"Threw- threw Dark Sh-Shadow at him," Mimic says proudly, tapping her fingers together. "Then I-I bit him an-and Arcadia- Arcadia threw F-F-Firebombs and he w-went down- he went down really quick." She pauses for a moment, her proud mood suddenly coloured with an odd sense of shame. "M's-sorry, I'm . . . a-am I- I'm- I'm bra-bragging, aren't I?"
Maylu shakes her head immediately. "No, of course not!" she exclaims. "If anything, it's good that you can talk about something like this - and you should be proud of what you did!"
"That's right!" Chisao exclaims, eyes shining as he looks at her. "From what you're saying, it sounds like FlashMan didn't even stand a chance! You deserve to brag!"
"And honestly," Lan says, "I think you're fine. It's only bad if you get too arrogant about it, which I don't think'll ever happen with you."
"Yeah," Maylu agrees, wincing. "No offence, Chaud, but you don't exactly have the confidence to start doing what Lan did when he found that storehouse."
"Hey!" Lan protests.
Are they complimenting me or insulting me? Mimic wonders.
I think it's actually a compliment, Chaud replies.
"Lan said you used a program advance in Cross Fusion," Tory says. "Which one was it? Life Sword?"
"Isn't it Beta Sword?" Maylu asks, looking puzzled.
"Oh, no, the name was changed when the new battle chips started getting distributed," Tory replies. "It used to be Beta Sword, but now it's Life Sword."
"He didn't use Life Sword, actually," Lan says. "It was Elemental Sword!" He grins at Mimic. "I didn't even know you had all four of the elemental Swords, so that was definitely a surprise."
Mimic bites her lip and avoids looking at him directly.
" . . . Chaud?" Lan blinks at her. "What's up?"
You may as well give it back, Chaud sighs.
Mimic reaches into one of her pockets and pulls out Bamboo Sword. She holds it out to Lan, who looks absolutely mystified, but he takes the chip anyway. Then he inspects it, and his eyes widen.
"This is one of mine!" he exclaims. "I recognise that nick in the paint of the design. How did-" He pauses, and looks at her, realisation dawning. "Wait, you don't have a Bamboo Sword. I never saw one in that data we got from your old room, and Bamboo Sword wasn't one of the chips from the Bargain Bin."
"Sorry," Mimic mumbles, still unable to look him in the eyes.
Lan's quiet for a few moments. The only sound comes from the other students playing and talking in the school yard, while the group Mimic sits with is more or less silent with the realisation that she'd stolen one of Lan's chips.
"Chaud."
Mimic cringes, hunching her shoulders. She can't bring herself to look up, because she doesn't want to risk seeing the anger she imagines Lan to be feeling right now. And why wouldn't he? She stole one of his battle chips, didn't even ask for permission to use it, and now she's just giving it back. Maybe it would've been better if she'd just slipped it back into Lan's folder without him noticing - she'd stolen it without him realising it was even gone, after all, so putting it back probably would've been just as easy.
"It's okay. I'm not angry at you."
His tone's as gentle as it can get, but she still can't look up.
"Hey, c'mon." Lan's voice takes on a more teasing note now, but he's still gentle. "I mean it - I'm not angry. A little surprised, obviously, but I'm not angry. Okay? C'mon, look at me."
She almost can't do it, but she forces herself to look up at him anyway. Even though he really doesn't look angry, she still flinches when he reaches out to her, and she only relaxes a little bit when he pulls his hand back. Ragdoll's curled up beside her, but he probably feels how tense she is, and he uncurls a little to rest his head on her leg and start purring.
"I think I remember I said you could use some of my battle chips if you wanted," Lan says. He shrugs. "Just, um . . . next time you wanna borrow one, let me know, okay? You don't have to steal things."
" . . . 'kay," Mimic says faintly.
I did say you didn't need to steal it, Chaud sighs.
I didn't know if he'd let me borrow it, Mimic argues, though it sounds like a pretty weak argument even to her.
Lan would've let her borrow his Bamboo Sword. But she'd still thought he'd refuse for whatever reason, so she'd decided to steal it and then give it back later. Despite what he's just told her, she's pretty sure he won't let her borrow one of his chips after this, and she doesn't want to feel this shitty again, so she'll probably just stick to her own battle chips from now on, even if it means she can't throw out a program advance in the middle of a Cross Fusion battle. Not like it matters; ProtoMan's powerful enough on his own to not even need battle chips half the time.
"At least you gave it back," Maylu says, trying to be positive. "We had a chip thief in class a couple of years ago, and he never gave back any of the chips he stole."
"He got expelled 'cus he wouldn't stop stealing even when the teachers caught him a bunch of times," Lan explains to Mimic - and Chisao, since he's been at DenTech Academy for the same amount of time as Mimic (of course, he spends more time here than she does; she only goes to school three days a week).
"Mimic," ProtoMan suddenly speaks up loudly.
Mimic jolts, accidentally dislodging Ragdoll, and quickly takes out her PET. The surprise of hearing ProtoMan refer to her by her real name rather than Chaud's will probably never go away, even if she's using her real name as her 'fake' name while she's in school. The only reason Lan and the others are calling her Chaud is because they're talking quietly enough that no one will overhear, but there's always a danger of someone accidentally overhearing ProtoMan calling out like that.
"You have an email from Famous," ProtoMan says, gesturing to the 'receipt of mail' window that's popped up between him and Arcadia.
"So do you, Lan!" MegaMan calls. "It's probably the same thing, actually."
ProtoMan opens up the email for Mimic to read, while MegaMan does the same for Lan. After a few moments, Mimic sighs, slumping her shoulders, and Lan groans.
"What's wrong?" Maylu asks, concerned. Her eyes widen and she leans in, lowering her voice. "Is it the Darkloids again?"
"No," Lan says, almost grumbling. "There's some Navis who've gone out of control from the Dark Chips again. Famous wants me and Chaud to go and deal with them."
"Deal with them?" Tory looks almost scared. "You mean . . . delete them?"
Lan's eyes widen as he realises what he said. "Oh, no, no!" he quickly says. "We don't delete them, we send them to SciLab so they can be contained until they can be fixed."
Tory looks relieved to hear that, but Maylu still looks worried.
