Mom's just as sad as Lan when she learns that Mimic is staying in Netopia with Dad, but she understands why Mimic has to stay. She sends some of Mimic's things over from Japan so she'll be more comfortable while she's away from home - her Switch and games, for one thing, along with the battle chips Chaud gave her, because she's definitely going to need those. A few pots of her favourite flavour of soba noodles, because they don't know if Netopia sells them. Some of her clothes, and her schoolbooks.
And, of course, Ragdoll. Mimic anticipated his arrival the most out of everything Mom was sending, so when the delivery car arrives at the crater - with an escort from a Net Police van, just in case - she's practically bouncing.
The delivery worker takes out a pet carrier first, and Mimic immediately opens it to let Ragdoll out. He's purring louder than ever as he twists around her legs, and she crouches to open her arms and let him cuddle up to her.
Once the delivery worker has dropped off her things, Dad helps her move it all into the temporary camp the new expedition team has set up. They're in the process of knocking down the old base camp so they can build a new, more permanent building on top of it - which will become Netopia's Cross Fusion research facility, though its primary purpose is still to study the crater.
At the moment, the temporary camp literally just consists of a bunch of tents. Mimic shares one of the bigger ones with Dad - it's almost like a circus tent, if she has to describe it, but in shape only. It's nowhere near as big as an actual circus tent, of course, but it's big enough for two people and a cat to share it and be comfortable.
Mimic doesn't have much to do at the moment, though, so she mostly just follows Dad around while he's working with the other members of the team. She's supposed to be here to guard the crater and make sure nothing dangerous comes out of it, but now that everyone knows about the viruses, no one's going down there until the dimensional generator has been set up.
A couple of days after Ragdoll arrives, she overhears a few of the expedition team members talking in the camp, and when she realises they're talking about her, she stops just out of sight and listens curiously. That curiosity quickly turns to indignation and mild anger when she realises they're not talking about her in a nice way.
"What's that kid even doing here, anyway?" one of the team members wonders. "He just follows Dr. Hikari around like a lost puppy."
"She is Dr. Hikari's daughter," someone else corrects him.
"Oh, so she's here on privilege."
Privilege? Mimic repeats, quickly becoming offended. These people seriously think she's only here because she's the daughter of Dr. Hikari? If that was true, Lan would be here as well.
"Wait, that kid's a girl? Looks like a boy to me."
"Her name's Mimic. Weird name, if you ask me. Kinda stupid, too."
"Who the hell calls their kid Mimic . . . ?"
You bastards, Mimic seethes. Chaud, ProtoMan, and Arcadia helped her come up with her name, and these people are talking about it like it's the dumbest thing they've ever heard.
How dare they? She's heard some comments about her odd name before, but no one's ever outright insulted it.
"I wanna know what's with that cat of hers," one of them says. "Why does she need a cat with her all the time? It's got a lead and everything, what's up with that? It shouldn't even be here."
"I'm not complaining," another of the expedition members replies. "That cat's pretty cool, and have you seen how big it is? It's so fluffy, I want to pet it."
Well, at least they're not all bad. But still, the person who apparently wants to pet Ragdoll is also the same person who said Mimic's name is stupid, so she still doesn't like him.
"Speaking of cats, have you seen that kid's eyes? Normal eyes aren't supposed to have slit pupils, or be able to reflect light like that . . . I swear, it's like she has the eyes of a cat or something."
"Forget her eyes, what about her ears? Is she an elf?"
"No way are those pointed ears natural. She's Japanese - she's probably into that cosplay thing."
"I'm more worried about those teeth. Are they real? Because I've never seen anyone with such sharp teeth. It's creepy as hell."
Okay, seriously? First her name, then her cat, and now her appearance? These people are lucky Mimic's nowhere near strong enough to beat the shit out of them. She could probably bite them, though she'd definitely get in trouble with Dad for it. It'd be worth it, she thinks.
The speakers move on, deciding that they have better things to do than stand around and complain about Mimic and her cat. Meanwhile, Mimic leans against the wall of the tent she was hiding behind and glares at the ground, silently fuming.
Her PET's screen appears in front of her. Arcadia gives her a sympathetic but encouraging look.
"You know, a few months ago, overhearing a conversation like that would've sent you into an anxiety meltdown," Arcadia tells her.
Mimic is briefly distracted from her anger as she blinks at Arcadia, confused.
"It shows how far you've come as a person, that you're annoyed about overhearing things like that, rather than upset," Arcadia explains. "I don't like what they were saying any more than you do, but I think it's impressive that you're not upset."
When the hell did I hit the character development button? Mimic wonders.
Arcadia laughs. "Probably when you started to become more confident in yourself and your abilities," he replies happily. Then he grows more serious. "But maybe you should tell Dr. Hikari about this. He'd want to know that some of the people around here are talking about you like that."
Mimic shakes her head. I don't wanna go running to Dad every time I have a problem, she says.
"Mimic . . . he's your dad. That's literally what he's there for."
I can deal with this on my own, Mimic insists. I just hope this doesn't turn into one of those stupid cliches where I have to do something extreme to prove myself to those idiots.
