Mimic: Axess

by RennyBanette

Sequel to Mimic: Intermission - Axess. Mimic tries to work out how to use her knowledge of the future. But plans rarely survive first contact with the enemy.

52. The End of Darkness

Arcadia paces restlessly in the white PET, tense and almost impatient for the battle to start - if only so he can get it over with, to keep Mimic out of harm's way.

She's not going to be inside the dimensional area this time, but that won't mean anything if ShadeMan escapes like Mimic said he did in the anime. Or, as she told Dr. Hikari and the others, like he did in her dream. ShadeMan used the Rush synchro chip to give himself the ability to materialise without a dimensional area, and he could easily destroy the entire city. He's definitely angry enough to do it.

Dr. Hikari had, of course, listened to Mimic's warning. Arcadia could sense the shock and confusion of Maylu and the others, who don't know about Mimic's 'power', and knows they'll probably have a lot of questions about this later - namely, how Mimic knew where ShadeMan would show up and what he was going to do next. But at least they're going out to stop him.

It had taken quite a lot of begging on Mimic's part to get Dr. Hikari to allow her to come along. Lan's being allowed to go since he'll be able to use Cross Fusion in the dimensional area that SciLab will be trapping ShadeMan with, but Mimic isn't able to fight at all, and Arcadia can't protect her if there's no dimensional area.

But Mimic had promised she wouldn't get out of the truck and that she'd stay with Dr. Hikari, where he could keep an eye on her. There's still the danger of ShadeMan hurting her, but at least Dr. Hikari seems satisfied that she'll be staying out of the way - as much as possible, anyway.

Arcadia's still worried, though. He has his big brother back - he couldn't be happier about that - but he might very well lose his operator if things go badly. He doesn't want to trade one for the other, he wants both of them, just like how things used to be before Nebula kidnapped Mimic.

"Arcadia, it'll be fine," MegaMan says, watching him from where he sits on a datablock. "Chaud won't be anywhere near the battle, you know that."

"ShadeMan can materialise without a dimensional area," Arcadia reminds him tensely. "And Chaud's dream showed him breaking out of the one SciLab is going to trap him in."

"We'll be able to stop him," MegaMan replies.

"No, we won't!" Arcadia exclaims, whirling on him. "Why are you lying? I can sense your memories, you know. The last time we fought ShadeMan, he beat us easily! Chaud had to download that Dark Chip and ProtoMan went insane to stop him!"

"We didn't have the Dark Immunity Program back then," MegaMan points out calmly. "And you know more about your Dark Immunity ability now. Plus, Chaud has the Battle Chip Gate. We're more prepared to fight ShadeMan than we were before."

"He's the reason I lost my brother!" Arcadia snaps.

MegaMan's expression softens, and Arcadia senses a wave of sympathy from him. "Is that why you're so scared to fight him?"

"I'm not scared," Arcadia replies firmly, even though his wings are trembling and there are faint sparks of Holy Fire dancing along his arms. He closes his eyes, taking a deep breath, and then slumps in defeat. " . . . I am scared. I'm terrified. The last time we fought ShadeMan, I lost ProtoMan. And this time, I could lose Chaud. Or any of you. I don't . . . I don't want that to happen."

He opens his eyes as MegaMan slides off the datablock and comes over to him. MegaMan draws him into a hug, and Arcadia rests his chin on his shoulder, staring bleakly at the wall of the white PET. He's too worked up to return the hug, but the physical contact with MegaMan makes his Empath Program stronger, and he senses the same fear that he's feeling right now coming from MegaMan - he's just as scared of losing Lan as Arcadia is of losing Mimic.

Arcadia wonders if MegaMan knew he'd be able to sense his emotions more strongly through physical contact. If he does, he might have done this on purpose.

"We'll do our best to protect them," MegaMan says.

"What if it's not enough?" Arcadia whispers.

MegaMan's grip on him tightens, and he doesn't respond. There's no need to - through the fear of losing his operator, Arcadia detects a protective flash of determination from MegaMan. That flash sparks into his own systems through the Empath Program, and Arcadia brings his arms up to finally return the hug.

Even if their best isn't enough, they'll keep their operators safe. It's all they can do.

---

Mimic hangs onto the back of Dr. Hikari's seat in the truck and keeps her eyes focused on the road ahead. She's still not fully recovered from forcing Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan, but she's well enough to keep her balance standing in a moving truck, and definitely well enough to keep an eye out for the place ShadeMan's going to attack. She doesn't know the exact location, but how many eateries called Regal Burger can there be in the city, anyway? She's lucky Famous had recognised the name, and he's driving the truck in front of them, leading them to the eatery.

Lan's with Famous in the other truck, but Mimic can hear MegaMan talking to Arcadia in the white PET. She assumes he'll go back to Lan's PET once they arrive, but from what she can hear of their conversation, it sounds like MegaMan is trying to comfort Arcadia before they go and fight ShadeMan.

She almost wishes Lan was riding in this truck, with her. Even though she's determined to help, she's still terrified - the last time she saw ShadeMan, Lan and Arcadia hadn't even been able to put a dent in him, and it had taken ProtoMan begging her to use the Dark Chip to be able to stop ShadeMan from destroying the tanker. Lan would be able to help calm her fears, but he's not here, and she's left to deal with them on her own.

The fear is almost sickening. The last time she felt this afraid . . . well. She's been scared so much lately she can hardly remember a time she wasn't scared, and although she's able to keep her balance, the swaying of the truck isn't helping to settle her roiling stomach.

She doesn't notice Dr. Hikari watching her until he twists around in his seat and places a hand on the side of her head. Mimic blinks and looks at him, still sick with fear, unable to speak because she's pretty sure she'll throw up if she opens her mouth right now.

"You'll be alright," Dr. Hikari tells her gently. "We'll isolate ShadeMan, and we'll stop him. He won't get anywhere near you."

Mimic makes a ragged sound that she's not even sure is an attempt at speaking and slides down until she's sitting on the floor of the truck, pressed against Dr. Hikari's seat. He keeps his hand on her head even as he turns back to watching the road, and Mimic tries to take deep breaths and focus on his touch, fighting through her fear.

Suppose they don't stop ShadeMan, though? It didn't work in the anime. And last time Mimic thought something would work, it didn't - the vaccine chip didn't do anything to stop Dark ProtoMan, so why would the dimensional converters that SciLab created be able to stop ShadeMan?

They only had Lan in the anime. Here, they have Arcadia as well - but even Arcadia, with his Dark Immunity, couldn't do anything to ShadeMan last time. The former leader of the Darkloids seemed to be able to resist Arcadia's power through sheer force of will, and even working together, Lan and Arcadia may not be able to slow him down.

Mimic pushes those thoughts away and focuses on Dr. Hikari again. Even so, her fears still linger on the edges of her mind, and she's not entirely successful in ignoring them.

She's only feeling marginally better by the time they arrive at the eatery. Dr. Hikari had already called the Net Police to evacuate the area, so the place is like a ghost town when they get there, but at least they're prepared. ShadeMan hasn't arrived yet - Mimic would've heard him if he had, since he's angry enough to destroy anything and everything that gets in his way.

Dr. Hikari nods to the driver, and their truck slows to a stop. The other one in front of them keeps going until it has enough space to turn around, and when that one finally stops as well, Mimic sees the vague orange shape of Lan climbing out and running down the street, getting into position for when the dimensional area appears.

Lan ducks into an empty shop - abandoned thanks to the evacuation, and hopefully it won't be destroyed in the fight, so the owners won't have a nasty shock when they come back - just opposite the eatery. Lan's job is to stay out of sight until they're absolutely sure there's nothing else they can do to stop ShadeMan.

Despite Mimic telling them it wouldn't work, Dr. Hikari and Famous have decided to try using the vaccine chip on ShadeMan anyway. They're going to use Lan as a last resort, and are holding out some hope that the vaccine chip will at least do something.

Mimic has serious doubts about that. She'd hoped the same thing about using the vaccine chip on Dark ProtoMan, and look how that turned out. If it didn't work on Dark ProtoMan, who was turned into a Darkloid, it definitely won't work on ShadeMan, who's always been a Darkloid.

But she's not going to argue with Dr. Hikari on this - for one thing, she doesn't know what will happen if they use this vaccine chip on ShadeMan, because this one is more powerful than the one in the anime. And for another, she just really doesn't want to argue with Dr. Hikari. Not just because the thought of arguing with him scares her, but also because she just doesn't want to. It feels wrong to even think about.

Mimic hears an explosion coming from inside the eatery - Regal Burger, like she'd remembered - and jerks her head up, getting to her feet so she can look out the window properly. Dr. Hikari hears it too; he narrows his eyes and gets ready to activate the dimensional area.

There's another explosion, and a cloud of dust mixed with fire blasts out of the eatery. A tall, dark shape moves within the cloud, and then ShadeMan emerges into the daylight, scowling and baring his vampire teeth.

Mimic feels a cold rush of dread as soon as she sees him. He hasn't gotten any less terrifying than the last time she saw him, and he's just as angry as he'd been before - though near the end of that battle, he'd been as scared as anyone who went up against the Poltergeist.

Unfortunately, they don't have the Poltergeist now. Mimic wouldn't force ProtoMan to wake up just to throw him at ShadeMan - though she may have to get him to wake up soon if things go the same way they did in the anime. And they probably will, considering everything else that's already happened.

"Where are you, Dr. Regal!?" ShadeMan shouts, looking around. He spots the trucks waiting for him and pauses.

"Now!" Dr. Hikari exclaims. "Dimensional area, activate!"

The floor of the truck vibrates as the converters take aim. Mimic sees the other truck's converters aiming upwards as well, and then light sparks out of all of the converters on the back of the trucks, converging above their heads and spreading into a vaguely dome-like shape. ShadeMan seems to be too surprised to react, or maybe he's just curious, and the dimensional area barrier shimmers into existence.

He's trapped, now. The only way he's getting out of there is if he breaks the barrier - which, of course, he can do easily. But that's why Mimic and Lan are here, to try and stop him from doing that.

Famous's voice comes out of the radio attached to the truck's console. "Aiming vaccine chip!" he reports. "And . . . launching!"

The vaccine chip launcher materialises in front of ShadeMan. Mimic straightens up, gripping the back of Dr. Hikari's seat - even if she knows this probably won't work, she can't really help but feel some vague hint of hope that the vaccine chip might be able to do something to ShadeMan.

A beam of light shoots out of the launcher, and ShadeMan brings up a leathery wing to slap it away. He scowls and reaches out, grabbing the launcher, and crushes it in his hand effortlessly.

"No!" Dr. Hikari exclaims, dismayed.

You did tell them, Chaud says dryly. But did they listen?

Hush, Mimic replies. I could feel your hope that it would work, too. You can't blame them for trying.

ShadeMan stalks toward the barrier, clenching his hand into a fist. He's about to start striking the dimensional area barrier - which means he'll break out of there far too quickly, if they don't stop him.

Mimic brings out the white PET and nods to Arcadia. It's up to him and Lan now. Mimic will be providing as much support as she can give them, but ultimately, stopping ShadeMan from destroying the barrier will have to fall onto their shoulders.

