Lan wanders through the entertainment district, almost lost in thought. It's only almost because he's aware enough to talk to MegaMan and dodge around people (and occasionally cars).
"I wonder if taking him to see a movie would help?" Lan wonders. He doesn't hold much hope for the idea - Chaud's still angry, and he doesn't even seem interested in playing games, which is a huge red flag because Chaud loves games.
"He seems to like fantasy stuff," MegaMan muses. "How about Star Potter?"
Lan perks up. "There's a sequel for that one already, which means it must be good!"
That should mean it'd be good to take Chaud to see it, too. But how would he react to a cinema? As far as Lan knows, Chaud's never been in one. And with his night vision, his eyes are more sensitive to light, and being in a large dark room with a single blaring point of light might actually hurt him, which is the opposite of what Lan wants. Maybe Chaud could wear sunglasses inside the cinema room?
His PET suddenly rings, startling him out of his thoughts. Lan quickly backs up against a wall so he's not in anyone's way and takes it out, just in time for MegaMan to answer the call for him.
Famous looks out at him. Lan straightens automatically - the only reason Famous would call him so suddenly is for a Net Saver mission.
"Lan, are you anywhere near the rental video store right now?" Famous asks him.
"I'm in the entertainment district," Lan offers.
"It's right around the corner," MegaMan tells him.
"Good," Famous says. "Viruses are attacking the store's network. I'm leaving it up to you to sort it out."
"Got it, Mr. Famous!" Lan exclaims, saluting.
"It's just Famous," Famous says tiredly, as MegaMan ends the call.
"It's a shame Chaud's not here," MegaMan comments, as Lan clips his rollerblades onto his shoes. "ProtoMan's gotten way better with fighting, so this might've been a good opportunity to help them both burn off some of their excess energy."
Lan starts skating for the corner, dodging around people as he goes. "We didn't know something like this would happen," he replies. "And besides, Chaud's with Mizuki right now, isn't he? So he can't come anyway."
"Still, though . . . This might've been what we needed to help Chaud. Yet it had to happen when he's not here."
"We can't control when there's a virus attack or something," Lan points out. "Though it'd be nice if we could, then we'd never have to deal with one ever again."
"But that would be boring," MegaMan argues.
Lan laughs as he skates around the corner, and then he slows to a stop and stares. The rental video store is a few shops down - there are VHSes flying out of the shop, and people are running outside, screaming in panic. Bystanders nearby are watching in total confusion.
"That's some virus attack," MegaMan says.
Lan shakes his head to clear himself of his surprise, and then heads straight into the rental store. The inside is no better than outside - it seems even worse, honestly, because there are even more VHSes flying around in here, being spat out by video players in every direction. A lot of the electrical devices in the store are giving off violent sparks.
He quickly looks around for a jack-in port. The counter is nearby, with one of the shop employees hiding behind it. Lan locates a port at the cash register and jacks MegaMan in, and then ducks to avoid being sliced apart by a flying disc.
Lan scrambles around the counter and hunkers down with the terrified employee.
"Hi," Lan says brightly. The employee just stares at him blankly. "Okay then."
Lan turns back to his PET. MegaMan's inside the store's network now, and there's a small horde of viruses floating around and zapping everything in sight. From what Lan can see, every single virus is a Killer Eye.
MegaMan activates his Mega Buster and starts firing it at the Killer Eyes. They go down quickly, but the problem is that there's so many of them - if MegaMan just shoots them, he's not gonna get anywhere, and this'll take forever.
"Long Sword, download!" Lan exclaims.
The Long Sword materialises on MegaMan's arm and he immediately starts hacking and slashing at the viruses. He cuts three or four in quick succession, then jumps into the air and slices apart the remaining viruses.
As soon as all of the Killer Eyes are gone, the system returns to normal. Lan breathes a sigh of relief as the VHSes and electronic devices in the store stop going wild, and finally he and the employee are able to stand up without risking getting hit by flying VHSes.
On the screen, MegaMan looks satisfied with the easy win. Then he suddenly pauses, looking over his shoulder like he's heard something.
"MegaMan?" Lan calls. "You okay?"
MegaMan jolts. "Y-yeah," he says, turning back to Lan. "I just thought I felt something . . . I thought someone was watching me."
"That's . . . weird," Lan says, frowning.
"The feeling's gone now," MegaMan reports. "I might have imagined it."
" . . . Right."
Before he can think on that any further, the employee interrupts, thanking him profoundly. Lan soaks in the praise happily, telling the employee that it was no problem - after all, this is his job. But even if he wasn't a Net Saver, Lan would've helped out anyway; he could never just sit back and ignore something like this.
"If there's anything I can do for you," the employee says earnestly, "just name it."
Anything? That sparks his interest.
"Actually, um . . . Do you have Star Potter here?" Lan asks. "I'm trying to find it for a friend . . ."
The employee slumps a little, looking apologetic. "I'm terribly sorry," he says regretfully. "With the new Star Potter Reloaded coming out soon, the original has gotten extremely popular again. All of our copies are rented out at the moment."
"Oh." Lan deflates. "Okay, never mind, then. It was worth a try. Thanks anyway, mister!"
It's disappointing to hear that, but at least it's better than looking through the entire store and finding out the hard way. This saves a lot of time. Maybe he can look for Star Potter in another rental store? This isn't the only one in DenTech City, after all - it's just the one that's closest to home.
On the way out, he walks past a poster advertising the original Star Potter movie. Lan pauses and studies it for a moment, then remembers the TV advert for Star Potter Reloaded.
"Wasn't there some sort of tagline?" Lan wonders. "How did it go, again . . .? Uhh . . ." It comes to him in a flash. "Will it be magic, space-"
"-or the virtual world that wins!?" MegaMan finishes eagerly.
Lan and MegaMan giggle together for a moment.
