"Are you sure it was Dr. Regal?" Dad demands.
Kifune sighs as he stares over his steepled fingers. "The girl who called us gave us a description that matches his exactly," he replies gravely. "Along with a woman we've confirmed to be Ms. Yuri, who Lan has encountered previously."
Dad grits his teeth and slams his fist onto the table beside him. Lan wants to go over to him, but Dad's too worked up and he's not sure if he'll be of any help.
He looks around the main room. Kifune and Manabe had called a meeting at SciLab as soon as Chaud's friend Anetta had called to report that he'd been kidnapped. Lan and Dad had still been at SciLab, going over some of the results from the earlier examination, and Famous had shown up after the call, looking unusually serious, along with Kifune and Manabe.
Lan isn't sure how he should be feeling. He wants to save Chaud, of course, but he's also scared - and more than hurt at the knowledge that Dr. Regal was working with Ms. Yuri to kidnap Chaud.
But no one knows where Dr. Regal went, and they certainly don't know where he took Chaud. They don't even know why he took Chaud.
He resists the urge to slam his fist onto a table just like Dad. Getting angry isn't going to help anyone - least of all Chaud. They have to find him.
Dad takes a deep breath and looks up, but before he can speak, the lights above their heads flicker violently. No less than three of them break before they've barely begun flickering, and the main monitor on the wall behind Dad starts to make odd static sounds and give off black sparks.
Lan realises what's going on a moment before the screen flickers spastically. Through the flickering, there's a flash of red and white, and when it finally dies down, he sees ProtoMan and Arcadia.
ProtoMan . . . does not look happy. His shadows are sparking around him - literally, they look like the same black sparks the monitor is still giving off - his teeth are bared, and Lan can hear a low, continuous rumble that sounds almost like thunder but is definitely an extremely angry growl. He's practically trembling with rage.
In contrast, Arcadia looks considerably calmer - but no less worried. He has one clawed hand clutched around ProtoMan's arm, like he dragged ProtoMan the whole way, and Lan realises he probably did; ProtoMan doesn't look like he's of the right mind to do anything but go on a rampage right now.
"ProtoMan, Arcadia!" Dad exclaims, gaping at them. "How did-"
"Chaud jacked us into a bathroom stall before he was taken," Arcadia interrupts. He looks around at them.
"Do you know where he is?" Kifune demands, standing up.
Arcadia shakes his head. "We know he was being chased by Ms. Yuri." He glances at ProtoMan, who's thunder-like growling is starting to increase in volume. "And she chased him right into Dr. Regal's hands."
"We know," Dad says shortly. "Anetta told us. She saw what happened."
"So did we," Arcadia says. "But ProtoMan's connection to Chaud's PET was cut off before we could follow it. We have no idea where he is right now."
"Why did Dr. Regal take him?" Famous asks, stepping forward. "Did you sense anything from him that would explain this?"
"Maybe he was being threatened to help," Dad adds, almost hopefully.
Arcadia opens his mouth to answer, but then ProtoMan lets out a massive hiss and the screen goes black for a solid five seconds, and a few more lights break and crash to the floor. Lan's not entirely sure, but he thinks he can see sparks running along the walls of the room, and remembers ProtoMan's threat to Raika - he'll probably bring down the entire building if they don't get him to calm down, and fast.
"Threatened?" ProtoMan's voice is harsh on Lan's ears, and there's an odd high-pitched ringing underneath his words that sounds very similar to the supersonic waves of sound that had nearly deafened Chaud and ProtoMan during the VideoMan incident. "He wasn't being threatened! That bastard is the leader of Nebula!"
"What!?" everyone exclaims.
"Y-you must be mistaken," Dad stammers.
"He stole our operator! What more proof do you need?"
"This doesn't make sense," Famous tries to argue. "If Dr. Regal is the leader of Nebula, why would he help us? He's been nothing but a willing ally this entire time!"
ProtoMan lets out a discordant, bitter laugh. "He tricked you!"
Lan feels his blood freezing.
That . . . that sounds familiar, he realises, desperately trying to figure out why. It's important somehow, but why-
Then it hits him. Chaud had said the exact same thing, after Dr. Regal had fixed the dimensional converter.
"But . . ." Dad looks horrified. "But if that's true . . . We gave him all our research on Cross Fusion. Everything we know about it, even the earliest research we had!"
"Good job," ProtoMan spits out. "You handed our enemy the very research that our operator worked so hard to keep safe."
"We didn't know-" Dad snaps.
"Chaud knew," Lan says.
Everyone turns and stares at him, even the raging ProtoMan.
" . . . What?" Dad almost whispers.
"Chaud knew," Lan repeats blankly. "He- he tried to tell me, after Dr. Regal fixed the dimensional converter. He told me the only person who'd be able to fix it so easily would be the person who built it in the first place."
"Why didn't you say anything?" Kifune demands.
Lan winces. "I . . . I didn't believe him," he confesses guiltily. "I thought he was just making it up, like a conspiracy or something, 'cus everyone knows he doesn't like Dr. Regal. I didn't . . . I didn't think . . ."
"Of course you didn't." ProtoMan's scathing voice cuts him off. "And now Chaud's gone because you didn't listen to him!"
"ProtoMan, stop!" MegaMan exclaims. "Blaming Lan isn't going to help find Chaud!"
"HE COULD BE DEAD RIGHT NOW!"
Every single remaining light in the room explodes, leaving the flickering screen as the only point of light.
ProtoMan doesn't seem capable of speech anymore. He just screams, rages, as his shadows start to writhe around him. Arcadia backs away from him, his feathers starting to ripple like they do whenever there's darkness nearby. They've never done that when ProtoMan used his shadow abilities in the past, so the fact that they're doing it now, when ProtoMan's almost completely losing control, is nothing short of terrifying.
"Lan!" MegaMan shouts over the glitched screeching. "Lan, jack me into the monitor!"
"What!?" Lan whips his PET out and stares at MegaMan. "He could hurt you!"
"I have to do something!" MegaMan insists. "He'll destroy the whole building at this rate, and Arcadia can't calm him down on his own!"
A high-pitched screech echoes throughout the room and a few panels on the walls explode, revealing sparking wires that snap under the pressure. Beyond the walls of the room, Lan can hear panicked screaming and shouts of terror and confusion.
"Okay," he says. "Just . . . just be careful."
MegaMan nods.
Lan grits his teeth and points his PET at the monitor. "Jack in, MegaMan!" he shouts, fighting to be heard over ProtoMan's wild screeching.
As soon as he's in, MegaMan heads straight over to ProtoMan. He's almost consumed in a mass of sparking shadows, but MegaMan forces his way through them until he comes up to a flash of red in the middle of the darkness. Lan sees Arcadia hesitating for a moment before following him, his feathers burning the lashing shadows where they touch him.
Lan's PET starts to spark like the monitor, sending sharp pain shooting up his arm, and he drops it with a startled yelp. It clatters to the floor and just sits there, sparking and trembling, and Lan can't see anything on his screen or the monitor's because they're both completely black, and the only thing he can hear is ProtoMan's wild screeching.
The screeching reaches a fever pitch and Lan gasps in pain, covering his ears. Everyone else in the room does the same, but it does nothing to muffle the noise.
And then, abruptly, the screeching stops.
It's several moments before Lan dares to take his hands off his ears, still ringing from the noise. The main room is almost completely dark, but as he watches, his PET's screen starts to flicker and then, finally, the picture comes back. At the same time, the monitor flickers back on as well, flooding dim lighting into the room.
It reveals ProtoMan curled into a tight ball on the floor, trembling as his shadows spark around him. Arcadia and MegaMan are crouching either side of him. Arcadia's feathers have gone back to normal, and MegaMan-
MegaMan looks like ProtoMan.
It takes Lan a moment to realise what he's seeing. MegaMan has red armour, his hair's longer and wilder, and he has fangs like ProtoMan does. His helmet's spiked and he has a green, transparent visor covering his eyes.
Proto Soul, Lan thinks.
