"He's gone through a lot of mental and physical strain," Dad says. "It'll be a while before he's fully recovered, but until then, if he rests, he should be alright."
"That's good," Lan murmurs. He squeezes Chaud's hand - it's wrapped in bandages, same as his other hand - and peers at his friend's sleeping face.
He looks . . . almost peaceful. The only thing that gives away his injuries are the bandages wrapped around his head and hands, the IV drip attached to his arm, and the examination table he's lying on. The scanning machine that was used during Lan and Chaud's Cross Fusion examination so many weeks ago is being used now to monitor him - Dad says there's more brain activity in Chaud's head than most people have in theirs, though apparently that's normal for Chaud, even if it's not normal for anyone else.
He's exhausted, but he's alive. That's all Lan cares about, honestly.
Well, that and . . .
"How's ProtoMan doing?" Lan asks, glancing up from Chaud.
Dad looks a little less certain about ProtoMan than he is about Chaud, which automatically sends alarm bells ringing in Lan's head. It must show on his face, because Dad quickly reassures him.
"He's completely cured," Dad tells him. "The Dark Aura has been burnt out of him - and whatever Chaud did during Cross Fusion helped to purge him of it entirely." He hesitates for a split second, and then sighs. "But ProtoMan was exposed to Dark Chips for a long time. Even longer than most of the Navis we had contained here. We're having our repair system run a full repair on his systems, but he should be alright."
Lan murmurs wordlessly and turns his attention back to Chaud. At least he has some good news to tell him when he wakes up.
He's distracted by the sound of the door swishing open, and looks over to see Dr. Rei Amano walking into the examination room. Lan kind of freezes for a moment, his mind instantly taking him back to DenTech Tower and Hatsuko Amano's attempt to destroy it in the name of Nebula.
Dr. Amano doesn't look at him, or Chaud. She doesn't have her usual pleasant smile, but instead seems almost . . . detached. A rush of guilt washes over Lan, however much he tries to fight it off.
"We've finished setting up the medical equipment," Dr. Amano reports to Dad. "All you need to do is transfer him to the room when you're done with the examination."
"Thank you, Dr. Amano," Dad replies, inclining his head gratefully.
Dr. Amano nods back and turns to leave. Lan's guilt wells up until he can't take it anymore, so he steps forward before she goes.
"W-wait!" he stammers. Dr. Amano pauses, but she doesn't turn around. That doesn't make him feel any better. "Um . . . I'm sorry. About . . . about your niece."
Those words aren't nearly enough, he feels, but it's all he has. He can't feel guilty for arresting Amano - she's a criminal, and every time Lan saw her, she was always insulting Chaud or trying to get back at him for 'stealing' Arcadia. But he can't help but feel guilty for the effect Amano's actions had on her family, especially when faced with Dr. Amano in person.
Dr. Amano half-turns to look at him over her shoulder, but her expression is unreadable, and Lan doesn't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
"Thank you," Dr. Amano says quietly, before she finally leaves.
When she's gone, Lan slumps, turning back to Chaud. He sighs and wonders how Chaud would've handled that - he's pretty good at figuring out how people feel, probably because he's spent most of his life trying to avoid making people (mainly his evil father) angry, so maybe he could've figured out how Dr. Amano was feeling, and maybe he could've found the right words to say to her other than a pathetic attempt at an apology.
Or maybe he would've been no better than Lan. There's no telling how people will react, and maybe Chaud would've been too scared of making Dr. Amano angry at him to be able to speak to her.
"It wasn't your fault, you know," Dad says, making Lan look up at him. He's giving Lan a sympathetic look. "Hatsuko Amano made her own choices in life - it wasn't your fault." He glances at Chaud. "Or Chaud's."
"But . . . but I just feel so guilty," Lan admits.
"About arresting her?"
Lan shakes his head. "She would've hurt a lot of people if we hadn't stopped her," he replies. "But . . . what happened affected her family so badly. And I was directly involved in that."
"Like I said, it was her choice," Dad tells him, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You can't change how some people think, especially not people like Hatsuko Amano. She was determined to hate Chaud - and you, by extension - and that led her down a dark path. But there are people you can help, and the fact that you feel guilty for how her actions have affected her family shows you're a good person. I'd be more worried if you weren't guilty, to be honest."
Lan gives his dad a weak smile, and looks back at Chaud. "Do . . . do you think Chaud feels guilty about it, too?" he wonders.
"Probably even more than you," Dad sighs. "He won't ever regret taking in Arcadia, I know that much - but he might think that if he hadn't, Hatsuko Amano would never have had any reason to hate him, and she wouldn't have done what she did."
"That does sound like something he'd think," Lan murmurs.
Dad's right, though, even if Lan still feels guilty - it was Amano's own choices that led to her getting arrested for terrorism. Her actions hurt her family, and although Lan's never met her parents, he can guess they're even more broken up about it than Dr. Amano is.
Maybe this is a little selfish, but Lan hopes he and Chaud never have to meet Amano's parents. He's not sure either of them could take seeing how badly this has affected them.
The examination is almost over now. Lan waits in the observation room, keeping well out of the way, but he keeps an eye on Chaud through the glass window while occasionally glancing at the console Dad's working at. He can't tell what all those different diagrams and stuff on the screens mean, but Dad doesn't seem to be freaking out about anything, so Lan guesses everything is fine.
Anetta's leaning on the table next to him, also watching Chaud. He'd sent her a message earlier, telling her what happened to Chaud - and ProtoMan, too. She'd shown up at SciLab a few minutes ago and had been escorted here, where she could watch the examination with Lan.
" . . . All seems fine," Dad reports, when the examination is finally over. He turns around in his seat and gives Lan and Anetta a cheerful grin. "He just needs rest - his body will recover on its own."
"And his mind?" Anetta asks worriedly.
Dad doesn't exactly hesitate, but he doesn't answer right away, either. That's a little worrying - is there something wrong with Chaud's mind? After Misaki used the Dark synchro chip to force Cross Fusion, he'd been hospitalised for a long time. Though Chaud ripping a hole in his arm hadn't really helped. But if that was how Misaki was affected by using Dark Cross Fusing with a normal NetNavi, how badly has forcing a Cross Fusion with an actual Darkloid affected Chaud?
"His mind is fine," Dad quickly says, obviously seeing Lan and Anetta's growing concern. "It's just . . . a little hyper. More so than usual, even for him. But it'll calm down eventually, and it shouldn't affect him too much when he wakes up."
" . . . Alright," Anetta murmurs, glancing over at Chaud through the glass window.
Despite Dad's words, Lan's still worried. Dad had already mentioned Chaud's odd brain activity - the fact that it's more active, even hyper, is definitely concerning. If it does affect Chaud, what would happen? Will he just be a little more energetic than usual, or will he go a bit crazy?
The door to the observation room opens suddenly, and Lan's ears are immediately assaulted by the loudest meowing he's ever heard.
A black blur shoots across the floor and jumps onto the console Dad's working at. Ragdoll continues to meow as he paws at the glass separating him from his owner, even when Dad tries to get him to calm down and get off the console. His red lead trails after him like a snake, getting in the way, and Dad has to pull it off the console before it brushes against something it shouldn't.
