"Why did you think that was a good idea?" Dad doesn't sound angry - he just sounds tired, like he's completely burnt out.
It makes Lan feel guilty, for all that Dad's not talking to him. He's talking to Chaud - who, of course, looks extremely guilty, and more than a little scared. Lan can't really blame him; Dad was getting into a pretty heated argument with Famous just before Lan had left to find GravityMan, and it's easy to imagine Dad turning that anger on either of them.
Dad only got angry because he's scared, Lan knows. But that doesn't make his anger any less scary.
For a moment, he thinks he can sort of understand Chaud's fear of his own father. Anger is a scary thing, especially when it comes from the people you love the most - and even worse when it's directed at you. At least he can be grateful knowing that he'll never have to go through what Chaud did with his own father; Dad might be angry, but he's not the kind of person who'd go around shouting at people for the slightest mistake, or . . . or beat them for no reason.
Chaud doesn't have to fear that from Dad, but Lan's not entirely sure if Chaud understands that. He knows Lan and his parents care about him, but he's never given them any reason to be angry at him. He wouldn't know how they'd react or what they'd do.
He must be expecting Dad to hurt him, Lan realises.
"I w-was . . ." Chaud mumbles, wringing his hands and staring at the floor. He's so quiet that Lan can barely hear him, and he's standing a foot away from him. "Jus' . . . wan'ed to . . ."
"You wanted to help," Dad guesses. Chaud replies with a tiny, meek nod. Dad's expression softens. "I know you want to fight, but you have to understand that you can't anymore. Regardless of whether or not you're the only person who can use the Battle Chip Gate at the moment, I don't want you throwing yourself into danger."
"Didn't," Chaud murmurs faintly. "Was gonna . . . keep out of th' way."
"Yes," Dad says, "we saw. You were up on that roof and Arcadia was right next to you." He sighs. "But Dark ProtoMan still took you."
Chaud flinches at the mention of the insane Darkloid who used to be his NetNavi.
"He seems to have turned you into a personal target," Dad comments sombrely. "You told the Commissioner he hasn't said anything about your power, because he's enjoying holding it over your head?" Chaud nods. "We're lucky he only wanted to taunt you, rather than kidnap you for Nebula. If he had decided to take you then and there . . . I highly doubt anyone could have stopped him."
Dad sighs again, and runs a hand down his face. For a moment, he looks older than he actually is, and Lan feels a pang of sympathy for him. Not only does he have to worry about Lan getting into Cross Fusion battles constantly, he also has to worry about Chaud, who could easily get killed because he can't really defend himself - or he might get kidnapped and tortured for his power. Lan's not sure which would be worse.
"You're both in danger constantly," Dad says. His voice wavers. "You have been ever since I created Cross Fusion. Why did I think this was a good idea . . . ?"
"Dad, no!" Lan exclaims, startled into speaking. "If you hadn't created Cross Fusion, we'd never have been able to fight the Darkloids."
"If it wasn't for Cross Fusion, you wouldn't get hurt so much," Dad argues despondently. He slumps, burying his face in his hands. "I don't enjoy watching either of you throw yourselves into danger, even with Cross Fusion. And if you can't use it and still get into trouble . . ."
He looks like it pains him too much to even finish the sentence.
Lan doesn't think there's anything he can say that would make this better for Dad. No matter what he argues, Dad'll only see the bad side - and he seems to have convinced himself that this is his fault, for creating Cross Fusion and allowing Lan and Chaud to fight with it.
Does Dad think losing ProtoMan is his fault, too? After all, it could be argued that if Chaud had never started using Cross Fusion, ProtoMan never would've gotten involved in the battles, and maybe Chaud's unusual knowledge would never have gotten noticed by Nebula.
Or maybe it would've happened anyway. Lan doesn't know. Neither does Dad - and Chaud's dreams only tell him the future, not what could have happened.
After several moments of silence, Dad lets out another sigh. He looks up, and Lan thinks he can hear reluctant acceptance in his tone as he speaks.
"Commissioner Kifune has told me to let you keep the Battle Chip Gate," Dad says to Chaud. He sees Lan and Chaud's surprised looks and closes his eyes for a brief moment. "He's not happy that you disobeyed orders - again - but he's not an idiot. Anyone could see how well you handled that battle, at least before Dark ProtoMan showed up. He, Manabe, and Famous are currently reviewing your orders, but for now, you're to stay with Lan in case another dimensional area appears. And no matter what happens, your safety is the priority."
"So . . . I'm being assigned as Chaud's bodyguard, too?" Lan asks.
"Sort of," Dad replies. "That's still Arcadia's mission. But during a Cross Fusion battle, your priority is to keep Chaud safe."
"I'd do that anyway," Lan promises.
"I know you would," Dad murmurs.
He straightens up, but before any of them can leave the main room, Chaud steps forward. There's a look of guarded caution on his expression, though Lan can't tell what he's thinking.
"U-um," Chaud says hesitantly, " . . . a-are you . . . s-still mad at- at me?"
"I'm angry," Dad admits, "but not at you. I'm also . . . worried."
"So . . . so y-you- you won't . . . you're not gonna . . . throw me out?"
Dad looks at him sharply. Chaud flinches back, bowing his head like he's expecting Dad to get angry at him for speaking up. Lan can't help but gape at Chaud, trying to work out how he'd even come to that conclusion in the first place - Dad's not like that, he'd never throw Chaud out for something like this. He'd never throw Chaud out for any reason.
But . . . but Chaud doesn't know that.
"Of course not," Dad says. His voice is soft, but Lan can see the shock in his eyes, and it's easy to see that he's struggling to keep it off his expression. "Why would you think I'd do that?"
Chaud opens his mouth, but nothing comes out.
"That's what Shuseki Blaze did," Arcadia speaks up for him, in a subdued tone that carries more sadness than Lan has ever heard in his entire life.
Dad freezes. Lan blinks, his shock turning to realisation, and a rush of pity hits him like an attack from a Darkloid.
Chaud thinks Dad is gonna throw him out onto the streets because that's what his father did. He doesn't know any better because that's the only thing he's ever known - and he expects Dad to be the same, even though Lan knows he isn't. But, again, Chaud doesn't know that.
"I would never throw you out," Dad says, gentle but firm. He comes forward, keeping his movements slow and open, and although Chaud looks like he wants to run away, he stays still and lets Dad crouch in front of him. "Not for anything. You understand?"
Poor Chaud almost looks like he doesn't believe Dad. But he doesn't protest or try to back away as Dad reaches out and pulls him into a careful hug, and after a moment or two of hesitation, Chaud brings his arms up and returns the hug, hiding his face in Dad's shoulder.
Lan can't help but smile at the sight. Chaud might not believe it, but he's practically a member of the family now - he may as well be Chaud Hikari at this point.
But he knows better than to say something like that out loud. If Chaud's still afraid of being rejected for the slightest mistake, or getting hurt because he makes someone angry, then he might not react well to the suggestion of becoming Chaud Hikari.
There's something wrong with Mimic. She hasn't felt . . . right, not since Dark ProtoMan took her. Arcadia's worried, because her emotions are practically all over the place, and yet she doesn't seem to feel a thing.
He has to do something. He needs to figure out why Mimic is like this - and maybe fix whatever's made her like this in the first place.
"Mimic," Arcadia calls.
She's doing some schoolwork at her computer, but when he calls out, she pauses and glances at him. He's in the white PET - as he promised, because he will definitely not leave this thing unless there's an active dimensional area - and it's sitting in the charger, but Mimic had left the screen on in case he wanted to talk. Which, of course, he does.
"What did Dark ProtoMan say to you, when he took you?" Arcadia asks carefully.
