After MegaMan finally managed to figure out how to undo Proto Cross, Dad explained more about how he got the Cross System. It's a lot like how MegaMan was expecting it to be - he knows he got Double Soul as a result of Cross Fusion and that replaced his Style Change ability, so the logical conclusion is that the Cross System replaced Double Soul in a similar manner because of Beast Out.
And he was right. That's pretty much how it happened.
Dad told them that MegaMan's ultimate program ability is literally all about adaptability - hence why his is the ultimate program of Change. It allows him to adapt to any situation by giving him the ability to change his power and abilities at will. External forces, such as gaining the ability to use Cross Fusion with Lan, or using Beast Out with Trill, allowed his ultimate program ability to evolve and adapt as needed.
Basically, Dad thinks that MegaMan's ultimate program defines Beast Out as a type of Cross - which makes sense, because he fused with Trill and changed his form. As a direct result of that, his ultimate program got rid of Double Soul and replaced it with the Cross System to allow MegaMan to better handle those type of fusions. Apparently he had the potential to use the Cross System for a while, but fusing with Trill and using Beast Out gave it that final kick to make it an actual thing, though it came at the cost of losing Double Soul.
"I don't really mind it, though," Lan says, after he's finished explaining all that to Maylu and Roll. "I mean, yeah, we lost Double Soul, but we got another ability that's similar - and kinda more functional, too, since I don't have to carry around specific battle chips to activate a Cross."
"That does sound more convenient," Maylu comments, as Lan shows her his PET and the Cross System select screen that Dad managed to install for them. "Though I gotta wonder why MegaMan gets the personalities of the Navis he's Crossing with along with their powers . . . Did Double Soul ever do that?"
Lan shakes his head. "No, it was just their powers," he replies. He slots his PET back into its holder. "I dunno why the Cross System gives him their personalities when Double Soul didn't, honestly."
"Same," Mimic says, when Maylu glances at her questioningly. "Anime never explained it. Far as I know, games didn't have that, but it was just a battle mechanic, so it wouldn't've got featured anyway."
"Makes it more interesting, though," ProtoMan comments. He's curled up around Trill, though only because he was already curled up to start off with and Trill asked if he could sit there.
"More interesting?" MegaMan frowns, momentarily distracted from that warm feeling he doesn't think is ever gonna go away whenever he sees Trill and ProtoMan together. "How? I was basically you for three hours yesterday."
"Yeah, that's why it's interesting!" ProtoMan points out, grinning. "And it was funny, too."
"Not to me," Lan grumbles. "It was freakin' exhausting trying to keep up with MegaMan while he was like that. How do you two manage with ProtoMan all the time?" he adds, glancing at Mimic and Chaud.
The twins exchange a glance, then give Lan identical grins. "Experience," they chorus.
Lan sighs, making ProtoMan snicker and Trill giggle.
"I gotta say it was funnier watching MegaMan snark at everything in sight when he was in Arcadia Cross," Bass speaks up from where he and Arcadia are sitting on the wall between the counter and the kitchen behind it.
"I don't snark at stuff, I'm not sure why MegaMan was doing that," Arcadia says.
"Sarcasm is a form of snark," Chaud informs him.
"Oh. Never mind, then."
"You have Arcadia Cross, too?" Maylu seems pretty interested in that. "Wow . . . Hey, do you think that means you could get Roll Cross as well?"
"Ooh, yeah!" Roll exclaims, with an excited grin. "It could be like my Soul all over again!"
"Um . . ." MegaMan tries to think of a way to put this delicately, just so he doesn't offend her. She has a habit of blowing up at people for that kinda stuff, just like Maylu. "I . . . I'm not sure that's a good idea."
Sure enough, those words make Roll narrow her eyes. "And why not? You got my Soul when you had Double Soul, why don't you want my Cross, too?"
Because I don't want your personality, MegaMan thinks, and has to fight to keep a straight face when he hears the core sniggering.
Roll glances over at the heart container, seeing the core pulsing inside it. MegaMan set it down next to ProtoMan a few minutes ago - he's trying to make good on his promise that he won't accidentally forget the core again, but he can't carry it around all the time, so just taking it out of Lan's PET and setting the heart container down somewhere nearby where the core can be seen is a pretty good compromise.
"What'd he say?" Roll asks, looking back at MegaMan.
Stop sniggering, MegaMan tells the core. Out loud, he says, "He was just commenting on how I was acting in Proto Cross and Arcadia Cross."
"Oh, yeah." Lan, who doesn't have the tact to realise he should keep quiet, winces. "You get the personality of the Navi you're Crossing with, so you'd get Roll's personality, too . . . Yikes."
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Maylu demands. Roll looks no less offended.
"Uh-" Lan stammers.
MegaMan decides to rescue his operator, out of sheer pity. "What I was thinking is that we should probably stick to the Crosses that were in Mimic's anime or the games themselves. I don't really want to get too many Crosses - there'd be way too many to choose from, and I could end up neglecting the use of some in favour of 'better' ones. Plus . . ." He winces. "I don't wanna risk accidentally overloading myself with abilities I shouldn't actually have just because I might be able to do it."
"Oh," Roll says, blinking. Thankfully, she seems to understand that, and is now calm once again.
Even if MegaMan was mostly saying that just to stop Roll and Maylu from blowing up at Lan, it's still true. He really doesn't want to risk overloading himself - if that happened every single time he used a Cross, he'd have to spend time recovering after every single battle he uses a Cross in, and that would just make him less willing to use the Cross System.
And he wants to use it. It's basically a more functional version of his Double Soul ability - and he needs the extra power that the Cross System could give him. Battles will definitely be much easier if he has access to his ultimate program abilities.
"Y'know Proto Cross and Arcadia Cross weren't a thing, right?" Mimic speaks up, raising an eyebrow at him. "Arcadia wasn't in the anime or the games. An' ProtoMan never gave you a Cross in either of 'em."
MegaMan blinks. "Wait, really? But I got a Soul from him, why wouldn't I be able to get a Cross from him, too?"
Mimic shrugs. "No idea. But you got it now, an' Arcadia's, an' neither of 'em were Crosses you 'should' be able to get."
"Hm . . ." MegaMan frowns for a moment. "Well, I think from now on, I'll stick to trying to get Crosses I should have, then. Obviously Proto Cross and Arcadia Cross work, and they seem to be just as powerful - if not more so - than their Souls were, so . . . I guess they'll be extra Crosses?"
"Think there was eleven Crosses you could get in the games," Mimic muses. "Anime only showed a few of 'em, but I know all the Crosses you should be able to get."
"Eleven?" That seems like an odd number. Literally.
Mimic nods to Bass. "He's one of 'em. Don't ask me how to activate it, though, 'cus I ain't got a clue."
For a moment or two, everyone is silent.
"Bass has a Cross!?" Lan yelps, almost jumping up from his seat.
He ends up accidentally startling Dex, who nearly drops the spoon he's holding into the pot of curry. He shoots Lan an indignant glare.
"Sorry," Lan says, giving him an apologetic wince as he settles back down. He looks at Mimic. "Bass has a Cross?"
"You've seen it before," Mimic tells him.
" . . . When?"
Mimic stares at him, completely deadpan. "Nebula Grey. The island. Remember? They fused together and broke Dr. Regal's . . . fuck was it, again?"
"He called it his vessel, or something," Arcadia supplies. He glances sideways at Bass, frowning thoughtfully. "I didn't know that was a Cross, though . . . I thought their ultimate programs just merged together and that fusion was the result of it."
"So did I," Bass mutters, frowning.
"Wait, but I didn't even have access to the Cross System back then, how did we manage to make a Cross?" MegaMan asks. This makes absolutely no sense.
"No idea," Mimic replies, shrugging. "I only know it was Bass Cross 'cus it was a kinda . . . extra feature, in the fifth game. Cross System itself was in the sixth game."
"What," MegaMan says.
"That makes no sense," Lan adds.
"Don't ask me, I didn't make the fuckin' games, I just played 'em," Mimic reminds them.
"Didn't Dad say you've had the potential to use the Cross System for a while now?" ProtoMan speaks up, blinking his mismatched eyes. "Maybe fusing with Bass is what made it possible in the first place. Like, that fusion put the potential into your ultimate program."
"And then fusing with Trill is what made the Cross System fully accessible," Chaud finishes, nodding thoughtfully. "It's a good enough theory, I suppose. And . . . also pretty much the only one we have."
"But I-" MegaMan glances at Bass. "-we weren't listening to Lan at all when we were fused together. And I went out of control when I fused with Trill, too. But when I was using Proto Cross for the first time, I was totally in control of myself - aside from the personality thing, anyway."
"Maybe it's 'cus they're both independent," Mimic says. Everyone looks at her, and she shrugs again. "Well, it's the one thing they both got in common, right? Bass is independent, Trill is . . . technically independent, I think?"
"He doesn't have an actual operator, so . . . I guess he's technically an independent Navi, yeah," MegaMan agrees.
Mimic nods. "Yeah. So maybe that's it."
"Why would being independent matter, though?" Maylu asks her.
"Uh . . ." Mimic is starting to look a little bit overwhelmed now. "It's, uhh . . ."
Chaud nudges her, and she glances at him. A moment passes by, and then Chaud looks up at everyone.
"What she's thinking is this," he begins. "Basically, the data used to activate a new Cross is similar to the data used to activate a new Soul, but the actual activation process for a Cross is manual and initiated by Lan taking that data from someone else's PET rather than MegaMan making a connection with a NetNavi and gaining the data that way. But Bass and Trill don't have operators and therefore they aren't connected to PETs, meaning Lan can't actually initiate the Cross and get the data necessary, so when MegaMan fuses with either of them, he ends up getting too much of their data and he loses control."
"So my Cross is completely unusable," Bass concludes, glancing at MegaMan.
"Sounds like it," MegaMan says, sighing a little. "That's kind of a shame, I'd have liked to find out what kind of abilities I could use in Bass Cross . . . but if it'll just make me go crazy like using Beast Out with Trill, then we shouldn't risk it."
"Doesn't mean what I think is right, it's just an idea," Mimic reminds them.
"Yeah, but it's also the only reasonable explanation we've got," MegaMan replies.