"I'm gonna try and find it," Lan decides, when he's done laughing. "Even if I have to go through every single rental store in this city!"
"You could just buy the DVD," MegaMan points out.
"My allowance isn't big enough for that!" Lan protests. "But renting a VHS is pretty cheap, and I think we've still got that old video player at home. Wonder if Mom'll mind me digging it out so we can use it?"
"If it still works," MegaMan says pointedly. "That thing's older than you are."
"But I'm nearly thirteen!" Lan exclaims, stunned. "Wow, now I'm wondering if the video player will work . . ."
"Exactly."
Lan shakes his head and starts heading back home. There should be a VHS somewhere in the house that he can test the player with - and if it doesn't work, maybe he can do extra chores or something, in exchange for a temporary raise in his allowance. With some extra money, he might be able to buy the Star Potter DVD.
Though considering Star Potter is so popular that even the VHS is totally rented out, the DVD might be sold out as well. Maybe his best bet is to just check the rental stores every day until he finds Star Potter.
But first, he needs to make sure that the video player at home actually works.
Lan's been pretty active lately. Mimic has no idea why - she's not sure if she even cares, honestly. Aside from a passing interest, she hasn't really noticed what Lan's been doing over the past few days.
Her anger's still festering. It was so palpable that her latest session with Mizuki had focused almost exclusively on anger management exercises, because Mizuki had, of course, seen through whatever facade Mimic could bother to throw up. It's her job to do that, but it still annoyed her that Mizuki had been able to see through it so easily.
Then again . . . so has everyone else. Maylu, Tory, and Chisao have stopped talking to her because she's pretty much always in a bad mood - they don't want her to snap at them or anything, she guesses. They won't fight back because no one wants to get angry at her, so they're avoiding the problem entirely by avoiding her. And Ms. Mari is always careful whenever she talks to Mimic, which she only does when absolutely necessary during class.
Aside from that, the adult Hikaris and Lan are the only people who're willing to talk to her. Her Navis are an exception to everything - no matter how angry or frustrated Mimic gets, she'll never take it out on ProtoMan or Arcadia. That's one thing she's going to make damn well sure she never does, even if she snaps at Lan or Dr. Hikari or even Haruka. Hell, she could even get pissed off at MegaMan, but she'd still never get angry at her Navis.
Not really angry, anyway.
But, getting back on track. Mizuki and her anger management stuff. She'd told Mimic something like . . . what was it again?
Once you get angry, that's it, Chaud reminds her, quoting Mizuki word-for-word. You won't be able to think properly once you get past that point.
Yeah, that was it. But as depressing as that sounds, it makes sense - how many times has someone said something or done something out of anger, because they were too worked up to think about it?
Remember what else she said, Chaud prompts her gently. You might not be able to stop being angry when it gets to that point, but there's a little window of time before you blow up - you can use those anger management things that Mizuki gave you to try and calm down, or at least force yourself to think, before you do something you'll regret.
Mimic doesn't really know what she'd regret doing if she gets angry enough.
But it wasn't just anger management stuff that she did with Mizuki. She'd told her therapist about how she's not allowed to use Cross Fusion anymore, and she'd gotten kind of worked up about it, so upset and so frustrated that she'd nearly cried - and in a fit of overflowing emotions, Mimic had admitted that she feels like everyone thinks she's weak because she can barely control herself during Cross Fusion, much less control what Dark Shadow does, and everyone's scared that she'll go on a rampage or something.
She'd expected Mizuki to say that those concerns are perfectly valid - and Mimic already knows they are, but that doesn't stop her from feeling frustrated about it.
However, Mizuki hadn't said anything like that. Rather than agreeing with what Mimic thinks everyone else is thinking, Mizuki had told her to try seeing it another way.
Mimic couldn't think of any other way to see all this. Mizuki had responded with a fairly simple statement - maybe not being allowed to Cross Fuse isn't a punishment. It doesn't make sense to Mimic, because why else would Kifune have basically banned her from using her synchro chip? She nearly killed Dr. Regal due to what everyone thinks is unjustified hatred, and had destroyed the dimensional converter while fighting Dark Shadow. It has to be a punishment, there's no other explanation for it.
Mizuki had advised her to think about it, and come back next time with her thoughts on the matter. It's been two days, and Mimic has not stopped thinking about why not being allowed to Cross Fuse wouldn't be a punishment, but she can't come up with a damn thing.
It's not fair. Why do these things have to be so fucking complicated all the time? Why can't this be nice and simple, so she doesn't have to rack what little brains she has for an entire week?
She wonders if Mizuki will be disappointed with her when she shows up and can't give her any possible reasons for why this isn't a punishment.
The next day, she and Lan head home after school. He's chattering, something about a movie, but Mimic isn't listening. She's not ignoring him on purpose - she's still busy trying to figure out what Mizuki was talking about.
Chaud had refused to help her figure it out. He said she needs to work this one out on her own, because just giving her the answer isn't going to help her. Mimic has to wonder if he even knows the answer himself, or if he's just talking like that to avoid having to think about it as well. She can't really blame him for it, but it'd be nice if she had some extra help. Mizuki even told ProtoMan and Arcadia that they're not allowed to help Mimic figure it out either; this is definitely something she'll need to work out on her own.
And it's starting to annoy her. She's getting desperate, more frustrated than ever. Is this what Mizuki wanted? If it is, she's not doing her damn job properly - she's supposed to help Mimic, not make her feel worse.
As soon as she gets home, Mimic splits off from Lan and heads upstairs to her bedroom. She takes Ragdoll off his lead, but he doesn't stray from her side even when she just goes straight over to her futon and flops down, curling into a fetal position and glaring at the opposite wall. Ragdoll curls up next to her head, purring, and she decides that listening to her cat's massive purr is better than trying to puzzle out some bullshit she doesn't understand.