Arcadia nods back to her, then opens his mouth as if he wants to say something. He thinks better of it, apparently, and only gives her one last pleading look before vanishing from the PET's screen. Mimic can only guess what that look was about - did he want to tell her to be careful, like Haruka and Anetta did? Or maybe he wanted to say something else, and Mimic's just not smart enough to figure it out.

A moment after he vanishes from the white PET, Arcadia materialises behind ShadeMan. He doesn't even give the Darkloid a chance to turn around before immediately throwing a Firebomb at ShadeMan's back and sending him staggering forward a couple of paces - more out of surprise than anything else, Mimic thinks, because although Arcadia's ability has worked just fine with most other Darkloids, ShadeMan doesn't seem particularly bothered by the attack.

He's pissed, though. So he is bothered - just not in the way they want him to be. Mimic only just catches sight of his scowl before he turns and faces Arcadia.

"Your destruction of the real world stops here," Arcadia announces.

"Are you going to make me stop?" ShadeMan snaps. He tenses into a fighting position, clawed fingers curled and ready to attack.

"Yes," Arcadia replies. "And so is he."

"So is who-" ShadeMan begins to demand, but a flash of light interrupts him.

Lan erupts out of the empty shop in full Cross Fusion, already swinging a Wide Sword at ShadeMan's face. The white sparks of the Dark Immunity Program dance along the length of the Sword, and ShadeMan is grazed as he drops back to avoid the slash. It doesn't do much damage, the same as Arcadia's Firebomb, but it gets ShadeMan's attention away from the barrier.

ShadeMan's scowl deepens, but he doesn't seem particularly worried. He must remember the last time they fought, when he'd beaten them easily - and it's obvious that there's no Dark Chip-boosted insane Poltergeist to rip his arm off this time.

But Mimic's here. And she's not completely helpless this time, even if she's not inside the dimensional area with Lan and Arcadia.

She connects the Battle Chip Gate to Lan and gives him another Wide Sword to work with. Lan doesn't waste any time in rushing at ShadeMan, pivoting on his heel when he's close enough and slashing with both Wide Swords at the same time.

ShadeMan jumps over the attack and sails over Lan's head, then lands and gets a face full of Arcadia's Flashfire. Lan downloads a hasty Barrier to protect himself from the stream of Holy Fire, and ShadeMan stays rooted to the spot, bringing up a leathery wing to try and shield himself from the fire.

After a few moments, Arcadia has to let Flashfire die down, and ShadeMan knocks away the burning embers left over from the attack, glaring at him. He launches himself at Arcadia, pulling his arm back to strike.

Mimic switches the connection to Arcadia and downloads an Area Steal before the attack can connect, leaving ShadeMan to overbalance and stumble from the force of his own failed attack. Arcadia appears next to Lan, and they exchange a quick glance before turning back to ShadeMan, who's even more pissed than before.

"It's working," Dr. Hikari whispers, awed. "If they can tire him out enough, we might be able to get the vaccine chip to work!"

Mimic's pretty sure the vaccine chip will never work on ShadeMan, no matter how tired he is, but she doesn't say that out loud. She doesn't want to be that kind of person, someone who says 'I told you so' when something inevitably goes wrong. Not for something like this, anyway.

"Crush Noise!" ShadeMan shouts, snapping out his wings and blasting out a wave of sound.

Lan quickly jumps in front of Arcadia and raises his arms. "Life Aura, download!"

The purple barrier shimmers into being in front of him, protecting both of them from ShadeMan's most powerful attack. But despite how powerful the Life Aura is, it seems that ShadeMan's attack is even stronger, and Mimic sees cracks starting to appear in the barrier as Lan strains to keep it up.

Behind him, Arcadia starts shaping his Holy Fire into several small illusions. At first Mimic thinks they're cats, but she sees the shape of their legs and ears through the rippling fire and realises they're actually rabbits. Arcadia sends them charging around the Life Aura barrier, avoiding ShadeMan's attack entirely, and directs the Holy Fire rabbits to attack.

ShadeMan breaks his attack off abruptly when the Holy Fire rabbits launch themselves at him and start biting chunks out of his legs. He curses and tries to swat at them, but the rabbits are solid and don't dissipate like they normally would if Arcadia's Dark Immunity wasn't activated.

"Mega Cannon, download!" Lan announces, aiming his fist at ShadeMan. The Mega Cannon materialises on his arm, briefly sparks with the power of the Dark Immunity Program, and then Lan fires a power-boosted blast directly at ShadeMan's chest, where his NaviMark is.

Is it still a NaviMark if ShadeMan's a Darkloid, not a NetNavi? Mimic wonders, as ShadeMan is blown back from the force of the blast.

Shouldn't you be focusing on the battle? Chaud retorts tartly.

Alright, alright, keep your knickers on . . . Mimic mutters.

What does that even mean!?

Mimic doesn't bother answering. She quickly fishes out a Vulcan and transfers it to Arcadia, who gives Lan a sharp warning so he can drop down and not get blasted by the attack. Arcadia wastes no time in firing off the rapid-fire blasts of the Vulcan as soon as Lan's out of the way, not allowing ShadeMan a moment to recover. He's still conducting his Holy Fire rabbits with his free hand, too, which is frankly impressive.

ShadeMan is forced back a few steps, shielding himself from Arcadia's rapid-fire attacks with his wings. Lan adds in his own attack in the form of the Mega Buster while he's kneeling on the ground - it's not as fast as the Vulcan, but he's able to add in more than enough firepower to keep ShadeMan from retaliating.

But before Mimic can even think about feeling even the slightest bit hopeful that they might actually stand a chance against ShadeMan this time, she sees BubbleMan materialising right behind Arcadia and Lan. They're both too focused on ShadeMan to notice.

Dr. Hikari sees BubbleMan too, and his eyes widen as he gasps. ShadeMan's loyal servant - his only servant, to be honest, since all the other Darkloids in Nebula have been deleted or, in the case of Dark ProtoMan, cured - raises his harpoon to attack from behind before anyone can warn Arcadia or Lan.

Mimic makes a quick decision, and transfers a Barrier to Arcadia. His Vulcan vanishes, cutting off his rapid-fire attack, as the Barrier shimmers into existence around him and Lan. He looks confused for a moment before BubbleMan's attack slams into the Barrier, and Arcadia whirls around, looking startled as he realises BubbleMan has just tried to sneak-attack them from behind.

"BubbleMan to your aid, Master ShadeMan!" BubbleMan announces, undaunted by the Barrier and still firing his bubbly attack. "I'll help in any way I can!"

How about you help by fucking off, you annoying bubble-headed excuse of a Darkloid? Mimic seethes silently. If he hadn't appeared just now, they might have actually been able to beat ShadeMan.

ShadeMan immediately turns away from the fight and runs for the dimensional area barrier before anyone can try and stop him. He slams his fist into the barrier, hard, and the console in front of Dr. Hikari sparks in response. ShadeMan hits the barrier again, and this time Mimic hears the dimensional converters on the back of the truck malfunctioning in the same way.

"Increase power!" Dr. Hikari exclaims desperately, trying to do just that - but he's too late.

ShadeMan's third and final attack on the barrier is the last straw. The console goes dead and the converters explode, and the dimensional area immediately begins to fade.

Arcadia is forced out of the real world, Lan forced out of Cross Fusion, and BubbleMan has to leave as well - though he looks utterly shocked at being forced to return to the cyberworld so quickly, after arriving to help his leader. Mimic has no sympathy for him. However much of a terrible Darkloid he is, he's definitely an enemy right now, and she would have rather kept ShadeMan confined than watch him break through the barrier and crush whatever hope they have of stopping him from destroying the entire city out of sheer rage.

"Lan!" Dr. Hikari yells, shoving open the truck door and scrambling out.

Mimic follows him, fully aware that she'd promised to stay in the truck no matter what happened, but all she sees is ShadeMan turning on Lan, who's human and extremely vulnerable right now, and the only thing Mimic can think is get Lan away from ShadeMan.

She streaks past Dr. Hikari, pushing herself through any lingering tiredness or pain, and slams into Lan before ShadeMan can bring down his claws. They both skid across the ground and Mimic winces as a little skin is torn off her forearms, but ShadeMan's attack only smashes the concrete of the road rather than Lan's head, so she considers this a win.

ShadeMan whirls on them with a scowl, and Mimic crouches over Lan, baring her teeth, and responds with an explosive hiss. If her hair was anything like ProtoMan's, it'd probably be bristling right now - then again, it's usually messy enough that it might count anyway.

Before ShadeMan can attack again - and before Dr. Hikari can reach them - a holographic screen fades into existence in the sky, just beyond the tops of the buildings. Dr. Regal looks down at all of them, and ShadeMan immediately halts, staring up at him with such burning hatred that Mimic would almost be impressed - if he weren't currently trying to kill her and Lan, that is.

"Dr. Regal," ShadeMan growls. "So you've finally decided to show yourself, have you? Coward!"

Dr. Regal's eye briefly flickers to Mimic, and she remembers with a jolt of fear that he's still probably after her for her 'power'. Is that why he interfered, just now? He would obviously want Mimic alive so he can use her, but ShadeMan doesn't know - and probably wouldn't care - about Mimic's 'power', so Dr. Regal had probably interrupted before the Darkloid could kill her.

He'd done the same in the anime, though his reason for intervening was unknown, and honestly Mimic thinks she would rather be killed by ShadeMan than let Dr. Regal use her for his insane world domination plans. Or whatever plans he has. She has no idea at this point, he's insane and he needs to go down.

"ShadeMan," Dr. Regal's hologram calls, "if you wish to fight me, come to Regal Tower."

"Regal Tower?" ShadeMan repeats, with a confused scowl.

Mimic exchanges a glance with Lan, who she's still crouching over. He looks just as lost as she is - of course she remembers there was some sort of tower in the anime, but was there ever an actual Regal Tower in DenTech City? She's pretty sure the Net Police would have shut it down immediately the moment they found any ties with Dr. Regal himself.

Unless they didn't know about it. Maybe it's under a different name, and Dr. Regal's just dropping it in favour of its real name because there's literally no point in hiding anymore.

Mimic suddenly hears rumbling in the distance - and she sees a tower beginning to collapse just a few streets away. The faint sound of terrified screaming reaches her ears as the tower vanishes within a cloud of dust and debris.

An entirely new tower begins to rise out of the rubble. This tower she definitely remembers from the anime - it's less of a building and more of an energy conduit, built to power the dimensional converters inside it, along with those scattered around the world.

The converters inside the tower slide out along the sides and activate when the tower stops rising, and Mimic crouches lower, almost huddling against Lan, as the biggest dimensional area anyone has ever seen appears overhead. It covers the entire city within moments and keeps going, so huge that the barrier isn't even visible once it forms up.

Arcadia materialises beside Mimic and Lan a moment later, staring in the direction of Regal Tower with wide eyes. That confirms it - this is the dimensional area that Dr. Regal created to cover the entire world.

"Come face me, Darkloid," Dr. Regal says, his eye narrow in smug triumph. "We'll settle this once and for all."

