends were trapped.

Select the first two options to get started.

#2, #3, #2, #3, #1, #3, #3, #2, #3, #2, #2, #3, #2, #3, #2. 

He'll give you an NCP. Dandizumu. Looks like "Dandy Zoom" to ME. >>;
Um...apparently, it has something to do with inspecting people and
their Navis by pressing L. Anyway, now that the quiz goon's been
dispatched, let's get back to what we were doing. 

Head to the SciLab and head off towards the rest area that leads to
the docks. Raika's there. Talk to him. Now go back to Yuuichirou's
lab and walk towards the big computer. Raika joins you. Together with
Searchman, they HAX0R TEH GIBSON! Seems seems Searchman uncovers that
data we got from Hikari Tadashi at the end of 3. >> That or it's just
a generic message to Yuuichirou from his father. Anyway, Netto and
Raika talk awhile before he heads off. And yes, it looks very much
like this IS the data in the note Tadashi gave us. Netto decides to
make a copy of it or somesuch. Grandfather's Letter Get!

Now go home. You may hafta talk to Haruka first, but you need to go
and inspect the doghouse seen through the back door. Now we've got a
new clue. Where do we head? Back through the Mines of Moria, I'm
afraid. >< Anyway, once you've scaled Death Mountain almost to its
peak, we're there. You know the area Meijin's in? You know that one
room with a machine in it and nothing else right by the slope that
leads UP to that section? Go inside and plug-in. Head into it and
go to the eastern point. Once you step on that corner square, a
cutscene'll take place. Memory Data pops out, looking suspiciously
like a re-used Order Point sprite! A long conversion between operator
and Navi and Rock will automatically plug-out. You'll  thankfully be
whisked to the lowest point in the area so you don't have to walk back
down.

Time to go to End City. 


=============================================
3.13: Double Agent                   - [dbla]
=============================================

Back on the map screen, you'll notice a fourth location is finally open
to you. This is End City. It's a quaint little village with one bigass
pagoda. Anyway, once you're here, head to the other side of the area
and talk to Raika. Anti-social as ever, that one. Talk to the old man
behind the desk right beside you. We've gotta get ourselves to End
Area 3. So where do we plug-in? Well, you know those stairs? There's
a horse-and-rider statue you can plug-into there that starts you in
End Area 2. So plug-in and head straight ahead to get to Area 3. That
was quick!

Remember seeing that big, weird pagoda thing earlier? Yeah, well, get
back over to it. Get back up onto the upper-level walkway and go from
there. It's not too tough.  When you reach the area that leads down
to it, there's a cutscene. Seems Searchman's already down there! But
the minute Rock goes down to try talking to him, he teleports away!
What a jerkass! Anyway, plug-out and go talk to the old man again.

Now you can head into the pagoda itself. Yay. >>

You can plug-in to the second armor along the top. There's an HP+100
NCP there in a BMD. Head through this room and the next, going past
the weird, holographic samurai armor. Up the stairs and down the hall
to the door leading back the way you came. ...Wow, that's some ugly
armor. Head past it and go up the stairs near the Buddha. What looks
like a man meditating seems to be a robot that you can plug-in to.
Head outside. Head east and into the only other door up here. Now up
and back outside. There's an HP Memory hidden behind the left of the
two fishhead things. In the corner.

Now go to the RIGHT head and inspect the eye. Time for another clue!
A lot of items are mentioned, the least of which seems to be a key
of some sort. Then Rock brings up a weird bit of quoted text. I get
the general idea of it, though. We then get Ancient Key Data and Text
(Book) Data.

We're going home. Plug-in at Netto's PC. Now go to Akihara Area 3.
There's a little 3x3 area where a GMD often resides. There's also an
orange-and-grey Navi here, staring off into the abyss. You want to
examine the middle row's third panel. IE - the one on the right. Got
it? Rock will use the Ancient Key Data and a door opens up. Netto and
Rock will blather incoherent for awhile and then it's time for us to
go. Head through the door.... and wind up in darkness.

Complete darkness. And then... Rock's out in front of the Hikari
residence. In the real world. But not quite. A woman passes by and
Rock stops her. She says that Haruka just had twin boys. She then
tells Rock that their names are Saito and Netto. And apparently, both
are adorable. >>;

And now we're in control again. Check out the dog in the back yard.
That's Gau! Ever wonder why there was a doghouse out back but no
dog? The Ayanokouji mansion was still in the beginnings of life as
an empty lot. Dekao's house wasn't Dekao's, there's a lot more grass,
the Higure-ya was a normal house...There were some funky statues in
one area...And the park wasn't much of a park. Talk to everyone, and
be careful, since you're still gonna be attacked by viruses. 

Rock reports back to Netto and they decide to get the hell out of
Dodge. Rock heads back for the Hikari house...but stops and hides.
A trio of Heel Navis is here! Followed by three more! The leader
sets the grunts loose. When we're back in control, run over and
talk to the leader to fight. Now...go get rid of the other five.

Afterwards, Rock starts to leave again, but someone's coming again!
...Searchman? He's REALLY not acting like himself. Seems he's not on
our side anymore...then he takes off. When you're back in control,
head through the door and plug-out. We've got a skunkhead to see.

Enzan doesn't really seem surprised, though. Bleh. 

It's been a long day. Let's get some sleep.


=============================================
3.14: Ready, Aim, Fire!              - [nnja]
=============================================

While we sleep, Searchman's on the move. A Heel Navi is cornered but
then... Rockman drops in, makes a noise like a kitten, then opens
fire - On Searchman! Do YOU guys get what's happened? If you haven't,
you weren't paying attention. WE'RE asleep. So what was THAT?

Exactly.

Now then, back with Netto and the REAL Rockman, our hero once more
oversleeps. Some E-mail-type news arrives. End Area 3's under attack,
it seems. Head for the Metro, go to End City, and plug-into the
horse statue. It's quicker than going through Akihara.

So where are we going once we GET to Area 3? That stupid cyber-pagoda,
where else? Go there and examine it to trigger a cutscene. Suddenly,
an official-type Navi jumps in and asks what Rock thinks he's doing!
And everything dissolves from there, eventually leading to the idea
that Searchman's done something stupid. Rock plugs-out. Head into
Shachihoko and go to the holographic projection room. Someone new's
there now, so examine it. Plug-into the first of the katanas on the
upper half of the screen. Talk to the green Navi inside to get into
a battle. You'll get the Katana Data for your efforts. Next, go back 
into the first room and plug into one of the suits of armor. Fight the
green Navi there for Armor Data. Plug-out. Now go to the helmet nearest
the door to the hologram room and plug-in to THAT. Third fight, guess
what kind of Data we get. 

