Mimic watches the plane approaching. It's still some distance away, but she can see it just fine - enhanced eyesight thanks to Cross Fusing with an owl-Navi does wonders for superhuman abilities - and she's impatient.

Her talons make faint clicking noises as she taps her foot on the rock she's standing on. A team of viruses her twin brother - Chaud - summoned via his Battle Chip Gate mill around below her, just as impatient as she is to get this test started. The viruses are a mix of fliers and non-fliers, and as soon as the plane gets close enough, the flying viruses will be sent out to attack.

But the plane isn't close enough yet.

"Is it even moving?" Mimic wonders, tapping clawed fingertips on her crossed arms. She rolls her shoulders, stretches her wings, and purses her lips - not that anyone can see that last one, because her beak-like mouthguard covers the parts of her face that her feathered hood doesn't, aside from the dark eye-holes.

"Calm down, Mimic." The amused voice of her dad comes from the audio transmission between her and the control tower. Dr. Yuichiro Hikari, the inventor of the Cross Fusion that Mimic is currently using. Among other things.

"Not everything can be as fast as us," her twin brother adds.

They have a connection between their souls that allows them to read each other's minds - they can sense each other's emotions and thoughts, see each other's memories, even speak to each other mentally. But they're too far apart at the moment for that last one, so they have to speak out loud.

"Is anything as fast as us?" ProtoMan, Chaud's primary NetNavi and Mimic's secondary NetNavi, wonders.

"We have yet to find anything that can match your speed or Arcadia's," Dad replies. "So, no - as far as we know, at least."

"That's awesome!" ProtoMan gushes happily.

Mimic is distracted from the audio transmission for a moment as the Empath Program - a kind of psychic ability that allows its user to sense the emotions and thoughts of those around them - lets her sense a familiar mind coming toward her. Her enhanced hearing picks up his footsteps almost at the same time, along with the footsteps and whatever-they-have-steps of the various viruses following him.

Bass - an independent NetNavi who wears a cloak all the time - cuts some bushes out of the way with a Dark Arm Blade and steps through the remains. He looks around for a moment, then spots her up on the rock. After sharply gesturing for his team of assorted viruses to spread out and mingle with Mimic's, he jumps up onto the rock next to her and turns to face the ocean as well, squinting.

"Are they here yet?" Bass asks.

"They're coming," Arcadia - Mimic's primary NetNavi and Chaud's secondary NetNavi - replies, before Mimic can. "We can see the plane in the distance."

It's Arcadia's Cross Fusion that gives Mimic access to the Empath Program. If she were using ProtoMan's Cross Fusion, she'd have access to the Poltergeist Program instead, but Chaud and ProtoMan are still on temporary leave, so they're not taking part in this test. Well, not actively, anyway - Chaud is providing the viruses for Mimic and Bass to command, and ProtoMan is . . . cheering them on. It's surprisingly motivating, honestly.

"It's been three minutes since the damn barrier went up," Bass mutters. "How long can it take one fucking plane to get its steel-plated ass over to a bigass island like this?"

"It's not really that big," Mimic says, waving her hand dismissively. "I've seen bigger."

"Mimic, countries don't count as islands," Arcadia informs her.

"The fuck they don't!" Mimic exclaims, throwing her arms up. "They're big floatin' things of land in the middle of the goddamn ocean, of course they're islands!"

"Aren't they con- continents?" Bass asks, verbally tripping over the slightly-unfamiliar word.

"Continents are just really big islands," Mimic replies, dropping her hands onto her head.

"No they're not," Arcadia immediately says. "Bass, don't listen to her, she's terrible at Geography."

"You're terrible at Geography," Mimic counters. Before her Navi can retort - not that he wants to, because she can feel his exasperation through their shared mind thanks to Cross Fusion - she notices that the small shape of the plane in the distance has finally gotten larger. "Oh, here we go, looks like they're finally here. You ready to kick some ass?"

"Hell yeah," Bass confirms.

They share a fist bump - and damn it had taken a while to explain that concept to Bass, but he's taken to it like a fish to water, or whatever the fuck the phrase is - before he hops off the rock, calling for his virus team to follow him as he dashes off.

Mimic stays where she is. Unlike Bass, whose position is stationary and set up as an ambush, she's free to fly wherever she chooses, and take her virus team with her. The flying viruses won't have much trouble keeping up with her - they can follow her through the sky, though they can't match her speed - but the ground-bound viruses can't do that, so their job is to simply spread out and attack anyone not on her team or Bass's. But she's not gonna be doing anything at the moment, not until their opponents arrive, anyway.

They're on the edge of the Empath Program's range now. She can just barely sense their minds - two shared minds, using Cross Fusion like her - and is able to pick up two faint traces of excitement sparking like lightning in the distance. One is more subdued than the other, but the excitement is still there.

And why not? This is the final test for the Jet Vernier program. The final test to see whether or not it can actually be used during Cross Fusion battles.

So far, the program has held up pretty well. It gives its users the ability to fly and boosts their speed in the air as well - it can't match Arcadia or ProtoMan's speed, of course, but for NetNavis (or Cross Fusion NetNavis, whatever) who never had the ability to fly like Arcadia or the kind of agility that a cat-Navi like ProtoMan has, it's definitely fast. It makes them fast.

And the fact that this is the final test means they can go all-out. Up until now, previous tests were just conducted with either Mimic or Bass acting as the enemy team - so they're gonna have a lot more fun now.


MegaMan does a quick check of all systems, and once he's confirmed that everything is fine, Lan glances at Raika. They exchange a nod as the ramp starts to lower, then get ready to jump.

"Remember the plan?" Raika asks.

Lan nods. "Focus on the leaders, don't waste battle chips on the viruses."

"Lan and I are stronger, so we'll be taking on Bass," MegaMan continues.

"And Raika and I will take on Mimic, since our tracking abilities should be able to keep up with her," SearchMan adds.

"But we don't know what their plan is, so if we find only one of them first, stay on them until we find the other," Raika finishes, nodding. "Good. Let's go!"

They start forward at the same time. Lan's already learnt his lesson with the bumps on the ramp - keep his feet off them, because they roll for whatever reason, and he won't slip and almost fall into the ocean. He's pretty sure Chaud's keeping a tally of how many times he's slipped and nearly fell, but this is the last test, so he's hoping to come out of this without dunking his head in the ocean by accident.

He makes it to the edge of the ramp with no issues, Raika running beside him. They throw themselves out of the plane without so much as a glance at each other. They don't really need to.

"Jet Vernier!" they shout in unison.

For Lan, Jet Vernier adds thrusters to his backpack, turning into a jetpack. For Raika, the thrusters simply come out of the vents on the back of his chest armour. Despite the difference in application, they're both pretty good at manoeuvring around in the air - not as good as Mimic or Chaud, of course, but good enough that they can manage. It's certainly been enough for all the other tests they've done with this.

Except all the other tests were against Mimic or Bass, not both of them. Bass's strategies for these tests have largely been consistent, but overwhelming to the point where it's difficult for Lan and Raika to combat him. Mimic's strategies are completely random, which makes her just as difficult to take on, if not more so. Facing one of them has been challenging enough, and facing both of them at the same time will be doubly so.

As he and Raika shoot through the air toward the island, Lan finds himself grinning.

He loves a good challenge.

"Incoming!" Raika warns him.

Lan blinks and looks ahead, squinting a little. Sometimes he wishes he had the enhanced eyesight that Mimic and Chaud have, but he doesn't need enhanced eyesight to see the small army of viruses flying toward them from the island.

Batty viruses, Killer Eyes, a few Larks and Fishys . . . The only flying virus there aren't any of are Fighter Planes, and that's only because the noise is absolute hell on Mimic, Chaud, and ProtoMan's sensitive hearing. Arcadia's too, to some extent, though his hearing isn't as a sensitive as his operators' and brother's.

Awesome news for the 'good guy' team, though, because Fighter Plane viruses are really not fun to fight, even on the ground. He'd hate to try and deal with them in the air. They just fly all over the place, and the only time they stop is when they're shooting at you.

No battle chips for the viruses, MegaMan reminds him.

Gotcha, Lan replies, lifting his arm and activating the Mega Buster.

Raika's version of SearchMan's Scope Gun - a two-handed version that can be dropped in favour of another weapon if needed, unlike SearchMan's arm-mounted version - materialises in his hands, and they both take aim and start shooting.

No point in trying to aim since the flying viruses are everywhere, and no matter where they shoot, they're gonna hit something. Lan focuses on trying to take down as many of the Fishy viruses as he can since those things can just ram them and knock them out of the air, while Raika seems to be focusing on the Killer Eyes - which is smart, because those things track you with their eye, and their beam hurts. Especially if you're flying right into it.

"Enemy Navi detected!" SearchMan suddenly shouts.

Lan fumbles his next shot, ends up deleting a couple of Batty viruses instead of the group of Fishys he was trying to aim for. He looks around quickly, searching through the crowd of flying viruses, and just manages to catch a glimpse of something white zipping through it.

It comes at him too fast for him to react, and he feels sharp talons digging into his leg. He yelps as the world spins around him, and is flung directly into the crowd of viruses.

The only thing that saves him is Raika blasting in from the side and dragging him away. Raika lets go and takes aim with his Scope Gun, but the white thing is far too fast for him to keep in his sights.

"Dammit," Raika mutters. He and Lan go back-to-back in mid-air, mindful of their thrusters overheating this close to each other. "SearchMan, activate the tracking program."

"Roger," SearchMan quickly confirms.

Lan keeps shooting the viruses as much as possible. Their numbers are thinning and don't seem to be getting replenished, so hopefully that means there aren't any backups waiting in reserve. Oh, there'll be a ton of viruses on the island - not to mention their other opponent - but here, for now, they're . . . kind of okay.

The white thing rockets past and nearly makes Lan and Raika lose control of their Jet Verniers with the resulting wind pressure. Thanks to a ton of practise, they manage to stabilise themselves, only for the white thing to shoot past and unbalance them a second time.

"I've got her!" SearchMan reports. "She's circling around again!"

"Get ready," Raika tells Lan. He turns his attention back to his Navi. "Where's she coming from?"

"Above!"

Lan plants the soles of his boots against Raika's, and they push off each other just in time to avoid getting ploughed by the white thing. Even so, the wind pressure from the sheer speed of it still almost knocks them down.

"Mimic's really going all out this time, huh?" MegaMan muses, as Lan gets back to shooting viruses.

"I think - take that you vampire-wannabe! - I think we all are," Lan replies.

Mimic doesn't try and knock them down again, and Lan doesn't catch any more glimpses of her through the rapidly-thinning crowd of flying viruses. He hopes that means she went back to the island, but she could just as easily be hiding somewhere out here, waiting to ambush them the absolute second they let their guards down. To be fair, even if she did head back to the island, that's no cause for relief - because she'll definitely have even more viruses to throw at them, not to mention her own skills and power.

She probably just came out here because she got bored, MegaMan says.

That sounds like her, Lan agrees, grinning at the only predictable aspect of his adopted sister's battle strategies.

It's kinda ironic, really. She's stupidly good at stealth and thief-type stuff, just like Chaud, but she's also extremely impatient. Lan has a very vivid memory of one Jet Vernier test when she was charging up an attack that took more than five seconds, declared that she was bored, and promptly fired it before it had finished charging. She still nearly obliterated half the beach on the island in the process, though. He shudders to think what would've happened if she hadn't gotten impatient.

"Alright, they've all been deleted, let's go!" Raika exclaims. "Keep an eye out for any further ambushes!"

"Got it!" Lan agrees.

They boost the power of Jet Vernier for a moment to propel themselves forward, and keep going toward the island. No more viruses attempt to attack them, so they land without too much trouble, and stand on the edge of a thick forest. The ocean waves crash against the cliff behind them.

It's the perfect place for someone to set up another ambush, but they aren't being attacked. Even so, they're still on-guard, because it's happened before and just because it's not happening right now doesn't mean it won't happen in the next five seconds.

"I can't detect any viruses in the immediate vicinity," SearchMan reports. His scanners can go a lot further than just 'the immediate vicinity', but for the sake of fairness, they're limiting it to just that while they're on the ground. In the air is fair game, though.

"NetNavis?" Raika asks.

"No NetNavis, either."