Mimic goes rigid and he picks up sparks of fear and flashes of images, of the ground far, far below him. Arcadia can guess that whatever's wrong with Mimic has something to do with Dark ProtoMan. She'd told Kifune about Dark ProtoMan's blackmail, and between the half-truth that she'd told, Arcadia had managed to pick out that Dark ProtoMan is debating whether or not to reveal the 'truth' or the actual truth.
But there must be something else. If it were just the blackmail, Mimic wouldn't be feeling this way. There's got to be something more, something else that Dark ProtoMan said to her, that made her this way.
"I know what you told the Commissioner," Arcadia says. He has to make sure Mimic understands what he's talking about, otherwise she might try to talk him in circles to avoid his question. "And I know that Dark ProtoMan said he might tell Nebula the actual truth. But . . . there's something else, isn't there? What did he say?"
Mimic looks like she's seriously considering not answering, but after a moment, she sighs and turns to face him properly.
"He s-said . . . I might- m-might not be real," Mimic tells him.
Arcadia's eyes stretch wide in shock, but she's not finished.
"He said I- I could just be a s-split personality," Mimic mumbles. "S-someone Chaud made up to- to deal with . . . to d-deal with the abuse from his f-father."
No! That's not true!
Arcadia hears the desperate cry the same way he senses Mimic's emotions. He recognises it as Chaud, and feels foreign emotions pulsing through Mimic, more focused and frantic than her scattered emotions. Along with the desperation, he can detect doubt - it's almost overpowering coming from Mimic, but he can feel it coming from Chaud, too, so faint that he nearly misses it.
Mimic's doubt is so strong she almost believes Dark ProtoMan already. Chaud's is weaker, but still there - neither of them can help wondering if what Dark ProtoMan said is true.
"If you're just a split personality," Arcadia ventures, "then how would you explain your knowledge of the future?"
Maybe if he can bring some logic into this, it'll help them figure things out. Mimic's doubting her own existence - that's never good, especially not when her mental state is fragile enough as it is. And if Chaud starts to doubt her existence as well, it'll be even worse.
Unfortunately, his logical approach doesn't seem to work. Mimic only slumps, as if all of her energy has been drained away suddenly.
"Could- could have power," she murmurs. "Chaud m-might actually have- have dreams. And . . . and this is h-how- this is how he . . . how he interprets them. Through m-me."
That doesn't explain all the things Mimic knows that Chaud doesn't know. Not just the future, but other things, too - games, for instance. Chaud has never played any games before Mimic accidentally stole his body, and Arcadia remembers ProtoMan once saying that Chaud never had the time to get interested in gaming. And she knows things about the internet that Chaud definitely wouldn't know; memes, for one thing, and anime stuff, not to mention movies, and a bunch of other things that Chaud never would've been able to learn about or even be interested in.
But he can tell that he won't be able to convince Mimic by pointing all this out. She's already half-convinced herself that she's not real - and with Chaud dangerously close to believing it too, she might go insane. They might both go insane.
He wonders if this is what Dark ProtoMan wanted. He'd probably said all that stuff about Mimic not being a real person just to stir up trouble - from what Arcadia can tell, he's taken ProtoMan's love for Mimic and Chaud and has twisted it into a cruel obsession with hurting and tormenting them at every opportunity.
"I think . . ." He trails off uncertainly, and then shakes his head and steadies his resolve. It won't do Mimic or Chaud any good to waver now. "I think there might be a way we could find out."
"How?" Mimic asks. He doesn't need to sense her desperation - he can see it in her eyes.
"I could try using my Empath Program to look for your soul," Arcadia says. "I . . . I don't know if I can even make it do that, but . . . it's a worth a try, right?"
"My . . . my soul?" Mimic looks puzzled.
"If you really are just a split personality, there should only be a single soul in your body," Arcadia explains. "But if you're two separate people, then it stands to reason that you should have two souls in your body, right? So if I can find your soul, I might be able to figure out if you're one person or two. That'd be concrete evidence either way, wouldn't it?"
Yes! This time, the cry is more excited, though the sense of desperation hasn't quite left. That's it!
He can just about sense more words being spoken after that, but Chaud isn't feeling strongly enough for Arcadia to pick up any more words. He guesses that he's trying to convince Mimic to let Arcadia try and find their souls.
After several moments of silence, Mimic sighs. She still seems reluctant, but it looks like Chaud has managed to convince her to let Arcadia try, at least.
"Put your hand on the PET," Arcadia tells her. "It'll be easier for me to use my Empath Program if you're in direct contact with it."
Mimic nods and reaches out, placing a hand on the white PET. Two of her fingers cover the screen, and Arcadia reaches out and places his hands over those fingers, for all that he can't actually touch Mimic unless he's materialised himself.
Arcadia closes his eyes and concentrates. He still doesn't know if he'll be able to do this - he can detect other Navis and humans using his Empath Program, but he's never tried to use it this way before. If it doesn't work, he'll have to figure out some other way to stop Mimic's existential crisis from sending her spiralling into insanity.
The thought of his operator - the girl he's supposed to be protecting - going insane lends him strength. He does not want Mimic to go insane. He won't let that happen.
Mimic's scattered emotions flood through his Empath Program as he forces himself to concentrate on her. He picks through them one by one, not pausing long enough to figure out what emotion is what, just enough to acknowledge them before moving on, and finds himself in the frantic emotions of Chaud just beyond Mimic's consciousness. Arcadia picks through Chaud's emotions, too. If he gets a sense for how both of them are feeling, he might have an easier time finding their souls.
Once he's picked through their emotions - both their own and the ones they share - Arcadia goes deeper into their minds. His Empath Program is being stretched to the limit; he's never tried to go deeper than surface emotions, or those that're just below the surface. He's never tried to pick apart two entirely different minds.
Arcadia's not sure if he can do this.
As soon as he thinks that, he detects a pulse of fear so strong that he can't tell who it comes from. He grits his teeth and drags his thoughts away from Mimic and Chaud's - apparently going this deep into their minds allows some of his own thoughts to bleed into theirs.
Focus, he tells himself. He has to figure this out. He has to find their souls, because he doesn't want either of them to go insane.
Arcadia digs deeper, deeper than he thought he could manage, and finally-
He finds them.
There are two souls, deep within Mimic and Chaud - entirely different yet somehow existing within the same body. Arcadia's not sure if he has the words to describe what finding these souls is like, and for a moment he's stunned, simply studying them in awe.
One is weaker than the other. Smaller, he thinks. It splutters every now and then, but the core is solid and unwavering. The second soul is even weirder - it's not alive, but it's not dead, either. It seems to be caught between life and death, and yet it's there, existing alongside the weaker soul.
And there's a connection between them, shining with emotions and thoughts and memories. Arcadia can't tell which soul is which at a mere glance, but he moves closer, trying to get a better feel for them with his Empath Program.
The weaker soul feels like Chaud. That makes sense, he supposes - Chaud's basically been a ghost for a year now. Mimic has described him as 'basically dead' on more than one occasion, but if he were truly dead, the core of his soul would be spluttering along with the outer shell. The reason why his soul is so weak is probably because he hasn't had control over his body for so long, but he's still alive.
That means the soul that's somehow caught between life and death is Mimic's, which Arcadia doesn't understand at all. Unlike Chaud's soul, Mimic's outer shell is bright and flickers a little bit like Holy Fire. But the core is dead, dark and empty. He can detect her emotions coming from it, which means she's not actually dead, but . . . how can her soul be caught between life and death?
Maybe it's because the body she's in doesn't belong to her. The outer shell of her soul could be shining on because she's still alive, but since this isn't her body, the core is dead.
It's . . . weird. And extremely concerning.
But at least it confirms what Arcadia was saying - Mimic is a real person. She has her own soul, no matter how weird it is, and it's entirely different to Chaud's, though still connected to his weaker soul.