Now go back to the warrior's hologram and dress that sadsack. Our
samurai warrior happy once more, the gate behind him opens. Now go
upstairs and head through to the first area's upper level. Examine
the giant statue and say Yes to get a Wooden Sword (Bokutou). At the
center of the path, you're gonna go into a minigame. Fight off 100
dummies! Press a diagonal to turn and press the B button to attack.
This is possibly more annoying and difficult than the god damn cloud
scenario was. In fact, it's damn near IMPOSSIBLE. 

If you ever beat it, Buddha'll move his jolly round keister out of
the way. Now continue up to the roof, where another cutscene will
trigger. That old guy from the stand down below comes running up,
jabbering like a loon, and runs off. Go up to the leftmost fish
dragon thing and plug-in. 

Ah, more gimmicks. You have to find a Program and take it to a switch
of the same color. Ninja Programs, no less! Go get the red one and
take it to the switch, which he'll rush across and turn off. Might
need to listen to the green Program's story bit first. Not sure.

Yeah. I dunno what Ninja Tales have to do with an armybot, either. I
think Capcom's writing staff just went "Oh, to hell with everything"
and made the levels before even thinking about Navis. It's the only
way to explain this inane crap. 

Anyway...after Program 2's story, go forward and get the silver-nin.
Go right to avoid the purple-nin, across the one-way panel, then go
left to avoid the blue-nin. Before you hit the trap, go around and
grab the Rapid+1 from the BMD. Now take the silver-nin over to the
trap and let him handle it. Head across, go down, and listen to
Program 3's story.

Get the silver-nin and head forward. Basically, you need the blue-nin
at the trap, but there's a ton of other Program-nin in your way. Don't
make a full circuit, though. Just walk back and forth around one of
them and it'll exchange. It's quite easy. Boring, but easy. 

You'll need the red one for the next trap, again. Head across and
into Area 2. You need the silver-nin for the next Now for this one,
you WILL need to do a couple laps to get him in position. More
annoying than anything, due to the attacks. 

Next part, go all the way to the bottom without getting any blue or
silver-nin. Grab red and zigzag your way back to the top and pick up
a spare. Now go around in circles a few times until you can get red
over to the trap. 

The next one's short. Get a blue to the water hazard.

Next, grab the silver-nin and weave your way through to the next
trap.

The next one's kind of tricky. You need TWO red-nin for it. Again,
not terribly hard. Just really annoying with the high encounter rate
this stupid game has. This takes care of Area 2.

Guess what? Two more.

Yeah, you heard me right. Capcom thought it would be fun or something
to have FOUR areas of this irritating nonsense. Feel like mailing your
cart back to Capcom with a picture of you flipping them off or
something? I wouldn't blame you. Hell, I'd send ninjas after THEM for
making this crap.

*sigh* Anyway... slag on. We're halfway there. No sense in giving up
the goat yet, right? Want something helpful? 

Codebreaker:

820029be 0000
820029c0 0001

No encounters. 

Use it. It'll save your sanity, trust me. Unless you LIKE fighting
the exact same three groups of enemies roughly a hundred times. In
which case, I oughta kick you in the craw.

Again, you need two red-nin for this first one. Don't expect any help
out of me to tell you how. I may be writing this stupid guide, but I
have little patience for crap like this and have had the code on,
just running around at random to try things. So you can do it, too.
Most of you people are emulating, anyway, so make use of it. Capcom
has done everything in its power to drag the length of these 'dungeons'
out to the point where I've almost given up on this infernal guide
twice. Chase The Gyroman and now this. The underwater point just about
did it, too. Can they not just design interesting levels WITHOUT
having to use STUPID puzzles? I mean, you literally have to walk
around in a giant circle on some of these JUST to get by with the
right-color ninja! 

Ugh... anyway, this section isn't hard. Just REALLY frustrating and
tedious. So how about I just give you the Program-nin required to
get by and you do the rest? The areas are thankfully small-ish.

In order, for the rest of Area 3:

1 Silver [Count how many circles you have to make! X.x]
2 Blue 

Area 4's Program-nin order: 

3 Red [Yeah, have fun with that. Count the circles again. Total. ><;]
2 Silver
3 Blue

Took awhile, huh? Alright, we never hafta do that again. Go on up
to the Server thing. And guess who drops in for a visit? Yup. It's
Searchman! The real one, it seems. And after a bit of talking, he
attacks. ...You know, it'd be nice to break the "puzzle area, fight
a Navi, Liberate" mold...

#############
SEARCHMAN.EXE
#############

HP: 800
Attacks/Strategy
================
Really? He has much of the same stuff from 4, slightly retooled. He
can still take aim and snipe you. He rolls grenades now. They explode
in an annoying X-shape and he can do up to two at a time. If he had a
big final attack when he was low on HP, he never used it against me,
I'm afraid. 


Anyway, after the battle... oh look. A Copy Rock and Copy Searchman.
Guh, DERRRRRRRR... not hard to work out what was going on, did it?
And BOY, those copies are hyper! Give them Ritalin! Hit them with a
salami! Do SOMETHING! 

Turns out they were a pair of Heel Navis in disguise! Rock and Search
blow them up. Searchman then says that Cosmoman is in End Area 5. We
haven't been THERE before. Looks like we're gonna be heading for that
gate in Area 4. Huzzah! Check it - Raika's right up there on the roof
now, too.

Make your way out of the pagoda and plug-in to the horse statue out
front. Then make your way to the gate in Area 4. Got it? Good. Get
going! On your way, you'll probably see the rest of your team up
above on the walkway. Once there, Searchman disables the gate, freeing
us up for Liberate Mission #5. And it looks like Gyroman gets stuck
with guard duty. Oops.

=============================================
3.15: Cosmic Allignment              - [lib5]
=============================================

Dark Holes: 5
Target Phases: 9
Item Panels: Around 35 (!)

You'll notice during the opening bit with Blues telling Searchman
what's up that the area is LOADED with item panels. And level 3
Barrier Panels. Oh goody. Key-hunting. AND Cosmoman's booby-trapped
the field, to boot! Thankfully, Searchman can check panels to see
if they're rigged or not. Now then... we've got 9 Phases to beat
this in if we want any praise. Traps do 50 damage to whichever Navi
liberates that panel or paralyze the Navi for a turn. Remember
Cloudman?

Searchman's special ability is Panel Search. He can scope out a
three-panel column (Think Long Sword +1 in terms of range) and see
if anything bad lies beneath. His special chip is Satellite Ray - 
you guys remember THAT, right? It moves along and you have to choose
where to stop it. It's kinda fast, too. His charged shot is just like
the Search Soul's - a homing buster. He's not that useful aside from
his field ability, sadly. His buster's painfully SLOW to charge. And
if he's against four enemies in a pincer attack, kiss his ass goodbye,
because he will NOT be able to hold his own.


There's no strategy here. The map's relatively small. And, while it's
troublesome not to have Gyroman's flight ability to get to areas
sooner, it's not THAT big a deal. Though I'd try to get some Order
Points out of the [?] Panels. It'll help. Napalmman can plow the
road and Searchman can check to see where traps are.