A few minutes later, there's a knock on her door.
Mimic scowls as she gets up. She'd been entirely focused on Ragdoll's purring and had almost gotten to the point where she wasn't so pissed off, but now that she's been interrupted, it comes flooding back, intensity and all.
It's not pleasant. She'd started to calm down, and now her mood's gone just as low as it's been for the past few days, maybe even lower because she'd been kind of okay for a little bit.
She opens the door, actively holding herself back from just yanking it open. Lan stands on the other side, with a carefully guarded expression.
"Hey, Chaud," Lan says.
The fuck do you want, Mimic thinks flatly. She doesn't bother saying it out loud - her expression probably says it for her.
"You wanna come out with me for a while?" Lan asks her. He's smiling now, just a little one, and she can tell it's forced. He looks like he's ready to bolt if she so much as bares her teeth at him. "I'm gonna be checking out the rental stores across the city, so I thought it'd be cool if we could go out together. It'd be like we're exploring the city!"
Mimic is just about ready to refuse - she doesn't want to go out in the daylight, when there's people around. They might bump into her, and she's so tightly wound up that she might snap or something. And it'll be loud out in the city. She prefers it when it's night, when there's less people, sometimes even no people, to bother her - the night is much calmer than the day.
But then she looks at Lan's hopeful expression, and something in her just won't let her say no.
"'kay," Mimic mutters faintly.
Lan entire expression lights up. "Great!" he exclaims. "Lemme just get my PET, I left it on charge. I'll be right back!"
He dashes off to his own bedroom. Mimic sighs and leans against her door frame, wondering if she's just made a huge mistake. Will she regret agreeing to go out with Lan? If he'd asked if she wanted to come out at night, she probably would've been more willing. But maybe going out during daylight won't be so bad if Lan's there too. She can just focus on him and ignore the crowds.
They end up wandering for most of the evening, though it's still light by the time Lan finds what he wants from the rental stores. Mimic just follows him into each one, trying to shut out the noisy sounds of the city and ignore all the people who're too fucking close to her.
Lan bounces out of the rental store, grinning from ear to ear. Mimic honestly doesn't know what he's bought - or rented, actually - and she's only half-interested, but when Lan pulls out the thing he rented, she freezes for a moment.
"Finally!" Lan exclaims, brandishing the Star Potter VHS like it's made out of gold. "I finally got Star Potter!"
Seriously? Mimic thinks angrily. This has to happen now?
What is it? Chaud asks.
An episode of the anime, Mimic replies. And I probably won't be doing much of anything this time either. Fan-fucking-tastic.
"It's a good thing we went around to ten different stores, huh?" MegaMan speaks up cheerfully from Lan's PET.
Lan seems far too excited too reply. Is it just Mimic, or is he even more excited than he was in the anime? And he keeps glancing at her, like he's checking her reaction, but she's not entirely sure how she should be reacting to this. She's torn between not caring and just being annoyed, but she knows what's coming next, so she's also a little worried.
Damn her confusing emotions. Why does she have to feel more than one thing at once? Why not just one thing, so she doesn't have to deal with so many at the same time?
Just underneath the loud sounds of the city, Mimic can almost detect some sort of odd high-pitched ringing sound from somewhere. She turns away from Lan, trying to concentrate on the sound, to try and pinpoint where it's coming from. If this is what she thinks it is-
The glass of an advertisement board on top of a nearby building suddenly explodes, and the high-pitched cracking of the glass makes her flinch. She'd been focusing so much on the odd ringing sound that everything else is suddenly ten times louder, and it nearly deafens her.
"There's something going on at the electronics store!" MegaMan calls.
"I can detect electromagnetic waves coming from the building," ProtoMan puts in.
"Come on!" Lan cries, taking off in the direction of the electronics store.
Mimic hesitates for a moment, wondering if she has enough time to take out her PET and make sure that ProtoMan's okay to fight. He'll have to, she knows, unless Arcadia can step up again and do what he can't - but no one, least of all ProtoMan himself, wants him to just stay in the background and do nothing. Arcadia and MegaMan have been working with him and Dark Shadow, trying to help him with his fears, but Mimic's not sure how far they've gotten yet.
"I'll be okay," ProtoMan calls softly, just barely audible over the sound of people screaming and the odd ringing sound. "Hurry, Mimic."
Well, at least this time she might not be completely useless. Not that she'll ever blame ProtoMan for that. Even if she was under threat of death, she'd never blame ProtoMan.
Mimic takes off after Lan. As she follows him into the electronics store, the odd ringing sound gets louder and louder, until it's blocking out every other sound.
It hurts. It's like some sort of microphone feedback, just a continuous high-pitched screech that grates on her hearing. Judging by Lan's wince, he can hear it now as well, but he's not as affected by it as she is.
Lan looks around, trying to pinpoint the epicentre of the commotion, and then heads for the escalator. Mimic follows again, covering her ears, but it does absolutely nothing to quieten the noise.
She stumbles into Lan when he suddenly stops, and staggers back. Lan turns around and says something, but she doesn't hear anything aside from the ringing. She sees his mouth moving, but she's no good at lip-reading and has no idea what he's saying.
It takes Lan a moment to realise that she can't hear a word he's saying. By the time he does, the ringing is starting to make her dizzy, and she staggers to the side and drops to her knees, pressing her forehead into the floor, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to block out the sound. She feels a hand on her back, but if Lan says anything to her, she still doesn't hear him.
Then she feels Lan's hand moving across her back. Through the pain of the odd ringing, she registers that he's signing something, and tries to concentrate on whatever he's trying to tell her.
[okay if I take pet] Lan asks her.
The noise is starting to make her feel sick to her stomach, but she manages to nod. She feels him opening up her holder and taking out her PET, and then he pauses.