MegaMan looks up, and Lan doesn't think he's imagining the faint growl he hears in his Navi's voice as he speaks.
"We need to find Chaud," he says. "Now."
"We'll put all our efforts into it," Kifune immediately promises. After a display like that, no one's going to say no - not when it could cause ProtoMan to go on another rampage.
"But why did Dr. Regal take him?" Manabe speaks up for the first time, still looking shaken from what just happened. "And . . . and how did Chaud even know that Dr. Regal is the leader of Nebula in the first place?"
Lan blinks, suddenly realising he doesn't know the answer to that. Before, he hadn't put much thought into what Chaud said because he'd thought Chaud was just making it up, but now that he knows it's the truth . . .
How did Chaud know? It can't have just been a good guess - that wouldn't explain Chaud's hatred of Dr. Regal, even before he fixed the dimensional converter.
In the centre of the room, Dad shifts, and looks up with a grim expression.
"I need to tell you something about Chaud," he says.
Mimic has a blindfold over her eyes, but Ms. Yuri and Dr. Regal haven't bothered to try and cover her ears. She can hear everything that's going on.
When they lead her away, she'd been bundled into a car. She'd recognised it as Ms. Yuri's car before Dr. Regal had pulled the blindfold over her eyes - unlike most blindfolds, this one lets in no light whatsoever, and she can't even see a vague impression of anything around her.
But despite being able to hear, she's still lost. She can tell what things are based on their sounds, but that tells her nothing about her location - not that it matters anyway, since she thinks she knows exactly where she's going. But it'd be nice to be able to put images to sounds, and so far all she's heard is the motor of Ms. Yuri's car, then the sounds of general city life far down below her as she's pushed out of the car and across what feels like concrete, pulled into another seat, and then hears the steady chuffing of a helicopter as it takes to the air.
Chaud guesses the helicopter is small, only a two-seater, judging by the way sound echoes in the helicopter. Mimic hears a female voice next to her in the pilot's seat and assumes that Ms. Yuri is taking her to the tanker that Dr. Regal owns, though where Dr. Regal himself is she has no idea, because she can't hear him and didn't even realise he was gone until Chaud said this helicopter was a two-seater, meaning there's no room for him. Dr. Regal's sheer non-presence is . . . unsettling.
Underneath the sounds of the helicopter, Mimic hears what sounds like water - a lot of it. That means they're going over the ocean.
So she's being taken to Dr. Regal's tanker. At least that'll hopefully make it easier for the others to find her - the first place that Lan and Chaud had checked after Anetta was kidnapped was Dr. Regal's hotel room, and they'd immediately discovered the existence of the tanker and had gone there to rescue Anetta.
Of course . . . the problem is, they'd used an IPC-owned helicopter to get there. Which Chaud had gotten for them. Lan doesn't have that option - and he wouldn't anyway even if Mimic hadn't been taken, because she's not the vice president of IPC.
But the Net Police have their own helicopters, though she's not sure how quickly they can mobilise them. Hopefully the shock of Dr. Regal being revealed as an enemy is enough to kick their asses into gear. She hopes they believe Anetta - she's never met Dr. Regal and doesn't even know his name, but she's got a good memory for details and should be able to give an accurate description of Dr. Regal and Ms. Yuri.
If she even called the Net Police, that is. For all Mimic knows, Anetta may have decided to go straight to SciLab - but that'll get the same result anyway, so it doesn't matter.
Mimic feels the helicopter landing, which breaks her out of her thoughts, and gradually the helicopter's noise quietens. At the same time, she hears Ms. Yuri sliding out of her seat, and then the door next to Mimic is opened and Ms. Yuri grabs her arm and drags her out.
She's on the tanker. She can tell by the sounds of the ocean around her, and the fact that the surface she's walking on is swaying gently.
Ms. Yuri says nothing as she drags Mimic along. Only by the faintest sounds of metal doors opening and closing does Mimic know that she's being taken deeper into the tanker, and then the floor moves beneath her feet and she realises she's in a lift. Ms. Yuri leads her out when the doors open, and then drags her across a wide space and up some stairs.
Then the blindfold is ripped off her head, revealing that she's in the same room Anetta had been taken to in the anime. She's on the platform that Dr. Regal uses to talk to the Darkloids, but the big throne he usually sits on is empty. There's a smaller chair nearby, which Ms. Yuri shoves her over to, and then forces her to sit down on.
Ms. Yuri ties Mimic to the chair. Anetta hadn't been tied up in the anime, but then again, she hadn't exactly gone with Ms. Yuri willingly - neither had Mimic, but she hadn't been knocked out. She might've been, if Ms. Yuri had known that Mimic has a voice in her head who can help her in a crisis like this and was able to plan accordingly.
Mimic watches in silence as Ms. Yuri tightens the last of her bonds and then steps back. There's a bandage hastily wrapped around the hand that Mimic had bitten, but the material is barely stained and Mimic knows that Ms. Yuri heals a lot faster than most humans do.
"So." Ms. Yuri's voice cuts into the silence. "How did you know about that Dark Chip?"
Mimic doesn't answer. She stares back at the lady, hoping that her expression is as blank as she thinks it is. Or maybe Ms. Yuri will think she's too scared to talk. Either way, she's still not saying a damn word.
"No one told you," Ms. Yuri goes on, as if she's going to try and talk Mimic into telling the truth. If it weren't for the fact that Mimic is strapped to a chair and on a giant metal ship in the middle of the ocean, this might almost feel like a pleasant chat. "I know for a fact that Amano girl said nothing; she was too focused on her revenge to care about what that Dark Chip we gave her would do."
Mimic already suspected this was how Amano got the Dark Chip, but hearing it out loud is still jarring. She refuses to let it show, though.
Let Ms. Yuri talk. Mimic isn't telling her a damn thing.
Ms. Yuri rests her hands on the arms of the chair until she's looming over Mimic. "So tell me, how did you know exactly what that Dark Chip was going to do to your NetNavi?"
Mimic continues to be silent.
After a moment, Ms. Yuri sighs and steps back. She reaches into one of the pockets on her coat and then pulls out a long, sharp-looking knife.
Mimic feels her breath quicken a little upon seeing it. Her mind immediately takes her back to the Blaze mansion, just days after she'd woken up in Chaud's body, and in her mind she sees a flash of steel as Shuseki lashes out at her and slices her eye open.
Ms. Yuri doesn't miss her little gasp.
"Don't like knives?" she asks, in a mockingly-sympathetic tone. She starts to flip it, and Mimic can't take her eyes off the knife as Ms. Yuri catches it again and again. "Maybe we can come to an arrangement, then. You tell me how you knew about the Dark Chip, and I'll put away this knife."
Despite how scared she is, Mimic still keeps silent.
In a choice between blurting out everything she knows and getting threatened with a knife, she'd honestly rather be threatened with a knife - no matter how much the sight of one terrifies her.
She can't bear to think about what might happen if she tells Ms. Yuri that she knows everything that's going to happen. Who knows what Nebula could do with that kind of information? She doesn't want to find out. Nor does she want to find out what might happen to her.
"I have more ways to make you talk," Ms. Yuri says mildly, brandishing the knife so its steel glints in the dim light.
Mimic can't restrain herself from rolling her eyes in time.
Ms. Yuri's eyes narrow. "What?" she demands, almost defensively. "What was that look for?"
Nothing, Mimic thinks sourly, except that threat is so overused. I know she's a villain right now, but seriously, she needs to get better lines.
What do you mean, 'right now'? Chaud asks.
. . . Fuck. She'd forgotten he can hear her direct thoughts.
"Still not going to talk?" Ms. Yuri raises an eyebrow at her.
Mimic taps her foot on the floor and says nothing.
Ms. Yuri sighs. "Fine."
She suddenly lunges forward, and slams the knife into the back of the chair, missing Mimic's ear by literal millimetres.
Mimic's mind goes blank with terror. Ms. Yuri's image blurs with Shuseki, and she barely keeps herself from throwing up whatever food she has in her stomach.
"Talk," Ms. Yuri says, voice as hard as stone, inches from Mimic's face.