Be quick to get rid of Minibosses and Black Holes. You'll get hurt
pretty quickly if you don't. Don't worry about the Phase 9 thing.
Take your time and keep your team healed. If you need to use one or
two to stay around full health, do it. Have Napalmman blow out the
path leading off to the left. There's a trap in the first item panel
over there, though, so be careful. 

Barrier Key 1: In the center of the three item panels mentioned
above.

Now go and head for the next set of Black Holes. If Napalmman's not
paralyzed or anything, have him bomb the whole area to hell and back.
There's a trap two down from the western one, though. So either have
Searchman deal with it or take one for the team. When you get one
of your guys up under the western Black Hole, have Searchman run in
and turn east, inspecting and clearing the two Item Panels leading
to the OTHER Black Hole. You'll still have to manually clear the
first, though. 

After both Holes are cleared, send Searchman over to the set of
three Item Panels in front of Cosmoman's barricade. Panel Search
with him. Or have Napalmman blast it. Your call.

Barrier Key 2: In the far-right of the three panels mentioned above.

One section left. Best to have Napalm clear the path with Blues and
his Wide Sword trailing behind. The final Barrier Key is, predictably,
on the other side. Cosmoman will PROBABLY start trying to attack you
right about now, if you've still got Searchman in his territory. I
dunno what the hell he shoots out, but... best to keep a safe distance
away.

There are no traps in the upper part of this section, so don't worry
about 1-Turn Liberation or anything. Leave one of the [?] Panels for
Cosmoman. Invincibility's wasted on Minibosses and viruses. 

Barrier Key 3: Almost in the dead center of the area. A Miniboss
might loiter on top of it. It's two spaces up from the western
Black Hole.

Now, get rid of those two final Black Holes, heal up, get rid of the
space in front of Cosmoman, put up Magnet Barrier, and prepare to
attack!

############
COSMOMAN.EXE
############

HP: 1000 (Now class, how do you divide 100 between five Navis?)
Attacks
=======
Cosmic Ring: Cosmoman will fling his giant ring off and aim it. When
it hits, it'll fly around a 2x2 square.
Cosmo Satellite: Remember the Navis that flung out stuff high, low,
high, low, etc and you had to avoid them? ...Yeah, that. Seems he
can throw them into the middle row, too.
Asteroid Belt: Cosmoman will turn into a field of space and send
little meteorites and stuff at you. It's like the above, only faster
and longer.

Strategy: You're on a 2-column field again. If you've got Count Bombs,
now's a good time to use 'em. He's not too hard if you pay attention
to where his ring's going to be hitting and doing damage. I got him
down to 590 using Blues alone on the first turn of Phase 9. I used
Napalm next and got him down to 265. Getting Count Bombs - or ANY
field object, I might add - to stay on the field longer enough to
activate is tricky. He'll throw Satellites at them. If you catch
him between an NS Tackle via Magnetman's special chip or his battle
chip, you'll really cause some serious damage.

After the battle's over - wasn't it refreshing to have a REAL boss
fight again instead of a gimmicky one? - the area is liberated and,
if you won in the time limit, you get your schwag. I finished on
Phase 9 itself and got Cosmoman Q as a reward. 

After the battle, Blues congratulates us. Look, a Dark Waterfall! How
ugly! Oh, and by the way - that seems to be the way to the Ura-net.
Magnetman tries getting rid of it in an amusing display. Magnetman,
folks - the Strong Mad of Team Blues. And he tries again! Blues tells
him that's enough and says for him to plug-out. Maggie isn't too happy
about not getting through.

Everyone but Searchman and Rock plug-out after Mags. Why? So they
can have Soul-Sex, that's why. Fourth Soul get! Hurray for the lack
of fifty play-throughs! Searchman plugs-out shortly thereafter, and
Rock follows suit. 

=============================================
3.16: Dogcatcher                     - [gau!]
=============================================

Chippy the Wondergoatee isn't too happy anymore. But he does have
something called the Hikari Report. And then he laughs as insanely
as anyone wearing purple CAN.

Meanwhile, with Netto and Meiru in the park... Mostly about the
state of things and the team and such. Meiru gets choked up at one
point. Netto tells her that he's happy she cares. He assures her
that he and the team will get Roll and the others back safely. Aww.
Netto didn't screw up for once! He cheered her up!

But then someone offscreen says something. Bwah! Dekao and Yaito were
spying on them! Those cads! Anyway, they talk for awhile and... another
person offscreen chimes in. It's a little girl! She asks Netto if he's
fighting Nebula. He tells her he is. She tells him her name is Jasmine.
And then talk of the Ura-net arises. Then she and Netto get into this
big, goofy war of "Tell me!" "No!" "C'mon, tell me!" No way!" over
something.

She then says something about hitting up the Ura-net on her own.

Good job, asshat. You cheered one girl up and thoroughly ticked another
off. Thumbs up, chumley.

Anyway, (how many times do I write 'anyway' in this guide? Count them
and win some RAM chips!) we get a phone call from skunkhead. It's
short, too. You'll then get an E-mail on Search Soul. You should know
how to use it by now, right?

The Higure-ya now has the stock in. Feel free to order stuff now. And
they have three new chips in the normal selection, too:

Quickgauge Q:    10000Z
Element Rage K:  12000Z
Death Phoenix D: 25000Z

Not sure what Death Phoenix does, but it has "Recycle" next to "Navi"
so...

Head to Enzan's office at the Lab. Raika's in the Main Operate Room
now! Enzan mentions the Hikari Report. He goes on to say it's the
one from Hikari Tadashi. There's a LONG back and forth, explaining
what the hell the Hikari Report is. Something about 30 years ago and
a Network. Tadashi was working on a prototype internet thing back
then. That was around the time Forte got screwed up... or it should
be, if game timeline matches manga timeline. 

Anyway, Netto and Rock talk a bit and Enzan brings up the term
'Past Vision'... Y'know, when Rock was in the real world's past?
Well then... looks like we've got a lot of technobabble on our hands,
huh?

WHen you're ready to proceed, head back through the door in Akihara
3 to the past. Head back behind the house - remember that Gau was
there earlier? He ain't now. Go around back there to trigger a
cutscene in which Blues pops up. Afterwards, plug-out and talk to
Haruka. She'll go off for a few minutes and come back with Gau's
Photograph. You'll get an E-mail with a P-Code from the Shachihoko
people. 

Head to Oran Island. Once there, head for the caves and go up the
slope on the ground level. There's an old dude there. Talk to him.
Netto'll show Gau's picture to him. 

