Mimic: Stream

by RennyBanette

Sequel to Mimic: Axess. Mimic has finally started to get used to living in this world, but with the arrival of Duo, she finds her world turned upside-down yet again.

1. The Arrival of Duo

The ball bounces past Glide, and he chases it, but he's too slow - two of the Player Navis from the opposing team get to it before he can, skilfully kicking it between each other to keep it out of his possession. Glide skids to a halt and twists around, looking frustrated, but his expression turns hopeful when he spots MegaMan.

"MegaMan!" Glide calls.

"Leave it to us!" MegaMan calls, in unison with his operator and best friend, Lan Hikari.

MegaMan's already running for the Player Navi who has the ball, so he's ready when Lan downloads an Area Steal. The world around him blurs and he kicks out with his foot, managing to catch the ball and steal it from the Player Navi. When the world is back to it's normal speed, MegaMan has the ball, and is already out of reach by the time the Player Navi turns to face him.

There's another one coming for him, though. MegaMan's running straight for the other team's goal, but if this Player Navi manages to stop him, they'll lose possession of the ball again - and maybe lose the entire match.

MegaMan ducks under the Player Navi's strike, still kicking the ball ahead of him. That's not the end of the Player Navi's attempt to get the ball back, though.

The Player Navi aims his arms at MegaMan. "Firearm!"

Before it can even get close to MegaMan, IceMan blasts out a cold Blizzard that cancels out the Firearm and leaves the Player Navi staggering. MegaMan reminds himself to thank IceMan for the save later, but for now, he needs to focus on getting to the other team's goal. It's not as simple as it sounds - there's yet another Player Navi ahead of him, and he doesn't think this one will be as easy to get past as the other two.

Then he sees Glide running parallel to him, and makes a quick decision.

He kicks the ball sideways, surprising the Player Navi, and Glide catches it easily. MegaMan drops back to allow him some space - he's pretty sure Glide can handle this from here, and he needs to stay in this area just in case the ball gets taken from them again. MegaMan's shown himself to be pretty resourceful when stealing the ball, so he's been pretty much assigned to this one specific area of the field.

MegaMan thinks the only reason he's so good at stealing the ball is because he sometimes plays with ProtoMan and Arcadia, the NetNavis of Chaud. One of their favourite games to play is The Floor is Lava, but they add in a twist sometimes, just to make things more interesting - you have to keep one of their toy balls out of the lava, but can't hold it for more than five seconds, so it essentially turns into a very fast-paced game of hot potato, except if they drop it they lose the ball.

They've managed to lose two toy balls like that so far, but ProtoMan and Arcadia still play The Floor is Lava with those rules. It might be because they're both ridiculously fast and can easily keep their toy balls out of the lava between them - and because they, like Chaud, seem to love high-stakes games. They're adrenaline junkies, in other words. Chaud sates his hunger for adrenaline by playing Skyrim and fighting the strongest enemy he can find when he's restless, and ProtoMan and Arcadia play The Floor is Lava with hot potato rules.

But he's getting sidetracked. The point is, he's good at stealing the ball because of ProtoMan and Arcadia's crazy games. However terrifying the fast-paced games can be, the skills MegaMan gets from playing them are insanely useful when playing NetFootball with his friends.

He watches Glide run with the ball, and resists the urge to run after him and help when he sees two of the Player Navis - one of them the Player Navi MegaMan originally stole the ball from - running to intercept. There's no need for MegaMan to help Glide, because Yai downloads Life Aura and keeps both of the Player Navis off her Navi, allowing him to get past them.

Glide kicks as hard as he can, and the ball shoots towards the other team's goal. MegaMan's eyes widen in excitement, but his hopes for a victory are quickly dashed when the goalkeeper brings up his arms and blasts out a Hurricane to stop the ball and hurl it across the field.

The ball sails over Glide's head, too high for him to catch without flying - he can glide, sure, and float (to some extent), but flying or floating is banned for NetFootball matches because it would be unfair to every ground-bound Navi in the game. So are any speed-boosting battle chips or enhancements, aside from Area Steal, since it only teleports a Navi rather than boosts their speed.

One of the Player Navis on the other team catches the ball and starts kicking it toward the other end of the field. The ball's too far away for MegaMan to steal it, and the Player Navi shoots for his team's goal - but luckily for them, their own goalkeeper is just as tough to get past as the other team's.

GutsMan prepares himself as the ball rockets toward him. His operator, Dex, downloads one of GutsMan's signature moves - a Mega Guts Punch - for his Navi to use. GutsMan's right arm bulks up and he punches out with it, slamming his fist into the speeding ball with a yell of effort, and then punches it back across the field to the other team's goal again.

The goalkeeper just barely manages to catch it. It's actually pretty impressive - MegaMan allows himself a moment of appreciation for the other team's goalkeeper's strength, even though this has, again, stopped them from winning the match.

The ball is flung into the air from the force of the attack and subsequent block, and the goalkeeper collapses. He looks absolutely spent - and far too tired to get up when the ball bounces back onto the ground. Then Roll is there, putting her foot on the ball to stop it bouncing, and she lets out a quick hah! when she kicks the ball past the goalkeeper and into the other team's goal.

And they win the match.

As the referee declares MegaMan's team the winners, the other team slumps in defeat - MegaMan wants to tell them not to be disappointed, because this was a really good game, and he had a lot of fun playing against a professional team. Not many people would get that opportunity, and the only reason MegaMan and his friends even got to play against these guys in the first place is because Yai is insanely rich and somehow got her dad, the president of the games company Gabcom, to convince a team of professional NetFootball players to play against them for fun.

MegaMan celebrates his win with his friends on the field, and then pauses, looking toward the stands in the stadium. At first his eyes seek out familiar red armour and white bodysuit, so he doesn't see the two Navis he's looking for immediately.

Then he spots them - ProtoMan and Arcadia, cheering in the stands. They're in their colour-disguises right now, because they, like their operator, have to hide their identities while in public. ProtoMan is disguised in the same colour scheme as MegaMan, going by the fake name of Blues, while Arcadia is in a brown-and-grey colour scheme, and is going by the also-fake name of Tawny.

MegaMan lifts his arm and waves to them. It's a shame neither of them were allowed to play NetFootball - Arcadia's wings automatically banned him since it's impossible to tell him not to fly (and even if he agreed not to, he might accidentally take flight anyway, without thinking about it, because he's an owl-Navi and flying is in his nature), and while they had tried to play with ProtoMan on their team, he proved to be . . . easily distracted.

ProtoMan might not look like it, but he's a cat-Navi. He was originally a full human-Navi, but was infected with the cat virus almost a year ago, and is now a humanoid cat-Navi, the same way Arcadia is a humanoid owl-Navi. And since ProtoMan is a cat-Navi, he gets distracted easily, especially by balls, and he ended up batting it around and playing with it rather than kicking it to any other members of his team. Even when he wasn't distracted by the ball, his claws were another issue - he has retractable claws on his fingers, but has non-retractable claws on his feet, and couldn't kick the ball properly because his feet-claws kept puncturing it.

So, in the end, they both had to sit out. MegaMan had been disappointed about that, because he'd wanted to play with all of his friends, but ProtoMan and Arcadia hadn't seemed too bothered by it - although ProtoMan kept complaining about the 'shitty durability' of the ball and how it should be 'stronger and not so easily-punctured by any sharp-clawed Navi who happens to poke it'.

As MegaMan waves to them in the stands, he notices ProtoMan suddenly going stiff. Arcadia pauses and glances at him, and although MegaMan can't see their expressions from this distance, he can tell Arcadia is worried.

ProtoMan slumps back into his seat and half-curls into a ball, clutching at his head. Arcadia immediately sits back down with him and wraps his wings around his brother, shielding him from the sight of any curious bystanders.

MegaMan's excitement at winning the match quickly fades to worry and sad realisation. He hasn't seen this often, but he knows exactly what this is.

Up until recently, ProtoMan had been taken over by the Dark Aura. Chaud was forced to download a special Dark Chip that immediately turned ProtoMan insane, and then eventually turned him into the evil and sadistic Darkloid, Dark ProtoMan. They'd managed to bring ProtoMan back eventually, with the help of both Arcadia and Bass, and Chaud had very nearly killed himself to fight Dark ProtoMan from the inside while Lan and MegaMan burnt the Dark Aura out of them from the outside.

But even though their battle with Nebula is over and ProtoMan is no longer their enemy, nor is he a Darkloid, he still has random flashes of memory - of being Dark ProtoMan. He tries to hide it, but it's happened often enough that MegaMan knows what's going on, and every time ProtoMan gets a random flash of memory, it sends him into a panic and leaves him terrified and trying to force himself to remember that he's not Dark ProtoMan anymore.

Arcadia always covers him in his wings whenever that happens, because he can sense ProtoMan's fear and his need to hide - he has a special program called the Empath Program, which allows him to sense the emotions and thoughts of people around him, NetNavis and humans alike. So, thanks to his Empath Program, Arcadia always knows when ProtoMan is panicking from his random flashes of memory, even when his big brother tries to hide it.

No one else, aside from Chaud of course, knows about the flashes of memory. Even Lan doesn't know, and the only reason for that is because ProtoMan literally got on his hands and knees and begged MegaMan not to say a word to Lan. He agreed only because ProtoMan had been in the aftermath of another memory-induced panic and was in tears at the time, and it's very difficult to say no to someone when they're having a breakdown right in front of you.

MegaMan curses Dr. Regal for creating the evil Dark Chip that turned ProtoMan into Dark ProtoMan, and then left him with such terrible memories - especially when they keep popping up at random times, even now, when they're supposed to be having fun before Glide and GutsMan have to leave with their operators.

At the very least, Dr. Regal is gone now, and the Dark Chips are no longer a problem. They just have to help ProtoMan through this, and hope that their support is enough to keep him sane.

---

Lan's pretty sad that Yai and Dex are leaving already, but at least they got to have fun with them before they go back to Kingland and Jawaii respectively. After winning that NetFootball match against the team of professionals Yai's dad found for them, they'd gone out for a fancy lunch, courtesy of Yai's insane amount of money, and now they're standing in the airport, ready to say goodbye to Yai and Dex before they get on Yai's private jet.

He keeps an eye on Chaud, just in case he looks like he's about to fall over. Chaud had started walking around on his own again a couple of days ago, having slowly regained his energy after the final battle against Dr. Regal, but he's unsteady on his feet.

Luckily, Anetta came with them, and she's practically an expert in figuring out when Chaud needs to sit down. She'd been in a car accident that almost crippled her, but had recovered slowly at the hospital, where she and Chaud met and became friends. Chaud doesn't have his wheelchair anymore - he'd insisted he doesn't need it, even though he can't walk around for very long - but Anetta's ready to bully him into the nearest seat if he even so much as sways.

