"You're certain they'll attack as soon as the new PET is complete?" Dr. Hikari asks sharply.
Mimic nods.
Dr. Hikari starts to pace back and forth in front of her, casting the occasional worried glance at the PET through the glass of the machine being used to add the final touches. She can almost see the gears in his mind turning, trying to work out what to do with the information she's given him - as much as she could, honestly, because not much had happened in this episode aside from Dark ProtoMan chasing Chaud and Anetta through SciLab so he could destroy the new PET. And then Lan finally getting his new PET, of course, but the bulk of the episode had been focused on Dark ProtoMan being a general source of intimidation.
Mimic has to wonder what'll change this time. Dark ProtoMan was terrifying enough in the anime, when he was just a full human-Navi - or human-Darkloid, whatever. Now he's half-cat, and, in his own words, extremely sadistic.
Also probably very impatient. The Dark ProtoMan in the anime had practically relished the chase, for all that he just walked after Chaud and Anetta, but based on Mimic's previous experiences with this Dark ProtoMan, she's worried he'll be much more active.
She can't outrun Dark ProtoMan. She's fast, but even she can't match his speed - and neither can Arcadia, though he's very close.
At the very least, Anetta shouldn't get caught up in this latest crisis. Mimic hasn't seen her since Dark ProtoMan's first appearance, and although she wants to see her friend, she can't bring herself to contact her. After all the terror Anetta witnessed, she might not even want to see Mimic again anyway.
"Two Darkloids," Dr. Hikari murmurs, bringing her out of her thoughts. He's stopped pacing and is leaning over a nearby table, staring at the surface with narrow eyes. "StarMan . . . and Dark ProtoMan."
Mimic can't suppress a wince when she hears Dark ProtoMan's name. She manages to school her expression by the time Dr. Hikari pushes off the table and turns to face her again.
"And we won't be able to get any help from the Net Police?" he checks.
Mimic shakes her head. "Too busy," she tells him. "Darkloids attacking everywhere."
"It sounds like that might be deliberate," Dr. Hikari muses. He scowls. "Dammit. How are we supposed to defend SciLab against two Darkloids? Especially when one of them is Dark ProtoMan."
"We might have an idea," Arcadia speaks up.
Dr. Hikari pauses for a moment. "Go on," he says warily.
"We've noticed that Dark ProtoMan seems to abandon whatever he's doing if he sees Chaud," Arcadia explains. "He's almost exclusively focused on him, to the point of obsession. We could try using that to our advantage - Chaud can take the PET and lead Dark ProtoMan on a chase throughout SciLab, while you set up a trap for him."
"Absolutely not," Dr. Hikari immediately says. "That's far too dangerous - Dark ProtoMan could kill you!"
"He won't," Mimic says. "He likes tormenting me too much."
Dr. Hikari doesn't look reassured at all. Too late Mimic realises that she'd basically implied Dark ProtoMan would rather torture her than kill her - which is . . . honestly worse. But still, their plan is based on the fact that Dark ProtoMan would target her if given half a chance, and if she has the thing he wants to destroy, he won't pay attention to anything else.
That'll give Dr. Hikari and Lan a chance to set up a trap for him in the dimensional area lab. Chaud had come up with the idea in the anime, and it had worked pretty damn well, keeping Dark ProtoMan contained long enough for Lan to delete StarMan. And Dark ProtoMan vanished after breaking his Sword, because he couldn't fight anymore.
Of course . . . this Dark ProtoMan has more weapons than just his Sword. He's more than willing to use his Buster, and he has claws and teeth, too. But they only need to keep him contained long enough for Lan to Cross Fuse - even Dark ProtoMan would think twice if he had to take on both Arcadia and Lan, especially since Lan'll be getting a huge boost in power.
"I forbid it," Dr. Hikari says firmly. "I'm not letting you turn yourself into bait for Dark ProtoMan. And even if it weren't Dark ProtoMan, I still wouldn't let you run around on your own in the middle of a Darkloid attack!"
"He won't be alone," Arcadia says. "As soon as the dimensional area appears, I'll materialise myself and fight Dark ProtoMan. While I'm keeping him distracted, Chaud'll grab the PET and run off - which will prompt Dark ProtoMan to chase him. I'll be hindering Dark ProtoMan as much as I can so Chaud has a chance to outrun him and lead him to the dimensional area lab."
"The dimensional area lab?" Despite himself, Dr. Hikari looks cautiously interested.
"The dimensional area in there might be able to trap Dark ProtoMan," Arcadia explains. "Not for long - he's too powerful to contain indefinitely - but it'll have to do. As long as the new PET can be finished. Dark ProtoMan won't take on both me and Lan at the same time."
Dr. Hikari doesn't reply for a long moment.
Eventually, he sighs. "You're going to put this plan into action even I say no, aren't you?"
Mimic nods. She refuses to be ashamed of this - it's the best idea she, Chaud, and Arcadia could come up with. Anything else had been shot down by either or both of them, and this was the only compromise they could reach. Besides, with a bit of luck, Dark ProtoMan won't be able to catch her - Arcadia's going to be doing his level best to hinder him, just like he said.
Dr. Hikari buries his face in his hands for a few moments. Then, finally, he looks up.
"Don't take any more risks than you have to," he practically begs. "And Arcadia? Keep him safe. Protect him."
"With my life if necessary," Arcadia promises.
Mimic hopes to god that it doesn't become necessary. She doesn't want to lose Arcadia as well.
Lan's not entirely happy about the plan, but he doesn't try and talk Mimic out of it - that probably has something to do with the fact that Dr. Hikari agreed, though reluctantly, to help Mimic put the plan into action. It's easy to tell that Lan wants to talk her out of it, but he doesn't.
She's kind of grateful for that. If Lan tried to convince her to give up the plan, she's not sure she'd have the willpower to stand her ground against him the same way she did with Dr. Hikari.
"Can we go over it one more time?" Lan asks. "Just . . . just to make sure I know what I'm doing."
Mimic privately thinks he wants to make sure that she knows what she's doing, but whatever. She's not going to complain about this - he's just worried, and it's understandable, considering she's literally turning herself into bait for Dark ProtoMan, who fucking terrifies her.
But she has to do this. The alternative is letting Dark ProtoMan destroy the new PET - with MegaMan inside.
She's halfway through explaining the plan again when a scientist pokes his head in through the door, looks around the room for a moment, and then spots them sitting on the sofa.
"Oh, there you are," the scientist says, looking a little relieved.
Mimic's first thought is that the new PET's been completed already, but surely not? Earlier, it had seemed almost finished, but it was still being tweaked. As far as Mimic knows, the PET isn't yet done.
"That girl's here again," the scientist goes on. "You know, your friend? I don't know her name, sorry."
Mimic's drawing a blank now.
"Do you mean Anetta?" Lan asks, looking puzzled.
"Like I said, I don't know her name, so . . ." The scientist shrugs.
Are you serious? Mimic can't help but complain. I didn't want her to get involved! She was terrified enough the last time SciLab was attacked!
I don't think we have a choice, Chaud replies, far calmer, but no less worried. The plan doesn't account for Anetta, but you and Arcadia are fast enough that she won't end up getting chased by Dark ProtoMan like she did in the anime. Hopefully we can keep her out of harm's way.
As long as I keep Dark ProtoMan focused on me, Mimic says, no one else will be in danger.
She heads to the lobby with Lan, after the scientist tells them that Anetta's waiting for them there. On the way, Mimic feels more than sees Lan's worried glances, and can tell he's thinking the same thing she is - how will they keep Anetta safe when Dark ProtoMan attacks SciLab?
Not to mention, they still also have StarMan to deal with. He's not as big of a problem as Dark ProtoMan is - with any luck, he'll do what he did in the anime, and just show up near the end after Dark ProtoMan has been contained. And hopefully he'll be just as much of a pushover as he was in the anime, too.