"So what Crosses can we use, then?" Lan asks Mimic. "You said there's supposed to be eleven - well, ten, since we're not gonna be trying to figure out Bass Cross, no offence Bass-"
"None taken," Bass says. And, surprisingly enough, he actually seems to mean it.
"-so I wanna know which ones we can get without risking MegaMan going out of control or getting overloaded," Lan finishes.
Mimic blinks, then frowns to herself for a few moments. They all wait patiently, and then jump a little when she suddenly bursts into movement, grabbing a nearby notepad - it's actual paper, wow, you don't see that too often these days - along with a pen.
She starts scribbling, eyes narrowed as she tries to remember. It doesn't take long for her to finish writing - and as soon as she's done, she rips off the paper from the notepad and hands it over to Lan.
"Wow, an actual list . . ." he says, eyes flicking down the page as he reads. "Wait, who even are half of these Navis? KillerMan? I think I'd remember if I met someone called that . . . GroundMan sounds like a mole-Navi or something . . ."
"Most of 'em we ain't met yet," Mimic tells him. "Lot of 'em're from Beyondard, actually."
Lan jerks his head around to gape at her. "Seriously!?"
"The ones you don't know," Mimic clarifies, nodding to the list. "Those're all in Beyondard. The ones you do know, you can get in this reality."
Lan makes an eager noise and goes back to reading through the list. After a moment or two, he frowns.
"HeatMan?" he reads. "But . . . HeatMan doesn't exist anymore, how can we get a Cross from him? Is there a version of him in Beyondard?"
"Not that I know of," Mimic replies. "But Heat Cross was in the games, so . . ." She shrugs.
"Maybe it'd be worth asking Mr. Match if FireMan still has any of HeatMan's data in him," Chaud muses. "Or I guess we could try asking Famous, since he's the one who made HeatMan in the first place."
"Oh, Aqua Cross, we can get that one next time we go to Mr. Higsby's shop!" Lan exclaims, grinning. "Not sure about Elec Cross, though . . . Would Count Zap be willing to let me take the data?"
"He will if we ask," Mimic says, gesturing to herself and Chaud. "Got no reason to refuse, anyway."
"Yeah, good point," Lan admits, going back to the list. "ChargeMan? Sounds like another Elec-element Navi."
"I don't think he is." Mimic tilts her head. "He was a train, but I think he was Null."
"A NetNavi with the abilities of a train? That sounds . . . weird. How would that even work? Does he just summon digital trains to run down his opponents or something?"
"No, he didn't have the abilities of a train, he literally was a train."
Lan blinks at her, evidently startled. Chaud looks thoughtful, though.
"Huh . . . a vehicle-Navi," he says. "Those're pretty rare."
"I'm pretty sure Roll met a NetNavi who could transform into a car, once," Maylu speaks up. She glances at Roll. "What was his name again?"
"TurboMan, I think," Roll replies. "He was . . ." Her eyes flick over to ProtoMan briefly. "Well, he kinda reminded me of ProtoMan. He was super enthusiastic and really energetic. And I mean really energetic, seriously I could barely keep up with half of what he was saying."
"If that guy wasn't a car-Navi I'd wanna meet him," ProtoMan comments. "He seems like he'd be fun. But, y'know . . . cars."
"GyroMan's a vehicle-Navi, too," MegaMan supplies. "I mean . . . technically, anyway. I think the line between human-Navis and vehicle-Navis is kinda blurred when they can transform into a vehicle."
"If they can turn into a car or some other type of vehicle, I think they'd be classed as a vehicle-Navi," Chaud tells him.
"Maybe we could ask Dad, he'd probably know," Lan murmurs. His eyes suddenly widen as he continues reading through the list. "Wait, we can get Tomahawk Cross!?"
"That's one'a the ones that was in the anime," Mimic says.
But Lan's already up and out of his seat, scrambling over to where Dingo is wiping down some tables. "Hey, Dingo! I need some data off your PET!"
"What?"
MegaMan chuckles as Lan excitedly explains the situation to a bewildered Dingo. "Well, he gets points for enthusiasm, I guess . . ."
There's a brief pause as everyone watches that odd scene, and then Maylu turns to Mimic and Chaud.
"Hey, so, have you guys got any new cases coming up?" she asks. "Net Saver cases, I mean." She suddenly looks mildly uncomfortable as she glances at Chaud. "Though I guess . . . uh, you're still on leave, aren't you? So you wouldn't have any . . ."
"Actually-" And Chaud looks very proud of himself right now. "-Famous says he's gonna give me a trial case to see whether or not I'm ready to come back."
"And me!" ProtoMan adds, raising his head.
"Both of us, yeah," Chaud agrees, nodding. "So we'll probably be getting actual cases at some point."
"Gotta pass the trial case first," Mimic reminds him.
Chaud shrugs. It seems he and ProtoMan are too excited at the thought of getting to come back as full Net Savers after their time on leave to think about the trial case. MegaMan doesn't really blame them - if he'd been on leave, even if it was for the reasons they were on leave, he'd probably be going stir-crazy as well.
A surge of energy suddenly jolts through MegaMan, startling him enough to make him yelp and jump. The others look pretty startled too, and when the surge of energy dies down, MegaMan blinks and looks down at himself.
It doesn't take a genius to realise what happened. Lan must've activated Tomahawk Cross while they were talking - but seriously, he couldn't have waited? What the heck, they were talking about something!
"Give me a little warning, next time!" MegaMan complains, shooting an annoyed glare in Lan's direction.
"Sorry!" Lan laughs as he comes back over and settles back into his seat. "But at least we've got Tomahawk Cross, now! And it looks pretty cool, actually."
"I'll give you cool," MegaMan mutters. He brandishes his new tomahawk at Lan. "I'll stick this in your face, dammit! That was just rude!"
" . . . So I guess Tomahawk Cross's personality is basically a more blunt version of MegaMan," Maylu comments.
MegaMan huffs and closes his eyes, concentrating for a moment. It's similar to how he used to power down from using a Double Soul. Sometimes it was automatic, like after a battle was over, but he could also power down from using a Soul - new or otherwise - on his own.
He undoes Tomahawk Cross easily, and suddenly the irritation vanishes. It seems that TomahawkMan's habitual exasperation with his own operator's crazy habits was carried over into his Cross just like ProtoMan's energy and Arcadia's sarcasm were carried over into theirs.
"That was still kinda rude, Lan," MegaMan says, opening his eyes.
"Great, his personality's back to normal, but his opinion's still the same," Lan mutters.
"Don't make me use Proto Cross again!" MegaMan playfully threatens.
"No!" Lan looks almost horrified. "Please, no, only in battle, I can't handle that much energy from you . . ."
"I thought it was funny, and kinda cute," Trill speaks up. He's mostly been quiet, just watching them and listening to their conversation, but he obviously can't stay quiet forever. MegaMan wouldn't really want him to. "And he liked being petted, too, so that was really fun!"
"Not too fun when you pulled on my tail, though," MegaMan chuckles.
Trill looks a little sheepish at that. "I didn't mean to, honest."
"That's okay, I forgive you," MegaMan tells him, and Trill practically beams.
"What were you guys talking about, anyway?" Lan asks, glancing between his siblings and Maylu. "I didn't hear most of it, I was trying to get Dingo to give me his PET."
"Chaud was saying that he and ProtoMan might be coming off leave soon," Maylu explains, nodding to Chaud. "I was just asking if you guys had any new cases, actually."
"Well . . . we kinda do have one, I guess," Lan muses. "It's more like we're on standby in case Manabe makes any progress on it. Apparently two hundred NetNavis that were just made have vanished from the factory, and no one knows where they went or even how they vanished in the first place."
"Sounds familiar," Mimic mutters, slumping down and putting her chin on the counter. "Tryin' to remember. Might be important."
"And until that happens, or until Manabe makes any progress, we're on standby," Lan says, nodding.
"We've got big trouble, guts!"
Everyone jumps at that, including Dex, who nearly knocks over his pot of curry. GutsMan - who just appeared out of almost literally nowhere - is apparently far too worked up to be bothered, and he lands on the counter near MegaMan and the others, eyes wide and arms waving in the air frantically.
"There's a Cybeast in Internet City!" GutsMan cries.
MegaMan's pretty sure the jolt of shock that runs through his systems is the same kind of feeling that everyone else gets, judging by the gasps.
"Mimic?" Lan glances at her sharply.
She frowns for a moment, and then sighs and rolls her eyes, sitting up. "Not a Cybeast. I remember now - it's just BubbleMan bein' dumb again."
"But it looked like a Cybeast . . ." GutsMan mutters, puzzled. "Big enough to be one, guts."
"So is the Poltergeist, but it's definitely not a Cybeast," ProtoMan says.
"True," MegaMan admits. "But we still have to take care of this, though. It sounds like whatever BubbleMan's doing - or whatever he's pretending to do - could still cause some damage to Internet City."
"An' we kinda need him for somethin'," Mimic adds. "So . . . yeah, catch him."
"Does he know anything about the Navi disappearance case?" Lan asks.
"Not that. Ask him about Trill."
"Uh."
Mimic shakes her head and takes out her PET, aiming for the nearest jack-in port. "I'll explain when we've got BubbleMan."
MegaMan and Lan exchange a quick glance, and then Lan shrugs. "Sure, okay."
Arcadia's feathers flare up the absolute second he's in Internet City, and the reason why becomes clear pretty much immediately.
The ground is shaking with the footsteps of the gargantuan fake-Cybeast, a laughable mockery of the real things in Arcadia's opinion. For one thing, the Cybeasts are animals and look robotic in nature - this fake-Cybeast, on the other hand, is clearly humanoid and appears to be made from bubbles and water. And for another . . .
"Out of my way!" the fake-Cybeast booms. "I am Cybeast Bubble, an invading NetNavi from- no, an invading beast from the Bubble Star, blub-blub!"
. . . the Cybeasts don't speak. Not in a way that Arcadia or any of his friends can understand, at least.
"Well, if we didn't already know it was him, that 'blub-blub' thing would've given it away immediately," Arcadia comments dryly.
"Shame I don't have Elec Cross already," MegaMan muses, as Lan downloads a Wind Racket for him to use. "I guess I'd probably end up knocking him out, anyway. Wind Racket!"
