With all five of them working together - and willingly, no less - it's suddenly a lot easier to deal with the Asteroid Navis.
They still show up almost endlessly, but Mimic and Chaud are capable of destroying a single overpowered Asteroid Navi between them with relative ease. Even when there's two Asteroids at the same time - which is happening more often than not, lately - they can deal with the threat much easier than Chaud had been on his own, especially with Bass lending his absurd strength to their efforts.
Mimic, quite honestly, has never had so much fun in her entire life.
She plants her clawed foot on Asteroid CutMan's face, digging her claws in for the brief moment of contact, and uses him as a springboard to launch herself at the much-bigger Asteroid StoneMan. She activates her Proto Sword and blasts off a Sonic Boom in StoneMan's face mid-air, then lands on top of his head, forms her shadow-claws, and starts hacking away at the digital stones.
A roar of white fire engulfs Asteroid CutMan, and his scream glitches and fades as he's deleted. The fire shifts targets and starts burning Asteroid StoneMan's feet - it doesn't do as much damage since fire can't really burn stone (well, not that Mimic knows of), but the extreme heat is enough to make StoneMan flinch.
Blasts of air explodes against the Asteroid's side, and then Bass is up in his face, switching from his Air Buster to two Dark Arm Blade, which he swings into StoneMan's eyes. StoneMan jerks back with a howl, blinded, and Chaud drops in from above with a fiery Bound Sword already formed.
Bass jumps away, and Chaud takes his place, slashing the Bound Sword down StoneMan's face. Mimic clings on with her claws as StoneMan staggers around, still howling and wailing, and she directs her shadows into the faint cracks in StoneMan's body, then flicks her wrist, clenching her fingers, and her shadows tear StoneMan from the inside.
The Asteroid Navi freezes for a single instant before his body disintegrates, and Mimic finds herself dropping down to the ground. She lands on all fours with the grace of the cat-Navi she is, and exchanges a grin with Chaud and Bass.
"There's another one!" Arcadia informs them, and the triumphant moment is broken. "Two streets away!"
"Asteroid PlantMan!" ProtoMan adds.
"Well, at least he'll be easy to deal with," Chuad remarks, spreading his wings and taking to the air.
Mimic barks out a laugh and claws her way up a building, and Bass launches himself into the air with a blast of his power, landing on the roof just as Mimic crawls over the edge. Chaud's already going ahead - fucking cheater, he has wings, that's not fair at all - so Mimic and Bass follow across the rooftops.
By the time they drop down into the street where Asteroid PlantMan is, Chaud's already blasting out Holy Fire from his hands. He cuts off the stream of fire and rockets higher into the air when PlantMan sends thorny vines after him, and Mimic sends her shadows out with a flick of her wrist. They sharpen and cut the thorny vines into shreds, and then turn on PlantMan.
He wails something about flowers - not that anyone is bothering to pay attention, anyway - as Mimic's sharp shadows cut his leaves into pieces. Bass follows up the attack with an Earthbreaker to PlantMan's face.
Mimic pinpoints Chaud easily thanks to their connection, and looks up at him. Switch!
He sends a flash of confirmation through their connection and drops down, and she meets him halfway by pouncing into the air. Their palms slap together, there's a bright flash of light, and then Mimic takes into the air on Arcadia's wings, grabbing Chaud's arm in one of her taloned feet on the way up.
She twists in mid-air, getting some momentum, and then launches Chaud at Asteroid PlantMan. He slashes the already-tattered leaves with his claws as he sails past, lands with a skid, and then jumps clear out of the way as Mimic sends a ring of Holy Fire down to surround their opponent.
PlantMan flinches away from the fire, and Chaud and Bass launch a double attack on him. Chaud throws a ball of shadows in his face, Bass quickly charges a Darkness Overload and hurls that into the fray, and Asteroid PlantMan wails one last time as he breaks apart into deletion.
Mimic carefully lowers herself down to the ground, touching down just as the dimensional area begins to fade. She and Chaud are forced out of Cross Fusion, and Bass back into the cyberworld - but the holographic screen on Mimic's PET appears in front of her a moment later, showing Bass standing next to Arcadia.
Chaud lets out a quiet huff of air as he makes his way over to Mimic. "Three at once," he mutters. "How the hell is Slur giving out so many of them?"
"Duo's probably doin' some stuff himself," Mimic reminds him. She's only speaking out loud because Bass is here - unlike Arcadia and ProtoMan, he can't hear Mimic and Chaud's direct thoughts.
"I wish he'd stop," ProtoMan grumbles. "Fighting is fun and all, but this is just stupid."
"You wanna tell a digital god to stop?" Arcadia sounds almost as tired as Chaud.
"He's not a god," Mimic says.
She catches a sense of mild exasperation from Chaud, but other than that, no one bothers to correct her. No matter how much they insist otherwise, Duo is definitely not a god. Just an alien NetNavi with delusions of grandeur.
Besides, those books they found in the library down in those ruins don't mention anything about digital gods. Dad went through them as thoroughly as he could, even the fairy tale books, and while Duo's creation was mentioned in a few of the more technical books, nothing was written that suggests Duo is a god of any kind.
Mimic thinks that proves Duo isn't a god. Chaud says it also doesn't prove he isn't a god, either, but screw what he says - Duo's not a god.
They get some rest at HQ. Hunter's set up a quiet room for them, away from the frantic energy of the rest of the building, and they're practically living there now, since they have to be ready to deal with an Asteroid attack at any given moment.
But for this moment, at least, they're okay to relax. Every single Net Saver on the force has been equipped with a Battle Chip Gate by now, and they're capable of handling materialised viruses or single Asteroid Navis on their own - but two Asteroids at the same time, or attacks one after the other, are handled by Mimic, Chaud, and Bass.
Sometimes they split up, because not all the Asteroids attack the same locations at the same time. Most of the time, though, they work together to take down any Asteroid Navis that show up.
"The Net Police have pretty much given up on trying to arrest the humans who materialise the Asteroids," ProtoMan is telling them. He's lounging in the private network of the room with Arcadia sitting against him, and Bass is leaning against a datablock nearby, arms crossed and eyes closed.
"Not much point, I suppose," Chaud says. He sighs, and his exhaustion flows through their connection, mingling with his annoyance. "Why do all these people use Asteroids for bad things? Why can't we ever come across someone like Nenji and NapalmMan?"
"Most humans are bastards," Bass says, without opening his eyes.
"Humans are assholes by nature," Mimic agrees. Chaud gives her an exasperated look and she shrugs, absently rubbing Ragdoll's ears. "What? It's true. All you gotta do is look through history a little bit, and it'll all be there, in black and white."
"Pessimistic much?" Arcadia murmurs.
"At least m'not gettin' disappointed," Mimic points out. Ragdoll makes a quiet mrr sound and pushes his head into her stomach, and she stops rubbing his ears to let him relax.
ProtoMan lifts his head and looks at her. "I read somewhere that if you always expect the worst, that's the only thing you'll get."
Mimic shrugs again. There's truth in that, sure, but in her experience, the worst is pretty much consistent.
She might be enjoying fighting alongside Chaud and Bass, but that doesn't mean she's holding out much hope for the future. Of course, she already knows what's coming - that's mainly why she's so 'pessimistic', as Arcadia puts it. Still, though, watching things happen on her laptop screen and actually experiencing the events for herself are two entirely different things, and she has been surprised before.
Mostly it's been unpleasant surprises, of course, but there are a few good ones in the mix. Just take a look at Bass - his role in the anime was pretty much just limited to a few random appearances, and yet here he is now, actively helping them fight the Asteroid Navis. He's not just hanging around until he can get his revenge on Slur, either; he said it himself, that he's hanging around them because he actually wants to, and eventually getting to delete Slur is a bonus.
So, yeah. Not everything is a bad surprise. It's just that most things are, and Mimic has learnt to always expect the worst.
"Not really a good outlook on life, if you ask me," Chaud murmurs.
"It works," Mimic replies.
The conversation fades into comfortable silence as they settle down to rest as long as they're able to. Bass eventually decides that leaning against the datablock is boring and plops down beside ProtoMan and Arcadia, and at some point, he even starts to stroke his hand through ProtoMan's hair.
ProtoMan's purring as a result of that sets off Ragdoll, and the two cats' purring is more than enough to settle the atmosphere even further. Hunter comes in a few minutes later with some food for them, and when he sees them just chilling, he smiles and quietly leaves them to munch on the food. Raoul's somewhere in the building too, Mimic knows, but she has no clue what he's doing and she's too comfortable to bother to check. Probably paperwork or something.
Speaking of paperwork, Chaud suddenly says, Father actually agreed to allow me to suspend my duties as vice president until this is all over.
