The helicopter touches down on the grass with all the grace that a giant flying hunk of metal can achieve (which is a lot, surprisingly). Mimic doesn't even bother waiting for the blades to stop rotating before throwing open the door and half-falling out of the helicopter.

"Move bitch I gotta piss!" she snaps in a rush, darting past a startled-looking man and taking off toward the trees at top speed.

The man blinks after her, completely bewildered. Chaud steps out of the helicopter with much more patience and watches her run with a faint sigh, and then turns to the poor man who unintentionally became the target of Mimic's impatient ire.

"Don't mind her," Chaud says. "She's insane."

Fuck you too! comes the mental reply.

He supresses a smile. Best not to laugh at seemingly nothing, otherwise he'll freak out the poor man even further than Mimic already has.

"You're Dr. Mapiter, I assume?" Chaud asks. The man certainly looks like the image Dr. Hikari showed them while they were on the way here. It doesn't hurt to make sure, though.

"Ah- yes, I am," the man - Dr. Mapiter - replies, blinking as he recovers from his startlement. "I'm sorry, but I was told that Dr. Hikari would also be coming?"

Chaud bows apologetically. "He sends his apologies, but he's busy at the Space-Time Tower at the moment. The Past Tunnel has been behaving somewhat erratically, and he's needed to help contain it. I can assure you that my sister and I are perfectly qualified to take his place, though."

Well, he is, anyway. Mimic, once she's gotten over her bathroom emergency, should be able to help out as much as anyone else - maybe even better, since she said this was an episode in the anime while they were on the plane. She didn't say much about what happened, but Chaud could sense the beginnings of a plan forming in her mind, and guesses (correctly) that she's wondering how best to use her knowledge to their advantage here.

"Yes, of course," Dr. Mapiter agrees. He gestures toward the Estebari ruins site. "The stone tablet is this way. Please, follow me."

The aforementioned stone tablet isn't far from where the helicopter landed. It's big, and it looks fairly old, though there's an almost metallic gleam to it that doesn't quite match the stone material it's apparently made from.

Most striking of all is the bold black mark on the tablet. Chaud instantly recognises it - how could he not? He has half of the exact same mark on the palm of his hand, and Mimic has the other half. But he has to wonder what Duo's Crest is doing on a stone tablet that doesn't look like stone, in the middle of an archeological dig site, deep within the thick jungle of Bosconoma.

"We haven't yet determined how old the artifact is," Dr. Mapiter tells him. "Any tests we've tried to run on it have come back with . . . odd results, to say the least. It's not made of any materials we know of, anyway."

"And this thing just . . . appeared?" Chaud looks around, trying to figure out how such a huge stone tablet could have just showed up without anyone - not even the archaeology team working at the ruins - noticing.

"This area wasn't scheduled to be dug up yet," Dr. Mapiter explains. "But we heard strange noises a few days ago, rumbling and a huge crash, and when we came to investigate, we found this tablet." He half-turns to gesture toward a path going further into the jungle. There are metal tracks leading down the path, and a mine cart at the start, though it's empty. "When we searched the area, we discovered a cavern nearby. We think the stone tablet must have come from there."

"Do you mind if I have a look?" Chaud asks. That's the whole reason he and Mimic are here, after all - and if there's nothing to be gained trying to figure out the stone tablet, they may as well see what's inside this cavern.

"Of course, follow me."

Mimic joins them as they head off down the path, happier now that she's relieved of her bathroom emergency. Dr. Mapiter gives her an uncertain look, but otherwise doesn't react to her arrival - he's probably still a little freaked out about her, since she's practically bouncing along beside Chaud, a stark contrast to her impatience a few minutes ago.

The path isn't that long, and they emerge into a clearing fairly quickly. There's a huge hole in the middle, which is nothing like the cavern Chaud had expected, but looking down into it, he sees that 'cavern' is indeed the right term to use. The pit - because that's what it is, really - has an oddly-flat bottom that isn't too far down below, and leading off from that is the entrance to what's clearly a cavern.

"Has anyone gone down to explore yet?" Chaud asks, glancing up at Dr. Mapiter.

Dr. Mapiter hesitates for a moment. Before he can open his mouth to speak, Mimic lets out an excited woop and jumps down into the pit.

"Mimic!" Chaud exclaims sharply, panic and shock spiking in his chest.

He sees a flash of light, and suddenly ProtoMan's mind is in their connection. A brief spark of pain makes Chaud wince, and then the light fades and he hears the quiet thud of Mimic landing on the ground down below.

"Come on!" Mimic calls up. "Get down here already!"

Chaud and Dr. Mapiter lean over the edge of the pit, stunned. Mimic is waving at them from the bottom of the pit, somehow in full Cross Fusion, and she isn't at all bothered by the fact that that should be impossible without a dimensional area. Actually, Chaud can sense excitement sparking from her like one of ThunderMan's Elec-attacks, and he feels ProtoMan's curiosity as well, directed toward the entrance to the cavern.

"How did she-" Dr. Mapiter blinks and leans back, eyes wide. He looks at Chaud with a desperate questioning expression on his face. "No one could get in there! There's some kind of barrier blocking the way - invisible until you touch it. And yet . . . "

Some kind of barrier?

"This barrier wouldn't happen to be multi-coloured, would it?" Chaud asks.

Dr. Mapiter blinks again. "It . . . it is, yes. How did you . . . ?"

"Lucky guess," Chaud sighs. He turns back to the pit. "Good thing that Mimic and I came here instead of Dr. Hikari, I suppose. We're basically two of a very small, select group of people who're capable of getting down there."

Poor Dr. Mapiter looks completely lost. Chaud will probably have to apologise for scaring the living daylights out of the man - but later. For now, he has a pit to investigate.


Chaud and Mimic are both able to get down into the pit, but Chaud wants to be cautious - despite Mimic's eagerness to explore, he doesn't want to go ahead with anything, not without contacting Dr. Hikari first. He needs to know about this, and Chaud wants to know what Dr. Hikari wants them to do about it. So they head back up and call Dr. Hikari using some specialised communications equipment that the archaeology team kindly lends them.

"A dimensional area barrier . . . " Dr. Hikari repeats thoughtfully. "And it's underground, you say? That's odd. I know for a fact that none of the dimensional converters are in use at the moment."

"Maybe there are dimensional converters underground," Chaud suggests. "The barrier is fairly unstable, though - we were able to get in without much trouble, even though the barrier wasn't that far below the top of the pit."

Dr. Hikari hums in interest, and glances at Mimic. "You said this was an episode in the anime, so . . . Do you know anything about this?"

"Not the barrier," Mimic replies, shrugging. "That never got explained." She bites her lip and a faint sense of hesitance comes through their connection. "Or . . . I don't think it did. M'not that sure, technical stuff goes over my head, sorry."

"That's fine," Dr. Hikari tells her. "Do you know anything about the cavern beyond the bottom of the pit?"

"A little," Mimic says, making a vague hand gesture. "I know enough to avoid some stuff."

"Is there anything dangerous down there?"

"Only if we let it be," Mimic replies, which honestly isn't much of a reply at all.