"I'm so sorry!" Mom exclaims, stepping into the room with her hands over her mouth in horror. "I thought I could keep a hold of him . . ."
"It's fine," Dad says, still struggling to get Ragdoll off the console. He succeeds eventually, managing to drag Chaud's giant cat off and onto the floor, where Ragdoll paces restlessly and continues to meow loudly.
"I've never heard him meowing before," Anetta says, watching Ragdoll with wide eyes.
"He's been doing it ever since Chaud left," Lan explains sadly. "It's . . . Well, we think it might be his way of crying for Chaud."
"He missed his owner," Anetta murmurs. "Oh, you poor thing . . ."
She pushes off the table and heads over to Ragdoll. He stops pacing at her approach, but he looks up at her and continues to meow insistently. Anetta crouches beside him and he paws at her, then crawls onto her lap when she sits down properly. He's still meowing, but it's a little quieter than before, which is a huge relief because Ragdoll's meowing is loud, just like his purr.
"Oh . . ." Mom says softly, stepping up to the glass. She looks so worried that Lan gets up and hurries over to her. Mom wraps her arms around him but doesn't take her eyes off Chaud, as if she's afraid that the moment she looks away, he'll vanish.
Lan knows how that feels. It was hard, having to tear himself away from Chaud - the only compromise he could find was being able to stay here while Dad did the examination, because he could still see Chaud through the glass window. He knows Dad had the same issues, too, because he'd hesitated before taking Lan into the observation room.
"He'll be alright," Dad says gently, standing up to pull Mom - and Lan - into a hug. "I've finished the examination, and he's perfectly fine. He just needs to rest and recover."
"That's such a relief to hear," Mom sighs, leaning into Dad's hug.
They stay like that for a little while, until Dad has to get back to checking over the results of Chaud's examination - but, as he said, Chaud is fine and just needs to rest, so it's more of a formality than anything else. Lan takes Mom over to where he and Anetta had been waiting and lets her sit down on the chair he'd vacated, and he settles for leaning against the table and watching Anetta try to calm Ragdoll down.
She's not having much luck, but then, neither did they. When Chaud didn't come home with Lan and Dad after that mess at HQ, Ragdoll had immediately started meowing, almost as if he could somehow sense that his owner wasn't coming back. Mom said Ragdoll had been restless when Chaud had been kidnapped and taken to Dr. Regal's tanker, but this was worse - he just didn't stop meowing and kept wandering around the house, like he was trying to find Chaud.
Even if he's not quiet again, Lan thinks Ragdoll is doing a bit better than before. Seeing Chaud must have helped, and Anetta, while not entirely successful, is doing her best.
Dad's just finished checking the results when the door opens yet again. Lan half-expects it to be someone else who's coming in to check on Chaud - any one of their friends, or even Raika, who Lan thinks is still around after they called him in to help trap Dark ProtoMan in the old mansion.
His heart plummets into his stomach when Kifune and Manabe walk in. Their expressions are grim and he immediately wants to bolt, but the door they've just come in through is the only exit to this room - the only other door leads into the examination room, so he can't escape through there.
Dad gets up, narrowing his eyes at them suspiciously. Lan can guess why - the last time he saw Kifune and Manabe, they'd basically forced Chaud to go to that safe house, and Dad told him that Chaud was crying and begging not to go. Even if Dad eventually agreed, he was still reluctant, and seeing Chaud so upset would definitely sour relations with the people who caused it.
"Dr. Hikari," Kifune greets him politely. "We need to speak to you about Chaud."
"You're not taking him away again," Dad immediately says. "You said that safe house was meant to protect him, and look what happened!"
"Yes, well . . ." Kifune glances at Lan.
He realises with a jolt that they know exactly what he did. Chaud was safe at that place - until Lan got MegaMan to send a message directly to Arcadia, hoping that his messages weren't being monitored like Chaud's were.
"It was safe from people trying to break in," Kifune says, turning back to Dad. "If Nebula had attempted to attack, we would have known immediately, and we would have moved him. But we didn't anticipate Chaud himself breaking out of the safe house."
"Considering how he's reacted to confinement before," Dad says dryly, "I think you should have realised he'd try to escape on his own sooner or later."
"He didn't escape on his own," Manabe speaks up. Dad gives her a puzzled look. "He stayed in the safe house and followed the rules for six days, until the seventh day - when you were dealing with Dark ProtoMan. We believe someone may have told him what was happening, and that spurred him into action."
Dad's eyes widen, and then flicker over to Lan for a brief moment. Lan very carefully holds his tongue - no one's actually accused him yet, but he's afraid that giving himself away is exactly what Kifune and Manabe want, and they'll punish him as soon as he admits what he did.
He doesn't regret it, even though it led to Chaud getting so hurt. He knew Chaud would want to be there when they got ProtoMan back - so he'd gotten MegaMan to send that message. But he didn't know the vaccine chip wouldn't work, and he didn't know Chaud would force Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan.
The only way he could've done that was if he went to SciLab beforehand and got his PET. Dad had checked the place they were keeping it - the room where they'd kept the Poltergeist, before ProtoMan turned into Dark ProtoMan. Chaud's PET was missing from the slot it was supposed to be in, and in its place was the white PET meant to house Arcadia.
The fact that Chaud went and got his PET tells Lan something very obvious that he hopes Kifune and Manabe will realise - Chaud had a dream about this, and knew the vaccine chip wouldn't work, so he'd grabbed his PET.
But . . . no, that's not right, is it? Chaud had been just as shocked as Lan and Arcadia when the vaccine chip hadn't worked. So maybe he didn't have a dream, but he'd just wanted to have a backup plan in place, as a precaution. What Lan wants to know is how Chaud knew that forcing Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan would work in the first place, if he didn't dream about it.
Whatever the case, that's not the problem here.
"How do you know he didn't dream about it?" Dad points out, and Lan realises he's trying to help cover for him. He's intensely grateful, even though it doesn't look like Kifune and Manabe are buying it.
"If he had dreamed about it, he would've left as soon as he woke up," Manabe argues. "But he didn't - he broke out late in the afternoon, just a few hours before the plan was set to go ahead."
"You must've received a message about the plan, though," Dad says. "His hearing is ridiculously powerful, we all know that - he could've overheard you talking about it."
Kifune shakes his head. "I did send Manabe a message, true," he admits. "But it was a written message, not a verbal one. There was nothing for Chaud to have overheard, because it was never spoken about out loud. So our only conclusion is that one of the people involved in the plan told him about it themselves."
"But how?" Dad challenges. Lan can tell his dad's grasping at straws, trying to find some way to deflect the blame off him. "His messages are being monitored - no one can send him anything without your approval." He nods to Manabe. "So if someone sent him a message about the plan, it never would have gotten through."
"We didn't think to monitor messages being sent to Arcadia," Manabe bluntly replies, and Dad's eyes widen in shock at the revelation of the loophole. "We've only been monitoring messages sent to Chaud. And even if we had considered that people could contact him through Arcadia, there's no way we could monitor those messages the same way we do with anything sent to Chaud. Independent Navis don't follow the same rules as personal Navis."