Mimic cracks open an eye and peers at him. How the fuck did you get him to agree to that?
An excessive amount of begging, Chaud mutters, slumping down a little further on the sofa. That, and the fact that the Asteroid Navis are all over the news, wrecking pretty much everything they can. I think Dr. Hikari might've helped to convince him, too, but I have no idea how that conversation went.
Can't imagine it was pleasant, Mimic remarks, closing her eye again.
The last time Dad had seen Shuseki was back when SciLab made a contract with IPC to create the original prototype for the Battle Chip Gate, along with the Advanced PET 2. Dad said he'd nearly punched Shuseki the moment he saw him - so Mimic really can't imagine that having an actual conversation outside of professional settings was at all enjoyable for Dad.
But the fact that Shuseki had to be begged and convinced to allow Chaud to help save the fucking world is just plain ridiculous.
He seems to be under the impression that I'm capable of keeping up with my work as IPC's vice president along with dealing with the Asteroid attacks, Chaud says. I . . . well. I'm not going to argue with him-
He'd beat you for trying, Mimic mutters.
Probably, Chaud sighs. But he's agreed, on the grounds that I work as hard as I can to catch up on whatever work I miss during this crisis.
Can't he just delegate the work himself?
"The work of IPC's vice president is different to the work of the president," Arcadia suddenly speaks up. "And aside from that, we already know that Shuseki Blaze has fired multiple people when he tried to find a replacement for you. No one else is capable of handling the level of stress that comes with being IPC's vice president."
"Probably 'cus Master Blaze puts Chaud under a shitton of stress already, so he's used to it," ProtoMan mutters. The only reason he's speaking his mind so freely about this is because of the friends program, protecting him from unwanted guests such as Proxy, Shuseki's cruel bully of a NetNavi. Otherwise, he wouldn't dare to say such things.
"What the fuck's going on?" Bass breaks in, giving them all a look that's half confused and half offended.
Arcadia gives him a quick explanation of the mental conversation between Mimic and Chaud, and a scowl settles on Bass's expression.
"Fucking bastard of a human," he mutters. "What's more important to him, his stupid work or the entire fucking world?"
"His work," Chaud says. Bass gapes at him. "Well, I'm sure he knows that if the world ends, there won't be any work, but he's more concerned with keeping IPC running than anything else. I can understand that, really, because if everything shuts down, even during a crisis, we're all pretty much screwed as a society."
"Stop trying to excuse him," Mimic murmurs. "He's a bastard, nothin' more to it."
"He's not-" Chaud hesitates, and then sighs. There's nothing he can say to protest, because it's true, and he knows it.
He still insists that Shuseki can change for the better, but Mimic has seen absolutely zero signs of that happening. Like she said, that man is a bastard, and he's even worse than Hatsuko Amano ever was - and look how she turned out. People like them, people who're cruel for no reason, don't change on a whim. In fact, they rarely ever change at all.
If Mimic wasn't so afraid of Shuseki, she'd bite him. She hates him enough to do it. But she'd get arrested for it, and no one would believe her reasons, because Shuseki is a well-respected adult and she's a twelve-year-old girl with a bad habit of doing the exact opposite to what she's told to do.
And aside from that, Shuseki would take it out on Chaud if she tried to do anything. You gotta be careful with shit like this - it's not like in the movies or TV shows or books, where the abusive relative either changes their ways and becomes a better person, or they get arrested or killed and their victim immediately becomes a fully-functioning and mentally sound member of society. Real life doesn't work like that. It's messy, and hard, and there are consequences - often horrible ones - with these things.
What can she do against someone like Shuseki? In reality, nothing. The best she can do is make sure Chaud is okay, or whatever passes for okay between them. That's the best any one of their friends can do, the best that her adoptive family can do.
They can fight Asteroid Navis, but they can't fight Shuseki.
Mimic and Chaud are dozing, half-asleep, and Arcadia senses their minds gradually fading into the full numbness of actual sleep. He's already signed to ProtoMan and Bass for them to be quiet, since their operators need sleep - they don't usually get much anyway, but they're getting even less than usual, and it's starting to show.
The shadows under Mimic's eyes never really go away, but they're worse than usual. Chaud normally manages to avoid the same tired-eyed look Mimic constantly has by consuming an ungodly amount of coffee and sugar, but he hasn't had much opportunity to do that lately, so he's starting to get shadows under his eyes, too.
The only sound in their little room at HQ is Ragdoll's purring, helping to lull Mimic and Chaud to sleep. He's stretched out across both their laps, and Arcadia's Empath Program tells him that they're enjoying the warmth of both Ragdoll and each other. Cats enjoy warm things, and they're both cats in human bodies, more or less.
He jumps when there's a sudden call to Mimic's PET, and quickly silences it before either of them can be startled into waking up. Then he answers it, and is surprised when he sees Dr. Hikari on the screen.
"Shh," Arcadia says, putting a finger to his lips. No matter how surprised he is at suddenly getting a call from Mimic's dad, he can't let his and ProtoMan's operators wake up. "They're trying to sleep."
"Ah," Dr. Hikari says, wincing. He's talking quietly, thankfully. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to . . . Are they awake?"
"Still sleeping," ProtoMan murmurs. He hasn't even bothered to lift his head. "What's up, Dad?"
If Dr. Hikari is at all surprised to be referred to as 'Dad' by ProtoMan, he doesn't show it. Arcadia is impressed at his composure.
"I'm calling all the Cross Fusion members I can," Dr. Hikari informs them. "SciLab is taking over as the headquarters for dealing with the Asteroid Navis, so we want all available Cross Fusion members to report here as soon as possible. Most of the others are already here - we're just missing Mimic, Chaud, Raika, and Princess Pride."
"Most of the others?" Arcadia repeats, blinking.
"Of the ones we can contact," Dr. Hikari clarifies. "Ms. Yuri and Dark Miyabi are impossible to locate, but we've had word that they're both working to take down any Asteroid Navis they find. Charlie has . . . somehow . . . managed to get Tesla's assistance, so we can contact her through him, and they're working together. Baryl is the only person we can't contact from here, but he sends Colonel to our time to take down any Asteroids that appear in the cyberworld."
"Colonel seemed pretty fucking powerful when I met him," Bass mutters. "He should be able to handle the cyberworld, right?"
For once, Dr. Hikari doesn't try to scold the use of swearing - most likely because it's Bass, and no one wants to annoy Bass into leaving them to deal with the Asteroids on their own. It's also probably because Bass would just ignore Dr. Hikari's scolding anyway and continue swearing to his core's content.
"He can," Dr. Hikari agrees, nodding. "And the rest of you can handle the Asteroids in the real world, since that's where most of them are."
"But you want us to come back to Japan, right?" Arcadia checks. Dr. Hikari nods. "Okay. We'll tell Mimic and Chaud when they wake up, and then head back as soon as we can."
"Thank you. Actually, it might be easier if I contact Raika and Princess Pride first - they're likely to come back together as well, and they can stop over in Netopia to pick up Mimic and Chaud. That'll make it easier, I should think. I'll let them know."
Arcadia, ProtoMan, and Bass agree to that, and Dr. Hikari bids them farewell - and good luck, in case any Asteroid Navis attack while they're waiting - before ending the call.
"More humans," Bass mutters. Arcadia picks up a faint sense of disgust from him, along with an even fainter sense of discomfort.
"Look on the bright side," ProtoMan suggests.
"What fucking bright side? I tolerate literally three humans, and I'll be surrounded by a bunch of them that I don't give a shit about."
"Yeah, but at least you won't be forced to work with 'em." ProtoMan grins at him, all teeth. "You can just work with Chaud, Mimic, or Lan. And that's all you gotta do!"
" . . . I suppose," Bass grumbles.
His discomfort is fading, though, so Arcadia knows that ProtoMan's . . . somewhat abrupt method of comfort has worked.
Like he told Dr. Hikari, they wait until Mimic and Chaud have woken up - on their own, not because anyone else forced them to wake up, because they really do need to sleep - before telling them about the call. They're perfectly willing to wait around for Raika and Princess Pride to come and pick them up, and Mimic is excited at the thought of being able to finally go home after almost three months of being in Netopia.
Of course, they all know it won't exactly be a proper homecoming. Not yet, at least. But being able to go home even for a little bit is a comforting thought for all of them, even Bass, who pretty much hates Netopia - especially after he heard about the way the local NetNavis have treated ProtoMan.
Chaud's never met a princess before. Neither has Mimic, though she's technically more familiar with Princess Pride than he is.
Mimic says she's down-to-earth, chill as fuck, and a decent NetBattler. From what Chaud can tell, that assessment is pretty much correct - Princess Pride is calm and a lot nicer than he thought she'd be, being an actual princess and all, and so far, she's treated Chaud and Mimic like equals.