He slashes out a blast of intense wind toward the fake-Cybeast, and the bubbles and water making up its body begin to vanish. The booming voice of the fake-Cybeast quietens down to a normal volume as its body is blown away, and eventually, the true 'mastermind' behind this . . . attack is revealed.
Apparently BubbleMan somehow made ridiculously-tall stilts to walk around on, complete with hand-like appendages on the end of stick-like arms. It's honestly kind of impressive that BubbleMan managed to make all that work enough to fool most Navis into thinking that a Cybeast was attacking, though the only damage he seems to have done so far is leave trails of water and bubbles all over the place.
It's a good thing ProtoMan stayed behind to keep an eye on Trill instead of following us here, Arcadia thinks. His brother probably would've left immediately upon seeing the absurd amount of water everywhere.
He's not too fond of this, either, though he's better with water than his brother or either of their operators are. He doesn't hate it, he'd just rather avoid getting wet, because his feathers get heavy when they're wet and that makes it very difficult to fly. Not to mention his basic attack is Holy Fire, so you can pretty much come to your own conclusion from that.
Luckily, they don't actually need to fight BubbleMan or take him down. Mimic says they need him for something, so all they have to do is capture him.
"Uhh," BubbleMan says, blinking as he suddenly realises his disguise has been blown off.
"Hi, BubbleMan," MegaMan calls up.
"Crap!" the last Darkloid yelps.
He spins around on the stilts - which, again, is pretty impressive, did he have to practise to be able to do that? - and starts running . . . walking . . . power-walking away as fast as possible. Since the stilts let him take massive strides, he's actually relatively fast.
But Arcadia is one of the fastest NetNavis in the entire cyberworld, and the only Navi who can outspeed him is ProtoMan.
He takes to the air and shoots after BubbleMan. He doesn't even sense any traces of urgency from MegaMan - he has total faith that Arcadia can catch BubbleMan.
Arcadia grins to himself. Okay. He'll happily live up to that faith.
He catches up to BubbleMan in less than a second and flies alongside him. This is practically strolling speed for him.
"Hi there," Arcadia says brightly, raising a hand in greeting.
BubbleMan shrieks upon seeing him and stumbles, then falls off his stilts. He flops to the ground and his stilts crash down around him, and Arcadia beats his wings and lowers himself to the ground.
"St-stay away from me!" BubbleMan almost screams, trying to scramble away. Unfortunately, MegaMan has walked up behind him in the meantime, so he ends up getting trapped between the two of them. "Ah! Wait, I didn't- I didn't do anything, I swear!"
"Calm down, BubbleMan, we just want to ask you something," MegaMan sighs.
"Keep him away from me!" BubbleMan gestures frantically at Arcadia. "I know what happens to the Darkloids he touches, they get burnt to ashes! Ashes!"
"That's . . . not really true," Arcadia says, frowning. "I mean, yeah, my touch does burn Darkloids, but I can't actually delete them with it." He hasn't tried to delete any Darkloids just by touching them, anyway. The only one that's left is . . . more of a fond nuisance than an actual enemy, so it's not really necessary.
"Don't touch me anyway!" BubbleMan shrieks.
"You do realise that you're probably one of the few Darkloids who could potentially resist my Holy Fire?" Arcadia deadpans. "You're Aqua-element, right?"
"It'd still hurt!"
Well, he's not wrong about that. Arcadia concedes the point with a shrug.
"We're not gonna attack you, and Arcadia's not gonna touch you," MegaMan tells BubbleMan. "Like I was trying to tell you, we just want to ask you something, that's all. Just come with us, and afterwards, we'll let you go. Okay?"
BubbleMan looks extremely suspicious. Arcadia almost wishes his Empath Program could work on Darkloids, but his Dark Immunity cancels it out - basically, Darkloids and other beings of darkness are immune to his Empath Program because his Dark Immunity makes him naturally resistant to darkness itself, and even repels it. But if his Empath Program did work on Darkloids, he'd be able to tell what BubbleMan is thinking right now. As it is, he has to make do with watching the Darkloid's expression and trying to guess, which . . . isn't very useful.
"Fine," BubbleMan eventually says, much to Arcadia and MegaMan's relief. "But you'd better keep your word and let me go afterwards! Or you'll all be in a world of hurt!"
Arcadia raises his hand.
BubbleMan shrieks and flings himself onto the mercy of MegaMan. "Don't let him touch me! Don't let him touch me!"
MegaMan blinks at him, and then looks up and gives Arcadia a look.
"What?" Arcadia can't help but smirk a little bit.
Lan calls Dad and Famous at SciLab, because he thinks they need to hear this too - whatever it is Mimic wants to get out of BubbleMan, it's definitely gonna be important. And if it's something that Mimic herself doesn't already know, and can apparently only get from BubbleMan, then yeah, Dad and Famous need to hear this as well.
"So." In stark contrast to his blubbering in Internet City, BubbleMan has apparently decided to put on an unbothered mask now. "What do you want with me, then? Be quick about it, I don't have all day to spend with you puppets and humans."
"Can I eat him?" ProtoMan asks.
BubbleMan's mask immediately cracks and he whimpers.
"Not yet," Chaud says, which only makes BubbleMan even more terrified.
"And here I was thinking I could just point my tomahawk at him," TomahawkMan says, looking impressed. "Maybe I should try threatening to eat people now and then . . ."
"It wouldn't work for you," ProtoMan tells him.
"Aw, man."
Trill giggles at the exchange, and ProtoMan sticks his tongue out and grins at him.
"Mimic?" MegaMan glances over at her questioningly. "You're the one who said we needed him, so . . ."
"Where'd you find Trill?" Mimic asks, fixing BubbleMan with an almost icy stare. Lan finds it creepy and extremely unnerving, which is evidently what she was going for because BubbleMan actually seems like he's a little bit scared of her now.
"Who's- uh, who's Trill?" the Darkloid asks, swallowing.
MegaMan gestures over to Trill, who's still sitting with ProtoMan. Trill happily waves.
"I've never seen him before," BubbleMan says.
"Do you remember that baby you found a while ago?" Roll speaks up. "That's Trill. He's just grown up since then."
BubbleMan seems to forget about his fear at that. He snorts, disbelief evident in his expression.
"That's ridiculous," he scoffs. "NetNavis don't grow up, everyone knows that."
"I'm getting kinda hungry," ProtoMan comments mildly.
Despite the fact that NetNavis can't get hungry, that appears to be enough to scare BubbleMan back into obedience. "I-I'm very glad he seems to have grown up in good health!" he nervously cries.
"Can you just answer my operator's question?" Arcadia gives him a flat look. "Or I might just get annoyed. Actually . . . hey, ProtoMan, what's your opinion on smoked Darkloids?"
"Like one of those barbeque things?" ProtoMan licks his lips. "Never tried that before, it might be tasty."
"What is wrong with you people!?" BubbleMan demands, horrified. "Do you threaten to eat everyone you interrogate?"
"Only the annoyin' ones," Mimic says, with a completely straight face.
BubbleMan almost sobs.
"Please, just, answer the question," MegaMan sighs. "Where did you find Trill?"
"I-I don't . . ." BubbleMan has to take a moment to compose himself. "I mean, I don't really remember much, I was sealed in ice for twenty years, for crying out loud! By Colonel! Damn that Navi, if I ever see him again, I'm gonna-"
"I'm pretty sure Colonel's dead, so, good luck with that," Chaud interrupts. "You were saying?"
BubbleMan closes his gaping mouth. "Uh . . . yeah, I was . . . sealed in ice. When it melted, twenty years had gone by, and . . . well, I don't really know why, but that baby was in front of me." He glances at Trill, who tilts his head, looking curiously puzzled. "There was some kind of . . . glowing thing just behind him, too."
"Fossa Ambience," Mimic supplies.
"What?" BubbleMan blinks at her.
"Nothin'. Keep goin'," she tells him.
"Uhh . . . well, there's not much else to tell, really," BubbleMan says, shrugging. "I found that baby, and then I took it - him - to Internet City, and then I collapsed, and . . . look, you know the rest, you were there!"
"But where did you find him?" Lan prompts. "Where were you?"
"A Netopian military base, I think," BubbleMan replies. "I don't know exactly what it was, my memory's a little fuzzy after being seal in ice and everything, but . . . I know the coordinates, if that's what you're after?"
Lan glances at Mimic questioningly, and she nods. "Alright," he says, turning back to BubbleMan. "Tell us the coordinates of this military base, then."
"And then you'll let me go?" BubbleMan asks hopefully, eyeing ProtoMan and Arcadia nervously.
"Of course," MegaMan tells him. "We're not savages."
"Most of us aren't," Bass mutters.
"What's that supposed to mean?" ProtoMan demands.
"You know damn well what it means, cat."
BubbleMan gives them the coordinates to the Netopian military base, and true to their word, they let him go immediately afterwards. It seems that, despite their constant reassurances that they would, BubbleMan was still worried they wouldn't let him go, or even worse, feed him to ProtoMan - because he looks pretty relieved as he leaves. Who knows where the heck he's going, but as long as he's not causing too much trouble, Lan's fine with letting him run around the cyberworld.
"Is there something at that military base we need to find?" Dad asks, once BubbleMan's gone.
Mimic frowns a little. "Kinda? I mean, there's the Fossa Ambience, obviously."
The way she's phrasing that makes Lan think there's more than just the Fossa Ambience at the military base, but before he can ask what else is there, Famous speaks up.
"So we'll need to send someone to investigate," he says.
Chaud perks up immediately. "I can do that!" he volunteers. "You can send ProtoMan and I to check it out, right?"
Famous hums thoughtfully. "I did want to give the two of you a trial case at some point . . . I guess this is as good as anything. Alright then, this will be your trial case - if you do well, you and ProtoMan will be back to full Net Saver status when you get back." Chaud practically bounces in his seat, and Lan almost laughs. He's hardly ever seen Chaud this excited. "I'll ask Manabe to arrange for a plane to take you to Netopia."
"Um, actually . . ." ProtoMan speaks up hesitantly, making everyone glance at him. He winces but continues. "I, uh . . . i-is it okay if I don't go?"
"What?" Chaud stares at him. "But . . . you want to do the trial case too, right? You said so . . ."