He seems okay for now, though. Lan still keeps an eye on him, just in case - you never know with Chaud. He's quiet, secretive (for good reason, Lan thinks), and he can hide things so well that no one will find out or even notice until it's too late.

"It'll be kinda lonely when you guys are gone again," Maylu admits, smiling sadly. "It's been nice, having all the old gang around . . ."

Dex bursts into tears. "I'm so sorry, Maylu!" he wails, while everyone stares at him in varying degrees of startlement. "I have to put NetBattling and curry first, no matter what my heart says . . . !"

Yai sighs, looking faintly annoyed, and mutters, "Not again."

Lan thinks she's being a little hypocritical, considering how she's been acting around Chaud lately. Chaud himself doesn't know - everyone had silently agreed to keep this a secret from him, in case he freaks out - but Yai has a massive crush on him, and is under the impression that Chaud is dating Anetta, despite being told multiple times that they're just friends and have no intention of going out with each other. Yai doesn't have a very high opinion of Anetta because of that misconception.

Aside from her somewhat-blatant dislike of Anetta, Yai is also rather obvious with her not-so-subtle swooning over Chaud. It's a miracle he hasn't noticed, really - which is ironic, since Chaud is the one who helped Lan figure out the weird situation that ended with him accidentally inviting Maylu on a date.

"Hey, Lan!" Dex suddenly exclaims, breaking Lan out of his thoughts. "Don't forget, I'm the one who-"

"-the one who will defeat you," Dex's younger brother, Chisao, interrupts. He looks absolutely nothing like Dex, and certainly acts nothing like him, either. "I'm getting tired of hearing that all the time, big brother!"

"You really are a single-minded guy," Yai sighs, while Dex looks almost heartbroken at his little brother's annoyed words.

Lan laughs with his friends, and is happy to hear Chaud's own quiet, slightly-distorted laugh joining in as well. Chaud has . . . kind of an odd laugh - it might be because he was kind of mute for a few months, until he started using Cross Fusion, which somehow fixed his voice and gave him the ability to speak again. But although his voice is fine, he's still so quiet that sometimes Lan has to strain to hear him speak, and he stammers and can't get his words out sometimes - and his laugh is a bit odd, like Lan just said.

But, well. Chaud wouldn't be Chaud if he could speak properly - it might be a bit weird to think like that, but Lan can't imagine Chaud as being anything other than quiet. He gets a bit loud sometimes, but only when he's excited (or angry, and that's a whole can of worms Lan would rather never open again, because Chaud is scary when he's angry). He can talk properly during Cross Fusion, but aside from that? He's as quiet as the mouse he keeps in his bedroom.

Or, Lan thinks, glancing down at the giant black cat sitting by Chaud's legs, as quiet as Ragdoll, who rarely vocalises anything. The loudest he gets is when he purrs - that's practically jet-plane levels of loud - and Lan's only ever heard him meowing once, when the Net Police had to lock Chaud away in a safe house after Nebula tried to kidnap him. Ragdoll had been so upset at his owner's absence that he'd started meowing and hadn't stopped for days, until Chaud finally came back and they were reunited.

They say goodbye to Yai and Dex, and when Yai's private jet has left the airport, Mr. Higsby takes them all back to his car. He's got a pretty big car - but even though Yai and Dex are gone, they still have some difficulty figuring out a seating arrangement. Luckily, Chisao doesn't mind sitting on Maylu's lap, and Chaud is skinny enough to share a seat with Lan, allowing Anetta to have the seat in the middle to herself. Tory sits in the front with Mr. Higsby, trying to help him navigate, though he isn't very successful.

"Chaud's been sleeping a lot lately," Chisao suddenly says, just before they make a turn onto a busy road. He's leaning forward on Maylu's lap and peering at Chaud curiously.

Lan blinks and glances down at Chaud, who's snuggled into his side and seems to be asleep at the moment, with Ragdoll curled up on his lap like usual. He hadn't even noticed Chaud falling asleep - he's so used to Chaud leaning against him or cuddling up to him that he now just automatically adjusts how he's sitting so they're both comfortable.

"Yeah, I think those shadows under his eyes are even a little a bit smaller than they usually are," Maylu comments, also leaning forward to look at Chaud. Lan thinks it's a good thing that Chaud is asleep, or he might get uncomfortable being stared at, even by their friends.

"He needs to sleep a lot so he can get his energy back," Anetta explains. "I think he'll be back to normal soon." She glances at Lan questioningly, as if asking for confirmation.

Lan nods. "And when he does, I bet he'll start bouncing around the house and begging Mom and Dad to let him run outside or something," he jokes. As the others giggle at that, Lan pauses, a thought suddenly occurring to him. "Speaking of Dad, I wonder if he's back from the space centre yet . . ."

"You said he went to there to talk to someone about that giant comet from the star shower, right?" Anetta checks. Lan nods. "Do you think it'll be anything to worry about?"

She looks a little concerned, but Lan doesn't think there's much to be worried about, if he's honest. It was a giant comet in the middle of a really cool star shower - though he does remember that Chaud had seemed oddly focused on the giant comet.

Chaud has a special power - and it's that power that led to Nebula attempting to kidnap him, twice. He sometimes has dreams that show him future events, and he's used the knowledge he's gained from those dreams to deal with crisis after crisis. If Chaud is acting oddly, more odd than usual that is, there's a big chance that he's had a dream and is trying to work out how to proceed with the knowledge he has.

If Chaud was focusing on that giant comet, then he may have had some kind of dream about it. So that means there might be a reason to worry about the comet after all. And Dad went to the space centre to talk to someone about it . . . Lan hopes it's not a prelude to another Nebula-level crisis. Or maybe even worse.

"It shouldn't be," Lan replies to Anetta, hoping he's not lying. "I think Dad was just worried about the sized of it - it was massive, after all. Though it did look pretty cool."

"It was really pretty," Maylu agrees, smiling at the memory of the star shower.

Lan manages to push his worries about the comet out of his mind as they reminisce. He'll have to ask Chaud if he's had any dreams recently, but he'll do that later, when they're at home - because, aside from Anetta, no one else in this car knows about Chaud's power. And aside from that, Lan doesn't want to wake Chaud up just to ask him about his dreams, not when he needs to rest.

He glances out the window of Mr. Higsby's car and realises, rather abruptly, that they're not moving anymore. Instead, they're stationary, and there's a bunch of other cars around them, also not moving.

"Oh, no," Mr. Higsby complains. "A traffic jam . . ."

"I told you, we should have taken the other road," Tory speaks up.

"You said either one was fine!"

"Only because you missed the turn," Tory mutters. He sighs. "It might be an accident. I think they're common up ahead. I'll turn on the radio, maybe there'll be a news report or something."

But when he tries to turn on the radio, it comes up with nothing but static. The noise is high-pitched and very sharp, and Lan winces as it grates on his hearing.

Chaud jerks awake suddenly - which is no surprise, because his hearing is extremely sensitive, so much that he can hear sounds most human ears wouldn't be capable of picking up. He looks around blearily and then focuses on the radio, twitching, and looks almost ill for a moment before alertness comes back into his expression and he sits up properly.

Lan kinda feels sorry for him. Having sensitive hearing is insanely useful, but it has drawbacks too, namely this - high-pitched sounds are far more painful to Chaud than they are to anyone else, and he has no doubt that there's probably some high-frequency noises mixed in with the static that no one but Chaud can pick up (and ProtoMan, since Cross Fusing with a cat-Navi is why Chaud has these cat-like abilities).

Chaud looks around for a moment, and then fixes his gaze on the windshield. He bares his teeth - which are very sharp and can do a lot of damage, though thankfully he doesn't have teeth as sharp as ProtoMan's outside of Cross Fusion - and starts growling.

"Chaud?" Lan blinks at him, startled. The others are staring too - Mr. Higsby looks especially freaked out, because he hasn't seen Chaud for a while and doesn't know much about his cat-abilities.

Chaud doesn't look away from the windshield, even when Lan tries to get his attention again. Lan continues to stare at him for a moment, then looks out in the same direction, hoping he can see whatever's making Chaud growl like this - but he doesn't see a thing, other than the traffic.

Is that what's making Chaud growl? Does he not like the traffic for some reason? He'd been fine on the way to the stadium. There's no reason for him to be growling at the traffic now.

"Lan!" MegaMan suddenly calls. He takes out his PET, and blinks at MegaMan's alarmed expression. "I can detect a virus nearby!"

"A virus?" Lan repeats.

A heavy boom echoes throughout the air as the ground shakes. Lan freezes - the first immediate thought he has is Dr. Regal's titan-sized body stomping through the city, but Dr. Regal is gone and the only thing he's left behind is bad memories.

The ground shakes again with another heavy boom, and Chaud's growling gets more intense. Lan glances at him, suddenly startled with the realisation that he's growling at whatever's making those heavy booms.

Then there's a tremendous crash, and Lan jerks his attention back to the windshield. He gapes at the sight that greets him - just up ahead, there had been a walkway above the road, but now it's collapsing to the ground as if someone's smashed whatever was keeping it up.

"Out," Chaud suddenly says, shoving at Lan.

"What?" Lan looks at him blankly, his mind still on the collapsing walkway.

"Out, now!" Chaud insists, shoving harder. "Everyone, out!"

Lan's mind snaps back into awareness, and it only takes him a split second to realise that Chaud must know something's about to happen - and usually, when Chaud knows something like that, it's because he's had a dream about it.

"Do what he says!" Lan tells the others. The only one who doesn't look totally bewildered is Anetta, who realises what's going on as quickly as he did. "Hurry, out, now!"

He's not going to question Chaud. He wants to know what's going on, but the shaking is still happening, and the heavy booms are starting to get louder now, as if whatever's making them is coming closer with each passing second. Forget asking what's going on - he can ask Chaud later, when they're not in potential danger.

No, forget potential danger. With the way Chaud's acting, this is definite danger.

The others scramble out of the car, though they're still confused about what's going on. Anetta helpfully convinces Ragdoll to get off Chaud's lap so he can slide out of the car after Lan, and then follows them out onto the road.

There are other people getting out of their cars too, looking puzzled and alarmed at the regular booming and shaking. It's even closer now, so loud that it's nearly overpowering, and Lan staggers at the force of the shaking. Chaud stumbles beside him, still not able to keep himself upright properly, and Anetta reaches out to steady him even while she's holding onto Ragdoll's red lead for him.

Lan looks up and sees a massive dark shape moving around the corner up ahead. Then he sees a yellow helmet, and he gapes as the biggest Mettaur he's ever seen in his entire life stomps around the corner and onto the road.

On the other side of the car, he hears his friends' surprised cries. He's too shocked to make a sound, but Chaud steps up beside him and growls at the giant virus, apparently unsurprised - and if he did have a dream about this, it's no wonder.

"I thought viruses couldn't appear in the real world unless there's a dimensional area," Anetta breathes, staring at the giant Mettaur with wide eyes.