And there also seems to be something going on between Raika and Princess Pride. There's a faint blush on Raika's cheeks whenever he looks at her, and they appear to share a bond that's so obvious even Lan would be able to pick up on it.
Raika's got a crush on her, Mimic tells him, with a shit-eating grin. I'm pretty sure she returns the feeling.
Oh my god, Chaud says softly, unable to contain his own grin.
I ship it, Mimic says.
"What're you two grinning at?" Raika asks suspiciously, looking over at them with narrow eyes.
"Nothing," Chaud replies innocently. A little too innocently, perhaps, but he's enjoying himself too much to be able to hide it.
"They're quite sweet, aren't they?" Princess Pride giggles.
"Sweet is definitely not the word I'd use to describe them," Raika mutters, not loud enough for the princess to hear. Chaud and Mimic hear him just fine, and their grins only get bigger. "Stop that, you two. What are you, the Cheshire cats?"
"Mmmaybe," Mimic sing-songs. "We are cats, after all."
"There's a certain sense of pride in it," Chaud adds.
Raika doesn't miss the emphasis on 'pride', and he gives them a warning look before turning back to Princess Pride.
I ship it! Mimic says again.
Maybe we can enlist some help from the others to get them together, Chaud muses.
Aw, what? Mimic actually pouts at him. But it's way more fun to watch them dancing around each other like this. It's adorable!
True, Chaud has to admit. And it is fun to tease Raika about it, especially since Princess Pride doesn't seem to notice a goddamn thing.
This is gonna be a fun few hours. Mimic looks positively delighted.
The fun has to end when they land, however much Mimic wants it to continue. Raika seems thoroughly sick of their thinly-veiled comments and teasing, and Pride remains blissfully unaware of what's going on - she still thinks they're 'quite sweet', which is something Mimic never thought she'd ever get described as. It's all she can do to keep herself from dissolving into hysterical laughter.
There's a car waiting for them at the airport when they land, and it takes them straight to SciLab. Dad meets them just as they come into the lobby, and Mimic immediately throws herself into his arms and purrs.
"I've missed you too," Dad murmurs, gently pressing his lips to the top of her head as he returns the embrace.
She can hear Pride cooing at the sight, but she's too happy to see her dad again to be at all embarrassed that people are witnessing this affectionate display. Who gives a fuck, anyway? The people at SciLab know her already, Chaud is fully aware that she's a hugger, Raika is . . . Raika, and Pride is quite possibly the coolest princess Mimic has ever met.
Well, she's the only princess Mimic has ever met, in spite of Yai's attempts to establish herself as one. But if most princesses are anything like Yai, Pride is definitely the coolest one there is.
So, yeah. She doesn't mind the cooing.
She pretty much clings to Dad as he leads through them SciLab toward the main room, where everyone else is already waiting. Well, everyone that Dad could get together, anyway - Lan is chatting with Dingo and Maylu, Jasmine is sitting next to Nenji, and Charlie is lounging on his seat at the end with his trademark smirk. Ms. Yuri and Miyabi are nowhere to be seen, and Tesla is . . . somewhere. Probably in Charlie's apartment. Baryl, obviously, can't come to the meeting since the only way to contact him is through the Past Tunnel.
"Everyone's here," Dad announces, stepping through the door. "Thank you for coming."
"What about Tesla?" Dingo asks, glancing up. "She's not here."
"Don't worry." Charlie waves his hand lazily. "I'll tell her everything."
"Hey, you guys!" Lan enthusiastically waves at Mimic and Chaud. "How've you been? You look tired."
"Kill me now and spare me the slow agony of death," Chaud says, with a completely straight face, as he takes his seat.
Mimic slides into her own seat next to him, and catches Raika giving Chaud an odd look as he settles down as well. Pride seems more startled than anything, as do the others, though Lan snorts with laughter and Dad only looks faintly amused.
" . . . I was joking," Chaud eventually says, upon realising that his sarcastic comment has worried most of the people in the room.
"Kinda dark, kid," Nenji says, wincing.
Mimic can sense that Chaud is half-tempted to make another comment, but he refrains from doing so because he doesn't want to worry anyone even further. If it had been her, she would've just made as many comments as she possibly could, just to mess with everyone. It's more fun that way.
"Thank you all for coming," Dad says again, taking his place at the head of the room - a podium in front of a large monitor on the back wall. "As you're all aware, SciLab is now the official HQ to combat the threat of the Asteroid Navis. Net Savers around the world are working to lessen the threat as much as possible, but only the Cross Fusion members are fully-equipped to properly deal with Asteroid Navis. You need to be prepared to ship out and fight any Asteroid Navis that appear at any given moment, regardless of which country or area you were already tasked with defending."
The international Cross Fusion members - meaning Mimic, Chaud, Raika, and Pride - exchange glances.
"Hey, uh, if these Asteroids are showing up all over the world, how're we gonna deal with that?" Charlie asks, raising a hand. "I mean, not including that Baryl guy, there's only thirteen of us. On top of that, at least half of us are just kids."
"Fourteen," Chaud corrects him.
Charlie blinks at him.
"Bass is helping us," Mimic begins.
"So there's fourteen, not thirteen," Chaud finishes.
"Who's Bass?" Dingo asks.
Those who actually know Bass look shocked at the news that he's helping them. Dad is the only one who already knew - they called him to tell him about Bass's offer to help as soon as Mimic arrived in Heaven's City. For those who don't know Bass, they're just completely bewildered.
"An independent NetNavi who's chosen to ally himself with us for the time being," Dad replies to Dingo's question. "Or at least, he's chosen to ally himself with Mimic, Chaud, and Lan."
"Me?" Lan somehow looks even more shocked.
"You remember the last time we saw him?" MegaMan speaks up. "He said there're three humans that he gives a - um - three humans that he cares about. Mimic and Chaud are two of them, obviously, and I'm guessing you're the third."
"He is," Chaud agrees.
Lan's mouth drops open. Maylu, sitting beside him, is looking between him and Mimic and Chaud, as if she's trying to figure out what makes them so special that Bass is willing to help them - and absolutely no one else.
Mimic doesn't know if there's an actual answer to that. She kinda started this when she told Bass about independent NetNavis being able to materialise themselves in dimensional areas, but even she couldn't have predicted that that one little change could have led to something like this. Making an ally, even a friend, out of Bass is . . . well, it's unexpected, for one thing, but it's certainly not unwelcome.
But the fact that she's technically the one who started this doesn't mean she knows why Bass has decided that she and her brothers are worthy of his tolerance and even friendship. Only Bass himself would know the answer to that, and he's not going to answer that kind of question any time soon.
"Bass can assist whoever he chooses, but the point is, with the help of Net Savers armed with Battle Chip Gates, we're able to deal with Asteroids whenever or wherever they appear," Dad says, getting everyone's attention again. "We can't expect you all to do the work on your own, but you are our best hope of defeating the Asteroids quickly. As I already said, you have to be ready to ship out at a moment's notice, hence why I've asked you all to come here. It's easier to manage you as a group if you're working from the same base of operations, rather than scattered across the planet.
"That being said, we can't expect you to deal with a single Asteroid and then come back. Given recent observations, we've determined that multiple attacks are now starting to happen more frequently - sometimes two or more Asteroids at the same time, or one after the other in quick succession. So your mission is to deal with whatever Asteroid or Asteroids you're sent to deal with, and then take out any that happen to appear in the same area afterwards. Once you're done with that, come back here, and await further orders."
Charlie nods, seemingly satisfied with that, and Nenji and Dingo pump their fists and let out enthusiastic cheers. Everyone else looks just as determined - Mimic can feel Chaud's own determination like hers, so she doesn't even need to see his expression.
The only Cross Fusion member who seems troubled is Maylu. She says nothing, only looking at the palm of her hand, at her invisible Crest. Mimic's not entirely sure what's going through her mind, and there's no time to try and think on it - they have a job to do, and she can't really afford to spare any thoughts to whatever's troubling Maylu when there's an entire world to save from Duo and Slur's Asteroid Navis.
Between them, Chaud and Mimic manage to clear out no less than five Asteroids in a single day. The last two they delete are Asteroid GravityMan, who Dark Shadow makes quick work of, and Asteroid AirMan, whose wind provides an unfortunate foil to Dark Shadow's intangible form - but Chaud and Mimic download Elec Reels and delete AirMan quickly, preventing further destruction.
Bass decided to go and help Lan this time, and as far as Chaud knows Maylu is with them, too. A lot of the Cross Fusion members are working in pairs or trios - he suspects that he likely would've ended up on his own if it hadn't been for Mimic, though. He's glad she's here, because now it's easier to deal with the absurd amount of Asteroid Navis, especially when they barely even need to pause to strategise mid-battle.
