MegaMan hasn't really known him for that long, but he's gotten quite attached to Trill. The little baby-Navi might be a handful at times (most of the time), but he's adorable and MegaMan often finds himself unable to be annoyed with Trill because, well. Just look at Trill's face and say you'd be able to stay annoyed at that.
Sometimes, though, Trill really is a handful. No getting around it - the only time he's not causing some trouble or other is when he's asleep. And he's not asleep right now, even though it's two o'clock in the morning.
He's lucky tomorrow is Saturday. Meaning, there's no school. So even if he has to stay up all night to keep Trill from waking Lan up, or just to keep the baby-Navi out of trouble, MegaMan is . . . fine with that. Kinda.
Okay, he's not fine with it.
"Please go to sleep," he begs, keeping his voice as quiet as possible even as he tries to project some note of desperation into his tone in the faint hope that Trill will understand and go to sleep.
"Meh-meh-mah!" Trill babbles happily, not lowering his own voice at all.
"Shh!" MegaMan quickly glances at Lan, who's mercifully still asleep, and then sighs and looks back at Trill. "You'll wake Lan up. C'mon, Trill, be good and go to sleep, please . . ."
Trill giggles and does not go to sleep.
MegaMan heaves another sigh and wonders if he should try playing with Trill. Maybe that'd tire him out enough to make him go to sleep - and even if MegaMan himself doesn't get much sleep for this, at least he'll be keeping Trill busy enough that he won't risk accidentally waking Lan up.
"MegaMan?"
The sudden voice still makes him jump, even though it's quiet. MegaMan whirls around, systems sparking with mild panic, and lets a breath of relief when he sees it's just ProtoMan.
"Sorry," MegaMan says sheepishly. "Did, uh . . . did we wake you guys up?" He's only just remembered that four of the people who live in this house have very sensitive hearing - Arcadia not so much, but definitely sensitive enough that he'd be woken up the same as his brother and operators when MegaMan and Trill are making so much noise.
Well, he wasn't trying to make this much noise. Honestly, it's a wonder Lan still hasn't woken up, though he does usually sleep pretty deeply . . .
"We were already awake, just waiting to . . . y'know, fall asleep," ProtoMan replies, making a vague gesture. His eyes flash in the darkness as he glances at Trill, still babbling away happily. "Um . . . how come you're not asleep? You're not half-nocturnal like we are."
"Well . . ." MegaMan glances at Trill and lets out another sigh. "He . . . he won't go to sleep. I was gonna try playing with him, you know, to tire him out?"
"That'd tire you out, too," ProtoMan points out, tilting his head.
"I-I know, but . . . I mean, I can't think of anything else. And I don't want to wake Lan up by accident . . ."
ProtoMan hums quietly, tilting his head the other way. Without his helmet on, his expressions are much easier to read - he looks concerned, though MegaMan thinks he can just about detect a faint spark of amusement in his friend's mismatched cat-eyes.
"Hey . . . what if I tried?"
MegaMan stares at him. ProtoMan looks back at him, but after a few moments of silence, he blinks and looks away, and although it's almost too dark to see it, the light of their Navi-holograms allows MegaMan to see a faint tinge of red on ProtoMan's cheeks.
"Like you were doing when you were babysitting him?" MegaMan asks. ProtoMan nods, still not looking at him. "Well, it's worth a try. Everything else I've tried hasn't worked, so if this works, well . . . I'm not gonna complain."
He makes to hand Trill over, but ProtoMan gestures for him to stop. Puzzled, MegaMan does so, and then realises what ProtoMan actually means when he lays down, curling up, and then looks at MegaMan expectantly.
Ah, right. When ProtoMan was babysitting Trill, he had the baby-Navi snuggled in his hair. That seems to have worked to make Trill fall asleep before, so it might work again - and if it doesn't, Trill was clearly comfortable enough in ProtoMan's hair that he didn't want to leave, so either way, this'll help to keep Trill quiet and out of trouble.
MegaMan sets Trill down in front of ProtoMan, and watches the baby-Navi crawl over to him. ProtoMan lowers his head so his chin is resting on the bed, watching Trill quietly, and Trill reaches out and grasps a few thick strands of ProtoMan's long, messy fringe.
At first MegaMan kinda panics, because he thinks Trill's about to yank on ProtoMan's hair like he yanked on Arcadia's feathers. But then he stops, blinking in surprise, as Trill simply uses ProtoMan's fringe to pull himself up. He crawls over ProtoMan's head - what's weird is that ProtoMan doesn't seem to mind at all, and even keeps still to let Trill do as he pleases - and keeps going, clambering over ProtoMan's head onto his back, and when he reaches a spot he appears to like, Trill buries himself inside the thick mess of white hair.
He's gone within the blink of an eye, and MegaMan just . . . stares. After a few moments, Trill pops his head back out, making a quiet, content noise as he snuggles into ProtoMan's hair like he's snuggling into a blanket or a nest or something.
" . . . Huh," MegaMan says, blinking. He sits down, and then lets out a quiet laugh and looks at ProtoMan, raising an eyebrow. "So, what was that about not being qualified for babysitting?"
"Shut up," ProtoMan mutters, looking away. Though his blush is a little stronger than before, there's a small smile on his lips.
MegaMan can't suppress his own smile. However much fun it is to tease ProtoMan about these things, he can't deny how grateful he really is - they've found something that'll keep Trill content and quiet, and ProtoMan doesn't seem to mind being that something. He even appears to be enjoying it.
Doesn't matter what ProtoMan says, the fact that he raised Chaud and looked after Arcadia - and Mimic, to some extent - definitely qualifies him for babysitting duty. At the very least, he has the experience needed to look after a baby, even if that experience is from taking care of a human toddler, an owl-Navi, and a girl from another reality.
"Thank you, ProtoMan," MegaMan says, dropping all the teasing so he can be sincere.
ProtoMan blinks at him, and his smile gets a bit bigger. "No problem."
He glances to the side, where his shadows have just been floating around with content laziness, and they form up into Dark Shadow. A moment passes by, and then Dark Shadow flickers and vanishes.
"Where'd it go?" MegaMan asks curiously.
"I asked it to let my operators and my brother know where I am," ProtoMan replies. "Just in case they get worried."
"Ah." MegaMan nods. That checks out - of course the twins and Arcadia would get worried if ProtoMan didn't show up after . . . well, he probably came here to see what was going on, actually.
MegaMan yawns suddenly. It surprises him - he hadn't realised exactly how tired he is until right now, during a moment of relative peace and quiet. He blinks and rubs his eyes, then shakes his head to try and get rid of the fuzziness of being tired.
"Go to sleep," ProtoMan advises him. "Trill'll probably fall asleep himself sooner or later, so you don't need to worry about him."
"Thanks," MegaMan murmurs, stifling another yawn. "I ever . . . tell you h-how . . . how grateful I am that you're my friend?"
"No," ProtoMan replies. "Not that I remember. You don't need to say it, anyway."
"M'sayin' it." He can't fight it anymore - he lets out another yawn, and nearly falls over when he can't quite manage to open his eyes properly afterwards. "I'm . . . really . . . grateful . . ."
His vision dims and he feels sleep mode coming on. Some NetNavis go into sleep mode like humans sometimes do - they don't remember falling asleep, they just wake up the next morning or something. MegaMan's one of the few Navis who actually knows when he's about to go into sleep mode, but he's too tired to do anything about it. Not that he wants to, anyway.
