That little bit of time she got to spend at home only serves to make her miss it even more as she steps back onto Netopian sand. It's winter, but Netopia's winter is a little warmer than Japan's, even though the nights in Netopia are about as cold as the fucking Arctic itself sometimes (she could be exaggerating, maybe. She's never been to the Arctic and hopes to god she never has to). And this is where she and her twin brother have spent the last three-ish months of their lives.
I wish I could've taken Ragdoll with me today, Mimic thinks.
But there's a good reason why she couldn't, and she knows it - the final battle is coming soon. Ragdoll's staying in Japan with Mom, and Mimic is back in Netopia to do her part in what's coming.
She's not sure how much use she'll be, in terms of knowledge at least. There's a lot that's changed, too much to know how things will be affected. Maybe the fundamentals will stay the same, but the details are definitely gonna be different.
And I can hardly remember what half of those details are in the first place.
"I wouldn't think about that."
Mimic startles as her PET's holographic screen flickers into view in front of her. ProtoMan's rest has done him a lot of good - he doesn't look drained of energy anymore, and seems to be back to his usual self. Bass is there too, leaning on the side of the screen with the most bored look on his face that Mimic has ever seen. He's been helping the Cross Fusion members track down and delete whatever Asteroid Navis are left over from before Slur was deleted, but when there's nothing to fight, he doesn't really have much to do.
"Arcadia thinks that's what caused your . . . panic attack," ProtoMan reminds her, only hesitating a little bit on the last two words. 'Panic attack', for lack of better terms, because no one - not even Mimic - knows what happened. "So I wouldn't think about the future stuff right now."
"Oh, look, the cat's talking sense for once," Bass deadpans.
ProtoMan hisses faintly, but there's no real heat behind it. It's more of the kind of banter that friends do - and Bass has openly admitted that he wants to hang around them, plus he's still here even after Slur's deletion, so it's probably safe to count him as one of Mimic's friends, now.
[okay] Mimic signs, before they can start hurling insults at each other like they were doing on the plane. It was, quite frankly, the most entertaining thing Mimic has ever witnessed, and she suspects they kept it going because they knew it was cheering her up. [won't think about future not yet]
Or not too hard, anyway. Whatever caused her panic attack, it was a moment of high emotion, and she's definitely not keen to repeat that. So, avoid thinking about the future during moments of high emotion.
That . . . is not going to be easy. Especially considering what's coming. It doesn't matter what details have changed, there will be a battle of some kind - against Dr. Regal, or against Duo. Most likely both, though fighting Duo will be more or less impossible. Not for lack of trying, of course, but still.
The control room is fairly active when Mimic arrives. Chaud and Lan aren't here - she'd know if they were - but Dad is. He glances over his shoulder when she comes in.
"Mimic!" Dad exclaims, breaking out into a massive grin.
She barely has time to respond with a smile of her own before Dad crosses the room and pulls her into a hug that's tight enough to almost crush her bones, but she's had stronger hugs before, and any hug is a good hug, in her opinion.
Dad keeps a tight grip on her for a few moments, and then pulls back a little to look down at her. "How are you?" he asks. He looks so worried, and kinda scared, too.
Mimic manages to wriggle back enough to be able to lift her hands. [I'm okay]
Dad's expression darkens a little when she responds in sign language rather than out loud. Alright, so she doesn't have the energy for verbal speech at the moment, but at least she's not crying herself to sleep. Anymore.
"Are you sure you don't want to go back to Japan?" Dad asks softly, reaching up to brush his thumb over her cheek.
She presses her cheek into his hand, half-closing her eyes. [need to be here] she reminds him. She holds up her hand and allows her half-Crest to fade into view on her palm.
That doesn't make Dad any less worried. If anything, seeing her half-Crest makes it worse. Mimic winces, cursing herself for not thinking this through - she doesn't really know how to tell Dad that she's okay even if she's not talking at the moment. Technically she isn't okay, really, and from what she's heard, neither is Chaud.
Dad puts his arm around her shoulders and keeps her pressed into his side as he heads back over to the console he was working at.
[where CHAUD LAN] Mimic asks, glancing up at Dad.
"They left for Baryl's apartment an hour ago," he replies. "We have every single Crest aside from his, so we're hoping that his apartment might hold some sort of clue that will help us figure this out."
It's hard not to notice that Dad's holding back from asking her what she knows about this. Even if she can't remember the exact sequence of events or most of the actual details of the finale, she does remember this - unfortunately, no one wants to ask her, in case it triggers another panic attack. She's one of Duo's chosen, even if she didn't think she'd get a Crest at first, much less half of one, so she has to take part in this.
Besides, there's not much point in telling Dad what's gonna happen anyway. Hopefully things will just play out as they should - getting Baryl here is one thing that shouldn't change, even if Slur was deleted far earlier than she was in the anime. But that doesn't mean she can't try and help it along.
"Why isn't MegaMan's name on your friends list?" Bass asks.
He's not looking at ProtoMan, but he hears the little squeak the cat lets out, and he turns away from the friends list, frowning over his shoulder. ProtoMan looks back at him like a Navi caught in a virus stampede, and his shadow-pet thing, Dark Shadow, kind of flickers where it crouches beside him.
"I, um." ProtoMan works his mouth for a moment, licking his lips nervously. He has an odd kind of tongue, almost rough-looking and longer than it should be, but then again, he is a cat-Navi, even if he looks like a human-Navi.
"What?" Bass demands, because he's found that getting straight to the point is the best way to make someone answer him honestly.
"It's 'cus of Dark MegaMan," ProtoMan says, almost mumbling. "You know the friends program?"
"The what-now?"
"It's- um-"
Dark Shadow evidently decides to take pity on the nervous wreck of a cat-Navi, and raises its hands to sign. [stops mean bully from getting in] it tells Bass.
"Mean bully-" Bass stops, suddenly realising what it means. "Oh. Like those assholes from Netopia's Internet City."
"Y-yeah," ProtoMan says, wincing. "Like them. It only allows people who're on the friends list to come into the PET."
"Right, okay. So how come MegaMan's name isn't on there? What's that gotta do with Dark MegaMan?"
"They're almost the same NetNavi, so Mimic removed MegaMan's name from the friends list to stop Dark MegaMan from getting into the PET." ProtoMan doesn't look at all happy about that. "He . . . he nearly tricked me into self-deleting, so . . . they did it to protect me."
" . . . Oh." Well, he wasn't expecting a reason like that. Bass has no idea what he was expecting, but that wasn't it, definitely. "But Dark MegaMan's been deleted now, right? So you can put-"
"I can put MegaMan's name back on the list!" ProtoMan interrupts, suddenly excited.
Bass purses his lips at being interrupted like that, but he supposes he can forgive it, coming from ProtoMan. He's an energetic NetNavi, wildly overenthusiastic from what Bass has seen so far, even when he's half-deleted from exhaustion. Odd to think that he's actually the oldest out of the four ultimate program NetNavis, when he acts like he's the youngest.
ProtoMan scrambles over, and Bass steps back to allow him to bring up the 'add new' option on the friends list. He can see the cat's hands trembling as he types in MegaMan's contact details and name, and his hair's bristling with obvious anticipation and excitement. He's nearly vibrating when MegaMan's name appears back on the friends list, and if he were any more excited, he'd probably be dancing.
Dark Shadow seems to be doing that for him, though. It's bobbing its head from side-to-side, split-mouth open wide in an unsettling smile, swaying back and forth with all the happy energy a blank-faced shadow monster can show.
"How come you have that . . . friends program thing, anyway?" Bass asks, when ProtoMan steps back and exits the friends list. "Is it because of those assholes in Internet City?"
"Chaud made it before that," ProtoMan replies. He looks even more nervous than he did before, which is a stark contrast to how he was on the plane, when they were insulting each other to entertain Mimic. "Do you . . . Have we ever told you about a NetNavi called Proxy?"
He nearly flinches when he says the name, which immediately makes Bass suspicious. The cat only ever flinches like that when he's talking about people being cruel to him, and the fact that he's mentioning the name of just one NetNavi above all others, even above those assholes from Internet City, is a massive error warning.
"No," Bass says. "You've never mentioned this . . . Proxy, before."
"He's . . ." ProtoMan's trembling. That's never a good sign. "H-he's a bully. Before- b-before Chaud made the friends program, Proxy would . . . h-he'd always come into the PET and- and- he'd-"
[mean bully hurts us] Dark Shadow puts in. [tore us arm off more hurt always hurts us]
Bass has seen it signing enough to know that 'us' refers to ProtoMan, and he is not happy.
"Fucking piece of shit," Bass snaps. ProtoMan flinches again, but Bass is too angry to notice. "He hurt you? Enough to make you this terrified of him? That bastard! I'll tear his fucking arm off and see how he likes it!"
"You're- y-you're not mad at me?"
Bass has no idea why he would think that. "It's that Proxy bastard I'm pissed at! Where is he? I'll kick his ass for you!"
"Don't do that!" ProtoMan yelps, and Bass pauses because the cat looks terrified, suddenly. "Please, don't."
"It's one NetNavi," Bass snaps. "Fuck those idiots in Internet City, no one's gonna miss a single NetNavi!"
"Just don't," ProtoMan begs, and it's that that makes Bass stop entirely, because he doesn't think he's ever heard the cat begging like this. "Please. Don't go after him."
Bass doesn't entirely understand the concept of bullying, but he remembers what that green-armoured Navi said - SearchMan or something, whatever the fuck - when they were on their way to the island that one time. Going after the ones who hurt ProtoMan would only make things worse, and the cat would suffer for it.
If this bullshit with Proxy is the same thing, Bass going after him would only make things worse. That Proxy fucker would take it out on ProtoMan, and Bass would've made a bad situation even worse than it already is. He doesn't want that on his fucking conscience.
And aside from that . . . he doesn't want ProtoMan to get hurt. This isn't something Bass would've ever admitted before, even to himself, but he's given up on pretending he doesn't give a shit, and he's saying it now - he doesn't want the cat to get hurt.
" . . . Fine," Bass mutters. "I won't go after the fucker. But if he tries to hurt you again, and I hear about it, I'm ripping his fucking core out."
"'Kay," ProtoMan mumbles faintly.
Bass has no idea how to tread carefully. It's not in his nature. So this really is the best he can do.
Chaud and Lan come back from Baryl's apartment with a gift from Dr. Wily - Baryl's old PET, quite possibly one of the oldest PETs on the planet despite the Progress PET only coming out just under four months ago.
Mimic doesn't have much time to process seeing Baryl's PET before Chaud launches himself at her and pulls her into a trembling hug. There's been a lot of hugging going on lately, but, again, Mimic loves hugs, so she doesn't mind. She can also sense that Chaud needs this hug just as much as she's enjoying it, so even if she had any protests, she wouldn't voice them - mentally or otherwise.
He's been pretty out of it since Mimic's panic attack. Even though they were in different countries until Mimic set foot back on Netopian sand, she could still detect the faintest traces of overprotective rage, and Raika sent her an email telling her about Chaud's . . . unresponsiveness.
He's no longer unresponsive - apparently Dad somehow managed to gently coax him out of that state - but he's still worried for her, and she doesn't really blame him. So, she lets him cling to her, and the touch brings her some comfort as well, because even if they are able to be in different countries without their connection being broken or anything, they don't like being apart. Not by that much distance.
"Mimic," Lan says softly, stepping toward her. He's close enough to touch, but he doesn't reach out, for some reason.
Then a brief flash of memory comes through her connection with Chaud. She tastes the odd metallic tang of blood in her mouth, feels her teeth tearing through skin. She's bitten enough people herself to know what it feels like, and she's worried - for Chaud, who was so angry he wasn't even aware of what he was doing, and for Raika, who had to bear the brunt of Chaud's blind anger.
So Lan's not touching either of them in fear of triggering another violent outburst from Chaud. That's okay - Mimic can understand that fear.
"You okay?" Lan asks.
Mimic nods. She can almost feel Dad's frown, for all that he's behind her and she can't even see his face, but Lan's expression falls into relief upon seeing her nod. She's not sure if he's so desperate to know that she's okay that he'll believe her even when she's non-verbal, or if he actually does believe her.
Lan heads over to Dad to give him Baryl's PET, and Mimic turns her full attention to Chaud, whose grip hasn't wavered or weakened even once. As she's said before, she knows he needs this, so she has no protests.
I'm sorry I scared you, Mimic murmurs.
I'm just glad to see you're not . . . like that, anymore, Chaud replies.