Since they're done with the Asteroids they were sent to delete, and ProtoMan and Arcadia can't detect any more nearby, they head back to SciLab and make their way to the main room. On the way, Mimic picks up Ragdoll from Dr. Hikari - SciLab is technically the safest place on the planet right now, so she often leaves Ragdoll with either Dr. Hikari if he's available, or Famous if he isn't.
They settle down at the table in the main room, and Mimic slumps over the table with her eyes closed. Ragdoll hops up onto the table and nudges her head until she sits up a little, then curls up in front of her. Mimic puts her chin on him and wraps her arms around him, all without once opening her eyes.
Tired? Chaud asks, though there's not much point. He can sense Mimic's exhaustion easily - any enjoyment she felt before has now been replaced with the desire to see this end quickly, because the attacks are getting even more frequent than before. They're all being worn out.
Kill me, Mimic mutters. Please.
That might kill me too, so, no, Chaud replies.
Mimic groans out loud and buries her face in Ragdoll's fur. He starts purring, and a little spark of content happiness comes through their connection.
"You guys look . . . dead," Lan comments, coming into the main room. He sits down on Mimic's other side and leans over to peer at her. "You okay, sis?"
Mimic mumbles something through Ragdoll's fur.
"What?"
"Kill me," Mimic says, lifting her head so her chin's resting on Ragdoll again. She cracks her eyes open halfway and stares at the opposite wall.
"You guys seem pretty obsessed with asking people to kill you, are you okay?" Charlie wonders, wandering into the room after Lan to take his seat, too.
"We crave the sweet release of death," Chaud deadpans.
"Maybe we could hire Dark Miyabi to murder us," Mimic mumbles. "How d'we contact him?"
"I thought you were enjoying all this fighting." Lan reaches out to gently pat Mimic's head.
She groans again. "Not anymore."
"Five at once is a little much, even for us," Chaud adds.
"Five?" Nenji, who's just come in with Jasmine and Dingo, looks shocked as he sits down. "Man, we only had to take down two of them . . ."
"Me, Maylu, and Bass took down three," Lan reports, glancing over at Maylu.
For whatever reason, she's been hovering in the background uncertainly, but when Lan mentions her name, she looks up. Maylu blinks and comes forward, sitting down at the table as well. Chaud's not entirely sure, but he thinks there's a slight hesitance to her steps, as if she's not certain as to whether or not she's allowed to be here. Or maybe it's something else.
He doesn't know. The only person whose mind he can read is Mimic, and also ProtoMan and Arcadia when they're in Cross Fusion. If Maylu has any issues, she'll have to speak up.
"Maybe I could try burning some incense candles," Jasmine muses, glancing around at everyone with a worried look. "They might help with the tiredness, and the stress . . ."
"Fire," Mimic says desperately, "warmth!"
"Um, no, they're not-"
"Fire," Mimic insists.
Chaud sighs. "Just make a campfire or something, you pyromaniac."
"Eat me."
Any retort he could be bothered to make to that ridiculous statement dies on his tongue when the doors open yet again. This time, it's Raika and Princess Pride - and Famous follows behind them. He heads straight over to the podium at the front of the room, casting a quick glance over everyone as Raika and Princess Pride settle down.
"Good work today, everyone," Famous tells them. His gaze lingers a little longer on Mimic and Chaud, and he looks concerned for a moment before he moves on. "Thanks to your efforts, all of the Asteroids that appeared today have been deleted."
"How many did show up today, anyway?" Dingo asks, leaning forward to look at him. "Chaud said he and Mimic took out, like, five of them. That seems like way too many."
"We can't really determine how many will appear in a specific location once we send out a Cross Fusion team," Famous replies. "Not including the ones that Colonel deleted in the cyberworld, we think at least forty-seven have appeared today alone, all over the planet."
"That many?" Raika gapes at him.
Princess Pride has her hand over her mouth in horror. "I never would have imagined . . ."
"The Net Police are doing their part as much as all of you, remember," Famous tells everyone. "A lot of the Asteroid attacks appear to be happening in Japan, but other countries are still being attacked - just with less frequency."
"Lucky them," Mimic mutters under her breath. Chaud nudges her, and she gives him a long-suffering look before shutting up.
"So, again, good work on deleting the Asteroids that appeared today," Famous goes on, unaware of Mimic's muttered comment. "Rest up for tonight, as much as you can."
Chaud doesn't think he's imagining the concerned look Famous gives him and Mimic before he leaves the room. He probably knows how many each of them managed to delete today - and from the sound of it, Chaud and Mimic ended up getting the short end of the stick, since it seems like they deleted the most Asteroids out of everyone here.
He's not sure if that's a good thing or not. On one hand, the more they delete, the better; that means there's less Asteroids to attack Japan and the rest of the world. On the other hand, the fact that they have to deal with more Asteroids at once is extremely exhausting. He supposes, then, that they really should take Famous's advice and rest up as much as they can while they have the opportunity.
"I wonder if Famous'll start mixing up the teams at some point," Lan muses, leaning back in his chair. "We all work pretty well in the ones we've got right now, but what if one of the teams comes across an Asteroid none of them are able to handle?"
"We almost had that with GravityMan, earlier," Chaud speaks up, glancing at him. "Lucky for us that Dark Shadow isn't affected by gravity like that."
Lan winces. "Ouch. Yeah, that's definitely lucky."
"Think we'll get shipped out across the world?" Dingo wonders, leaning forward on his elbows.
"If we do, I hope me and Chaud stay together," Mimic says, sighing a little.
"Because of your connection, right?" Raika guesses. "I don't think you need to worry about being split up. Between your connection and Switch Fusion, you two are probably the best team we have in terms of compatibility. I don't think anyone is keen to test whether your connection can survive you being in different countries, anyway."
"Actually," Chaud begins thoughtfully, "I wonder if our connection can survive us being in different countries, now . . . I mean, it was fine when we were in completely different time periods, after all."
Mimic blinks and sits up, and Ragdoll looks at her for a moment before settling back down. "Huh," she says, in a tone of wonder. "I . . . I never thought'a that."
"What do you mean, 'different time periods'?" Lan asks, blinking.
"Um," Mimic says.
Lan sighs. "Mimic, what'd you do?"
Mimic puffs out her cheeks in offence. "Why d'you assume it's somethin' I did?" she demands.
"Because it usually is," Lan says flatly.
"What the fu-"
"It is," Chaud interrupts, and Mimic gives him a look of such comical offence that he lets out a bark of laughter before he can stifle it.
"Fuck both of you," Mimic huffs. "I'm gonna go sit with the royals over there, 'least they won't be so fuckin' mean t'me."
Raika's entire face turns red out of sheer embarrassment. "Royals?" he splutters. "What the-"
"Oh, she must think you're the prince of Sharo," Princess Pride says, hiding a chuckle behind her hand. "How precious!"
Everyone stares at her for a few speechless moments. Chaud can't believe it - there's actually someone who's even more oblivious than Lan. That . . . is extremely impressive, to be honest.
He has no idea what prompts him to do it. Maybe it's all this constant fighting, tiring him out to the point where there's no filter between his brain and his mouth.
"Raika and Pride, sittin' in a tree-" he starts to sing.
Raika whips his head around to glare at him. "Don't you dare finish that!"
Chaud doesn't even hesitate. "K-I-S-S-"
"That's it, you're dead!"
Raika springs out of his seat with a look of comical fury, and Chaud yelps as he scrambles out of his own seat and darting out of the way of Raika's lunge. He lets out a slightly-hysterical giggle as he jumps up onto the table to avoid Raika again, dropping down over the other side before Raika can even get around at him.
Charlie ducks down just in time to avoid getting a foot in the face as Chaud jumps over him. Princess Pride is frantically trying to tell Raika to stop, and Mimic is once again hiding her face in Ragdoll's fur, this time wheezing with laughter. The others just look completely bewildered and more than a little startled at the sudden activity.
Raika darts after him and manages to grab his wrist before he can get away properly, then drags him into a bear hug, easily ignoring Chaud's weak struggles (weak because he can't stop laughing). He feels a fist on his head, and the only reason he doesn't immediately panic and think Raika's actually angry enough to hit him is because the fist is pressing down gently, messing up his hair, and he can hear SearchMan desperately trying to stifle his cackling.
"Um . . . did I come at a bad time, or something?"
Everyone freezes, and slowly they all turn to look at the doors.
