Lan is an agent of chaos. The only thing stopping him from demolishing everything in sight is the fact that he loves food too much to destroy the things that provide the food. The stallholders and the poor bastards holding all the free food samples look absolutely terrified of him.
You're enjoying this, aren't you? Chaud asks, as Lan spots a new target and makes a beeline straight for it.
Immensely, Mimic replies.
She isn't even trying to stop Lan. This is too hilarious.
This had been Lan's idea, actually. Their trip to DenTech Tower was abruptly ended by Amano trying to destroy the place, but Lan was still determined to take Mimic on some sort of apology trip. The food market in the basement of the local department store isn't exactly the same as six floors of arcades and the worst attempt at a dance game in history, but this is almost as fun, because Mimic hasn't been able to stop grinning since they came down here.
Mainly because, as stated before, Lan is an agent of chaos. As soon as he saw all the free food samples on offer, he'd immediately decided he needed to eat everything in sight - despite MegaMan's best efforts to make him stop. When it comes to Lan and food, especially free food, Mimic's pretty sure that nothing can stop him.
She saunters after Lan, gleefully watching him terrorise all of the stallholders. He's got a small bag full of food in his arms and is nibbling on some meatballs on a stick - or Mimic thinks they're meatballs on a stick, she's not entirely sure. She can hear MegaMan admonishing him, to no avail, again.
You could stop him, Chaud points out.
Nah, Mimic says, this is way too much fun.
"You should, though," Arcadia speaks up. "The stallholders are practically terrified . . ."
Then the stallholders are fucking cowards, Mimic scoffs. What, they can't handle a thirteen-year-old kid running around grabbing all the free food? Weak.
"Hey, Mimic!"
Lan bounces back to her from another one of the food stalls, excitedly holding out a rice ball. It's shaped into a panda, which looks oddly fitting, and extremely adorable. Almost too adorable to eat, but Mimic can see another panda-shaped rice ball in Lan's other hand, already half-eaten.
"These taste great!" Lan exclaims, handing the uneaten panda-shaped rice ball to her. "I dunno what flavour these are, exactly, but you have to try these."
Mimic studies the panda-shaped rice ball curiously for a moment, and then bites into it. She thinks they should've made these fish-shaped rather than panda-shaped, because the rice ball tastes like fish - salmon, to be exact, and the only reason she recognises the flavour is because one of the soba noodle pots that Haruka bought for her had been salmon-flavoured.
"Salmon," she tells Lan.
" . . . I thought these were just salted," Lan says, after a short pause. He blinks down at the half-eaten panda-shaped rice ball in his hand. Then he shrugs. "Oh, well. I'm not complaining! These taste great, right?"
Mimic nods her agreement and starts to eat the rest of her own rice ball. Lan finishes his in record time - he could probably win a speed-eating contest if he put his mind to it - and she's only halfway through her own when he spots another food stall to terrorise.
"Let's go there, next!" Lan grins and makes to head toward it.
A bulky figure steps in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. Mimic's first thought upon seeing the man is secret agent man, because he's wearing a black suit and dark sunglasses that hide his eyes. She hears heavy footsteps behind them, just barely distinguishable among the general noise of the food market, and glances over her shoulder to see another secret agent man coming up from behind.
Strangely, she doesn't feel threatened, even though both of these men are twice their size, and they certainly look threatening enough. There's something about them that feels familiar, though she knows she's never met these two men before.
"Lan Hikari?" the first secret agent man asks.
"Uh . . . yeah?" Lan looks puzzled. He throws a glance at Mimic over his shoulder, but she can only shrug at him. She might feel like she recognises these guys somehow, but she doesn't know how.
"We need you to come with us." The secret agent man glances at Mimic. "You too, Mimic Lostie."
O-kay . . . Chaud mutters. Is this a very polite kidnapping?
I think I'd know if I was being kidnapped, Mimic says. She just barely stops herself from adding again.
"Excuse me," Arcadia calls out. "What do you want with our operators?"
"And who are you?" MegaMan adds suspiciously.
"We're detectives from the Net Police," the second secret agent man explains. "We've been asked to escort the two of you to the airport."
Oh, that's why these two are familiar - they're from that episode where Lan has to go to Sharo and free a mine from the Darkloid ColdMan's control. Now she remembers; Lan had been running around the food market in the anime, too, eating everything in sight. Then he'd been grabbed by two tall men in black suits - these men, actually, now that she thinks about it - and was literally dragged to the airport.
She almost wonders why they didn't just grab Lan like they did in the anime, but the answer to that is fairly obvious - the Net Police probably don't want to make either of them panic by randomly sort-of kidnapping them, considering that Mimic was actually kidnapped a while ago.
But why do they need her, too? She can't really do anything in Sharo - unless she feels like jumping into the dimensional area the same way Raika did in the anime, and that's supposed to be for Raika to do, not her.
Mimic gets the answer to her unasked question after the two Net Police detectives escort her and Lan to the airport. Dr. Hikari, Famous, and Manabe are waiting for them, looking about as serious as one would expect from the situation Mimic knows is happening in Sharo right now. She wonders if anyone has thought to ask her if she's had any dreams about Sharo and the mine, but the adults' focus is on Lan at the moment, not her, and she doesn't want to distract or bother anyone by asking what's probably a stupid question, so she keeps quiet and listens.
"Ms. Manabe? Dad? Mr. Famous?" Lan still seems utterly confused, but less so than he was before. He probably figured out that the Net Police wouldn't send a couple of detectives to escort them to the airport for nothing short of an emergency.
"It's just Famous," Famous reminds him. He shakes his head. "That's not important right now. Lan, you're the only person who can stop Nebula and save the country of Sharo!"
"Sharo?" Lan repeats. His eyes widen. "That's where Raika's from!"
"Yes," Manabe agrees. "And his country is grave danger right now. I'll give you a full briefing on the plane."
"And I'll let Mom know about it," Dr. Hikari adds. "You need to hurry."
"Well, now I get why you needed us . . ." Lan says. He nods determinedly. "Okay, Dad! We'll go!" He turns to Mimic, but catches sight of Dr. Hikari suddenly awkward look.
"Er." Dr. Hikari clears his throat. "It's just you going, I'm afraid."
Lan pauses. "But . . . why'd you ask for both of us, if Ch- if Mimic's not going too?" he asks.
"We can't just leave him on his own," Dr. Hikari explains, glancing at Mimic. "It's not safe, so it's better to send for both of you and take Mimic back to SciLab while you get on the plane."
"Aw," Lan says, slumping in disappointment. "I thought we could work together, like we did at DenTech Tower . . ."
"I'm afraid that's impossible," Manabe tells him apologetically. "Aside from the fact that he literally can't help with the situation in Sharo, it's too dangerous to allow him to leave Japan. Nebula could easily kidnap him while he's outside our protection - and we don't have a way to track him like we did last time."
Because they no longer have ProtoMan and his tracking program. That much is obvious from Manabe's tone.
But ignoring that for the moment, Mimic is a little bit offended that the Net Police thinks she can't help with the Sharo thing - sure, there's no way she can physically get into the dimensional area, but it's not like she'd be completely useless. And she'd be surrounded by the Net Savers of Sharo, who all have the same training as Raika, and are extremely militaristic.
