His armour is orange instead of red. He has taloned feet instead of clawed feet. His hair's an odd metallic silver instead of pure white. His black-and-white NaviMark has been replaced with the symbol of the Cybeast Falzar.
MegaMan almost doesn't want to believe it, but his eyes aren't lying to him.
The Zoanoroid standing in front of him is ProtoMan.
"You look different to how I expected," Zoano ProtoMan comments, tilting his head. "I was told you were a blue NetNavi, human, not humanoid. But you are red, and appear to be an animal-Navi of some sort. Judging by that tail, I would say a cat-Navi. Hm . . . quite interesting."
All MegaMan can do is stare at him. Out of all the things he could've expected, this is definitely not one of them - he knows Mimic said that some of the Zoanoroids are Beyondard counterparts to their friends, but he knows damn well that she never mentioned ProtoMan being one of them. He never imagined that ProtoMan could be a Zoanoroid. He doubts Mimic ever imagined it, either.
"Regardless of your appearance or species," Zoano ProtoMan continues in a ringing voice, "you are still the same Navi my lord wishes to be deleted." He raises his arm, and a jagged-looking Sword materialises on it. "I thank you for coming to me, and sparing me the trouble of finding you myself."
There's metres between them. MegaMan's in the middle of the pyramid's room, Zoano ProtoMan is right at the back - any normal NetNavi would have to take several running steps to cross the space.
But Zoano ProtoMan isn't a normal NetNavi.
MegaMan doesn't even see him move. Suddenly the Zoanoroid is just there, swinging his jagged Sword at MegaMan, and it's only the extra speed that Proto Cross gives him that allows MegaMan to dodge the attack.
He's lucky he did. Zoano ProtoMan's swing smashes a great scar into the ground, adding to the destruction, and suddenly it becomes very, very clear how the pyramid room got to be in such a state.
"You appear to have great speed!" Zoano ProtoMan calls, whirling to face him. He's sporting a wild kind of grin, like they're having a heated NetBattle rather than fighting to deletion. "Good! I enjoy slaughter, I live for it even, but even I tire of weak prey! En garde!"
And he comes at MegaMan again, slashing his jagged Sword. Instead of dodging to the side this time, MegaMan ducks under it, gritting his teeth, tail lashing and fur and hair bristling, and gathers up shadow energy onto his claws and slams them into Zoano ProtoMan's chest.
The Zoanoroid gasps and MegaMan manages to fling him away a few feet. He regains his footing easily and looks up, still with that wild grin, and MegaMan hesitates.
It's a stupid mistake. The fact that this Zoanoroid looks so much like one of his best friends, perhaps even his brother, makes him doubt, just for a split second, that he's actually fighting a Zoanoroid, and for some stupid reason, he thinks he's looking at the ProtoMan he knows and loves and he doesn't want to fight ProtoMan like this.
Zoano ProtoMan wastes absolutely no time in taking advantage of MegaMan's hesitation and is on him in the blink of an eye, kicking out with his talons.
The doubts are still at the forefront of MegaMan's mind, so his first instinct is to block the kick with his forearm. Too late does he remember that Falzar is a bird Cybeast, and this ProtoMan is a Falzar Zoanoroid.
Zoano ProtoMan's talons close around his forearm and he twists around, dragging MegaMan with him, and then hurls him across the ground in a wicked kick. MegaMan skids and ends up crashing right into a pile of broken coffins, the shards digging into him painfully, and he only just manages to drag himself to his feet in time to see his opponent in the air and swinging his jagged Sword once more.
MegaMan almost hesitates again, because he can't look at this Zoanoroid and not think he's fighting his friend. But some kind of feeling inside him, some sort of self-preservation instinct, makes him dart out of the way and back into the middle of the room, where he has enough space to actually make use of the abilities Proto Cross gives him.
Not that he's making much use of them at the moment. He's too busy trying to get over the fact that he's fighting Zoano ProtoMan.
"MegaMan!" Lan calls, making him jump. "Are you okay?"
Of course I'm not fucking okay! MegaMan just barely restrains himself from snapping the words out loud. I'm fighting ProtoMan!
Except it's not ProtoMan, it's an evil version of ProtoMan, and that's not fair because they've already been through this before with Dark ProtoMan. If he's feeling like this right now, he can easily imagine the horror the ProtoMan he knows must be going through.
Somehow, that thought gives MegaMan strength. His friend is probably suffering because of this Zoanoroid - he has to put a stop to this, he has to fight Zoano ProtoMan and end this fight as quickly as he can.
MegaMan lets out a faint hiss as Zoano ProtoMan turns to face him again, still with that wild grin on his face. That's another difference between this ProtoMan and the one MegaMan knows - ProtoMan loves fighting, he loves NetBattling, but not like this. He's destructive and wild and unpredictable and insane, but he's not a monster.
And MegaMan will not stand for this bastard who dares to use ProtoMan's name and smile at him.
He gathers more shadow energy, compressing it into a sparking ball of blackness, and then hurls it at his opponent. That seems to surprise Zoano ProtoMan - maybe he hadn't expected MegaMan to be capable of ranged attacks - and he doesn't dodge the shadow ball because it's too fast for him and he's too surprised.
Before the dust clears from that attack, MegaMan darts forward on all fours, keeping as silent as the Navi who gave him this Cross. He can hear Zoano ProtoMan coughing, and he uses that to pinpoint the Zoanoroid's exact location.
He gathers shadow energy onto his claws - all four sets of them, this time - and then launches himself into the air. The dust is blown away with the force of his jump, making him clearly visible to his opponent, but by then it doesn't matter anyway because he's already on top of the Zoanoroid.
MegaMan spits out another hiss and twists around in mid-air a split second before he slams into Zoano ProtoMan. He kicks the Zoanoroid in the face with his shadow-encased foot-claws, driving his opponent back, and then lands on the floor and lashes out with the shadow-claws on his fingers.
Zoano ProtoMan grunts, flinching back. But he's still got that grin on his face, and now his jagged Sword is sparking with blood-red energy.
MegaMan's seen that kind of attack from the ProtoMan he knows. Except the energy is white, not blood-red - but it's the same thing.
He can't dodge this close, but it's still his first instinct, and he gets a little mixed up.
His vision kinda flickers, and suddenly he's halfway across the room, well out of the way of the blood-red crackling energy of Zoano ProtoMan's Sonic Boom. It scores a deep cut into the floor, but comes nowhere near him.
"What the-" MegaMan blinks, startled. How the fuck did he end up here? He didn't move on his own, he knows he didn't, so how . . . ?
"You just glitched outta the way!" Lan tells him, sounding halfway between excitement and shock. "You teleported!"
"He can teleport like I can?" ProtoMan - the one MegaMan knows, thank the maker - gasps.
"Well, he can do the shadow stuff, so . . ." Mimic points out. She's trying to sound calm, but MegaMan can easily hear her voice shaking.
She's just as affected by Zoano ProtoMan as he is, as ProtoMan himself probably is. Of course, why wouldn't she be? She told them they were gonna be fighting PharaohMan and SparkMan, and gave them the information they needed to deal with them. She could never have predicted that a Zoanoroid version of her own NetNavi would show up instead.
That just gives him more incentive to end this fight as quickly as possible. And with his newfound ability to teleport - or glitch, whichever it is - he might just be able to win this.
But Zoano ProtoMan is just as fast, if not more so, even with the teleporting.
The Zoanoroid comes at MegaMan, crossing the room as fast as he can blink, and MegaMan tries to teleport again but he doesn't know he managed it the first time. Luckily, his operator's got him covered.
"Barrier, download!" Lan cries.
MegaMan slams his claws down on the ground and the Barrier shimmers into existence in front of him. Zoano ProtoMan's jagged Sword hits it and bounces off, making the Barrier shake, but it stays firm.
And then Zoano ProtoMan slams his free hand into the Barrier, digging clawed fingertips into it, and cracks appear all over the Barrier. He tenses and the entire Barrier shatters, and then he thrusts his jagged Sword at MegaMan before he has a chance to react.
The jagged Sword slams into his head and probably would've cleaved a gash right through his body if he hadn't rolled with the impact. It still hurts like hell either way, and now MegaMan's head is fuzzy and he can't think properly through the throbbing pain.
He sees the vague shape of Zoano ProtoMan through fuzzy vision, and for a second he forgets what he's doing and where he is, and his first instinct is to reach out for the helping hand he thinks is coming.
Instead, cold claws grip his hand, and then he's hurled up into the air and slammed back down onto the floor. If he were human, he would've definitely broken some bones - as it is, the impact just breaks the floor and drives the breathe out of his body.
"You are indeed a worthy opponent, I must confess," Zoano ProtoMan tells him, straddling his hips and wrapping clawed fingers around his neck. "Alas, I must still delete you, regardless of how much I have enjoyed this."
"MegaMan!" Lan cries.
He barely hears his operator. He can't breathe, his head is fuzzy, and he tries to claw at his would-be murderer, but he's too weak and all he can do is scrabble pathetically at Zoano ProtoMan's arms.
"I wonder if choking you would have the same affect it has on Navis from my reality?" Zoano ProtoMan asks idly, as if he's just discussing the weather instead of choking MegaMan to deletion. "Cutting off the air supply for us is a deletion-sentence. Is it the same for Navis from this reality? I would very much like to find out."
"I . . . wouldn't . . ." MegaMan gasps out. Maybe it's stupid, wasting what little breathe he has on sassing his opponent, but that's ProtoMan's personality shining through his Cross and he can't keep silent no more than he can't not act like a cat-Navi, because that's what he is right now.
"A talker, are you?" Zoano ProtoMan seems almost delighted. "Excellent! I have always found talkers to be very witty and great entertainment. Until I delete them, that is. A shame, but I cannot keep pets, and I would not know how to look after one anyway."
MegaMan stops trying to scrabble at Zoano ProtoMan's arms and instead digs his claws into his hands. The Zoanoroid hisses, wild grin dropping for an instant, and MegaMan manages to concentrate just enough as his opponent's grip on his throat loosens.
He teleports over to the dais, landing on his hands and knees, furiously gasping for air. Is this teleportation thing something he can only do if he's desperate? He really should've tried to figure out his abilities in Proto Cross before throwing himself straight into battle with it, but he'd assumed that he'd be able to work it out because he knows how ProtoMan fights and that should've been enough to help him.
Except MegaMan is not ProtoMan, and although he's used Proto Soul before, the abilities he has in Proto Cross are almost completely different. Proto Soul only gave him access to ProtoMan's cat-abilities - Proto Cross seems to give him access to almost all of ProtoMan's abilities, shadow-abilities included.
And MegaMan doesn't fully understand how ProtoMan uses his shadow-abilities. Maybe he should ask ProtoMan to help him figure this shit out at some point - but after this battle.
Then he hears the twin jingling of bells, and his systems go cold.
"Stop!"
MegaMan looks up, hardly daring to believe his eyes, not wanting to, but no matter how much he tries to deny it, no matter how much he wants it to be otherwise, it's still there, and it's still happening.
Trill is standing between him and Zoano ProtoMan, facing the Zoanoroid with his arms spread wide.
