It's time for the results of Chaud and ProtoMan's trial cases, and Mimic can feel the nerves of her twin brother fluttering in her stomach, and has no doubts that ProtoMan's also feeling the exact same, because Arcadia and Bass are sticking pretty close to him. Since they've got ProtoMan, she tries to project some level of calm to Chaud, to try and help him out. She's not sure how successful she is, because she's feeling kinda nervous about this as well - she wants Chaud and ProtoMan to succeed, and she's anxious to find out if they have.

Famous isn't the kinda person who enjoys making people squirm, so as soon as they arrive at Net Police HQ, he invites them into the command centre for the Net Savers. They settle into chairs that're surprisingly comfy but don't do much to alleviate Chaud's nervousness or ProtoMan's visible anxiety.

"I've looked over the data from your trial cases," Famous begins. "Now, you have to understand that-"

He's gonna fire us, Chaud immediately panics.

Calm the fuck down, let him talk, Mimic replies.

"-Kifune and Manabe, even though they aren't technically your bosses, also had a hand in making this decision," Famous goes on, unaware of the mildly panicked interruption. "Since they run the entire organisation, and we're a part of that organisation regardless of whether the Net Savers are a mostly separate branch of the Net Police, they have to be involved in processes such as these. They both approved of you two coming off leave and becoming full Net Savers again based on your actions during your trial cases, but the final decision was mine to make."

We failed, Chaud very nearly whimpers.

Calm. Down, Mimic tells him.

It seems that ProtoMan's only doing marginally better than Chaud is. He's completely still, hands clasped in front of his chest so tightly that he'd break bones if he were human, and his shadows are trembling in anticipation.

Famous obviously sees how terrified they both are, and evidently decides to take pity on them. "You can relax, you two," he says gently. "There was never any question of it, especially after we analysed the data. You're both full Net Savers again."

Chaud goes boneless out of sheer relief, and Mimic has to catch him to stop him from slumping right off his seat. ProtoMan's lucky that Arcadia's wing was already around his shoulders, because he nearly collapses and it's only Arcadia's wing that keeps him upright, and also Bass reaching out to help steady him.

"I will be honest, you basically went above and beyond the call when an actual crisis arose during your trials," Famous says. He glances at ProtoMan. "Especially you, ProtoMan. You would've passed based on your actions before you stopped MegaMan and Zoano ProtoMan from fighting, but if there had been any questions or doubts before that, they would've been erased as soon as you took action. As for Chaud-" Now he glances at Chaud. "-you voluntarily stayed at the military base longer in order to make absolutely certain that there were no lingering dangers." He gives Chaud an amused half-smile. "Even if you did stay mostly because you wanted to go on a ghost-hunt."

Chaud lets out a faintly nervous laugh.

"So," Famous says brightly, leaning back in his chair and clapping his hands together, "congratulations, you two! You've both passed your trials, and you're now officially full Net Savers once again!"

Mimic cheers and hugs Chaud, and Arcadia and Bass do the same for ProtoMan. Though Bass doesn't cheer, and he doesn't actually hug ProtoMan, he just gives him an approving nod with a half-smile. Which is basically a hug and a cheer from him, anyway.

"And just in time, actually," Famous continues, getting their attention. "Because I have a case that the four - five, sorry, Bass - I have a case the five of you might just be perfect for."

"What about Lan?" Chaud asks curiously.

"He already has a case," Famous replies. "MegaMan's still a little down from his transformation, so Lan was here earlier, practically begging for a case to help him get his mind off it. They're investigating an odd series of buildings and areas that appear to have been frozen via extreme temperature change in the cyberworld equivalent of those locations."

That's definitely familiar. Wasn't that the one with Zoano FreezeMan, and IceMan somehow made friends with him and it turned out not every Zoanoroid is a sadistic fuck? Just most of them aside from Zoano FreezeMan, apparently. Whatever, Mimic's glad they don't have to deal with that case, she and Chaud wouldn't last five seconds with all that ice plus the natural cold of winter on top of it. Fuck that right off.

"That sounds . . . cold," Chaud remarks hesitantly. Mimic can feel his relief at not having to deal with it, too.

"Which is why I gave that case to Lan, not you two," Famous replies, amused. "Now, the details of your case."

Chaud sits up a little, hesitance and relief turning to eagerness, and Mimic has to press her lips together to stop herself from laughing. Goddamn, but it's easy to tell he's been dying to get back to work.

"We've gotten wind of an underground battle stadium recently," Famous begins to explain.

He half-turns in his chair to reach over to the console behind him and types for a moment, and then a holographic screen appears between them. It's showing what looks like a literal underground stadium, complete with stands and high walls around the battle arena. It looks like a darker and, well, underground version of the Colosseum in Internet City.

"It's cyberworld-based, and as far as we can tell, it hasn't been officially registered as a NetBattling tournament," Famous tells them. "We're not entirely sure why - it's obvious that some sort of battling is taking place here, but whether or not it's actual NetBattling isn't entirely clear. It's attracted a lot of attention despite no advertisement, actually, and I'm concerned that there might be some less-than-reputable characters in the crowd due to its location."

"So . . . what do you want us to do?" Chaud frowns. "Investigate the crowd who goes to this underground stadium?"

"Actually, no," Famous replies. "I want you to investigate the stadium itself. We don't know anything about the kind of battles going on in this stadium, so register your Navis for the tournament and take part in it. You're basically gathering information for potential future investigations, but if you do spot any illegal activity, inform me immediately and I'll advise you on what to do - don't just arrest people on the spot or otherwise act impulsively, we need to think carefully when it comes to information-gathering missions like these."

"Why're you lookin' at me for?" Mimic demands incredulously.

"I don't think there'll be a need to use any kind of disguises for this," Famous goes on, now looking at all of them instead of just Mimic. "I know that's . . . somewhat of a thing for you guys-"

"I've never worn anything other than my cloak," Bass interrupts.

"I've also never worn a disguise," Arcadia adds, raising his hand.

"Doesn't the colour-disguise count?" ProtoMan points out. "Y'know, when we were pretending to be Blues and Tawny."

Arcadia lowers his hand. "Never mind, statement withdrawn."

"Regardless of whether or not any of you have actually worn a disguise for any reason," Famous says, getting them back on track, "you won't need them for this case. Or you shouldn't need them, at least. The whole world knows that Chaud is a prodigy NetBattler and that ProtoMan loves NetBattling more than life itself-"

"Excuse me, I actually love my family more than life itself," ProtoMan corrects him, holding up a finger. "NetBattling is a very close second, though."

Famous presses his hands together in front of his face, looking like he's trying very desperately not to burst out laughing. "Can I finish?"

"If you must."

"You kids are insane," Famous says, letting a little chuckle slip out despite himself. "Anyway. Your reputations will actually help you with this, since you can tell anyone who asks that you're there to check out the battles, and it won't even be a lie."

"Exact words," Mimic muses, nodding. "I like that trick."

"Yes, I thought you might. And as for Mimic and Arcadia, well, everyone also knows that the two of you go wherever Chaud and ProtoMan go, so your presence won't be questioned much either."

"And what about me?" Bass asks.

"Er . . ."

"You can be our pet," ProtoMan says brightly.

"Piss off," Bass retorts.

"You piss off."

"The point is," Famous says, talking over them, "your 'cover story' is basically the truth. Watch out for illegal activity, but your main priority is finding out whatever you can about this underground stadium. If you can, figure out whether or not they plan to register their tournament officially. It could just be that they set up the tournament in an unused stadium and are planning to use the money gained from entrance fees and the like to pay for registration - it's not exactly uncommon. Understood?"

"Got it," Mimic and Chaud chorus. The Navis nod, too.

"Excellent." Famous grins at them as he sits back in his seat. "Since the tournament is entirely based in the cyberworld, there isn't a real world equivalent that holds its network - so the two of you can basically do this entire case from the comfort of your own home."

"So us Navis're doing all the legwork?" ProtoMan groans jokingly. "Fucking fantastic . . ."

"I thought you liked legwork," Chaud comments, amused.

"Only on Wednesdays."

"It is Wednesday, my dudes," Mimic says solemnly.

ProtoMan lets out a drawn-out caterwaul that sounds almost exactly like the vine she's referencing, and they exchange a grin.

"You kids are some of the best Net Savers I have," Famous notes idly.

"The best ones are always crazy," Arcadia reminds him.


Famous gives them the exact location of the underground stadium. As the name implies, it's literally underground - in this case, it's under Internet City, and the entrance is in a part of the City that seems like it'd be more at home in Deep City rather than Internet City.

No wonder Famous wants them to check this out. If it's in a place like this and it's unregistered, there could be all manner of illegal activities going on in this stadium.

Getting into the underground stadium is as easy as literally just walking through the entrance and heading down the stairs. Arcadia keeps his Empath Program alert for any sense of hostility, but the only thing he can feel is the excited anticipation of the surprisingly-large crowd gathering in the stands and the arena itself. And he can feel the fluttering of nerves from ProtoMan, which is understandable since they're in a large, loud crowd of complete strangers, so Arcadia lets ProtoMan clutch his hand as they make their way through the crowd with Bass.

It kinda helps ground Arcadia himself, actually. He rarely ever goes into crowds of this size, and all the different minds and emotions and thoughts are threatening to overload his Empath Program, especially with this charged atmosphere and all the excitement.

Bass is the only one out of the three of them who's able to keep his wits about him, so he takes the lead and shoulders his way through the crowd until they find the registry box. This part of the underground stadium seems to be the only place where the crowd isn't so thick, and the only Navis here appear to be registering for the tournament.

"One at a time, one at a time!" the harassed-looking Navi in the box shouts, trying to wave down a group of Navis jostling to register quickly. "You have plenty of time before the tournament begins, calm down!"

"There doesn't seem to be any kind of illegal activity so far," Chaud's voice murmurs in Arcadia's ears. Their operators are keeping the communication line between them and their PETs strictly private, to prevent any potential would-be evildoers from finding out what they're doing.

Normally the standard procedure for them is to simply speak mentally rather than out loud if they need to do something like this, but Chaud figured out how to fix the communication to include Bass as well. Which wasn't easy to do - Bass, as an independent Navi, doesn't follow the typical rules that personal Navis do, and plus he's Bass. He doesn't follow anyone's rules except his own.

"Mosh pit," Mimic comments eagerly. It's not really clear whether she's referring to the upcoming tournament or the eager crowd of Navis trying to register themselves for said tournament.

Eventually, the crowd around the box calms down as each of them register themselves, and then Bass steps forward, and Arcadia and ProtoMan follow him.

"We want to register for the tournament," Bass says.

"Yep, just let me sort out this one . . ." The Navi in the box is only a moment or two, and when he's done, he looks up. "Alright, now then-" He freezes, mouth half-open.