[PROTO not good] Lan signs onto her back. [same as you]
ProtoMan's hearing is just as sensitive as hers is, probably more, since he's the actual cat and she's just got whatever was transferred over from Cross Fusion. Mimic wonders if Arcadia is the same, since owls also have extremely sensitive hearing - but Lan hasn't mentioned Arcadia, so maybe he's gotten lucky and isn't as affected by the noise as she and ProtoMan are. This was caused by a Darkloid, so maybe Arcadia's darkness immunity lets him be immune to anything that's caused by darkness, even this.
Okay, it looks like ProtoMan won't be able to help after all. At least it seems like Arcadia should be able to, because MegaMan's definitely going to need help.
She feels something brush against her hand, and cracks open one eye to see Lan carefully setting down her PET. In one corner of the screen, she can see ProtoMan curled into a tight ball, hands covering the place where his ears would be if he were human, mouth open and teeth bared in a soundless scream - or maybe he is screaming, and Mimic just can't hear it over the ringing sound.
Remember the NetMobile Grand Prix! Chaud's voice suddenly cuts through the ringing sound, but the only reason she even hears him is because his voice is in her head, not out loud. You disabled ProtoMan's audio program so he could take part in the race!
Audio program? Audio . . .
Mimic opens both her eyes. That's right! If ProtoMan can't hear the sound, he won't be affected by it. She doesn't have that option, since she's human, but ProtoMan should be able to fight even without his hearing. And from what she can see, Arcadia is still okay, though he looks half-panicked from ProtoMan's pain.
She pushes herself up, tugging on Lan's sleeve. He glances at down at her questioningly, and she raises her hands. She still can't hear a damn thing other than this stupid ringing, and she doesn't want to shout, so this is the best option.
[turn off hearing] Mimic tells Lan. [for PROTO]
Lan's eyes widen. He's probably remembering the NetMobile Grand Prix as well - it'd be hard not to in a situation like this, where loud sounds are preventing Mimic and ProtoMan from doing what they're supposed to be doing. It's almost exactly the same, though this is a crisis rather than a fun race.
Mimic would do it herself, but her vision is swimming and she's pretty sure if this goes on for much longer, she's going to throw up. Lan can obviously see that, and she sees his expression set as he nods, and then picks up her PET and messes with it for a moment.
On the screen, she sees ProtoMan jerk, and then slump in sheer relief. He shakes his head and quickly pulls himself back together, then springs to his feet, signing that he's ready to go. Arcadia looks relieved as well, as does Lan.
Mimic has about a split second to feel the same relief for ProtoMan's sake, before the ringing gets more intense and she flinches. Lan glances at her, then reaches up and takes off his headband. Before she can ask what he's doing, he pulls it over her head and tightens it around her ears.
He's trying to help muffle the ringing, Mimic realises.
It doesn't do much, but she does appreciate the gesture, and covers her ears with her hands, feeling the fabric of Lan's headband pressing onto her ears. That seems to help a bit more.
Lan briefly puts a hand on her shoulder, and then he stands up. His mouth moves, and he jacks MegaMan, then ProtoMan and Arcadia, into the store's network.
Mimic can't see what's going on in the network, since Lan has her PET and she can't see the screen from where she's kneeling on the floor. But judging by Lan's look of shock, she guesses he's just come across the Playback copy that VideoMan made of MegaMan.
From there, she tries to figure out how the battle goes by Lan's expressions. She can see his mouth moving, and guesses he's shouting encouragement to their Navis, though ProtoMan won't be able to hear him. She hopes Arcadia or MegaMan will be able to translate any orders that Lan gives ProtoMan.
The battle is over fairly quickly, thank god. The ringing stops so abruptly that Mimic is thrown off by the sudden silence, and she still hears the ringing echoing in her ears even when Lan crouches beside her and waves to get her attention.
Lan says something, but she still can't hear him. His words are muffled - not just by the headband covering her ears, but also because she's still somewhat deafened by the ringing.
She takes a few deep breaths, trying to get the nausea under control. It takes less effort than she'd thought it would, and gradually, her hearing starts to return, and even though his words are still a little muffled, she can finally make out what Lan's saying.
"-talk to Famous," he says. "C'mon, we need to go to HQ. Are you okay to move?"
Mimic reaches up gingerly and takes off Lan's headband, then hands it back to him. Things are a bit less muffled without his headband, but she guesses her hearing won't be back to normal just yet.
As Lan helps her stand up, she blinks and shakes her head, trying to clear it of the last echoes of the ringing sound. Lan hands her back her PET, and she hears ProtoMan talking to Arcadia - something about the odd MegaMan they'd battled, which confirms what Mimic already knew - so she assumes Lan turned ProtoMan's audio program back on after the battle was over.
If only there was a way to turn off my hearing, Mimic thinks.
Guess there's downsides to having sensitive hearing after all, Chaud mutters. She can feel the memory of his pain sparking through their connection. Maybe we should avoid supersonic sounds like that from now on . . .
Not sure if we have much choice, considering how advanced this reality's technology is, she replies.
Mimic and Lan head straight for the Net Police's HQ. Famous meets them in the lobby, apparently having expected them - or maybe Lan called him ahead of time to let him know they were coming. Mimic's not entirely sure, she'd been too occupied with her hearing and how much her ears still hurt.
But by the time Famous takes them to the command centre for the Net Savers, the pain is a distant memory. The relief she feels at finally being able to hear properly again is so intense that she almost misses what Famous is telling them, but she manages to force herself to listen as he explains the various cases of the red-eyed MegaMan doubles wreaking havoc across the city.
"What is this!?" Lan exclaims in despair, gaping at the screen above them. It's showing images of the doubles in the city networks.
"These things look exactly like him," Famous comments. "They move like him, and even fight like him. They'd be perfect copies if it weren't for those red eyes."
"That's something, at least," Lan huffs. He seems extremely offended that someone would copy MegaMan like this.