This time, Mimic isn't keeping quiet out of stubbornness. She simply can't talk, too terrified to get any sound out, pressing herself against the back of the chair and trying desperately not to start crying.
After a moment, Ms. Yuri scowls and draws back, leaving the knife stuck in the chair next to Mimic's head. She's too frozen with fear to move, seeing the knife in the corner of her eye, even though it's just there and the person who would use it to hurt her is stepping back, not even touching the knife anymore.
She knows you're afraid of it, Chaud tells her, even though Mimic feels flashes of fear sparking through their connection from him as well. She thinks she has you. If she can terrorise you enough, you'll talk.
Mimic can't talk.
Not just because it would be a bad idea, but also because she literally cannot speak right now.
I don't think she knows that, Chaud says.
Great. Fucking perfect. Mimic is in the hands of an enemy who is perfectly willing to slam a knife right next to her head and doesn't know that she goes mute when she's completely terrified.
"How about we try something else?" Ms. Yuri asks, taking out a small device. It looks like a sound recorder. "There are sounds which are too high- or low-frequency to be detected by human ears. But from what I understand, your hearing is far more sensitive than anything a normal human could ever hope for. I wonder how you'd react to high-frequency sounds that most people can't even hear?"
She presses a button on the recorder, and a high-pitched whine starts playing.
Ms. Yuri has no reaction to it, but to Mimic, it's sheer torture. She bares her teeth, narrowing her eyes, and tries to block out the sound - but her hands are tied and even though pressing one ear against her shoulder helps to muffle the sound in that ear, the other is still exposed and there's nothing she can do to stop hearing it.
The sound stops suddenly, and Mimic breathes a sigh of relief, shaking her head to try and clear it.
"I didn't hear a thing," Ms. Yuri informs her. "But you looked like you were in agony. Would you like to try another one?"
Please no-
Ms. Yuri presses another button, and this time a much lower sound starts playing. It doesn't hurt like the high-pitched sound had, but it makes her head dizzy the longer it goes on, and she feels like she's actually going to throw up.
The sound stops again, and while the dizziness clears quickly, the nausea takes longer to settle down.
"You're looking very pale there," Ms. Yuri comments. "You can stop this any time, you know. All you have to do is tell me what I want to know." She waves the recorder around, making sure Mimic can see it. "And not just about the Dark Chip. Dr. Regal noticed a lot of strange things while he was pretending to be your ally. Namely, you hated him from the moment you saw him, even though everyone else was easily fooled. But there are more subtle things - apparently you somehow knew where the Darkloid VideoMan was without having to investigate anything. You seem to know a lot more than you should, Chaud Blaze."
Mimic stares at her.
"Oh, yes." Ms. Yuri looks pleased that she's finally gotten a reaction that isn't fear or pain. "We know exactly who you are. Mimic Lostie? A fake name, to throw off anyone who might come after you. What I want to know is how the son of the world's leading PET-production company knows things he shouldn't."
She presses a button on the record once again. This time it's another high-pitched noise.
Mimic grits her teeth, squeezes her eyes shut, and tries not to scream.
Manabe takes Lan and Dad to the Aquarius Hotel, where Dr. Regal was staying. Kifune and Famous are staying behind in the city to direct the efforts of the Net Police and Net Savers respectively, but Manabe wants to see if searching Dr. Regal's hotel room will give them any clues.
"Why didn't Chaud say anything?" Dad hisses, as he and Lan are working their way through a small stack of documents. They look like research reports from SciLab, but not the Cross Fusion research. Dr. Regal's been stealing a lot of stuff from them. "He must have dreamed about Dr. Regal. That's the only reason he'd know the truth. So why didn't he say anything?"
"Maybe he thought we wouldn't believe him," Lan says.
He can hardly believe it himself - Dad had told them that Chaud has a special ability, the power to see the future in his dreams. Although it sounds insane, it certainly explains how Chaud always seems to just know things.
He had known where VideoMan was without needing to investigate. He'd hated Dr. Regal from the moment he'd seen the man. And way back when the Darkloids had first attacked SciLab, Chaud had known what was going on before anyone even told him.
Chaud's a prophet. And now he's been kidnapped by Nebula.
Someone with the power to see the future is in the hands of one of the worst enemies that Lan has ever had to face, and that thought alone is terrifying enough. It's made even worse by the fact that it's Chaud - poor Chaud, who can never seem to catch a break, and always seems to be in some sort of trouble or life-threatening crisis.
The universe must hate Chaud for some reason, to put him through so much like this.
"I asked him if he'd dreamed about Dr. Regal before the converter was fixed," Dad says, shaking his head. "He had no reason to think I wouldn't believe him."
"You already knew he hated Dr. Regal," Arcadia speaks up from inside Lan's PET. He and ProtoMan are staying in there with MegaMan, though Lan's a little wary of ProtoMan since he's still liable to lose control at any moment and make Lan's PET go crazy again. "Chaud thought you'd assume he was making up a dream to try and justify that hatred. He . . . he didn't have much reason to think anyone would believe anything he said against Dr. Regal."
Dad's fingers clench, almost ripping the paper he's holding. He looks like he wants to argue, but like Lan, he understands that he probably would've reacted exactly as Arcadia says - he might not have believed Chaud, since it would be easy to assume he was making things up to justify his hatred.
Never again, Lan decides. If Chaud ever tells him something like this again, Lan's not going to dismiss it. Especially not now that he knows the truth behind Chaud's strange knowledge.
"Come over here!" Manabe suddenly calls.
Lan springs to his feet and rushes over, Dad following closely behind him. Manabe's leaning over a laptop on a cluttered table, and there's a bunch of tabs open. One of them is showing what looks like a giant ship.
"Dr. Regal's freight tanker," Dad says. "He's involved in shipping goods across the ocean as well as being a scientist, if I remember correctly."
"How much do you want to bet those 'goods' are Dark Chips?" Manabe asks darkly.
"Do you think this is where he took Chaud?" Lan quickly asks. "If it is, can we track it down somehow?"
"I can do that."
All three of them pause.
ProtoMan speaks again, sounding . . . not entirely okay, but his voice isn't harsh or glitched and there's no high-pitching ringing tone underneath his words as he talks.
"My connection may have been cut off, but I can still track Chaud's PET," ProtoMan tells them. "I couldn't do it before, because I . . ." Because he'd been too busy having a complete meltdown. That's understandable. "But I can do it now. If Chaud's on that tanker, I can lead you directly to it."
"And if he's not there, you'll still be able to find him anyway," Manabe says, nodding. "Smart thinking, ProtoMan. I'll get a helicopter over here right away, and you can get going as soon as it arrives."
"Hold on," Dad says, stepping forward before Lan can agree. "You're making it sound like you're sending them alone."
"I am," Manabe says bluntly. Dad looks like he's about to argue, but Manabe continues before he can. "This is likely to turn into a Cross Fusion battle, and the only people capable of fighting in a dimensional area at the moment are Lan and Arcadia. The only other person who can has been kidnapped, and his primary Navi can't materialise without using Cross Fusion."
"But why are you sending them alone?" Dad demands.
"Because you and I, as humans, would be more of a hindrance than a help if we were to go with them," Manabe tells him. "We can't fight viruses or Darkloids on their own terms yet. So unless you want to end up getting in the way, you need to step back and let your son rescue Chaud."
Dad clenches his fists at his sides, but he doesn't protest any further.
Lan thinks those words were a little bit harsh, but there's sense in them - he and Arcadia won't be able to rescue Chaud if they have to worry about protecting two other humans at the same time. Though he is a little distracted by the on their own terms yet part. What does Manabe mean by yet?
Dad sighs, and turns to Lan. "Here," he says, taking something out of his pocket and handing it to Lan. It's some sort of cube-like device with a jack-in port and a small, blank screen. "This is a storage device used to contain NetNavis temporarily. It should be able to hold ProtoMan until you can find Chaud and get him back into his PET."
"Why can't he just stay in my PET until we find Chaud?" Lan asks, even as he takes the storage device and pockets it.