"Trill, no!" Lan screams.
Mimic mutters a curse. "Guess she didn't do better, after all . . ."
"Trill," MegaMan tries to say, but his voice barely works after being choked like that, and all that comes out is a faint croak. "N-no- get- get away-"
"Stop it, please!" Trill begs, still standing in front of MegaMan, still protecting him even though the only actual attack he has is his collection ability and that only works on viruses and Virus Navis, and Zoano ProtoMan is neither. "ProtoMan, please, stop hurting him!"
"Who are you?" Zoano ProtoMan is frowning, now.
Trill doesn't seem to hear him. "L-look, I don't know what happened and I don't know why you're so upset with MegaMan, but you've gotta stop hurting him!"
"Are you insane?" Zoano ProtoMan's grin is coming back, and he's almost laughing. "Do you truly not know what is happening, here?"
"Please, stop it, ProtoMan!" Trill cries desperately. "What's wrong with you!? Why're you being so mean!?"
He thinks that's the ProtoMan we know, MegaMan realises with a jolt of horror. Trill doesn't understand what's going on - he knows about the Zoanoroids, but he doesn't know that some of them are Beyondard counterparts to their friends, and even if he did know, no one would've expected Zoano ProtoMan.
"Trill-" he croaks, trying to get up. "No- he's- he's n-not-"
"A-are you being controlled or something?" Trill asks. Zoano ProtoMan begins walking toward him slowly, and he starts backing away. "I-is that- is that why you're being so mean? ProtoMan, c'mon, you gotta fight it, whatever it is!"
Zoano ProtoMan chuckles and blood-red energy starts to crackle on his jagged Sword.
Trill squeaks and trips over onto his backside, scrambles back a couple of feet, and then struggles back up. "Pl-please, I know you're not like this! You're nice and gentle a-and really funny, please, stop-"
"I tire of your prattling," Zoano ProtoMan declares, raising his crackling Sword above his head.
A scream is ripped out of MegaMan's throat as the Zoanoroid's jagged Sword cuts down, and his vision flickers and suddenly he's on top of Trill, pulling him into a protective embrace, ready to shield his little brother with his own life if he has to.
The blood-red Sonic Boom hits them, and the world explodes with pain.
"MegaMan!" Lan screams. "Trill!"
ProtoMan doesn't realise he's squeezing Mimic until he feels her hand patting his arm, and he loosens his grip, but his horror and shock don't go away and he can't stop himself from whimpering quietly.
It's stupid, he knows, but he blames himself for this. If he was with MegaMan right now, if he could actually fight, his friend wouldn't have had to face that Zoanoroid alone, and maybe Trill wouldn't have gotten so confused. And on some level, he feels like this is his fault because that Zoanoroid is him.
It's not your fault, Mimic suddenly tells him, and for a second he wonders if she's somehow gained the ability to read his mind, but then he realises his guilt is painfully obvious to anyone.
"Feels like it," ProtoMan whispers, only loud enough for his operator to hear. He doubts Lan would pay attention anyway - he's too focused on trying to get through to MegaMan and Trill.
But the screen is flickering, like ProtoMan's does sometimes. And even if that wasn't happening, the image is fuzzy and there's a cloud of dust and pixels obscuring everything from sight, so they can't see what's going on anyway.
And then an odd sort of energy shoots out from the cloud of dust, bright blue but mixed with black sparks, and there's a two-toned scream of rage that sounds almost familiar.
"Oh, no," Lan breathes.
MegaMan bursts out of the rubble from Zoano ProtoMan's attack, except it's not really MegaMan. It looks a little different to last time, but Beast Out is unmistakable no matter what it looks like.
For an absurd moment, ProtoMan wonders if MegaMan can be considered a cat or a wolf right now. Gregar Beast Out is a wolf, he knows that, but Proto Cross is a cat, and Mimic never really said how this Beast Cross thing works with animal-Navis. But it doesn't matter what species of animal-Navi MegaMan is right now, because they all remember what happened last time he used Beast Out.
"You are capable of using Beast Out as well?" Zoano ProtoMan is frowning at the cat-wolf form of MegaMan. "This, I was not aware of."
The only answer MegaMan gives him is a deep growl that sounds half like a hiss, and then he glitches and is suddenly right on top of the Zoanoroid, already swinging his claws.
Zoano ProtoMan just barely manages to get his jagged Sword up in time to block, but then MegaMan's spiked tail comes around, encased in crackling shadow energy, and slams into the side of his helmet. He grunts and stumbles, and MegaMan presses the advantage immediately, screaming his rage, sending the Zoanoroid flying with an explosion of black fire at point-blank range.
MegaMan glitches across the room, following him, and Zoano ProtoMan darts out of the way. MegaMan's attack ends up ripping a hole open in the pyramid's wall, and ProtoMan is half-terrified that he'll jump out of it, but instead, he whirls around and chases after Zoano ProtoMan.
"MegaMan!" Lan shouts, shaking his PET. "MegaMan, stop, c'mon, please!"
The only response he gets is a half-glitched, two-toned roar, and then the roar of fire as MegaMan spits out another blast of black fire at Zoano ProtoMan.
The Zoanoroid dodges again, teeth gritted. The fact that the only thing he can do is dodge should've given ProtoMan some hope for the battle, but if MegaMan manages to defeat the focus of his rage, what then? If he doesn't stop like he did the first time he and Trill fused, he might go on a rampage through Internet City, like Mimic said he did in the anime.
And then Zoano ProtoMan lets out a scream, and a burst of energy envelops him. It's similar to the energy that transformed MegaMan, and it's definitely bad news - because now they're gonna have two Beasts fighting each other.
Mimic is muttering curses on repeat, Lan looks like he wants to scream or cry, and all ProtoMan can think is that if he wasn't such a fucking coward, none of this would've happened.
The energy dies down, and Beast Out Zoano ProtoMan is revealed. The claws on his fingers are more jagged and deadly-looking, as are his taloned feet and the spike on his helmet, and two metallic wings the colour of his armour spread from his back. In truth, he doesn't look entirely different to before, but then neither do most Zoanoroids when they use Beast Out - it's only MegaMan whose form changes so drastically.
Though none of the other Zoanoroids got wings when they used Beast Out.
Zoano ProtoMan takes to the air, moving even faster than before, and MegaMan's next blast of black fire misses him completely. His wings beat once, and then suddenly he's right in front of MegaMan, swinging his jagged Sword - which looks even more deadly than before - straight down.
The entire pyramid shakes with the impact, and sends shock waves spilling into the real world. Mimic and Lan stumble, and so does ProtoMan, but luckily for them the tremors aren't as bad as they are in the cyberworld because they're just a result of the battle rather than a direct attack.
But even against that power, MegaMan is still able to block the attack. He's used a forearm to stop it - the Beast Cross armour seems to be able to block even the sharpest of Swords - and then his free hand is encased in crackling shadow energy and he drags his claws through the air and hurls that energy at Zoano ProtoMan.
The Zoanoroid beats his wings and is suddenly on the other side of the room, allowing MegaMan's attack to blast upwards and hit the ceiling harmlessly.
"Surely you can do better," Zoano ProtoMan says, hovering in place. "I would think that a feral Beast could at least match the full power of a Zoanoroid."
MegaMan screams, and glitches run out from his feet across the floor. Odd static noises follow the glitches, then he raises his hands and slams his claws down onto the ground, and crackling shadow energy bursts out from the glitches in flickering tendrils.
Zoano ProtoMan laughs, delighted, and starts weaving between the whipping tendrils. When two appear too close for him to dodge between, he simply cuts them apart with his jagged Sword, and then gathers blood-red energy on the blade and hurls it at MegaMan.
MegaMan bats the Sonic Boom away with a clash of shadow energy, then cracks his tail like a whip and glitches to Zoano ProtoMan. The Zoanoroid blocks the attempted attack with his jagged Sword, then lashes out with one of his feet and grips MegaMan's leg in his talons.
"Perhaps a larger battlefield will be more adequate," Zoano ProtoMan muses.
And then he rockets upwards, crashing through the ceiling of the pyramid, dragging MegaMan with him. They're going up, up, and up, heading straight for-
"No!" Lan cries. "They're going to Internet City!"
Fucking shit.
Chaud's not entirely sure how it happened, but somehow, he's managed to connect with Japan's cyberworld. And what he sees on his PET's holographic screen is nothing short of a goddamn nightmare.
MegaMan's fused with Trill again. They're fighting what's clearly a Zoanoroid version of ProtoMan. They're evenly matched.
And now they've just broken out of wherever the hell they were and they're heading straight for Internet City.
Dammit, he knew things wouldn't be idle in Japan, but he wasn't expecting this! He's almost certain that Mimic was, and she was probably taking steps to try and prevent this from happening, but evidently she didn't know anything about Zoano ProtoMan, or she would've told them. This isn't the kind of thing you just forget to mention.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Bass suddenly snaps, making him jump.
He glances at the Navi still on his shoulder, wondering what the hell Bass is talking about, but then he realises Bass isn't looking at him.
Chaud turns around, and he sees the girl standing there, arm half-raised as if she was about to- ah.
Right, Mimic said she was gonna do this. Evidently the mind-reading ability requires physical contact, otherwise the girl would've just done it straight away instead of trying to sneak up on him.
"There's no need to read my mind," Chaud tells her, and her eyes widen. "Yeah, I know that's what you were trying to do. Look, if you want to know something, then just ask me - don't knock me out. Arcadia's still in the network, and even if Bass goes in to help him, they've both still got to deal with an absurd amount of viruses, and I can't help them if I'm unconscious."
The girl slowly lowers her arm. She's still silent for several moments, but then, eventually, she speaks.
"Who . . . who is that Navi?" she asks. "The red one."
For a moment, Chaud thinks she's talking about ProtoMan - and then realises that that ProtoMan is Zoano ProtoMan, and he's orange, not red. So the logical conclusion is that she's asking about MegaMan, because even though that was clearly Gregar Beast Out, he recognises the traits and appearance of Proto Cross. Proto Beast Cross, he supposes.
"His name is MegaMan," Chaud tells the girl. "And he normally isn't red - he's actually blue. But he has an ability called the Cross System that lets him use the powers of other NetNavis, and it gives him their appearance, too." He sees no harm in telling this girl all that. Mimic said she's a good guy, so . . . it's unlikely that she'll use this information against them.
"He fused with the Synchroniser," the girl says, glancing at the holographic screen. It's no longer showing the Beast Out battle in Japan, it's gone back to Arcadia blasting the Beast viruses with his Holy Fire in the military base's network.
"You know what Trill is?" Even though he knows this girl is definitely a good guy, Chaud is still suspicious. Mimic said they couldn't let the Zoanoroids find out about Trill's power - and here's someone from Beyondard who seems to know about it anyway.
"Trill?" the girl repeats, tilting her head. "He . . . has a name." She says it like it's a concept she hadn't even thought of before.
"He does," Chaud says warily. "Why? Is he not supposed to have a name?"
Instead of answering, the girl asks another question of her own. "Who is MegaMan's operator?"
"Lan Hikari, my brother," Chaud replies. "Why do you want to know?"