"But why me?" MegaMan asks. In contrast to Lan, he's more confused than offended.
"We don't know," Famous says. "We've been tracking them across the city, but so far, we haven't been able to figure out what's going on. The attacks seem random, and every one of them is different. However, the one thing all of these attacks have in common is that they're caused by these MegaMan doubles."
"We need to do something about this," Lan declares.
Famous nods his agreement. "Lan, your primary task is to track down these doubles and take them down before they cause too much trouble. Your secondary task will be to try and figure out what created them - there's no way these attacks are as random as they seem, so they must be the work of an enemy who wants revenge on you or MegaMan."
"But we've got loads of enemies," Lan protests.
"Then try and think about which ones might be able to copy MegaMan like this," Famous tells him.
Is it just me, Chaud says hesitantly, or is Famous only talking to Lan?
Mimic pauses. She frowns, going over the conversation again, and realises that he's right - Famous had only been only talking to Lan, as if he's being sent out on his own.
As Lan steps away, ready to head back outside and start looking for the MegaMan doubles, Mimic looks up at Famous. During the incident in the electronics store, her anger and frustration had seemed to vanish in the face of the crisis, but now she feels it creeping back.
"What about me?" Mimic asks. Her voice is faint, but steady. She's not quite angry enough to talk properly, but she's definitely angry enough to not stammer.
Famous stares at her blankly for a moment, as if he's trying to come up with something to say.
Mimic narrows her eyes. "Can't send him on his own," she points out. "Too many."
A few feet away, Lan has paused and is now watching her and Famous. He suddenly seems worried as he looks between them, like he's afraid that something bad's about to happen.
"I need you here as backup," Famous eventually says. "A bigger incident could occur at any moment, and we may need you to-"
"I know when I'm being lied to."
Famous stops.
Mimic narrows her eyes. "You think I'm stupid enough to believe some bullshit like that?" she demands. "You need me to be backup? Don't insult me. That's not why you're keeping me here and you know it."
"That's not-" Famous begins.
Mimic talks over him. "You're keeping me here in case this turns into a Cross Fusion battle," she says coldly. "No one wants me to Cross Fuse with ProtoMan, not after I destroyed the dimensional converter and almost killed him." She refuses to say Dr. Regal's name out loud, but she's making it clear who she's talking about anyway, so she doesn't need to clarify. "You don't want me losing control again. You don't want to risk the safety of anyone who happens to be nearby if I do. You think I'm so weak that I can't even fight properly without going completely berserk!"
"I don't think that-"
"Oh, don't you?" Mimic snaps sarcastically. She mimics his voice. "Just don't let him Cross Fuse. We can't risk him losing control again. You think I'd forget that? Do you have any idea how much that pissed me off? How much it hurt to realise that no one trusts me enough to let me fight?"
Famous tries to calm her down. "We do trust you, Chaud-"
"Then why won't you let me fight!?" she shouts.
She hears a terrified gasp from Lan, but she's too focused on Famous to care.
"Chaud, just listen to me-" Famous tries.
"No!" Mimic spits out. "I'm sick of listening! I always have to listen! Everyone's always talking about me as if I'm not right in front of them! Wha- y-you think I'm deaf or something? You think- I'm not- n-not-" She chokes on a gasp, and tries to gulp air back into her suddenly-empty lungs.
Famous looks extremely alarmed. "You need to calm down," he says firmly, reaching out to her. "You're getting too worked up-"
"Don't touch me!" Mimic screeches. Famous jerks his hand back like she's electrocuted him.
"Chaud-" Lan starts to say, stepping forward.
Mimic lets out an explosive hiss. Lan flinches back, and she scowls at him for a moment before pushing past him and heading for the door.
"Where are you going?" Famous calls.
"To solve this stupid case," Mimic snaps over her shoulder. "I'll take down the fucking Darkloid on my own, and maybe then you'll stop patronising me so much!"
"Darkloid?" Lan repeats. "Wait, you know what's making all these MegaMan doubles?"
Mimic pauses. She's too angry to care that she can't explain how she knows all this, but she can't ignore them any more than she could ignore that stupid ringing sound from earlier.
"If you know something, you need to tell us," Famous says.
"Give me one good reason why I should bother," Mimic hisses.
"Chaud, please!" Lan begs. "We're supposed to be partners, right? So if you know what's going on-"
"Oh, so you'll listen to me now, when it's convenient for you?" Mimic snaps, whirling on him. "You didn't seem to care the last time I told you anything."
"That- that's not-" Lan stammers.
"And you know, it's funny you should mention that we're partners," Mimic goes on savagely. "If I hadn't said anything just now, you would've been perfectly happy to dump me here so you could go and save the city again."
"I didn't know-"
Mimic interrupts him with another loud hiss. Before Lan or Famous can say anything more, she turns around again, and storms out of the command centre.
She has no idea where the dubbing company is, but she does know that's where VideoMan is hiding. Fortunately for Mimic, she has two NetNavis who can get her the location of the company - and if all else fails, she can always ask Chaud. He always seems to know where everything in the city is.
But he's being strangely quiet. The only thing Mimic feels from their connection is an odd muted sense of fear and shock, so different and cold to her own burning rage. She guesses she won't be getting anything out of him right now, so her only option is to hope that ProtoMan and Arcadia will be able to get the location of the dubbing company.
She waits impatiently for them to come back. Luckily for her, it doesn't take too much time, and before long she's following ProtoMan's verbal directions across the city.
Mimic doesn't bother with her parkour stuff. That's for when she's happy and free and not burning with rage and indignation - and besides, she's not so far gone that she doesn't realise she needs a clear head to do that kind of stuff, and she's as far from being clear-headed as possible right now.