"Hopefully it won't turn out like that," Arcadia agrees, with a sigh. "When the dimensional generator is up and running, you'll be able to show them why you're here anyway. Right now we don't have much to do, but things will probably pick up when we start fighting again."
I wonder if I can ask Dad to give me a dimensional area so I can go and clear out the Trilobites down in the crater, Mimic muses. That'd make exploring it a lot easier. And it'd shut those idiots up pretty quick, too.
"You can ask him after the generator has been completed," Arcadia says, nodding.
Mimic gets her opportunity to bring up clearing out the Trilobites several days later, when work on the dimensional generator has been completed. The team at the crater prioritised that over everything else, since the dimensional areas are important for dealing with Asteroid Navis and anything that might pop up out of the crater.
Dad thinks it's a good idea, and he says that they need to test the dimensional generator anyway, so this works out pretty well for everyone involved. Mimic sees a few of the team members exchanging puzzled glances when Dad announces the test and Mimic's offer to get rid of the remaining Trilobites, and she recognises their voices as the same people who were insulting her before.
Well, Mimic thinks, unable to hide a smirk, looks like they're about to get front-row seats to find out why I'm here. 'Privilege' indeed.
Sue her for being so smug about this, but she's fucking sick of people assuming she can't do anything just because she's some skinny twelve-year-old with a giant cat. She's also sick of people assuming that Dad's somehow wrong to take her seriously - Professor Taki did it back when they were investigating the crater and trying to find the first expedition team, when Dad was asking Mimic what she knew about the crater. And now these people are doing the same thing by assuming she's only here because she's Dr. Hikari's daughter.
Hah, no. Being his daughter is a privilege, sure, but not in the way these dumbasses are thinking. She's here to keep them all safe, and if they don't watch themselves, she might 'accidentally' let a few of the Trilobites escape to attack them.
Oh, she won't let anyone die, of course. She'll delete the viruses eventually, but only after they've scared a few of the idiots who thought it was a good idea to insult her and make baseless assumptions.
Dad gets the dimensional generator running, and everyone waits with bated breath to find out if it'll work. It doesn't take long to shoot out a beam of light into the sky, which quickly forms into a massive domed barrier covering the crater and the area around it. The team members celebrate the successful activation, and then they pause, confused, when Dad turns to Mimic.
"Your turn, now," Dad says, nodding to her. He steps back to give her some space.
Mimic can't resist a quick glance at the idiots who were insulting her before. They look even more startled than any of the others, and she takes great pleasure in showing off her synchro chip - and finally letting them know exactly why she's here.
Mimic downloads her synchro chip and waits for the light to die down before opening her eyes. She again glances over at the idiots, and grins under her beak-like mouthguard when she sees them openly gaping at her.
Come on, Mimic, Arcadia's amused mental voice murmurs to her. We have a job to do, remember?
Can't I enjoy this little victory for three seconds? Mimic complains, but she turns toward the crater anyway.
"See if there's any way you can get rid of the smoke, too," Dad says, before she can take off. "If you can't, don't worry about it - the smoke will clear on its own eventually, anyway."
"'Kay, Dad!" Mimic agrees.
She spreads her wings and takes into the air, feeling a faint spark of amusement when Dad lifts up his arms to shield his face from the small blast of wind. Despite the size of her wings, the wind she creates upon taking flight isn't that much - owls are pretty cool like that, Mimic thinks, and she also thinks it's why owls are able to fly so silently. Though she's not an expert on owls, so she could be wrong.
Mimic flies over the top of the crater, above the cloud of mist and smoke, almost brushing the very top of the dimensional area barrier. Her sensitive hearing still works just fine even during Cross Fusion with Arcadia, so she can easily hear the Trilobites scuttling in the mist down below. There's too many of them to pinpoint by sound alone, and sight isn't an option at the moment.
So we get rid of the mist first, Arcadia says. It's a good thing we already anticipated this.
How many wind-type chips do we have downloaded? Mimic asks.
Five, Arcadia replies. Three of them are Winds, one is a Fan, and the last is a Wind Racket.
What about North Wind? I remember downloading that one.
Mimic can feel Arcadia's hesitance. I'm not sure it'll work the way you want it to, he says slowly. It's used to get rid of protective barriers and auras.
It's still a type of wind, though, right? Mimic checks.
I guess so . . .
Then we'll add that one to the list, Mimic decides.
She heads down into the mist, and is immediately swallowed up and blinded. Despite her instincts telling her to turn back and keep above the mist where she can see, Mimic presses downwards, until her feet touch the ground.
Now she's in the centre of the crater. She'd made sure only to dive when she was overhead this particular spot - though sound echoes oddly here, and she can hear something deeper just up ahead, so this isn't the exact centre of the crater.
Mimic narrows her eyes and walks forward, keeping her ears pricked - so to speak - for the scuttling of the Trilobites. It doesn't take long for her to come across the actual centre of the crater, and she stops just on the edge of what seems like a giant hole. She can only see part of it, and the other side is swallowed up by the mist.
What is this? Arcadia asks, as Mimic crouches down to peer into the hole.