Not for the first time, Chaud wishes he had access to Mimic's memories of the anime. But if he did have access to those memories, he'd be in the same situation as Mimic - constantly trying to remember certain events, trying to prevent horrible things from happening or dealing with the guilt of having to let those things happen. He already got a taste of it during the incident with ShadeMan and the Past Tunnel, when they had to let MegaMan get infected with the Dark Aura and then get him stuck in the past. He didn't enjoy it one bit.

No, maybe he shouldn't wish he had access to Mimic's memories of the anime. Knowledge is power, and Mimic is burdened with it all the time.

"Whatever's down there, I don't think the two of you are enough to investigate on your own," Dr. Hikari says, bringing Chaud out of his thoughts. "Since only those who can use Cross Fusion can get inside . . . Let's see . . . I think four extra pairs of hands should do it."

"Can we have Raika?" Chaud asks, perking up. "His and SearchMan's abilities would be perfect for exploring a place like this."

To his disappointment, Dr. Hikari shakes his head. "He's the only Cross Fusion member in Sharo, remember. He has to protect his country. The only reason you and Mimic could be spared from Netopia is because there aren't any Asteroids or viruses at the moment, but it's a different story in Sharo."

"Aw," Chaud murmurs, slumping. Mimic's amusement at his disappointment comes through their connection as she gives him a half-sarcastic pat on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure the people I choose will be useful in exploring this cavern." Dr. Hikari looks amused too. Like father like daughter, Chaud supposes, even if Mimic's adopted. "Wait for them to arrive before you investigate further, alright?"

He looks at Mimic as he says this, and her mild indignation flashes through their connection as she gives her dad an offended look.

"Why're y'lookin' at me for?" she demands.

"You know why," Dr. Hikari replies, still amused. "Let me know what you find, you two. And be careful."

"Right," Chaud agrees, and Mimic nods as well, though she still looks mildly offended.


They don't have to wait long for the people Dr. Hikari picked out to help them explore the cavern. The rest of the team arrives a day later, and a good thing too, because Mimic is just about ready to screw her dad's orders and go in to explore on her own.

"Don't," Chaud says, for the fifth time in twenty minutes. "Get away from the entrance, Mimic."

"Oh, c'mon!" Mimic complains. She slinks away from the entrance to the cavern and flops down with her back against the wall, arms crossed and pouting - actually pouting, which is impressive given that her fangs are kind of in the way.

"Your dad said to wait," Chaud reminds her, again. He scrapes some of the ground nearby experimentally, and Dark Shadow helpfully claws some of the dirt away.

He senses a sudden flash of inspiration from Mimic, and looks up suspiciously. She's grinning now, instead of pouting, and it's the kind of grin she uses when she's playing her tricks. The grin is made a little bit more dangerous because she's in full Cross Fusion and, for whatever reason, refuses to Cross Out.

"What?" Chaud asks cautiously.

Mimic gives him an innocent look that doesn't match the mischievous feeling he's getting from her through their connection.

"Mimic," Chaud says warningly, "whatever you're thinking, don't do it."

"But Dad only said we couldn't go explore!" Mimic bursts out. "He didn't say anything about Dark Shadow!"

At the sound of its name, Dark Shadow looks up. It stares at Mimic for a moment, and then looks toward the entrance of the cavern, tilting its head.

"Absolutely not," Chaud immediately says. "You can't use your 'exact words' trick to disobey your dad!"

"Why not? Wouldn't be the first time I've done it."

"Mimic . . . "

"I have a reputation to uphold!" Mimic protests.

"A reputation of what? Doing the exact opposite to what you're told to do?"

"Yes!"

"That's the worst kind of reputation I've ever heard of!" Chaud cries. He's not sure if he should be amused or annoyed.

"Like you're any better," Mimic retorts.

Chaud opens his mouth to protest, and then realises he can't. Dammit.

And Mimic knows it too, because she's giving him the most smug look he's ever seen on her face. The smugness comes through their connection, too, amplified by ProtoMan's silent amusement, and Chaud finally settles on being annoyed.

Lucky that his PET's holographic screen appears beside him at that moment, because Cross Fusion or not, he probably would've tried to fight Mimic. Not seriously, of course, because he's not actually angry at her - a little bit of annoyance is nothing, even if she's the single most frustrating person he's ever met - but he'd definitely try.

"They just landed," Arcadia reports, not even phased by the ridiculous argument. "The hovercraft should arrive in an hour or so."

"Thanks," Chaud says, nodding to him. He looks back to Mimic, raising an eyebrow. "See? Just hold out for another hour, and we can go and explore."

Mimic still groans loudly.


True to Arcadia's word, the others arrive within an hour. Chaud's happy to see Lan in the group - even though they couldn't have Raika, it'll definitely be good to have Lan on the team - though he doesn't really recognise the others, aside from Charlie. He knows the names of all the Cross Fusion members, of course, but this will be the first time they've actually met any of the others aside from the few they already have.

"Hey, guys!" Lan calls, waving down at them from the top of the pit.

"You're late," Chaud calls back up. He's mostly teasing - they arrived more or less when Arcadia said they would, after all.

"Get your asses down here, we've got shit to do!" Mimic, ever eloquent, shouts impatiently.

"Wait, is that kid in Cross Fusion?" a big man wearing a pale bandana asks, looking startled. "I thought we could only do that in a dimensional area."

An unfamiliar voice calls out from his hip, likely the man's NetNavi. "Try not to think so hard, it might be too much for your pea-brain!"

"Hey!" the big man cries indignantly.

Chaud blinks at that, and then glances sidelong at Mimic. That exchange kinda reminds him of Mimic and ProtoMan's dynamic, to be honest. Does that mean the big guy and his NetNavi are similar to Mimic and ProtoMan? If they are, it could mean trouble, especially if they're just as destructive as Mimic and ProtoMan.

"We just need to go down there, right?" a girl wearing a long white dress asks.

"I guess so," Charlie replies, glancing over at her. "But maybe we should be caref-"

The girl interrupts him by climbing down the ladder on the side of the pit, much to everyone's surprise. She jumps off when she reaches the end, apparently completely unconcerned for her own safety, and lands on top of the barrier.

The girl looks puzzled. She stomps her feet experimentally, as if checking to see whether or not she can break the barrier with just her feet.

"That's a dimensional area!" Lan exclaims, stunned.

"Wait, how'd they get in, then?" Charlie wonders.

"It's a trick we figured out when we were fighting Nebula," Lan explains, looking up at him. "You can get into a dimensional area barrier by using Cross Fusion. Basically, you have to build up enough speed, throw yourself at the barrier, and use Cross Fusion at the exact right moment - the energy will allow you to break through, and you'll be inside the dimensional area, easy as curry!"

"You won't have to build up any speed with this one, though," Chaud calls up. "It's unstable, so you can just Cross Fuse and come down through it easily." He looks at the girl standing on the barrier. "You could probably do it from right there, actually."

The girl blinks, and then takes out her PET and synchro chip. Lan yelps and calls out to stop her before she can download it, though.

"Wait, wait, hold on a second!" Lan cries. "Lemme show you how to do it first!"

"Oh, okay!" the girl agrees, stepping back.

Chaud decides he likes this girl. She's completely fearless and kinda reminds him of Mimic - though obviously she's a good deal saner than his twin sister. He just hopes this girl's fearlessness doesn't translate to recklessness, though given how she's perfectly happy to step back and wait, it's likely that's not the case.