Dad seems to be trying to come up with some other excuse or reason for how Chaud knew about the plan to save ProtoMan, but Lan's had enough of this. However much he doesn't want to face whatever punishment Kifune and Manabe have in store for him, it's painful watching his dad try to cover for him - and he doesn't want to drag Dad down with him, when this was entirely Lan's fault in the first place.
Lan opens his mouth-
"It was me."
Everyone startles at the new voice - even Anetta, who looks thoroughly confused about the conversation taking place. Lan'll probably have to explain the thing about the dreams in a while, but for now, he has to focus on this.
Kifune and Manabe part as they turn, revealing Raika standing in the doorway. Lan's shocked to see him, and even more shocked at the fact that Raika just owned up to sending Chaud the message that spurred him into escaping from the safe house and forcing Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan.
"You?" Kifune gapes at Raika as he steps into the room. "You sent that message?" He glances at Lan with wide eyes. "But we thought-"
"ProtoMan is Chaud's NetNavi," Raika declares, walking past Kifune and Manabe. He stops in the middle of the room, casting a swift glance at Chaud through the glass window before turning back to Kifune and Manabe. "And I know he still feels guilty for giving ProtoMan the Dark Chip that turned him into Dark ProtoMan. So I knew he'd want to at least be there when we saved ProtoMan." He hesitates for a moment, a trouble look crossing his expression, and Lan doesn't think he's ever seen such good acting from anyone who isn't Chaud. "I didn't anticipate this happening, though. I thought the vaccine chip would work."
"But . . ." Kifune still seems absolutely stunned, and beside him, Manabe is speechless. "You told him about . . . ?" He shakes his head disbelievingly. "You always follow your orders, though."
"Do I?" Raika raises an eyebrow. "I've disobeyed in the past, even though I have a reputation for following orders to the letter. The first time I came to Japan, you told me to stop investigating Chaud, and I continued even though it went against my orders. In Sharo, I followed Lan into the dimensional area around the rare metal mine even though I was explicitly told not to. I've learnt to follow my heart over my orders if the need arises. That led to my decision to tell Chaud about the plan."
He sounds so certain and matter-of-fact that Lan almost believes him, even though he's the one who actually sent the message.
The gravity of what Raika is doing hits him like a truck. Raika is taking the blame for him - taking the credit for telling Chaud about the plan, even though he doesn't have to. But why? Why would Raika tarnish his own reputation to protect Lan like this?
But maybe it's not just for me, Lan thinks, glancing through the glass window at Chaud.
Kifune still hesitates, but after exchanging a long look with Manabe, they both back down. Lan gapes at them, and then at Raika, who looks far too calm for someone who's just basically invited a potentially-horrible punishment on himself even though he did nothing to deserve it.
"We'll have to inform your superiors about this," Kifune says eventually.
"I expect nothing less. My uncle will punish me as he sees fit," Raika replies.
Kifune nods awkwardly. "Very well, then," he agrees. He gives Lan one last confused glance before leaving with Manabe.
Lan waits until he's sure they're both gone before turning to Raika. He still seems far too calm, and Lan can't help but think that if he were in Raika's position right now, he'd probably be having a panic attack that would rival Chaud's freak-outs.
"Why did you do that?" Lan asks. He's in too much awe to be demanding.
"Chaud wouldn't want you to be punished for helping him," Raika replies, closing his eyes for a moment. "And I don't want to see you punished for doing what you thought was right."
"But . . . now you're the one who'll be punished," Lan points out.
"And?" Raika glances at him. "You and Chaud are my friends. I'd rather not see either of you be put through any grief, especially not after we finally got ProtoMan back." He looks at the door where Kifune and Manabe left. "Besides, I don't think they will tell my uncle about this."
"What do you mean?" Dad asks, looking puzzled. "They just told you they'd be telling your superiors."
"Yes, but they're also fully aware of the fact that it was Lan who sent that message, not me," Raika replies. "But since I was the one who owned up, rather than Lan, they're more likely to just drop the issue to avoid any complications. That's another reason I did it - this way, no one will be punished."
"You're a genius!" Lan exclaims, grinning at him.
"This wasn't my idea," Raika says. "Not entirely. I was going to come here to defend you, but SearchMan came up with the idea of taking the blame instead, for the reasons I just told you."
"He did?" Lan blinks. "Oh, wow. Hey, thanks, SearchMan!"
"He's not here at the moment," Raika informs him.
"Where is he?"
A small smile spreads across Raika's face. "He wanted to see ProtoMan."
Arcadia hasn't really talked much since they got ProtoMan back, but MegaMan doesn't think that's a cause for concern. He's just too focused on watching over ProtoMan to want to speak, which MegaMan understands just fine.
"How are they?"
He's startled at the new voice, having gotten used to the quiet network, only broken by the gentle humming of the repair system working to fix ProtoMan's damaged systems.
"SearchMan," MegaMan says quietly, eyes widening as he sees the newcomer who's just streamed in beside him. "I didn't know you were here."
"Raika only just arrived," SearchMan explains. "I wanted to come here, to see how they're doing." He nods to ProtoMan, asleep in the repair system, and Arcadia, sitting in front of it with his knees drawn up to his chest.
"Arcadia hasn't said much since we got ProtoMan back," MegaMan replies, still keeping his voice down. He doesn't want to disturb Arcadia.
"I thought he'd be overjoyed to have his brother back," SearchMan comments, looking confused.
"He is," MegaMan says. "But I think he's too worried about ProtoMan right now. Once we're sure that ProtoMan is totally fine, he'll be okay again, I think."
SearchMan hums quietly. "And ProtoMan himself?"
"Dad says there's no trace of the Dark Aura left in him," MegaMan tells him. "Arcadia's feathers aren't reacting at all, and the repair system has run a full scan on him. The system's repairing him right now, and then all he needs to do is rest, and he'll be fine."
"That's good news," SearchMan says. "I . . . I was honestly afraid we might never get him back. Especially after the vaccine chip didn't work . . ."
"But Chaud found another way to cure him," MegaMan reminds him. "And Arcadia and Bass helped us contain them while Lan and I got rid of the Dark Aura."
"That's something I'm not entirely clear on," SearchMan admits, glancing down at MegaMan. "Bass. Why did he show up? I've never met him before, but from what Raika and I have read about him in Net Police reports, he hates humans and is entirely solitary. Yet he appeared then, and was even willing to assist us. Why?"
"I . . . don't really know." MegaMan rubs the back of his helmet awkwardly. "The only people who could tell us why aren't able to right now - Chaud's unconscious like ProtoMan, and Arcadia just isn't talking."
"Bass shows up to play Skyrim sometimes," Arcadia suddenly says.
MegaMan and SearchMan glance over at him. Arcadia hasn't looked away from ProtoMan, so his back is still facing them and they can't see his expression, but he's responding - he's talking. So far, the only sounds MegaMan has been able to get out of him were quiet hums or faint grunts.
"What?" SearchMan asks. He sounds so shocked, and MegaMan doesn't really blame him.