Anetta is standing there, with her grey parrot Plush on her shoulder, looking so honestly confused that Chaud feels almost sorry for her. She looks at each of them in turn, a silent question clear on her expression, but there are no answers forthcoming. There's a basket in her hands, but it seems that Anetta's forgotten about it in favour of staring at all of them.
"Anetta!" Mimic exclaims happily, raising her head to grin at her best friend.
That manages to break everyone out of their frozen stupor.
"Anetta, Raika's trying to kill me!" Chaud cries. "Help!"
"Don't you dare try and get out of this, you little brat!" Raika snaps, tightening his grip on Chaud as he starts struggling again.
" . . . Whatever happened, I'm pretty sure you deserve it," Anetta says to Chaud. Plush shakes her feathers out as if agreeing.
"No!" Chaud wails. "Don't abandon me, please!"
"Are those your weird sandwiches?" Mimic asks eagerly, completely ignoring Chaud's plight.
Chaud immediately stops struggling and perks up. "Sandwiches!"
Anetta laughs and sets the basket down on the table, opening it up. "Yep!" she replies brightly, as Plush shuffles to adjust to the movements of her owner. "And something else, too. A new, mm, let's say experiment!"
Mimic hisses out a quiet yes and slides out of her seat. Anetta picks something out of the basket as she approaches and hands it to her, and even though Chaud is still being held captive by Raika, Mimic's flash of sheer excitement still jolts through his body and energises him.
He manages to slip out of Raika's grasp - mainly because Raika is busy gaping at what Mimic is holding - and darts over to Anetta. She laughs and hands him the same thing as Mimic.
"California rolls!" Anetta announces, picking up another one and waving it around. "Mostly I just make sandwiches, so I decided to try something new! I think they turned out pretty good, right?"
"If they're anything like your sandwiches, then yeah," Lan agrees.
"I don't know what a California roll is," Raika says, "but I'm pretty sure those aren't it."
"How dare you," Anetta says, sounding offended. The grin on her face kinda ruins it, though.
"These look delightful!" Princess Pride gets to her feet and comes over, pressing her hands together hopefully. "May I have one?"
"Sure!" Anetta happily picks one up and hands it to the princess. "I brought these for everyone here, after all. You guys have been working super-hard to fight those Asteroid Navis - it's all over the news right now. I figured you could all do with something to eat, so I made these and ta-dah!"
She picks up one of her weird sandwiches to present it to them. It flops in her hands, the way a sandwich isn't supposed to, and it's full of things that most people wouldn't put on a sandwich, but Chaud knows damn well that it tastes far better than it looks. The only person aside from him, Mimic, and Princess Pride who doesn't look almost repulsed is Lan, who's had Anetta's sandwiches before.
"Are you sure that's a sandwich?" Dingo asks, rather bluntly. "Looks more like something pigs eat, to be honest."
"Gimme your tomahawk," Mimic says, looking over at him.
"What? Why?"
"So I can bash your head in with it."
Dingo squeaks and ducks down halfway out of sight.
"Stop terrorising him," Chaud mumbles around a mouthful of Anetta's California roll.
Mimic shrugs and starts nibbling on hers.
The Asteroids continue to show up, but none of them are required to deal with them just yet - the Net Police are capable of taking out the singular Asteroids that appear, which gives the Cross Fusion members a chance to rest, for a few hours at least.
Mimic's doing her best to keep up with actual events and remember what happened in the anime, but the last few episodes of Stream was more or less a complete mess of plot, and she can only remember key points. Not that it's much help since she can't exactly remember the full sequence of events. Add in the fact that she's dead-tired from the constant Asteroid attacks, and she's not really going to be much help with this.
"I don't think it matters, anyway," Lan says, when she tells him and Chaud as much. "We all know what we've gotta do, and whatever little bit of info you can give us is more than enough."
"He's right," Chaud agrees. "You can't expect to be able to remember every tiny detail."
"Left forty, keep straight three-hundred metres, right seventy," Mimic parrots.
"Well, aside from that. How do you still remember that, anyway?"
"No idea," Mimic replies.
She looks up at the darkening sky above their heads. They're up on the roof of SciLab, enjoying the cool evening air while they can - being stuck inside isn't fun even if they're supposed to be resting, and having some fresh air that doesn't also come with the constant tiring danger of being in the middle of multiple fights at once is doing wonders for their peace of mind. Whatever peace they can get, at least.
The one mark against the peace of the oncoming night is Duo's comet, still burning brightly in the sky as always. No matter what time it is, no matter where they are, it's always there - hanging over them like a storm cloud, a constant reminder of the threat to their planet.
Mimic lets out a faint hiss and climbs up onto the wall encircling the roof. She balances like a tightrope walker and wanders back and forth across the wall, trying to distract herself from the idea of Duo always watching them. It doesn't work, but it makes her feel a little better.
"If you weren't a cat, I'd be freaking out right now," Lan comments, watching her with the calm air of someone who's seen far too much weird shit to be concerned about Mimic tightrope-walking across a wall on top of a building.
"I wonder how much a circus would pay to have us perform for them," Chaud muses.
Mimic perks up at the mention of being paid, and Chaud laughs as he sits down with his back against the wall. She walks over near him and leans down to flick his hair, then straightens back up and continues wandering back and forth.
"You guys would making a killing in a circus, I bet!" Lan chuckles. "You'd be the Cat Twins, or something!"
"How about the Siamese Twins?" MegaMan suggests. "Siamese is a species of cat, after all."
"I'm pretty sure Siamese twins refers to conjoined twins," Chaud says, as Mimic flips over onto her hands and continues walking like that. "Alright, now you're just showing off."
Mimic sticks out her tongue and continues walking on her hands across the wall. Say what you will, but she's enjoying this, along with the deeply impressed look on Lan's face.
She and Chaud hear footsteps coming up the stairs, though they can't tell who they belong to. They can recognise a few people by the sound of their footsteps alone, but those few people are almost exclusively limited to their family or people they've had constant interactions with in the past.
The door to the roof opens, and Maylu comes out, mouth open to speak. She stops when she sees all three of them together - and then looks a little startled when she spots Mimic hand-walking across the wall.
"Uh-" Maylu blinks and glances at Lan. "Is- is that safe, for her to be doing that?"
"They're cats," Lan replies, shrugging. "So, yeah. I think it's safe, anyway. Mimic?"
"Not gonna fall, m'good," Mimic tells him, raising one hand to give him an upside-down thumbs-up.
Lan nods and turns back to Maylu. "See? She's fine."
" . . . Right," Maylu says, after a short pause. "Um. L-Lan, can I . . . I wanna talk to you. If . . . you know, if you're not busy with . . ."
"We were just wasting time anyway." Lan shrugs. "What's up?"
Maylu licks her lips nervously, glancing at Mimic and Chaud. It seems like whatever she wants to talk to Lan about, she wants to do it privately - but Mimic is enjoying herself on the wall, and Chaud's just gotten comfortable, for all that he's sitting on concrete. Whatever Maylu wants to say to Lan, she can say it in front of them. Besides, they're pretty good at keeping secrets, if this is a thing that needs to be secret. The past year and a half is pretty good evidence of that.
"It . . . it's about Duo," Maylu says, evidently deciding to just come out with it, since it's obvious that Mimic and Chaud aren't gonna leave. "And, well . . ."
Maylu steps forward, holding out her palm. The skin is blank, but the gesture clearly refers to her Crest.
"I was . . . I was wondering why Duo would choose someone like me," Maylu admits. "I'm . . . I'm not . . ." She hesitates, glancing at all three of them in turn. "I'm not like any of you. You're brave, and selfless, and . . . and so strong. But me, I'm just . . . I'm just some fragile little girl, trying to play at being a hero."
"Fragile my ass," Mimic huffs, flipping herself around again so she's sitting on the wall.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Maylu demands, looking offended.
"What she means is that you're strong, too," Chaud explains. "You're not playing at being a hero, you are a hero. You were chosen, and you're doing your part just as much as everyone else."
"Actually, I . . . I-I was wondering about that," Maylu says. "Mimic, that anime of yours . . . did it ever tell you why Duo chose the people he did?"
"F'it did, I don't remember," Mimic replies, shrugging. She's pretty sure she's been asked this before, just not by Maylu. Or maybe just something similar. "Far as I know, the choices were random. The Crests got scattered around, and they revealed their wielders one-by-one."
"So it was just pure chance that I got one . . ." Maylu doesn't look very happy about that.
Mimic's just trying to figure out what to say to at least try and help her feel better when Lan decides to speak up.
"Even if it was just pure chance," he begins, "you've still done pretty good. You're my partner for a lot of these missions, and we work together really well!"
"Not as well as them," Maylu says, glancing at Mimic and Chaud.