Arcadia can feel his shock, and the thoughts that come racing along with it are as clear as day. This Navi recognises them - or at least he recognises Arcadia and ProtoMan - and he's wondering what they're doing here, in this underground tournament.

"Are we allowed to register together, or will we need to register separately?" Arcadia asks.

The box Navi's too stunned to respond for a moment or two, and then he blinks and Arcadia can sense him forcing his shock down to a level of professionalism. That's impressive.

"You can register as a team if you want to," the box Navi tells them. "The rules will be explained before the tournament's preliminary round, so you won't need to worry about that. Now, er . . . I'll need your . . . names."

His hesitance is easy to see, even if Arcadia couldn't sense it. Evidently the box Navi doesn't really need to ask for Arcadia and ProtoMan's names, but he still needs to do it anyway. Plus, he doesn't know Bass, so there's another reason to ask for their names.

"Arcadia," Arcadia says, and watches the box Navi type that into a registration data file. "ProtoMan. And Bass."

"Bass," the box Navi murmurs, frowning to himself. He glances at Bass. "Would that be Bass with an S or an E?"

"The fuck?" Bass blinks.

Arcadia leans over to him. "He's asking how your name is spelt," he murmurs. "There's two different spellings."

"Oh. Yeah, it's Bass with an S."

"Thank you," the box Navi says, typing that up next. "And since the three of you are registering as a team . . . I'll also need a team name."

Arcadia draws a blank on that, but ProtoMan's able to come up with a relatively decent name on the spot.

"Team Hikari," he says, and the box Navi types that in as well.

"And that's about it," the box Navi says, looking up with a smile. "Before you go, you'll also need one of these - here."

He takes out an odd-looking card from a data box next to him. It's not that Arcadia's never seen a card in the cyberworld before - he knows Glide has a deck of digital playing cards, and TomahawkMan's recently started collecting decks of digital Tarot cards for some reason - but he's never really seen one that looks quite like this.

It seems to have an oddly large memory capacity. That's definitely unusual for a card - it's certainly not a memory card, he can tell that much, but even so . . . Hm. Very strange.

Arcadia turns the odd card over in his hands as he, ProtoMan, and Bass head for the stairs leading down to the arena floor. All registered participants have to head down there - they heard the box Navi telling that to some other first-timers.

The crowd down in the arena is considerably thinner than the one in the stands, but the excitement and anticipation is just as thick, if not more so. There are a few other teams down here - mostly pairs or trios, but the occasional foursome as well. Some of them are discussing strategy, so obviously they've been here before and they know what this tournament is about, but a lot of Navis - teams or singles - are just as lost as Arcadia and his brother and Bass are.

"I kinda wish Famous'd been able to tell us more about this," ProtoMan murmurs, shying away from a few double-takes as some of the other Navis inevitably recognise them.

"Guess we'll just have to find out when we get told the rules," Bass responds. "Any idea what the fuck's up with that card, owl?"

"Not a clue," Arcadia says absently, still trying to see if there's some trick to it that he can't figure out. "Seems like it could be used to store something, but the memory space is way too big for normal data . . ."

"I could try and analyse it," Chaud offers.

"Then he'd need to leave an' give it to you," Mimic points out. "Can't do that."

"Ah, right . . ." And Chaud sounds intensely disappointed.

Arcadia suppresses a smile at that. Chaud's eager to do things - maybe a little bit too eager, this time - and it shows. It's to be expected, though. Chaud's not really the kind of human who's okay with sitting around doing nothing for extended periods of time. He needs to do things, to keep himself busy, or he'll just go stir-crazy.

They wait around a few minutes for the last of the participants to register themselves, and then a barrier goes up around the wall of the arena. The excitement of the Navis who've been here before reaches a peak, and Arcadia senses vague confusion from those who haven't.

Then a voice booms out across the entire stadium, and gradually the noise dies away. There's a NetNavi standing on a raised platform above the arena wall - a green standard-Navi wearing a full-face white mask with nothing but a black line of a smile and two dots for eyes.

"Dream?" Mimic murmurs.

"Welcome, participants and audience!" the mask-wearing Navi calls. He's probably using some kind of microphone program so everyone can hear him. "Welcome back to those who have been here before, and welcome to those who are new to this stadium!"

He's certainly a very theatrical type of Navi. Arcadia wonders if he was made for this purpose, or if he just found he had the talent for it. Sometimes it's like that - a NetNavi can be made for one thing, but they might discover they have a talent for something totally different.

"Welcome to the Virus Battles!" the Navi shouts, throwing his arms out wide, and the crowd in the stands roars its approval.

"Virus Battles?" Chaud mutters, sounding just as confused as Arcadia can sense he feels. "Never heard of that . . ."

"Sounds familiar," Mimic says, clearly frowning judging the tone of her voice. There's a spark of recognition that Arcadia can sense from her, but it's only faint and not nearly strong enough to let her remember why it sounds familiar.

"I see our tournament has gathered more attention and more participants," the mask-wearing Navi is saying, taking in the massive crowd and the participants on the arena floor. Then Arcadia feels his gaze resting on him, ProtoMan, and Bass. "We even appear to have attracted some famous NetBattlers!"

The curiosity of almost every single NetNavi in the stadium is very nearly overwhelming to feel. Hundreds, if not thousands, of pairs of eyes - or just eyes, since some Navis only have one eye, and others have more than two - are suddenly on them, each of them with a sudden spark of recognition and then excitement as they realise that it's actually true and they do have famous NetBattlers among the new participants.

"Kinda wish I'd worn my helmet, now," ProtoMan murmurs faintly, shuffling even closer to Arcadia. His shadow-tail is coiling around his legs, not impeding his movement at all, but it's difficult to tell if the shadow-tail is trying to comfort ProtoMan or if it's just reacting to his nerves.

"Wouldn't that just make people recognise you a lot faster?" Arcadia murmurs back.

"Yeah, but it'd make me feel a bit braver," ProtoMan squeaks, trying to duck out of sight. It doesn't work too well, since there are Navis on all sides, and no matter where he goes, he's always in someone's line of sight.

"I'm sure all of you newcomers are wondering about the Virus Battles!" the mask-wearing Navi booms, thankfully getting everyone's attention again. "Some of you may have come here thinking this is your average NetBattling tournament. Others may have come here because friends recommended it. Or perhaps you simply heard the rumours of an underground stadium and wanted to see what it was all about!"

That last one is technically true for Arcadia, ProtoMan, and Bass.

"I assure you, you've never taken part in a tournament quite like this one!" the mask-wearing Navi shouts, much to the eager approval of the vast majority of the crowd - along with several of the participants who've been here before. "There is no NetBattling!" That draws more than a few confused murmurs from those who haven't been here before. "You, Navis, do not fight! But!" The mask-wearing Navi holds up a finger. "These are not called the Virus Battles for nothing, my friends! You may recall being given a card after you registered."

Arcadia, like most of the other newcomers, glances down at the card in his hands. ProtoMan stops trying to hide behind him to peer over his shoulder at it, and then they all look back up at the mask-wearing Navi as he continues speaking.

"That card you hold is called a Battle Card," the Navi explains. "Some of you may have attempted to analyse it, and have discovered that it holds a large memory space. There is a reason for that! Allow me to demonstrate!"

He brings up a screen in front of him, and a Mettaur virus materialises beside him. Then he banishes the screen and takes out a card - a Battle Card, as he calls it.

"These Battle Cards are used to store the data of viruses," the mask-wearing Navi tells the participants, holding it up for them all to see. "It can hold up to twenty-eight different species of viruses - one of each, if you please, we don't want the Card to be overloaded." That draws a few laughs from the crowd and some of the participants. "You can capture a wild virus using this Battle Card. Simply tap its head - or the equivalent, if the virus has no head - and the Card will automatically capture the data for you."

To demonstrate, the mask-wearing Navi leans down and taps the Mettaur's helmet with the Card. The Mettaur is transformed into white energy, which is then sucked into the Battle Card, and a few of the newcomers gasp in shock.

The mask-wearing Navi holds up the Battle Card again. "Now the Mettaur I have just captured is registered to this Battle Card! Tap the Card with the tip of your finger - or whatever your equivalent - to bring up the viruses you have captured within the Card. If you select the virus you have just captured-" He does so as he speaks, and the captured Mettaur appears beside him. "-it will reappear. Regardless of whether the captured virus was hostile to you before capture, it will be docile and willing to follow the commands of the Navi or Navis registered as the owners of the Card it was captured by!"

"Maybe it uses some kind of code to overwrite the data," Chaud murmurs thoughtfully. "I have to check this out at some point . . ."

He's not the only one who's thinking. ProtoMan's leaning on Arcadia's shoulder, blinking at the Battle Card curiously, but Arcadia's too focused on listening to the mask-wearing Navi to pay attention to what his brother is thinking.

"And this, participants, is where the Virus Battles come into play!" The mask-wearing Navi holds his arms open wide to gesture to all of them as a whole. "The Virus Battles - in which NetNavis use viruses to battle each other!"

The excitement has reached a peak, so much that it takes several moments of waving for quiet for the mask-wearing Navi to be heard again.

"The rules for these battles are simple!" he calls. He holds up two fingers. "Each team uses two viruses in a battle! You can use any virus you choose, as long there are only two on your side during battle, regardless of how many members of your team there are! You can use as many or as few of the captured viruses in your Battle Card as you please throughout the entire tournament! There are no restrictions on what species of viruses you can capture, as long as no two of the viruses in your Battle Card are the same!"

The crowd roars, and some of the participants in the arena cheer. More than a few of them hold up their own Battle Cards and shout words that even Arcadia can barely make out, because the noise is ridiculous. It's certainly not helping poor ProtoMan, who's gone back to trying to hide behind Arcadia and is having as much luck as he was last time.

"Those of you who have entered previous Virus Battle tournaments already have viruses in your Cards, yes," the mask-wearing Navi says. It seems he's able to hear everyone despite the noise - maybe there's some kind of program that lets him hear the participants in the arena. "But some of you may wish to add new viruses to your Card, or seek out different viruses to replace those you have used previously!"

Arcadia frowns, and decides to speak up - because he's honestly a little confused now. "Are we starting this tournament straight away? Some of us don't have any viruses at all!"

"An excellent question from Arcadia, the Holy Warrior!" the mask-wearing Navi booms, gesturing to him.

"Holy Warrior?" Arcadia repeats quietly. "Never heard that before . . ."

"It does sound cool, though," Bass points out.

Arcadia concedes that point with a shrug.

"The Virus Battle tournament does not begin immediately!" the mask-wearing Navi tells them all. "Before the tournament begins properly, the teams are set loose in the Virus Wilds to find and capture viruses to use in the tournament. There is a teleport panel in the middle of the arena that will take you all to the Virus Wilds."

As he speaks, as huge square panel lights up in the middle of the arena floor. Some of the Navis who were standing on or near it hurriedly back away in case they accidentally get teleported to the Virus Wilds prematurely.

