#battonton

[megamanrecut]

Vastly underestimated how much I had to do this week (and next :S) but had a spare half hour (...sorta) so here's a quick battonton~

[askroahmmythril]

Your preferred names for enemies.

1. Tackle Fire or Changkey

2. Spines or Gabyoby

3. Hot Head or Changkey maker

4. Suzy or Octopus Battery

5. Hot Dogs or Fire Fiends

6. Bubble Bat or Battonton

Tackle Fire, Spine, Hot Head, Octopus Battery, Hot Dog, Bubble Bat.

[geibuchan]

All the enemy models from Mega Man Powered Up have been ripped by Random Talking Bush, so with some new blender tricks I’ve learned to speed things up a little, I tweaked the Battonton model and gave it more polygons, hires textures, a wider wingspan, and made new eyes for it to blink with.

And then after animating it, I made sound effects for it. The wing sounds were made with a recording of bedsheets, mixed with a wing sound effect from Joe & Mac. Stock sounds of bats were pitch shifted for the voice.

The wings break a little during its death animation, but that’s fine, given the context.

[asktherecutcast]

Hey Dr. Wily, I know Proto Man has said he’d leave if you made him a support unit, but have you have considered making one for yourself?

Dr. Wily: Of course! I have made many support units. I have a whole fleet of battontons, I’ve created robotic spiders and evil toasters. They can be useful little pets...yet sadly they do not last long in battle. 

[ficksdiffusion]

The Tunnels, part 2

Part 1

- A corridor this deep below the surface – repeated dr. Light with bewildered disbelief after listening  to his son’s recounting of the exploration.

He was sitting at the table, with the whole Light family gathered in the living room of the house. Behind him, the wall was decorated with family picture of dr Light, Suna, Aki, Tsuki, Mini and Rush. Next to the big photo hung a framed picture of dr Light's late wife and Suna's mother.

- Could it be connected to the first tunnel found under the city? - Suna asked.

- It’s difficult to say. From the description it actually appears that the one under the city lays deeper than the corridor inside the mountain. Paths connecting them would have to be under the mountain. Not to mention their supposed length.

- Is it certain that it’s not possible to dig through the collapse? - inquired Tsuki who was leaning on the wall further away from the table.

- Certain. – Suna assured him – Drill Man had a good day then. Moreover, Ground Man confirmed those findings. And there’s the issue of danger of having several buildings collapse if digging would be attempted.

- What’s left is to gradually check every branch of these tunnels – Aki commented. He listened and simultaneously played with Rush. - Since there was a hidden entrance in the Carbōnem Forest surrounding the mountain, maybe there’s more? - He thought aloud.

- And no one had found them yet? The tunnel entrance inside the cave was hidden from the view but not obstructed. - Tsuki was skeptical.

- But the cave entrance was – Argued Aki – Without the information from Night we wouldn’t find it. - He paused. - However, it is strange that no cavers were interested in that particular cave, while other caves located outside the forest attracted people.

- There is an actual reason – dr Light spoke out – During the Hard Age, forests were extremely dangerous places for humans. Even today, years later, this reservation against entering forests stayed with people. Many don’t realize they have this reservation.

They’re not entirely wrong to feel this way, Suna mused silently, remembering her first encounter with Wood Man.

- And despite jointed efforts to remove any ERW and other threats, some areas were not cleared to this day.

- What about the battontons we brought? Can anything be learned or extracted from them? - Tsuki asked, thinking about the annoying bots. He did try very hard not to destroy some so dr Light and Suna could take a look, but the damned things were falling apart even when he used minimal power.

- It is yet to see. Even in mostly intact ones processors were damaged. Strangely fragile. Analyses are going to take some time, but I don’t think it is a hopeless case.

- I thought it was strange that their power station was still working ‘cause it looked super old. But cables connected to it went through the ceiling. And Wood Man found mostly solar panels mostly buried under rocks hidden higher on the mountain. Explains why the station still worked and why the battontons were so under-powered. Maybe that’s why they were falling apart. - Aki shared his thoughts on the matter.