Arcadia pulls himself out of their minds. He doesn't want to accidentally damage something, so he goes back the way he came in, though he doesn't inspect every single emotion that Mimic and Chaud feel this time. He simply moves past them, being careful not to jostle anything.
He comes back to his own mind and body with a gasp, and stumbles away from the screen. Arcadia falls to his knees and pants there for a moment, hands planted on the ground to try and steady himself, because the world seems to be spinning, making him feel light-headed.
"Arcadia?" Mimic sounds worried. "Y-you- you okay?"
He can feel her worry more intensely than he normally would. For a moment he wonders if he's also sensing worry coming from Chaud, but he quickly realises that they're giving off different, though similar, emotions - Mimic is worried, and Chaud is confused.
Maybe he's feeling Mimic's worry more intensely because he's just looked at her soul. Now that he's aware of the different emotions, he can sense Chaud's confusion more than he normally would as well, most likely for the same reason.
Despite how tired he is, Arcadia can't help but grin.
He just looked at two souls! The souls of humans!
"That was amazing!" Arcadia exclaims, though the words sound more like a gasp rather than an excited cry. "I didn't think I could do it, but then I found them, a-and it was- it was so amazing, I can't even . . . I don't have the words to describe it!"
"Them?" Mimic repeats.
Arcadia takes in a deep gulp of air, trying to compose himself. He's excited because he just used his Empath Program to see two human souls, but he can't let himself get distracted from why he'd done it in the first place.
He gets to his feet and turns to face Mimic.
"I found two souls," he tells her. "There's a connection between them - I guess that's the connection which lets you hear Chaud. But there's two souls, and they're completely different, which means you're Mimic and he's Chaud. You're not a split personality! You're real!"
For a moment, the only thing he senses from Mimic is total shock. That's all he gets from Chaud, too - until Mimic grins a little, and suddenly Arcadia's Empath Program is flooded with the joy of two entirely different people.
"M'not a split personality," Mimic echoes wondrously.
Told you so, Chaud replies smugly.
Arcadia blinks, and then his eyes widen as he realises that there'd been no intense emotion to carry those words into his Empath Program. The intense joy that Chaud feels is separate from the words he speaks to Mimic, and yet somehow Arcadia managed to hear him.
Is . . . is this because he looked at their souls? Did doing that somehow allow him to get a deeper sense of what Mimic and Chaud are feeling, and what their thoughts are? Did it somehow give him a connection to them, something born out of his Empath Program?
Can you hear me? Arcadia thinks, deciding to test his theory.
To his disappointment, neither Mimic nor Chaud react to his question. But at least he knows he can hear Chaud properly now - previously, he'd only been able to catch quick flashes of emotions or thoughts that didn't belong in Mimic's mind, and had only been able to hold an actual conversation with Chaud with Mimic interpreting for him, or when she was Cross Fused with ProtoMan and Chaud could speak so everyone could hear.
He won't be able to talk to Chaud the same way that Mimic can, but he can hear him. He knows how much it means to Chaud to be able to be heard by others, and losing ProtoMan had also meant losing his voice all over again.
It won't be the same, but still. He can hear Chaud.
Arcadia grins and gets Mimic's attention. He has to tell them about this.
Dr. Hikari told Mimic that she's meant to be sticking with Lan for the time being - until her orders have been reviewed, he said - but Lan has school, and Mimic can't go to school anymore, so she goes to SciLab instead. MegaMan told Arcadia that Lan's planning on heading over to SciLab and picking Mimic up as soon as school's over.
Arcadia doesn't really have much to do inside the white PET. He still doesn't want to leave, even though Mimic asked if he wanted to go into her Switch and play Minecraft with her. What if SciLab gets attacked? He might not be able to get out of the Switch and materialise himself fast enough if there's a dimensional area. He can't leave the PET.
Despite his resolve, though . . . he's honestly a little bored. It's not much fun playing catch on his own - he can bounce the toy balls off the walls of the PET, but it's lonely playing by himself. He misses being able to throw them back and forth at high speeds with ProtoMan or Dark Shadow, or both of them. He misses playing with them.
He . . . he misses them. He wants his big brother back, and he wants his big brother's shadow back, too.
But Arcadia owes it to ProtoMan to keep Mimic and Chaud safe. Even if it means fighting Dark ProtoMan. It hurts, to think that his brother is an enemy, but Dark ProtoMan is insane and twisted and Arcadia hates what his brother has been turned into. He hates Dr. Regal for creating the Dark Chip that did that to ProtoMan, he hates Ms. Yuri for kidnapping Mimic and putting her on that tanker, he hates ShadeMan for forcing ProtoMan to beg Mimic to use the Dark Chip, and he hates Amano for trying to trick Mimic into using it in the first place.
However, stronger than his hatred is the determination to protect Mimic. He knows Lan and MegaMan share that determination - maybe that's why Kifune decided to have Mimic stick with Lan, rather than letting Dr. Hikari keep her under his watchful eyes all the time.
But, all the same . . . he's still lonely. He's still bored. He still misses his brother.
So now he'll protect Mimic and Chaud, because they're all he has left.
"-haven't seen him since the battle."
Arcadia perks up curiously. That's Dr. Hikari's voice - he'd stepped out of the lab for a moments to speak with Kifune, who'd come to visit and check on the progress of the new PET that's being developed, because the Battle Chip Gate is no longer a priority and SciLab wants to focus on the new PET. It seems like Dr. Hikari and Kifune are coming into the lab now, though they don't appear to be discussing the new PET.
He can sense the half-familiar mind of Manabe with them. Famous is already in the lab, sitting at a machine that's processing the data being loaded into the new PET. Mimic is settled on the floor next to him, playing her Switch, but as Dr. Hikari comes in, her attention shifts from Minecraft to Dr. Hikari's conversation.
"He hasn't contacted you?" Kifune asks. Arcadia senses worry flowing from him like a wave.
"Not at all," Dr. Hikari replies. "I assumed he'd gone home or something. But if he really hasn't reported in . . ."
"We have no idea where he might be," Manabe sighs. "Detective Misaki has never failed to report in after a case - yet he hasn't been seen since yesterday."
Arcadia picks up a jolt of shock from Mimic, along with an odd rush of guilt. An image of Misaki flashes through his Empath Program, and he wonders why Mimic would feel guilty about Misaki.
I forgot about him!
The thought he detects from Mimic only serves to make him even more confused. He can feel her mind racing, trying to figure out what to do, but Arcadia doesn't know why she wants to do anything - surely she can't think it's her fault that Misaki hasn't been seen since yesterday?
Unless . . . unless this is from the anime. He can pick up a lot of Mimic's emotions - more, since he'd looked at her soul last night - but the one thing he's never been able to get any traces of are her memories of the anime. Mimic once said that Chaud can't see her memories of the anime either, and had described it as being 'denied access'.
But, honestly, even if this is something from the anime, and even if she did forget, who could blame her? Dark ProtoMan kidnapped her, and then forced her to question her own existence. She was busy and her attention was scattered all over the place, and it's not like she can be expected to remember every single tiny detail.
He has to wonder what's so important about Misaki that his disappearance was mentioned in the anime. The human detective hadn't seemed like the type to sulk, but for all anyone knows, he could be burning off some steam before making a reappearance. His biggest dream was Cross Fusion - Arcadia sensed that much from the moment he walked in - and he had to witness someone else doing it perfectly and using it to fight, when he couldn't even manage to Fuse properly.
But . . . judging by Mimic's emotions, that's probably not the case. She wouldn't be feeling guilty about forgetting him if Misaki was just off sulking somewhere.
Arcadia decides to keep a lookout. Whatever's going to happen with Misaki, he has a feeling it'll involve Nebula. He doesn't have the precognition that Mimic pretends to have so she can explain her knowledge of the future, but pure instinct tells him that Nebula is somehow behind this.