ShadeMan's scowl somehow gets even angrier as Dr. Regal's face vanishes from the sky, and he takes into the air immediately, heading straight for Regal Tower. Mimic's glad he's gone - at least he's no longer trying to kill them. And hopefully all those people who were near the tower when it collapsed had the sense to run the hell away, otherwise they could easily get caught up in ShadeMan's battle with Dr. Regal.

Dr. Hikari recovers from his shock first, and rushes over to Mimic and Lan. He drops to his knees beside them, barely acknowledging Arcadia's presence - Arcadia doesn't look too bothered, so he can probably sense how worried Dr. Hikari is, and even Mimic can tell just by the unsettled look on Dr. Hikari's face.

"Are you both alright?" Dr. Hikari asks quickly. He reaches out and then freezes, as if uncertain as to whether or not they're too hurt for him to touch them.

Mimic reaches out in turn and bats his hand, silently telling him it's okay. She hasn't done more than graze the skin off her arms, and Lan wasn't hit by ShadeMan's attack because she managed to get him out of the way in time.

Her touch seems to reassure Dr. Hikari. He carefully takes hold of both of them and helps them stand - Lan seems to only have trouble getting up because he's still in shock from everything that just happened, though he's rapidly recovering, and Mimic's only issue is that her arms sting. Other than that, they're both pretty much okay.

"We need to get to Regal Tower," Lan says, blinking away the shock in his eyes and fixing his attention on the tower in the distance.

Dr. Hikari's grip on them tightens. Mimic can tell he's about to refuse to let them go, but Arcadia speaks up before he can say anything.

"I can fly you there," he says. "It won't take long - that tower isn't too far away."

"No," Dr. Hikari says firmly, giving Arcadia a stern look. "It's far too dangerous to-"

"Look around you, Dr. Hikari," Arcadia interrupts, fixing Dr. Hikari with a hard stare of his own. "The entire world is dangerous right now. It doesn't matter if Dr. Regal's forces are practically non-existent at this point - if he has the power to create a global dimensional area, he can do whatever the hell he wants. We need to stop him, and if Chaud and Lan think they can do something at that tower, I'm taking them there, whether or not you agree."

Dr. Hikari gapes at him, shocked into silence. Mimic and Lan can't help but stare at Arcadia as well - no one could have expected a speech like that, not from Arcadia, of all people.

But however shocking his speech is, he's right. Maybe there isn't much they can do at the tower, but they still need to get there. Mimic doesn't know if the fight between ShadeMan and Dr. Regal will change at all from how it went down in the anime, and they need to be ready in case anything is different. Aside from that, they need to see what they're up against. Seeing it in the anime isn't really going to be much help in real life, even if Mimic knows what's going to happen. If she's learnt anything while living in this world, it's that.

"Alright, go," Dr. Hikari sighs, stepping back after a long pause. "Just keep them both safe, please."

"Always," Arcadia promises.

Dr. Hikari backs off until he's far enough away to give Arcadia room to spread his wings. Arcadia looks at Mimic and Lan, and he offers his hands to them.

The amount of trust Mimic is placing in him is so instinctive she doesn't even think about taking his hand. He won't drop them - she knows he won't. Lan seems a little more hesitant, but after seeing her so unflinching, he takes a deep breath and takes Arcadia's other hand.

"Hold on tight," Arcadia warns them, before he beats his wings and takes to the sky.

---

They arrive just in time to see the end of the tense stand-off between ShadeMan and Dr. Regal. Arcadia carefully sets them down on the rubble-coated road near the tower, where they have a good view of ShadeMan on the roof of a building opposite it, and Dr. Regal standing on a platform halfway up the tower.

After a few tense moments, ShadeMan apparently gets tired of waiting. He jumps into the air, pulling his arm back to ready an attack, roaring his rage at Dr. Regal as he sails up to meet the madman responsible for most of the conflict that's happened lately.

High up on the platform, Dr. Regal doesn't seem too bothered. Mimic can't see his expression from this distance, but she definitely sees the familiar dark glint of the chip he takes out - a Dark synchro chip, she knows. She'd recognise it even if she didn't have her knowledge of the future.

An odd-looking chair with two arcs coming off the shoulders lowers down, and Dr. Regal steps back and sits in it. "Dark synchro chip," he announces, loud enough for everyone to hear him, "download."

Sickly light shines out from the chair as he downloads the Dark synchro chip. ShadeMan yells wordlessly as he's forced back by the strength of the light, and Arcadia turns to shield Mimic and Lan with his wings.

Only when the light starts to fade does Arcadia take his wings away, and Mimic sees Cross Fusion LaserMan in real life for the first time. The glowing blue lines across his body look even more ominous than they did in the anime, and the cyclops-like visor covering most of his face gleams in the light of the setting sun.

"How many more people can use Cross Fusion besides us!?" Lan exclaims, gaping up at Dr. Regal.

Arcadia glances at him, and then his eyes widen as he catches sight of something over their shoulders. "Get down!" he snaps, grabbing Mimic and Lan and dragging them down without waiting for them to obey.

A shadow falls over them suddenly, and Mimic looks up just in time to see ShadeMan hurling an entire bus at Dr. Regal. She doesn't see what Dr. Regal does in response, but the bus explodes upon impact, and a cloud of dust obscures their view of the platform for a few moments.

Then Dr. Regal shoots out of the cloud, held up by long, sharp claws sticking out of his stomach. He doesn't seem particularly bothered by the claws, even when sparks of data begin to bleed out from where the claws are penetrating him. The dust cloud begins to clear up, revealing ShadeMan at the other end of the long claws, with a massive fanged smirk that's visible even from here.

ShadeMan roars triumphantly and lashes out with his other claws. They stretch out and pierce through Dr. Regal, the same as his other set of claws, and ShadeMan laughs.

Dr. Regal's head twists around, like an owl. ShadeMan's laugh cuts off abruptly, and then a red laser shoots out of Dr. Regal's visor, blowing off one of ShadeMan's arms. The Darkloid screams, and Mimic winces at the sound of pain and confusion, wishing she could cover her ears but knowing full well that it wouldn't do a thing to muffle the sounds of the horrifying scene she's watching.

"Area Steal!" Dr. Regal's distorted voice echoes through the air, and he vanishes from ShadeMan's remaining claws.

He appears directly in front of ShadeMan, startling him. ShadeMan tries to attack, but Dr. Regal barely gives him enough time to snap his claws back before kicking him into the side of the tower with a crash.

Dr. Regal reaches out and lifts ShadeMan by the throat, ignoring the Darkloid's choked gasps for air. "Did you honestly think you could match me?" he mocks, in that same flat tone he always has. It's somehow even more unsettling to listen to now that his voice is distorted with Dark Cross Fusion. "You're nothing. Barely even worth my time."

"Shut up!" ShadeMan screams, raising his remaining arm to try and strike at Dr. Regal.

Dr. Regal simply grabs the arm and rips it off. Mimic gags, almost sick to her stomach, at the sight of ShadeMan's arm ripping off like paper - so similar to what Proxy did to ProtoMan all those months ago, so much that she can't help but feel some sort of pity for ShadeMan, who screams his pain and terror, no longer capable of defending himself. Dr. Regal's just too powerful.

And they have to fight him.

That realisation terrifies Mimic more than what what she's witnessing right now. Lan and Chaud pulled it off in the anime - but is Mimic strong enough to fight something like that? Is anyone? Dr. Regal is remorseless, uncaring, and insanely powerful. He'll stop at nothing to destroy everything.

"It'll be okay," Arcadia whispers to her, brushing one of his wings against her back even as he watches the slaughter going on in front of them. "We'll be okay."

Mimic wishes she could believe him.

"Disappear," Dr. Regal tells ShadeMan, and fires off a bright laser that literally rips ShadeMan to pieces.

The dying screams of ShadeMan are still echoing through the air as Dr. Regal turns around. His visor glints as he stares down at Mimic, Arcadia, and Lan - and she feels like he's staring at her in particular. Cold dread spreads throughout her body, very nearly paralysing her on the spot.

He's still after her. Even after all this, covering the entire world in a dimensional area, gaining so much power that he can tear apart the most powerful Darkloid in the entire cyberworld effortlessly, he still wants to get at her. All because she lied and told Dr. Hikari and everyone else that she can see the future in her dreams, all because Dark ProtoMan changed his mind and told Nebula the 'truth'.

White feathers block her view as Arcadia brings his wings up to cover her, shielding her from Dr. Regal's sight. He's glaring over the top of his wings, Holy Fire sparking along his arms in preparation for any attack Dr. Regal could make, regardless of the fact that he might not be capable of matching Dr. Regal's power.

"Lan! Chaud!"

She jumps at the sound of Dr. Hikari's voice.

Arcadia looks over her head and his eyes widen, so Mimic struggles to turn and look over the top of his wings. Dr. Hikari is leaning out of the side of a Net Police van, beckoning desperately to them. Famous is in the driver seat, staring up at Dr. Regal's tower with a look of absolute horror, so he and Dr. Hikari must have witnessed the brutal slaughter of ShadeMan. Mimic briefly wonders how she didn't hear them coming, but she must have been too focused on Dr. Regal deleting ShadeMan to notice.

"Get in, hurry!" Dr. Hikari shouts.

"Go," Arcadia hisses, opening one of his wings and giving Mimic a gentle shove to get her moving. He keeps his other wing covering her as she scrambles up and runs over to the van.

Lan keeps pace with her, and he jumps up into the van before she does, then reaches down to help her climb in. Arcadia keeps an eye on Dr. Regal until Mimic's inside, and then spreads his wings and takes into the air after closing the door behind them.

A moment later, Mimic hears a faint thump on the roof of the van, and realises Arcadia must be perching up there to protect the van from Dr. Regal if he decides to pursue them. He'd let them go in the anime, but since he's still after Mimic now, he might try and stop them from leaving.

The van lurches as Famous pulls away and drives off. Mimic doesn't hear any sounds of pursuit, but that doesn't mean they're safe yet - Dr. Regal could do quite literally anything right now. He might even be able to appear inside the van and snatch Mimic away before anyone can even think to react.

"Well, that didn't go how I expected it to."

Mimic utters a startled shriek and presses against Lan, looking around wildly. Lan tightens his grip on her protectively, and Dr. Hikari appears from the front of the van, looking alarmed - but then they all see the owner of the voice sitting opposite Mimic and Lan.

Bass raises an eyebrow at Mimic. "Thanks for trying to deafen me," he says.

"B-Bass?" Lan stammers, gaping at him. "What're you doing here?"

Bass glares at him. "I'm here to make sure that dumb human-" He gestures at Mimic. "-doesn't try and get himself killed. Again."

"Why?" Mimic blurts out.

"I don't have to justify my reasons for not wanting you dead," Bass snaps back, but that's not what Mimic was asking.

"Why did you free ShadeMan?"

Bass freezes, and Lan and Dr. Hikari stare at Mimic in shock. Famous glances over his shoulder for a moment before turning back to the road, but Mimic can tell he's keeping half his attention on the conversation in the back of the van.

"You told him about Rush, too," Mimic goes on. Her terror makes her voice shake, but she's used to that. "Why? If- if you hadn't done that, we would've had more time. We wouldn't- w-we wouldn't have to deal with- with-" She can't get Dr. Regal's name out of her mouth, so she settles for nodding in the direction they're driving away from. "-with him before we were ready."