Even if she's not thinking straight anymore, she's still fully aware of how cautious ProtoMan and Arcadia are being with her. Every time ProtoMan speaks up to give her verbal directions, she can hear tension in his voice, like he's desperately trying not to set her off. Arcadia isn't talking at all, but when she'd seen him after he came back with ProtoMan, he'd looked almost scared - and very worried.
She doesn't know or care why. All that she cares about right now is taking down VideoMan and proving that she's not weak and can fight without losing control. If she can do that, Kifune won't punish her anymore, and she'll be allowed to use Cross Fusion again.
"It's just up ahead," ProtoMan says carefully. "Surrounded by a low wall. The gates should still be open."
Mimic can see the place he's talking about. She remembers what the dubbing company looks like from the anime, and she heads through the gates. They're open, as ProtoMan said, which is great for her because she's too pissed off to pick a lock or anything right now.
She pauses for a moment to look around. There's only one building, and the low wall is enclosing that and a wide space that's probably being used as a car park, judging by the white lines painted on the tarmac. The entrance to the building is wide open, and Mimic already knows that VideoMan is inside, so she ignores the car park and heads straight for the building.
A dimensional converter pushes up out of the ground a few metres away. She spots a few more appearing around the building, and then the dimensional area appears around her, effectively trapping her inside the barrier.
No, she thinks. VideoMan's trapped in here with me.
She's going to rip that bastard apart. It should be easy enough - he hadn't been much of an opponent in this episode, and had gone down fairly quickly after Lan and Chaud had taken out the Playback copies of MegaMan.
Beside her, Arcadia materialises. He still looks wary, and gives her a cautious glance before taking the lead and heading into the building. Mimic follows him, taking out her PET and her synchro chip.
" . . . Is this a good idea?" ProtoMan suddenly asks, as Arcadia leads her through the lobby.
"What do you mean." Mimic has to force her voice to stay flat. She meant it when she said she'd never get angry at ProtoMan - even though she's pissed off beyond reason right now, she still doesn't want to snap at him.
"You're angry," ProtoMan says quietly. "It's making you irrational. You're not thinking straight."
"He's right," Arcadia says from up ahead. "If we're going to fight this Darkloid, you need a clear head. Rushing in blindly is the worst thing you could do right now."
"Not blind," Mimic points out. "I know what's coming."
Arcadia stops. Mimic does too, mainly to avoid crashing into his back, and he turns around and gives her the most serious look she's ever seen from him.
"That doesn't mean you can predict what'll happen," he tells her bluntly. "You've skipped a bunch of stuff and went straight for the final boss."
"It works in Skyrim," Mimic argues.
"This isn't Skyrim," Arcadia retorts. "You don't get to load up a previous save if you screw up here."
Mimic doesn't have a response to that. Arcadia watches her quietly for a moment, and then turns and starts walking again.
Suddenly feeling doubt creeping through the burning rage, Mimic glances at ProtoMan. He says nothing, just simply looks back at her with such intense worry that she almost feels guilty for doing this.
But she can't back out now. It's too late - the barrier's already up, and the only way out is to defeat VideoMan.
Mimic downloads her synchro chip and Cross Fuses when ProtoMan warns her that he can detect the data signature of a Darkloid up ahead. His worry intensifies in their shared mind when he discovers that Chaud has been totally silent aside from the odd muted fear coming through their connection, but Chaud doesn't even respond to ProtoMan's gentle attempts at communicating with him.
Meanwhile, Mimic is starting to feel doubt overtaking her anger. Is she really doing the right thing, here? Maybe she should've waited for Lan to figure things out on his own and then followed him into the dimensional area. At least then they'd have an extra player, and a powerful one at that.
But how else is Mimic going to prove that she can fight without losing control? How else will she prove that she's not just some weak kid who needs to be protected all the time?
Unless Arcadia's right, and she screws up so much that she ends up proving the exact opposite - that she's unstable and liable to lose control of herself even without using Cross Fusion.
No, she refuses to let that happen. Mimic is far from mentally sound, but she's not unstable. She can control herself, whether she's in Cross Fusion or not.
. . . Right?
She shakes her head and follows Arcadia into a large room at the end of the hallway. It's empty, at least until VideoMan materialises on the walkway above them, leaning on the railing and smirking down at them.
"Well, well," VideoMan calls. "I was expecting MegaMan's operator, not his chaotic mess of a partner. What, did he think this was beneath him? Did he send you because he couldn't be bothered to-"
"Proto Shield!" Mimic snaps, and she hurls the half-shield at VideoMan before the Darkloid can react.
VideoMan yelps and ducks under the flying shield. It gets stuck in the wall behind him and then vanishes, but Mimic is already darting forward, springing high into the air and landing on the railing, balancing easily. VideoMan whirls around to face her and she hisses in his face, lashing out with her claws.
The Darkloid flinches back, looking almost offended that she would dare try and scratch his face. Arcadia appears in the air beside them, arm pulled back to throw a Firebomb at him, and VideoMan quickly vaults over the railing and jumps down below to avoid the blast. Mimic follows him and barely pauses when she lands, launching herself at him and attaching herself to his back.
She sinks her teeth into his shoulder and has to dig her claws in to stop VideoMan from throwing her off as he flails around in a panic.
"Watch out for his tape!" ProtoMan quickly warns her.
Mimic jerks away and pushes off VideoMan's back just in time to avoid getting whacked in the head by his videotape attack. She can't remember what the hell it's called - was it Wind Cutter or Tapeline or something? - and VideoMan's too panicked to bother calling out his attacks like most opponents do.
She feels a rush of heat and ducks to avoid Arcadia's stream of Flashfire, allowing it to hit VideoMan directly in the face. He screams and stumbles away from the white fire, skin sizzling where he'd been burnt, and brings up his arms.
"Playback!" VideoMan shouts.