"Is the Sync- is Trill . . . happy with them?" the girl asks.
This is going absolutely nowhere. But he can't just ignore this girl, she's obviously too important, and maybe if he answers all her questions, she'll be willing to answer his.
"He is," Chaud says. "We've had some issues, but Trill's a pretty good kid."
"A good kid," the girl echoes softly. "And . . . and is he safe?"
"Uh . . ."
"Not right now he fucking isn't," Bass speaks up, incredulous. "Didn't you see what just happened? That evil ProtoMan nearly deleted them, and now they're trying to rip each other apart in Internet City!"
"They must be stopped," the girl murmurs.
"I don't know what we can do from here," Chaud tells her reluctantly. "I can't send Arcadia. Bass can get there easily enough, but even he might not be able to fight Beast Out MegaMan."
"Sadly true," Bass admits. "And from what I can tell, he was in Proto Cross before that, so now he's in Beast Cross - and that's just made shit even worse than it could've been already."
"Beast Cross," the girl echoes quietly. "That . . . that isn't something I expected to be possible."
Chaud wouldn't have known it was possible either, except his twin sister already told them about it. He's willing to bet that even Mimic didn't expect Beast Cross to happen so soon, though, and certainly not like this.
He jumps when a sharp cry comes out of his PET, and looks at the holographic screen. Arcadia's pinned down by a couple of larger Beast viruses - they look like Elemental Dragons - while a third is biting down on one of his wings.
"Shit!" Bass snaps, instantly vanishing from Chaud's shoulder.
He appears in the network a moment later, and then blasts out a Darkness Overload that deletes two of the Beast Elemental Dragons and rips the third off Arcadia.
Chaud quickly downloads a Recovery chip for Arcadia, because his HP is pretty low after fighting for so long and entirely on his own. It's impressive that he managed to take on so many Beast viruses on his own, and Chaud's damn proud of him, but everyone needs help now and then, and Bass's help is definitely welcome.
He glances up, half-expecting the girl to be asking another question or something, and then realises she's not there anymore.
"What the . . . ?" Chaud blinks and looks around, but the only other person in the control room is the unconscious Tyler Sands. "Where did she go?"
He didn't even hear her leaving. Come to think of it, he never heard her when she appeared in front of him earlier, either.
Just who the hell was that girl? And what is she, if she's not human?
They run to SciLab, and it's all ProtoMan can do to stop himself from pulling ahead. It's only his guardian-Navi function that makes him stay with his operator, the need to protect her in the middle of a crisis like this, along with everyone else he considers family.
Except this crisis has been partially caused by a member of his family, and he's not sure what the guardian-function makes of that. For now, he'll stick with Mimic and Lan, and he'll hope to the fucking maker that MegaMan and Zoano ProtoMan don't tear apart Internet City in the meantime.
He keeps his shadows on him as a shadow-tail rather than tendrils or as Dark Shadow, because the humans in the city are already startled when he runs past them and they certainly don't need a cyberworld shadow-demon on the loose as well as some random NetNavi. Doesn't help that Mimic is following along after him, parkouring her way across every obstacle with superhuman skill, and Lan's skating after them, just barely managing to keep up.
They're going to SciLab because there's no way they can keep up with MegaMan and Zoano ProtoMan in the city. They're moving too fast for that - but SciLab should be able to keep the two Beasts in its sight, or at least be able to keep track of them. And aside from that, there's also the comfort of knowing that Dad and Famous are there, and maybe having their dad with them will make things seem a little less hopeless.
Maybe not a whole lot, but enough that they aren't paralysed with sheer fucking terror and guilt.
The scientists at SciLab are only a little less startled at seeing ProtoMan in the real world and Mimic and Lan running around after him, but they flash past the scientists without greeting them and head straight for the main room. That's where Dad and Famous usually are.
And it's where they are right now, thank the fucking maker.
ProtoMan skids to a halt, claws screeching a little on the floor, and Dad glances away from the main screen - it's showing a map of Internet City, and two fast-moving dots are clashing across it - and over his shoulder. When he sees ProtoMan, his eyes widen, and then Mimic and Lan stumble in and he switches his stunned look to them.
"We stole a CopyBot," Mimic explains quickly.
Dad blinks and glances at ProtoMan again, but then Lan steps forward, breathing a little harder than normal thanks to the mad dash - or skate, in his case - through the city, looking up at the map on the screen.
"That . . . Dad, is that . . . ?" Lan trails off.
"MegaMan," Dad finishes, nodding. He glances at ProtoMan again, this time more hesitant than surprised. "And . . . Zoano ProtoMan."
"I didn't know," Mimic murmurs, shoulders slumping. There's a kind of desperate shock in her eyes and she looks like she's about to cry. "I didn't . . . I thought it'd be PharaohMan a-and SparkMan . . ."
ProtoMan gets to his feet and draws her into a hug, and she buries her face in his chest, trembling. Dad seems relieved that ProtoMan's got her, and he turns his attention to Lan, who looks to be in too much shock to even think about crying.
"We're keeping track of them," Dad explains in a gentle voice, gesturing to the map. "They're moving too fast to be captured by security footage, but we can track them like this. As far as we can tell, they're focusing on each other, and any damage they've done to Internet City is purely collateral."
That doesn't seem to comfort Lan too much.
"We've already told the Net Police to evacuate the city as fast as possible," Famous reports, looking up from the main console. "Though I think most Navis jacked out as soon as they saw what was going on, anyway."
Dad opens his arms and Lan walks straight into the offered hug, but he still doesn't cry. That's worrying, but ProtoMan's gotta focus on his own operator for now - when she's not crying anymore, he'll see what he can do about Lan.
"We'll get them back," Dad tells Lan softly. "I promise."
"How?" Lan's voice cracks.
"We don't know yet," Dad admits. "But we will get them back. You can count on that."
"Lan!"
They all look up as three more humans run into the main room. Maylu and Yai, with Manabe just behind them. They stop short when they spot ProtoMan, eyes widening.
"CopyBot," Famous explains shortly. "Manabe, how's the evacuation going?"
Manabe blinks away her shock and heads over to him, but ProtoMan isn't listening to that conversation. He sees Roll standing on Maylu's shoulder, and although some part of him registers her horrified expression and how much guilt she must be feeling right now, the first thing he feels when he sees her is anger.
"You," he hisses, baring his teeth. She jumps and looks at him, then shrinks back a little at the glare he shoots at her. "You were supposed to look after him! What the fuck kinda babysitter are you?"
"ProtoMan-" Maylu begins, but he's past listening.
"Why did you let him go?" he demands, shadow-tail lashing and cold against his lower back. "You should've been keeping an eye on him, and now look what's happened!"
"Hey!" Yai snaps her fingers and he looks at her automatically. "Quit hissing at her, she's feeling bad enough as it is!"
"I'll make her feel worse," ProtoMan growls. He's not sure where this anger is coming from - maybe it's because his operator is upset, maybe it's because his whole family is hurting right now, or maybe it's just because he's frustrated with himself for being too much of a fucking coward to do anything to stop this.
Some part of him understands that this isn't entirely Roll's fault. She should've been keeping an eye on Trill, of course - that was supposed to be her damn job as a babysitter, and if he can manage it, surely she can, too. But Trill is Trill, and regardless of whether or not he actually agreed to stay behind, of course he'd still try and come after them, especially if he thought ProtoMan was attacking MegaMan for no reason.
And then there's a gentle hand on his cheek, and he blinks, rage suddenly subsiding as he glances down at Mimic. There's still tears in her eyes but she's not crying anymore, and she's giving him a stern look that makes him feel ashamed of himself before she even speaks.
Stop it, Mimic tells him. She's a shit babysitter, but getting pissed at her isn't gonna help anyone, least of all MegaMan and Trill. I get that you're frustrated, but don't take it out on her, okay?
" . . . Okay," ProtoMan mumbles, pressing his cheek into Mimic's palm. "S-sorry . . ."
Apologise later. For now, we've gotta figure out how to stop those two from ripping apart each other and Internet City.
He nods. "Right."
"I'm sorry," Roll speaks up quietly, cringing like she's expecting someone to beat her for letting Trill out of her sight, and that only makes ProtoMan feel more ashamed of himself. "I didn't . . . I was . . . I just looked away for a second, and then he was gone . . ."
"Forget the apologies, I want to know what's up with MegaMan and Trill fusing like that!" Yai demands.
"You don't already know?" Lan frowns at her. "I thought you had that spy network thing . . ."
"It doesn't tell me everything," Yai retorts. "Why did they go berserk? And what's up with the other ProtoMan?"
"That's Zoano ProtoMan," Dad says, and everyone who didn't already know gapes at him, and then at ProtoMan, who winces and looks away. "We'll explain MegaMan and Trill's fusion later, but for now, we need to work out some kind of plan to stop them and Zoano ProtoMan from destroying each other, and Internet City in the process."
"That's why I brought them," Manabe says, gesturing to Maylu and Yai. "If we can immobilise MegaMan and Proto- Zoano ProtoMan, then we can capture them and keep them contained where they can't do any damage."
"I'm not sure if that would work," Famous says doubtfully. "They're both moving too fast for us to even see - the only way we can keep track of them right now is because we've got a lock on their data signatures, and that's all."
"We still have to try," Manabe insists. She takes out her Battle Chip Gate and holds up a battle chip, what looks like a Flash Bomb. "Not doing anything at this point would be neglecting my duty as a member of the Net Police. I'm sure Lan and Mimic can understand that."
Lan stares down at his feet, and Mimic only gives Manabe a hard stare. The lack of response doesn't seem to worry the woman.
"There's no way Roll and Glide will be able to keep up with either MegaMan or Zoano ProtoMan," Dad cautions. "Even if it were just one of them, it would still be impossible."
"Wait," Lan suddenly says, looking up with wide eyes. "I just realised something - MegaMan was in Proto Cross before he and Trill fused, so now he's in Proto Beast Cross!"
"Yeah?" Maylu prompts.
"And Proto Cross gives MegaMan ProtoMan's personality and habits!" Lan exclaims, now starting to grow excited. "It should still be the same even if he's in Beast Cross, and-" He looks at Manabe. "-you wanna use Flash Bombs, and that's one of ProtoMan's biggest weaknesses, 'cus he always chases after bombs!"
ProtoMan frowns at that. "Weakness?"
"He's not wrong," Mimic tells him, tapping his cheek teasingly.
ProtoMan snorts and flicks his tongue out to lick her fingers gently. "Yeah, yeah, I'm bad with bombs . . ."
"So if you can get MegaMan's attention," Lan continues, turning to Maylu and Yai, "and you throw the Flash Bombs, he should go straight for them and that'll stun him!"
"But what about Zoano ProtoMan?" Manabe asks him, and Lan wilts.
"Uh . . . I . . . I dunno, he's not . . . he's a bird, so . . . the bomb-weakness wouldn't be a thing with him, would it . . . ?"
Manabe looks at Mimic. "Arcadia's a species of bird-Navi, isn't he? Does he have any kind of weaknesses we might be able to exploit in Zoano ProtoMan?"