"Where do you think they are?" Lan wonders, stepping closer to Raika and squinting suspiciously at a bush nearby. "I mean, Mimic could be literally anywhere, she's fast enough to go from one end of the island to the other in, like, seconds. But Bass . . . isn't."

"He's more likely to find a spot and wait for us to wander past so he can surprise us," Raika says. "That's what he's done before."

"Just because he's done it before doesn't mean he'll do it this time," MegaMan points out. "They could've worked something about between them-"

"Mimic!" SearchMan suddenly snaps.

Lan jerks into an attack position, going back-to-back with Raika again. After a few tense moments, nothing happens.

" . . . Are you sure that-" Raika begins.

Something flashes past through the trees. Leaves rustle almost violently, some of them tearing straight off and being flung into the air before fluttering to the ground. Another flash of movement, this time on Raika's side, and even more leaves being thrown up into the air.

There's hardly any sound aside from the leaves rustling violently. Mimic is fast in the air, but she's also silent, too - Arcadia, as a owl-Navi, is what's known as a silent flier. That combined with his speed makes him a deadly opponent, and as far as Lan knows, the only Navi who's able to match that speed and even surpass it is ProtoMan, who's even more unpredictable than Mimic herself. Which is, frankly, impressive.

Have we ever had a NetBattle with Arcadia before? Lan wonders.

Not that I know of, MegaMan says. Shouldn't you be focusing on trying not to get attacked right now, though?

Yeah, I know, I was just wondering.

He turns his attention back to the trees in time to catch another glimpse of movement, and then suddenly a shower of leaves comes down out of nowhere. Lan yelps - he hears Raika muttering a curse, too - and covers his face with his arms reflexively.

He feels a blast of heat a split second before something explodes in front of him, sending him and Raika flying. Lan gets flung further away than Raika, since he was closer to the blast, and ends up rolling off the edge of the cliff.

"Jet Vernier!" MegaMan yelps. "Use Jet Vernier!"

Lan activates it and stops himself from falling halfway down the cliff. He breathes a sigh of relief which quickly turns into a cry of shock when a pile of rocks on a ledge suddenly move, revealing it to be a Cragger virus, and throws himself to the side to avoid the attack.

A purple blast of energy shoots the Cragger from above. Lan glances up quickly to see Raika leaning over the edge, aiming down at the virus, and then MegaMan sends him a sharp mental warning and he dodges another attack from the rocky virus.

Raika responds by shooting the Cragger again, but its defence is ridiculously-high for a virus.

Craggers take half-damage! MegaMan reminds him. We learnt this in virus-busting class, remember?

Did we? Lan dodges another attack, and Raika shoots again, though it still does very little damage. I don't remember ever learning about a pile of living rocks! I think I'd remember something like that!

You were asleep, MegaMan says.

Lan blinks. Oh, that explains it.

I don't think it was entirely your fault, though, his Navi and best friend goes on. We got called out to deal with an actual virus attack the night before, so you didn't get that much sleep.

At least he wasn't just sleeping for no reason. MegaMan always nags him when he does that, though he doesn't think he's done it recently. Or . . . actually, no, he hasn't really done that since Mimic first started living with them, way before she or Chaud were even adopted in the first place.

Huh. Okay then. Go him!

Lan decides to celebrate by attempting to add in his own attacks, since it doesn't seem like Raika's gonna be getting anywhere trying to shoot the virus on his own. Using a Charged Shot seems like the best bet for actually damaging the Cragger, but there's no way Lan can shoot a massive blast of a Charged Shot without also hitting the cliff.

So he takes aim, intending to just use normal Mega Buster shots, and-

He sees Mimic half a second before she slams into him and sends him flying. Luckily, she didn't come from above, just the side, so he only ends up being rammed sideways a few metres until he manages to use the Jet Vernier thrusters to stop himself.

Okay, looks like Raika will have to deal with the Cragger on his own for now. Good news is he's too far above it for the virus to try and hit him, and Mimic's attack has actually done Lan a favour in pushing him away from it, too.

But the bad news is, the Cragger is just rumbling down to a pile of stationary rocks again. Absolutely nothing that Raika shoots at it will do any damage in this form, so he gives up and starts trying to track Mimic, but he doesn't seem to be having any luck.

For several moments, Lan simply hovers in place, keeping his back to the cliff wall and his eyes peeled for any signs of his adopted sister. But after a while, it becomes clear that she's gone again - Lan can't see any flashes of movement, can't feel any heat from her Holy Fire, and she's not trying to ram him again. Yep, she's definitely gone.

So he heads back up the top of the cliff. He lands as Raika gets to his feet, and they exchange a silent nod before running into the forest.

Mimic is able to fly through this forest, but her manoeuvrability is limited in tight spaces like this. She can still attack them, can still follow them, but she's unable to harass them like she can in the open air. Unfortunately, Mimic's limited manoeuvrability can be negated by Bass, who they still don't have a location on, and could easily be waiting for them deeper in this forest.

They seem to get lucky, though. The only rustling the leaves and shrubbery does is from their own movement, and nothing jumps out and tries to attack them. They don't lower their guards, though, because this just means Bass is probably waiting for them somewhere ahead, just outside the forest, maybe in the rocky valley paths.

The valley paths, which are also out in the open. Which means both Bass and Mimic have equal opportunities to ambush and attack them at random.

Because of that, Lan and Raika pause at the edge of the forest, hesitating to go into the open-air valley. They can't see any signs of viruses or their opponents, but that doesn't mean they're not there. Bass has hung around ProtoMan and Arcadia - and their twin operators - so much lately that he's started picking up some of their stealth skills, and that's bad news when you add in the sheer raw power that Bass has access to. He's nowhere near as good at stealth as the twins and their Navis, but he's good enough to set up a decent ambush.

Lan suddenly hears the sound of leaves rustling violently behind them.

"Look out!" SearchMan cries sharply, but he's too late.

Something slams into them from behind and rams them out of the forest. They hit the rocky ground hard and skid to a stop several metres away from the edge of the forest, then quickly get to their feet, whirl around, and raise their weapons.

There's no one there, though. The only trace their attacker left behind is a small scattering of leaves only just now fluttering to the ground.

Lan exchanges a glance with Raika. Well, it looks like they have no choice but to go on, now. If they try and go back into the forest, they risk just getting rammed back out again. Or Mimic could get bored and set the entire thing on fire.

Which Dad has told her not to do, because even if SciLab bought this island - with some financial assistance from IPC, of course - they don't want it destroyed or burnt to ashes. But Mimic is notorious for doing the exact opposite of what she's told to do, so she might just burn everything anyway.

Who decided it was a good idea to give an impatient pyromaniac the ability to Cross Fuse with a NetNavi whose basic attack is literally just fire, fire, and even more fire? MegaMan mutters.

That'd be Dad, Lan replies. Just be glad she's not Cross Fused with someone like NapalmMan.

He feels MegaMan's jolt of horror, and believes his point to be made.

But Mimic is still pretty destructive even without a ridiculous amount of fire to throw around. ProtoMan's own abilities are destruction incarnate, and ProtoMan himself is pretty lacking in self-control when it comes to battling. Put that together with Mimic's impulsive recklessness, and you've got a pretty good recipe for insanity right there. Lan is really, really glad that Mimic is using Arcadia's Cross Fusion right now. Even if she has access to fire.

Lan and Raika turn away from the forest and begin carefully making their way through the valley path. Just over the rise, they can see the control tower of the island - right in the centre. They've used that as an 'enemy base' more than once, but this time, the test is just about finding and defeating their Navi opponents.

"Virus!" SearchMan warns them.

The shadowy form of a Nightmare virus shoots out a crack in the cliff wall. The one problem with their 'no battle chips against viruses' plan is this - Nightmare viruses can only be damaged by sword-type chips, and neither of their basic attacks are Swords of any kind.

ProtoMan has Proto Sword, and his claws. Arcadia also has his own claws, and can create Bound Swords out of his Holy Fire. Bass has his Dark Arm Blades, which he can dual-wield. But Lan and Raika only have the Mega Buster and Scope Gun respectively, and while they can use those weapons to bludgeon opponents if necessary, they are in no way good substitutes for Swords.

"Moon Blade!" Raika announces, dropping his Scope Gun to get into position.

Lan quickly drops down and covers his head, and the Moon Blade flashes out in a circle. The Nightmare is cut in half and it disintegrates into pixels, thoroughly deleted, and Raika banishes the Moon Blade and picks his Scope Gun back up again.

They get attacked by no less than four more Nightmares as they continue. Lan takes out three of them himself, since he'd loaded up more sword-type chips than Raika, and almost gets blindsided by the last one before Raika uses a Step Sword to get between them and delete it.

"Okay, I think it's safe to say that they know we planned on just using basic weapons for the viruses," Raika declares.

"Arcadia's the only NetNavi I know who has the Empath Program, and I really hope it stays that way," Lan says fervently. He also hopes that Arcadia never decides to attack them for real, because he'd be impossible to surprise and that's never good a thing in an enemy.

More Nightmares attack them, and Raika runs out of sword-type chips very quickly. Lan still has a couple left, one of them a Wide Blade which he keeps, even though the durability is starting to wear down quickly. It's literally all he can do.

Luckily, it seems that the Nightmares are all gone now. Either Mimic and Bass ran out of them, or the other ones are hiding elsewhere. Lan has to wonder whose ambush that was - using the Nightmares is definitely something Mimic would do, but if she and Bass are collaborating properly, the Nightmares could've easily been set up by Bass, instead. Or both of them.

"I can detect a large number of viruses up ahead," SearchMan informs them, voice tense as they come up to a bend in the path. "Along with a NetNavi."

"Mimic or Bass?" Raika asks, expression just as tense as his Navi's tone.

"Bass."

Oh, great. Not only do they have to deal with Mimic's random attacks, they also now have to deal with Bass at the exact same time.

Sure, that was technically the plan, but Lan had been hoping they'd only need to take on one of them at a time. It's hard enough to beat just one - Mimic is almost too fast to hit and has no problems with fighting dirty, and Bass's sheer power makes him a very difficult opponent to match in direct combat.

Lan almost wants to hope that they'll be able to deal with Bass before Mimic decides to show up again, but he knows that's unlikely. Nothing to do but do it, he supposes.

He glances at Raika, and they exchange a quick nod. They keep going around the bend, and find themselves in a wider path, cliffs steep on either side. There's no signs of any viruses or Bass, though - but that doesn't mean they're not there. The wider path just makes it easier to hide.

There's a few piles of rocks scattered here and there. Lan gives them suspicious glances as he and Raika cautiously move into the wider path, ready in case any of them turn out to be Craggers in disguise, and is thus taken by surprise when his foot slips suddenly.

He nearly falls on his backside, but is once again saved by Raika, who drags him back. The ground in front of them is sand, though the rocky ground is close enough to the same colour that they didn't notice until they were almost on top of it.

"Sand," Raika murmurs, peering at it with narrow eyes. "Why would there be sand here?"

"Snake Arms use sand to attack," MegaMan offers.

They pause at that, and exchange wide-eyed glances.

The sand erupts in front of them before they can do anything, and four sandy Snake Arms spring out at them. Lan panics and fires off a few rapid Mega Buster blasts, shredding one of them to pieces, though Raika manages to keep his wits about him and shoots down two of them with more well-aimed shots.

The last Snake Arm evidently decides it doesn't want to be deleted right now and vanishes back into the sand pit. No time to relax, though, because Lan hears a low humming sound rapidly approaching - and realises it's the sound of buzzing a moment before a small team of Honey Bombers shoot over the edge of the cliffs and come flying at them.

Lan and Raika split up, throwing themselves to the side, and the Honey Bombers pass between them harmlessly. They come up around near the bend and head back for them, and Lan takes aim, charges up, and blasts out a Charged Shot at the viruses.

He gets most of them, but a few manage to just about avoid the worst of the blast and only get clipped. Bad luck for Lan, though, because Honey Bombers have a habit of unleashing violent retaliations on anything that attacks them - which is why he tried to delete the things in one hit.

Tiny digital bees zoom out of the Honey Bomber's hives, and Lan yelps and automatically scrambles backwards.

"Wait!" Raika yelps, reaching out.

Lan stumbles on the sand, and the remaining Snake Arm shoots up and constricts him. The bees switch targets and head for Raika, who rolls out of the way and takes aim at the Honey Bombers.