Lan shows the other three how to get through the unstable barrier using Cross Fusion. He, like Chaud, Crosses Out as soon as he touches the ground - and Mimic remains the only one who stays in Cross Fusion, because the others do the same.

The girl introduces herself as Jasmine, and Chaud remembers Lan telling him and Mimic about an odd adventure that took him and Jasmine across all of DenTech City in search of an obscure, endangered plant. He also remembers Lan telling them how Jasmine got her Crest of Duo - she charged straight into danger to stop Inukai of Neo World Three from transporting Dark Chips via dolphins, which is quite impressive.

The big man introduces himself next, as Nenji Fyrefox. His NetNavi is actually an Asteroid Navi, and although NapalmMan was at first the NetNavi of a serial bomber, he ended up with Nenji after being injured, and the two of them bonded. Nenji received his Crest after helping to delete the Darkloid BlizzardMan, despite being unable to use Cross Fusion at the time.

So it seems Jasmine and Nenji are kind-hearted people. That's good - Chaud was honestly worried that some of the other Cross Fusion members would be bad people, like Ms. Yuri (she's changed her ways now, but that doesn't stop Chaud and Mimic from being terrified of her, because they can't exactly forget what she did to them) or Tesla. But he has no need to worry, even if Nenji seems to have the same penchant for destruction as Mimic.

. . . Okay, he has a lot of reason to worry.

They head into the cavern after they're all through the barrier. No one's really leading, and Chaud and Mimic hang near the back, looking around at the walls of the cavern. It's different to what Chaud had expected - there are stone houses built into the walls, and they look almost pristine despite their apparent age. Dark Shadow flits in and out of these houses, happily exploring them and reporting back to Mimic on what it finds, which isn't much, but it's nice to know the general layout of the place.

"Hey, you two are twins, right?"

Chaud and Mimic glance up to see Nenji walking beside them. He'd been near the front with Jasmine, but apparently he's dropped back to talk to them.

"Uh . . . yeah," Chaud replies, wondering where this is going.

Nenji nods as if Chaud had answered some deep question. "So, which one of you is the girl?"

Chaud blinks, startled at the question - he's not sure if he's thrown off by the bluntness of it, or the ignorance of it. Can Nenji really not tell which of them is the girl? What kind of question even is that, anywa-

Do you wanna mess with him?

He blinks again, suddenly feeling something like Mimic's earlier mischievousness.

Yes.

"She is," Mimic replies to Nenji, pointing at Chaud.

"Oh, so you're Mimic, then!" Nenji gives Chaud a grin. "Lan told me about you. He said you're his sister, though apparently you're-" He glances at Mimic. "-not his brother. I don't get that, honestly. You guys are twins, but only one of you is Lan's sibling?"

"That's a little complicated," Chaud tells him. "And very private."

"Oh, yeah, of course, sure!" Nenji nods emphatically. "Just tryin' to make conversation, is all. Nice to finally meet you guys, though - and I have a question, actually, something all of us're wondering."

"All of us?" Mimic echoes, tilting her head curiously.

"Yeah, uh- hey, Charlie!" Nenji looks up ahead, and Charlie pauses to glance over his shoulder questioningly. "We had a question for these two, right?"

"Oh, that's right!" Charlie's expression lights up.

"We're asking them?" Jasmine bounces to a stop and looks at them eagerly. "Yay!"

Lan looks startled, and mildly uncomfortable. Now Chaud's worried that whatever their question is, it'll be something they can't answer - either because it's too awkward or they just can't give the answer.

"How come Dr. Hikari nearly cried when he did our Cross Fusion tests?" Nenji asks.

Chaud stares at him. Mimic stares at him. Lan lets out an odd, strangled groan and buries his face in his hands.

"He said something like . . . " Charlie pauses and narrows his eyes as he tries to remember.

"He said 'finally, people who let me do proper tests!'," Jasmine puts in. "When we tried to ask Lan about it, he just clammed up and wouldn't tell us a thing, but you guys have been Cross Fusing just as long as he has, so you'd know, right?"

"Um," Chaud says.

Fuck, we may have accidentally traumatised Dad, Mimic says.

He gives her a flat look. You sound almost amused by the idea.

Mimic grins at him. These guys said he cried. He actually cried. This is fucking gold.

Chaud resists the urge to roll his eyes. He turns back to the others, tapping his foot as he thinks - this isn't really the kind of question he expected, given that they're apparently making such a big deal out of it, but still. It's not that this is sensitive information (far from it, really), but it's just . . . kind of embarrassing, really.

He sighs.

"We . . . have a habit of using Cross Fusion before we actually test it," Chaud explains. "I guess he was just happy he finally got to run proper tests before you all used Cross Fusion in the field?"

He's careful not to mention Dr. Hikari's name. If he and Mimic are going to keep messing with Nenji, he'll give them away the absolute second he refers to Dr. Hikari as Dr. Hikari, rather than Dad. He can't really refer to him as Dad, either, because it just feels wrong (right, it feels right, he's lying to himself and he refuses to admit it).

"You guys must've really messed him up if he was nearly crying during our tests," Charlie remarks.

Chaud shrugs. There's not much else he can do in the face of such an accusation, because it's kind of true, anyway.


They continue onwards through the cavern. Dark Shadow eventually grows bored of exploring the stone houses after a while - apparently they're starting to look too similar - and the group comes across the end of the cavern. The only wall aside from the entrance that's bare of stone houses, and this one has a giant set of stone doors in it.

Duo's Crest is on these doors, the same way the stone tablet had the Crest on it. That means the stone tablet really did emerge from here, then. So whatever's behind these doors will definitely be of interest.

No amount of pushing will get the doors open, however much Nenji tries. It's almost comical, watching him tire himself out, and then Chaud nearly has a heart attack when Nenji brings out two firework balls (where did he even pull them out of?) and suggests blowing up the doors.

"No!" Lan is the voice of reason now, which is just as well, because Chaud's too startled and Mimic and ProtoMan don't have an ounce of sense between them. "We can't blow up these doors, you might damage whatever's behind them!"

"Can't I just blow them up a little?" Nenji begs.

"No," Lan says sternly.

"Put those things away before you hurt someone," Charlie adds.

Nenji complains loudly, but does as he's told. Now that the danger has passed, Chaud glances at Mimic, and finds her looking at a couple of small stone pillars to the left of the doors. They look to be made from the same material the tablet is made from - that is to say, they look like stone, but have an odd metallic sheen to them.

Do you know how to open these doors? Chaud asks her.

Mimic nods toward the two pillars. Yeah, you just show your Crest to one of those things. Though I guess for us, we'd both have to show both our Crests.

Then let's-

No, wait a minute, Mimic interrupts.

Chaud blinks at her. She doesn't offer any explanation - all she does is turn around and look in the direction they came in. Chaud follows her gaze, and he's surprised when he sees movement near the far end of the cavern.

An enemy? he asks. She did say these ruins had something dangerous in here, though she also said that it'd be dangerous only if they let it be.

No, just a couple of stowaways, Mimic replies.

