"Nebula's already shown that you're a high-priority target for them," Kifune says. "They've kidnapped you once before, and they could easily do it again."
Mimic is only just barely listening. She's aware enough to pay attention, sure, but she can't get the battle with Dark ProtoMan out of her mind - it's always there, playing on a loop, every second of the day. There was nothing she could've done to stop ProtoMan from turning into a Darkloid once that Dark Chip was downloaded, she knows that; but she can't stop thinking that maybe there was something, one little thing, anything, that might've prevented this from happening.
"In light of this," Kifune continues, oblivious to Mimic's disturbed thoughts, "we've assigned you a bodyguard. He's already proven himself to be more than capable and willing to protect you."
For a moment, Mimic is distracted from her constant replaying of the battle. She looks up at Kifune, and then glances at Lan, who's standing beside her.
Lan looks just as puzzled as she is. He gives her a shrug.
So, it's not him. He would've known ahead of time if Kifune was going to assign him to be Mimic's bodyguard. And he probably would've told her before this meeting anyway, so she wouldn't be as puzzled as she is right now.
"Dr. Hikari?" Kifune glances over at him. "If you would."
Dr. Hikari comes forward. Mimic's confusion only grows when he gestures for her to hold out her hands, and then he gives her something.
It's a PET, white in colour with the back and handle being light grey. The NaviMark on the PET is blank, but something about the colour scheme looks familiar.
Arcadia appears on the screen, looking out at her solemnly, and suddenly she realises why the colour scheme is familiar - because it's Arcadia's colour scheme.
Mimic stares at him incomprehensibly, and then turns her shocked gaze to Dr. Hikari.
"He's still independent," Dr. Hikari explains. "Otherwise he wouldn't be able to protect you in a dimensional area. That PET is basically just a shell, an empty PET, so to speak. Yours is . . . well, it's unstable. Completely unusable at the moment. But you still need a PET, and Arcadia needs somewhere to stay."
"He'll be with you at all times," Kifune tells Mimic. "Protecting you is his mission - it takes priority over absolutely everything."
"We've installed a highly-advanced tracker program into the PET," Dr. Hikari says. "You can use it to find Arcadia if you need to, since the PET won't be able to follow his signal as easily as it would a Navi that's actually been connected to it."
"That program won't be needed, since I'm not leaving this PET unless there's an active dimensional area," Arcadia says. "And I'll protect you with my life if necessary."
For the first time since the battle with Dark ProtoMan, Mimic speaks. "I'd . . . I'd rather it d-didn't come to . . . th-that."
"If it comes down to a choice between saving me or you, I'll always choose you," Arcadia promises.
Mimic's not sure she deserves such loyalty or protection. She effectively murdered ProtoMan - Arcadia should hate her. But the determination she sees in Arcadia's expression tells her that the exact opposite is true, even though she thinks it shouldn't be. Arcadia doesn't hate her. He still loves her, and he wants to protect her, not just because that's his mission now. He'd probably do the exact same thing even if Kifune had assigned literally anyone else to be Mimic's bodyguard.
Before everything went to hell, she'd realised how much the Hikaris love her. On the other hand, she'd already known how much Arcadia loves her - though she hadn't really understood just how deep that love was until right now.
Arcadia doesn't hate her.
She closes her eyes and presses the PET to her lips. She has no words to convey how she feels about this - how much she loves Arcadia in return, how grateful she is for his solemn promise. But she doesn't need to say anything; his Empath Program will let him sense the strength of her emotions for himself.
She feels a hand on her shoulder and opens her eyes, lowering the white PET. She glances at Lan, meets his eyes, and sees the same promise there. He might not have been assigned to protect her like Arcadia, but it's clear he'll do the same anyway.
Mimic dips her head to acknowledge the silent promise. Lan nods back and slides his hand off her shoulder, looking back at Kifune. She does the same, because it's pretty obvious that this wasn't the only thing Kifune had called her in for.
"Considering how dangerous our enemy is," Kifune says, "you'll need to limit the time you spend in public. I'm afraid this means you'll be unable to attend school until further notice."
"We've already spoken with DenTech Academy's principal, and your teacher," Manabe speaks up. "While we haven't given them all the details, they understand that you're unable to attend school for the time being. You'll be given schoolwork via emails, though of course we'll have to carefully monitor your communications to make sure no viruses or other threats are sent to you."
"And no more night-time wandering," Dr. Hikari adds. Mimic can't help but show her disappointment. Dr. Hikari's expression softens with sympathy, but his tone is firm as he continues. "I know you enjoy it, and it helps you to be alone sometimes, but it's too dangerous right now. Nebula could easily take you while you're wandering around in the dark, and we wouldn't know about it until it's too late."
That's . . . fair, Mimic supposes. But she still can't help but feel like everything is being taken away from her - first her self-control, then ProtoMan, and now her freedom.
"And you're not to go anywhere alone," Kifune orders. "By that, I mean there must be at least one human with you at all times. Nebula may not send a Darkloid to take you, and Arcadia won't be able to protect you against human opponents."
Mimic glances at the white PET. Arcadia looks like he's daring anyone to even try touching her, human or Darkloid, and he clearly doesn't share Kifune's opinion that he won't be able to do anything to a human. Mimic kind of agrees with him - NetNavis can easily manipulate networks and systems to mess with the real world, and Arcadia's determination to protect her burns even brighter than his Holy Fire.
"Nebula may not know the source of your knowledge, but if they discovered your power, you'd never be safe again," Kifune says, speaking in a more gentle tone now. "This is for your own good, Chaud. You're currently our greatest asset, and we must protect you."