Now, we hafta get to the verrrry bottom again. Rah. Head through the
caves. Halfway up there'll be a Nebula goon who'll sell you the Nebula
ID. Now you can open the purple skull gates. Here's a list of what's
behind the ones I've seen so far:

Akihara 1: HP+200 NCP
SciLab 4: Magnum V
Oran Island 2: HP Memory
End Area 4: Air Shoes NCP
Ura Area 1: Dark Plus *

Pretty crappy, huh? Bleh. Anyway, we gotta go to Oran Area 1. But we
have to do so through End Area 1. Yeah, I don't get it either. Anyway,
there's a portal in the upper-left part of End Area 1. You hafta cross
a short invisible path leading to it. It's not hard to find. Go across
and through the portal and...you'll end up in Ura 1. Get the Dark
Plus * from the BMD behind the purple skull gate. It'll boost your
attack by 50!

Head down the slope here and... hey, it's the Navi with the dumbest
name ever! Let's fight him!

##############
SWALLOWMAN.EXE
##############

HP: 900
Attacks
=======
Birdarang: Swallowman flings out this boomerang-ish white bird at
you. Its flight
Birdstrike: A weird area of spaces will light up and Swallowman'll 
fly around that area erratically. 

Strategy: For being so stupid, Swallowman sure is annoying to fight.
It's those damn killer dove things he shoots out. They'll follow you 
so you can't wait for him to shoot, then move up a row or something.
It'll move up WITH you. You have to dodge at the last second or move
to where it just flew. The easiest way to beat him is to sit around
and wait for him to shoot a bird out, move up once it passes its 
original row, then unload on him. 

Now plug-out and go back to Oran Island. You know that second siren
thing above the main entrance? Plug-in there and go talk to the
orange/grey Navi. He'll give you an Ancient P-Code. Huzzah. Now go
to SciLab Area 3. Quickest way to get there is via Enzan's HP in his
office.

Past the bugfrag dealer there, and in the opposite direction of the
exit, there's a security cube. Go here and unlock it with the Ancient
P-Code. Go through here, grab the Regular Up +2 from the BMD, and
head out the other portal. Look, it's Akihara 2! Go talk to the
Orange/Grey Navi. You'll get Past Key Data from him. 

Now then, it mentions a '4' and 'Rock' - Go back to the caves and
head down to the drill. Plug-into the forth power unit. There's a
Program somewhere on the eastern portion of the area. Go and talk
to him. Go past him, over to near where the machine that flips off
the conveyor is. Stare off northeast at the end of the path and
examine it. It should trigger another sequence where a Past Vision
door will appear. Head through. 

Like last time, go talk to everyone once... and notice how many
sirens they have. A bit too many, don't you think? But no Gau. At
least, not at the start. As Rock reports to Netto, we hear a familiar
barking. It's a Heel Navi across the bridge, telling Gau to shut up!
Fight time!

Rock just about has Gau cornered afterwards...but he knocks Rock down
and runs off. Ever stop and think about just how many people and things
have run away from you so far in this game? Go back and count sometime.
Go and inspect the bamboo shoots. Gau will jump out and run off again.
Stupid Spuds MacKenzie wannabe. Rude Dog needs his Dweebs, though, 
because down on the beach, he's been trapped by... ...Blizzardman?
What's HE doing back? Turning Gau into a snowball, for one thing. 
But before we can fight the giant flake, he and Gau teleport off.

We get a phone call shortly thereafter and Rock plugs-out. We need
to head back to the SciLab! Head to skunkhead's office and plug-in.
Make your way through his HP and you'll trigger a cutscene. Blues
has a quartet of Heel Navis and, surprisingly, Shademan cornered.
Well...maybe not 'cornered,' but they're all there. Shademan teleports
out and three more Heel Navis take his place behind Rock and Blues.
And then they attack. You'll get into a series of three battles, none
of which are very hard.

Blues and Rock talk for awhile before plugging-out. Netto will fill
Enzan in on what's been happening, and Enzan will do the same. After,
you get an E-mail from Meiru. You get Roll SP! Well, we need us some
help. Let's go to the Higure-ya. Heyyy! Higure himself is actually
here! What'd he do, fall in? Netto explains things to the resident
otaku. After the talk, we should head to End Area 3. Go to End City
and plug-in to the statue. Go to the cyber-pagoda and search around
behind it. Rock'll find a Data File. Plug-out and head back to
the Higure-ya. Talk to Higure again. After a lot of talking, he'll
lead you through the door a Numberman cutout was pasted to. 

Jeez, look at the boxes. Higure's stocked to the gills! He has a
weird little office back here, too. Our team's going to be using
THIS as our base of operations, it seems, since Enzan's behind the
desk after the cutscene's over. But then an alarm sets off! We need
to get to End Area 5! But before we go, check the middle of that
PC configuration over there for an HP Memory. Head back to End City
and plug-in.

On the way, there's a Program in Area 4 that'll give you the Humor
Sense NCP if you chat with him for awhile. In Area 5, head for the
Dark Waterfall. Heyyy, whozat? Well, that would be Jasmine's Navi,
Medi. Remember her? The little girl from earlier? Something spooks
Medi, though, and she hides behind Rock. A Thunder Cloud rolls in
and destroys the Waterfall. Buh? In rolls Cloudman! Blues jumps in
and slashes up Cloudman before he can attack, however. Didn't delete
him again, sadly. The three talk (well, Blues talks...) and Medi
suddenly lets out a cry again. Cloudman didn't go very far, did he?
Looks like he's gonna blow up and take everything out with him! He
charges and at the last second, Blues jumps in front of Medi, raising
his shield. The screen goes white...and neither Blues nor Cloudman
can be seen when it comes back to normal.

In our new HQ, Jasmine apologizes for Blues' apparent deletion. But
Enzan doesn't blame her. So without a Navi, Enzan's going to step
down as leader for a bit and nominates Netto. It's been a long day.
Let's get some sleep...


=============================================
3.17: Meddling Kid                   - [medi]
=============================================

Man. This is a long game. Long game, short segment.

Next morning, Jasmine shows up outside. She and Netto go back and
forth for awhile. Looks to be over Netto's newly-acquired leader
status. It all ends up with us needing to go check out Ura-net 1,
though. Seems we've gotta save Medi. Get to where the Dark Waterfall
was. 

Once there, head on into the Ura-net. A cutscene'll take place. A
green Navi bumps into Rock, apologizes, and quickly tries escaping.
Rock stops him and asks if he's seen a girl Navi around. And indeed
he has! He stops Rock as he starts to head off. Something about
ghosts being down here. Thanks for spooking Rock, you ass.

You'll notice - it's hard NOT to - purple balls of light flying
around. They'll attach to your head and...I'm not sure. You might
be best trying to avoid battles, though. I had some weird stuff
happen in battle when one of those was attached to my head. Remember
that no encounters code from earlier? Might wanna make use of it. Or
have plenty of recovery chips.

Head up, up, and up some more - Ura 1 has maaany stairways. In Ura 2,
do good NOT to get confused and/or lost. There are a lot of portals
here. One leads to a stairway up to a higher level. That's the one
you want. 