My guess? The actual impact site, Mimic replies. I've never seen a meteor or anything like that in real life, so I don't know jack shit about how this is supposed to look, but given what I know from the anime . . . this has to be where the Past Tunnel is located.
Past Tunnel?
They'll figure it out eventually, Mimic says, thinking about the expedition team she left back at the temporary base camp. But the Past Tunnel is literally a tunnel in time. It goes back about thirty years, if I remember right. I think Colonel uses a version of this to get from his time to ours.
Colonel's from a different time? Arcadia sounds shocked.
Mimic can't help but be amused. Your operator is from an alternate reality, and some NetNavi from the past still surprises you?
Well . . . when you put it like that . . . Arcadia's embarrassment comes through their shared mind. After a moment, he turns his attention back to the hole. So what would happen if we went down there right now?
I have no idea, Mimic replies honestly. Everything I know about this place comes from when the actual research facility has been built, when they've already figured out how to make the Past Tunnel work. Right now, me and you are the only people who know about this thing.
Then we should tell Dr. Hikari about it when we get back, Arcadia says. Maybe we'll be able to speed up the completion of the Tunnel.
We won't need it for a while yet, Mimic tells him. But yeah, we'll tell Dad when we get back. Now, onto the actual reason we came down here . . .
She stands up and backs away from the yet-to-be Past Tunnel. The scuttling hasn't gotten any louder, but neither has it gotten any fainter, so the Trilobites are still wandering around. Have they not detected her yet? They were so eager to try and kill them a few days ago, she'd half-expected to be attacked the absolute second she touched the ground.
Oh, well. This makes things a little easier, Mimic supposes.
She should probably start with the Winds. Those will blow the cloud away from her - and if she uses two of them to start off with, she can keep the other one as a backup. The Fan would suck in the cloud, rather than blast it away, but it'd still do the same job of helping to get rid of it, so using it is still an option.
The Wind Racket she'll save for when the Trilobites finally decide to try and attack her. And the North Wind will be a last resort, because Arcadia said it might not work the way she wants it to. Worst comes to worst, she can always just fly really fast around the edge of the crater and use the wind her wings make to get rid of the cloud.
"Wind, double-download!" Mimic announces, raising her arms to point on either side of her.
The Wind boxes materialise where she's pointing, and she activates them both. Wind roars out of the boxes and begins to blast away the cloud in the directions they're facing.
Immediately, Mimic sees flashes of gold through the cloud, and just underneath the roaring Winds, she can hear the scuttling of Trilobites coming closer. Seems like they finally decided to pay attention to her, then.
Her first instinct is to get into the air and stay out of reach, but if she does that, she'll lose sight of the Wind boxes, and she needs to be able to see them so she can control what they do. Which means she's going to have to stay on the ground - even if she doesn't want to - and fend off the Trilobites that come for her.
She keeps half of her attention on the scuttling as it gets closer and closer. The other half she focuses on the Wind boxes, and carefully rotates them both so the wind blasts out in all directions, rather than just two. It's a trick she saw in the anime - MegaMan was using a Fan box, she thinks, and he rotated it during a NetBattle against ShadowMan to draw out the real one after he used some kind of shadow-clone ninja-trick thing.
She's not trying to fake out a small horde of shadow-clones, but she does need to get rid of this smoke. It works well enough that she clears up the area around her, at least, and reveals a group of Trilobite viruses scuttling toward her.
This is where the fun begins, Mimic says, grinning.
Just don't get so carried away that you forget to clear out the smoke as well as the viruses, Arcadia tells her.
"Wind Racket!" Mimic waits for it to materialise on her arm before getting ready to attack.
She closes her eyes so she can focus on her hearing better, listening past the roaring of the Wind boxes to the scuttling of the Trilobites. She waits until she can hear the scuttling over the roaring wind, and then snaps open her eyes and spins around in a full circle, blasting out an attack from her Wind Racket.
The slice of wind cuts through the Trilobites that were trying to crowd her and deletes them easily. They have hard shells, but they're easy to get rid of - and some of them are hampered by the Wind boxes, because even though the Trilobites are quite bulky, the Wind boxes are strong enough to affect even the heaviest of opponents.
Her Wind Racket cuts through the cloud as well, clearing away more of it and gradually revealing the bottom of the crater. The rotating Wind boxes continue to blast away more of the cloud, and Mimic readies her Wind Racket for another attack when she sees even more of the Trilobites coming for her.
She can't help but grin. She was overwhelmed by these things a few days ago and had to hide behind her Life Aura barrier until Chaud and Dark Shadow could rescue her, but now she has a better idea of how to deal with these things. Plus, there's the added benefit of the fact that she's not having to protect others, and she's not fighting indoors.
Sure, she still can't really take into the air - she needs to make sure these Wind boxes don't stop, and if she leaves, the Trilobites might destroy them. But at least she can fight properly, even without flight.
Mimic spends the next several minutes blasting out attacks with her Wind Racket. She deletes so many Trilobites that she loses count after the first twenty-seven, and even Arcadia stops trying to count when it becomes clear that they're not going to be able to keep track. Her attacks also help to blast away even more of the cloud, but most of it's still there when the durability of her Wind Racket finally runs out.