When they arrive in the lobby, they find Anetta sitting down, swinging her legs absently. As soon as she spots them, her expression lights up and she bounces to her feet, waving energetically. In one hand, she's clutching the handle of a box - and despite Mimic not wanting her to get caught up in the impending attack, she can't help but feel excited.
She's brought some of her weird-looking sandwiches. Mimic hasn't had one of those since the last time she went to visit Anetta at her house, and she'd kinda been missing them.
"Hi, guys!" Anetta calls.
Lan smiles at her as she meets them halfway. "Hey, Anetta," he greets. "What're you doing here?"
"I just wanted to come and say hi." Anetta gives him a look of mock offence. "Am I not allowed to see my friends?"
Lan blinks. "Friends? We . . . we've only met once, though," he points out hesitantly. "And that was when . . ." He trails off, but it's obvious what he's talking about.
The only actual interaction he and Anetta have had so far is when he said hello during GravityMan's attack on SciLab. The interaction had been extremely brief, and Lan had been in Cross Fusion at the time, so that had made the whole thing even weirder.
"I know," Anetta says, now a little subdued. Then she shakes her head and almost forces brightness back into her expression. "But any friend of Lostie's is a friend of mine! He's told me a lot about you, so I kinda already know you."
"Oh," Lan says, looking surprised. "Uh . . . okay then." Now he gives her another smile. "Well, I'm happy to be friends with you, Anetta!"
Anetta returns his smile with a full-fledged grin of her own. She glances at Mimic, and then seems to remember something.
"Oh, but that's not why I'm here!" Anetta exclaims. "I wanted to come visit, because . . . I haven't seen you since . . . you know."
Mimic drops her gaze and fiddles with her fingers. She's half-tempted to get out the stick chew toy she's been gnawing on ever since Dr. Hikari gave it to her, but she'd probably end up chewing on it out of stress or something, and that's rude when she's having a conversation. So she leaves her stick in her pocket and fiddles with her fingers instead.
"S-sorry," Mimic mumbles. "I . . . I didn't . . . say- s-say anything, 'cus . . ." Dammit, this is getting her nowhere. She stops fiddling with her fingers and raises her hands. [didn't think you'd want to see me again I keep getting in trouble bad luck to be around me]
She can see Lan looking worried, but he opens his mouth to translate her signing anyway. Then Anetta surprises him by responding to Mimic before he has a chance to speak.
"I wouldn't be a very good friend if I stopped hanging around you just because you keep getting into trouble," Anetta says, almost sternly. "And I couldn't care less if it's bad luck to be around you - like I said, you're my friend. You're my best friend, actually, so of course I want to see you!"
Mimic feels something like half-embarrassed warmth flooding through her at that. And Anetta doesn't mind that she's basically a magnet for trouble - in more ways than one. That's . . . that's actually really nice to know.
"So, here!" Anetta opens the box she's holding, revealing a few of her weird-looking sandwiches, and she takes one out and hands it to Mimic, who takes it eagerly. "That's the best sandwich I made in this batch, so that one's yours." She grins proudly. "I mean, obviously."
"Those are sandwiches?" Lan sounds completely bemused. "They . . . they look so weird . . ."
"Hey," Anetta protests, giving him a half-joking glare. "I worked really hard on these, y'know! They're about the only thing I can make without nearly burning down my house."
Lan looks startled at that, but Mimic's too busy biting into her own sandwich and enjoying it to care. Goddamn, Anetta was right - this one has to be the best out of the batch she's brought to SciLab.
Almost worth getting dragged into trouble for, Mimic jokes.
I still wonder how she manages to make something that looks so weird taste so good, Chaud mutters.
Lan watches Mimic enjoying her sandwich, and then jolts when Anetta cheerfully hands him his own, encouraging him to try it. He looks cautious - which is odd, considering he was the guy that World Three used to test their new curry dishes on, so Lan's definitely no stranger to weird foods.
After a moment of two of hesitation, Lan brings his sandwich up to his mouth and takes an experimental bite. Mimic pauses in devouring her own sandwich to watch, curious to see his reaction, and she can see Anetta looking on expectantly, waiting for his verdict.
Lan chews for a moment, swallows, and then blinks. He looks even more surprised now.
"It's . . . actually pretty good," he admits. "Just different."
"What do you mean, different?" Anetta demands.
"Different but good!" Lan quickly exclaims. "I like it, really!"
"I'd personally fight you if you didn't," Mimic mumbles around mouthful of weird sandwich.
Lan stares at her for a moment, looking startled. Then he shakes his head and turns to Anetta.
"You wanna come back with us to the break room?" he asks. "It'll be more comfortable than just standing around here all day."
"Sure!" Anetta agrees cheerfully.
They lead her back to the break room. Lan keeps his weird sandwich from dripping on the way there, but Mimic just eats hers while they're walking and doesn't need to bother doing that.
When they settle down again, the topic of conversation inevitably turns toward NetNavis. It was probably going to happen pretty quickly - it's not hard to notice that the three of them only have one Navi between them, and since Anetta had met Lan while he was in Cross Fusion, she also sort of met MegaMan as well, and can easily tell that he's missing.
Lan has to explain what happened to his PET; it's not easy, Mimic can tell, and he almost can't get the words out sometimes, especially when he gets to the part about his NaviMark shattering and his PET getting broken as a result. He powers through somehow - maybe all the times he's had to explain things that're difficult for Mimic to say has given him good practise to explain difficult things for himself.
Throughout the explanation, Anetta's expression remains sympathetic. She listens quietly and doesn't interrupt, even when Lan's voice falters in the same way that Mimic's does nearly all the time, and lets him talk at his own pace. Only when he's finished does Anetta speak up.
"Well," she begins slowly, "at least it's okay, right? Since MegaMan's fine and all . . ."
"What do you mean it's okay?" Lan demands, offence flashing across his expression. "He was hurt so badly that Dad had to invent a new way to repair him! What about that is okay?"
"I mean, he's okay now," Anetta quickly says.
Lan still looks like he's about to argue, so Mimic decides to jump in before he can get more worked up.
"She m-means he wasn't deleted," she says. Lan glances at her, confusion showing through his frustration. "You- you remember the hospital? The f-fire?"
"Yeah, of course I remember, you and Anetta were nearly-" Lan freezes. He suddenly looks horrified with himself, and he turns back to Anetta with the most sincere look of apology. "Oh . . . I'm sorry, I . . . I didn't mean . . ."
"It's okay," Anetta says gently. "If I were in your position, I'd probably be feeling the same way. But, like I said, MegaMan's fine now - so there's nothing to worry about, right?"
"R-right . . ."
"Forget about it," Anetta tells him. "Look, it's okay. Besides, you need to keep your chin up! Just set your sights on the future. That way, you'll be in the right mood when your new PET is completed, right?"
"Right!" Lan's starting to look a little happier now. He still seems a bit guilty for his thoughtless comments, but at least Anetta wasn't offended - and at least she didn't offend Lan too much, either.
That's good. Anetta's the first person that Mimic befriended on her own, and she'd hate it if Anetta and Lan didn't get along - especially over a little oversight like that. They could both become great friends with each other, which Mimic thinks would be great for Anetta, since she's not sure if she has any human friends outside of her interactions with Mimic, and also Sachi, the lady who looks after Anetta. She has Plush the parrot, of course, and Arcadia's definitely her friend, and Ragdoll gets along with her pretty well - but she doesn't have many human friends.
Since the NetNavi thing nearly turned into a spat, they decide to avoid that specific topic for the moment. Mimic is pretty sure it'll come up again, though, and she's proven right when Lan asks Anetta how she made her weird sandwiches look so weird but taste so good, and Anetta responds by launching into a very detailed and accurate re-telling of some of the times that she and Mimic almost burnt down Anetta's house because they're both terrible cooks who don't listen to instructions even though they probably should.