"Do you need to go right now?" she asks. "School isn't even over . . ."
"It's way too urgent," Lan sighs, putting his PET away and standing up. Mimic copies him, wrapping Ragdoll's lead around her wrist and tugging him off the bench. "If we don't stop 'em, they might start rampaging. Um . . . could you guys cover for us?"
It'll be easy enough to get out of school, but Ms. Mari will probably skin them alive tomorrow. Or she'll skin Lan alive, anyway. Mimic's never once gotten yelled at by Ms. Mari - and the only reason she hasn't been yelled at is because no one wants to get angry at her, something which she is immensely relieved about, and also sometimes exploits to get what she wants out of people (like tricking Maylu into going home when BurnerMan was stealing rare metal).
Of course, knowing that people don't want to get angry at her doesn't stop her from thinking that they'll still get angry when she does something stupid, like stealing one of Lan's battle chips.
MegaMan deals the final blow, swinging his Sword at the out-of-control Navi, and finally it's over.
As the Navi is sent to SciLab, MegaMan allows himself to flop onto his backside, letting out a huge sigh of exhaustion as his Sword vanishes from his arm. Above him, Arcadia's glowing feathers gradually return to normal, and nearby, ProtoMan finally bites through the last of the White Web and scrambles back to his feet, spitting out the sticky digital web with a disgusted grimace. Dark Shadow melts into tendrils beside him, curling around his legs and brushing away the remaining bits of White Web.
"Please tell me that was the last one," MegaMan begs.
"What, are you getting tired already?" ProtoMan jokes, wandering over to help MegaMan to his feet.
MegaMan groans as his aching legs are forced to stand again. "This is the third case today," he complains. "If we get another one, I'm staging a protest."
Arcadia lands beside him with barely a sound, looking torn between amusement and concern. Before anyone can comment any further, MegaMan gets alerted to a video call on Lan's PET, and at the same time, ProtoMan looks up, indicating that he's also gotten an alert for Chaud's PET.
MegaMan lets out another groan and slumps as he hears Famous's voice.
"I'm really sorry," Famous says, and to his credit he does sound very apologetic. "More Navis have gone out of control."
"There's more?" Lan sounds just as exasperated as MegaMan. "But we've only just finished this one!"
Chaud says nothing, but MegaMan sees the screen from his PET, and his expression is a clear indication of how annoyed he is at the amount of cases that've been dumped on them today.
Are we the only Net Savers available, or something? MegaMan wonders. Surely we can't be the only ones who're qualified to deal with these cases.
"I'll send the location to your PETs," Famous says. "After this one, you can both head to SciLab - you've earned a break. We won't contact you unless there's an emergency, alright?"
Lan sighs. "Okay, we'll go."
MegaMan stretches his arms, wincing, and then looks at ProtoMan and Arcadia. "You guys ready for another one?" he asks tiredly.
"Sounds like you aren't," ProtoMan comments.
"We can do this on our own if you're too tired," Arcadia adds worriedly.
"No, we're partners, we're supposed to work together," MegaMan replies. "Thanks for the offer, though." He sighs. "We'd better get moving."
He streams out of the network and back into Lan's PET, but not before he catches the concerned glances that ProtoMan and Arcadia exchange.
"Good work, both of you," Dad says. "Though you look incredibly worn-out . . ."
"Yeah," Lan mutters, shifting his feet to try and ease the aching. "We've been running across the entire city since midday."
"M'not tired," Chaud says.
True to his word, he doesn't look tired - he's sitting cross-legged on one of the nearby tables, barely even out of breath, while Lan's on his feet and trying not to fall over. Lan finds it weird that he's more worn-out than Chaud is, since he was just skating around the city while Chaud was literally climbing over everything like a freaking monkey or something.
He knows Chaud's parkour stuff is because of his weird Cross Fusion with ProtoMan, but still. It's ridiculous that Chaud's somehow not tired from all that. Maybe it's because he's run across the city a few times before - a couple of times before he'd started using Cross Fusion, and then more recently, when he'd followed Lan and Famous to the factory and still somehow made it in time to get into the dimensional area before it was fully formed. He might be used to it. Lan isn't.
"MegaMan seems fairly tired as well," ProtoMan speaks up. "Perhaps the two of you should undergo some endurance training . . ."
"We're not all cats or owls, you know!" MegaMan replies.
"I'm not a cat!" ProtoMan exclaims, predictably.
"Maybe Lan could have a go on that obstacle course," Arcadia suggests, more tactfully than ProtoMan's blunt suggestion of endurance training. "It might help him build up some body strength."
"Chaud does it easily," Lan points out, "and he's a stick."
"Sticks can kill," Chaud says.
Lan stares at him for a moment, and then shakes his head. "You worry me sometimes, you know that?"
Chaud gives him a grin that's all teeth. It's similar to his old puppy-eating smile, but made even scarier because of his teeth. Dr. Amano was right - his teeth are nowhere near as sharp as ProtoMan's are, but one look at those pointed teeth makes Lan decide that he's never going to give Chaud an excuse to bite him.
Dad looks amused for a few moments, but his expression becomes more sombre when he turns to the monitor of the computer nearby. It's showing the four Navis that Lan and Chaud had brought in, all being put through the repair system - though as far as Lan knows, the repair system hasn't worked on NetNavis who were taken over by the Dark Aura from the Dark Chips. But there's always the hope that it might work on at least one Navi, so SciLab always tries it.
"We're putting all our efforts into repairing these Navis," Dad murmurs, "but even the repair system doesn't work. Their personality programs have been severely damaged . . ."
"Dad . . ." Lan says quietly.
Dad shakes his head. "We're grateful for the work you two have put in," he says, glancing at Lan and then Chaud in turn. "And we're much closer to completing the vaccine thanks to Arcadia." He picks up a Dark Chip on the surface of the computer console, turning it over in his hand. "But we're still nowhere near understanding the Dark Chips. We don't know how they're made, who made them, or how they work."
"Does it really matter?" Lan wonders. Dad gives him a sharp look, but Lan continues anyway. "I mean, if you're close to completing the vaccine, then it won't matter how the Dark Chips work or anything like that, 'cus we'll be able to counter them."
