Chaud turns one of the drones over in his hands. Lan can tell he's impressed - he's muttering to himself, words spoken so rapidly that only one or two can be understood, eyes darting to every detail of the drone like he's trying to commit it all to memory. It's quite a thing to witness.
MegaMan, who helped Lan to code the two drones, isn't really paying attention. He and Trill are sitting on the table near the other drone, and MegaMan's got his legs crossed, heart container nestled in the gap, core pulsing away merrily. Through MegaMan, it's talking to Trill, and judging by Trill's giggling, it's either making a joke or telling a funny story.
But Lan's more interested in Chaud's opinion of his drones.
"Where'd you get the materials for these?" Chaud asks, looking up from his inspection of the drone.
"Dad gave 'em to me, actually," Lan replies. He picks up the second drone and turns it over, showing Chaud the slightly battered underside. "SciLab had a few left over from some failed experiment, and I asked if I could take a couple to see if I could make something outta them. MegaMan helped me code the AIs for them."
Chaud hums curiously and takes out the touch-pen from his PET. He taps the tip of it to the jack-in port Lan installed onto the drone's head and a holographic screen appears above it, showing the coding for it. Chaud scrolls through it, looking even more impressed than before, and then he pauses when he comes to a specific line of coding.
"You coded them to not crash into each other with 'if going to crash - don't'?" he asks, giving Lan an incredulous smile.
"There's a meme with that," Mimic speaks up from where she's lying on her front on the other sofa, Ragdoll stretched out on her back, Switch held in her hands. Then she hisses out a curse. "Pissin' sky noodle, die already . . ."
"Maybe try not throwing a Skitty at the god of the sky," Chaud says absently, scrolling through the coding again.
"Skitty can learn Ice Beam," Mimic retorts.
"Does she have Ice Beam?" Lan asks curiously, momentarily distracted from his drones.
" . . . No," his sister admits. "But ProtoMan's controllin' her."
"And how's that going?"
"Very badly."
Lan snorts out a laugh as Mimic goes back to quietly cursing out her game - and occasionally ProtoMan, who's apparently made it his mission to be as unhelpful as possible for this run - and turns his attention back to his drones and Chaud's fascination with them.
Then he jumps when the living room door is violently kicked open, and Bass strides in with a wild grin.
"Hah!" he shouts, throwing his arms out and curling his hands into claws, where black energy crackles off his palms and between his fingers. "You're gonna regret letting me use this thing, pathetic humans! I've been biding my time for something like this! Now I can finally destroy this stupid world!"
Lan stares at him. Chaud hasn't even bothered to look up from the drone he's holding, though Arcadia - who's sitting cross-legged on Chaud's head - does look up and blink at Bass for a moment before going back to inspecting the coding with his operator.
"Shit!" Mimic snaps suddenly. "Rayquaza just killed me again!"
Bass scowls at the absolute lack of reaction his entrance got. "Can't any of you at least pretend to be scared?" he complains.
"Bass," Mom calls from the kitchen.
"Yeah?"
"Don't kick the doors open, please."
Bass lets out a quiet sigh, slumping. "'Kay," he mutters, trudging over to the sofa Mimic's on. He flops down in front of it with a petulant frown, not quite a pout but close enough, and crosses his arms.
Mimic takes one hand off her Switch and reaches over to give him a condescending pat on the head. "Is baby annoyed that no one got scared?" she coos mockingly.
Bass huffs and hunches his shoulders. "Yes," he retorts.
"Poor baby," Mimic giggles, going back to trying - and failing - to beat Rayquaza again.
"I'm too domesticated," Bass complains to anyone who'll listen. "That's why no one even gave a shi-"
"Bass," MegaMan says, breaking off from translating the core's words to give said Navi a flat look. "Don't swear."
"You let her swear!" Bass angrily gestures to Mimic, who doesn't even bother to look up this time.
"Mimic," MegaMan calls.
Mimic grunts.
"Don't swear."
Mimic grunts again.
Bass huffs out a noisy sigh and slumps against the sofa. Ragdoll slides off Mimic's back and crawls onto his lap, purring as loudly as ever, and Bass's expression - surprisingly enough - actually softens a little bit as he very carefully strokes Ragdoll's fur.
A few moments later, Lan looks up when he hears the front door opening, and he grins. Looks like Dad's back from SciLab, then - and that means he can show him the drones! Awesome, he's been waiting for a chance to show them to Dad since he and MegaMan finished the things.
Dad opens the other living room door - the one that leads to the front hallway rather than the one Bass just kicked open - with his lab coat already off and folded over his arm. "I'm home!" he calls to the room at large.
"Welcome home, dear!" Mom replies.
"Hi, Dad," Lan calls. Chaud glances up and offers a little smile before going back to the drone, and Mimic just offers a quick wave, too focused on her game to pay much attention right now.