My power? Mimic repeats. What's that supposed to mean?
We can't use Cross Fusion anymore, Chaud says, just as puzzled. He wavers a little as he adds, ProtoMan's . . . h-he's gone.
But if they wanna protect me because I can use Cross Fusion, wouldn't they also be assigning Lan a bodyguard? Mimic feels Chaud's pain even more than her own, but she has to focus on this. It doesn't make sense.
What the hell is Kifune talking about? She doesn't have a power. And why the hell would she be their 'greatest asset' if she can't use Cross Fusion anymore? Lan can still Cross Fuse, so wouldn't that make him their greatest asset? Aside from Arcadia, he's the only person who can fight in a dimensional area now.
Kifune is looking at her, as if waiting for her to respond. When she doesn't, he furrows his brows, and shoots Dr. Hikari a quick glance.
"You didn't tell him?" he asks.
Dr. Hikari looks like a deer caught in the headlights. "I . . . I forgot," he confesses. "With everything that's happened lately . . . it slipped my mind."
Mimic is still lost. She glances at Lan, trying to see if he has any idea what's going on. Judging by his almost guilty expression, he probably does - but he's not saying a damn thing.
Dr. Hikari sighs and looks at her. "I'm sorry, Chaud," he says. "When you were kidnapped, I had to tell them about your dreams."
She stares at him.
"Don't think too badly of him." Kifune surprisingly jumps in to defend Dr. Hikari. "He told us because he needed to make us understand how important it was to get you back. Of course, the rescue mission wasn't purely because of your power - even if you didn't have the ability to see the future in your dreams, we still would have sent Lan to save you. But your dreams told you about Dr. Regal before you even met him, and you were able to find the Darkloid VideoMan much faster than we would've been able to otherwise." He threads his hands together and gives her a serious look. "Your power could give us the advantage we need over Nebula. But, as I've already said, if Nebula finds out about it, you'll never be safe again. They'll hunt you down to use you for your power. We must protect you, do you understand?"
It honestly sounds like he's hoping to use you in the same way Nebula would, Chaud comments. Even if you don't actually dream about the future.
I do know the future, though, Mimic points out. I guess that's close enough. But at least Kifune only wants to use my 'power' for good. If Nebula did find out about this, they'd definitely kidnap me again.
They might find out anyway, Chaud murmurs. They have ProtoMan now. He could tell them everything.
Mimic tightens her grip on the white PET.
Kifune doesn't miss that. "Dr. Hikari informed us that, before you told him, the only people who knew about your power were ProtoMan and Arcadia," he says.
Lan tenses beside her. She can almost feel it dawning on him - the realisation that Nebula might find out about her 'power' anyway, because Dark ProtoMan might tell them.
"We don't know if Dark ProtoMan will tell Nebula anything," Kifune points out. "Until proven otherwise, we'll assume that Nebula knows nothing of your power. It may be bold and definitely presumptuous, but it's better than always expecting the worst. Even so, you must stay vigilant. We can't stop danger from coming to you, but it would be best if you tried to avoid actively seeking it out. Is that understood?"
Mimic nods.
She hadn't been planning on charging into danger anytime soon - it'll be unavoidable at some point, but for now at least, she won't be doing anything stupid. Certainly not the kind of stupid that led to her trying to take down VideoMan on her own; she can't use Cross Fusion anymore, and while Arcadia will do anything to protect her, he can't predict the future.
Neither can she, honestly. Knowing what should happen isn't the same thing as knowing what will happen.
Apparently SciLab is one of the most secure locations in the entire city. They certainly proved it when GravityMan attacked - Dr. Hikari had managed to use SciLab's defences to drive the Darkloid away from the more vulnerable parts of SciLab, into the atrium where Lan had defeated him. The defences didn't do much against Dark ProtoMan, but . . . well, Dark ProtoMan isn't a normal Darkloid.
But against any other Darkloid, or any member of Nebula that isn't Dark ProtoMan or Dr. Regal himself, SciLab's defences are the best. So when Dr. Hikari heads there the day after the meeting at the Net Police's HQ, he takes Mimic with him, and makes sure she stays with him no matter where he goes.
Mimic is fine to follow him around like a puppy. She doesn't have Ragdoll with her - she didn't want him to get caught up in another Darkloid attack - and she feels oddly lonely with just Arcadia. It doesn't make sense, and it's not fair to Arcadia, but that's how she feels; like a piece of her is missing because ProtoMan is gone.
But just following Dr. Hikari around is a little boring. She has no schoolwork yet - Manabe is personally scanning through any and all emails that Mimic gets, and will forward them to the white PET when she's sure that there's no threat from them. So until she gets whatever emails are currently pending approval from Manabe, Mimic has nothing to do.
She has to make sure she stays in Dr. Hikari's sight. It wasn't part of Kifune's orders, but it helps Dr. Hikari to see her - she'd wandered out of his sight for five minutes just to look at a nearby glass case full of small devices, and he'd nearly freaked out when he didn't see her. So, stay in Dr. Hikari's sight and don't wander off, even if she's bored out of her mind and wants to do something that isn't just sitting on the floor and staring into space.
Maybe she could've brought her plushies. Except . . . the only problem with that is that she can hardly bear to look at the ProtoMan plushie. She'd nearly burst into tears when she saw it after the battle with Dark ProtoMan, and feels an almost overwhelming sense of sadness every time she looks at it. Lan had offered to keep it in his room for a while, until she's ready to see it again, but Mimic had refused; she'll never be okay with looking at the plushie if she avoids it.