"We won't be able to complete the vaccine until we understand the true nature of the Dark Chips," Dad explains, his sharp look softening. "Studying Arcadia's immunity helped, but the final steps toward actually making the vaccine can only be taken if we understand the Dark Chips. It's similar to creating an antidote for a poison - to create the antidote, you need to understand the thing that produced the poison."
Lan blinks. "Oh," he says, now feeling a little sheepish of his thoughtless comment. "That makes sense."
Chaud gives him a consoling pat on the shoulder. From anyone else, it would've felt condescending, but from Chaud, it's somehow both sympathetic and sarcastic at the same time. Lan's pretty sure that no one else could manage such a thing.
Lan's PET suddenly beeps, as does Chaud's, interrupting the conversation.
The first thing that Lan feels is impending exhaustion, because he's sure that it'll be Famous, once again calling on them to take down yet another out-of-control Navi. But when Lan sees the screen, he's surprised to see that it's Manabe calling them, not Famous, and in the background, he can make out the familiar multi-coloured barrier of a dimensional area.
"Lan, Mimic," Manabe greets them. "A dimensional area has appeared - I need your help to investigate inside. I'm sending the location now. Please hurry!"
The screen changes to show a map, with a location indicating where Manabe is. It's a wooded area just outside the city - they could probably make it there on foot, though Lan's feet are already aching from just the thought of all the running or skating he's going to have to do.
"Roll-roller . . . blades?" Chaud suddenly says, as Manabe ends the call. Lan glances over, puzzled, but he notices that Chaud's looking at Dad rather than him.
Oh, right - Chaud won't have any way to get into the dimensional area unless he can get up to the break-in speed. Even if he's faster now, and can do parkour tricks as easily as Lan can skate, he can't get up to the break-in speed on his own.
"Of course, they're over here," Dad says, quickly fetching the red-lined rollerblades that Chaud had used during the trial case when Kifune and Manabe were testing him to see if he could be Lan's partner for real.
Lan waits impatiently for Dad to hand over the red-lined rollerblades. As soon as Chaud has them, they both rush out the door, and Lan hears Dad calling out a quick good luck! before they turn the corner.
"It's huge!" Lan exclaims, when he sees the dimensional area.
Mimic gives him a look. This dimensional area's barrier is about the same size as any other barrier she's seen so far, though they always look bigger when you're inside them. Maybe it's the size of the building complex that makes the barrier seem bigger than it actually is.
"I was attempting to make my way inside when the barrier appeared," Manabe says. "We received an anonymous tip-off about a secret warehouse used to store Dark Chips - judging by this, I think it's safe to assume that the tip-off was correct. But with this barrier in the way, only you two can get inside."
"Why'd they put up the dimensional area, anyway?" Lan asks.
"I would assume whoever's inside this warehouse complex is attempting to use the barrier to stop the Net Police from going inside while they move the Dark Chips out," Manabe replies.
Lan's expression turns determined. "We won't let 'em!" he promises. He glances at Mimic. "Right, Chaud?"
Mimic gives them both a thumbs-up. The warehouse is empty, of course, but she can't very well say something like that - Manabe would wonder how she knew, and they'd probably have to go inside to check anyway, so either way, they'll still be breaking into the dimensional area. Better to keep quiet and pretend that she has no more idea about what's ahead than Lan does.
"I'm counting on you," Manabe tells them, stepping back. "Good luck!"
Lan nods, and turns his attention to the dimensional area barrier. Mimic quickly looks around and spots the massive pipes he'd used to get the break-in speed in the anime, and tugs on his sleeve until she's got his attention. Then she points at the pipes.
"Good idea!" Lan grins at her. "If we can get up there, we can skate into the barrier, and that should give us the speed we need. MegaMan?"
MegaMan's quiet for a moment, mulling it over. "It should work," he says eventually. "The problem is, how do you get up there?"
"Chaud could probably climb up there easily, but Lan is a different story entirely," ProtoMan comments.
Wow. He's bragging for you, Chaud says, sounding highly amused.
Low-key flex, Mimic agrees.
. . . What the hell does that even mean?
Basically what you said in internet-speak, Mimic replies.
Chaud mutters something like why not just agree normally? while Mimic tugs on Lan's arm, and they both make their way over to the building the massive pipes are attached to it. They can't get into the building, because they can't find a door - but Mimic seriously doubts they'd be able to get in anyway, since this is the enemy's warehouse, even if it's empty.
If they can't get into the building to get onto the pipes, how did Lan get up there in the anime? There has to be a way. Of course, she could always do what Chaud did and head for the nearby lake, but she has no idea how to drive a jet ski and she definitely can't swim, so that's out. The pipes are their only option, then.
Then she spots what looks like an easy path to get up there, starting with a tree with low-hanging branches. Well, to her it looks easy - ProtoMan's low-key bragging aside, he's actually right. Mimic would find it far easier to get up than Lan would.
Well, there's only one way to find out if this'll work.
She heads for the tree, making Lan glance at her. He tries to ask what she's doing, and she responds by jumping into the tree and climbing up the branches until she's almost at the top. She could probably get all the way to the very top of the tree, but her destination is a little lower and doesn't require going the whole way, and she's able to crawl out onto the end of the branch that she's clinging onto and spring onto the roof of a smaller building next to the pipe building.
Mimic heads over to the edge and looks down at Lan, waving for him to follow her.
She can see Lan's incredulous expression even from here, but he makes for the tree anyway, and starts hauling himself up. Mimic winces - his climb is far less graceful than hers, and he weighs more than she does, so she's worried that the branches might not hold him for very long. More than once, Lan nearly falls out of the tree when the branch he's clinging onto lurches suddenly, and he has to scramble onto the next one before it cracks.
He gets to the same height she'd gotten to, and then crouches there, looking mildly panicked. He could probably manage the jump - ProtoMan had told her that he'd jumped pretty far, back when he'd grabbed some of her stuff from the Blaze mansion, and the only option to get out was to climb down the tree outside her old bedroom. But he'd had a running start with that, and now, he's being forced to jump from a stationary position, which also happens to be unstable.
"You can do it!" MegaMan calls encouragement to his operator. "Just jump like Chaud did!"
"I'm not Chaud!" Lan yelps in a high-pitched voice.