There's no need to ask what he means. No need when their connection lets them sense it anyway. Neither of them enjoyed it, really.
"Ow! ProtoMan!"
They both look up, over at Lan. He looks startled, and he takes out his PET, blinking at whatever he sees on the screen. After a moment or two spent getting over his surprise, his shoulders shake in a slight huff of laughter, and he activates the holographic screen so everyone else can see what's going on.
ProtoMan, it appears, has tackled MegaMan to the ground. He's curled up on top of him, purring his head off, and shows absolutely no signs of wanting to get up despite MegaMan's exclamation. ProtoMan's shadows are swirling around them, almost dancing, coiling around MegaMan's limbs gently.
But there's a grin on MegaMan's face, and when he manages to get his arms out, he wraps them around ProtoMan as he carefully sits up. ProtoMan immediately curls around him, not letting go even once, which is quite impressive, really.
"Okay, okay, I get it," MegaMan laughs. "I'm happy, too!"
ProtoMan's purring gets a little louder as he nuzzles MegaMan's stomach. Arcadia and Bass are standing to one side, watching - there's a cheerful smile on Arcadia's face, and although Bass is trying his best to look as though he doesn't care, his pursed lips make it clear he's suppressing his own smile.
"What's going on?" Lan asks, though his voice shakes with mirth.
"ProtoMan put my name back onto his friends list," MegaMan explains.
Lan's eyes widen, and he breaks out into a grin that rivals ProtoMan's. "That's awesome!"
"He's just a little bit excited," MegaMan says, chuckling. His grin dims a little, suddenly. "I'm . . . I'm just kinda sad it took Dark MegaMan being deleted for this to finally happen, though . . ."
"He wasn't fully deleted, though," Arcadia speaks up. "You still have his core, right?"
MegaMan nods and, through some careful manoeuvring around ProtoMan, brings up his inventory data. He pulls out what looks like a solid orb of pale purple light, and holds it as carefully as one would a glass ornament.
"That's Dark MegaMan's core?" ProtoMan raises his head a little to look at it. "It . . . doesn't look as evil as I thought it would."
The core pulses a little, as if responding to ProtoMan's words.
"He's sorry for what he tried to do to you," MegaMan tells ProtoMan.
ProtoMan jolts, hair spiking up with surprise. "You- you can hear him?"
"Kinda," MegaMan replies, with a helpless shrug. "It's, well . . . it's a little like the connection Mimic and Chaud have, I think, but . . . weaker? For lack of better terms, anyway. I can sense what he wants to say, and feel some emotions from him, but that's about it."
"It's not really safe to have it stored in your inventory data like that," Dad says, peering at Dark MegaMan's core.
"I don't really have anywhere else to put it," MegaMan murmurs, cradling the core to his chest. "I figured it'd be best to put it in my inventory data. I can't really carry it around all the time, after all."
Dad hums thoughtfully. "If you give me an hour or two, I might be able to program something to safely store it. A special type of folder, maybe."
"Really?" MegaMan looks pretty excited at that. "Thank you, Dad!" The core in his hand pulses. "Dark MegaMan says 'thank you', too."
What's the core of a NetNavi, exactly? Mimic asks, glancing at Chaud.
It's . . . His expression doesn't change much, but she can feel his mind working as he tries to come up with an answer she'll understand. It's basically what contains a NetNavi's soul. You know, the core programming - the stuff that makes the NetNavi who they are. Without it, they're just empty shells. It's stored in a NetNavi's main NaviMark, which is usually on their chest.
So . . . it's kinda like the NetNavi version of a heart?
In simple terms, yeah.
The idea that MegaMan is currently holding the NetNavi equivalent of a beating heart is . . . pretty cool, if Mimic is honest. In a morbid kinda way. That's like peak goth or some shit, but it's funnier because it's MegaMan, who's probably the furthest thing from goth there is.
Chaud lets out a quiet noise that's almost a purr and rubs his cheek against hers. Peak goth, I like that. It sounds funny. Is it from the internet?
You know it, Mimic agrees.
Dad programs a special folder into Lan's PET, something he calls a 'heart container'. Lan watches MegaMan carefully place Dark MegaMan's core into the cylindrical container, and then it's sealed shut, and the only one who can open it is MegaMan himself - not even Lan, for all that this is his own PET, can open it.
But that's fine. This is to keep Dark MegaMan's core safe, after all. It's the only thing left of him, and MegaMan said he wants to show his dark counterpart the same kind of love he has - because that's what Dark MegaMan wanted all along. The reason why he hated MegaMan so much is because MegaMan had everything Dark MegaMan wanted.
Upon thinking that, Lan can't help but glance over at Mimic and Chaud. He's pretty sure Chaud hasn't let go of Mimic since he came in, and Mimic seems pretty content to let him cling to her.
Could they have turned out like Dark MegaMan, if things had been different? The only thing Chaud has ever known from his father is cruelty, and that horrible man almost drove Mimic to suicide. If there was no love, nothing to at least balance out the cruelty of Chaud's father, they could've easily become as hateful as Dark MegaMan. That's not a nice thought.
But everyone who wants a second chance gets it. Mimic and Chaud got theirs when they were given love by their friends, by their new family, and now Dark MegaMan gets to have his second chance too, thanks to MegaMan's endless kindness.
Maybe they'll get to know the real Dark MegaMan. The Navi he was meant to be, if Dr. Regal hadn't twisted him so much when he created him.
"Raika just messaged," Dad announces, getting everyone's attention. "He and Princess Pride have arrived at the airport, and they'll be taking a helicopter here shortly."
"What about everyone else?" Lan asks.
"They're on their way, too," Dad replies. "They're saying their goodbyes at the moment, I think. Famous is picking up Maylu and Nenji, last I heard. Dingo's old village is in Netopia, so he can just take a helicopter straight here. Jasmine's in Choina, but as far as I know, she's on her way. Ms. Yuri and Dark Miyabi, well . . . I'm not entirely sure how they're getting here, but I received an anonymous email earlier, which I assume was from them, because all it said was 'we're on our way'."
[CHARLIE TESLA] Mimic asks.
"Charlie's definitely coming," Dad says. "He said we could leave Tesla to him."
"So our only real problem is Baryl," Lan says, with a worried frown.
Dad nods grimly. "The only person who has the data for his Crest is Dr. Regal, and Baryl's already dead in our time. We have twelve Crests, but without Baryl's . . ."
[know how to get] Mimic signs.
Lan winces, and Dad sucks in a sharp breath. Chaud makes a quiet, almost scared sound.
"Is it a good idea for you to be talking about the future, after . . . what happened?" Dad asks carefully.
[it's fine too important anyway] Mimic replies. [wily gave pet use it when needed]
"Use it when . . . ?" Dad looks puzzled, and Lan doesn't blame him - he's confused, too.
Mimic isn't exactly making sense at the moment. Not enough sense to be able to sign whatever she's trying to tell them, anyway.
"Mimic," Arcadia speaks up, "let me talk for you. Okay?"
Mimic looks a little frustrated, but she nods. There's barely a pause between that and Arcadia's next words.
"She says 'Baryl's gonna be using Spectrum to turn his body into data, which he'll send through the Past Tunnel in order to come to our time. His PET will act as a beacon, which is why Dr. Wily gave it to Lan'."
"A human using the Past Tunnel?" Lan gasps. "But . . . is that even possible?"
"Mimic managed it, but only because she was in Cross Fusion at the time, and was therefore technically a NetNavi," Dad says, looking thoughtful. "But if Baryl uses Spectrum to turn himself into data . . . It'll be painful if something goes wrong, but as long as we're able to receive his data, it should work."
"It will be painful," Mimic says through Arcadia. "Or it was in the anime, at least. I remember Dr. Regal attacked with a bunch of Asteroid Navis, and I think that made it difficult to get a lock on Baryl's data, but you managed it in the end."
"Asteroid Navis?" Dad puts a hand on his chin. "I'm not sure if those will be a problem anymore, though. No new Asteroid Navis have appeared after Slur was deleted-"
"You're fucking welcome," Bass breaks in.
"-and the ones that're left are few and far between," Dad goes on, ignoring Bass. "So if Dr. Regal's going to attack this place, he'll have to do it using his own power."
"Do you think he knows he doesn't have all the Crests, now?" Lan asks worriedly. "I mean, after what happened to Dark MegaMan . . ."
"I'm almost certain he knows," Dad says gravely. "Which means it's likely that he'll attempt to take Mimic, for both her half-Crest and her knowledge of the future."
"Mimic says he attacked the crater in the anime so he could take control of Duo's comet, though it didn't work," Arcadia says. "The Asteroids he used were a distraction, and he tried to use Duo's power to . . . become a god?" He sounds a little incredulous at that. "Sounds like Dr. Regal went completely insane in the end."
"Like he wasn't insane to start off with," ProtoMan mutters under his breath, just barely loud enough for them to hear.
"After he got Duo's power, he started throwing those silver things at everyone, and they had to fight them off," Arcadia goes on. He pauses and frowns a little. "Wait, do you mean the silver humanoids?" Mimic nods. "Ah, okay then. Hm . . . do you think maybe he'll just use those, since he can't steal any Asteroids now?"
"It's possible," Dad says. "Of course, we're not sure how many of those things he can create, or even how he creates them in the first place. We're not even sure what they are, honestly."
"Dark MegaMan says he might be able to help us out!" MegaMan speaks up excitedly. "He doesn't know how Dr. Regal makes them, exactly, but he knows their limits and stuff."
"Any help is welcome," Dad agrees, glancing at the holographic screen.
The heart container with Dark MegaMan's core inside is in the top left corner of the screen. The pale purple core pulses a little as it speaks - well, presumably it speaks - and everyone waits a few moments for it to finish. When it stops pulsing, MegaMan speaks again.
"Dr. Regal can create about forty of them at once," he says. "The more he creates, the weaker their regeneration is."
"Regeneration?" Bass repeats. "That stupid thing they do when they won't stay the fuck down, you mean?"
"Yeah." MegaMan nods. "Dark MegaMan says they're made out of special data that can regenerate itself automatically. That's why they look like liquid, and act like liquid, despite having solid forms. If there's more of them, they won't be able to regenerate very quick, so they'll be easy to take down. But if there's less, their regeneration will be much stronger, and they can regenerate themselves almost instantaneously." He pauses for a moment as the core pulses again, and then continues. "It's the same if they start out with high numbers - as more of them are deleted, the remaining ones will start getting stronger regeneration abilities. But they're not impossible to beat even when there's less of them. We just have to destroy the whole body in one attack."
"That's good information," Dad says, nodding with a smile. "Thank you, Dark MegaMan."
The core pulses again. "He says 'you're welcome'," MegaMan translates.
"Alright," Dad says, straightening up to look at all seven of them - eight, including the core in the heart container - in turn. "Thanks to the information that Mimic and Dark MegaMan have given us, we should be able to get Baryl to our time, and fight off Dr. Regal. Whether we'll be able to stop Duo's comet from destroying our world is another matter entirely."
"Mimic says it didn't work in the anime, and she's not sure if it'll work now, either," Arcadia speaks up again.
Dad glances at Mimic briefly. He looks worried, just like Lan is worried, and it's easy to guess what it's about - if something like this didn't work in Mimic's anime, who's to say it'll work now?
But there's a lot of things they have now that their anime-selves didn't have.
"Famous and I have been going through the books from the ruins," Dad reminds them all. "None of them mention anything about controlling Duo's comet, of course - I doubt even Duo's creators knew there would be a way to do that. But we have a somewhat basic understanding of the technology that Duo uses, and with whatever information we have on the Crests, we may be able to work something out. First, though, we'll need to get Baryl to our time and deal with Dr. Regal. We'll see what happens after that."
They nod. That's a solid plan, for all that it's their only one - and more or less just half of one, really.
It's all they have at the moment, though. Lan knows his dad will use any and all resources he has available to come up with something, and even a half-baked strategy is better than nothing, if he's being honest. The Cross Fusion members' jobs are to make sure whatever strategy or plan Dad comes up with succeeds, or at least works to some extent.
The others arrive one-by-one. Raika shows up with Pride, and then Dingo bounds into the control room barely a minute or two later. Maylu and Nenji arrive with Famous, as Dad said. Jasmine takes a little longer, and arrives with some encouraging words from her grandfather, though Mimic personally thinks the tins of curry that Number 1 Curry gave Maylu and Nenji are better than words - if only because having a full stomach feels better than an empty one.