" . . . How do you know about that?" Bass asks slowly.

A flash of anger rips through her fear. "Answer the damn question!" Mimic snaps, and Bass jerks back, looking surprised at her tone. "Why? We weren't ready!"

Bass hesitates for a moment. "I didn't know that stupid human could use that Cross Fusion thing," he says. Mimic thinks the only reason he's answering her question is because he hadn't expected her to get angry, much less snap at him. "I thought that Darkloid would be able to delete him easily." He scowls. "Guess I was wrong."

"No shit," Mimic bites out, glaring at him.

Bass glares right back. "Don't talk to me like that!" he snaps. "I made a mistake, that's all!"

"And now you can help us fix it," Mimic retorts. Before anyone - namely Bass - can protest, she pushes on. "You don't like that guy any more than we do. You want him gone, so do we. And it's partly your fault that this all started before we were ready, anyway."

" . . . Fine," Bass mutters. Lan and Dr. Hikari look shocked at his agreement, and Bass's scowl deepens as he crosses his arms. It looks almost like he's pouting, which is an absurd thing to think about. "But I'm only helping you. And don't order me around like I'm one of your damn NetNavis, got that?"

"Wasn't gonna," Mimic shoots back, leaning against Lan.

At least she's not as scared as she was before. Getting pissed off at Bass has helped her with that - and with him helping, however reluctantly, they stand a better chance of stopping Dr. Regal's rampage than before.

---

They somehow make it back to SciLab without Dr. Regal interfering. Mimic wants to think maybe he's given up on trying to kidnap her, but she knows better - he probably just thinks he doesn't need to stop them, because he's powerful enough to destroy anything he wants now anyway, and he could easily get at Mimic whenever he wants to.

She's in the main room of SciLab with everyone else, where Dr. Hikari can see her. He, like the others, is fully aware that Dr. Regal may try and come after her at any moment - so he wants to keep her in his sight, and she catches him glancing over at her every few seconds, like he's afraid she's vanished while he wasn't looking.

But so far she's fine. She's settled herself on one of the tables surrounding the room, too worn out to stand for much longer, and Arcadia is standing at her side, ready to defend her if the need arises. Bass leans against the table on Mimic's other side, glaring at every human who isn't Mimic.

Arcadia's protectiveness she understands. But Bass? He hasn't given her any reason for why he'd want to protect her - he as much said he's basically only here to make sure she doesn't die, which is pretty much the same thing. But he never said why, and he's not offering an explanation.

She's not going to ask him though. She probably pushed it by snapping at him and more or less forcing him to agree to help them - or just her, whatever - and now that her anger is dying down, she's wary of annoying Bass any further.

Mimic turns her attention away from the enigma that is Bass and looks to the centre of the room, where Dr. Hikari, Famous, and another scientist are working at a trio of consoles connected to a holographic projector table. A few minutes ago, Lan had sent MegaMan into the cyberworld to see if they could get into Regal Tower through its network, but once they'd discovered the heavy firewall guarding it, they had to figure something else out.

It was Dr. Hikari who decided they should get some intel before making any actual decisions. He'd asked Lan to give MegaMan Search Soul, and MegaMan is using it right now to scan Regal Tower's network from afar and send the data back to SciLab.

"Transmitting data," MegaMan announces.

A moment later, a hologram of Regal Tower appears on the projector table, blue and transparent. There's a glowing red sphere near the top, in the centre of the pillar. Dr. Hikari, Famous, and the other scientist quickly start going through the data that MegaMan sent them. If there's anything they can use in that data, they'll use it - literally anything will be helpful right now, against Dr. Regal.

Manabe comes in shortly after the hologram appears, looking tense. The first person she looks at upon entering is Bass, who stares back with a fixed glare until she turns away, looking vaguely uncomfortable, and focuses on Kifune instead.

"The lock-down of the area around Regal Tower has been completed," Manabe reports.

Kifune glances at her and nods to acknowledge her words, then turns back to watching the hologram. He seems to be very deliberately avoiding looking at Mimic, which is fine by her, because she'd rather not have to deal with him or Manabe right now - they have enough to worry about already, and she doesn't want to face whatever punishment they have in store for her after she broke out the prison-cottage and almost literally killed herself getting ProtoMan back, all against orders of course.

That's kind of her thing now, Mimic guesses. She didn't start out as Net Saver intending to get a reputation for doing the exact opposite of what she's told to do - to be honest, she'd thought that would be Lan's thing, since he kind of ended up being a wild card in the anime. Now Mimic's the wild card, and it's led to her freedom being taken away from her bit-by-bit. Dr. Regal's insane plans certainly didn't help, either.

But that's not the issue at the moment, though she will have to face her punishment eventually. Right now, Kifune and Manabe have bigger things to worry about than Mimic's habit of disobeying almost every order they give her.

"What's that light?" Lan asks, gesturing at the red sphere inside the hologram.

"The energy core," Dr. Hikari replies, glancing up from his console. "That's what's providing all the energy for those dimensional converters on the tower - and all the others around the world. That's how he's able to power this global dimensional area."

Lan's eyes widen and he leans forward in anticipation. "Then, if we destroy the energy core . . ."

"The dimensional area will disappear," Dr. Hikari finishes, nodding.

Famous looks up from his own console. "It won't be easy, though," he cautions them. "Regal Tower's firewall has state-of-the-art defences. MegaMan can't even get any closer than he already is - and I can only imagine it's even more fortified on the inside."

Arcadia glances over at Bass, speaking quietly so no one else will overhear. "Would you be able to get in?"

"Probably," Bass mutters. He scowls reluctantly as he admits, "But I'd have trouble on the inside, if I don't know what to expect. Even I have limits."

"We've got trouble!" the other scientist exclaims, startling everyone as he jumps up. "Netopia is under attack from a giant LaserMan!"

Famous looks up sharply, as everyone else is too stunned to respond. "What!?" he exclaims.

"Put it up on the main monitor," Dr. Hikari orders, gesturing to the screen on the wall above their heads.

The scientist quickly types at his console for a moment, and an image flickers onto the screen. It shows a giant version of LaserMan blasting out a thin blue beam at a city in Netopia, destroying everything in its path. Mimic hears no screaming from the people under attack, but she has no doubts that people are being injured - maybe even killed - by the giant LaserMan's attack.

They all watch the screen, horrified, and then the scientist speaks up again.

"Dr. Hikari, Kingland and Sharo are also being attacked!" he cries.

Now the image on the screen is showing another giant LaserMan blasting a hole through a clock tower across a wide river, and then image changes again to show Sharo's military attempting to fight back against the giant LaserMan attacking them - to no avail, though, because human weapons don't exactly do anything to NetNavis or humans using Cross Fusion.

Mimic flinches as the giant LaserMan in Sharo crushes the tanks with its foot. The people inside those things were probably crushed - and hopefully their deaths were swift, because she doesn't want to imagine how much pain they would be in if they somehow managed to survive.

He's a madman, Chaud whispers in horror. He's murdering thousands of people for no reason!

This is insane, Mimic whimpers.

Arcadia glances at her over his shoulder, then reaches to place a gentle hand on her knee. She knows he's trying to help her, but there's nothing that will comfort her from seeing the destruction that Dr. Regal can cause first-hand.

"I'm getting the same reports from Namaste," the scientist says fearfully, "and even Creamland!"

"How is he capable of existing in so many places at the same time?" Kifune demands, looking at Dr. Hikari.

"Solid projections," Dr. Hikari breathes. Everyone stares at him blankly, aside from Famous, and the other scientist, who's too focused on the reports to pay attention anymore. "He's using multiple solid projections of his data!"

"You mean like how viruses materialise in a dimensional area?" Lan asks. He glances at Arcadia and Bass. "And Navis, too?"

"Sort of," Dr. Hikari replies. "To be able to project his image at such a long distance requires a very complex and powerful technology. And to be able to cause this much damage simultaneously . . ."

Loud static cuts off his words. Everyone looks up at the screen as the image fizzles out to snow, and even though Mimic is already terrified enough, her heart drops to her stomach upon seeing it.

"What just happened?" Famous demands, turning to the other scientist. "Can you get the image back?"

"No," the scientist replies, though he's working away frantically. "There's suddenly a lot of interference, I don't know what happened!"

The static dies down as a familiar, although distorted, flat-toned laugh echoes throughout the room. The snow fades into the image of Dr. Regal, still in Cross Fusion, and the blank helmet is even more unsettling than his human face could ever hope to be.

"Dr. Regal!" Dr. Hikari exclaims.

"Dr. Hikari," Dr. Regal replies, with an almost icy calm tone. Mimic can't tell where he's looking thanks to his helmet, but she can almost feel his gaze on her, and it does not feel pleasant. "I will give you one chance to hand over Chaud Blaze."

"Over my dead body!" Dr. Hikari snaps, stepping forward with the most intense look of anger that Mimic has ever seen on his face.

"You're not getting anywhere near Chaud!" Lan adds, moving so he's standing in front of Mimic, as if trying to protect her from the image on the screen.

"You will hand over that boy!" Dr. Regal orders. "You cannot resist. All of humanity will bow before me, I who possess Duo's genes!"

Dr. Hikari is briefly distracted from his anger. "Duo's genes?" he repeats, looking stunned.

Kifune frowns up at the screen. "Fifteen years ago," he begins, "a meteorite crashed into a plane. The extraterrestrial Duo chose two people to observe our planet from the wreckage of that crash."

"One was Ms. Yuri," Famous says, "and the other . . ."

"The other is you?" Dr. Hikari demands, glaring at Dr. Regal. "Is that what you're saying?"

"I am the demon that exists to destroy all of humanity," Dr. Regal announces. "If I use the power that boy possesses, I will be unbeatable! None will dare oppose me, once I know the future!"

Dr. Hikari growls, so similar to the sound that Mimic makes sometimes that she's distracted from Dr. Regal's demands for a moment, staring at Dr. Hikari in shock. Her attention is jerked back to the madman on the screen when he speaks again, though.

"I will acknowledge your scientific talent, Dr. Hikari," Dr. Regal concedes. "You were able to create a dimensional area, however incomplete, along with these synchro chips."

He holds up four synchro chips.

"Those are the rest of the synchro chips that were stolen from SciLab!" Famous exclaims.

"You created these for the betterment of humanity and the cyberworld," Dr. Regal says, "but I will use them to take what is rightfully mine, as the destroyer of humanity."

'Take what is rightfully mine'? Mimic repeats, horrified at the implication of those words. Does . . . does he think he's entitled to me, just because everyone believes I can see the future?

Maybe next time we should come up with a different lie, Chaud suggests, though the attempted joke falls flat in the face of their shared fear.

"Watch closely!" Dr. Regal tells them. He holds up his other hand, and dark purple light flares up from his palm. He combines the light with the four synchro chips.

The light bleeds out until it's blinding, and Mimic isn't the only one to cover her eyes. The light dies down just as quickly as it appeared, and when they all look back at the screen, there's another giant LaserMan in front of Regal Tower.

This one's different to the others, though. It has no glowing lines and isn't moving at all, at least not until Dr. Regal steps off the platform and merges into the giant LaserMan's body.