"You won't be able to Cross Fuse if there's any other Navi aside from MegaMan in your PET," Dad explains. "Remember, the PET is used for Cross Fusion - if there's more than one active Navi inside it, the data won't be compatible and Cross Fusion will fail. Arcadia's fine since he can materialise himself, but ProtoMan can't do that, and there's no way he'll be willing to go into sleep mode to make the data compatible for Cross Fusion. So when you get to the tanker or wherever Chaud is, put ProtoMan into the storage device. He'll still be able to help you track down Chaud even while he's inside the device."
Lan nods. "Got it. Thanks, Dad!"
Dad nods back, and then Manabe speaks up again.
"I've called in a helicopter," she reports, putting away her PET. She'd been talking into it while Dad was explaining why Lan needs the storage device for ProtoMan. "It should arrive within the next few minutes. Famous is currently mobilising the Net Saver force with the rest of the helicopters, but it will take a while for the entire force to be ready."
Lan understands what she's telling him - he's effectively going into this alone, with no backup waiting for him. The only help he has are the trio of Navis in his PET, who're just as determined to save Chaud as he is.
That'll be enough.
He hopes.
Ms. Yuri keeps playing different high- and low-frequency sounds, and although Mimic's thrown up multiple times already, she hasn't said a word. She screamed, of course, because she'd had to give in to that urge after all this sound-torture, but otherwise she hasn't spoken.
She's pretty sure Ms. Yuri is getting more and more frustrated with each passing second. Mimic would feel a sense of vicious satisfaction at that, except she just wants this sound-torture to stop, and that damn knife is still lodged into the chair just a few millimetres away from her head.
Ms. Yuri stops playing the current sound - another high-pitched one, one that made Mimic feel even dizzier than most of the low-frequency sounds did - and gives Mimic an annoyed glare.
"You can make this stop at any moment," Ms. Yuri snaps. She's said that, occasionally, over the past . . . however long, and Mimic has not once responded to it, so she's not really sure why the lady's trying it again. "Just talk already. This is getting boring!"
Sorry that being tortured with sound isn't working to loosen my tongue, Mimic thinks.
She's in pain and she's still probably sick enough to throw up again, but she's also a little bit bored of this herself. It's been going on for a while now, and it hurts every single time, and she definitely wants this to end, but she can't say a word and this is probably not going to end because Ms. Yuri doesn't seem to understand that Mimic literally can't talk right now.
Pain and fear don't make her talk more. They make her talk less. And even if Ms. Yuri knew sign language, there's no way she'd untie Mimic's hands - she's too cautious for that, and Mimic can easily try to escape the moment her hands are free.
Not that she can go anywhere. They're in the middle of the fucking ocean, and even if Mimic could swim, she'd drown long before she reached land.
Ms. Yuri is about to start playing another sound when the ship suddenly rocks, sending her stumbling, and a multi-coloured sheen covers every surface. Ms. Yuri scowls and steps back, looking around as faint explosions start to echo outside the room.
"Dammit," she mutters. "I was hoping I'd have more time." She glares at Mimic. "I have to deal with this first. I'll come back to you later. Hopefully by the time I get back, you'll be willing to talk - or else." She brandishes the recorder at Mimic, before taking off.
Mimic sighs, shoulders slumping out of sheer relief, as soon as Ms. Yuri is gone. No more high- or low-frequency sounds to try and kill her sensitive hearing, though if she's unlucky, Ms. Yuri will come back and start playing the sounds again.
It hadn't been like that in the anime - Ms. Yuri had taken Lan and Chaud directly to Anetta and they'd fought ShadeMan, losing ridiculously easily, which had probably been what Dr. Regal and Ms. Yuri had intended. But considering the way things have been going for Mimic, both recently and covering her experiences in this reality as a whole, Ms. Yuri will probably show up again before Lan does.
She can only hope that he managed to get in before the dimensional area came up, if he even knows where she is in the first place.
Mimic doesn't know if she wants to hope that ProtoMan and Arcadia are with him. She wants to see her Navis again, and they're probably desperate to find her, but having ProtoMan come here is like . . .
It'd be like a death sentence for him. She can't let him turn into Dark ProtoMan.
She refuses to let that happen.
But if he comes, and ShadeMan's attack plays out like it did in the anime . . . Mimic doesn't know what will happen.
MegaMan takes control of the helicopter as soon as it arrives. ProtoMan had wanted to fly it, but Lan told him he couldn't - for two reasons, he said, before ProtoMan could start raging at him.
One because they need ProtoMan to focus on tracking Chaud's PET. And two because ProtoMan's glitched programming might do something to the helicopter and make it crash into the ocean or something.
ProtoMan had still been pretty annoyed, but Lan made him understand, and MegaMan's piloting the helicopter while ProtoMan stays inside the storage device and tells him where to go. They hadn't wanted to risk keeping ProtoMan inside Lan's PET in case he did anything to the helicopter's systems, since they would be connected as long as MegaMan was piloting the helicopter.
Speaking of his PET, Lan takes it out for a moment and peers at the NaviMark still rotating in the corner of the screen. He doesn't have any empty chips to download Proto Soul onto, and he didn't have the time to get one - he just has to hope they won't need to use it, because he can't download any other Double Souls while this one is still stored in his PET. Dad had said the data would clash and fail, and might even hurt MegaMan, if he tries to use another Double Soul while Proto Soul is still stored inside. He can't even use Proto Soul itself, not until he downloads it onto an empty chip.
They go over the ocean at a speed that Lan is pretty sure breaks whatever the speed limit is for air traffic, but honestly it doesn't matter. For one thing, they're on a rescue mission and every second counts - and for another, Kifune had called before they'd taken off and had given Lan permission to do anything and everything in his power to save Chaud.
Lan's not sure how much time passes before he sees a metallic grey smudge in the distance, and then it rapidly gets bigger as they approach it. ProtoMan's low hiss confirms it - this is Dr. Regal's tanker, and it's definitely where Chaud is.
"I'm landing now," MegaMan reports, as the helicopter begins to hover above the tanker.
He starts lowering it carefully - even with a rescue mission, they still need to land properly, or they might end up having to be rescued themselves. But Lan spots dimensional converters rising out of the tanker, and the dimensional area's barrier fades into existence.
"Hold on!" MegaMan shouts tensely.
Lan's pretty sure that holding on will do absolutely nothing, but he grips his seat and tries to brace himself anyway.
The helicopter jerks and then suddenly they're falling, far faster than MegaMan had obviously wanted, and then the helicopter crashes onto the tanker. Lan is jolted in his seat, barely managing to stay in it, and when it stops he looks up.
Viruses are materialising all over the tanker. His first thought is that they're going to attack the helicopter, but then the viruses start wrecking the tanker instead - and he's thoroughly confused, because if Dr. Regal made the dimensional converters, why would he send viruses to attack his own ship?
Arcadia materialises beside him suddenly, and drags him out of the helicopter. The second they're clear of it, the helicopter explodes from a combined virus attack.
"There goes our way out," Lan comments, gritting his teeth.
"There might be another one," Arcadia points out. Lan glances at him questioningly. "Well, Dr. Regal must've brought Chaud here somehow, right?"
Lan's eyes widen. "That's right!"
"Talk later!" ProtoMan shouts impatiently.
Lan jumps and fishes the storage device out of his pocket, then hands it to Arcadia. He doesn't know what'll happen to it if he keeps it on his person while he Cross Fuses, so giving it to Arcadia is the best option they have. It's a really good thing Arcadia can materialise himself.
Then he takes out his PET, downloads his synchro chip, and Cross Fuses with MegaMan. Arcadia keeps a hold of the storage device as they head straight into the small army of viruses, dodging around them and avoiding fighting as much as they can - they might need all their strength, Lan thinks, so wasting their energy on the viruses would be pointless.
Arcadia blasts a hole into the surface beneath their feet when their way forward is blocked by far too many viruses, and they both jump down. A few of the viruses try to follow them, but Lan shoots them with the Mega Buster and then fires off a Charged Shot when more try to come down.
