Axess: Magma Battle

Plot Synopsis
All of the Darkloids have decided to ditch ShadeMan and go work for Nebula to get their Dark Chips directly, leaving BubbleMan as ShadeMan's only minion. They hatch a plan to strike at Nebula's mysterious leader.

Meanwhile, Lan, Mayl, Chisao, Tory, and Ms. Mari are on a trip to another hot spring location, but all the instruments in the town are causing everything to break down, from way too hot hot springs, to hay wire pinball machines, to even the town geyser being late. It's being caused by BurnerMan and BubbleMan, working for Nebula (BubbleMan secretly undercover for ShadeMan), and they've broken into the geothermal plant and are raising the magma temperature.... what??? The Geothermal plant has machines regulating magma temperatures??? That sounds uh, implausible...

Chaud has been called to the scene by the Net Saviors, but Lan meets up with him after seeing an explosion. They chase down BurnerMan, and then MegaMan finally shows up for about 20 seconds before they open up a dimensional area. He seriously has about three lines this episode. Anyway, the dimensional area generators slide out of the walls and ground again in all the shitty ways they've done for a long time, and BurnerMan heads straight down to the Magma.

Lan and Chaud go after him cross-fused, because they figure the cross-fusion will protect them from a lavaey burning death. Chaud has a history of knowing shit without any evidence, he's a sharp fella. At one point, Lan takes his Cross-fuse off to switch battle chips... and doesn't immediately burst into flames. I think I'm on to something about Lan being a retarded NetBattle savant.

Anyway, using the Salamander battlechip, Lan catches BurnerMan off guard, and gives Chaud a chance to cut him in half. BurnerMan logs out, and the two Net Saviors haul ass to get out of the magma before the dimensional area collapses. Chaud and Lan have noticed how good a team they have become, and they even decide to be friendly and hang out the rest of the day! Good for them!

The episode ends with ShadeMan building his own dimensional area generator to strike at Nebula! Dun dun dun!

Critique
Oh this episode is so boring and bad! MegaMan is just a prop this episode, he really has only a handful of lines and scenes, and you don't even see him till halfway through. This is how cross-fusion is abused blatantly on this show.

Then you've got the conflict, which is a bit shaky looking in heating up magma and stuff, but I'll admit I don't know shit about this. I doubt it could cause the trouble the bad guys are looking to stir though, and Lan breaking cross-fusion and later jumping into lava nearly crosses the border on what is allowed for stupid for this show.

Finally, the jokes are just horrible, and the writing is only interested in the ShadeMan segments that bookend the episode. It makes you interested in the coming conflict, but this episode on it's own needs more of NT Warrior sticking to its roots.

Rating: Thumbs down.