He feels a gentle hand against his chest, stopping him from falling over, and is then laid down carefully. Something rough but strangely soft at the same time flicks across his cheek, and he recognises it as ProtoMan's tongue - but his first reaction isn't disgust, because ProtoMan's a cat-Navi and that's what cat-Navis do, isn't it? It feels comforting, anyway.
An odd kind of chill washes over him, heralding the return of Dark Shadow, and then the chill moves away and settles down nearby. Only ProtoMan is comforted by that kind of coldness, but it's nice to know that there's an extra set of eyes - even if Dark Shadow's eyes . . . aren't really typical - watching Trill while MegaMan's asleep.
He feels ProtoMan's tongue gently licking his helmet now, and hums quietly, smiling. Sleep mode finally comes to him, and as he willingly falls into it, he hears ProtoMan starting to purr.
Mimic remembers that in the anime, MegaMan had been absolutely exhausted after trying to get Trill to go to sleep at one point. That doesn't seem to be the case now, though - he looks a bit tired, sure, but it's more because he was up until the time when Mimic and Chaud normally go to sleep, rather than staying up to the point where he gets that horrendous look of pure exhaustion.
And that's because of ProtoMan, apparently. They'd heard MegaMan begging Trill to be quiet in the middle of the night, and also heard Trill . . . basically not doing that, and ProtoMan had offered to go and see if MegaMan needed any help. He didn't come back, and it was only when Dark Shadow showed up to sign a message to them - 'us stay with blue friend to make baby sleep' - that they relaxed and were able to actually fall asleep themselves.
So, MegaMan doesn't look absolutely exhausted, and apparently Trill really likes ProtoMan's hair and uses it as a bed whenever he can. Which is adorable. Mimic's seen the picture Anetta took on Chaud's PET, and when she said it looked like how Zorua sleeps in Zoroark's fur in the Master of Illusions movie, Chaud told her that's exactly what Anetta said - and then, much to Mimic's delight, he said they'd watched the actual movie, so now he knows what that means, too.
They sent that picture to everyone on their friends list, much to ProtoMan's intense embarrassment.
There isn't much for them to do today, not even homework (for once), so Mimic and Lan head to SciLab while Mom takes Chaud to the hospital. On the way to SciLab, they meet Maylu, who decides to come with them . . . for some reason . . . Mimic's not entirely sure. Maybe Maylu's just as bored as they are, or something.
Since Dad's busy, the three of them wander around the building. For lack of better things to do, really, and then they come across one of the public labs - well, public in the sense that it's more open than some of the labs Dad usually works in, so there's more traffic in here. The actual public - meaning civilians - aren't usually allowed in here, but Mimic and Lan are Net Savers, and Maylu is with them.
Lan and Maylu find a table with a couple of chairs to sit on, but Mimic sees a much more appealing place to relax - namely, a computer console nearby. It looks familiar, though she's not entirely sure why, although she has spent enough time in SciLab that she knows the layout almost by heart now. Maybe she recognises from when she was basically living here a few months ago.
"He went to sleep, and he's been asleep ever since," MegaMan is saying. Mimic is only half paying attention, mostly just zoning out, but she knows he's telling Maylu and Roll about what happened with Trill last night. Or earlier this morning, whichever.
"Wow, really?" Roll looks impressed, which kinda makes sense since she's only really seen Trill while he's crying or something.
"Yeah, he really likes ProtoMan's hair," MegaMan laughs. "Or he likes sleeping in it, anyway." He hops down off Lan's shoulder, landing next to Lan's PET on the surface of the table, and reaches into the screen to pull out a flattened pixelated image of baby Trill. "I put him into sleep-compression just in case. If he wakes up, I'll be alerted immediately."
"Aww!" Roll coos, wriggling happily. "He looks so cute!"
"He's really been sleeping all this time?" Maylu puts her elbows on the table and laces her fingers together, laying her chin on top. "You know, I've heard that babies who sleep a lot will grow up faster."
"NetNavis don't grow up, though," Lan points out.
Mimic jolts back into sudden attentiveness at that, blinking. Ah, she never told them about Trill being able to grow, did she? Oh well, they'll find out on their own. Besides, what good would it do to try and explain something like that? The anime never really explained why or how Trill grew up when NetNavis aren't supposed to be able to do that - maybe it has something to do with Trill being the Synchroniser, but she has no idea.
"Hey there, Mimic."
Mimic jolts again, this time out of shock, and she shoots Famous a glare as he strolls into the public lab.
"You people just love givin' me gimme a fuckin' heart attack, don't you?" she hisses.
Famous gives her a mystified look. "What?"
"First Manabe an' now you . . ." Mimic grumbles. "Fucker."
That only serves to make Famous even more confused, which Mimic finds very satisfying. Revenge via confusion for startling her? Yeah, she'll take it. She practically thrives on messing with people.
"Hey, Lan," Famous says, glancing over at him. "And Maylu, hello!"
"Hi, Mr. Famous!" they both reply cheerfully.
Famous gives them an amused but slightly pained look. "Guys, c'mon, how many times have I told you-"
"-it's just Famous," Mimic interrupts, mimicking his voice.
That startles him, and she finds her revenge complete.
"Right, mimicry, I honestly forgot about that," Famous mutters. He clears his throat and looks around, as if he's expecting to see someone else. "Chaud's not here?"
"Nope," Mimic replies.
Famous blinks. "Okay . . . where is he, then?"
"Therapy."
Famous blinks again, and then his expression softens a little. "Ah. Right." He settles down on the chair at the console Mimic is sitting on. "Don't you also have therapy, Mimic?"
"In the afternoon," she replies. "Chaud needs it more'n I do, so he goes first."
"Ah, of course."
"Did y'need him for somethin'?" Mimic asks, tilting her head.
"Well . . . not him, exactly, it's just . . ." Famous looks at her with an awkward smile. "I actually was hoping to speak to ProtoMan. About his helmet, that is."
"ProtoMan's helmet?" Arcadia repeats. "Is there something wrong with it . . . ?"
"Oh, no, of course not. I've just noticed he hasn't really been wearing it lately - in fact, I haven't seen him wearing it since you kids went to Kiyobetsu. I was just wondering what happened to it, really."
"S'inside Dark Shadow," Mimic tells Famous.
He blinks, and then a look of comprehension comes onto his face. "Ah, right, it has storage capacity, doesn't it? I'd nearly forgotten, to be honest. I think of it as more of a support program of sorts, though I suppose it technically is one-"
They're interrupted by another scientist - one who Mimic has seen around but hasn't really spoken to. "Hey, Famous!" he calls, coming over from the entrance. "You've got a visitor!"
"A visitor, for me?" Famous looks puzzled. "That's weird . . . Most of the visitors we get tend to be for Dr. Hikari, not me."
"Well, she said she wanted to talk to you, so . . ." The scientist shrugs.
"She?" If anything, Famous looks even more puzzled at that. "Is it Manabe?"
"No, she said her name was-"
"Famey! Famey!"
Lan and Maylu blink and exchange a bemused glance. "Famey?" they repeat incredulously.
A woman comes running into the lab, and this time, Mimic easily recognises the familiar feeling she gets - because she knows this woman from the anime, of course. Makoto, the inventor of CopyBots, and a pretty important character in the Beast series even if she didn't show up that much. Mimic kinda liked her, from what few appearances the woman had.