"Zero Charge Shot!" Raika snaps, firing as soon as he's able to.

Raika's blast is more concentrated than Lan's, and he deletes the remaining Honey Bombers. The digital bees vanish along with them.

"Hold still!" Raika says, whirling around and aiming at the Snake Arm.

Lan is finding it very difficult to do anything other than gasp for air at the moment. He looks up into the sky - by sheer chance, really - and his eyes widen.

"Rai-k-ka!" Lan chokes out.

Raika pauses, looking confused, and then Mimic dive-bombs him from above and slams him into the ground with her taloned feet. His Scope Gun clatters away and ends up in the sand pit, and gradually sinks out of sight while he tries to struggle up.

Mimic doesn't let him up, though. She keeps her talons firmly planted on Raika's back, digs her clawed fingertips into the ground on either side, and that stops him from doing anything more than struggle. Mimic doesn't really weigh that much - she's pretty skinny, as is Chaud, and if you can get a good grip on her, it's easy to throw her off. But she had the advantage of surprise, and it looks like Raika was jarred by the attack.

Lan grunts and tries to charge up the Mega Buster, but the Snake Arm twists and he lets out a breathless cry. He loses the charge along with his concentration.

"Area Steal," Raika gasps. "Flash Bomb!"

He vanishes from underneath Mimic, appearing a few feet away in the same position. He manages to scramble to his feet before Mimic can spread her wings, and the Flash Bomb materialises in his hand.

Raika throws it just as Mimic rams him, slamming him into the cliff wall. The Flash Bomb hits the lower half of the Snake Arm, just near the base where it's coming out of the sand, and it explodes.

The Snake Arm freezes, stunned, and Lan uses that as an opportunity to quickly charge up his Mega Buster and fire. He manages to shoot the Snake Arm's sandy body in half and scrambles away from the sand pit, whirling around and taking aim, but he doesn't need to worry about the Snake Arm anymore - it's disintegrating into pixels even as he watches.

"Shooting Star!"

He does need to worry about that, though.

Mimic abruptly detaches herself from Raika and shoots out of the way, leaving them to try and dodge the yellow energy raining down from above. As far as Lan knows, Bass can use Shooting Star in two ways - a huge energy blast similar to Darkness Overload (but brighter), and this, which is more fitting of the name. Maybe they should just be thankful he isn't using his Air Buster, because that's even more difficult to dodge, and rapid-fire blasts of air hurt.

The barrage is soon over. It's nothing to be thankful for, though, because Bass himself jumps down from above a moment later, dark energy already crackling on his palms. Mimic shoots down from the sky, stopping just shy of touching the ground, and hovers beside Bass.

"No more viruses?" Raika calls. "Did you run out already?"

"We've got plenty of the fucking things," Bass retorts, with a nasty grin. "But we just wanna kick your asses."

"Let's fuckin' go!" Mimic roars happily, beating her wings and launching herself forward.

"Remember the plan!" Raika says to Lan, rushing forward to meet her.

"Fuck your plan!" Mimic laughs. She twists in mid-air and grabs Raika's forearm in her talons, twists again, and slams him into the ground.

Lan's instincts tell him to help Raika, but he ignores them for now and focuses on Bass.

Who's rushing at him with two Dark Arm Blades crackling in his hands.

Lan utters a startled squeak and dives out of the way, rolling with his momentum and coming up near the edge of the sand pit. He's not sure if there're any more Snake Arms hiding in there - even if Mimic and Bass apparently want to fight head-to-head now, that doesn't mean they're not gonna use viruses when they can.

So he throws himself away from the sand pit, downloads his final sword-type chip - a Variable Sword - and spins on his heel to meet Bass head-on.

He just manages to catch Bass's dual-bladed swing with the thicker Variable Sword. They struggle together for a few moments before they both abruptly remember that their legs are still free - Lan moves quicker and kicks out before Bass can, unbalancing the independent Navi enough to allow him to shove with his Variable Sword and force his opponent to back off a few paces.

Lan brings up his Variable Sword and slashes it down, sending a blast of energy at his opponent. Bass side-steps it, banishes his Dark Arm Blades, and switches to his Air Buster.

As soon as he takes aim, Lan dashes out of the way. He hears explosions of air blasting the rocky ground apart behind him, following him as he runs.

He skids and abruptly turns, and Bass's Air Buster attack keeps going and rakes up the cliff wall Lan had almost smacked right into. Bits of rocky debris come raining down, but Lan ignores them - they're nothing in comparison to the idea of being blasted by hardened shots of air from Bass.

He's got a good view of the battle between Mimic and Raika, now. They're fighting each other hand-to-hand - Mimic is wild and doesn't stop moving even for a second, and the only reason Raika is able to stay on his feet is because he's entirely focused on defending himself rather than trying to counter anything Mimic does. She isn't letting him counter anything she does.

She lashes out with her claws, and Raika jerks backwards to avoid it, quickly bringing up an arm to block the second swipe she tries to aim at him. Then she abruptly spins, ramming her folded wing into his gut, and kicks out at her winded opponent as she completes the turn.

Raika stumbles back, desperately trying to get some air back into his lungs, and Lan sees him taking in a deeper breath to speak - he's gonna try and download a battle chip. But he doesn't get any further with that than he did with actually attacking Mimic, because she shoots forward, grabs his arm, sweeps his feet out from under him, and hurls him into the air, twisting around.

"Begone-"

Mimic slams Raika into the ground.

"-thot!" she finishes.

Lan blinks and wonders what the heck that even means, and also what a 'thot' is. Then he abruptly has something else to worry about, because a blast of Darkness Overload nearly shoots him in the face, and he just barely manages to dodge.

"Eyes on your own fight, you fucking idiot!" Bass snaps, rushing at him.

Lan forces his attention away from Mimic and Raika's fight, bringing up his Variable Sword again.


"They seem to be doing well," Dad comments, watching the main monitor.

Chaud gives him an incredulous look. "They're getting their asses kicked."

"I was talking about Mimic and Bass."

Chaud blinks. "Oh."

Dad is right, though. Mimic and Bass really are doing well - which isn't much of a surprise, really. Mimic's mildly-sadistic tendencies mesh pretty well with Bass's 'kill everything in sight' battle style - in other words, they're as destructive as each other, and as long as they get to break stuff, or at least beat up other people, they're happy.

Lan and Raika, on the other hand, aren't so happy.

Chaud winces in sympathy as his twin sister physically drags Raika across the ground and hurls him into the sand pit. He flails for a moment, panicking, and then the sand explodes around him as he activates Jet Vernier and rockets into the air clumsily. Mimic follows him and they continue their battle in the air, which is a very bad idea on Raika's part since Mimic can fight in the air just as well as she can on the ground.

"You're gonna regret teachin' me hand-to-hand combat!" Mimic taunts.

"I already am!" Raika yelps.

Chaud lets out a faint snort of laughter at that exchange, and looks back to the ground to see how Lan is faring against Bass.

He . . . isn't, to be honest. Bass is using his Air Buster again, and his gleeful cackles are audible even over the constant blasting as Lan frantically weaves back and forth trying to dodge.

"Kick his ass, kick his ass, kick his ass," ProtoMan chants eagerly.

Chaud gives his Navi an amused look. "Aren't you supposed to be a guardian-Navi?"

ProtoMan blinks at him - he's removed his helmet again, so his odd-coloured cat eyes are perfectly visible under his messy white hair. Dark Shadow, ProtoMan's shadow-double, keeps its attention fixed on the main monitor and seems to be silently cheering Bass on as well, judging by how it's practically dancing on the console beside ProtoMan.

"No need to guard my family against my family," ProtoMan points out. He grins, showing off his needle-sharp teeth. "Besides, I get to watch Bass kicking ass, and that's fucking epic-"

"ProtoMan," Dad interrupts.

"Sorry."

"No you're not."

"No, I'm not," ProtoMan agrees.

Dad sighs, though he looks fondly exasperated rather than annoyed. He gently ruffles Chaud's hair and looks back at the monitor, wincing when Lan takes a direct hit to the face and gets blown into a pile of rocks nearby.

"I'm very glad that Cross Fusion more or less negates the worst of any damage you kids take while fighting," Dad mutters.

"Keeps down on the medical bills, at least," Famous jokes from a console nearby.

"That, and I'd rather not have my kids in the hospital every other week," Dad says.

"Also true."

Dad sighs again, shaking his head. Chaud looks at him for a moment before turning his attention back to the main monitor, fiddling with the Battle Chip Gate in his hands.

He'd given Mimic and Bass their virus teams, and now his job is to just watch the rest of the battle. He's not allowed to interfere by sending either of them actual battle chips - that'd be cheating, and aside from that, they're already beating Lan and Raika even without using battle chips.

He's not quite idle, but he's also not really doing anything at the moment. Watching the battle and commenting on it is just about the only thing he can do right now.

"Chaud?" Dad reaches out carefully and puts a hand on his shoulder.

Chaud . . . doesn't flinch. He twitches a little, sure, but he doesn't flinch.

"I'm fine," he says, and he can tell Dad isn't convinced even though he's almost as good at lying as Mimic is. Maybe Dad just knows him too well, or he's no longer good enough at lying about this kind of stuff. "I'm just . . . I . . . I feel better when I'm doing things."

He would never have been able to admit something like that before. He and Mimic have the same therapist - Mizuki Moto. She's helped both of them realise a few things, sort out the dark messes inside their heads, and it's thanks to her that Chaud is able to properly vocalise this kind of stuff.

Dad's expression softens, and he pulls Chaud into a one-armed hug. "I know," he murmurs. "Tell you what - when we get back to DenTech, you can help me sort out the data from this last test. How's that sound?"

Chaud manages a small smile. Up until very recently, he couldn't even manage that - he's not one-hundred percent, and he doubts he ever will be, but . . . he's getting better. He thinks he's getting better, anyway. It helps to have his family around.

"Okay, Doctor-" He stops. "-Dad."

"Doctor Dad?" Famous looks up from his console with a raised eyebrow. There's a faint smirk on his face, too.

Chaud turns and hides his burning face in Dad's coat, and doesn't feel any better when Dad chuckles. What does make him feel a bit better is Dad giving him a light squeeze, which tells Chaud that he's not laughing to be mean.

"I quite like it," Dad jokes. "Dr. Dad. I am a doctor, after all, and I'm also a dad. Very descriptive."

"I'm getting a plaque with that name written on it, and I'm nailing it to your office door," Famous informs him.

"Sure, go ahead."

"I will!" Famous threatens.

Dad doesn't seem at all bothered. "You do that."

Famous heaves a sigh, shakes his head, and goes back to work while muttering about how ridiculous it is that Dad is apparently immune to teasing. Chaud thinks maybe Dad's just immune to that kind of thing because he's got three insane kids (plus four NetNavis) who practically thrive on insanity. And then you add in Raika and SearchMan, who're . . . well, they're not as bad as Chaud, Mimic, Lan, or any of the other Navis, but they're their own brand of weird.

Honestly, it's a wonder Mom and Dad don't have grey hairs from dealing with all of them constantly.

The battle on the main monitor is drawing to a close, now. Mimic has already bested Raika - he's superior to her in hand-to-hand combat, but she kept the battle in the air, where she had every advantage - and Lan's ass has been handed to him by Bass, who kept hurling rapid-fire attacks until poor Lan decided he'd had enough and surrendered.

Mimic and Bass are now 'capturing' Lan and Raika. That basically just means they're dragging their defeated opponents to the control tower - the test won't be truly over until they set foot inside the tower, and technically Lan and Raika could mount a surprise attack while they're down, but it doesn't look like either of them are particularly keen on that idea.

It's a good thing this final test didn't have any requirements other than 'use Jet Vernier to the best of your ability' for Lan and Raika. If they'd had to win the battle on top of that, they'd have failed epically.

As soon as Mimic and Bass are inside the control tower, the test is over, and Famous declares them the winners. Technically it wasn't meant to be a competition, but when most of the participants are competitive and love games, it kinda turns into one anyway.

The dimensional area surrounding the island - along with a good chunk of the ocean around it - is deactivated. Chaud's powerful hearing picks up the sound of three people Crossing Out, along with a NetNavi vanishing back into the cyberworld, and then he hears faint footsteps as Mimic, Lan, and Raika make their way up the stairs and head to the control room.