"I didn't even realise the soup was burning," Anetta says, apparently oblivious to Lan's horrified expression. "The fire alarm probably would've gone off eventually, but I managed to salvage the soup because ProtoMan started yelling-"
She breaks off abruptly.
Mimic once again drops her gaze and fiddles with her fingers. She's even more tempted than last time to get out her stick and gnaw on it, in the hope that focusing on something else will make the sudden stab of sadness go away.
"I . . ." Anetta hesitates for a moment, and then sighs. "I haven't been able to bring myself to cook properly since . . ."
Since ProtoMan turned into Dark ProtoMan. She doesn't need to say it - it's pretty damn obvious.
"I know," Mimic murmurs. "I-I haven't . . . I haven't been able to play S-Skyrim since then, either."
"But you love Skyrim," Lan protests, though his tone is subdued. "You're . . . you're saying you haven't played it for that long?"
"It feels wrong, doesn't it?" Anetta looks at Mimic with sympathy and pain in her eyes. "To do stuff like that without him . . . Because he was so involved in everything, it just . . . it just wouldn't feel the same."
Mimic nods.
"But!" Anetta suddenly bounces back to life, looking determined. "We'll be able to do it all again when he's back, right? I mean . . . not right away, obviously, but . . . one day."
"One day," Mimic agrees quietly.
That's definitely something she's happy to agree with. They will get ProtoMan back - there's no room for uncertainty, no room for any kind of doubt. No matter how deep into the darkness ProtoMan goes, Mimic'll make sure she drags him back out, kicking and screaming if she has to.
Dr. Hikari calls them into the lab a few minutes after they finish eating their way through Anetta's weird sandwiches. He looks startled to see Anetta with them, and then worried, reminding Mimic of the reason why she'd hoped Anetta wouldn't show up today - because, in just a few minutes, the Darkloid attack will begin and Dark ProtoMan will attempt to destroy the new PET.
But Dr. Hikari's keeping his worry quiet, probably for Anetta's sake. Even though he's starting to look increasingly-nervous and keeps glancing around every so often, he's somehow managing to hide it well enough that Anetta doesn't pick up on it.
"This is the new PET," Dr. Hikari says, showing the PET through the glass casing. "The Advanced PET 2."
"Advanced PET 2?" Lan echoes. He hasn't been in this lab before, so he's never seen it - but Mimic's come in and out a few times already, most recently so she could tell Dr. Hikari about the impending Darkloid attack.
"The Advanced PETs weren't able to harness the full potential of the synchro chips," Dr. Hikari explains. "But we improved on the design, and this new PET has been made to be a perfect match for the synchro chips. We've constructed it like the current PETs, but its capabilities when performing Cross Fusion are a huge leap."
"A perfect match, huh . . ." Lan murmurs wondrously.
Anetta leans forward so she can inspect the new PET more closely. "Amazing!" she exclaims.
"We've also included some extra features," Dr. Hikari adds. "If there's active darkness nearby - such as a Darkloid - the PET will alert you. It should also give you a slight boost in power when you're battling a Darkloid or a Navi who's used a Dark Chip."
Mimic perks up in interest and looks at Dr. Hikari questioningly.
"Yes," Dr. Hikari answers her unspoken question, "those features are based on Arcadia's ability. The research we have on his Ultimate Program ability was extremely useful when we were creating this PET - of course, given that the ability is unique to Arcadia, we couldn't replicate it exactly. It's close enough that the new PET will be far more useful in a battle against Nebula, the Darkloids, or anyone who's used a Dark Chip."
Lan's eyes are practically sparkling. "That's so cool!" he exclaims. He grins at Mimic. "And all thanks to Arcadia, too!"
"It was the scientists who studied my ability who put it into the new PET," Arcadia points out. "I had nothing to do with it."
"We made it clear from the start that it was your choice to allow us to study your ability," Dr. Hikari reminds him. "If you hadn't agreed, this wouldn't be possible - and it's only thanks to the fact that you even have this ability in the first place that we could create these features. So you actually had a lot to do with this, Arcadia."
"Dad's right, you know."
The new voice is a little startling, but not unwelcome. Mimic and the others look back at the screen of the new PET - MegaMan has appeared on it, with a bright smile that matches Lan's excited sparkles.
"MegaMan!" Lan exclaims joyfully. "How're you feeling?"
"I'm all good to go, thanks to you," MegaMan replies. "Totally fixed and fully operational!"
"That's great!" Lan grins. "I'm so glad you're okay."
"I'm so happy for you!" Anetta says warmly.
Lan shoots her a grateful glance before turning back to MegaMan, determination lighting his eyes. "Alright, MegaMan! Let's hurry and get back into action!"
"Hold on, Lan," Dr. Hikari quickly says. "You can't use that PET just yet."
Lan's determined expression turns into a puzzled one. "You mean it's not finished?"
Mimic wonders if his eagerness to get back into action is influenced by the knowledge that there's going to be a Darkloid attack fairly soon. In the anime, it had been influenced purely by his readiness to fight Nebula.
"The unit itself is finished," Dr. Hikari replies to Lan. "But we're not yet done initialising it."
"Initialising?" Lan repeats. He looks completely lost.
"He means the PET's programs and data aren't fully operational yet," MegaMan speaks up to clarify for his operator. "So, until the initialisation process has been completed, you can't jack me in and we can't do Cross Fusion."
"Aw," Lan mumbles, slumping in disappointment.
"Just wait a little bit longer," MegaMan advises him patiently. "I'll see if I can make it go any faster." He vanishes off the screen.
Lan still seems far too disappointed - and a little worried, too, because of course he doesn't want to get caught up in a battle he's incapable of fighting. For the most part. Mimic is at least hoping she'll be able to give Dark ProtoMan the runaround long enough for the PET to finish its initialisation - otherwise, trapping Dark ProtoMan will mean absolutely nothing, and StarMan might succeed where he fails.
"This is so not fair," Lan sighs.
"Don't be so impatient," Anetta says, looking amused. "It's just a little bit more waiting, right?"
Lan doesn't look comforted by that. "I know, but-"
He's interrupted by an alarm. Mimic had been expecting it, but it still makes her flinch.
In the distance, just outside the building, she hears the faint crash of four large objects slamming into the ground. The floor beneath their feet rumbles as the dimensional area starts to fade into existence.
Dr. Hikari swiftly glances at Mimic, and she nods. This is the attack.
Now it's time to see if the plan will work.
A screech echoes throughout the room, and Dark ProtoMan materialises mid-jump with his Sword already raised for attack. For a split second, Mimic is afraid that Arcadia won't be able to materialise fast enough to stop him from destroying the machine currently housing the PET.
Then a white blur shoots past her, and Arcadia collides with Dark ProtoMan mid-air, sending them both flying. Arcadia pins Dark ProtoMan to the wall and slaps away his Sword, slamming a Holy Fire-encased palm into the Darkloid's face. The pained and high-pitched scream that Dark ProtoMan lets out grates on Mimic's hearing, but at least Arcadia has managed to successfully distract him.
Dr. Hikari stares after them for a moment, frozen with shock even though Mimic told him this would happen - then he suddenly jolts and launches himself forward, opening the glass casing. He grabs the PET and turns to Mimic, but he hesitates.
Mimic holds out her hand. She doesn't let any of her own uncertainty show on her expression - if she falters now, Dr. Hikari won't let her take the PET. She doesn't want to find out what'll happen if the plan doesn't go the way they need it to.
"Stay safe," Dr. Hikari tells her, before pressing the PET into her hands and stepping back, glancing back up at the battle.
Dark ProtoMan is snapping at Arcadia with his teeth, trying to bite his wings - he's probably aiming to cripple Arcadia so he can't fight as well as he can with his flight. But Arcadia beats his wings, keeping them moving so the two of them stay in the air, and Dark ProtoMan can't even snag any of Arcadia's feathers.