And if they are . . . he'll be ready. He's not letting Dark ProtoMan - or anyone, for that matter - get the best of him twice.
"This park is really far from our usual one," Lan comments.
"Yeah, but it's pretty cool - there's a river with this garden thing that has a little pond and everything," Maylu replies. "I thought it'd be fun to explore!"
"This part of the city is way too elitist for my tastes," Lan mutters.
"I used to live around here," Chaud reminds him.
Lan curses his inability to keep his foot out of his mouth for more than three seconds.
"Sorry," he quickly says, with a nervous grin. "I didn't mean- not you, of course, you're cool, and you're super nice, and totally not elitist-"
"Everyone around here is an asshole," Chaud bluntly informs him.
Lan's babbled apology stutters to a halt and he stares at Chaud blankly for a moment. Then his brain starts working again, and he snorts out a laugh, drawing a few disdainful looks from a small group of kids the same age as them who're walking nearby. Sheesh, even the kids here are elitist - is it because this is the richest part of the city?
He knows Yai used to live around in this part, too. But she's off in Kingland right now, though her dad still lives at the Ayanokoji mansion as far as Lan knows. The Blaze mansion isn't as close, but it's close enough that he'd initially been worried about bringing Chaud here.
Originally, Maylu had only invited him to come and check out the new park she'd found. Given where in the city the park is located, Lan hadn't really planned on taking Chaud, and had thought that he could stay at home with Mom for the day. But he'd noticed that Chaud had been a little bit jumpy since yesterday - apparently Kifune told Dad that Misaki hasn't been seen since the battle, so Lan guesses that Chaud's worried about the Net Police detective, the same as him. So Lan had thought that bringing Chaud might help to calm him down a little bit, since Chaud likes exploring places.
Of course . . . Chaud likes exploring when it's night, and there's less people around. But he's not allowed to do that anymore, in case Nebula takes advantage of his night-time wanderings to kidnap him again. So this is the next best thing.
Despite the location, Chaud seems to be . . . calm. Ish. Lan catches him glancing around nervously every so often, but he thinks that's only because Chaud's making sure no one recognises him. Otherwise, he seems to be enjoying this exploration. He hadn't taken Ragdoll with him - he doesn't take Ragdoll out of the house anymore, and he'd told Lan that he doesn't want his cat to get caught up in any random attacks, which is fair enough. But even without Ragdoll, he's fine. Kinda.
Lan watches Chaud wander off to inspect the little pond that Maylu had mentioned. He can just about see huge golden fish swimming around, and wonders if Chaud has any instincts to catch one and eat it - he's basically a human cat, after all. He'd bitten the bathroom sponges to pieces for whatever reason, and Lan's pretty sure he's read some online articles about some cats doing that kinda stuff, so Chaud might have more cat-like instincts, such as the urge to catch a fish and eat it raw.
Hopefully he won't. These are the kind of fish that you'd get in trouble for catching, and it'd be even worse if Chaud eats them. Maybe Lan should ask Mom and Dad if they can go camping at some point? Then they could go fishing, and Chaud can eat all the fish he wants. If he even wants to eat fish. Lan doesn't know, he's just guessing.
While he watches Chaud, Maylu sidles up to Lan and leans in close. She whispers quietly in an attempt to make sure that Chaud doesn't overhear, but Lan can see Chaud twitching and turning his head a little bit, so he probably hears everything anyway.
"Is Chaud really okay to come here?" Maylu asks.
Lan blinks at her. "No one's gonna recognise him," he points out. "He's wearing his bandana."
"That's not what I meant," Maylu sighs. "I mean, is he okay to come here, like, mentally?"
"Ohh." Now he gets what she's talking about. "He . . . seems fine, so far. He hasn't had a panic attack or anything, so . . . I guess he's okay?"
"You sure about that?" Maylu glances at Chaud. "'cus he's just grabbed one of the fish from that pool."
"Wh- no, Chaud, put that back!" Lan exclaims, darting forward.
He's just in time to stop Chaud from trying to eat it, thank god. No one else notices Chaud's attempt to eat a fish that's still alive - or maybe he'd been trying to kill it first before eating it, who knows - and Lan takes it from him with a disgusted wince. The fish flops madly and is so slippery that he drops it immediately, but luckily he'd been holding it over the water and it just splashes back in and darts to the bottom of the pond.
"Chaud," Lan sighs, "don't eat the fish."
"Thing practically swam into my hands," Chaud mutters, settling back on his haunches and sulking.
"You're not supposed to catch-"
Lan cuts himself off abruptly when he notices something flashing in the sky. He looks up incomprehensibly for a moment, and then every surface takes on a multi-coloured sheen, and a dimensional area barrier fades up in a massive dome.
He springs to his feet, and Chaud scrambles up at the same time. Maylu rushes over, looking bewildered and more than a little nervous - which is understandable, because her previous experiences with dimensional areas have never been pleasant.
Arcadia materialises beside Chaud a moment later. Maylu yelps and jerks back, then looks a little embarrassed.
"S-sorry," she says. "I forgot you can do that . . ."
Arcadia acknowledges her apology with a quick nod, and then starts looking around. His feathers are already rippling, so this is probably a Darkloid attack. It's a really good thing they decided to come here today, otherwise they might not have been here for this. Though Lan has to wonder why a Darkloid is attacking so randomly.
"C'mon," Lan says, gesturing for Chaud, Maylu, and Arcadia to follow him. "We need to find where the Darkloid is - we can stop this attack before it begins!"
He takes off toward the centre of the dimensional area, heading out of the park and into the city proper. Dimensional areas almost always form directly overhead and it's usually a safe bet to go toward the centre to find the attacking Darkloid, though when they'd deleted GravityMan, they'd been right up against the barrier. Hopefully that won't set a new trend, otherwise they'll have a harder time finding their opponents.
Arcadia stays next to Chaud and runs alongside them as they head into the city. Lan almost wonders why he isn't running ahead or taking off into the air, but his mission is to protect Chaud, and he won't be able to do that if he's not anywhere near Chaud. He'd stayed up on that roof for that exact reason, Lan knows, and had only come down when Dark ProtoMan had literally blasted him off so he could take Chaud.
He does get a few odd looks as they run, though. Lan hopes no one tries to read too much into Arcadia's appearance - he's more or less the same height as Lan, Chaud, and Maylu, so maybe people will assume he's just cosplaying as a NetNavi or something. It's better than people realising he's an actual NetNavi, though that might be unavoidable if they have to fight the Darkloid in front of people.
Lan dashes through an alley and skids around the corner, coming into a wide street. Chaud and Arcadia, with Maylu just behind them, follow him and they all stumble to a shocked halt.
PrisMan is seated on a red motorbike several metres away, with a Vulcan on his arm, and an overturned van just in front of him. From the holes in the van, Lan can guess that PrisMan has just used the Vulcan to take it down, but the reason why is completely unclear to him.
Even more unclear is how PrisMan is in the real world. Last time Lan checked, personal NetNavis can't materialise themselves - only independent Navis like Arcadia can, along with viruses and Darkloids. The only way for a personal Navi to materialise is to Cross Fuse with their operator, and at the moment, Lan's the only person who can do it.
"PrisMan . . . ?" Lan can't help but stare at him, too shocked to have any other reaction. "But how-"
His PET suddenly rings. Lan fumbles for a moment and brings it out, answering the call and hoping that whoever it is can shed some light on whatever the heck is going on right now.
"Lan!" his dad exclaims.
"Dad?" He's about to try and ask if Dad knows what's going on, but Dad answers the question before he can even get the words out.
"That's not PrisMan!" Dad tells him. "It's Misaki!"
Lan gasps. "Misaki!?"