Except . . . she's supposed to stay here, isn't she? Because she's pretty sure the next episode after the one with Sharo's mine had been that one with the robot kid randomly kidnapping NetNavis and forcing them to fight each other. Chaud had worked with Maylu to find out where the kidnapped Navis were, and Bass had revealed himself to be using the robotic body of Gospel - the puppet leader, not the organisation - to observe the human world.
Maybe it's a good thing the Net Police aren't letting her go to Sharo. Because how else is she going to get the Navi case solved? She's allowed to do Net Saver missions without Lan, as long as Famous goes along as her babysitter. And maybe she won't even need to involve Maylu, since she already knows enough to figure out how to solve the case on her own. It's not that Maylu's annoying - she can be reasonable when she wants to be - but Mimic would honestly rather get things done quickly, and Maylu would probably slow things down. She doesn't know about Mimic's 'power', but Famous does, and he won't question her if she says she saw this stuff in a dream, whereas Maylu would wonder how the hell Mimic knows things that no one else can possibly know.
So that's the main reason Mimic doesn't protest to Manabe saying she can't go to Sharo with Lan - the other reason is, of course, common sense winning out over her indignation.
She says goodbye to Lan as he gets onto the plane, and watches it take off and gradually become nothing more than a vaguely plane-shaped speck in the distance. Then she gets into a car with Dr. Hikari and Famous - it's being driven by the two Net Police detectives, so she guesses this time, their mission hadn't just been to escort Lan to the airport, but also to get Mimic safely to SciLab.
"It's a good thing you aren't going to Sharo with Lan," Dr. Hikari says, after they arrive at SciLab. "Because we have something to show you."
Mimic curiously follows him and Famous. She can't imagine what it is they want to show her, but she recognises the way to the Chip Lab as they go deeper into SciLab. Maybe they've made some adjustments to the design of the Battle Chip Gate? It seems fine as it is right now, for all that Mimic's the only person who can even use it, though she supposes there's always room for improvement.
But the lab room that Dr. Hikari and Famous take her into doesn't have anything to do with the Battle Chip Gate. A team of scientists are scattered around the room, working at various consoles and barely even glancing up when the newcomers arrive, but although Mimic is aware of them, her focus is immediately drawn to the big machine in the centre of the room.
She doesn't recognise the machine itself, but in the middle of it, she sees a white chip that she definitely recognises.
"We've finished the Dark Chip vaccine," Dr. Hikari explains, somewhat unnecessarily, though he isn't aware she already knows what it is. "Thanks to Arcadia's help and the dedication of this team, we've successfully cured almost every single NetNavi we had contained in SciLab. Their systems are being checked and cleaned up as we speak, but so far, the vaccine chip has worked."
Holy shit, Mimic thinks, staring at the white vaccine chip.
They finished the vaccine sooner than they did in the anime - if Mimic can remember correctly, Dr. Hikari and the team of scientists had only managed to create the vaccine chip just in time to deal with Dark ProtoMan.
There's absolutely no doubt in her mind that this is because of Arcadia. Dr. Hikari just said it himself, after all. If they'd managed to create the Dark Immunity Program based on whatever research they have on Arcadia's Ultimate Program ability, Mimic probably shouldn't be surprised that they'd managed to create the vaccine chip much earlier, and have already confirmed that it works by using it on other afflicted NetNavis.
She is surprised, though. Of course she'd thought something like this might happen, but that's just it - she'd only thought it might happen, and had never really thought it would.
The vaccine works, Chaud whispers in wonder. We might be able to get ProtoMan back with this!
Maybe what Chaud did in the anime won't even be necessary - if these vaccine chips have been made based on Arcadia's Dark Immunity, they might be able to save ProtoMan without having to force a Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan. It would be so much easier, for both them and for ProtoMan.
She feels a rush of hope so strong it very nearly knocks her off her feet. It's both hers and Chaud's, the same intense emotion flooding through their connection, looping between them and growing stronger until she's almost dizzy with it.
She puts her hands over her mouth. She only realises she's crying when Dr. Hikari crouches in front of her and reaches out to gently wipe the tears away, and suddenly she can't contain herself anymore - Mimic launches herself at Dr. Hikari, buries her face in his chest, and cries out of sheer joy.
They can get ProtoMan back with this. They can get ProtoMan back.
"We'll need some way to trap him, so he can't escape," Famous speaks up. His tone is oddly subdued, witnessing Mimic cry like this. "I have a team working on creating our own version of the dimensional converters that Nebula uses - and we're close to completing them. If we combine the vaccine chip and our own dimensional converters, when they're done . . ."
"We can save ProtoMan," Dr. Hikari finishes softly, tightening his grip on Mimic as he straightens up. "We can bring him back."
Mimic feels him reaching into her PET holder, and a moment later, he's pulling back a little and handing her the white PET. Through the blur of her tears, Mimic sees Arcadia on the screen, with the biggest smile she's seen on his face ever since ProtoMan was lost to them.
For the first time in a long while, Arcadia looks truly happy. He looks like himself again.
Mimic clutches the white PET to her chest and looks up at Dr. Hikari, unable to express her gratitude and joy in words - but then she's terrible with words anyway, and the Hikaris are used to figuring out how she feels just based on her body language.
Dr. Hikari smiles at her, and pulls her back in for another hug.
"Thank you," Mimic manages to whisper, just barely audible enough to be heard. She's not even sure he does hear her, but she feels his arms tightening around her, and knows he has.
The rest of the day she spends in SciLab, following Dr. Hikari around. She doesn't have much to do, and on any other occasion, she would've been bored out of her mind - but the hope she felt when seeing the vaccine chip is still burning away inside her and through her connection with Chaud, and it's the only thing she can think about right now.
She doesn't think she's felt this hopeful in weeks, and Arcadia hasn't stopped chattering ever since the vaccine was revealed to them. Anyone else would've gotten annoyed, but for Mimic, she's happy to just sit there and listen to Arcadia ramble on about anything and everything. Mimic and Chaud's combined hope chokes her and leaves her too happy to speak, while Arcadia's hope gives him energy and makes him too excited to stop talking.
The next day, once again at SciLab, Dr. Hikari lets Mimic watch the vaccine chip being used on another of the afflicted Navis contained at SciLab. The Dark Aura is burned out of the Navi in a manner very similar to how Arcadia's Holy Fire burns away darkness. The process seems to hurt the Navi - it screams so loudly that Mimic has to put on her noise-cancelling earmuffs just so her hearing doesn't suffer - but by the time the Dark Aura has been burnt out of the Navi, it's no longer in pain.
It makes sense, she supposes. The Navi has been drowning in the Dark Aura for so long that it's probably gotten too used to it being there, and having it literally burnt away would definitely be painful. Though it looks like the pain ends as soon as the Dark Aura is gone.
To save the Navis taken over by the Dark Aura, they have to hurt them. No one likes it - she can tell that much by looking at the expressions of the scientists working on the vaccine, and the distasteful twist to Dr. Hikari's mouth as he watches. But at least they can save these Navis.
She wonders how much it'll hurt for a NetNavi who's been turned into a Darkloid. How much it'll hurt for ProtoMan.
She doesn't want him to be hurt, not after all the pain he went through after she first downloaded that Dark Chip. But if this is the only way they can save him, and completely destroy the Dark Aura inside him . . . this will have to do.