Seriously, how had he managed this in the anime? Maybe it would be better if they just went to the lake . . . But, again, the same problems remain - Mimic can't drive a jet ski, she can't swim, and besides, Lan's already in the tree. He may as well just jump.
Mimic stands up and claps her hands to get his attention. When Lan's looking at her, she steps forward, right to the edge of the roof, and holds her arms out, waving them.
"Y-you'll catch me?" Lan's voice is still sort of high-pitched, but there's less panic in his tone now. "Are you sure you can? I mean, you're not exactly . . ."
Not exactly that strong, he wants to say. It's clear from his expression.
Mimic waves her arms again, more insistently this time. Lan still hesitates for another moment, but after visibly steeling himself, he gets to his feet, balancing precariously on the branch.
Then he jumps.
He's definitely going to land on the roof, even if Mimic wasn't here to help him, and it looks like he'll land with a few feet to spare. Mimic steps back and has about half a second to see Lan's eyes widening as he realises she's not going to catch him, and he lands on the roof with a thump, stumbling forward and almost falling over. Mimic reaches out to steady him, fighting back a laugh.
"You tricked me." Lan looks up at her, comically offended. "You told me you were gonna catch me!"
"Didn't say anything," Mimic points out, holding up her hands and grinning at him.
" . . . The exact words thing is less funny when it's being used on me," Lan grumbles, straightening up. "Whatever. Let's get going - I think I can see an easy way to get up onto the pipes."
It's the same route that Mimic had seen from on the ground, so she doesn't protest and follows him willingly, still grinning. Lan swats at her playfully as he climbs up onto the roof of the pipe building, and then they make their way onto the pipes themselves, carefully balancing on the uneven surface until they're at the bend.
"Whoa," Lan says, leaning over carefully to study their path. "That's . . . high."
Mimic shrugs at him. If he wants an easier route, then maybe he should've come up with a better idea than using the pipes.
"Alright, let's go," Lan says, crouching so he can clip on his rollerblades.
Dr. Hikari had given Mimic a clip for the red-lined rollerblades, so she could attach them to her belt rather than have to carry them with her hands. Now she unclips the rollerblades from her belt, and then clips them to her shoes, copying Lan.
She just barely remembers the short lesson Lan had given her when she'd used these things before. Luckily, most of her issues back then had been due to balance - she couldn't figure out how to stay upright on the rollerblades and kept almost slipping, and had then actually slipped, which had nearly sent her crashing into the dimensional area barrier before ProtoMan got her to download the synchro chip.
Her balance is much better now, and she easily stands in the rollerblades, even on such an uneven surface. Lan, who's finished clipping on his own rollerblades and is checking her (probably in case she does what she did last time), nods when he sees that she's got them on and is standing properly.
"Want me to go first?" Lan offers. Mimic shakes her head. "Same time, then? Okay."
Lam starts downloading his battle chips. Mimic quickly takes out some of her own - she hasn't stolen any of Lan's this time, so they're all hers. She knows that they'll be fighting GravityMan in the warehouse, plus a bunch of viruses before that, so she's made sure to have a few chips that'll help. She's lucky; the chips that Lan had gotten her from the Bargain Bin were just right for this battle.
As soon as all of the battle chips have been downloaded, Arcadia vanishes, leaving ProtoMan alone in Mimic's PET. She sees the white Navi materialising inside the barrier near the pipes, waiting for them.
"Let's go!" Lan exclaims, starting forward.
Mimic quickly follows, using her better sense of balance to stay on the pipes. She has no idea how Lan manages, but then again, he's Lan - he did it in the anime and he'll do it now, so she doesn't worry about him and focuses on herself.
"You've reached the necessary speed!" MegaMan calls. "Download your synchro chips . . . now!"
Lan jumps, and a split second later, Mimic jumps as well. They both download their synchro chips in unison, and then they hit the barrier just as the bright light of Cross Fusion very nearly blinds Mimic. Her eyes are more sensitive to light, but luckily that somehow doesn't include the blinding light of Cross Fusion, which seems to remain the same for her.
She can feel the barrier trying to resist them, but the energy they release while Cross Fusing pushes back and helps them through, and then they're in, tumbling through the air.
Lan hits the ground in a crouch, arms crossed to protect himself, and Mimic lands on all fours like a cat, skidding to a halt beside him. Arcadia drops through the air until he's hovering next to them, quickly scanning them for any injuries, and when he's satisfied that neither of them were hurt while breaking into the dimensional area, he backs off a little to let them stand up.
"Alright," Lan says, looking around, "now let's find-"
A large group of Basher viruses turn around and aim their triple cannons at them.
"Geh," Lan says, freezing for a split second.
Mimic shoves him out of the way as the Bashers open fire, and Dark Shadow forms itself to run through the cannon fire and start tearing at the viruses.
Lan breaks away from Mimic and jumps into the air, activating his Mega Buster, and then starts raining down Buster shots on the viruses. Chaud activates the Proto Buster for Mimic, and she starts firing as well, seeing Arcadia's Avenger's Arrows joining the barrage. She sees Dark Shadow slipping through the viruses, taking down any that they miss or haven't already deleted.
"So many viruses," Lan grits out, landing beside Mimic and whirling around to cover her back.
"You still tired?" Mimic teases him, unleashing a shot on a Basher that was trying to nail a hit on Arcadia above them.
"Hah!" Lan exclaims. "You wish! Wanna compete and see who can delete the most viruses?"
"Dark Shadow's deletes counts as ours, so we're already winning," Chaud says for Mimic, since she's abruptly occupied with another Basher.
"What? That's not fair!" Lan complains.
"He's technically right," Arcadia calls down, firing off a small volley of Avenger's Arrows. "Dark Shadow is a part of ProtoMan, which means it's a part of Chaud's Cross Fusion, so anything it deletes would count toward their score."
"Next you're gonna say that your deletes count as theirs, too, 'cus you're Chaud's second Navi!" Lan huffs, firing off a Charged Shot to blast apart half a dozen Bashers nearer to the buildings.
"Well, I mean, if you wanna get really technical about it . . ."
"Oh, come on!" Lan complains.
Mimic takes her eyes off the Basher viruses for a moment to grin at him over her shoulder. "Problem?" she asks gleefully.