"Break his wings and he's pretty much screwed," Mimic promptly responds. "But Zoano ProtoMan's too fast. Don't think you can catch him."
"I could," ProtoMan says.
He almost doesn't realise he actually said that out loud until he sees that everyone's staring at him, and he suddenly has the ridiculous urge to hide behind Mimic, even though she's smaller than he is, so it wouldn't work.
"Are you sure?" Dad carefully asks. "Do you think you're ready for something like this?"
ProtoMan bites his lip and buries his face in Mimic's messy hair. "N-no," he whispers.
He's a complete fucking coward.
Mimic puts her arms around him, and although the hug helps, it still makes him feel even more ashamed of himself. Some guardian-Navi he is, needing comfort from his own operator because he's too much of a coward to fight even when he's literally the only one who could actually make a difference here.
"That's alright, we can figure something else out," Dad says, and that's a lie, that's a big fucking lie, because even if they might have a plan to stop MegaMan, they have nothing to stop Zoano ProtoMan.
Nothing except ProtoMan himself. And he can't fight. Or maybe he just won't. Either way, he's still a coward, and nothing's gonna change that fact.
"For now, we'll just try and deal with MegaMan, and see if we can stop Zoano ProtoMan along the way," Dad announces, looking at everyone in turn. "Famous and I can switch over all of Internet City's power to the security system - as soon as one or both of them have stopped moving, we can capture them."
"Where do we put them?" Lan asks.
"Not Proto Area zero-one," Mimic speaks up before Dad can even open his mouth. "MegaMan can break outta there. I'm willin' t'bet Zoano ProtoMan can, too."
Dad stares at her for a moment, blinking, and then he frowns. "That . . . was the plan, but . . . hm . . ."
"We still have the Gospel beast's cage," Famous offers. "I've been working on it on my off-days, it should be strong enough to contain at least one of them."
"We can use that, then," Dad decides, nodding. "We'll figure out what to do with the other when we come to that. Everyone ready?"
No, ProtoMan thinks, but everyone else nods and gets ready to fight.
Everyone but him. Because he's too much of a coward to even try.
Internet City isn't in shambles, but it's close enough. It's deserted except for the two Beasts rampaging throughout the City and trying to delete each other in the process, and now it's deserted except for those two and Roll and Glide, who appear in the middle of all this carnage.
"Oh, dear . . ." Glide breathes, looking around with wide eyes. "This is . . ."
"It's horrible," Roll whispers, hand over her mouth. And it's her fault - she took her eyes off Trill for one second, and this is the result.
ProtoMan was right. What kind of babysitter is she? A terrible one, that's what. Oh, maker, she hopes MegaMan never asks her to babysit Trill ever again, because she'd be far too scared to after this.
"Can you hear us?" Dr. Hikari's voice comes from the connection Roll has with Maylu's PET, and she almost jumps.
"We hear you, Dr. Hikari," Glide calls back.
"L-loud and clear," Roll agrees.
"Good. MegaMan and Zoano ProtoMan are on the other side of the City now, but they're coming back toward you - so be ready. Manabe?"
"Flash Bombs, download!" Manabe announces.
Roll catches an armful of Flash Bombs, and Glide does the same. It seems like an absurd amount for just two NetNavis, but these aren't normal NetNavis - one is the feral Beast fusion of MegaMan and Trill, and the other is the Beast Out form of Zoano ProtoMan.
She swallows. MegaMan and ProtoMan are powerful enough on their own. The thought of facing down two Beast Out versions of them - one of them not even the ProtoMan she knows - is absolutely terrifying.
But she has to do this. They have to do this. They don't have a choice - it's either stop MegaMan and Zoano ProtoMan, or leave them to destroy Internet City and each other. Roll knows which option she prefers, even if the thought of fighting them still terrifies her.
"They're almost on top of you!" Dr. Hikari warns them.
That fast? Maker, she knew they were quick, but they were on the other side of the City just moments ago, and Internet City is massive.
"Now!" Dr. Hikari snaps, and one of the buildings to their right comes apart.
Two blurs shoot out from behind it, one of them crashing into the building opposite, the other slamming into the ground hard enough to send shock waves of force trembling across the ground. Roll almost falls over from the impact, as does Glide, but they're far enough away that they only stumble and manage to keep their balance.
The one who hit the ground gets to his feet, revealing metallic wings and armour the colour of sunset. Roll hasn't seen ProtoMan using his mouthguard for months, so she's startled to see it now, and for a moment she wonders what brought about that change - and then she remembers that this isn't ProtoMan, it's Zoano ProtoMan.
The second Beast peels himself out of the building and drops down to the ground, revealing himself to be a red-armoured cat-wolf Beast Out MegaMan. Spiked tail lashing back and forth, growling in that odd two-toned voice, on all fours like the Beast he is, eyes wild and red and not at all anything like the MegaMan Roll knows and might just have a crush on.
MegaMan's two-toned growling rises to a fever pitch, and he rears up, arms spread wide and claws stretched out, letting out a terrifying scream. It seems like the air itself glitches around him in response.
Zoano ProtoMan only spreads his wings, lifts up a jagged-looking version of the Proto Sword, and motions for MegaMan to come at him with the blade.
"Hurry, now, before they start fighting again!" Dr. Hikari urges them.
Roll nearly fumbles with her armful of Flash Bombs, but she grabs one and hurls it as hard as she can toward the two Beasts. Glide does the same, and they start chucking as many as they can - neither of them are actually aiming at the Beasts, because there's a chance they don't need to with MegaMan, and they're pretty sure they can't hit Zoano ProtoMan anyway.
The Beasts hear the Flash Bombs coming, and Zoano ProtoMan looks over at them for a moment before he rockets into the air to avoid being hit. MegaMan, on the other hand, stares at the incoming Flash Bombs.
He reaches out just as one gets close to him-
And then a crackling wave of blood-red energy blasts down from above, cutting into the Flash Bombs and forcing them to detonate before they can even touch their targets, and it comes toward Roll and Glide, so they have to split up and throw themselves to the side to avoid getting hit.
Zoano ProtoMan hovers several metres above the ground, metallic wings beating. They can't see his eyes or any part of his face, but Roll gets the feeling he's glaring at them.
"You would dare?" the Zoanoroid demands. "To interrupt our duel is an insult! You will pay for your insolence!" He raises his jagged Sword and more blood-red energy crackles along its blade, and then he hurls it at them with a scream.
"Life Aura, download!" comes Manabe's voice, and the barrier shimmers into existence in front of Roll and Glide, just in time to stop the energy from carving into them as easily as it carves into the ground.
A two-toned roar comes from MegaMan, and then he spits black fire out of his mouth, aiming for the Zoanoroid. For a second Roll actually thinks he's somehow managed to gain control over himself and is trying to help them, but then she realises he's only focused on taking down Zoano ProtoMan and doesn't even care about her or Glide at all.
She's honestly relieved and a little hurt at that. Mostly relieved.
Zoano ProtoMan dodges the black fire easily, seeming to teleport from one place to another, but in reality Roll knows that he's just way too fast for anyone to see him moving. He turns his attention away from them and back to MegaMan, which is a relief but also kind of frustrating because that's not what they wanted.
"Now what?" Roll whispers, as the two Beasts begin fighting each other again. "We didn't . . . we didn't even manage to hit one of them . . ."
"Do not give up," Glide tells her.
"Easy for you to say!" Roll retorts. "This isn't your fault!"
"Roll-"
"It's my fault!" she cries. "All because I couldn't keep an eye on Trill! And now MegaMan and Trill have gone insane and there's a Zoanoroid trying to delete them and us and- and-"
Glide's hand comes down on her shoulder and she stops talking.
"Then fix your mistake," Glide tells her firmly. "If you truly believe this is your fault, crying about it will not help - it will certainly not get through to MegaMan, not with the way he is now. All we can do is try, and if we keep at it, we will succeed eventually, I know we will."
"How can you stay so calm?" Roll asks him.
Glide gives her an ironic smile. "I deal with Miss Yai on a daily basis." He ignores the indignant shout of 'hey!' from his operator. "I know how to deal with stress. That said, I do not enjoy it, and I would rather not see my friends suffer because of it." He takes his hand off Roll's shoulder and offers it to her. "So, shall we?"
Roll hesitates for a moment, then takes in a deep breath, closing her eyes, and lets it out slowly. When she opens her eyes, she's still terrified, but she's able to give Glide a smile of her own.
She takes his hand and lets him pull her to her feet. "Right. Let's stop them from destroying our City!"
Glide nods.
They're able to watch the battle - if you could call it that, it's more like a full-scale war - now because Roll and Glide's presence is giving them something to focus on that isn't two stupidly-fast Beasts, and they can hear everything that's going on, as well.
So they hear what Glide says to Roll. Or more specifically, ProtoMan hears what Glide says to Roll, and something in him is just stuck on those words.
"Flash Bombs, download!" Manabe says, giving the two Navis in Internet City more ammo.
Not that it seems to be doing any good. For all their newfound determination, Roll and Glide still can't hit either of the Beasts, and even if MegaMan gets briefly distracted by the Flash Bombs, Zoano ProtoMan immediately destroys the things before they can get anywhere near either of them. It's not a good situation, that's for sure.
The humans are entirely focused on the battle. Even Mimic - she's wriggled out of ProtoMan's arms to watch from Dad's side, and the loss of her warmth makes him more nervous, more agitated, than he already was before.
He feels the shadow-tail on his lower back detaching from him, and then it twists and forms up into Dark Shadow. It stares at the humans for a moment, then turns to ProtoMan, producing his helmet from its chest.
Fight? it asks him. Help friends?
I can't, ProtoMan says, wincing. I just . . .
The thought of getting into the middle of that only makes him feel worse. He wants to help, he wants to do something, but he's too scared and too much of a fucking coward.
Host is not coward, Dark Shadow tells him, projecting some firmness into its otherwise-emotionless mental voice.
ProtoMan wishes he could believe it. But regardless of what Dark Shadow thinks, a coward is what he is. He's the only one who could turn the tide in this fight, and here he is, standing at the back and doing absolutely nothing.
Host-sister scared, Dark Shadow says, jerking its head toward Mimic. Orange-friend too. Now it nods to Lan. All host-family and friends scared. But they fight. Or encourage.
But I'm not doing anything, ProtoMan whispers.
Change that. Dark Shadow offers his helmet up again. Fight. Help them. Not coward. Just scared.
ProtoMan squeezes his eyes shut, but then he snaps them open again when he hears a scream.
He looks up at the screen and freezes. Roll and Glide have been blasted by a double attack from MegaMan and Zoano ProtoMan - they got too close to the battle and they've paid the price, and it looks like neither of them can get up anymore, but they're still conscious.
The two Beasts turn their attention back to each other and start charging up their attacks. For MegaMan, he gathers in shadow energy and then spits it out in a crackling beam, and Zoano ProtoMan unleashes the biggest wave of blood-red energy from his jagged Sword that anyone's seen from him so far.
The attacks collide, and a shock wave blasts out from the meeting point. Cracks appear all over the ground, buildings tremble at the impact, and Roll and Glide almost get blown away from the force of it.