So, maybe she should've just brought her Switch. That's something to remember for tomorrow, at least.
"Do you want something to eat?" Dr. Hikari suddenly asks.
Mimic jumps, looking up at him. She'd been so lost in her thoughts she'd almost forgotten he was there, though he obviously can't - or refuses to - forget that she's there.
She nods. Dr. Hikari takes her through SciLab, keeping her as close as he can without picking her up and carrying her - though maybe he'd feel better if he did carry her. He's already jumpy if he can't see her.
Dr. Hikari orders them some food from the cafeteria. Famous meets them as they're heading over to a table in the back, far away from the windows. There aren't many people in the cafeteria and most of them seem to prefer the window seats, but obviously Dr. Hikari is wary of putting her anywhere near a place with such high visibility.
Mimic doesn't eat much of the food - she hasn't had much of an appetite since she was kidnapped, and she can tell she's worrying the Hikaris with how little she's eating, but she just can't force herself to eat much. She'll probably be sick if she does, and she'd had enough of that on the tanker.
Luckily, Famous is more than happy to finish off whatever she doesn't eat. He likes food - not as much as Lan does, but enough that he'll eat pretty much anything that gets put in front of him. He'd probably love Anetta's weird sandwiches, though Mimic doesn't know if she'll get to see Anetta again until all this is over. It's not just because of Kifune's orders; she doesn't want to drag her friend into another crisis. Anetta had been terrified after witnessing Dark ProtoMan's attack, and had been extremely lucky that he'd just ignored her and gone straight after Mimic.
"I noticed something weird, when I was going over the security footage," Famous says, startling Mimic out of her rapidly-darkening thoughts. "From . . . you know, from the battle."
There's no need to ask what battle he means - what else could he be talking about but the only battle worth mentioning right now?
"It's . . . about Dark ProtoMan," Famous says carefully. Dr. Hikari gives him a warning glance, but Famous holds up his hands. "No, hear me out. This might actually be a good thing."
Dr. Hikari sighs. "Fine," he says. "What is it?"
"Well . . . you know how ProtoMan always has those shadows around him?" Famous waits for them to nod before continuing. "I noticed Dark ProtoMan didn't have them. The lights flickered and stuff, like they usually did with ProtoMan, but when I was looking through the footage, I noticed that Dark ProtoMan didn't have a single shadow around him. Like I said, it's weird."
Dr. Hikari's eyes narrow thoughtfully. "What do you think that means?" he asks.
"Not sure," Famous replies. "But given what we know about the Poltergeist Program and how it evolved, it's odd that there were no shadows at all, right? With ProtoMan, even when he wasn't actively using his shadows, they were always there, moving around or just doing their own thing."
"Maybe Dark ProtoMan doesn't have access to the Poltergeist Program's power," Dr. Hikari muses. "You're right, this is a good thing. It means Dark ProtoMan isn't as powerful as we feared he might be. There's no way we'd be able to fight him if he could use the same powers as ProtoMan."
Mimic can't suppress a shudder at the thought of having to deal with a Dark ProtoMan who can use the Poltergeist Program the same way that ProtoMan could. Dark Shadow was volatile enough as an ally - if it had been their enemy, it would've been unstoppable, and Dark ProtoMan's power would be terrifying.
Of course, his power is already terrifying, but it'd be even worse with the Poltergeist. That's one relief about this, at the very least.
"I wonder why Dark ProtoMan can't use the Poltergeist's power, though," Famous says thoughtfully. "You'd think the Dark Aura would mesh well with the Poltergeist Program - they're both made of darkness, after all. No offence, Chaud," he quickly adds to Mimic. She raises a hand to show that she hadn't taken offence. "Still, I gotta wonder."
"The Poltergeist Program is the reason why ProtoMan went back to Chaud's PET after the Dark Chip was downloaded, rather than just vanishing into the cyberworld," Dr. Hikari points out. "It's possible that the Poltergeist Program is loyal to ProtoMan - the real ProtoMan, not Dark ProtoMan - and it could be refusing to work with a Darkloid. It has its own free will, remember, even if it reacts to ProtoMan's emotions."
"Do you know if Arcadia sensed anything from it?" Famous asks Mimic. "Or Dark ProtoMan?"
Mimic brings out the white PET so Arcadia can answer properly.
"My Empath Program doesn't work with Darkloids," Arcadia replies. Mimic can tell he's struggling to keep his voice even - losing ProtoMan was just as painful for him as it was for her and Chaud, and everyone else. "And I've never been able to sense anything from Dark Shadow or the Poltergeist Program itself, probably for the same reason as the Darkloids. I don't think even ProtoMan knew what the Poltergeist was thinking - it might be able to sense his emotions and react to them, but he couldn't do the same in return."
Nothing at all like us, Mimic comments to Chaud.
To be fair, our connection was one-way for a while as well, Chaud points out. It evolved over time. Maybe . . . maybe that'll happen with ProtoMan and the Poltergeist, too.
It's not difficult to miss that he said maybe that'll happen rather than maybe that would've happened. She can't begrudge his weak optimism, not when she feels the same way.
They'll get ProtoMan back, and one day they'll find out if his connection with the Poltergeist Program ends up evolving the same way that Mimic's connection with Chaud evolved. She has to believe that'll happen. She won't keep her sanity otherwise.
They encounter a problem with Dr. Hikari's unwillingness to let Mimic out of his sight fairly quickly. Later in the afternoon, there's a meeting with IPC scheduled to take place in the main room, to review any progress that SciLab has made with the joint projects - but Mimic can't go anywhere near the meeting, not when Shuseki is personally overseeing things.