"It was back when Chaud told Bass about independent Navis being able to materialise in dimensional areas," Arcadia explains. "Bass wanted to know why Chaud told him, since he's our enemy, and Chaud said he didn't really seem like an enemy, more like chaotic neutral. Bass wanted to know what that meant, but Chaud was too scared then to tell him, so Bass said he'd find us later on so Chaud could explain it properly."
"I'm guessing he did find you, then," MegaMan says.
Arcadia grunts in agreement. "We told him about the alignment chart. Then Bass noticed the Skyrim logo on the computer and got curious about it. I told him what it was, and he was interested enough to play it - and it turns out he likes playing Skyrim, even though he keeps calling it a stupid game. I think he's just being rude to save face. But he shows up every other day to play Skyrim, so that's how we know him."
"Wait, you made friends with Bass?" MegaMan can't help but gape at him.
Arcadia shakes his head. "I don't think we're actually friends. It's more like he just tolerates us," he replies. "He turned up just before you sent me that message, and we asked if he wanted to come with us to save ProtoMan."
"And . . . he did," SearchMan guesses.
But Arcadia shakes his head again. "No, he refused," he corrects. "We weren't really offended, because we'd expected that. I didn't expect him to show up while we were trying to stop Chaud from going crazy, though. I guess he changed his mind."
"How did he get in, anyway?" SearchMan asks. "We destroyed the gate that allowed Dark ProtoMan to materialise in the real world. And I'm fairly certain that SciLab's own dimensional area would have alerted them to a strange NetNavi coming through their systems."
"It's Bass," Arcadia simply replies. "He does what he wants."
"That's true," MegaMan says thoughtfully. "No one knows for sure what Bass is actually capable of - how strong he is, what abilities he has, anything. His sheer power is amazing."
"Should we be concerned that an insanely-powerful human-hating NetNavi is wandering the internet?" SearchMan wonders cautiously.
"That same insanely-powerful human-hating NetNavi helped us save ProtoMan," Arcadia reminds him. "I think if we just leave Bass to do what he wants, he won't bother us."
"That's a good point," MegaMan muses. "I don't think Bass has ever actually done anything to deliberately harm anyone anyway. He made that Allegro robot, sure, but it was the robot who was kidnapping Navis, not Bass himself - and I think the only reason he hates humans so much is because he was born from the remains of PharaohMan, so really, if you think about it, Bass technically has no reason to be our enemy."
"He has no reason to be our ally, either," SearchMan points out.
"He'll help us if he wants to," Arcadia says. "Or he'll just leave us alone. Either way, if we don't bother him, he won't bother us. Seems pretty simple to me."
When Arcadia puts it like that, MegaMan has to admit, it really does seem pretty simple. He'd thought Bass would become a problem at some point, but maybe he doesn't need to become a problem if they just leave him to his own devices - and even if Arcadia says they're not actually friends with him, it seems like he and Chaud have managed to earn his trust, enough that he was willing to show up and help them save ProtoMan.
"So . . . Lostie can see the future," Anetta says.
She sounds a little doubtful - not that Lan blames her. He'd found it difficult to truly understand Chaud's power himself, and even now he still doesn't get it, not really. He's pretty sure even Chaud doesn't fully understand it, and it's his power.
Anetta frowns to herself for a moment, and then looks at over at Chaud. He's been moved to the room that Dr. Amano and a few other doctors have set up at SciLab, so they can monitor him with all the right medical equipment - SciLab had most of what they needed, especially since they'd updated their medical stuff when Lan and Chaud started using Cross Fusion regularly, and now Chaud's curled up in a bed with Ragdoll purring contently in his arms.
Lan doesn't need to wonder why Dad is keeping Chaud at SciLab rather than having him transferred to an actual hospital. The same reason why Kifune and Manabe forced Chaud to go to that safe house, even if it didn't really work out the way they hoped it would.
It just wouldn't really be safe to transfer Chaud to a regular hospital. At SciLab, they can protect him - no matter what Kifune says, SciLab's defences are state-of-the-art, and with Dr. Regal's forces so badly depleted, there's not much he'll be able to do if he tries to send someone to kidnap Chaud again.
He has no Darkloids left - Dark ProtoMan was the only one left, and he's gone now, for good. Ms. Yuri, who could use Dark Cross Fusion like Misaki did, is also gone, and no one knows where she is, but even if she were still around, Lan doesn't think she'd work with Dr. Regal anymore. She didn't want to kill Ms. Mari, and she even protected her twin sister against the wrath of Dark ProtoMan.
With Nebula so low on its members, Chaud is safe at SciLab. For now, anyway. They still have to be ready for anything that Dr. Regal might try and throw at them, though.
The endgame is coming. Lan doesn't need Chaud's precognition to know that.
" . . . That's how he knew about the hospital fire," Anetta suddenly says, breaking Lan out of his thoughts.
"What?" Lan asks.
Anetta blinks at him. "Before the fire happened, Lostie used to visit me, and he'd only have either ProtoMan or Arcadia with him, never both of them. He'd always say they just liked to explore the network and took it in turns. But . . ." She glances back at Chaud. "I guess they weren't exploring. They were checking for the Dark Aura, because he'd had a dream about it, and they were trying to find some way to stop it from destroying the hospital."
Lan gapes at her speechlessly.
"You figured that out just from learning about his power?" Raika asks, sounding impressed. He'd come as well, to visit Chaud properly since he couldn't really do that while Chaud was in the examination room. He's leaning against the wall on the other side of Chaud's bed right now.
"It makes sense," Anetta says, with a shrug. "And besides that, he didn't really seem too surprised when the fire broke out. Scared, sure, because who wouldn't be scared when you're in the middle of something as horrible as that?" She shudders at the memories. "But he wasn't surprised. I always wondered if he'd somehow known it was going to happen."
"He's a very special boy," Mom agrees. She's sitting in chair next to the bed, absently fiddling with Ragdoll's lead, which has been unclipped so Ragdoll can curl up with Chaud.
"Maybe a little too special," Anetta murmurs sadly. "His power is why Nebula took him, right? And why the Net Police locked him away."
"They didn't exactly lock him away," Raika points out.
Anetta gives him a hard glare, and Raika looks a little startled. "Lan told me that Manabe lady wouldn't even let Chaud outside," she snaps. "How is that not locking him away?" She gives him a disgusted look. "Are you saying they were right to take away his freedom even more than they already did?"
"I didn't say I agreed with it," Raika tells her, holding his hands up in a placating manner. "I just said they didn't actually lock him away. Honestly, I think the Japanese Net Police could've reacted better as well, especially considering Chaud has a reputation for doing the exact opposite of what he's told to do. But given the situation, I do understand that it was probably the only option they thought they had at the time. I don't agree with what they did, but I understand why they did it. That's all I'm saying."
That seems to calm Anetta a little. "I suppose it could've been worse," she mutters. "They could've forced him into some underground bunker and never let him see the light of day again."
Lan, Mom, and Raika all stare at her.
Anetta hunches her shoulder defensively. "What? That's what the government does in all those movies!" she exclaims. "Someone has a special power that the government wants to use, so they lock that person away forever."
" . . . I think you watch too many movies," Lan tells her.
Anetta huffs.