"Makoto!?" Famous gapes at her, apparently so stunned that he can't even stand up from his seat. "I haven't seen you in months, I didn't expect-"
"Oh, of course, I've been really busy!" Makoto laughs, bouncing to a halt when she's close enough. "You know, with my-" She suddenly breaks off, looking at Mimic. "Oh, hello, I don't believe I've met you before."
That abrupt change in topic startles Mimic, and all she can do is offer a slightly nervous grin.
Which turns out to be a very bad idea, because a moment later, Makoto is suddenly right in her face, grabbing her mouth and holding it open. Mimic gags out a startled yelp, and she sees Lan and Maylu over Makoto's shoulder, looking just as startled as they jump to their feet.
"Oh wow, your teeth are so sharp!" Makoto exclaims, looking Mimic over and in general just invading her personal space. "Slitted pupils, too, and pointed ears . . . How fascinating!" She tugs on Mimic's ears, and damn that kinda stings a little.
Famous jolts like he's been shocked, scrambling out of his seat. "M-Makoto, don't-"
That jolts Mimic out of her own shock, and her first instinct is to defend herself, so that's what she does.
She brings up a leg without thinking, feels the impact of her foot on Makoto's face, and manages to kick the woman away from her. Only when she hears Makoto cry out and sees her covering her face with her hands does Mimic realise what she did, and although shame and the urge to apologise burn through her, she instead jumps off the console and darts straight over to Lan.
It's easy to hide behind her adoptive brother because he's bigger than she is, but she still half-crouches anyway, peering out from behind him to keep an eye on Makoto.
"Mimic?" Lan glances at her over his shoulder, looking worried.
"M-Makoto!" Famous yelps. He's looking between Mimic and Makoto, like he can't decide who to help first.
"Ow . . ." Makoto mutters. Her voice is muffled by her hands. "Okay, I guess I kinda deserved that . . ." She rubs her face carefully, like she's trying to ease the pain out, and then takes her hands away. There's a faint red mark where Mimic's shoe hit her face, and her nose is bleeding a little.
"H-here," Famous says, producing a tissue from somewhere and holding it out to her.
"Oh, thank you." Makoto gratefully takes it and uses it to wipe away the little bit of blood.
It's not too much, but seeing that is enough to make Mimic's shame grow stronger than her instinct to protect herself. She hadn't really meant to do that - maybe she should've just shoved Makoto away instead of kicking her. At least shoving wouldn't have risked breaking someone's nose.
"Ahh . . ." Makoto sighs. The blood is gone now, but the red mark is still there. "Alright, note to self - don't randomly grab people's faces or they'll kick you . . ."
"I think that's just a Mimic thing, actually," Famous tells her.
"Mimic thing? What mimic thing?"
"Her." Famous gestures to Mimic, and she retreats a little further behind Lan when Makoto glances over.
"Oh," Makoto says, "her name is Mimic. Kind of a . . . an odd name." She steps forward and offers up a sheepish smile. "I'm really sorry about that, sometimes I'm just too curious for my own good, and then I don't even think about the consequences . . . Again, sorry!" She clasps her hands together and bows.
Mimic grunts, ducking fully behind Lan, who shoots her another worried glance before turning back to Makoto.
"S-sorry about that, she's, uh . . . she's not that good with people she doesn't know," he says sheepishly. "She didn't mean to kick you." Which is true, mostly, so Mimic doesn't mind him apologising for her.
"Though you really shouldn't go around grabbing people like that," Maylu scolds, waggling her finger at Makoto. "It's not very nice, lady!"
Makoto laughs nervously and rubs the back of her head. "Of course, of course, I'm very sorry . . ." The fact that she's being scolded by a twelve-year-old (no, wait, Maylu's thirteen, Mimic remembers going to her birthday party earlier this year) doesn't seem to bother her, though that might just be because she's too sheepish to care.
Or maybe it's because she's just as laid-back as Famous is. As . . . most of the scientists in this place are, actually. Mimic never really noticed before, but at lot of the scientists who work at SciLab are pretty chill, except when there's a crisis, anyway.
"So, uh, I should . . . introduce you all properly." Famous's attempt to change the subject is poorly-concealed at best, but at least he's making an effort to move on from the awkwardness. "Everyone, this is Makoto Aoki. She's a brilliant scientist, and she's also the daughter of my former teacher."
"I'm also Famey's ex-girlfriend," Makoto adds cheerfully.
"Makoto!" Famous exclaims sharply.
There's a moment of silence in which everyone digests that. Mimic, of course, already knew - though her opinion on that has been a little soured by Makoto trying to invade her personal space like that. Regardless of whether or not she actually feels like she should apologise for kicking the woman.
"Your ex, huh?" one of the nearby scientists asks, a sly grin sliding onto his face.
Famous shoots him a glare and clears his throat. "So, Makoto, what do you need?"
"Well, I have a problem - a puzzle that needs solving," Makoto says. She reaches into her bag and takes out a small, flat device. Mimic only recognises it as a data disc - even if it's a rectangle shape rather than a proper disc - because she's seen a lot of them around SciLab. "And I remember a certain someone being an absolute whiz at puzzles!"
"Really?" Famous's tone makes Mimic think he's blinking under those glasses of his. "Who would that be?"
Makoto sighs and gives him a light slap on the shoulder. "You, you dolt! You still love puzzles, don't you?"
"Oh, yes, of course!" Famous laughs sheepishly. "Sorry, I was . . . my mind was . . . ahem. Shall we?" He gestures to the console he was sitting at before.
Lan didn't know Famous used to have a girlfriend. Heck, he didn't even know Famous knew any scientists who weren't affiliated with SciLab - but, well, he supposes it makes sense. Dad had told him once that he'd hired Famous for his unique skills and intelligence, so of course Famous would've had to have picked those up from somewhere.
Well, he could've just been born gifted, or something. But even if you're gifted with something, you still need some kind of training or a teacher of some sort to help you figure things out. Especially when that 'something' is science and NetNavis and all that stuff.
"I can't believe it." Maylu's expression makes Lan a little wary - he's only ever seen that look on her face when she forces him to watch one of those weird romantic movies with her. "Famous has an ex-girlfriend? Ooh, do you think he still has feelings for her?"
"Uhh . . ." Lan glances at Mimic, though he's not hoping for much insight from her - she's made it pretty clear to everyone that she has basically zero interest in romance, though apparently Raika is an exception (mainly so Mimic and Chaud can tease him as much as possible).
True to her character, she's not even paying attention to what Maylu's saying. Her attention is fixed on Makoto and Famous, sure, but her eyes are half-closed and her expression is mostly blank. She looks like she's zoning out again. It wasn't too worrying before, but after what just happened with Makoto . . .
"Lan!" Maylu calls sharply, jolting his attention away from his sister.
"Um," he says.
Maylu sighs and rolls her eyes. "Were you even paying attention?"
Unfortunately, is the first thing Lan thinks. He'd rather not risk Maylu's wrath if he said that out loud, although Mimic might jump to his defence like she did before. It's probably not a good sign that he has to rely on someone else to defend him from his best friend getting angry at him, but Mimic doesn't seem to mind.
"I was, yeah," he confirms. "Famous's ex-girlfriend and feelings and . . . all that." Stuff he's not entirely sure he has any interest in, at least not at the moment.
He's thought about it, sure. Who hasn't?