It breaks into data, and then the two Wind boxes break as well, having spent their own energy to the limit. Mimic considers using the backup Wind and the Fan, but quickly discards the idea - she doesn't have the time to work out how to use two different attacks at the same time, and she's busy trying to fend off these Trilobites anyway.
Mimic raises her arms as the Trilobites begin to close in.
"North Wind!" she shouts.
A powerful gust of wind circles around her and then blasts out in every direction. The Trilobites try to dig their claws in, but the North Wind is too powerful for them to resist, and many of the smaller ones end up getting blown away - and deleted - by the wind. The bigger ones are only forced back a few paces, but they too eventually get deleted, and the North Wind spreads until it reaches the rim of the crater.
It dispels whatever was left of the cloud easily, and destroys every single Trilobite virus left behind. Mimic waits until the North Wind has run its course before lowering her arms, blinking as the wind dies down.
Why did I use that as a last resort? she wonders. I should've just started with that.
It wouldn't have been as impressive, Arcadia tells her. How about we head back to base camp, now? I bet those guys who insulted you must be really impressed by now!
Or they're shitting themselves, Mimic sniggers, spreading her wings and taking into the air.
It's easier now to climb up, and she doesn't need to bother going right up to the top of the barrier. She flies over to the base camp, allowing herself a few moments to enjoy the wind in her feathers, and then circles around and drops down slowly until she can land delicately on the ground.
She can sense the shock and awe of the expedition team members. In particular, she focuses her Empath Program on the idiots who insulted her, and is very pleased to discover that they've finally realised why she's here - and they're greatly regretting saying that she's only here on privilege. They don't know that she overheard them, so they think they won't need to say anything. Idiots. She'll probably confront them later, or something.
Mimic is distracted from the idiots by Dad, who barely waits for her to fold her wings against her back before he pulls her into a hug. Her Empath Program is immediately flooded with pride and excitement, drowning out the emotions and thoughts of the expedition team.
"You were amazing!" Dad practically gushes, drawing back enough that he can grin down at her. "You blew away every bit of the smoke and deleted all those Trilobites! I'm so proud of you, Mimic!"
Mimic beams, even though her expression is mostly hidden by her feathered hood and beak-like mouthguard. On impulse, she springs forward and wraps her arms around Dad.
"Ow!" Dad yelps.
"S-sorry!" Mimic squeaks, immediately letting him go. "I forgot how strong I am right now. Are you okay? Dad?"
To her surprise, Dad laughs, though she can still feel a slight sense of pain sparking from him. "I'm perfectly fine," he replies cheerfully. "You didn't hurt me that much."
"You know we can sense your pain, right?" Arcadia reminds him.
"I'm honestly too proud of you to care," Dad admits.
That's true, at least. Mimic doesn't need to sense the truth in his words - she can easily sense his pride in her and Arcadia, swelling so much it's almost like a river bursting its banks. She almost feels like she's going to burst with happiness herself, just from knowing that Dad's so proud of her.
" . . . and this is the bullpen," Hunter says, holding the door open for Chaud. "You won't find that many people here of a night-time, but during the day, it's usually pretty active."
"It's not night-time right now," Chaud points out, looking around curiously at the large room.
It's full of desks and workspaces which he assumes act as the 'offices' of the Netopian officers. It's a lot different to how Japan's HQ does things - there, they give office rooms to higher-ranking officers, or, like in the case of Raika, will assign temporary offices to visiting Net Police officers or Net Savers. Chaud, Mimic, and Lan never got assigned any offices because they're just kids, and they don't really need them anyway. Chaud has his office at IPC, and Mimic and Lan wouldn't exactly be comfortable cooped up in an office anyway.
"No, but it's late evening, which is close enough," Hunter says. "I figured you'd prefer a tour during the quieter hours, since your records state that your hearing is extremely sensitive." He gives Chaud a grin. "Maybe you could give your sister a tour at some point, too. You know, whenever she next visits the city. You guys seemed to enjoy that night-walk last time you were both here."
"We're pretty nocturnal," Chaud replies, only half-joking.
Hunter chuckles, and then suddenly his expression turns a little more serious. Chaud can almost sense the change in mood even without seeing that, despite the fact that he doesn't have Arcadia's Empath Program. He doesn't need it anyway - he's gotten pretty good at reading the mood of others, mainly because he had to learn very quickly how to read his father's mood. Simply knowing how his father is feeling at any given moment doesn't always help, but it's better than being surprised.
"I know it's none of my business," Hunter begins slowly, "but why do you and your sister have different last names?"
Chaud stiffens at that.
"You guys are twins, right?" Hunter asks. He doesn't wait for Chaud to respond, because that question was obviously rhetorical. "So why is she Mimic Hikari, and you're Chaud Blaze?"
Before Chaud can even think of a way to respond to that, his PET's holographic screen flickers into sight in front of him, and he sees the back of ProtoMan with his hair bristling into an angry bush. He can't see ProtoMan's expression, but he has no doubts that his Navi is glaring at Hunter right now.
"You're damn right it's none of your business!" ProtoMan bursts out. "Don't pry into my operator's private life, you bastard!"