"You have three hours!" The mask-wearing Navi holds up three fingers. "Three hours to find and capture yourselves a team of viruses! Once those three hours are up, every participant is immediately teleported back to the arena floor, regardless of whether you have finished capturing viruses or not! Your time begins as soon as every single participant is in the Virus Wilds, but you may not begin capturing viruses the moment you arrive - any viruses captured outside of the time limit, before or after, are disqualified and released from your Battle Card automatically. This is to give every team a fair chance!"

"That makes sense," Chaud says approvingly. "This way, it doesn't matter if you were first or last to step onto the teleport panel - everyone's time is the same."

"Teams are given ten minutes to strategise," the mask-wearing Navi continues. "You may choose to step onto the teleport panel straight away, or you may choose to stay here for those ten minutes. Whichever you choose, the capture time does not begin until every single participant is in the Virus Wilds! Keep that in mind!"

The fact that the Navi is repeating that warning makes Arcadia think that some participants have tried to get a head start in previous tournaments regardless. It doesn't seem like any of the participants now have any intentions of attempting to break those rules, though - they're all far too eager to begin.

"Once the ten minutes is up, those who have not already stepped onto the teleport panel must do so," the mask-wearing Navi tells them. "There are also rules for capturing viruses! You may not interfere with another team's efforts. Sabotage will get you disqualified, and you will be banned from future tournaments. If the interference was not intentional, the penalty is handing over one of your captured viruses to the team you interfered with. Similarly, you may not steal another team's virus if it is clear that they are attempting to capture it! If you steal it by accident - such as if you genuinely did not see the other team - the dispute will be solved the same way as accidental interference. If you steal on purpose, you will be disqualified and banned."

"Kinda harsh, but understandable," Bass comments. "I wonder if they're keeping track of all this? And who decides whether something was accidental or on purpose?"

"Another excellent question from-" The mask-wearing Navi pauses for a moment, and Arcadia senses a faint flash of confusion from him before he continues. "-the third member of Team Hikari!"

"For fuck's sake," Bass mutters, scowling. "Maybe I should start fighting in that Colosseum place, at least then people might actually know my fucking name . . ."

"As soon as the capture time begins, drone programs are sent out to watch over each team in the Virus Wilds," the mask-wearing Navi explains. "These drones record visual and audio data of each team's progress. Tournament advisors watch this data live, and should any altercations occur, the involved teams will be called to pause, and the advisors will make a decision on what to do based on what happened. Essentially, you are being watched to make sure that no underhanded business happens in the Virus Wilds! Should it happen, it will be dealt with as swiftly and fairly as possible!"

The Navi looks around at them all, pausing for a few moments to see if anyone has any further questions - but it appears that no one does. These rules are nothing if not thorough, which is definitely not a characteristic of an illegal tournament. If there is any illegal activity going on here, Arcadia certainly hasn't seen any signs of it.

"And now, teams, your ten minutes begins!" the mask-wearing Navi calls, throwing his arms out once again. A large timer appears beside him - the numbers count down to 10:00, and then a hollow beep echoes throughout the stadium.

Only a few of the participants make their way over to the teleport panel straight away. Most of them are Navis who've been to previous Virus Battle tournaments, and quite a few of them are Navis who entered on their own rather than in teams.

Arcadia, ProtoMan, and Bass head over to the side of the arena, close to the wall, where they can hopefully talk without being interrupted. It still seems fairly likely that they'll get interrupted anyway - Arcadia can sense more than a few curious and eager minds focused on them, or more specifically him and ProtoMan.

"Alright, so it's not a NetBattling tournament," Bass mutters.

"That explains why it was never registered as one," Chaud muses. "I doubt anyone else has ever considered something like this before, either. It's highly likely that this tournament could be the first of its kind."

"And that's why it's being held here," Arcadia adds, nodding. "It's possible that the Navis who set this entire tournament up built the stadium itself, too."

Then he feels a sudden flash of excitement from Mimic. "I got it!" she exclaims. "Virus Battles, I remember now!"

There's a moment of silence.

" . . . You gonna explain sometime this fucking century?" Bass grunts.

"Oh, right," Mimic says sheepishly. "S'from the games. You get this Battle Card thing from some NPC Navi an' go around collectin' Rare versions of viruses, an' then you find these Mr. Progs who-"

"Mister whats?" Arcadia asks incredulously.

"Mr. Progs," Mimic repeats. "Y'know, them sentient program things y'see sometimes."

"We just call them programs."

"Oh. Well, the games called 'em Mr. Progs, and I liked that, so . . . ah, whatever. What was I sayin'?"

"You find Mr. Progs," Chaud prompts.

"Right, yeah. You find these Mr. Progs in different locations an' do Virus Battles with 'em."

"Sounds like a basic version of this entire tournament," Bass comments somewhat scornfully.

"Ay, look, the games're different to the anime, don't judge," Mimic tells him.

"I'll judge if I damn well please."

"I have a question about the Battle Card, actually," ProtoMan suddenly says.

Arcadia and Bass glance at him questioningly, and he reaches out and taps the Card.

"Do you think this thing might be able to capture me?"

Arcadia blinks, and he looks down at the Card. "That . . . is an excellent question," he admits.

"Trill was able to collect you," Chaud muses. "And your virus data does set off anti-virus systems . . . so I guess it's possible."

"Are we gonna break the whole tournament?" Mimic wonders.

"I guess there's only one way to find out," Arcadia says hesitantly. He looks up at ProtoMan. "But only if you're sure about this. Are you?"

There's no point in ProtoMan trying to lie, because he's terrible at it. Arcadia can sense his hesitation anyway - but he can also sense the innate curiosity that his big brother just can't ignore.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. That's the human saying, right?

"Worst case scenario, it doesn't work and we have to trawl through the Virus Wilds trying to find random viruses to capture," ProtoMan says. "But if it does work . . . I guess we might be able to dominate the entire tournament."

"Low-key braggin' much?" Mimic murmurs.

A little wobbly smile appears on ProtoMan's face, and Arcadia senses a faint trace of embarrassment from him. "I didn't mean to, but . . . well, I mean, c'mon. If I can be used in this tournament, I'll be up against a bunch of random viruses. If that's not easy pickings, I dunno what is."

"He's got a point," Bass says, when Arcadia glances at him for his opinion. "What've we got to lose?"

"ProtoMan's free will?" Chaud suggests dryly.

Arcadia nearly freezes at that. Right - he'd almost forgotten. The Battle Card seems to have some sort of code that overwrites a virus's will to make it obey the commands of the Navis who're registered to the Card it was captured by. If ProtoMan is able to be captured by the Card, would that take away his free will? Would he be forced to obey Arcadia and Bass's commands like some mindless program?

"Maybe it'll be different," Mimic says. "He's part virus, but he's still a NetNavi. I dunno much about this kinda shit, but that should count for somethin', yeah?"

"Yeah!" ProtoMan jumps on that immediately. "See? It should be okay!"

"'Should' isn't good enough," Chaud tells him. "I'm not willing to risk your free will on the off-chance that you being a Virus Navi instead of an actual virus will let you keep it."

"If it does do that," Bass says, taking the Card from Arcadia, "maybe there's a way to un-capture him."

"You mean release?" Arcadia frowns.

"Yeah, that. Some of those other guys are changing their teams, right? And that NetNavi with the mask mentioned releasing viruses. Maybe the code that makes a virus listen to the Card's owners only works as long as that virus has been captured by the Card - and as soon as it gets released, the code is undone."

"We don't know for sure, though," Chaud frets.

"Only one way to find out!" ProtoMan declares, and he snatches the Battle Card from Bass's hand and taps it against his forehead before anyone can stop him.

His entire body turns into the same white energy the Mettaur was turned into, and then he gets sucked into the Battle Card. Arcadia yelps and dives forward to catch it before it hits the ground, terrified that damaging the Card will also damage ProtoMan.

Chaud swears fluently, and Arcadia hears Mimic whispering 'what the fuck' repeatedly. He's too shocked to really take note of how everyone else is feeling - all he's focused on is the fact that one second, he could sense his brother's mind like normal, and then the next, ProtoMan just vanished.

He doesn't know why the first thing he thinks of is ProtoMan turning into Dark ProtoMan, and that monster Mimic and Chaud turned into when they forced Cross Fusion with him. Maybe the situation is similar, even if the actual context is completely different - ProtoMan's mind was just there, but now it isn't.

"Let him out!" Bass's voice snaps Arcadia out of his shock, thankfully.

He fumbles with the Battle Card, almost dropping it, and manages to tap a shaking claw-tipped finger on the surface. The virus select screen appears above it - but he doesn't see ProtoMan on it. There's a single virus registered in the list; 'Cat Virus', it reads.

Arcadia doesn't question that and he just selects the Cat Virus. There's a flash of energy, and then suddenly ProtoMan's mind is back, and he's standing exactly where he was a moment ago, blinking.

His mind is perfectly normal. He's a little disoriented after being captured, but otherwise, there's nothing different about him - and Arcadia's so relieved about it that he almost drops the Battle Card as he goes limp.

" . . . That felt weird," ProtoMan says.

Arcadia launches himself at him, almost knocking him over, and ProtoMan lets out a quiet squeak of surprise.

"Don't ever do that again," Arcadia mutters into ProtoMan's chest. "Please. One second you were there, and then . . ."

ProtoMan's arms come around him, and Arcadia feels his brother's tongue gently licking the feathers on his hood.

"Sorry," ProtoMan murmurs, nuzzling him. "I didn't mean to scare you . . ."

"So I guess it works," Bass says, as they separate. "And you're not some mindless program or whatever."

"I don't feel like one," ProtoMan says, frowning down at himself. "Mm . . . try giving me an order."

"Do a handstand," Bass immediately tells him.

ProtoMan stares at him, deadpan. "Seriously? A handstand? Is that really the best you could come up with?"

"Well, excuse me for having to think on the fucking spot," Bass snorts, folding his arms in a huff.

"So the Battle Card registered you as the cat virus rather than ProtoMan," Chaud says thoughtfully. "But it didn't overwrite your free will - you're just registered to it. Hm . . ."

"Wonder if it works for other Virus Navis," Mimic says.

There's a brief pause as the implication of that settles in.

Before any of them can add anything, though, they're interrupted - not by a starry-eyed fan like Arcadia expected, but by the green mask-wearing Navi who was up on the platform. He coughs quietly to get their attention, but he still ends up startling ProtoMan, whose shock sparks through Arcadia's Empath Program as he jumps. Bass whirls around, almost ready to attack before he realises who it is - and where he is - and he cautiously lowers his hands.

"I was just coming over here to ask how such famous NetBattlers heard about this stadium," the mask-wearing Navi begins, "but then . . ." He glances at the Battle Card, and then at ProtoMan. "Then I saw you being captured by the Battle Card. I'm sure you can understand my confusion."