Well, he thinks, with another glance at Mimic, he knows some people who probably haven't bothered to think about it. Not in a personal sense, at least. Besides, he's way too busy trying to stop the world from being destroyed every other week, not to mention school and homework and his regular Net Saver duties and all that.
Maylu was one of Duo's chosen fourteen, but she's not a Net Saver and hasn't expressed any desire to become one. So she's got more time to think about that kinda stuff.
It seems like Maylu doesn't see it that way, though. "Honestly," she sighs, with another eye-roll. "Boys are so useless at romance, aren't they, Mimic?"
Mimic doesn't reply for several moments. It's only when Arcadia gently prods her that she blinks and looks over.
"What?" she asks.
"Boys," Maylu says, gesturing to Lan. "They're useless at romance, right?"
Mimic gets that deadpan look on her face that she only uses when she thinks her friends are being idiots. "Your idea of romance comes from fiction. Which is, y'know, not real. Think what you mean is that Lan is useless at your type of romance."
"But, you're a girl too!" Maylu protests.
"Thanks for noticing."
"So you should be interested in-"
"I don't have to be interested in shit," Mimic interrupts. Lan hasn't seen her like this for a while, so it's a little startling to see her unleashing this side of herself on Maylu. "My thing is playin' games an' keepin' the world from murderin' itself every so often."
"I don't think that's the right term," Arcadia speaks up, frowning.
Mimic shrugs. "Don't matter." She gestures to Famous and Makoto. "Just like their romantic life - or lack of - don't matter." And now she gives Maylu a look that's too flat to be a glare, but feels like one anyway. "So stop tryin' to do what you're doin' an' leave 'em alone. They're tryin' to work over there. You ain't helpin'."
Maylu puffs out her cheeks, and for a horrible moment, Lan is terrified that she'll start shouting. But this is Mimic - and Mimic does not react well to people yelling at her. There's a fifty-fifty chance of whether she'll just shut down or react more violently than even Maylu is capable of. And aside from that, no one likes yelling at either of the twins, mostly because of the terrible abuse they've both suffered. It just doesn't feel right, regardless of how they're acting.
So all Maylu does is puff out an angry sigh and turn away pointedly. Lan gets the feeling that she probably won't be speaking to Mimic until she's cooled off, though that's probably a good thing considering how short of a fuse Mimic seems to have at the moment. Between the two of them, Lan would honestly rather have Maylu angry than Mimic - at least Maylu doesn't bite the people she's annoyed at.
He slides off his chair and settles down next to Mimic on the floor. He might understand the emotions and thoughts going through both girls' heads, but he doesn't really like seeing his sister and his best friend fighting - especially when it's over something so ridiculous as Famous's love life (or lack of, as Mimic said).
"Are you okay?" Lan asks carefully. "You, uh . . . normally you wouldn't react like that." He glances at Makoto, who's occupied with the holographic screen over the console - it looks like it's showing an energy program of some sort, judging by the patterns. "Is it because she scared you earlier?"
Mimic blinks slowly, then draws her knees up to her chest and rests her chin on top of them. That's a 'yes', then. Lan knows her well enough to know that much.
He puts an arm around her shoulders and pulls her against his side in a one-armed hug. Only when he does that does he realise how tense she is, and he reflects that it's probably a good thing she has her own therapy session in the afternoon, because she's definitely gonna need it.
He does kinda wish Chaud were here, though. He'd definitely know how to calm Mimic down - and he probably could've prevented her from getting this worked up in the first place.
But since Chaud's not here - through no fault of his own, because he needs the therapy stuff as much as Mimic does, maybe even more so - Lan'll just have to do his best. That's what a brother is supposed to do. And it's a good thing that Arcadia's here, too, because his presence seems to have a calming effect on her.
She'd probably feel better if she had Ragdoll, too, Lan thinks. But Ragdoll's with Chaud at the moment - the twins usually take him with them whenever they go to therapy, but they have separate sessions (though they do share a therapist), so one of them has to do without him for the duration of the other's session.
Lan sits on the floor with Mimic for a while, absently watching Famous and Makoto working. One of the other scientists brings in lunch for everyone, including Lan, Mimic, and Maylu, and Famous and Makoto don't even take a break from working through the energy patterns while they eat. That's some dedication right there.
He sees Famous glancing over at Makoto while she's drinking something from a can, and the blush on his face is evident even from this angle. Most people would probably assume that Lan is too dense to figure out romance stuff - Maylu in particular seems convinced of that, regardless of what Mimic says - but he isn't, really, and he can tell when one person is clearly attracted to another like that.
Or, in this case, still attracted. They might be ex-girlfriend and ex-boyfriend, but Famous definitely still has feelings for her. So . . . Maylu was right, then. Kinda. Lan's not entirely sure what to make of that.
A sharp alert tone breaks Lan out of his odd thoughts. It looks like a new combination for that energy pattern has been found. He perks up, interested, trying to get a glimpse of the holographic screen to see what form this new combination will take. They've all been pretty interesting so far - snowflakes, odd random shapes, all kinds of things.
"This is . . ." Famous sounds awed, and Lan cranes his neck, still trying to see.
When he finally does, he stops and blinks. The pattern this time seems to be an infinite one - it's a sort of ring that flows and moves constantly. He's too far away from the console to see what number this combination comes up with, but judging by Famous's reaction, it's a pretty big one.
"Amazing!" Makoto exclaims, grinning at the screen. "That's it, that's exactly what I'm looking for!"
"But, Makoto . . . isn't this Over Technology?" Famous sounds pretty bemused, though the awe is easy to hear in his tone.
"Over Technology?" Mimic murmurs. Her expression hasn't changed much, but her eyes have narrowed a little, and Lan recognises the confusion.
"It's a really advanced type of computer technology," he explains quietly. "It's supposed to be super difficult to make, and machines that use it require a lot of energy to run. Even SciLab doesn't have any Over Technology machines. I know there's a research facility somewhere up north that specialises in it, though . . ."
"Hm," Mimic mumbles, tilting her head.
That thoughtful look on her face makes Lan wonder if she actually has heard about Over Technology before - and if so, it's easy to guess from where. This must have been an episode in her anime, then, though clearly it didn't explain what Over Technology is. He's tempted to ask her about this episode, but he's distracted by Famous and Makoto.
"Did you really make this?" Famous asks, looking up at the woman. "I know those CopyBots of yours require a lot of energy, but I didn't think you'd need to create something like Over Technology to make them work . . ."
Makoto doesn't answer him. Instead, she leans forward and rapidly types something into the keyboard, then slots out the data disc and runs off.
She stops a few steps away from the entrance to the lab and looks over her shoulder. "Thanks for the help, Famey!"
"Wait, Makoto!" Famous exclaims, jumping to his feet to chase after her.
Lan leans forward a little to see through the doorway. He's able to see Famous slowing to a stop just outside the lab, hand stretched out like he's trying to grab Makoto before she leaves - but she's already long gone, and there's no hope of Famous calling her back. She seemed way too excited about that Over Technology combination to even listen to anything he tried to say.
"Will she be okay?" Lan wonders, mostly just to himself.
Which is why he's surprised when Mimic speaks up and actually answers him.
"She won't be hurt, if that's what you mean."
Lan blinks at her. He's tempted to ask what she's talking about - because that sounded kinda ominous to him - but she's not likely to respond again. She doesn't look entirely there, like she's lost in her thoughts.
Oh, well. He'll find out what's gonna happen sooner or later anyway - whether Mimic'll be the one to tell him or if he finds out when it happens. Either way, they'll still have to deal with . . . whatever's going on. And they will, like always.