"What are you doing?" Anetta suddenly demands, dragging Mimic's attention away from the battle between Arcadia and his brother.
Mimic looks at her. She looks absolutely terrified - no wonder, because the last time she'd seen Dark ProtoMan, he'd been chasing Mimic and basically playing a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with her. But Anetta's attention is focused on Mimic, and the PET in her hands.
"Anetta," Dr. Hikari quickly says, "come with us. Chaud's got this handled, we need to do our part."
"What part!?" Anetta cries. "What's he going to do!?"
Before anyone can answer, Dark ProtoMan finally notices what's going on down below. His elated grin is visible even from here, sending a shiver down Mimic's spine, and he immediately gets more vicious, lashing out and shoving Arcadia away with enough force to send the white owl-Navi flying several feet backwards through the air before he can correct his flight.
Dark ProtoMan pushes off the wall and lands with a crash on the machine that was housing the new PET, smashing it to pieces with the force of his landing.
"Go!" Dr. Hikari shouts to Mimic.
No need to tell her twice.
Mimic takes off running, sheer terror forcing her to move faster than normal. Or what's normal for her, anyway. She hears Dark ProtoMan's claws slamming on the ground as he gleefully takes up the chase, but then abruptly there's a thud and a crash, and Dark ProtoMan lets out an explosive hiss of frustration.
She doesn't look back to check what happened. It's easy to guess anyway - Arcadia recovered from his mid-air tumble and dive-bombed Dark ProtoMan, giving Mimic a chance to escape. If he hadn't, Dark ProtoMan would've caught her immediately, and the plan would have gone up in smoke before they could properly put it into action.
How long do you intend to keep Dark ProtoMan's attention on you? Chaud asks.
However long it takes for the PET to finish the initialisation, Mimic replies.
While she's running, she opens one of her pockets and shoves the PET inside, making sure to zip it back up again. Even with Arcadia hindering Dark ProtoMan, she'll still need to do all she can to keep moving - and she works best if she can use her arms as well as her legs. Dark ProtoMan certainly won't give her the benefit of the doubt; he'll be using all his power to get at her, so she may as well use all the abilities she got from Cross Fusing with ProtoMan to escape his insane counterpart.
She skids into the atrium where Lan had fought off GravityMan. It's a big space - definitely big enough for a battle - but that also means it'll be easy for Dark ProtoMan to catch up to her if he gets here.
She's halfway across the room when she hears a metallic slam just behind her, and she stumbles to a startled halt and glances over her shoulder. A metal door has just slammed down, blocking the hallway she'd come out of. Dr. Hikari must be doing that - SciLab's defences can only be activated from the main room, but the metal blast doors can be activated from the alarm switches on the walls. They can also be activated via remote control; and Dr. Hikari, as the head of SciLab, has full control over the entire building. Though she's not sure how he knew to shut this specific door.
He can probably see where you are, Chaud says. You have to keep moving, go!
She hears an explosion, and then an enraged screech. That makes her spring into action again, and she whirls around and darts across the wide-open space of the atrium, into the hallway opposite.
A blast door slams down behind her, but this time, she doesn't stop to look. She hears more slamming down behind her while she runs and hopes that Dr. Hikari doesn't accidentally close one too early and cut her off, or even worse, slam down on her. Those things look far too heavy and she'd probably get snapped in half if she gets trapped under one.
Mimic keeps running, kicking off walls to save some time when she has to turn a corner. She's starting to hear periodic explosions, slowly getting closer and closer, and the occasional screech of Dark ProtoMan - and, much quieter but no less audible, determined shouts from Arcadia as he tries his best to hinder the Darkloid.
With each explosion, each screech, each yell, she gets more and more frazzled. It's not difficult to imagine Dark ProtoMan just appearing behind her and dragging her down like he'd done when he was chasing her through SciLab the first time - except this time he might try and rip off her legs, judging by how much anger she can hear in his screeches.
She stumbles to a halt when she comes into an intersection of four hallways. In her half-panicked state, Mimic can't think properly, and she stares down the three available hallways blankly - the fourth, the one behind her, is the one she'd just come out of.
I can't remember where the hell I am, she realises. That only serves to make her panic grow.
The adrenaline and panic is frazzling your brain, Chaud tells her matter-of-factly. There should be signs around to help - can you see any?
Mimic looks around and spots one, but before she can even think of reading it, there's a loud crash behind her and the ground rocks beneath her feet, sending her stumbling forward a few paces. She gets her footing quickly and half-turns to look.
There's a massive hole in one wall of the hallway she's just come from. The dust cloud is fading already, and she can see Arcadia pinned to the ground by Dark ProtoMan, who's crouching over him with his teeth bared in an angry scowl.
Mimic can't quite muffle her terrified gasp in time. Dark ProtoMan's head snaps up at the sound, and his scowl quickly morphs into a delighted grin. He loosens his grip on Arcadia and stands up.
Arcadia immediately hurls a blast of Flashfire upwards, directly into Dark ProtoMan's face. While the Darkloid reels from the attack, Arcadia twists on the ground and looks at Mimic desperately.
"Run!" he shouts.
Mimic takes a single step back, and then Dark ProtoMan recovers from Arcadia's attack and lets out a wild screech that sends her turning on her heels and running down the opposite hallway. She can't remember where the hell she is and randomly choosing a hallway to run down is definitely not going to work in her favour, but she's too terrified to think clearly enough to care.
She hears clawed footsteps bounding after her - a set of four, which means Dark ProtoMan's on all fours and that knowledge doesn't help to stop her from panicking even more because holy shit Dark ProtoMan is fast on all fours. But she also hears the roar of Arcadia's Holy Fire and the footsteps following her break off abruptly as Flashfire blasts overhead, giving her a clear chance to escape.
The end of the hallway is coming up fast. It ends in double doors - she's not sure where this leads, but those are the only doors she can see and even if there were any others along the walls, she wouldn't have the time to stop and open one.
The doors slide open automatically when she gets close enough, and Mimic darts through them. She's halfway across the room before she stumbles to halt, suddenly realising that she can't see another set of doors on the other side.
She looks around. Through the sparking terror of her panic, she somehow manages to summon enough brainpower to recognise this place - this is the unused lab that Dr. Hikari and Famous had set up her obstacle course in. The obstacle course is still set up even now, in a circle along the walls, leaving a wide space in the middle of the room.
There's no other doors. Unless there's an observation room attached, the labs only have one entrance that also serves as the exit - and this unused lab is one of the labs that doesn't have an observation room. Just her luck, she ran straight into a kill box.
She hears a slam behind her and whirls around just in time to see Dark ProtoMan skidding into the lab, with Arcadia streaking through the air behind him.
Dark ProtoMan comes at her full speed - Mimic flinches back and raises her hands in a vain attempt to defend herself. She hears a protesting scream from Arcadia, and a moment before Dark ProtoMan collides with her, a massive flare of Holy Fire blasts out.
For several moments, Mimic is completely blind. The only thing she hears is Dark ProtoMan's screaming, and the roar of Arcadia's Holy Fire. She's just aware enough to stumble backwards until she hits something, and then she slides down, closing her eyes and clamping her hands over her ears, wishing she could turn off her hearing long enough to outlast this noisy torture.
Dark ProtoMan's screaming cuts off with a choke, and then she hears nothing more from him. The roar of Arcadia's Holy Fire takes a few more moments to die down, along with the white-blindness caused by his attack.
When Mimic finally dares to open her eyes, she's surprised to see that the entire lab is completely dark.
Well, not entirely - Arcadia stands in the middle of the room, his feathers rippling and glowing, a single point of light in an otherwise unbroken sea of darkness. Mimic can't see the light from the hallway past him, so she guesses the automatic doors must have closed after them. They're not trapped in here, but with Arcadia now being the only source of light, they're not exactly doing very well.