"Oh, Bass, you're using the CopyBot today?" Dad asks, upon seeing Bass slumped against the sofa with Ragdoll in his lap.
"Yeah, I'm gonna use it to take over this dumb planet," Bass informs him.
"Let me know how that goes," Dad says, completely unfazed, much to Bass's exasperated indignation, and then he heads over to Mom and gives her a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Hey, Dad!" Lan calls, raising the drone he's holding into the air. "Check it out, I finished 'em!"
"Ah, excellent!" Dad grins over at him. "Remind me to take a proper look later, I want to see how well you did."
Lan beams at that.
"You finished early today, then?" Mom asks Dad.
"Sort of," Dad replies. He bundles his coat up onto the kitchen counter and folds it for Mom to wash later. "The transmission devices are ready to go, all that's left is to connect one to the cables on the ocean floor and then set the other in the deep sea."
"That sounds very exciting."
"It is, actually," Dad laughs. He leans against the counter while Mom bustles about. "We're taking the marine research ship out to sea tomorrow, and then using the submarine to set the devices. Hopefully with this we can get some proper readings."
Lan's only been half-listening to the conversation between his parents because he's still showing Chaud the drones, but when he hears 'submarine' and 'sea', his interest is immediately captured.
"You mean the Blue Abyss?" he asks, perking up. "SciLab's deep-sea research submarine?"
"You sound like someone givin' exposition," Mimic comments absently, and then she pauses and looks up. "Wait, what?"
"I should have known you'd be interested," Dad says, chuckling at Lan's excitement. "Yes, that's the one - it's able to withstand the pressure of the deep sea, so Famous and I will be using it to set the transmission devices."
"That's so cool!" Lan exclaims, bouncing to his feet. "Hey, Dad, will the submarine fit more than one person in? Can I come too?"
"It should be able to fit the driver and a passenger," Dad muses. "I don't see why not." He glances at Mom. "What do you think, Haruka?"
"I think I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow," Mom replies, and Dad laughs. "But you and the kids can have fun with that - make sure to take lots of pictures! Especially if you see any dolphins, I love those."
"Sure, Mom!" Lan agrees happily. He turns to his siblings eagerly, about to ask if they want to come along too, but then he pauses. "Ah . . . wait, you guys hate water . . ."
"Bad idea to go anyway," Mimic says, pushing herself up so she's sitting on the sofa rather than lying across it. She looks oddly troubled, and somehow Lan just knows it's not because of the idea of going near so much water.
"Why, what's wrong?" Lan asks, heart sinking. He kinda already knows before she even answers him.
"Zoanoroids're gonna attack the ship," Mimic tells them.
Dad's good-natured expression has shifted into a far more serious one upon hearing that. "Do you know why?"
Mimic nods to Trill, who's listening with a worried expression. "They wanted him in the anime. Figured out that he's the Synchroniser thanks to Zoano NumberMan."
"But obviously they don't know anything about Trill now, and if they do attack the ship, it'll be because MegaMan and ProtoMan are there," Chaud guesses, and Mimic nods to confirm that.
ProtoMan jumps out of Mimic's Switch sans helmet as usual. He's apparently decided he's only gonna wear it during battle, so that kinda makes it a battle helmet, Lan supposes. Which is pretty cool and also not the topic of conversation at the moment.
"But if Lan goes on the ship and Mimic and Chaud don't, then the Zoanoroids will still attack, right?" he asks. "Except they'll attack two different places - the ship, 'cus MegaMan's still on it, and wherever I am."
"Oh, dear," Mom says softly, putting a hand over her mouth. "You kids will be in danger no matter where you go . . ."
"We may be in danger," Chaud begins, "but there's no need to put anyone else in danger, too. Mimic?"
As if he asked an actual question rather than just saying her name, Mimic responds with a full answer. "Zoano QuickMan attacked first, when Dad an' Maylu were down in the water. Lan deleted him, but there was Zoano GateMan too, an' he was stoppin' the Blue Abyss from gettin' back to the surface, so MegaMan went into the network and tried to stop him. Didn't work, though, 'cus GateMan was blackmailin' him with Dad and Maylu's lives."
Mom lets out a horrified gasp, and Dad's expression hardens. Lan's horrified at the thought that his dad and best friend were in that much danger - and would still be in that much danger if not for Mimic telling them about this.
"GateMan said he'd let 'em go if Trill went with him," Mimic goes on, and MegaMan's eyes widen. He immediately pulls Trill toward him protectively, as if he's trying to keep Trill out of harm's way even though there's no danger right now, and poor Trill looks pretty scared. "An' Trill did, but y'know how these things go, GateMan started breakin' the network anyway and beat up MegaMan. Then MegaMan fused with Trill and started attackin' GateMan."