- Inadequate servicing? -  Suna offered a possible reason.

Dr Light scratched his head.

- I am not sure whether this could be the cause for their strange fragility. But let’s say it is a possibility.

Aki patted Rush once more and leaned back to the back of the couch. The dog laid down next to his feet.

- Is it possible that these tunnels were a part of, for example, a mine? - Aki inquired.

- There is no mention of a mine in the archives. However, numerous documents and records were destroyed or lost during the Hard Age. Some were restored through memory chips donations, but countless were lost forever. We have no way of knowing if there was a mine or anything else.

- So every snippet of data counts. - said Tsuki. Now, decision of the council made more sense to him.

– Yes. the council really hopes that maybe, just maybe, some kind of historical documents will be found.  - Dr Light confirmed.

- Maybe. – said Aki, unsure.

- The thing is - Tsuki began - exploration of the inner structure is going to divert us from inspecting the tunnel under the city. Which was the original instruction. – He pointed out.

- I’m taking care of it. - Suna hurried to explain. -  Bert has already declared he’s going to help us to determine if the found fragment of the tunnel is in fact its end. Tomorrow we’re meeting with Wave Man, he knows layout of the sewers by heart which will be very advantageous if anything was not on the sewers map.

- That’s great, Suna! – Aki said enthusiastically.

- Good. - said Tsuki with relief.

- Speaking about help, I’ve got something I hope will ease the exploration. - Dr Light started, then suddenly stopped.

- Where is Mini? - He asked, only then realizing the robot’s absence.

- On a date. - replied Aki.

- Ah.  – The scientist went silent for a moment, then continued. - Before we’ve got a confirmation that the other part of the tunnel under the city was completely blocked, I was thinking about constructing a scanner device that could be installed on a drone, allowing the difficult to reach areas to be mapped and explored safely. Now that’s off the table, I repurposed those scanners.

He reached into his pocket and put a small, thin disk-like device on the table.

- Their strength and usefulness to you is in their number.  You can install one on a wall next to an entrance then next one per, for instance, every kilometer of the tunnel. Each can make a 3d scan of area around them, they also have various sensors build-in. And, what is the most important, they connect to each other and can transmit information and commands to a specific scanner. You can send a query through the device closest to the surface and receive data from a scanner many floors below.

- And of course, they can also send data to a drone. Should situation call for it, we could send a drone with a camera or additional sensors, and continue exploration remotely.

- That’s so cool, dad!  

- We could use my new drones for that – Suna beamed, imagining the possibilities.

- The spacial data gathered by them will be used to create a map in real time. Mini will oversee the process so you will have access to the map. - Dr Light finished.

- The map is going to come in hand when we’ll be preparing reports for the council. Good way to show them the progress of exploration. - Aki pointed out.

- Certainly better than trying to describe slope of each pathway. - Suna deadpanned.

Aki pulled a face, comically offended, while Tsuki snickered loudly.

Dr Light smiled, then glanced at the watch.

- When Mini is back, tell him to come see me. - He stood up and looked at his children. - Still, be careful. All of you.

- Don’t worry, Dad. - Suna assured him. – We’ll take care.  

Tsuki acknowledged dr Light’s words with a nod.

- Aren’t we always? - Aki said with confidence.

Thomas Light smiled and headed towards his lab.

Suna yawned.

- I don’t know how about you guys, but I’m going to sleep.

- Not yet. But tomorrow we’re gonna be fully charged. After all we're going back to explore the unknown!

It sounded cheesy, but the puns caused his family to laugh – or roll eyes and smirk, in case of Tsuki.

Aki leaned down and in a swift move, grabbed the ball laying next to Rush's mouth. Before Rush managed to react, Aki threw the ball across the room at his brother – who caught it in his left hand without a flinch.

As Rush quickly turned and run to him, Tsuki pushed himself off the wall.

- Time for late evening walk – he smiled, waving the ball.