Glowing blue lines fade up across the giant's body, and it moves. Dr. Regal raises his arms and lets out a dull roar, and visible shock waves of force blast out from him, smashing glass and concrete and anything that happens to get caught up in the blast.

"It's not just a projection this time," Famous says tightly.

On the screen, Dr. Regal begins to make his way through the city. He shoots out the same blue laser that the projections used - though this one is thicker and far more destructive than the others.

Lan takes a step back in horrified shock, and he whirls around to look at Dr. Hikari desperately. "Dad, isn't there any way we can stop this?"

Dr. Hikari frowns. "We may be able to use that security hole," he says thoughtfully.

"Security hole?" Kifune looks at him sharply.

"ShadeMan used a series of holes to bypass SciLab's firewall and wander through the network undetected," Dr. Hikari explains.

Arcadia looks vaguely uncomfortable at that last word, reminding Mimic that he had, in fact, detected ShadeMan and BubbleMan's presence - but had ignored it in favour of ProtoMan. That's not his fault, though. No one's going to blame him. Well, Mimic isn't, anyway.

"If we can alter the hole a bit," Dr. Hikari says, as an image of the hole he's talking about appears on the screen for the benefit of Kifune and Manabe, "we may just be able to get through Regal Tower's firewall. Then we can destroy the energy core, and the dimensional area will vanish."

"Dr. Hikari!" the scientist shouts, looking up from his console. "We've predicted Dr. Regal's destination!"

Mimic already knows what he's about to say, but knowing that Dr. Regal is almost exclusively focusing on trying to get at her makes her almost sick to her stomach.

"If he keeps heading in the direction he's going now, he'll be coming straight to SciLab!"

He's coming here because of me, Mimic thinks, flinching and hunching her shoulders.

Dr. Regal would have come here anyway, of course. But knowing that doesn't change the fact that he's after her, and he'll stop at nothing to get what he wants. If he gets to SciLab, he'll kill everyone here, he'll destroy the building, anything to take her.

She sees Dr. Hikari and Lan looking at her, and knows they've come to the same realisation. It was obvious from the start anyway - Dr. Regal had blatantly demanded that they hand Mimic over to him, and now he's not even going to bother with demands, he's just going to trample SciLab and take her by force.

Everyone will die because of her.

"Dad," Lan begins, turning back to Dr. Hikari, "how much time will you need to alter the security hole?"

"What?" Dr. Hikari looks at him blankly. He blinks and awareness comes back into his eyes. "I . . . I'm not sure. It depends on whether or not it'll work against Regal Tower's firewall."

"Then me and MegaMan will try and buy you all the time you need," Lan decides.

He turns and runs for the door, ignoring Dr. Hikari's protest. He's going off to fight Dr. Regal on his own, and he'll use five Soul chips to counter Dr. Regal's Dark synchro chips - but it'll tire him out too quickly, and if Mimic doesn't do something, Dr. Regal might end up killing him.

Arcadia turns to Mimic and looks at her for a long moment. Then he seems to come a decision - he glances around at everyone else, but they're all focused on Lan's departure, even Dr. Hikari, so he steps closer and quickly takes a hold of Mimic.

"Let's go," he whispers, so quietly that only Mimic hears him. "I'll take you to ProtoMan."

Mimic's heart skips a beat. She lets him pull her off the table, and together they sneak away from everyone else. Bass watches them through narrow eyes, but he doesn't protest - he doesn't have any reason to, since Mimic is the only reason he's here, and he follows them as quietly as a NetNavi who's not gifted in stealth can manage.

No one notices the three of them slipping away. Mimic doesn't hear any sudden exclamations of shock from the people they're leaving behind in the main room - and certainly nothing from Dr. Hikari - and although she's perfectly willing to do this, she hates to go behind Dr. Hikari's back.

He'll be terrified when he realises that she's gone out to fight, as well. Especially since Dr. Regal is after her - but hopefully, with both Arcadia and Bass coming along, she'll be able to hold off Dr. Regal, at least long enough for Lan to get himself together and pull off an epic win. Maybe she'll even get lucky and Lan won't need to pull off a halfway-to-suicide move to stop Dr. Regal, because she, Arcadia, and Bass might be enough.

But that hope is faint, and she knows it's ridiculous. She and Arcadia won't be able to hold out against Dr. Regal for very long - Mimic is still weak, and Arcadia's Dark Immunity isn't infallible - and Bass himself admitted that he has his limits, whatever the hell they are.

They need to do something, though. Dr. Regal may be after her, but she can't let Lan go out there on his own. He'll be killed.

Arcadia takes her to the recovery room where SciLab is keeping ProtoMan. The room is dark, but that doesn't matter to Mimic thanks to her night vision, and her only focus is the horizontal glass capsule in the middle of the room- and the holographic image of the sleeping ProtoMan, who hasn't woken up since SciLab began to repair his systems.

She doesn't know if he's fully repaired yet. But if they're going to pull this off, they're going to need his help.

"This is ProtoMan?" Bass asks, stepping forward to peer at the glass capsule with guarded curiosity.

Mimic remembers he's never officially met ProtoMan - he's only ever seen the Poltergeist, and helping Arcadia and Lan contain the monster she turned into after forcing Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan doesn't really count as meeting ProtoMan either. Neither does talking to Dark ProtoMan, since he was never the real ProtoMan to start off with.

"That's my big brother," Arcadia murmurs.

Bass glances back at him, but doesn't question it. Anyone with eyes could easily see that Arcadia and ProtoMan aren't actually related - they look nothing like each other, though that means nothing when it comes to NetNavis, but the fact that their NaviMarks are completely different is a pretty big indicator that they're not actual brothers.

But ProtoMan pretty much adopted Arcadia the moment he showed up in Mimic's PET, and even if they're not actually related, they are brothers. Mimic will personally fight anyone who says otherwise, even Bass, though she probably wouldn't win.

Wake up, ProtoMan, Chaud begs, as Mimic steps toward the capsule.

She places her hands on the glass. "Wake up," she whispers, for both herself and for Chaud. "Please."

"Are you sure about this?" Bass mutters to Arcadia, apparently unaware that Mimic can hear him just as easily as if he was speaking at normal volume.

"It's ProtoMan," Arcadia replies, not bothering to lower his voice. "He's never let us down before. He won't now, either."

Bass doesn't respond, but Mimic can almost feel his doubt. She clenches her fists on the glass and wills ProtoMan to wake up, to prove Bass's doubts wrong, to help them fight Dr. Regal.

"We need you, ProtoMan," she pleads.

"This isn't going to work," Bass says. "I don't know much about those Dark Chip things, but I know they destroy a Navi's systems - and he got the worst of it, from what I can tell. He's not just going to wake up because we need him to-"

ProtoMan's hand twitches. Bass abruptly shuts up, and although Mimic would love to see the expression on his face right now, she can't look away from ProtoMan. His head turns to look at her, and his fanged mouth twists into a small, weak smile as he looks at her.

"Can't rest for five minutes, can I?" ProtoMan jokes weakly.

Mimic grins at him. "Not when the world needs saving," she replies, while Chaud's joy and relief echoes through their connection.

"Hey, ProtoMan," Arcadia says softly, stepping forward so he can be seen.

ProtoMan's weak smile gets a little wider upon seeing his brother. "Arcadia," he whispers.

"I missed you so much . . ." Arcadia looks close to tears, though he's smiling.

"Hey," Bass snaps, "in case you freaks hadn't noticed, we have a stupid human to delete. Have your sappy reunion later, dammit!"

However harsh his words are, he's right. Mimic forces herself to pull away from the glass capsule - she can hardly bear to look away from ProtoMan - and looks around the room for her PET. She finds it quickly, and replaces it with the white PET, since there's no point in taking it with her. Arcadia's in the real world already; she also has no idea what will happen if she carries the white PET with her during Cross Fusion, and has no desire to find out now, not when the situation is so dire.

---

Once ProtoMan is back in Mimic's PET, she downloads her synchro chip. It's nothing like the forced Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan - this light is warm, painless, and it's everything she missed about the real ProtoMan. The shadows around her are cold despite ProtoMan's warmth, but they're familiar, and they coil around her legs in tendrils. Bass looks vaguely unsettled at the movement of the shadows, but he says nothing - either he's just deciding to ignore this weirdness, or is trying to act unbothered to save face.

She heads out, energy coursing through her body and ProtoMan's mind settling with her and Chaud's. It's familiar, same as the shadows, and she hasn't been this sure of herself ever since ProtoMan was lost to them - she hasn't felt this confident since then, either.

Mimic, Arcadia, and Bass are just about to get through the front doors of the lobby when a voice calls out to them. Mimic freezes on the spot, cursing herself - maybe she should have Cross Fused when she was out of SciLab, because of course SciLab's scanners would pick up the sudden surge of energy from Cross Fusion, and of course Dr. Hikari would notice and try to stop them from leaving.

"Chaud, stop!" Dr. Hikari shouts from behind them. Mimic doesn't turn around - she's afraid that if she does, she'll take one look at his face and won't be able to bring herself to leave.

"Dr. Hikari-" Arcadia begins, but whatever look Dr. Hikari gives him makes him shut up immediately.

"You can't go out there," Dr. Hikari tells Mimic firmly. "Dr. Regal is after you - and you'll practically be handing yourself over to him!"

Mimic doesn't respond. She doesn't know what to say. There probably isn't anything that will make Dr. Hikari back down - not for something like this.

Her silence does absolutely nothing to calm Dr. Hikari down. "Think about ProtoMan!" he almost begs. "He still needs to rest!"

"I don't need to rest," ProtoMan hisses indignantly. "I need to punch Dr. Regal in the face!"

"Please, you're not ready, either of you!" Dr. Hikari shouts desperately.

"Maybe not," Mimic says, and Dr. Hikari goes silent, out of shock that she's suddenly responding to him more than anything else, she suspects. "But Lan needs help. I'm not letting him fight on his own. He'd do the same for me."

He already has, really. When she was being an idiot and tried to take on VideoMan on her own, Lan showed up at the last moment and saved her. When she was kidnapped, Lan and Arcadia smashed their way onto the tanker to rescue her. And, far more recently, he burnt the Dark Aura out of her and ProtoMan while Arcadia and Bass kept her still enough for him to do it.

Even if Lan hadn't saved her all those times, she'd still be doing this. More than her need to pay Lan back for all he's done for her, she just flat-out refuses to allow him to fight on his own, especially against someone like Dr. Regal.

The shadows coiling around her legs begin to form into a familiar shape in front of her. When it becomes solid - as solid as it can be - Dark Shadow lifts its head and looks at her with its expressionless face.

Let me help.

Mimic doesn't question why she can suddenly hear its voice the same way she hears Chaud's voice, or ProtoMan's - whatever happened during the forced Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan obviously changed something, and honestly? She doesn't care how or why. All she cares about is that it happened, and she can hear the voice of the Poltergeist, the voice of Dark Shadow.

It reaches out, palm up, and Mimic doesn't hesitate in taking its hand. It immediately breaks apart and flows up her arm, coiling around her, and she feels the cold darkness seeping into her very soul - but it's a familiar darkness, and Mimic welcomes it.