"Run," Chaud tells her. "Go, now." He turns to Lan. "Need to distract it. Lure it away."

Again, Lan doesn't question him. It's obvious why anyway, even if Chaud hadn't had a dream about this - that virus is doing serious damage already, and all it's doing is walking around. If it decides to attack, they're all pretty much screwed.

"Anetta, can you help the others get away?" Lan asks quickly.

She looks scared, but she nods. "I'll take Ragdoll with me, if that's okay," she says to Chaud.

Chaud glances at her, then at Ragdoll, and nods. He hates getting Ragdoll caught up in a crisis - the giant cat doesn't have any way to defend himself against things from the cyberworld, after all. As Anetta moves away, dashing around Mr. Higsby's car with Ragdoll following behind her, Chaud turns back to Lan and blinks at him.

"Can't run," he says, almost apologetically. "N-not yet."

"Get on my back," Lan tells him, turning around and crouching.

Chaud barely weighs a thing, and he's little more than a humanoid stick with how skinny he is, so Lan has no problems straightening up after Chaud climbs onto his back. He hooks his arms under Chaud's legs and looks over at the giant Mettaur as Chaud grips his shoulders to keep himself steady.

"I'll run, you get its attention," Lan says. Chaud nods in response.

If they can make the virus focus on them, it'll leave the people on the road alone. There's nothing they can do about the cars, but all the people had started running the moment the virus appeared, and the Mettaur seems more interested in the panicking people than the cars.

He starts running toward the virus, because they're not gonna be able to get its attention if they're too far away for it to see them. Lan skids to a halt when he's close enough, dodging around a trio of adults who're fleeing in terror, and then turns on his heel and starts running down a nearby street that's big enough for the Mettaur to fit down.

Chaud twists around on his back, and Lan hears him taking in a quick breath. Then he lets out an odd high-pitched wailing noise that doesn't sound at all human - but it does the job, because when Lan glances over his shoulder, he sees the giant Mettaur slowly turning to face them, the ground shaking with every footstep.

Thank god for Chaud's mimicry ability, Lan thinks, picking up speed. Chaud is a natural mimicker, meaning he was born with the ability to more or less perfectly mimic any sounds or voices he hears. That ability has been insanely useful on more than one occasion, though Chaud mainly uses it to mock people or to trick people during NetBattles.

Now, though, he uses to attract the giant Mettaur's attention, and as Lan's already seen, it works. Chaud keeps wailing as Lan dashes down the street, and the Mettaur stomps after them, clearly more interested in the odd sound Chaud is letting out than all the people who're running from it.

Chaud has to pause to take a breath, but another high-pitched wailing fills the brief silence. Lan's startled for a moment before he remembers that ProtoMan, while not having the same mimicry ability as Chaud, is perfectly capable of making similar noises thanks to him being a cat-Navi - so he's filling the silence while Chaud gets his breath back, to help them keep the virus's attention.

"Lan!" MegaMan calls, speaking just loud enough that he can be heard over ProtoMan's wailing. "SciLab has deployed the dimensional converter trucks!"

"They're gonna trap it," Lan realises, puffing out the words as he runs. Talking while running at top speed - as fast as he can without using his rollerblades, anyway - is really difficult. "But they might not make it in time!"

"Stall it," Chaud mutters into his ear, still slightly out of breath. "Construction site."

To anyone else, that wouldn't make any sense. But Lan's used to how Chaud speaks, so he understands quickly, even while running.

"MegaMan!" he exclaims. "Is there a construction site nearby?"

ProtoMan's too busy wailing to look for one, and Arcadia would need to go onto the internet to find out, which he'd probably be very reluctant to do while his operator is currently in danger.

Chaud adds his own voice to ProtoMan's, and a moment later, ProtoMan falls silent. NetNavis need to breathe too, and Lan hears faint gasping from ProtoMan, so it's probably a good thing that Chaud has picked up the wailing again. As he does that, MegaMan speaks up, again just loud enough for Lan to hear him over the wailing and the stomping of the virus.

"I found one," MegaMan says. "Take out your PET and follow the directions on-screen. It's not too far away - you'll be able to run there if you keep up this speed."

Lan does as his Navi says, and sees a map with a blinking red dot on the screen. There's another, smaller dot that's moving rapidly down a nearby street on the map, and he realises that's him - so he really isn't that far away from the construction site after all.

He takes the next turn, pausing so the Mettaur doesn't lose sight of him, though with Chaud still wailing it'll probably hear them and keep following even if it doesn't see them anymore. As Lan heads for the end of the street, ProtoMan starts wailing again, and Chaud goes silent to get his breath back.

They're not letting the wailing pause even for a second. If they lose the attention of the Mettaur, it'll go wild in the city, and Lan would rather trap it in a construction site than the city itself. It'll still do a lot of damage, sure, but less people would be in danger. Maybe even no people, if they're lucky enough to get a construction site that's empty of workers.

He skids around the corner of the next street and sees the construction site just up ahead. Lan puts his PET away and makes a beeline for it. The giant Mettaur isn't that far behind them, but it's far enough that he should have enough time to get into the construction site and figure out some kind of plan.

"The site is empty of people!" MegaMan calls, as Lan speeds through the entrance of the construction site. "There should be some cranes we can use to distract the Mettaur until the converters come!"

Before Lan has a chance to look around and try to spot any cranes, he feels Chaud tugging on his vest. He glances over his shoulder questioningly, and Chaud nods toward the roof of the construction site - and, following his gaze, Lan sees two cranes with steel girders attached to the end of the hooks.

They can use the hooks to immobilise the Mettaur. They'll have to find some way to get the girders off the hooks first - though that's no reason to waste the potential there. The girders look heavy enough that they might be able to use them as battering rams or something.

Lan heads deeper into the construction site, quickly finding a set of steps to get up to the roof with. It's a little awkward running up them without the use of his arms, but he doesn't want to drop Chaud, and he's not about to make Chaud get off his back just so he can run up some steps. He's also pretty sure Chaud doesn't have the energy to get up the steps on his own, so he'd probably have to carry him up anyway.

As soon as he gets onto the roof, Chaud starts to struggle against his back. Lan lets him down carefully, and he stumbles across the roof, heading for the nearest crane.

Once Lan's sure that Chaud has made it, he heads for the other crane. They jack in their Navis at the same time - Chaud in silence, as usual, because he doesn't vocalise himself like most NetNavi operators - and the cranes begin to creak and groan as they turn toward the direction the Mettaur is coming from.

When ProtoMan was jacked into the crane, he'd stopped wailing. Now the Mettaur is slowly stomping onto the construction site, but it hasn't spotted them on the roof, and Lan can tell it's rapidly losing interest because it can't hear Chaud or ProtoMan's wailing anymore.

Chaud leans over the railing, takes in a deep breath, and starts screeching. It's louder than the high-pitched wailing had been, and Lan covers his ears with a wince, though it barely does anything to muffle the noise. It does the trick, though - the Mettaur immediately looks up, sees them on the roof, and starts stomping toward them.

"MegaMan, now!" Lan exclaims, glancing at the screen of his PET. It shows MegaMan inside the control system of the crane, surrounded by digital screens. As Lan watches, MegaMan starts messing with the controls, and the crane moves as he directs it.

The Mettaur stops just before the wall of the building being constructed, still fascinated by Chaud's screeching. It doesn't notice MegaMan's steel girder coming at it until too late, and it stumbles when the girder smashes against its head.

The girder slips off the hook, falling somewhere nearby, and Lan winces. He kinda feels sorry for the people who work on this site - if they don't already know what's going on, they're gonna be so confused when they get back. But Lan and Chaud need to stop this Mettaur, and these cranes are the only way they can do that until the dimensional converters arrive.

He sees Chaud talking into his PET, but the distance between them is too great for Lan to hear what he's saying. It becomes obvious a moment later anyway, when the steel girder attached to ProtoMan's crane suddenly drops onto the Mettaur's head, making it stagger and fall onto its backside.

"Yeah!" Lan cheers, punching the air. He waves to catch Chaud's attention. "Hook it, now!"

Chaud nods and speaks into his PET again. Lan quickly glances back to his own PET, just in time to see MegaMan already following his orders.

Lan leans over the railing as the ends of the cranes are lowered. MegaMan and ProtoMan direct them to hook the Mettaur under its helmet, lifting it up. Given how much the ground was shaking, Lan guesses the Mettaur weighs a lot, and it's amazing to see the cranes lifting it so easily.

"The dimensional converters have arrived!" MegaMan announces.

Lan looks past the wall surrounding the construction site and sees the trucks with the dimensional converters coming to a stop on the road. The converters on the back rise up and begin to spark with white energy, which then blasts out and spreads into a dome-like shape. It forms into a dimensional area quickly.

Lan grins at the sight of it, but his grin vanishes quickly when he notices the Mettaur struggling on the hooks. One of the hooks slips a little, and then the line drops and the Mettaur smashes onto the ground.

"Sorry, Lan!" MegaMan exclaims. "I couldn't keep a hold of it . . ."

"It's okay," Lan tells him. "It doesn't matter anyway - the dimensional area's up, we can fight the Mettaur for real now!"

He looks over at Chaud, and sees Arcadia materialising beside him. Arcadia is an independent NetNavi, even though most people consider him to be Chaud's second NetNavi, since he stays with Chaud and ProtoMan all the time. As an independent Navi, Arcadia has the ability to materialise himself in a dimensional area. Bass, another independent Navi, has the same ability, but personal NetNavis like MegaMan and ProtoMan are only able to materialise by using Cross Fusion.

Speaking of Cross Fusion, Lan suddenly feels a flicker of doubt - Chaud can barely walk on his own right now, so will he be able to use Cross Fusion?

His loss of energy and temporary use of a wheelchair was because he somehow turned into the Poltergeist during the final battle against Dr. Regal. ProtoMan's ultimate program gives him the ability to control (or at least coexist with) the Poltergeist Program, a deep web program that was originally made to boost a Navi's power - which it does, of course, but at the cost of the Navi's sanity. ProtoMan is different, though, and he can use the power of the Poltergeist - which mainly manifests in the form of his ever-present tendrils of shadows, or can form into his shadow-double, which goes by the name of Dark Shadow.

Arcadia was the one who figured it out - humans aren't capable of handling ultimate program abilities. Lan tried to use MegaMan's Double Soul, which is MegaMan's ultimate program ability, and ended up draining his own energy so quickly that he couldn't even last five minutes against Dr. Regal. And, of course, Chaud went Poltergeist, but he didn't last long either, for the same reasons.

Lan did manage to use Double Soul properly though, but only after he and MegaMan were given the combined power of all the NetNavis who were sacrificed to create Dr. Regal's global dimensional area - which in turn allowed them to go into Full Synchro, giving Lan the ability to use Double Soul with no drawbacks afterwards. Unfortunately, Chaud didn't have that, so he ended up draining himself and was almost killed in the process.