After watching the Navi being cured, Dr. Hikari takes Mimic to his private office. He has some reports to fill out - of the more sensitive kind, going directly to Kifune, concerning the vaccine - and Mimic's ears are still ringing from the screams of the Navi, despite her wearing her earmuffs.
Dr. Hikari's private office is away from the general noise of SciLab, and with her earmuffs, the outside world is practically non-existent for Mimic. It's a relief to only be able to hear the sounds of the room around her rather than most of the building.
She stretches out on the sofa in Dr. Hikari's office and closes her eyes. The darkness is soothing, and she ends up dozing for a few hours, jerking back into wakefulness when she hears Dr. Hikari's PET go off suddenly.
"Hi, Dad!" she hears a familiar voice exclaim.
Mimic sits up and looks over at Dr. Hikari at his desk, tilting her head. Dr. Hikari glances at her for a moment, just a quick acknowledgement, and then smiles at his PET.
"Hello, Lan," he replies warmly. "I take it you've finished your mission?"
"Yep!" Lan says cheerfully. "Is Chaud there too?"
Dr. Hikari glances at Mimic again. She waves to him, and Dr. Hikari huffs out a quiet laugh before turning back to Lan.
"He says hello," Dr. Hikari tells him.
"Hi Chaud!" Lan calls.
"Lan, you need to tell them about the plane . . ." MegaMan's voice speaks up.
"Oh, right!" Lan coughs a little awkwardly, and Mimic gets the feeling he's probably blushing or something. "Uh . . . well, we're basically grounded until further notice. There was an accident on the runway, and there's a blizzard coming, so we can't go anywhere until it's all cleared up." He sighs. "I'm honestly kinda sick of this cold country by now, but at least they have heating inside . . ."
"Don't be so rude, Lan," Dr. Hikari gently scolds him. "But don't worry about it - you can't control the weather, after all. Let me know when you're on the way back, alright? And call your mother, let her know as well."
"Oh, I already did!" Lan sounds pleased with himself. "She said to say hi to Raika for her. Hey, Chaud, I'll say hi to Raika and SearchMan for you and Arcadia too, if you want!"
"Okay," Mimic calls. She only raises her voice enough to be heard. Lan's excited woop tells her she succeeded, despite how quiet she was.
"Okay, I gotta go now, hopefully I'll be back soon," Lan says. "Bye Dad, bye Chaud!"
Dr. Hikari and Mimic just barely have enough time to get in their own goodbyes before the call ends. They exchange an amused glance, and then Dr. Hikari gets back to work, and Mimic settles back down to doze off again.
She wakes up once again when Dr. Hikari nudges her and sets a plate of sandwiches down on the table in front of the sofa. She hadn't even noticed him leaving - had she been dozing that heavily? The small, knowing smile on Dr. Hikari's face as he heads back over to his desk tells her that she probably was.
She's just finishing off one of the sandwiches when Famous trudges into the room, looking in equal parts tired and thoroughly annoyed. Dr. Hikari glances up from his computer, raising an eyebrow as Famous collapses onto the sofa beside Mimic.
"Are you alright?" Dr. Hikari asks cautiously.
Famous grunts. It's neither a yes or a no - but Mimic feels like the answer is probably negative, given how ragged the poor man looks.
She leans forward and picks up one of the sandwiches, offering it to Famous. He looks like he could do with something to eat, at least. And a good rest. But food might be more helpful at the moment.
"Thanks," Famous sighs. He takes a huge bite out of the sandwich and stares at the ceiling as he chews.
Mimic and Dr. Hikari exchange a puzzled glance.
Famous eventually swallows, and seems to sense their looks. He groans as he sits up, and Mimic has never felt sorrier for anyone in her entire life. Does Famous ever get any vacations? As long as Mimic's known him, he's never taken a day off - not that she knows of, anyway. He's always either at SciLab or HQ, and on the few occasions he isn't at either location, he's still working.
"Sorry," Famous says, with another sigh. "I've just been working on a case, and it's going absolutely nowhere."
"You don't . . . normally work cases," Dr. Hikari points out, looking even more puzzled.
"Most of my Net Savers are busy with other missions," Famous explains. "So I took this one, since it seemed pretty simple."
"I'm guessing it wasn't," Dr. Hikari says.
"The furthest thing you could get from simple," Famous grumbles. "NetNavis have been randomly vanishing from Internet City - I'm pretty sure someone's kidnapping them, but I have zero leads, and there's never any trace left after a kidnapping takes place. Witnesses aren't very helpful either; they just report the same thing every time. A giant black hole opens up in the sky and-"
"-and a mechanical claw comes down and grabs a NetNavi," Mimic finishes.
Famous whips his head around to stare at her.
"No way," Famous breathes, straightening up. He looks absolutely stunned. "No way is it going to be that easy. Did- you can't have." He pauses, and then looks at her almost desperately. "Did you?"
"I think I had a dream about this," Mimic mumbles, looking down. She knows what question comes next, so she's trying to remember the episode, and how much of it she can tell them. Too much detail would raise their suspicions, and too little detail could fuck up the entire case.
"What did you see?" Dr. Hikari asks her.
"The claw," Mimic replies. She makes a claw with her hand, and mimes picking up something up. "Coming down to grab a NetNavi. Something else. Um." She doesn't remember where the robot kid was, so she probably shouldn't mention that. But there's a way they can find the place without having to rely on Mimic's shitty memory. "An arcade. There was a game. A list with names. And . . . I recognised some."
Famous leans forward. "One of the NetNavis who was recently kidnapped is called ShiningMan," he tells her.
"That's the guy ProtoMan and I battled in the N1 Grand Prix!" Arcadia exclaims. "During the tag battle matchups. ShiningMan was ElecMan's partner."
"And another one was WhaleMan," Famous goes on.
"Him too," Mimic says. She shakes her head. "Didn't fight him. But he was there."
"So the kidnapped NetNavis were all competitors in the N1?" Dr. Hikari guesses.
"I don't think all of them were," Famous replies. "I remember World Three deleted a lot of the original competitors, so there aren't many Navis left who participated. I'm fairly certain a lot of them have been kidnapped recently - but the number of Navis who were kidnapped is too high for all of them to have been competitors."
"What about that arcade Chaud mentioned?" Arcadia helpfully prompts. "He wouldn't have seen it in his dream if it wasn't important somehow."
"That's true," Famous muses. He looks at Mimic. "You said there was a game, and a list of names. Do you think that list could be related to this case?"
"Looked like it," Mimic agrees. She pauses for a moment, pretending to think, and then brightens up. "ShiningMan was on there. WhaleMan too."
"So it's not just the Navis who took part in the N1," Famous murmurs thoughtfully. "If ShiningMan and WhaleMan were both on that list you saw . . ." He grins suddenly. "That's it! This game could be what all the kidnapped NetNavis have in common!"
"Did you recognise the arcade?" Dr. Hikari asks Mimic. "Is it the one you and Lan usually go to?"
And it's here that Mimic draws a blank. Only one arcade was ever really shown in the anime - not including the facilities at DenTech Tower - but she's not sure if there are any other arcades in the city. Lan's never mentioned any, and she's never bothered to check, because the one they usually go to is close to home and familiar to her. She has no reason to go to other arcades.