She could regret that, though. If she throws up, her stomach will be empty again, and the curry she ate will have been wasted. She certainly feels like she wants to throw up - a feeling that's only amplified by Chaud's nerves, churning in his stomach the same way her own nerves are.
The fact of the matter is, despite Dad's hopes that things will work out the way they want them to, Mimic knows they probably won't. It doesn't matter if the translated books from the ruins have given them a basic understanding of Duo's technology - it's Duo's comet, and that means he'll have full control no matter what they try and do.
Duo has the power of a god. He's not a god by any means, but the power he has is something that can't be ignored. Thirteen Crests and thirteen Cross Fusion members wasn't enough to stop him in the anime - and thirteen Crests and fourteen Cross Fusion members won't be enough to stop him now.
Well, fourteen Cross Fusion members plus Bass. No one's sure if they should count him, but he certainly counts himself.
"Activate the Past Tunnel," Dad orders.
Mimic watches with everyone else as the Tunnel activates - and they send a message through, as easily as one would send an email to someone else's PET. They get confirmation that it's been received mere moments later, and then the small screen to the side of the main monitor in the control room begins to buzz with static.
"Dr. Hikari," Baryl greets them, his voice coming out clear despite the static. "You're already aware of my plan, then?"
"Mimic told us," Dad explains.
Baryl glances at Mimic and nods to her. She's honestly surprised to see an odd light of respect in his eyes - what could he respect her for? She's just some kid, and he's a colonel in the goddamn army, as far as she knows.
It's for your knowledge of the future, Chaud tells her.
Knowledge I got from constantly watching an anime, Mimic says.
It's still knowledge, wherever it came from.
She can't deny that, of course, but she's still not sure she's worthy of any respect from anyone, let alone Baryl. The last time she saw him, she'd blundered into the past on a failed mission and ended up cannibalising a bunch of random Network Navigators, and he and Colonel had to save her dumb ass from the police.
"We have your PET, ready to act as a beacon to connect our time periods," Dad says. "We'll be ready to receive your data as soon as you activate Spectrum."
"Good, then." Baryl inclines his head in a nod. "We'll let you know when we've begun."
"Mimic warned us that it might be painful," Dad quickly says, before the transmission can cut off.
Baryl pauses for a moment. The static makes it difficult to see his expression properly, but his grin is obvious despite that.
"Never mind me, Dr. Hikari," Baryl says warmly. "I'm Baryl the Immortal, after all."
Before anyone can ask what that even means - not even Mimic knows, for all that it's literally Baryl's catchphrase or something - Baryl's transmission cuts off. Presumably the Dr. Wily that's helping Baryl right now is starting up Spectrum, ready to begin turning Baryl's body into data.
Mimic can't remember exactly when Dr. Regal attacked the crater in the anime. She'd honestly been expecting him to show up earlier or something, because the only Crest he still needs is hers - but he hasn't shown up yet. At the very least, his attack this time probably won't be as bad as in the anime, since he won't have a small army of Asteroid Navis to throw at them.
No, just those silver humanoid things. In regards to those things, though, they've got the information Dark MegaMan was able to give them. Those things have a powerful regeneration ability, but destroying their entire body will put them down for good.
While they're waiting on Baryl's signal to begin receiving his data, Lan turns to the others and begins to relay Dad's plan - such as it is.
"Since Dr. Regal's definitely gonna attack this place, Dad wants us outside to defend it," Lan explains. "There's enough of us already that we can manage on our own for now, until the others arrive anyway."
"But didn't he fail last time he tried something like this?" Dingo asks. "Why would he bother trying to attack again?"
"Last time he attacked, he didn't know that he doesn't have all of our Crests," Lan replies. He glances at Mimic and Chaud, and they raise their hands side-by-side, allowing the others to see their half-Crests completing the image of a full Crest. "Dr. Regal stole Chaud's half-Crest, but he never got Mimic's."
"Wait, Dr. Regal as in the guy who kidnapped those two before?" Nenji speaks up. At Lan's nod, he looks outraged, and he slams his fists together. "That good-for-nothing monster! I'm not letting him anywhere near either of those kids!"
"I find it unlikely that you'll be able to protect either of them single-handedly," Raika says dryly. "Together, though, we should be able to stop Dr. Regal from getting his hands on all of the Crests."
"Speaking of hands-" Jasmine gives Raika's bandaged arm a worried look. "-what happened to your arm? Did you break it?"
Mimic feels deep discomfort flowing from Chaud, and sees him wincing out of the corner of her eyes. Raika glances over at them - at Chaud, specifically - but despite their expectations that Raika will point the blame at Chaud, he doesn't do that.
"I had a slight accident involving an angry cat," Raika tells the others. "Don't worry, I'll be fine to fight."
"You absolutely will not!" Pride gives Raika a hard look through narrow eyes. "That arm of yours is still hurting you even now, I saw you cringing while we were on the plane. You're staying away from the fight, do you understand me?"
"But, Princess-" Raika begins to protest.
"I won't hear of it!" Pride interrupts, and Mimic has to very quickly stifle a bark of laughter at the stunned look on Raika's face. "If you insist on fighting, then do so from a distance, where you won't be vulnerable!"
"But . . ." Raika trails off, then tries to speak again, but fails a second time. He gives up after a third unsuccessful attempt, simply sighing and lowering his head in defeat. "Very well, Princess."
Pride's expression softens. "I already told you, just call me Pride."
"Yes, Princess."
Pride closes her eyes, taking in a deep breath, as if she's asking for strength from a higher power. More than one of the others look amused at the exchange - Maylu actually looks like she's ready to start squealing right here and now, and Mimic doesn't blame her.
Out of all the ridiculous pairings that the anime forced on the viewers, the only one that ever had any real groundwork is the one between Raika and Pride. Most of the others were based on the stupid bullshit of clingy girls practically abusing their so-called 'love interests', but from what Mimic could tell - and can tell - Raika and Pride genuinely care about each other.
Fuck, she hopes it works out between them. Until it does, she and Chaud will have a blast teasing the ever-loving shit out of Raika for his very-obvious crush on the princess of Creamland. And then they can tease both of them when they finally get off their asses and start dating.
The others begin to head out, ready to take up positions outside. Mimic is going with them, for all that she's probably going to end up as Dr. Regal's main target - again - but she pauses when she sees Chaud tugging on Raika's good arm, stopping him from leaving with everyone else. He waits until they're all gone before opening his mouth.
"I'm sorry." Chaud's voice is hoarse and little scratchy from lack of use for a good while, and Mimic winces upon feeling the slight sting in her own throat.
"For what?" Raika looks honestly confused.
"For your arm," Chaud clarifies. He bites his lip - gently - and lowers his gaze to the floor. "You . . . you must be angry at me, for doing that to you. I- I didn't mean to, I swear, I didn't even know what I w-was doing. B-but that- it- it's no excuse, I know. So, um. I'm . . . sorry. For what it's worth."
Raika turns to face him properly, and Chaud cringes away from him. Mimic glances between them, feeling Chaud's fear like it's her own, and readies herself to step in if she has to - they can't predict what Raika will do, after all. He's gotten pissed at them in the past, despite his friendship with them. Biting a hole in his arm right before the final battle could end up being the last straw, so to speak.
"Chaud," Raika says, "I forgive you."
Mimic stares at him. So does Chaud.
Raika quirks his mouth to one side in an odd half-smile. "I never blamed you to start off with, anyway. But I can tell you need forgiveness more than you need to be told it's not your fault, even if it's true. So, I forgive you."
"You-" Chaud breaks off, almost too stunned to speak. "Y-you do?"
Raika raises his bandaged arm and places a gentle hand on top of Chaud's head. "Of course."
Chaud's shock and gratitude choke Mimic as much as it does him, and she steps away, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. She feels a faint touch on her shoulder and looks up into Dad's eyes, sees him smiling with all the kindness Mimic loves him for, and she can't stop the tears from spilling over.
Raika looks startled to see her crying, and then even more when Chaud bursts into tears as well. Then he looks halfway to a panic attack when Chaud launches himself at him, burying his face in his chest and clinging to him the same way he was clinging to Mimic earlier.
"Thank you," Chaud whispers, voice breaking. "Th-thank you . . ."
"A-ah . . ." Poor Raika doesn't seem to know what to do with himself, and after a moment of hesitation, he awkwardly places his hands on Chaud's shoulders. "You're, um. You're welcome?"
Lan's pacing in front of the entrance when Mimic, Chaud, and Raika finally come outside. He stops and blinks at them.
"What took you guys so long?" he asks.
"Just talking some stuff out," Chaud says, and Lan freezes because he sounds . . . he sounds normal.
A stark contrast to the last time he spoke, when he almost broke Lan's wrist and told him not to touch him. Lan glances up at Raika questioningly, because he's obviously involved in this, but all Raika does is give him a slight, mysterious smile as he brushes past to head to his own position - somewhere out of the way of the main action, where he can still fight but won't be in the thick of things, at Pride's request.
[we're good now] Mimic signs, as she and Chaud take up their own positions nearby.
"Good?" Lan repeats, no less mystified.
He wonders if whatever happened has anything to do with Chaud biting Raika's arm open. It's possible, he supposes - but it's clear that none of them are going to be giving up any information any time soon. Maybe it's better to just let them have this, since it seems pretty private, and honestly he's just happy that Chaud seems to be doing better than before.
Mimic, too, even if she's not talking yet. But she can talk through Arcadia, through ProtoMan, through Chaud - through anyone who knows sign language, really. Even Bass, though Lan's not sure how much will be lost in translation there, since half of Bass's vocabulary seems to consist entirely of swear words.
They haven't been waiting long before a familiar helicopter comes over the darkening horizon. Lan glances back at Mimic and Chaud behind him, and their nod confirms it - that's Charlie's helicopter, so that must mean he and Tesla are finally here.
As the helicopter touches down and Charlie jumps out, with Tesla in his arms for whatever reason, Lan reflects that the only ones they're missing now are Ms. Yuri, Dark Miyabi, and Baryl himself. They're getting Baryl's situation sorted via the Past Tunnel, of course, but all Lan's heard about Ms. Yuri and Dark Miyabi is that anonymous email Dad told them about.
"Oh, hey, what's going on?" Charlie asks, jogging up to them. He doesn't put Tesla down and she looks quite content to be carried, though Lan still has no idea why she's being carried in the first place.
"Dad wants us to be ready to defend this place against Dr. Regal," Lan informs them.
Charlie blinks, and Tesla looks no less puzzled.
"He's gonna need Mimic's half-Crest if he wants to try and steal Duo's power for himself, so his only option is to attack the crater and take it by force," Lan explains. "We're gonna be protecting the research facility since Dad and the others're working on getting Baryl here."
" . . . I've got a lot of questions," Charlie begins, somewhat hesitantly, "but I'll start with the most obvious one. If Dr. Regal's after Mimic's Crest, why is she out here, instead of in there?"
"Dr. Regal can appear wherever he chooses as long as he's inside a dimensional area," Chaud speaks up. "If Mimic was inside, he'd attack the research facility directly, which would make it more difficult to get Baryl here through the Past Tunnel. So we're keeping the fight outside, as much as we can."
"A solid plan!"
Lan startles, as do the others, and they all turn to look up, at the roof of the research facility. A grin spreads on his face when he sees Ms. Yuri and Dark Miyabi up there - now twelve of Duo's chosen are in the same place, and all they have to do is wait for Dad and Famous to get the last member of their ragtag group here.
His grin slips a little when he notices Mimic taking a step back, and sees Chaud's lips curling back to show his sharp teeth. Right, how could he have forgotten? Ms. Yuri is their ally, of course, but that doesn't erase the fact that Mimic and Chaud still hate and fear her for what she did to them. That's probably why she and Dark Miyabi are up on the roof, actually - they're keeping as far away from the twins as possible to make it easier on everyone.
Ms. Yuri doesn't miss the reaction her presence gets from Mimic and Chaud, and she shuffles back a little, allowing Dark Miyabi to take the stage, so to speak. He shoots her a questioning look, obviously seeing the animosity between the three of them, but doesn't comment on that.
"We will fight together, Lan Hikari!" Dark Miyabi calls out. "As allies, as we were meant to be!"
"That's the assassin I hired to delete MegaMan," Tesla murmurs.
Lan kind of freezes at that, because to be honest he'd completely forgotten that Tesla was the one who ordered the contract in the first place, which was basically the entire reason why Dark Miyabi was sort of their enemy to begin with.
"Maybe deal with that later?" Charlie suggests delicately. "We have a world to save, after all."