Famous offers a solution - he can look after Mimic while Dr. Hikari is in the meeting.
"It might look a bit odd, since I was there for the first meeting," Famous says, "but you can always tell them I'm too busy working on the prototype for the Battle Chip Gate. It's true anyway, and no one has to know that I've got Chaud with me."
"But . . ." Dr. Hikari looks torn. "I can't . . . I mean, I don't want to . . ."
Mimic threads her fingers together and watches him quietly. Her kidnapping and the subsequent fallout hasn't only affected her, Chaud, and Arcadia - it's affected the people around her, the people who care about her. Dr. Hikari's too scared to let her out of his sight in case she gets kidnapped again, or something just as bad happens.
She remembers this morning, when Lan had been heading to school. He'd been reluctant to leave, and had even tried to ask if he could do his schoolwork via emails as well, the same way he'd done when the Hikaris first took Mimic in. But there'd be too many questions if he suddenly stopped going to school as well, so he had to go. They're lucky there's not much of the current school term left - once summer vacation starts, Lan won't have to worry about her while he's in school.
Haruka's showing her own worry as well. She keeps fussing over Mimic, checking on her every few minutes when she's at home, and there's no hiding the intense relief in her expression when she sees that Mimic is still . . . there. Not okay, because she's definitely not okay right now, but she's there. Haruka's almost like Dr. Hikari, except she's trying to cope by baking a million cakes or something. At least they're delicious, even if they're baked with nervous energy.
So, Dr. Hikari isn't the only one who's freaking out whenever Mimic isn't anywhere near him.
"Look, Dr. Hikari." Famous puts his hands on Dr. Hikari's shoulders and gives him a hard stare. "You've left Chaud with me before, remember? And we get along just fine. Unless he starts accusing me of thinking he's weak again."
He shoots Mimic an easy grin over his shoulder to show that was a joke. She still feels a little bit ashamed of that sudden reminder, but it's good to know he doesn't bear her any ill will for how she lashed out at him.
"I'll look after him," Famous promises. "Besides, your absence can't be excused as easily as mine - you're the head of SciLab, for crying out loud. If you don't deal with these joint projects personally, especially when the president of IPC is overseeing them, they might think we're insulting them and we'll get the funding and resources pulled. Then we won't be able to create the Battle Chip Gate or the new PET. So get going already! And if we have a party while you're gone, that's your own fault for being so overbearing."
He starts shoving Dr. Hikari out of the lab, ignoring the loud protests. As soon as Dr. Hikari is out the room, Famous shuts the door, and then keys in a passcode to lock it. Mimic hears Dr. Hikari's raised voice through the door as clearly as she would if he'd still been standing in the room.
"I can easily unlock this, you know!"
"Get lost!" Famous shouts back.
He waits for a few moments, and then nods, turning around. Evidently he thinks that Dr. Hikari has left. Mimic holds up a hand and points at the door, shaking her head. Famous groans.
"You actually need to leave, you know," he says, glancing at the door over his shoulder. "You'll be late for the meeting."
Mimic hears a frustrated sigh, and then footsteps walking away. She waits a few moments after the footsteps fade, making sure that she can't hear Dr. Hikari anymore, and then gives Famous a thumbs-up.
"Yikes," Famous mutters, coming back over and sitting down at the machine he's using to develop the Battle Chip Gate. "I know the Commissioner said you need to stay safe, but I'm pretty sure Dr. Hikari's going a bit overboard."
"He's scared," Mimic says faintly. She wanders over and settles down on the floor with her back against the machine.
"I know," Famous sighs. "I get that, I really do. But it's not gonna help anyone if he won't let you out of his sight."
He's trying to help Dr. Hikari, Chaud realises.
By forcing him out the door? Mimic is sceptical.
It's kinda like how Anetta is, Chaud tells her. She's a bit rough, but it's a nice change of pace when everyone else is so careful with you. Famous is trying to do the same with Dr. Hikari, to help him with his fear.
. . . Oh, Mimic says. I didn't think of it like that.
She looks up at Famous with new respect. He's so easy-going that it's easy to forget he's an adult sometimes, and he can be serious when he wants to be. This is clearly one of those times, even if he's acting brash. But he's acting like that to help Dr. Hikari.
"What?" Famous glances down at her with a raised eyebrow. "Why're you smiling at me like that?"
"You're a good person," Mimic tells him, and is pleasantly surprised when her voice doesn't waver.
Famous stares at her for a moment. Then a half-smile grows on his face, and his shoulders shake with a quiet bark of laughter.
"Are you sure your power is precognition, not empathy?" he jokes.
Mimic finds herself grinning in return. She hopes it's a real grin and not her creepy puppy-eating one - that one's gone a bit sour ever since Dark ProtoMan used it against her.
It's late in the evening by the time Dr. Hikari takes Mimic back home. Despite that, they only just catch Lan coming back - Dr. Hikari calls out to him as he skates up the street toward home, and Lan swerves to meet them and skate alongside.
"Did you go out for a while?" Dr. Hikari asks Lan curiously. "You usually aren't out this late unless there's a specific reason."
"There was a Net Saver mission earlier, and I only just got done with it," Lan replies. He pauses. "Well, I mean, it started out as a Net Saver mission, and then it kinda went weird."
"Don't keep us in suspense," Dr. Hikari says good-naturedly.
"There was this Navi going crazy in Internet City," Lan explains. "Me and MegaMan went to deal with him, and it turns out AquaMan was in Internet City as well - he got caught up in the battle, and MegaMan saved him. And that turned into a whole . . . situation."