Lan winces at that. MegaMan's only just starting to get over the guilt from his last use of Beast Out - taking on that mission helped a little bit - so transforming again so soon after he almost destroyed Internet City would just make things worse.
"Didn't have any control, obviously, so he was kinda makin' things worse," Mimic says. "An' then Zoano SwallowMan showed up, an' Iris was there too, so-"
"She was?" Lan has to interrupt there. "Why?"
"'Cus'a Trill," his sister replies. "She goes where he goes, I think. Anyway, SwallowMan noticed that she had some kinda connection with Trill an' started goin' after her. Lan was runnin' all around the ship tryin' to keep her safe, and then Chaud showed up to fight SwallowMan."
"Good to know I wasn't just sitting around on the mainland doing nothing," Chaud comments.
"Yeah, y'managed to delete him, too," Mimic says, nodding. "Then MegaMan deleted GateMan, Iris separated him an' Trill and fu-"
"Mimic," MegaMan interrupts.
"-an' then she left," Mimic quickly corrects herself. "Famous got Dad and Maylu back up to the surface, an' that was it, mostly."
"Hm," Dad says thoughtfully, hand on his chin. "Three Zoanoroids just to capture one child-Navi?"
"QuickMan was Gregar, GateMan and SwallowMan were Falzar," Mimic supplies.
Dad nods to her. "Thank you. But even if one of them was on the other side, that's still somewhat excessive. If Gregar and Falzar sent an attack like that just to get Trill, they might send even more to go after both MegaMan and ProtoMan. You've managed to delete every single Zoanoroid we've come across so far, so I doubt they're going to treat this lightly."
"'Delete' isn't the word I'd use for what happened with Zoano NumberMan," MegaMan points out dryly, and ProtoMan kinda wilts and his hologram flickers a little bit, which makes MegaMan wince. "Sorry."
"N-no, it's okay," ProtoMan half-mumbles. "I guess I kinda deserved that."
MegaMan just looks very concerned at that, and Arcadia is frowning over at his brother, also concerned.
"What happened with Zoano NumberMan?" Mom speaks up, because she's not oblivious even if she sometimes acts like it. She's got a razor-sharp instinct to pretty much home in on whenever one of her kids - or their Navis - are upset for any reason.
Dad takes her aside to explain quietly, and Lan turns to his siblings with a worried frown.
"So what're we gonna do about this?" he asks. "I don't wanna put Dad or Maylu's lives in danger." What's even worse is that he was actually considering asking Maylu if she wanted to come along on the deep-sea trip if Mimic and Chaud didn't want to go. If he had asked her, and if Mimic hadn't told them about all this, he would've been putting her in danger.
"We at least know when the Zoanoroids will be coming, even if we're not sure how many are going to show up," Arcadia says. "It might be a good idea to try and take the battle as far away from other people as we can."
Lan perks up. "We could still go on some kinda trip!" he exclaims, grinning. "Do you guys know Okuden?"
"Big mountain-forest-place somewhere nearby, right?" Mimic raises her hand, palm flat, like she's trying to mime the size of a mountain. "There was a thing with a dam and the other QuickMan and that . . . that Dan dude, I remember."
"Dave, actually," Lan corrects her, not at all surprised that she knew about that particular incident. That happened before they knew about Mimic's knowledge of the future, even before Mimic and Chaud were separated, but evidently it was an episode in her anime. "I think Sal said his nickname was Speedy Dave, which makes sense since he was QuickMan's operator, I guess."
"Isn't that a hiking trail, though?" Chaud frowns. "We'd be going up there to avoid putting other people in danger, but if there are hikers there tomorrow, we'd end up putting people in danger anyway."
"We could try going off the path," Lan suggests, shrugging. "Not many people who go up there actually do that, so if we stick to where people aren't likely to be even if they're hiking, we should be able to keep the battle outta the way."
"Sounds reasonable enough," Chaud agrees with a nod. "And honestly? Going to a forest sounds far more appealing than going out to the ocean."
Lan can't help but laugh at that. "To you guys, yeah! When was the last time either of you willingly took a bath?"
"Before Cross Fusion," Mimic deadpans.
The next day, they're all tense with anticipation. Mimic said the Zoanoroids only attacked them when they were way out to sea, but she's been wrong before, and often to disastrous results - the most recent example MegaMan can think of is Zoano ProtoMan, which wasn't Mimic's fault because she had no idea there even was a Zoano ProtoMan in the first place.
So they're all tense and nervous and expecting an attack at any moment, though not so much that they forget about Dad going out to sea. Lan called Maylu last night and asked her if she wanted to go, and obviously she said yes, so MegaMan's not about to let an opportunity go to waste.
"Be good with Roll and Maylu," he says, bending down so he's eye-level with Trill. "And have fun, okay?"
"B-but . . ." Trill looks upset, but not so upset that he's about to start crying. "But you and the others're gonna be in danger . . ."