He's about to ask what the hell that means when two people emerge from the entrance of the cavern. He recognises both of them, even though he's only met one of them once before - Maylu and Dingo, two other Cross Fusion members. He's pretty sure Dr. Hikari said he was only going to get them four extra pairs of hands, so why're those two here?

"Maylu and Dingo are here," Chaud tells Lan.

Lan looks over at him, startled, and then squints in the direction he and Mimic are looking.

"I can't even see that far, how can you tell-" Lan cuts himself off with a faint oh. "Right, enhanced eyesight. Wait, but what're Maylu and Dingo doing here?"

"Maylu?" Jasmine looks over now. "That pink-haired friend of yours? Oh, she's really nice, I like her!"

"They stowed away on the plane and followed you all here," Mimic explains.

Charlie, Jasmine, and Nenji give her surprised looks. Lan's the only one who isn't surprised - instead, he just looks like he's starting to get the beginnings of a massive headache, and the reason why becomes clear a minute or two later, when Maylu and Dingo finally catch up to them.

"Hi, Lan!" Maylu exclaims, cheerfully waving as if she hasn't just shown up completely uninvited. "These ruins are so cool, aren't they?"

Lan sighs heavily.

Maylu isn't even phased by his obvious annoyance. She continues looking around the ruins, too interested in them to be bothered, which is probably a good thing, because she'd probably start yelling at Lan if she noticed how annoyed he is.

In contrast to Maylu's oblivious cheerfulness, Dingo looks absolutely exhausted. He drags his feet as he follows Maylu, then staggers to a halt and slumps where he stands.

"Man, I'm pooped," he complains. "I gotta sit down . . . "

Mimic steps forward before Chaud even registers her moving, Dark Shadow unravels itself into tendrils of shadows and following her, and she looms over Dingo, who looks up, puzzled. His expression abruptly turns to sheer terror when he sees Mimic's shadows rippling behind her, not to mention the fact that she's baring her teeth at him.

"If you sit anywhere that isn't the floor," Mimic growls, "I will skin you alive."

Dingo stares at her, completely frozen, and croaks out a faint noise that isn't even trying to be speech.

After several moments of physical dread and terror, Dingo slowly nods. Like a switch has been flipped, Mimic is immediately all smiles.

"Great!" she says cheerfully. "Glad we got that sorted out. You look pretty tired, why don't you sit down?"

Dingo looks too terrified to sit down anymore.

Charlie leans over to Chaud. "Does your sister have a split personality or something?"

"No, she just likes to scare people," Chaud replies.

Too late does he realise what he said, and he sees Nenji gaping at him from where he's still sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"Sister?" Nenji repeats incredulously. "But I thought you were Mimic!"

Chaud stares, trying to work out how to spin this so he and Mimic can continue messing with him, but Lan looks over upon hearing what Nenji said and gives Chaud the most deadpan look he's ever seen.

"Chaud, stop messing with Nenji," Lan says.

"You're Chaud!?" Nenji somehow looks even more confused now. "Wha- what? What!?"

See? Mimic's smugness flows through their connection as she wanders past Chaud, smirking. You really are just as bad as I am.

Fuck off, Chaud retorts.

You wanna open this door now, or what?

He follows her over to the small stone pillars. The others watch them, curious - well, aside from Dingo, who still looks like he's about to shit himself after Mimic threatened to skin him alive - as Chaud and Mimic raise their hands, left for him and right for her, and show their palms to one of the pillars.

The pillar sinks into the ground, apparently reacting to their half-Crests. The doors slide open too, and now the others are wide-eyed, most of them stunned, though Lan looks impressed.

"That's so cool!" he exclaims. "I guess our Crests will help us to figure this place out, then?"

Mimic nods.

"Alright, let's head inside," Chaud tells the group.

He's not sure if they'll do as he says - he doesn't really have any right to tell anyone what to do, honestly - but to his surprise, everyone goes through the now-open doors. He supposes they probably think he has a better idea of what's going and are just doing what he says because of that, though if that's true, they should be taking orders from Mimic, really.


The doors lead out onto a raised platform, and just a few feet in front of them are huge stone steps leading down. But Chaud's attention is quickly captured by the interior of the new cavern they emerge into - the stone houses from the previous cavern looked like ruins, the kind of thing you'd expect from a place like this, but if anything, this new place is the exact opposite.

If he didn't know any better, Chaud would think they'd somehow arrived in a modern city. The buildings look almost untouched by time, with only faint spider-web cracks in the stones, and the windows are clean and almost shimmer in the light. The ground is covered in the same strange metallic stone-like material that the tablet and the pillars are made from, pale orange in colour, with odd patterns of various colours criss-crossing the floor. There's even what seems to be a square of some kind just up ahead, complete with a tree in the middle that doesn't even look that old.

"Whoa," Lan breaths, as they start making their way down the steps. "What a place . . . "

"Is this a city?" Charlie asks, looking around with wide eyes.

"Looks like it," Nenji replies. "Not one that I've ever seen, though."

"This place is even cooler than the last place!" Maylu gushes.

Even though she wasn't invited and quite literally forced her way into this mission, Chaud finds himself agreeing with Maylu. The mystery of this city is awe-inspiring, and he wants to know everything about it. He wants to know why it's untouched, why it's so pristine despite apparently being buried underground for who-knows-how-long, why it only reacts to their Crests. Everything.

Calm down, Mr. Excited, Mimic says, flashing him a sharp-toothed grin.

Can you blame him? ProtoMan sounds just as excited as Chaud feels. This place looks so cool!

They get down to ground-level, and pause to take stock of their surroundings. No matter how keen to explore everyone is, they still have to be cautious, because anything could be down here - though Chaud is once again reminded of Mimic's words, only if we let it be. She hasn't explained what that means, but they'll find out soon enough anyway, so it doesn't matter that she's keeping quiet.

The others slowly start to fan out, but they pause when Mimic calls them back.

"Don't get separated," she tells them. "We can't call each other down here."

Chaud blinks at her. "Why not? I highly doubt this place could be bigger than two kilometres."

"Something about scattered radio waves," Mimic replies. "Stay together."

"She's right," ProtoMan speaks up, when everyone else - aside from Lan, who's nodding - continues to look puzzled. "Something in these ruins is causing radio waves to be scattered, so we won't be able to contact each other if we split up."

Though they still look puzzled, the others nod their agreement. Chaud realises they're probably wondering how Mimic knows so much about these ruins despite this place being completely untouched until all of them came down here.

He's about to step forward and suggest exploring the square nearby when he hears something like a low, heavy boom. It comes again, and then another one, too quick to be the same thing making the same sound. He listens to it for a few moments, aware of Mimic doing the same at his side, and he eventually recognises the heavy booms as the footsteps of something big - multiple somethings, that is.

He gives Mimic a sidelong glance. Is that the thing that'll only be dangerous if we let it be?

That's another reason why we shouldn't split up, Mimic replies, nodding. Don't worry, I know how to stop them from attacking us.

Stop who from attacking us? Chaud asks nervously.

She looks at him. The ruin guardians, obviously.

What.

Mimic shrugs as he gapes at her, apparently unconcerned by her admission. This is an unsettlingly familiar situation - Mimic being far too calm about something extremely dangerous that could potentially spell disaster for everyone. Last time it was the Trilobite viruses in the crater when they were trying to figure out what happened to the previous expedition team, and Chaud's feeling of unease grows when he remembers what happened to most of that team.