"Y'know, you're starting to get real mouthy, and I'm not sure it's- look out!"
The abrupt change in topic startles her, and she whips her head around to look - three Bashers are firing off their cannons, taking advantage of her brief moment of distraction. Her eyes widen under her visor and she reacts almost instinctively.
"Proto Shield!" Mimic blurts out, throwing up her hands.
A red shield, taller than she is and oval-shaped, materialises in front of her and absorbs the cannon shots. She panics for a moment, seeing the shimmering on the white underside of the shield, and then releases the energy, sending it straight back at the Bashers and obliterating them, along with some of the ground and a bunch of other viruses that were in the way.
Mimic lowers her arms and stares as the Proto Shield vanishes.
" . . . Oh, wow," Lan says, similarly stunned. "That's, um . . . Was it always that powerful?"
"My Shield is only supposed to throw back whatever was absorbed," ProtoMan replies blankly. "It doesn't multiply the attack power."
"Maybe it's different because of Cross Fusion," Chaud suggests.
Mimic only just barely remembers not to agree with him out loud. Lan'll wonder why she's agreeing with herself if she does.
"Um, there's more viruses on the way!" Arcadia calls from above, pointing.
Mimic and Lan look in the direction he's pointing. Mimic's hair bushes out, now startled for an entirely different reason, as she sees the small horde of viruses rushing toward them. She and Lan exchange a quick glance before running off, into the complex where the viruses won't have such an easy time aiming for them like they would in the open. Arcadia follows them in the air, abandoning his Avenger's Arrow and switching to Firebombs, hurling them at the viruses to stop them from following the trio directly.
They quickly take out any viruses they come across while running through the complex. At the same time, Lan checks each building for Dark Chips, while Mimic and Arcadia cover him from outside. Every single building they try is empty, of course, but Mimic still lets Lan continue, because she can't think of any way she could explain how she knows the Dark Chips aren't here.
The lie about the dreams that she'd told Dr. Hikari flashes through her mind briefly, but she dismisses it just as quickly. Now's not really the time to drop that bullshit bombshell on Lan, and besides, he might think she's just joking. She's technically not - while it's far from a joke, it's still a lie, but Lan won't think like that.
"We've checked nearly everywhere," Lan says, after finishing up in the latest building. He turns his attention to the large building in the middle of the complex. "Only place left is the main building."
"If you enter from the top and work your way down," MegaMan speaks up, "you should get in without much trouble. I can detect a strong number of viruses in the lobby and the area surrounding it."
"That's great, but how do we get to the top?" Lan wonders.
"Hello," Arcadia says, spreading his wings.
Lan looks at him blankly for a moment, and then his eyes widen. "Oh!" he exclaims. "Right, sorry, I almost forgot you can get us up there."
"Sounds like you did forget," Chaud mutters.
Lan turns an offended stare to Mimic, and she resists the urge to tell him that it hadn't been her who said that. As far as Lan's concerned, she did say it, using the 'weird telepathy thing' that she has during Cross Fusion. It's not telepathy, it's just Chaud being able to speak, and his random comments can be heard and mistaken for hers.
Arcadia gives Mimic an amused look, like he knows exactly what's going on - he does, actually, so it's not like anything - before he rises into the air and holds out his talons. Mimic reaches up and lets him grip her wrist, and she clutches at his ankle in turn. Lan does the same with Arcadia's other taloned foot, and they let Arcadia carefully lift them into the air.
Up and up they go, avoiding the viruses still left over - not that there's many left, considering Mimic and Arcadia took out most of them while Lan was checking the buildings. Dark Shadow's turned itself back into tendrils of shadows again, making it easier to follow them, though it steers well clear of Arcadia's glowing feathers.
They come level with a glass window, and Lan quickly tells Arcadia to stop.
"We can get in through there!" he exclaims. "Arcadia, can you throw me?"
"Uh," Arcadia says, "sure?"
Arcadia twists, keeping a firm grip on Mimic, and grabs Lan with his hands, releasing him from his talons. It seems a little awkward, so Mimic tries to make it easier on him, gripping his ankle with both her hands, and he responds by clutching at her with his now-free taloned foot.
He swings Lan around, then hurls him at the window. Lan raises his fist and punches through the glass, rolling into the room and coming to a stop, then he bounces to his feet and cheers.
Mimic and Arcadia exchange a glance, and then Arcadia lifts her into the room through the broken window. He waits until she's climbed in before ducking in himself, tucking in his wings and then folding them once he's through.
"Where do we need to go from here?" Lan asks, looking around.
"I can detect an underground complex," ProtoMan reports. "That might be where the Dark Chips are being stored."
He's half-right - it's where the Dark Chips were stored. They're not there anymore.
Upon thinking that, she picks up a jolt of surprise from ProtoMan, but feels him pushing it down quickly to avoid reacting out loud. He'll understand why she didn't say anything if he picked up on that thought.
Mimic, Arcadia, and Lan take off down a hallway just outside the room they'd broken into. There's only a few twists and turns, and they have to delete a small group of Billy viruses when they materialise in front of them suddenly, though thanks to Arcadia's Flashfire, they make very quick work of them.
"There's a lift shaft just up ahead that should take us down to the underground complex," ProtoMan says, just as the lift comes into view.
Mimic takes one look at the lift doors and stops running.
I am not dealing with that, she decides, as Lan pauses up ahead and turns to face her.
"Chaud?" Lan asks. "Why'd you stop?"
"Enemy's base," Mimic says. "They control everything."
Lan's eyes widen, and he glances over his shoulder at the lift. "Oh, so it might not work for us," he says.
That, or Ms. Yuri will try to bury us alive, Mimic thinks.
As Lan turns back to face her, she gathers the shadows around her into shadow-claws, then raises a hand and aims for the floor. Lan lets out a protest as he realises what she's about to do, but Mimic ignores him and slams her shadow-claws into the floor. She keeps attacking it, scoring grooves into the floor, but it seems to be much thicker than she'd thought it would be.
Arcadia watches her for a moment, and then motions for her to step aside. He's got a Firebomb ready in his hand, so Mimic backs off and lets him hurl it at the floor, blowing open a hole much faster than she could've managed with her shadow-claws alone.