" . . . Fine, whatever."
Lan relaxes. Okay, so he doesn't need to worry about the contract for now - just the entire world. No pressure, or anything.
Seeing Ms. Yuri, however briefly, has thrown Chaud a little. He'd been . . . more or less okay, especially after somehow gaining Raika's forgiveness so easily (almost too easily, and he can't help but wonder if Raika is just pretending to forgive him and is simply waiting for the right moment to snap), but then Ms. Yuri showed up, and his protective anger flared up once again.
It's simmering now, with the object of his anger mercifully out of sight, but the sickening fear he senses from Mimic keeps the anger firmly fixed in place. She's not doing too well after seeing Ms. Yuri either, and he wonders if either of them will be able to fight properly if and when Dr. Regal shows up.
Never have to see her again after this, never have to see her again after this, Mimic is muttering to herself.
Chaud wishes a simple mantra would work to calm both of them down, but it doesn't. The thought that they won't have to see Ms. Yuri again does bring them a little bit of comfort, at least - though not enough that their anger and fear goes away.
Ms. Yuri is their ally. It's just really hard to remember that when the only thing they can think of when they see her is a knife stabbing into the chair they were strapped to, the high- and low-frequency noises they were tortured with, and Ms. Yuri enjoying every second of it.
They won't have to see that woman again after this. But that doesn't make everything magically okay, though Chaud wishes it did.
"You guys okay?"
Lan's voice startles him, and he blinks, slightly disorientated.
Chaud lets out a vaguely-hysterical laugh that does absolutely nothing to soothe the worried expression on Lan's face.
"I'll . . . take that as a no," Lan says, wincing as he looks between them - at Chaud's barely-suppressed rage, at Mimic's nearly paralysing fear. "If it helps any, I'm pretty sure she's gonna be on the other side of the battlefield, as much as possible."
"She'd better stay there," comes out of Chaud's mouth before he can stop himself. "'Cus if I see her during the battle, I won't be held responsible if I end up painting the ground with her fucking blood."
Lan flinches at that, and Chaud reflects that maybe he should try to rein in his anger a little bit before he scares away anyone who isn't Mimic, Arcadia, or ProtoMan. Or Bass, even, since he's pretty sure Bass doesn't give a shit about how angry he is.
They're distracted, just then, as a faint rumbling comes from under the ground. It gets louder as the ground begins to tremble a little, and then familiar objects rise up - dimensional converters, an almost absurd amount of them, enough to sustain the barrier that fades into existence and covers the entire crater.
Bass materialises by Mimic's side, dark energy already crackling on his palms, lips pulled back in a snarl and ready to defend one of the humans he's finally admitted to caring about. His job here is to essentially act as Mimic's bodyguard and fight by her side no matter where she goes, because aside from Chaud, he's the only one who'd be capable of keeping up with her. By no means does he have the speed to match Arcadia or ProtoMan, but his raw strength and the fact that he's an independent Navi means he's just as free to move around inside the dimensional area as Dr. Regal himself.
"This is it," Lan murmurs, just barely audible. "Ready?"
"Absolutely not," Chaud replies, for both himself and Mimic. "But we never have a choice anyway."
Bass slams his fist into his open palm, making energy spark out of the impact. "Let's take that fucker down!"
A pillar of purple light erupts up some distance ahead of them. Dr. Regal's form begins to take shape, and Chaud takes out his PET along with Mimic and Lan.
"Synchro chip, download!" Chaud and Lan announce, in unison. Their Navis' voices join theirs, though Mimic stays silent as she downloads her own synchro chip, as usual. "Cross Fusion!"
The absolute second Chaud feels his wings taking shape, he rockets into the air. Like he did against BowlMan, he gathers some of the rapidly-disappearing energy of Cross Fusion and pours it into his attack, using his Empath Program to locate and aim at Dr. Regal.
He senses a flash of mild surprise from the madman and then a spark of pain as the stream of Flashfire connects, and grins under his beak-like mouthguard.
He can sense other minds like his, like Mimic's, like Lan's - the shared minds of Cross Fusion, of humans and NetNavis working in perfect sync with each other. The mild triumph he feels upon hitting Dr. Regal so quickly is dimmed a little when he senses the shared mind of Ms. Yuri and NeedleMan, but with a little help from Arcadia, he manages to push that away and focus his attention on the real enemy.
The light of Cross Fusion dies down, revealing the battlefield to him. Dr. Regal's pillar of light has vanished and the man himself is glaring up at Chaud - he's far enough away that if it weren't for Arcadia's sharp eyes, Chaud never would've seen his expression.
He doesn't need to see that, anyway. He can sense the minds of every human and NetNavi - and whatever Dr. Regal is - inside this dimensional area, and he feels the hatred burning through the Empath Program. Arcadia said it sounded like Dr. Regal went insane in the anime, and this is hard evidence that the same thing has happened now, though ProtoMan was right too. Dr. Regal was already insane long before any of this.
An odd silvery stain begins to spread out from beneath Dr. Regal's feet. It takes Chaud a moment to realise that's the stuff the silver humanoids are made from, because he's never really seen them being formed before. They form up now from within the silver liquid, with their arms morphed into sharp-pointed spears.
And the battle begins in earnest.
Raika, as Princess Pride requested, is staying out of the way as much as possible. His bandaged arm trembles with the effort of holding his Scope Gun, and he feels a painful throbbing where Chaud's teeth ripped the skin open, but other than that, he's fine.
You are not, SearchMan says testily. Stop pretending you're okay, Raika!
But I am okay, Raika protests, taking careful aim and firing off a few shots into a small group of silver humanoids. He hits his targets, of course, but his trembling arm throws his aim off a little, and instead of obliterating the silver humanoids, his blasts only decapitate them.
He mutters a curse to himself as the things regenerate, but one of the others - Dark Miyabi, he guesses, judging by the colour of the armour - darts through them and cuts them to pieces, using the brief moment it takes for the silver humanoids to regenerate as an opening to attack.
Well, slowing these things down is better than being more or less useless, at least. If he can't aim well enough to take the silver humanoids down in one shot, he can simply stall them and let one of the others take them out while they're trying to regenerate.
Unfortunately, it seems that the silver humanoids have realised the same thing, if they even have enough sentience to think. Four of them break off from the main group and charge toward him, and Raika tries to aim and shoot, but he's sloppy and only manages to shoot their arms off, which does nothing to slow them down.
Their spear-arms regenerate too fast for him to try and aim again, and then they're too close for him to fight at long-range.
"Royal Wrecking Ball!"
He drops instinctively, even before SearchMan tells him to, and the silver humanoids are smashed into little pieces by Princess Pride's massive iron ball. One of them manages to regenerate quickly enough that it can escape the attack, but the princess simply throws her iron ball at it again, smashing a hole through its body, and Raika hurriedly takes aim and shoots its head off before it can regenerate once more.
The silver humanoids vanish into puddles and then disintegrate, and Raika drops his arms with a sigh. He looks up when a shadow falls over him, and sees Princess Pride's worried frown as she looks down at him.
"Are you alright?" she asks him, holding out a hand.
He takes it with his good hand, wincing as he rises to his feet. "I'm fine."
Princess Pride gives him a look that's not so dissimilar from the one she gave him earlier, when he tried - and failed - to convince the others that he was still okay to fight.
"You very clearly aren't," the princess says tartly. "I told you to stay out of the main fight!"
"In my defence," Raika replies, "they came at me."
Princess Pride purses her lips, and Raika feels a faint sense of exasperation from SearchMan.
He suddenly feels himself blushing as Princess Pride leans a little closer, and she opens her mouth to speak-
"Hey, fuckers!" a harsh voice snaps. "Kiss on your own damn time, we've got shit to do!"
They look up, on top of a pile of rocks nearby, and see Bass glaring down at them. Mimic, in Cross Fusion with ProtoMan, crouches near him with a look of pure delight on her face, her shadows practically dancing around the both of them.
"Raika and Pride, sittin' in a-" she begins to sing.
Raika lifts up his Scope Gun, ignoring the throbbing in his arm, and points it at her. "Shut it."
Mimic, unlike her twin brother, does as she's told - though her delighted look doesn't waver, and she has a cat-like smirk on her face. Her shadows form up into the vaguely-familiar shapes of two people, and they lean toward each other.
Raika blasts the shadow-image apart and Mimic pouts.
"Party pooper," she calls down, then jumps out of sight. Bass throws one last glare at Raika and Princess Pride before following.
Raika suddenly becomes very much aware that Princess Pride is still standing very close to him, and he coughs and backs away a little. There's a faint blush on her cheeks too, as if she's finally realised what all the teasing is about, and she steps back as well.
"Right," Princess Pride says, in an oddly bright tone. "I'll, uh. I'll head back to . . . the battle. Yes. Um."
"Of course," Raika replies awkwardly. "G-good luck."
Princess Pride nods stiffly and heads off, and only when she's out of sight does Raika drop his face into his hands.
Just kiss her already, SearchMan tells him.
Raika groans.
"Raika and Pride, sittin' a tree," Mimic sings to herself, "K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"
"Stop singing, idiot," Bass snaps, blasting apart a silver humanoid that tries very unsuccessfully to sneak up on them.
"First comes love, then comes marriage-"
"Shut the fuck up or I'll shoot you!"
Mimic gives him a sour look as Dark Shadow tears into a nearby silver humanoid, static-hissing its rage. "The fuck've you gotta be pissed at, huh?" she demands. "It ain't you I'm singin' about!"
"It's fucking annoying, that's what!" Bass barks.
"Fine," Mimic huffs. "Asshole."
Whatever, at least she's managed to push down whatever sickening fear she was feeling upon seeing Ms. Yuri thanks to that little encounter with Raika and Pride. Fuck-damn but those two are an absolute riot to tease. Even better now that Pride's obliviousness has been broken through - which means Mimic and Chaud can tease the ever-loving fuck outta both Raika and Pride. She can't wait.
Mimic vaults over the head of a silver humanoid, leaving it to be torn apart by Dark Shadow, and scores her shadow-claws down through the body of another one just behind the first one. Before it can regenerate, she attaches herself to the thing's body, almost gagging at the taste of odd data-like liquid when she tries to bite into it.
She gets the thing torn apart, but she's not gonna try biting these things again. For all that she's perfectly happy to bite her opponents, she's not keen to taste whatever the fuck these things are made from again.
Downloading a Long Blade and using it to take out a few more silver humanoids is a simple matter, but then she accidentally blunders into Bass as she takes a step back, and they both stumble.
"Do you have to be so close?" Mimic asks, whirling around to slash the Long Blade around in a wide circle.
Bass ducks under her slash and lets the resulting Sonic Boom cut into the silver humanoids surrounding them. "I'm supposed to be protecting you, you fucking idiot! Stop complaining and shut the fuck up!"
"Those are bold words for someone in stabbing range."
Her companion - or protector, whatever - growls and gets to his feet, hurling a blast of Darkness Overload into a thick crowd of silver humanoids.
Is it just me, ProtoMan begins, or are these things' numbers not going down at all?
Nope, I see it too, Mimic replies, grabbing two of the silver humanoids' heads and bashing them together - for all the good it does, since their regeneration kicks in quickly.
Dark Shadow tears into them a split second later anyway, so they collapse into puddles and vanish. A few more are taken down by a blast of Shooting Stars from Bass, and Mimic can see some of the others here and there through the mass of silver humanoids.
Nenji's launching Fire Bombs where he can, punching when he's too close to bomb anything. Dark Miyabi is darting across the entire battlefield with all the grace of the ninja he and ShadowMan are, providing support for others or simply cutting silver humanoids apart on his own. Jasmine and Maylu are working together, which is surprising considering they seem to have a rivalry over Lan the same way their Navis have a rivalry over MegaMan, though it's unclear as to whether or not Jasmine actually feels the same way.
Ms. Yuri is nowhere to be seen, but that's probably a good thing. Likely she's keeping out of Mimic's sight to avoid any complications - after all, the last time Mimic saw the woman during a Cross Fusion battle, she completely lost control and did far more damage than even ShadeMan could've managed.
Do you think Dark MegaMan lied? ProtoMan wonders, bringing Mimic's attention back the real issue at hand. About how many of these things Dr. Regal can make at a time?
I don't think so, Mimic says. The connection between MegaMan and Dark MegaMan isn't the same as the one between me and Chaud, but I think MegaMan would've been able to tell if Dark MegaMan was lying about anything.