Mimic said Makoto wouldn't get hurt, and she meant it. She doesn't remember Makoto actually being hurt, anyway - just kidnapped and threatened. So, she didn't lie to Lan, because she never said Makoto would be okay, just that she wouldn't get hurt.
It's just a little bit difficult dragging up the emotions to care at the moment. That little . . . incident . . . seems to have drained her energy, which is something she didn't think could happen anymore. It doesn't help that she also snapped at Maylu, and she'll have to apologise about that later, though that doesn't mean she wasn't right. She just could've worded it better, is all.
Her therapy session with Mizuki in the afternoon helps. Especially since Mizuki can easily tell that something's gotten her all twisted up, but she can't really get the words out - verbally or through sign language - so Mizuki lets her spend the session cuddling Ragdoll and listening to his purring.
It doesn't make her calm down entirely, but, as she said, it helps. Going back home and having an early dinner helps too - Mom already knows something's bothering her, even if she's not talking about it, so as soon as they get back, Mom cooks up a thing of noodles for Mimic and then lets her kind of . . . just chill in her orbit for a while. That helps, too.
And then her twin brother does the rest.
That wasn't very nice of her, Chaud says later in the evening, after Mimic has shown him the memory of Makoto's arrival. At least she apologised, though.
She's a technology scientist, not a biologist, Mimic grumbles. She absently plays with the wing of her Arcadia plushie - it's just soft fabric rather than fluffy feathers, so it's nowhere near as soft as the real thing, but it still feels nice. Why the fuck did she try and do that to me, anyway?
"I think all scientists just have an innate curiosity in them," Arcadia remarks. "I couldn't really sense any actual ill intentions from her - just overwhelming curiosity."
"Overwhelming to the point where she forgot to not be an asshole," Bass scoffs, which is ironic coming from him. "If I'd been there-"
"You weren't, and we all thank the maker for that." Arcadia lets out a faint sigh and shakes his head. "I'd hate to think how that Makoto woman would've reacted to some random NetNavi screaming and cursing at her after being kicked in the face like that."
"I'm not some random fucking NetNavi!"
"You would be in her point of view," ProtoMan points out.
Bass huffs, subsiding - mainly because it's ProtoMan, Mimic suspects. "Yeah, well, that woman'd better be grateful I wasn't there."
Ignoring the fact that Makoto doesn't even know he exists in the first place. But the thought is still appreciated - and Mimic can amuse herself with imagining how Makoto would've reacted if Bass really had blown up at her for grabbing Mimic like that.
She likes the woman, of course she does. Makoto is actually a nice lady. But it's kinda hard to have a good opinion of someone after . . . that.
She and Chaud are already wary of scientists they don't know, mainly because of their cat-abilities and the connection between their souls. No one's really tried to capture them and study or experiment on them against their will or anything, but they both agree it's best if they steer clear of any potential . . . well, captors, for lack of better terms.
But, as Chaud said, at least Makoto apologised. And she didn't try to press for answers on why Mimic doesn't look entirely human, either. That might just be because she's too focused on her work with the CopyBots and stuff, but it's still something.
"I think you need a distraction from this," Chaud announces, which is startling mostly because Mimic hadn't expected him to speak out loud suddenly.
"Distraction?" Mimic repeats. She's not entirely sure if that's a good idea at the moment, because she's still debating what to do about all the stuff Makoto is about to get involved in. Probably already is involved in, actually, since it might already be happening at this very moment. The anime was never really good on specific times.
"Yeah," Chaud agrees.
He tugs on her sleeves and she lets herself be pulled up. Ragdoll brushes against her legs at the same time, and it's only through practised ease - and the fact that she's a cat-girl - that she's able to step around him without losing her balance.
"C'mon, let's play Pokken Tournament," her twin brother says. "You can show me a whole new way of getting my ass kicked."
"I call dibs on Mewtwo!" Bass immediately declares, sticking his arm in the air.
"Weavile," ProtoMan adds, bouncing on the balls of his clawed feet eagerly.
"What?" Mimic gapes at him, now entirely distracted from her thoughts and focused on ProtoMan stealing her go-to character for fighting in Pokken Tournament. "The fuck you will, that's my guy!"
"I don't see your name on it," ProtoMan taunts, sticking his tongue out at her.
"At least we don't need to fight over who we play as," Chaud jokes, glancing at Arcadia.
"Decidueye for me, Scizor for you," Arcadia agrees, nodding.
"Just be Blaziken like you always are!" Mimic exclaims, ignoring them.
"I'm only ever Blaziken 'cus you take Weavile before I can!" ProtoMan retorts. "You be Blaziken for a change!"
"Go fuck yourself!"
"Well, at least she's distracted," Chaud comments dryly.
No matter how much Mimic needed the distraction, there is a downside - she completely forgets her worries about what's happening with Makoto, and she only remembers the next morning when she and Lan get a call from Famous about a monster that apparently ripped up part of the city during the night. Since the only 'monsters' they've ever dealt with have been materialised cyberworld beings, it falls to them to investigate this, though they don't need to do much investigating since Mimic already knows what happened. Even if she, you know, kinda forgot about it.
MegaMan leaves baby Trill with ProtoMan again, seeing as how he's surprisingly good at being a babysitter - though maybe it's not that surprising, considering ProtoMan raised Chaud and looked after Mimic and Arcadia when they needed it. Before they head out, Mimic shows Chaud a streaming website so he can find one of the Pokemon movies to watch, since Trill apparently liked the ones they watched at Anetta's house (at least until he fell asleep, anyway).
With Trill safely out of the way and Chaud and ProtoMan given the important duty of babysitting him (it is actually important, regardless of how sarcastic that sounds), Mimic and Lan head for the area of the city that the so-called 'monster' destroyed. Bass comes with them on account of the fact that he might get to fight the 'monster', and no one objects. Partly because they're not stupid enough to do so, but mostly because the extra set of hands (not to mention power) will definitely be helpful.
"Holy crap . . ." Lan looks around in awe, gaping at the destruction. "This is nearly as bad as what the Cybeasts did when they showed up . . ."
"And it was just one Zoanoroid, you said?" Arcadia asks, glancing at Mimic.
"His name's Punk," she replies, nodding. "Can't remember which side he's on, but I don't think it matters much anyway." He'll be their only opponent, if things go the way they did in the anime. She's kinda hoping they will, because she'd rather not try and fight two Zoanoroids at once when Punk himself was such a problem on his own.
"It shouldn't matter," MegaMan agrees. He pauses for a moment, tilting his head slightly, and then speaks again. "That's right, yeah. Dark MegaMan just reminded me that the witnesses reported seeing only one monster - so it should just be this Zoano Punk guy. Which side he's on doesn't matter if it's just one of them."
"Great!" Lan exclaims, grinning. Then he kinda freezes. "Well, I mean, it's not great great, but . . . uh . . ."
"We know what you mean," MegaMan reassures him, and Lan looks so comically relieved that Mimic almost laughs at him.
"Awesome," Lan says, and then winces. "And I'm doing it again . . ." He sighs and looks at Mimic. "So, where's this Punk guy, anyway?"
That's the one thing that kinda throws Mimic off. She knows he's at the university - but which one wasn't exactly specified in the anime. There's several in the city, and two of them are close enough to this part of the city that Punk could've come from either one of them, or he might've come from further away, because he was just running and jumping all over the place.