"The City's structure is coming apart!" Famous reports, frantically working away at the main console. "If they collide like that again, the whole of Internet City is done for!"
"No!" Dad cries helplessly.
Too late, though - because MegaMan and Zoano ProtoMan, definitely sensing that those attacks did far more damage than their previous ones, are charging up again.
ProtoMan doesn't think. Dark Shadow jams his helmet back onto his head - for the first time since he took it off at Mother's grave - and ProtoMan immediately exits the CopyBot he and Mimic stole from the Zoanoroids and he streams himself into Internet City.
He ends up exactly where he wants to be - directly between MegaMan and Zoano ProtoMan.
They both unleash their attacks, and ProtoMan hears the humans screaming at him to move - Mimic especially, and that's kind of a shock because he's rarely ever heard her shouting when she's human - but he doesn't.
He gestures sharply and Dark Shadow bursts into tendrils, and they split up and form two black holes either side of him. MegaMan's shadow beam vanishes into one, Zoano ProtoMan's blood-red Sonic Boom into the other, and ProtoMan can feel the sheer power of both attacks echoing through the Poltergeist Program and directly into his own systems.
It threatens to tear him apart, but he raises his arms above his head, then brings them down and screams.
The Beasts' attacks are spat back out at them, blowing them both back. MegaMan hits a building that's miraculously still standing, and Zoano ProtoMan slams into the rubble of one that toppled over a few minutes ago.
ProtoMan falls to his hands and knees, gasping. He didn't know doing that would be so draining - he managed to absorb and release an attack as the Poltergeist, so he assumed he'd be able to do the same as he is now, but clearly it works differently depending on what form he's in.
He hears rubble crumbling as Zoano ProtoMan forces his way out of where he got slammed into, and then the Zoanoroid stops short upon seeing him.
" . . . So I do have a counterpart in this world after all," Zoano ProtoMan says thoughtfully. "Interesting."
"Go . . . fuck yourself . . ." ProtoMan gasps out.
Zoano ProtoMan's laugh sounds like it's half-glitched and it reminds ProtoMan far too much of how Dark ProtoMan sounded. "Well, it appears I have uncovered the mystery of that Beast Navi's odd appearance. That came from you, did it not? Is that his ability? He is able to steal the forms and powers of others?"
"He didn't steal shit!" ProtoMan snaps, baring his teeth at his Zoanoroid counterpart. "I gave him that power willingly!"
"And his ability to use Beast Out?"
ProtoMan's half-tempted to tell the Zoanoroid to fuck himself again, but he's too drained to speak anymore. Instead, he presses his forehead into the ground, trying to will himself back into fighting shape again. It doesn't work.
And then debris blast out from the building MegaMan was flung into, and MegaMan himself jumps out, landing on the ground mere metres away. ProtoMan raises his head to look at him, and he nearly shudders at the beast-like rage he sees in his friend's eyes.
That's not MegaMan. That's a monster. And it's terrifying.
Why did I think this was a good idea? ProtoMan whimpers, pressing himself into the ground.
He flinches when MegaMan roars, the sound even louder than it was just listening to it in SciLab's main room, and almost sobs. He's here, he stopped them from breaking Internet City, but he's still scared, he's still a coward, and right now all he wants to do is curl up into a ball and cry.
"Stop it!" Roll screams, from where she and Glide are trying to struggle to their feet. "MegaMan, stop, you're scaring him!"
If MegaMan hears her at all, he ignores her. He's growling, eyes fixed on ProtoMan, and it's only then that ProtoMan remembers the focus of MegaMan's rage is Zoano ProtoMan.
And ProtoMan just happens to look almost exactly like him.
"No-" he squeaks, trying to back away. "No, wait- I'm not- M-MegaMan, no-"
MegaMan's growling increases in volume and he takes a step forward, and ProtoMan lets out a high-pitched trill of sheer terror and presses himself into the ground again. Maybe if he just acts submissive enough, MegaMan will ignore him and go after the more tempting prey of Zoano ProtoMan.
"Absolutely pathetic," the Zoanoroid sighs. "I thought you would be powerful, judging by how you absorbed and released our attacks, but you turn out to be a complete coward who apparently got lucky. Allow me to put you out of your misery."
He blasts out another blood-red Sonic Boom - this one's nowhere near as powerful as the one he used before, but it's enough to smash the ground in front of MegaMan, and that's enough to make MegaMan snap into action and let out an enraged roar.
ProtoMan tries to scramble away, but MegaMan is way too fast and way too angry, and he jumps, and that's it.
"NO!" Mimic screams, louder than she ever remembers doing since she woke up in this reality.
But just simply screaming 'no' isn't enough to stop MegaMan from launching himself at ProtoMan, and the ground shatters with a colossal crack and a sharp explosion, a massive cloud of dust and pixels and debris coming up from the impact.
She slumps against Dad, hands over her mouth, tears spilling over. Of all the times she's been in danger, all the times she's watched ProtoMan or Arcadia or her twin brother get hurt, this is quite possibly one of the worst. If only because she could've stopped it from happening, just like she could've stopped ProtoMan from turning into Dark ProtoMan, if she'd just paid more attention instead of getting distracted and making stupid mistakes.
She's horrified and terrified and shocked, but oddly enough, she's also thinking, how am I going to tell Chaud that I got ProtoMan killed?
Dad's arm is around her, and she can hear him trying to calm her down, but it does nothing. She just got ProtoMan killed. Her secondary NetNavi, one of her best friends, her fucking brother. And he's dead because she didn't pay enough attention to him, didn't realise he was gonna go into Internet City, didn't realise he'd put himself in harm's way like that.
There's a sudden sharp sound of impact from within the cloud of dust, and something comes flying out of it and slams into a building. It falls down, landing on the ground with a painful wham, and slumps on its side.
It takes Mimic a moment to realise that it's MegaMan. Her first reaction is shock, and then her second is confusion, because what the actual fuck just happened?
And then she hears a familiar glitched screech from inside the dust cloud.
"Is . . . is that . . . ?" Maylu steps up beside her, eyes wide and fixed on the screen.
Mimic takes her hands away from her mouth, and finds that she's smiling. "The Poltergeist," she breathes.
The cloud of dust is whipped away by lashing tendrils of black shadows, revealing the Poltergeist in its terrible glory. Its white mouth stretches wide open, wider than should be physically possible, tearing at the edges, screaming its arrival to the sky.
"What . . . ?" Zoano ProtoMan's expression can't be seen, but his tone is evidence enough of his shock. "What are you?"
The Poltergeist snaps its head around to look at him, and he takes a step back.
It's on him in a blink, ramming him into the rubble he crawled out of not half a minute ago. The Poltergeist doesn't give him a moment to rest, grabbing him in its tendrils and then hurling him high into the air, then drags him back down with a whip-like crack and slams him into the ground.
Zoano ProtoMan chokes, and the Poltergeist screeches, glitches over to him, and screams in his face.
Black fire roars from MegaMan's direction and the Poltergeist looks up. It swallows the attack without effort and then spits it right back out at MegaMan, but he teleports out of the way and the black fire ends up scorching the half-broken building behind him instead.
Zoano ProtoMan tries to take advantage of the Poltergeist's brief distraction and shoves his clawed hand into its chest, but it just goes straight through, and the only thing Zoano ProtoMan gets is a brief moment of shock before the Poltergeist turns its attention back to him.
It grabs the hand that's in its chest, yanks it out, and then zips away, dragging the Zoanoroid with it. MegaMan runs in front of it, probably intending to try and fight it, and the Poltergeist slams Zoano ProtoMan into him and sends them both flying.
The Poltergeist glitches after them and brings about half a building's worth of debris with it, then drops it all on top of them. There's a scream from Zoano ProtoMan, but MegaMan breaks out and lands on top of the ruined building, roaring at the Poltergeist, and it screams back at him.
They move at the same time, colliding in mid-air and then bringing the fight down to the ground. It's like what watching two cats fight, even if MegaMan is technically a wolf Beast - it's vicious, quick, and they spend a good deal of time hissing and screeching at one another, clawing and biting (even if the Poltergeist's mouth doesn't have teeth and MegaMan has his mouthguard up right now).
The Poltergeist manages to get a hold of MegaMan's head and slams it into the ground, and it's like the impact shakes something loose in the cyberworld. The ground shakes and the sky shudders, and a thin white crack appears in the air.
"Is that a-" Dad cuts himself off, too shocked to continue.
"The Fossa Ambience," Famous says, too shocked to keep silent. "Isn't it?"
"But . . . you said that only happens when the Cybeasts fight each other," Lan says, glancing at Mimic like he's hoping she'll have the answer to everything.
Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't. But she remembers they talked about this at one point, actually.
"MegaMan's got the power of the Cybeast and more," she reminds her brother. "An' the Poltergeist is a cyber-demon."
"Two beings of equal and immense power clashing in the middle of Internet City," Dad says numbly. "And the result is the Fossa Ambience."
"They're breakin' reality itself," Mimic mutters, turning back to the screen.
MegaMan has managed to hit the Poltergeist. His previous attempts got nothing more than what Zoano ProtoMan managed, but this time, he uses shadow-encased claws and actually lands a solid hit on the Poltergeist.
That hit makes the Fossa Ambience widen a little, but it's still unstable. Even Mimic can see that much, despite being absolutely useless at this kinda stuff.
And the longer the Poltergeist and MegaMan continue fighting, the more that Fossa Ambience is gonna stabilise, and the more danger there is of Beast viruses or Zoanoroids or even the fucking Cybeasts themselves coming through and laying waste to Internet City.
Put an end to it, quickly! Mimic exclaims. She doesn't know if the Poltergeist can hear her like ProtoMan can, but she's too worked up to be able to shout over the noise of the vicious fight. Before the Fossa Ambience gets any bigger!
Amazingly, the Poltergeist actually seems to hear her. She's not actually entirely sure, though - it might hear her, or it might not, but all she knows is that the Poltergeist just happens to look up at the sky at that exact moment, and it sees the growing Fossa Ambience.
It screeches and grabs MegaMan, slams his head into the ground once again, and then wraps him in its shadowy tendrils and hurls him over to Roll and Glide.
They've just been watching the fight with open mouths, too shocked to do anything more than stare, so when MegaMan lands in front of them, they jump.
"Flash!" the Poltergeist screams.
Well, if that's not clear enough, then Mimic doesn't know what is.
"Flash Bombs!" Manabe exclaims, once again, and Roll and Glide catch another bundle of the things as they materialise.
MegaMan starts to groggily get to his feet, but before he can do anything more than groan, Roll and Glide hurl Flash Bombs at him. He's stunned immediately, collapsing to the ground again, and Dad jolts like someone's shocked him.
"Now!" he snaps at Famous, and they both spring forward to activate Internet City's security system.
Red ball-like objects with spikes on the bottom of their shapes materialise around MegaMan's stunned form, and ropes of energy come out of those spikes. They wrap around MegaMan, tying him up with thankfully little resistance, and rise into the air.
"Preparing transfer to Gospel beast cage . . ." Famous narrates as he types. "And . . . now!"
He presses a button, and MegaMan vanishes from Internet City.