"At least he has people who care for him, though," Raika says, apparently deciding to move on from Anetta's weird taste in movies. "That always makes things seem better, if someone you love is helping you through bad times." His expression darkens a little. "I don't know how I would've coped if my uncle hadn't taken me in after my parents died. Having him to look after me made things seem a bit better. And I know Chaud practically thrives on love, so the fact that he's got so many people to care for him will help."
Lan has no idea what to say to that. What can when you say, when one of your friends has just said he's an orphan? But Anetta is giving Raika a look of sympathetic understanding.
"My parents died in the car accident that put me in the hospital," Anetta tells Raika. He straightens and looks at her attentively. "I didn't have anyone to care for me, aside from my NetNavi, Silk. And then . . . and then one day I met him." She glances at Chaud. "He'd gotten lost, and I kinda startled him at first, but I helped him get back to the therapy ward. And he kept coming back to visit me after that. Knowing he was gonna come and see me gave me something to look forward to, aside from my recovery. And he made sure I was okay during the fire, even while we were running around, trying to save people. You're right. Knowing that people care helps a lot."
Suddenly Lan is filled with a new appreciation of his own parents. He's been surrounded by love since the day he was born - and yet these three, Chaud, Anetta, and Raika, have been through so much pain and suffering.
Chaud was abused and practically tortured by his father, and then thrown out onto the streets for no reason. He's never mentioned his mother, so Lan can't judge her, but his father is definitely the worst human being that Lan's ever met, aside from Dr. Regal. At least Chaud doesn't have to go through any more pain at the hands of his father, though.
Raika just said he's an orphan, and was taken in by his uncle. That puts whatever interactions Lan has seen between the two of them into an entirely new perspective, and he can't help but feel a deep respect for Commissioner Malenkov for raising Raika to be so kind, even if he was a bit standoffish at first.
Anetta lost her parents in such a horrible way, but remained determined to recover. That kind of resolve is inspiring and Lan feels almost privileged to know her, especially after hearing what she just said about Chaud's selfless acts. It's amazing how strong and determinedly cheerful she is.
Lan's glad his parents are such good people. He's glad they're alive. They'd never hurt him on purpose, and they love him so much - and they love Chaud, too. That's something else he's glad of, because Chaud has suffered so much hatred in his life, and like Raika said, he practically thrives on love. How anyone could even think to hurt Chaud on purpose is beyond him; Lan himself only hurt Chaud when he was being an idiot and not thinking straight, and he'd felt so guilty about it afterwards.
"Love is just as important in recovery as any medicines or therapies," Mom speaks up, looking at them all in turn with a kind smile. When her gaze turns to Chaud, her smile softens into a look full of such love that it almost feels like a physical thing.
After a moment, Mom sighs, and she looks up at Lan.
"Don't say anything to Chaud about this," she begins, "but Yuichiro and I are considering adopting him."
"What!?" Lan exclaims, sitting bolt upright in shock. "R-really?" He can't stop an elated grin from spreading across his face, and he only just barely manages to stop himself from bouncing up and down. He doesn't want to wake Chaud up; Dad says he needs to rest.
"Hold on a moment," Raika interrupts. "I'm . . . confused. Why would you not want to tell Chaud about something like that?"
"Yeah," Anetta adds, "he'd be thrilled!"
Lan's joy vanishes abruptly, and he exchanges a glance with his mom. She looks just as uncomfortable as he suddenly feels.
"What is it?" Anetta looks between them, worried.
"I'm not sure telling him would be a good idea right now," Lan admits. "I think . . . I think he's still scared of being rejected."
"Yuichiro told me about something that happened a few weeks ago," Mom says quietly. "Apparently Chaud went chasing after Lan to help fight in a battle against a Darkloid - the one who controlled gravity, I think it was. But he wasn't supposed to go, and Yuichiro was angry at the time, something about the Battle Chip Gate I believe. And Chaud must have thought that Yuichiro would be angry at him when he got back."
"Angry enough to throw him out of the house and onto the streets," Lan finishes. He glances at Chaud sadly. "If he's still scared we might throw him out for even the smallest reason, he might not be ready to talk about something as big as adoption. Not yet, anyway."
"He called Dr. Hikari 'Dad' after we saved ProtoMan, though," Raika points out, still looking puzzled. "I honestly thought you'd already adopted him by then."
"I don't think Chaud knew what he was saying," Lan says. "He was exhausted and hurt, and . . . it probably just slipped out." However much it hurts to think that Chaud didn't say 'Dad' on purpose, Lan knows he'd probably freak out if he found out what he said. He's honestly kind of hoping that Chaud doesn't remember, for the sake of his sanity if nothing else.
"You should talk to Chaud about this, though," Anetta says reasonably. "You said that thing with the Darkloid happened a few weeks ago, right? A lot has changed since then. And it may have just been just been an accident, but he still called Dr. Hikari 'Dad'. He might not be ready for actual adoption, but he might be able to at least talk about it."
Lan exchanges another glance with his mom.
"Perhaps we'll sit down and discuss it with him after this Nebula business has been sorted out," Mom decides. "It wouldn't be fair to spring something as big as this on him with everything that's going on right now."
Lan nods his agreement, and to his relief, he sees that Anetta and Raika seem to be satisfied with that.
Raika has to head out to report to HQ for something - Lan's not sure what, but Raika assures him it's nothing to do with him taking the blame for sending Chaud that message, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about. With Raika gone, it's just Lan, Mom, and Anetta left in the medical room, and Ragdoll still curled up with Chaud.
But then they get more visitors a few minutes after Raika leaves. Maylu and Dex come in, and Yai trails after them, looking . . . mildly disdainful, for some reason, but Lan decides to ignore that and focus on the fact that his friends are here.
"Hey, guys," Lan says, grinning. He's sitting on the edge of Chaud's bed, Mom's still in her chair, and Anetta is leaning against the wall next to Mom since she said she didn't want to disturb Chaud by sitting on the bed as well. So there's plenty of room for Maylu, Dex, and Yai to stand.
"Hi," Maylu replies, with a grin of her own. "We thought we'd come visit. We weren't really sure if we'd be able to, but SciLab let us in just fine, so . . ."
She looks a little puzzled as she says that, abruptly reminding Lan that she and the others don't know about Chaud's power. Mom knows because Dad had made sure to tell her after Chaud was rescued from Dr. Regal's tanker, and Anetta, of course, has only just found out - mainly because she happened to be in the room while Dad and Kifune were talking about Chaud's dreams.
But just because he told Anetta doesn't mean he's going to tell Maylu or any of the others, as well. It's not that he doesn't trust his friends, but Dad said that the less people who know about Chaud's power, the better. As far Maylu and the others know, Nebula keeps trying to kidnap Chaud because he has something they want, but that's all they know.
It kind of hurts to know he's not allowed to tell his friends. But for Chaud's safety, he'll keep this a secret - and it's an actual secret, this time, not just the secret he thought being a Net Saver was supposed to be (and it turned out he didn't even need to keep that a secret, which was . . . a little disappointing, but whatever).