"Chaud!" Lan protests, as she makes to jump down onto the next floor. "We can't just break the floor like that!"
Mimic gives him a flat look. "You broke a window," she points out.
"A window's totally different than blasting holes in the floor!"
Mimic rolls her eyes and jumps down. Arcadia gives Lan a sheepish smile and a shrug before following, and readying a second Firebomb. Above them, Lan utters a frustrated noise and mutters something she can't hear even with enhanced hearing, and then jumps down after them.
Arcadia blasts holes in every single floor until ProtoMan tells him to stop. They've finally arrived at the underground complex, hidden underneath the factory, where the Dark Chip vault is.
Mimic jumps to her feet, grinning. "Hah!" she calls triumphantly, throwing out her arms. "Try burying us alive now, bitch!"
"Uh, Chaud, who're you talking to?" Lan asks, brushing bits of dust off his bodysuit.
Mimic lowers her arms. "No one," she says quickly. "Let's go."
The underground complex isn't really that much of a maze, which is a little disappointing for Mimic. The anime hadn't shown Lan and Chaud going through it, except the start and the end where the vault is, and she'd been sort of curious to find out what the actual complex looked like. Turns out it's just mechanical grey hallways and almost no detours or dead ends.
They reach a large pair of metal doors near the end. ProtoMan informs them that the doors are several inches thick, but that means almost nothing compared to the strength of NetNavis. Lan blasts a few holes in the doors with his Mega Buster, Mimic weakens them further by slashing at them with her shadow-claws, and then Arcadia hurls a Firebomb at them and blows them inwards, revealing a large, almost cavernous room.
"Look!" Lan says, pointing at the vault door on the other side of the room. "That has to be where the Dark Chips are stored. Come on!"
He starts forward. Mimic quickly grabs him, jerking him back to her side. Lan's indignant protest dies on his tongue when the ground in front of them flattens into a circular pit.
"INTRUDERS," a mechanical voice rings out. "INTRUDERS IN THE VAULT."
From above, GravityMan - the Darkloid who controls gravity itself, fairly obvious from his name - floats down, eyes flashing menacingly. Lan clenches his fists and gets into a battle-ready position. Arcadia readies his Holy Fire, while Mimic crouches onto all fours and tenses herself.
She's used to the jolt of fear that runs through her body, and barely notices it beyond acknowledging that she's still scared. But she's fought through what was probably an entire army of viruses to get here, and she took on FlashMan without a second thought.
You can do this, Chaud tells her.
She believes him.
"INTRUDERS IDENTIFIED AS ENEMIES OF DARKLOIDS AND NEBULA," GravityMan says.
"Don't think I've ever met a NetNavi or a Darkloid like that," Lan comments, sounding puzzled and mildly curious despite the impending battle.
GravityMan's eyes flash again as he raises his arms. "I AM GRAVITYMAN," he intones. "NOW COMMENCING DELETION."
"Oh, how fun," ProtoMan comments dryly.
The trio scatter as the ground beneath their feet starts to give way, and it becomes a flattened pit much like the previous one.
"He controls gravity!" Chaud calls, mostly for Arcadia and Lan's benefit since Mimic already knows. "Don't get caught in those pits!"
"Great!" Lan complains. "How do we beat something like that?"
"Let me try!" Arcadia, throwing a stream of Flashfire at the Darkloid.
Mimic's too late to warn him about the gravity barrier around GravityMan - that's the main reason why he's so tricky to fight - and Arcadia's Flashfire hits the barrier.
She expects it to bounce off, the same way Lan and Chaud's attacks had in the anime. It doesn't hit GravityMan, of course, but the Flashfire gets brighter and far more intense, rising high above and scorching the ceiling. Arcadia quickly cuts off his Flashfire, looking startled.
"What the heck?" Lan looks just as startled.
"GRAVITY HOLD," GravityMan says, throwing out his arms and hurling a crackling black ball of energy at them.
Mimic can feel the pressure from the energy ball even before it reaches her. She ducks under it, almost having to flatten herself to the ground to avoid getting hit, and looks around to check where it's going.
"Hah!" Lan taunts GravityMan, aiming his Buster at him. "Where are you even aiming?"
"Move!" ProtoMan snaps, just as Mimic darts toward Lan and launches herself at him, shoving him out of the way of the Gravity Hold energy.
GravityMan moves his arms and the energy comes back around toward them. Mimic and Lan break apart, letting it pass between them, and Arcadia tries to throw a Firebomb at it, only to have the Firebomb explode violently before it even touches the energy. It comes back around again and hits Arcadia before he can react, sending him crashing to the floor.
He tries to get up, but the energy vanishes and turns into visible pressure, forcing him to stay on the floor.
Mimic feels ProtoMan's protective anger surging through her as she jerks her head around to glare at GravityMan, baring her teeth and letting out a challenging caterwaul. GravityMan turns toward her, eyes flashing again as he readies another Gravity Hold.
"Stone Cube, download!" Chaud exclaims.
He's activating the battle chip, but Mimic's the one who controls where it goes. She directs the Stone Cube to materialise directly above GravityMan, and then lets it fall, watching it bounce off his head. GravityMan's Gravity Hold fizzles out as he stumbles - or whatever the floating-in-mid-air equivalent is - and the visible pressure keeping Arcadia down vanishes at the same time, allowing him to take in a gasp of air and scramble to his feet.
That one was from the anime, though much later in the series. Lan had thrown heavy objects at GravityMan to break his gravity barrier, and Mimic had downloaded two Stone Cube chips so she could do the same thing. Hopefully Lan will think it's just sheer luck that she had the exact chips needed to break the gravity barrier.
"Hurry, while the barrier's down!" Chaud quickly tells her.
Mimic takes off running, readying her shadow-claws. GravityMan corrects his mid-air stumble and locks his eyes on her, but he's too slow to get his barrier back up, and Mimic slashes at him with her claws. He lets out an odd drawn-out beep, sort of like a scream but too mechanical to be called that, and nails her with a hasty Gravity Hold at point-blank range.
Pain explodes throughout her body as she's flung back several metres, then gravity increases and her body's suddenly too heavy for her to get to her feet, and she can hardly breathe through the pressure. If this is what it feels like to be buried under a few hundred tonnes of rocks, she never wants to go mountain climbing.