"He's above us, in the control room," ProtoMan tells them, as they take off down a darkened hallway. "From what I can tell, there's a lift that should take you up there directly!"
"Any idea where that lift is?" Lan asks, shooting a couple of Mettaurs that were trying to surprise them.
"It's-"
"This way."
Lan and Arcadia freeze.
Up ahead of them, walking out the darkness, is Ms. Yuri - she looks perfectly calm, amused even, despite the viruses laying waste to the tanker. Lan feels hot with anger at the sight of her - she'd helped Dr. Regal kidnap Chaud! If Dr. Regal himself is here as well, then Lan thinks he'll finally be able to understand how Chaud feels about the man.
Ms. Yuri suddenly reaches into her pocket and throws a small ball at them. Lan and Arcadia duck out of the way, but the ball hadn't been thrown at them - it hits a Dominerd that was trying to sneak up on them and explodes, deleting the virus.
Lan glares at her suspiciously. Why would she help them, after what she's done?
"Dr. Regal has extended an invitation to both of you," Ms. Yuri says. She glances at the storage device in Arcadia's hand. "All three of you, I should say. Follow me. I'll take you to the control room."
"Why would you help us?" Lan blurts out, half-tempted to aim his Mega Buster at her. But she's human and shooting her would do a lot more damage than it would to a virus or a Darkloid. "You kidnapped Ch- our friend!"
ProtoMan's angry hiss nearly drowns out Ms. Yuri's response.
"I take it you don't want Chaud back, then?" She raises an eyebrow at them. "I suppose we'll just keep him, and force him to give up his secrets."
She doesn't know about Chaud's power, MegaMan whispers to Lan, through their shared mind. But she definitely knows that there's something unusual about him.
We can't let her know, Lan replies. If these people find out that Chaud's a prophet, they'll never let him go.
"Fine," he says out loud. "We'll go with you."
"Forget her!" ProtoMan snaps. "Just blast a hole in this stupid ship and find Chaud on your own!"
"They might take him away forever if we don't go with her," Arcadia points out.
ProtoMan immediately stops complaining, but his irritated hiss lets them know he's still not happy about this.
"Smart choice," Ms. Yuri says. "Now, follow me."
She leads them through the ship. They don't encounter any more viruses, but the ship keeps rocking and swaying violently, letting them know that the attack isn't over. Lan can guess that whatever's going on isn't actually the work of Dr. Regal - it doesn't make sense to attack his own ship, and Ms. Yuri had deleted that Dominerd for them, so unless this is some elaborate ruse, someone else must be attacking the tanker as well.
They get to the lift. Ms. Yuri steps back until she's against the wall, giving them an almost pleasant smile as they follow her inside. Lan's still suspicious of her, and Arcadia doesn't take his eyes off her even as the lift starts going up.
When the lift stops, Ms. Yuri gestures for them to step out first. Lan and Arcadia take one step outside the lift, and then the doors close behind them, leaving them in a small space that's almost too dark to see in.
"She tricked us!" Lan exclaims, gaping at the lift doors.
But Arcadia isn't looking at the lift doors - he's looking at the opposite wall with an almost hopeful expression on his face. Lan glances at him and then turns to the wall, wondering why it would give Arcadia any sort of hope, but then the wall splits apart - revealing that it's actually a pair of doors - and reveals the interior of a massive room with a darkened platform at the back, with two separate staircases leading up to it on either side.
Lan and Arcadia step inside the room cautiously, and then jump when a light comes on, shining overhead. The rest of the room is still in darkness, though.
"Welcome." Dr. Regal's voice echoes throughout the room. "I'm glad you could make it."
"Where's Chaud?" Lan demands, not wanting to play around. He guesses that Dr. Regal already knows who Chaud really is, since Ms. Yuri had referred to him by his real name rather than his fake one.
He pauses when Arcadia brushes a hand against his arm, and shows him the storage device. On the screen, Lan can see ProtoMan covering his ears and hissing, like he's in pain or something.
"I can detect a high-frequency sound," MegaMan tells Lan.
He almost wonders why he can't hear anything when it's clearly affecting ProtoMan, but Arcadia gives him the answer.
"We can't hear it because our hearing isn't as sensitive as ProtoMan's," he explains quietly.
"A little insurance, to make certain that you don't attack me," Dr. Regal says. Lan jerks his head up to glare at the platform where Dr. Regal's voice is coming from.
"How do you know we won't attack anyway?" Arcadia calls. "If we stop the sound, ProtoMan won't be hurting anymore!"
"He's not the only one this sound is affecting."
A light comes on above the platform, and Lan freezes when he sees Chaud, tied to a chair and writhing in agony.
Too late he remembers that Chaud's sensitive hearing would let him hear the sound that's hurting ProtoMan, and judging by the pain Lan can see on his friend's expression, he's been forced to listen to this for far longer.
"You've been torturing him!" MegaMan's voice is tight with anger.
"He refused to speak," Dr. Regal replies coldly.
Lan is pretty sure that Chaud only refused to speak because he was too scared to say anything. But it doesn't seem like Dr. Regal knows that Chaud goes mute when he's scared, so he'd probably assumed Chaud was staying silent out of stubbornness or something, and had started . . . started torturing him.
He feels sick to his stomach. Chaud was being tortured while they were trying to find him.
Deal with that later, MegaMan tells him. For now, focus on saving Chaud.
Lan's determination sets and he straightens. Right. There'll be time to be horrified at what Chaud's been through later - right now, they have to make sure there is a later for him.
"Let him go," Lan says, and he's surprised at how steady his voice is, despite the horrified and angry feelings burning inside him.
"Not yet," Dr. Regal says. "First, I believe you have some questions for me?"
"Turn off that sound and stop hurting our operator!" Arcadia steps forward, wings half-spread in a threat. "Then you can talk!"
"I'm afraid I'll have to decline." Dr. Regal's regretful words really don't match his flat, almost disinterested tone. "He's insurance, as I said. If you try to attack me, I will increase the frequency. What do you think would happen then? ProtoMan's audio program can be fixed easily enough, but what would happen to Chaud?"
"He'd end up deaf at best," MegaMan whispers, sounding just as horrified as Lan feels. "At worst . . . it could kill him."
"Fine," Lan grits out. "We'll stay down here. Just don't increase the frequency!"
"Good," Dr. Regal says, in an almost pleased tone. If it weren't for the situation at hand, Lan would almost think he was being praised for answering a question correctly at school or something. "First, I believe I should address the origins of the Darkloids, seeing as you were so interested in them when trying to fix the dimensional converter. Dr. Hikari predicted they are beings of data that spontaneously produced themselves. This theory is correct, of course."
Dr. Regal is talking an awful lot for someone whose ship is being attacked.
He's stalling, MegaMan says. For what, I don't know. And he might be talking more to draw out the torture for Chaud and ProtoMan, just to make sure we don't do anything stupid.
Lan grits his teeth and shoots a quick glance at Chaud. If he wasn't tied to that chair, he'd probably be curled into a fetal position right now. He remembers how Chaud had reacted to the sound waves at the electronics store and wishes that he could do something, anything, to muffle whatever it is that Chaud's hearing.
"I became partners with the leader of the Darkloids. I believe you've met him already - the most powerful Darkloid in the cyberworld, ShadeMan," Dr. Regal says. "Together we created the Dark Chips; he provided my Nebula organisation with the materials, and we manufactured them. ShadeMan's plan was to use the Dark Chips to wreak havoc on the real world." Dr. Regal scoffs. "My plan was far better thought-out. I sought to gain control of the Darkloids using the Dark Chips - by supplying the Darkloids with Dark Chips, they have grown dependent upon me, betrayed ShadeMan, and now obey my orders."
So the Darkloids and Nebula are more or less the same enemy now. Lan's not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing - on one hand, it means they don't need to waste energy trying to figure out who or what Nebula is anymore. But on the other hand, Nebula has been revealed as a powerful, heartless enemy, with an army of Darkloids at its beck and call.