'Confusion' is a mild way of putting it. Arcadia senses more than that - there's suspicion, too, along with complete bewilderment, and the constant replaying of the memory of seeing ProtoMan being captured by the Battle Card even though, as far as this Navi is aware, he's a normal NetNavi.

Arcadia exchanges a quick glance with ProtoMan and Bass. ProtoMan's worried, fidgeting and wringing his hands nervously, looking and feeling like he's two seconds away from bolting. Bass is ready for action, whatever that might be - if they decide to run, he'll help them get out, and if the mask-wearing Navi turns hostile, he's ready to defend them.

" . . . I'd like an explanation," the mask-wearing Navi says mildly. "If it's not too much trouble. You have to understand, these Virus Battles have been set up to be fair for everyone - so if we have any abnormalities, whatever they might be, we need to know about them so we can figure out what to do about them. So, can one of you please explain how and why a NetNavi was just captured by a Battle Card, which was made to capture viruses?"

"I'm a Virus Navi," ProtoMan blurts out, and then immediately falls silent again, wincing.

"A Virus Navi?" The Navi's tone makes it clear that he's frowning under that smile-faced mask. "I've never heard of that before."

"A Virus Navi is a NetNavi with virus data in them that can't be cured," Arcadia explains, because he can sense that ProtoMan's nervous outburst is all he can manage right now. "He's basically part virus - enough to set off anti-virus systems, and-" Get collected by a child-Navi from an alternate reality. "-apparently enough to get captured by the Battle Card."

"That's . . . odd," the mask-wearing Navi comments. "Is he the only Virus Navi?"

And now here's a bigger problem than trying to explain Virus Navis. They could lie and say that ProtoMan's the only Virus Navi there is - or they could tell the truth, and explain that there's a whole bunch of Virus Navis, except that would mean they might have to reveal the existence of the Secret Village in the process.

But this could be exactly what they've been looking for. There have been plenty of problems that arose from no one but close friends and the Village Navis themselves knowing anything about Virus Navis - this could be the opportunity they need to . . . well, to raise awareness, for lack of better phrases. The Virus Navis in the Village have shown little to no interest in the cyberworld outside of the Secret Area, and that's not their fault, because society rejected all of them because of their virus data.

But maybe if society actually understood Virus Navis, or at least knew a little more about their existence, that wouldn't be a problem anymore.

"He's not," Arcadia says. "There's a lot of Virus Navis, actually."

"Arcadia," ProtoMan hisses, "what're you doing?"

The mask-wearing Navi tilts his head. "If there are a lot of Virus Navis, why is this the first time I've ever heard of them?"

"Most of them keep to themselves," Arcadia replies, ignoring his brother urgently tugging at him. "My brother's the only one who doesn't."

"Alright then," the mask-wearing Navi says, accepting that with a cautious nod. "Now I have to ask the inevitable question . . . are you planning on using him in the tournament?"

"If . . . we're allowed to," Arcadia replies cautiously. "If not, then . . ." He glances at ProtoMan, then at Bass, then turns back to the mask-wearing Navi. "Well, it's fine either way. We didn't know he could get captured by the Battle Card, to be honest. Not until he captured himself with it."

"This is . . . definitely an unusual situation," the mask-wearing Navi muses. "I don't think anyone could have predicted something like this. Hm . . ." He's quiet for a moment or two, and Arcadia can sense his mind working as he thinks. "I'll have to discuss this with the advisors. Stay here, please. We'll let you know when a decision has been made."

"Right," Arcadia agrees, and the mask-wearing Navi nods to them and leaves.

"He took that better than I expected," Bass remarks, raising an eyebrow.

"We're gonna get banned," ProtoMan squeaks. Panic is rising from him in looping waves, each one stronger than the last, and his mind is racing with it. His shadow-tail is starting to flicker and spark, becoming unstable because of that panic. "W-we're gonna get banned 'cus I caught myself, a-and-" His eyes widen, and horror cuts through the rising panic. "Oh, maker, the mission! We can't do the mission if we get thrown out! I'm- I'm an idiot, why did I-" He lets out a ragged whine and clutches his head, claws digging into his messy hair, and his shadow-tail starts twisting erratically.

"Hey," Arcadia quickly says, reaching out to tug ProtoMan's hands out of his hair. "Hey, c'mon, it's alright, you didn't know - and it's fine anyway, Famous only told us to find out what kind of battles go on in this stadium, and we have. It doesn't matter if we get kicked out."

"B-but he said- he s-said-"

"It's fine," Arcadia insists, squeezing his brother's hands. "Our only job is information-gathering, remember? Famous won't mind if we get banned. We've done what we're supposed to do."

"But-"

"He won't mind."

"But I-"

"ProtoMan. It's okay."

ProtoMan presses his lips together, and his eyes shine with unshed tears. Arcadia reaches out and pats his cheek, then keeps his hand still to let his brother nuzzle his palm.

"It's okay," Arcadia repeats softly, and ProtoMan makes a quiet, ragged sound.

His shadow-tail stops twisting around and goes back to coiling around his legs. It's still flickering, but it's not sparking anymore, and ProtoMan's panic is starting to subside. The fear that he screwed up their mission is still there, that's not going to go away with a few words, of course. But as long as he's not about to have a breakdown, Arcadia considers that a win.

It's several minutes before anything happens. The strategising time has long since run out, and gradually, Arcadia begins to sense the confusion of the participants still in the arena. Some of them are wondering what's going on - according to the flashes of memory he gets from some of them who've taken part in previous Virus Battles, when the strategising time has run out, normally the participants are told to go to the teleport panel so the capture time can begin. That hasn't happened yet, even though it's been more than ten minutes.

Some of the participants saw the mask-wearing Navi talking to Arcadia, ProtoMan, and Bass, and they're passing on what they saw to others, whispers spreading through those left in the arena. A few of them get up the courage to come over and try to ask what happened, because it's clear to the other participants that Team Hikari might be the cause of the delay, but Bass's scowl makes them hesitate and keeps them a healthy distance away.

Finally, the mask-wearing Navi appears again. He's back on the platform he used to address everyone when he was telling them the rules - a few of the other participants are relieved to see him, but they're confused when he doesn't tell them to get to the teleport panel.

"Participants," the mask-wearing Navi calls, spreading his arms out to gesture to them all, "I apologise for the delay."

There's confused murmurs all across the stadium. Not just from the participants, but from the audience as well. No one knows what happened, but everyone's trying to guess.

The mask-wearing Navi raises a hand and snaps his fingers, and the Navis who already went to the Virus Wilds are teleported back into the arena. Their confusion is even greater than that of those who were still in the arena.

"The advisors and I have had to adjust the tournament's rules a little, based on new information!" the mask-wearing Navi tells everyone. A few Navis call out questions, asking about the new rules or the new information. "Please, my friends, calm down! Allow me to explain!" The participants and audience fall silent aside from the occasional murmur or two. "We have recently become aware of a new species of NetNavi. This species is known as Virus Navis - NetNavis with virus data within them!"

That gets more than a few shocked gasps. ProtoMan whimpers quietly and presses close to Arcadia, trying to hide, cringing and expecting every Navi in the stadium to turn on him. It's unlikely that will happen, but even so, Arcadia finds himself thinking of ways he could get his brother out of here if the crowd suddenly becomes hostile, and he can sense Bass thinking the exact same thing.

"These Virus Navis are able to be captured by the Battle Card!" the mask-wearing Navi continues. "Of course, we were unaware of their existence until . . . well, until a few minutes ago, I must confess. But now that we are aware of their existence, we have adjusted the rules to include Virus Navis! These are the new rules!"

He pauses for a moment, making sure that everyone is paying attention.

"Virus Navis are allowed to participate as fighters!" the mask-wearing Navi tells the crowd. "Assuming the Battle Card is capable of registering twenty-eight Virus Navis as it can with viruses, owners of the Card can use as many or as few of these Virus Navis throughout the entire tournament as they please. However!" The mask-wearing Navi raises his finger. "In order to keep things as fair as possible, only one Virus Navi can be used per battle! This is due to Virus Navis being a species of NetNavi rather than actual viruses, and therefore they would be more powerful by default. Additionally, Virus Navis may only use the abilities granted to them by their virus data! If those abilities overlap with their original abilities, they must inform the advisors, and individual restrictions will be discussed for that Virus Navi!"

Chatter rises up from everyone, participants and audience alike. More than a few questions are shouted out, NetNavis wondering exactly what Virus Navis are, and others wondering why the tournament rules were adjusted so suddenly. A few of the participants are even demanding to know why these new rules should matter, since they've never even heard of Virus Navis before.

"That is all!" the mask-wearing Navi shouts over the noise. "Due to this sudden adjustment, we have allowed an extra five minutes of strategising time, starting from now. When that five minutes is up, all participants must step onto the teleport panel so capture time can begin! Thank you for your patience!"

The mask-wearing Navi steps away from the platform, leaving more than a few of the crowd still chattering and shouting the occasional question or two.

"See?" Arcadia turns to ProtoMan, smiling. "We didn't get kicked out after all."

ProtoMan's far too relieved to speak, and the only thing he does is press his forehead into Arcadia's shoulder, breathing in and out and clutching at him like a lifeline. Arcadia lets him, because this might just be the only thing keeping ProtoMan sane at the moment.

The mask-wearing Navi comes down to the arena floor once again, and he heads straight over to them. His purposeful stride gets the attention of more than a few of the other participants, along with several members of the audience, and the extra attention makes ProtoMan cringe and attempt to hide again.

Arcadia's starting to wonder why Famous thought they'd be perfect for this mission. Maybe he thought that their eagerness to get back into things would override any lingering nerves. Evidently, that's not the case.

"Do the new rules seem fair?" the mask-wearing Navi asks, stopping a short distance away to look at each of them in turn. "If there are any problems you have with them, now would be the time to speak up."

"No, the new rules are fine," Arcadia says, because he seems to have become the spokesperson for their team. ProtoMan's too nervous, and Bass is too suspicious. "Honestly, we were expecting to get kicked out."

"Why?" the mask-wearing Navi asks, tilting his head a little. "We didn't know about the existence of Virus Navis before. That's an oversight on our part, not yours."

"Well . . ." Arcadia hesitates only for a moment. "That kind of thing has happened before. It's why most Virus Navis keep to themselves - there are people out there who . . . reject them, because of their virus data."

"People who reject an entire species just because they have virus data in them?" The mask-wearing Navi's scorn is obvious in his tone, even if his mask is smiling. "That sounds completely unfair to the Virus Navis. You won't need to worry about that here, I can assure you of that. I'll be honest, most of the advisors were actually so eager to find out more about these Virus Navis that they almost forgot we needed to adjust the rules to accommodate them!" He laughs, and Arcadia can feel himself starting to relax, just as he can sense ProtoMan's nerves doing the same. "You know, a lot of people were wondering how a human-Navi like ProtoMan suddenly became a cat-Navi. I guess we found out the answer to that question, didn't we?"