Ura 3 is where you wanna be. There's a TON of one-way panels here.
And a netdealer is somewhere in the middle WITH...Navi Customizer
Pieces!

I'm Fish    - 4200Z [Ahh! That thing from 3!]
Custom 1    - 5500Z
Jungle Land - 6000Z
Reflect     - 8700Z
HP+400      - 10000Z
Bug Stopper - 13000Z [You can BUY it? *waves WTF Flag*]

Yoo know you're getting close when you see what I'm gonna dub the
Grand Stairway. It's like three panels wide. Can't miss it. Before
you get to the top and meet up with Medi, walk around until any
spirits are OFF of you. Rock and Medi argue for awhile and eventually
you get into a fight with her!

########
MEDI.EXE
########

HP: 900
Attacks
=======
Pill Poppin': Medi lobs a pill at you. Small area of damage. I got
confused by them when they hit me once, so be careful.
Red Pill, Blue Pill: No not let them both touch, Neo. They will blow
up the whole of your side of the field.

Strategy: ...Just attack. The only real attach worth its snuff are the
red and blue things that sloooowly collide. Got some Count Bombs? Use
'em. I don't think she has anything that she uses on HER side of the
field to get rid of them.

Gyroman pops in after the fight. Then the rest of the team arrives.
Another Dark Waterfall stands before us. Napalmman decides to try
and take this one out. He does as much good as Mags did with the last
one. Medi moves him out of the way and uses her Healing Pulse on it.
And lookie lookie, it actually works! 

We've got a Liberate Mission coming up. Mags is stuck behind this
time, sadly. 

=============================================
3.18: Shadow Sword                   - [lib6]
=============================================

Dark Holes: 5
Target Phases: 10

So who the hell are we fighting this time, anyway? Well, you remember
Cloudman blasting Blues, right? Well, he didn't delete him...

Well, it's a role reversal. Last time we were using Blues to take out
Dark Rock. Anyway, it's time to explain Medi. She's got an ability
called Twin Liberate. Imagine Searchman's ability area. Now take out
the middle section. That's the space she can liberate. Her special
in-battle chip is Medi Capsule. It's basically one of her pills. As
is her charged shot. She's even weaker than Gyroman. She's basically
useless as a fighter. Napalmman's gonna be the most useful, as usual,
for clearing the path.

This is probably the hardest mission yet, since you have TWO Navis
with decent power and then a bunch of wussies. 

The first Barrier Key is in the back panel around the upper part of
the area. There's a red sword Miniboss hanging out there. Fly Gyroman
back and Liberate the panel.

Barrier Key 2 is at the bottom of the area that leads to the second
set OF Barrier Panels. Have Searchman grab it from a distance. 

When you get the panels in front of Blues down, heal yourself and
save a [?] Panel for some Invincibility. 

#########
BLUES.EXE
#########

HP: 1000
Attacks
=======
Shadow Sword: Instead of coming over on his own, he'll send a shadow
copy of himself over to slash at you.
Fumikomizan: Blues basically does the above... only on his own instead
of with a clone.

Strategy: You've got two panels again. THAT isn't good. You're GOING
to lose at least one of your guys. Most likely all of them. Between
the cheapness of Blues' lightning-fast hits and the lack of an area
to move, you're gonna be getting hit almost constantly. Summons are
your friend. Pulse Beams are nice, since they're QUICK. Good luck.

I beat it in 8 turns and got a Z-Saber Z chip. Score. >>

After the fight, the team traps Dark Blues. Cosmoman talks...then
sorta phases Dark Blues off the battlefield. After THAT, Medi's soul
does the merging thing with Rock's and now you have your next to
last Soul Unison. 

=============================================
3.19: Darkness Purge                 - [bomb]
=============================================

Meanwhile, in the Den of Mediocrity...

Yuuichirou and Regal talk of the Kokoro Network. [And before any of
you goobers try going "omgz kokoro is teh HEART!" - it can mean more
than that. Go look it up. I'm sticking with what it is. You guys can
then translate it as Heart, Soul, or whatever else you want to.] 

And then, with Netto and Haruka - the TV is showing a bad animated gif
of Dr. Regal, onoz! Basically telling his evil plans to the world or
somesuch. You know how stupid bad guys are. 

Haruka gives her son a Charm before he sets off to save this planet and
his old man once again. Head outside to see a domestic dispute. And
down the road are some bratty kids bickering! Then you get an E-mail
from an unknown person. Now head around behind Netto's house and go
over behind Meiru's. Plug-in to the tree there. Grab the HP Memory
in the right corner, then go examine the pod thing in the center of
the area. This would be what they're calling a 'server,' I guess. >>;

Anyway, Searchman jumps in and, since everyone in town's fighting and
such... guess what?

############
SEARCHMAN V2
############

HP: 1000
Attacks
=======
They're EXACTLY the same as earlier. Not even any faster in their
execution.

Strategy: Hey, I've run into his SP version in the End Area. I ain't
afraid of no V2. You shouldn't be, either. He's just like his earlier
version. Just with a bit more HP. 

After the battle, Searchman plugs-out in mid-agony pose and Rock blows
up the Server. Raika comes to his senses - along with everyone ELSE
in town. Rock plugs-out. Then we get an E-mail for Medi Soul. Buh? Go
to HQ and talk to Enzan. 

We've got more Servers to find and destroy. Head to the Lab first.
People there are fighting, too. Head down to the docks and board the
ship. Head out to the Netbattle machine, where we first saw Nenji.
Now... we had to fight Searchman. So what kinda hint does that give
you lot about the stuff we've got ahead of us? Exactly.

############
NAPALMMAN V2
############

HP: 1000
Attacks
=======
Same as before. Except now he has TWO of those damn little machineguns.

Strategy: ...Same as before. o_o

After you take him out, Netto plugs Rock instead the machine, he
blows the Server up, and things once more return to normal. Okay, do
you guys get what we're doing here? 1) Find Server. 2) Beat teammate
Navi. 3) Go to next area. So I'm just gonna list where all the
servers are and let you guys go dispatch the things at your own
leisure.

SciLab: Go inside, Plug-In to the ATM by the counter downstairs. Fight
Magnetman.

End City: Head to the roof and plug-in. Make your way to the end of
Area 4 - don't worry, no Program-nin this time. Gyroman's your opponent
here. 

After you finish Gyroman off, Enzan will phone you. There's trouble
in the Ura-net. Blues. Head back downstairs. Talk to the man hiding
by some stairs to get the Lotto Number 45654128. This'll get you an
HP+400 NCP. Now, head to the plug-in spot of your choice and make your
way to the Ura-net. 

You may notice the spirits aren't around anymore. That's good news
for us. I dunno if I mentioned it earlier, but there's a second dealer
in Ura 3.

