Wait, let me get this straight...we're NOT supposed to drink the purple water?

By Skullman (Raijin)

When you wake up the next morning, (of the next month, a lot of time passes between missions, I'm surprised Lan is still in the same grade by the end of the game.) you'll realize there's a water problem in town. When you get to class, you can talk to the other kids and fight Gutsman again if you like, but Yai's got the important message, talk to her so you can get started with class. You'll quickly realize that it's cancelled due to the water shortage though, (why does the poor kid have to have weekend classes anyway?) so you can just head on to the metroline (Just ignore the mumbling car for the moment).

When you get to the metroline, you'll get some new e-mail from Yai giving you some slightly less vague instructions, but she's still not much help. When you get to the Government Complex, go up to the desk where the white haired kid is standing, here you'll meet the mysterious, cold and unfortunately named Net-battler, Eugene Chaud. You'll learn you can get into the waterorks area with an ID card, and through a stroke of luck (and obvious poor planning on the security team's part) any sort of ID will work for the elevator. Well, not your school ID, but that could have been an interesting conversation:

Receptionist: Are you an official Netbattler?
Lan: uh...yes
Receptionist: Oh! May I see your ID card?
Lan: um...yeah, here you go.
Receptionist: ...uh, sir? This is an elementary school ID card...and you don't look like a "Miss Mari" to me...

Anyway, a SciLab id card from Lan's dad's lab coat will work fine though, just go up to his lab and steal it...oh I'm sorry, BORROW it, which is why Lan uses some kind of scissors to remove it from the jacket. :P Use the ID to get to the second floor of the water works. Go into the second room and talk to Dr. Froid, the guy in the blue suit. Once you get the low-down from him, you can check out what lies behind the other two doors in the area as well. When you're ready, go back to the lobby and Lan and Rock will make a plan to hide out somewhere until every one leaves. But what is one place in the whole government complex where nobody ever goes? Of course! Dr. Hikari's office! That place is always empty! :P So go and hide out there, when the music changes, go back to the second floor of the water works and Jack into the water softener that guy was standing in front of before, it's time to start your mission.

Side Note: I found it amazing that Lan is able to go until 12:00 with no food or water and still be able to run forever like a super-human, what a kid!

Once you log onto the waterworks network, you'll soon notice that there's ice that you'll slip on no matter what, it can make some moving around tricky, but you chould get it eventually. For instance, after taking the first left, (going straight ahead just leads in a circle) you'll come to a part where a stream of water pouring out a faucet is blocking your way. Luckily, you can control your direction a bit with the ice, on the four-way intersection with the ice in the middle, just head to the edge of the ice farthest from the direction you want to go, and move diagonally accross the ice bridge, you'll have to use this strategy quite a bit in the level. Follow the new path to the faucet, turn the handle and stop the water, then you can go back and go through your newly created path. You'll come to another 4-way ice intersection that you'll have to use the diagonal crossing method to get past and reach the next area.

Here you'll meet Protoman and see more of Chaud's good side. When you move on you'll notice the path to the next area can't be reached with your crossing strategy, so you'll have to find another way. You'll eventually come to another faucet, with this one you'll want to turn it on and then turn it off again, it'll melt the ice and let you pass. Before you go back, you can go in the other direction where a seemingly innocent Colourman will tell you it's a dead end. It's true though, the next faucet is missing a handle, you'll have to handle it later, although you can go right past him and pick up the HP Memory waiting for you around the corner. You can just forget about the other ice bridge until later.

When you get into the next area, it may look like a dead end at first because there's an ice bridge drop straight ahead, there's an unseen turn though, don't let this confuse you like it did me :P. Go straight ahead from there and you'll be taken down a path that'll lead back to the start but you'll get a Widesword on the way. Take the other path after that and go on to another 4-way intersection. Straight ahead is a water stream blocking your way, downwards leads to another water stream, so go up. Use the ice crossing trick to shut if the first faucet then go on to turn off the other, now you can go down the other two paths. You can take a shortcut by dropping off the ice bridge near the farther faucet, the path will lead to an Ice Punch chip, then you can take the long way back and take the other path to reach the next area.

Now you'll finally be in the last area, (of this part of the mission, nyah) there's not much to it, you just gotta know which paths to take. When you get to the part where the path first splits, just go straight down-left to pick up the M-Cannon chip, very useful. Just about all the other paths now will take you back to the start of the area, from the M-cannon, just go around the corner, down the ice bridge, then up onto the next ice bridge, and then go straight right to reach the path to the boss.