"Thank you," ProtoMan squeaks, so relieved that he almost can't get the words out. "Th-thank you so much, I . . . I-I'm . . ."

"It's fine," the mask-wearing Navi dismisses easily. "No need to thank me or any of the advisors. Just enjoy yourselves! That's what this tournament is supposed to be about!"

"Actually, um . . ." ProtoMan works his mouth for a moment, trying to gather the courage to speak. Arcadia reaches back and fishes around until he finds his brother's hand, and holding it helps to steady ProtoMan's nerves. "C-can I- can I ask . . . is it okay if we bring more Virus Navis? I-I know a few who might be interested in something like this, and if they know it's okay for them to take part . . ."

"That's fine, just keep the rules in mind," the mask-wearing Navi agrees, nodding. "Can you contact these other Virus Navis and tell them to come to the Virus Wilds?"

"Er . . . n-no," ProtoMan mumbles, wincing.

"The other Virus Navis live in a place that doesn't communicate with the outside world," Arcadia explains for his brother. "Like I said, they keep to themselves, and since they've all been rejected one way or another . . ."

"Ah." The Navi is obviously frowning beneath his mask. "That's understandable, I suppose. Hm . . ." He thinks for a few moments, and then shrugs. "Well, I don't see why we can't make an exception - just this once, though, alright? And you'll still have the three hours that everyone else has. We'll send you a five-minute warning before the time is up, and then you'll be teleported back here like the other participants. Got it?"

"Yes, thank you," Arcadia agrees eagerly.

"Alright then." The mask-wearing Navi nods to them. "If you've got any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to talk to me or the advisors - it's what we're here for!" He turns to leave.

"Ask him what his name is, quick!" Mimic suddenly tells them.

"Wait!" Arcadia calls, before the Navi can leave. He glances over his shoulder, curiosity sparking from him. "What's your name, by the way? I don't remember you telling anyone."

"Oh!" The mask-wearing Navi lets out a sheepish laugh. "Sorry about that, some of the participants already know my name, so I forgot that most of the newcomers actually wouldn't. My name is Daydream."

"Thanks, Daydream," Arcadia says, ignoring Mimic's excited hiss.

Daydream nods to them, and then he's gone.

"What is up with you?" Chaud asks Mimic incredulously. "You acted like this when we met Serenade, too . . . Is that Daydream guy from the games or something?"

"You guys've never heard of Dream?" Mimic demands. "He's a fucking Minecraft genius!"

Arcadia shakes his head fondly and leaves Chaud trying in vain to remind Mimic that not everyone plays games religiously like she does, turning to ProtoMan and Bass.

"Well, I guess we've got three hours to see if any of the Virus Navis want to fight in this tournament," he says.

"Mythic'd love it," ProtoMan immediately says, bouncing excitedly. "I bet Temper and High-End would, too!"

"Can I just point something out?" Bass speaks up, getting their attention. "You guys can go to this Village place whenever you want, but I've never been there before. And according to what you guys told me, if I've never been there before, I'll have to take the long way."

Arcadia exchanges a frown with ProtoMan. Bass is right, of course - there's no way they can get him to the Secret Village in under three hours. They'd have to go all the way to Deep City, all the way through Deep City, and then get BoatMan to take them across the Dark River. The entire reason why Arcadia and ProtoMan have their teleport tokens - which take them directly to the antechamber leading to the Secret Village - is so they can avoid having to go through that journey every time they want to visit.

Serenade told them that their friends are welcome to come and visit the Village, but they have yet to take them up on that offer because they're not sure whether anyone will be willing to go through that entire journey. Bass would probably be fine with it, but still, time is a massive problem here.

" . . . I'm fine with sticking around here, if I can't go," Bass says, after several moments of silence. He rolls his eyes at their surprised looks. "Don't gimme those looks, I'm not a fucking idiot - I know we won't be able to make it if we have to take the long way. Besides, I get the feeling that a few of those other Navis have figured out that we're the reason why the rules got changed so suddenly." He nods to some of the other participants, who're giving the trio occasional glances every now and then. "If I hear anyone talking shit, I can set them straight."

"Don't beat anyone up," Arcadia immediately warns him. "That'd definitely get us kicked out."

"'Course not!" Bass retorts, giving Arcadia an offended look. "I'm not that stupid."

"Implying that you are, at least, somewhat stupid in the first place," Chaud says dryly. Bass scowls. "Arcadia, ProtoMan, you guys head to the Village. Mimic and I will stick with Bass - we can stop him from terrorising the other participants if we need to."

"Why?" Mimic asks incredulously. "It'd be fuckin' hilarious to watch him go off on 'em!"

"Apparently I'll need to stop Mimic from egging him on, as well," Chaud sighs.

"We'll be back as soon as we can," Arcadia tells them, stepping back and taking his teleport token out of his inventory data. ProtoMan does the same with his own token.

"Bye!" he adds, giving Bass - and their operators, though they can't see them at the moment - a quick wave.

They activate their teleport tokens, and vanish from the underground stadium.


They get super lucky. As soon as they arrive in the antechamber, Serenade appears in front of them, greeting them happily - and then Serenade notices ProtoMan's lack of helmet and almost immediately informs him that his eyes are very pretty, which . . . kinda makes him forget why they're here and he ends up trying to hide behind Arcadia out of sheer embarrassment while his little brother and Serenade laugh good-naturedly.

And then they tell Serenade why they're here. They seem kinda interested in it - they ask all sorts of questions, about both the Virus Battles and the adjusted rules, and a surprised but pleased smile appears on their face when Arcadia tells them what Daydream said about Virus Navis.

But ultimately it's not up to ProtoMan and Arcadia, or even Serenade themself. So rather than saying 'yes' immediately, Serenade leads them into the Secret Village - and then they call together as many of the Virus Navis as possible, which is all of them, along with a few other residents who're curious as to what's going on.

Once everyone's together, Serenade waves their hand and a raised platform just appears on the ground. It's high enough that the gathered Village Navis can easily see them, and Serenade delivers the news. ProtoMan sits on the edge of the platform, looking through the crowd of Virus Navis - all of them familiar to him, because he knows all of these Navis by sight if not by name - until he finds the two he's looking for.

Crescendo is watching Serenade, listening to them speak, but he seems to sense ProtoMan's eyes on him, because he twitches and looks around until their eyes meet. He looks puzzled for a moment, and then his eyes widen and his smile is perfectly visible even though ProtoMan's far-off vision is kinda blurry. Thirteen's with him too, and he hoists her up onto his shoulders so ProtoMan can see her.

He hasn't seen either of them since before he and the others went to find Mother's grave. Things got way too busy for him and Arcadia to be able to visit again. A warm kind of happiness spreads through him now, even more so when he sees that they're both happy to see him again too - figuratively, in Thirteen's case, but she knows ProtoMan's here even if she can't see him.

Serenade finishes explaining what ProtoMan and Arcadia told them, and they step back to allow Arcadia to take centre-stage, so to speak. ProtoMan might be okay with the Village Navis, but he doesn't think he's ready to talk in front of this many people, even if he's okay to fight in front of even more. Talking and fighting are two totally different things.

"This is completely voluntary," Arcadia tells the Village Virus Navis. "You don't have to take part in this if you don't want to. The only reason we're here is because we discovered that ProtoMan can be captured by the Battle Card-" He gestures to ProtoMan, and a few of the Virus Navis glance at him. "-so we thought that the same might be true for other Virus Navis. So, on that note . . . does anyone want to take part in the Virus Battles?"

The Virus Navis - and the normal Navis in the crowd - are quiet. Some of them exchange glances with their neighbours, others look somewhat uncertain, and ProtoMan's a little disheartened to see that more than a few of them don't look very enthusiastic.

It makes sense, though. Every single Virus Navi here has been rejected by society - they were all disconnected by their operators or just simply thrown away, and the only reason they're here now is because Serenade welcomed them into the Secret Village with open arms. For the residents of the Village, Virus Navis or otherwise, this is the only safe place they know.

"I will try!" someone calls out.

ProtoMan recognises the voice just by the half-growled tone, but he doesn't need to be able to recognise the voice to know who's speaking - Mythic is easily the biggest NetNavi in the entire Village, a huge wyvern-like dragon-Navi. She's also a Virus Navi, and aside from ProtoMan and maybe Echo, she might just be one of the most powerful Virus Navis there is.

The crowd parts to let her through. She was listening near the back, mostly because of her size, so it takes quite a bit of shuffling for everyone to make room for her - and when she eventually reaches the front, she easily towers over the platform that Serenade made so everyone could see them.

"Tournaments were fun, I remember," Mythic rumbles. "I will try this."

"Are you sure, Mythic?" Arcadia asks, looking up at her. He's already got the Battle Card in his hands - he took it out to show everyone when Serenade was telling the Virus Navis what's going on - but he's not offering it up to her just yet.

"Fighting is fun," Mythic replies. "Against friends, very fun. But sometimes new fights are more fun than old ones. I will try," she repeats, and then she lowers her head until she's almost level with the platform.

Arcadia glances at ProtoMan, but all he can offer is a shrug. Mythic is kinda like Mimic, in a way - she does what she wants, and hardly anyone can tell her to stop. In fact, the only Navis that Mythic actually listens to are Serenade and Crescendo.

After a moment of silence, Arcadia holds out the Battle Card. Mythic lets out a pleased rumble and nudges it with her nose, and then she turns into white energy and is sucked into the Card just like ProtoMan was.

There's a few shocked gasps from the other Virus Navis, and a few of them shuffle away nervously. Others outright take several steps back.

"It's okay!" Arcadia calls out, because he can definitely sense their fear as easily as ProtoMan can see it. "She's fine, she was just captured by the Card!"

He brings up the virus select screen. ProtoMan leans back a little to get a look at it - there's now two viruses registered on the Battle Card. The first one is his own, the Cat Virus, and underneath that is the Frostbite Virus, which is Mythic. So the Battle Card really does register them as whatever their virus data is rather than their actual names.

Arcadia selects the Frostbite Virus, and Mythic reappears, exactly where she was a moment ago. She shakes her head, a little disoriented - ProtoMan felt the same way after Arcadia let him out of the Card, too. It's kinda weird. It's not like how being collected by Trill was; he's aware of things going on around him in the Card, but it's more like he's just sort of . . . well, he kinda felt like a ghost, honestly. It's like how he feels when he's in Cross Fusion with Chaud or Mimic - they're in control of the body, but he's still along for the ride.

Upon seeing that Mythic is actually okay, some of the Virus Navis seem pretty curious, now. Among those Navis are the ones ProtoMan thought would be interested in the first place - Temper, a human-Navi who was turned into a rabbit-Navi because of his virus data, and High-End, a wolf-Navi with a third eye on her forehead as a result of her Killer Eye virus data.