"But it seems I underestimated how far ShadeMan would go for his revenge," Dr. Regal goes on. He sounds almost amused now, and Lan wishes he could see his face, just so he can wipe that smugness out of his tone. "The dimensional area surrounding this ship was created by him. It appears he too used the research left behind by the former leader of World Three."
Lan stiffens. The former leader of World Three?
That . . . that can only be-
"Yes," Dr. Regal says, as if he can see the realisation dawning on Lan. "Dr. Wily was researching the dimensional areas as well. Who knows? If he had managed to finish his research, you may have been battling World Three in the real world, rather than Nebula."
Before anyone can react to that, the ship rocks violently - even more so than it has been for the past few minutes. Lan staggers and only keeps his balance because Arcadia grips his arm with his free hand, digging his talons into the floor to keep himself upright.
"It appears our final guest has arrived," Dr. Regal says, sounding completely unconcerned. "Before he shows himself, however, I believe you deserve a reward for indulging my weakness for speech."
To Lan, it doesn't seem like anything happens - but he sees Chaud going limp suddenly, and automatically assumes the worst before he realises that Chaud's gone limp with relief, not . . . not anything else. With a quick glance at the storage device in Arcadia's hand, Lan sees that ProtoMan is no longer in pain either.
He has no time to feel any sort of relief that Chaud and ProtoMan aren't being hurt anymore - a blast of sickly purple light crashes down from above, sending Lan and Arcadia stumbling.
They both regain their balance quickly and whirl around, only to come face-to-face with ShadeMan.
"So that's it," ShadeMan says. He's not even looking at Lan and Arcadia - he's entirely focused on Dr. Regal, who's still hidden in the shadows at the end of the platform. "I decided to listen to your story, to see what your justification was for turning my Darkloids against me - and it turns out there is none! Typical human, thinking you're better than we are simply because you happen to be made from flesh and blood while we are beings of data!"
"You're wrong, ShadeMan," Dr. Regal replies. "I do not believe myself to be better than you because I am flesh and blood - I believe myself to be better than you because I am smarter than you. My vision is far greater than anything you could have ever hoped to achieve with your single-minded goals of destruction."
ShadeMan lets out a roar, then gathers a ball of energy in his hands. He hurls it as soon as the energy solidifies.
Arcadia quickly forms a Bound Sword out of his Holy Fire and slices the energy ball in half.
"What're you-" Lan begins.
"If he attacks Dr. Regal, he'll hurt Chaud too!" Arcadia snaps. He spreads his wings and takes a running step forward before launching himself into the air and throwing a Firebomb at ShadeMan.
ShadeMan barely flinches from the attack - Dr. Regal wasn't kidding when he said this guy was the most powerful Darkloid in the entire cyberworld. The only other Darkloids who can resist Arcadia's immunity-boosted Holy Fire attacks are BurnerMan, whose Heat-element makes him naturally resistant to fiery attacks, and GravityMan, whose gravity barrier makes Arcadia's attacks effectively useless.
But ShadeMan? He just seems to resist Arcadia's Holy Fire out of sheer force of will.
"Mega Buster!" Lan announces, quickly activating and then firing his weapon at ShadeMan, Unfortunately, his attacks are even less effective than Arcadia's, and ShadeMan just brushes it off with an annoyed scowl.
I don't think anything we have is going to work on him! MegaMan exclaims.
Something has to work! Lan replies, keeping his Buster trained on ShadeMan as the Darkloid leader starts to walk toward him. Chaud's in danger! We can't let ShadeMan get anywhere near him!
He quickly cycles through the five battle chips he'd pre-downloaded before their helicopter had crashed. Which ones would work against ShadeMan? Would any of them be useful in this situation?
"Vulcan, download!" Lan exclaims.
The Vulcan replaces his Mega Buster, and he fires it as soon as he aims. But even with the rapid-fire multi-blast attack, ShadeMan still doesn't flinch, and keeps coming.
Arcadia drops down on him from above, kicking at him with his talons - Lan wonders why he's not using the claws on his fingertips, but then he remembers Arcadia is still holding the storage device, and if it gets damaged, ProtoMan might get hurt or even deleted. But even Arcadia kicking and clawing at ShadeMan with his taloned feet does nothing, and ShadeMan just grabs him and hurls him at Lan.
Lan instinctively ducks, realising too late that he should've at least tried to catch Arcadia, and winces when the white owl-Navi crashes into the wall behind him. There's no time to check if Arcadia's okay, because ShadeMan's still coming.
"Lan!" MegaMan exclaims. "There's always . . ."
He doesn't need to say it. Lan can feel his idea in their shared mind.
"Cannon, Mega Cannon, High Cannon, download!" Lan shouts, bringing up his arms and allowing the three different Cannons to merge. "Zeta Cannon!"
He fires the Program Advance right into ShadeMan's face. Lan hears an explosion and a bellow, sees smoke blasting out from the impact of his attack, and as the Zeta Cannon vanishes, he starts to feel hopeful that he finally managed to damage their opponent.
But then a fleshy wing blows away the smoke, revealing a scowling ShadeMan. He no longer seems annoyed - he's furious.
"This isn't your fight!" ShadeMan snaps. "Stop interfering, foolish human! Crush Noise!"
Lan gets blasted into the wall, and slides down beside Arcadia. His vision swims and he gasps for breath, starting to feel his Cross Fusion coming undone.
He Crosses Out, and his PET clatters to the floor beside him. MegaMan's eyes are wide with shock and fear - and ShadeMan is still furious, glaring at Lan and Arcadia. He starts forward once again, and Lan flinches, thinking that this might just be the end - he has no power left to give, and Arcadia doesn't look like he can fight anymore either.
Then ShadeMan pauses, looking up at the platform above them. His eyes narrow, and then widen, as odd-sounding footsteps echo throughout the room.
A strange black Navi jumps down from the platform, landing between them. It's humanoid, with three-toed clawed feet, and odd neon blue lines running across its body. There are two giant tube-like attachments on the back of its shoulders, curving upwards like a broken circle.
"You're not Dr. Regal," ShadeMan hisses, baring his vampire teeth at the strange Navi. "Who are you?"
"I am LaserMan," the strange Navi says. His voice echoes strangely in the room, but Lan doesn't think it's anything to do with acoustics.
"Are you Dr. Regal's NetNavi?" ShadeMan demands.
"Who knows," LaserMan replies vaguely.
Lan blinks, eyes widening, as he and Arcadia exchange a surprised glance. Only Darkloids and independent Navis can materialise themselves without using Cross Fusion - and from the sounds of it, this LaserMan is neither. How is he in the real world, then?
"Whatever I happen to be," LaserMan says, "a meek Darkloid like yourself will not be able to harm me."
"I'll see about that!" ShadeMan spits out, lashing out at LaserMan.
His attack goes right through LaserMan's body.
ShadeMan jerks back, looking shocked. "You're just a hologram!" he accuses.
"Idiot," LaserMan intones.
Before ShadeMan has a chance to get angry at the insult, LaserMan slices a hand through the air, cutting a green line in front of him. It seems pointless, but Lan notices ShadeMan's body starting to flicker - not the same way that Dark Shadow flickers, but more like a TV with bad reception.
He glances at Arcadia, and sees that his body is flickering in the same way. Arcadia stares back at him with wide eyes, and they both turn their heads to watch LaserMan and ShadeMan in stunned silence.
"No matter how much you posture, you are still a mere Darkloid," LaserMan says. He cuts another green line through the air.
ShadeMan's body flickers so much that Lan can hardly see him. Arcadia is the same, and although it doesn't look painful, they're both shocked at what's going on.
Is LaserMan somehow destroying the dimensional converters? If he is, how? He's just a hologram; he shouldn't be able to affect anything in the real world!
"You are as weak as a human," LaserMan says to ShadeMan. "Now, disappear!"
He cuts one final green line through the air, and then the multi-coloured sheen of the dimensional area starts to fade. ShadeMan vanishes with one last roar of pure rage, and Arcadia is forced back into the cyberworld as well, appearing a moment later in Lan's PET with a look of total bewilderment on his face.