"I know," MegaMan says softly, crouching properly so he can pull Trill into a hug. "That's why you're going with Roll - I don't want you to get caught up in this by accident. Okay? Understand, Trill?"
"Y-yeah," Trill replies quietly, arms tightening around MegaMan's neck. "I promise I'll stay with Roll this time. Come back okay, please?"
"I'll do my best," MegaMan promises, because even though Dad said it's okay to lie sometimes, he still doesn't like lying to Trill, and he's not about to make a promise he may not be able to keep.
He gets to his feet, letting go of Trill, and his core nearly breaks when he sees Trill's lip trembling. Even Roll stepping forward and letting him cling to her leg does nothing to help how upset he is, or how obviously worried he is.
Then an idea suddenly comes to MegaMan. It's like what the humans call a 'lightbulb moment' - a flash of inspiration so random and so sudden that it's like a lightbulb going off in his head.
He summons the heart container from Lan's PET and catches it as it materialises in his arms, then crouches down again so he's level with Trill. He reaches out and taps his adopted little brother, waits until he's looked up from Roll's leg, and then holds out the heart container.
"Here," MegaMan says. "I want you to look after the heart container for me, okay? You can let Dark MegaMan see the ocean and all the marine animals and fish."
Trill blinks, then slowly reaches out to take the heart container from MegaMan. He handles with so much care that MegaMan can't help but feel a glow of pride for him.
"I . . . I'll look after it," Trill agrees, with a determined nod. "I promise. I'll keep it safe."
MegaMan nods back and gets to his feet again.
I know I can't do much like this, but . . . The core pulses softly. I'll do my best to look after him, too.
Thank you, MegaMan whispers.
He steps back, then hesitates and glances at Roll. She puts her hands on Trill's shoulders and gives him a nod - and he knows Trill will be safe with her, because she's every bit as determined to keep Trill safe as Trill is to keep the core safe. She already let Trill out of her sight once before, and the consequences of that were nothing short of an absolute disaster, so MegaMan can definitely trust her not to do it again.
That doesn't mean he still won't worry, of course. But he knows Trill will be safe, so there's that, at least.
MegaMan leaves Trill and the heart container with Roll, and heads back to Lan and the others.
Okuden's a pretty nice place. Quiet, peaceful, literally pretty, and all these trees make Mimic want to run and run and not stop until she's totally exhausted all of her energy. She nearly bounds off on her own several times, but Lan manages to catch hold of her hood and he drags her back every single time, and Chaud's only marginally better at keeping a lid on his own excitement so he somehow manages to stick with Lan even though he clearly wants to run off as well.
Yeah, they came here to avoid getting civilians caught up in the crossfire of a Zoanoroid attack, but no one ever said they couldn't enjoy themselves. How often does Mimic get to wander around in a forest-y place like this?
The only other time she remembers being in a place like this is when the Net Police forced her into protective custody, which turned out about as well as all the other times they tried to restrict her. When she escaped, she enjoyed jumping through the trees and running through the forest, if only because she'd spent nearly a week locked up inside that damn cabin or cottage or whatever the fuck it was.
Now she gets to enjoy a forest without the looming threat of being discovered and dragged back into isolation. Except there's the looming threat of getting attacked and having ProtoMan and MegaMan kidnapped, this time.
Can't have everything, she supposes.
"Pretty good terrain for a battle, I guess," Chaud is musing. "The trees make good cover, and we'll be able to make full use of ProtoMan's abilities in a place like this . . . we'll have to watch out with Arcadia's Holy Fire, though. And any other attacks that could cause a fire. Other than that, we've got a pretty large area to cover, so we can essentially give the Zoanoroids the run-around when they show up, too . . ."
"We wouldn't have been able to do that on the ship," Lan agrees with a nod. "Even if the dimensional area covered a big area, we'd still have to worry about the ocean."
"And you're the only one who has Jet Vernier," Chaud says. "I can fly thanks to Arcadia, but Mimic and Bass would be stuck on the ship . . . This is definitely an ideal location for a battle. Just need to watch out for any damage - even if we're able to keep people out of the way, we still need to remember that this place is a public hiking trail, so we could get in trouble if we do too much damage."
"You'd know all about that," Mimic teases, shooting him a sharp-toothed smirk over her shoulder.
Chaud responds with a flat look. "Half of the things I had to pay for were your fault, you know," he reminds her.
Mimic's smirk turns into a grin and she looks back at the path they're following. Like she said, no one told them they couldn't enjoy themselves while they're here, so they're hiking on a less-used path. And kinda hoping that they won't get unlucky enough to come across some other people, because the Zoanoroids would probably choose to attack right then and they'd have to try and defeat the Zoanoroids as well as keep the humans safe.
And that would definitely make shit a lot harder.