She just barely registers Lan and Arcadia firing at GravityMan, trying to make him release her. But GravityMan's already put his gravity barrier back up, and Lan's Mega Buster shots simply bounce off harmlessly. On the other hand, Arcadia's Avenger's Arrows go wild, exploding and blasting white fire in every direction.
"Heat rises!" ProtoMan shouts to Arcadia. "Fire is affected by gravity!"
Arcadia's eyes widen as he takes that in. "So my Holy Fire gets more intense in high gravity," he realises. "But that means I can't attack at all! I might hit one of you!"
And with GravityMan changing the gravity on them as easily as Mimic climbed that tree earlier, he can't risk flying, or he might get squashed to the floor or ceiling if he gets caught in GravityMan's attacks. Even while she's being crushed by the immense pressure of gravity, Mimic still feels a pang of sympathy for him - GravityMan is probably the one Darkloid who can shut down all of Arcadia's attacks, even with his immunity-boosted power.
"Don't worry about it!" Lan calls to him, still trying to fire at GravityMan and still getting the same result. Maybe he thinks if he keeps up a barrage, he'll be able to wear down the barrier eventually. "We can take care of this! You just get to that vault!"
It's a good idea, except Mimic is pretty sure that ShadeMan's in there right now.
She feels ProtoMan's jolt of shock, and it prompts her into action.
"Stone Cube, download!" she grits out, again forcing the Stone Cube to materialise directly above GravityMan.
The crushing pressure is released so suddenly that Mimic's limbs feel like water, and she wastes a few precious moments trying to force air back into her lungs. She hears Lan firing off more Mega Buster shots, this time actually managing to hit GravityMan thanks to the Stone Cube breaking through the gravity barrier, and gets her arms under her so she can push herself up and rejoin the fight.
She stumbles forward a little, catching herself on her hands, and then straightens properly. Her head's a little fuzzy from being crushed for so long, but it clears up quickly.
"Proto Shield," Chaud says.
Rather than the full version, the smaller Proto Shield materialises this time. Mimic stares at it for a moment. What does Chaud want her to do with-
"Throw it!" Chaud exclaims.
Mimic grabs the half-Shield and launches it at GravityMan. It bounces off his face with a loud metallic clang, and he floats back a few feet, arms flailing around as he tries to correct himself.
Mimic has about two seconds to feel a vindictive sense of satisfaction about that before GravityMan hurls a Gravity Hold at her in revenge, sending her flying into the wall. Luckily, she's pissed him off and he only used the Gravity Hold as a projectile, so she doesn't get crushed into the wall and just slides down it.
Then she has to scramble out of the way as another Gravity Hold is hurled at her, and it smashes into the wall, making a massive jagged dent. Mimic doesn't want to find out what would have happened if that had hit her, so when she senses the next one coming, she darts out of the way again, dropping down to all fours and scrambling alongside the wall.
GravityMan keeps throwing attacks at her, and she keeps dodging them, eventually splitting away from the wall because it's just making her an easy target. ProtoMan warns her about a Gravity Hold that's about to smash the ground in front of her, so she veers to the side, changing direction, and skids to a startled halt when she comes face-to-face with Arcadia.
He looks just as startled as she is. Before they can move, Mimic senses another Gravity Hold coming, but they've paused too long and neither of them can get out of the way in time.
The pressure forces them both down to the floor again. Mimic is pretty much deciding that she hates gravity at this point, and now there's no way for her to break it, because she only had two Stone Cube chips and she's already used them. She can hear Lan downloading a Shotgun and firing it, but even that does nothing against GravityMan's gravity barrier, and then Lan gets flung backwards and forced into the same high-pressure gravity that's keeping Mimic and Arcadia on the floor.
"This was a terrible idea," Chaud gasps out.
"This was your idea!" Mimic retorts, before she can think better of it.
Even through the pressure crushing down on them, she can still see Lan giving her a confused glance. To him, it must sound like she's arguing with herself. But there's too much going on right now, and she can worry about giving Lan the wrong idea about her sanity later.
The pressure increases until it's nearly unbearable. Mimic can feel her body being crushed, and has to wonder how much it'll hurt if her bones get turned to mush while she's still conscious to feel it. Would it hurt more or less because of Cross Fusion?
A flicker of darkness at the edge of her vision makes her pause. One of the tendrils of shadows that usually coils around her is trailing across her line of sight, trying to get her attention. Something clicks in her mind, and although she can't put it into words, seeing that tendril moving around means something.
"Shadows aren't affected by gravity!" Chaud realises, before she can put her muddled thoughts together.
Mimic's eyes widen, and the tendril of shadow is joined by another, and then another, until they form Dark Shadow. Its body ripples like black fire, the exact opposite of Arcadia's white Holy Fire, and she stares up at it, feeling hope flickering in her chest.
"Go!" she hisses at Dark Shadow.
Dark Shadow twists around and throws its arms out wide, static-screeching at GravityMan. The shadows in the room spike crazily for the duration of its static-screech, and its body flickers in time with the spiking. GravityMan pauses for a moment, thrown off, and then jerks back when Dark Shadow launches itself at him, jumping up and clawing at him.
GravityMan's pressure on Mimic, Arcadia, and Lan vanishes suddenly, leaving them gasping for breath. Lan recovers first, being the only one to not get caught by the pressure previously, and scrambles to his feet so he can aim his Mega Buster at GravityMan.
Mimic can see the moment that GravityMan's barrier gets torn apart by Dark Shadow's relentless attacks, and Lan fires off a Charged Shot as soon as Dark Shadow jumps off the Darkloid. GravityMan lets out another drawn-out beep, and he starts jerking around, spinning and whirling randomly.
"DANGER- DANGER-" GravityMan shrieks. "HEALTH DOWN- 80%- ABORT MISSION! ABORT MISSION!"
He freezes in place for a moment, and then vanishes in a swarm of pixels.
Lan slumps, banishing his Mega Buster. "Thank god," he sighs. "I never thought I'd be glad to see the end of a fight like this . . ."
"We should get going," Arcadia says, standing up with a pained wince.