LaserMan turns around and looks at Lan for a moment, and then he also vanishes. It's nothing like how other NetNavis stream out of networks - he just . . . warps, it looks like. That's the only word Lan can think of to describe it.
"Chaud!" ProtoMan shouts, from inside the storage device. "Chaud!"
Lan is jolted out of his shock. He quickly grabs his PET and then picks up the storage device, which Arcadia had dropped when he was forced back into the cyberworld. He scrambles to his feet and hurries up the stairs, then darts over to where Chaud is still bound to the chair.
"You're okay," Lan gasps, dropping to his knees and starting to untie Chaud's bonds. "You're okay now, we're here, w-we're here to save you-"
As soon as Lan has the bonds off, Chaud launches himself at him and wraps his arms around his neck. Lan can hear his breath hitching and feels his skinny body trembling as he wraps Chaud into a relieved hug.
"You're okay," Lan whispers, as Chaud buries his face into his shoulder.
After a moment, he becomes aware of a faint scrabbling sound. He pulls back a little, looking at the storage device in his hand, and sees ProtoMan frantically scratching at the screen like he's trying to get out of the device and into the real world.
Lan smiles and nudges Chaud, showing him the storage device.
"Hey," he says, "look who's here to see you."
But rather than being happy like Lan thought he'd be, Chaud seems horrified. He croaks something too garbled for Lan to understand and slumps forward, pressing his forehead into Lan's chest and whispering something in a ragged voice.
Lan strains to hear him.
"You shouldn't have brought him."
Lan can be forgiven for being confused. Shouldn't Chaud be happy that ProtoMan's here? And Arcadia, too, but Chaud had only said that he shouldn't have brought him. Him, meaning just ProtoMan? Why would Chaud not want ProtoMan to be here?
Then he remembers what Dad said about Chaud's power, and feels cold dread creeping into his body. Has Chaud had some sort of dream about this, and something bad happened to ProtoMan in his dream? Is that why he doesn't want ProtoMan to be here?
"We just need to connect this to your PET," Lan says, trying to ignore the dread. All he can do is hope they've already averted whatever Chaud has dreamed about. "Do you still have it?"
Chaud nods, breaking away from Lan. He's paler than he normally is, and still shaky as he takes out his PET and hands it to Lan. That ill look doesn't seem to have anything to do with Chaud's horrified reaction upon seeing ProtoMan, but more like he's been physically sick or something.
As Lan connects the storage device to Chaud's PET, he glances around. Near the legs of the chair, he sees some puddles of what looks like vomit, and feels almost like he's about to throw up himself. Chaud had been tortured with those sounds for so long he'd thrown up, multiple times by the look of it.
He tears his eyes away from the sight, mentally being thankful that Chaud's already seeing a therapist - he's definitely going to need one after this. Just seeing the aftermath is horrifying enough; Lan doesn't want to imagine what's going through Chaud's head right now.
As soon as ProtoMan is back inside Chaud's PET, Arcadia streams in after him. They both crowd at the front of the screen, looking intensely relieved to see their operator again, and although Lan can tell Chaud is still afraid of whatever's going to happen to ProtoMan, he smiles at them. It's a tiny, weak, and shaky smile, but it's still a smile.
Lan gets to his feet and offers Chaud a hand. "Alright, c'mon," he says. "We've gotta get off this ship. You've been here way too long already."
Chaud takes his hand and Lan helps him to his feet, but Chaud's so shaky and weak that he can hardly stand up on his own. Lan has to practically carry him to keep him upright - maybe it'd be easier if he just put Chaud on his back and gave him a piggyback out of here?
But before he can make a decision, an alarm rings out. He looks up, feeling an entirely different kind of dread this time - what more could possibly go wrong today? First Chaud had been kidnapped, then they'd found out Dr. Regal is the leader of their worst enemy, then Dad had revealed that Chaud has a special power that said enemy could easily take advantage of, and then ShadeMan had thoroughly beaten them before being taken down almost effortlessly by LaserMan.
"Lan!" MegaMan exclaims. "It's ShadeMan - he's trying to destroy the ship from the cyberworld!"
Apparently this is the answer to his question. Lan thinks maybe he should stop tempting fate.
He looks around, keeping his hands on Chaud's shoulders to help him stay upright. Through a nearby window, he spots a helicopter, and feels hope flaring in his chest.
"We can use that!" Lan exclaims. "Come on, let's go-"
The helicopter's blades start to rotate, and a familiar face peers out of the window. Ms. Yuri gives them a mocking salute as the helicopter rises into the air and takes off, leaving them on the tanker with no way to escape.
"No!" Lan cries. His hope is turned to ashes. "Dammit . . ."
He turns to Chaud, sees how terrified he is. Lan takes a deep breath to try and calm himself - it's really difficult right now, and he probably doesn't succeed as well as he wants to - and pulls Chaud a little closer. Panicking will only scare Chaud even more.
"We'll be okay," he promises, though every word feels like a lie and he can tell Chaud knows it. "I'll figure out how to get you outta here, I swear."
"Jack us in," ProtoMan says.
Chaud goes still for a moment, and then brings up his PET. On the screen, ProtoMan and Arcadia give him equally-determined looks.
Chaud shakes his head, but ProtoMan insists.
"Please!" he exclaims. "ShadeMan's going to sink the ship if we don't do something!"
"If all three of us attack him," MegaMan adds, "we might be able to stop him."
"Or at least slow him down," Arcadia says.
Lan doesn't want to do this any more than Chaud does, but he can see the sense in what their Navis are telling them. The three of them together should be enough to at least hold ShadeMan off long enough for the Net Police to arrive and rescue them before the tanker sinks - but Lan's not sure how long it'll take for the Net Police to show up. How far away are they? How much time has passed since he set out to rescue Chaud?
Those are questions he doesn't have the answer to.
"Alright," Lan says. Chaud flinches. "Chaud, we have to do this. They're right - they're the only ones who might be able to stop or at least stall ShadeMan!"
Chaud still doesn't look convinced. But while they're standing here, trying to convince him to let his Navis fight ShadeMan, the ship could sink at any moment.
"Listen," Lan says softly, "whatever's gonna happen to ProtoMan, we'll stop it. I promise."
Chaud snaps his head up to stare at him, wide-eyed.
Lan has no time to explain what Dad told them - or that Dad had to betray Chaud's trust to make everyone understand why Chaud being kidnapped was so much more terrible than they'd originally thought it was.
"We can stop ShadeMan, but only if you let us try," ProtoMan says. "Please!"
After what seems like an eternity, Chaud buries his face in his hands, takes a deep breath, and then looks up again. He still looks terrified, but he nods, and Lan breathes a sigh of relief.
There's a jack-in port nearby, which they use to get their Navis into the tanker's cyberworld. The trio don't wait for orders - they immediately launch an attack on ShadeMan, who's trying to destroy what looks like an energy stand. Lan knows that ships usually have energy stands in their networks to help their complicated systems stay online even during an emergency, and they're vital to keeping the ship afloat.
If ShadeMan destroys even one energy stand, the entire ship will be in serious danger of sinking.
ProtoMan reaches ShadeMan first, because he's the fastest. Dark Shadow forms beside him and joins him as he launches himself at ShadeMan, their combined momentum throwing ShadeMan away from the energy stand. ShadeMan roars and lashes out at Dark Shadow, has a brief moment of surprise when his attack goes right through its body, and then gets rammed further away from the energy stand by ProtoMan physically slamming into him.
Arcadia meets ShadeMan halfway, slashing at him with Holy Fire-encased claws. ShadeMan tries to attack him in retaliation, but stumbles when MegaMan unleashes a Mega Buster shot on him, allowing Arcadia to spread his wings and take to the air, away from ShadeMan's reach.
Dark Shadow bursts into tendrils of shadows and latches onto ShadeMan, pulling him into the air and then slamming him onto the ground. The tendrils immediately let go and retreat, going back to ProtoMan and giving MegaMan another clear shot to fire at ShadeMan.