"Tory says hi," Dex speaks up. He's got the same look as Maylu, but at least he's not giving away any not-so-subtle hints that he wants to know why everyone is so protective of Chaud like Maylu's doing. "He'd come here too, but he says his dad needs IceMan for something at the Waterworks, so he sent us with a message."
"I hope Chaud feels better soon," Maylu recites. Lan can tell she's trying to mimic Tory's voice, but she's nowhere near as good a mimic as Chaud is. She's making an effort, though. "He also says he misses Chaud and is looking forward to seeing him again at some point."
"If Chaud was awake right now, he'd probably be really embarrassed at all this attention," Lan jokes.
He glances at Yai, expecting her to add her own thoughts or well-wishes, but she's staring at Anetta through narrow eyes. Anetta, who'd been smiling at Maylu and Dex's delivery of Tory's message, twitches as if she can feel the look. After a moment, Anetta looks down at her, and seems vaguely unsettled.
"Um . . . can I help you?" she asks hesitantly.
Yai is still giving her a narrow-eyed look. "So," she says slowly, apparently not answering Anetta's question, "you're Chaud's . . . girl . . . friend."
"I'm his friend, yeah," Anetta agrees. She glances at Lan, looking completely lost, but he has no idea what's going on either, so all he can offer is a shrug.
Maylu, on the other hand, seems to know exactly what's going on. "Yai, c'mon, we talked about this," she sighs. "Anetta's not his girlfriend. I'm pretty sure Chaud's not even interested in that kinda stuff."
Understanding dawns on Lan. He's too startled to laugh, because it's that absurd - Yai thinks Chaud and Anetta are dating? How did she even come to that conclusion, when she's never even met Anetta before?
"Are you Chaud's girlfriend?" Yai bluntly asks Anetta, who looks even more startled than Lan feels.
"No," she replies.
"Are you sure?" Yai presses suspiciously.
Anetta's expression falls into an annoyed look that reminds Lan so much of Chaud that he's sure she must have picked it up from him.
"I think I'd know if I was dating my best friend," Anetta replies. "Why do you even care about whether or not we're dating, anyway?"
"Because I like him," Yai shoots back.
"What," Lan says.
Yai smiles and sighs. "He's so timid and submissive," she says dreamily. "It's adorable. He'd be perfect for me, don't you think?"
"Um," Anetta begins, "I'm no expert on the subject, but I'm pretty sure those are the wrong reasons to like someone."
"Also, where is this even coming from?" Lan adds, now utterly confused once again. "Last time you saw Chaud, you didn't even hint at this."
"I've changed over the past year," Yai says defensively. "I'm a woman now."
"You're nine," Maylu deadpans. "And, like I said, I'm pretty sure Chaud's not interested in this stuff."
"And even if he were, I don't think he'd enjoy being with you," Lan tells Yai. "You, uh . . . you kinda have the exact personality he doesn't like. Loud, demanding, impatient . . . He'd be terrified of you."
"How dare you!" Yai exclaims, gaping at him in shock. "I'm not loud, or demanding, or impatient!"
There's a beat of awkward silence.
Eventually, it's Mom who breaks it, looking torn between being absolutely horrified and totally offended on Chaud's behalf. Lan's still too confused about what's going on to feel either of those things, so he silently applauds his mom for getting past that.
"Um, young lady," Mom says delicately, "I think it may be best if you leave Chaud alone. At least about . . . this."
This is something else that Lan silently applauds his mom on - her tact. She clearly wants to say something else entirely, probably a lot less placating than what she actually said, but she's keeping her tone even and her words polite to avoid annoying Yai any further. That's something Lan probably should've done, but he doesn't have the same way with words that Mom has.
He's extremely grateful that Chaud's still asleep. He'd bolt if he heard this conversation, or Yai would just try and force him to go out with her right here and now, and Lan has no idea how Chaud would react to that.
"I'll give him some time," Yai decides, much to Lan's relief - though her words imply that this probably isn't the last they're going to hear about . . . whatever this is. "If he sees what a wonderful person I am, he'll practically fall over at my feet."
More like fall over laughing, Lan thinks. If he doesn't have a panic attack first, that is.
Lan silently makes a vow to never tell Chaud about this. Yai's never really been Chaud's favourite person, but he gets on with her just fine if he's calm enough, and knowing about this mess would just make him reluctant to go anywhere near her. No matter how much Yai says otherwise, she has the exact kind of personality that Chaud is not good at dealing with.
When Mimic wakes up, she feels . . . odd. After everything that happened, she'd expected to be sluggish, or at least somewhat sleepy, but instead, it's the exact opposite.
She wants to get out of bed and move around. She needs to get out of bed and move around. She's practically vibrating with energy, the need to do something, but no one will let her out of bed because apparently she needs to rest.
No, she needs to move, she has to move, she's going to explode if she doesn't do something other than sit here and vibrate and holy shit she needs to do something-
"Chaud," Haruka says, startling her.
Mimic just barely manages to focus on her. Her attention is darting everywhere at once, taking in too much and too little at the same time (how does that make sense?), and it's extremely difficult to keep her eyes fixed on Haruka long enough to be appropriate.
"Try to calm down a little," Haruka advises gently. "You're . . . you're trembling. A lot."
"Is he okay?" Maylu whispers to Lan, glancing at Mimic worriedly.
"Dad said his mind was a little hyper," Lan whispers back. "I didn't think he meant like this, though."
"I can hear you," Mimic reminds them, speaking so quickly that she's pretty sure no one understands a word she's saying. Lan and Maylu's startled expressions tells her they did understand her, somehow, even though Mimic could barely understand herself.
She's still vibrating. She still needs to move.
Fuck it, she thinks, and bolts out of bed before anyone can stop her.
She promptly gets tangled in the bed sheet and falls over, ending up flailing around on the floor wildly, hissing and trying to free herself.
"Oh, dear," Haruka sighs.
She gets up and crouches next to Mimic, trying to help her untangle herself. Mimic's too worked up and energetic to stop struggling long enough for Haruka to help her, though she does realise she probably should stop moving around so much. But she can't - she has to move, she's got too much energy, she has to do something or she'll explode and that's not going to fun for anyone because she doesn't know if she'll explode literally or figuratively and either one would be bad-
"Chaud, c'mon, you gotta stop," Lan sighs, coming forward to try and help. "You're supposed to be resting, not trying to bounce off the walls."
"Wanna run," Mimic tells him, forcing herself to stay still. She's so hopelessly tangled that it takes both Haruka and Lan working together to get her out of the bed sheet.
As soon as she's free, Mimic takes off again. Dex is standing in front of the doorway, effectively blocking it, and he looks startled when she makes a break directly for him. Lan lets out a yelp and hurls himself after her, somehow managing to grab Mimic before she can get any closer to the door.
"Stop it, please!" Lan begs, fighting to get her back to the bed. "Dad says-"
"Screw what Dad says I need to move-" Mimic says, too fast to think about what she's saying.
She's puzzled when Lan suddenly freezes, and so startled he's not fighting her anymore that she stops moving and twists around in his grip to stare at him.
" . . . What?" Mimic asks.
"Nothing," Lan says, jolting as if she's shocked him out of his thoughts or something. "Just . . . just get back in the bed, okay? Please."