Before Dad can say anything else, Lan hears the sound of sirens. He glances over his shoulder to see a police car coming up behind him, and another one behind it - and he can see even more coming down the street on the opposite side.
"Stop them," Chaud suddenly says.
Arcadia spreads his wings and takes off into the air, and then blasts out a ring of Holy Fire that stops the police cars from coming any closer.
Lan whirls around and gapes at Chaud. "Why'd you do that?" he demands.
"NetNavi," Chaud says, pointing at PrisMan - or Misaki, if Dad's right. "They're h-human. Too dangerous."
That's . . . a good point, honestly. Lan curses himself for not thinking of that before - what good can humans do against someone using Cross Fusion? They'd probably get hurt if Chaud hadn't gotten Arcadia to cut them off. And there's still the matter of why Misaki attacked the van to start off with.
Misaki is one of the good guys. He's a detective - he's supposed to solve crimes and arrest criminals, not commit crimes himself!
He takes out his synchro chip as Chaud tugs Maylu back into the alley, where they can watch the battle but stay out of the way. Lan's grateful for that, because a moment later, Misaki starts shooting the Vulcan randomly and some of his shots hit the corner of a building nearby, and it crashes down just where Maylu had been. Lan would've saved her if she'd been in danger of getting crushed, but at least with Chaud helping her stay out of the way, she won't get hurt.
Lan quickly Cross Fuses with MegaMan. He's just in time to avoid another blast of Misaki's Vulcan, dodging to the side and then continuing to run as Misaki tries to follow him with his attack.
Then suddenly Misaki breaks off and starts shooting at the van. Fire explodes out of it, and Lan skids to a halt and darts toward the van.
"Geyser, download!" he shouts, pausing to slam his hand down onto the ground. Water erupts and washes over the van, quickly putting out the fire.
It's scorched, but at least it's not in danger of actually exploding anymore. Lan downloads a Sword and slices open the top, then drags the two men inside out of the seats.
"They're okay," MegaMan says, as Lan checks the two men over. "They've just fainted."
"Alright," Lan murmurs. He moves forward, placing the two men carefully on the ground, and then glances up at the sound of a motorbike roaring into life.
Misaki is driving away, going straight through Arcadia's ring of Holy Fire without even hesitating, and Lan can hear wild laughter echoing through the street. He has no time to feel any kind of confusion or sadness at how Misaki is acting, because he sees a familiar white blur racing overhead to intercept, and a moment later, Arcadia dive-bombs the motorbike and slams Misaki off it.
Arcadia immediately grabs Misaki in his talons and drags him into the air, and then he twists and hurls Misaki back into the ring of Holy Fire. Misaki tries to get back up, but a Canodumb materialises a few feet away and blasts him off his feet.
Lan whirls around to gape at Chaud, who's taken out the Battle Chip Gate and is apparently having absolutely no problem attacking Misaki. He turns back to the battle upon hearing a pained scream, sees that Arcadia is also apparently unconcerned by the fact that it's Misaki, and he's throwing an immunity-boosted Flashfire directly into Misaki's face.
"What're you doing!?" Lan demands, starting forward. He feels a hand gripping his arm and pauses, looking over his shoulder at Chaud. "Stop him! That's Misaki!"
Has Chaud somehow forgotten? This isn't some Darkloid - it's Detective Goro Misaki, the guy who saved Lan and helped him fight GravityMan in the cyberworld! He could get seriously hurt if they keep attacking him like this.
"I know," Chaud says, and Lan's brain splutters to a halt in shock.
He hears a slam behind him and looks back at the battle just in time to see Arcadia smashing Misaki's head into the ground with a taloned foot, cracking the concrete from the force of it, and Misaki goes limp.
The dimensional area starts to fade just as Misaki Crosses Out. Arcadia is forced back into the cyberworld, his Holy Fire dying out as soon as he leaves, and Lan is forced to Cross Out as well. He quickly catches his PET, shoving it back into its holder while he rushes over to Misaki and drops to his knees beside him.
Misaki doesn't look that badly hurt, thank god. But he's twitching, grunting in pain, even though he's clearly unconscious. There's something wrong with him - not just the damage that Chaud and Arcadia did, but something else, something that Lan can't see. Maybe he has internal damage? But he seems to be clutching at his chest and gasping for air. Is it his lungs? His heart?
"We gotta get him to the hospital," Lan says, looking up as Chaud and Maylu come to a halt a few feet away. "C'mon, there should be one nearby!"
He gets one of Misaki's arms over his shoulder and hefts him up, and Maylu comes forward to help. But Chaud doesn't move - he seems to be looking around for something, not paying any attention to Misaki at all.
"Chaud, c'mon!" Lan exclaims. He's no longer in Cross Fusion, so he can't carry Misaki as easily as he did the two men in the van. "I know you're skinny, but you can still help us carry him!"
"PET," Chaud mumbles, still looking around. "Where's- where's his PET?"
"Chaud!" Lan snaps, quickly losing patience with his friend's distraction. Chaud jumps and whips his head around to stare at him. "We gotta get him to a hospital, he's hurt!"
"But his PET-"
Misaki chokes out a gasp and spasms in Lan's grip, and he almost drops him. The only reason he doesn't is because Maylu is helping to prop Misaki up on the other side, and Chaud darts forward just in time to get under Misaki's chest and help them keep him upright.
Chaud still seems half-distracted as they take Misaki away from the scene of the battle, but Lan is entirely focused on getting Misaki to the nearest hospital.
He doesn't wonder why Chaud was after Misaki's PET. He doesn't even think about Misaki's PET - the only thing he cares about right now is helping Misaki, because he owes it to the man who selflessly threw himself into danger to save Lan to return the favour now.
Lan contacts Dad and tells him where he, Maylu, and Chaud took Misaki. The Net Police arrive in record time, setting up guards outside of Misaki's room, and Lan gives his report on what happened during the battle to Kifune when he arrives with Manabe and Dad.
They seem a little concerned that Chaud and Arcadia had attacked Misaki so viciously. Lan doesn't know why they did that either, but when asked, Chaud explains that their aim had been to knock him out to prevent further damage - not to actually hurt him. That's somewhat of a relief, because Lan had almost started to think that Chaud had lost his mind for some reason.
They wait around in the hospital for news about Misaki's condition. Kifune wants to interview him when he wakes up, though Lan's worried that Misaki will still be crazy and try to attack them or something. No one knows why he was doing all that - Kifune said that he'd robbed a bank and a jewellery shop last night, too - but a bigger mystery is how Misaki was using Cross Fusion in the first place.
Hopefully Lan's worries will be for nothing and Misaki will be back to normal, so he can tell them what happened. And where he's been for the past couple of days - Lan hadn't seen him since the start of the battle with GravityMan, and he'd been too busy trying to find Chaud after Dark ProtoMan had kidnapped him to see if Misaki was still around.
Luckily for them, when Misaki finally wakes up, he seems normal again. The doctor in charge of him said that he seemed lucid enough, but apparently he has partial memory loss. Lan thinks that might be because Arcadia slammed his head into the ground, but according to the doctor, Misaki's memory loss has nothing to do with 'blunt force trauma' (which is a fancy way of saying that Arcadia nearly smashed his head in, but, whatever) and seems to have been caused by whatever was making him act so evil.
Kifune takes them all in to see Misaki, even Maylu. She was a witness to the event, so she's kind of already involved. Plus, she already knows him, and she's worried about Misaki as well.
Misaki is sitting up in a large bed when they come in. He's got a private room - it's better to protect him if he's on his own, and whatever they talk about in here might be too sensitive for civilians to listen to (though, again, Maylu's already involved, so she doesn't count).
"Misaki," Kifune says, "the doctor in charge of you informed us that you have partial memory loss. But, please, tell us whatever you're able to remember - any information will be useful."