Gradually, Mimic's night vision starts to kick in, and she makes out the grey-and-black shapes of the obstacle course - or what used to be the obstacle course. Half of it has been knocked over, some parts sent flying into the walls, and from what she can tell, almost every single part of the obstacle course has scorch marks from Arcadia's blast of Holy Fire.
Arcadia's rippling feathers are almost painful to look at now that her night vision is giving her a better view of the dark lab, but he's the only other person she can see in here - there's no sign of Dark ProtoMan, as far as she can tell. Is it too much to hope that Arcadia's attack forced him back into the cyberworld?
Don't let your guard down, Chaud warns her. He could be anywhere. He knows how to sneak around just as well you do, remember.
Fuck.
The only good news is that, without the Poltergeist Program, Dark ProtoMan can't hide himself as well as she or ProtoMan ever could. He'll only have his natural skills to rely on - which . . . is honestly not much of a comfort. He doesn't even need to hide; Dark ProtoMan has night vision, the same as her, and if he's still here, he could attack at any moment.
Arcadia starts to look around, but after a few moments, he seems to give up. He looks at Mimic and somehow looks her in the eyes despite him not having night vision - then Mimic remembers that her eyes reflect light, and Arcadia is currently the only source of light in the room, so he probably just saw the light reflecting off her eyes and is looking at that.
"I can't see anything beyond my light," Arcadia says. "Everything's pitch-black. Can you see anything?"
Mimic glances around, making sure to scan the remains of the obstacle course thoroughly. Dark ProtoMan could be hiding behind any of the debris, or just simply slinking through the darkness in an attempt to sneak around - since Arcadia has just admitted to being more or less blind right now, it'll be all too easy for Dark ProtoMan to get past him.
But she sees nothing. She checks twice, and then a third time, just to be sure - but there's not even the slightest hint of movement.
Chaud suddenly sends her a memory of being dangled over the side of a building. She remembers Dark ProtoMan's teeth in her shirt, and the terrifying feeling of being so ridiculously high up, and the slow, careful steps of Dark ProtoMan as he claws his way down the building.
Claws his way down the building?
Dark ProtoMan can climb walls, she remembers in a flash.
Mimic starts scanning the walls, even checking the one she's pressed up against, but still she finds nothing. If Dark ProtoMan's hiding, he's doing a very good job of it - she can't see him anywhere.
Another memory flashes through her mind suddenly, but this time it's not from Chaud.
She remembers a dungeon from one of the Mystery Dungeon games - Brine Cave, she thinks, from the second game. There's something similar about this that she can't quite place yet. Was it something to do with the dungeon itself? Or any of the cutscenes?
Mimic, Chaud hisses urgently, now is not the time to be thinking of games.
This is important somehow, Mimic retorts. I just need to figure out how!
Dark ProtoMan could be trying to ambush us right now!
Ambush.
That's it - she remembers now. The final boss of the dungeon, the group of Pokemon who had attacked Chatot and Wigglytuff when they'd first explored the place, and had then attacked the protagonists. Chatot had shielded Wigglytuff and the protagonists on both occasions, protecting them from an ambush.
How did the boss and his lackeys set up both ambushes? They'd been somewhere that no one had expected. Like Dark ProtoMan, they'd been able to climb up the walls, and-
Cling to the ceiling.
Mimic's eyes widen. At the same time, shock sparks through her connection with Chaud.
She looks up, directly above Arcadia. Far out of reach, far above their heads, and very much out of sight unless you were looking there deliberately, Dark ProtoMan clings to the ceiling, digging his claws in and keeping so still that he almost looks like a statue.
He notices her looking at him, and bares his sharp teeth in a grin.
Arcadia! Chaud shouts. Above you!
Arcadia's eyes widen and he looks directly up, just as Dark ProtoMan lets go and drops down. Arcadia has about a split second to be shocked, but he reacts quickly, and hurls two Firebombs at Dark ProtoMan a moment before the Darkloid crashes into him.
Dark ProtoMan is blown away with a screech of pain and frustration. Arcadia moves quickly, darting forward to grab Mimic, and then he spreads his wings and takes off, heading straight for the automatic doors leading out of the lab.
Luckily the doors open fast enough for Arcadia to fly through them. Mimic, whose eyes had grown used to the darkness of her night vision, is temporarily blinded by the sudden light of the hallway. Arcadia keeps a hold of her as he flies, so she doesn't need to worry about stumbling around like an idiot while trying to recover from the sudden light.
She feels the impact of Arcadia's talons slamming into a wall and then kicking off, still flying, down another hallway. He can't fly as well as he usually can in an enclosed space like this, but he's doing his best and keeping ahead of Dark ProtoMan. Mimic can hear the Darkloid bounding after them, and worries that Arcadia won't be able to outpace him - Dark ProtoMan has the advantage in smaller spaces, whereas Arcadia would easily outclass him in the open air.
While Mimic's eyesight gradually recovers, she keeps her ears strained for signs of Dark ProtoMan's pursuit. Arcadia's focused on escape - he might not be paying attention to how close Dark ProtoMan could be, so Mimic, determined not to be a complete burden while she's more or less blind, will warn him if Dark ProtoMan sounds like he's getting too close.
She suddenly hears the sound of another automatic door, and then she's being set down on her feet. She blinks open her eyes and looks around - they're inside a dark storage room now, nowhere near as dark as the lab had been, but dark enough that she doesn't hurt her eyes when she opens them.
"I can't outpace him," Arcadia tells her. He's panting slightly, and his wings are trembling out of exhaustion. "He's too fast - and I can't fly properly in tight spaces like this. We . . . we should hide for a while. We can head to the dimensional area lab when Dark ProtoMan's gone past us."
Mimic nods. She almost wants to keep running, because that had been what the plan was meant to be about, but she's not stupid - she can tell Arcadia is tiring rapidly, and if he gets too tired, he'll have to go back into the cyberworld. He'd hate that; she'd be left on her own, with no backup, against an insane Darkloid hell-bent on tormenting her at every opportunity.
Arcadia reaches out and guides her over to the other side of the storage room. Together, they sit down with their backs to the wall, and Arcadia fixes his gaze on the door as he takes slow, even breaths to calm his breathing.
It's not long before Mimic hears the faint and slow footsteps of Dark ProtoMan. It seems he's given up simply bounding after them - he must have guessed they wouldn't be able to go much further and is just simply stalking them for now. That doesn't make him any less terrifying; if anything, it just makes him more terrifying.
Don't make a sound, Chaud warns.
Arcadia nods - he can't hear Dark ProtoMan's faint steps, but he can hear Chaud. Apparently that new ability is thanks to him looking at their souls and somehow gaining a deeper connection with both of them through that. But now's not the time to think about that amazing discovery, no matter how delighted Chaud had been at the time.
Dark ProtoMan's footsteps come closer and closer, until even Arcadia's able to hear him. Arcadia must feel Mimic trembling against him, because he carefully wraps his arms around her - his rippling feathers don't burn when they touch her, they just make her feel pleasantly warm - and pulls her against his side.
They hardly dare to breathe when Dark ProtoMan's footsteps stop just outside the storage room they're hiding in. Arcadia's stares hard at the door and his entire body is tense, ready to spring into action should the Darkloid find them, and Mimic tries to make herself as small as possible.
"Where are you?" Dark ProtoMan's voice rings out in a drawn-out sing-song tone.
Mimic squeezes her eyes shut and covers her ears. Arcadia's grip on her tightens.
"You can't hide forever," Dark ProtoMan calls. "I'll find you eventually."
Stay quiet, Chaud murmurs, the only one who can make any sound because Dark ProtoMan can't hear him no matter how loud he gets.
An eerie, half-glitched laugh echoes through the air. No matter how much Mimic tries to block out the sound, she still hears it as clearly as she would if Dark ProtoMan were in the room with them, and not for the first time she curses her sensitive hearing. It's useful, sure, but it has major drawbacks - such as this.