More surprising is that Echo, of all Virus Navis, comes forward first. He steps around Mythic and looks at ProtoMan, as if checking that he's okay, and then looks up at Arcadia.

[can I try too] Echo asks.

Arcadia blinks. "I'm not saying no, but . . . you're sure about this? You wanna try?"

Echo nods. [used to battle before] he signs. It's clear what 'before' means - before he got infected with his virus data. [don't anymore but want to try again can I]

"Of course," Arcadia says, and he leans down to offer the Battle Card to him.

Echo stretches up and allows Arcadia to tap the Card against his head, and like Mythic, he's turned into energy and captured by the Card. He's registered in the virus select screen as the Screaming Virus, and Arcadia lets him out of the Card a moment later.

More of the Virus Navis aren't so nervous anymore and appear far more eager about this now that it's fully clear that being captured won't hurt them. ProtoMan's honestly surprised - he had thought that some would be curious, but he didn't expect this kind of reaction, because none of the Village Navis have shown any interest in going outside the Village.

But maybe that's just because they didn't have a reason to go outside. Now they do - or at least the Virus Navis do. It probably helps that they have guaranteed reassurance that they won't be turned away from the tournament for being Virus Navis.

Temper and High-End bound straight to the front and almost knock poor Arcadia over in their eagerness to be captured. There was never any minimum limit on how many viruses - or Virus Navis, in this case - could be entered into a Virus Battle tournament, though common sense says that two would be the absolute minimum for viruses, and one would be the absolute minimum for Virus Navis. With five including him, they have more than enough.

And then he's surprised again when Crescendo comes forward, Thirteen clutching his hand and carefully stepping after him.

"We'd like to be captured as well," Crescendo says.

"Er . . ." Arcadia looks at him, then at Thirteen, and then glances at ProtoMan uncertainly.

"Neither of us can fight, that's true," Crescendo admits, seeing the look. "I'm the furthest thing from a battle-Navi there is, and Thirteen wouldn't be able to fight even if she had battle data. But we want to come and watch, if that's okay."

"If we get catched by that Card thingy, we can come cheer our friends on!" Thirteen adds eagerly. "Please?"

"Daydream did say we don't have to use all the viruses in the Card during the tournament," ProtoMan muses. "I guess it should be okay?" He shrugs at Arcadia.

"Well . . . I suppose that's true," Arcadia says, nodding slowly. "Alright then. Come here, I'll capture you both."

The Battle Card registers Crescendo as the Curse Virus, and Thirteen as the Blinder Virus. Now ProtoMan's starting to wonder what all the other Virus Navis would be registered as - no two Virus Navis have the same virus data, even if they were infected by the same type of virus. How each virus affects them differs so widely that it seems almost random.

Once Crescendo and Thirteen have been captured, Arcadia decides that they have enough fighting Navis to go through the tournament. They still have a couple of hours left before they're gonna get teleported back to the stadium, and they haven't quite explained the rules of the Virus Battle tournament as a whole.

ProtoMan leaves Arcadia explaining the rules to the other four Virus Navis taking part. He heads off with Crescendo and Thirteen, because he wants to catch up with them - it hasn't been forever since he last saw them, but it certainly feels like it. A lot of shit's happened between then and now.

"I didn't know you could remove your helmet," Crescendo comments curiously. "I almost didn't recognise you."

"That seems to be a common problem with my friends," ProtoMan replies, remembering how Glide somehow didn't know who he was until MegaMan told him.

And remembering Glide's inability to recognise him also makes him remember that he's probably lost all of his friends aside from those he's made in the Secret Village because he cannibalised a Zoanoroid in front of them, and his mood drops almost immediately.

"What's wrong?" Thirteen pauses in her examination of his face to ask the question. Her hands are on his cheeks, so she could probably feel his face falling.

"Ah- n-nothing," ProtoMan says, forcing himself to smile. It feels fake and probably looks fake, and he doesn't fool Thirteen at all. She may be blind, but she can feel expressions as well as Arcadia can sense emotions.

"It's not nothing," Thirteen says firmly, squishing his cheeks and puffing her own out indignantly. "You're sad! You're never sad 'cus of nothing. What's the matter?"

Crescendo chuckles, though his expression is worried as he looks at ProtoMan. "I think you'd better answer her, or she'll just keep asking."

"O-hay," ProtoMan mumbles through his squished cheeks. Thirteen takes her hands off his face and places them on his shoulders so she doesn't topple over while he's holding her, but he wouldn't let her fall anyway. "Peh . . . for a child-Navi, you've got a good grip . . ."

"Don't avoid the question," Thirteen scolds him.

ProtoMan lets out a nervous laugh. "Alright, alright . . . um . . ." How is he supposed to say this? If it were just Crescendo, he'd be able to blurt it out without worrying. But it's also Thirteen, and even if she's trying to be more 'mature', there's just some things he'd rather not tell her about.

Especially something like this. He's still not ashamed of actually eating Zoano NumberMan - but he's ashamed that he did it in front of his friends, and he's worried that they're not his friends anymore. Who'd want a cannibal for a friend? They're probably scared he'll eat them at some point. It's a valid concern, even if he'd never do it.

"Don't tell me you ate someone," Crescendo says jokingly, evidently trying to project some humour into the situation.

Except all ProtoMan can do is wince, and Crescendo stops, blinking.

"Wait . . . did you eat someone?" he asks.

" . . . Yeah," ProtoMan mumbles faintly.

He expects Crescendo and Thirteen to be horrified, to demand to know why he ate someone. He expects them to be disgusted, and he expects them to immediately abandon him, because being a crazy Virus Navi is one thing, but a cannibal is something else entirely. Maybe they'll say something like 'you're a good friend but we can't be around you anymore because you might eat us, too'.

So he's surprised when they don't. Instead of doing any of that, instead of just leaving him as soon as he admits that he did eat another NetNavi - well, Zoanoroid, but same difference - they just seem . . . well, they're surprised, but they're not horrified or disgusted or anything.

"Oh," Crescendo says. "Well, you certainly have the teeth for it . . ."

"He does?" Thirteen blinks and reaches out, feeling around for ProtoMan's mouth.

He's a little nervous about letting her touch his teeth, but she's not scared or anything. When she feels how sharp his teeth are, her expression lights up like a Christmas tree.

"That's so cool!" Thirteen exclaims eagerly. She takes her fingers out of his mouth and wipes her hand on her dress-armour, then puts her hand back onto ProtoMan's shoulder to steady herself. "But how come you ate a NetNavi? Were they being mean?"

ProtoMan blinks. "Uh . . . well . . . kinda . . . ?"

"Kinda?" Crescendo repeats, frowning. "What do you mean?"

It takes a few minutes to explain the newest mess they've gotten into. The fact that Crescendo and Thirteen know nothing about the Zoanoroids or Beyondard itself - or, well, the Beyondard that the Zoanoroids come from - isn't unusual, because the Secret Village is isolated and they don't communicate with the outside world.

He has to tell them about Trill, too, because he's from that Beyondard as well. They take it surprisingly well - Thirteen even seems pretty interested in meeting Trill, even when ProtoMan tells her about the collecting incident. Crescendo seems more interested in the fact that there are counterparts for a lot of this reality's NetNavis in Beyondard.

"I wonder if there's a Beyondard version of the Secret Village," he muses. "And if there is, what's it like?"

"Judging by how things have gone so far, the Village Navis in Beyondard are probably evil," ProtoMan says.

"Don't be such a grumpy-cat!" Thirteen tells him, poking his cheek. "Just 'cus most of the Navis you've met from there so far have been nasty doesn't mean all of them are nasty."

"Good point," ProtoMan admits. And she really isn't wrong - after all, Trill's not evil, is he? And neither is that Iris Navi, even if she keeps trying to kidnap Trill.

"So, the NetNavi you ate was one of those Zoanoroids?" Crescendo asks.

"Y-yeah," ProtoMan sighs. "He . . . infiltrated our group. Mimic said he was trying to get information about MegaMan and the Beast Out stuff - the memories I got from him confirmed that. And he was trying to get info on me, too, 'cus I can turn into the Poltergeist."

"Sounds like he deserved it, then," Crescendo says.

"Well . . . yeah, but . . ." ProtoMan shrinks in on himself. "My friends watched me eat him. I don't . . . I don't think they wanna be my friends anymore, though. I really scared 'em."

"I'm not sure what the problem is." Crescendo frowns in confusion. "Cannibalism isn't exactly a new concept, even for NetNavis."

"Yeah, and your operator told you to do a thing, so you did it!" Thirteen adds. "I don't see the big deal. Why would your friends not wanna be your friends anymore?"

"Well, I mean . . . I ate someone . . ." He's getting increasingly confused. Even MegaMan didn't react like this - he was disgusted, even if he isn't avoiding ProtoMan, but Crescendo and Thirteen are acting like eating a NetNavi is perfectly normal.

"So?" Crescendo shrugs. "BoatMan eats NetNavis, too. Granted, they're only from Deep City, so they're most likely scum and the like, but still."

ProtoMan blinks. "BoatMan eats NetNavis?"

"You didn't know?" Crescendo asks, and ProtoMan shakes his head. "Oh. I thought Serenade would have told you, or someone else . . . ah, it doesn't matter. Yes, he eats other NetNavis - he kind of has to in order to survive, really."

"What?"

"You know how he's always wearing that cloak?"

ProtoMan nods again. He's only seen BoatMan once, but he's not the kind of NetNavi you forget - he wears a cloak of shadows, and the only thing you ever see of him are his hands, which are oddly skeletal even for a NetNavi. He's not the only skeleton-Navi there is - there's SkullMan, who's literally nothing but bones, and ProtoMan had assumed that BoatMan was the same type of NetNavi.

"It helps to slow down his energy loss," Crescendo explains. "He's a Virus Navi, too - his virus data doesn't have a name, but it makes his body waste away, and it saps his energy to the point where he's almost constantly in danger of being deleted, just like Mythic and her Frostbite virus. When Serenade found him, they gave him enough energy to last long enough so they could make that cloak for him, but the only thing that can actually replenish the energy he's constantly losing is consuming other NetNavis."

"Oh," ProtoMan says softly, blinking. "I didn't . . . I never knew . . ."

"He doesn't exactly advertise it," Crescendo admits. "He doesn't mind talking about it, but he won't unless you ask him directly - or someone else tells you. Sometimes he goes out to Deep City to hunt for random Navis to consume, and sometimes he'll ask Serenade for an energy boost."

"But . . ." ProtoMan looks down and away. "BoatMan eats other NetNavis so he can survive. I just ate Zoano Number because I wanted to. I didn't need to, or I don't think I did, but I still ate him anyway. And now my friends don't wanna be my friends anymore . . ."

"Then your friends are mean," Thirteen declares.