Dr. Hikari raises an eyebrow, and then gestures for Lan to stop as they get nearer to the house. "Tell us when we get inside, this sounds like it could take a while and we shouldn't stand around out here for too long."
Mimic doesn't miss the way Dr. Hikari's eyes flick toward her as he says that. He hadn't really been okay with letting her out of his sight, even for just a couple of hours, and he's been even more jumpy since then. She's not sure if Famous's plan to help Dr. Hikari is going to work - if it does, it'll probably be a while before Dr. Hikari doesn't immediately freak out as soon as Mimic's not anywhere near him.
They head inside, and Lan tells them the rest of the story over dinner.
AquaMan got attached to MegaMan - literally - and refused to leave him alone even when Lan took him to Shuko to try and give him back. Then Lan tells them about the attempt at playing a weird game of hide-and-seek, where everyone was 'it' and had to find MegaMan, which hadn't really worked out very well for two reasons.
One, because Lan had gotten a video email from the Darkloid BurnerMan, demanding a battle. And two, because AquaMan got upset and started crying when he couldn't find MegaMan, flooding a small section of Internet City.
MegaMan had to calm him down before he could head off to answer BurnerMan's challenge, but AquaMan decided to tag along, once again refusing to let go of him. Mimic can almost feel Lan's exasperation as he describes the battle - he hadn't been there for most of it, since he'd still been trying to get to the location of the battle, but MegaMan had told him what happened afterwards and Lan reacted . . . appropriately. Kind of.
He does seem a bit happier when he tells them about MegaMan getting Aqua Soul from the battle, though. And, of course, he's eager to tell them about BurnerMan's deletion.
"That's one less Darkloid to worry about," Dr. Hikari comments.
"And one of the worst ones, at least for me," Arcadia adds. "BurnerMan was one of the only Darkloids who could resist my Holy Fire."
"The others are GravityMan and ShadeMan, right?" Dr. Hikari checks.
"Yeah," Lan agrees. "Except no one's seen ShadeMan ever since . . . ever since that battle on the tanker." He glances at Mimic as he speaks, and she can tell he's remembering the same thing - the Poltergeist steamrolling ShadeMan, ripping off his arm and sending him scuttling back to where he came from.
Maybe she should tell him that they won't have to worry about ShadeMan for a while. Lan knows she has knowledge of the future now - even if he thinks it's because she has the power to see the future in her dreams - and he probably won't question her if she tells him.
But what would happen if she gave him precise details? Normal dreams are rarely ever clear to start off with, and she doesn't know how much detail is too much when it comes to lying about dreams like this. Before, she'd worried about giving away her knowledge of the future - now she's worrying about giving away too much of her knowledge, in case that makes people suspicious.
This is way too confusing. You'd think having people know about her knowledge - even if it's for the wrong reason - would make things easier. Instead, it just seems to be making things even more complicated.
A couple of days after Lan and MegaMan delete BurnerMan, Lan gets an email on his PET. They're playing Minecraft together when it comes through - Mimic is trying to teach Lan how to not immediately die when night falls by showing him how to make better weapons, but it's not really going very well since he still keeps dying.
When his PET beeps to alert him to the email, Lan puts down his Switch with an almost grateful look on his face, like he's happy to have a distraction. Mimic can't really argue with him for it - he's terrible at playing Minecraft.
"Oh, hey!" Lan exclaims, perking up considerably. "Tory says he found a hot springs club in DenTech!"
That sounds familiar, Mimic comments.
An episode in the anime? Chaud suggests.
I think so . . . Uhh . . . Crap, what was it again? . . . Hot springs, hot springs . . . It hits her suddenly, and she just barely stops the realisation from showing on her face. Oh, this is the episode where Lan and the others go into space and meet JunkMan!
I'm sorry, they what? Chaud demands. Space? They're going into space? How does an email about a hot springs club factor into- He pauses. The email isn't from Tory, is it.
No, it's from Yai, Mimic agrees. She's gonna kidnap Lan again.
That girl is even crazier than you, and that's saying something, Chaud mutters.
Oh, thanks.
Lan finishes reading through the email just as Mimic's mental conversation with Chaud ends. He glances at Mimic, looking torn - she can tell he wants to invite her along, but it's clear he doesn't know if it'll be safe for her to go anywhere so public. And if she goes into a hot springs club, she'll probably have to leave the white PET in a locker or something, and that's basically asking for trouble.
Never mind the fact that no one's going to be getting into a bath or a hot spring or anything when they get there. But it's still pretty easy to see what Lan's thinking.
"S'fine," Mimic tells him. "Don't like water anyway. Remember?"
"Oh, right," Lan says, blinking. "I almost forgot . . . You probably wouldn't like a hot springs club, then. I, um . . . that's kind of a relief, to tell you the truth." He sighs, rubbing the back of his head. "I was worried if it'd even be safe for you to go . . ."
She wouldn't want to go even if it was safe. Going to space is absolutely ridiculous and she'd rather keep her feet firmly planted on Earth, thank you very much. Plus, space is probably extremely cold, and she doesn't like being cold. So she'd be miserable up in space.
"Tell you what," Lan says, as he stands up. "I can bring you back a sponge! And maybe you can chew on that, instead of biting holes into all the sponges in the bathroom."
"I did that once," Mimic mutters, glaring at him. "Instinct. N'my fault."
"Yeah, whatever, cat." He snickers at her.
Mimic's glad he seems to be okay enough to joke around with her, even if he's still worried the same way that Haruka and Dr. Hikari are.