Several minutes of walking - and occasionally attempting to run off, though again Lan stops her every single time - later, they still have yet to come across anyone, human or Zoanoroid. Mimic's enjoying this hike way too much to really be that bothered, but she can feel Chaud's tense anticipation making her heart beat quicker.
She doesn't know exactly when Zoano QuickMan started attacking in the anime. All she knows is that Dad and Maylu were pretty deep in the ocean, so it definitely wasn't straight away. At least the Zoanoroids won't have the opportunity to surprise them out here - they'll have to jack themselves into their CopyBots from a distance and come here physically, which means Mimic and Chaud (not to mention ProtoMan) should be able to hear them coming, and failing that, Arcadia should be able to sense them coming.
But until that happens? Mimic gets to enjoy a hike.
"Um, guys?" Arcadia suddenly says.
Or not.
"Zoanoroids?" Chaud asks, immediately tensing in anticipation.
"Well . . . actually, no." Arcadia looks and sounds pretty puzzled, which doesn't help since Mimic is getting pretty puzzled about this, too. "I . . . I can sense Iris somewhere nearby."
Wait, what?
"You said she follows Trill, right?" Lan asks Mimic. "So what's she doing here?"
"Fuck if I know," Mimic replies, frowning. "She showed up on the ship 'cus that's where Trill was. Thought maybe she'd stick with that since Trill ain't with us right now . . ."
"Maybe she doesn't know Trill's not here," ProtoMan suggests. He's holding his helmet in his hands, ready to shove it onto his head the absolute second shit goes down, so all he's doing with it right now is just fiddling with the spike or gently tapping his claws against the side of it.
"I doubt that," Chaud muses, with a frown of his own. "Judging by how she always shows up wherever Trill is, I'm willing to bet she has some sort of program or ability that lets her find him no matter where he is - so she should definitely know that Trill's not here."
"She might be doing the same thing she did when she joined our class that one time," Lan says. "Maybe she wants to talk to us or something."
"Has anyone else realised the very obvious problem with this?" MegaMan speaks up, looking very worried. "If Iris is here, that means she'll be in danger when the Zoanoroids show up."
"Ah, fuck," Mimic mutters.
Bass gets Arcadia's attention. "Hey, owl, can you tell where this Iris Navi is?"
"She's . . ." Arcadia concentrates for a moment, and then points off somewhere into the trees. "That way. I can't quite tell, but I think she might be sitting in a tree."
"Right." Bass turns to the direction Arcadia was pointing in and raises his voice. "Hey! Iris! Get your ass down here, if you wanna fucking talk!"
"That's one way to get her attention," Chaud mutters, while ProtoMan quietly loses his shit and buries himself in Mimic's hood just to avoid falling off her shoulder.
They don't hear anything for a few moments, but just as Bass is about to shout again, there's a quiet thud and a faint rustling of leaves. Only Mimic, Chaud, and ProtoMan hear it - they tell the others, who wait patiently (or in the case of Bass, smugly) until the sound of faint footsteps becomes audible for all of them to hear.
Iris appears from the shadows, carefully stepping around a small thorny bush. There's a faint look of confusion on her face, but otherwise, she looks perfectly calm and apparently unbothered by the fact that she was just sitting in a tree five seconds ago. If she were human, that'd definitely be impressive, but she's not, and Mimic's done more impressive stunts on night-walks with Chaud anyway.
Huh. That means Lan's the only person here who's actually fully human. Mimic's not entirely sure how to feel about that.
"I understood those words individually," Iris informs them, or more likely Bass, who just snorts and explains absolutely nothing.
"Hi, Iris." Lan's greeting her cheerfully enough, but you don't need Arcadia's Empath Program to tell that he's kinda tense - worried, even, and the reason why is obvious. They could get attacked at any moment.
Iris might be a NetNavi, but as far as Mimic knows, she has no attacks whatsoever. All of her abilities are purely defensive, which is fine against one opponent, but against multiple? Or even an overpowered opponent? Her defensive abilities aren't that good. And since there's gonna be maybe more than three Zoanoroids attacking them, Iris is definitely in a shitton of danger right now.
"Trill isn't with us at the moment," Chaud tells Iris. "So why are you here?" A little blunt and kinda harsh, but dancing around the issue never got anyone anywhere. Unless you're manipulating people.
"I'm aware that Trill isn't here," Iris replies, in that soft voice of hers. "I wanted to talk to you - all of you, now that you're all here."
"About?" Mimic asks.
Iris looks at her for a moment, and Mimic gets the feeling she's trying to suss her out, or maybe attempting to use her mind-reading ability even though she's nowhere near close enough to even touch Mimic at the moment.
" . . . You seem to know things about my world that, realistically speaking, you should not know," Iris eventually says. "Chaud knew about my mind-reading ability. Mimic knew my name. Lan knew about Trill's identity as the Synchroniser. And all three of you appear to have already figured out that I come from what you refer to as Beyondard. How?"