"I-I do! Really, I do!" ProtoMan exclaims. He slumps a little. "But I . . . I don't . . . I-I don't like Netopia that much . . ."
Realisation dawns on Lan, and it seems everyone else suddenly gets it, too.
Of course ProtoMan wouldn't want to go to Netopia - he was there a lot when the Asteroid Navis were causing problems, sure, but Netopia's where a lot of the issues he has right now came from. Or at least, Netopia's Internet City, anyway. And if he has a choice, then obviously he'd be reluctant to go back.
"ProtoMan . . ." Chaud murmurs sadly.
"I'm sorry, I-I know you wanna do it, but I just . . . I just can't go back, I don't want to, please don't make me," ProtoMan begs.
"It's alright, no one's gonna force you to go back there," Arcadia tells him softly.
"How come you don't wanna go to Netopia?" Trill asks. He looks pretty worried, and he reaches out to ProtoMan, probably intending to pet him.
ProtoMan flinches and lets out a faint hiss, and Trill jerks his hand away.
"S-sorry," ProtoMan says, looking away. "It's just . . . that place is . . . it's got bad memories for me."
Trill blinks sympathetically. "Were you bullied there?"
ProtoMan snaps his head up, staring at the child-Navi with wide eyes. Trill, to his credit, doesn't even twitch. Lan has to admit he's impressed with Trill's composure.
"I . . . yeah," ProtoMan replies shakily. "I was. Th-there were some . . . really mean NetNavis and . . . a-and they hurt me a lot, so . . ."
Trill carefully reaches out again, and this time, ProtoMan doesn't flinch, so he's able to place his hand on top of ProtoMan's head. ProtoMan lays his head down on the surface of the counter at the touch and allows Trill to gently pet him. It seems to help, and he's even purring a little, though Lan's fully aware that cats purr to de-stress - and ProtoMan seems pretty stressed right now.
"If ProtoMan won't go back, then . . ." Famous's voice makes Lan glance back at the holographic screen. "Sorry, Chaud, it looks like your trial will have to wait. I won't force either of you into a situation you're uncomfortable with."
"Alright," Chaud murmurs.
"Actually, I have an idea," Arcadia speaks up, stepping forward. "What if Mimic and Chaud swap? That way, I'll be Chaud's NetNavi, so he can still do the trial in Netopia, and since ProtoMan'll be Mimic's NetNavi, he'll be able to do his own trial right here in Japan when it comes up."
Dad and Famous exchange a glance at that. Lan just blinks, and he realises that Arcadia's making perfect sense - of course, if the twins swap NetNavis, ProtoMan won't have to go to Netopia at all! Why didn't he think of that?
"It seems reasonable enough," Dad comments.
Famous is nodding thoughtfully. "And it'd give me the chance to evaluate their individual abilities if they're with their secondary partners. Their reasons for being on leave are similar, but still pretty different, after all." He smiles, and looks at Chaud. "Well? How about it?"
"I have no objections," Chaud says. "But I'll only agree if ProtoMan's okay with it, too. He gets as much say in this as I do."
"Of course," Famous agrees. "ProtoMan?"
ProtoMan sits up, suddenly far more eager than he was a moment ago. "Yeah! Th-that's the perfect solution, yeah, I'm good with it!"
Famous chuckles. "Well, I guess that's settled that, then. I'll go ahead and contact Manabe. You guys are at that curry place, right? As soon as the plane's been arranged for, I'll come pick you up, Chaud."
"Got it." Chaud nods.
The call ends there. The twin swap their PETs pretty much immediately afterwards - Maylu seems a little surprised that all they're doing is literally just swapping PETs, but that's all it really is. They're both registered as ProtoMan and Arcadia's operators, thanks to primary-secondary operations, and as far as anyone knows (as far as Dad's told them, that is), Mimic and Chaud are the only people who can manage it.
Mostly because they're used to each others' primary Navis anyway. There's a bunch of other stuff that makes it possible for them to use primary-secondary operations - the twins' connection, for one thing - but the big thing is that they're totally comfortable with operating each others' Navis. Lan's used to them swapping by now, but he's still impressed with how well they handle it.
He definitely thinks he wouldn't be able to handle it. He's used to MegaMan and wouldn't really want to operate any other NetNavi unless he absolutely has to.
What exactly is in that military base, anyway? Chaud asks, while he waits for Famous to come pick him up.
Well, the Fossa Ambience, like I said, Mimic replies. She's got ProtoMan nestled on top of her head now, while Arcadia's standing on Chaud's shoulder. It feels a little odd to suddenly swap Navis after not doing so for a while, but it's also comfortingly familiar, too. The base itself is totally abandoned, from what I remember. And . . .
And? Chaud prompts.
There's this girl there, too, Mimic says. I'd show you what she looks like, but I don't think I can.
A girl? Chaud frowns. You just said the base is totally abandoned, though.
It is, yeah, his twin sister agrees. But this girl's kinda . . . well, she's important to the plot, basically. Watch out for her.
That makes Chaud a little suspicious of this mystery girl. Why, is she a bad guy?
No, she's definitely a good guy, Mimic replies, shaking her head. But, uh . . . just don't turn your back on her. She has some kind of ability that lets her read minds or something, but it knocks out the person whose mind she's reading. She did it to you in the anime, and it pretty much left ProtoMan to deal with a bunch of Beast Out viruses on his own for fuck-knows-how-long.
ProtoMan raises his head, looking worried. "How is this girl a good guy, then?"
"What girl?" Bass asks, turning away from staring out the window to frown at them.
Arcadia jumps down from Chaud's shoulder to give him a quick explanation. By the end of it, Bass's frown has deepened.
"Alright, I'm going with you," he declares, looking at Chaud. "If there's some girl waiting to knock you the fuck out, I'm not gonna let that happen. And if Mimic means 'don't turn your back on her' literally, then I'll be able to keep an eye on her for you, 'cus there's no fucking way you'll be able to not do that if shit goes sideways like it always does."
"It probably will," Mimic agrees.
"Seriously, if she's gonna knock Chaud out, how is she a good guy?" ProtoMan demands insistently.
"She did say sorry afterwards," Mimic says.
"Alright, great, but that doesn't change the fact that she knocked Chaud out."
"And left you to fend for yourself in the middle of a full-scale battle," Arcadia adds, which does approximately nothing to help calm the situation down.
"I-if she does that to Chaud now, then Arcadia's gonna be left on his own!" ProtoMan cries, hair bristling wildly. "That- that's bad! That's really bad!"
"What the fuck am I, an empty data package?" Bass demands. "I'm not gonna let that happen, cat, calm the hell down."
"You calm down!" ProtoMan retorts, and then pauses, looking vaguely puzzled.
His shadows form up into Dark Shadow, who gives him a consoling pat on the head. It also seems a little bit sarcastic, too, judging by the look ProtoMan gives it.
"Moving on," Chaud says. He looks at Mimic. "So, this girl's not a bad guy, but she's important somehow."
He can feel hesitation coming from Mimic, the same kind of hesitation she usually feels when she's trying to work out how much or how little she wants or needs to tell people about the future. Of course, this time she's already decided to tell them pretty much everything right from the start, but there's obviously going to be details she had to leave out, because she either didn't have the time to explain them or just forgot about them until she was reminded.
If this mysterious girl is as important as Mimic says she is - and Mimic has never been wrong about any of this stuff, so the girl is definitely important - then it seems unlikely that Mimic forgot about her. So either she didn't have the time to explain this girl, or she's still trying to work out how much she wants to reveal about her. It's more than likely to be the latter, and he's proven correct a moment later.
"A big part of her whole-" Mimic makes a vague gesture. "-thing is that she's mysterious. No one knows anythin' about her."
"Except you," Arcadia points out.
Mimic sighs. "Except me," she agrees. "Which is kind of a problem, I guess. I dunno what to do about her."
"How about this?" Chaud offers. "You've already given me enough warning to be wary of her, even if she's not a bad guy. I shouldn't need to know much more than that, so I can deal with the situation when I'm in it. That'll give you a chance to think about this."
" . . . Alright," Mimic agrees, after a short pause. "That's . . . yeah, that's fair. Guess I'm too used to dealin' with shit when it happens instead'a tryin' to work out how to deal with shit that's like . . . more than five seconds away."
"That one's kinda my fault, so it's fine," Chaud tells her. "You've done pretty good so far, anyway. You stopped Yai from breaking reality, and we know to keep Trill's abilities a secret from the Zoanoroids. And you've just given me a warning to be careful about that girl, so . . . I shouldn't get knocked out."
"Not gonna let it happen," Bass says.
Chaud nods in acknowledgement. "There, see? It's fine."
"Right," Mimic murmurs. She's still worried, he can tell - it's all over her expression, and he can feel her worry churning in his own stomach.
He reaches out and pulls her into a hug. It's fine, he murmurs. You're doing just fine, Mimic.
She presses her forehead into his shoulder and doesn't respond, verbally or mentally, but he can feel her calming down a little. Just a bit of help and support is better than nothing, after all.
They stay like that until Famous's car pulls up outside. It's never really fun, having to leave his twin behind for any reason - they don't really like being separated, even if they have to sometimes, like right now. Mimic could come with him, sure, but that would mean ProtoMan'd have to come as well, and no one's going to force ProtoMan to go back to Netopia if he doesn't want to go.
At least Mimic and ProtoMan won't be alone. They still have Lan, MegaMan, and Trill. Not to mention Ragdoll and their parents, too, and all their friends. And Chaud has Arcadia and Bass, so he's not on his own either.
Still doesn't mean he's happy to leave Mimic behind, but . . . it makes him feel a bit better, knowing that neither of them are on their own.
The plane that Manabe arranged to take Chaud, Arcadia, and Bass to Netopia is . . . uncomfortably similar to the planes he used to use when he was the vice president of IPC. The image on the side of this plane may be the hexagon-shaped logo of the Net Police, but it's still far too similar, and it really doesn't help that he's the only human passenger on this plane.
So instead of focusing on that, he distracts himself. He's not Mimic - he doesn't play video games religiously like she does. He's also not Lan - he can't find some random website online and get lost in that for hours. He's Chaud, and the way he distracts himself is by throwing himself into work.