I haven't seen Dr. Regal since the battle started, her Navi suddenly realises.
Mimic senses the idea he has, and she looks up into the night sky, where two figures are flying above the battle. Chaud, obviously, glowing white in the darkness and circling the entire battlefield, firing down random fiery attacks to destroy the silver humanoids. Charlie's up there as well, though he seems to be focusing his efforts on one specific part of the battle - maybe that's where Tesla is, and he's trying to help her as much as he can.
Chaud! Mimic calls. What do your elf-eyes see?
Bewilderment flashes through their connection. What?
Can you see Dr. Regal anywhere? What's he doing?
Oh. Why didn't you just- never mind. She hears a mental sigh from Chaud, and after a short pause, he responds to her question. He hasn't moved from where he appeared earlier. He's just standing there, in the middle of that puddle.
He's making more of the silver humanoids! Arcadia exclaims.
That's why these things' numbers aren't going down, ProtoMan hisses. 'Cus he keeps making more of the damn things!
Then we need to take him down, Mimic declares.
Shock flashes through their connection, from all three of them, and she winces.
Absolutely not! Arcadia says firmly.
Dr. Regal's after you, Chaud adds. If you go anywhere near him-
-you'll be walking right into his hands! ProtoMan finishes.
Do you have any other ideas? Mimic demands.
There's literally twelve other people who could go after him! Chaud reminds her sharply. You don't have to do everything yourself, Mimic! You're only human!
Not right now I'm not.
Before any of them can protest again, she whirls around and jumps over the heads of some of the silver humanoids surrounding her and Bass. Dark Shadow bursts into tendrils and lends her aid, helping to boost her across, and she hears a surprised exclamation from Bass - but ignores him in favour of focusing on the point where Chaud saw Dr. Regal. She has no access to the Empath Program despite their connection, but she can still use it to get Dr. Regal's location and head straight for it.
She doesn't ignore the silver humanoids she passes, not entirely. She slashes with her shadow claws as she passes by, and some of them disintegrate, while others manage to regenerate - not for long, though, since her shadows whipping along behind her finish the job quickly.
A sudden pillar of pale blue light flares up from the direction of the Temporal Tower, and she skids to a halt, looking over at it.
Of course Mimic recognises that as the Past Tunnel being used. Which means Dad and Famous must've succeeded, and Baryl has now joined them - though he'll need to wait until Dr. Wily gives him his own synchro chip so he can actually fight. The wait'll be worth it, though, because from what little details Mimic can remember of the battle in the anime, Baryl had pretty much levelled the entire playing field with his awesome strength and speed.
She's too distracted with the Temporal Tower to sense Chaud, and he slams into her from above, sending them both sprawling to the ground. Mimic hisses and tries to struggle free, but Chaud's of equal physical strength, and neither of them want to actually hurt each other - not just because they'd both feel the pain, but also because they just don't want to.
"Stop it!" Chaud snaps, grabbing her wrist and pinning it to the ground. "I'm not letting you go anywhere near Dr. Regal!"
"Stop trying to protect me!" Mimic fires back. She manages to get her legs up and tries to shove Chaud off with her feet, but he digs his talons into the ground and forces one of her legs down with his free hand.
Mimic's shadows swirl around them and coil uncertainly around Chaud's limbs. Their grip solidifies a little when Mimic tries to push Chaud off with her hand that isn't pinned down, and Chaud grunts as the tendrils of shadows try to pull him off her.
He glances at Mimic's open palm, and she senses his intention even before he does it.
"No-" Mimic begins to protest.
Chaud doesn't listen. He lets go of her wrist and slaps their palms together before she can even think about snatching her hand away.
There's a bright flash of light, and suddenly Mimic has wings instead of shadows. For all the good that does, since she's on her back. But now Chaud has shadows, and they uncurl from his limbs and help him to pin her down.
"Two seconds ago you were helping me!" Mimic hisses, glaring at the shadows.
Some of them form up into a half-translucent Dark Shadow, who shrugs apologetically.
Then she's distracted from Dark Shadow when Chaud slams his claws down on either side of her head and leans in close.
"Your Empath Program!" he snaps. Mimic blinks incomprehensibly, and he bares his teeth at her. "Pay attention to it, dammit! Arcadia, make her!"
Arcadia does as he's told - forcing Mimic's attention away from her brother glaring down at her, away from Dark Shadow's half-there form, and flooding her mind with the Empath Program.
Thoughts and feelings flash through her mind, determination and pain and the intense desire to protect what's theirs. She senses the shared minds of every single Cross Fusion member fighting - even Baryl and Colonel, who've only just arrived and are currently decimating half the battlefield like the badasses they are - and the minds of the people in the Space-Time research facility, her dad and Famous and all the scientists she's spent the last few months with. The helplessness they feel watching the battle and being unable to do anything to help, the desperate hope that fourteen Cross Fusion members and an angry independent NetNavi will be enough to stop Dr. Regal's insanity.
Of the Cross Fusion members, she senses - feels - their desires and emotions. The reasons why they're fighting may differ, but there's things in common with all of them - they want to protect this world and everything in it. They want to defeat Dr. Regal and his endless army of silver humanoids, and then stop Duo from destroying their world, because they like this world and no one wants it to end.
And she feels the desperation of her twin brother, of their NetNavis, and the silent plea for her to understand and stop trying to throw her own life away. Them she feels most strongly, because Chaud is gripping her shoulders now, forcing her to feel what he and Arcadia and ProtoMan are feeling.
"Do you get it now?" Chaud is no longer baring his teeth. This close up, she can see his eyes through his visor, and they shine with unshed tears. "It's not just you. We're not just fighting to protect you, we're fighting to protect the entire world! All of us! Just because you know the future doesn't mean you have to do everything on your own! Let us help you, please!"
He drops his head to her chest, trembling as his tears finally begin to fall, and she stares up at the night sky, stunned into silence. For all that she's feeling everything everyone else is feeling, her own mind and her own emotions are surprisingly blank.
It takes a few moments for her to get herself back together enough to have any thoughts in her mind. She can see tendrils of shadows whipping around at the silver humanoids surrounding them, keeping the things back enough to give Mimic and Chaud some sort of privacy - whatever that means, considering they're in the middle of a massively chaotic battle.
" . . . I'm sorry," Mimic murmurs, bringing her arms up to place her hands on Chaud's back. "I'm . . . I'm kinda being a Mary Sue right now, aren't I?"
A desperate laugh bubbles in Chaud's throat, and he leans back a little to look at her. "I don't know what that means," he admits.
Mimic huffs out a quiet laugh of her own as she sits up. "Doesn't matter," she says. "I'll tell you later."
A yellow burst of light cuts through a group of silver humanoids and Bass stumbles into the little space that Chaud's shadows are maintaining. He stops short and blinks at them, looking between them, and Mimic can sense he's trying to work out who's who.
She decides to make a little easier on him, and raises her hand. "I'm Mimic."
Bass's confusion snaps into anger. "What the fuck was that!" he spits out. "Why'd you piss off like that?"
He's only angry because she scared him by running off so suddenly. That's easy enough to work out, even without the Empath Program - Bass has definitely given up any pretence of not caring about them now.
"She wanted to take down Dr. Regal," Chaud explains, getting to his feet. Mimic does the same, rolling her shoulders and shaking her wings to get the sand off her feathers.
"Mimic, you fucking idiot-"
He's cut off by a blur of movement flashing past them, and almost every single silver humanoid surrounding them is cut down nearly instantly. Baryl skids to a stop nearby and turns to face them, bringing up his Sword across his body.
"I wouldn't stand there talking, if I were you!" he tells them. "In case you hadn't noticed, we're in the middle of a battle!"
"We did fucking notice, thanks," Bass mutters. The only reason he doesn't say it louder is because Baryl's sheer strength surprised him, and he's not keen to piss off someone like that.
You don't need an ultimate program to be powerful, Arcadia says wisely. I think Bass is starting to learn that, finally.
Maybe he'll respect SearchMan now, Mimic half-jokes.
Baryl looks at Chaud. "Mimic, you shouldn't be so far out here. Dr. Regal could-"
"Actually, she's Mimic," Chaud interrupts, pointing at Mimic.
Baryl blinks, thrown off, and Mimic can't help but giggle at the incredulous feeling she senses from him.
"Mimic's the one with the skirt and the scar," Chaud clarifies.
Mimic waves cheerfully, and Baryl stares at her. Then she spots liquid-like movement behind him and he sees her eyes widening, whirls around, and slashes the silver humanoid to pieces.
"It's not safe here," Baryl says, turning back to them.
"No shit," Bass bites out.
Baryl spares him a glance but doesn't retaliate. "Chaud, take your sister and-"
Mimic never gets to find out what comes after 'and', because an odd purple barrier sparks up around her suddenly, making her yelp. It flares with energy and closes in on her, forming into a sphere.
Chaud lets out a protesting cry and tries to smash the barrier apart, but his claws don't even scratch it. His shadows try to pierce through, and somehow, impossibly, they can't get in. Bass tries too, dark energy crackling on his hands as he desperately slams his fists into the barrier, and Baryl, after he gets over his brief moment of shock, hurls his Sword at the barrier, but even that does nothing.
Mimic tries to get out, too, but no matter how much she pounds on the barrier with her fists or slashes at it with her claws, she can't even make it crack. She doesn't dare use her Holy Fire - the attack might rebound and hurt her, instead.
The sphere lurches and she stumbles as it rises into the air. She hears Chaud screaming her name, sees him jumping up with a boost from his shadows, but the sphere whips away too quick for even the blinding speed of ProtoMan's Cross Fusion, and she's taken halfway across the battlefield in an instant.
Mimic is spat out unceremoniously into slimy liquid, and she only manages to get to her knees before it reaches up and ensnares her. It's cold and icky and the feeling of it makes her skin crawl. Her wings are pinned to her back, the slimy liquid crawling between her feathers, and both she and Arcadia shudder in disgust at the feeling.
"So we meet again."
Mimic freezes. It takes the combined will of both herself and Arcadia to force herself to look up, into the cold, nearly emotionless face of Dr. Regal.
He smiles, but it doesn't reach his eye, and Mimic chokes on a sudden rush of fear and dread.
"I finally have you," Dr. Regal intones. "The girl who knows the future. The one who holds the final Crest needed to control Duo's comet. Your knowledge and your power will be mine."
The sphere shoots away from him, and Chaud lands back on the ground, mind blank with shock.
Then he sees movement out of the corner of his eye, a silver humanoid coming toward him, and rage snaps into place.
He screams, the same way ProtoMan does, the same way the Poltergeist does, and his shadows blast out in all directions and pierce through anything unfortunate enough to get in their way. He grips his head and wails and screams and his shadows destroy everything nearby, and the only thing he can think is, my sister is gone.
"Chaud."
It takes considerable effort for him to focus enough to see the owner of the voice. Ms. Yuri, somehow standing in front of him, barely feet away. His sparking shadows are whipping around her, but they're not touching her, and even through his rage, he wonders why.
"She's not gone," Ms. Yuri says carefully, and that's what makes Chaud realise he was screaming words instead of just unintelligible rage. "Dr. Regal won't kill her, you know that. There's still a chance to save her."
"Where is she?" Chaud demands, because he can't remember which direction Dr. Regal was in, but he knows he'll tear the bastard apart with his own claws if he sees him.
Ms. Yuri winces at the sound of his glitched voice, but she gestures for him to follow her.
He does so willingly, tearing apart anything that even so much as looks like an enemy - of course he knows who his allies are, and he knows his enemies are supposed to be silvery and shiny and don't really have faces, but he's too angry to pay attention and just about anything that gets in his way is fair game at this point.
Anything aside from the person taking him to Dr. Regal, that is. Ms. Yuri doesn't need to glance behind her to know that he's following - his trail of destruction is loud enough to tell her that anyway.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he balks at the thought of willingly working alongside the person who tortured him and his sister - Dr. Regal took her, he stole her away and he's going to fucking pay, he'll never see the light of day ever again- but that part is small and insignificant compared to the fact that Mimic is in danger and Chaud needs to save her now.
They burst out into a wide space. Silver liquid shines on the ground, forming up multiple silver humanoids each second, replacing the ones that have been destroyed, and in the middle of the liquid stands Dr. Regal, staring across the space at them with an impassive look on his face. And kneeling next to him, ensnared in the silver liquid, is-
Mimic.
A glitched hiss bursts out of Chaud's mouth at the blank terror he sees in his sister's eyes, feels through their connection, and he darts forward without any regard for his own safety.