HP Memory:        10000Z
Super Kitakaze V: 8000Z
Long Blade L:     9800Z
Deathmatch 2 W:   10000Z
Ryuuseigun R:     16000Z

Head through, fight Medi's dummy for her chip if you want, then go on
to Area 4. At the end of Ura 4, where Dark Blues was, is a giant
Server-looking thing. Rock shoots it, but it doesn't seem to work.
But then...a familiar voice rings out. Dark space opens up and Dark
Blues appears! Strangely enough, HE turns and destroys the machine.
Rock tries reminding Blues of everything he had, but it doesn't look
like he's strong enough to fight the darkness. Blues shoves Rock back
and calls him weak. 

Medi, somewhere from offscreen, activates her Healing Pulse, which
Dark Blues doesn't seem to take well. Medi runs in and directly starts
to send the Pulse into Blues' body. Rock asks Medi why she's there...
then an UNfamiliar voices gives an answer. A strange, new Navi
teleports in. It's Colonel, here to save the day! 

After a lengthy talk, Medi turns Healing Pulse up to full power. A
dark cloud appears over Blues' body. Colonel makes an attack, then
Rock follows up. The dark cloud is destroyed. Blues has been purged
of darkness. And finally, our Soul collection is completed. Blues
Soul Get!

Rock turns to thank Colonel for his help. He asks what Colonel's deal
is, and Colonel says their goals are the same and such. Colonel then
departs. The screen goes white and our mission is complete.

=============================================
3.20: The Breaking of the Fellowship - [lotr]
=============================================

Back at HQ, Enzan discusses where Nebula's stronghold is. Head on
home and a cutscene will take place. Haruka seems to give you a Data
Disk she found on Tadashi's desk. Or something. Rock reads it and
it basically tells you something important. Think of it as a treasure
map. What does it lead to? We'll get to that. Haruka and Netto share
a moment together and he heads off to bed. After he's gone, Haruka
asks Tadashi to keep Netto and Saito safe. 

Up in Netto's room, you get an E-mail explaining Blues Soul. 

Head to SciLab Area 3 on the 'net. Go to the back... there's sometimes
a GMD in the center of it. It's straight back from the central line.
Inspect the back center tile. A Past Vision door will appear! 

Does this area look familiar? It should. This is where we met Tadashi
at the end of EXE3. A pair of scientists, one looking strangely like
a younger Regal, are discussing the Kokoro Network and Server. These
men are Hikari Tadashi...and Doctor Wily. It's official - Regal is
Wily's son. There were hints all over, but until this point, nothing
was confirmed. Tadashi gets a call over the PA system that he has
a visitor or somesuch, leaving Wily alone in the room. 

Netto and Rock discuss what they've just seen and Rock goes up to
Wily. But Wily doesn't notice and he, too, soon leaves. Rock plugs-out.
Head home and go to bed. 

The next day, go down and talk to Haruka. Head outside and over to the
Higure-ya. The Team will be waiting for you. Talk to Enzan. It seems
that Nebula's HQ is on Mt. Fuji! So how the hell do we get THERE? Why,
in the best way possible - via an Official Helicopter! Enzan and Netto
have a quick moment, then Meiru, Dekao, and Yaito enter. Netto starts
to leave and Meiru rushes forward, telling him he better come back.

Good heavens, Mt. Fuji isn't looking very healthy. Anyway, this is,
as Enzan states, the Dark Chip Syndicate, Nebula's HQ. So how'd they
land when the fortress has a ton of gun turrets aimed at the sky? 
Charlie runs off somewhere. A little while later, he calls Enzan. But
something's gone wrong. 

You can leave when you want by heading to the rope ladder. Head around
the winding paths and get to the first door. Walk forward a little and
you'll get a cutscene. There are two doors here on level 1. After
deciding what to do, Enzan gives you Delta Ray Edge Z. Score. c.c His
penchant for really young girls still in check, Enzan runs off with
Jasmine. Presumably to make Yaito jealous.

Head forward and through the door with the light over it. Oh, now
THIS is a comforting area, isn't it? This is the Dark Chip Production
Factory. Run forward and plug-in! Why? Because there's a Dark Circle
chip in the BMD, fools. After that, walk around and...you'll meet
resistance in the form of a laser barrier. Tesla plugs-in to one
side and Netto plugs-in to the other. Now be CAREFUL while you're
in here! Giant globs of whatsit fall from the sky.

You may've noticed Magnetman being there with you. Well, think of
this as a mini-Liberate mission as far as style goes. You can switch
between Rock and Mags using Select. Take Maggie first and haul him
off to the right. You'll eventually reach a Magnum guarding a red
switch. He'll put up the Magnet Barrier and then shoot a Mag Missile,
destroying the gun. Now step on the red switch and change to Rock.
Mags HAS to be standing on that switch or Rock can't get through the
red door.

On that note, take Rock through where the red door/gate/whatever I
keep calling these things. Now wind around to a BLUE switch. Have
Rock stand on it, change to Magnetman, and bring him through the
blue door. There's another Magnum guarding a red switch. Basically,
you'll be doing this for the rest of the area, and it isn't that
difficult. Be sure not to miss any BMDs you might see. After you 
have Magnetman step on the final red switch, take Rock on through 
and expect a fight. 

##############
BLIZZARDMAN V2
##############

HP: 1200
Attacks
=======
Same as last time.

Strategy: Load up on electric trips and unload on him.

Blizzardman starts to blow up...and a black hole opens behind him,
drawing him in at the last moment. Rock starts to get drawn towards
it, too... but Magnetman steps in! Rock plugs out, but Magnetman isn't
so lucky...

Talk to Tesla if you want, then head on through to level 2. Walk on
around until you reach the next laser barrier. Across a conveyor
belt, a Nebula Goon sees you! But Charlie's there! Netto will plug
Rock in after the scene where Charlie kicks the goon out. 

This is like the first area, except Gyroman's on an upper level. 
Switch to Gyroman after moving Rock across the >>>>>>> panels. 
Run Gyroman around the mess of platforms and you'll run into a
storm cloud. He'll fly over it and bomb the Dark Chip that's making
it. Once that's clear, step on the yellow switch and change to Rock.

Now take Rock the short distance to the blue switch - don't miss the
BMD - and switch back to Gyroman. Take him back to where he started
and go left this time. Get the BMD using him - it's the Oil Body
NCP. Another storm cloud lies nearby. There's a long path for Rock
to travel to get to the next blue switch.

Take Gyro straight ahead and go downstairs. Make your way through the
area to another ramp up and clear the cloud away. Shademan's just 
ahead, so prepare your folder and get ready to fight.

###########
SHADEMAN V2
###########

HP: 1000
Attacks
=======
Nothing new.

Strategy: He's a bit faster as far as movement goes, but nothing
new otherwise. 

After the battle, Shademan blows up in a better-than-normal explosion.
Rock plugs out. Head up and out to level 3. Go and inspect what you
have to deal with this time. This time's a little tougher - we have
THREE Navis to choose from - Rock, Searchman, and Napalmman. 