So Lan's worried that Chaud may not be able to use Cross Fusion at the moment. Maybe he'll be able to Fuse with ProtoMan, sure, but will he be able to fight? Cross Fusing and actually fighting are two entirely different things, after all.

Arcadia turns his head and blinks at Lan. He can probably sense Lan's doubt and worry - but he doesn't seem too concerned about Chaud, so hopefully that's a good indicator of whether or not Chaud can still fight. It's usually a good idea to check on ProtoMan or Arcadia when Chaud's doing something crazy, because if neither of them are worried, then Chaud should be fine (though that's not always a guarantee, because sometimes they all do the crazy thing, and the outcome is anyone's guess).

Lan decides to keep an eye on Chaud during the battle, just in case. He can't exactly stop Chaud from downloading his synchro chip - for a start, he's too far away to do anything, and besides that, Chaud would probably get extremely offended if Lan tried to stop him. Chaud hates being told he can't fight; he's never reacted well to it, and almost always gets himself into trouble trying to prove he can fight.

So trying to stop him would just lead to Chaud doing it anyway. Which is definitely not ideal.

Lan takes out his own synchro chip, seeing Chaud do the same.

"Synchro chip, download!" Lan exclaims. MegaMan's voice joins his as he continues. "Cross Fusion!"

The familiar light of Cross Fusion overtakes his vision, and moments later, as it dies down, Lan is Cross Fused with MegaMan for the first time since the battle with Dr. Regal. Another flash of light from his left makes him glance over, and as that dies down too, he sees Chaud in the red armour of ProtoMan.

So, he can use Cross Fusion. Whether or not he'll be able to fight is another matter entirely.

He has no time to wonder, because Chaud immediately takes off, vaulting over the railing and twisting in mid-air as he falls down. Lan's instinctive reaction is panic, before he reminds himself that Chaud won't get hurt from a fall like that, not while he's in Cross Fusion anyway. Arcadia spreads his wings and takes to the air, following him, and Lan hops over the railing to jump down as well.

Chaud lands on all fours with the grace of the cat that ProtoMan is, a few metres in front of the Mettaur. Lan lands behind it, and he activates his Mega Buster immediately, firing before the Mettaur has a chance to react to them coming down to fight it.

His shots ding off the Mettaur's helmet, and it tries to stomp around to face him, but Chaud hisses and launches himself at the Mettaur before it even takes two steps. The Mettaur tries to hit him with its pickaxe, though Chaud proves far too fast for it to touch, and he darts past the Mettaur while raking his claws across its side.

Chaud skids to a halt next to Lan, hair bristling and teeth bared. Above the Mettaur's head, Arcadia is circling in the air, forming two Bound Swords out of his white Holy Fire, which he throws - and the two Bound Swords stick in the Mettaur's helmet, making it stagger backwards and let out a bellow of pain.

The virus's stagger sends it closer to Lan and Chaud, who split up and allow it to stumble between them. Chaud's shadows form up into Dark Shadow, and Chaud creates shadow-claws out of the remaining shadows, grabs Dark Shadow's offered arm, and hurls the shadow-double at the Mettaur's face.

Dark Shadow bursts back into tendrils as soon as it hits the Mettaur, and the tendrils wrap around the virus and constrict it. The Mettaur strains against its restraints, even trying to use its pickaxe, but the shadows are too strong and it can only let out frustrated noises as it struggles in vain.

Arcadia ducks in from overhead, Holy Fire lighting up on his palm, but before he can let it loose, he pauses and glances up. Lan sees his eyes widen a moment before he beats his wings frantically and dodges out of the way, and a familiar - and very unexpected - voice calls out.

"Shooting Star!"

A yellow blast of energy slams into the Mettaur. The shadows keeping it restrained come apart immediately and retreat back to curling around Chaud's legs, allowing the Mettaur to stagger backwards and fall onto its backside.

Bass jumps from down from nowhere, already lifting his arm. He shoots off a Hell's Rolling which slices through the Mettaur, and it vanishes in a swarm of pixels before it can even whimper.

"Bass," Chaud says, straightening from his crouch. He doesn't sound surprised, but judging by the slight twist to his fanged mouth, he's definitely confused.

Bass turns to face them, but at that moment, the dimensional area vanishes from overhead. Arcadia and Bass are forced back into the cyberworld, while Lan and Chaud are forced out of Cross Fusion.

Lan catches his PET, puzzled by Bass's sudden appearance - he knows Chaud and Arcadia kind of made friends with him after they worked on a case with Famous, and Bass even showed up to help them get ProtoMan back, and Chaud managed to rope him into helping out with the battle against Dr. Regal (and that turned out to be the best move, because Bass ended up saving Chaud during the battle). But what he doesn't know is why Bass appeared here, and now.

As he's trying to puzzle that out, he notices Chaud starting to collapse. Lan yelps and starts forward to catch him, but it turns out to be unnecessary - because a tall robot with long, stringy green hair steps out of nowhere and reaches out to steady Chaud before Lan can take one step.

It's the robot Bass uses to walk around in the real world, when there's no dimensional area. Lan stares as the robot - as Bass - helps Chaud to straighten up, but doesn't let go even when he seems okay.

Lan has no objections to that - Chaud looks paler than normal, and he's trembling where he stands. Bass seems to be the only thing keeping him upright at the moment, although of course Lan's still surprised that he showed up to help, in more ways than one.

"Bass," Lan says, stepping forward carefully. The robot's face turns to look at him, and Lan stiffens upon seeing the smooth skin where the mouth and nose should be on a normal human face. It's . . . a little unsettling. "Why're you here?"

"Making sure this dumb human doesn't get himself killed," Bass replies. The robot's single visible eye narrows. "Again."

Chaud blinks up at him curiously, but says nothing.

"Though that's not the only reason," Bass admits. "That virus was a sign of great danger, to both the cyberworld and the human world. We're facing a threat we've never even considered." He glances at Chaud and seems to rethink his words. "A threat most of us have never even considered. In order to fight it, we'll need to join forces."

"Wait . . . you mean you want to work with us?" MegaMan speaks up cautiously. "Willingly?"

Bass seems to hesitate for a moment. "Yes," he says slowly, as if with great reluctance. "I will work with you. Fight alongside you, if that's what it takes." He lifts his chin. "I don't care what happens to the human world, but I don't like that the cyberworld is getting dragged into this mess."

"And I suppose the fact that you might not be able to play Skyrim anymore if Chaud's not around has absolutely nothing to do with your decision," ProtoMan says dryly.

"Shut up, cat," Bass snaps. "That stupid game has nothing to do with this."

If it's so stupid, Lan thinks, why do you keep coming back to play it?

He's smart enough to know that saying that out loud could easily set Bass off. Whatever he says, it's clear that he likes Skyrim - enough to make sure that Chaud stays alive so he can still play it. Though at this point, it's pretty obvious that Bass is trying to keep Chaud safe because he wants to, not just because Chaud's the only reason he can play Skyrim.

Seems like Chaud has a habit of befriending insanely-powerful independent NetNavis. First Arcadia, who's ProtoMan's adopted little brother, and now Bass, who refuses to admit that he actually cares about Chaud. It's pretty impressive, really, especially since Chaud has a lot of trouble making friends with humans - maybe he just connects better with NetNavis.

"If you're going to be helping us," Arcadia begins, "would you be willing to come to SciLab with us? We should probably head there to talk to Dr. Hikari about that virus."

Bass doesn't seem entirely happy about it, but if he has any objections, he doesn't vocalise them. It looks like he's actually serious about wanting to work with them, then - the only time he's ever been to SciLab was during the final battle with Dr. Regal, and even then he'd only come with them because of Chaud. If he's coming with them now for the same reason, then Lan has no problems with that; in his opinion, anyone who wants to protect Chaud is welcome, even if it's a human-hating NetNavi like Bass.

---

While Chaud calls the others to let them know what happened, Lan calls Dad to explain the situation - about the battle and Bass's offer of help. Dad tells them to get to SciLab as soon as possible, so they cut through the park, since it's faster than going around.

But as they're heading through the middle, Bass suddenly pauses. He's still helping Chaud walk, so Chaud has to stop as well, and Lan slows to a stop a few feet away when he realises neither of them are walking anymore.

"What's wrong?" Lan asks, glancing over his shoulder.

Bass's visible eye is narrowed again, and he seems to be focusing on something just up the path on their right. Chaud looks over as well, then tilts his head curiously, so Lan follows their gazes and is surprised to see an old man walking up the path.

The old man is wearing some pretty ratty-looking clothing, and he's pushing some sort of cart ahead of him. As Lan watches, the old man pauses, and an odd-looking mechanic arm slides out of the cart and picks up an empty can nearby, then places it inside the cart before retreating.

"I didn't think I'd see you again," Bass comments.

"That makes two of us," the old man says, looking up. Something about his voice seems a little familiar, but Lan can't quite place it. "But I suppose anything is possible, these days. Viruses running amok in the streets, NetNavis materialising in the real world . . ." The old man looks at Chaud. "Children with the power to see the future."

Lan stiffens, and Chaud jerks back. He trips over his own feet, and it's only Bass that keeps him upright.

"Don't be so surprised," the old man says, sounding faintly amused at their reactions. "You're not the only human out there with strange powers. I know quite a lot about this kind of thing."

"Who are you?" Lan demands, stepping forward.

The old man chuckles. "You haven't guessed? Bass knows already. And I suspect your prophet friend there also knows," he says, nodding to Chaud.

"It's precognition," Arcadia corrects him, "not prophecy. There's a difference."

"Indeed," the old man agrees. He glances at Lan again. "If I say I'm the foster parent of Yuri Ozono, will that help?"

Lan's eyes widen as realisation hits him like a truck. "Dr. Wily!" he exclaims.

"No," the old man says dramatically, removing his hat and face mask, "I'm the evil genius scientist, Dr. Wily!"

"Is there a difference?" Chaud asks.

Dr. Wily glances at him, looking mildly annoyed. "Yes, there is. It's very distinctive."

"Sounds more like you just want people to know you're a genius, if you ask me," ProtoMan mutters. "Weirdo."

"Silence, NetNavi," Dr. Wily says sharply.

"Don't 'silence' me, you arrogant-" ProtoMan begins heatedly.

"ProtoMan," Chaud says, cutting him off. ProtoMan falls silent with a growl, but doesn't say anything else. Chaud looks at Dr. Wily. "What do you want?"

"I want to give you a warning, and a present," Dr. Wily replies.

"A warning?" Lan repeats.

Dr. Wily was the leader of World Three before PharaohMan put an end to them - the members of World Three are currently working in a curry shop in Jawaii, and have taken Dex under their wings to train him in NetBattling and curry, but no one knew what became of Dr. Wily himself until he re-appeared during the Gospel incident, revealing himself to be the leader of that organisation.