---

Arcadia steps back, wings half-spreading in shock, as Dark Shadow flows over Mimic. Within moments she's covered in shadows, and then suddenly Arcadia can't sense her anymore.

The writhing shadows covering Mimic form into a familiar shape. Staring white eyes and a white, melting mouth shine out of the shifting darkness, and the Poltergeist forms up properly and lifts its head to the heavens, snapping its mouth open and letting out a wild shriek.

He senses a flood of shock from Dr. Hikari, and the same from Bass. But nothing from Mimic, or Chaud, or ProtoMan - the only thing he senses from the Poltergeist is cold darkness and the almost overwhelming need to slaughter the thing that hurt the ones it wants to protect.

Every single light in the lobby sparks and then explodes, and glass shatters at the sound of the Poltergeist's shriek. Shadows snap out in writhing tendrils from the Poltergeist's body, lashing out blindly, though none of the tendrils come close to touching Arcadia, Bass, or Dr. Hikari.

The Poltergeist snaps its head down and stares out of SciLab's lobby. Then, without warning, it takes off, streaking along on all fours and crashing through the doors. It skids for a moment, letting the doors slam to the ground, and then shrieks again and takes off in the direction of Dr. Regal.

Arcadia spreads his wings and takes to the air. "Bass!" he calls, getting his attention. "It'll be faster if I carry you. Give me your arm!"

"I can keep up with . . . that!" Bass insists angrily, nodding after the Poltergeist. He still looks unsettled at what just happened, but Arcadia really doesn't have time to be delicate with Bass's easily-offended personality.

"No one can keep up with the Poltergeist," Arcadia replies bluntly. "Just give me your arm!"

Bass scowls and offers up his arm. Arcadia lowers himself down until he can clamp his talons around his forearm, and then takes into the air once again, dragging Bass with him.

Before he heads out after the Poltergeist, he glances over at Dr. Hikari. He's staring after the Poltergeist with a blank look of shock, which Arcadia doesn't blame him for - he's just as surprised as Dr. Hikari and Bass that Mimic has somehow become the Poltergeist, the same way ProtoMan can. He didn't even think that was possible, since she's a human, even if she's technically a NetNavi during Cross Fusion.

There's nothing Arcadia can think to say, so he turns in the air and takes off through the hole the Poltergeist made of the doors.

Arcadia beats his wings, putting on speed until he's flying as fast as he's capable of, and he feels Bass gripping his ankle - with both hands. Underneath Bass's usual hostility, Arcadia can just about detect something like awe at the speed they're flying, and it's easy to tell that he's only just realised he definitely wouldn't be able to keep up with the Poltergeist.

Briefly, Arcadia wonders if he and Mimic have managed to impress him. Mimic with her surprising ability to become the Poltergeist, and Arcadia with his speed. It takes a lot to impress Bass, and so far they've only managed it when giving him advice about playing Skyrim.

He sees Dr. Regal's towering form in the distance, and begins to slow down. He doesn't want to accidentally crash into the madman, and it's a good thing he does slow down, because when he gets closer, he sees the Poltergeist swarming over Dr. Regal, screeching and clawing at him.

Arcadia senses the combined minds of Lan and MegaMan and looks down, searching the ground until he spots Lan kneeling in the middle of the road. He's watching the Poltergeist with wide eyes, shock and recognition pulsing from his systems.

Then Arcadia senses another familiar mind - this time Raika. He looks around, relying more on his Empath Program than his eyes, and sees a helicopter hovering nearby. He can just about make out Raika's stunned expression, and the blank look of shock from the man in the driver's seat of the helicopter, both of them watching the Poltergeist raging against Dr. Regal.

The Poltergeist lets out a wailing shriek and launches itself off Dr. Regal, smashing into a nearby building feet-first and bouncing off it to jump high into the air. It reaches back and slams its claws into Dr. Regal's face, the impact creating a visible shock wave and making Dr. Regal stagger back a few steps.

"I'll let you go here," Arcadia says, lifting Bass a little higher so he can see his face. "Try and work around the Poltergeist - I'm not sure how aware of its allies it is, but it might be wild enough to attack you by accident."

"Fine, whatever, just let me go already," Bass snaps. His tone suggests he's not listening at all, but Arcadia can sense that he's taking the warning seriously - if only because Bass's only experience with the Poltergeist was when it was trying to rip apart the Gospel beast and he forced it to stop, and he's watching it rampage now with the echoes of his awe still sparking through Arcadia's Empath Program.

Arcadia hopes the Poltergeist knows that Bass is their ally now, not their enemy. He doesn't know how the Poltergeist thinks, even if he somehow managed to sense something from it this time. Maybe the only reason he can sense the Poltergeist now is because it's using Mimic's human body, rather than ProtoMan's NetNavi body.

He lets Bass go, watching him plummet to the ground. Bass twists in mid-air and hits the ground feet-first, crouching to absorb the impact on his knees, and immediately hurls twin Hell's Rollings at Dr. Regal as he straightens. He avoids hitting the Poltergeist, which has slipped down Dr. Regal's body and is trying to tear out his NaviMark, though it's not having much success and is screeching out of sheer frustration.

Meanwhile, Arcadia swoops down to where Lan is still kneeling. He grabs him in his talons and takes to the air again, flying up until he's above a nearby building, and carefully deposits Lan onto the roof. Arcadia backs off and lands on the low wall surrounding the roof, digging his talons in to keep himself steady as Dr. Regal tries to fire a laser at Bass and misses thanks to the Poltergeist attaching itself to the hand trying to fire the laser and ripping out a chunk of data.

"Arcadia," Lan gasps out. He sounds exhausted rather than shocked, and Arcadia only now just notices how ragged he looks - which is a shock, considering it hasn't been that long since he went out to fight Dr. Regal on his own. "Is . . . is that . . . H-how did . . ."

"I don't know," Arcadia replies honestly. "But, Lan, what happened? You look exhausted."

"He used five Soul chips," MegaMan replies. He sounds a lot better than his operator - although Arcadia can sense the same exhaustion from him, it's not as physical for MegaMan as it is for Lan.

"Soul chips?" Arcadia repeats, eyes widening. "You mean Double Soul? Can you even do that?"

Well, he says that, but he hadn't thought Mimic would be able to go Poltergeist either. So maybe Cross Fusion makes anything possible - especially when the proof is currently trying to tear Dr. Regal's fingers off and screaming wildly, exploding and shattering any glass and lights and electronics in the vicinity.

He suddenly senses Raika's mind moving away, and looks over to where he saw him last. The helicopter is heading in the direction of SciLab now, and Arcadia guesses that Raika has had enough of gaping at the Poltergeist's efforts to rip Dr. Regal apart. At least he's out of the way - Arcadia would hate to think what might happen if Dr. Regal had decided to attack the helicopter, or if the Poltergeist's wild attacks had accidentally struck it down.

"I tried to use them," Lan says, bringing Arcadia's attention back to the matter at hand. "Metal Soul, Thunder Soul, Search Soul, Arcadia Soul, and Proto Soul."

Arcadia jolts at the mention of his own Soul, and ProtoMan's. Those two are among the most powerful Double Souls that Lan and MegaMan have access to, and Lan thought it would be a good idea to use them himself? He's clearly unable to handle MegaMan's ability, given the state he's in now.

As that thought crosses his mind, Arcadia is suddenly hit with a shock of realisation.

Lan can't handle MegaMan's ability - what if that means Mimic can't handle ProtoMan's ability, either? She's still weak from forcing Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan, and ProtoMan himself isn't fully recovered from being exposed to Dark Chips for so long. It's entirely possible that neither of them are capable of handling the Poltergeist's power right now.

He twists around, sensing a brief spark of confusion from Lan, and looks around until he spots the Poltergeist.

It's clawing its way up Dr. Regal again, but as Arcadia watches, its body flickers and glitches wildly, and for a brief moment he sees Mimic - still in Cross Fusion, otherwise she wouldn't be able to fight at all - through the shadows.

During that brief moment, Arcadia senses Mimic, Chaud, and ProtoMan. Their familiar minds bleed through his Empath Program in random flashes in unison with the flickering and glitching of the Poltergeist's body, and then vanish again when it stops.

The Poltergeist hisses and shakes its head, then continues to claw its way up Dr. Regal. But Arcadia's seen enough, and he knows from those brief flashes that Mimic won't be able to hold out much longer - it's tiring her out too rapidly, and he's not sure how she even managed to get this far to start off with, other than sheer force of will.

He opens his mouth, intending to call out, and then pauses. Who does he call to? Mimic? Chaud? ProtoMan? The Poltergeist itself? Maybe it won't listen at all, even if he figures out who he needs to call out to. The Poltergeist seems far too worked up and focused on trying to tear Dr. Regal apart to listen to anything Arcadia tries to tell it.

I need to end this fight, fast, Arcadia realises.

But how can he do that? The Poltergeist is a whirlwind mass of screeching shadows and Bass is only attacking from a distance, making sure to only fire off his attacks when he's absolutely certain he won't accidentally hit the Poltergeist. If Arcadia tries to jump in, he might crowd them, and could hit the Poltergeist - and he knows from experience that the Poltergeist would get seriously hurt if it gets hit with his Holy Fire, even by accident.

There has to be something, though. He can't use any of his attacks - Flashfire is definitely out of the question, and so is Firebomb, along with Avenger's Arrow. He doesn't want to risk getting too close with Bound Sword in case he gets in the Poltergeist's way, and he doesn't want to throw his Bound Sword in case he hits the Poltergeist.

That just leaves his Holy Fire illusions. He can control those perfectly, and they're solid when his Dark Immunity ability is activated - which it has been ever since the global dimensional area appeared.

But using anything small wouldn't be a good idea, right now. He'd used rabbits against ShadeMan because he wanted to swarm him, but doing the same thing against Dr. Regal probably won't work. He'll need something big, the biggest creature he can create, to counter Dr. Regal's titan size.

The dragon should do. The full-sized one, not the one he used at SciLab. The only problem is, it's too big to fit onto the street - he needs a bigger area to create it and let it loose.

Arcadia looks around and quickly spots a cross roads up ahead. It's in Dr. Regal's path, so he's heading there anyway, though his progress is being slowed down by the raging Poltergeist and Bass's occasional blasts of Hell's Rolling or his Air Buster.

He spreads his wings and prepares to take flight. Lan's voice makes him pause, though.

"W-wait, Arcadia!" he gasps. "Wh-what're you . . . ?"

"Chaud isn't capable of handling the Poltergeist for very long," Arcadia explains, glancing over his shoulder. "I need to end this fight. Just stay here, okay? We've got this."

I hope, he adds silently, dropping over the edge of the building and beating his wings.

He glides down to Bass, not landing, just hovering next to him. Bass finishes shooting off his latest attack - another blast of his Air Buster - before glancing at him.

"I need you to get Dr. Regal into that cross roads," Arcadia tells him, pointing toward the cross roads he's talking about.

"I thought we were trying to stop this stupid human from getting any further," Bass snaps out.

"Just trust me!" Arcadia exclaims, beating his wings to stay hovering in the air. "I have an idea."

Bass narrows his eyes, but he nods. "Fine," he bites out. "But what about that thing? You think it'll listen to anything you tell it?"