Hunter looks incredibly startled, and if it weren't for the fact that Chaud is still somewhat panicking over this, he'd probably be laughing at the detective's expression.
"You've got a foul mouth," Hunter eventually says, apparently unable to say anything else in the face of ProtoMan's indignant rage.
"Yeah, and there's more where that came from, assmunch!"
Chaud sighs, though he can't stop an amused smile from spreading on his lips. "ProtoMan, c'mon, stop cussing him out. He's technically my boss while we're here."
"I don't give a shit!" ProtoMan exclaims, whirling around to face Chaud. "He's not allowed to-"
He cuts himself off with a startled squeak as Chaud's PET suddenly lets out a sharp alarm, and a moment later, the unauthorised access window pops up on the holographic screen. ProtoMan ducks to the side, suddenly looking almost terrified, and now his hair's bristling for an entirely different reason.
Chaud feels the same panic that ProtoMan does. The unauthorised access alarm only activates when an unfamiliar Navi is trying to get into his PET, violating the rules of the friends program.
His first immediate thought is that it's Proxy. Would his father's bully of a butler-Navi really come all the way into another country just to try and torment ProtoMan? The answer to that question is probably yes, but the logical part of Chaud's mind speaks over his instinct to keep ProtoMan safe, telling him that father isn't likely to allow his own NetNavi to cross over into another country for no apparent reason.
"Chaud?" ProtoMan whimpers, pressing himself against the side of the holographic screen.
"Don't worry, the friends program will keep them out, whoever they are," Chaud reassures him. He doesn't regret creating the friends program, but he hates that such a program is necessary. If Proxy wasn't around, he wouldn't need to monitor the NetNavis who come into his PET like this.
Unfortunately, despite his attempt at reassurance, ProtoMan is still scared. So far, the only Navi who's triggered the unauthorised access alarm has been Proxy, whenever he tried to break in to torment ProtoMan. So Chaud understands why he's scared - but with ProtoMan so worked up like this, there's no way Chaud's going to be able to calm him down enough to get him to think rationally and realise that Proxy wouldn't cross over into another country just for him.
"Sorry!" a half-familiar voice calls from the other side of the bullpen.
Chaud looks up from ProtoMan as he hears someone scrambling out of a chair, and is surprised to see none other than Raoul, the operator of ThunderMan, making his way across the bullpen. Raoul dodges around a cluttered desk and comes to a stop beside Hunter, acknowledging the detective with a quick glance before turning his attention back to Chaud.
"Sorry," Raoul says again, wincing. "ThunderMan wanted to introduce himself, but we didn't know there was a security program in your PET. Is your Navi oka-" He suddenly cuts himself off, eyes widening as he sees ProtoMan. "Hey, isn't that- that's ProtoMan, isn't it? Arcadia's brother?"
Then he peers at Chaud more closely.
" . . . I recognise you from somewhere," Raoul says slowly. "I'm not sure where, though."
Internally, Chaud is kind of having another mild panic. He knows Raoul about as well as Mimic does - they both met him when they were still in the same body, after all. And Raoul helped Mimic prank Lan back when he was being an arrogant tool with his new Advanced PET 2.
But Raoul only knows Mimic, not Chaud. As far as Raoul's concerned, he's never actually met Chaud - though, of course, he obviously recognises ProtoMan from the Gospel beast incident, since ThunderMan was there and helped them to fight Gospel (both the beast itself and the criminal organisation).
Maybe Chaud can spin this in his favour. Raoul knows Mimic as Mimic, not Chaud, because she was using her real name as a 'fake' name during the Nebula incident, and introduced herself as Mimic to Raoul.
"You've met my twin sister," Chaud tells Raoul. "Mimic Hikari, remember? Though she was Mimic Lostie back then."
"Oh, right!" Raoul exclaims, his expression lighting up with understanding. "That boy with the odd eyes who asked me to help him prank Lan." He pauses, and then realises what Chaud said. "Wait, twin sister? Isn't Mimic a boy?"
This, at least, is easy enough to explain. It's technically true anyway, so Chaud's only lying depending on your point of view.
"She used to be a boy," Chaud says, "but she's a girl now. I'm Chaud Blaze, her twin brother. And you already know ProtoMan, I guess."
If he plays dumb - or just downplays how well he knows Raoul and ThunderMan - then Raoul won't get suspicious. Chaud just hopes Hunter doesn't say anything. The detective knows the full story, mostly because Chaud and Mimic agreed that he at least deserved that much after witnessing what happened at the crater (though they still refuse to tell Professor Taki anything), so he should understand the need for secrecy and lies. But he might accidentally let something slip, because Chaud's not sure if he's entirely used to the idea of Chaud and Mimic's origins.
As if reading his thoughts, Hunter gives him a slight nod. Well, at least that confirms that Chaud doesn't need to worry about him giving Chaud and Mimic away.
"Yeah, from that thing with that giant virus monster," Raoul agrees, nodding. He looks at ProtoMan again, concerned. "Is he alright? He . . . kinda looks like he's having a panic attack."
Chaud glances at ProtoMan and isn't really surprised to see him still huddled in the corner of the screen, almost trembling. His shadows are spiking around him protectively, and the holographic screen flickers every so often, another visual sign of how unsettled ProtoMan is.
