Evil Empress Roll! (Part 1)

'''Evil Empress Roll! Part 1 '''(Secret Operation! World Three! in Japan) is the 18th episode (15th in the dub) of the MegaMan NT Warrior Anime.

Summary
It's finally time! Lan and Maylu and their NetNavis MegaMan.EXE and Roll.EXE team up in the N1 Grand Prix. At the beginning of the episode, before their match began, Ribitta introduced everyone to the Lucky Loser Wild Card, which would give an opportunity for 4 previously eliminated NetNavis to re-enter the Grand Prix. That was just what Yahoot needed to put his new plan into action...

Yahoot sends Mr. Match and Maddy to the room where the Lucky Loser Wild Card is running. There, they jack in TorchMan and WackoMan and they summon Mettaur viruses to have them ensured as combatants. In the first Wild Card run, Chaud and ProtoMan's opponents are decided. But during the second run the Mettaur viruses ensure their masters' entry, much to the dismay of Tory, Dex, GutsMan, Higsby, NumberMan, Sal, and Miyu.

Next, Yahoot kidnaps Higsby, knocks him out, and locks him in the janitor's closet.

While they wait for their match to begin, Lan and MegaMan make a last-minute Program Advance practice run. According to Lan, they're timing is almost perfect. But before they could continue, Maylu summons them as their match was about to begin.

As they headed into the fray, their friends cheered them on one last time. All of a sudden, they spot Higsby looming out of the dark. He admits he was disappointed for not getting a Wild Card, which means he also wouldn't get to use a rare battle chip in the field. He introduces the duo to the Super Great White Angel Chip. According to Higsby, it's the only one of its' kind and possesses great power which ensures victory to its' user. He decides to give it to Maylu, leaving Lan to admit that he was a bit jealous (especially since Higsby only gave him a deck of Mini Boomers in a previous episode. And ironically he used them all, making Higsby overjoyed)

But that also made Lan suspicious more than his friends were, since he knows Higsby is not one to give away rare battle chips. He collects them and keeps them to himself. But it turns out it was Yahoot disguised as him! He made a foolproof disguise out of Higsby when he knocked him out. Yahoot was about to take his leave, but then Ribitta showed up thinking it was him and dragged him to the announcer booth as the match was about to start.

Lan, Maylu, Mr.Match, and Maddy jack in their Netnavis. And at the same time, Count Zap connects his PET to his guitar and jacks it in to his guitar amp without summoning ElecMan but still using his electric powers. He performs a riff which startles Maylu. She gets a bad vibe but decides to continue on with the match anyway.

The battle starts out great for Lan and Maylu and their NetNavis. They combined some of their basic attacks to make stronger ones, making their friends excited. With that teamwork, the match was almost over. But when WackoMan and TorchMan decide to combine their powers as well, Maylu decided to unleash the Super Great White Angel Chip. She downloaded it, but her PET suddenly sparked darkness and showed static. In a few seconds, the rare chip revealed itself to be malevolent; and it corrupted Roll and seeing it terrified her hero. As Lan and Maylu try to form the puzzle, MegaMan get shocked; not by ElecMan but by Roll!

Roll's human friends were frightened as they didn't know what was going on; yet Maysa already assumed World Three was responsible. MegaMan got up and wondered if Roll was all right, but she whipped him with the new whip in response to him "using her old NetNavi name." She now preferred to be called Empress and disobey Maylu, as Count Zap was now pulling her strings with his guitar strings! She summons viruses to attack MegaMan. Maylu and Lan try to eject the chip with brute force but it won't budge!

MegaMan deletes the viruses, but Roll chooses to turn him into her servant. Maylu tries to log Roll out, but because of Count Zap's interference and control she's still attacking! As if it wasn't bad enough, Roll summons her inner darkness and gains parts similar to ElecMan's to empower her electric abilities as well as a sword of her own!

(To be continued...)

Trivia

 * It's interesting to note that, during the Lucky Loser Wild Card's roulette, almost every NetNavi that could participate had a chibi/cartoon-like version of themselves appear on the roulette. Strangely, the only exception was TorchMan, who only had his emblem appear on the roulette. This modification only applies to the US version.