Lan chuckles a little awkwardly. "I don't think anyone can work together as well as they can. They have a connection between their souls, remember? But for two people who don't have that kinda connection, I think we do pretty well. You might not think you're strong, but I do! Just look at what you did today - if it hadn't been for you helping me, we never would've been able to delete those Asteroids. Besides, you told me once that you dreamed about doing Cross Fusion, right? And now you get to do it for real!"
"I . . . I did dream about it, yeah," Maylu sighs, lowering her gaze. "But . . . I never thought I'd be in the middle of something like this. I'm scared."
"You're not the only one," Chaud says. Maylu looks up, surprised, and he shrugs. "I'm scared, too. So is Mimic, and Lan. Everyone's scared. You're not special."
"But this Crest-" Maylu begins.
"That's a different kinda special," Mimic interrupts. She gently sways back and forth on the wall, half-closing her eyes. "Doesn't matter much anyway. You're scared and you keep fightin' anyway. Remember back when Nebula and the Darkloids were runnin' the show? I was scared shitless half the time, an' I still fought 'em."
"You're doing the same thing," Chaud tells Maylu. "We all are. Fighting despite your fear is strength, in my opinion. If anyone says they're not scared, they're lying."
"I'm not scared," Bass speaks up.
"Or they're Bass, whose emotional range consists entirely of anger and spite," Chaud adds.
"I'm not scared, either!" ProtoMan calls.
"Fuck's sake . . ." Chaud mutters.
Maylu giggles a little, then looks surprised at herself.
"That's somethin' else!" Mimic claps her hands together and grins. "F'you're scared, find somethin' to laugh about! Colonel once told me that laughter feels better than sadness."
"Colonel . . . sounds pretty smart," Maylu says, with a small smile. "So're you guys, actually. I didn't expect this . . ."
"I've lived most of my life in a constant state of tension and fear," Chaud says. "I know how to deal with it."
"Same." Mimic raises her hand lazily. "Just a bit less time than him, though."
Lan shoots them both a slightly worried look, but he focuses his attention back on Maylu quickly enough. "All I did was tell you the truth."
"Thanks, all of you." Maylu smiles gratefully. "I, um . . . I don't think I'm entirely better, but . . ."
"No one gets better right away," Chaud tells her. "It takes time, and it's not always gonna be linear. There's ups and downs, and sometimes there's thoughts or bad feelings that never go away, no matter how much you try."
"What matters is keepin' on despite that," Mimic agrees, nodding. She traces her fingers over the bite-mark scar on her right hand, drawing Maylu's attention to it. "Like Chaud said. Takes time, an' all."
"Um . . ." Maylu bites her lip, and then takes in a quiet, deep breath, as if she's steeling herself. "Mimic, can I ask about that scar on your ha-"
Rapid footsteps clang up the stairs suddenly, and Mimic and Chaud straighten up. Maylu cuts herself off, giving them a puzzled look, but then she whirls around a moment later as the door is flung open.
"Guys!" Jasmine cries. "You've gotta come quick, there's trouble!"
"What kinda trouble?" Lan asks sharply, stepping forward.
Jasmine takes a moment to get her breath back, and then gasps out, "Asteroids!"
The monitor behind the podium in the main room is permanently showing a map of the entire planet, now. It's through this map that SciLab monitors the appearance of Asteroid Navis - when one materialises, a red dot shows up on the map to tell them its location, and SciLab determines whether or not they should send out a Cross Fusion team or leave it to the local Net Police.
Now, though, the screen is practically lighting up with red dots. Twice as many as usual, and as Chaud and the others come back into the room, even more appear all over the world. So many that there's more red dots than there is land - a truly absurd amount of Asteroid Navis.
"Oh, no," Lan breathes, looking at the map in horror. "There's so many of them!"
"How're we gonna fight that many?" Dingo gasps.
"Deal with them as much as you can," Famous announces, turning to face them. Kifune is standing beside him, watching the monitor in grim silence. "Even deleting a few is better than leaving these things to destroy our planet. Move out, now!"
"Yes, sir!" the Cross Fusion members reply.
We might need to split up for this, Chaud says to Mimic, as they turn to head out of the room with everyone else. Working in teams isn't going to help us deal with the sheer number of Asteroids, this time.
Mimic isn't paying attention, though. She's frowning at the screen, and Chaud is about to ask if she heard him when he picks up a familiar feeling from her - she's trying to remember something, something from the anime.
He keeps quiet and watches her, and she looks at him, a faint sense of desperation flashing through their connection.
I can't remember what happens next, she tells him, and his eyes widen. I know what's supposed to happen, but I can't remember what's meant to happen right now.
Mimic . . .
She looks like she's about to cry. She feels like it, too.
I can't remember, Mimic whispers. There was too much going on, and Stream was . . . There was so much . . .
"That doesn't matter!" Arcadia suddenly exclaims, as the holographic screen appears beside Mimic. "Like Lan said, whatever you've already told us is enough!"
"And right now, we've gotta stop these Asteroids from destroying our planet," ProtoMan adds. "Just do what you always do - react as things happen."
The desperation Chaud senses from Mimic dims until it's just in the background, and shaky determination replaces it. She wipes her eyes clear of tears that haven't even fallen yet and nods.
"Right," Mimic murmurs. Chaud senses she's only speaking out loud because she needs to hear it herself. "Okay. Do what I always do. Let's go."
MegaMan's mentally preparing himself to fight the absurd amount of Asteroid Navis alongside Lan, but before his operator even steps out of SciLab's main room, a screen appears in front of him.
"MegaMan!" Colonel cries. He ducks under what looks like a bright blast of light, glaring off to the side for a moment. "I need help! I'm fighting Slur right now!"
"What!?" MegaMan gapes at him, stunned, and then his mind catches up with what's going on. "Lan! Lan, Colonel needs help!"
Lan's face appears on the PET's screen, tense but determined. "I heard," he replies. He looks up, beyond the screen. "Mr. Famous!"
"Got it," Famous replies. "Mimic, Chaud, Raika! You too! Everyone else, deal with the Asteroids!"
They don't have to wait long for Famous to track down Colonel's data signature - between ProtoMan's tracking program and SearchMan's Search Program, it's almost child's play, and SciLab's advanced systems allow them to quickly locate and jack into the network Colonel and Slur are fighting in.
Bass follows them, of course. There's no question of whether or not he will - it's Slur, after all, and everyone knows that he wants revenge on her for sending him to the UnderNet. They're better off for it anyway; between the five of them, plus Colonel, they should stand a chance of at least doing some kind of damage to Slur.
The last time they fought her, or tried to fight her, flashes through MegaMan's mind, but he forces it back as he and the others stream through the cyberworld to Colonel's location. He's hoping it won't go like that this time - Bass has Nebula Grey's power, even if it's only good for one use, and they have SearchMan and Colonel this time, too. They have more numbers than they did last time, and more power.
Will that be enough? a little voice in the back of MegaMan's mind wonders, and he pushes it down with some effort. He can't afford to think like that, not right now.
They arrive in the network just in time to see Slur blasting Colonel away. He lands with a pained cry not far from them, and MegaMan takes a step toward him, eyes widening.
"Colonel-" he begins.
Black energy suddenly blasts past him, and MegaMan yelps and jerks away from it. Slur easily avoids the attack, simply stepping to one side, and Bass tries to follow up with a Shooting Star attack that sends yellow bursts of energy scattering everywhere like a powered-up version of a Spreader. Maybe that's what it is, MegaMan doesn't know for sure, no one does.
"Fucking get deleted already!" Bass roars, as Slur dodges all of the Shooting Stars. He launches himself into battle, forming two Dark Arm Blades with an enraged scream.
"Bass is helping us?" Colonel struggles to sit up, expression twisted with pain.
"Yeah, um . . ." MegaMan hesitates, then glances at ProtoMan and Arcadia. They shrug. "Well, I guess so, anyway. He wants revenge on Slur. Are you okay, Colonel?"
"Just need a moment," Colonel mutters. He manages to push himself to his feet, but almost falls over. ProtoMan's shadows whip out and help him stay upright, and he nods his thanks to them. "Most of the Asteroid Navis that are attacking come directly from Slur. If we can defeat her, we'll be able to slow the rate of attacks down."
"Got it," SearchMan agrees. He lifts his Scope Gun, takes careful aim, and then shoots as soon as he has an opening.
Slur sees the blast coming and catches it in her hand, then whirls around and slams it into Bass's face. Bass splutters and staggers away, giving her a heated glare, and banishes one of his Dark Arm Blades to throw an Earthbreaker at her. It's a direct hit, but Slur doesn't even flinch.
"Dammit," SearchMan mutters, lowering his Scope Gun. "I didn't know she could do that."