Energy still courses through her body, filling her with the need to move, to run, to do something, but Lan's odd reaction is far too puzzling for her to pay attention to that anymore. How strange - she's finally focusing on one thing, and it's something as odd as whatever the hell is going on with Lan.
She lets Lan put her back in bed, and doesn't fight when Haruka tucks the bed sheet back over her. Ragdoll, who'd jumped off the bed when Mimic tried to bolt off and got tangled in the bed sheet, claws his way back onto the bed and settles in her lap, purring.
Mimic runs a hand through his fur, and gradually the energy in her calms down while she listens to Ragdoll. Lan and Haruka look relieved to see that she's finally calming down, while the others - Anetta, Maylu, Dex, and Yai - are still looking pretty confused about how hyper Mimic is acting.
Actually, Yai won't stop looking at her, and Mimic keeps catching her with an odd, almost dreamy look on her face. She doesn't know why - maybe Yai's got something on her mind and keeps zoning out. The fact that she won't stop staring at Mimic is a little disconcerting, though she hasn't been paying enough attention until now to actually care.
"Mom, Yai's staring at me," Mimic complains, because she has no filter whatsoever right now.
Haruka freezes just like Lan did, which is odd, and Mimic is immediately distracted from Yai's staring because Lan and Haruka are acting very weird right now. Did something happen while Mimic was asleep? It's not ProtoMan, otherwise someone would've told her. Is it Dr. Hikari? But that wouldn't make sense either, because if something had happened to him, they'd tell her about that as well.
Then it must be something else-
You called Dr. Hikari 'Dad', and Haruka 'Mom', Chaud informs her, sounding extremely exasperated.
. . . Oh.
All of Mimic's energy vanishes, and she curls up over Ragdoll, burying her face in his fur. Suddenly she no longer wants to run around or move or anything, she just wants the ground to open up and swallow her whole, if only to save her from the embarrassment of realising that she called Dr. Hikari 'Dad' and Haruka 'Mom' without thinking about it.
How did you not realise? Chaud sighs, his exasperation not entirely fading, but some of it is replaced with sympathy for how embarrassed Mimic feels.
I don't know, Mimic replies. It just slipped out. I wasn't even thinking. Oh my god, I'm an idiot.
I don't think they mind, Chaud says. They're just surprised about it, is all. But . . . maybe if you want to avoid something like this happening again, try not to call them Mom and Dad?
I can't stop myself from blurting shit out right now, Mimic hisses in response. I have no filter.
Then don't talk, Chaud replies bluntly. It's easy to lie about things when you don't talk, right? So why should this not be the same?
Okay. Fine. She won't say a goddamn word, and then she won't accidentally call Dr. Hikari 'Dad' or Haruka 'Mom'. Half of the people in this room are fluent in sign language anyway, so who cares if she uses her hands to talk, instead of her mouth?
An alarm screams suddenly, making Mimic jump and hiss in surprise. Ragdoll lets out a startled mrr and digs his claws into her legs, but Mimic's too busy looking up and covering her ears to notice.
Everyone else is startled as well. Lan shoots a quick glance at Mimic before racing out of the room, somehow squeezing past Dex, who seems too surprised to move out of the way.
Mimic can't hear a damn thing over the alarm, so she can't try and listen out for what might be happening. And although she has the white PET again, Arcadia isn't inside it, because he's staying with ProtoMan right now, so he can't tell her what's going on. She's not going to complain about Arcadia not being here, because she understands why he isn't, and she'd honestly rather be with ProtoMan than stuck in this room, especially since there seems to be some kind of emergency.
Wait a second.
There's an emergency. She's just woken up at SciLab, and Lan told her that Dr. Hikari had run an examination on her earlier, just to check her over and make sure she's actually okay after forcing Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan.
Chaud had an examination like that in the anime, and then . . . he'd been in a hospital, Mimic thinks. They can't do that here, because it's not safe for her to be in a normal hospital, so she has to stay at SciLab to recover.
But now there's some kind of emergency, and Mimic thinks she knows what this is.
Those weird UFO things that stole all those NetNavis way back when Nebula was trying to collect energy for their dimensional converters. Mimic hasn't heard much about them since then, but in one of the final episodes of Axess, an army of the things had been sent out all across the cyberworld to steal NetNavis and use them to power the biggest dimensional area of all - covering the entire planet.
That's what this is, she realises. And that means they're close to the endgame now.
"Maylu!" Roll's voice suddenly cries out from Maylu's PET. "Maylu, there's trouble! Rush was kidnapped by BubbleMan!"
"What!?" Maylu yelps, whipping out her PET to stare at Roll in shock. "When did that happen?"
"Just a few minutes ago," Roll explains breathlessly. It sounds like she ran the whole way back to Maylu's PET. "I was walking through Internet City, and Rush was behind me, and then suddenly he yelped and I turned around and BubbleMan had him trapped in a big bubble! Then BubbleMan took off with him and I tried to follow, but a security door came down before I could, and I can't get through the door!"
"We need to tell Lan," Maylu quickly says, putting her PET away. She hesitates before moving, glancing over at Mimic uncertainly. "Chaud . . . I think you should stay here." Before Mimic has a chance to get offended, Maylu continues. "L-look, I know you'd wanna help, but ProtoMan's still out of commission and it'd be cruel to take Arcadia away from him right now."
Mimic, after a brief moment of hesitation, nods. She wouldn't be able to make herself heard above the noise of the alarm anyway, even if she weren't currently muting herself.
She watches as Maylu, Dex, and Yai bolt out of the door, not entirely sure if she's offended or disappointed that she can't help - or that the others think she can't help. She knows where Rush is, she could tell them right now, but they're already gone and they'd probably wonder how Mimic knew where BubbleMan took Rush anyway.
The noise of the alarm dies down quickly, and Mimic's sensitive hearing takes a few moments to recover properly. She doesn't bother trying to listen out for Lan or any of the others - the room she's in is fairly close to the main room, probably because Dr. Hikari wants to keep her close while he's keeping an eye on the situation in the cyberworld (which is rapidly getting worse by the moment), but she already knows how this will turn out, and she'll be able to hear when things go to hell anyway.
A gentle hand on her back brings her attention back to the room she's in right now, and she glances over at Haruka, who's giving her a sympathetic look.
"I know you want to help," Haruka says gently, "but you need to rest. You won't get better if you keep trying to run around."
"At least your zoomies have gone," Anetta speaks up cheerfully.
Haruka's shoulders shake with suppressed laughter, and Mimic purses her lips and tries not to giggle.
It's barely a few minutes after Maylu, Dex, and Yai went to go and find Lan when Mimic starts hearing loud crashes and screaming from the main room. She straightens up, listening hard, and discovers that the sounds are so loud even Haruka and Anetta can hear them, because they both look extremely worried.
It's ShadeMan, Mimic knows. He's turned Rush into a synchro chip, downloaded it, and has given himself the ability to materialise in the real world without the need of a dimensional area.
When the crashes and screams die down and then stop entirely, Mimic knows he's left SciLab. He's off to try and destroy all of Dr. Regal's real world assets, to get back at him for everything he's done - which Mimic understands, because she wants to get back at Dr. Regal for everything he's done to her, too.