But if there are other arcades in the city, the game could be at any one of them. It'd be great if the game was at her usual arcade, but they can't rule out the possibility that it might be at another one.
Mimic can only offer Dr. Hikari a shrug. This, at least, isn't a half-truth or a flat-out lie. She genuinely doesn't know.
"There're three arcades in DenTech City," Famous says. "We can check them out one-by-one. Did your dream show you anything else?"
Mimic pretends to think again, disguising her hesitation. Can she mention anything else without getting Dr. Hikari or Famous suspicious? The answer is probably no, and she's already given them more than enough information to go on.
"Just that," Mimic tells Famous.
"Hold on a moment," Dr. Hikari interrupts, before they can say anything else. "Famous, you said 'we'."
Famous pauses. "Er," he says awkwardly, "yes. I did."
"I'm allowed to go," Mimic points out. "Long as F-Famous goes too. Babysitter."
"Babysitter?" Famous looks almost offended. "I'm supposed to be your guardian, not your babysitter."
"Same thing." Mimic shrugs.
Dr. Hikari sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Alright, fine," he says long-sufferingly. "Just . . . just be careful, alright? Famous, look after him. Make sure he doesn't throw himself into danger."
"How many times has he done that despite orders- and you're glaring at me now, so I'll just shut up and nod."
"Hm," Dr. Hikari grunts, unconvinced. He stares at Famous for a moment, and then looks at Mimic pleadingly. "Be careful, please. I know you have Arcadia with you, and Famous will . . . hopefully help you out, but I don't want you to get hurt. You know that, right?"
"I know," Mimic replies faintly. It's almost overwhelming, knowing how much he cares about her.
The first arcade they check is the one she and Lan usually go to. Unfortunately, that one isn't the right arcade - Mimic doesn't see the game they need to find anywhere. So they move on, and Mimic endures the noisy roaring of Famous's motorbike until they arrive at the second arcade.
They have no luck there, either. She's never been to this arcade - never even knew it existed - but she'll know the game when she sees it, and she knows it's definitely not in the second arcade. And since her usual arcade and the second one were a bust, that means the game must be in the third arcade, because according to Famous, these are the only arcades in the entire city.
Mimic spots the game almost immediately upon entering the third arcade. She perks up and heads straight over to it, leaving Famous to follow her through the sparse crowd.
There's no one playing the game right now - though she notices a kid looking in the direction of the game hopefully, only to look disappointed when Mimic steps up to it. Aside from that kid, no one else is paying the game any attention, so she reaches out and brings up the high score list for the game.
"No doubt about it now," Famous murmurs, studying the list. "All of these Navis on here have been kidnapped - I recognise their names from the reports."
"Needs a coin," Mimic says, gesturing to the slot on the machine's console.
"I'll go and get one from the counter," Famous tells her. "They should sell them, I hope . . ."
While he wanders off to do that, Mimic takes out the white PET. Judging by Arcadia's uneasy expression, he already knows what she's going to say - and very clearly does not agree. But if they want to solve this case and save those kidnapped Navis, he's going to have to do this.
"Arcadia," Mimic whispers, bringing the white PET a little closer so she doesn't have to speak over the general background noise of the arcade.
"I'm supposed to protect you," Arcadia argues. "I can't do that if I leave this PET."
"Left at the tower," Mimic points out.
Arcadia shakes his head. "The circumstances were . . . special, then," he says uncomfortably. His feathers are ruffled and there's a barely-noticeable tremor to his wings. "But Amano is in jail now, and I have to make good on my vow - I'm not leaving this PET unless there's a dimensional area."
We don't have much choice, Chaud speaks up. Lan's out of the country and will be for the foreseeable future. Famous only has a standard Navi like most of the population. And we can't ask any of our friends to do this, otherwise we'd risk putting civilian Navis in danger.
Ignoring the fact that Chaud did exactly that in the anime, but then again, he didn't have much choice. Arcadia wasn't in the anime, and Roll was the only Navi available - plus, she and Maylu were witnesses to the kidnapping of another Navi, so they were involved whether the Net Police liked it or not.
But they do have a choice this time. And Mimic chooses not to involve Maylu or Roll, for their own safety. She doesn't like the idea of throwing Arcadia into the very same situation that Roll was dragged into, but he's all they have.
"I can't," Arcadia says almost desperately. "Look, civilians or not, our friends are still pretty powerful. We can ask one of them to-"
"Arcadia," Mimic says, "please."
Arcadia's mouth gapes, frozen mid-word. For several moments, the silence stretches between them, and Mimic keeps her pleading gaze fixed on Arcadia - until, after what feels like an eternity, he sighs and slumps in defeat.
" . . . Okay," Arcadia says. "I'll play the game. What . . . what do I need to do, so the claw thing will grab me next?"
"Win," Mimic tells him. "Eight stages, all virus copies."
Copies like the ones from the Sharo training program Raika gave you? Chaud asks.
Mimic nods. "Last boss will be hard," she warns Arcadia. "Life virus, think it was. Not sure if- if anything I have is . . . good enough."
All she remembers from the anime is that Chaud had interfered at the last moment, using the Battle Chip Gate to drag the copied Life virus into a black hole. She has no idea what battle chip he used, and even if she did, she doesn't have it anyway - so she's kind of stuck for ideas, right now.
"Don't worry," Arcadia tells her. "Just support me as much as you can - I'll take care of the rest. I know what's coming, so I can prepare for it, remember? Thanks for telling me."
Feeling a little bit better - not much, but it's better than nothing - about this whole situation, Mimic nods. At the very least, Arcadia should be more than capable of taking down the copied Life virus. And she does intend to support him as much as she's capable of; they're better at this, now, thanks to Raika and SearchMan's help. Plus, Arcadia is fully recovered from the mess Amano's Navi made of his wings in DenTech Tower's network, so he should be fine to battle.
After another minute or two of waiting, Famous finally comes back. He's got no less than four arcade coins, though Mimic's pretty sure they'll only need one. Either he could only buy them in batch, or he wants to be sure that Mimic and Arcadia have the best chance at beating this game and luring the mechanical claw to grab Arcadia next.
Mimic inserts one of the coins, and nods to Arcadia. Famous quickly checks that no one's watching - it'd look very strange to other people if they saw a NetNavi streaming itself into a game like this rather than the operator doing it, even if Mimic is Arcadia's operator in name only. When they're sure no one is watching, Arcadia streams himself into the game, and the first stage begins.
It's ridiculously easy for him. He wipes out the four copied Mettaurs the stage throws at him with well-placed twin streams of Flashfire, and clears the second stage in a similar manner. The third and fourth stages are only marginally tougher, and Arcadia clears them using multiple blasts of Firebombs.
The fifth stage is where it starts to get more difficult, and where Mimic decides to jump in. She already had the Battle Chip Gate ready, just in case, and she uses it to transfer a Barrier to Arcadia when one of the copied viruses tries to come up behind him while he's focused on another one. He shoots her a grateful look before burning the copied viruses with his Holy Fire, and moves on to the next stage.
By the time they're halfway through clearing the seventh stage, Mimic is aware of a small crowd starting to gather. She hears appreciative oohs and aahs from the crowd, and almost wants to shrink in her skin. She hasn't been the centre of attention for a NetBattling thing since the N1 Grand Prix, and she'd barely made it through that.