It had been Chaud who'd figured out where to go. Lan had found footage from a security camera that showed Punk's rampage, and he'd recognised Makoto, who Punk had kidnapped and dragged around with him. That was how Chaud figured out where to go - but they don't have any of those options now, because Chaud's not the vice president of IPC and doesn't have access to any of his old resources anymore. Not that she'll ever complain about that. She'll take her twin being safe over an easy investigation any day.
"A university, but I dunno which one," Mimic eventually says. "Makoto works there, though. I know that."
"Makoto? That lady from yesterday?" Arcadia asks. Mimic nods. "Okay. Scientists who work at universities tend to be listed as staff members even if they don't actually work for the university, so I can check the staff lists for the nearest universities on the internet."
That's as good a plan as any, so Mimic finds the nearest jack-in port - which turns out to be a street light that's somehow still functioning despite being bent way out of shape.
"I'll be back soon," Arcadia says, and Mimic jacks him in to find out where Makoto is.
"C'mon, let's look around." Lan tugs her away from the bent street light. "I know we already know what happened, but it wouldn't hurt to check for any security footage anyway - we need something to show for the investigation, after all."
"Even if it's right, we can't just put down 'Mimic said so' in an official Net Saver report," MegaMan agrees.
Which is very true, so Mimic has no objections. Bass does, though, and he grumbles the entire time, but they're all so used to it by now that it's easy to tune him out.
They quickly locate the nearest security camera, and MegaMan checks through the footage from last night until he finds a video of the 'monster' rampaging through the city. It might even be the same footage Lan found in the anime, because they also see Makoto tied up in Punk's clutches. This is definitely good enough evidence for the investigation, so MegaMan quickly creates a copy of the video for later.
Arcadia comes back after that, and he directs them toward one of the universities nearby. The DenTech University of Science, it's called - which is fitting enough, considering Makoto works there. Famous probably went there when he was a student, too, which is likely how he met Makoto in the first place. That makes Mimic wonder where Dad went to university as well, but she'll have to ask him later. They've got shit to do right now.
"So, these CopyBot things," Lan begins, as they wait impatiently for the road to clear so they can get across. "They can really make NetNavis materialise?"
"Kinda." Mimic shrugs a little. "Anime had it like . . . the Navi jacks into the CopyBot, then the CopyBot changes to become that Navi."
"From what I read on the university's website-" Arcadia pauses. "-road's clear, go - from what I read, the CopyBots that Makoto is working on are able to reproduce a NetNavi's appearance, figure, and even their abilities."
"Isn't appearance and figure the same thing?" Lan wonders, as he and Mimic start running again. Well, Mimic is running, Lan's skating so he can keep up with her.
"Not really," MegaMan answers. "If something has the appearance of something else, it'll only resemble that something else, but it won't necessarily look the exact same."
"So figure's the shape of it?"
"That's right." MegaMan nods.
"No wonder that Zoanoroid was so big in the footage, then," Lan mutters. "That's his actual size."
"There were some pictures of the CopyBots on the website," Arcadia says. "The base forms of the CopyBots are about the size of small humans - your size, in other words."
"Oh, man," Lan says, awed. "Something that small can reproduce any NetNavi, no matter what size or shape it is? And now these Zoanoroids have gotten their hands on 'em? We've gotta stop 'em!"
Mimic is kinda waiting for someone to point out that she could've easily stopped the Zoanoroids from getting the CopyBots in the first place if she'd spoken up yesterday - that 'monster' wouldn't have ripped up part of the city if she hadn't forgotten about it, or maybe she could've spoken up when she was at SciLab. Having to answer a few awkward questions would probably be a better alternative than letting all this happen simply because she was too annoyed to talk and fucked up again.
She's supposed to be changing things, right? This isn't really changing things. So far, she hasn't done all that much aside from explain the plot before they get the actual exposition from Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari or anyone else.
Oh, god, she's just the exposition. Fucking christ.
Lan calls SciLab and requests a dimensional area the second they get to the university's campus. Pretty much the entire world knows what a dimensional area is by now, and the university students and staff are no exception - as soon as they see it forming around the campus, they all start scrambling to safety, which is awesome because he'd been worried about keeping all of the civilian bystanders out of the way in case any of them got caught up in the battle.
He and Mimic Cross Fuse quickly, and they get more than a few awed and excited looks from the fleeing students and staff members as they race into the main building. That's where Arcadia says Makoto's lab should be - near the back of the building, where the loading bay is, along with a street of storage buildings outside.
They follow Mimic's Empath Program the rest of the way, since Arcadia didn't have time to find a map of the main building and they don't have time now. But the Empath Program's range covers an entire regular-sized dimensional area, so they don't need a map anyway.
It doesn't take long for the sound of battle to reach Lan's ears. Or ear-discs, whatever these things on the sides of his helmet are called. He speeds up a little in response, and Mimic spreads her wings and jumps into the air, then lands and keeps running when the tips of her wings brush the walls. Not a good idea to fly in here, though he can't blame for her for that knee-jerk reaction.
Mimic suddenly skids to a halt in the middle of a random hallway, and Lan stops as well. She closes her eyes for a moment, concentrating, and then looks down at the floor beneath their feet.
"That's convenient," she says dryly. "They're right below us."
"They?" Lan repeats, frowning even though she can't see it through his mouthguard.
"Famous and Makoto're runnin' from Punk."
Lan blinks, momentarily stunned. When the heck did Famous get here? Actually, how did he know to come here in the first place? Why is he even here anyway? No, wait, that last one actually has an answer - he was probably worried about Makoto. Still doesn't explain how Famous knew to come here, but, whatever. They're here to stop that Punk Zoanoroid from breaking stuff.
"Okay, is there a way to get down-" Lan begins.
Mimic raises her arm. "Tank Cannon!"
Lan jerks back, eyes widening. "W-wait, no!"
His sister ignores him and aims for the floor beneath her feet, then fires. Lan flinches away, bringing his arms up to cover his face from the explosion of dust, and then he hears the faint sound of beating wings as Mimic jumps down into the hole she blasted open.
Hurry, follow her! MegaMan urges him.
Lan coughs and tries to wave away the cloud of dust, realises it's pointless, and just runs straight into it until he quite literally trips over the hole and falls in. He ends up landing on his face, grunts in pain, and then peels himself up off the floor and staggers to his feet.
"Lan!?"
Famous's shocked voice makes him glance over his shoulder. "Hi, Mr. Famous! Sorry about the ceiling, it wasn't my idea."
"What the . . ." Makoto looks even more shocked than Famous, and it occurs to Lan that she's probably never seen Cross Fusion in person.
She's also probably never seen a crazy owl-Navi crash through the ceiling, either, much less another NetNavi flopping down right afterwards. Lan hopes she doesn't take offence to the hole or the . . . well, any of this.
"Get the fuck outta the way!" Mimic suddenly shouts.
Lan snaps his head around and his eyes widen when he sees a red-and-black spiked ball of death rolling straight toward him and the two humans. He whirls around, grabs them, and then hurls all three of them to the side just in time to avoid getting skewered.
The spiked ball skids to a stop several metres away and then bounces open to reveal the Zoanoroid they came here to fight. Punk has about a split second to narrow his eyes at them before Mimic dive-bombs out of nowhere and knocks him flying. She follows the Zoanoroid and then slams her talons down on his head, driving his entire torso - which is pretty much just a round ball with a head attached to the top - a good foot or two into the floor.