He's the entire reason her freedom was taken away from her. He's the reason the Dark Chips exist, and he created the Dark Chip that Mimic used on ProtoMan.
Let ShadeMan rampage against him, she thinks. That bastard deserves to have all of his assets burnt to the ground anyway.
But, of course, she also knows that ShadeMan won't stop there. When he discovers where Dr. Regal is - thanks to LaserMan telling him - he'll come back to Japan, back to DenTech City, and start wreaking havoc in the streets.
Mimic closes her eyes for a brief moment, almost wishing there was some way she could just let ShadeMan have it out with Dr. Regal - but if they start fighting, the battle will spill into the streets, and innocent people could get hurt. So she needs to try and do something.
She opens her eyes and reaches out to grab the white PET. It was set on the bedside table, so she doesn't have to reach out very far to grab it, and although Haruka and Anetta give her worried looks, Mimic ignores them and activates the tracker program installed on the PET.
She's not going to force Arcadia away from ProtoMan. But she needs to be able to talk to him, and if she tries to send him a message, she'll have to wait until Manabe approves it - and she does not have the time to wait for that. Nor does she think Manabe will approve this kind of message anyway.
If you use the same program that lets you pull Arcadia out of networks, you should be able to latch onto his data signature and contact him through it, Chaud tells her.
Mimic follows his instructions carefully, and is rewarded for both of their efforts when Arcadia's face appears on the screen. He hasn't been pulled back into the white PET, because Mimic can see the background of the network behind him, and hears the faint humming of the repair system working on ProtoMan.
"Chaud?" Arcadia looks startled. He glances to the side, and Mimic guesses he saw Haruka in the background, peering at Mimic and at the screen - so that's why he didn't automatically call her by her real name. "How did you call-"
"There's an emergency," Mimic says quickly, because she's not sure how much time they have before ShadeMan comes back. "ShadeMan's in the real world."
Arcadia startles. "My feathers started glowing a few minutes ago, but then they stopped suddenly," he says. "I . . . I didn't think much of it." He looks almost ashamed of himself. "I was too busy watching ProtoMan . . ."
"S'fine," Mimic tells him. It really is - she can't expect Arcadia to care about anything but ProtoMan right now, not when she's half-tempted to do the same and just forget about the rest of the planet.
"You said ShadeMan's in the real world?" Arcadia asks, blinking. "But I don't see any dimensional area . . ."
Fully aware of Haruka and Anetta staring at her, Mimic shakes her head. "Didn't need one," she replies. "He took Rush. Turned him into a synchro chip."
"So he's got Rush's ability to materialise in the real world," Arcadia realises, eyes widening. "Oh, that . . . that's a problem."
"He'll attack the city," Mimic tells him. "Need to stop him."
Arcadia glances up, and Mimic knows he's looking at ProtoMan. She hates to tear him away from his brother, and she'd rather let him stay and look after ProtoMan, but she has to give him the chance to come with her. She'll be fine if he doesn't want to come - she can use the Battle Chip Gate without connecting it to a NetNavi, after all - but it's his choice in the end.
"I'll come with you," Arcadia says eventually. "Give me a moment to say goodbye to ProtoMan, I'll be right there."
Mimic nods and ends the call, turning off the tracker program. He'll be along shortly, so she just has to get up and out of bed - except she still has an obstacle in the form of Haruka and Anetta.
"You're supposed to be resting," Haruka tells her firmly, before Mimic can even think about moving.
"Have to go," Mimic insists.
Haruka's stern look softens. "Did you have a dream about this?"
Mimic hesitates for a moment, wondering if Haruka will detect her lie this time. Her verbal filter is shot to hell, even if she's calmed down from her 'zoomies', as Anetta called it. She might say something she shouldn't, revealing more than she wants to or just straight up admitting she didn't dream this but still knows what's going to happen anyway.
But it turns out she doesn't need to say a thing.
"You did," Haruka says, answering her own question. "I think I recognise that look in your eyes. You're determined to do whatever it takes to help, aren't you?"
Mimic hesitates again, but she nods. Hope flares in her chest - does this mean Haruka understands? Will she let Mimic go? Haruka isn't Dr. Hikari; she's never tried to keep Mimic by her side just to make sure she's alright, and has never refused to let her do anything if she was in any danger of being hurt again. She worries, of course she does, but she's not Dr. Hikari. And she's definitely not the Net Police, who kept taking away her freedom bit-by-bit until they finally locked her away.
Haruka sighs. "Alright," she says, and Mimic very nearly bounces out of the bed there and then, but Haruka holds up a hand and she pauses. "But . . . please, Chaud, be careful. You've been hurt so much lately, and I . . . I just want you to be safe."
"I know," Mimic murmurs faintly. "Th-thank you. For letting me go."
Haruka reaches out and brushes her hand against the side of Mimic's face. She gently brings Mimic forward and leans in to press her lips against the top her head, and Mimic closes her eyes and lets the warmth of Haruka's touch flow over her.
Dr. Hikari does this too. Is this something they do with both her and Lan, or is it just Mimic? Either way, it feels . . . nice. Warm. Kind.
It feels like love.
"Wait a second," Anetta says, stepping forward as Haruka draws back and allows Mimic to carefully climb out of the bed. "Lostie . . . you're serious about this? You . . . you actually want to go and help, even though ShadeMan could . . . ?"
Even though ShadeMan could hurt you, is what she wants to say. That's easy to figure out from her tone and expression.
But Mimic's been in danger countless times before, and not just because it happened in the anime - because she wants to help, and because she's like Lan, unable to let things lie if there's something she could do to save people.
"I have to do something," Mimic replies honestly. "I know where he's going."
"We can minimise the damage if Chaud tells Dr. Hikari where ShadeMan will appear," Arcadia adds, appearing in the white PET just in time to hear Anetta's hesitant words and Mimic's response.
Anetta still doesn't look too happy about it, but there's nothing Mimic can do about that. She'd rather not drag Anetta into another crisis, and she should be fine to walk on her own, at least to the main room - ShadeMan should still be rampaging somewhere else right now, nowhere near Japan at the moment, so Mimic has to hurry and tell Dr. Hikari.
"I'll be careful," Mimic tells Anetta. "Won't get into trouble." She pauses, rethinking her words. "Try not to, anyway. Can't r-really . . . guarantee anything."
Anetta huffs out a quick laugh. "Yeah," she agrees reluctantly, "I guess you can't." She sighs. "Alright. Go, and . . . and be careful."
Mimic looks at them - at Anetta, one of her best friends, and at Haruka, who's so kind and caring - and nods. Of course she can't guarantee that she's going to be completely safe, but at the very least, she'll be able to stay out of the way as much as possible.
She gives Ragdoll a quick stroke before leaving him to Haruka, and then darts out of the room.
ShadeMan needs to be stopped, even if Mimic would rather let him rampage against Dr. Regal. And Mimic can tell Dr. Hikari exactly where the Darkloid will appear in Japan, so they can minimise the damage, like Arcadia said. She just hopes Dr. Hikari will let her come along to help stop ShadeMan.