With the absence of one of the forces responsible for breaking reality, the Fossa Ambience begins to collapse in on itself, and it closes and then vanishes entirely. That danger's over, at least.
But there's still one problem left.
The pile debris the Poltergeist dropped on MegaMan and Zoano ProtoMan shudders, and then blasts out in all directions. Roll and Glide cry out and the Poltergeist glitches over to them, swallows all the debris that were about to hit them, and then spits them back up like cannonballs to be flung harmlessly into an already-broken building.
Zoano ProtoMan stands in the wreckage, half-slumped with sparks running across his body. One of his metallic wings is snapped clean in half, the end trailing on the ground behind him, and the other is bruised and battered.
"You . . ." he gasps, looking at the Poltergeist. "You are a monster . . ."
The Poltergeist stares back at him, and its mouth tears open in a wide grin. "I am a demon," it corrects him.
Zoano ProtoMan makes a ragged sound and collapses to his knees. The Poltergeist takes a step forward, evidently intending to end it right now, but Zoano ProtoMan's body breaks up into data and he vanishes from Internet City.
He wasn't deleted, but he's gone. And they've managed to capture MegaMan, too.
With the last remaining threat now gone, the Poltergeist stops. It slumps where it stands, and then its body starts to come apart, shadows stripping away and peeling off in a whirlwind of tendrils.
There's a flash of red through the shadows, and then ProtoMan stumbles and almost collapses. Roll and Glide dart forwards to catch him before he can, though, and they carefully lay him down on the ground, where he slumps bonelessly and lets out a quiet sigh.
"Ow," ProtoMan says faintly. But he's smiling, and he willingly lets Dark Shadow take his helmet off for him when it forms up, and as it carefully feeds the helmet into its chest, he closes his eyes. "I think . . . I think I'm just gonna go to sleep for a bit . . ."
And that's exactly what he does.
It's been hours, but MegaMan's still fused with Trill. He keeps slamming himself into the cage over and over, clawing at it, hurling black fire at it, and he keeps trying to teleport out as well, but every time he tries, he just hits the bars and gets shocked for his efforts.
It's almost torture to watch it, and eventually Lan can't take it anymore, so he leaves the main room, makes a quick detour to the cafe, then heads up onto the roof.
Up there, he finds Mimic tucked away in a corner, Ragdoll on her lap, and her PET held loosely in her hands. At first he thinks she's asleep, but as he approaches, her eyes open and they reflect what little light there is at the moment - which is mostly just coming from the moon, really - as she looks at him.
"How's ProtoMan doing?" Lan asks, because he'd rather talk about anything but MegaMan right now.
It seems Mimic can sense that. "Still sleepin'," she replies.
He settles down beside her and she shows him her PET, and he sees ProtoMan on the screen, fast asleep and curled up just like Ragdoll, Dark Shadow watching over him vigilantly.
"Does Dark Shadow ever go to sleep itself?" Lan wonders.
Dark Shadow looks at him from the small screen and raises its hands. [we need no sleep] it signs.
"Oh, okay." It makes sense, he supposes. It's a cyber-demon, and basically a cyber-ghost as well.
A moment passes by in comfortable silence, and the quiet of the night air is almost enough to make Lan forget his worries. It's probably why Mimic's up here, actually - she almost lost ProtoMan a few hours ago, and nearly burst into hysterical tears after the fight was over out of sheer relief. Thank god Mom showed up earlier and brought Ragdoll with her, and Mimic's been on the roof ever since.
"I got some food, if you're hungry," Lan offers, holding up a bag of sandwiches he got from the cafe. "I think there's some fish-flavoured ones in here, but you'll have to hunt for 'em, I guess. I just kinda . . . dumped 'em all in here, to be honest."
Mimic huffs out a quiet laugh and carefully places her PET on top of Ragdoll, who barely even stirs. Lan opens the bag of sandwiches and lets his sister rifle through it, trying to find a fish sandwich, but it's difficult to tell which ones are which because, like he said, he just dumped them all in the bag.
She finally finds one that looks like it could be fish, judging by the colour of the paste filling, and Lan picks out a sandwich of his own at random. They spend some companionable minutes just sitting there in the corner on the roof, quietly eating their sandwiches.
Neither of them are entirely hungry, though, so they only eat a couple of sandwiches each, and the rest are tucked back into the bag. Lan can give them to Maylu and Yai later, as thanks for helping out. Sandwiches probably isn't the best way to say 'thanks for helping to stop my NetNavi from destroying Internet City', but it's all he can think of.
"Excuse me."
Lan jumps and looks up, and then stares. A few feet away from them, there's a girl in a pale dress standing there, just . . . watching them. There's a gentle breeze blowing, making her long brown hair flow, and all he can do is stare because he's pretty sure she wasn't there a second ago.
"Are you . . . Lan Hikari?" the girl asks, looking at him and only him, as if Mimic isn't right next to him.
"Uh . . ." Lan just continues to stare.
"Oh," Mimic says, blinking slowly. "Hi, Iris."
That makes the girl look at her. She looks surprised now, as if Mimic just said something she'd never expected to hear.
"Iris?" Lan repeats, glancing between his sister and this random girl who apparently teleported onto the roof, because he's really, really sure that she wasn't there before.
Mimic frowns, then closes her eyes, sighing, and leans against Lan. "Sorry," she mumbles, pressing her cheek onto his shoulder. "S'cold up here. M'kinda sleepy. Not thinkin' right."
"You're cold?" Lan is immediately distracted from the random girl and is now very worried about his sister. "Why didn't you say so? We could've gone in . . ."
"Comfy," Mimic murmurs. "Didn't wanna move."
"We're going in," Lan tells her. He gets to his feet and she groans in protest, but he takes her hands and makes her get up anyway. She's cold. Dammit, he should've noticed this before now, he knows damn well that she's not good with the cold!
Ragdoll protests a little bit too, but mostly because the lap he was just on is now gone. He brushes around Lan and Mimic, between their legs and against them, and then looks over at the girl curiously.
"Oh, right." Lan turns to look at her. "Uh . . . do you wanna come in with us? I . . . dunno who you are, but if you wanna talk to me, then it might be better to do it inside. It's cold out here."
"I feel fine," the girl says, in a slow and oddly gentle tone, like she's never raised her voice in her life and has no intention of doing so anytime soon. She glances at Mimic. "But . . . if she needs to go in, then . . . I don't mind."
Lan takes both girls down to a break room that's close enough to the main room where Dad and Famous are still trying to figure out how to separate MegaMan and Trill. At least here, he'll be close enough if something goes wrong and he's needed for some reason or other.
On the way to the break room, Mimic decides she's too tired to walk anymore and actually tries to curl up against a random wall and go to sleep. Even with Ragdoll nudging her, she still nearly drifts off, so Lan gets her onto his back and carries her the rest of the way.
And for some reason, the girl who just randomly showed up is just watching him like he's the most fascinating thing on the planet. She watches him gently coax Mimic onto his back and makes no comment, but Lan lives with at least four completely different cats - only of whom is an actual cat - so he recognises the look of curiosity in her eyes.
The break room is much warmer than the roof was, thank god. Lan sets Mimic down on a sofa and drags out a blanket from a nearby closet - maybe the scientists use this as a nap room or something, that'd certainly explain why there's blankets in here - and lays it over her. Ragdoll jumps up and circles a couple of times before settling on the arm of the sofa next to Mimic's head, and then they're both asleep.
Lan stays there for a moment, making sure his sister is alright, and checking that her PET is fine, too. ProtoMan's still asleep, and somehow Mimic managed to not drop it even though she was half-asleep herself, so Lan gently works it out of her hands and then places it next to her, just in case she wakes up and panics if she isn't holding her PET anymore.
With his sister perfectly fine and hopefully warming up, Lan gets to his feet and turns to the girl who followed him here, and who is now watching him as curiously as she did when he picked Mimic up.
"Mimic called you Iris, right?" Lan asks quietly, drawing her away. He doesn't want to accidentally wake his sister up. "Is that your name?"
" . . . It is," the girl admits, with a quick glance at Mimic. "I . . . I don't know how she knew that, though."
"Uhh . . ." Lan bites his lip and smiles awkwardly. "Mimic knows things. That's . . . kind of her whole . . . y'know, her whole thing."
"I met a boy who looks like her," the girl - Iris - says.
Lan blinks. "Chaud? He's her twin brother. My brother, too, though he's not my twin, obviously."
Iris takes that in with a serene nod. "He seemed to know things too."
"Probably 'cus Mimic told him," Lan says, and then wonders why he said that. But there's something almost soothing about this girl that makes it feel like it's okay to tell her anything. "So, uh . . . do you need me for something? 'Cus you asked for me, so . . ."
" . . . I . . . I wanted to ask about Trill," Iris says.
"Trill?" That's . . . odd. How does this random girl know about Trill?
Lan glances at Mimic, and then remembers that she knew this girl's name - so that means Iris was in her anime. Hm . . .
"You're MegaMan's operator, right?" Iris asks. "Can I ask . . . what is MegaMan to Trill?"
The abrupt change in topic startles Lan into answering. "They're like brothers," he says. "MegaMan kind of adopted him, I guess. And, y'know, that's happened before, so it's not too unusual."
"It's . . . happened before?"
"With a NetNavi called ProtoMan, and his little brother Arcadia," Lan agrees, nodding. "ProtoMan kind of adopted Arcadia, same way MegaMan's adopted Trill. ProtoMan's actually right there-" He points to Mimic's PET. "-but he's asleep right now, and he kinda needs to rest, so . . . don't wake him up, please."
"I won't," Iris says softly.
"Do you mind if I ask what you're doing here?" Lan asks her. "And . . . how did you even get here in the first place? You said you met Chaud, but he's in Netopia right now . . ."
"I walked here," Iris replies. "And I met him in Netopia."
Lan blinks, and he tries to work that out, but absolutely none of this is making sense. He almost wishes Mimic was taking part in this conversation - maybe she could make sense of this - but she's asleep and he's not gonna wake her up just so he doesn't have to deal with trying to work out some random girl's cryptic words.
"Is she your younger sibling?" Iris asks, glancing at Mimic.
"Well . . . I mean, she is, kinda," Lan says, frowning thoughtfully. "So is Chaud. They're adopted, but they're a few months younger than me, so . . . I guess that makes them my little brother and sister, yeah."
"Then . . . you . . . you understand how MegaMan feels about Trill."
"I guess?"
"So, can you tell me . . . why does Trill stay with MegaMan?"
"Because he loves him," Lan answers promptly. Iris blinks slowly. "They love each other. Like I said, they're brothers. Trill stays with MegaMan because he wants to, and because MegaMan wants him to stay."
Iris hums softly.
"Um . . . why're you asking all these questions?" Lan asks her. "And how come you know about Trill?"
"I'm supposed to know about him," Iris replies, which isn't much of an answer and only raises even more questions than before.
"Okay . . ." he says slowly. "Why do you know about-"
Something clatters outside, and Lan whirls around, startled. The door's open - he forgot to close it - and a scientist staggers by, trying to grab some piece of metal that keeps rolling away from him on the floor, cursing quietly to himself.