Mimic exchanges a glance with her brothers. She can tell they're wondering the same thing she is - is it safe to tell Iris how they know all this stuff? This is what led to Mimic being targeted by people in the past, after all. That's not happening this time because the enemy isn't aware of her knowledge of the future. But if they tell Iris, and Iris gets captured or something, the Zoanoroids might force it out of her, and then what? Mimic gets hunted down and kidnapped for her knowledge again?
Hell fucking no. She had enough of that bullshit with Dr. Regal and Nebula and the goddamn Darkloids. She's not having two Cybeasts who, under the right conditions, are fully capable of breaking reality itself coming after her. She'd never get any fucking peace.
"Sorry," Chaud begins, sensing Mimic's thoughts and thinking along the same wavelength, "but you're just going to have to accept that we know things. Maybe we'll be able to explain at some point, but right now? It's just too dangerous for you to know."
Iris frowns at that. Oh, how the turns have tabled - wait, no, it's how the tables have turned, isn't it? Whichever one it is, it's ironic. In the anime, Iris was the mysterious one, constantly showing up to confuse people and then leaving everyone with more questions than answers (not that she ever gave any answers until she got shot in the back, anyway), and now it's her that's trying to get them to talk, rather than the other way around.
"Speakin' of stuff we know," Mimic says, "we also know that you're a NetNavi."
That makes Iris freeze entirely.
Her shock is almost comical, and Mimic has to suppress a giggle. It's absurd and entirely inappropriate given the current situation, but sue her - she likes to mess with people. If that sometimes comes in the form of startling people by dropping a verbal bomb on them, then she has no issues with that. It's more fun like this anyway.
"Your brother is Colonel, right?" Lan asks, with a quick glance at Mimic as if he's checking whether he's got it right or not. "And you're supposed to be Trill's caretaker."
"That . . . is correct," Iris replies quietly, still frozen with obvious shock. It takes a lot to make Iris express herself like this, and she's rarely ever shocked. Well, rarely that Mimic's ever seen, at least. "How did you-"
"I just told you it's too dangerous for you to know," Chaud interrupts, a little irritably.
"Dangerous for me," Iris murmurs softly, "or dangerous for you?"
"Us," Mimic replies. Or more specifically, herself. But the less Iris knows, the better.
Seriously. Turns have tabled.
"Then . . . I won't ask," Iris decides, though she looks pretty unhappy about it. "Not unless you say it's okay. But, please, tell me this, at least . . . if you know so much about me, and my world, then you must also know how important Trill is to my world. What role he must play as the Synchroniser. Yes?"
"We've got some idea," Lan reluctantly agrees.
"Then why will you not allow him to come back with me?" Iris asks. There's a faint note of desperation in her tone, now. That's almost enough to make Mimic feel sympathetic, except . . .
"'Cus you don't care about what he wants," ProtoMan says, clawing his way out of Mimic's hood so he give Iris an annoyed look. "He said he didn't like Beyondard, and you're ignoring that!"
"He only has vague memories of the place where he was created," MegaMan adds. "But he said he remembers being lonely. It's no wonder he ran away. And you're trying to force him to go back, even though he'd be lonely again. That's just cruel."
Iris frowns, looking genuinely confused. "But . . . we need him to end the war between the Zoanoroids and the Cybeasts."
"Thought you were s'pposed to be made from emotion data?" Mimic demands. "How the hell can you not understand how Trill feels about this?"
"She has emotions, but I think her empathy is pretty low," Arcadia speaks up, giving Iris a thoughtful look. He's probably scanning her with his Empath Program. "Having emotions doesn't necessarily guarantee that you can understand how other people feel, after all. It's possible that Dr. Tadashi Hikari didn't consider that she'd need the ability to understand others' emotions when he made her."
"You know who created me?" Iris looks pretty damn startled upon hearing that.
"We know a lotta shit," Mimic replies. "Like- duck!"
"Like duck?" Lan repeats incredulously, and then he yelps when Chaud grabs him and drags him to the ground.
Mimic does the same for Iris a split second before something big and heavy flies overhead and smashes into the trees, snapping a good chunk of them in half. If they'd been standing when that thing came at them, they would've lost their damn heads.
" . . . Oh," Lan says, blinking at the snapped trees. "Duck. Gotcha." His voice is faint and probably he's more than a little shocked at the complete randomness of the attack.
"The hell was that?" Chaud demands, staring into the shadows, eyes narrowed.
Mimic does the same, but before either of them can make use of their night vision - not that it's much good, since they're still on the path and in broad daylight, so the sun's kinda interfering with that - Arcadia snaps into a battle-ready position.
"It's a Zoanoroid!" he tells them.