"Mimic was right about this place being abandoned," Arcadia says. Beside him on the table, there's a holographic screen showing an image of the base BubbleMan gave them the coordinates to. "The Netopian military hasn't used it for a decade. Apparently the base was built in an area of the desert that's prone to intense sandstorms, so keeping the facility up to scratch wasn't really an option."
"Sandstorms?" Bass repeats, frowning. Chaud's not entirely sure if he doesn't know what a sandstorm is, or if he's just wondering why human buildings can't stand intense weather.
"Like this," Arcadia says, raising a hand to touch the screen. As soon as his clawed fingertip brushes against it, the image changes to show a video of an extremely intense sandstorm covering the entire area. "Sandstorms can do a lot of damage to human buildings over time, and humans didn't really have the technology to build things that can withstand this type of weather back then. They still don't, really, but the new base the military built to replace this one is in a much better location."
He touches the screen again, and now it's showing an image of a military base that looks far more modern and in a better condition than the previous one.
"Since the old base is abandoned, we'll be landing at the new base, and then we'll continue on land," he explains. "Manabe said she's contacted the base, and there should be someone waiting to drive us there."
"If it's in an area where intense sandstorms are the norm," Chaud begins, leaning forward to put his arms on his knees, "then we'd probably need some sort of protection, right?"
"Well . . . not right now," Arcadia says. "Normally, yes, of course you would - but it seems the sandstorm season is over for the moment, so all you have to do is get into the car and hopefully not get sunburn."
Chaud huffs out a laugh and leans back, crossing his arms. "Well, I guess we got pretty lucky with the timing, then."
"No shit," Bass comments, nodding. "Also, what the hell is sunburn?"
Leaving Arcadia to explain that concept to an increasingly-incredulous Bass, Chaud looks out the window. The view is pretty much the same, but he's in a totally different time zone, now - so the sky is darkening much faster, because while it's day time in Japan, it's almost night in Netopia.
He wonders what his siblings are up to right now. It's only been a few hours since he left, but all the same, he wonders. And worries, too, because it's not like things will be idle in Japan while he's here. Even without having sensed the faint anticipation Mimic was feeling when he left, he still would've have known that.
They land at the new military base, and Chaud is a little ashamed of the intense relief he feels as soon as he steps off the Net Police plane. Not ashamed enough to comment on it or mention it to anyone who can't already sense it - such as Arcadia - but enough to acknowledge it and wonder if he'll ever be comfortable with things like this ever again.
Luckily, he's immediately distracted upon meeting their escort to the abandoned base, an older-looking man in a desert military uniform. He apparently isn't put off by the fact that a twelve-year-old is who the Japanese Net Police have sent to investigate an abandoned military base in the middle of the Netopian desert.
"You're one of the people who saved the world," the man explains when Chaud asks, because he's far too curious to let this lie. "If that doesn't qualify you for . . . well, whatever it is you're trying to do, then what will?"
"Fair enough," Chaud concedes, shrugging.
The man nods. "My name's Tyler Sands, by the way." He chuckles at Chaud's surprise. "I know, it's ironic. I'll spare you the obvious jokes, lord knows my friends make enough of them anyway."
Well, he seems friendly enough. And willing to talk, which is a contrast to the Netopian military's reputation for being cagey about . . . well, everything. Maybe the whole 'saved the world' thing opens up more doors than anyone could've expected.
The car they're taking to get to the abandoned base is one of those without a roof. It makes sense in a desert, Chaud supposes - the heat would probably bake anyone alive if they were dumb enough to try and drive through it with windows up and a roof over their head. God knows he's experienced more than enough of the Netopian desert's heat, though Mimic's probably more used to it than he is, given that she basically lived in it for three months.
Though the heat is starting to die down, to be replaced with the sheer cold of night. It's something to do with the sand, isn't it, that makes a desert hot in the day but cold at night? He'll have to look that up when he gets back home, it seems pretty interesting.
"The old base is about ten kilometres to the west," Tyler tells him, raising his voice to be heard over the noise of the car. "Right in the centre of the desert - and you're lucky, because usually that area is in the middle of intense sandstorms, but the season's over for now."
Chaud's half-tempted to tell him that he doesn't need to shout - he can hear him just fine, even over the noise of the car. But normal humans wouldn't be able to do that, and he's not sure how a military person would react to being told that he's basically superhuman, so he keeps quiet.
"Is there anyone there?" Chaud asks, raising his voice as well. Doesn't hurt to ask - he knows Mimic said it was abandoned (aside from that mysterious girl), but getting a second opinion from someone who knows the area is a good opportunity. And aside from that, he doesn't want to risk Tyler asking him why he's apparently not interested in asking about the place he's being driven to despite going there to investigate it.
"No, the base has been abandoned for a long time," Tyler replies. "We used to use it after we first moved, but it became too much of a hassle to go back and forth between the bases with the distance and all, so we abandoned it entirely. There might be the odd desert animal or two, but this part of the desert is off-limits to civilians, so you won't find any humans there."
No civilians except that girl, but judging by what Mimic said, she's probably not a civilian at all. If he wants to know more about the mysterious girl, he'll either have to ask the girl herself, or see if Mimic's made a decision on what to do about her knowledge of the girl when he gets back.
The abandoned base doesn't take long to get to via car. The sun's dipping below the horizon by the time they arrive, but it was already doing that anyway, so Chaud's more interested in his surroundings.
Which . . . honestly aren't very encouraging. At a glance, this place looks exactly as the name implies - a completely abandoned military base. The fence surrounding it has collapsed in some places, the gates are so worn-down that they're barely even there anymore, and what little plant-life there is is overgrown and very clearly no longer up to military standards. The buildings themselves are in even worse condition, crumbled bricks and rusted steel, doors half-open, fallen off their hinges, or in some cases just plain not there with no explanation as to how they vanished.
"Looks like the kinda place MegaMan would avoid," Bass comments, as the car pulls up in front of the main building. Its condition is only slightly better than the rest of the base, which isn't saying much.
"It does look like it could be haunted," Arcadia agrees. "I wonder if my Empath Program would work on ghost humans?"
"You can test it next time we go to some other haunted dump," Bass replies.
Tyler chuckles. "Strange Navis you've got there, kid," he says to Chaud.
You have no idea, Chaud thinks. He shrugs in response, electing to stay silent.
They head inside the main building. Tyler produces a torch from somewhere, not that Chaud needs it to see - his eyes only take a few moments to adjust to the darkness, and through the grey-and-black tones of his night vision, he's able to see far better in this than Tyler can with his torch. But, as with before, he's not gonna tell Tyler that. No human other than Mimic has night vision like this, and they're not keen to get attention for their superhuman abilities.
"The electricity should still work," Tyler says, voice echoing in the empty space. "You want to wait here while I go and see if I can turn the lights on? I won't be a minute."
"Sure," Chaud replies. It might sound a bit harsh, but he's kinda glad that Tyler's leaving, if only for a short while - that torch is way too bright for him right now.
Tyler heads off down a hallway to the right, leaving Chaud alone in the main one. It appears to be a straight line, but the end of it is lost in darkness, and not even night vision combined with enhanced vision can see beyond it.
"See anything?" Arcadia asks.
Chaud shakes his head. "Nothing immediately obvious. It's just a hallway, as far as I can-"
Movement suddenly flashes up ahead, and he catches a brief glimpse of a pale dress and long hair before it's gone. If he didn't have night vision or enhanced vision, he wouldn't have been able to see that - it probably would've just looked like a dark shape or something.
"What?" Bass demands. "What is it?"
"I think that girl's here," Chaud murmurs. "She's up ahead. I just saw her."
The two Navis on his shoulder exchange a glance.
"Do you want to try and talk to her?" Arcadia asks. "She probably doesn't know that you could see her."
Chaud hums quietly and starts heading deeper through the hallway. Maybe it'd be a good idea to wait for Tyler to come back, but he has a feeling he doesn't have the time - if he doesn't try and talk to this girl now, he'll lose track of her.
The lights suddenly come on, and he flinches back, blinded. Night vision is great and all, but the obvious problem with it is that sudden light is fucking painful. Maybe he should've told Tyler about it after all, at least then the man would've known to be careful with the lights instead of turning them on full-blast right from the start.
"Chaud," Arcadia murmurs.
"What?" He can't see a goddamn thing. Keeping his eyes closed only does so much, but it's better than looking directly into the light.
"She's here."
. . . Oh.
"Um, hi," Chaud calls. He has no idea where exactly the girl is, and she's not making any noises for him to locate her based on sound alone. "Sorry, I can't really see right now . . ."
No response from the girl. He believes Arcadia - she's definitely there. But she's just not responding.
"She feels . . . odd," Arcadia whispers, speaking quietly enough that only Chaud can hear him. "She's not a human, but she's enough like one that it's kinda confusing."
This girl isn't human? Well, Mimic certainly didn't mention that. Then again, she did say that no one knows anything about this girl (except for, obviously, Mimic herself).
So if this girl isn't human, what is she? Superhuman, like Chaud and Mimic, or even Ms. Yuri? No, Arcadia said she's 'enough like one', so she's not human at all, she just seems like one.
He's distracted from his thoughts when he hears a sharp scream echoing throughout the building. Arcadia jumps too, he hears a quick intake of breath from the owl-Navi, but Bass and the girl don't react - so it's only a sound that those with enhanced hearing could actually detect.
"Was that Tyler?" Chaud tries to open his eyes a crack and sees the faint too-bright impression of a girl standing just a few feet in front of him, and a far too bright hallway lit up all the way up and down.
Arcadia looks behind them, frowning. He concentrates for a moment, and then his eyes widen.
"Something just attacked him!" he exclaims, whirling around. "He's been knocked out!"
"How much you wanna bet that 'something' was a Beast virus or whatever?" Bass mutters, eyes narrow.
Chaud can't see hardly anything, but his eyes are starting to adjust to the light now. It's still too bright, and he can only make out vague impressions of things around him, but he's able to open his eyes into a faint squint rather than just slits.
The girl's still standing in front of him, watching him silently. She hasn't even twitched at the news that someone was attacked - nor does she appear to be surprised that Chaud somehow heard a scream even though she didn't, and Arcadia somehow figured out what happened even though they're nowhere near.