The silver liquid flashes up and tries to ensnare him, too - but his shadows cut into the stuff, ripping and tearing until he's free to continue, hands and feet splashing through the liquid as he runs on all fours. His only focus - his only target - is the madman who thought he could get away with stealing Chaud's sister.
He jumps up, high into the air, and brings his claws down to attack the bastard. Dr. Regal simply raises a hand and a purple barrier flares into existence, surrounding him and Mimic, and Chaud's claws slam into it.
A shock runs up his arm and he growls at the sensation, dropping back to prowl around the barrier. Mimic is watching him, wide-eyed, and he wants to say something, maybe tell her that it'll be okay and he'll save her, but he's too angry for words.
Dr. Regal watches him too, somehow impassive and smug at the same time.
"The power of an uncontrollable demon contained within an emotionally-unstable NetNavi," Dr. Regal says. "And you call yourself a hero? I thought heroes were meant to be light, and good. Tell me, boy - what about your power is good?"
Chaud hurls himself at the barrier again, but his attack does nothing.
"What difference is there between your demonic power and my darkness?" Dr. Regal asks. "If you ask me, I would say your power is worse than my own."
"Shut your fucking mouth!" Chaud snaps.
"Are you truly a hero if your power is more suited to that of evil?"
Chaud screeches, and the air around him distorts with glitches and static. A few unlucky silver humanoids get caught in them and are torn to shreds, far beyond deletion, but the glitches don't reach inside Dr. Regal's barrier.
There's a sound like a cannon going off, suddenly, and a metallic-looking spike - a needle, Chaud realises - slams point-first into the barrier. Dr. Regal snaps his head around to look in the direction it came from, and his eye widens a split second before Ms. Yuri lands on top of the barrier, ramming another needle into it.
"Stop listening to him!" Ms. Yuri directs her words to Chaud, for all that she's attacking Dr. Regal. "He's trying to manipulate you into losing control! Don't fall for the same tricks you and your sister use!"
Chaud snarls, forcing himself to take a step back. His shadows whirl around him erratically, and he catches sight of Mimic still looking at him. He feels her worry, her fear, hears her whispering it's okay calm down you can fight but not like this, and that's what finally snaps him out of his rage.
He gasps, mind suddenly clear - or as clear as it can be, with rage still simmering under the surface - and his own unstable emotions are now separate from ProtoMan's. For a brief time, their anger was so intense and so unstable that they didn't just share a mind, it was literally the same mind.
Kill him, ProtoMan growls. Kill the bastard, rip his core out and fucking eat it! Kill him, kill him, kill him!
No, Chaud says, and ProtoMan's spike in rage nearly threatens to drag them back into that single-minded insanity. No, ProtoMan! We can't save Mimic and Arcadia if we're out of our minds!
That makes ProtoMan pause, and his rage simmers down until it matches Chaud's.
Finally of sound mind - more or less - Chaud is now able to take stock of the situation he's in. They're in the middle of Dr. Regal's giant puddle of silver liquid, and it's spitting out more of the things as he watches. None of them come over to help their creator and instead focus on the other Cross Fusion members, who Chaud can see occasional glimpses of through the thick of the battle.
He'd wonder why none of the silver humanoids are helping Dr. Regal, but it's easy to see the reason. The barrier around the madman and Mimic doesn't even have a single scratch on it, for all of Chaud and ProtoMan's nearly-unstoppable rage, for all that Ms. Yuri is trying to chip away at it with her needles.
Shadows don't go through it. That much he figured out when he tried and failed to stop Dr. Regal from taking Mimic. Normal attacks won't work on it, because his claws did absolutely nothing, and Ms. Yuri can't put a dent in it, either.
Battle chips, maybe? He knows what Mimic downloaded into the PET before using Cross Fusion, so he can try cycling through some of those and see if any of them work.
"Long Blade!" Chaud snaps, throwing out his arm.
The Blade materialises on his arm and he immediately slashes it down, trying to cut through the barrier, but it does just about as much damage as his claws - which is nothing.
Dr. Regal's eye narrows and the barrier flashes, and then energy pulses out in a flat disc-like ring. Chaud ducks under it and Ms. Yuri is lucky enough to be on top of the barrier and thus out of the way, but they both back off, Ms. Yuri jumping down to follow Chaud, until they're at a safe distance. Or as safe as they can get, anyway.
"That barrier is absurdly powerful," Ms. Yuri mutters, just loud enough for Chaud to hear her. A bit of silver liquid tries to creep up her leg and she stamps on it quickly. "But there's a weakness for everything."
"Any suggestions?" Chaud asks, because she knows Dr. Regal the best out of anyone else.
He can't see Ms. Yuri's eyes because her helmet obscures most of her face, but he sees her mouth tightening.
"He can't hold it indefinitely," Ms. Yuri eventually says. "If we keep attacking, without pause, we might be able to make a crack in the barrier - and we can focus our efforts on that crack until we break the barrier down entirely."
Chaud thinks that's a sound plan, as does ProtoMan, so he nods. Ms. Yuri glances at him, and then raises her arm, allowing another needle to slot into place on her arm like a Sword.
"Go!" Ms. Yuri snaps.
They rush at Dr. Regal's barrier at the same time, though Chaud is faster and gets there first. He immediately starts clawing at the barrier, slamming his claws down over and over again, and his shadows form into Dark Shadow and it copies him. Ms. Yuri forms another needle-sword and begins slamming the points down on the barrier.
"Useless," Dr. Regal tells them, watching their efforts with all the impassiveness of a man who thinks he's won already. "This barrier is impenetrable. You cannot break through no matter how much you- ghk!"
Chaud doesn't allow himself to pause, but he still looks. And he nearly laughs at what he sees.
Mimic has retracted her beak-like mouthguard and she's sunk her teeth into Dr. Regal's leg. While Chaud's mouth buzzes unpleasantly with the odd static taste of digital flesh, he's glad she's found a way to help them even though she's more or less immobile right now.
The barrier seems to dim in colour for a brief moment, and Chaud quickly gathers a few of his left-over shadows into shadow-claws, then slams them down onto the barrier.
Crack.
His eyes widen, and he sees Dr. Regal looking stunned. Ms. Yuri appears and shoves the point of one of her needle-swords into the crack Chaud managed to make, and Dark Shadow crawls halfway up the barrier to pound at it as well.
The crack gets bigger, and Chaud ducks under Ms. Yuri's needle-swords to deliver a final blow - and the barrier finally breaks apart with the thunderous sound of shattering glass.
Dr. Regal stumbles back, wide-eyed, but he only manages to get a few steps away when Ms. Yuri darts forward and buries one of her needle-swords deep into his chest.
He makes an odd gasping sound, and silvery cracks appear outwards from where Ms. Yuri's needle-sword is buried in him. They creep across his body with an odd sizzling noise, until he's covered in them, and then his body melts into the same silver liquid they're standing in. It disintegrates quickly.
The silver liquid around them trembles at the loss of its creator, and it begins to disintegrate as well. It recedes from Mimic's body, and Chaud feels her and Arcadia's intense relief as the slimy sensation vanishes. The silver humanoids still fighting convulse erratically before they fall apart into puddles, some of them twisting almost impossibly, and then they too are gone.
There's a few moments of stunned silence. The Cross Fusion members are scattered across the crater - Chaud can see them here and there through the darkness of night, stumbling as their opponents suddenly vanish and looking around as though they're wondering what happened.
Then someone lets out a loud cheer - Nenji, it sounds like - and more of them join in until everyone is celebrating the win.
Everyone except the three who were at the very centre of the battle.
The dimensional area barrier fades, forcing everyone out of Cross Fusion. Chaud catches his PET and steps forward to help Mimic get to her feet, and they both wince at the slight ache in her legs from being forced to kneel for so long.
Mimic looks at Ms. Yuri, and for the first time, there's no fear. Uncertainty, yes, and more than a little wariness - but the fear is gone, as is Chaud's anger.
Mimic opens her mouth, but she hesitates. Chaud can sense why - her energy for speech vanished along with Cross Fusion. He nudges her and she senses his intention, then tells him what she wants to say.
"Mimic says 'thank you for saving me'," Chaud tells Ms. Yuri.
The woman jolts as if she's been shocked. She glances at them, then looks back at the spot where Dr. Regal was mere moments ago.
" . . . He was my brother once," Ms. Yuri mumbles.
Chaud listens to Mimic for a moment, and then smiles a little. Only she would think of a game at a time like this, but he supposes her words are appropriate, given what just happened.
"What is better - to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?" Chaud says for Mimic.
Ms. Yuri looks at them properly this time. There's no telling what she's thinking, because her expression is mostly blank, but after a few moments, she smiles - it's a small smile, barely even enough to be called one, but it's a smile all the same.
"Wise words," Ms. Yuri says. "But true. Perhaps if Dr. Regal was given a chance at redemption like I was, this wouldn't have happened. We'll never know, I suppose." She lets out a long sigh and shakes her head. "At the very least, he won't threaten this world anymore."
"And for that," Baryl says, "you have our thanks."
The others have made their way over to them while they were talking. Of course Chaud and Mimic heard them, but Ms. Yuri startles, looking around as if she's expecting someone to step forward and brand her as a madwoman and kill her the same way she killed Dr. Regal.
But no one does that. Dark Miyabi, who seems to have some sort of bond with Ms. Yuri, steps forward and lays a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"This was difficult for you most of all," the assassin says, "but still, you did what was necessary, and in turn helped save this world. As Colonel Baryl said, you have our thanks."
Ms. Yuri's smile is still weak and a little watery, but it grows a little at Dark Miyabi's words. Whatever friendship those two have, Chaud hopes it's enough to help her through this.
"It's not really saved, though," Raika suddenly speaks up. "We still have to face Duo."
The moment is broken, and after a moment of looking at everyone's suddenly-dismayed expressions, Raika winces.
"Ah . . . sorry," he murmurs. "Maybe I . . . shouldn't have mentioned that."
"It's true anyway, so someone would've pointed it out eventually," Princess Pride says. She looks around everyone else defiantly, as if daring them to challenge her. "Our battle is far from over. Dr. Regal may be dead, but Raika is correct - we still have to deal with Duo."
And to do that, Mimic says, we need to use the Past Tunnel.
Chaud relays her words to the others, and he's not surprised to see more than one worried expression.
"Can we even do it?" Lan wonders, stepping forward. "Use the Past Tunnel, I mean. I-I know you managed it with Cross Fusion, Mimic, but . . ."
"It was a constant drain on your energy," Baryl speaks up. That's right - he and Colonel are the ones who helped Mimic back then. "You ended up cannibalising Network Navigators in order to restore your own energy. If we use the Past Tunnel to travel back in time to Duo's comet, we risk the same thing happening to all of us."
"Isn't this Duo a god, though?" Tesla speaks up. "So he'd be able to stop us from . . . doing that."
He's not a god, Mimic mutters, rolling her eyes.
Chaud doesn't bother translating that.
"We're not sure what will happen when we get into Duo's comet," he says, getting everyone's attention. "But our entire planet is on the line, here. Every single life on this planet is counting on us to stop Duo's comet from destroying our past, present, and future. Who cares if our energy is drained? We're the only ones who can stop this, so we better fuckin' do it!"
He stops, blinking, and realises that the last few words he said came directly from Mimic instead of himself. He glances at her, and she grins at him, sharp teeth glinting in the darkness of night.
" . . . He's right," Baryl says, after a few moments of mildly confused silence. "Or, they're both right." He glances at them questioningly, and they nod. "Alright, then. Technically this was always the plan anyway, so let's go."
No one has any protests after that.
Dad and Famous meet them at the Space-Time Tower, and they agree - they need to try and get into Duo's comet. With Dr. Regal now dead (and for good this time, hopefully), there's nothing stopping them from confronting the real enemy, the guy who set this whole thing in motion to start off with.
Lan leans against the railing with Raika on one side and Maylu on the other. Everyone else is scattered around the room - he sees Charlie talking to Tesla, trying to give her a ring (what's that about?), and Dark Miyabi is in a corner with Ms. Yuri, murmuring to her with a worried expression. Lan thinks it's awesome that Ms. Yuri has a friend like Dark Miyabi, and he hopes they stay in contact after this. Both with each other and everyone else.
He can also see Mimic and Chaud off to one side, with a single holographic screen in front of them. It's not flickering, so Lan guesses it's from- wait, which Cross Fusion were they in when the battle ended? He's not really sure, he lost track of them pretty soon after the battle began, and then it was over too quick.