He gestures to the Poltergeist. Luckily for Arcadia, it's crouching on the ground now, screeching defiance at Dr. Regal and lashing out with tendrils of shadows. The tendrils grip anything they can and hurl it at Dr. Regal - debris from the fight, bits of pavement or road, or even entire street lights ripped from the ground. Anything the tendrils can grab, the Poltergeist hurls at Dr. Regal, and the tendrils that aren't grabbing things to throw are whipping and tearing at Dr. Regal's feet.

Arcadia hopes he gets this right.

"ProtoMan!" he shouts.

The Poltergeist pauses its own movement, though its tendrils of shadows don't stop throwing things. It twists around and tilts its head at Arcadia questioningly.

Arcadia doesn't want Dr. Regal to overhear this, so he raises his hands. Dark Shadow knows sign language because ProtoMan knows sign language, so he's hoping that the same applies to the Poltergeist itself.

[lure back to cross road] Arcadia signs to the Poltergeist.

It stares at him for a moment, and he's afraid that it somehow doesn't understand, but to his relief it eventually nods. It whips back around to face Dr. Regal, glitches for a split second, and then spreads its arms and screeches as loud as it can.

"Shut up, you abomination!" Dr. Regal bellows, stepping forward to try and crush the Poltergeist beneath his foot.

The Poltergeist dances out of the way, scrambling across the ground until it's spider-crawling up a nearby building. It screeches again, and Dr. Regal tries to smash it like a bug, but the Poltergeist simply jumps off the building, slams into the ground, and then takes off running on all fours in the direction of the cross roads. It streaks past Arcadia and Bass, and they take that as their cue to follow as Dr. Regal turns to face them with a low growl.

Arcadia has to wonder if Dr. Regal realises the very person he's after is right in front of him, but he must not if he's trying this hard to delete the Poltergeist. He'll find out if Mimic loses her hold on it, though. Arcadia wants to end this fight before that happens.

The Poltergeist gets to the cross roads before Arcadia and Bass, and darts around in a wide circle before skidding to a halt next to Bass as he runs into the middle of the cross roads. They both look up at Arcadia as he circles overhead.

"How much time do you need?" Bass calls up.

"Just a few seconds," Arcadia replies, already gathering Holy Fire in his hands. It never takes long to create his illusions - his biggest challenge is keeping the focus to control them, which is why he doesn't use them if he's being attacked directly.

The Poltergeist and Bass will be able to keep Dr. Regal busy while he's controlling his Holy Fire dragon, though. He can stay out of the way and they'll be able to work around the dragon - the Poltergeist especially.

But as it turns to face Dr. Regal with Bass, Arcadia sees it flickering and glitching again. This time is worse than before, and it hunches over, clutching at its head as its image flickers between the shadowy body of the Poltergeist and Mimic's Cross Fusion. Bass watches it with wide eyes, then glances up at Arcadia as if to ask what's going on.

The flickering stops on its own, but the Poltergeist is left reeling from this one. It recovers quickly, though it's still worrying how much the flickering is starting to affect it - and Arcadia wonders how much this is hurting Mimic, Chaud, and ProtoMan.

He tries to push that worry out of his mind. If his idea works, the flickering won't matter, and he won't need to worry about whether or not Mimic will be seriously hurt from going Poltergeist like this. Well, he will still need to worry, but not as much as he will if the Poltergeist keeps going until it crashes.

The Poltergeist starts flinging debris at Dr. Regal again, and Bass hurls out multiple Hell's Rollings one after the other. He's more active this time, since he doesn't need to make sure he's not about to hit the Poltergeist, and Dr. Regal stomps toward them with a distorted growl of anger that sounds like the rumbling of thunder.

Arcadia quickly sets about creating his dragon. Like he told Bass, it only takes a few seconds - and it's not long before the biggest Holy Fire dragon he's made so far stands in the middle of the cross roads, raising its head to stare at Dr. Regal, who pauses at the sight of it.

The Poltergeist immediately scrambles out of the way, hissing at the faint white sparks of fire that drift off Arcadia's dragon. Bass follows it, clearly deciding he'd rather attack from a distance than get caught between a battle of titans, and Arcadia heads around the back of his dragon until he's just behind its head. With an illusion this size, he needs to be closer, so he can be sure of what he's doing - he can't leave any detail to chance, and one wrong move could mean he ends up hitting the Poltergeist or Bass by accident, or any of the buildings surrounding them.

Dr. Regal steps into the space of the cross roads, and Arcadia directs his dragon to attack. It flows forward, roaring through its fiery mouth, and slams into Dr. Regal, driving him back a few paces. A random street light flies out of nowhere and clangs off Dr. Regal's head, courtesy of the Poltergeist (Arcadia is very carefully not thinking about all the damage the Poltergeist itself is doing to the city, while it's ripping things up to throw at their opponent), and multiple blasts from Bass's Air Buster follow up and make Dr. Regal stagger.

Arcadia takes advantage of that and makes his dragon rear up on its back legs, slashing the claws on its front legs down Dr. Regal's front. The claws leave white fire trailing down the slashes, and although the fire dies down quickly and the slashes don't leave any visible damage aside from scorch marks, Dr. Regal lets out a distorted scream and stumbles back.

He regains his footing, though, and the blank visor on his helmet fixates on Arcadia. Before Arcadia can react, Dr. Regal brings up his hand, ignoring Arcadia's Holy Fire dragon, and swats him out of the air with a hard slap.

Arcadia slams into a building and ends up slumped in the resulting crater. He gasps through the pain and looks up in time to see his dragon dissipating as his control and concentration are broken, and hears the enraged screech of the Poltergeist barely a moment after all the Holy Fire has vanished.

"No, you moron!" Bass shouts, starting forward to try and stop the Poltergeist, but its too fast for him - or anyone - to catch.

The Poltergeist launches itself at Dr. Regal's feet, but at that exact moment, it glitches again. It skids to a halt and flips head over heels, writhing on the ground as the glitching forces it to flicker between its own body and Mimic's Cross Fusion.

Dr. Regal watches it, and although Arcadia can't sense anything from him because of the Dark synchro chips he used, he knows the madman has realised who the Poltergeist is.

Arcadia tries to get out of the crater, but he staggers and collapses, just barely keeping himself upright. The pain is almost unbearable - but he's felt worse, when Amano's Navi cut one of his wings in half and then broke the other wing. His wings aren't broken now, but he can feel they're close to it, and if he gets hit like that again he won't be able to fly anymore.

On the ground, the Poltergeist stops glitching, but it's too dazed to do anything but stumble around randomly for a few moments, moaning. Dr. Regal starts to reach down to grab it, but Bass intervenes, throwing multiple Hell's Rollings at Dr. Regal's head until he's forced to stand upright again just to defend himself from the barrage of attacks.

The Poltergeist finally snaps out of its daze and screeches at Dr. Regal, lashing out with its tendrils again, but they're weaker this time, and barely do more than slap at him. It's not going to last much longer - Mimic isn't going to last much longer.

It starts to glitch again, and although it tries to keep up its attack, Arcadia can tell it's a losing battle. The tendrils flicker and vanish along with the Poltergeist, and it moans and shrieks in pain, clutching its head.

The Poltergeist staggers away from Dr. Regal, and then flops down on its side, shuddering. The glitching continues even as it can't move, gradually getting worse and worse, until the Poltergeist can't take it anymore. Mimic, Chaud, and ProtoMan's minds come back in a flash of agony and exhaustion as the Poltergeist peels itself away from their body, and becomes tendrils of shadows that drift around harmlessly.

Mimic tries to get up, but she's too weak, and her Cross Fusion is starting to come apart. The shadows brush against her, almost like they're apologising, before Mimic finally Crosses Out and they vanish altogether.

---

Mimic's PET clatters onto the cracked ground beside her, and her arms give way. She collapses, trying to take in ragged breaths through the dizzy spinning in her head. Her entire body is sore and she's never felt this exhausted before, and she can barely remember what just happened.

She went Poltergeist, she knows that much. She hadn't even thought about it at the time, how weird it was that she could do that - all she'd been thinking about was letting Dark Shadow help, and she'd just known what it wanted her to do, so she did it. And while she was the Poltergeist, she was ripping things apart - not just Dr. Regal, but other things too, the ground and stuff. She's pretty sure she was screeching a lot.

Whatever happened, she's completely exhausted.

"Mimic!" ProtoMan cries.

Mimic manages to raise her head enough to see her PET just a short distance away from her. She reaches out, snags it with her fingers, and drags it toward her until she's clutching it. ProtoMan stares out at her, looking terrified and worried as he presses his hands against the screen.

"You need to get out of here, now!" he tells her. "Please, before Dr. Regal takes you!"

"C-can't . . . move . . ." Mimic forces out.

"Oh, no," ProtoMan whispers, now looking absolutely horrified. "No, no, please, it can't end like this, I only just came back, I can't let this happen! I won't let you be taken from me again!"

However much he scrabbles at the screen, he can't get out of the PET. He's not like Arcadia or Bass - he's not independent, he's a personal Navi, and the only way he'd be able to help Mimic in the real world right now is if she uses Cross Fusion. But she can't; her energy is completely gone.

The ground shakes as Dr. Regal slams his foot down, and Mimic looks up wearily. He's staring down at her, no longer needing defending himself from Bass's barrage of attacks. Mimic wonders what happened to Bass to stop him from attacking - maybe Dr. Regal fired off a laser at him while she was busy trying not to throw up.

Dr. Regal reaches down to grab her. Mimic closes her eyes and clutches her PET to her chest, shaking from fear and exhaustion, and ProtoMan's panicked protests turn into wordless screeches of fear and rage.

"You get the hell away from my dumb human!"

A massive explosion makes Mimic flinch, and abruptly the shadow of Dr. Regal's hand vanishes. Mimic sucks in a gasp of air and opens her eyes.

Bass is standing between her and Dr. Regal, half of his cloak shredded and burnt. His body looks battered - which confirms Mimic's guess that he was attacked while she wasn't paying attention. But despite his obvious injuries, he's standing in front of her, his Air Buster activated and trained on Dr. Regal.

Bass growls and rapidly charges up his Buster. "Charge Shot!" he snaps out, as he fires the biggest blast of air that Mimic has ever seen from him.

The blast hits Dr. Regal with another explosion, and she realises that was what she heard just now, when Dr. Regal was about to grab her. The madman is sent staggering back, the ground shaking with each step, and he falls against a nearby building and only just manages to keep himself upright by grabbing it.

Bass gets rid of his Air Buster before Dr. Regal can recover, and whirls around. He doesn't hesitate as he bends down, picks Mimic up, and starts running in the direction of SciLab, the tattered remains of his cloak flapping behind him.

Mimic sees a white shape falling out of another building and realises it's Arcadia only when it twists in mid-air and starts flying after them. He doesn't seem as battered as Bass is, but he's flying awkwardly, and Mimic has a brief flash of the memory of Arcadia being slapped into the building he's just peeled himself out of.

So none of them can fight Dr. Regal anymore. She's too exhausted, Bass is too hurt, and Arcadia can't do it on his own even if he's still more or less at full power, though injured.

She buries her face into Bass's shoulder. "M's-sorry I dragged you into this," she mumbles.