"Yes, sir," Misaki replies. Lan doesn't think he's imagining the subdued horror he hears in Misaki's tone - he's probably been told what he did, even if he might not remember it. "During the battle with GravityMan, I . . . I was approached by a woman who works for the enemy. She made me an offer, and I went with her."
"Why?" Kifune asks.
"She was disguised as Superintendent Manabe," Misaki explains. "I didn't know it wasn't her until it was too late."
"Me?" Manabe looks surprised, but she doesn't interrupt Misaki any further.
"She said . . . she told me that I could do Cross Fusion as well," Misaki says. "She led me around to the far end of the dimensional area's barrier, away from the battle. When the barrier came down, she took me to her car, and drove me far out of the city. I . . . I asked where we were going, but she didn't reply." He grits his teeth, looking frustrated - with himself, Lan thinks. "I'm a fool. I should've been able to see through her disguise then, but I didn't."
"It was probably Ms. Yuri," Lan murmurs to Chaud and Maylu. "She's good at disguising herself as other people." Maylu shushes him and nods to Misaki, indicating that he should continue listening, so he turns his attention back to the interview.
"I don't remember the exact location of the warehouse she took me to," Misaki continues. "I'm afraid that's one of things my memory is fuzzy on. But I remember that she had me perform experiments - Cross Fusion experiments, that is."
Beside Lan, Dad narrows his eyes. Lan glances up at him, but he doesn't interrupt, only listens thoughtfully.
"Cross Fusion is my biggest dream," Misaki sighs. "I would've given anything to be able to achieve it, so . . . so I went on with the woman's experiments."
"And what about Dr. Hikari's previous Cross Fusion experiments?" Kifune asks him.
Misaki shakes his head, looking miserable. "A failure," he replies. "My synchro rate with PrisMan was far too low to achieve Cross Fusion. But . . ." Here he wavers, clenching his fists and gripping the bed sheet. "But Nebula's methods made it possible by using a Dark Chip."
Lan feels a jolt of shock so strong that it nearly knocks him off his feet. Is this why Dr. Regal stole their Cross Fusion research? So Nebula could figure out how to force Cross Fusion?
"A Dark Chip?" Dad looks almost sickened by the thought of it.
"Yes," Misaki confirms. "They infused one of your stolen synchro chips with a Dark Chip. I think . . . I think the woman referred to it as a Dark synchro chip."
"Dark synchro chip!?" Lan repeats, even more shocked. That's how Nebula forced Cross Fusion? By combining the evil Dark Chips with Dad's synchro chips? That's horrible.
"So the Dark Chip's properties are capable of forcibly increasing the synchro rate between an operator and a NetNavi," Dad realises. He doesn't seem happy at that revelation - Lan doesn't blame him, honestly, because it's the worst thing he's heard so far.
This is why Nebula stole the synchro chips. This is why they were after the Cross Fusion research. Heck, for all anyone knows, this could've been their goal all along - to steal Dad's research and twist it into something so evil that it makes the people who use it go completely insane.
"I didn't care if the Dark Chip's withdrawal symptoms would affect both the operator and the Navi," Misaki murmurs. "All I was interested in was that it could increase my synchro rate with PrisMan, and allow me to use Cross Fusion. But . . . in exchange . . ." He closes his eyes and clasps his hands together. "Forgive me. As a detective of the Net Police, I should be fighting for justice, but I . . . I did so many terrible things . . ."
"Dark Chips affect people, too," Chaud mumbles, just loud enough for Lan to hear him.
Lan feels sickened at the thought of it. It's bad enough that NetNavis go insane from the Dark Chips - and now they find out that humans can be taken over by them, too? If this is Nebula's goal, then what's their endgame? Are they trying to turn every Navi and human evil or something?
If that's true, they need to be stopped. There has to be some way to stop them from spreading any more chaos, and Lan will do everything in his power to figure it out.
Once the interview is over, they have to clear out. Only Kifune and Manabe will be allowed in to see Misaki after this - everyone else, Dad says, won't be allowed to see him. That's fine by Lan, but he wants to stay at the hospital for Misaki's sake anyway.
He still feels like he owes it to him. Misaki helped him - so now it's Lan's turn to help him.
"Do you think he'll like these?" Maylu wonders, adjusting her grip on the small bouquet of flowers she's got in her arms.
"The lady at the flower shop said they're good for calming nerves and stuff, so hopefully," Lan replies. "Something about the smell?"
Chaud eyes the flowers and reaches out to bat at some of the petals. Maylu giggles and shifts the bouquet so it's on her other side, away from Chaud, and he looks so disappointed that Lan can't help but laugh.
"No, c'mon, these are for Misaki," Maylu scolds Chaud lightly, though the amused grin on her face takes the bite out of her words.
Chaud pulls a face, but then he suddenly pauses, staring down the hallway with wide eyes. Lan knows that expression well enough to realise that Chaud's heard something in the distance that neither he nor Maylu can pick up, and it's clearly something bad.
Lan's about to ask what's wrong, but then an alarm rings out sharply, and Chaud immediately takes off down the hallway. Lan's startled for a brief moment, but he quickly recovers and follows Chaud for a few steps, then pauses and glances over his shoulder.
"Stay here!" he quickly tells Maylu, before turning and pelting after Chaud.
He recognises these hallways as the path they'd taken to get to Misaki's hospital room, and Lan goes cold at the thought of something happening to the detective. Has Nebula decided to attack the hospital to try and get him back?
But when he turns the corner, he sees the door to Misaki's hospital room has been flung off its hinges, and the two Net Police officers are on the ground, groaning in pain. Misaki is standing over them with a cruel smirk, and for some reason, his eyes are glowing red.
Chaud reaches Misaki before Lan and launches himself at the detective, latching onto his arm. Misaki tries to pull away, but Chaud yanks him back and somehow forces him to stop.
Misaki growls - he barely sounds human anymore - and raises the arm that Chaud's clinging onto. Chaud hesitates for a split second, and then Misaki raises his free hand to strike him, jolting Chaud back into action.
He sinks his teeth into Misaki's bare arm. Misaki howls in agony, and then he grabs the back of Chaud's shirt and tears him off, snarling as his skin is shredded since Chaud hadn't had time to actually let go of him, and then Misaki hurls Chaud at the wall.
Chaud hits it with a loud thud and lets out a pained gasp, and Misaki spares one last growl before taking off down the hallway. His arm's dripping blood where Chaud had bit him and then ripped his skin open, but he doesn't seem to care anymore.
Lan rushes over to Chaud and kneels beside him, helping him sit up. He quickly checks Chaud over, keeping him steady as he blinks and shakes his head like he's trying to clear it. There's blood on his face, but Lan recognises it as Misaki's blood from where Chaud bit a hole into his arm. That doesn't make it any less distressing to see, though.
"A-are you okay?" Lan gasps. "Chaud? Chaud!"
Chaud mumbles something inaudible, but at least it's something.
Then he starts trying to get up, and Lan panics. He plants his hands on Chaud's shoulders and tries to make him stay down.
"No," Lan says. He's trying for a firm tone, but he's so panicked it comes out scared instead. "You- you might have a concussion or something, don't get up-"
"Mis-saki," Chaud mumbles, shaking Lan off and struggling to his feet.
"We can find him later!" Lan exclaims, getting up as well and trying to make Chaud stop. "We gotta get you checked out!"
"M'f-fine," Chaud tells him. It's frustrating that Lan can't tell if he even has a concussion, because mumbling and stammering is how Chaud normally talks anyway.
Chaud staggers forward a few steps, then shakes his head again and takes off running. Lan yelps and tries to follow, but Chaud is stupidly fast - definitely a lot faster than he is - and the only way Lan can ever hope to keep up is if he uses his rollerblades, but it's dangerous to use them indoors, especially in a hospital.