They're talking, too. Or Mimic and Raika are talking, at least. Lan's too busy being in pain from Bass's assault - Chaud can hear the stuttering of his breathing as easily as if he were standing right next to him, and Lan's uneven footsteps speak of a faint limp, too. He doesn't seem to be in too much pain, otherwise he'd be complaining, so it's nothing that a bit of rest shouldn't fix, and Chaud isn't too worried about him.

"I didn't want to hurt Chaud, too," Raika is saying, as the trio comes into the control room. "I was holding back on purpose. I could've beaten you easily."

Chaud and Mimic's connection is a thing that links their souls - along with allowing them to read each other's minds, it also lets them share sensations. The most common sensation they share is pain, so if Mimic had gotten injured during the test, Chaud would've felt it too. So Raika's claim is justified. Except . . .

"You know I can tell you're lyin', right?" Mimic gives Raika a deadpan look.

"How?" Raika demands.

"Because I lie professionally, that's how."

Raika pauses, blinking, and SearchMan's Navi-hologram appears on his shoulder with a look that's very similar to Mimic's.

"She has a point," SearchMan says.

Raika sighs heavily, burying his face in his hands.

"You wanna know who wasn't holding back?" Lan doesn't wait for anyone to respond before continuing. "Bass. Seriously, I don't think he even knows how to hold back."

"Did you want me to?" Bass snorts, appearing on Mimic's shoulder beside Arcadia. "I consider holding back during battle a fucking insult at best."

"You could've at least tried not to aim for our face, though," MegaMan replies, as his Navi-hologram appears on Lan's shoulder. He's holding the heart container - a cylindrical glass container that keeps the core of Dark MegaMan, his half-Darkloid counterpart, safe inside. The core pulses, flashing a bright purple colour, as if agreeing with him.

"That would've been holding back," Bass argues.

"Alright, that's enough," Dad laughs, stepping forward to quell the argument before it can start. "Well done, all of you. Yes, Lan, even you and Raika."

Lan, whose expression had turned into disbelief when Dad praised them, blinks. "But we lost."

"Yes, but winning wasn't the point of this final test," Dad reminds him. "You and Raika were able to properly utilise Jet Vernier during combat. The only reason you lost is because one of your opponents has more experience in the air, and the other has overwhelming power." Bass closes his eyes smugly as he puts his hands on his hips. "If you and Raika were pitted against each other, I wouldn't be able to guess what the outcome would be. In any case, this level of skill is exactly what we were hoping for when we designed the Jet Vernier program, so I'd say these tests have been a resounding success."

"Not that we've been able to use Jet Vernier outside of them," Lan grumbles, linking his hands behind his head. "The only time we use Cross Fusion now is during these tests."

"Are you saying you want an incident that requires the use of Cross Fusion?" Raika asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I mean, no, but . . ." Lan puffs out his cheeks and blows out a noisy sigh. "It'd make things more interesting, I guess."

"There's enough to deal with in the cyberworld without it overflowing into the real world," Raika scolds him.

"Are you talking about the rise in temperature?" SearchMan asks.

Raika nods, but Chaud is suddenly distracted by a sharp sense of interest from Mimic. He glances at her, and finds that she's staring at Raika with wide eyes.

What is it? Chaud asks her.

Mimic glances at him. That's from the anime, she replies.

The anime. The thing that gives Mimic her knowledge of the future, and has helped them to deal with multiple incidents over the past year or so.

Mimic isn't actually from this reality. She's from Beyondard - or a Beyondard, at least - and somehow ended up here, accidentally stealing Chaud's body in the process, and not even she knows how or why. What she does know is the future, or what should happen in the future, thanks to the fact that this world is an anime in her old reality, one that she watched enough to be able to remember quite a lot of detail.

There were some times when she just couldn't remember things from it. She even had some kind of fit during a mental breakdown because of that, and that's not really something any of them like to remember. But what she can remember has so far been accurate (barring changes that none of them can control, of course), so her information is invaluable.

So we've started Beast, then? Chaud asks. Beast is what Mimic called the latest series of the anime - the second-to-last one, he thinks she said it was.

Oh, yeah, definitely.

He can sense her mind working like it usually does when she's thinking about future events. Despite their connection allowing them to read each other's minds, he has no access to Mimic's memories of the anime - she's able to show him events that've already passed, but anything that still has yet to happen is what they call 'access denied' to him. That doesn't apply if she tells him directly, though.

But even if he can't see her memories of the anime, he can tell when she's thinking about it. This time, though, there's something else - he can't exactly tell what it is, since it's tied very closely to Mimic's thoughts of the anime, but it feels different to the usual thoughts. He's not really sure how, he can just tell.

He doesn't ask, though. If she wants to talk about this, she will - and if he pesters her, that'd just be rude. They'd decided long ago that Mimic's knowledge is hers to do with as she pleases, and if she offers any information to him, that's her decision and hers alone.

"What rise in temperature?" Lan asks, dragging Chaud and Mimic's attention back to the verbal conversation at hand.

Their mental conversations barely take more than a moment or two, sometimes. It's odd how thoughts have a way of being spoken faster and easier than verbal words. Or maybe it's just them. Who knows.

"You haven't noticed?" Raika doesn't seem too impressed with Lan's lack of knowledge. "There's been an odd rise in temperature across the cyberworld. It's actually affecting NetNavis and other programs that normally wouldn't be affected by temperature. Drops in performance and such."

"I haven't really been into the cyberworld recently," MegaMan speaks up, with a quick glance at ProtoMan, who's crouching on Chaud's shoulder now. "I went to Internet City that one time, sure, but . . ."

"Ah," Raika says, blinking. "That . . . would explain why you don't know, I guess. Sorry."

"The rise in temperature was only detected a few days ago, just before Raika and I went back on duty," SearchMan explains. "We were assigned to investigate it, but we couldn't find anything, so we had to give up."

"The Commissioner said the rise in temperature should sort itself out," Raika adds, though he doesn't seem to agree. "It could be a bug or some kind of glitch, or maybe a virus."

"I wonder if the Village Navis have been affected," Arcadia murmurs, frowning at his taloned feet worriedly.

"I bet Mythic's happy with the warmth," ProtoMan comments.

Mythic is one of many Virus Navis - NetNavi who've been infected with virus data that can't be cured, like ProtoMan himself - who lives in the Secret Village, located within a secluded and isolated area of the cyberworld known as the Secret Area. It was created and is managed by Serenade, an androgynous NetNavi, for NetNavis rejected by society. That includes almost every single Virus Navi in the cyberworld (aside from ProtoMan) and a lot of NetNavis who were simply abandoned by their operators.

Before they'd found the Secret Village, ProtoMan had thought he was the only half-virus NetNavi. He'd been bullied and hated, called cruel names like 'half-breed' and 'freak of science', all because of the virus data in him that couldn't be cured. Then he and Arcadia found the Secret Village, and he actually broke down crying when he discovered that he's not the only half-virus NetNavi, not the only Virus Navi, in the cyberworld.

Chaud doesn't think he'll ever forget that day. The warm happiness he felt when his primary Navi finally found others like himself. ProtoMan and Arcadia often visit the Village, though they had to stop when Duo's assault on their planet became so intense that they had to focus all their efforts on fighting it, and couldn't go back until very recently because ProtoMan was too afraid to stray too far from Chaud's PET.

"SciLab and various other research centres are looking into it at the moment," Dad says. "We still haven't found a cause, but if there is one, we'll figure it out - and hopefully stop the rise in temperature. Though it does seem to have stagnated for the moment."

"Stag-what-now?" Lan looks puzzled.

"It stopped rising," Raika clarifies.

"Why not just say that instead'a usin' fancy-ass words?" Mimic asks.

Dad sighs and shakes his head fondly, reaching out to ruffle her already-messy hair. "Because I enjoy showing off my high IQ."

Mimic bares her sharp teeth at him playfully, and he laughs.


They board the plane and head back to SciLab, and on the way, Raika sees Mimic taking Chaud aside. They say absolutely nothing to each other, but their expressions change subtly, and they make the occasional gesture with their hands. He's seen that often enough that he isn't surprised by it anymore, and recognises it as Mimic and Chaud having a mental conversation.

He wonders what they're talking about, because Mimic seems quite serious about it - which is odd for her, since she's almost the exact opposite of serious. Their Navis join in on the conversation as well, voices murmuring too quietly for Raika to hear, able to respond to their operators' mental voices because they can both hear them as if they were talking out loud.

It makes sense for Arcadia, because of his Empath Program. But for ProtoMan, that ability isn't natural. The only reason he's able to hear Mimic and Chaud's mental voices is because of an odd exchange of data between himself and Arcadia that occurred as a result of the discovery of Switch Fusion, an ability that only Mimic and Chaud possess, which allows them to switch Cross Fusions mid-battle and Cross Fuse with either ProtoMan or Arcadia.

Technically Raika could find out what they're talking about, or at least be able to listen to what ProtoMan and Arcadia are saying. SearchMan's abilities allow him to gather information with astounding ease. But Raika doesn't want to do that, because it would be rude to intrude on a conversation that's very obviously meant to be private, and aside from that, SearchMan would refuse to do it anyway.

So he simply wonders what the twins and their Navis are talking about, and doesn't try to find out for himself. If it's important, they'll tell everyone else, he's sure.

The island isn't too far from DenTech City - it's just off the coast, really - so it doesn't take very long for them to get back. As soon as they do, Chaud heads off with Dr. Hikari and Famous to sort the data from the final Jet Vernier test, leaving Raika, Mimic, and Lan to their own devices for the moment.

Chaud leaves ProtoMan with Mimic, which is a little odd. They sometimes swap NetNavis, of course, but they haven't done that recently - and leaving both NetNavis with one operator isn't something they've done before, not that Raika knows of, at least.

Then Mimic retreats into a corner and Raika realises she and the two brothers - ProtoMan and Arcadia, that is - are continuing the private conversation from the plane. One mystery solved, at least.

"Raika, you have a call from Uncle Malenkov," SearchMan suddenly announces, while Raika is idly staring out the window.

He startles, blinks, and looks at SearchMan. "Uncle Malenkov?" he repeats.

SearchMan nods. "I'll activate the holographic screen."

He gestures, and a holographic screen appears in front of Raika. That gets the attention of Lan, who's lounging on a sofa nearby, and also the attention of Mimic, though she only gives the screen a cursory glance before turning back to her conversation with her primary and secondary Navis.

Raika is almost prepared to greet his uncle happily, but then he sees his uncle's grim expression and realises that this isn't a social call.

"Uncle, what's wrong?" Raika asks. Lan sits up, alerted by his tone.

"A few minutes ago, something struck a Sharoan military plane mid-air and split it in half." Uncle is wasting absolutely no time on greetings, it seems. "It was moving too fast for us to actually determine what it was, but from what we could tell of its flight path, it appears to be heading straight for Japan."

Raika's eyes widen, and SearchMan tenses up. Over in the corner, Mimic and the two brother-Navis exchange glances and abandon their conversation to listen.

"Did you get any images of this . . . thing?" SearchMan asks.

Uncle Malenkov shakes his head. "It was invisible, somehow. We're not sure if it was using some kind of advanced cloaking technology, because we couldn't get any information on it aside from its flight path."

"We need to warn Dad," Lan says.

"I was just thinking the same thing," Raika agrees grimly. "Thank you, Uncle. Hopefully we'll be ready to deal with whatever this thing is."

Uncle Malenkov nods, and the holographic screen vanishes as the call ends.

Raika springs to his feet and hurries out of the room, Mimic and Lan following close behind. Luckily for them, the break room they were in is fairly close to the main room, where Chaud, Dr. Hikari, and Famous are working.

By the time they arrive in the main room, it becomes very clear that Dr. Hikari is already well aware of the invisible thing. There's a global map up on the main screen, and white dots showing areas which Raika assumes have been affected by the invisible thing. He can see Sharo's airspace up there too, which confirms what his uncle just told him.

Dr. Hikari and Famous are too intent on the global map, so Chaud is the only one who notices them arriving, and he glances over his shoulder at them. Raika sees him locking eyes with Mimic for a brief moment, and he's not sure what that look is that passes between them, but it's definitely significant.

It suddenly occurs to Raika that Mimic must know something about this invisible thing. He has the sudden urge to demand to know what's going on, but he pushes that down - if Mimic wants to tell them, she will, and she's already made it clear that she won't tell anyone anything if she doesn't want to.