Chaud opens his mouth, about to ask her to come with him - because obviously he'll need to talk to her still, but he also wants to find Tyler - when the lights suddenly turn an odd kind of red.
He blinks in the suddenly dim light. While he's grateful that he's longer being blinded by intense electric light, he's also worried - normally lights don't turn red unless there's some kind of emergency, and if there's an emergency in a military base, even an abandoned one, it's definitely going to be a much bigger problem than normal.
Then he hears something rumbling behind him, and glances over his shoulder. Blast doors are starting to come down in the hallway one after another - his first instinct is to run away from them, because he'll get trapped if he doesn't, so that's exactly what he does.
Chaud darts toward the girl and grabs her wrist. "Come on!" he exclaims, tugging on her arm as he continues running.
They're just barely able to keep ahead of the blast doors. Chaud can go a hell of a lot faster than this, but he needs to keep this girl with him - Mimic said she's important, so he has to.
But dammit, she's slow. He knows that's unfair because he's faster than even the average adult human (probably even faster than professional sprinters, who knows, they haven't exactly tested it or anything, but he can definitely keep up with a speeding car and that's all he cares about), but she's still slow, and he wants to run faster but he can't because he needs to keep her with him.
And then they can't outrun the blast doors anymore. One closes just ahead of them, leaving them trapped in a box space with no visible way out.
Chaud stops, huffing out a slightly annoyed breath. He half-expects the girl to be out of breath after a run like that - he's not because that was barely just above walking speed for him - but oddly enough, she isn't. If Arcadia hadn't already told him that the girl isn't human, that alone would've clued him in that something's off about her.
"There's some kind of energy affecting the base," Arcadia reports, after concentrating for a moment to scan the network. "If I had to guess, it's most likely a result of the Fossa Ambience."
The girl looks up sharply.
Chaud doesn't allow his surprise to show on his face, but internally, he's definitely puzzled. Why did mentioning the Fossa Ambience get a reaction out of her? Did she not expect him to know what it is? Or maybe-
"You're from Beyondard, aren't you?" he realises.
The girl's eyes widen. That's an answer even if she's not talking. Well, if she doesn't want to talk, that's fine - he's got more than enough experience with people who don't want to talk for one reason or another.
Sure, those people are all members of his family, but the point still stands.
"I want to ask you some things, but I think it'll have to wait for now," Chaud goes on. He looks around at the walls, trying to see if there's anything there that could help them get out of this. But no - there's nothing he can see on the walls. They're bare aside from the lights.
Then he looks up at the ceiling, and realises it's just a mesh covering. It's solid, of course, even after a decade of being abandoned, but if he can shift one of the panels, maybe he and the girl can climb up and crawl through the space between the mesh and the actual ceiling. They're both small enough that they can easily fit - an adult would never be able to manage it.
Well, no time like the present.
"What do you think ProtoMan's trial will be?" Maylu asks.
Lan puts his hands behind his head and looks up at the sky thoughtfully. "I dunno. It shouldn't be anything too difficult or complicated, I don't think Famous would just throw him in the deep end right away."
"F'it was up to Manabe or Kifune, it would be," Mimic mutters.
"Yeah, you guys . . . you don't really have a good track record with them, do you?" Lan winces.
"The record's bad enough that Famous just took Chaud as a personal Net Saver right away," ProtoMan jokes. "Mimic and Chaud're really bad at doing what they're told to."
"Said the Mettaur to the Billy," MegaMan comments.
"Shut the- shut up, you're just as bad as we are!" ProtoMan retorts.
"You are?" Trill looks up at MegaMan eagerly. "Oh, wow, so you're a bad boy too!"
MegaMan splutters. "Wh-where did you learn that phrase!?"
Lan laughs at that. Sometimes Trill just comes out with the funniest things, and MegaMan's reactions are always priceless.
Then his PET's call alarm goes off, and he stops walking, blinking in surprise. Mimic and Maylu stop walking too, both curious to see what's going on, as Lan takes out his PET and answers the call.
"Lan, Mimic," Famous greets them.
"Hi, Mr. Famous," Lan replies, now kinda puzzled. It's only been a few hours since Chaud left for Netopia, surely he couldn't have found whatever's in that base already?
"We've had a development in the Navi disappearance case," Famous says. Oh, so it's not about Chaud and Netopia at all. "Fifty NetBowl players - including the reserve players - have just vanished from an active match. There were tons of witnesses. I need you to send your Navis to Internet City and find out exactly what happened." He glances at Mimic, or more specifically, at ProtoMan, who's sitting on her shoulder. "ProtoMan? This is your trial, now. Help MegaMan figure out what happened to the NetBowl players."
"Yes, sir!" ProtoMan grins and salutes. Lan is a little bit ashamed to admit that ProtoMan's salute looks far better than his own.
"Oh, and . . ." Famous looks back at Lan. "It's just Famous!"
And with that said, the call ends, leaving Lan blinking once again.
"Uh . . ." He glances at Mimic. "I . . . guess we go?" She shrugs. "Okay. Hey, MegaMan-"
Lan stops, because he's just noticed that MegaMan isn't on his shoulder anymore, and neither is Trill.
"They're in my PET," Maylu informs him, holding it up for him to see.
Ah, right. Normally MegaMan would leave Trill with ProtoMan for babysitting duty, but since ProtoMan's doing his trial case and will definitely be returning to full Net Saver duties after this, he can't do that anymore. Which is a shame, 'cus ProtoMan was surprisingly good at babysitting.
Unfortunately, Lan still remembers what Mimic told them about Roll losing baby Trill in the anime. That's part of the reason why MegaMan decided to give Trill to ProtoMan in the first place - they didn't want to risk Roll being a bad babysitter.
"Is this a good idea?" Lan asks, glancing sideways at Mimic.
"If she keeps an eye on him, yeah," Mimic replies, giving Maylu's PET's screen a hard look. "If not . . ."
It's not an actual threat, but it still hangs in the air like one anyway. Mimic has the odd ability to make anything she says sound like a threat, which is probably because she's stupidly good at manipulating people, actually.
"I'll do my absolute best, I promise!" Roll says, thumping her chest determinedly.
"Do better," Mimic retorts, and Roll kind of wilts.
"Be good, okay?" MegaMan is too busy saying goodbye to Trill to notice. "I have to go to work now."
"Are you sure I can't come with you?" Trill isn't demanding to come with them, thank god, but he's still looking pretty sad to get left behind.
"I'm sorry, but this is definitely too dangerous," MegaMan tells him softly. He pulls Trill into a hug and presses his lips to the top of the child-Navi's jester-helmet. "Next time I have a case that seems like it could be fun, you can tag along, okay?"
"Okay," Trill mumbles, squeezing his arms around MegaMan's waist.
"Easier'n what it was in the anime," Mimic comments, watching them.
"Lemme guess, he threw a tantrum," Lan sighs.
"Kinda. He latched onto MegaMan an' wouldn't let go."
Right, I think I prefer the Trill I know to the one from Mimic's anime, Lan thinks to himself.
They leave Maylu and Roll with Trill and head off to find the nearest jack-in port. These things are pretty much everywhere when you don't need one, but when you actually do need one, suddenly there's not a single jack-in port within, like, fifty miles or something.
"That's how it always feel when y'need somethin'," Mimic says, nodding wisely. "Also, I remember what this is now."
The abrupt change in subject makes Lan stumble, though he's only walking. "You do?"
"Yeah," Mimic confirms. "Zoano PharaohMan kidnapped all them NetNavis from the disappearance case to convert 'em into soldiers of Gregar."
Lan actually stops walking at that. "What."
"Somethin' to do with usin' coffins, m'not really sure," Mimic says, as if that's the issue here.
"How's he kidnapping the Navis?" ProtoMan asks.
"Some big pyramid thing." Mimic makes a weird kind of gesture, and it takes Lan a moment to realise she's literally sketching out the shape of a pyramid with her hands. For some reason. "But it's invisible and Internet City's security system can't pick it up 'cus'a some kinda . . . cloakin' device, I think it was? No, camouflage device, that was it."
"They're basically the same thing," ProtoMan tells her.
"Oh. A'right then, cloakin' device it is."
"Okay, explain that later, first we've gotta get to Internet City's stadium," Lan reminds them. He's burning to know exactly what Mimic is talking about, but this is kinda urgent - and aside from that, it's ProtoMan's trial, so they still need to do things properly even if Mimic knows exactly what's going on. It wouldn't be much of a trial if they relied entirely on her knowledge.
Mimic and ProtoMan nod their agreement, and they continue their search for a jack-in port.
He has gotten used to the grey tones by now. The grey tones of the base, the grey tones of the foot soldiers, the grey tones of everything. It has been years - if he had not gotten used to it by now, he would be absolutely useless to his lord.
His talons make faint clicking noises each time he takes a step. That, too, had taken some getting used to, but it is the one thing he enjoys the most about all of this - he is no longer a lowly NetNavi, but rather something more. He is complete, and he will go above and beyond for his lord, in gratitude for showing him the true path of power.
He brushes past a small squad of Beast viruses - heading out on some assignment or other, he does not know, these viruses are not in his own regiment and therefore he has little interest in them - and heads into his lord's room.
This room is the only place with any splash of colour in it. A large, cavernous room, mostly grey-scale like the rest of the base, but on the furthest wall is a stone likeness to his lord's visage. Red in colour, the colour of human blood freshly spilled - at least in his opinion, anyway. Perhaps he enjoys the spilling of human blood too much, but he is not known for his mercy.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
"Lord Falzar," he calls, stopping in the middle of the room. He goes down on one knee, bowing his head before his lord. "You sent for me? Have you a task I must complete?"
A faint, high-pitched metallic trill comes from the stone likeness of his lord. Behind that wall, he knows, his lord rests - readying itself for battle with its counterpart and hated enemy, Gregar.
He raises his head and listens to his lord for a moment. To most, that sound would be incomprehensible, dismissed as nothing more than the screeching of a feral bird - but to Zoanoroids such as him, those are the words of his lord, and he understands without effort.
"To stoop so low as to bolster their ranks with-" He cannot help but sneer a little. "-Beyondard NetNavis . . . Truly, they are pathetic. What would you have me do, my lord?"