"Sorry, I need to . . ." Lan gestures toward his sister and the Zoanoroid and then runs off before Famous and Makoto can form any kind of response.
"This is a lab!" MegaMan tells him, as he activates the Mega Buster and takes aim. "Probably Makoto's, actually. So make sure you try not to hit any of these machines, they could be important!"
"Tell that to Mimic!" Lan retorts, shooting.
Mimic jumps into the air just like he hoped she would and avoids the blast, but Punk is too busy trying to get his torso out of the floor to be able to dodge. The Mega Buster shot explodes against one of his legs - maybe not exactly what Lan was aiming for, but a leg is better than nothing, and it'll hopefully limit Punk's mobility. Until he turns into that spiked ball of death again, anyway.
Punk lets out a frustrated cry and rips himself free of the floor, and then pushes himself to his feet. Lan is satisfied to see the Zoanoroid stumbling on the leg he shot - so he did manage to do some damage, after all.
"Shield and Chain!" Punk roars, hurling out one of his arms.
It extends and coils around like a whip, and Lan ducks under the attack. That turns out to be a mistake, because the arm simply twists and wraps around his body, ripping a pained yell from him.
"Lan!" MegaMan exclaims. They're both in just as much pain since they're sharing a body, but even so, he's still more concerned about Lan than he is about himself.
That'd be a nice, heartwarming thought if they weren't currently being squeezed to death by some coil-like whip with a spiked club on the end of it.
Punk yanks his 'chain' and starts dragging on it, and Lan stumbles and trips to the floor. There's not much he can do here - most of the battle chips or attacks he has stored in his PET require his hands to be free, and any of the ones that don't aren't gonna be useful here.
But unlike Punk, Lan's not alone.
Mimic drops down from the air, landing on the 'chain' halfway between them, gripping it with her talons so she doesn't fall off. The Zoanoroid stops, making a puzzled noise, and Mimic glances at him.
"Wide Blade," she informs him, holding said Blade up.
Punk's eyes widen. "No-"
Mimic slashes down and cuts the 'chain' clean in half. Punk wails at the loss of half his arm, the part still connected to him retracting back, and he clutches at it like that's going to stop the pain or make his cut off arm magically grow back.
Meanwhile, Lan finds the tight grip of the other half of the 'chain' suddenly loosening, and he slips out of it and gets to his feet. He notices Punk's arm - or what's left of it - sparking where Mimic cut it, and the arm at the socket starts to spark as well. Then, much to his shock, the arm simply falls off and clatters to the ground, where it glows white briefly and then takes the shape of the base CopyBot form. The other half of the arm that was constricting Lan does the same.
"The CopyBot bodies are kinda fragile," Mimic explains, holding up her Wide Blade.
"Huh," Lan says, blinking. Then he grins. "Alright! Long Blade, download!"
Mimic evidently senses what he wants to do before he even forms the plan properly in his mind. She immediately spreads her wings and shoots forward, then slashes at Punk as she zooms past. His remaining arm is sliced in half as well, much to the Zoanoroid's growing distress, and as soon as that arm falls off, Lan brings up his own Blade.
He leans forward, then charges at Punk. The Zoanoroid lets out a wordless, panicked yell and brings one of the spiked discs on his shoulders around in an attempt to protect himself. Lan simply slashes that instead of his actual target - which had been Punk's spherical torso, but he'll take what he can get - and scores a long gash on the surface of the disc.
"Mad Roller!" the Zoanoroid shrieks, bouncing back into that spiked ball of death form that almost skewered Lan when he fell into Makoto's lab.
He's too close to actually make use of his Blade, so he dodges to the side and just barely manages to avoid getting hit. Mimic comes back around and Lan throws up his arm, letting her grab his hand in one taloned foot as she shoots past, and then she twists around mid-air and physically hurls him forward.
Lan activates Jet Vernier while he's in the air, giving himself a much-needed boost, and hits the ground in a skid just ahead of Punk. He holds out his Long Blade in a defensive position and Punk slams into it full-tilt.
"Ow," Lan grunts, digging his heels in.
Even so, he can feel himself starting to slide back, and his arm is trembling with the effort of keeping Punk's Mad Roller attack at bay. He grabs the end of his Blade with his free hand and pushes, and although it doesn't really do much to stop him from sliding backwards, at least he's able to take some of the strain off his other arm. There's even little sparks coming off where Punk's rolling armoured body is clashing against the Blade, wow.
"Um, hey, Lan?" MegaMan suddenly speaks up.
"Kinda busy right now," Lan grits out.
"Where did Bass go?"
Lan blinks, and then suddenly realises he hasn't seen Bass at all since the dimensional area formed up. He didn't even see Bass materialising - which is weird, because he's pretty sure the only reason Bass decided to come with them in the first place is because he wanted to fight something.
"Hey, moron!"
That clearly wasn't aimed at him, but Lan glances up anyway, still struggling to hold off Punk's Mad Roller attack.
Mimic is hovering in the air, Bass's shoulders gripped in her talons. There's no time to wonder where he came from or why Mimic is suddenly holding onto him like that, because she speaks again.
"Angry fish attack!" Mimic gleefully shouts, and then she hurls Bass at Punk the same way she threw Lan a minute ago.
It's only at that moment that Lan realises there's a massive ball of dark energy crackling in Bass's hands.
"Oh, shi-" His panic lends him strength and he shoves, getting Punk far enough away from himself that he's able to spin on his heel and run as fast as he can in the opposite direction.
Even so, he's still blown off his feet by the explosion of impact. He really hopes Famous and Makoto got away from here, because no matter how reckless Mimic and Bass happen to be, there's no way either of them will be happy with accidentally hurting anyone from their own side. Even if Bass only cares about a few humans and even fewer NetNavis.
He hears Punk's dying scream over the explosion, and then another explosion just under that - the CopyBot being blown up, probably, though Lan is seriously wondering if that's the only thing that's been blown up.
After several moments, everything is calm again. Or as calm as things can be after an insane attack like that, anyway.
Lan pushes himself to his feet, having landed pretty roughly, though he's not too badly hurt. He thinks he isn't. He's able to walk, though, so hopefully he's fine, but it's a bit difficult to tell when his ears are still ringing from the explosion.
"Dammit, Mimic," he mutters, turning around and almost stumbling with the effort. "You think she planned that?"
"I'm almost certain she did," MegaMan sighs. "Why else would Bass not have shown up until the very end? He was probably hiding somewhere, charging that blast up just so Mimic could throw him like that . . ."
"More than likely," Lan agrees.
There's a huge cloud of dust and stuff obscuring the lab from view, and it takes several moments for it to clear up. When it finally does, Lan takes in the sight that greets him, and his mouth drops open.
There's a shallow crater in the middle of the floor, and surrounding that crater are no less than ten Rock Cubes, scorched black and cracked from the force of the explosion. Everything within the Rock Cubes' barrier is basically totalled, but the rest of the lab is perfectly pristine - aside from the damage Punk already did, anyway, along with that hole Mimic blasted in the ceiling.
Speaking of Mimic, she's just now landing on top of one of the Rock Cubes, and although most of her face is obscured from sight, Lan can tell she looks very, very smug. Bass is just crawling out of the crater, dragging himself out through a gap between a couple of the Rock Cubes, and he sees Lan gaping and a nasty-looking grin spreads on his face.