Instead, Raika steps up to the main console next to the others and looks up at the global map.

"Power failures across the globe in specific areas," Dr. Hikari murmurs. "I've never seen anything like it. Not even when Duo was attacking us."

"Ain't Duo this time," Mimic mutters, just barely loud enough to be heard. In fact, the only reason Raika hears her is because she's standing next to him, so he assumes she hadn't intended for anyone without super-hearing to hear that.

"The damage seems to be spread out in a wide area. What on earth could cause this?" Raika asks. Based on what his uncle told him, these power failures should be heading toward Japan from Sharo (or wherever this invisible thing came from in the first place), but looking at the global map reveals that the power failures are far too widespread for that.

The mystery is solved when Dr. Hikari answers. "It's not spread out. Whatever is causing this appeared in two separate places at once."

"There's two?" Raika glances at the head of SciLab sharply. Bad enough that one of these things was apparently enough to take out a military plane with seemingly no effort whatsoever, but now there's apparently two of the things? And since no one seems to have any information aside from the power failures, it's likely that both of these things are using the same cloaking technology.

"Yes," Dr. Hikari replies gravely. "One seems to be attacking from the sky, and the other, the ground. We've had reports of hurricane-level winds caused by an invisible object breaking the sound barrier above populated areas, and entire sections of cities have collapsed in on themselves as a result of some unknown entity crushing everything in its path. And wherever these things appear, electric power vanishes, causing power failures. Judging by the pattern of these power failures-" He gestures to the global map. "-it seems that these two things, whatever they are, are on a collision-course with each other."

"You kids had better stay here, on standby," Famous says, glancing over at them. "We've determined that these things might end up clashing somewhere in Japan - so you need to be ready to fight if the need arises."

Raika doesn't need to look at Mimic to know that the need will arise, and most likely, these invisible things of the sky and earth will meet in DenTech City. It seems this city is a magnet for all sorts of trouble - he'd wonder why, but this city is home to the Hikari siblings, who're pretty much walking danger magnets. He's grateful that his own country doesn't appear to be in danger from whatever these invisible things are, but for the sake of his friends, he'll fight to protect their city and country.


Mimic and Chaud sit opposite Lan and Raika in SciLab's cafe. Arcadia, along with the other Navis, is on the table - they're the only ones in here at the moment, and his Empath Program tells him that the majority of SciLab's staff and scientists are currently focused on the global power failures and these invisible things that're causing them.

Invisible things that Mimic knows about, but is currently debating what to do about. In the past, she's simply gone along with events and reacted as things happened, changing as much or as little as possible - it's Chaud's theory that she has to make sure events happen the way they did (or close enough) in the anime, and she'll get to find out how she came to this reality by doing that, but so far, nothing has actually come of it. So she's debating what to do with this latest crisis.

"I don't think it'd be fair, really," Lan says. "I mean, c'mon, you guys'd just team up and destroy us all, even if it was a free-for-all."

"True," Chaud admits. He's got his chin on his hand, elbow leaning on the table, and a couple of fingers from his other hand absently stroking down ProtoMan's back. Arcadia's brother's gentle purring has been the background track for this conversation for the past several minutes.

"We'd kick all your asses," Mimic adds. Along with the worry and indecision about the invisible things, Arcadia can sense a faint trace of smugness from her. That smugness comes from the final Jet Vernier test - from the ease with which she and Bass managed to defeat Lan and Raika. He doesn't blame her for being smug about it, because he kinda feels the same way, but he's not the type to brag, and neither is Mimic.

"And then you'd turn on each other and fight until you couldn't move anymore, most likely," Raika mutters.

"Also true," Chaud agrees, without even pausing.

"I call bullshit," Bass scoffs. "I'd beat all of you in seconds. The only reason Lan lasted as long as he did against me in that test was because I wanted to fucking draw it out."

"You were toying with me?" Lan looks and feels offended. "That's not fair, Bass! You said holding back was an insult!"

"Toying with your opponent and holding back are two different things, you fucking dumbass."

"If Lan were able to use Double Soul, that battle may have been more even," SearchMan muses.

"Yeah, but humans can't use ultimate program abilities," Arcadia reminds him. He shudders at the thought of it - Mimic and technically Chaud have used ProtoMan's Poltergeist ability once before, and it nearly killed them. Lan managed to use MegaMan's Double Soul ability purely because he got lucky enough to go into Full Synchro, which allowed him to use it with no drawbacks.

His own ultimate program ability - Dark Immunity - is activated in the presence of darkness. It gives him a massive boost in power, and has a visual representation in the form of the feathers on his elbows and knees glowing like his Holy Fire. Cross Fusion also boosts his power to the same level, so if Dark Immunity were to activate during Cross Fusion, the power would just be boosted to absolutely insane levels, and it could actually kill whoever would be unlucky enough to be using his Cross Fusion at the time. Or just make them go completely insane. Either one isn't a fun concept to think about, really.

It's a good thing there aren't any Darkloids left. Aside from BubbleMan, but no one's seen him since he vanished into the past, and if there are any others, they aren't making themselves known.

The only other thing that activates Dark Immunity is ProtoMan going Poltergeist, which gives him full access to the powers of the cyberworld demon of destruction. Luckily, that's also an ultimate program ability, so that can't happen during Cross Fusion. Or it shouldn't. Arcadia suspects the only reason Mimic did it that one time was because she didn't know how badly it would affect her.

"Shame you can't use those abilities," Bass says. "It'd make battles a lot more fun, that's for sure."

"More destructive, you mean," MegaMan retorts. The pale purple core in the heart container pulses for a brief moment, and MegaMan goes quiet to listen, then speaks again. "Dark MegaMan says the Net Police would probably get sued a lot if our operators could use our ultimate program abilities."

"Sued?" Lan gulps. "Like, sued for a lot of money, or . . . ?"

"What other kind of suing is there?" Raika deadpans.

"The fun kind?" ProtoMan offers, breaking off from purring so he can speak.

Everyone stares at him.

After a few moments, ProtoMan rolls his mismatched eyes. "I was joking, sheesh."

Luckily, they're distracted from ProtoMan's . . . odd sense of humour when Lan's PET suddenly goes off. MegaMan glances up, frowns for a moment, and then blinks.

"It's Maylu," he tells Lan.

"Maylu?" Lan repeats. "I wonder what she wants . . ."

He takes out his PET and answers the call. Arcadia almost automatically tries to read Maylu's emotions with his Empath Program, but he can't do that over a video call. Not unless he's in a network that Roll happens to be in, which would mean Maylu's PET is connected to that network. His Empath Program is kind of weird sometimes, honestly.

"Hey, Maylu." Lan greets his best friend with a cheerful but apologetic smile. "Sorry, I can't really talk right now, we're on standby and-"

"This isn't about you!" Maylu interrupts irritably, making Arcadia wonder just what about Lan's wording made her think that he assumed this was about him. "I need you to jack MegaMan into Internet City."

Arcadia senses interest sparking from the minds he's able to sense - which is everyone in the cafe aside from the core in the heart container. His own interest is piqued as well, and he wonders what Maylu could want that would require MegaMan's presence in Internet City.

"Just MegaMan?" Lan asks, blinking.

"And the others, too, if they're there," Maylu adds. "There's something weird that you guys need to see."

"Something weird?" Lan's confusion is overriding his curiosity now. "What do you mean?"

Arcadia hears Maylu taking in a deep breath and assumes she's about to start yelling, but then he senses a flash of irritation from Mimic. She reaches across the table, snatches Lan's PET from his hands, and gives Maylu a look that would freeze even Arcadia's Holy Fire.

"Don't yell at my brother," Mimic growls.

Oh, how Arcadia wishes he could sense Maylu's emotions right now, or read her thoughts. He settles for vanishing from the tabletop, reappearing on his primary operator's shoulder, and looking at Maylu's suddenly-pale expression.

"Sorry," Maylu squeaks. "I-I just- it's . . . better if you guys see it for yourselves?"

Lan's awe at Mimic defusing Maylu with such ease is obvious enough that all you have to do is look at his face, never mind sense his emotions.

Mimic can be really scary when she wants to be.

Only two people aren't awed by Mimic's display. Chaud, who isn't really bothered and couldn't even pretend to be scared by his twin sister, and ProtoMan, who's too busy worrying about something else entirely to even cheer Mimic on like he normally would.

Arcadia focuses on his big brother for a moment, and softens with sympathy when he realises that ProtoMan's worried about going back to Internet City. He hasn't been there for a while, now - at first he was avoiding it because of the cruelty he experienced in Netopia's Internet City, and then he couldn't go back because he was afraid of being too far away from Chaud's PET. He managed to go and visit the Secret Village recently, sure, but they know pretty much everyone in the Village, and they're all friendly. Internet City, in stark contrast, is loud, confusing, and full of strangers.

Of course ProtoMan is worried about going back. He's started to regain his confidence - very slowly at first, and then even more after they visited Chaud's mother's grave. But he's not yet confident enough to go back to Internet City.

"Is it okay if ProtoMan stays here?" Arcadia asks Maylu.

"Why-" She blinks, and then her eyes widen and she winces. "Oh, right. Sorry, I . . . forgot. Um. Yeah, it's fine, he doesn't have to come if he doesn't want to."

A wave of intense relief mixed with gratitude flows from ProtoMan, along with some faint traces of guilt. It's not hard to guess why - he does want to go back to Internet City, even if he can't right now. And he's feeling guilty because him being unable to go back to Internet City means Chaud won't be able to see whatever it is Maylu wants them to see.

"It's okay," Chaud says, so softly that Arcadia can just barely hear him, though he knows ProtoMan and Mimic hear him just fine. Anyone else can't hear a word Chaud is saying, though. "You do things at your own pace, alright? Besides, I can see what's going on from Mimic's PET. I don't mind."

You don't need Arcadia's Empath Program to tell what ProtoMan is thinking, after all. It's plain to see from his expression and body language.

"'Kay," ProtoMan whispers.

The guilt is still there, but Chaud's words are helping a little bit. Arcadia wishes his brother could have the confidence he used to have, and curses everything that caused this - Proxy, the bully of NetNavi who used to belong to Shuseki Blaze (at least before Bass broke into the Navi prison and tore out his core), along with those cruel NetNavis from Netopia's Internet City, who rejected and hurt ProtoMan simply because he's a Virus Navi.

His brother is getting better every day, but he's been hurt too much to ever be the same again.


What Maylu wants them to see in Internet City turns out to be a baby-Navi, of all things.

MegaMan's not entirely sure what to make of this, to be honest. It - or he, SearchMan says, because he scanned its data and apparently it's male - cries and cries and doesn't seem to be showing any signs of stopping, not even when Roll hands the baby-Navi over to Arcadia.

Most likely she thought that Arcadia would be the best person to give the baby-Navi to, because of his Empath Program and all, but Arcadia just looks completely bewildered and more than a little overwhelmed. MegaMan's pretty sure that being an actual empath doesn't guarantee you'll be any good with people - it just means you know how they're feeling or thinking.

It's probably a good thing ProtoMan didn't come with them after all, then. Otherwise he'd probably have left immediately - the baby-Navi's crying is really loud.

What's surprising is that GutsMan found the baby-Navi in the hands of BubbleMan, of all Navis. BubbleMan, who vanished into the past twenty years ago, and the last MegaMan or anyone else saw of him was when he jumped into the Past Tunnel after ShadeMan. Apparently GutsMan found him - and the baby-Navi - after he'd collapsed from the intense heat in the middle of Internet City.

"Hey, BubbleMan!" MegaMan tries to be friendly and holds out his hand, smiling, but BubbleMan only turns away, eyes pompously closed.

"Charming," Bass says, apparently ignorant of his hypocrisy. He raises an unimpressed eyebrow and looks BubbleMan up and down. "I expected a Darkloid to be more . . . intimidating, I guess. This guy just looks like one of those weird humans who can breathe underwater."

"You mean scuba divers?" MegaMan asks.

"Whatever the fuck they're called. And he's fat, too."

That makes BubbleMan whip around and glare at him. "How dare you!" he half-shrieks. "I'm the last remaining Darkloid in the cyberworld, and I will make a world of Darkloids for the sake of my master, ShadeMan! He sacrificed himself so that I could continue his mission, so if you insult me, I'll-"

"You'll what?" Bass holds up his hand, fingers curled into claws, and black energy crackles on his palm.