I just told you not to worry, Mimic says.

"How can I not!?" Chaud cries, hardly aware that he's speaking out loud rather than mentally. "Those- those things sound like giants! And you say not to worry? Has Cross Fusing with ProtoMan made you lose whatever little bit of sanity you had left in you!?"

"Why're you bringing me into this?" ProtoMan sounds almost hurt, but Chaud's too busy freaking out about the very real threat currently stomping toward them from within the underground city.

Dark Shadow forms itself beside Mimic and looks up at Chaud with just as much infuriating calm as Mimic. Host-sister has plan, it says.

"A plan to get us all killed!" Chaud snaps back.

Mimic puts her hands on his shoulders, being careful of her claws. "Dude, chill. All is cool."

"All is not cool what the hell is wrong with-"

"Um, guys?" Lan's worried voice breaks into their argument, and they look over at him. "What's going on?"

The others are staring too. Only Maylu looks a little less confused than the others, because she's the only one aside from Lan who already knows the truth of Chaud and Mimic's origins as twins. Dingo, for all that he literally works with people who all know the same truth, isn't aware of it and only knows them as twins who are entitled to free food from Number One and Number Two Curry. Charlie, Jasmine, and Nenji are just as lost as Dingo, too.

"Can you not hear those footsteps?" Chaud demands, gesturing vaguely in the direction they're coming from. Multiple sets of booming footsteps, all from the same direction, all heading toward them.

"Uh . . . no?" Lan looks even more confused than before.

How the hell can he not hear the footsteps? The others don't seem to be able to hear them, either. How can no one else aside from Chaud and Mimic-

Oh.

Right. They can hear the booming footsteps because their hearing is much more sensitive than anyone else's. Sometimes Chaud forgets that simple fact.

Mimic gives him a deadpan look. You are truly the pinnacle of intelligence, she says.

Shut up, it's not like you never forget stuff either, Chaud retorts.

Yeah, but I never forget that I have superhuman hearing-

"Wait, I can hear something!" Dingo suddenly shouts. He's looking in the same direction the booming footsteps are coming from, now. "Sounds like . . . thunder?"

"From underground?" Charlie's deadpan expression matches his tone. "Really?"

"It could happen!" Dingo defends himself.

"Sounds more like footsteps to me," Jasmine comments, cupping her hand around her ear to listen better. "But they're kinda faint." She glances over at Chaud and Mimic. "You guys must have really good hearing if you could hear that before we all could."

Chaud can't help but stare at her. Has she not noticed how cat-like the two of them are? And Mimic is still in Cross Fusion, too, with a goddamn cat-Navi. A glance at the others tells him that they're all just as impressed as Jasmine, though Lan and Maylu already know about the cat-abilities Chaud and Mimic have, so they're not surprised. None of the others have realised, though, really?

And these are the people Dr. Hikari thought would be good to send on a exploration of previously-undiscovered ruins?

There's no more time to marvel at their companions' apparent obliviousness, because now the booming footsteps are definitely loud enough for everyone to hear clearly. Mimic walks forward until she's standing in front of everyone, looking around and peering at the corners of buildings nearby.

Is this why you refused to Cross Out? Chaud asks, carefully stepping up beside her. He makes sure to stay a little behind her, though, because if this comes to a fight, she'll be the only one who won't need to waste precious time to get ready.

No, that's for a different reason, Mimic replies. There's no sense of caution coming from her - the exact opposite, in fact. She's . . . she's just waiting.

"Mimic?" If it's at all possible, Lan sounds even more nervous than Chaud feels. "What's going on? What's making all that noise?"

"Don't worry, we're fine," Mimic tells him, not turning to look at him. "Just stay where you are."

Arcadia speaks up from Chaud's PET, though he doesn't activate the holographic screen. "If Mimic isn't worried, then I don't think we have any reason to be worried, either."

"She doesn't exactly have a good track record with this kinda thing," Chaud points out.

He senses Mimic's mild exasperation, but she doesn't make any comments. She continues waiting, listening to the booming footsteps getting ever-closer, until finally the things making the footsteps appear.

The ruin guardians. They're big, hulking creatures that look to be made from the same kind of odd metallic-stone material that the tablet and the small pillars are made from, either light purple or pink in colour. In contrast, their faces are grey and blank of expression, with black markings etched into them, and on their foreheads, the Crest of Duo stands out plain for the eye to see.

They stomp from around the corners of the buildings in the square, blank faces fixed on the group standing just in front of the stone staircase. More than one of Chaud's companions gasp and take a step or two back, but Mimic stays perfectly still and calm, and Dark Shadow crouches at her side like a silent guard dog. Or a guard cat, if such a thing exists.

"Mimic . . . " Chaud reaches out and tugs on her arm, though he can't tear his eyes away from the ruin guardians. "Mimic!"

"We're fine," Mimic says again.

"How is this fine!?" Chaud just barely manages to stop himself from whimpering.

The ruin guardians stomp closer, and Chaud finds himself edging further behind Mimic, staring up at their hulking forms in terror. Even if they use Cross Fusion, would they be able to fight these things? They seem far too powerful for that, so the only option would be running.

Except Mimic will not fucking move.

"Give me your hand," Mimic says.

Chaud's mind is already blank with fear, and it takes him a few precious seconds to register that. "What?"

"Hand," Mimic tells him, holding up her palm. Her half-Crest fades into view, only visible on the black material of ProtoMan's glove thanks to the faint glowing outline.

Mimic's words finally click in his mind, and he shakily holds up his hand to complete the half-Crest image. He sees faint light from high above them suddenly, and looks up - and then his jaw drops open, because now the Crests on the foreheads of the ruin guardians are glowing.

"We are Duo's chosen," Mimic says loudly and clearly, looking up at the ruin guardians. "We have a right to be here. Leave us in peace."

The ruin guardian stand in place for several frozen moments. Just when Chaud is beginning to think that Mimic's plan isn't working, the guardians straighten up and slowly turn, then begin stomping away back into the city.

Chaud only relaxes when they're all out of sight and hearing. He lowers his hand, staring at his half-Crest as it fades from his palm, and Mimic stands beside him, grinning almost from ear-to-ear.

See? I told you it'd be fine, she says.

"You said it would only be dangerous if we let it be," Chaud says numbly, looking up from his palm to blink at her. "Were the ruin guardians it?"

Mimic nods. No one figured it out right away in the anime, and everyone got split up by the guardians, she explains. But then Maylu held up her hand, and the Crest of Duo made the guardian chasing her and Lan back off. She got them to leave them all alone when they were trying to escape this place, too.

Maylu did? Chaud blinks and glances at Maylu over his shoulder, then turns back to Mimic.

By accident, Mimic clarifies. The first time, anyway. The second time, that was on purpose. I don't know if the ruin guardians actually understood what I was saying, but at least we're free to explore the city, right?

That . . . that's true . . .

"Um, guys, what just happened?" Lan steps forward, looking bewildered. The others are no better.

"Those were the ruin guardians, according to Mimic," Chaud tells him. "They would have attacked us for trespassing, but they'll leave us alone now that they know we're Duo's chosen."