But he'd vanished yet again after the fall of Gospel, and until now, no one's seen him. Whatever he might be planning, it must be big, if he's giving them a warning - is this an attempt to intimidate them? Maybe that giant virus was his doing. It wouldn't surprise Lan if it was. Dr. Wily could be capable of anything.

"That virus you deleted was a product of Duo," Dr. Wily says. "I'm sure you've heard of him from Dr. Regal, and Yuri. You already know some of what he is - but you don't know his full capabilities." He narrows his eye, the other obscured by a monocle-like implant. "Neither do I, to be honest. But this is only the beginning. That virus was sent to test the Earth's defences - the real battle will commence soon, make no mistake."

Lan blinks. That . . . is definitely not an intimation attempt. It doesn't sound like Dr. Wily is planning anything - in fact, it sounds like he's giving them an actual warning, about their enemy.

About Duo. Dr. Wily's right - Lan does recognise that name. Dr. Regal and Ms. Yuri were both in a plane crash that cost them their lives fifteen years ago, but were revived by Duo to observe the Earth as his probes. They both have - or had - superhuman abilities, such as being effectively immortal, due to Duo's interference.

And now Dr. Wily's saying that the very same Duo who revived Dr. Regal and Ms. Yuri had sent that giant virus to attack them as a test, and will be sending the real threat soon?

"You're going to need a lot of power to defeat him," Dr. Wily says. He looks at Bass, raising an eyebrow in faint interest. "I knew you would make your own attempt to challenge Duo, but I didn't consider you'd be willing to work with others, especially humans. I thought you would just steal the other ultimate programs and be done with it."

"I did consider doing that," Bass confesses. Lan glances at him sharply, but before he can voice his worries, Bass continues. "But that would delete the Navis who hold those programs."

"Interesting," Dr. Wily comments, looking at Bass curiously. "I wouldn't have thought you would care about taking other Navis' lives to achieve your own goals."

"My motivation is none of your concern," Bass retorts.

"Perhaps not," Dr. Wily concedes. "But with the ultimate programs of Change, Control, and Light, you would be unstoppable. The ultimate program of Power would combine with them and you might have the strength to challenge Duo, maybe even win."

"Maybe," Bass says evenly. "But who's to say that simply working with them won't also achieve the same goal?"

Meanwhile, Lan's still trying to get his head around what Dr. Wily just said. The ultimate programs of Change, Control, Light, and Power? Based on their abilities, he can guess which ultimate program belongs to which Navi. Change is MegaMan, because of his Double Soul ability; Control is ProtoMan, because he can control the Poltergeist Program; Light is Arcadia, because of his Dark Immunity ability; and Power is obviously Bass, because of his insane amount of power.

Lan didn't know the ultimate programs had names. He'd thought they were just that - ultimate programs. But considering each of the four Navis who hold the ultimate programs have unique abilities, it kinda makes sense that those programs would have names. And very fitting names, it seems.

Dr. Wily seems very intrigued by Bass's response, and he glances at Chaud again, apparently seeing for the first time how Bass is helping him stay upright. The evil genius scientist says nothing, only looking faintly amused, and he moves on from that specific topic.

"Now that I've given you my warning," Dr. Wily says, "I believe I also promised you a present."

He climbs onto his cart, fishing something out of it. The cart suddenly lifts into the air, rockets propelling it upwards, and Dr. Wily twists around the throw the thing in his hand to them.

Chaud reaches out and catches it before Lan can move.

"What is it?" Lan asks, coming closer so he can see it. His eyes widen. "That- that's a can of juice!" Lan glares up at Dr. Wily. "Hey, what's the big idea?"

"Give that to your father, you two," Dr. Wily calls. The cart blasts off through the air, and within moments, he's gone.

"What the heck?" Lan complains, stomping his foot. "He tells us something as serious as that, and then gives us a can of juice? Who does he think he is?"

"It's not juice," Chaud says. Lan stares at him.

"We should get to SciLab," Arcadia speaks up. "Dr. Hikari can examine the can when we get there - I don't think Dr. Wily would give us something like this for no reason, so there must be some kind of secret hidden inside."

Lan blinks, and suddenly feels hot with embarrassment. He hadn't thought of that - he'd just been focused on the fact that it's a can of juice, not that there might be something more to it than that. Whatever it is, they can figure it out at SciLab, like Arcadia said.

"Okay, let's go," Lan says.

"Don't tell me what to do," Bass immediately snaps.

Lan slumps in exasperation, and Chaud sighs. Bass will be Bass, even if he's agreed to actually help them of his own free will.

---

When they get to SciLab, Chaud hands Dr. Wily's can over to Dad, who gives it to Famous to check out. They're worried it might be some kind of bomb, though Chaud doesn't seem very concerned about it, and ProtoMan and Arcadia are supporting him - but still, it doesn't hurt to be cautious.

While Famous is examining the can, Lan and Chaud talk to Kifune and Manabe. This is the first time they've met since Kifune and Manabe had come to SciLab a few days ago, to congratulate Lan and Chaud on defeating Dr. Regal, and to tell Chaud that he's free from his restrictive orders - and also to inform him that he's now working exclusively under Famous as his first personal Net Saver, rather than working as a Net Saver for the Net Police as a whole.

Chaud's relationship with Kifune and Manabe . . . hasn't exactly been the best. It had started out okay, but quickly turned rocky when it became apparent that Chaud could and would disobey any order they gave him if he didn't like it - and he didn't, most of the time, so he ended up clashing with them a lot, even breaking out of the safe house he was locked up in. Chaud thinks the only reason Kifune and Manabe agreed to let Famous take him as a personal Net Saver is because they don't know how to deal with him, and were happy to dump him on someone else.

Lan's not so sure that's really what happened, but no one's offered an actual explanation for the sudden change in Chaud's role as a Net Saver, so that's the only theory they have right now.

"He was wearing different clothes," Lan says, studying the photo of Dr. Wily that Manabe handed him, "but it was definitely him. He said so himself - and Bass recognised him, too."

Bass is standing nearby, next to Chaud, who's sitting down because he can't really stand anymore. Chaud looks drained of energy - Cross Fusing and fighting that giant Mettaur probably made things worse, but no one can tell him not to fight - and Bass looks ready to murder anyone who comes near him.

"I didn't think he'd show up again," Dad murmurs, as Lan hands the photo back to Manabe.

"His whereabouts were never discovered after the Gospel incident," Kifune says. "To think he somehow survived . . ."

Bass scoffs. "That old bastard's a cockroach," he says derisively. "He'll never expire. The only way he's going to stop living is if someone deletes him."

It takes a moment for everyone to puzzle that out. What Bass is saying is that Dr. Wily will never die on his own, and will only die if someone kills him. It seems like Bass doesn't know that the human words for 'expire' and 'delete' are different to the cyberworld phrases - or maybe he does know, and just refuses to use the actual terms.

"But what about that can of juice?" Manabe asks, evidently deciding to move on from Bass's odd comment. "From the way Dr. Wily gave it to us, it seems like it should be important somehow."

"We're examining it right now," Dad explains, gesturing to the dark lab on the other side of the glass windows. "Chaud doesn't think it's a bomb, but we can't be too careful." He catches Chaud rolling his eyes and smiles, amused. "Don't roll your eyes at me, young man. You've been wrong before."

"Young man?" Chaud looks almost offended.

"Would you rather I call you kitten?" Dad jokes. "Since you're essentially a cat?"

Chaud sticks his tongue at him, and Dad laughs. Lan grins at the exchange, but then they're distracted by Famous, who seems to have finished working on the can.

"Okay!" Famous calls. "There's no threat of it being a bomb!"

"Told you," Chaud says to Dad, giving him a playfully smug look.

"Keep talking to me like that, and I'll tell Haruka not to make you noodles for dinner later," Dad threatens, though his light tone and cheerful grin are the exact opposite of a threat.

They all head down into the lab to check out the can Dr. Wily gave them. Bass follows them, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else - though, when Chaud tries and fails to walk on his own, Bass picks him up without a word and carries him into the lab. He glares at everyone, like he's silently daring them to say something, but no one is dumb enough to do that.

In the lab, Famous carefully pulls off the lid of the can using a mechanical arm. The can is inside a glass box, just to keep everything nice and safe, in case something unexpected happens.

As it turns out, they have nothing to worry about. When the can opens up, a cloud of steam erupts from the inside, and an image of Dr. Wily in his World Three garb is projected onto the steam.

"World Three will reign!" Dr. Wily's image crows triumphantly, before the image fizzles out and then vanishes with a noise that reminds Lan of air escaping from a balloon.

Everyone - even Bass - is mildly exasperated at the disappointing reveal. Chaud seems to be the only one who isn't surprised; in fact, he even looks kind of amused. But at least the can definitely isn't a bomb - it would've exploded the moment the message stopped playing, or as soon as Famous opened the can in the first place.

---

With the issue of the can now out of the way, they can focus on the real problem - Duo, and the threat he currently poses to the planet. Dr. Wily didn't exactly tell them why Duo is threatening their planet like this, but whatever the reason, it can't be good.

Dad brings up an image of Duo's comet on the monitor in the main room, and MegaMan, ProtoMan, and Arcadia appear on the screen beside it. Bass stays in his robot, leaning against the wall behind Lan and Chaud, while everyone else takes seats around the room, leaving Dad to wander freely.

"Our problem is Duo," he announces. "We have no idea why he's decided to attack us, and very few ideas as to what he's actually capable of. Given that he resurrected Ms. Yuri and Dr. Regal, and gave them superhuman abilities, I think it's safe to say that his power could possibly be limitless."

Bass snorts disbelievingly. "There's no such thing," he says. "Everything has a limit - there's no exception."

"Does that include you?" ProtoMan asks cheekily.

"Watch yourself, cat," Bass snaps.

"Er . . . getting back to the topic at hand," Dad quickly says, before the two Navis can start arguing, "we need to prepare for whatever it is that Duo will be doing. But we also should try to find out why he's attacking this planet in the first place." He glances at Lan and Chaud, then at the trio of Navis up on the monitor. "Did Dr. Wily say anything about Duo's motivations?"

"No, he didn't," MegaMan replies. "He gave us that warning about the real battle coming soon, but that was it."

"He seemed more focused on Bass, really," Arcadia speaks up. "About why he wasn't trying to delete us for our ultimate programs."

"Are you saying this lack of information is my fault?" Bass demands, pushing off the wall to glare at him.

"No, I was just saying-" Arcadia begins.

"You can just say something else!"

"Don't yell at my brother!" ProtoMan exclaims angrily. He bares his teeth as his hair bristles into a wild bush, and his shadows spike around him threateningly.

"Shut up, cat!" Bass retorts.

ProtoMan lets out an explosive hiss, and the monitor screen flickers spastically for a moment before it settles down. Chaud buries his face in his hands and sighs heavily.

Lan leans over to him. "Why're all the NetNavis you make friends with so argumentative?" he wonders.

"I have no idea," Chaud mutters.