As the eerie laugh fades, she hears Dark ProtoMan beginning to move again, and opens her eyes. She can't help but feel relief flooding through her - if Dark ProtoMan moves on, they can get out of here and head for the dimensional area lab. He'll track them down and they can trap him, just like they planned, and then her terror will hopefully be lowered to a manageable level.
Then the absolute worst thing happens - the PET in Mimic's pocket lets out a beep, the sound shockingly loud in the silence.
"Initialisation complete!" MegaMan exclaims, oblivious to the danger. "The PET is now ready to-"
Mimic slams her fist onto the PET through the material of her pocket and he shuts up, but it's too late.
The door is blown open - thankfully only with enough force to make it crash to the ground rather than get flung at them - and Dark ProtoMan's form is shadowed in the doorway. He steps inside the storage room and his smug grin is illuminated by the faint light from Arcadia's rippling feathers.
Arcadia slowly stands up, not looking away from Dark ProtoMan even for a second. Mimic stands with him, if only because he's still gripping her and he more or less drags her up with him.
"Hand over the PET," Dark ProtoMan demands.
Arcadia steps forward and tugs Mimic behind him. His wings spread out protectively, and Mimic peers over his shoulder so she can keep an eye on the Darkloid in front of them. Dark ProtoMan sighs and his head tilts in a way that suggests he's rolling his eyes.
"Don't make this any more difficult than it has to be," Dark ProtoMan says. "All I want is the PET, nothing else."
"Yeah, I'm sure," Arcadia bites out. "And Chaud has nothing to do with this, huh?"
Dark ProtoMan looks surprised for a moment. "Chaud?" he repeats. Then his expression clears and he goes back to being smug. "Ah, I suppose Dr. Hikari must be watching us. You're right, though - Chaud has everything to do with this." He bares his teeth in a terrifying smile. "Tell you what; give me the PET and Chaud, and I'll leave SciLab alone."
"No," Arcadia snaps. "You'll have to delete me first."
Dark ProtoMan sighs, sounding almost genuinely regretful. "Well, if that's how you want it . . ."
"Yeah," Arcadia growls, "it is."
He raises both of his hands and lets Holy Fire flow out of them. Dark ProtoMan crouches in anticipation of an attack, and then pauses when the Holy Fire gathers halfway between him and Arcadia. It forms up quickly, morphing into a dog-like shape, though Mimic thinks it seems more like a wolf with its size.
Dark ProtoMan stares at the Holy Fire dog for a moment, looking completely bewildered, and then Arcadia moves his hands and makes the Holy Fire dog lower its head, opening its mouth to bare fiery teeth in a snarl that sounds from the gentle roaring of fire. Dark ProtoMan's hair bristles into wild spikes and he hisses at the Holy Fire dog.
ProtoMan didn't like dogs, Chaud quickly remembers.
Which means Dark ProtoMan doesn't like them, either. He seems to be reacting to the Holy Fire dog the same that ProtoMan would - that is, with extreme hostility. The only problem is . . .
"You think I don't remember this?" Dark ProtoMan snarls, glancing up at Arcadia. "I know your Holy Fire illusions aren't solid - they vanish after one hit, and can't even touch anything without vanishing! How stupid do you think I am?"
Instead of replying, Arcadia conducts the Holy Fire dog to launch itself at Dark ProtoMan with its jaws wide open for a bite. Dark ProtoMan jerks back, hissing at the Holy Fire dog again before he can stop himself. The Holy Fire dog collides with him and clamps its jaws onto his arm, burning the material of his gloves, and Dark ProtoMan lets out a pained screech and rips his arm out of the Holy Fire dog's teeth, stumbling back with a look of outraged shock on his face.
The Holy Fire dog falters and its fiery body flickers as Arcadia stares at it, startled out of attacking.
It's easy to guess why. Dark ProtoMan was right - Arcadia's Holy Fire illusions aren't supposed to be solid, and have never been solid enough to attack anything. Yet somehow, the Holy Fire dog just bit Dark ProtoMan and even did enough damage to hurt him.
It's his boosted power, Chaud realises. Arcadia glances over his shoulder at Mimic, listening to Chaud speak with wide eyes. Arcadia, your immunity to darkness is giving you the ability to make your illusions solid!
Arcadia seems too stunned to react to that information. Dark ProtoMan recovers from his own shock too quickly, though, and he hisses and starts forward again, which prompts Arcadia back into action.
He directs the Holy Fire dog to launch itself at Dark ProtoMan, sending them both flying into the hallway. Dark ProtoMan lets out an earsplitting screech when the Holy Fire makes contact with his body, and Mimic can just about see bits of data sizzling off from his bodysuit and armour where the Holy Fire dog has planted its paws on him, keeping him pinned down.
Arcadia leaves directing the Holy Fire dog for a moment, scanning the storage room as quickly as possible. He must see something that could be useful, because his eyes widen and Mimic thinks she can see hope sparking like his Holy Fire in them.
"Go in there," Arcadia quickly tells her, gently pushing her with one of his wings since his hands are covered in Holy Fire so he can conduct the dog.
At first Mimic doesn't know what he's talking about, but then she spots it - a garbage shoot, where rubbish and unwanted documents or items in the storage room can be thrown into. She automatically feels disgust at the thought of having to go down that and end up getting spat out into a dumpster full of rubbish, but out of the corner of her eyes, she sees Dark ProtoMan slashing at the Holy Fire dog and forcing it off him.
Right - if the Holy Fire dog is now solid, that means it can be attacked in return. Even if it doesn't vanish after one hit like Arcadia's usual Holy Fire illusions, Dark ProtoMan might still be able to force it to vanish anyway, just by sheer brute force.
And that means Arcadia might be in trouble even with this new aspect of his ability having revealed itself.
Arcadia senses her thoughts and fixes her with a determined stare. "I've got this, go!" he exclaims, giving her another gentle push with his wing.
Mimic stumbles forward a couple of steps, twisting to stare at him desperately, but he's already turned around to face Dark ProtoMan as the Darkloid gets up. There's an unmistakable look of fury on his face, and he's entirely focused on Arcadia, not even bothering to spare her a glance.
Go! Chaud snaps at her, making her jump.
She whirls around and dives into the garbage shoot head-first, immediately regretting it because she'll probably get half-buried in rubbish and her head'll be the first thing that gets stuck, most likely. Not to mention it's terrifying going down a garbage shoot head-first - it's not difficult to imagine smashing her head against some obstacle she can't see until she's right on top of it.
Luckily for her, though, her ride down the garbage shoot is more or less smooth. Within a few moments, Mimic is spat out of the end and lands in a large dumpster. Her luck holds out a little more when she only skids across the top of the rubbish pile, rather than getting stuck head-first like she'd feared she would.
She scrambles to her hands and knees, almost slipping on the rubbish. For several moments she just crouches there, trembling, and tries to force herself to move; but her limbs feel like jelly and she's breathless from a muted sense of fear.
"Chaud?"
Mimic lets out a muffled grunt, half-startled. She sits up and fumbles with her pocket for a moment, and then finally unzips it and takes out the PET with shaking hands. She's just barely able to zip up her pocket again.
MegaMan stares out at her from the screen, looking in equal parts apologetic and shame-faced. "I'm sorry," he says quietly. "I didn't know what was going on . . . The Dark Immunity Program was one of the last programs to get initialised, so I didn't realise we were under attack. If I'd known, I would've kept quiet."
"S-s'alright," Mimic mumbles. Then his words click, and she frowns. "Da- Dark Im-mmunity P-Pro- Program-mm?"
MegaMan blinks, and then suddenly looks faintly embarrassed. "Ah, right," he says sheepishly. "Sorry, Dad made me promise not to say anything 'cus he wanted to be the one to tell you and Lan about it. Guess I messed that up . . . Um, I think he already told you that some of the PET's features are based on Arcadia's ability, right? Dad decided to call that ability Dark Immunity, so the features based on that ability are collectively known as the Dark Immunity Program."