Another metallic trill, this time accompanied by a hiss of air.
He bows his head once again. "It shall be done, my lord."
His lord dismisses him, and he leaves for Beyondard immediately.
Rush's yapping sounds exactly like that - yapping. To humans, it's pretty much incomprehensible. To NetNavis, it's . . . still kind of incomprehensible, but with a bit of effort, they can understand him. The only person who can understand Rush without any effort whatsoever is Roll, but she's not here right now.
ProtoMan and MegaMan are, though.
Out of all the spectators - or witnesses, as Famous called them - who saw the NetBowl players vanish, only Rush stuck around long enough to be interviewed. The others were all way too scared of being randomly kidnapped themselves, which ProtoMan understands, so he doesn't blame them. Besides, Rush is more than enough.
And, well . . . they've also got Mimic, who knows exactly what's going on anyway. So either way, they can figure this out without having to drag back a few of the other witnesses.
"An object as big as the stadium but completely invisible," MegaMan is saying, translating Rush's words for the benefit of Mimic and Lan. "It still casts a shadow, though, so that's how everyone knew it was there. And then-" MegaMan pauses to let Rush yap a little more. "-and then the players on the field vanished."
"How many players does a NetBowl team even have?" ProtoMan asks. "Fifty seems like way too many . . ."
"Fifty players total, twenty-five each from two different teams," MegaMan reminds him.
"Twenty-five still seems like way too many."
"Don't forget, some of them were reserve players."
Rush yaps away some more. Oh, so it's fifteen players for each team on the field and ten reserve players. Still seems a bit much, but whatever, ProtoMan knows basically fuck all about NetBowl and he really doesn't care for Net sports that aren't NetBattling, anyway. Apparently Rush cares, though, and he's a huge fan of this NetBowl thing.
"Why is it called NetBowl?" ProtoMan wonders. "Sounds more like something for a bowling tournament rather than-" He gestures to the empty stadium. "-whatever the hell this mess is."
Rush yaps and yaps and ProtoMan tries his best but he just doesn't understand a makerdamn word of it. Something about a ball that doesn't look like a ball and armour that's not armour and . . . bleh.
If this wasn't his trial, and if they didn't currently have a Zoanoroid crisis to deal with, he'd just bail on this case immediately. He'll play weird sports games if his friends are playing, but this 'professional' shit just seems totally pointless to him. Why any humans would make a NetNavi whose only purpose is to play something as dumb as this is beyond him, honestly.
Some like it, Dark Shadow tells him. Do not judge.
I'll judge if I wanna, ProtoMan retorts. People who like these kinda sports are fucking weird.
Dark Shadow moves its head in a way that suggests if it had actual eyes, it'd be rolling them right now.
They recall their Navis from Internet City - and Lan doesn't get kicked in the knee by Rush this time, so Mimic considers that a win even if it's just a minor one - and start brainstorming ways to track down the invisible pyramid. It's not too difficult. If what happened in the anime happens again now, and it probably will since Mimic can't directly interfering with something she's not physically there for, then PharaohMan's cloaking device thingy should get blasted apart by SparkMan pretty soon.
"PharaohMan and SparkMan," Lan murmurs thoughtfully, when she tells him what's going to - or what should - happen. "Well, if SparkMan does destroy the cloaking device like he did in your anime, we won't need to work out how to track down a thing that even Internet City's security system can't detect."
"Uh . . ." ProtoMan speaks up, making the three of them glance at him. "I know this is my trial and all, but . . . I'm not sure I . . ."
"You're not sure you're ready to fight the Zoanoroids just yet?" MegaMan guesses.
ProtoMan winces like he's ashamed of it - he probably is, Mimic realises - and nods. "I-I wanna help, of course I do, b-but . . . I'd rather not fuck up and get in over my head just 'cus I think I can do something and then it turns out I can't."
Fuck knows Mimic's done that often enough herself. She's got no objections to ProtoMan sitting this fight out - he's done pretty good so far anyway, even if he hasn't actually done that much. Actually, hold on, maybe there is something he can do to help with the Zoanoroids . . .
"It's okay," MegaMan reassures ProtoMan. "We can't expect you to be able to throw yourself straight into a full-scale battle right from the get-go."
"But . . . you'll have to fight two Zoanoroids on your own . . ."
"That's fine," MegaMan says. "It's not like I don't have experience in dealing with more than one opponent at the same time, anyway. And besides, I have the Cross System now, remember?"
"Hey, that's right!" Lan grins and looks at Mimic. "Do you remember what the battle with PharaohMan and SparkMan was like in the anime? Any kinda weaknesses we could exploit with battle chips or the Cross System or anything?"
Nothing that was immediately obvious to her at the time, if she's being honest. She didn't think to look for weaknesses when she watching the anime because she didn't know she'd need to, and if she'd known that, then she'd know why she's here in this reality in the first place, and she doesn't.
And aside from that, the bulk of the fight was pretty much just MegaMan getting his ass kicked and then literally ripping SparkMan apart once he went Beast Out - or Beast Over, whichever one it is right now - and then completely destroying the pyramid and going on a rampage in Internet City.
Wait a second. PharaohMan and SparkMan overwhelmed normal MegaMan, sure, but Beast Out MegaMan was way faster and way stronger than both of them. He overwhelmed them.
"They're slow," Mimic says. "Average for normal NetNavis, but slow if you're really fast. They shouldn't be able to react quick enough if you're too fast for 'em to land a hit."
"That's perfect!" Lan exclaims. "Then we can use Proto Cross or Arcadia Cross and MegaMan should be able to take 'em down, right?"
"I think Proto Cross would be better for this," MegaMan muses. "It's got more power, not to mention the energy to keep me going even if I've taken a few hits. And if I'm even half as fast as ProtoMan, I can do some serious damage."
"How much is half as fast as me?" ProtoMan mutters to himself.
"See?" Lan grins at him. "So you are helping us after all, 'cus you gave us your Cross!"
ProtoMan doesn't seem entirely convinced, so Mimic decides to speak up with her own idea.
"Actually, there's another way he can help out," she says, getting their attention. "Dunno if it'll work, but if it does, we can avoid at least half the battle."
Locating Zoano PharaohMan is easy work for his tracking program. Even before his lord bestowed this gift upon him, he was capable of tracking NetNavis and viruses for miles, and that ability has only grown stronger since he joined his lord.
It appears that Zoano PharaohMan has hidden himself in his palace, the Pyramid of Conversion - and it has been fitted with an advanced camouflage device, to hide it from the eyes of Beyondard.
But his tracking program is far superior to such a dainty little trick, and so he finds the Pyramid of Conversion easily. It hovers over an odd collection of digital buildings, the likes of which he has not seen since before the Great Change, and even that was brief. He has the urge to destroy the collection of digital buildings, but that is not his mission.
He breaks into the Pyramid of Conversion as easily as he tears through his lord's enemies, and the first thing he does is send out a wave of energy from his Beast Sword to announce his arrival in his typical fashion.
That is, violently. With plenty of destruction.
It is what he is known for, after all.
He enjoys Zoano PharaohMan's confusion for a few moments before stepping forward into the light himself, smiling as though this is a pleasant conversation and not a slaughter. The other participants may disagree, but he finds those two concepts to be very similar.
"Greetings, Zoano PharaohMan," he calls. "I must ask, are you Gregars truly so desperate for new soldiers that would you steal them from Beyondard? These Navis are hardly worth the time."
Zoano PharaohMan's eyes are almost comically wide. "You," the golden Zoanoroid breathes. "You are the Sunset Warrior, are you not?"
He inclines his head, still smiling. "I am he. My reputation appears to have preceded me."
"You hold no power here!" Zoano PharaohMan hisses. One of his arms moves from where it is crossed over his chest, and then gestures sharply.
He senses the surge in power and cuts it down with his Beast Sword before it even has a chance to encircle him. "My, my. Such a pathetic little performance, I have to say. How exactly did you manage to capture so many Beyondard NetNavis with such a weak method?"
Zoano PharaohMan's eyes narrow. "You will pay for your insolence, Falzar!"
"I am not Lord Falzar."
He steps forward and is behind Zoano PharaohMan in the blink of an eye. To outsiders, it would appear that he simply teleported - but in reality, he is just very, very fast. He was fast before, and now he is even faster.
How could he not be grateful to his lord for this gift, this power? He spends every waking moment, every breath, thanking his lord one way or another - with his words, with his victories, with the blood and data he sheds in his lord's name.
Zoano PharaohMan begins to turn, but it is already far too late. He cuts through the Gregar general's body in one clean slash, and just like that, it is over.
No, not quite.
He turns his attention to the golden conversion coffins neatly laid out on the floor below the raised dais he now stands on. He still has this part of his mission left to complete - just because the King of Conversion has been deleted does not mean those who have already converted will not awaken as loyal Gregar soldiers.
Those soldiers cannot be allowed to wake.
With a few slashes of his Beast Sword, crackling waves of energy blast out and destroy the coffins, along with the converted NetNavis inside. And to think, Zoano PharaohMan attempted to put him into one of those - truly pathetic.
He looks up, and sees the camouflage device floating near the ceiling. He has completed most of his mission, but there remains one last thing he must do - capture or destroy the Beyondard NetNavis who have been a constant thorn in his lord's side since the existence of this pitiful reality was discovered.
How best to lure them to him? He knows that attempting to find them is akin to self-deletion. It will be best to simply allow them to come to him, so he can rip them apart. His lord will understand, because it is what he is known for.
After all, why send him if the expected result is not wholesale slaughter?
He cannot control where the Pyramid of Conversion is going. It appears to be heading for a specific location - perhaps it was Zoano PharaohMan's base of operations. That is fine, a fixed location will make it easier for the Beyondard Navis to find him and meet their end.
The one thing he can control in this entire palace is that camouflage device. Or at least, he can destroy it. He gathers more energy on his Beast Sword and unleashes it, tearing through the camouflage device as easily as he tore through Zoano PharaohMan and the conversion coffins. Outside, he knows, the Pyramid of Conversion is invisible no more - fully visible to these pitiful creatures of Beyondard.
Which is exactly what he wants.
He settles down to wait. He enjoys destruction, lives for slaughter, but he can be patient when he needs to be.