Lan blinks, a little puzzled, and watches until the scientist has vanished from sight before shrugging and turning back to Iris.
She's gone.
"Um . . . Iris?" Lan looks around the room, but the only other person in here is Mimic, and she's still asleep. "Iris? Where'd you go?"
There's no response, and after several moments of turning on the spot, trying to see if she's just out of sight for some reason or other, Lan concludes that Iris has, somehow, vanished entirely.
Which is . . . weird. And a little more than creepy.
The only exit to this room is that door he was just looking at, and, obviously, he was looking at it. The whole time. So if Iris vanished while his eyes were off her, she couldn't have gone through the door, because he would've seen her.
He can almost feel the sweat dropping down his forehead. "Okay . . . that's . . . kinda freaky . . ."
He really, really hopes Mimic has an explanation for this. Because the only one he can come up with is that Iris is a ghost or something. And that's really creepy.
The last of Arcadia's Holy Fire fades away, and he collapses to his knees, panting. Even his wings feel tired, and that's something he didn't think was possible.
In contrast, Bass seems perfectly fine, though his emotions tell a completely different story. He's almost as exhausted as Arcadia, though less so because he came into the fight later, he's just better at hiding it because he's Bass and that's what he does.
"Fucking viruses," Bass mutters, nudging one with his foot as it starts to disintegrate. "I'm gonna delete whatever idiot decided to invent these stupid things."
"Good luck with . . . deleting . . . half the planet," Arcadia huffs out.
"You don't seem too hot," Bass comments, raising an eyebrow at him. "Did you run outta fire at some point?"
Arcadia shoots him a look. "I thought stupid puns was ProtoMan's thing," he says, slower than he normally would because he doesn't want to gasp the words out.
Bass shrugs, a little smirk on his face. "I can make stupid puns if I want to, owl."
"You guys alright?" Chaud asks them.
Arcadia gives him a thumbs-up and Bass nods.
"Good." Chaud sounds and feels relieved. Small wonder, really.
There were more than a few moments during that virus battle where Arcadia and Bass almost got their asses handed to them, mostly due to the sheer number of viruses. But they obviously pulled through in the end. After some . . . intense effort.
"That crack's still there," Bass remarks, nodding to the Fossa Ambience. "But we've got no way to close it."
"I don't think we need to," Chaud says thoughtfully. "Those viruses just seem to have come through after a long period of time - like a build-up of rust on metal or something. I guess the amount that came through earlier pushed the Fossa Ambience into overdrive and sent the whole base into emergency lock-down . . ."
" . . . Do you think we should investigate what's on the other side?" Arcadia wonders.
He senses Bass's incredulity, and cuts him off before he can speak.
"I know we know what's on the other side," Arcadia says. "But maybe we should see it with our own eyes."
Now Bass is curious, and he looks at the Fossa Ambience thoughtfully. "Hm . . . you make a good point. And I do kinda wanna see what's there . . . Oi, Chaud, what do you think?"
"It's as good an idea as any," Chaud says. "Go for it. But if things get bad, both of you come straight back here, got it?"
"Got it," Arcadia and Bass chorus.
Bass helps him get to his feet, and they head toward the Fossa Ambience. From this close, the energy that's leaking out of it is easy to feel, even for a NetNavi who isn't attuned to this kind of stuff. And Arcadia and Bass are definitely attuned to it.
"That's something," Bass mutters. He glances at Arcadia. "You ready?"
"We get to be the first Navis from this reality to step through a crack in space that leads to a totally different reality," Arcadia says. "Of course I'm not ready."
Bass barks out a laugh. "Same here, owl. Alright, let's fucking go."
They step into the crack together, and keep going. Everything is pure white and almost too bright to see - but Arcadia can make out shifting colours just out of reach, and he can't help but think this place is definitely befitting of a crack that leads to another reality. It certainly feels otherworldly, at least.
Finally, they come up to what seems to be the other end, and they take their first steps into Beyondard.
"Holy shit," Bass whispers, eyes wide.
"Holy shit," Arcadia agrees faintly.
"Well . . . damn," Chaud says.
Lan's PET suddenly goes off, loud enough to startle him, and definitely loud enough to wake Mimic up. He's almost tempted to tell off whoever decided to call him, because now his sister's looking around blearily, blinking the sleep out of her eyes, but then he answers the call and it turns out to be Dad.
"MegaMan and Trill have been separated!" Dad exclaims.
"Really!?" Lan grins, but then he sees the look on Dad's face, and realises that 'have been separated' is a really weird way to phrase it, and his heart drops to his stomach. "What happened?"
"An unknown NetNavi just appeared out of nowhere and separated them somehow," Dad explains. "And then she took off with Trill!"
Lan jolts, almost dropping his PET in his haste to get up. "What!?"
"We couldn't track her, she left too quickly," Dad tells him. "But MegaMan is stable, he's in the repair system at the moment."
While Lan is very relieved to know that MegaMan's okay, if unconscious, he's also extremely worried that Trill has apparently been kidnapped by some random NetNavi.
"Trill's fine," Mimic murmurs, evidently still half-asleep but alert enough to understand what's going on. "Chaud'll bring 'im back." She yawns and lays her head back down. "M'gonna sleep now . . ."
Lan blinks at her, and then looks at Dad, who seems a little nonplussed.
" . . . I guess we just wait for Chaud?" Lan suggests.
"That . . . appears to be the best option, yes," Dad agrees slowly. "I'll see you later, then."
The call ends, and Lan settles back down.
He's still worried about Trill, of course - he'd be an idiot if he wasn't. But there's not much he can do about it, especially if it was some random NetNavi who took Trill, and aside from that, Mimic says it'll be fine.
Granted, she ended up being completely wrong about the last thing she knew from the anime - which was about PharaohMan and SparkMan - though that was . . . kind of a unique situation. And she was right about Iris being that girl's name, anyway.
So Lan sits, and he worries, and he hopes that Mimic is right this time and that Chaud will bring Trill back to them.
His big sister takes him back to a place he vaguely remembers, but the memories are kinda fuzzy, like that bubbly drink MegaMan bought him from that cybercafe one time. It's something he feels like he should remember, but he doesn't.
"Sis?" Trill looks up at her, almost nervous. "Um . . . where . . . where is this?"
"You've remembered me, then?" his big sister asks, kneeling down to his height.
"I think so," Trill murmurs. He looks around the network they're in - it's kinda dark and he doesn't really like it that much, 'cus it's the bad kinda dark, not the fun kinda dark like that ghost ship was. It feels really scary and he doesn't like it here at all. "Where's MegaMan?"
He wants MegaMan, so he's asking for MegaMan. That's what he's supposed to do, right? Demanding is rude and it's kinda like bullying in a way, even if MegaMan says it's not exactly like that, so Trill asks instead of demands, because it's nicer and that usually makes people more willing to answer him, which is better for everyone.
And he wants MegaMan because he's scared, and MegaMan usually makes things better because he's MegaMan. He's strong and kind and he knows a lot of stuff, and he'd know what's going on right now and he'd be able to make Trill feel better and not so scared.
"MegaMan isn't here," his big sister tells him.
"What!?" Trill cries, jerking his head back around to stare at her. "B-but . . . why not?"
"You don't belong in this world, Trill," his big sister says gently. "Neither of us do. We should go home, to our own world." And she gestures to the glowing energy on Trill's right.
He remembers that a little bit, too, and he remembers he doesn't like it.
"But I . . . I don't wanna go back there," Trill murmurs, shuffling away from the energy. "I wanna go back to where MegaMan is."
"But our world needs you," his big sister reminds him, taking his hands in her own. "Please, Trill."
"No!" Trill cries. He's demanding, and that's rude, he knows it is, but his big sister isn't listening to him and he wants to go back to MegaMan. "I don't wanna go back, I wanna stay here!"
The energy starts to shrink, and Trill thinks, good, because he knows that energy leads to where he doesn't wanna go.
"Trill . . ." his big sister sighs.
"I wanna go back to MegaMan!" Trill exclaims.
"You can't," his big sister says.
"And why's that?"
Trill jumps, and so does his big sister. They both look at the glowing energy, and even though Bass is kinda scary and he's definitely very rude, Trill is really happy to see him walking out of that energy - 'cus Bass lives with MegaMan and everyone else, and that means Bass can take him back to MegaMan.
"Bass!" Trill exclaims happily. "Hi!"
"What's up, you little shit?" Bass gives him a half-grin.
Trill can't help but giggle. "MegaMan'd be mad if he heard you saying that."
"Yeah?" Bass's half-grin turns into a full one. "I won't tell him if you won't, deal?"
"Deal," Trill agrees, and then he bounces excitedly when Arcadia comes through the energy after Bass. "Hi, Arcadia!"
Arcadia doesn't look surprised to see him, and Trill knows why. MegaMan said that Arcadia's got a cool power that lets him sense other people's emotions - it's called the Empath Program, and Trill's not really sure what an 'empath' is, but Arcadia always knows when people're near him, so he knew Trill was here before they even saw each other. That's really cool.
"Hey, Trill," Arcadia greets him, smiling. He's a little bit odd, but he's nice, so Trill likes him, even if he got kinda scary after Trill collected ProtoMan that one time. "What're you doing all the way over in Netopia?"
"My big sister took me here!" Trill gestures to her. His smile drops and he fiddles with the hem of his shirt. "But . . . she says I've gotta go. 'Cus I don't belong in this world."
"Did she now," Bass says flatly, fixing a glare on Trill's big sister.
"We know someone else who technically doesn't belong in this world," Arcadia says, looking at Trill's big sister as well, and he's using the tone he used with MegaMan when he was angry at Trill. "But she lives here just like any of us. Who says Trill has to leave just because he wasn't born in this world?"
"But-" Trill's big sister begins.
Arcadia interrupts her, eyes narrow. "You feel familiar. I've sensed your mind before, I know I have."
Trill's big sister's eyes widen, and she gets to her feet, letting go of Trill's hands. She looks between them for a few moments, and she seems kinda nervous, the same way ProtoMan gets kinda nervous sometimes, and that makes Trill wanna help her in some way, but she steps back before he can think of a way to help her.
"I . . . I won't do anything that Trill doesn't want to do," his big sister says softly. "I'm sorry I tried to take him."
And then she's gone.
Trill blinks, reaching out to where she just was. "Sis . . . ?"
"What the hell was that about?" Bass mutters to Arcadia.
"I have no idea," Arcadia mutters back. "But that NetNavi felt just like the girl who tried to knock Chaud out."
Bass hisses out a bad word that Trill knows MegaMan would get mad at him for saying.
Trill looks at the glowing energy, and he knows that's the problem with this network. He doesn't know how he knows, he just does - and he can see the damage that definitely shouldn't be here, even if this is one of those old networks, 'cus it looks pretty new instead of old, and Arcadia and Bass look kinda ragged.
They've been fighting in this network, and very recently. The reason why probably came through the energy.
He frowns, and decides that energy shouldn't be here anymore. It's caused enough problems, and he wants to be like MegaMan - he wants to stop things from becoming problems too, he wants to help people, and he wants to make things better for people who've been hurt.
So Trill wills the energy to go away, and it does.