But this time she has Famous to run crowd control for her. He shoos the crowd far back enough that Mimic doesn't feel trapped by them anymore, though her nerves are still going straight to hell and she can barely pull herself together enough to send Arcadia a High Cannon. She'd almost forgotten what this kind of anxiety feels like, and she's not enjoying the reminder.
"Dude," one of the onlookers protests, "your kid's really good at NetBattling! We just wanna watch is all."
"He's not my son," Famous quickly says. "I'm just, er . . . I'm just watching him for the day."
Mimic spares him a glance over her shoulder, just managing to catch the desperate look he throws her. She shrugs in response - she doesn't know how to talk to people, so asking her for help in this situation is absolutely pointless.
"So he's your nephew, then?" the same onlooker asks, as Mimic turns back to the game.
Famous is silent for a moment. Mimic can almost hear the gears turning in his head as he registers those words, and then she hears an audible sigh.
"Yeah, he's my nephew," Famous tells the onlooker, apparently deciding it's easier to just agree than to argue. "I'm sorry, I know you guys wanna watch him NetBattle, but he gets really nervous around crowds. If you wanna watch, then watch from a distance, okay?"
"He seems fine to me," another onlooker comments.
Even without turning around again, Mimic can tell the speaker is looking at her. She feels their gaze boring into her back, and tries to focus on the game even as her cheeks heat up.
"He really isn't," Famous says. "Look, just back off, alright? His dad's not gonna very happy with me if he comes home halfway to a panic attack or something . . ."
"Oh, yikes," some other onlooker mutters. "That doesn't sound nice at all. Alright, fine, we'll leave."
"Wait, we will?"
"But I wanna watch that kid NetBattle!"
"Yeah, he just cleared the seventh stage - hardly anyone has been able to do that."
Their protests fade into background noise as the crowd leaves, and Mimic hears another sigh from Famous as the eighth and final stage begins. She's aware of him coming to stand at her shoulder, but her focus is now entirely on the game - she doesn't know exactly what Arcadia has planned, but she has to be ready to support him at any moment.
The copied Life virus stomps into the digital arena, and Arcadia doesn't give it a chance to get out a roar before he flings two Firebombs at it. The Firebombs explode in the copied Life virus's face, and Mimic transfers one of her Vulcans to Arcadia, who immediately starts firing.
His aim has gotten much better since they started practising with battle chips properly. Not a single blast is wasted, and the copied Life virus lets out an odd, muted kind of roar as it's pushed back a few paces. Arcadia follows up by creating two Bound Swords and hurling them at the copied virus's face - one of them sticks in its eye and the other goes straight into its throat - and it roars in agony.
With the copied Life virus now occupied with its pain, Arcadia brings his hands together and creates a small ball of Holy Fire. It grows rapidly, until it's twice the size of his Firebombs, and then he hurls it at the copied virus with a yell of effort.
The massive Firebomb explodes upon impact, and the copied Life virus's last roar echoes throughout the digital arena as it dissolves into pixels. Barely a moment passes before the WINNER icon appears on-screen, and Arcadia streams himself back into the white PET, hardly looking out of breath.
"That was pretty impressive," Famous compliments Mimic and Arcadia. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone beat a Life virus - even a copy - so easily."
Mimic ducks her head as a wave of embarrassment and pleasure rushes over her. On the screen of the white PET, Arcadia rubs the back of his head bashfully.
Famous contacts the Net Police and has them remove the game from the arcade, to prevent any other Navis from being taken, and then he takes Mimic back to SciLab. There, they wait for the mechanical claw to take Arcadia - but it takes quite a bit of convincing to get Arcadia to go into Internet City and wander around. Despite Mimic having managed to convince him to clear the game, he's still reluctant to leave the white PET.
But he can't be taken by the mechanical claw if he's inside a PET. Famous tells them all the other kidnapped Navis were taken while they were in Internet City or other networks, such as ShiningMan being in the network of the lighthouse he works at. If Arcadia stays in the white PET, the mechanical claw won't come for him.
Arcadia finally agrees, and heads into Internet City to wait for the claw to snatch him. Dr. Hikari lets Mimic and Famous use the computer in his office to keep an eye on Arcadia in Internet City, since he's not connected to the white PET and it won't show anything but the home screen even if he's in different networks. But with Dr. Hikari's computer, they can follow Arcadia's slow walk throughout the city.
"Once the mechanical claw has taken him," Famous says, "we'll wait five minutes. Then we can activate the tracker program installed on that PET - do you know how to use it?"
Mimic shakes her head. She's never had any reason to use it, since Arcadia has more or less made good on his vow to not leave the white PET - and she never needs it when he's fighting in a dimensional area, since he can't leave unless he goes back into the cyberworld, which he never does until the dimensional area is gone.
"I'll show you how," Famous reassures her. "Dr. Hikari created it himself - it'll track Arcadia no matter where he is, and even allows you to pull him back into the PET if it becomes necessary. As soon as we find Arcadia and the kidnapped Navis, you'll be able to pull him out of wherever he ends up." He takes out a small device from his pocket. It looks a little bit like the storage device Arcadia had stayed in before Mimic had been given the white PET. "Once you have Arcadia, I'll use this to rescue the other Navis. It's got more than enough storage capacity to contain the Navis who were kidnapped."
Mimic nods. That sounds like a good enough plan to her - and a huge relief, because she'd been wondering how the hell she was going to get Arcadia out. Maylu had managed it with Roll in the anime because she's a personal Navi and is connected to Maylu's PET, but Arcadia's independent, so Mimic can't do that with him.
But it looks like the tracker program can emulate the basic functions of a PET - it'll help them find Arcadia after he gets taken, and it'll help Mimic get him out of the network.
She just hopes he doesn't end up in a Delete Battle. He's more than capable of defending himself, sure, but those battles had been horrible - and Mimic doesn't want him to get hurt any more than he needs to. Clearing that game and battling the copied viruses was enough, in her opinion.
She's distracted by a startled yell from Dr. Hikari's computer. Tensing, Mimic turns her attention to the screen just in time to see the mechanical claw grabbing Arcadia and taking him up into the air, toward the black hole in the sky. Arcadia's struggling, thrashing his wings and looking half-panicked, and Mimic can see sparks of Holy Fire beginning to flare up along his arms.
"No!" Famous exclaims, leaning forward. "Arcadia, you have to let it take you, remember. Stop fighting!"
With visible effort, Arcadia lets his Holy Fire die out. His struggling doesn't stop entirely - it'd look suspicious if he didn't struggle, after all - but he doesn't try to escape as desperately as before.
Mimic watches the mechanical claw rise up until it's through the black hole, and then Arcadia is gone. She feels a cold pit in her chest the moment the black hole swallows him up, and has to force herself to remember that they can still find him, and he's not actually gone for good.
"Five minutes," Famous reminds her, putting a hand on her shoulder. He understands her fear, and she's grateful he's here, because she probably would've panicked if he wasn't.
The waiting is almost agonising. Mimic clutches the white PET so hard that she's surprised the screen doesn't crack from the pressure, and takes to reciting the battle chips she has just to try and distract herself from her fear. It doesn't work as much as she hopes, but it's enough to help her get through the next five minutes.
"Alright, we'll activate the tracker program now," Famous says.