But even if he can't follow Chaud directly, he knows he's going after Misaki - who's left a very obvious trail of blood for Lan to follow. He heads after them, hoping that he's not too late, and comes up to the front entrance of the hospital.
He finds Chaud panting just outside the glass doors, looked dismayed. There's a man just a couple of feet away, lying on the ground, and for some reason he seems like he's missing some clothes or something - then Lan hears the engine of an ambulance starting up, and he glances up and quickly spots it.
Misaki is in the driver seat, wearing the clothes that the man lying on the ground is missing. He drives away, even though Lan can see him struggling to breathe, and the ambulance swerves erratically before he's even out onto the road.
"Follow," Chaud says, moving restlessly. "Now!"
"Are you sure you're okay to do this?" Lan quickly asks, even as he clips on his rollerblades.
"I'm f-fine!" Chaud exclaims. He darts off before Lan can ask him again, and Lan hastily finishes clipping on his rollerblades and follows Chaud.
It's easier this time, though Chaud's still unnaturally fast. But he seems to be following the ambulance perfectly - Lan guesses he's using his sensitive hearing to locate it, and wonders if the ambulance sounds any different to other vehicles, or if Chaud's just listening for the erratic driving of a lunatic in a large van-like vehicle.
Lan keeps Chaud in sight as much as he can. Chaud's not going over walls or buildings - he seems to be following the ambulance's path exactly, rather than going a more direct route, something which Lan is thankful for. He'd never be able to keep up if Chaud decides to start doing his parkour stuff and goes over rooftops instead of the ground, where Lan can actually see him.
There aren't many people out on the streets, and even fewer cars, so it's easy for them to run and skate at full speed after the ambulance. That's probably because it's getting late in the evening, though the sun has yet to start setting - it will soon, though, and Lan hopes that they can catch Misaki before night falls. The only person who'd be able to follow him after dark is Chaud, and that's just asking for trouble.
Chaud skids to a halt and almost falls over at a cross roads. Lan slows down and helps to steady him, even as Chaud looks around frantically, peering down one street and then another.
"Where is he?" Lan asks him. "Can you hear him?"
Chaud looks frustrated for a moment. Then he closes his eyes and goes still. Lan realises what he's doing and keeps as quiet as he can, to avoid distracting him, and within moments, Chaud's eyes snap open again and he looks to their right.
"That way," Chaud says, before taking off again.
Lan skates after him. They come up to the end of the street quickly, and Chaud darts around the corner into another street. Lan skids around the corner as well and feels his heart leap into his throat when he sees the scene in the middle of the street.
The ambulance has crashed into a street light - that's probably what Chaud heard and how he knew where to go - and just a few feet away from it, Lan can see their teacher, Ms. Mari, kneeling on the ground. Chaud reaches her first and stumbles to a halt, gasping for breath, and Lan arrives a moment later and drops to his knees beside her. She's staring at something over his shoulder, but as soon as Lan is front of her, she jolts like she's been shocked and stares at him owlishly.
"Ms. Mari!" Lan exclaims. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Ms. Mari says, in a slightly dazed tone. No wonder - she's close enough to the ambulance that she was probably almost hit by it. "What- what's going on?"
"There's no time to explain," Lan quickly says. He remembers Dad saying that being a Net Saver doesn't actually need to be a secret, but there literally isn't time to explain what's going on. Maybe he can tell her at some other point, if she asks, but for now . . . "Did someone come out of that ambulance?"
"There was a man," Ms. Mari replies shakily. "W-with brown hair."
"Which way did he go?" Lan asks.
Ms. Mari raises her hand and points down the street. "Th-that way," she tells him.
"Thanks, Ms. Mari," Lan says, standing up. "You gotta get somewhere safe, okay? Let's go," he adds to Chaud.
Chaud nods and they take off in the direction that Ms. Mari had pointed them in. Lan hopes she can get somewhere safe - he's almost tempted to help her, or ask Chaud if he can do that, but Lan needs to find Misaki and Chaud might be the only person who can track him down at this point.
The sun's starting to set by the time they finally find Misaki. He's stopped in the middle of the park that Maylu had taken them to earlier, in a wide-open space that's thankfully devoid of people.
"Misaki!" Lan shouts, drawing ahead of Chaud. He skids to a halt a few metres away from the detective and rips off his skates.
Misaki turns around. His eyes aren't glowing red anymore, but the cruel snarl on his face is cast into shadows by the setting sun, and it's almost unsettling to see that kind of expression on the face of someone who Lan's only known to be cheerful and kind since meeting him.
A growl rumbles out from Misaki, and then quickly grows into a rage-fuelled roar as he clenches his fingers into claws. The ground rumbles and Lan sees dimensional converters rising out of the ground, and then Misaki takes out his PET - where did he get that from? - and holds up a synchro chip as the dimensional area fades up around them.
It's getting dark and Misaki is several metres away, but Lan can plainly see that there's something wrong with the synchro chip that Misaki's holding in his hand. It looks evil and dark, and it glints weirdly in the rapidly-vanishing light.
"Dark synchro chip-" Misaki begins.
"No!" Lan exclaims, realising what he's about to do - but he's too late to stop it.
"-download!"
Purple shadows swirl around Misaki and cover him, and then burst open to reveal PrisMan - or Misaki Cross Fused with PrisMan. His eyes gleam red and he lets out another roar, aiming one of his polearms at them.
Lan quickly downloads his own synchro chip, and then uses a Barrier as soon as the light fades, shielding himself and Chaud from the blast that Misaki fires from the polearm. He only lets go of the Barrier when Misaki's attack is over, and readies himself for battle.
"Stay back!" he warns Chaud, quickly glancing over his shoulder to check that he obeys - and he does, thank god, stepping away just as Arcadia materialises beside him.
Lan exchanges a nod with Arcadia. He knows the white owl-Navi will keep Chaud safe, so he turns his attention to Misaki and activates his Mega Buster.
Misaki rushes at him before he can fire. Lan quickly jumps out of the way, just about managing to dodge the polearm that Misaki tries to slam into his gut, and aims his Buster while he's mid-air.
A memory flashes through his mind. Misaki jumping down to save him, telling him to hang on, and then dragging him to safety with the help of Lan's friends.
Lan flinches. Misaki takes advantage of his hesitation and blasts out another attack from his polearm, sending him crashing to ground. He struggles to get back up as Misaki laughs, sounding completely deranged.
Belatedly, Lan realises this is probably why Chaud was trying to find Misaki's PET earlier. If he didn't have it, he wouldn't have been able to use the Dark synchro chip - though Lan's still not sure where Misaki even got his PET from anyway, since no one had picked it up after the battle (though, as he said, Chaud had been trying to find it. He'll have to apologise about this later; if he'd let Chaud find Misaki's PET back then, this might not have happened).
"Lan!" His dad's voice seems to come from directly inside his head. "You can't hold back!"
"But it's Misaki!" Lan protests, finally getting to his feet.
He knows Chaud and Arcadia attacked Misaki to prevent further damage, but Lan can't bring himself to do that, even if he needs to do the same thing now. When he looks at Misaki, all he can think of is the detective selflessly throwing himself into danger to save him, and he hesitates all over again.
"The energy of Cross Fusion is contained in the NaviMark," Dad tells him. Lan almost asks why he's telling him this, but Dad continues, answering his unspoken question without realising it. "The same should be true for Misaki, even if he used a Dark synchro chip! If you break the NaviMark, he'll be forced to Cross Out!"
Despite the tense situation, Lan can't help but feel relieved. He doesn't want to hurt Misaki, and Dad's just given him the best option to stop the detective's rampage without actually attacking him.
He'll need to get close enough to smash the NaviMark, though. The Long Sword he downloaded should do the trick - provided he can get past Misaki's polearms, that is.