Let his lord's enemies come to him, and like the setting sun vanishes in the darkness of night, he will make sure their light vanishes from both worlds.
Chaud kicks at the mesh above the control room, and the panel clatters down to the ground with a noise that makes him wince. Climbing down is easy enough, he's done more dangerous things than this when he and Mimic were going on their night-walks (before the cold stopped them, anyway).
The only light in the control room is from the static on the various computer screens in the room. The noise they're making is absolutely horrendous and he wishes he could turn it all off, but he needs these things on so he can use them. It's hell on his hearing, but he's had worse. Unfortunately.
"Come on, it's safe to jump down," he says, turning to look up at the girl.
She followed him the whole way, crawling after him without a word of complaint. He's a little impressed with that, because she doesn't look like the type to do this kind of stuff without complaining, but appearances are very often deceiving - and she's not human anyway, so it's not like he can apply stereotypical knowledge to her.
Even now, when the girl jumps down and Chaud reaches out to steady her from the landing, she doesn't make a sound. Not even a gasp - and that's . . . more worrying than impressive, he has to admit. Can she speak at all? Is she mute? Does she know sign language? Then again, if she is from Beyondard like he thinks, the sign language she knows might be totally different to the one he knows. The spoken language is definitely different, he knows that much.
After making sure that the girl is alright, which takes no more than a moment really, Chaud gives the room a quick once-over. Almost immediately, he spots Tyler slumped in the corner, and rushes over to him.
"Yeah, he's been knocked out," Arcadia confirms, peering at the military man as Chaud checks him over.
His knowledge of first aid is . . . pretty limited, to be honest, but he knows enough about wounds and bruises and all that kind of stuff to be able to tell if something's serious. That knowledge is from personal experience, and while the reason why he has it isn't exactly a good one (abuse is never a good reason or excuse for anything), it's at least useful enough to allow Chaud to work out that Tyler is more or less okay.
Aside from being unconscious, that is.
"He should wake up at some point," Chaud says, getting to his feet. "Probably soon."
"No sign of whatever the fuck tried to delete him, though," Bass says, scanning the room with sharp eyes. "It probably went back into the cyberworld."
"Then we'll have to follow it and get rid of it," Arcadia declares.
"You'll follow it," Bass corrects him, with a quick and suspicious glance at the girl that she definitely notices but doesn't comment on. "I'll stick with Chaud."
Arcadia glances at the girl too, and he nods. Right, this is basically the entire reason Bass decided to come with them in the first place - while Chaud and Arcadia are focused on whatever's in the network, Bass can keep an eye on the girl and make sure she doesn't try to knock Chaud out by reading his mind.
He's not sure how that works, and he doesn't think Mimic does, either. Maybe it's just one of those things that can happen and the anime never bothered to give any reasonable explanation for it. That seems to have happened often enough.
"Arcadia, jack in!" Chaud exclaims, aiming the jack-in beam at one of the computers.
Arcadia vanishes from his shoulder, leaving Bass there on his own to glare at the girl. Normally Chaud would tell him not to be so rude, but he's abruptly distracted by the image that shows up on his PET's screen.
"That's . . . a lot of viruses," he says, blinking.
"Yep," Arcadia agrees faintly, eyes wide. His expression turns determined, and Holy Fire sparks along his arms. "Good thing I have some pretty good ranged attacks."
"Damn good thing," Chaud agrees.
The Beast viruses come at Arcadia, and the network lights up white with fire.
PharaohMan's pyramid is revealed to basically the whole of Internet City, just like it was in the anime. Dad and Famous are able to track it, and when it stops moving, they tell Mimic and Lan where it ended up - in some abandoned factory.
There seems to be way too many abandoned buildings being used for evil purposes. Abandoned factories, abandoned military bases, abandoned warehouses . . . well, that second one isn't as common as the factories or warehouses, but you get the point. At least the whole 'abandoned building' thing makes it easier for property damage (though Chaud once accidentally broke a building that was gonna be demolished and still had to pay for the damage, which was unfair in Mimic's opinion), and there's no civilians around to be put in danger.
On the way to the abandoned factory, Mimic relays as much of the battle as she can remember from the anime. Of course she also has to mention the Beast Out thing - but hopefully Roll can actually keep an eye on Trill, so they won't have to worry about that happening. MegaMan has access to the Cross System and Proto Cross is basically a better version of Proto Soul, so he should be able to take on PharaohMan and SparkMan even if they both use Beast Out.
As soon as they get inside the abandoned factory - it looks kinda like a pyramid with a flat top, which is oddly fitting - Mimic looks around until she spots what she's after.
The CopyBot that PharaohMan used in the anime to attack Lan in the real world. When she said they could avoid half the battle, she meant it.
Let's hope this fucking works, she mutters to herself, whipping out her PET and aiming the jack-in beam at the port on the CopyBot's chest.
The beam connects. Her heart's nearly pounding loud enough that she's pretty even Lan can hear it, but the CopyBot lights up white like they always do when a Zoanoroid uses one, and it changes shape.
The light breaks off the CopyBot, and ProtoMan stands in its place, blinking down at himself.
"It worked!" Lan exclaims, grinning.
"You good?" Mimic asks ProtoMan, because that's a CopyBot made by the Zoanoroids and even if ProtoMan can use it, that doesn't mean there's no danger.
ProtoMan looks up, mismatched eyes flashing in the darkness, and then he's across the room in the blink of an eye.
Mimic suddenly finds herself wrapped up ProtoMan's arms tight enough that she can almost feel her ribs trying to give way. He's rubbing his cheek against the top of her head, purring away like an engine, and she can feel the familiar coldness of Dark Shadow brushing against the back of her legs.
I can't breathe, she says.
He immediately loosens the hug enough to look down at her. "By the maker, I'm so sorry!" he exclaims, looking her over. "Are you okay? I-I didn't mean to- did- did I hurt you, or-"
"M'fine," Mimic says. She can't help but grin, and she reaches up to place a hand on her Navi's cheek.
Of course she knew she'd get to see him in the real world at some point, but she'd thought that would happen in Beyondard, not here. Maybe she got this idea mostly because she just wanted to avoid half the battle and give ProtoMan some way to help without forcing him to fight, but . . . well, she's not gonna complain about the results.
ProtoMan starts purring again, pressing his cheek into her palm.
"That's adorable," Lan comments, smiling at them softly. Then his smile turns more determined as he spots a jack-in port - the one that PharaohMan would've used to get into the CopyBot if Mimic hadn't gotten ProtoMan to hijack it first. "Alright! Now let's deal with PharaohMan and SparkMan!"
"Right," MegaMan agrees.
Lan takes out his PET and brings up the holographic screen, and then the Cross System select screen. "Alright . . . activate Cross System . . ." He presses his finger onto one of the Crosses on the screen. "Proto Cross!"
MegaMan's body lights up with the glow of the Cross System, and when it dies down, he's in Proto Cross. His tail curls around in the air behind him, and he clenches his fists and looks up at Lan with a sharp-toothed grin.
"Let's kick some Zoanoroid ass!" MegaMan declares eagerly.
Mimic will never not find it funny that MegaMan basically inherited ProtoMan's potty mouth thanks to the Cross System.
Lan jacks MegaMan into the pyramid, and the image on his PET's holographic screen changes from the Cross System select screen to the interior of PharaohMan's pyramid. She slips out of ProtoMan's arms to get closer and watch the battle, and ProtoMan and Dark Shadow follow her, ProtoMan putting his chin on top of her head and wrapping her into another hug. Seems like he doesn't want to let go of her. That's fine, she doesn't mind at all.
Then she's distracted from ProtoMan's clinginess when she sees the interior of the pyramid.
"Uh . . ." Lan blinks. "Wow, they really wrecked this place . . ."
"Wasn't like that in the anime," Mimic mutters, frowning.
To put it bluntly, everything in the pyramid is in pieces. Some of the pillars are little more than piles of rubble, there are great scars still leaking data all over the walls, the coffins are in so many pieces that the only reason Mimic recognises them as coffins is because she knows what they're supposed to look like, and the floor is even more torn up than the walls, which is quite a feat.
Yeah, it definitely wasn't like this in the anime. A little wrecked, yeah, because that's what happens when two Zoanoroids fight each other, but it wasn't to this extent.
"Where're PharaohMan and SparkMan?" ProtoMan suddenly asks. "You said they attacked MegaMan as soon as he went into the pyramid, right?"
"Well . . ." Honestly, she'd been too focused on the destruction to notice that MegaMan hasn't been attacked yet. "I mean, he got attacked right away 'cus Lan fought PharaohMan in the real world first, so . . . maybe they don't know he's there?"
"I'm not even hiding!" MegaMan exclaims, throwing his arms out. He looks almost disappointed that no one's attacking him. "C'mon, where the hell are you!? Fight me already!"
There's no response, from either PharaohMan or SparkMan.
Mimic is starting to get a very, very bad feeling about this. Judging by the way ProtoMan's grip is tightening around her, he's probably feeling the same thing, and she can see Dark Shadow's form flickering uneasily. Even Lan feels it, for all that he doesn't have the instincts of a cat or any other kind of animal.
And then they hear footsteps, each one accompanied by odd clicking. They're slow and deliberate, as if whoever's making those clicking footsteps could easily walk silently but is currently choosing not to. The footsteps are coming from a raised dais at the end of the pyramid's room.
MegaMan whirls around and growls up at the dais, half-crouching in preparation for an attack, but then he goes completely silent, completely still, eyes stretching wide.
"Welcome!" the owner of the clicking footsteps calls.
A kind of cold feeling spreads through Mimic's body, and it's not because Dark Shadow is pressing against her legs. ProtoMan has frozen entirely, like someone's used an ice attack on him. Lan's mouth is gaping open in disbelief and mild horror.
"I would apologise for the mess, but destruction is my element, and I revel in it," the owner of the footsteps continues. Click, click, come the footsteps, so slow that it's almost torturous. "My enemies know me as the Sunset Warrior. Like the setting sun heralds the coming of night, so too does my arrival herald the defeat of Lord Falzar's enemies. Allow me to introduce myself properly!"
The figure steps off the dais, and his black visor gleams in the light.
"I am Zoano ProtoMan."