She hands him the white PET and watches what he does carefully, so she'll remember if she ever has to do this herself. Within moments of activation, a window appears on the screen, showing them a simple map of the city - and a glowing dot, indicating Arcadia's location. Mimic feels intensely relieved that it worked; she'd been afraid the tracker program wouldn't be able to find Arcadia, since the kidnapped Navis had all been cut off from the outside world in the anime, and the only thing that could pierce through that had been the Dimensional Beacon that IPC had created.
They don't have the Dimensional Beacon, but they have this tracker program. That robot kid's not going to know what hit him.
The tracker program leads them straight to Arcadia's location. Mimic recognises the building from the anime, but she's not sure what the hell the building even is until Famous speaks up.
"This is an old telecommunication company," he says, putting his helmet on the seat of his motorbike and placing Mimic's next to it. "They shut down a few years ago, after some scandal about data protection - I wasn't the commander of the Net Savers back then, and I wasn't assigned to the case, so I don't know much about it. But I know this building has been abandoned since the company shut down."
Why do most of our cases seem to involve abandoned buildings? Chaud wonders.
I dunno, Mimic replies, as she follows Famous into the building. But the anime never really explained what this specific building was, so I'm just happy to have some background information on this place - and it helps explain why no one noticed what's going on in the network, too.
Yeah, Chaud agrees. If there's no people around, no one's going to notice an underground Delete Battle arena.
Famous is looking around the lobby of the building, frowning. After a few moments of searching, he seems to find what he's looking for - and he leads Mimic over to a panel on one wall, with what looks like some sort of computer console set into it.
"You should be able to get Arcadia out from here," Famous tells her. "Remember what I showed you?"
Mimic nods and brings up the tracker program on the screen of the white PET. This isn't the simple map they'd followed to find Arcadia - this is the tracker program itself. With a little bit of help from Chaud, Mimic manages to get the program to latch onto Arcadia's signal, and then pulls him out of the network.
Arcadia appears on the screen, looking a little bruised. Mimic's heart sinks as she realises he was forced into a Delete Battle despite her hope that he wouldn't be.
"I'm okay," Arcadia tells her, obviously sensing how she feels. "The battle only just started, so I wasn't hurt that much." He gives her a wry smile, in an attempt to lighten the mood. "And the Navi I was fighting had never battled a flying NetNavi before, so he couldn't catch me anyway."
Mimic smiles weakly in response, and steps back to allow Famous to connect his device to the console so he can get the other Navis out. She looks around, searching the lobby, until she spots a security camera on the other side of the room - it's fixed on her and Famous, and Mimic narrows her eyes. She can barely see it from this distance, but there's a blinking red light on the camera, showing that it's working.
The robot kid must be watching them, then.
Dr. Hikari's words echo through her mind even as she makes a decision. I don't want you to get hurt, he'd said. And hopefully she won't be - she's pretty sure Arcadia will go ballistic if any of the robot kid's viruses even so much as scratch her.
Mimic tugs on Famous's sleeve to get his attention, and then nods toward the security camera. He understands what she means, and although he's helped her disobey orders in the past, he doesn't look very enthusiastic about it now.
"Dr. Hikari told me to keep you safe," Famous reminds her. Before she can respond, he sighs. "But if we don't stop the person - or people - responsible for kidnapping these Navis right here and now, they'll probably start doing it all over again."
He glances at the console, where the device is still connected. On the small screen of the device, Mimic can see a percentage bar slowly filling up.
"I can't leave here until all of the Navis are in this thing," Famous mutters. He taps his foot for a moment as he thinks. " . . . Alright, go. The culprit is likely to be in the control room - there should be directions on the walls or a map somewhere, there always are in buildings like these. Don't get yourself into any trouble, okay?"
"Yes sir," Mimic replies, giving him a mock salute.
She catches Famous moving his head in a way that suggests he's rolling his eyes under his glasses just before she turns and runs off, heading deeper into the building.
Famous is right - there are directions on the walls showing her where to go, and she follows the ones toward the control room, all the way up to the top floor of the building. The building isn't really that big - just three floors in total, and there are a lot of wide-open spaces where she guesses offices used to be.
In contrast, the control room is small, cluttered, and dark. When she bursts through the door - not kicking it like Chaud did in the anime, just opening it like a normal person - she finds the robot kid standing in front of a large holographic screen on the wall. The robot kid turns to face her as she steps further into the room, and his eyes narrow.
That's a weird-looking robot, Chaud mutters. I know you described him, but . . . wow.
Yeah, he's . . . not exactly a work of art, Mimic replies.
"You interrupted my games!" the robot kid whines. His high-pitched, mechanical voice grates on Mimic's hearing. "I was having fun, and those Navis were so entertaining, and now it's all over 'cus you and that other stupid human took them away!"
"We're not yours to take!" Arcadia retorts. "Who gave you the right to kidnap NetNavis and force us to fight for your entertainment?"
"Shut up!" the robot kid shouts. He lifts an arm and shows Mimic the trigger he's holding in one hand. "I'll teach you and your human a lesson! Dimensional area, activate!"
What, Chaud says.
Oh, yeah, I think I forgot to mention this, Mimic says absently, as the dimensional area fades into existence around them.
She feels Chaud's indignant shock sparking through their connection as various viruses materialise around the robot kid. He points at Mimic, ordering the viruses to attack.
Arcadia materialises in front of her before the viruses can even move, and blasts out twin streams of Flashfire. Mimic covers her ears and winces as the high-pitched shrieks of the viruses ring out, louder than they normally would be because they're in such a small space.
"He's gone!" Arcadia exclaims, when the light of his Holy Fire dies down and the shrieks of the viruses have become nothing more than a faint ringing in Mimic's ears.
"There," Mimic says, pointing toward an open door. She remembers the robot kid had escaped through there in the anime, while Chaud was busy getting rid of the viruses.
The same thing seems to have happened now, but no worries. The robot kid himself won't be much of a challenge - and neither will the viruses, honestly.
It's Bass she's worried about. And Dark ProtoMan. Bass is pretty much neutral but will probably attack if provoked, and Dark ProtoMan's likely to drop whatever he's doing and go straight after Mimic if given half a chance. Arcadia might be able to take on one of them, but not both of them at the same time, even if they won't be working together. It might even turn into a case of enemy mine.
She puts that worry out of her mind as she follows Arcadia through the open door and up the staircase. There's not much she can do about it now - she's already here. And maybe she'll be able to level the playing field a little by using the Battle Chip Gate. It's a weak hope, but it's better than nothing.
Up on the roof, they find the robot kid waiting for them with a small horde of viruses, far more than he'd materialised in the control room. The robot kid orders the viruses to attack, probably thinking that a larger number of them will be enough to slow Arcadia down - but whatever he's thinking, he's wrong, and Arcadia is a whirlwind of feathers and fire as he deletes every single virus that comes at him.
He slices apart the last virus with his Bound Sword, and brandishes the sword at the robot kid. The robot kid makes an odd noise, like a startled beep, and freezes where it stands.
"Who are you?" Arcadia demands, jabbing the tip of his sword at the robot kid. "Do you work for Nebula?"
He already knows the robot kid doesn't - Mimic told him, while they were waiting for Famous in the arcade. But it'd seem strange if they didn't ask that question, so he has to. And besides, Mimic knows the robot kid has a name, but she can't remember it for the life of her; so technically they don't know who the robot kid is.