Bug Battle: Polar Bears
HP= Purple=250, yellow=300
Speed= slow
Movement= middle right column, adjacent sliding

These two aren't much of a boss, but hey have the boss battle music so they must be. They're more like minibosses though cause they have a pretty simple pattern, they keep shooting ice cubes at you, it will sit at the edge of your area until a second one collides with it and breaks both. Because they're in the same row, their movement is hindered until one is destroyed, it might be a good idea to concentrate your attacks on the one with more HP and then finish with the weaker one.

Now you've completed your mission, OR HAVE YOU? The answer is no. Once you logout, you'll have to go see if the water is fixed, for some reason you have to go all the way to the school to do that. The trip may be long, but on the bright side, you get to see one of the most humourous scenes in the game.

The guy is actually drinking poisoned water, but it really looks like he already did and his body is getting rid of it. ^_^

Anyway, you'll now realize you're only half done with the water treatment plant. But when you get to the metroline, Yai will fianlly give you the whole story and you'll realize the next thing you have to do is find Froid's son. Remember the car outside Higsby's that responded "Mmph mmph"? well, take a wild guess where the kid is.

Memo to WWW operatives: Next time you get a hostage, you might want to GUARD it instead of leaving it tied up in an unlocked car in the middle of a residential area, criminal masterminds my ass.

With the handle program you got from Froid's kid, you can now deactivate that other faucet in area 2 of the waterworks network. But before you go and do that, take the ice bridge next to the first faucet, the one I said to ignore earlier, you'll have to turn off that faucet at the end of the path to pass all the way through. When you do that, go back to fix the faucet without a handle, you'll now be able to advance to the end of the area. On the final path, the road will split and the left turn will lead to a Recov80 chip, don't take the ice bridge next to it thogh, just go back on the way you were going. The second left turn will take you back to where you started as well, so just keep going straight so you can get into the next area.

In the next part, you'll come to a rather large ice slab, to pass it, first slide straight northwest accross it, then use the diagonal cross trick to cross staright down, then from there cross straight northeast to reach the faucet. Turn it on, then off and you won't have to worry about the big rink any more. Use the new path to reach the far left side of the rink and continue. Don't forget to pick up the Tri-Arrow chip you se on the way, if you think you need it.

You're in the penultimate area now, and here's where it gets tricky, the program there will give you the lowdown, basically, most paths on the large rink will take you back where you started, and it'a a long way, so you'll want to get it right quick. First slide straight down the second-leftmost path, (The first with X-shaped panels) You'll fall into a hole that will lead you up a ramp to the left. Turn the faucet up there on, and then off again to open a new path. Continue down the path and fall off the platform so you can reach the new path you created. From your landing point go straight up (As in, press "up" on the control pad" to reach the next secret ramp, look closely and you should see a Power up hidden just underneath the rink, you'll want to pick that up first. Go up the ramp and turn on and off the faucet, a program there will give you some words of encouragement. Fall off the platform and you'll end up back where you started, but now you can reach the end. Just go straight down the path fifth to the right (in front of where the program is standing) From where you land, go straight down, using the diagonal crossing trick and you'll be on the next cleared path, now just line yourself up with the final path to the right and go to the next area.

When you get to this next big ice slab, you'll have to diagonally cross it a few times to reach the blue crystal containing some zenny, from there go straight accross the rink to reach a path that leads straight to another faucet you have to turn on and off. Now go back to where you found the zenny and advance. Now it's time to fight Iceman. (for no good reason I might add.)

Navi Battle: Iceman EXE
HP= 500
Speed= quick
Movement= all enemy tiles, strategic teleport

This is a tricky little bastard, don't let his looks fool you. He starts by making an Ice Cube wall between your area and his, making straightforward attacks difficult, you can always stop their creation by standing in the way and getting hurt but it may be worth it for at least one opening. His next part of his attack includes throwing ice bombs over his wall at you, they make a cross blast where they hit and freeze you to boot, not very pleasant, you'll have to put a lot of concentration into dodging.

If you can survive the battle, you'll be able to convince Froid and Iceman of the real enemy and get Dentown waterworks fixed. You'll also see Colourman getting away from Protoman with the "Aqua Program" You'll also see Froid and his son re-united, you'll also see an actual WWW meeting, and finally, it's onto the next mission, see you there then.