ProtoMan mutters a curse and shoves his helmet onto his head. Lan scrambles to his feet and whips out his PET, already calling SciLab, and Mimic and Chaud keep their attention fixed on the thing in the shadows - the Zoanoroid - as they stand up.
"Y'might wanna get somewhere safe," Mimic tells Iris. "No offence, but you ain't no good in a fight."
"None taken," Iris says faintly, also getting up, and she backs away until she's almost up against the trees on the other side of the path.
The Zoanoroid in the shadows lurches to its feet, and that shape is horrifyingly familiar to Mimic. She was expecting QuickMan, but it's not him - even without her night vision working properly, she can recognise that shape, because it's distinctive enough that she doesn't even need to think about it. Especially not since this one in particular still gives her nightmares, even after she got over her fear of the Darkloids.
Zoano BeastMan steps toward them, claws scraping on the forest floor, letting out a low-toned growl. Mimic almost steps back involuntarily, but Chaud's sending her a silent 'steady-stay-calm', and that helps to make her stay put.
Then she hears another crash not too far behind them and snaps her head around to look over her shoulder, just in time to see Zoano QuickMan speeding out of nowhere. Iris gasps and stumbles back, and Lan immediately gets in front of her, arm held out to keep her back and away from the new Zoanoroid.
Mimic's got enough presence of mind to be able to take note of their NaviMarks, or ZoanoMarks, whatever the fuck they're called. Both of them the yellow star-shape of Gregar - which makes sense for BeastMan, she supposes, even though she'd really rather not have to face this particular one.
So it looks like Gregar sent more than one Zoanoroid to get ProtoMan and MegaMan, just like they thought. That's not a comforting thing to think of right now.
"Alright, little humans," Zoano QuickMan says, stepping out onto the path. Zoano BeastMan does the same, still growling, and together, the two Zoanoroids force the humans (and NetNavis) into a tight-packed group in the middle of the path. "We know that two of you are the operators of MegaMan and ProtoMan. Hand over your Link Gates and this won't have to get ugly."
"Or better yet," Zoano BeastMan hisses, crouching low to the ground and stretching out his long, metallic claws, "you can refuse and we can take the damn things from your rotting corpses!"
"You can fucking try!" ProtoMan spits out, hair bristling to almost ridiculous extremes, shadows turning to solid spikes around him.
"We intend to," Zoano QuickMan responds, which only serves to enrage ProtoMan even further.
"You touch these humans and you're worse than deleted, you hear me!?" Bass snaps, hands crackling with dark energy.
Zoano QuickMan takes another step toward them, forcing them to back off, but that puts them closer to Zoano BeastMan's claws. It's not an ideal situation, that much is for sure - they can't run, because these Zoanoroids are definitely way faster than even Mimic and Chaud, and they can't use Cross Fusion.
Speaking of . . .
"Did the call go through?" Chaud mutters to Lan.
"Yeah," Lan replies. "Guess it's just taking a bit longer since we're in the mountains . . ."
"I hope you're talking about how you're going to give up your Gates," Zoano QuickMan calls, making them jump. "Otherwise . . ."
There's no need to finish that threat, because Zoano BeastMan rams his claws into the ground just inches away from Mimic's feet, and she flinches back. Chaud's fingers close around her arm, helping to steady her, and he bares his teeth at the beast Zoanoroid.
"Brave face, human," Zoano BeastMan snarls, letting out an ugly laugh. "I'd be impressed if I cared!" He raises his arm high into the air, about to strike them.
Fortunately, at that exact moment, a beam of light shoots across the sky and the domed barrier of the dimensional area phases down into existence from it. It's enough to distract Zoano BeastMan from his attempted attack, it's enough to startle Zoano QuickMan, and it's enough to give Mimic, her brothers, and their Navis the chance to fight back.
Bass wastes absolutely no time in materialising. He immediately launches himself at Zoano BeastMan, physically shoving him away from Mimic and her brothers, and then follows up with an enraged scream as he charges up a blast of Shooting Star and unleashes it on the Zoanoroid.
"Synchro chip, download!" Chaud and Lan exclaim. Arcadia and MegaMan's voices join theirs next. "Cross Fusion!"
Mimic downloads her own synchro chip, and as soon as her mind is shared with ProtoMan's, she feels his intense protective rage burning inside her body like it's her own. It's kinda weird, really - his guardian-function is screaming at her to protect those he considers his family, but since she's a part of that family, it's also screaming at her to protect herself.
Considering Chaud gets hurt when she gets hurt, and vice versa, she'll have no trouble trying to do that. Whether she'll actually succeed is another matter entirely, of course.
The absolute first thing that Mimic does, before the light of Cross Fusion has even faded from her vision, is whirl around and spring at Zoano QuickMan. The light fades mid-leap and reveals Zoano QuickMan's startled expression a split second before her claws rake down his face, and then she ducks out of the way just in time to avoid getting splashed by the white fire of Chaud's Cross Fusion-energy-boosted Avenger's Arrow.