"Oh," Lan says, blinking. Then a grin grows on his face. "Awesome! So now we can check this place out as much as we wanna?"

Mimic nods, and Lan does an excited little dance.

"Uh," Charlie says, stepping forward next, "sorry to ask this, but . . . how the heck do you two know so much about this place? You knew how to open the doors, and you knew how to get those . . . things . . . to back off. Neither of you have been down here, right? So how could you know all that?"

Maylu's eyes suddenly light up in understanding, but the others are still looking at Chaud and Mimic as if they're aliens or something.

The two of them exchange a glance, and make a decision without even speaking - mentally or otherwise. They turn to Lan.

"Hey," Chaud says, "since you're so good at explaining what's up with us, why don't you tell them the truth?"

Lan's mouth drops open. "Wha- why me?"

"Consider it mild payback," Mimic says.

"For telling our friends without asking first," Chaud adds.

"That was weeks ago!" Lan protests. "And I already apologised for it!"

Chaud and Mimic fold their arms and stare at him. Lan only manages to last a few moments before breaking eye-contact, groaning, and then he turns to the others and tells them the truth.

Well. Not the full truth. He leaves out everything he knows about Chaud's father - though it's not much, even if it's more than most people, even Maylu, who knows a tiny bit herself. But aside from that, Lan tells the others about Chaud and Mimic being in the same body for over a year, about Mimic having to pretend to be Chaud until Duo split them into their own separate bodies, about Mimic being from a reality where this world is an anime.

That causes a mild existential crisis with them, but Mimic quickly breaks in to assure the others that this world is real. The only thing her world had was the story of this one as an anime - otherwise, their lives are still their own, though Mimic still has very useful knowledge of the future of this reality.

It's clear that this news will take some time to sink in, but they at least seem to understand that Mimic knows the future - or at least knows what should happen in the future - and that's how she knows so much about these ruins, despite never personally setting foot in them before today.

Lan impresses upon them the upmost need to keep this information a secret from anyone who doesn't already know the truth behind Chaud and Mimic's origins. He tells them that they've already been targeted for Mimic's knowledge in the past - and Mimic is still being targeted even now, by Dark MegaMan and his Darkloids, because Dr. Regal still wants her for her knowledge.

"We won't breathe a word of this to anyone," Charlie promises, while Jasmine and Dingo nod vigorously.

"I'm gonna kick that Regal guy's butt!" Nenji snaps, punching the air angrily. "He kidnapped a couple of kids and had them tortured! That's just rotten! Unforgiveable!"

Nenji's indignation on their behalf makes Chaud smile a little.

Maybe we should tell all of Duo's chosen about us, actually, Mimic suddenly says. It might make things easier later on.

That's a good point, Chaud muses. Baryl already knows you have knowledge of the future, but his future self apparently didn't tell him everything. Contacting him should be easy enough, if Dr. Hikari can get the Past Tunnel back under control.

Mimic nods. It should calm down soon enough. I don't know if it's related to this place being discovered or not, the anime was never exactly clear on that. But when it is under control again, I'll see if I can contact Baryl.

Princess Pride should be made aware, too, Chaud says. Raika already knows, of course, as does Maylu . . . Who're we missing?

I'm pretty sure Ms. Yuri already knows, Mimic mutters, somewhat sourly. Fuck knows how she even found out. That woman is a complete mystery. Tesla, I'm not sure about - she's currently Dark MegaMan's hostage, and she's not exactly someone I'd trust with our secrets anyway.

What about that assassin guy? Dark Miyabi, was it?

He should be fine, Mimic says. The only problem is figuring out how to contact him. He seems pretty . . . What's the word?

Honourable, ProtoMan supplies.

Yeah, that. He's good. For an assassin, anyway.

Is there anyone else? Chaud asks.

I don't think so.

Then we just tell the other members of Duo's chosen, and that's it.

With that settled, they get back to the reason they're in the underground city in the first place - exploring. Mimic tells them as much as she can about the city while they're walking through it, though since their anime-selves ended up getting attacked the absolute second they set foot inside the ruins, there isn't really much she can tell them about the layout.

However, she can tell them about something very interesting, something she says is like a past vision, but different. A Vision Burst, she calls it, though she's apparently stealing the term from Battle Network 5 because there's not much else she can think of to call it.

"There was this room that reacted to your - our - Crests," Mimic says. "Well, two rooms, actually. One was a big dark place, and the floor had panels that were like . . . " She makes a vaguely up-and-down motion with her hands.

"Rising and falling?" Chaud suggests.

"That's it!" Mimic points to him with a grin, and then drops her hand and continues. "The panels were rising and falling, and they made the shape of Duo's Crest. The other room looked like a giant checkerboard, black and white panels all over, and there was this big pillar in the middle of it. Since everyone got split up, the ones who ended up in the room with the panels were teleported to the checkerboard room when the pillar reacted to Lan's Crest."

"Teleported?" Charlie repeats, stunned. "Is that even possible?"

"It happened in the anime," Mimic replies, shrugging. "Anyway, it activated the Vision Burst. It was showing the history of . . . Duo, I think, and the planet he came from. Basically, the humans on that planet made Duo to manage their network from space, but he evolved beyond their expectations, and decided their network was evil, so he destroyed the planet."

The others gasp, but Chaud and Lan aren't surprised. They already knew that Duo had destroyed his own planet - he told them as much when they met him all those weeks ago.

"This city is . . . I think it's like an escape pod of some kind," Mimic continues, gesturing to the buildings around them. "It escaped from Duo, and it landed on this planet ages ago. During the dinosaur age, I think it was. So a really long time ago. They realised their mistake by creating Duo, I guess, though it was way too late to do anything about it. They also had their own versions of NetNavis, too - and they were trying to figure out how to fuse with them, kinda like how we use Cross Fusion, but I think it was different. Don't ask me how, the Vision Burst was literally just a bunch of random memories, and most of this is just me trying to paraphrase.

"Anyway, those humans all died out, leaving hope or something for a future society - which is our society, by the way." Mimic scoffs. "Didn't leave us much, the idiots. But their city is pretty cool, I'll give 'em that."

"What happened to these ruins in the anime?" Chaud asks her. She blinks at him. "You said we needed to escape from here. We wouldn't need to escape if something wasn't happening to the ruins."

"Oh, right. Activating the Vision Burst alerted Duo and Slur to the discovery of the ruins, and Slur interrupted the Vision Burst, then started destroying the ruins. Everyone had to use Cross Fusion to escape, because Dingo sat on this stone thing that made the doors close, and they had to break the doors down."

"So that's why you don't want to Cross Out," Chaud realises. "Because you want to be ready for Slur."

"Well, she only showed up and destroyed the ruins because the Vision Burst was activated," Mimic says. "I still want to be ready, just in case, but there's no need to activate the Vision Burst now, and if we avoid the rooms I told you about, we won't need to bother with it. We should be able to explore as much as we want to, without Slur destroying this place."

"Wait, hold on a second," Dingo says, speeding up a little to come closer. "You said I sat on a stone thing that made the doors close?"

Mimic glances at him. "Yeah, that's why I told you not to sit on anything that wasn't the floor. The doors are still open, and if we avoid activating the Vision Burst, we can come and go as we please."