Rush barked with excitation.

[dailyrockman]

0164: Battonton

[ficksdiffusion]

The Tunnels, part 1

This story takes place in my future AU.

I know more or less where this is going plot-wise, but the story started as an excuse for character interactions, writing down ideas and funny situations and I’d like these to be the main focus. It’s not going to be very polished, I’ll try to keep the descriptions to minimum, language is also going to be mostly simple.

Can’t promise regular updates, but I hope you’ll enjoy :-)

*  *  *

A string of curses and small explosions flowed through his communicator. As Namagem was diverting the attention of flying battontons, Mega Man run in direction indicated by Mega Mini, trying to find the place from where the drones were coming.

He heard another curse, this time louder.

Mega personally didn't feel the need and rarely cursed anymore. Although that may be due to the fact that neither Dad, Suna or Ashley liked it. That and his experiences with the swear jar.

Namagem on the other hand, had no such objections. The swear jar only made him not swear at home. And some situations, like the current one, seemed to set him off.  

While the real bats left the entry tunnel and the cave surprisingly fast (when did Wood Man learn to call bats??), the mechanical battontons were apparently programmed to patrol only the area inside. Moreover, they showed up only after a certain threshold and kept swarming. Luckily, they were dumb and their energy sources were severely depleted so the shots couldn't as much as scratch the armors.

However.

They swarmed. And swarmed. And swarmed.

It bordered on insanity - just how many of them were there??

Therefore, the sounds coming from com link were hardly surprising.

- Could you stop with the cursing?

- Could you find ...WHERE they fly from... AS we PLANNED??

- I'm on it!- answered Mega Man in raised tone, exasperated.

*  *  *

Once the source of the battontons was disabled permanently (and its data send for analysis), they backtracked as the road didn’t lead any further. All the way back to the main chamber of the cave the side branches ended after 100 meters, with the longest one ending after 600. Only after reentering the main chamber and successively checking it meter by meter they found another tunnel. It was hidden from the view and its entrance was smaller than its cross section as well.

So they went in.

*  *  *

This tunnel led deeper into the mountain, curving slightly.

After a long silence, Mega Man asked.

- You still believe it’s a trap?

- You don’t?

- It did cross my mind. But it doesn’t look like Night was behind it, the structures seem way older. He didn’t have a part in making these.

- How can I not think it’s a trap? - Namagem replied - 10 years in jail, of silence, and suddenly he remembered? After never mentioning them in his plans? After the city council announced investigations of the underground Hard Age-dated structures? He plans something. Or hopes something will happen.

- Maybe he changed. Or really can do something useful for the city.

- He had only one idea how to be useful. - Namagem scoffed.

- And look – he continued after a pause - he only came forward after it was announced that we will scout the tunnels. Trust me, he didn’t change.

(Night probably didn’t, but it didn’t escape Mega Man’s attention that his brother approached the subject way calmer than a few years ago.)

*  *  *

About half way through, the walls of the tunnel became smoothed, as if the further part wasn’t an original part of the cave system but was drilled.

After what seemed like an eternity (actually an hour and 29 minutes, Mini supplied) they reached the end. Or, more appropriately, a beginning of a new structure – a long horizontal tunnel with concrete walls. They could see the outline of stairs on each end and many doors on both walls.

- I called it, this will take much longer than what the council thought. – muttered Mini.

[geibuchan]

Unmute, this one’s got sound!

After modifying the Battonton’s model from Mega Man Powered Up and animating it in blender, I figured I’d do the same with a Mettaur model! With some newly mixed sounds too!

I think I did a better job this time around, getting him more on model. I even used my D-Arts mettaur minifigure as a reference for the hat. As with the last one, the Mettaur cycles through a bunch of set animations meant to transition to and from his idle animation, which can be looped.

Probably gonna use this for “The Classroom that Dripped Pizza Sauce”. I just hope I can find clean recordings of Mettaur’s voice from the Rockman.EXE anime by then.