Arcadia looks thoughtful as he watches Bass and Slur battling it out. He forms a Firebomb in one hand, and then hurls it into the fray - and like with SearchMan's Scope Gun blast, Slur simply catches it and uses it to hit Bass.
"Long-range attacks won't work on her," Arcadia says. "From what I can tell, close-range is the only thing that actually works - she doesn't try to catch Bass's Dark Arm Blades, she's just deflecting them or dodging them. I can sense little sparks of pain whenever Bass lands a hit, but it's not much."
"A little is better than nothing!" ProtoMan declares.
He darts forward on all fours, hurling himself into battle with his shadows whipping alongside him. They swirl around him suddenly and swallow him up, and then they converge behind Slur.
Bass sees the whirling shadows and jumps away just in time for ProtoMan to launch himself out of his shadows. He slashes at Slur with his claws, and she only just manages to create an odd-looking energy-blade to deflect the rapid attack. ProtoMan flips away and Bass comes back, slamming his Dark Arm Blade into Slur's undefended back.
Arcadia exchanges a glance with MegaMan, and they nod to each other. Their operators download Long Swords, and they make straight for Slur, who glances at them as they approach. Her teeth are gritted, but it's clear to see that she's annoyed rather than overwhelmed.
MegaMan plans to change that. He and Arcadia swing their Long Swords at Slur, but she creates two energy-blades and the attacks are deflected. ProtoMan slams into her from behind, sending her stumbling, and Arcadia swings low while MegaMan swings high.
Slur hisses out a slightly pained noise and throws out her arms. Energy crackles on her palms, but then Colonel is there, slamming the flat side of his Sword into her head. She staggers to the side and Bass shoves his hand into her face, throwing a point-blank Earthbreaker into the mix.
Their opponent is blown away. MegaMan is relieved to see that they actually seem to be doing at least some damage to her - she looks a little bruised as she lands, and although she stays upright, she stumbles on the landing. Even if they can't do much damage to her, it's like ProtoMan said. A little is better than nothing.
"You gonna use Nebula Grey?" ProtoMan mutters to Bass.
"Not yet," Bass replies, keeping his burning eyes fixed on Slur. "Not until she's completely overwhelmed."
"Pathetic!" Slur snaps, drawing their attention over to her. "Why do you continue to fight when this planet's future has already been decided?"
"What?" SearchMan comes up beside them, keeping his Scope Gun trained on Slur, for all that it won't work. It's better than nothing, though, and Slur's too far away for him to use a close-range attack, anyway.
"The humans of this planet have chosen a future of destruction!" Slur tells them. She's baring her teeth in a sneer, but MegaMan's seen far sharper teeth than that in much more terrifying expressions, so he isn't bothered. "The Asteroid Navis Duo granted the humans are able to convert their evil intent into energy, which in turn powers Duo's comet. How the Asteroids were used was entirely up to the humans, and they abused their purpose! These humans you fight for have caused their own destruction!"
"That's bullshit!" Mimic interrupts, surprisingly enough. She doesn't usually talk in the middle of a battle, not unless it's a Cross Fusion battle, anyway. "You're the one who was giving them out! You gave them to people who would misuse them on purpose!"
Slur's sneer turns into a full-force glare. "And what of it? The fact that I could find so many humans with evil intent just proves my point!"
"The hell it does!" ProtoMan snarls at her. "Some humans are assholes, sure, but not all of them!"
"Not all of them," Slur says, "but enough. Those humans you fight for - who's to say they won't turn out the same way?"
ProtoMan lets out a wild screech, shadows sparking and flowing around him like lighting and fire. He gets right up in Slur's face, halfway across the makeshift battlefield before anyone can blink.
Slur looks stunned to suddenly see him right in front of her, and she can't react in time when ProtoMan grabs her by the neck and hurls her into the floor. His shadows are on her immediately, tearing into her - or trying to, since they can't penetrate her armour. Not for lack of trying, but Slur's screams are more angry than pained.
A blast of light pierces through ProtoMan's shadows, and Slur just barely manages to slip out of his grasp. She backs off as quick as she can, keeping her attention on ProtoMan and his sparking shadows, and doesn't notice Bass coming up behind her with another Dark Arm Blade ready.
He swings his Dark Arm Blade into Slur's shoulder and she grunts, whirling around to face him, and ProtoMan's shadows slam into her from behind. She staggers, and the look on her face is pure fury - and then she throws out her arms, and a blast of pure energy explodes out in a dome.
"Life Aura, download!" Lan exclaims.
MegaMan hears Raika downloading the same chip for SearchMan, and the same shimmering aura appears around Arcadia next, indicating that Mimic also gave him a Life Aura. With all three of the Life Aura barriers combined, they're able to block most of Slur's explosion, and Colonel ducks down behind them to try and reinforce them from the back.
ProtoMan and Bass were caught in the blast, though. When it dies down, MegaMan sees Bass lying a few metres away, letting out a groan that sounds more like a growl. ProtoMan is on all fours nearby, swaying a little, and his shadows are starting to look more solid than usual.
"Foolish NetNavis!" Slur shouts, lowering her arms. "You think you can defeat me? Why do you continue to fight when it's completely hopeless?"
"Because fuck you that's why!" ProtoMan bursts out.
Inky-black shadows spill out of the NaviMark on his chest, and the ones on his hands. They swirl around him frantically, like a tornado of black fire, until ProtoMan's red armour isn't even visible anymore.
At first MegaMan thinks he's shadow-teleporting again, but then he sees a familiar white light shining from within the shadows. His mouth drops open and he scrambles back as a wave of sheer terror blasts into him - SearchMan does the same beside him, and Colonel collapses to one knee with a choked gasp. Bass, who had been struggling to get up, flinches back and gurgles something like a whimper.
The only one on their side who isn't affected by the sudden wave of fear is Arcadia. His feathers are glowing with the light of his Holy Fire, and as the tornado of black fire begins to unfurl, a small smile appears on his face and he crosses his arms.
"The worst mistake you could ever make," Arcadia says, his voice ringing out across the network, "is insulting our operators in front of ProtoMan."
Slur looks at him, indignant and puzzled. "What-"
A glitchy screech cuts her off, and then a mass of shadows hits her and slams her into the ground so hard that it cracks. Slur lets out a strangled yelp and tries to hit the writhing shadows with a blast of light, but a melting white mouth swallows the attack whole and then spits it back out, right into Slur's face.
The Poltergeist rears back, mouth tearing further as it opens wider than should be physically possible, and it screams.
The sound is like a physical wave. Glitches buzz out across the network and parts of it simply vanish into static-snow and corrupted data. MegaMan clamps his hands over his ears, but it does nothing to muffle the sound. Coupled with the fear-effect of the Poltergeist, he's completely paralysed, as are SearchMan, Bass, and Colonel.
"Arcadia Soul, download!" Lan suddenly announces.
Sheer relief floods through MegaMan as Arcadia Soul activates. Dark Immunity nullifies the fear-effect immediately, and the massive boost in power is a welcome bonus.
He and Arcadia form Bound Swords with their Holy Fire, and then take to the air on their wings. The Poltergeist snaps its head up, chatters briefly, and then swirls away in a burst of shadows. Slur gets up, but MegaMan and Arcadia rocket past her, lashing out with their Bound Swords, and she screams as the Dark Immunity-boosted Holy Fire rips burning cuts into her bodysuit.
MegaMan senses the fear-effect of the Poltergeist beginning to lessen, and he can feel relief from SearchMan, Bass, and Colonel. They're finally able to get up, and it seems like the Poltergeist is able to fully control the fear-effect - or it can control how much it puts out, anyway. It doesn't seem like it can control who it affects. Small victories, and all that.
The Poltergeist screams and glitches back over to Slur, who tries to scramble away, but its whipping shadows latch onto her and hurl her high into the air. Arcadia twists in mid-air and blasts back toward her, slashing her with his Bound Sword, and the Poltergeist's shadow-whips slam Slur down onto the ground.
MegaMan follows up the double-attack by sweeping past Slur, slashing her as he passes by like Arcadia did. He and Arcadia fly together for a brief moment and then split up to circle overhead, and MegaMan sees the Poltergeist hurling itself at Slur, glitchy screeching ringing out at the same time - it hurts to listen to, but MegaMan bets it's even more painful for Slur, since she's right next to it.
Slur somehow manages to break away from the Poltergeist long enough to charge up a blast of bright energy. She fires, and the energy slams into the Poltergeist.
It doesn't even seem to notice. It grabs Slur in its shadows again, this time pulling her toward it, and then latches itself onto her and screams as it rakes her with its claws. MegaMan is a little shocked to see gashes bleeding data being torn into Slur's sides where the Poltergeist's claws are tearing into her.