"Wow," Dingo breathes, looking impressed. "Your knowledge of the future is super-useful, Mimic!"

Mimic grins at him, all teeth. "Why, thank you."


The underground city is bigger than Chaud initially thought it would be. Even if they could contact each other in here, he doubts they'd be able to if they all ended up on opposite sides of the city. The PET's maximum range in a dead zone like this - meaning there are no connected networks nearby - is about two kilometres, and this city is definitely bigger than that.

So they stay together, and Dark Shadow acts as their scout, since it can phase through walls and report back on what's inside. Thanks to this, they discover the two rooms Mimic told them about, and Chaud has Arcadia mark down the locations on the map they're making of the city. Those rooms are areas to avoid, since going in either of them might activate the Vision Burst, and no one wants Slur to show up and destroy this place.

They also come across the ruin guardians once again as they wander through the city. But the guardians are still, almost like statues, and they stand silently in huge alcoves that Chaud guesses are like charging stations or something. The guardians don't react as the group cautiously makes their way past them, but even so, they all still breathe a quiet sigh of relief when they're out of sight of the guardians.

"What do you think this area is?" Charlie wonders, knocking the back of his knuckles against a metallic-stone door. It makes an odd sound - somewhere between the sound of metal and that of stone - as he hits it.

"Maybe it was their version of a shopping district?" Lan suggests.

The group is currently in the middle of what's clearly a plaza of some kind. The floor here is made of light grey brick-like stone, a contrast to metallic-stone material that the floor has been made out of so far, and the brick-like stone is in the shape of a circle that spans the entire plaza. There are shrubs in long pots around the edges, and a giant tree - not unlike the one back in the square, though this one is a lot bigger - in the very centre.

"These buildings don't look like shops," Jasmine says, wandering around and peering into the buildings surrounding the plaza. The windows here are just as clean as every window they've come across in this city so far, so it's easy for her to see into the buildings. "But they're not really houses, either."

"Hey, guys, I found the Crest!" Dingo calls.

They all look over at him. He's standing in front of the biggest building in the plaza, on the opposite side of the entrance to this area. The building looks a good deal grander than all the others nearby, and Chaud thinks there's something familiar about it, but he just can't put his finger on it. Has he seen this kind of building before? Not in this city, at least - but definitely from somewhere else.

The group heads over to Dingo, and look up at the doors. He's right - the Crest of Duo is on those doors, the same way the Crest was on the doors that serve as the entrance to this city. However, these doors aren't as aged as the other ones were, and seem to be made from the same materials as the rest of the city.

"Would Dark Shadow be able to get through there?" Chaud asks, glancing at Mimic.

She shrugs and nods toward the doors, and Dark Shadow takes off up the stone steps. They're not as high as the ones back at the entrance, and Dark Shadow has no need for stamina anyway, so it's up the steps in the blink of an eye and bounding across to the doors.

It pauses for a moment, then carefully lifts a hand and reaches out to the doors.

The hand goes through.

A moment later, Dark Shadow phases its entire body through the doors, and it begins describing what it sees. Mimic translates as best she can.

"There's books everywhere," she says. "It's dark, but it thinks it can find a way to turn on the lights. It found a counter . . . and there's a switch. It says the lights are on, now."

"I love that thing, whatever it is," Nenji says happily. "It's so frickin' useful!"

"Dark Shadow says 'thank you'," Mimic tells him.

"Okay, let's go," Chaud says, gesturing for everyone to move.

They all head up the stone steps. Unlike the doors at the entrance to the city, there aren't any convenient small pillars around for them to open the doors with - luckily for them, it seems that merely touching one of the doors with their palms is enough to open them.

The doors slowly swing inwards, gradually revealing the interior of the building. Dark Shadow was right - there really are books everywhere. On shelves, on the floor, stacked on tabletops or on the floor, even piled precariously on top of the shelves. Some are even piled up on the steps of a staircase leading up to the second floor, where even more books can be seen.

"This is a library!" Maylu exclaims, looking around with wide eyes.

No wonder Chaud thought the building looked familiar. He's seen this kind of design before - grand old libraries full of books. Though this library is considerably older than any other library on the planet.

"Whoa," Dingo says softly. "Alien books . . . I wonder what they'll say? Think we'll be able to read 'em?"

"I doubt it," Charlie replies. "If they're alien, we probably wouldn't be able to understand them. And in any case, if Mimic's right about when this city came to our planet, these books are probably millions of years old. Even if they were in a language from this planet, it'd be a dead one, like maybe Latin. And literally no one we know can read that language."

"I can read Latin," Chaud tells him.

Charlie stares at him.

"My father-" Chaud hesitates for a split second. "-encouraged me to learn it. He said it might be useful."

The only people who understand the emphasis on 'encouraged' are Mimic and Lan. He feels a faint sense of concern from Mimic, and sees it on Lan's expression, but doesn't react beyond sending reassuring vibes back to Mimic.

"Your dad was right!" Dingo, like everyone else, doesn't understand at all, and is impressed instead of worried. "That's super-useful!"

Mimic steps forward just as Dark Shadow comes bounding around the corner of a row of shelves, and it skids to a halt in front of her. It reaches into its chest and pulls out three books - no doubt randomly-picked while it was exploring - and hands them to her.

"May as well see what's inside them," Mimic says. "I dunno if I'll be able to read Latin too, but I can at least recognise the language."

She opens the book, and Chaud senses mild disappointment from her.

"Just a bunch of random characters," Mimic reports, turning the book so everyone can see the pages.

She's right - the characters on the page are nothing that Chaud can recognise, not even as Latin or any other language he can read or speak. There's an image on one of the pages, though it's not any kind of image he recognises. It looks almost like coding, but for some reason it appears to be in the night sky, as stars, rather than on a computer.

"Ooh, pictures!" Lan reaches out eagerly, and Mimic lets him take the book.

As soon as Lan touches the book, the characters on the page shift and shimmer as if they're mirages of some kind. They fade out and are replaced by more familiar characters - of the Japanese alphabet, now.

"Um," Lan says. "What?"

"It has a translation function?" Chaud steps forward to peer at the book curiously. He glances at Mimic and holds out his hand, and she gives him one of the other two books she's still holding.

Nothing happens. The characters on the pages of this book stubbornly remain in the same alien script that no one can read.

"Lemme see," Maylu says, taking the book from Chaud before he even agrees.

Like with Lan, the characters on the page shimmer and fade out and are replaced with Japanese characters.

"That's . . . weird," Lan says, blinking at the two suddenly-translated books. "It didn't do anything when Mimic or Chaud touched them, but when me and Maylu touched them . . . "

"Maybe it's our Crests," Charlie suggests. "Hey, Mimic, you mind if I take that last one? Just to check."

She dutifully hands it over. All of the books have blank fronts, but as soon as Charlie touches it, the Crest of Duo suddenly appears on the front. A quick check of the other two books reveals that the Crest is also on their fronts, too, but every other book they can see have blank fronts.

"Hey, this one's in Netopian!" Charlie exclaims, blinking at the pages of his book in shock.

"Why're those two in Japanese but that one's in Netopian?" Dingo wonders.