"It's okay, ProtoMan," Chaud says gently, turning his full attention to his Navi. "It was just ThunderMan. You've met him before, remember?"
"C-could've- been-" ProtoMan can barely get his words out, and Chaud feels a sharp pang of sympathy for him.
"I know." Chaud makes sure to keep his voice as soft as possible. "It wasn't, though. You're safe, okay? No one's gonna hurt you."
Hunter and Raoul exchange a glance at those last words, but Chaud's too focused on ProtoMan to wonder what they might be thinking.
"You're safe," Chaud repeats quietly, bringing his PET a little closer to his chest. The holographic screen vanishes and ProtoMan reappears on the normal screen, still huddled in the corner, but looking a little calmer now that he's out of sight.
"Hey, uh . . ." Raoul steps forward, now looking a little awkward, but no less apologetic than before. "I'm really sorry about that. We're really sorry, actually. If you want, we could . . . try that again? I mean, if your Navi's alright for it, he could come into my PET and meet ThunderMan."
Chaud blinks at him. "They already know each other, though," he points out.
"Well, yeah, but they haven't really been introduced properly," Raoul replies, with a shrug. "I hardly think fighting some big monster together counts as an actual introduction. Plus, your Navi did kinda turn into that . . . thing . . . halfway through the battle, so they didn't get much of a chance to talk."
For a second, Chaud thinks Raoul's talking about ProtoMan's transformation into Dark ProtoMan, and wonders why he's bringing that up - and how he knows about it in the first place. Then he realises that Raoul's actually talking about the way ProtoMan turned into the Poltergeist during the battle against the Gospel beast. Well, at least Raoul and ThunderMan won't be too surprised if ProtoMan goes Poltergeist again at any point.
He glances down at his PET. "It's your choice, ProtoMan," Chaud tells him. "You don't have to if you don't want to."
And he means it. If ProtoMan doesn't want to meet ThunderMan, they can do it another time - or they don't even need to do it at all, if ProtoMan's too nervous to actually say 'hello' or anything. And if Raoul or ThunderMan protest, Chaud will just remind them that it's technically their fault that ProtoMan got scared. That should stop them from protesting.
" . . . Okay," ProtoMan says quietly. "I'll- I'll go meet ThunderMan."
"You sure?" Chaud gently checks. "No one's going to get mad at you if you don't want to."
"No, I- I want to," ProtoMan says, looking up with a nervous but determined expression. "I'm not going to cower in your PET every time I get scared."
Chaud wants to say there's nothing wrong with being scared, and there's certainly nothing wrong with 'cowering' in his PET. But ProtoMan's not going to see it like that, and he'll be stubborn and insist that he's fine even when he isn't if Chaud tries to say anything.
Instead, he nods and watches ProtoMan stream out of his PET. He hopes ThunderMan's nice to ProtoMan - from what Chaud remembers, he and Raoul are pretty similar in personality, so he should be okay. Just in case, though, Chaud'll keep an eye on their interaction. If ProtoMan looks too uncomfortable or starts getting scared again, he'll pull him out.
ProtoMan streams himself into Raoul's PET, and Dark Shadow forms itself the moment they're inside. He still hasn't exactly calmed down from the unauthorised access alarm from before, but he's determined not to let his fear hold him back. He's had enough of that - he's ProtoMan, for fuck's sake. He's supposed to protect Chaud, not the other way around.
But when he sees ThunderMan up close, he can't help but take a step back, and he curses himself for trembling.
He'd forgotten how tall ThunderMan is. The Elec-Navi is almost twice his size, and while he's not as bulky as GutsMan, he's definitely big. ProtoMan only saw him briefly during the battle with the Gospel beast, so he hadn't had much opportunity to pay attention to him - and then he'd turned into the Poltergeist, which kind of made him focus exclusively on protecting his little brother and ripping apart the gospel beast.
Now, though, ProtoMan looks up at ThunderMan and has to fight back the almost overpowering urge to run back into Chaud's PET, back to safety.
ThunderMan doesn't miss ProtoMan's reaction. It's hard not to, considering ProtoMan didn't really try to hide it - though maybe he should have.
"Sorry," ThunderMan says, keeping his tone gentle. "I forgot how intimidating my size can be sometimes. Hold on a second."
He lowers himself down and sits on the floor of Raoul's PET. Now that ProtoMan's not forced to look up at him, he doesn't seem that intimidating - but he shouldn't have been intimidated in the first place.
"Y-you don't-" ProtoMan cuts himself off and tries to stop his voice from shaking. "You don't need to d-do- to do that."
"I don't want to scare you again," ThunderMan replies. He seems to deflate a little. "Though I guess I kind of failed at that. I'm sorry about before, by the way. I just wanted to say hi, but instead I ended up giving you a system meltdown."
'System meltdown' is the NetNavi equivalent of a heart attack. ProtoMan wants to say that ThunderMan didn't do anything of the sort, but he can't - because, even if he didn't have a system meltdown, he very nearly had a panic attack. He wishes he wasn't such a coward that Chaud had to create the friends program just to protect him from bullies or hostile Navis.