MegaMan senses Bass's desire for revenge suddenly spiking into a fury, and he looks to the edge of the slaughter - because it can hardly be called a fight when the Poltergeist is literally tearing into Slur like this - until he sees Bass circling around. Two Dark Arm Blades are in his hands, and he's baring his teeth, keeping his eyes fixed on Slur, waiting for the perfect moment to unleash Nebula Grey's power and delete her once and for all.
Bass is careful to keep well out of the way of the Poltergeist's furious shadows, so MegaMan doesn't bother to call out and tell him to back off. He can sense that Bass wouldn't listen anyway.
Then he detects sheer rage sparking like lightning, coming directly from Slur, and looks back at the battle just in time to see her blasting the Poltergeist with an explosion that's even bigger than the last one.
MegaMan and Arcadia get higher into the air but continue circling overhead. Bass backs off, mercifully, and gets behind SearchMan along with Colonel as Raika downloads another Life Aura to protect them.
The explosion dies down, revealing Slur panting in the middle of a small crater, staring incredulously at the completely-unaffected Poltergeist. Its shadows flow around it, rippling like black fire, and its staring white eyes shine with sparking energy as it stretches its mouth wide and chokes out a glitched chattering noise that sounds almost like laughter.
"How . . . ?" Slur gasps. She's trembling - MegaMan's sharp eyes can see that much, even without needing to use the Empath Program to sense it. "How!? How are you still standing!? No earthly NetNavi can take a hit like that to the face!"
The Poltergeist's mouth opens wider, black shadows tearing at the joints, and for the first time that MegaMan has heard, it speaks.
"I am not a NetNavi."
Slur's eyes widen, and MegaMan senses fear coursing through her like a wildfire. She wasn't affected by the Poltergeist's fear-effect - maybe she's too powerful for that. But despite all her power, she's still afraid now, and that has nothing to do with the fear-effect and everything to do with the Poltergeist's terrifyingly-overwhelming power.
I am so glad the Poltergeist is on our side, MegaMan thinks vehemently.
The Poltergeist screams again and launches itself at Slur, who's too terrified to dodge. It rips into her, tears her arms off with a sound that's almost like paper being shredded, and then grabs her by the head and physically hurls her out of the small crater. She lands with a choked cry several metres away - just in front of SearchMan, Bass, and Colonel.
MegaMan doesn't need to be able to sense Bass's emotions. The massive, vindictive grin on his face as he darts out from behind SearchMan says it all.
Energy crackles out of Bass, in the form of deep purple shadows. They form up into a familiar shape - Nebula Grey, but not as it was when Dr. Regal used it - and Bass jumps into the air, pulling his arm back at the same time.
He lands on top of Slur, and slams his arm straight through her chest. MegaMan flinches as pain explodes through the Empath Program, and he sees Arcadia jolting in the air nearby, sensing the same thing.
Bass wastes no time on words. He rips out Slur's core, crushes it in his fist, and then plants his hand on her face as she screams. Energy crackles between his fingers and blasts out, and Slur's scream cuts off abruptly - and her mind vanishes from MegaMan's Empath Program.
Slur's empty body disintegrates from the cyberworld, and Nebula Grey's power splutters and begins to fade from Bass's systems, its job done. Bass is already powerful enough even without it, and MegaMan can sense that he doesn't pay much attention to Nebula Grey's power vanishing - he's finally gotten his revenge on the person who sent him to the UnderNet, and that's all he cares about.
MegaMan and Arcadia land on the ground nearby as Bass stands up. MegaMan banishes Arcadia Soul, and he can no longer sense the emotions or thoughts of his friends around him, but he doesn't need to - their stunned and relieved expressions are more than enough.
They did it. Slur is gone.
" . . . Hey, cat," Bass says, looking up from the place where Slur's body was.
The Poltergeist totters forward, almost drunkenly. Its body flickers and for a moment, ProtoMan's red armour is visible through the shadows.
"Why did you do that?" Bass asks it. "You could've easily deleted that bitch on your own. Forget Nebula Grey's power - you're on a totally different level. So why didn't you delete her yourself?"
The Poltergeist chatters out its odd glitchy laugh. "You wanted revenge," it reminds him.
"So you just threw her at me so I could get it?"
Again, the Poltergeist laughs, which is basically a confirmation. MegaMan half-expects Bass to get offended - after all, the Poltergeist literally handed him his revenge, and it was clear to everyone that Bass wanted to make Slur suffer - but instead, Bass simply grins. It's not a nice grin.
"Thanks, then," he says.
The Poltergeist sways from side-to-side, and it flickers again. This time, the flickering doesn't stop, and the shadows that make up its body begin to peel off. ProtoMan's red armour becomes visible and stays visible, and he makes a quiet noise that's almost like a laugh before he starts to collapse.
Bass steps forward and catches him before he can pitch onto his face. ProtoMan gives him a weak grin, and then slumps into unconsciousness.
"Fucking idiot," Bass mutters, as Arcadia comes over to carefully help lower ProtoMan to the ground. "Too powerful for your own good."
Slur is gone. She's been deleted, far earlier than she had been in the anime.
Mimic might not be able to remember the exact sequence of events any more, but she remembers that Slur was supposed to be fighting Bass in the Past Tunnel. That didn't happen, obviously, and now Slur's been deleted before she was supposed to be, and Mimic has no idea how that will affect things now.
What use is her knowledge of the future if the future is different to what she knows? Even just the tiniest difference can create massive changes. What use is she, what is her role supposed to be, if she doesn't know what's going to happen?
"That was . . ." Famous looks completely at a loss for words. Mimic can't decide if his expression is impressed or just plain shocked.
"It's a good thing the Poltergeist is on our side," Kifune says. His expression, at least, is easier to determine - he looks almost afraid. "A very good thing."
Lan suddenly lets out a jubilant cheer, startling pretty much everyone in the room. "We did it!" he shouts. "Slur's gone! We did it!"
He drags Raika into an odd celebratory dance, and poor Raika looks too bewildered to stop him. Famous laughs as he watches, and Kifune's slightly afraid expression softens at Lan's overexcited display.
Mimic?
She twitches, but otherwise doesn't react as Chaud looks at her. Concern flows through their connection - she doesn't know what she's feeling right now, but it's definitely not the same excitement as everyone else.
Are you okay? Chaud asks, gently nudging her.
It's different, Mimic blurts out. Slur . . . Slur wasn't supposed to be deleted here.
Well . . . that's not a bad thing, surely? Without all these Asteroids attacking us constantly, things should be easier, right?
She gives him a despairing look. If things are too different to what I know, what use is my knowledge of the future?
The concern she feels from Chaud changes to understanding. Mimic, this isn't the first time things have been different. The ruins-
The ruins were completely different! Mimic snaps, suddenly feeling a flash of anger - though she's not sure why. Destroyed or not, we still got whatever information we could outta there! Slur is way more important than that!
Chaud looks startled. Mimic, it's okay. If things are different-
If things are too different to what I know, then what am I even in this world for? Mimic demands.
She feels Chaud's mind working as he tries to answer, but suddenly it's like someone's pulled a blanket over her head and stuffed cotten in her ears.
Everything goes dark, and she only gets vague impressions of sound. There's a faint sense of shock - not from her, but from Chaud - but she's caught off-guard by whatever this is, and she staggers back a few paces.
Bright light swims into her vision, too bright to be real, and then there's a tall dark shape looming up in front of her. The bright light glints off the steel of a knife, sending cold terror sparking through Mimic's limbs, and the dark shape comes closer.
No!
That's her voice, screaming.
Please, no!
She's cold. She's scared. The knife comes closer, and she hears another voice - not her own, not anyone's that she recognises - but she can't make out what it's saying. Too muffled, too indistinct.
I don't want to die!
There's a flash of steel, an odd impact like being punched in the stomach, then an explosion of pain-
And suddenly Mimic is on the floor.
She's curled up, shaking, crying, whimpering. Someone's leaning over her, but they're not touching her, which is a good thing because her skin feels like it's on fire right now, and she can feel emotions that don't belong to her - concern, worry, fear, and only that last one is familiar because she feels nothing but fear right now, but that other fear is for her, rather than from her.
Where is she?
SciLab, a voice that sounds like hers but isn't hers replies. You're at SciLab. You're safe.
Is she?
Yes! the voice insists. You're safe!
If the voice says so . . .
I promise. You're safe, Mimic.
Alright then.
She doesn't know what just happened, and she's still scared, but this voice that sounds like hers but isn't hers is saying she's safe, and she believes the voice. She can sense the truth in its words, and she should know why but she can't really think of the reason right now, so she'll just let it be as it is.
Mimic is safe. Whatever happened, she's safe.