"Shut up," Bass snaps, not slowing down. "I dragged myself into this, you dumb human."

She glances up at him, blinking, but he's resolutely staring ahead and ignoring her.

Before she can even begin to try and puzzle out Bass's weird aversion to admitting that he's helping of his own free will, she sees SciLab in the distance. Bass puts on a burst of speed, nowhere near as fast as Arcadia or Mimic when she was the Poltergeist, but he's fast enough to stay ahead of Dr. Regal. Arcadia looks like he can barely keep himself in the air, never mind two passengers, even if Mimic barely weighs more than a twig, so he wouldn't be able to carry them anyway.

Bass rushes through the gates, heading straight for the ruined front doors. Mimic has a vague memory of crashing through them and winces - how much destruction did she cause while she was the Poltergeist, without even realising what she was doing? She can barely remember what she did, and these random flashes of memory aren't helping.

Dr. Hikari rushes out of the hole that used to be the front doors before Bass can get any closer. Mimic sees Haruka following him, and Anetta running alongside her, with Ragdoll in tow.

"What happened?" Dr. Hikari demands, as Bass slows to a halt in front of him.

"You idiot of a son pushed himself too hard and nearly got himself killed," Bass tells him bluntly, as Arcadia gingerly lands beside him.

Dr. Hikari looks startled at Bass's harsh tone, but then Haruka and Anetta arrive, both of them looking equally horrified at the state Mimic and the two Navis are in.

Bass, in a surprising display of gentleness, carefully hands Mimic over to Dr. Hikari. He steps back as Dr. Hikari kneels down and places Mimic on the ground, but she's so weak she can hardly keep herself sitting up, so he lets her lean against his chest. Haruka appears beside him, reaching out and putting her hands on Mimic's arms, checking she's alright, while Anetta hovers nearby and gives Mimic a scared and worried look.

Ragdoll pulls on his lead until Anetta is forced to let go of it. He scrambles over to Mimic and climbs into her lap, purring - this time, she thinks, out of stress rather than happiness - and she wraps her arms around him even though she's still exhausted, because she feels better when she's holding Ragdoll.

"Chaud, sweetheart," Haruka whispers, leaning forward to press her forehead against Mimic's. "I told you to be careful . . ."

Mimic feels a pang of guilt for breaking that promise. She refuses to regret it - fighting Dr. Regal as the Poltergeist had at least slowed him down, though he would've taken her there and then if Bass hadn't stopped him and carried Mimic back to SciLab.

Then Mimic hears the faint booming footsteps of Dr. Regal, and looks up, tightening her grip on Ragdoll. Dr. Hikari and the others follows her gaze, and Arcadia and Bass exchange a glance before turning to face the direction Mimic is looking in. Within moments, the booming footsteps become audible for everyone to hear, not just Mimic, and Dr. Regal's titan body comes into view.

"What do we do now?" Anetta asks, almost squeaking out the question.

Dr. Hikari looks blank for a moment, and then he blinks. "We could use a dimensional area-"

"Won't work," Mimic interrupts. "Too p-powerful."

Dr. Regal had simply ripped apart the dimensional area barrier that Dr. Hikari tried to surround SciLab with in the anime. He'll be able to do the same here - there's no point in wasting time trying to get SciLab's dimensional area set up if he's just going to break through it in a matter of seconds.

Their only hope now is Lan. Though Mimic has no idea where he is - she has vague memories of seeing him kneeling in the middle of a road, but beyond that, she doesn't know what happened to him.

Arcadia and Bass step forward, with Arcadia readying his Avenger's Arrow bow and Bass activating his Air Buster. They're both still injured, though - Bass even more so than Arcadia - and neither of them can stand up to Dr. Regal now. But despite their injuries, they're still willing to try.

"Chaud," Dr. Hikari says, glancing down at her, "do you have any idea where Lan is right now?"

Mimic gives him a scared look and shakes her head. She wishes she knew, if only to reassure Dr. Hikari, but as she just said, she only has vague memories of where he was.

Arcadia glances over his shoulder. "I got Lan onto a roof, out of the way," he tells Dr. Hikari. "He'd tried to use Double Soul, but it left him exhausted." He turns back to Dr. Regal, the feathers on his wings trembling with tension as he spreads them in preparation for the incoming attack. "I don't know if he's still there now, though."

Then there's no more time for talking, as Dr. Regal finally arrives. He stops just beyond the wall surrounding SciLab, looking down at them all with that blank visor. Once again Mimic feels his gaze focusing on her and she shudders - Dr. Hikari feels it, and he tightens his grip on her, glaring at Dr. Regal even though there's nothing he can do against someone like that.

"Hand over the boy," Dr. Regal's distorted voice booms out.

Haruka looks terrified, but she reaches out and puts an arm across Mimic. Anetta shuffles closer, trembling, though she stands firm. And in front of them, Arcadia and Bass take aim, silently daring Dr. Regal to come any closer.

"This is your last chance." Dr. Regal lifts up his hand and a bright light shines on his palm. "Give me the boy, or suffer the consequences."

The sound of a Buster being fired echoes through the air. A purple blast shoots out and hits Dr. Regal's arm, blowing it off and rendering his threat completely ineffective. He takes a single step back as his arm crashes to the ground and then vanishes in a swirl of data.

A bright light shines overhead, and Mimic looks up along with everyone else. On the edge of the roof, just barely visible through the light, Lan stands with SearchMan's Scope Gun on his arm.

"MegaMan!" Dr. Regal exclaims, shock bleeding into his distorted voice. "Lan Hikari!"

Lan says nothing in response. He fires the Scope Gun again, this time hitting one of the arcs on Dr. Regal's shoulders. It's blown off just as easily as Dr. Regal's arm, and it seems to have been just as painful, because Dr. Regal lets out a bellow that makes Mimic want to cover her ears, even though she can barely move right now.

Dr. Regal takes a heavy step forward, reaching out with his remaining arm. Lan jumps off the roof to meet him, the wings of Arcadia Soul spreading from his back, and takes into the air to dodge the attempted attack. A Variable Sword materialises on his arm and he slashes out a super-powered Sonic Boom at Dr. Regal.

Arcadia Soul and Proto Soul, Chaud says in awe. He's using two Souls at once! I don't think even MegaMan could do that!

It's Full Synchro, Mimic replies, watching Lan fight. He can do whatever the hell he wants with that kind of power.

Lan flies under another attempted attack from Dr. Regal and then snaps back up, speeding upwards. He pulls back an arm just as he reaches Dr. Regal's head and then punches him in the face, and Mimic hears a short and sharp high-pitched noise as the visor on Dr. Regal's helmet cracks.

Dr. Regal screams his rage at Lan, who doesn't even react and continues beating Dr. Regal, dodging the wild swings from his remaining arm. He slashes at the NaviMark on Dr. Regal's torso with the Variable Sword, but it doesn't much damage, so Lan leaves it and jumps off, taking into the air with Arcadia Soul's wings once again.

He gets caught in Dr. Regal's hand immediately, but before anyone can even blink, Lan breaks out of the hold in a burst of Holy Fire and sails overhead. He lands back onto the roof of SciLab, whirling around as his wings vanish in a glitter of data, and replaces the Variable Sword with his Mega Buster.

Bright, golden light swirls down from high above. It centres on Lan, and he spreads his arms, welcoming the light the same way Mimic welcomed the shadows that allowed her to become the Poltergeist. Dr. Regal doesn't seem to know how to react - he simply stares, watching, frozen in what Mimic hopes is fear. He's hardly ever shown any kind of emotion, and she feels a vindictive sense of satisfaction at the thought of him being afraid of Lan's power with Full Synchro.

When Lan has absorbed enough of the light, he lifts his arm and takes aim. His Mega Buster sparks with the light of Full Synchro and the Dark Immunity Program, charging up far faster than he's ever managed before. Mimic's human right now, but even she can feel the sheer power emanating from Lan.

"Charge Shot!" Lan shouts.

Out of his Buster shoots the biggest and most powerful blast that Mimic has ever seen come from the Mega Buster. It smashes a hole straight through Dr. Regal, and his protesting scream very nearly deafens her as the light from Lan's attack tears him apart from inside-out. The light becomes blinding, and Mimic has to close her eyes and shield Ragdoll, because he doesn't have hands to cover his own eyes with.

Dr. Regal's scream fades as the light begins to die down. It's several moments before anyone is confident enough to open their eyes, wary of being blinded by the light - but everything's fine now. Dr. Regal is nothing more than a few scattered bits of data that fade out of sight in moments.

Lan jumps down from the roof of SciLab, the light of Full Synchro still shining around him like an aura. He turns to face them, and although his mouthguard is up and obscuring the lower half of his face, Mimic can tell he's grinning.

Overhead, the dimensional area begins to fade away. For a moment Mimic thinks it's because Lan defeated Dr. Regal, but then Dr. Hikari straightens - though he doesn't let go of her - and his voice is full of elation as he realises what happened.

"They did it!" he exclaims. "SearchMan must have destroyed the energy core just as Lan defeated Dr. Regal!"

Oh, right. Now Mimic remembers - Raika had shown up in the anime, enlisting the help of everyone else, to get SearchMan into Regal Tower's network. The team of Navis had battled their way through the network, with some help in form of ThunderMan, JunkMan, and even BubbleMan, and then SearchMan had reached the energy core and, like Dr. Hikari said, destroyed it just as Lan defeated Dr. Regal.

As the global dimensional area fades, Lan is forced out of Cross Fusion, and the light of Full Synchro fades with it. Arcadia and Bass vanish as well, but when Mimic checks her PET, she sees them appearing on either side of ProtoMan. Arcadia has the biggest grin on his face as he launches himself at ProtoMan, who's purring far too loudly to speak, while Bass just looks mildly disdainful at the show of affection between the two brothers.

Mimic's pretty sure he'll leave at some point, but for now, it seems like he's sticking around. For how long, she's not sure, but she's honestly glad he's still here. He's an asshole and his attitude could definitely do with one or two improvements, but he's starting to feel like a friend rather than someone who just occasionally shows up to play her favourite game.

She's distracted from Bass when Lan starts making his way over to them. He has to step around some of the rubble from the fight, but he reaches them within moments, grinning from ear-to-ear.

"That was awesome!" Anetta shrieks, jumping for joy.

"Well done, Lan," Dr. Hikari says, his voice thick with pride and emotion. Haruka doesn't say a thing, but her massive grin says more than words can even convey.

Mimic grins as well, and Ragdoll slides off her as she scrambles out of Dr. Hikari and Haruka's arms. But she's forgotten that she can't really move right now, and she ends up collapsing before she even gets off the ground.

Her head is swimming and she has a bad taste in her mouth as her stomach does backflips. Just as Dr. Hikari puts his hand on her back, clearly worried, she pushes herself up with her arms and promptly vomits onto the ground.

" . . . Maybe we should go to the hospital before we celebrate," Anetta suggests delicately.

"Yep," Lan agrees, looking stunned as Mimic coughs out the last bits of vomit from her mouth. He blinks, and a mixture of amusement and concern crosses his expression. "I guess that's what you get for doing something completely insane," he teases Mimic.

"Hypocrite," Mimic croaks, wheezing out a weak laugh.

"That's fair," Lan admits.