"I have an idea," Chaud says. "But I think we'll need some more books to test this out. No one else touch them - since they don't seem to be reacting to me or Mimic, we'll gather a few, and then you guys can see what happens when you touch them."

The others agree to that, so Mimic and Chaud pick up a few random books from the floor nearby. They start handing them out to the others one-by-one, and the same thing happens each time - the books are translated into a recognisable language as soon as the others touch them.

And Chaud discovers that his idea was correct.

"These books are being translated to the first language of whoever touches them first," he explains, waving one of the Japanese-translated books around to show everyone. "Lan, Maylu, and Nenji's first language is Japanese, so the books they touched were all translated into Japanese. Jasmine's first language is Choinese, so the books she touched were all translated into Choinese. And Charlie and Dingo's first language is Netopia, so their books were translated into Netopian."

"But what about you guys?" Lan asks. "I mean, these books are clearly being translated 'cus of our Crests - otherwise the Crest wouldn't be showing up on the ones we touch. But it's not doing that for either of you."

"Maybe it's 'cus we only have half-Crests," Mimic muses. "I bet if we both touch the same book, we'd be able to translate it."

She holds out one of the books she's still got in her hands, and Chaud puts his hand onto the book as well. The Crest of Duo fades into view on the front, and when Mimic opens the book, it's fully-translated in Japanese characters.

"Sweet!" Mimic exchanges a grin with Chaud.

They decide to stop translating books for the moment, if only to see what's inside the ones they've already translated. The first one turns out to be about computer coding - though it mentions an advanced and highly-theoretical method of using stars and energy from the cosmos to create new technology or networks. It's interesting, but even Chaud has difficulty keeping up with it, and Mimic doesn't even try, though she does find the pictures fascinating.

Another one they translated turns out to be a storybook full of fairy tales - and Mimic immediately decides she has to read it right here and now, because she loves fairy tales. That doesn't surprise Chaud one bit, considering how many of her favourite games are fantasy-based.

There's no order or any semblance of organisation to these books, and the ones they picked up and translated are completely random. There's another fairy tale book, which Mimic claims again, and what seems to be a cookbook, though it doesn't use ingredients that any of them recognise. Another book is entirely about some species of animal that vaguely resembles a weird cross between a cat and a dog, which ProtoMan decides is extremely offensive.

Charlie manages to find a translated book that's about machines resembling helicopters, and is promptly fascinated by it. GyroMan activates the holographic screen on Charlie's PET to read alongside him.

Nenji decides he wants to see if he can find a book about fireworks, since Charlie found that one about helicopters, and heads off in search of one. Chaud doesn't bother telling him to stay with the group - if anyone gets lost inside the library, they can just send Dark Shadow out to find and guide them back. And besides, they are meant to be exploring, and they won't really get anything done if they're too focused on the books near the entrance of the library.

It's only an hour or two after translating and reading a few more of the alien books that Chaud realises the gold mine they've found.

"If we can figure out some way to get these books outside this city, we'll be able to show Dr. Hikari and the archaeology team everything we found!" he exclaims excitedly.

"How're we gonna do that, though?" Lan asks. "The only thing we can bring out of the dimensional area is ourselves."

Chaud pauses, and deflates a little when he realises that Lan is right. Which just isn't fair, really, because he would've loved to show these books to Dr. Hikari. He bets the man would have a field day looking through these things.

"Maybe we could try storing them inside Dark Shadow," ProtoMan suggests.

"Yeah, he's right!" Arcadia agrees. "If you put the books inside Dark Shadow, get out of the dimensional area, then go somewhere else and Cross Fuse again, you might be able to get the books out!"

"That might work," Chaud says thoughtfully. He glances at Mimic, raising an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

"Dunno," Mimic muses, tilting her head. "Never thought about tryin' to take a thing from one place to the another like that . . . "

Might work, Dark Shadow puts in. Try?

"No harm in it, I guess." Mimic shrugs. Then Chaud senses a sudden flash of an idea from her. "Wait, do you think the books would turn into data if I Crossed Out while they're inside Dark Shadow?"

ProtoMan's eagerness at that idea flashes through their connection as well. "If it works, we can just email the books to Dad as data, and he can read through them whenever he wants! And if he wants physical copies, all we need to do is use Cross Fusion again!"

"Try it with this one," Lan says, holding out a translated book. "From what I can tell, it's just some nonsense about poems, so it wouldn't be too much of a loss if it gets destroyed or something, right?"

"Anything could be useful when learning about an ancient culture like this," Chaud reminds him.

Lan winces sheepishly. "Right, yeah, I know. But still . . . "

"Poems ain't that fun anyway," Mimic decides, taking the poem book from Lan.

She hands it to Dark Shadow, who puts it inside its chest, and then Mimic Crosses Out as soon as the poem book has vanished. She catches her PET, and the holographic screen flickers into view above the screen, showing ProtoMan with Dark Shadow crouching beside him.

Dark Shadow reaches into its chest, roots around for a moment, and then carefully pulls out the poem book. It holds the book up triumphantly, and ProtoMan grins.

"It worked!" he says brightly. He takes the book from Dark Shadow and opens it. "Wow, it even still works like a real world book . . . This is so cool!"

"Can you put it in a folder?" Chaud asks.

ProtoMan creates a new folder and drops the poem book into it. His grin somehow gets even wider when it works.

"Books!" ProtoMan cries, throwing up his arms happily. Dark Shadow copies him, opening its split-mouth wide.

"Books," Mimic agrees, her own grin big enough to rival ProtoMan's.


No one knows how much storage capacity Dark Shadow has - not even Dark Shadow itself. But they can store a bunch of books inside it and still get even more in, and it says it doesn't feel any different than it normally does. Maybe that means its storage capacity is infinite? That seems a little absurd, even for the Poltergeist Program, but whatever the case, Dark Shadow's seemingly-endless storage capacity is insanely useful for storing as many books as they can find and translate.

They decide to keep the books inside Dark Shadow rather than putting them all into the folder ProtoMan created. There's so many of them now that the folder would get full immediately, and the memory storage on the PET isn't seemingly-infinite like Dark Shadow's storage capacity.

The only exceptions to that are the fairy tale books they find. Mimic wants to keep them - and Chaud doesn't really mind letting her have them, but fairy tales are still useful for learning about ancient culture, so he manages to convince her to at least let Dr. Hikari take a look at the fairy tale books first before she keeps them for herself.

"It's a shame we couldn't bring more out," Chaud comments, as he climbs up and over the side of the pit.

Mimic reaches down to help him get up. "Did better'n what the guys in the anime managed," she points out. "All they got was the Vision Burst. And the ruins're still there, too."

"True," Chaud muses. "And these books are insanely useful . . . Make sure you email them to your dad as soon as you can, alright?"

"Yep," Mimic agrees.

Chaud gives her a long look. "Including the fairy tale books."

Mimic's shoulders slump and she huffs out an annoyed sigh. "Fine."

"Hey," Charlie says, leaning over to them, "if she gets to keep those fairy tale books when Dr. Hikari's done with them, can I have that one about the helicopters?"

Chaud blinks at him, and then sighs. "Fine, whatever. Just make sure you check it's okay with Dr. Hikari first, alright?"

"Oh, yeah, definitely!"