"I'm not your friend," Bass snaps, glaring down at them.

Chaud looks up with the most comically annoyed expression Lan has ever seen on his face.

"Perhaps we should stay on-track?" Kifune suggests carefully. "We should be focusing on figuring out why Duo is attacking us."

"Who cares why he's attacking this stupid planet?" Bass demands. "He's threatening the cyberworld, so he needs to go down. I don't see why we need to figure out every detail of the bastard's personal-"

"He's a planet-destroying NetNavi," Chaud says loudly, talking over Bass.

Everyone kind of freezes at that. Not just because this is the loudest Chaud's ever spoken - aside from when he's actually angry - but also because of what he just said. Even Bass seems shocked, and if the robot had a mouth, it'd probably be gaping, having been cut off mid-sentence.

"He was programmed by an alien race to find and examine planets, and destroy the ones that look like threats," Chaud goes on, more quietly this time, closer to his normal volume. "He used Ms. Yuri and Dr. Regal to monitor this planet's network evolution, and now he's back to erase our planet because he doesn't like what he saw. He's playing god, basically."

It takes several moments for everyone to recover from that shock. Dad is the first one to do so, and he takes a single step forward, looking at Chaud with a mixture of awe and dawning horror at what he's just said.

"How . . . how do you know that?" Dad asks hesitantly.

Chaud looks at him with an almost blank expression. He doesn't respond.

"Did you have a dream about it?" Famous speaks up.

"He dreams about the future, not the past," Manabe reminds him. Then she pauses and looks at Chaud uncertainly. "Unless you dreamed about someone explaining that in the future?"

Up on the monitor, ProtoMan and Arcadia exchange uncomfortable glances. Lan's not sure what that's about, but neither of them offer an explanation, and they stay as silent as Chaud.

"I've been thinking about this for a while," Dad says, in an oddly careful tone. "Ever since we found out about Duo's existence, actually, and learnt about how he revived Ms. Yuri and Dr. Regal, giving them superhuman abilities. Chaud . . . does your ability to see the future come from Duo, too?"

Lan sucks in a quiet gasp of shock, and Kifune, Manabe, and Famous all stare at Dad with stunned expressions before turning their attention to Chaud. MegaMan is just as shocked as Lan is to hear something like that, and even Bass seems speechless.

The only ones who aren't shocked are ProtoMan and Arcadia, and Chaud himself. ProtoMan and Arcadia just seem like they're ready to bolt at any moment, while Chaud is sitting rigid in his seat, fists clenched on the surface on the table in front of him.

They all wait with bated breath for Chaud's response. It seems to take him an age to get up the nerve to speak, and even longer to actually say anything.

" . . . I don't know," Chaud says, so quietly that even Lan can barely hear him, even though they're sitting right next to each other. "I've always been able to see the future. I never thought about where the power came from." He lowers his head and shrinks in his seat. "And I- I don't know how I know about Duo. I just do. S'not from a dream, but . . . I just . . . M'sorry." He covers his head with his arms, like he's trying to protect himself.

"It's alright," Dad says gently. "We can't expect you to know everything, and certainly not something like this. I'm sorry I sprang this on you so suddenly."

Chaud makes a quiet noise, but doesn't respond otherwise.

"We can figure this out later," Dad decides, turning back to the room as a whole. He's obviously trying to turn everyone's attention away from Chaud. "For now, we need to decide what to do with the information Chaud just gave us. We know Duo's motivations - what we don't know is how to stop him."

"Duo doesn't have the right to decide if this planet is a threat or not!" Lan exclaims, jumping up from his seat. His energetic movement gets the attention of almost everyone, which is what he intended, because Chaud honestly looks like he's about three seconds away from a major panic attack and having people staring at him will definitely not help. "Hey, Mr. Famous!"

"It's just Famous."

"Do you remember when the space centre sent MegaMan to that moon base, Mr. Famous?" Lan asks, ignoring his words.

Again, it has the intended effect. Famous looks mildly exasperated at Lan ignoring him like that, while Manabe turns away and covers her mouth with the back of her hand to stifle a laugh. It seems like everyone is starting to recover from the bombshell that Dad accidentally dropped on them - especially poor Chaud.

"That was during the incident with PlanetMan," Famous remembers. "What about it?"

"Chaud and I talked about it on the way over here," Lan explains. "We think if we use that same method again, we can send our Navis to Duo's comet."

"I'm not anyone's NetNavi," Bass interrupts, scowling.

"Our Navis and Bass," Lan quickly corrects himself. He doesn't think Bass will be as lenient with him as he is with Chaud, ProtoMan, and Arcadia, so Lan should probably avoid offending him.

"Do you think that's possible?" Dad asks, raising an eyebrow at Famous. "Would we be able to connect with Duo's comet from the space centre?"

"Given that Duo is a NetNavi," Famous says, with a nod to Chaud to acknowledge his help in giving them that information, "I'd say there should be some sort of network that allows him to travel around in that comet of his. If we can figure out how to connect the space centre's network tunnel to the comet, we should have a direct link that would allow us to send the Navis to the comet's network." He pauses thoughtfully. "We might be able to strengthen the connection if we bounce the signal off a nearby satellite, too."

"Then let's do it!" Lan exclaims, before anyone can voice any protests.

Dad glances at Kifune and Manabe questioningly. They both nod, and Dad seems satisfied now that everyone is in agreement.

"Alright," Dad says. "Let's head to the space centre."

---

The space centre is informed of the plan while the humans are en route, so by the time they arrive, everything has already been set up. The connection is as strong as they can make it, and the signal has been bounced off the satellite nearest to Duo's comet to help them strengthen it even more, as Famous suggested. The only thing left to do now is see whether or not this will actually work.

Lan jacks MegaMan into the network tunnel, and he appears inside a room similar to the one he used to get to the moon base months ago. A moment later, ProtoMan appears beside him, and Arcadia streams himself into the room after him.

Bass appears behind them, having somehow managed to jack himself into the console using his robot. MegaMan can see it now, on the screen showing them the real world - the robot's fingers are jammed inside a mess of wires, as if Bass literally shoved its hand into the console in order to jack himself in.

"Is that safe?" MegaMan wonders, nodding to the robot. "You know, to just leave it like that?"

Bass gives him a look through narrow eyes. "Why the hell should I care if it's safe or not?" he demands. "As long as it works, what does it matter?"

"What if something happens to it while we're in here?" Arcadia points out.

"Then something'll happen to it." Bass shrugs. "I only use that thing to walk around in the real world anyway. I don't care much for it - I prefer the cyberworld over the real world."

"Yes, so you've implied, many times," ProtoMan says dryly. "Can we go fight a god now?"

"Someone's eager," MegaMan comments, unable to hide an amused smile.

ProtoMan flashes him a sharp-toothed grin as he punches his fist into his open palm. "This'll be the first actual battle I've had since Dr. Regal," he says. "I can't wait to sink my claws into that Duo Navi."

"Good to know you're fired up," Dad says, just as amused as MegaMan. He's standing in sight of the screen, to one side of Bass's robot, ready to start working on the console to help the quartet of Navis get to the comet.

"Duo's not a god, ProtoMan," Chaud speaks up, looking torn between amusement and annoyance. "He's just a NetNavi with delusions of grandeur."

"Same difference, let's go already!" ProtoMan exclaims impatiently.

He's a lot more energetic than normal, MegaMan thinks, watching ProtoMan nearly bouncing in anticipation. And it was only earlier that he was halfway to a panic attack from memories of Dark ProtoMan, too.

A thought suddenly occurs to MegaMan, upon thinking that. He wonders if ProtoMan is so eager to fight Duo because he's trying to prove he's alright - or that he can still fight, despite being effectively traumatised by everything that's happened to him. If that's the case . . . MegaMan can't help but be worried about him. It can't be good for ProtoMan's mental state if he tries to rush things and gets himself into trouble.

Kind of like how Chaud will often get himself into trouble trying to prove the exact same thing. Like operator like Navi, after all - ProtoMan actually used to be far more reserved and formal, but he's a lot different now than he was back when MegaMan first met him. He's friendlier, for one thing. More open, too. And more prone to doing something stupid and insane to prove he's okay - or just for the sake of doing it.

As they begin to head toward the teleporters for the network tunnel, Arcadia falls into step beside MegaMan. He glances over at ProtoMan, who's busy arguing with Bass about who'll get to have the finishing move on Duo, and then turns back to MegaMan.

"He'll be fine, you know," Arcadia says. "He's a little damaged, but he's still ProtoMan."

Of course - Arcadia's Empath Program allows him to sense MegaMan's worries. MegaMan blinks at him and looks at ProtoMan.

"How's he feeling?" MegaMan carefully asks. "I mean, right now. How is he, really?"

Arcadia concentrates on his big brother for a moment. "He's nervous," he eventually replies. "Worried, like you are, that he might not be able to handle this. But he's determined not to be a burden, and he refuses to let us down."

"He could never let us down," MegaMan argues.

"I know that, and you know that," Arcadia says. "He knows that, too, but that doesn't stop him from thinking it. He's hiding his fear behind this energy - though he is definitely eager to fight Duo, so it's not really a mask, more like he's just focusing on it to avoid thinking about his fear."

MegaMan wants to talk about this more - he can tell Arcadia's just as worried about ProtoMan as he is - but they're already at the teleporters, and it's time to confront Duo. Or try to confront him, anyway.

They don't know what will happen, despite their willingness to fight. Duo could do anything - no matter what Chaud insists, it seems that Duo is, at the very least, some kind of digital god. MegaMan's fought a lot of opponents since he became Lan's NetNavi, but he's never fought a god before. This'll be interesting, in any case.

---

The teleporters take them right into the beginning of the network tunnel. MegaMan looks around, surprised at how normal it seems.

"I expected something different," he comments, looking at the familiar blue walls of the network tunnel, "but this just looks like any other network tunnel to me."

"What the hell were you expecting?" ProtoMan asks him curiously.

"Well, we're going to fight an alien, so . . . something more alien-y?"

"The signal is being bounced off a satellite," Arcadia points out with a shrug. "Maybe once we get past it, things will look different."

"Stop chattering and let's get moving already," Bass snaps. He glares at ProtoMan. "I thought you wanted to fight a god."

"I do," ProtoMan replies, looking mildly offended. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to charge ahead like an idiot."

"You are an idiot," Bass informs him, and ProtoMan growls at him.

"Everything's set and ready to go," Dad calls, interrupting the growing argument - which MegaMan thinks is intentional. "You just need to stream up, and the network tunnel will take care of the rest."

"Got it, Dad!" MegaMan replies. He turns to the others. "Okay, let's go."

"Stop telling me what to do!" Bass calls angrily, as MegaMan jumps and allows the network tunnel to take his data up through the connection.

The blue walls of the tunnel rush past him as he's taken up, at a speed he hadn't expected. MegaMan twists around and glances down to see ProtoMan and Arcadia following close behind him, and Bass just beyond them, still scowling but no longer complaining.