"Maybe it's not as black and white as that," Crescendo says, "but she has a point. Your friends are perfectly fine with you turning into a demon every so often - what's wrong with seeing you eat another NetNavi? And one who was an enemy, at that."

"B-but . . ."

Crescendo shakes his head, smiling, and reaches out to cup ProtoMan's cheek with his hand. "Look, whatever your friends in the outside world think, we're never going to judge you for anything. That's not what we do here, remember?"

ProtoMan is suddenly extremely grateful that Thirteen can't see, because he can feel his face heating up, and the only person who sees it is Crescendo, whose smile softens. That does nothing to stop ProtoMan's face from heating up - in fact, it just makes it worse, and he has to look away because if he looks at Crescendo for any longer, he's pretty sure he's gonna burst into flames.

"Mind if I change the subject?" Crescendo asks, and his voice is as soft as his smile, which makes ProtoMan's blush - because that's what this is, no denying it - even worse.

"You're gonna do it anyway," he mumbles.

Crescendo chuckles. "True. I just wanted to point out . . ." He leans in close, and poor Thirteen looks extremely confused about this. "You have very pretty eyes."

"Thanks," ProtoMan squeaks. "Um . . . I . . . th-thank you."

" . . . What's going on?" Thirteen asks, after a moment or two.

"Just giving him a compliment," Crescendo replies, stepping back and taking his hand off ProtoMan's cheek.

For some reason, the sudden loss of contact disappoints him, even if he was almost about to burst into flames from the sheer . . . is embarrassment the right word to use? It felt like embarrassment, it still feels like embarrassment, but it was different, somehow.

He has to admit, he kinda liked it, whatever it was.


Bass is bored to fucking hell, and the only form of entertainment he's had for three entire hours is Mimic trying to explain the concept of speedrunning a game to Chaud, which went just about as well as expected - in other words, she fucked up, got mixed up with her words, and ended up confusing Chaud more than anything else.

Other than that, the only thing he's done is just stand here doing fuck all. None of the teams can come back until the capture time is up - not even his own team, even though they're nowhere near the fucking Virus Wilds - so he's just . . . here. Doing nothing. Like an idiot.

He doesn't have the super-hearing of ProtoMan or the better-than-average hearing of Arcadia, so he doesn't hear exactly what the audience is muttering, but he bets it's about him and they're probably wondering what the hell he's still doing here and where his damn teammates are.

Three hours pass by in a crawl, so he's extremely relieved when the other participants start teleporting in. It looks like the tournament advisors - or whatever the fuck they are - are bringing in each team one-by-one just to avoid any complications with mass-teleporting. Bass doesn't know shit about mass-teleporting aside from what Chaud's said about it, and based on that alone, mass-teleporting is generally considered a Bad Idea. Transporting that much sentient data at once is just asking for something to go wrong, Chaud said.

ProtoMan and Arcadia are teleported in from that Village place, too. They're not the last ones to be teleported in, but Bass has to admit he's fucking relieved to see them - it's amazing how much he realises he's come to depend on their insanity to entertain him when he suddenly finds himself on his own aside from their humans.

"Hi, Bass." Arcadia greets him cheerfully enough, so Bass assumes they were successful in getting some Virus Navis to take part.

Doesn't hurt to ask, though. Just to be sure.

"Well?" Bass demands. "Do we have a team or not?"

Arcadia gives him an amused look, not at all put off. "We've got five Virus Navis to fight, including ProtoMan. And a couple of extras, they wanted to cheer on their friends."

"Really?" Bass frowns.

"Mm-hm," ProtoMan murmurs. For some reason, there's a faint red tinge on his cheeks, and he looks like he's spacing out.

"The hell's up with you?" Bass asks.

"What?" ProtoMan blinks and stares at him blankly.

Arcadia has a little smug smirk on his face as he gives his brother a sideways look. "He got a compliment earlier, and he hasn't been able to stop thinking about it."

"That is not true!" ProtoMan protests, immediately snapping out of his spacing out to glare at Arcadia.

"Really?" Arcadia's smirk gets a bit wider and a lot more smug. "Then how come every time I touch you, the only thing I see is the memory of Crescendo telling you that you have pretty eyes?"

"Sh-shut up!" ProtoMan hisses. The faint red tinge on his cheeks is darkening now.

Luckily for ProtoMan, any further discussion of . . . whoever the fuck Crescendo is is cut off when Daydream appears on the platform above the arena wall. It looks like all the other participants have been teleported in while Arcadia was teasing ProtoMan - everyone's here and ready to go, now.

"Welcome back, participants!" Daydream calls. He seems to get more theatrical when he's up on that platform. "I hope you all have captured the viruses you want to use!" He pauses. "Or Virus Navis. Either way, I hope everyone has their teams ready for battle, because now the Virus Battle tournament begins in earnest!"

The crowd roars its approval, and some of the participants throw their hands into the air and cheer.

"Remember the rules!" Daydream tells everyone. "For both viruses and Virus Navis! Two viruses per battle, one Virus Navi per battle! And so, without further ado . . . let the Virus Battles begin!"

And begin they do.

The tournament is pretty simple - they get matched up with another team, to be pitted against each other in battle. Whoever wins the battle goes on to the next round, and the losing team is eliminated from the tournament. It goes on like that until there are only two teams left, and whoever wins the final battle wins the entire tournament. There's a prize for winning, but apparently it's random every time, though it's always something pretty good; last time, it was money, and the time before that, the data for a powerful and rare battle chip. The participants - and the audience - are excited to find out what the prize will be this time.

The first battle in the entire tournament is between two teams who participated in the previous tournament. Chaud's thoughtful muttering gives Bass some insight as to why it might have come up like that - the match-ups are supposed to be random, but most of the new participants probably won't know exactly how to fight in a Virus Battle, so by matching up two teams who took part in a previous tournament, the advisors are giving the newcomers a chance to see what the Virus Battles are all about.

Participants have their own area in the stands to watch the battles from, and lucky for Team Hikari that they do, because Arcadia lets out all of the Virus Navis in the Battle Card - and it turns out one of them is the biggest fucking dragon-Navi anyone's ever seen. Definitely the first dragon-Navi Bass has ever seen. If he ever sees another one, he's gonna be disappointed if it's not any bigger or more impressive than this one.

The two Virus Navis who came to cheer on their friends are a tall black-armoured human-Navi wearing grey gloves for whatever reason and a small female child-Navi with pale hair, pale eyes, and red dress-armour. They introduce themselves as Crescendo - so that's who Arcadia was teasing ProtoMan about, then - and Thirteen.

Bass thinks that Thirteen kinda looks a bit like ProtoMan's little sister if he were a full human-Navi, but he keeps that thought to himself - as much as he can with Arcadia around, anyway.

"So you're Bass, then," Crescendo says, giving him a friendly nod. "It's good to finally meet you. On behalf of everyone here and those in the Village, I'd like to thank you for what you've done for ProtoMan."

The other Virus Navis nod their agreement - Thirteen, some humanoid rabbit-Navi, a wolf-Navi with a third eye, and the only full human-Navi on the battle team. The huge dragon-Navi just makes a sound like thunder rumbling in the distance, which is apparently her version of agreement, and none of the Virus Navis or Arcadia bat a fucking eyelid at the sound.

"What I've done?" Bass repeats, frowning.

Arcadia leans close. "We told them about Proxy," he explains in a murmur.

" . . . Oh," Bass says. And that means these Virus Navis also know that he handed ProtoMan the means to delete the bastard.

Huh. These guys must really care about ProtoMan if they're thanking him for that. The dumbasses he calls friends thanked him, too, even if a few of them said it was a stupid and reckless thing to do. He already knew these Village Navis are pretty close to ProtoMan and Arcadia, so he's honestly glad to see it for himself.

The Virus Navis introduce themselves quickly before the first Virus Battle begins - Crescendo and Thirteen have already introduced themselves, and the humanoid rabbit-Navi turns out to be called Temper, even though he seems pretty calm, and the wolf-Navi with the third eye is called High-End. The human-Navi introduces himself in sign language and says - signs, whatever - that he's called Echo, and the huge dragon-Navi calls herself Mythic. Bass almost mishears that as Mythril because she seems incapable of speaking without half-growling her words.

They watch the first Virus Battle just to get an idea of what's expected in the tournament as a whole, even if they're entering Virus Navis instead of actual viruses. The battle style is pretty simple, if unorthodox - the entire arena floor is the battlefield, and the two battling Navi teams stand on raised platforms on opposite sides of the arena. They send out their two chosen viruses for the current battle and give them orders. The two opposing duos of viruses fight until both viruses on one side have been knocked out, and the team with one or both of their viruses still conscious move on to the next round.

Mimic compares it to a Pokemon battle, and no one contradicts her. She's right anyway - it's literally exactly like that, but with viruses instead of Pokemon. That kinda makes it a bit easier to understand the rules for these battles, which is more than can be said for some of the other newcomers to the tournament, who're still scrambling to figure out the difference between battling in the arena themselves and sending out viruses to do it for them. They're too used to fighting on their own.

After three Virus Battles, it's finally Team Hikari's turn. They registered as a trio, but since ProtoMan's now officially gonna be one of their Virus Navis fighting in the arena, they're down to a duo. Bass and Arcadia discuss it quickly and decide to take it in turns going down onto the arena floor, since they'll only be 'commanding' one Virus Navi in each battle, and having two 'operators' seems a bit stupid for that.

Arcadia takes the first battle, since these Virus Navis are more used to him than they are Bass. He leaves all the Virus Navis aside from the one he chooses to fight with in the participants' area - and Bass is kinda surprised that he doesn't choose ProtoMan to go first. Maybe he wants to keep ProtoMan back as their 'ace', or whatever the fuck the human phrase is.

Instead, he sends out Temper, the rabbit-Navi. Temper's name contradicted his personality when he was introducing himself, but apparently on the battlefield, it describes him perfectly - he's grinning, hopping from one foot to the other, kicking out in the direction of his opponents every other hop, eagerly waiting for Daydream to declare 'battle start'.

And when that eventually happens, Temper doesn't even wait for Arcadia to tell him to go. He crouches, tenses for a split second, and then jumps so high into the air that Bass has to crane his neck to see him. The two viruses on the opposing team - a Mettaur and a Quaker - move forward at the orders of their NetNavi team, maybe hoping to dodge whatever the hell Temper's gonna throw at them.

It doesn't even matter. Temper jumped so high that he was able to twist in mid-air and his feet slam into the ceiling of the underground stadium, and he kicks off the ceiling with the strength and speed of a fucking rocket, too quick for the two viruses to dodge, and he lands right on top of them. The impact of his attack sends a cloud of dust and pixels shooting up, and then he shouts a quick 'hah!' and two sharp sounds of impact come from the cloud, and a moment later the two viruses come flying out and bounce to a stop a few feet away from the platform their team's on.

Temper himself bounds out of the dust cloud a split second later, racing across the arena floor on all fours, and when he reaches the two viruses, he flips over and does a somersault and then slams his feet onto the viruses in a powerful double stomp.