The robot kid stares at Arcadia with wide eyes for a few moments, and then he suddenly bursts into tears. Or he makes the sound of someone bursting into tears - Mimic's pretty sure robots can't cry, at least not this one.
Arcadia looks startled, and his Bound Sword vanishes in a flicker of white fire as he steps back to Mimic's side. He shoots her a glance, as if silently asking what the hell is going on, and Mimic just shrugs at him.
Sure, the robot kid had cried in the anime as well, but that doesn't make it any less weirder to witness in real life. And it's not like she has any experience with crying people - it's usually Mimic who's doing the crying, and other people comforting her. She has no idea how to do that herself, especially not for a robot they've just been fighting.
"Allegro!" a half-familiar voice calls sharply.
Mimic jumps at the voice. She hadn't heard any footsteps signalling anyone's approach, and can only assume that the man who steps into view now - with long, green hair and only smooth skin where his mouth and nose should be - had teleported in, somehow.
She might not have remembered the robot kid's name, but she definitely remembers this guy.
"Bass," she mutters to Arcadia, whose eyes widen in shock before he looks back at the green-haired man - green-haired robot, that is - as he comes to stand by Allegro's side.
Allegro - and it's only after hearing his name that Mimic remembers it, which is . . . kind of pointless, to be honest - stops crying as soon as Bass is next to him. He starts giggling, like a toddler who's just been handed his favourite toy, and Bass glances down at him before turning his attention to Mimic and Arcadia.
"I see my younger brother has caused you some trouble," Bass says. The robot's visible eye narrows as he looks at Arcadia. "And you've materialised. How is that possible? NetNavis aren't capable of materialising in the real world."
Arcadia narrows his eyes and doesn't respond. Mimic knows she shouldn't - this is definitely a very bad idea, and one that could easily get her killed if Bass decides to repay her by attacking her - but she steps forward anyway.
"He's independent," she tells Bass. Arcadia whips his head around to gape at her, and she can feel Chaud's shock, but she ignores both of them. "Independent Navis can- can materialise. In here." She makes a vague gesture to the dimensional area around them.
"Why'd you tell him that?" Arcadia demands in a high tone.
Before Mimic can respond - not that she'd be able to anyway, because she can't really explain why she felt the need to tell Bass about this - the robot sparks suddenly, and collapses to the ground. The faint outline of Bass's real body stays in the robot's place for a moment before solidifying, and he opens his eyes.
Arcadia tenses, spreading his arm in front of Mimic and opening one wing to shield her from the back. But Bass doesn't immediately attack - he only looks around for a moment, ignoring the curious and stunned stare of Allegro beside him, and then lifts his hands and stares at them.
Bass narrows his eyes and suddenly throws out an arm, hurling out a Hell's Rolling. Arcadia lets out a muffled gasp and pulls Mimic toward him, shielding her, but the attack wasn't even aimed at them - it scores a deep scar along the roof, and then fizzles out with a snap of Bass's fingers. He'd only been testing if he could do it, not actually attacking them.
Arcadia gradually relaxes, but stays alert, just in case Bass decides to change his mind. Now faced with the actual consequences of telling Bass that he can materialise in dimensional areas, Mimic sticks close to Arcadia, and he wraps one arm and a wing around her, ready to defend her at a moment's notice.
"He's got a point, you know," Bass says, looking directly at Mimic. "Why did you tell me? I'm your enemy - this doesn't benefit you at all. You would've been better off keeping it quiet."
"Can . . . can I b-be honest?" Mimic asks faintly.
Bass lifts his chin, giving her a hard stare, and she presses against Arcadia. He tightens his grip on her and stares right back at Bass, silently daring him to try anything.
"Fine," Bass eventually says. "Say what you want."
"I, um . . . y-you're not really . . . my enemy," Mimic says. Bass's eyes narrow, but he seems curious rather than angry. "M-more . . . more neutral. I think. Like . . ." She gropes around for a way to describe it. "Like chaotic neutral."
" . . . Chaotic neutral?" Bass repeats. His curiosity isn't dimming in the slightest, and although he radiates hostility like an aura, he isn't attacking. "What does that mean?"
"I-it's, um . . . mm . . ." Mimic takes a deep breath and tries to calm down, even just a little bit, so she can get her words out properly. Surprisingly, Bass is waiting patiently for her to finish, rather than the opposite. "S'an alignment thing. F-from the internet. There's different . . . there're different categories? U-um . . . one is . . . chaotic n-neutral. It means . . . it's . . ."
Fuck. She knows what it is, but she can't think of how to describe it. This would be so much easier if she had access to the internet right now - she could just look up the definition and it'd be so easy to explain the alignment chart to the human-hating NetNavi standing just a few metres away from them.
She's pretty sure the only reason Bass hasn't attacked them yet is because he's too curious about the alignment she's trying to explain. If she can't get her words out, Bass might abandon his surprising show of patience and just attack them out of sheer annoyance.
But after several moments of trying, Mimic is forced to give up. "M'sorry," she mumbles, hiding her face in her hands. "C-can't . . . I kn-know what i-it is. I just . . . m'not good at . . . words."
"What's wrong with your human?" Bass demands, clearly talking to Arcadia now. "I've never seen one so . . . nervous-looking."
"He's scared," Arcadia replies, pulling Mimic tighter against his side. "He's not that good at talking anyway, but when he's scared, he gets worse. And . . . no offence, but you're kind of intense and very intimidating."
" . . . Oh."
Mimic's not sure what she hears in Bass's tone, but it's definitely not hostility. She lowers her hands a little, just enough to look, and sees that he's staring at her with an unreadable expression.
"Aw, isn't that touching?"
She chokes on a squeak, whirling around at the new voice. Up above them, on the highest point of the roof, Dark ProtoMan materialises and saunters over to the edge. He crouches, flashing them a sharp-toothed grin, but doesn't make any move to come down.
Even so, Arcadia still drags Mimic back and shoves her behind him. He unwittingly puts her closer to Bass by doing that, but it's clear that Dark ProtoMan is a much bigger threat at the moment - and Bass hardly seems hostile, so if Arcadia's aware of what he's done, he's probably hoping that Bass won't suddenly change his mind and attack Mimic while his back is turned.
"Nebula sent me here to check out the random dimensional area that suddenly appeared," Dark ProtoMan says. His grins gets wider as he peers at Mimic, in a manner very similar to the way a predator looks at its prey. "And who do I find but my former operator talking to none other than Bass himself? Now I'm torn. I want to invite Bass to join Nebula, but I also want to torment you . . . Decisions, decisions."
"Leave Chaud alone!" Arcadia shouts, bringing his arms up as Holy Fire sparks along them. His feathers hadn't reacted to Allegro's dimensional area, but as soon as Dark ProtoMan had shown up, they'd started rippling and glowing.
The last time Arcadia fought Dark ProtoMan, they'd discovered that his Holy Fire illusions become solid because of the boost in power he gets from his Dark Immunity. From what Mimic could tell, Arcadia had been beating Dark ProtoMan very soundly - and even though she'd been halfway to a panic attack at the time, she remembers the shock and awe of seeing his Holy Fire dragon in real life. It had been epic.