Mimic's sense of impending doom has everything to do with her knowledge of the future, but it's also because she can feel the tension thickening like GravityMan's pressure. Lan and Arcadia sense it too; she can tell by their expressions.
Slow, sharp footsteps echo through the room. A screeching of metal fills the air, making Mimic wince and instinctively want to cover her ears, but she's frozen with an odd sense of dread that's far different from anything she's felt before.
Then the vault door is blown wide open.
Mimic jerks back, crouching with her hair bristling, as ShadeMan steps through the jagged hole. His rage rolls off him in almost tangible waves, and even Arcadia, who can't detect Darkloids with his Empath Program, is able to sense it. ShadeMan looks at all four of them in turn, vampire teeth bared, and when his gaze sweeps over Mimic, she feels overwhelming terror flood over her.
"You . . . you're the Darkloid who stole the synchro chips from SciLab!" Lan exclaims. His voice shakes, though he's aiming his Mega Buster at ShadeMan valiantly. "Your name's ShadeMan, right?"
ShadeMan's glare reaches full force.
Mimic flinches back, digging her claws into the floor. The lights above their heads flicker and the shadows in the room start to shift uneasily, and she sees Dark Shadow flickering spastically. Odd static noises come from it, nothing like its usual hissing or screeching, more similar to the kind of noise you get from a radio that doesn't work, with an undertone of white noise that grates on Mimic's ears.
"Chaud?" Lan sounds almost scared now, and for a moment she thinks that he's given in to the overwhelming terror, but as she manages to drag her gaze away from ShadeMan to look at him, she sees that he's staring at her, eyes wide. "C-calm down, your Cross Fusion-"
Mimic looks down at her red armour. It's starting to come apart, separating from her bodysuit, and she can see shadows sparking along her body, leaving an odd cold sensation not unlike pins and needles in their wake.
"Don't underestimate me, humans!" ShadeMan roars, stepping forward. An entirely new wave of rage floods out from him.
Mimic's mind goes blank, and then suddenly she's Crossed Out, fully human once again, as her PET clatters to the floor beside her. Dark Shadow lets out one last white-noise static-screech before vanishing as well, and Mimic's PET starts letting out visible black sparks.
ShadeMan throws out his arms, spreading his wings. "Crush Noise!"
Arcadia throws himself in front of Mimic, shielding her from the visible wave of sound that ShadeMan throws at them, and he's forced back several steps and onto his knees from the force of the attack. Lan tries to come forward, still pointing his Buster at ShadeMan, but the Darkloid simply roars and blasts out another Crush Noise attack, throwing Lan into the wall and forcing him to Cross Out.
Then, mercifully, the multi-coloured sheen of the dimensional area starts to fade. ShadeMan scowls as he's forced back into the cyberworld, and Arcadia vanishes just after he does, somehow managing to stay in the real world long enough to make sure ShadeMan actually leaves. But judging by the black sparks that Mimic's PET is letting off right now, she guesses that he won't be able to go into it yet. He's probably in Lan's PET.
Speaking of Lan, he's just getting to his feet, almost stumbling and wincing when he tries to get up. ShadeMan's attack hurt him a lot - Mimic can't help but feel a little guilty that she got out of that encounter without a scratch, because her fear had caused her to Cross Out and Arcadia had to protect her.
But the guilt seems far away, almost like she's just experiencing someone else's guilt, and it's overshadowed by a strange light-headed sensation. She wobbles where she crouches, arms buckling, and almost falls over before managing to catch herself in time.
"Chaud? Chaud!"
She hears rapid footsteps but barely reacts, even as Lan drops to his knees beside her. He reaches out and puts his hands on her shoulders, and she flinches back when she feels odd sparks of pins and needles where his hands touch her. Lan backs off a little, and through the haze of whatever the hell this is, Mimic can see his worried expression.
Mimic moves a little, crouching lower to the floor, and immediately regrets it as her stomach does backflips. She curls up and tries to breathe, shaking and trembling, and then abruptly uncurls and scrambles away from Lan. Before he can speak, she vomits onto the floor, then lurches back when she feels her arms giving way again, just to avoid face-planting in a puddle of her own sick.
She feels Lan's hand carefully rubbing her back. This time his touch doesn't make her feel pins and needles, so she tries to relax into it, curling up on her side and taking deep breaths. She can hear Lan murmuring, and although she barely hears what he's saying, she focuses on his voice and lets it ground her through her panic.
Oh. Panic.
She's having a panic attack.
Mimic has no idea how long she stays there, with Lan sitting next to her and murmuring gentle comfort, before she's eventually recovered enough to try sitting back up. She's still shaky and her throat burns from vomiting, but she's not half-deaf from panic anymore, so that's . . . something.
Lan presses her PET into her shaking hands, and she finds a little bit of comfort having it there. It's still sparking a little, and the screen flickers like crazy, but through the sparks and the flickering she can just about make out ProtoMan and Dark Shadow looking out at her. She can't tell what ProtoMan's expression is like because of the flickering, and Dark Shadow doesn't even have an expression, but she starts feeling better just seeing them.
"Arcadia's in my PET right now," Lan says, showing her. MegaMan and Arcadia stand side-by-side, both looking extremely concerned - for both her and ProtoMan, she realises. "Do you wanna wait a bit longer? Or do you think you can make it out?"
Mimic stares at him blankly.
"We need to give Manabe our report," Lan reminds her gently.
Mimic's shaking too much for sign language, and she knows if she tries to speak, all that'll come out is some garbled nonsense. So she just turns her head toward the doors that they'd broken down to get into the room, hoping that Lan understands.
"You sure?" Lan asks carefully. Yeah, he definitely understands. "We stay here for a little longer if you need to. Manabe won't mind."
Manabe will probably freak out when she sees the state that Mimic's in, but that's something to worry about later.
Mimic brushes Lan's hand and directs it to point at the door. It's the best she can do when she has no other way to communicate at the moment.
"Okay." Lan's still speaking softly, and he helps her stand as gently as possible, steadying her when her legs nearly give out. "Come on, let's go. We'll take the lift this time, alright? And there's no viruses, 'cus the dimensional area is gone. So we won't be attacked. That's it, slow steps. You can do it . . ."
She lets his slow, comforting voice wash over her as they make their way out of the warehouse complex.