The tape connecting his arms flashes, and four copies of MegaMan materialise from the glow. They all raise their Busters and shoot, not giving Mimic or Arcadia a chance to think.
Arcadia dodges the attacks easily, weaving through the air with his wings barely even beating to keep him airborne. Mimic scrambles around on the ground, relying on her own enhanced senses and ProtoMan's split-second warnings to avoid getting shot in the face or something.
While they're busy dodging the Playback MegaMans' attacks, VideoMan creates even more of them. Within moments, the room is filled with Playback MegaMans, shooting their Mega Busters or slashing with their Long Swords. It's getting harder and harder to dodge their attacks, though Arcadia has an easier time than Mimic does, since he's in the air and she can't fly.
Mimic attaches herself to the nearest Playback MegaMan and rips it apart. It's easy to get rid of - these things might copy MegaMan's attacks and power, but their durability is a complete joke - and she turns to attack the next one, hoping that thinning their numbers will help. VideoMan can't make infinite copies, she knows; eventually his tape'll wear out, and whatever he makes after that will be so buggy that it won't be able to fight.
Before she can attack anything else, she sees her shadows forming into Dark Shadow, and then it static-screeches and begins to slash at the crowd of Playback MegaMans.
Mimic freezes.
Suddenly she's not fighting the Playback MegaMans, and she's not in the dubbing company's building - she's in the hidden facility, watching Dark Shadow glitch and flicker as it savages Lan. Bile rises in her throat and she fights to push the memory away, but it keeps flashing back into her mind, coming back again and again until she's not sure if she's fighting the Playback MegaMans or watching Dark Shadow trying to kill Lan.
Dark Shadow pauses in its mauling of one of the Playback MegaMans and turns to look at her. Its form flickers, and she remembers too late that it reacts to what she's feeling, which means it can sense her emotions.
She steps back before she realises what she's doing, and Dark Shadow flickers even more, ducking its head. It has no expression, but she can tell it's hurt.
Mimic startles when VideoMan's shrieking laughter echoes over the sounds of battle.
"BubbleMan said you were afraid of your own shadow," he shouts gleefully, "but I didn't think he meant it so literally!"
She turns to face him, but the drive she'd felt to take him down is overshadowed by fear and shame.
I can't do this, she realises, with a jolt of horrified shock.
"Mimic," ProtoMan hisses urgently, "you need to calm down! Our Cross Fusion is becoming unstable!"
She glances down at herself. Her red armour is starting to come apart like it did when they'd tried to battle ShadeMan, and she can see her bodysuit glitching just like Dark Shadow, like she's so terrified that the Fusion is coming apart in more ways than one.
She feels ProtoMan's alarm and jerks her head up, but VideoMan's already in her face. He lashes out before she can react and hurls her over the heads of his Playback copies, then darts after her and slams her into the wall, holding her against it with a hand wrapped around her throat.
With her air supply suddenly cut off, Mimic panics. She chokes out a scream, trying to claw and kick at VideoMan, desperately trying to force him to let go of her throat, but he just laughs and knocks away her rapidly-weakening attacks.
"Mimic!" Arcadia shouts. He's on the other side of the room, surrounded by Playback MegaMans and slashing at them with two Holy Fire Bound Swords, but when he sees what VideoMan is doing to Mimic he spreads his wings and tries to come to the rescue.
Half a dozen Playback MegaMans pile onto him before he can take to the air, dragging him down. Even more grab his wings and force them to be still, and his Bound Swords vanish in a swirl of white fire as one of the copies punches his head so hard it cracks the ground.
"Let go!" ProtoMan screeches, his voice tight with pain and fear. "Let go right now!"
"Why should I?" VideoMan sneers.
The answer comes in the form of a massive purple energy blasting him in the side, ripping him away from Mimic. She slides down the wall, gasping as air suddenly rushes back into her lungs.
She glances up when she hears someone stepping in front of her, and peers through the black spots in her vision until she makes out a blue figure. For a single absurd moment she thinks that one of the Playback MegaMan copies has rebelled against VideoMan and decided to save her, but then she looks closer and realises that it's actually Lan, standing over her and aiming his Buster at VideoMan with a look of fury on his face.
"You okay?" Lan asks her. She knows his anger is mostly directed at VideoMan, but she still flinches when he glances at her.
"I-I . . ." Mimic gasps.
VideoMan lets out a wordless cry of rage and throws his videotape attack at Lan, forcing him to dodge and cutting off anything Mimic could've said - not that she has any idea what to say anyway.
Lan throws himself into the battle, taking on VideoMan solo. Mimic can still see Dark Shadow's black shape writhing in the middle of the crowd of Playback MegaMans, and Arcadia's flung out a blast of Holy Fire to get rid of the ones keeping him down.
But even with Lan's sudden arrival, they're still vastly outnumbered. The Playback copies are easily defeated but their sheer numbers make it nearly impossible to fight properly, and they keep getting in the way of Lan whenever he tries to attack VideoMan. Arcadia's Holy Fire attacks can only do so much, and he doesn't have enough room to get into the air or make any Avenger's Arrows, which would probably be better for attacking multiple opponents at once since the darkness immunity-boosted version has a tendency to explode upon impact. Mimic can see Dark Shadow fighting a bunch of Long Sword-wielding Playback copies, and while they're not nearly fast enough to hack it to pieces on their own, there's enough of them to keep it from properly re-forming itself long enough to fight.
"How did we beat VideoMan in the anime?" ProtoMan asks her. "Think, Mimic!"
Mimic forces herself to stop focusing on the battle in front of her, and instead focuses on the battle from the anime.
How did Lan and Chaud beat VideoMan? They'd gotten rid of the Playback copies first, she remembers that much. Taking down VideoMan afterwards had been ridiculously easy, since he'd been worn out from making too many Playback copies.