Not a coward, Dark Shadow says, giving him a light whack on the shin with its hand. Scared with good reason.
It doesn't feel like that, ProtoMan replies, lowering his head. I'm a NetNavi. I shouldn't be so scared by someone trying to come into my operator's PET.
Is host-sister coward too? Dark Shadow asks.
ProtoMan stares at it, wide-eyed. Of course not! Mimic's not a coward at all!
Dark Shadow tilts its head. Host-sister scared all the time, it points out. Because bad things happened to her. Bad things happened to you. Host is scared like host-sister.
It's not the same, ProtoMan tries to protest, but Dark Shadow shakes its head.
Is same, it insists. Host is scared because bad things happened. Not a coward. Say again and I will claw you.
Alright, fine, I won't say I'm a coward, ProtoMan sighs. If only to stop Dark Shadow from clawing at him.
Sheesh, and he always wondered what it would be like to have a connection with Dark Shadow like Chaud and Mimic do with each other. Now that he can actually hear Dark Shadow's voice in his mind and respond in the same way, he's not so sure it's a good thing anymore - if only because Dark Shadow refuses to allow him to be even a little bit self-depreciating. Otherwise, he's actually ecstatic to have such a connection with it.
"Were you talking to that thing?" ThunderMan asks, making ProtoMan jump. He'd almost forgotten the other Navi was here, even though this is his operator's PET.
"Er- y-yes," ProtoMan stammers, blinking at him. "I, um . . . It's name is Dark Shadow."
Dark Shadow waves at ThunderMan, the perfect picture of friendliness, though it makes sure its claws are in full view. ProtoMan thinks he knows why - it's being friendly, but warning ThunderMan that it won't hesitate to attack if he upsets ProtoMan in any way.
Why are so many people protecting him when they shouldn't be? First Chaud, now Dark Shadow. And it's not just them, either - Arcadia and Mimic do it, too. And MegaMan and Lan. He also has the very vivid memory of their other friends - Roll, GutsMan, Glide, and IceMan - coming to his aid when MegaMan stopped Proxy from taking the Skyrim game demo away from ProtoMan.
"Hi, Dark Shadow," ThunderMan says, nodding to it. "I'm ThunderMan - though I guess you two already knew that. And you're ProtoMan, right?"
ProtoMan nods. ThunderMan's blank eyes narrow a little, but ProtoMan thinks that expression is actually his version of a grin, since he doesn't have a mouth.
"Why don't you guys sit down?" ThunderMan invites, gesturing to the floor in front of him. "Maybe you can tell me about your abilities. You seem like a pretty interesting pair."
ProtoMan hesitates, but Dark Shadow gives him a light push from behind, and he stumbles forward until he's in front of ThunderMan. ProtoMan glares at Dark Shadow over his shoulder, but it just ignores his look and slinks past him gracefully, then settles down like the shadow-cat it is.
ProtoMan rolls his eyes, unseen beneath his visor, and sits down to talk to ThunderMan.
Chaud makes good on his silent promise to keep an eye on the interaction between ProtoMan and ThunderMan, but he's beginning to think he doesn't really need to. He's happy to see that ThunderMan is being gentle with ProtoMan, and is carefully prompting him to talk about his shadow-abilities and Dark Shadow, which is almost always a good way to get ProtoMan to open up. He loves talking about NetBattling, and his shadow-abilities are a pretty big part of his fighting style.
Reassured that his Navi is safe for now, Chaud turns his full attention back to his own conversation - he'd sat down with Raoul and Hunter a few minutes ago, wanting to get to know them both a little better, since he's going to be working pretty closely with them for however long he's in Netopia.
They're distracted by a news report on the TV screen in the bullpen. Hunter says they always keep it on the news channel so they can keep an eye on current events and things like that, since the news can sometimes reveal things that the Net Police's information network didn't already know. Plus, it's a good way to keep track of the general state of the country.
But this time, the news report has nothing to do with Netopia. It's about a trial taking place in Japan - the trial of Gauss Magnets, who was the head of the criminal organisation Gospel.
"He's finally being put away, then," Hunter remarks, noticing the news report. He scoffs a little. "Took 'em long enough. He was arrested weeks ago."
"We were kinda busy with Nebula at the time," Chaud points out.
Hunter jerks as if he's just remembered that Chaud was directly involved in literally every crisis that's happened in Japan over the past year or so.
"S-sorry," Hunter says awkwardly, holding up his hands in an apologetic manner. "Didn't mean to . . . y'know."
"It's fine," Chaud tells him. Then he grins, showing off his sharp teeth. "Just watch what you say next time, okay?"
Hunter gives him a startled blink, and then stares at the surface of his desk with wide eyes. "R-right, sharp teeth. Cat-abilities. Holy crap, that's weird . . ."
"I can hear you," Chaud says, gesturing to his pointed ears as a reminder of how sensitive his hearing is.
His temporary boss groans and buries his face in his hands. "Dammit, I need to get my foot outta my mouth."
"Yeah, you do," Raoul agrees cheerfully.
Hunter gives him a flat look. "You are not helping."