Everyone starts in the same area. Start with Napalmman and lead him
the short distance to the X-marked door. Now go to the SECOND one and
blow IT up. Now step on the purple switch and change to Searchman. See
that electronic lock? Run up to it. Searchman will dismantle it. Okay,
you guys got the hang of this yet? Then I'll leave the rest to you.
It's just the same as before with one more team member to choose from.

When you get to the end, get some wood chips loaded up. The nightmare
Navi is up ahead. By all means, don't feel bad about using the Dark
Lance chip. 

###########
CLOUDMAN V2
###########

HP: 900
Attacks
=======

Strategy: Thankfully his HP is low. But he's still annoying as all
get-out. Dark Lance is niiiiice against him. *I* certainly didn't
think twice about using it when it came up at the start of battle. >>

Cloudman starts to blow up... and black holes appear to take both
Searchman and Napalmman. Guess Gyroman got taken last time, too.
After an almost amusingly long time, Cloudman finally blows up.
Rock plugs-out.

Save and head through the next area. There's a BIG laser barrier
here. And two control panels we can't get to. Good thing Enzan and
Jasmine went off to boff in a broom closet or something, because
they show up now. Final one of these places - plug-in!

Rock, Blues, and Medi start in different sections. Switch to Blues
and grab the Recovery 200 in the BMD. Then go to the floating gate.
Remember that he once destroyed one of these, two years ago when
we FIRST started playing? 

Now switch to Medi. Go to the area Blues' switch opened and step on
THAT one. This opens another switch for BLUES to go to. So switch back
to him. This one'll open the red door blocking Rock's path. Switch
back to Medi. Go across the one way panel and take out the Dark
Waterfall. NOW we can move Rock forward. For all of one area. Okay,
go back to Blues. It's a long way to the next door. You'll have to
go up to a walkway, down the other side, and through Jasmine's area
to get to it. Then you'll need to take Jasmine back that way to
the Dark Waterfall on Blues' side.

Now which back to Rock and move forward. Stand on the blue switch to
open both gates on either side of him. The final segment should seem
simple - bring Medi and Blues into the center, get to the final two
switches, and send Rock to the boss. 

###########
COSMOMAN V2
###########

HP: 1200
Attacks
=======
Take a guess. >>;;;

Strategy: Be careful of the Meteor he'll sometimes use to block you.
Aside from that and the occasional satellite annoyance, he's not that
bad. You'll spend more time trying to get a clean hit on the big load
than anything else, really. 

After this fight, Cosmoman mentions the Kokoro Network before blowing
up. Rock plugs out. Seems that Blues and Medi didn't share the black
hole fate of the other Navis. 

Our team's been reduced, but the final goal is finally in sight. Regal
is all that's left in our way. 

=============================================
3.21: Sins of the Father             - [grey]
=============================================

Seems like Regal's been watching our antics. Yuuichirou, still tied
up, is nearby. Pops calls Regal a devil. Regal says something about a
firewall and a security hole. What's he gonna do, take out the world
using Windows? After Regal walks back off, Yuuichirou asks Netto to
forgive him. 

When back in control of Netto, head forward and into the final room.
But this isn't where we just saw. And Regal isn't here. The ground
rumbles. Plug-in to one of those glass cases over to the left and talk
to the fallen Navi inside. Plug-out and inspect the next case over.
He switches chip cases inside and a noise fills the air. A secret
stairway opens up to the right of the computer.

Before Netto goes up, though, the collected team joins him to cheer
him on and Enzan uses his first name. Must be a blue moon. Another
rumbling fills the area. That can NOT be good. Before you go, go
to the third case and examine it for Dekao, Yaito, and Meiru's PETs.
Save, then head for the stairs. Rock'll ask about saving again. 

Netto runs up to Yuuichirou, who seems really out of it. He tells
Netto to stop Regal. Seems he's going to do something with the Kokoro
Network. Regal, from offscreen, mentions the Kokoro Server, Nebula
Grey, and installing. Now he'd he jump that gap? Can't you picture
emoboy crawling feebly? Yuuichirou weakly cheers Netto on, telling
him to stop Regal once more. 

But the rest of the team shows up. They'll handle Pops. We'll handle
Regal. 

But it's too late, it seems. Regal activates the Kokoro Network and
a green grid appears. Whatever it is, it's messing our teammates the
hell up. Netto asks Regal what the hell's happening. Regal seems to
be confused as to why it isn't affecting Netto. Something about...
MagneMetal? 

Netto calls is Magnewhatever. >>

He doesn't know what that is, but he has his grandfather's charm on,
still. Remember? And it's preventing the effects of the Kokoro Network
from affecting our wonderboy. But Regal says he doesn't care and that
he'll still fulfill his aspirations. He then holds something up and
asks if Netto knows what it is. He'll then prattle on awhile about
a Dark Program, Nebula Grey, the Kokoro Network, and other such stuff
in katakana. He then installs Nebula Grey.

And we've got to delete it. Plug-in time!

Welcome to the Kokoro Server. It's an ugly mess. Make your way
through until you reach a cutscene. Dark spirits surround Rock.
Nearby, Blizzardman - the only Navi not to explode - is watching.
But for some reason, Shademan's also around and watching. Doesn't
that stupid vampirebot EVER die? Django hit him with the Piledriver
in EXE4, wasn't that enough? 

But Cloudman's ALSO alive, it seems. How many friggin' copies of
these guys does Regal HAVE? Finally, Cosmoman shows himself, as well.

But then something yells "Delta Ray Edge!" 

Blues and Magnetman appear in front of Cosmoman. Gyro and Napalm are
with Cloudman. Medi and Searchman are with Shademan. But Blizzardman's
still alone. Or is he?

Gutsman, Roll, and Glyde appear. 

The four dark spirits go away, letting us continue. Make your way to
the final, big platform and get ready. It's time to take down Regal,
the Kokoro Network, and anything else Nebula had in mind!

A giant, blue spirit floats in front of a whirling hole with stars
beyond it. This is Nebula Grey. Netto and Regal go back and forth
a bit, with Regal explaining what Nebula Grey is. 

Several dark spirits appear from the abyss and Nebula Grey floats up
to join them. The screen starts flashing and when it stops, a giant
monster, its body comprised of the spirits, is looming over Rock. This
is a living embodiment of hatred. 

###########
NEBULA GREY
###########

HP: 2000
Attacks
=======
Arching Flames: A hole opens up in the ground and a worm of dark
spirits flies out and to the panel to the left.
Dark Fire: NG spits out a black flame at you that'll follow you around
for awhile. 
Dark Rockman: NG produces a Dark Chip that summons Dark Rockman into
the battle. He'll use a number of Dark Chips against you.
Nebula Dragon: NG transforms into a dragon and flies at you, cracking
the back two columns.
Black Hole: NG turns into a gaping void and a 2x2 area is cracked.
Abyss Arms: NG turns into the void again and lags the area by throwing
out a dozen or two hands at random panels.