BubbleMan goes silent with a quiet 'eep'.

"That's what I thought, fucker." Bass's grin is positively predatory - nowhere near as scary as the one Mimic can pull off, but definitely close enough to be unnerving.

I'm glad he wasn't around when we were enemies, the core in the heart container notes.

MegaMan wholeheartedly agrees. If it had been up to Bass, there wouldn't be anything left of Dark MegaMan, not even his core. Instead, there was Arcadia, who had every reason to want Dark MegaMan completely deleted, and still he saved the core. Afterwards, he said that MegaMan mattered more to him than petty revenge, and MegaMan has never been more thankful for Arcadia's kindness.

"So, BubbleMan," MegaMan begins, "where've you been for the past-"

He's interrupted by a sudden shriek of pain. MegaMan jumps, and Bass glances over his shoulder, puzzled, then his eyes widen and he spits out a shocked curse before scrambling away from MegaMan's side.

MegaMan turns around and sees the problem immediately. It looks like Arcadia has tried to do what he does with ProtoMan sometimes, wrapping him up in his wings in an attempt to comfort him - except the baby-Navi has apparently decided he doesn't like that, and is yanking on some of Arcadia's wing-feathers, still wailing like there's no tomorrow.

Arcadia's wing-feathers can come out, of course. But if you yank on them like the baby-Navi is doing right now, it's definitely going to be painful.

"Ow!" Arcadia yelps, twisting in pain and trying to make the baby-Navi let go. "Ow, ow, let go, let go, please!"

"No-no-no-no-no," SearchMan half-babbles, wide-eyed and trying to carefully extract the baby-Navi's fingers from Arcadia's feathers. He's having just as much luck as Arcadia is - which is none at all. "Come on, let go of him, you can't pull on his feathers like that . . ."

They have no idea if the baby-Navi can even understand what any of them are saying, but if he can, he gives absolutely no sign of it right now. He continues crying, continues yanking on Arcadia's feathers, and MegaMan winces in sympathy for the poor owl-Navi.

"Dammit, let go, stupid baby-Navi!" Bass snaps, reaching Arcadia and holding out his hands to try and take the baby-Navi from him.

It's either that or Bass's harsh tone that makes the baby-Navi's wailing get even louder, and he clings to Arcadia's wing-feathers tighter than before, which makes Arcadia let out another shriek of pain. Bass jerks back like he's been burnt, looking half-panicked.

MegaMan hurries over to Arcadia and quickly hands the heart container to SearchMan. "Hold this for me," he says, while also thinking, sorry.

"Um- sure," SearchMan replies, looking startled to be suddenly holding the heart container.

It's fine, help him, the core replies at the same time, pulsing a little.

With his hands now free, MegaMan nudges Bass out of the way - for once, Bass doesn't argue, and willingly moves aside - and reaches out to the baby-Navi. He only wants to try and extract the baby-Navi from Arcadia's feathers, so he's completely unprepared when the baby-Navi lets go entirely, and has to very quickly catch him before he bounces off the ground.

MegaMan straightens up with the baby-Navi now in his arms, and it takes him a moment to realise that the crying has stopped. Puzzled, he looks down at the baby-Navi, and sees him staring up at him, gaping.

Then the baby-Navi smiles wide and starts giggling, reaching up and waving his arms at MegaMan happily.

"Why didn't we just give him to you from the start?" Arcadia complains, carefully combing his clawed fingers through his damaged wing. A few of the feathers the baby-Navi was yanking on fall out, but new ones are starting to grow in their places already - the sped-up healing process is a result of his Dark Immunity, activated by BubbleMan's presence.

"Why the fuck did he stop crying?" Bass wonders, peering at the now-happy baby-Navi with a look not too dissimilar from what a human would give a two-headed animal.

"I . . . I have no idea," MegaMan admits.

Maybe he likes you? the core suggests.

The question is why the baby-Navi likes him, though. He cried when everyone else was holding him - even Arcadia, whose feathers make him soft to the touch, and the rippling feathers on his elbows and knees give off a pleasant warmth that should've helped to make the baby-Navi comfortable.

And yet, for whatever reason, the baby-Navi only stopped crying when MegaMan started holding him.


"Guess that means you'll be taking care of him, then," Lan says.

MegaMan's eyes widen comically. "But- but I don't know anything about-" He gives the baby-Navi in his arms a helpless look. "-about this!"

While the humans wonder who would make a baby-model NetNavi, and why, ProtoMan blinks from where he's nestled in Chaud's hair with Dark Shadow and reflects that it's probably a good thing he didn't go to Internet City after all.

Even out here, in the real world, that baby-Navi's crying was really loud. And he hates to think what would've happened if anyone had tried to give him the baby-Navi. The baby-Navi actually yanked a few of Arcadia's feathers out - he could've ended up pulling on ProtoMan's hair or something.

And ProtoMan probably would've clawed the baby-Navi by pure instinct. Right, so . . . definitely a good thing he didn't go to Internet City.

Doesn't stop him from feeling guilty about it, but he's at least grateful he doesn't have to deal with a crying baby-Navi.

Though if MegaMan's gonna be looking after the baby-Navi, he'll probably have to interact with the thing at some point. He just hopes the baby-Navi isn't crying at the time, otherwise he's bailing.

"I wonder where he came from, though?" Lan asks, apparently deciding to put aside the jokes for now. "Did anyone manage to get anything outta BubbleMan?"

"His name's Trill," Mimic says.

That startles absolutely everyone, and only ProtoMan and Chaud see Mimic's faint twitch when everyone turns to look at her, even the Navis in Internet City.

"Trill?" Lan repeats, blinking. Then his eyes widen. "Wait, is this from-"

The lights go out with a flicker before he can continue, plunging the room - and presumably the rest of SciLab - into sudden darkness. It doesn't matter much to ProtoMan, Chaud, or Mimic, whose night vision kicks in quickly, but it startles Lan and Raika enough to make them jump.

"A power failure?" Raika murmurs, looking up at the ceiling with narrow eyes. "Now, of all times?"

"Cybeasts are comin'," Mimic announces, getting to her feet. Chaud does the same, and ProtoMan gently digs his claws into his primary operator's hair to stop himself from falling off.

"The what are coming?"

The power comes back on with a faint buzz. The lights aren't as bright as they were originally, which means this is the backup power, but it's still bright enough to almost blind ProtoMan and his operators.

Luckily it doesn't take long for them to get used to the sudden light - only a little longer than it took for them to get used to the sudden darkness, actually - and Mimic immediately jacks Arcadia out of Internet City and takes off. Chaud follows her without a word, and ProtoMan raises his head and glances over his shoulder at Lan and Raika, who still look bewildered.

"I . . . guess we go, then?" Raika glances at Lan, who shrugs, and they stand up as well.

MegaMan leaves the baby-Navi - whose name is apparently Trill - with Roll before Lan jacks him out, Raika doing the same with SearchMan, and Bass follows them. Whatever's going on, whatever these 'Cybeasts' are, it's definitely something to be worried about, because ProtoMan rarely ever sees Mimic being this serious.

And aside from that, something that's literally called a Cybeast definitely sounds like a thing to be worried about.

ProtoMan glances at Dark Shadow as the humans run through SciLab to the main room, and wonders if a Cybeast is anything like the Poltergeist's true form. If it is, they're probably screwed, or at least in very, very deep shit.

The humans arrive at the main room in record time. Dad and Famous are still in there, and now the main screen at the back of the room is showing a map of DenTech City rather than the whole planet. ProtoMan can probably be forgiven for assuming the map of DenTech is still the global map from earlier, because there are dots all across the city, showing so many power failures that he's half-surprised the city is still functional.

"They're here," Dad says, either to himself or to the arriving humans. It's hard to tell.

The image on the screen switches to show camera footage of the city. Things are being crushed by an invisible force, and humans are screaming and running, confused, and terrified of the invisible thing attacking them. Even if this thing, this Cybeast, can't be seen, it can definitely still do damage to the city.

"Scan it," Dad orders, leaning over the console and getting to work. Famous does the same.

After a few moments, the image darkens until it's only showing outlines on a dark screen. The invisible thing is the only solid object on the screen, painted in blue and grey colours by SciLab's highly-advanced scanners - it looks like a real world lion of some kind, with an odd mane, but it doesn't move like a lion, and it rears back and lets out an earth-shattering howl that makes everyone flinch, not just those with sensitive hearing.

"Cybeast Gregar," Mimic says, before Dad can even speak.

He stares at her. "You know what this is?"

Mimic nods, eyes fixed on the image on the screen. "The other one's Falzar. Wolf and a bird."

A wolf? That'd explain why it doesn't quite look like a lion, even if it's got a mane. And the other invisible thing being a bird would definitely explain all the wind pressure, and how it managed to split a military plane in half.

"Whatever it is, we need to go and stop it!" Lan declares. "We can figure this out later!"

"Wait!" Famous calls, before anyone can move.

The image changes to another location within the city. A bridge above a busy street collapses suddenly, and after quickly focusing their efforts on the second Cybeast, Dad and Famous manage to use SciLab's scanners to show a blue-and-grey solid image of that one, too.

Like Mimic said, it's a bird. A gigantic bird, spreading metallic wings and screeching to the heavens. It seems to create wind pressure just by simply existing, or maybe it's letting out some kind of energy that makes the wind blast out in all directions. Whichever it is, it's doing a lot of damage, equal to the amount of damage the wolf Cybeast is doing.

"You called these things Cybeasts?" Dad asks Mimic.

She nods. "Cyber beasts. Cybeast for short."

Dad looks back at the screen, which is now split in half, showing both of the scanned images of the invisible Cybeasts. "So they're creatures of the cyberworld. At least now we know why there were power failures wherever these things appeared - they've been stealing electric energy, enough to semi-materialise themselves."

The two Cybeasts are moving through the city now, trailing destruction in their wake. The bird Cybeast takes into the air and the resulting wind pressure does even more damage, while the wolf Cybeast's tail lashes around like a whip and scores great scars down the sides of buildings nearby.

They're heading toward each other, still. It seems like everything in their way is just that - in their way. The two Cybeasts are so focused on each other that they're not even paying attention to what's around them, and ProtoMan seriously doubts they'd care anyway.

The Cybeasts clash in the middle of the city, and a great wave of energy blasts out from them. That's apparently enough to allow both of them to fully materialise, and everyone gets their first look at the Cybeasts.

The wolf Cybeast is blue, and looks frighteningly similar to the Gospel beast. It's tail is like a spike, and its claws look even deadlier than ProtoMan's - which isn't too difficult, given the Cybeast's sheer size. In contrast, the bird Cybeast is red, like a phoenix without the fire, and its wings have metallic feathers that look just as sharp and deadly as the wolf Cybeast's claws.

"Go," Dad says, turning to them and gesturing toward the doors. "Go, hurry, stop those things from destroying the city!"

ProtoMan nearly falls off Chaud's head when his primary operator turns to follow the others, but Dad stops Chaud with a hand on his shoulder.

"Not you," Dad says, voice softening. "You're still on leave, Chaud."

"But-" Chaud begins to protest.

"You're not ready." Dad glances at ProtoMan, and he shrinks in on himself a little, shame burning through his systems. "Either of you. Not yet."

"Don't worry, Chaud, we can handle this," Lan promises, pausing at the doors.

That doesn't do much to soothe ProtoMan's shame, or Chaud's frustration. Only Arcadia and Mimic are able to feel that, and ProtoMan can see them exchanging a worried glance, like they want to try and say something. There's nothing they can say, though, not for this.

And besides, they can't really afford to get caught up in this drama. They've got the Cybeasts to worry about.

Arcadia catches his eye and holds his gaze for a moment, and then nods.

"Let's go," Arcadia says, turning to the others. "We've gotta stop those Cybeasts from destroying the city!"

With that, they run out of the main room, leaving ProtoMan and Chaud behind.

" . . . I'm sorry," Dad says, crouching so he's eye-level with Chaud. "But you know you can't do this right now. You'll be able to get back to work soon, but not now."

"How soon?" Chaud asks, almost desperately. "I can't just sit here doing fuck all while everyone else is out there, risking their lives! It's not fair on them!"