This is it, MegaMan thinks, twisting back around to face upwards again. They're on their way to Duo's comet, and they'll see if they're strong enough to face a digital god - the four Navis who hold ultimate programs, working together (even though they keep arguing) for the first time.

Well, maybe not the actual first time. MegaMan's not sure if the battle with Dr. Regal counts - he and Lan got taken out fairly quickly, and only re-joined the battle after Chaud, ProtoMan, Arcadia, and Bass became too injured or exhausted to fight anymore. And the time before that, Chaud forced Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan and promptly went insane, and Bass showed up to help them deal with the monster they turned into.

So, this is the first real time they're all working together. More or less willingly.

He detects the satellite up ahead, and feels a rush of anticipation. Without needing to look behind him, he knows the others feel the same - this is the halfway point, and beyond the satellite is Duo's comet, waiting for them.

Then suddenly he detects something else entirely, moving toward them at rapid speed from the direction of Duo's comet. MegaMan slows to a halt, and he sees the others come to a stop just out of the corner of his eyes.

"Be careful!" Dad warns them. The space centre's systems have obviously warned the humans about the thing that's coming for them.

For once, Bass doesn't complain or protest at being told what to do. He's entirely focused on whatever's coming from Duo's comet, as are ProtoMan and Arcadia. MegaMan looks ahead, straining to see past the satellite.

A bright light comes out of nowhere, pushing them back. MegaMan yelps and tries to bring up his arms to protect himself, and luckily they only fall down a few metres before stopping.

The light dies down, and MegaMan looks up cautiously.

There's a NetNavi in the tunnel just ahead of them. It's slim, with white armour and long sleeves, and seems to be studying them like most humans would study a particularly interesting bug. MegaMan automatically scans the Navi, and is surprised when he finds that the systems he detects are absolutely nothing like the systems of Navis he's used to.

"Who are you?" Dad asks the Navi. "Are . . . are you Duo?"

"I am Slur," the NetNavi replies. It sounds like a woman, but its systems are so strange and unfamiliar that MegaMan can't tell if it even has a gender. "I am the messenger of the Great Duo."

"Messenger?" Dad repeats. "Then, can you tell us . . . is it true? Does Duo intend to destroy our planet?"

Slur takes a moment to respond. "Yes, it is true," she replies eventually.

MegaMan tenses up, seeing the others do the same. Hearing it from Chaud is one thing - getting it confirmed by the messenger of Duo is something else entirely. It suddenly seems more real than it was before.

"Why is Duo doing this?" Kifune demands.

"He has judged your planet unworthy of existing," Slur replies evenly. "And thus, you will all perish." She raises her head, looking at something no one else can see. "There is no point in fighting. It has already begun."

Loud, piercing alarms suddenly begin to scream. MegaMan jumps, and he twists around to look at the screen showing them the real world - so do the others, who all look just as startled as he is to see the sudden panic in the real world.

"Viruses have begun to materialise all over the planet!" Manabe exclaims, looking up from her PET. "They're destroying everything!"

"Oh, no," Arcadia breathes, looking horrified. "We're too late!"

"Like hell we are!" Bass snaps. He turns to face them. "You three get back to your humans. I'll take care of her." He jerks his head toward Slur, who merely looks at him calmly and doesn't even react to his aggression.

"You can't handle her on your own!" ProtoMan exclaims, gaping at him.

"The fuck I can't," Bass retorts. "I'm the strongest NetNavi on the planet!"

"She's not from this planet," ProtoMan points out.

"We're deploying the dimensional converters!" Dad exclaims. "If this space centre comes under attack, we won't get a second chance!"

"You hear that?" Bass gestures at the screen. "Go, you morons! Do you want your dumb humans to die?"

Without waiting for an answer, he whirls around and launches himself at Slur. Arcadia starts forward to try and stop him, but ProtoMan holds him back, though he looks conflicted.

Bass creates a ball of yellow energy in his hand and shoots it at Slur, who dodges by simply drifting to the side. Bass then follows up with a blast from his Air Buster, screaming his rage, but Slur fades out of sight and the blasts of air smash into the wall of the network tunnel harmlessly.

MegaMan is distracted from the fight by a panicked yell from the real world. He turns to look at the screen again, horrified to see that giant viruses have already started to ransack the space centre. They're tearing up the buildings and have already brought a spaceship toppling to the ground, and he can see the control room shaking as the viruses attack.

"We need to go," MegaMan says, turning to ProtoMan and Arcadia.

"But Bass-" Arcadia begins.

"He told us to go!" ProtoMan reminds him, already trying to pull Arcadia back down through the tunnel. "Come on, while he's distracting that Slur Navi!"

A flash of bright energy shoots past, startling them. MegaMan looks back to the fight - and he's shocked to see that Bass is actually struggling against Slur, fighting to keep up with her rapid attacks and flinging out attacks in every direction while she simply flicks her hand and fires those flashes of bright energy almost carelessly.

She's not even trying, MegaMan realises. Bass is doing his absolute best, but Slur isn't even breaking a sweat.

Slur vanishes again, and Bass whirls around, trying to find her. Odd thin cables suddenly materialises out of his cloak and begin to wrap around him, restraining him so he can't move, and then Slur reappears in front of him.

"Your efforts are admirable," she says, "but ultimately pointless. Begone, Earth Navi."

She raises her hand, and then there's a bright flash. MegaMan doesn't see what happens next, but he hears Bass's pained yell, and then the network tunnel trembles suddenly, as if something has smashed through the walls.

The flash dies down, and MegaMan looks around, trying to find out what happened. It's Arcadia who spots the jagged hole in the wall, and the three of them quickly realise that Bass is nowhere to be seen - but Slur is still there, now watching them with a strangely menacing calm expression.

"Get back here, now!" Lan shouts, sounding terrified. "She just threw Bass into the UnderNet!"

"She can do that?" MegaMan gasps.

He yelps when ProtoMan's clawed fingers close around his arm. ProtoMan's grabbed hold of Arcadia too, and he kicks off the wall of the network tunnel, dragging both of them back down through the tunnel and toward the teleport point.

They hit the teleport point without slowing down, and then abruptly crash into the network room where the teleporters are. MegaMan has no time to say a word to either ProtoMan or Arcadia before Lan jacks him out, and he's pulled back into Lan's PET.

---

Lan jacks MegaMan out of the network, quickly checks that he's okay, and then looks around to see if Chaud's managed to get ProtoMan and Arcadia out as well. He has, it seems - though he can't exactly get Arcadia out, because he's independent and usually follows ProtoMan into networks. But it looks like Arcadia followed ProtoMan as soon as Chaud got him out, so at least their Navis are okay.

But not Bass, though. It had been a shock to see him struggling against Slur like that - and an even bigger shock to see him defeated so easily. Slur had thrown him into the UnderNet, slamming him through the wall of the network tunnel, and he'd vanished from sight and the detection of the space centre's systems.

His robot had been affected, too. The moment Bass hit the wall and vanished through it, the console had effectively exploded, sending the robot crashing onto its back, broken and sparking. It's a miracle no one was hurt, and Lan and Chaud were extremely lucky that they managed to get their Navis out of the damaged console.

Chaud looks at his PET for a moment, then holds it to his chest like he's terrified someone's going to take it from him. He looks at Bass's robot with wide, scared eyes, and while Lan feels a pang of sympathy for him, they don't have the time to worry about Bass's fate. They're in too much danger right now.

"Chaud," Lan says, stepping forward so he's blocking Chaud's view of the robot, "look, I know you're worried about Bass, but we've gotta worry about ourselves for now. We need to figure out what to do about those viruses."

Chaud blinks at him incomprehensibly, as if he's not hearing a word Lan says. Then he blinks and awareness comes back into his gaze, and he nods.

"'kay," Chaud says. His voice only trembles a little bit, but he sounds okay. As okay as he can get after witnessing Bass get defeated like that, anyway.

"The dimensional converters have arrived!" Famous exclaims.

They were supposed to protect the space centre from attack, but it looks like that won't be possible anymore - luckily, Lan and Chaud are here, as is Arcadia, so they can still fight the viruses off. Hopefully, anyway.

"Come on," Lan quickly says, grabbing Chaud's wrist. He glances over at Dad. "We'll stop the viruses!"

"Be careful, you two," Dad tells them.

Lan pauses just long enough to nod at him, and then rushes out of the control room with Chaud stumbling along behind him. It seems like Chaud is still having trouble staying upright, but as he runs, his shock starts to fade and is replaced with determination, so Lan has no doubts that he'll be able to fight.

What'll happen to him afterwards is anyone's guess. If he collapses again, Bass won't be there to catch him - and Lan may not be close enough to do it instead.

Lan catches sight of the dimensional area forming up around the space centre through the windows they pass by. Every surface inside the barrier takes on a multi-coloured sheen, which is their cue to fight.

He skids to a halt and Chaud slows down until he stops as well. In unison, they both download their synchro chips - the double bright light threatens to blind Lan, but he's used to seeing this light, so it barely affects him anymore.

Arcadia materialises beside them just as their Cross Fusion is complete. The three of them head out of the building after exchanging a quick nod, and then they're in the middle of absolute chaos.

It's even worse than some of the battles they faced against the Darkloids and Nebula. The viruses are everywhere, super-sized and tearing everything apart. There's all kinds here - CirKills, Mettaurs, Drixols, even Spidys (Lan shudders at the sight of those; he hates spiders with a passion, and that one time Chaud ate a live spider did absolutely nothing to help his phobia).

Chaud immediately goes for one of the CirKills that looks like it's trying to shoot at the main building, where Dad and all the others are. He digs his claws into the CirKill and starts climbing up it, shredding it as he goes, and successfully gets its attention enough to get it away from the main building.

Arcadia starts blasting out Holy Fire in every direction, burning almost every virus in the vicinity and sending them into a panic. He starts chasing some of the smaller ones, quickly deleting them with Bound Swords thrown at the viruses' weak points.

That leaves a bunch of the other bigger ones for Lan. He looks up and sees a Spidy climbing up the side of one of the buildings - thankfully not the main building, though Chaud is focusing his efforts on protecting that, and he seems to have it handled for now. So Lan has to deal with this Spidy.

"Volcano Cannon!" Lan exclaims. He shoots as soon as the Cannon materialises on his arm, and the Spidy is burnt to deletion, leaving the building with crumbling holes where it was clinging.

They can fix that, though. Probably. Whatever, that's not for Lan to worry about - their job is to delete these viruses, not try and fix the buildings the viruses are trying to destroy.

He looks around for another target, and feels a stab of cold fear when he sees a giant Spidy just a few metres away from him. He'd been so focused on deleting the other Spidy that he hadn't even noticed this one, and as it scuttles around to face him, Lan freezes.