And as quick as that, they win their first Virus Battle. The crowd fucking loses it - they might not have even known what the hell a Virus Navi was before today, but clearly they're fine with the concept now, something that's definitely helped by Temper's performance.

Bass takes the next Virus Battle, and he decides that he wants to see what Echo's capable of. In his experience, it's always the quiet ones who can dish out the most damage - and he turns out to be right.

The reason why Echo doesn't talk is because he can't control the volume of his voice. A faint hiss from him is a supersonic scream that sends his virus opponents slamming into the opposite wall, and an actual scream makes them shatter into pixels and return to their team's Battle Card in seconds. And also does a good chunk of damage to the arena itself, but it gets restored between battles anyway, and the stands and the platforms the teams stand on are protected by the most powerful force fields the tournament advisors could create.

For their next battle, Arcadia uses High-End, and it turns out that third eye of hers is from being infected with Killer Eye virus data - it's used exactly like how Killer Eye viruses use their own eye, she tracks her target with her third eye and then unleashes a powerful beam that pierces straight through its fucking body. She'd use more than just that, but the rules forbid her from using her original abilities, which is kind of a shame since Bass was looking forward to seeing how an actual wolf-Navi fights.

Bass is up next again, and by this point, the crowd have apparently decided that Team Hikari and its crazy team of Virus Navis is their favourite to win. They're practically screaming when he steps up onto the platform.

And then there's a hush in the stands when he sends out Mythic, who rolls her neck and lets out a hissed breath of cold air. Even from here, and protected by the force field, Bass can feel her cold-effect, and he can easily see the ice starting to form on the ground where she's standing. The Frostbite virus she's infected with apparently makes her cold to the point where she'd be in constant danger of deletion if not for that red gem embedded in her chest, but it also has the added effect of giving her some of the most powerful ice attacks anyone's ever seen.

Bass remembers fighting that FreezeMan NetNavi back when he didn't have any memories or even a fucking name, and he's pretty sure Mythic would give that fucker a run for his money. More, actually, since she's fucking massive and she'd probably just eat FreezeMan anyway.

Their opponents this time are an Old Stove and a Dark Mech. Pretty powerful viruses, and one of them Heat-element, too. The other team looks nervous to be facing such a massive Virus Navi who exudes cold with a visible aura, but they still seem convinced that their viruses have a chance.

Mythic ends the fight in two seconds by breathing on them. Lucky for the viruses that they don't get deleted in these fights - as soon as the Old Stove and Dark Mech have been frozen solid, they automatically return to their team's Battle Card.

That fight was the semi-finals, and it's Arcadia's turn next. Given how well they've been doing so far, Bass thinks they've got this win in the bag - but he's not stupid, so he doesn't say it out loud in case he jinxes his own team, and he's not gonna underestimate their opponents.

The other team is a pretty tough one. They're among some of the few teams that have been participating since these Virus Battles started, so the virus team they've put together is pretty experienced with fighting in these things, and the viruses themselves are some of the more powerful and rarer ones. Their ace is a fucking Elemental Dragon of all things, and they add in a Nightmare virus to complete the hellish duo.

Unfortunately for them, Arcadia also chose to use Team Hikari's own ace.

ProtoMan put on his helmet for this fight, so as soon as he appears on the arena floor, he's recognised immediately, and the crowd fucking loses it. There's shocked gasps, words screamed that no one understands, and in general there's just massive pandemonium in the stands - both with the watching audience and the participants who stuck around to watch the final battle.

Absolutely fucking nobody expected ProtoMan to be one of the Virus Navis taking part - it seems that no one actually saw him being captured by the Battle Card, even if that's what made Daydream and the other advisors adjust the rules to include Virus Navis. In fact, nobody even knew ProtoMan was a Virus Navi to start off with, and there's more than one NetNavi in the crowd who's demanding to know when the fuck that happened.

Bass half-expects the cat to lose his nerve and bail out immediately. He's got hundreds, if not thousands, of NetNavis screaming at him - or just about him, if not actually at him - and he can hardly deal with more than five people looking at him, forget this confusing mess.

Except ProtoMan doesn't bail out. He doesn't even flinch at the noise, though it be must be fucking hell on his hearing. The only thing he does is crouch down to all fours, shadow-tail flicking from side-to-side behind him, and he focuses on his two virus opponents. His hair's not even bristling, it's just as messy as it usually is, and he's perfectly calm. Maybe the heat of the upcoming battle is helping him with that.

It's nothing short of impressive, and Bass has no problems with admitting that.

The two Navis on the opposing team are exchanging glances, now looking decidedly worried about their chances in this fight, and even their viruses seem nervous. Everyone and their fucking human knows about ProtoMan's sheer level of power, and his love of NetBattling is almost legendary. Even Bass knows that, for all that he doesn't pay much attention to this kinda shit.

ProtoMan also happens to be the perfect counter to a Nightmare virus. The only thing that can hurt those fuckers are Swords - and his claws, which are a natural part of his cat virus data, are close enough to count. The only abilities he can't use in this Virus Battle are his shadow-abilities, which is why he's got his shadows as a shadow-tail rather than tendrils or as Dark Shadow.

Daydream has to shout for quiet for a full minute before he can actually make himself heard, the audience is that worked up. When he finally can make himself heard, the noise is still ridiculous, and it's only through the use of his microphone program that he's able to announce 'battle start' for the final Virus Battle.

And ProtoMan fucking dominates the entire battle.

He's across the arena in less time than it takes to blink, and his opponents are too shocked to react. He takes out the Nightmare virus with a slash of his claws, sending it straight back into its team's Battle Card, and then takes on the Elemental Dragon as easily as any seasoned NetBattler can manage. Which is very easily.

It's fast, it's brutal, and the only reason ProtoMan's battle lasts longer than Mythic's is because he doesn't have any ranged attacks with his cat virus data. He tears apart the Elemental Dragon, ignoring its attempted attacks - and its attempted defence, too, because it shrinks itself into its pot, which would usually make it impervious to all attacks, except ProtoMan just reaches into one of the holes and drags the Dragon back out so he can sink his teeth into its neck.

That does it for the Elemental Dragon, and the battle is over as soon as it returns back to its team's Battle Card. ProtoMan wins the battle, and Team Hikari wins the entire tournament.


"And you saw no evidence of illegal activity whatsoever?" Famous asks.

"Nothing we could see," Chaud replies. "The only reason the tournament was never registered as a NetBattling tournament is because it's not a NetBattling tournament at all."

"Virus Battles, huh . . . ?" Famous says thoughtfully, leaning back in his chair. "I wonder who came up with that idea? I'd sure like to meet whoever created those Battle Cards. It's a genius invention."

"That was never really explained, but Daydream seems to be the spokesperson of the tournament, so maybe you can ask him," Chaud suggests.

"Maybe," Famous muses. He straightens up and gives Chaud, Mimic, and the trio of Navis a smile. "Well done, all of you. A fine start to your return as full Net Savers! Incidentally, I have to ask - you said you won the tournament, so what was the prize?"

"Five hundred bug frags," Mimic tells him, and Famous's mouth drops open.

"Bass and Mythic nearly got into a fight over them," Chaud adds, with a glance at Bass, who stares right back with no signs of apology. "Crescendo had to convince them to split the bug frags between them, otherwise they probably would've destroyed the stadium."

"I can imagine," Famous says faintly. He clears his throat, evidently trying to get his composure back. "And how did the crowd take to the idea of Virus Navis?"

"Once they got over the shock?" Chaud exchanges a glance with Mimic. "They seemed pretty fine with it. I didn't hear anyone shouting 'freak' or 'half-breed', at least."

"They fucking loved us!" ProtoMan exclaims, throwing his arms into the air happily.

"And Crescendo and the other Virus Navis?" Famous asks, with an amused smile at ProtoMan's enthusiasm. "What did they think of the Virus Battles?"

"They loved it, too," Chaud says, unable to suppress a grin. "It was the first time any of them have been out of the Village for a long time - I don't think any of the Village Navis actually leave once they arrive, although . . . they do have good reason not to, I guess."

"But when we took Crescendo and the others back, they were practically singing praises for the Virus Battle tournament to anyone who would listen," Arcadia speaks up. "Apparently some of the other Virus Navis want to give Virus Battles a go - they were trying to figure out how to set up their own teams to take part in the next tournament when we left, and Serenade's making more teleport tokens for those who want to take part."

"Well, it seems like you got more out of this mission than I could have expected," Famous comments, smiling again. "I sent you there to find out if there was any illegal activity, and not only did you complete the mission, you also managed to give the audience a positive introduction to an entirely new species of NetNavis. Once again, well done, all of you. Very well done."

"That wasn't the only thing that happened today, actually." Arcadia's tone is suddenly very sly, which sounds kind of odd coming from him.

"Arcadia," ProtoMan growls warningly.

"ProtoMan-" Arcadia begins.

"Don't."

"-has-"

"Stop it."

"-a crush-"

"I said stop!"

"-on Cres-"

ProtoMan slams into him and sends both of them tumbling to the ground - or in this case the surface of the table their Navi-holograms are standing on - and they both start struggling with each other. It's the single most undignified fight that Chaud has ever witnessed, and he has to cover his mouth with his hand to hide his grin. Mimic has no such problems and just laughs at their ridiculous Navis.

Arcadia manages to get away from ProtoMan long enough to blurt out, "ProtoMan's got a crush on Crescendo!"

"That's it, I'm pulling your fucking feathers out!" ProtoMan roars, and Arcadia lets out a noise that's remarkably similar to the cry of a startled chicken and promptly takes off flying, with ProtoMan darting after him, hissing indignantly.

Bass blinks. "Is that why you were teasing him earlier? Does that mean the cat's got a boyfriend, now?"

ProtoMan screeches to a stop and whips around to glare at him, cheeks aflame. "I do not have a boyfriend!" he snaps.

Arcadia loops figures of eight in the air above him. "ProtoMan's got a boyfriend, ProtoMan's got a boyfriend!" he half-chants, half-sings.

"Shut up!" ProtoMan yelps, sending a whip of shadows up at him, and Arcadia giggles and dances out of the way easily.

"Oh!" Mimic suddenly exclaims, and Chaud feels her surprised realisation along with seeing her excited grin. "Is this like Raika and Pride?"

"No it fucking isn't!" ProtoMan cries, turning his glare on her, this time. "It's nothing like Raika and Pride at all!"

"We might have to adjust the song a bit," Chaud muses. "ProtoMan and Crescendo's names are a bit too long to properly fit with the rhythm . . ."

ProtoMan looks at him with such comical horror that Chaud nearly loses it and breaks down laughing right there and then.

" . . . I guess the best ones are always crazy, after all," Famous remarks, watching all this with the expression of someone who's looking at something so insane he can't figure out how to react.