For once, Dad doesn't scold the use of crude language. "Just be patient, Chaud. They can handle themselves, you know that."

"I-I do, but . . ." Chaud makes a small, ragged noise and buries his face in his hands, shuddering. "I just want to help. I just want . . . I need to do something."

"How about helping me keep an eye on where these Cybeasts are going?" Dad offers, gently tugging Chaud's hands away from his face. "Famous is going to be busy getting the dimensional generator ready. You can tell me where the Cybeasts are, and I'll relay the information to your siblings and Raika, okay?"

It's a poor attempt to give Chaud something to do, and even Dad himself can tell that. Dad could easily keep an eye on the Cybeasts and tell the others where they're going on his own - but at least he's trying. At least he's not telling Chaud to just sit there and do nothing.

" . . . Alright," Chaud sighs eventually. "I'll keep an eye on the Cybeasts for you."

"Thank you." Dad straightens and pulls him into a quick hug, then steps aside to let Chaud take control of the main console.

It makes ProtoMan feel a little bit better, knowing that his operator isn't as frustrated or upset as he was before. It's not much, but it's better than nothing.


Bass has always wanted to try and fight a god, but he supposes he'll settle for these Cybeasts things, whatever the fuck they are.

Mimic knows what they are. But she and the other two humans are too busy following the trail of destruction the damn things are leaving behind as they try and rip each other apart, too busy trying to stop the Cybeasts to explain what the fuck they are.

Why they're fighting and how they managed to materialise themselves just by using electric energy doesn't matter to Bass. The only thing that matters to him is whether or not he'll get to fucking fight one of them - both of them is preferable, but he's not stupid, and he's not looking to get himself deleted, so he'll settle for beating up one of the Cybeasts.

He's a little impatient, though. He sticks with Arcadia and Mimic, and because of that, he has to deal with her constantly running ahead of Lan and Raika, then stopping to let them catch up, and then running on ahead again, then stopping to wait, and . . . well, you get the point. Bass wishes Mimic would just hurry the fuck up and go ahead on her own, but the logical part of his mind tells him that would be self-deletion for her, regardless of whether or not she's in Cross Fusion and has Bass to back her up.

The humans pause when Lan's PET suddenly goes off. Another call - and Bass hopes it's not that stupid female human Maylu again. She seems to have a really dumb habit of calling at exactly the wrong time, and then getting pissed at Lan like it's his fault that he's busy trying to save the world or something.

But it's not that Maylu human, it's Dr. Hikari.

"Where are you right now?" the human asks.

"Trying to follow the Cybeasts," Lan replies, which really isn't much of a reply. Even Bass can see that.

Raika's better at it, though. "We're near the entertainment distract, I think. Those Cybeasts don't make it very difficult to follow them, even on foot."

'On foot' is fucking slow for Lan and Raika. But Bass doesn't want Mimic to get deleted, so no matter how impatient he gets, he's not gonna make her hurry up just so he can fight a cyberworld beast.

"We're keeping track of where they are from here," Dr. Hikari tells them. There's a pause for a moment. "Chaud?"

"I think they're heading for the stadium," Chaud's voice replies. "That one where they play NetNavi baseball or something."

Lan perks up. "Oh, I know that one! I played there once, with some of my friends!"

"If you head there directly, you might be able to get there just after the Cybeasts," Dr. Hikari says. "Go!"

The call cuts off, and Lan takes the lead, veering away from the trail of destruction. He knows this human city better than any of them - aside from MegaMan, anyway - so he knows where all the shortcuts are.

Good, Bass thinks. That means we'll get there faster.

And he'll get to fight one of the Cybeasts much quicker than if they'd just kept following the trail of destruction.

Bass's anticipation rises when he sees something that looks vaguely similar to the Colosseum in Internet City over the top of some of the buildings. He assumes that's the 'baseball' stadium Chaud was on about - he doesn't know what the fuck baseball is (and doesn't really care to find out), but if that's where the Cybeasts are, it doesn't matter. As long as he gets to fight one.

"You've got your priorities sorted, haven't you?" Arcadia is giving him an amused look.

"What, you don't think this is the least bit exciting?" Bass retorts, with a half-feral grin. "We get to fucking fight actual monsters! Beasts of the fucking cyberworld!" Saying it out loud is even cooler than thinking it.

"Let's focus on stopping them from destroying the city, first."

"You can focus on that," Bass says. "I just want to fight the things."

Arcadia shakes his head like Bass is a lost cause. He'd normally get pissed at a gesture like that, but he's too excited about the thought of fighting a Cybeast to give a shit.

If only the cat was here, too. He'd probably be vibrating with excitement.

The humans arrive at the stadium just after the two Cybeasts crash through the outer wall. If the stadium looks anything like the Colosseum from the outside, the inside is totally different - it's full of fucking hallways and rooms and all kinds of shit that holds the humans up. Luckily the other humans in the building are too busy running away from the Cybeasts to wonder what the fuck a trio of random small humans are doing running toward the danger, so they're not stopped.

Bass's impatience makes the run through the interior of the stadium seem to last for-fucking-ever, but eventually they burst out of a small tunnel and end up inside the stadium proper, halfway up the stands. There's an entire section of the wall on the opposite side gaping open and crumbled to dust, and in the middle of the grass field down below, the two Cybeasts shake off the debris and face each other.

The wolf Cybeast - Mimic called that Gregar, didn't she? - snarls at its opponent. The bird Cybeast - Falzar, or something - lets out a breathless screech of a hiss in response. They're entirely focused on each other and haven't even noticed the new arrivals.

Bass finds himself grinning. Good - that means they can take the Cybeasts by surprise. He loves surprise attacks, they always make things more fun.

Raika takes out his PET. "We need a dimensional area!"

Famous responds, but Bass doesn't hear him over the rush of energy that courses through his systems. He grins gets wider, almost to the point where it hurts his face, when the dimensional beam shoots into the sky above them and starts to form the barrier.

Bass barely even waits for the dimensional area to finish forming before he vanishes from Mimic's shoulder and forces his way into the real world. He charges up a blast of Shooting Star and hurls it at the bird Cybeast, mostly because it happens to be the closest.

The attack bounces off the bird Cybeast's metallic hide and does absolutely nothing to it.

The grin on Bass's face slips. He hadn't expected that - even his weakest attack should be strong enough to at least do some kind of damage, and Shooting Star isn't his weakest attack. His attack should've done something other than just bounce of the Cybeast. The fact that it did absolutely nothing is so shocking that he isn't even pissed off.

"Synchro chip, download!" Lan and Raika announce from nearby. Their Navis' voices join them as they continue. "Cross Fusion!"

Mimic doesn't do the vocal stuff, so when she downloads her own synchro chip, she does it silently. Bass has no idea why she doesn't do the vocal stuff, and he doesn't know why everyone else does it, but he doesn't really care - to each their own, he thinks is the phrase. Just as long as that 'own' doesn't piss him off.

The triple light of Cross Fusion from beside him is nearly blinding. The closest light - Mimic's, because she was the closest to him - shifts in a weird way, and then shoots out in a stream of bright white fire at the bird Cybeast.

Mimic's energy-boosted Flashfire doesn't do any more damage than Bass's blast of Shooting Star did. She doesn't pause like Bass, though - she simply gathers up more Holy Fire, forms it into a bow, takes to the air on silent wings, and starts shooting Avenger's Arrows at the bird Cybeast.

Bass snaps out of his stupefied shock just as Lan and Raika begin shooting at the wolf Cybeast. He charges up a Darkness Overload - if his Shooting Star did fuck all, maybe his strongest attack will work better.

He's doubtful, though. Mimic's energy-boosted Flashfire used the left-over energy from Cross Fusion - it's a trick that Chaud's done a bunch of times before, and it's a pretty powerful first attack. If that didn't do shit either, it's unlikely that anything they throw at these fucking Cybeasts will damage them.

I came here to fight a Cybeast and instead I'm scrambling to find a way to actually hurt one of the damn things, Bass thinks angrily.

He finishes charging Darkness Overload, and unleashes it with a scream. Instead of aiming for the bird Cybeast's hide, he aims for its head - but that doesn't do anything, either.

This is fucking infuriating. What are these damn things made of? Are they cyber-gods, like Duo? Is that why they can't be hurt?

"Spreader, triple download!" Lan shouts, taking into the air after Mimic with a burst of energy from Jet Vernier. "Program advance - Hyper Burst!"

Raika gets into the air as well - maybe they think that getting some height will help them. Maybe that's why Bass's attacks aren't doing anything, because his position on this fucking platform makes him level with the Cybeasts instead of above them.

"Vulcan, triple download!" Raika holds out his arms. "Program advance - Infinite Vulcan!"

These program advance things are super-powerful, from what ProtoMan's said. The Beta Sword is what released Bass's predecessor, PharaohMan - and the Beta Sword is now called the Life Sword, which is kinda cool. But Bass can't use program advances because he doesn't use battle chips (and he doesn't want to, because his own power is more than enough, even if it doesn't seem to be doing much right now), so he doesn't really know much about them.

It doesn't seem like Mimic knows much about program advances either, because she's the only one who doesn't use one. Instead, she gets into an odd kind of crouch in mid-air, holding one of her clawed hands near her hip like she's drawing a sword.

"Delta Ray Edge!" she snaps.

Bass actually stops, surprised. He'd thought that Delta attack was one of ProtoMan's moves - so how come she's using it, when she's Cross Fused with the owl, and not the cat?

It doesn't take a genius to realise that she's downloading a battle chip to use that attack, which just confuses Bass even more. He didn't even know ProtoMan's Delta Ray Edge was a battle chip. Maybe he'll ask what the fuck's up with Mimic using one of ProtoMan's attacks in Arcadia's Cross Fusion later. For now, though, he does actually need to focus on trying to figure out how to hurt these fucking Cybeasts.

Mimic vanishes, and then reappears just in front of the bird Cybeast. She gives the bird Cybeast a wide slash with a red Sword that materialised when she teleported over, then vanishes again, reappears at the Cybeast's side, slashes again, and then teleports to the other side of it and slashes one last time before teleporting back to where she was before, hovering in the air just above Bass.

Lan and Raika unleash their program advance attacks at the same time. The burst of light makes it difficult to see, but there's no sound other than the impact of their attacks - they definitely hit the wolf Cybeast, sure, but it's like it's not even paying any attention to them.

The Cross Fused humans drop down back onto the platform next to Bass, and the two Cybeasts don't even bother giving them a glance.

"They're ignoring us?" Raika almost sounds offended.

"There ain't much we can do to 'em right now," Mimic admits, and Bass isn't the only one who whips his head around to stare at her. "I was kinda hopin' maybe we'd stand a better chance at doin' some damage with Bass here, but . . ."

"Mimic, I know we don't usually do this, but-" Raika begins.

"Yeah," she interrupts. "I'll tell you everything I can after this."

Lan and Raika stare at her like she's just announced she's got a pet Mettaur or something. Bass can't help but gape as well - because she's never offered information like this before. Not that he remembers, anyway, and she's certainly not offered information to anyone who isn't Chaud, or ProtoMan, or Arcadia.

Some kind of odd static-like noise distracts them from their shock, and Bass and the others look back over at the two Cybeasts.

There's something weird going on with the things - they look like they're fading, or something. Electric energy crackles around their bodies, and Bass can sense their immense power beginning to flicker in and out of the real world as their forms become transparent.

The Cybeasts are vanishing.

Bass's eyes widen, but before he can do anything - not that he can think of anything to do - the two Cybeasts finally decide to move.

The wolf Cybeast howls, the bird Cybeast screeches, and they rush forward for one last clash. They collide head-first and a wave of energy blasts out from the point of impact, and then they vanish from the real world.

With their enemies now gone, the dimensional area starts to fade away as well. Bass gets himself back into the cyberworld and reappears on Mimic's shoulder before he's forced to do so, and covers his eyes when the humans Cross Out in flashes of bright light before catching their PETs.

"Mimic-" Lan starts to say, turning to her.

"They're in Internet City," Mimic interrupts, once again. "Tell you after, I said. C'mon."

She jumps over the edge of the platform and vaults over the seats to get down to the grass field below. It's a little scorched from their attacks, flattened where the Cybeasts were just standing, and rocks and debris are littered all over the place, but Mimic hops past all that like it's not even there.