Chaud appears out of nowhere and slams his shadow-claws into the Spidy's head. He bounces off it, landing in a crouch next to Lan, and then Arcadia dive-bombs the Spidy from above and, like Chaud, bounces off it to come over to Lan. Unlike Chaud, he stays in the air, beating his wings to hover above them as Holy Fire gathers in his palms.

Then a blast of lightning comes down from the sky - through the barrier, it looks like - and crashes into the Spidy.

Lan takes a step back out of shock as the world around them is suddenly overtaken by bright white light. The viruses start to vanish, deleted by some unseen force. Arcadia lands beside Lan and Chaud, looking startled and just as bewildered as Lan, but Chaud only gets to his feet, bares his teeth, and growls.

The bright light vanishes, replaced with what looks like . . . space? It feels like they're standing on a floor of some kind, though Lan can't see any visible floor. It's just blackness and stars and the occasional swirling colours of some distant galaxy or other.

"Guys," Arcadia says, in a hushed voice. Lan glances at him, sees his wide eyes, and follows his gaze.

Then his eyes widen too - in the distance, he can see what looks like a planet. It seems to be their own, but there's something off about it. It doesn't exactly look the same as the Earth Lan has seen in pictures.

"Is that . . . our planet?" Lan asks, just in case he's the only one who doesn't know if that is or isn't their world.

"No," Chaud replies, stepping forward to peer at it. "It's different. Not ours."

Well, at least that confirms what Lan was thinking. He looks back at the planet just in time to see a light flash from one end of it, and visible shock waves spread out from that point all across the planet's surface. Then the entire planet burns in a storm of what looks like solid fire - maybe lava of some kind.

"What are you?"

They all startle at the voice. Chaud whirls around, hair bristling wildly, teeth bared and claws unsheathed as he growls, while Arcadia's Holy Fire glows brighter in his hands. Lan turns around so his back is to both of them, keeping all of their sides covered, and he sees Chaud's shadows flickering about, covering any blind spots they might have.

"Are you NetNavis?" the voice asks. "Or humans?"

The planet in the distance explodes in a blast of light. Lan covers his eyes to protect himself from the blinding flash, and when it dies down, he suddenly becomes aware of a presence behind him.

He turns to face it, and sees a giant.

Chaud's growling gets more intense, and Dark Shadow forms up out of his shadows, splitting its face in a mockery of a mouth to static-hiss at the giant. Arcadia seems almost too awed to react, which is how Lan is feeling, so at least he's not alone in this.

"Who are you?" Lan asks, though he thinks he already has some idea.

"I am Duo," the giant replies. Its - his - voice echoes through the space they're in, giving it an almost otherworldly quality. "That planet you saw was destroyed by my program."

Lan swallows his awe and steps forward. "And . . . and you plan to do the same thing to our planet?"

"Yes," Duo says. "There are problems with the network evolution of your planet. They must be repaired."

Lan remembers Chaud saying something similar, when he was telling them about Duo's motivations. He glances at Chaud, trying to see if he has any reaction to the confirmation of what he said - but Chaud seems to be angry to react properly, because he's still growling, even though he's quieter than before, probably to let Duo speak. No matter how angry he is, Duo's sheer presence is massive and so awe-inspiring that even Chaud wouldn't be able to rage at him like he usually does with things he hates.

"Your planet has faced extreme danger several times already," Duo tells them. An image appears in front of him, showing them the destruction caused by Dr. Regal, and the deletion of the entire internet, and then vanishes. "It was the same with my own planet. It evolved and became too dangerous. Thus, I used my program to destroy it."

"Then that planet we just saw was yours?" Arcadia looks sickened by the thought. "You- you destroyed your own planet?"

"It is my duty to seek out and destroy planets that become dangerous," Duo says. His face is blank of expression, much like Dark Shadow's, but somehow, Lan thinks he can detect something like curiosity from Duo. "My planet was highly developed, especially in technology. And yet I have never seen such a creation. What are you? NetNavis, or humans?"

"You mean . . . our Cross Fusion?" Lan blinks.

"If that is what it is called, then yes," Duo replies.

"Cross Fusion is a union between humans and NetNavis," ProtoMan speaks up.

"A union," Duo echoes thoughtfully. "Is this a union of souls?"

"S-souls?" Lan repeats. "What- what do you mean?"

"All living creatures, even those of digital nature, have some form of soul," Duo explains. "But only one soul resides in the body of each creature. Yet you have multiple." He pauses for a moment. "Two of you have multiple souls. One does not, and is pure NetNavi. How is it that you exist in this space, without this Cross Fusion?"

"I'm an independent NetNavi," Arcadia tells him. "All independent NetNavis have the ability to materialise themselves in a dimensional area - which also allows humans to use Cross Fusion with their NetNavi partners."

"An interesting development," Duo comments. Lan can almost feel his gaze turning to look at him and Chaud, even though Duo doesn't move an inch. "You two are also interesting. One has two souls, and the other three."

Lan blinks. One has two souls . . . and the other three? That doesn't make any sense. If Cross Fusion has combined their souls, then Lan and Chaud should have two souls each - one for themselves, and one for their NetNavis.

He glances at Chaud to see if he has any ideas, but is surprised to see him completely rigid. He's staring up at Duo with a look of total shock, mingled with something like horror, as Dark Shadow crouches and flickers beside him.

Seeing Dark Shadow reminds Lan of what it is - an aspect of the Poltergeist Program inside ProtoMan. Maybe that's what Duo is talking about; maybe the third soul is in Chaud's Cross Fusion, and it's the Poltergeist Program. It's sentient, after all, and has its own free will. Does that mean it also has its own soul?

"You, the human-Navi who harbours darkness within their systems," Duo says. That confirms it - he's definitely talking about Chaud. "You have three souls, and yet I sense one that does not belong. One NetNavi soul, and two human souls."

Lan's thoughts skid to a halt at that.

So . . . the third soul isn't the Poltergeist?

This is too confusing. He has no idea what's going on anymore - one moment they're trying to explain Cross Fusion to a planet-destroying digital god, and the next, this bombshell is dropped on them.

Chaud has three souls? And two of them are human? If that's true, then that means he has two souls even when he's not in Cross Fusion.

Lan looks over at Chaud again. He's trembling now, staring up at Duo with a look of pure dread. What the hell is going on here?

"It is one of the humans souls that does not belong," Duo continues. Chaud jolts like he's been shocked. "It was forced into this reality, into that body, alongside its true owner. This world is not yours." He pauses again, and when he next speaks, his tone is low, almost like a threat. "That body is not yours."

"What?" Lan can't help gasp. He stares up at Duo for a moment, and then turns to Chaud again. "Chaud . . . what is he talking about? What does he mean, that body isn't yours?"

"I . . . I . . ." Chaud looks close to panicking. Arcadia moves closer to him, spreading one of his wings to lightly wrap it around Chaud. He doesn't seem to be surprised at what Duo is saying.

"What's going on here?" Lan demands. "Is this some kinda joke?" He glares up at Duo. "You're trying to destroy our planet, and now you're trying to . . . to . . ." He's not even sure there's a word or phrase that can describe what Duo is doing.

It's . . . it's insane, what Duo is saying. Chaud is Chaud - there's no way that whatever Duo is saying can be true, otherwise . . . otherwise . . .

Otherwise, that would mean Chaud's not who he says he is.

Realisation hits Lan like a ton of bricks. The first time he met Chaud, he'd been almost arrogant, and seemed to have an abundance of confidence. But the next time he saw Chaud, he'd been silent, speaking only through ProtoMan, and was even friendly, though extremely timid.

Lan hadn't thought much about it. He'd guessed something terrible must have happened to cause such a drastic change - somewhere in the time between those two meetings, Chaud had lost his left eye, so it was obvious at the time that his change in personality was something to do with that. But . . . what if his change in personality wasn't because of some horrific event that led to him losing his eye?

What if he was actually someone else entirely?

"Chaud," Lan whispers, "who are you?"

Chaud - or whoever he is - makes a choked noise and buries his face in his hands. Dark Shadow's body trembles and then bursts into tendrils of shadows, unable to keep its form because Chaud is in so much distress, and Arcadia brings him closer to wrap his arms around his shoulders.

"That body is not yours," Duo repeats, almost forcefully. "You cannot exist in this reality without a body of your own, so your soul was forced to steal the body of another. This is no fault of your own, but still a violation of nature itself. This violation must be fixed."

"You leave her alone!" Arcadia shouts, stepping in front of Chaud and spreading his wings protectively. "She's done nothing wrong!"

She? Lan repeats.

Lan . . . what's going on? MegaMan sounds just as shocked and confused as he is.

But Lan can't answer that question, because he doesn't know what's going on himself. He wishes he did, but he has a feeling he won't like whatever answer he might get.

"If you want to hurt her, you'll have to go through me!" Arcadia calls up to Duo, lifting his arm to brandish his Holy Fire at the digital god.

"Don't be so foolish!"

Lan jumps at the new voice, then dodges back as yellow energy rains down on them from above. The energy shower only lasts a few moments, and then Slur appears beside Duo, peering down at them coldly.

"You have intrigued me," Duo says. "Your Cross Fusion, and your words, are worth considering. Very well, I will see what the future of this world holds."

"Future?" Lan repeats. He's still blank with shock from the revelation that Chaud isn't who he says he is, never mind whatever Duo is talking about now.

"I will present you with the Crest of Duo," Duo says, and his voice echoes powerfully through the space they're in. "This is a test for humanity."

"What do you mean, a test?" Lan demands, stepping forward.

Duo's body glows with a white aura, and then a shimmering blue light blasts out from him like a physical force. Lan fights against the blast, trying to shield his face, but he quickly loses consciousness despite his best efforts.

---

He wakes up groggy, with his face pressed into solid concrete. It takes Lan a moment to be able to get past the fuzzy feeling of sleep into wakefulness, and when he finally manages to open his eyes, he sees that he's lying on the ground outside the space centre.

Lan groans and lifts his head. Then he pauses, seeing his palm - and the odd black symbol that appears on it. Well, that definitely wasn't there last time he looked.

What the heck just happened?

As he thinks that, the memories of their conversation with Duo - if it can even be called that - come flooding back. Again he's hit with the shock of realisation when he remembers what he's just learnt about Chaud, or whoever he really is, or whoever she really is, if Arcadia's words were actually true.

Lan pushes himself up so he's sitting, almost numb with shock. Has Chaud been lying this whole time? About everything?

He sees a flash of white in the corner of his eye, and turns to face it.

"Chaud," Lan begins carefully, "what was all that-" He stops.

There's two of them.

One - with the long hair and the black cybernetic eye that Lan is familiar with - looks stunned and absolutely terrified. He's staring at his twin, who has shorter hair, and is wearing different clothes - it takes Lan a moment to realise those clothes are the ones he saw Chaud wearing the very first time they met, before he lost his eye and apparently became someone else entirely.

" . . . Well," the one with the shorter hair says, after a very long pause, "this is . . . awkward."