ProtoMan's leaning on one side of the screen and Bass is in the middle, scowling. Arcadia's on his other side, wincing, and Lan strains to hear what they're talking about.
"-can't really come with us," Chaud is saying. "You don't have a Crest, so I don't think Duo would-"
"Shit on Duo," Bass snaps. "I'm coming with you whether you like it or not!"
"We don't want to risk angering him, especially with the entire world at stake," Arcadia speaks up carefully.
There's a brief pause, and Lan only realises that Mimic's talking when Chaud glances at her.
"Just because you haven't seen it, doesn't mean it can't happen," he says. Mimic blinks, and then shrugs, apparently conceding whatever point she was making.
"What'd she say?" Bass asks, reminding Lan that he can't hear Mimic's mental voice like Chaud, ProtoMan, and Arcadia can.
"She said she's never seen Duo get angry before," ProtoMan translates. "Not really, anyway. Apparently he threw us all around a little bit in the anime, but he seemed more annoyed than actually angry."
"I'm not even sure he feels emotions," Arcadia says. "I don't know if it's because he's a god or something, but my Empath Program didn't work on him when we first met him. It wasn't the same as being blocked by darkness like a Darkloid, though."
ProtoMan glances at Mimic, and there's another brief pause before he speaks. "Just 'cus you don't think he's a god doesn't mean he isn't one."
Mimic puffs out her cheeks and pokes the holographic screen gently, and ProtoMan blows a raspberry at her.
"Guys, focus," Chaud says. He looks back at Bass. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to stay here with Dr. Hikari and Famous. Please, Bass."
" . . . Mimic says she'll let you play Skyrim as much as you want when we get back," Arcadia says. "If you stay here, that is."
Bass's scowl deepens. "I don't give a fuck about Skyrim right now! I don't want you morons to get deleted, and the only way I can be sure that'll happen is if I go with you!"
"We won't be deleted," ProtoMan tells him.
"And you know that how?" Bass challenges.
"We're too awesome to be deleted."
Bass stares at him. So do Mimic, Chaud, and Arcadia.
After a moment or two, ProtoMan breaks out into a grin and laughs. "You should see your faces right now!"
"They don't seem to be getting anywhere with Bass," Raika murmurs, leaning down to speak to Lan.
Chaud glances over in their direction, telling Lan that he definitely heard what Raika said, but he continues the conversation - or argument, rather - with Mimic and their Navis.
"It's kinda funny," Lan murmurs back. "A few months ago, Bass would probably blow your head off for even suggesting he cares about anyone. Now he refuses to leave them alone."
"Humans are capable of great change," SearchMan speaks up. "I don't see why NetNavis can't be the same."
"True," Raika muses. "I hope they manage to convince him to stay behind, though. Putting aside Bass's astounding lack of manners, we can't be sure whether Duo will tolerate the presence of someone who doesn't hold one of the thirteen Crests."
"What do you think will happen if he does come with us?" Maylu asks, leaning forward to peer up at Raika worriedly.
"Nothing good, you can be certain of that," Raika mutters.
After a few minutes, Dad and Famous call out to get everyone's attention - it's time.
A dimensional area is formed exclusively around the Space-Time Tower, and everyone Cross Fuses in preparation. Lan sees that Mimic is in Arcadia's Cross Fusion and Chaud in ProtoMan's, so at least he knows which Navi is with which operator.
Bass materialises too, but somehow, Mimic and Chaud have managed to convince him to stay behind. He doesn't look happy about it, and he's nearly pouting as they prepare to jump into the Past Gate, standing next to Dad and Famous with his arms crossed. Dad glances down at him, looking slightly uncertain, and reaches out to carefully place a hand on his shoulder. Bass jolts and stares up at him with wide eyes, but then his trademark scowl comes back and he glares at the floor. He doesn't make Dad remove his hand, though.
"Alright," Dad says, "this is it, everyone. Whatever happens, you've done the best anyone could ask of you. Never forget that."
"Right," Lan murmurs faintly. He feels kinda sick as he looks down into the deep hole that is the Past Tunnel, but MegaMan lends him a little strength, and he takes a deep breath to calm his nerves.
"Good luck," Famous tells them.
They're gonna need all the luck they can get at this point.
The Past Tunnel is opened, and Lan's nerves reach a fever pitch. He sees Mimic glancing over at him and remembers that Arcadia's Cross Fusion lets her sense the emotions of others, and for a brief moment, he wonders if everyone else is feeling just as nervous as he is - and they are, he thinks, glancing around.
Maylu almost looks like she's gonna be sick. Jasmine seems to be doing some sort of breathing exercise nearby. Charlie is muttering to himself, though Lan can't hear what he's saying, and Tesla is next to him, staring down into the Past Tunnel with an unreadable expression. Nenji is nearly trembling with obvious anticipation, and Dingo is muttering a prayer to his village's totem pole, it sounds like. Raika and Princess Pride look equally determined, but there're barely-visible twists to their mouths, betraying their own nerves. Ms. Yuri looks relatively calm, but her hands are trembling, and Dark Miyabi's eyes are closed - maybe he's praying like Dingo, though Lan doesn't know what he'd pray to.
Chaud and Mimic are kind of staring into space, and Lan only recognises that as them talking to each other mentally because he's seen it a bunch of times before. He wonders what they're saying.
Baryl alone seems to be perfectly calm. Of course, most of the danger from his part in all this has already passed - he crossed time and space itself to be with them, and for him, that was probably the hardest thing. Lan almost wishes he had the same calm that Baryl has.
There's no more time for hesitation or wishing, though. It's time to face Duo.
Lan forces himself to take a step forward, and it becomes that much easier to take the next few steps. He hears the others following him onto the walkway.
And they jump into the Past Tunnel.
Lan's never personally been inside the Past Tunnel. Only two humans out of their entire group have - Mimic, when she used Cross Fusion to explore the cyberworld of twenty years ago, and Baryl, to come to their time and help them fight Dr. Regal.
It's an odd feeling, shooting through thirty years of their world's past. At the very end is a bright light, and that's what they head for.
All fourteen of Duo's chosen land in his comet.
" . . . I recognise this place," Ms. Yuri speaks up, making everyone glance over at her. "Faintly, though. I saw it briefly when I was made into one of Duo's probes."
"Do you know where Duo might be?" Dark Miyabi asks her.
"I don't know," Ms. Yuri murmurs. "I'm sorry."
"I am here, humans of Earth."
They all startle at the sudden voice, echoing throughout the space-like cyberworld.
Lan turns around, and suddenly Duo is just there. He hadn't been there a moment ago, but now he is, staring down at them with his expressionless face. Even though Lan's met him once before, nothing could have prepared him for the sheer presence of seeing what's basically the digital equivalent of a god - a literal god, to be honest, even if Mimic still insists that Duo isn't one.
"The Asteroid Navis were tasked with collecting the energy needed to power my comet," Duo tells them. "Humanity chose for themselves a future of destruction, through the evil deeds they committed using the power of the Asteroid Navis."
Lan swallows, and somehow finds the will to speak. "So . . . you're saying we're too late? That we came here for nothing?"
Duo looks at him - at all of them - for a long moment. It's impossible to tell what he's thinking, and that alone is more unnerving than anything Lan has ever experienced in his life.
"That is not so," Duo eventually says. "Your planet still exists, for the moment. I have stalled the activation of my comet to allow you to speak with me. What happens next will depend entirely on the answers you give me."
Desperate hope flares within Lan's chest. Their planet hasn't been destroyed, so there's still a chance for them to stop Duo, after all.
"I will ask you two questions," Duo informs them. "The first I ask to the NetNavis of this planet. Awaken."
Lan suddenly feels . . . odd. Like something's sliding out of him, like a piece of himself is being tugged out - and then his Cross Fusion is broken before he even has a chance to register what's going on.
He blinks, and looks to his side. MegaMan stands there, looking just as stunned as Lan feels.
A quick glance around tells Lan that Duo did the same to everyone else, too. Their Navis stand next to them, shocked and startled and completely thrown off-guard by whatever Duo did to separate them.
Then again, Lan thinks, maybe they shouldn't be so surprised that Duo can do something like this. He did give Mimic and Chaud their own bodies, after all. Separating humans and Navis in Cross Fusion and allowing them to exist within the same space is probably easy for him to do.
ProtoMan, once he gets over his shock, drags Mimic and Chaud into an excited hug and starts purring, despite the situation. Arcadia joins in too, wrapping his wings around them with a massive smile on his face, and their actions snap everyone else out of their shock, too. They reach out to each other, hesitantly at first, and then eagerly when they discover that they can indeed touch each other. More than a few of them hug like the twins and their two Navis.
Lan exchanges a grin with MegaMan and moves forward to wrap his arms around his best friend, but he jerks back when something materialises between them. The heart container, the cylinder-like container that holds Dark MegaMan's core.
"Ah!" MegaMan exclaims, eyes widening. He quickly reaches out and takes it into his arms before it can fall, cradling it carefully. "I didn't . . . I didn't know that would happen . . ."
Lan laughs a little, despite himself. "Well, I guess we should've expected it."
"NetNavis," Duo calls, getting everyone's attention again, "are you prepared for my first question?"
"Hold on a moment."
Everyone stops, surprised, as Chaud carefully extracts himself from the tangled hug he's been dragged into by both his and Mimic's NetNavis. He steps forward, looking up at Duo.
"Is it okay if I ask you something, first?" Chaud asks.
Duo pauses for a brief moment, and then speaks. "Very well. What do you wish to ask of me, human?"
Chaud glances over his shoulder at Mimic before turning back to Duo. "It's about my twin sister. Back when we first met you, you said that her taking my body was a violation of nature itself. You said that violation had to be fixed, but you didn't kill her. You gave us our own bodies and allowed us to live our own lives. What I want to ask is . . . why? Why give us our own bodies instead of just destroying Mimic's soul then and there?"
Lan blinks, and realises that Chaud has a point. He hadn't thought much about it at the time, because he was a little busy dealing with the shocking revelation that the person he knew as Chaud was actually two entirely different people the entire time. But Chaud's right - Duo could've easily just killed Mimic and let Chaud take his body back. Yet he chose to give them their own bodies.
"I did consider eradicating the soul of the one you know as Mimic," Duo admits. ProtoMan and Arcadia tense at his words and pull Mimic behind them, and Lan can see her scared expression. "However, I was . . . curious. Curious to see what would happen if the truth were to be dragged into the light."
Duo turns his head slowly, and Lan can almost feel the god looking at him, for all that Duo's eyes seem to be totally blank. MegaMan tenses a little beside him, obviously sensing Duo's gaze as well, and Maylu and Roll do the same nearby, as do Raika and SearchMan. The others, too, tense a little - it seems Duo is looking at each of them one-by-one.
"That is also why I gave this world a test, and Crests to each of you humans," Duo says. "I wished to see how you would conduct yourselves. You accepted the human with the dead soul, though she does not belong to this world, and faced my test with courage even I could not have foreseen."
He looks around at them all again.
Duo's gaze lingers on Mimic. "You made a willing ally out of a sworn enemy." Now he looks at MegaMan, holding the heart container with the core inside. "Showed compassion to those who hated you." Then he looks at Ms. Yuri and NeedleMan. "Gave redemption to those who sought it out." He straightens a little, sweeping his gaze across everyone once more. "This is not the first world I have given a test to, but it is the first to show such unwavering compassion and understanding. It is from seeing these actions that I have decided to stall my comet's activation and give you this final chance."
There's a brief moment of silence as Duo allows them to digest those words.
"And now, for my first question," he goes on. "NetNavis. Why do you care for these humans?"
Lan blinks, a little thrown off. A glance to the side tells him that MegaMan is also confused - the others, too. There's more than a few exchanged glances, as if they're asking what Duo could possibly mean.
Then MegaMan takes a nervous step forward.
"That's . . . not really a question that has a single answer, I think," he says, looking up at Duo. "We care for our human partners, but we all have different reasons to care. In my case . . ." And he glances over his shoulder, smiling at Lan. "My human partner is my best friend. He's the first human I met when I came online. We argue and fight sometimes, it's true, but our bond is strong. I wouldn't change it for anything."
While Lan is busy choking on the emotions that MegaMan's words brought up, ProtoMan speaks next.
"My human partners are my family," he says, leaning down to rub his cheek against the top of Mimic's head, and reaching out to tug Chaud toward him so he can do the same to him, too. "I'm . . . I'm kinda difficult to deal with, I know that. But they don't care. They love me for who I am, what I am, and they're always there when I need them."