"What the fuck!?" Bass yelps, jumping away from where the energy was a moment ago like he's got springs on his feet. "Where'd the Fossa Ambience go?"
Arcadia blinks, and looks at Trill. "I think he closed it."
"What?" Bass looks at Trill too. "How?"
"That's what made you guys hurt, right?" Trill asks, and they both stare at him. "Or it's what let the things that hurt you come here. So I made it go away, and now it won't let anything that could hurt people come through again, 'cus it's not there anymore."
" . . . You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" Arcadia comments, smiling at him.
Trill beams back at him.
True to Mimic's word, Chaud does bring Trill back. Or more specifically, Arcadia and Bass show up with him between them, and he darts over to Lan and bounces up and down excitedly.
"Hi, Lan!" Trill exclaims. "I'm home!"
"Welcome home, Trill," Lan laughs. He lets Trill sit on his shoulder, and then turns to Chaud, who's watching the exchange from the computer screen, smiling. "Thanks, Chaud. And you guys, too," he adds, looking at the Navi-holograms of Arcadia and Bass.
"Nice of you to remember we exist," Bass scoffs.
"No problem," Arcadia replies.
"I'm glad we caught him in time," Chaud says. "That Navi was about to take Trill away. And . . . Trill somehow closed the Fossa Ambience. Apparently he didn't like that it made Arcadia and Bass hurt."
"Huh," Lan says, blinking. He glances at Trill. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"
"That's what Arcadia said, too!" Trill giggles.
"There's something else about the Navi who tried to take Trill, too," Chaud goes on, getting Lan's attention again. "Arcadia said she felt like the girl we found in this base. As in, the girl who was in the real world."
Lan hums thoughtfully and leans back in his chair. "I know some Navis think like their operators . . . I mean, Mimic and ProtoMan're pretty similar in personality, and so're you and Arcadia . . ."
"She wasn't similar to the girl in the base," Arcadia tells him. "I mean she literally felt like the same person."
Lan blinks. "That . . . is definitely weird."
"I bet Mimic would know what's going on with this girl," Chaud says.
"She said she'll tell us when you're back from Netopia," Lan tells him.
Chaud nods. "That's fair. I was wondering if she'd decide to tell us. She said that a big part of this girl's whole . . . thing is that she's mysterious and no one knows anything about her."
"Except Mimic," Lan says.
"Except Mimic," Chaud agrees. "She's already told us enough to understand what's going on, so I guess it makes sense she'd decide to tell us everything else, too. Or everything she can explain, anyway."
"Mm," Lan murmurs his agreement. "So . . . when're you guys gonna get back, anyway?"
"Soon, but not quite yet," Chaud tells him. "There might not be much else in here now that Trill closed the Fossa Ambience, but some of the Beast viruses might have escaped, so we're going to try and track them down in case they get loose on the internet." He suddenly gets a mischievous smile that reminds Lan very much of Mimic. "And besides, when else am I gonna get to the opportunity to explore an abandoned military base like this?"
Lan laughs at that. "And that's totally not the main reason you're staying longer, right?"
Chaud grins at him, and then glances at Arcadia and Bass. "These two want to see if the base is haunted, actually."
"Really? Why?"
"I want to see if my Empath Program works on human ghosts," Arcadia replies. He jabs his thumb at Bass. "And he just wants to see if there're any headless human ghosts running around."
"I'll take pictures for you if we find any," Bass tells Trill, much to the child-Navi's delight.
"Don't show MegaMan," Lan jokes, laughing again. "Alright, I'll see you guys when you get back. Have fun ghost-hunting!"
"We will," Chaud jokes back.
The computer screen goes blank, and Arcadia and Bass vanish from Lan's desk.
"Hey, Lan?" Trill speaks up. "Where's MegaMan?"
Lan's good mood suddenly evaporates, and his worry comes back. "He's . . . he's in SciLab."
That makes Trill worried, too. "W-why?"
"'Cus . . . 'cus the two of you used Beast Out," Lan explains.
Trill shrinks in on himself. "Oh," he says in a very small voice.
"I'll take you to see him later," Lan promises, trying to see if that'll make Trill better, if that'll help him with the obvious guilt, but it doesn't seem to work.
"'Kay," Trill mumbles quietly.
Great. Now Lan's worried about Trill, too.
He sighs, and decides to just be grateful that he's still got both of them to worry about. This is honestly better than the alternative, it really is.
Zoano ProtoMan cannot make the trip back to his reality through his own power, so he makes his way back to the emergency coordinates he was given, and finds himself in a military base he does not recognise. That is to be expected, given that this is Beyondard and he does not know this place.
He sends out a pulse of detection, attempting to locate the Fossa Ambience rift in this network - it was not created by any means that he knows of, but it is here, and it can be used.
Except his pulse of detection comes up empty.
Zoano ProtoMan frowns and sends out a second pulse, then a third, and then a fourth, growing increasingly desperate when each attempt comes up with the exact same result - there is no Fossa Ambience here.
But . . . that makes no sense. The rift in this network may not have been created by any means that he or anyone else knows of, but it was stable, and it should not have closed unless something forced it to close.
He remembers that small child-Navi who attempted to interfere in his battle with MegaMan, the one who inexplicably vanished when MegaMan used Beast Out. Could that child be responsible, somehow? It is a leap to assume such a thing, but . . . he knows nothing of this world, and he knows nothing of MegaMan's abilities save for that he has access to an insane type of power, and that child-Navi has something to do with it.
And . . . he knows that his counterpart in this reality is not as much of a coward as he appears to be. His counterpart's transformation into that . . . demon . . . proves that, if nothing else.
MegaMan and Beyondard ProtoMan are not normal NetNavis, that much he is certain of. He must report this information to his lord.
But he cannot report to his lord if he cannot get back to his own reality, and he cannot do that on his own power because he is too weak from that battle, and now the Fossa Ambience that should have been in this network is gone.
He leans against a metallic beam, then winces when the pain in his wings flares up. He cannot undo Beast Out until he has fixed his wings, or he will be stuck with broken wings for the rest of his existence, and that is a horrifying thought to him.
Zoano ProtoMan refuses to live his life as a crippled Zoanoroid. He must return to his own reality, and he must do so quickly.
"Hey! Who the fuck's over there!?"
He jumps, then clamps his jaws down on a pained yelp.
An unfamiliar NetNavi wearing what appears to be a ragged cloak of some kind darts around a corner, and then stops short upon seeing him.
"The fuck?" the Navi says, eyes narrowing in obvious confusion. "ProtoMan?"
Zoano ProtoMan freezes. This must be another friend to his Beyondard counterpart - so this cloaked Navi is an enemy, and here he is, weak and vulnerable.
"Hey, owl!" the cloaked Navi calls, looking over his shoulder. "I found your brother! He doesn't look too good."
"What?"
Another Navi comes around the corner, a white-and-grey NetNavi with brilliant white wings. Those wings would almost look impressive if Zoano ProtoMan were not injured and in enemy territory.
The white-winged Navi peers at him for a moment, frowning, and then his eyes widen - and then they narrow, and white fire flows along his arms. It somehow looks even deadlier than the black fire MegaMan was using during their battle earlier.
"That's not ProtoMan," he tells the cloaked Navi. "That's a Zoanoroid! He's the one who attacked our friends!"
The cloaked Navi's eyes widen now, and then he turns on Zoano ProtoMan, bringing out a hand that crackles with black energy. "Let's fucking delete him, then!"
Zoano ProtoMan's wings may be broken, but his speed is still the same regardless of him being on the ground or in the sky.
He runs, hearing the two Navis shouting after him - the cloaked one appears to be under the impression that shouting 'get the fuck back here!' will make him turn around and do so, which is absurd - and heads back the way he came.
It was not a long trip, but it was a useless one. He came here for no reason, and was almost deleted by two enemy NetNavis. He cannot go back to his own reality unless a follower of his lord finds him and takes him back with them.
Zoano ProtoMan finds a small network far enough away from where those two other Navis were, and he slides down until he sits, wincing as his broken wing is jostled by the movement.
He does have one way of contacting his lord, but it is . . . unreliable, and he risks alerting the Zoanoroid soldiers of Gregar to his plight - and whatever else he dares to include - because it is easily intercepted, though it will still reach his lord regardless.
But he has no choice, so Zoano ProtoMan brings up his emergency message program, and writes as little information as he dares while also begging his lord to send him help.
'The Beyondard Navis MegaMan and ProtoMan are not normal NetNavis. MegaMan is capable of using Beast Out, and ProtoMan is able to turn into a demon at will. Please, Lord Falzar, I cannot return on my own - I beg you to send help as soon as possible. Your loyal servant, the Sunset Warrior, Zoano ProtoMan.'
With that written, he sends the message, and hopes that the Gregars do not intercept it, but that hope is faint. He knows they will intercept it, but as long as it reaches his lord, he does not care.
Zoano ProtoMan settles down to wait, and wonders idly if he should attempt to find some way to recover while he is in this reality. He could threaten some lowly human into healing him, he supposes, but that would also put him at the mercy of that human. Perhaps he could steal a healing item and use that?
No, he has not sunken so low as to steal. He lives for destruction and slaughter, but theft is not something he is willing to do. Not unless he is truly desperate, and he will only be that desperate if he has been deleted.
He closes his eyes, and then a moment later, they snap open again when the area he is in begins rumbling.
Suddenly terrified that the two Navis from before have found him, he jumps to his feet, ignoring the sharp pain in his wing. But he sees no one, and he detects no one in this network, and yet the ground appears to be trembling beneath his feet.
He steps back, wary, and then great pillars of metal burst out of the ground and cage him in. Powerful energy courses through the pillars and onto him, lifting him in the air, and he screams because it hurts, because this is making his broken wing hurt more than it already does.
The network around him vanishes - or he vanishes from the network. He suddenly finds himself inside of a great glass egg of some sort, the likes of which he has not seen or even needed to use since he was a mere NetNavi, and he sees a dark, cavernous room outside.
There is a human watching him from the room, just a few feet away from the glass egg Zoano ProtoMan is now trapped in.
"Where . . . where am I?" he asks, hating how much his voice trembles, hating that he is at the mercy of this human.
"You are in my laboratory," the human replies.
"Why did you bring me here?" Zoano ProtoMan demands. The pillars are gone, but he cannot see any way to escape from this glass egg. He is too weak to escape anyway.
"Because you were there for me to take, and I wish to study you," the human explains. "I find your ability very interesting. It is called Beast Out, yes?"
"Release me!" Zoano ProtoMan snaps. "Or you will suffer the consequences, human!"
"Consequences?" The human looks incredulous. "What consequences would those be? I am in the real world, and you are in the cyberworld. You are weak, and injured, and completely at my mercy."
Zoano ProtoMan feels cold. He is numb, and he is cold, and he hates how the words of this human is causing that.
"You belong to me now," the human continues. "A tool to be studied, an animal to be tamed." The human pauses, considering that. "Perhaps 'beast' would be a more appropriate term."
"Who are you?" Zoano ProtoMan whispers.
The human smiles, and never has such a smile looked so terrifying. "You may call me the Professor."