"What, you thought we were gonna blow everything up?" Bass cackles.
"Give us some credit, dude," Mimic scoffs, still with that obviously smug look on her face, and she steps off the Rock Cube she's standing on and drops to the floor with all the grace of the owl-Navi she currently is.
It's almost like she planned the moment. As soon as her feet touch the floor, the dimensional area fades, and the Rock Cubes vanish along with Bass - and Lan and Mimic Cross Out automatically.
Lan absently catches his PET and is just barely aware of MegaMan's Navi-hologram appearing on his shoulder, with a look of total shock on his face that's probably mirrored by Lan's own expression.
Famous and Makoto gingerly tiptoe out from behind a big machine near Lan. Makoto in particular looks horrified at the damage, though honestly, a shallow crater in the middle of the floor and a hole in the ceiling is a lot better than the alternative.
"My . . . my lab . . ." Makoto says faintly.
"Consider that payback," Mimic tells her.
"Payback!?" Makoto cries, gripping her hair like she's losing her sanity or something. "For what!?"
"For grabbin' my face yesterday."
Makoto blinks.
Mimic shrugs. "Just be glad it wasn't worse."
"How could it have been worse than this?" Makoto demands, sharply gesturing at the crater.
"I could've not bothered with the Rock Cubes."
Makoto makes a faint noise that sounds almost like a mouse being stepped on and goes limp. She looks . . . well, she looks like she's about to faint. Lan doesn't really blame her - Mimic is terrifying when she's angry.
"Hey, uh, Mimic?" Famous asks. "Do me a favour and never become a bad guy, please."
Mimic gives him a grin that's all teeth. "I make no promises."
They may have been able to stop Punk - and delete him, or at least obliterate the CopyBot to the point where Punk simply couldn't have survived even in the cyberworld - but they're still too late to stop the lorry carrying all the finished CopyBots from leaving the university campus. Off to . . . some island off the coast, Mimic thinks. If you give her a map and asked her to point it out, she wouldn't be able to. But at least they beat Punk.
And Bass got to blow something up - namely their opponent and part of the floor - so everyone wins. Except Makoto. Okay, not everyone wins, then.
The lorry vanishes out of sight, and Makoto collapses to her knees in despair. Now that Mimic's gotten her payback for yesterday (which . . . admittedly she didn't really intend to do, but she'll take it anyway), she's able to drag up some sort of sympathy for the poor woman - after all, it's not her fault that the Zoanoroids tricked her. She just wanted to finish the CopyBots. She couldn't have known that any of this would happen.
"This is all my fault . . ." Makoto whispers. "I . . . I didn't even think of where that program came from . . . If I'd known . . ."
"Makoto . . ." Famous murmurs. His expression tightens and he looks in the direction the lorry went. "The Zoanoroids have found a way to come into the real world. The battles are going to be much more difficult from now on."
Makoto flinches at that, and the sympathy Mimic already feels for her gets a little stronger. She knows how that feels - Makoto is blaming herself for something that wasn't actually her fault, at least not entirely, and even then, she was still tricked into doing this. But she's still expecting someone to get angry at her, and that's what Mimic can sympathise with the most.
"It wasn't your fault, Miss," Lan speaks up. He's using the same soft tone he usually uses when Mimic or Chaud are freaking out or something.
It's either that tone or the words Lan is saying that makes Makoto look up at him.
"You made the CopyBots so humans and Navis could live together, right? Better than we already do," he goes on. "You never intended for them to be used like this. And . . . it's the Zoanoroids who're misusing them, so it really isn't your fault."
Makoto still doesn't look entirely convinced, so Mimic decides to add in her own opinion, too.
"They tricked you into doin' this," she says. Makoto looks surprised to hear that - maybe she hadn't expected Mimic to speak up in her defence. "I basically specialise in trickin' an' stuff. So I know it's the trickster's fault, not the one who's bein' tricked."
She's not gonna mention her opinion that if someone is actually dumb enough to be tricked in the first place, then it's somewhat their fault too, but . . . this isn't her usual kind of trickery. This is the bad kind, so the normal rules don't apply.
"Also worth mentionin' that Punk was literally threatenin' to blow up the entire university," Mimic continues. This time she gets shocked looks from everyone, not just Makoto. "F'you didn't do what he said, he'd have killed everyone. S'not much of a choice when you think about it, really."
"How . . . how did you know about that?" Makoto asks hesitantly.
Famous coughs awkwardly. "Let's, uh . . . let's just say that Mimic knows things and leave it at that. C'mon, Makoto - I'll take you to the hospital to get you checked over, just in case." He helps her stand up, and glances at Mimic and Lan over her head. "You two head to HQ and write up your reports, then head home for the day, alright? Hopefully we won't need to call on you again."
"Gotcha!" Lan agrees, grinning as he salutes.
Mimic giggles when she sees Famous's wince at how terrible that salute is. Lan is really bad at this military stuff - maybe she could ask Raika to record a video on how to salute properly so she can show it to Lan. After she's done with the usual 'have you asked Pride out yet?' teasing, of course.
They have to go to bed early tonight, since they've got school tomorrow - though Lan knows full well that Mimic and Chaud, and their Navis, will stay up way past their 'bedtime' regardless of whether or not they all have school the next day. The fact that they're all half-nocturnal makes it kind of okay for them, but Lan is fully human, so he has to go to sleep at bedtime, otherwise he'll be yawning the whole day, or even worse, he won't wake up at all until he's really late.
And he hasn't been late to school since before Mimic started living with them last year, so he's hoping he can keep that up. Hence going to bed when he's supposed to, instead of a few hours later like the twins.
He yawns and stretches his arms out, setting his head down on the pillow. After a moment or two, he opens his eyes to the faint darkness of his bedroom, and glances to the side, where his PET is lying beside him on the bed.
"Hey, MegaMan?" Lan asks, keeping his voice down so he doesn't disturb anyone - his parents downstairs, the twins in their own bedroom, whoever.
MegaMan's Navi-hologram appears standing on top of the PET. "Yeah?"
"How's Trill doing? ProtoMan gave him back, right?" He's kinda been wondering since they got back home, but it turns out he actually did have homework, so he had to spend the rest of the day figuring that out. He wasn't paying much attention to anything else.
"Yeah," MegaMan replies, nodding. "Last time I checked, Trill was still asleep. Actually, ProtoMan said he's been sleeping all day . . ."
"All day?" Lan blinks. He remembers what Maylu said yesterday, about babies who sleep a lot growing up faster. But sleeping this much can't be a good sign for a NetNavi. "Maybe you should check on him again, just in case . . ."
MegaMan evidently understands his line of thinking. "Right."
He reaches down, hands going into the screen of Lan's PET, and then pulls out the flat data of a NetNavi in sleep-compression.
They're expecting a tiny little baby-Navi, so it's a total shock when the data MegaMan pulls out is twice the size it should be. Lan blinks incomprehensibly for a few moments, and all MegaMan seems capable of doing is staring at the data, slack-jawed and wide-eyed.
Trill comes out of sleep-compression, landing on his own two feet - actually standing upright instead of crawling - and he's now about half MegaMan's size, more like the size of a small human child rather than a baby. He yawns and stretches his arms above his head, then blinks open his eyes and looks up at MegaMan with a sleepy but cheerful smile.
"Good morning, MegaMan!" Trill chirps.
Lan stares, and oddly enough, all he can think is, looks like I won't be going to bed when I'm supposed to, after all.