He suddenly feels a blast of heat at his back, and glances over his shoulder before he can stop himself. He has just enough time to see Dark ProtoMan's comically stunned expression before Arcadia's Flashfire hits the Darkloid dead-on and sends him flying. Arcadia spreads his wings and takes off after him, his expression set and determined as Holy Fire gathers in his palms.
Arcadia hurls twin Firebombs at Dark ProtoMan. Lan shoots a quick glance at Chaud, who's keeping well away from either battle, but almost as if he can feel Lan's eyes on him, Chaud turns his head to look at him.
[trying to sneak up on you] Chaud quickly signs. It's probably faster than trying to explain verbally.
"Thanks," Lan replies gratefully.
He sees Chaud's eyes widen suddenly, and whirls around just in time to see Misaki right in front of him, arms raised to strike with his polearms, having taken advantage of Lan's distraction to get in close.
Lan ducks under the attack and then shoves at Misaki, trying to force him back. He doesn't want Chaud to accidentally get caught up in the middle of this battle - and it looks like Arcadia is giving Dark ProtoMan a run for his money further away, so he probably has the same idea as Lan.
It seems Arcadia is determined to not give Dark ProtoMan a chance to overwhelm him this time. While Lan dodges another attack from Misaki and keeps forcing him back, he sees Arcadia catching Dark ProtoMan's arm in his talons as the Darkloid attempts to slash at him with his claws. The material of Dark ProtoMan's glove starts to burn at Arcadia's touch and he lets out an explosive hiss, activating a twisted-looking version of the Proto Sword and swinging it up to attack Arcadia.
Arcadia simply catches the Sword in his other talons, forcing Dark ProtoMan to struggle in his grip. Holy Fire sparks along Arcadia's arms, but before he can use it, a High Cannon suddenly materialises on his arm.
Arcadia's so stunned by the sudden appearance of the High Cannon that he lets go of Dark ProtoMan, beating his wings until he's hovering several metres above the Darkloid's head.
Lan's briefly distracted from his own battle with Misaki, and he glances at Chaud, who seems just as shocked as Arcadia. He's staring at the Battle Chip Gate with wide eyes, and Lan wonders if he'd meant to materialise a High Cannon Canodumb like he'd done in their previous battle with Misaki.
Instead, he'd somehow given it to Arcadia. Does the Battle Chip Gate allow him to give Arcadia battle chips, the same way he can give Lan battle chips?
That's . . . actually pretty awesome. And super useful.
Arcadia takes aim with the High Cannon, firing it at Dark ProtoMan. He's not that accurate, but it's understandable, given that he hasn't used battle chips since he became an independent Navi. He's probably gotten used to relying entirely on his Holy Fire and any other natural weapons he has, like his claws and talons.
A blow to the head sends Lan staggering, abruptly bringing his attention back to his own battle. Lan quickly shakes his head to clear the pain, and is just in time to dodge another blow from Misaki's other arm. That attack seems weaker than the other one had been, but Lan can't figure out why.
"He used his left arm!" MegaMan exclaims. "That's the arm Chaud bit open!"
A plan forms in Lan's mind. He doesn't like it, and it honestly seems more like something Chaud would do, but maybe he needs to take a page out of Chaud's book in order to win this fight - he's not going to get anywhere if he pulls his punches while Misaki is trying to kill him.
Before Misaki can attack again, Lan reaches out and grabs his left arm. He remembers where Chaud had bit him - it's hard to forget, and Chaud's still got some of Misaki's blood on his face - and he presses down hard.
Misaki screams. He staggers back, ripping his arm away from Lan, and he can just about see a dark stain on his bodysuit. Lan feels sick, knowing that he caused that, but it did the job and now Misaki is no longer in position to smash his head in - plus, they're far enough away from Chaud that he won't get caught up in their battle.
"Long Sword, download!" Lan cries.
The Long Sword materialises on his arm, and he gets ready to charge. Before he can take a single step, Misaki slams the ends of his polearms together and creates one long pole that he whirls in his hands. It's twice his size and would definitely do a lot of damage, but the good news is, he can't do ranged attacks with it anymore - it's basically a really long sword now.
"If I can't do Cross Fusion," Misaki bellows, "NO ONE WILL!"
Misaki charges first, and Lan blocks his attack with his Long Sword. They clash back and forth for a few moments - Misaki is on the attack, and Lan can just barely stop each blow before he gets his head smashed in - and then Lan tries to jump up and over Misaki's polearm, but the deranged detective swings his polearm up before he can land a blow.
Lan tries another slash, but Misaki blocks it easily, and for a moment the two of them struggle against each other. Then Lan breaks away, jumping back at the same time that Misaki staggers back.
They stare at each other for a few moments. Lan has just enough awareness to notice that the fight between Arcadia and Dark ProtoMan has also stopped - they're both watching Lan and Misaki's fight, like they're too invested in seeing who the winner will be to attack each other. Lan can spare a moment to be grateful for that, because he knows Arcadia must hate having to fight his brother like this.
Then the moment is over, and Lan and Misaki charge at each other as if by some unspoken command.
Lan thrusts out his Long Sword, aiming for the NaviMark on Misaki's chest. He's just barely aware of Misaki aiming his polearm for his chest as well, and then they both clash - and Lan feels his blow connect.
The NaviMark on Misaki's chest cracks, and then breaks into pieces. Misaki staggers back and screams as he's forced to Cross Out, and then he staggers away a couple of steps, collapsing onto his back as his PET clatters to the ground beside him. Lan makes sure to remember where it is this time, to prevent something like this from happening again.
He hears a frustrated growl, and turns around to face Dark ProtoMan. The insane Darkloid is stepping away from Arcadia with a look of utter disdain on his face, like he's stepped on something disgusting and can't get it off his boot.
"Useless human," Dark ProtoMan mutters, before he vanishes in a swarm of pixels.
With Dark ProtoMan gone and Misaki out of the fight, the battle's over. Thank god for that.
Lan turns to Chaud, grinning, but his excitement at winning the battle vanishes abruptly when he sees Chaud's horrified expression. He's staring at Lan's chest, and for a moment Lan can't understand why, until he looks down and sees his own NaviMark beginning to crack the same way Misaki's had.
He hadn't even realised he'd been hit.
As soon as he thinks that, his NaviMark smashes, and Lan is engulfed in a pillar of light. Pain explodes throughout his body, and he's forced out of the pillar, slamming into the ground a few feet away with a sharp gasp.
He opens his eyes and struggles to stand up. The dimensional area is starting to fade, and he sees Arcadia being forced back into the cyberworld. But he's paying more attention to the ball of light that forms into his PET - it's floating for a moment, and then it starts to fall.
A jolt of fear sparks through Lan, and he tries to get up to catch his PET, but he's too weak. Luckily, Chaud darts forward just in time to grab his PET before it clatters to the ground, and he holds it in his hands like it's made out of glass.
Lan manages to force himself to stand up, and he staggers over to Chaud. He can still barely stand, so he has to grip Chaud's arms to steady himself, and looks down at his PET.
It's broken. The PET itself is cracked and chipped, and the screen flickers erratically. There's a crack running down the glass of the screen, distorting the image on it. He can hear some sort of static-like noise fizzling out of his PET, high-pitched and almost painful to listen to, but it gets deeper as the flickering gets worse.
"MegaMan," Lan whispers, just barely seeing his Navi through the flickering.
"L-Lan . . ." MegaMan chokes out. He looks like he's in agony.
The screen's flickering gets so bad that Lan can't even make out MegaMan's image anymore, and then the screen shuts off.
"No!" Lan cries, taking his broken PET from Chaud.
He tries to see if there's anything he can do to make the screen come back on - or even turn the PET itself back on - but no matter what he does, nothing happens. The screen remains completely blank, and MegaMan can't respond.
"MegaMan!" Lan screams.