Dark ProtoMan clearly remembers the same thing, and Mimic suspects that's the only reason he doesn't come down right now and try to snatch Mimic away from Arcadia. He huffs and settles down on the edge of the roof, looking far too relaxed despite the obvious hostility from Arcadia, and gives them a lazy smile.
"Keep your feathers on," Dark ProtoMan says. "I won't attack Chaud - yet." He looks past Mimic and Arcadia. "Well, Bass? How about it? Would you like to join Nebula? If I remember correctly, you have a grudge against humans, too . . ."
"If I joined Nebula, I'd have to answer to some pathetic human," Bass retorts scornfully. "Take your offer and shove it up your ass, you ridiculous half-breed virus."
Mimic tries desperately not to laugh, but a few squeaks escape through her lips anyway. She can feel Arcadia trembling from the effort of keeping his own laugh quiet as well.
"Rude. You could just say no," Dark ProtoMan mutters, twisting his lips into an annoyed snarl. "You've made a powerful enemy, Bass - watch yourself." He glances back at Mimic and Arcadia. "As for you . . . don't think you're safe. I'll come for you one day, and you won't be able to stop me." He grins again. "Until next time, then."
He vanishes back into the cyberworld. Mimic is a little stunned at his abrupt departure - in the anime, he'd only vanished when Bass had cancelled the dimensional area, effectively booting him out of the real world. But this time, he's leaving voluntarily. That's . . . a little weird, but she's not going to complain. Any encounter with Dark ProtoMan that ends in him leaving and no one getting hurt is far better than the alternative.
She and Arcadia turn around to face Bass. Now that Dark ProtoMan is gone, he's the only one who could pose any sort of threat - but he's already established that he's not interested in attacking Mimic, and although Arcadia keeps one of his wings around Mimic, he doesn't seem to be as wary of Bass as he was before.
"I kinda thought you'd join them," Arcadia admits, watching Bass through narrow eyes.
Bass scoffs. "Join an organisation run by a human?" He looks like the very thought of it sickens him. "If that weird cat had invited me when it was just the Darkloids, I might have taken him up on his offer. But since the Darkloids are working for Nebula . . ." He shrugs. "I think I'd rather self-delete."
There's a beat of silence, and then Bass glances down at Allegro, who hasn't said a word since Bass showed up. Bass's eyes narrow, and not in a thoughtful way - yeah, that's definitely malice Mimic sees in his eyes.
"As for you . . ." Bass murmurs. "You're a work of genius, I'll admit that. You're capable of creating dimensional areas at will."
Allegro giggles at the praise, but Bass isn't done talking.
"Your mental age is far too low, though," Bass says. He reaches into Allegro's head and yanks out a small device - Mimic doesn't know what it is, but as soon as it's removed, Allegro lets out a loud beep and slumps. "Kidnapping random NetNavis and engaging in stupid human-play . . . Ridiculous. I don't think I'll be bothering with something like you ever again."
"How could you do that?" Arcadia demands, gaping at him. "You said he's your brother!"
Bass crushes the device in his hand. "So?" he replies. "If he's going to do something as stupid as this every time my back is turned, he deserves to be deleted." He looks at Mimic, effectively dismissing Arcadia. "I still want to know what that chaotic neutral thing is. I'll come and find you later, and you can explain it to me then, if you can."
He snaps his fingers, and the dimensional area fades.
"You told him independent Navis can materialise themselves?" Dr. Hikari gapes at Mimic incredulously.
She ducks her head and nods. It's very difficult to meet anyone's eyes when they're all staring at her the same way Arcadia had when she'd told Bass why he could materialise in the dimensional area.
Famous seems to be torn between confusion and frustration, and Kifune and Manabe - who had arrived at SciLab earlier with Lan in tow - are no better. Lan himself just seems totally bewildered; he'd come back from Sharo with Manabe barely an hour ago, and now he's just found out that Mimic has given Bass information that could potentially spell disaster if things go wrong. And they usually do go wrong.
"Why would you do that?" Kifune demands.
"I don't know," Mimic mumbles faintly, hunching her shoulders. She wishes she could just curl up somewhere and forget all this. "Just . . . did it."
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that NetNavi is?" Kifune goes on, heedless of her response. She's not even sure if he heard her. "He's one of four NetNavis who holds an Ultimate Program - and he hates humans as much as the Darkloids do! You've given him a weapon he could very easily use against us, and could have used against you!"
"Hold on a moment," Arcadia speaks up. "Bass didn't attack Chaud, even when he materialised himself - in fact, if anything, he actually seemed . . . grateful." The others fall silent to listen to him. Mimic guesses they want to hear if Arcadia discovered anything about Bass with his Empath Program. "I couldn't really sense much under his hostility, but he was kinda . . . curious, I think, about Chaud. Not in a bad way, just curious. He hates humans, sure, but he had every single opportunity to attack us - yet he didn't. I'm not entirely sure what his deal is, but I don't think he's as hostile as he wants us to believe."
Kifune considers Arcadia's words for a moment, and then sighs. He doesn't ask anything else, nor does he start scolding Mimic for doing something stupid - again. Sometimes it seems like the only thing Kifune ever does around Mimic is scold her for doing something she shouldn't have.
"What did he do after he got rid of the dimensional area?" Dr. Hikari asks.
"He left," Mimic replies.
"Really?" Lan speaks up now, looking surprised. "That doesn't sound like Bass. I mean, I don't know him that well, but last time he showed up . . . well, things kinda got really complicated."
"That's an understatement," MegaMan mutters.
Mimic shrugs. There's not much else to tell about her encounter with Bass - she and Arcadia, and Dark ProtoMan, were the only ones to see and talk to him. If she hadn't jumped the gun on the case, Lan probably would've been there too, but Mimic managed to cut out a lot of the investigation and went straight to the source, the same way she did with VideoMan. Though unlike with VideoMan, she actually had permission this time, and the only real danger came from Dark ProtoMan's brief appearance.
Speaking of appearances, she's still wondering what's going to happen with Bass. He'd said he was going to find her later - but that could mean literally anything. He might show up later today, or tomorrow, or some other time. She hasn't told anyone about it, in case they panic (in case Dr. Hikari panics) and try to figure out some way to stop Bass from getting to her, and so far, Arcadia has kept quiet as well. She guesses he's only keeping quiet because she is, sensing that she has her reasons for keeping that little detail out of her report.
Once she's finished being questioned - and enduring a short lecture from Dr. Hikari about the dangers of giving away vital information to someone who is very definitely not their ally - the adults move away a short distance to discuss Bass's return and his refusal of Dark ProtoMan's offer. Mimic tries not to listen, but she doesn't have her earmuffs, so she hears everything anyway.
But she's distracted by Lan, who comes up to her and gives her a quick once-over. He's checking to see if she's been hurt in any way, even though she hadn't been, and hadn't reported as such. Then again, she's a known liar - for all Lan knows, she has been hurt, and is just keeping it quiet for whatever reason.
He seems satisfied after checking her, though. Which is a relief, because Mimic is still burning with shame and embarrassment after the lecture Dr. Hikari gave her, not to mention Kifune's scolding. She doesn't want to be the centre of attention anymore today.
"Are you okay?" Lan asks carefully. "You said Dark ProtoMan showed up . . ."
"He didn't . . . h-hurt me," Mimic replies. "M'f-fine."
Lan doesn't look like he believes her, but he doesn't ask any further questions, which is also a relief.