Thankfully, the news report moves on from Gauss's incarceration, and they can move on from Hunter's astounding ability to put his foot in his mouth. The next news report is something to do with a new style of fashion chips that're quickly becoming popular in Netopia, and while Chaud's not really into the fashion chips industry, he pays attention anyway - you never know, he might get some ideas for IPC's R&D department.
But before the fashion chip report even begins properly, the TV screen suddenly bursts into static-snow. Chaud winces at the sound as Hunter and Raoul blink at the screen, startled, and then the static-snow vanishes and is replaced with a lion.
A very familiar lion. Chaud remembers him from the Animal Farm - Monosuke, the pet lion of Takeo Inukai, who tried to use Asteroid BeastMan to attack the Animal Farm after he was fired for being cruel and abusive toward the animals.
The image of Monosuke roars, like he's heralding something, and then the image changes to show a woman with a strangely-relaxed expression on her face. Chaud doesn't recognise her at all, but for some reason, he gets the feeling that she's somehow important. He's not sure how she's important, but then he gets the answer to his unasked question when the woman starts to speak.
"Greetings, people of the world," the woman announces. She smiles, and there's something almost vindictive in that expression. "I do apologise for intruding on your enjoyment time, but I simply had to speak with you. You see, I am Gauss Company's new president, Tesla. Tesla Magnets."
"Magnets?" Hunter repeats, eyes widening. "Isn't that-"
"I'm sure those of you who just watched the incarceration of Gauss have already guessed," the woman, Tesla, says. She lifts her chin. "Yes, I am the daughter of Gauss Magnets. While I have your full attention, I want to use this opportunity to tell you something. I am following in my father's footsteps, and am hereby forming Neo World Three."
"Neo World Three?" ProtoMan's shocked voice comes out of Raoul's PET. In the wake of this shocking broadcast, Chaud had almost forgotten that ProtoMan was in there instead of his own PET. "Isn't the original World Three still around, though?"
"They're not criminals anymore," Chaud reminds him.
"Yeah, but . . ."
Tesla's voice interrupts them.
"The criminal organisation that the great Dr. Wily created has now been revived," she declares. "Make no mistake about our intentions - we will become even greater than the original World Three, and will surpass even the likes of Gospel and Nebula." Tesla pauses as if something just occurred to her, and then a dark smile spreads on her lips. "Oh, that's right. I almost forgot. Tonight, you must return something that was stolen from me. It's very important that I get it back - after all, it belongs with its rightful owner."
Tesla leans back in her seat and her dark smile grows wider.
"Now, let us bring new fear and chaos to this world."
The TV screen cuts to static once again, and then switches back to the original news report. But Chaud's no longer paying attention to the fashion chips.
"World Three was based in Japan, and it sounds like this Neo World Three is the same," Hunter says, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully. "Why announce this so suddenly, though? And what could be the thing that was apparently stolen from that woman?"
"If they're based in Japan, isn't it just Japan's problem?" Raoul asks. He glances at Chaud with a wince. "I mean, no offence, but we have enough problems to deal with here without having to worry about another country on top of it."
"None taken," Chaud replies. "I understand what you mean."
"I'm not sure this is just Japan's problem, though," Hunter muses. "That Tesla woman chose to announce Neo World Three to the entire world. They're obviously going to be focusing their efforts on Japan, sure, but we can't assume that we're safe simply because they're in another country. They could easily come here and start causing trouble - and with someone like that at their head, there's no telling how much damage they could do."
Raoul gives a noncommittal murmur in response. Meanwhile, Chaud looks at the surface of his assigned desk - which is right across from Hunter and Raoul's, since they're going to be working together - and tries to make sense of his thoughts.
Neo World Three is based in Japan, so that means Lan's going to be dealing with them - most likely on a regular basis. And it doesn't take a genius to realise this is why Mimic insisted on Sunayama and Saiko escaping. It's obvious they're a part of this Neo World Three as well, and considering Monosuke was used to herald Tesla's announcement, it's probably safe to say that Inukai is also a part of Neo World Three.
Will Lan be able to handle them on his own? It took the combined efforts of Chaud, Mimic, and Lan to defeat those guys individually. Lan may not be capable of taking on all of them, plus this Tesla woman, on his own.
And yet . . . Mimic obviously knew about this. It's definitely why she told Chaud they had to let Sunayama and Saiko escape. She said nothing, though, and usually, when she doesn't say anything about something like this, there's a good reason.
Chaud can guess what that reason is, this time. She knows Lan can handle Neo World Three on his own, and didn't feel the need to warn anyone because of that. Quite apart from the fact that the anime gives her knowledge of the future, she likely has faith that Lan is fully capable of taking on any opponent and not just winning, but excelling.
It's Lan, after all. He's done great things - even greater than Chaud or Mimic have ever managed. He took down Dr. Regal almost single-handedly, and has been dealing with threats like this ever since he first got MegaMan.
If Mimic has faith in Lan's ability to take on this new challenge, Chaud will also have faith in him.
Lan is the protector of Japan. Between them, Chaud and Mimic are protecting Netopia. If Neo World Three decides to threaten either of these countries, they're going to have to answer to them.
Chaud grins to himself. Neo World Three won't know what hit them.