Bass has to admit he's kind of impressed with Mimic's agility and acrobatic skill. That's something only a NetNavi could manage, and she pulls it off with ease. The wonders of Cross Fusing with two animal-Navis, he supposes.

Lan and Raika follow her down at a slower pace. Or maybe their pace is normal and Mimic's is just superhuman. Fuck knows Bass has heard her and Chaud describe themselves as superhuman cat-children often enough, anyway.

Mimic waits until Lan and Raika have caught up to her before aiming her PET at the nearest jack-in port. Lan and Raika exchange glances - the only reason Bass recognises those looks as worry is because he's seen it often enough to actually be able to recognise it - before doing the same.

Arcadia, MegaMan, and SearchMan are jacked into Internet City to stop the Cybeasts from causing more damage there, and Bass follows them without hesitation.

Maybe in the cyberworld, they'll stand a better chance at doing some damage to these fucking things. At least there, Bass won't have to worry about damaging the buildings - he can just throw one at one of the Cybeasts, safe in the knowledge that cyberworld buildings can be rebuilt much more easily than real world buildings can. He's not sure why real world buildings are so much more difficult to rebuild, but he doesn't want humans whining at him for breaking their fucking city while trying to save their ungrateful asses.

Besides, it's more fun to break stuff in the cyberworld.


The damage the Cybeasts did to DenTech City was bad enough, but here on their home turf, the damage is much, much worse.

As soon as SearchMan and the others arrive in Internet City, they're assaulted by the panicked screams of terrified NetNavis fleeing the two battling Cybeasts. There's no need to follow a trail of destruction here, because they can see the Cybeasts through the broken and toppling buildings easily.

"Let's go!" MegaMan starts heading straight toward the Cybeasts.

Bass follows him without hesitation, which doesn't surprise SearchMan. The independent Navi looks annoyed - no doubt he was looking forward to fighting one of the Cybeasts, but since all of their attacks in the real world did absolutely nothing, he's probably feeling cheated out of a good fight.

SearchMan exchanges a glance with Arcadia, and they follow, too. Arcadia takes to the air, already using his Holy Fire to create a couple of Bound Swords, and SearchMan sees Bass activating his Air Buster up ahead.

If Shooting Star and Darkness Overload didn't do anything, SearchMan has to wonder if Air Buster will be any better. He's not entirely sure of the exact power levels of Bass's attacks - all he really knows is that Darkness Overload is the most powerful attack Bass has access to, and the others are just varying degrees of pain and hurt for whoever's unlucky enough to be on the receiving end. He does, however, know that Air Buster's functionality is similar to the Vulcan battle chip in that it's a rapid-fire, multi-shot attack.

Maybe small, rapid attacks will do some damage to the battling Cybeasts. If that's the case, SearchMan thinks he should switch his Scope Gun's function over to machine gun instead of sniper. He prefers sniper, but if the need arises, he'll use machine gun.

The two Cybeasts have already managed to level several streets. SearchMan winces at the sight of the damage and comforts himself with the knowledge that Internet City can be rebuilt easily, though he feels nothing but sympathy for the poor humans, because their city isn't so easily rebuilt.

A great gust of wind blasts out from the bird Cybeast, and SearchMan braces himself against it. Arcadia shoots down from the sky and covers himself in his wings, protecting both himself and his fiery Bound Swords, while Bass simply faces the torrent of wind with an enraged scream, cloak flapping wildly around him. MegaMan braces himself like SearchMan, though he doesn't have claws to dig in with like Arcadia, and he certainly doesn't have Bass's rage-fuelled willpower, so he nearly gets blown away.

A lot of the fleeing NetNavis end up getting flung into the air by the blast of wind. SearchMan's instincts tell him to save them, but he forces himself to squash that down - the Cybeasts take priority, and besides, more than a few of the NetNavis who were flung into the air land more or less unharmed thanks to their abilities, and some of the others who didn't get blown away start running around to try and catch the others.

Satisfied that the civilian Navis can take care of themselves, SearchMan gets back to his feet and keeps going. He nearly stumbles when he spots a familiar face in the crowd - GutsMan, it seems, hasn't jacked out yet, and then he sees a flash of pink in the air and his systems go cold with dread when he realises that Roll must have been caught up in the attack as well, because she's up in the air and screaming.

"Roll!" MegaMan's seen her too. He puts on a surprising burst of speed and jumps, catches Roll before she can fall and get hurt, and sets her down as carefully as he can given the situation.

The Cybeasts are just up ahead. SearchMan leaves MegaMan to deal with Roll - hopefully he can convince her to jack out, because she's still holding that baby-Navi (Mimic said his name was Trill, didn't she?), and from what SearchMan knows, she has a bad habit of insisting on helping and then getting herself into trouble.

Arcadia speeds up a little, snapping his wings out, and then takes to the sky once again. He shoots through the air and comes to an abrupt stop directly between the two Cybeasts, twists around, and then flings his Bound Swords out at both of them.

The Bound Swords hit the Cybeasts' foreheads point-first, but they don't appear to be damaged at all. At least this time they actually do notice their new opponent - which turns out to be a bad thing, because now Arcadia is the sole focus of both overpowered Cybeasts.

SearchMan quickly switches his Scope Gun's function over to machine gun, takes aim at the wolf Cybeast, and pulls the trigger. His arm rattles from the rapid-fire blasts - this is why he doesn't like using the machine gun function - but his attack does what he needs it to.

That is, he gets the wolf Cybeast's attention. Which, now that he thinks about it, doesn't seem like such a smart move.

Bass unleashes a torrent of Air Buster blasts on the bird Cybeast, and it lets out a breathless screech as it turns to look at him.

SearchMan and Bass skid to a halt between the two Cybeasts, and stand back-to-back. Never in his entire existence did SearchMan ever think he would do something like this - he's faced down impossible opponents before, but never ones that couldn't actually be hurt.

The wolf Cybeast eyes SearchMan. Its eyes are about as blank as Dark Shadow's, but SearchMan can almost feel the cold malice coming from it.

"Right, so, we got their attention," SearchMan says, aiming at the wolf Cybeast and trying very hard not to let his voice shake. "What the hell was step two?"

"Blast them to fucking hell!" Bass snaps, and a low-pitched explosion of noise and energy tells SearchMan that he's just thrown out another Darkness Overload at the bird Cybeast.

"Your tactical insight is truly an inspiration," SearchMan sighs.

"He's got a point, though!" Arcadia calls down. Light flares from overhead as he fires out twin streams of Flashfire from his hands, aiming for both Cybeasts at the same time.

Sometimes SearchMan wonders what his life would be like if his friends weren't apparently insane.

Then again, he thinks as he takes aim with his Scope Gun, I'm doing the same thing they are. Doesn't that make me insane, too?

The only response is the rattling of his arm as he unleashes a rapid-fire machine gun blast of his Scope Gun. That's a resounding 'yes' if he's ever gotten one.

But for all their insanity, it seems these opponents are just far too powerful for them. Maybe their HP is too high for their attacks to do any visible damage, or maybe it's their defence that's too high - either way, nothing that SearchMan, Arcadia, or Bass do has any effect.

Is this what would have happened if we'd tried to fight Duo? SearchMan can't help but wonder. Does that make these Cybeasts digital gods, too? Or are they just that absurdly powerful?

Dammit, but he wishes ProtoMan were here. If nothing else, his ability to turn into the Poltergeist and pretty much level the playing field is definitely something they need right now. Based on what it said when they were in Duo's comet, the Poltergeist is on the same level as Duo - which means it could probably take down at least one of these Cybeasts, if not both of them. It could certainly take down Slur easily enough, even if it gave up the chance so Bass could have his revenge.

But ProtoMan isn't here. SearchMan refuses to blame ProtoMan for that - maybe having him here and going Poltergeist would make things much, much easier, but ProtoMan can't fight right now, and he could end up getting hurt if he tried to do anything he's definitely not ready for.

SearchMan would rather face a hopeless battle than watch one of his closest friends get hurt.

He grits his teeth, takes aim at the wolf Cybeast again, and-

Something hits the Cybeast with the strength of a speeding bullet. The wolf Cybeast staggers to the side, letting out a confused howl, and a building collapses on it.

SearchMan lowers his Scope Gun, gaping. He can feel Bass pressing against his back, feels the scrape of the fins on his helmet as he turns to look as well, and above them, Arcadia has stopped blasting out Holy Fire and is staring in the same direction.

The thing that hit the wolf Cybeast lands in front of the collapsed building on all fours. For a moment, SearchMan thinks it's the Poltergeist - then he realises the shape isn't rippling with shadows, and it has blue armour, which the Poltergeist definitely doesn't have. It's an animal-Navi of some kind, but it seems feral, and looks worryingly-similar to the wolf Cybeast it just knocked over, right down to the spiked tail.

The thing is letting out an odd two-tone growling. It crouches there for a moment, then lifts its head, and there's something very familiar about it that SearchMan just can't place.

Arcadia doesn't have that problem.

"MegaMan?" He drops down until he's hovering just barely a foot or two above them, jaw slack with shock.

"Mega-" SearchMan cuts himself off, staring at Arcadia, and then looks back at the animal-Navi. "That's MegaMan?"

"The fuck?" Bass demands. "Your Empath Program must be broken, owl! Last I checked, MegaMan isn't a fucking wolf!"

"It's definitely him, I can sense-"

The animal-Navi gets up out of its crouch. That silences them, mostly out of shock and the slight fear that it'll turn on them next, and then the wolf Cybeast bursts out of the debris of the collapsed building and looks at the animal-Navi.

It doesn't even get more than a couple of steps forward before the animal-Navi turns and rams it back into the debris. They're both out of sight for a moment, and then an odd kind of energy shines from within the pile of debris.

The energy jumps out and hovers in the air, then breaks apart to reveal a second animal-Navi - no, it's the same one, it just looks different now. It has the red armour of the bird Cybeast, the same metallic wings, and it floats down gently until its taloned feet touches the ground.

As if that simple touch is a signal of some kind, the animal-Navi rockets forward so fast that SearchMan barely even registers it moving. He just feels the wind pressure from its passing, and realises this feels almost exactly like the wind pressure from when Mimic was harassing them during the final Jet Vernier test.

As a bird, the animal-Navi is just as fast as Arcadia. Maybe even faster. That's . . . that's honestly a frightening thought.

It hits the bird Cybeast with as much force as it did the wolf Cybeast, knocking it into the air with ridiculous ease. The animal-Navi stops abruptly in mid-air and twists around, rocketing back down and slamming the bird Cybeast into the ground this time, and a cloud of dust mixed with disintegrating pixels explodes out from the impact.

SearchMan turns to stare, stunned utterly speechless. Even Bass is silent, for once - no cursing from him, no complaints about being cheated out of a good fight. He's too shocked.

Then a shape appears in the cloud of dust, and MegaMan stumbles out, eyes shut tight like he's in pain, holding the baby-Navi in his arms. He staggers to halt with a shuddering gasp, and then collapses.

"MegaMan!" Arcadia cries, darting forward.

He stops abruptly, wings beating rapidly to keep himself hovering in place, when the dust cloud clears up and reveals the bird Cybeast behind MegaMan. It's crouching, clearly wounded, and its blank eyes are fixed on MegaMan.

A crash from behind makes SearchMan half-turn, only to tense up when he sees that the wolf Cybeast has gotten to its feet and is staring at MegaMan as well. The Cybeasts seem to have put aside their apparent hatred of each other for the moment, in favour of focusing their attention on the NetNavi who took down both of them with astonishing ease.

The only sound is the ragged breaths of the two Cybeasts, and then suddenly they begin to flicker like ProtoMan's Navi-hologram does sometimes. He doesn't flicker in the cyberworld though, so seeing something like this here and now is just one more shock to add to the list.

They're vanishing again, SearchMan realises. But they clearly don't have the energy to materialise themselves - so that must mean they're going back to where they came from in the first place, wherever that is.

The two Cybeasts vanish from the cyberworld with faint, crackling static-like noises, and for a few moments, everything is calm.

Until Arcadia cries out again and takes off toward MegaMan. Bass mutters something about not knowing what's going on before following, and SearchMan has to blink a few times before he manages to snap himself out of his own shock and takes off after them.

The only sound aside from their rapid footsteps is the baby-Navi's high-pitched, happy giggling.