Dark Immunity, Mimic thinks curiously, testing the name out. It sounds pretty cool - she'll have to tell Arcadia later, when this latest crisis is over. He'd probably be happy to know that his ability now has a name.
ProtoMan's Poltergeist Program and Arcadia's Dark Immunity, Chaud muses. Well, you can't say our Navis don't have unique abilities.
Very true, Mimic agrees.
She stands up carefully, keeping a hold of the PET. Climbing out of the dumpster is relatively easy, and she drops onto the ground as easily as she jumps off a wall. What's not as easy is figuring out where she is - she'd been running blind most of the time, and had only ended up in the lab with the obstacle course by pure chance, though now she has absolutely no clue where she is anymore. Arcadia could've taken her anywhere, and she doesn't know if he was paying attention to where they were going; he was probably just focused on getting away from Dark ProtoMan, same as her.
"The dimensional area lab isn't far from here," MegaMan speaks up. "Just follow my directions and you'll be there in no time, okay?"
Mimic nods. She's not entirely sure if she's able to get there on her own - Chaud might be able to direct her, but it seems like he's just as frazzled as she is, though he's hiding it better.
With MegaMan directing her, she heads in the direction of the dimensional area lab. In the distance, somewhere above her, she can hear Arcadia and Dark ProtoMan fighting, though she can't tell who's winning just by sound alone. It could be either of them - that faint explosion could be from a blast of Arcadia's Holy Fire, or it could be from Dark ProtoMan's Buster. That screech she hears is definitely Dark ProtoMan, but it could be triumphant or pained.
The point is, she doesn't know. And that just makes her even more worried.
"Where'd he go?" Anetta frets. She's so nervous that she's almost vibrating on the spot - which Lan doesn't really blame her for, because he's nervous too, and really worried.
Dad quickly scrolls through a bunch of different holographic screens, trying to find out where Chaud ended up. But no matter how much he searches, Chaud doesn't show up on any of the screens, and the only thing Dad can find is the occasional flash of the battle between Arcadia and Dark ProtoMan, which is so fast-paced and moves around so rapidly that hardly any of the security cameras can catch sight of them for more than a second.
It turns out to be unnecessary to search for Chaud, though - because just moments after Dad starts to search for him on the screens, he stumbles into the dimensional area lab, clutching something to his chest. He's trembling so much he can hardly stay on his feet.
Lan darts over to him and reaches out, but Chaud flinches back like he's been shocked. He looks half-stunned and he stares at Lan as though he doesn't recognise him, but after a tense moment or two, Chaud finally seems to realise who he is and he lets out a tiny, ragged noise that sounds almost relieved.
"Hey," Lan says softly, reaching out again. His hands hover over Chaud's arms, but he's wary of touching him considering how he'd reacted just now, so he pulls away.
"PET," Chaud whispers, holding out the thing he's clutching to his chest - revealing it to be the new Advanced PET 2 that he'd run off with, as per the plan he and Arcadia had come up with.
It seems the plan worked, though Chaud looks absolutely petrified. Not for the first time today, Lan wishes he'd been the one to grab the PET and be bait for Dark ProtoMan - but he knows he would've been caught in seconds, regardless of whether or not Arcadia was hindering Dark ProtoMan. Only Chaud's fast enough to keep out of the insane Darkloid's claws.
Lan takes the PET from Chaud carefully, giving him a grateful smile. He sees Anetta coming up to them, but she hovers a couple of feet away, obviously not wanting to crowd Chaud when he's like this.
"Lan." MegaMan's voice comes from the PET - his PET, Lan corrects himself, because it's now his to use to fight Nebula.
"Hey, MegaMan," Lan says, shooting his Navi a grin. MegaMan's on the screen, looking glad to see him again, though Lan sees worry in his expression as well - the same worry he feels for Chaud. That's right; MegaMan's been with Chaud this whole time, so he knows what state Chaud is in right now.
"The PET is fully operational now," MegaMan reports. "You can use Cross Fusion as soon as you're ready."
"I was born ready," Lan declares.
Anetta gently leads Chaud over to Dad, who spares him a deeply concerned glance before turning his attention back to the holographic screens around him. Since Chaud's here now, he seems to be focusing on trying to figure out where Arcadia and Dark ProtoMan are - though, just like last time, their fight is ridiculously difficult to track. A flicker of red in one screen is gone in the next moment, only to reappear on a completely different screen, and a flash of white shoots across multiple screens in quick succession. Neither of them keep still, and their battle sends faint tremors rocking the ground.
Lan sees Chaud wincing occasionally, and has to wonder how much he can hear. Chaud's sensitive hearing probably lets him be aware of most sounds in the building, even if they're just faint, so he can probably hear every impact and every clash of the battle between his two Navis.
But it seems that Anetta is doing her best to try and distract him, though she's only half-successful. Lan doesn't hear what she's murmuring to Chaud, but he's looking at her almost desperately, like he's trying to block out whatever sounds he can hear by focusing on Anetta.
Satisfied that Chaud is taken care of - for the moment, at least - Lan quickly fishes through his pockets for his synchro chip.
He freezes when an unfamiliar voice calls out.
"Hey!" The voice sounds almost bored, completely unhurried, like the owner has all the time in the world. "Up here, humans."
Lan turns around. It takes less than a second for him to spot the owner of the voice - the Darkloid StarMan, who Raoul and Raika fought off when he and three other Darkloids attempted to attack the oil refinery. He's sitting on top of the experimental dimensional area, looking like he's just shown up for a pleasant chat rather than his true intention; to destroy Lan's new PET.
"Should've known that dumb cat would get distracted," StarMan sighs. He sounds disappointed, though there's an amused half-grin on his face. "I honestly don't know why LaserMan made him his second-in-command."
Lan stiffens at that. Dark ProtoMan is Nebula's second-in-command?
"But no matter how distracted the cat gets," StarMan goes on, fixing Lan with his lazy stare, "we still have a mission. We simply have to destroy that PET, you see. So, if you wouldn't mind, give it to me and we'll be on our way."
"No way!" Lan snaps, clutching his PET protectively.
StarMan sighs again, rolling his eyes. He slides off the experimental dimensional area and drops to the floor, landing on his feet gracefully. He straightens up and saunters toward Lan.
"Just hand it over," StarMan tells him. "It'll make things much easier."
Lan tightens his grip on his synchro chip, then reaches into his folder. As he downloads some battle chips, he glances to the side, checking where Dad, Chaud, and Anetta are. Dad's pulling Chaud and Anetta out of the way, shielding them from the impending battle. Reassured that they won't get caught up the fight, Lan turns back to StarMan.
"Answer's still no," Lan tells the Darkloid.
"Oh, come on-" StarMan complains.
Lan doesn't let him finish the sentence.
"Synchro chip," he announces, "download!"
He slots it in, and the familiar light of Cross Fusion overtakes his vision.
"Cross Fusion!" he and MegaMan cry, for the first time in days.
The light dies down after a few moments, and Lan feels power coursing through his body. It's a little different to the usual power of Cross Fusion - it feels like sparks, but not the unpleasant kind, and its warmth reminds him of Arcadia's Holy Fire. It's only a faint sensation, but he realises it's because of the new features based on Arcadia's ability.
Lan clenches his fist, and sees faint white sparks briefly dance across his fingers. He looks back at StarMan, grinning, and is almost delighted to see the mixed frustration and confusion on the Darkloid's expression.
"Guess I'll just destroy that PET after I beat you," StarMan decides. He raises his arms, and a black hole opens behind him. "Star Arrow!"
Arrows of light streak out of the black hole. Lan narrows his eyes and starts running, aiming straight for StarMan and easily dodging the Star Arrows with a speed that surprises even himself. The white sparks dance across his legs as he shoots past the Star Arrows, and they explode behind him harmlessly.