"My first operator was a terrible person," Arcadia begins. "But when she disconnected me, my humans welcomed me with open arms. They never once told me to leave, even though I wasn't even their NetNavi at the time, and they showed me all the love I could have asked for, and more besides. Like my brother said, they're family."
"Maylu is my best friend!" Roll speaks up next. "We watch our favourite TV shows together, gossip together, and we play piano together. When she's sad, I want to make her smile, and when I'm sad, she does her best to cheer me up."
"Sometimes Raika is . . . a little difficult," SearchMan admits, glancing at his operator with a half-smile. Raika looks awkward at that, and then surprised as SearchMan continues. "But he has a good heart, and when his mistakes are pointed out, he does his best to correct them. That's what I admire most about him."
"I am sworn to protect the princess!" KnightMan declares. He glances down at her, and his expression softens. "But more than that, she is my dear friend. I am her NetNavi, but she has always treated me as her equal."
"I happen to enjoy flying with Charlie." It's GyroMan's turn now, and his lopsided smile is oddly similar to Charlie's trademark smirk. "He's stubborn and doesn't do things by half-measures, so every day with him is an adventure."
"If I wasn't here, Dingo would get lost more than he usually does," TomahawkMan says. "I don't know if anyone else has an operator who'd rather rely on a tomahawk to navigate instead of his own NetNavi, but his faith and strong will are his best qualities, in my opinion."
"Jasmine isn't my first operator, either," Meddy says, with a quick glance at Arcadia. "But we made a promise to each other, to do what we could so the pain we felt at losing my first operator - Jasmine's dear friend - would not be felt by others. That promise is our bond, but it's by no means the only reason I care for her. She's my operator and my friend."
"I'm one of those Asteroid Navis you created," NapalmMan tells Duo. "I did some bad stuff at first, yeah, but then I met Nenji - and he showed me a way to use my power to make people smile! He made me his friend, even though I wasn't a good Navi at first. If a human can do that, for someone like me, then they can do anything!"
"Miss Tesla's enemies are my enemies," MagnetMan says, thumping his chest-magnet with his fist. "And her allies are my allies." He eyes ProtoMan for a moment. "Even if they are completely insane." ProtoMan grins at him, and MagnetMan turns away, determinedly ignoring him. "Wherever she goes, I will follow, regardless of what happens."
"Yuri is the only operator I've ever had." Now it's NeedleMan's turn. "She's the only one I want, really. I wouldn't change a second of what we've been through together, not even if you offered me the world. She is my world, and that's that."
"Miyabi and I are like blood brothers," ShadowMan says, inclining his head toward his operator. "We are sworn by the code of the ninja. We work with each other, we understand each other. That is all I need."
Then, finally, it's Colonel's turn. "Not all NetNavis are lucky enough to have a human partner who cares for them as much as ours do," he says. "I myself could not have hoped for much, given that Baryl is from a time when Network Navigators are little more than half-sentient computer programs. But he treats me with the same respect he gives to his fellow humans. He is my partner, and my friend." He glances at Baryl with a little smirk. "Even if he does sometimes sit on cactuses."
Baryl splutters indignantly. "Really? You're bringing that up now?" Mimic lets out a bark of laughter and he gives her a flat glare. "You be quiet, too."
Before Lan can even process that thing about cactuses - whatever it is - Duo hums thoughtfully. The sound echoes throughout the cyberworld of his comet, drawing everyone's attention once again.
"My second question, I pose to all of you," he says. "What is Cross Fusion?"
That kinda throws them all for a loop.
He's asked that before, Lan remembers, back when they first met him. But that was quickly overshadowed by what happened next, so it's not really like it mattered much anyway. Now, though, it seems that Duo wants an answer - a proper answer, this time. The question is, will they be able to give him that answer?
"It's a union between humans and NetNavis," MegaMan says.
"Our bond given physical form," Arcadia adds.
"One that lets us fight together," ProtoMan says. "Even better than we do in NetBattles."
Lan takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "My dad made Cross Fusion to help us understand each other." He glances at MegaMan, at the core in the heart container, and smiles. "I think . . . I think we succeeded."
"We did," Raika agrees, nodding. "I, personally, would never have gotten as far as I have today if I didn't understand SearchMan - and Cross Fusion is the result of that understanding, that bond."
Duo hums again. To Lan's dismay, he sounds . . . almost puzzled. As if he doesn't understand what they're trying to tell him. Can they even explain what Cross Fusion really is? It's not really something that Lan himself understands, even if his dad is the one who made it in the first place. Cross Fusion, like the Navis' reasons for caring about their human partners, is different for everyone.
After a moment or two, Duo turns his head and looks at ProtoMan. "You wish to speak, demon?" he asks. "Very well. Speak."
ProtoMan looks puzzled, and then his NaviMarks flash black and he lets out a startled yelp. His shadows peel away from him like smoke, the ones that drift around him constantly, along with more that flow out of his NaviMarks. They swirl around behind him, forming into a huge mass of shadows blacker than the cyberworld they're standing in.
The Poltergeist - the true Poltergeist - raises its head. Its blank white eyes shine with intensity, and its mouth tears open, stretching wide, revealing a white glow from within. Lan has only ever seen the true Poltergeist once before, and he's never fully appreciated just how big it is. It's nearly the same size as Duo himself, and probably would be, but it crouches on all fours like a cat.
Everyone who hasn't seen it before - which is most of them, honestly - gapes at the Poltergeist. More than a few of the Navis look absolutely terrified (MagnetMan actually tries to hide behind Tesla, which doesn't work because he's way bigger than she is), while the humans are too stunned to react.
The Poltergeist looks at Duo. It doesn't blink, it can't as far as Lan knows, and despite the rippling shadows making up its massive cat-like body, it makes no sound whatsoever. And then it speaks.
"Creatures like us," it begins, "the gods and demons of the cyberworld, we do not understand that which drives beings like these. It cannot be understood by us, because we were not created to understand. You, the god of time, and I, the demon of destruction. What hope could we have to understand lesser beings?" It turns its head, body rippling with the movement, and looks down at ProtoMan. "I am a demon, created only to destroy - yet my host and host-family strove to understand me, and through them, I was able to learn and grow." Now it looks back at Duo. "Your question is illogical, because the concept of bonds is not something that can be explained with words alone. Only through personal experience can you truly understand it. These words I speak for those who are willing to listen."
"An interesting proposal," Duo muses. "Only through personal experience will I understand the concept of bonds? Only by experiencing it myself will I know the answer to my own question?"
"If that is what you take from my words, so be it," the Poltergeist says.
"Then I'll do it."
Lan jumps - so do a few of the others. Baryl doesn't look at any of them as he steps forward though, only looking up at Duo. He spares a brief glance for the Poltergeist, who stares back at him with its blank expression, now finished with speaking and silent once more.
"Allow me to help you find the answer to your question, Duo," Baryl says. "To truly understand Cross Fusion, I will Fuse with you, if you'll allow me to. You should be able to do it, after all."
"You would offer your own body to me, not knowing what fate may lie in store for you?" Duo asks.
"If this is what it takes to save our planet, then yes," Baryl replies.
Lan finally manages to find his voice, and he stumbles forward a couple of steps. "W-wait, Baryl! Don't do it, please, you can't-"
"Lan," Baryl says, turning to face him. He speaks softly, but it's still enough to make Lan stop and listen. "It's alright. I had a feeling something like this would happen." He glances at Mimic, who blinks slowly back at him. "To save our planet, to keep the timeline intact, and to help Duo understand the concept of bonds and Cross Fusion . . . This is my role. I understand that. And I accept it willingly."
He turns around once again, but pauses and glances over his shoulder when Colonel speaks up.
"I will come with you," he declares solemnly. Before anyone can protest, he steps forward to stand by his operator's side. "If you'll allow me to."
Baryl's expression softens into a smile. "Of course, my friend."
They head over to Duo together, and stand at his feet, looking back at everyone. There's no uncertainty in their expressions, only calm acceptance. Even so, Lan still doesn't want them to go - who knows what could happen to them if they Cross Fuse with Duo?
"There has to be another way," he nearly whimpers. He feels a gentle hand on his shoulder, and looks at MegaMan. "There has to be! They can't go!"
"It's their choice, Lan," MegaMan murmurs, shifting his grip on the heart container. The core inside pulses a little. "Dark MegaMan agrees. If this is what they want to do . . ."
"But they can't go!" Lan wails.
"Lan!" Baryl calls. He gives Lan a half-smile when he looks over. "Don't worry about us."
"But-"
Baryl chuckles. "Remember, Lan. I'm Baryl the Immortal."
As if his words are a signal, a translucent sphere of pure light forms up around Baryl and Colonel. Once it's closed around them, it rises into the air, and Duo takes it into himself with a rumbling hum.
Intense light shines from Duo's body. So intense that it nearly blinds Lan and everyone else. It feels like the light of Cross Fusion, but it's by far the most powerful Fusion that's ever been done, even more powerful than the unstable Poltergeist within ProtoMan's Cross Fusion. Even if Lan's human right now, he can still feel the strength of this Cross Fusion, and despite his despair at Baryl and Colonel's decision, he can't help but feel awed.
"Congratulations, humans and Navis of Earth," Duo's voice rumbles. "You have passed my test."
The light is intense and it doesn't die down for several moments. When it finally does start to dim, Lan finds himself - and everyone else - back in the Space-Time Tower, scattered around the room where they were standing before.
Dad and Famous, with Bass still beside them, look shocked. How much time has passed since they went to Duo's comet? How long did that entire conversation take? It feels almost like an eternity, but in reality, it was probably just a few minutes. A few minutes they spent talking to a god who ultimately decided to spare them, because of their words and actions.
It feels . . . surreal, almost.
"You made it back!" Dad looks so relieved he almost seems like he's about to cry. "Thank goodness . . . What happened?"
"We did it," Lan tells him, somehow managing a smile. It's easier now that he's away from Duo's comet and can actually take stock of what happened.
Dad's grin goes from ear-to-ear, but then there's an odd beeping noise from the console Famous is standing at. They glance over at it, and Famous frowns for a moment. Then he looks up.
"There's an incoming transmission from the Past Tunnel," Famous reports. "There, on the screen."
Everyone turns around at the sound of an odd burst of static. Lan's heard it enough times to recognise what it is, but he's not sure if he dares to hope or not.
The screen is fizzling with static-snow. After a few moments, a familiar voice comes out of it, clear despite the static.
"Lan."
Lan's eyes widen. The voice is a little different, somehow, but he'd recognise that voice anywhere.
"Baryl!" he exclaims joyfully. "You're okay!"
The static-snow on the screen fizzles for another moment or two before an image takes shape.
Lan - and some of the others - can't quite contain a gasp. It's Baryl alright, but he looks older, far older than he was mere moments ago. His hair's grey and his face is wrinkled, and his clothes hang off his body like they're two sizes too big. It's such a stark contrast to his previous appearance that it's more than a little startling.
"It's been a long time since I've seen you," the old man, Baryl, says. "Since I've seen any of you, actually. But I still remember all of your faces clearly."
"B-Baryl . . ." Chaud speaks up, obviously having a little difficulty getting his words out through his own shock. "Didn't you Cross Fuse with Duo? What happened?"
"That's right, I did Fuse with him," Baryl says, smiling as though looking back on a fond memory - and, as far as they can tell, it is. "The three of us - myself, Colonel, and Duo - we went on a long journey throughout the universe. It was a wonderful experience, one I couldn't hope to put into words." He chuckles a little. "So wonderful that we almost lost track of time, in fact. But I wanted to come back here, because I wanted to help safeguard the future. Duo allowed me to see a little of that future for this world, actually. I know it's in good hands."
His good mood seems to dim a little as he looks at Chaud, who looks startled at being singled out so suddenly.
"For what it's worth, Chaud," Baryl murmurs, "I'm sorry for what's going to happen."
Chaud blinks, obviously confused. He glances at Mimic, but it seems even she doesn't know what Baryl is talking about, because the only thing she can offer is a helpless shrug.
The image on the screen suddenly fizzles, like someone's trying to cut the connection.
"The Past Tunnel is disappearing!" Dad exclaims, as Famous checks the console. "We're losing the transmission!"
"Baryl!" Lan cries, looking back at the screen desperately.
The old man only smiles. "Never forget, Lan," he says. "I'm Baryl the Immortal."
The screen fizzles once more, and then the image cuts out. Baryl is gone.