She feels a memory pushing through her connection with Chaud. Two battle chips that she'd downloaded before Cross Fusing - before she'd lost any sense and control over herself.
Heavy Shake. Elec Sword.
Magnetism.
Magnetism! Mimic's eyes widen and she scrambles to her feet.
"Heavy Shake," she mutters, making sure that VideoMan doesn't overhear what she's doing, "download."
She lifts her arms and catches the Heavy Shake as it materialises, then slams it down onto the ground in front of her. She's about to download the Elec Sword next, when Chaud's voice speaks up instead.
"Elec Sword, download," he says quietly.
The Elec Sword materialises. Mimic manages to spare a moment to send a wave of gratitude - mixed with shame - through their connection before lifting her Elec Sword and slamming it into the side of the Heavy Shake.
She feels the magnetism blasting out as soon as she hits it. The Playback copies nearest to her flicker and then vanish, and the effect ripples through the rest of the copies until they're all finally gone, taken out by the makeshift magnet.
The room is abruptly silent and feels strangely empty without the horde of Playback MegaMans crowding it. Arcadia stumbles back at the sudden loss of hands gripping him and corrects his balance by spreading his wings, and Dark Shadow finally manages to re-form itself. Lan pauses and looks around, looking completely bewildered, before his eyes settle on Mimic and he sees the makeshift magnet she made.
"How did-" Lan begins.
"What was that!?" VideoMan interrupts with a roar. "How dare you make my Playback copies vanish! After all the trouble I went through to record MegaMan!"
"What?" Lan jerks his head around to stare at him.
"The Killer Eyes!" VideoMan snaps, apparently angry that no one's recognised the effort he's made. "Don't you remember, you pathetic human? Thanks for nothing!" He directs those last words at Mimic. "All that effort wasted!"
He raises his arms and puts his tape to his head.
"Growl, Head! Scream, Crisis Roller!" VideoMan shouts. "All my effort goes into this final attack!"
Lan crouches, ready for anything, and Arcadia's Holy Fire burns brighter in his hands. Mimic doesn't know if she should get ready to fight or not.
VideoMan screams as the glow of his Playback gets brighter and brighter until it's almost blinding.
"FINAL PLAYBACK!" the Darkloid bellows.
His tape snaps.
VideoMan is left staring in stunned silence, and as the glow dies down, the Playback copy he'd created is revealed.
A BubbleMan copy stands before them. "Hey, fellas!" it calls. "You're looking at handsome man!" Its voice morphs along with its body, until they're looking at a giant pair of moving lips.
"Of all things . . ." VideoMan chokes out, looking horrified.
Mimic sighs and buries her face in her hands.
"I have so many questions," Lan says.
"Save them for later!" Arcadia tells him, throwing out a stream of Holy Fire. He aims it at the giant pair of lips and it goes straight through them, burning VideoMan.
"Magma Cannon, download!" Lan quickly exclaims, brandishing the Cannon at VideoMan as soon as it materialises.
He shoots, adding his own fiery attack to Arcadia's, and the white and red fires mix together and VideoMan lets out one final scream that echoes through the room before he's burnt to pieces and deleted.
With VideoMan's deletion, the dimensional area starts to vanish. Mimic and Lan Cross Out automatically while Arcadia is forced back into the cyberworld. She quickly catches her PET and looks at the screen just in time to see Arcadia coming back.
But then Lan comes over, putting his PET away. Rather than looking triumphant at the victory, he seems grim, and that alone is enough to make Mimic's heart plummet into her stomach.
"Commissioner Kifune needs to talk to you," Lan tells her quietly. He doesn't look like he wants to be saying this any more than Mimic wants to be hearing it.
"Do you have any idea how difficult it was to find you?" Kifune isn't quite yelling, but his tone makes it clear that he would if he were talking to anyone else. "ProtoMan's glitched programming makes it damn near impossible to track your PET! We had to ask Dr. Hikari and Dr. Regal to help us find you before you got yourself killed!"
Mimic bristles instinctively at the mention of Dr. Regal, but luckily Kifune is too focused on scolding her to notice.
"You disobeyed direct orders," Kifune begins to list heatedly. "Blatantly disrespected your commanding officer. Purposefully withheld information that was vital to solving the case. Used Cross Fusion even after you've been told that you are not to use it!"
She stares at her feet. Unfortunately, just looking away isn't enough to block out Kifune's anger.
"Under normal circumstances, I would fire you immediately," Kifune snaps. "In fact, I'm half-tempted to do that anyway!"
Mimic flinches. Kifune sighs, and suddenly he just sounds tired rather than angry.
"The only reason I'm not firing you is because you're the only other person who can use Cross Fusion," Kifune says. Mimic looks up just in time to see him shooting a glance at Lan beside her, and then she drops her gaze again when Kifune turns back to her. "If it weren't for that, I'd have you delete your badge immediately. As it is, you're being suspended until further notice - and don't bother asking when your suspension will be lifted. You'll find out when I tell you, and not a moment before. Is that understood?"
She nods.
Kifune sighs again. "Now leave," he tells her. "Both of you, actually. I need to speak with Famous alone."
Famous, standing on Mimic's other side, straightens a little. Lan brushes a hand against Mimic's arm and gently tugs her out of the room, until the door is firmly closed behind them.
Lan turns to leave, but Mimic pauses when she hears Kifune's voice through the door.
"How did you convince me to hire him?" Kifune sounds even more tired than he had when he was suspending her.
"He has a lot of power," Famous points out mildly.
"Power means absolutely nothing," Kifune retorts. "That boy is one mistake away from being a criminal himself."
Mimic feels sick to her stomach upon hearing that.
"Chaud?" Lan asks quietly, stepping closer. He's looking at her worriedly, but it's clear he hasn't heard what Kifune said - it's only thanks to her sensitive hearing that she even heard it herself. "Are you okay?"
"No," Mimic whispers.