Lan exchanges a glance with Chaud. He's starting to feel hopeful again - maybe they won't be able to actually defeat ShadeMan, but with all three Navis plus Dark Shadow working together, they can overwhelm him and stop him long enough for the Net Police to arrive.
A rage-fuelled roar explodes out of his PET, and he snaps his attention back to the battle.
ShadeMan has managed to stand up, and he's grabbed ProtoMan by the throat. Dark Shadow claws at him, almost impossibly fast, but it's the only one attacking - MegaMan and Arcadia clearly don't want to risk ShadeMan using ProtoMan as a shield against whatever they might throw at him.
Beside Lan, Chaud hisses and quickly downloads a battle chip. It turns out to be an Area Steal - ProtoMan is yanked away and out of ShadeMan's grip, landing in a gasping heap several metres away. Dark Shadow bursts into tendrils and follows him, then re-forms itself and crouches over ProtoMan protectively. Its mouth is stretched wide open, and if this were a Cross Fusion battle, it'd probably be static-hissing.
As soon as ProtoMan is out of the way, MegaMan and Arcadia unleash a furious assault on ShadeMan. MegaMan fires his Mega Buster faster than anything Lan has ever seen from him, almost with the speed of a Vulcan, while Arcadia forms a fiery bow and starts unleashing a flurry of Avenger's Arrows.
The combined attacks cause explosions around ShadeMan, obscuring him from sight for a few moments. Then the floating bits of data and smoke are blown away as ShadeMan blasts out the biggest Crush Noise attack they've ever seen from him.
The Crush Noise hits both MegaMan and Arcadia and sends them flying back. Dark Shadow crouches over ProtoMan and tries to shield him from the fallout, but it gets torn apart by the wind pressure and bursts into tendrils of shadows that latch onto ProtoMan.
ShadeMan's attack also hits the energy stand, and it cracks. A red glow begins to emanate from it, and the ship starts to rumble beneath Lan's feet.
"No!" Lan exclaims in horror.
ShadeMan flings his fleshy wings out. "It's useless!" he roars. "Useless! This entire ship will sink even if I have to delete myself to bring it down!"
ProtoMan struggles to his feet. Instead of going after ShadeMan, he turns to Chaud, and almost collapses again. He stops himself from falling by planting a hand on the floor and kneels there, looking up pleadingly.
"Use the Dark Chip," he says.
Lan jolts. What Dark Chip?
But even though he's totally confused, Chaud seems to know exactly what ProtoMan is talking about. He shakes his head, looking frantic and terrified - even more so than before, which would almost be impressive if it weren't for the life-threatened crisis going on right now.
"You have to!" ProtoMan cries. "He's too powerful to fight like this - the only way we'll be able to beat him is if we throw something of equal power at him!"
"No," Chaud croaks out. "I- c-can't-"
"You'll die if we don't stop him!" ProtoMan shouts desperately. "I can't lose you!"
"I can't lose you, either!" Chaud snaps back, his voice nearly cracking.
ProtoMan's expression softens. "You won't," he says gently. "Not really."
Chaud's breath hitches, and Lan's startled to see tears welling up in his eyes. "That- that's what m-m'afraid of," he replies, gripping his PET with both hands.
"It's okay," ProtoMan tells him. "This is my choice, Mimic. I want to save you - both of you."
Mimic? Lan repeats silently, now even more confused. Why is ProtoMan referring to Chaud by his fake name? And why did he say both of you when he's only talking to Chaud?
Then that thought is abruptly chased out of his mind when he sees Chaud taking out a Dark Chip. Something about it looks . . . evil. More evil than any other Dark Chip that Lan has come across before - he can't explain why, but somehow the Dark Chip that Chaud has in his hand right now just radiates an evil and dark energy so palpable that he can feel it almost the same way he knows Arcadia must be able to sense darkness.
"Chaud?" His own voice cracks, and Chaud glances at him. "Don't- don't do it. I don't know where you got that thing from, but don't use it. We'll- we'll figure out some other way to beat ShadeMan."
The first thing that comes to mind is using Double Soul - but he remembers that he can't, because Proto Soul is still stored inside his PET, still making it impossible for him to use any other Double Souls and impossible to use Proto Soul itself. It'd take too long to figure out a way to get it to work without downloading it onto an empty chip, and he doesn't even know if there is a way to make it work like that.
Chaud turns away, back to his PET. He and ProtoMan stare at each other for a long moment, and then Chaud clenches his fist around the Dark Chip.
"I'm sorry," he whispers, raising his hand.
Lan wants to reach out and slap the Dark Chip out of his hand, but Chaud downloads it before he can even think about moving.
"I love you," ProtoMan says, his voice full of emotion.
Then Chaud's PET sparks violently, and Chaud drops it with a sharp cry of pain. Lan gasps and starts forward, but a wild, high-pitched screech rings out, and he jerks his attention back to the battle.
A huge mass of darkness hits ShadeMan and keeps going, slamming him up against a nearby wall and then hurling him to the ground and pinning him there. The darkness spreads out wildly, sparking and drifting and spiking everywhere, and Lan can just about make out what looks like the same thing that ProtoMan had turned into when the Gospel beast had attacked Japan's Internet City.
The Poltergeist rears back, its mouth shining with bright white light and its staring white eyes raging and sparking with energy, and screams.
The ship rocks, and the dim lighting starts to flicker like it did in SciLab when ProtoMan lost control of himself. Underneath the mass of darkness, ShadeMan is staring into the white eyes of the Poltergeist with a frozen look of shocked terror on his face. He doesn't make any attempts to escape, and screams when the Poltergeist raises a clawed hand and brings it down, slamming into his arm.
The Poltergeist grips ShadeMan's arm and rips it off, screeching. The tendrils of shadows sparking off its body drive into the floor like spikes, cracking the ground and spreading black sparks across the entire network. It raises its head and stretches its mouth open so much that its head almost splits in two, letting out a wailing shriek.
The red glow emanating from the energy stand is overtaken by the black sparks, and dies down quickly. The sparks don't vanish, and they appear to fixing all the damage that ShadeMan has done.
The Poltergeist snaps its head down to look at ShadeMan. It's suddenly in his face, mouth stretching wide, its movements jerky and static-like as if it's an animation that's missing some of its frames.
It screams at him, impossibly high-pitched and making the ground shake and the air distort around it. ShadeMan might scream as well, or he might not - Lan can't tell, the only thing he can hear is the Poltergeist's shrieking.
ShadeMan vanishes into the cyberworld, terrified into retreat. But no one can breathe a sigh of relief, because the Poltergeist's shrieking reaches a fever pitch, and it begins to lash out, clearly enraged at its prey's escape.
"ProtoMan!" Arcadia shouts, somehow making himself heard over the enraged shrieking. "ProtoMan, he's gone! The battle's over, you can stop now!"
The Poltergeist snaps its head around to stare at him. Its eyes are sparking with energy and it spider-crawls across the ground, trailing shadows and making the ground distort where it touches it.
"ProtoMan!" Arcadia screams.
The Poltergeist lets out a shrieking wail, and then suddenly the shadows around it start freaking out. It jerks around, swaying from side to side, clawing at its head like it's trying to rip itself apart.
Then the shadows blast out in every direction, and suddenly the Poltergeist is gone.
They don't have time to even process what just happened before Chaud's PET lets out a high-pitched alarm, and it starts rattling where he'd dropped it. The black sparks it keeps giving off intensify, and just underneath the high-pitched alarm, Lan can hear what sounds like the shrieking of the Poltergeist.
Lan startles when Chaud suddenly moves beside him. At first he thinks Chaud is collapsing and automatically panics, but he quickly realises that Chaud is crouching, covering his head with his hands and gripping his hair. He's staring at his PET with a look of bleak horror on his face.
"ProtoMan's locked himself inside Chaud's PET," MegaMan says numbly. "He's . . . What . . . Lan . . . Lan, what just happened?"
For once, Lan has no idea what to say.