"Alright, I'm heading out now," Lan says, waving and stepping back.
"Watch out for space junk," Mimic calls out on an impulse.
Lan looks at her blankly for a moment. After a few moments of trying to figure out her half-cryptic comment, he shakes his head and leaves.
Mimic goes back to playing Minecraft and wonders how Lan will tell the story of going into space. And how he'll explain it to Haruka and Dr. Hikari. He certainly didn't get permission to go into space in the anime - of course, he hadn't had much choice, since Yai had kidnapped him.
How will the adult Hikaris react when they find out their son was kidnapped and then dragged all the way into space, of all things? They're already on edge because of Mimic's kidnapping, though Lan being kidnapped by Yai is entirely different to Mimic being kidnapped by Nebula.
Hours later, Lan comes in through the front door, shivering and with a look of annoyed exasperation on his face. He looks around and spots Mimic curled up on one of the sofas with Ragdoll, and heads over to her.
"You knew that was gonna happen," Lan accuses.
"Hello to you too," Mimic mutters, not even bothering to raise her head.
"Chaud, c'mon," Lan sighs, slumping. "You could've at least warned me."
Mimic snorts. "Where's s'fun in that?"
"Warned you about what?" Haruka asks curiously, coming into the room with a small pile of laundry. Most of it seems to be Lan's clothes, though Mimic can see a few bits of hers mixed in the pile. She hopes Haruka doesn't mix their clothes up - some of Mimic's clothes had once been Lan's, and he'd given them to her so she'd have something to wear before Haruka had taken Mimic out to get some new clothes from the local department store.
"Yai kidnapped me and the others and dragged us all into space," Lan explains.
Haruka drops the pile of laundry. At the dining table, Dr. Hikari looks up sharply, eyes wide and startled.
"You went to space?" he demands incredulously. "How? Why? How?"
"You already asked that," Lan points out.
"I'm asking again, because it needs to be asked twice! Why were you in space?"
Mimic can't help but smirk in amusement as Lan explains the story. The adult Hikaris are appropriately bewildered, and seem completely shocked that Yai would just randomly email Lan and the others and then drag them into an adventure in space. She's done that kind of thing once before, though it had been a while ago and they'd only been dragged to Kingland rather than outer space.
Lan somehow manages to convince his parents that Yai didn't mean anything malicious by kidnapping him. It's too soon after Mimic's kidnapping for them to be at all relaxed with something like this, and Lan went considerably further than the middle of the ocean.
At least they don't make Lan cut ties with Yai over this. Though Dr. Hikari does mention that he's going to contact Yai's father and see if he can get the man to stop his daughter from randomly kidnapping her friends. It's a valid concern - if Yai grows up thinking she can just do things like that, she'll probably get arrested sooner or later. The only reason she hasn't already been arrested is because the only people she's kidnapped are her friends, who're used to her special brand of crazy.
Lan flops down beside Mimic with an exaggerated sigh when his parents are finally done telling him not to automatically believe every email that sends cryptic instructions.
"Y'know," Lan says, a minute or two later, "Yai told me she sent you an email, too. But . . . she sent it to your other PET."
Mimic half-closes her eyes and very carefully doesn't react.
"I guess she wouldn't know that you can't use it anymore," Lan sighs. "I told her that something happened to it - don't worry, I didn't say exactly what happened - and I said you've got a new PET. But I also kinda had to tell her that all of your emails are being monitored, and any weird emails like the ones she sends out probably won't be let through. She nearly talked my ear off, trying to make me tell her why your emails are being monitored."
"None f'her business," Mimic mumbles.
"We'll probably have to let her know eventually," Lan points out. "I'll ask Manabe if it's okay to let our friends know what happened to ProtoMan and your PET. If it's not okay, it's not that big a deal. And if it is okay . . . well, at least Yai'll stop pestering me."
He sighs again and slides down until he's almost lying on the sofa. Mimic uncurls a little bit and gives him a consoling pat on the leg, and he grunts to acknowledge it.
There's a thunderstorm a few days later, and it turns out having sensitive hearing is the absolute worst thing in the middle of such a loud storm. At least Mimic has finally figured out why most animals hate thunderstorms like this, though she could've done without the personal experience that comes with it.
Dr. Hikari doesn't go to SciLab today, because he's too worried about her. She refused to leave the house - the storm is loud, far too loud, and it's raining bullets out there, and she hates both the noise and the rain and hopes to god that the storm blows over quickly.
She's currently curled up in Dr. Hikari's lap, taking a little bit of comfort from having his arms wrapped around her. Covering her ears doesn't do anything to muffle the loud crashes of thunder, and she flinches every time it happens. She's not so terrified of the thunderstorm that she doesn't register the sofa dipping beside them, though.
She opens her eyes a crack and sees Lan peering at her with a worried expression. He gives her a little smile when he sees that she's looking at him, and then he holds up a blanket and reaches over, covering her with it.
"Cover his head, too," Dr. Hikari tells his son. "Darkness seems to help calm him down."
"Alright," Lan says, reaching out and tugging the blanket so it covers Mimic's head.
Dr. Hikari's right - the darkness does help her calm down a little bit. Darkness is almost soothing in a way that just being held can't really match, though she's not going to complain about being cuddled through a storm.
"Where're those earmuffs?" Lan wonders. She can hear a faint shuffling sound, as if he's looking around. "The ones Famous got for him. They'd help too, right?"
"He left them at SciLab yesterday," Dr. Hikari explains. "We were going to get them today, but . . . well, obviously we can't do that right now. We'll just have to hope the storm blows over quickly."