Strategy: Another Duo-like entity that takes up the final two columns.
And like Duo, you can only hit the blue spirit in the center. The
problem is, the blue spirit MOVES. As in, it slowly rotates around
Nebula Grey. Don't bother with Area Steals -  you can't steal the
fourth Column. So Drill Arms and other short-range chips are useless.
Save three spots for the Dream Sword chips. He's cheap as all hell
since he'll crack most of your panels, then spit fire at you, which
you can't avoid unless you lead it into a hole. It's a cheap pain in
the ass, but it IS possible to win, of course. As soon as you see
the blue spirit fly in from the bottom, unload on it and watch out.
NG seems to run on cycles. It does a primary attack when the spirit
STARTS to move, goes into the arching flames as it goes around back
and starts to come back, and shoots the homing fire around when it
comes back around front. That's been my experience, anyway. So save
your attacks for the second and third parts. Don't try attacking as
the spirit is moving around top unless you're sure you won't get hit
by anything.

NG's body explodes, leaving only the blue spirit and the void left
behind. Netto wonders if they've won... but Regal calls out to the
dark power and dark spirits shoot out onto Rock's body! Try as he
might to struggle against it, the Kokoro Network and the dark power
take him.

Netto starts to lose it, but calls out to Saito-niichan.

And from somewhere in the darkness, a voice responds. Tadashi's words
get through to Netto and Rock and a change occurs.

White light flares and when it fades, Saito stands where Rock was.
For the first time, the brothers talk face to face. Saito thanks Netto.
Regal says the dark power can't lose and sends more dark spirits out
from the void. But Saito remains calm, even as Regal screams for him
to disappear. 

"Regal...your plan ends here!"

A hand held out, Saito locks away the Kokoro Network inside of a sphere
made of MagneMetal. 

"It's over..."

With those final words, Saito fades back into Rockman. Netto thanks
his older brother. But it doesn't seem to have been enough. The blue
spirit flares to life once more and rushes at Rock. The screen goes
white and Netto cries out to his Navi. A crash occurs and when the
screen comes back in, Colonel is standing between Rock and the spirit.
He tells Rock to finish Nebula Grey off with one final attack. 

Rock stands and aims...but his buster isn't working. Colonel asks if
nothing more can be done. Turns out there is. Nine Navis - our Team
and our friends - have come to help. They give the power of their
souls to Rock. Rock can feel the power flowing through him and, as
Colonel flies back out of the way, he raises his buster.

"NOW it's over! Rockbuster!"

Rock fires and Nebula Grey goes down for good. The Kokoro Server 
crashes. Regal's wish to break the world is over. 

A strange man walks up to where Netto is. This guy is Barrel, Colonel's
operator. (Kana: Bareru) From what Regal says, it seems he's from 
Amerouppa and the commander of some Network Corp. He explains why
he's there, then turns to Netto as an earthquake is set off from the
exploding Server. Barrel says the volcano is going to erupt and that
it's time to leave.

The two walk back down to where everyone else is. Yuuichirou's untied
and looking better. He apologizes again to Netto and they talk for a
moment before another earthquake is triggered. While Barrel leads
the Team out, Yuuichirou walks up the slope to talk to Regal. He
tries explaining things to Regal, but the man appears too far gone.
After a long talk on their generation and the next, in which Yuuichirou
says he believes in Regal, he collapses, finally out of strength.

The time between earthquakes is growing shorter. Regal waxes
philosophical to himself for awhile over various things. The next
generation, the darkness in his own heart/soul...

But then something happens.

"Kokoro Network Restarting."

The Kokoro Server is overloading! 

The screen goes black.

=============================================
3.22: Finale                         - [over]
=============================================

3 days after the fight with Regal, the Dark Chip Factory on Mt. Fuji
was swallowed as the volcano erupted. And eventually, Yuuichirou
came home. Someone apparently got him to a hospital. 

After a lengthy talk of what happened, we cut back in to the first
HQ at the Lab. Enzan and Yuuichirou are standing before the Team. Enzan
congratulates them on their fight against Nebula. From what I'm
seeing, it looks like Regal got out, too. Yuuichirou takes over and
talks briefly before introducing someone:

Dr. Regal. He seems to have lost his memory --

Now hold on. Didn't Dr. Wily once use this excuse to get back into
Dr. Light's good graces in the original series? "Hi, Tom, I'm back
and I conveniently have forgotten the horrible things I tried to do!"
"Oh, well, that's alright, then. C'mon in and have a frogurt."

><

Anyway...Enzan officially breaks up the Team of Blues. The members
say what they'll be doing now... most going back to the lives they
led before meeting up with us. The screen goes black, and we get
more flavor text from, in all probability, Netto. Saying how he's
a bit sad to see everyone go. 

"What's wrong, Hikari? Sad?"

The screen comes back in. Netto, his dad, Enzan, and Regal are the
only ones left.

And, of course, Netto refuses to tell Enzan he is. 

And then Dekao-tachi arrive. They're all QUITE happy to have Netto
back. And once again, the game ends with Netto calling out the same
thing as always: "Plug-in! Rockman.EXE, transmission!"

Enjoy the credits, folks. Gau's running all over the place in them!

After they finish scrolling, Rock, Roll, Gutsman, and Glyde are in
the Past Vision of Akihara.  After playing around awhile, they
start to head out. But someone's coming IN. Roll wonders if it's
someone from Nebula. But no. It's just Gau! 

Rock facefaults.

Gutsman observes that dogs must be Rock's weak point. Rock denies,
of course. Gutsman says that when Gau barked, Rock keeled over. 
Gau barks again suddenly and Gutsman jumps. Now it's Rock's turn to
tease HIM. Everyone laughs and Yuuichirou says it's time for Netto
and Rock to go. They talk for a bit and Yuuichirou thinks something
to his father about the next generation and such. In any case, it's
party time! Everyone plugs-out and Gau barks one last time. You'll
then go back to the title screen. 

So you've beaten the game. What's left? Well, you can get to the
Nebula Hole Area and hunt around a bit. He's apparently lurking there.
You can get there via the Golden Program in Ura-net 2. Get 100
Standard chips together and you'll gain access. It's apparently
a nightmare in there, with Liberate Missions against the four main
Nebula Navis. 

But that's an extra. And as anyone who's seen my EXE4 guide knows,
I'm awful with extras. I only briefly glanced over Black Earth there.
So I'm going to leave a Nebula Hole Guide to someone who's better than
me at this game. Until Team of Colonel comes out, guys, have fun
playing.

Thank you for reading. And thanks to Ceej for putting this thing up
here, even if the site ISN'T behaving properly right now. And, once
again, thanks to everyone on the EXE5 forums - all three of them. I
started gathering info just a few days before releasing - maybe seven
days ago, total. And here I am, with a fully complete walkthrough.