He reaches StarMan in the blink of an eye, and brings up his leg to throw out a roundhouse kick in the Darkloid's face. StarMan is flung back, and as he bounces along the ground, Lan pauses and looks down at himself.
"Wow," he breathes, "that was really fast."
"Lan, don't get distracted by the new PET's enhanced speed and power!" MegaMan warns him.
Lan clenches his fists and again sees white sparks dancing across his fingers. "Alright!" he exclaims, and he takes off running toward StarMan just as the Darkloid gets to his feet.
StarMan sees him coming and jumps into the air, hovering in place. He stretches his arms out and another black hole opens up behind him. This time, a barrage of Meteors comes out, and Lan skids to a halt and jumps backwards to dodge.
The Meteors hit the ground where he'd just been without even coming close to him, and he breathes a sigh of relief before noticing how far he'd jumped. He's already halfway across the room - he hadn't been able to jump this high or this far before! What the heck?
"Jump height and duration have also increased," MegaMan explains.
"But all I did was jump . . ." Lan says in wonder.
He feels a sudden spark of alarm pulsing from his Navi.
"Lan, look out!" MegaMan warns him.
Lan glances up just in time to see a Meteor heading straight for him. Before he can react, the Meteor slams into his chest - he feels it hitting his NaviMark - and he's sent flying through the air, until he smashes into the wall and falls down. He hears Dad calling out his name worriedly, but he's too stunned to respond, and he hopes that Dad doesn't leave Chaud and Anetta to come and check on him or help him up. He doesn't want any of them to get caught in the crossfire.
Then he feels a pulse of warmth, again similar to Arcadia's Holy Fire, and suddenly the pain is gone. Lan sits up and looks himself over, now stunned for an entirely different reason - StarMan's attack had hit his NaviMark, so the Mark should've shattered and forced him to Cross Out, right? Why didn't it?
"It's an automatic healing system," MegaMan tells him. "It kicks in if the NaviMark gets hit - any and all damage is healed immediately, to prevent forced Cross Outs or any further damage to the PET or operator."
"Whoa." Lan's can't help but marvel at that - and it's all thanks to Dad and SciLab working so hard on this new PET! This is amazing!
"This isn't fair!" StarMan shouts. "The NaviMark is supposed to be the weak point, why did it heal you instead!?" He lets out a wordless shout of frustration and throws out his arms again, and the biggest black hole yet opens up behind him. "Shooting Star!"
Bright lights, similar to the Star Arrow attack, blast out of the black hole. They're solid, five-pointed stars, so many that Lan can't even begin to count them, but the number of the Shooting Stars doesn't matter. He'll be able to beat anything StarMan throws at him.
He gets to his feet quickly and runs at StarMan again. "Sword, downl-" he begins, but the Sword materialises on his arm before he's even finished saying the words. "Already!?"
"Battle chip processing time has been improved greatly," MegaMan says.
Lan grins. "Alright then!"
He crouches for a moment, gathering power for his jump - he sees white sparks flashing across his legs a moment before he springs upwards. He hops onto a Shooting Star and uses it as a springboard to jump onto the next one, and then does the same with that Star, and then the next. But he's jumping too quickly, and he ends up slamming straight into an incoming Star before he can register it.
His vision is obscured by the resulting explosion of smoke, and he can hear StarMan's triumphant laughter ringing somewhere above him. Lan grits his teeth and plants his feet onto another Shooting Star that comes crashing down on him, using it to bounce upwards out of the smoke cloud, and high into the air above StarMan. When the Darkloid sees him, his laughter cuts off abruptly, and he looks almost afraid.
Lan grins and downloads a Shotgun, then aims and shoots without hesitation. StarMan is blasted through the air, but he manages to correct his mid-air tumble and flips, still floating. The Darkloid shakes his head like he's trying to clear it, and looks up again.
"Elec Sword, download!" Lan shouts, before StarMan can react.
He lets himself fall, trusting his momentum to do the work for him. As he comes past StarMan, he slashes with the Elec Sword, and feels his blow connecting, slicing through the Darkloid's body.
StarMan's scream echoes through the lab as Lan lands on the ground. He turns around and watches the explosion from his attack, and just under that, he can hear the faint and very much welcome sound of a Darkloid being deleted. He did it - he defeated StarMan, on his own, using the power of his new PET!
Lan glances at Dad, Chaud, and Anetta, still huddled into the corner. Dad's got both Chaud and Anetta pressed against the wall behind him, but all three of them are looking at Lan with wide eyes. He hopes they're impressed with his new power - who wouldn't be? Dad was right; this PET really is the perfect match for the synchro chips.
He opens his mouth to call out and ask them what they thought of the battle, but then he notices Chaud looking away, staring at the entrance to the lab with sudden anticipation. Lan blinks and quickly turns his attention to the entrance as well, just in time to see Dark ProtoMan come crashing through the doors and skidding along the floor until he manages to come to a stop by digging his claws into the ground.
An odd roaring follows him, and out of the entrance comes a flowing mass of white fire. It morphs into a huge, four-limbed dragon as soon as it's through the doors - or what's left of them - and lets out another roar made from the frenzied flickering of the Holy Fire it's made up of.
Arcadia follows the Holy Fire dragon into the lab, flying around until he's hovering in the air beside its head. He moves his hands and the Holy Fire dragon roars again, moving forward, and Lan feels the ground quaking with every step it takes, sees the impact it makes on the ground.
But from what he knows, Arcadia's Holy Fire illusions aren't solid enough to do anything more than stand there and be intimidating or distracting. From the looks of it, this Holy Fire dragon is not only solid, but apparently has enough mass to make the ground shake when it walks.
Dark ProtoMan scrambles into a crouch and faces Arcadia and his apparently-solid Holy Fire dragon with a loud hiss. Then he catches sight of Lan, and freezes briefly before his expression turns into an annoyed scowl.
"Forget it," Dark ProtoMan bites out. "I'm not dealing with this anymore."
He immediately vanishes, and the dimensional area starts to fade along with him. Arcadia is forced back into the cyberworld and his Holy Fire dragon vanishes the moment he's gone, and Lan Crosses Out just a moment later, catching his new PET with a triumphant grin.
He looks at MegaMan proudly, then glances up to check on Dad, Chaud, and Anetta. He's a little disappointed to realise they're not paying any attention, but then that disappointment quickly turns to shock and worry when he sees that Chaud has collapsed onto the floor and is huddled in the corner, shaking so violently that Lan can see it even from here.
Anetta's crouched in front of him and seems to be murmuring something to him, but she's not getting any closer and she's not making any effort to touch him. Dad stands a little way back, looking like he wants to go and help, but he seems wary of getting any closer than he already is.
Chaud's having a panic attack, Lan realises with a jolt of shock.
He immediately rushes over, but as soon as he's close enough, Dad puts an arm in front of him and stops him from getting any closer. Lan almost tells him to let go, because he isn't going to just let Chaud go through this on his own, but Dad shakes his head and nods to Anetta.
Lan manages to look past his instinctive feelings of wanting to protect Chaud, and sees that Anetta is doing just fine. She's keeping her voice low and gentle, but she's still not touching him.
Lan suddenly remembers the way Chaud had flinched back from Lan's attempt to touch him just before the battle with StarMan had begun. Normally Chaud's okay with being touched if he's having a panic attack, but it looks like this time, it's different. That's okay - Lan's not going to force him into a hug or something just because he has strong feelings about wanting to protect him. Forcing him to do something he doesn't want to do would only make this worse.
He waits with Dad for a few minutes while Anetta calmly talks Chaud through his panic attack. Chaud finally seems to be coming out of it, and the half-stunned look in his eyes is beginning to fade as awareness gradually comes back in.
They know it's over when Chaud comes out of his huddle and half-crawls to Anetta, then all but collapses into her lap and lets her cuddle him.