Lan's response is drowned out by the loudest crash of thunder yet, and Mimic lets out a strangled whimper as she flinches. She feels Dr. Hikari's grip on her tightening and tries to take some comfort from that - it gets a little easier when Lan adds his own comfort to the mix, carefully petting her head the same way that Mimic strokes Ragdoll.
A few minutes later, the doorbell rings. It's Haruka who goes to answer it - Dr. Hikari's still got Mimic on his lap, and Lan doesn't seem to want to leave her right now.
"Lan!" Haruka calls softly. Mimic's grateful that the Hikaris are keeping their voices soft while the storm is raging outside - she's not sure if she can handle loud things inside while there's loud things outside as well. "There's a letter for you."
"A letter?" Lan sounds nonplussed. "Who even uses letters anymore? That's so old-school . . ."
Mimic hears the sound of the letter being ripped open. There's a few moments of silence as Lan reads the contents, and then he goes still on the sofa.
"Lan?" Dr. Hikari asks, shifting to the side. Mimic guesses he's leaning over Lan's shoulder to peer at the letter. "What is it?"
"Someone's asked me to go out to the park and meet them right now," Lan says tightly. Mimic can hear paper crackling as he clenches his fist. " . . . I gotta go."
"No," Dr. Hikari says firmly. "We've already told you to be careful of strange emails - the same thing applies to letters, too."
"But what if this is a challenge letter?" Lan protests. "Maybe it's from a Darkloid! If I answer this, I might be able to take out another one, the same way me and MegaMan took out BurnerMan!"
"Why would a Darkloid send a letter, rather than an email?" Dr. Hikari points out. Lan hesitates, and Dr. Hikari takes advantage of his silence. "Don't go, Lan. Besides, that storm isn't getting any better."
"You might catch another cold," Haruka frets. "You already got sick after going into space so suddenly . . ."
"I was only sick for a day or two!" Lan exclaims. "I'll be fine. I've got MegaMan with me!"
"MegaMan can't protect you from a cold . . ."
"Look," Lan says, "how about I promise to come back if it turns out that this isn't what I think it is? Would that be okay?"
"That's not what we're talking about," Dr. Hikari sighs.
"Dad, if I leave this, another Darkloid could go on the rampage. Anything could happen! I'll be extra careful, I promise!"
Dr. Hikari is silent for a moment. Eventually, he lets out another sigh.
"You'll come straight back?" he checks.
"Yes!"
Another pause.
" . . . Fine," Dr. Hikari says. "Just . . . be careful."
"Please," Haruka adds softly.
Lan's voice softens as well. "I will. Promise."
The adult Hikaris are still reluctant to let him go, but he heads out the door all the same. By now, Mimic can hear the rain starting to let up, and she guesses it'll be gone fairly soon - though the thunder doesn't show any signs of leaving just yet.
Lan's gone for a couple of hours. By the time he gets back, the storm has mostly vanished, and the thunder is rumbling further in the distance. Mimic has relocated to a corner on the sofa, still wrapped in the blanket but no longer flinching at every loud crash of thunder, though Dr. Hikari still hovers nearby in case she freaks out again.
She does flinch when Lan bursts in excitedly, mainly because he'd slammed open the door like he couldn't get through it quick enough. He seems far too worked up to notice at the moment, though he'll probably apologise for startling her later.
"It wasn't a Darkloid!" Lan exclaims.
"Who was it, then?" Dr. Hikari asks him, looking puzzled. "It can't have been an enemy, otherwise you wouldn't be so excited."
"It was Black Rose and Mysteriyu!" Lan is almost bouncing with energy, he's that excited.
"Who?" Dr. Hikari still looks puzzled.
"A couple of Net Agents," Lan explains. "Kinda forgot you never met 'em, actually . . . but Chaud has! Remember, Chaud?"
Mimic stares at him for a moment, and then nods. Truth be told, she'd almost forgotten about the Net Agents - they did a lot in the original season, but from Axess onward, their roles were basically taken over by the Net Police and Net Savers. Not that that's a bad thing; the Net Agents were . . . a little over-the-top. Even compared to Lan when he gets overexcited, and that's saying something.
"They told me that they're coming back for a mission," Lan says. "Apparently they're tracking down Gauss Magnets so they can arrest him. Commander Beef is arriving tomorrow morning so he can join them!"
"If you know them, why did they send you such a cryptic letter?" Haruka wonders.
"I think that's just how Net Agents work." Lan shrugs. "I mean, they wear those costumes and stuff to hide their true identities, though I figured out who Commander Beef is during the N1."
"Is . . . this where you got the idea that being a Net Saver needs to be a secret?" Dr. Hikari asks hesitantly.
Lan stares at him. "Wait, you mean it doesn't need to be a secret?"
"Well, did the Commissioner ever tell you it had to be one? Did Famous? Or anyone?"
" . . . No," Lan mumbles, deflating almost comically. "Aw, man . . . I told all my friends it was a secret and everything, and it turns out it doesn't even need to be one . . ."
"Told you," Mimic says.
Lan shoots her a half-hearted glare, and then plops down on the sofa nearby. "This is so not fair," he complains. "I thought it was so cool, having a secret like that . . ."
Mimic isn't sure if she should be sympathetic or not. She's got a massive secret of her own, and it'd definitely be trouble if people found out about it - though quite a few people now know about the lie she'd let Dr. Hikari believe. Technically that can be considered a secret as well, and Kifune's orders are to protect her for that secret-which-is-technically-a-lie.
"Hey." Lan suddenly looks over at her. "Me, Maylu, and Tory are gonna go down to the docks tomorrow morning and meet Masa when he comes back. You wanna come too? He knows you, after all, and I think it'd be cool to see him again."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Arcadia speaks up, before Mimic can answer. "The docks are extremely public. And I did . . . kinda . . . threaten to delete the Net Agent's Navis last time I saw them. Remember?"
Lan winces. "Oh, yeah. That's . . . not fun."
"And besides, the docks is right next to the ocean," Arcadia adds. "Which means a lot of water."
Mimic makes a face and pulls the blanket over her head like a hood.
She can't really tell if Arcadia's genuinely pointing out her dislike of water, or just helping her make up an excuse to not go. She doesn't really want to get involved in this - she'll get dragged into a battle she can't fight, since Arcadia has already said that he's not leaving the white PET for anything less than a dimensional area. And Kifune's told her not to go looking for danger, and this technically qualifies since she knows what's coming.
Besides, Arcadia does have a point. The last time she'd seen the Net Agents, they hadn't exactly been on good terms - they'd more or less said they'd delete ProtoMan if he lost control over himself because of the Poltergeist Program. It'd be way too awkward to see them again after all that mess.
"Alright, well . . ." Lan purses his lips for a moment, and then brightens up. "I'll tell them you said hi, at least. That okay?"
"S'fine," Mimic agrees. "Have fun."
"Thanks!" Lan grins at her.
He probably will have fun - in the anime, he'd gotten to dress up as Commander Beef along with most of the cast who have NetNavis, and that had been a source of sheer awesome in Lan's eyes. Even though he knows who Commander Beef really is, it's clear that his respect for the man still shines on, maybe even more since he knows Commander Beef's true identity as Masa.
Though she's not sure if Lan knows Black Rose and Mysteriyu's true identities. They're just as easy to figure out as Commander Beef, but Lan has only ever mentioned Commander Beef's true identity, never Black Rose or Mysteriyu's.
Eh, whatever, Mimic thinks. If he doesn't know, he'll find out tomorrow.
Mimic goes to SciLab with Dr. Hikari the next day. The storm was thankfully only a one-day thing, though she's still suspicious of the sky splitting open again and is intensely relieved when they're indoors.
She has to be left with Famous again, since there's another meeting with IPC. Famous tells her that he's making rapid progress with the Battle Chip Gate and is almost finished, so IPC wants to review the project one last time before it's tested in a couple of days.
She's honestly lucky that IPC is only providing funding and resources for the joint project, rather than actively taking part. In the anime, Chaud had been helping to develop the Battle Chip Gate, presumably as a liaison between IPC and SciLab. But since Mimic has already established herself as very much not tech-savvy, she's not helping with it - and besides, she's not the vice president of IPC, so there's not much point anyway.
That just means she has basically nothing to do while Famous is working on the Battle Chip Gate. Chaud makes the occasional comment in her head, usually techno-babble stuff that she doesn't understand, but he doesn't suggest helping out or relaying anything he says - mainly because they both agree it'd be way too strange if Mimic suddenly started helping make the Battle Chip Gate when she's not that kind of smart.
Her knowledge of the future can be explained as the power of precognition. But if she suddenly gains knowledge of technology? That's probably too much.
At the very least, she's not totally bored. She brought her Switch this time, and she plays Breath of the Wild, going through Hyrule Castle because she needs some Guardian parts and the castle is the best place to farm them. At one point Famous glances over and sees what she's doing, and then he wastes about an hour cheering her on while she wrecks Guardians left and right to entertain him.
An hour well-spent, to be honest, even if Dr. Hikari did get a little bit annoyed with them. But he wasn't angry, more fondly annoyed, so Mimic didn't really take his exasperation seriously.
When they head back home, Lan's not there. Mimic already knows he's spending the entire day with Masa and the others, so she's not too concerned, and Haruka and Dr. Hikari don't immediately freak out because Lan had thought ahead and sent Haruka a message to let her know where he is.
Lan comes back just as the sun has started to set, with a child-sized Commander Beef costume. He's still wearing the helmet, and he doesn't seem able to stop grinning like a loon. He does take off the helmet when he sits next to her on the sofa, though.
"You know everyone thought I didn't know who Commander Beef really was?" Lan huffs in annoyance. "It's like they forgot I figured it out at the N1."
"Never told anyone," Mimic reminds him.
"Well, yeah, 'cus you said-" He pauses suddenly. "Oh, wait, you stopped me from telling everyone about Commander Beef's true identity! That means you must've known about it beforehand, right? Did you dream about it?"
Mimic nods. Lan looks impressed and more than a little awed.
"That's so cool," Lan gushes. "I always wondered how you just seemed to know stuff sometimes, and to think, it's 'cus you can see the future . . . Having that kind of power must be awesome!"
Mimic bites her lip and looks away. "Not always," she mumbles. It's not a lie, at least.
Lan sobers pretty quickly at that. "Yeah, I guess it's not . . . it's not always great," he admits. "There must've been things you wanted to change, but couldn't, right? Not . . . not just ProtoMan, but other stuff too."
"Sometimes," Mimic says quietly. She shakes her head. "Don't- don't wanna talk about that. What happened with Comm-mander Beef?"
Thankfully, Lan doesn't mind her clumsy attempt at changing the subject. He launches into an energetic re-telling of the day's events, probably more energetic than usual because of the sudden drop in mood when he asked about her 'power'. He's trying to make up for it, trying to distract her. It works, kind of, and she's grateful that he cares enough to try.