Zoano QuickMan staggers back from the double impact, and Mimic hears Lan downloading a Sensor to target and then shoot at Zoano BeastMan. She can't afford to get distracted, not when she knows how fast Zoano QuickMan is, so she forces herself to ignore Lan and Bass's fight and instead focuses on taking down her and Chaud's opponent.
She knows QuickMan used Beast Out as soon as Lan used Cross Fusion in the anime. But if they can keep him on the ropes, not give him even a second to take a breath, he won't have the time to Beast Out. Well, hopefully. Mimic's not entirely sure if the Beast Out thing is a free action, but she'll take anything she can get.
How fortunate that two of the fastest NetNavis in the entire cyberworld are taking on what's obviously a speed-oriented Zoanoroid, Arcadia comments dryly.
ProtoMan lets out a mental laugh that's half-mad thanks to his guardian-function's anger. 'Least we can kick his ass!
Guys, focus, Chaud chastises them.
"Thank you for making this easy!" Zoano QuickMan snaps, coming at Mimic with all the speed his name implies. "Zoano Boomerang!"
Mimic jumps over that easily, and then abruptly remembers that Iris is still in the middle of the path. Luckily, Chaud didn't forget, so he darts in front of the Boomerang, a Bound Sword already formed in his hand, and he slashes it in half easily. Iris still flinches back, but at least she's safe - more or less - okay, at least she's unharmed. That's something.
Zoano QuickMan tries to grab Mimic, and she darts out of the way, leaving him to grab at nothing but shadows - literally. And these shadows just happen to take offence to him targeting Mimic, so they wrap around his wrist, twisting up his arm, and the Zoanoroid staggers back with a look of comical shock.
"What the-" he begins to exclaim.
The other ends of the shadows wrap around Mimic's wrist and she yanks on them, sending Zoano QuickMan flying with all the speed ProtoMan is known for.
"Trees!" Chaud quickly snaps, and Mimic yanks on the shadows again just shy of letting Zoano QuickMan crash into the trees.
He ends up getting pulled straight back the way he came, right into Chaud's taloned foot. Chaud easily kicks him down to the ground, and Mimic drags her shadows off Zoano QuickMan's arm, turns their ends into sharpened points, and then lets them stab into their opponent.
Zoano QuickMan lets out a choked scream, and data bleeds out of the wounds as the sharpened shadows tear into him. Seeing the exposed data makes Mimic feel oddly hungry suddenly, and she sees the half-eaten Zoano NumberMan through her secondary Navi's eyes, almost tastes the warm and squishy internal data, and her mouth waters at the thought.
Food, ProtoMan hisses, and his desire to eat-eat-eat almost makes Mimic lose control of herself then and there.
She shakes her head and tries her best to push the feeling away - just because she's fine with letting ProtoMan cannibalise Zoanoroids doesn't mean she's happy to do it herself, and certainly not in the middle of a fucking battle.
Eat later, Mimic tells him, and his disappointment rings through their shared mind. It almost makes her laugh at how oddly eager he is to eat another Zoanoroid even after how their friends reacted.
She hears the splash of water and shock pulses through her shared mind, mixed with ProtoMan's own shock, and that's all the prompting she needs to get the fuck outta the way before an entire torrent of water nearly knocks her off her feet.
She has to let go of Zoano QuickMan in the process, her shadows automatically whipping back to protect her and help drag her out of the way, but she doesn't touch the water so she considers that a win. Chaud's already taken to the air nearby, scanning the area with his Empath Program, and Lan and Bass have broken off from Zoano BeastMan to avoid getting caught up in the deluge.
"Fear not, blub!" a shockingly-familiar voice shouts from the trees. "I have arrived!"
"What," Lan says, staring in the direction of the voice with a look of total confusion.
A short, chubby figure stomps out of the trees, an uncharacteristically-serious look on his face, and his colours are just off enough to let them all realise he's a Zoanoroid, too - more of a pale kind of blue, like white ice, rather than the usual aqua-blue, but there's absolutely no mistaking that figure, just like there was no mistaking Zoano BeastMan.
"Zoano BubbleMan!" Zoano QuickMan struggles to get up, a task made only slightly more difficult thanks to his injuries. "You've arrived! Thank Gregar!"
"Yes." Zoano BubbleMan gives him a sharp nod. "I'm here to make sure the two of you complete your mission, blub!"
"Is that fucking BubbleMan?" Bass demands incredulously. "That dirty coward of a Darkloid? Oh, this is gonna be easy as hell-"
"Water Gun!" Zoano BubbleMan snaps, bringing up a gun that looks more like a toy than an actual threat, and he shoots.
An absolutely massive blast of high-pressure rockets past at such high speed that Mimic is only barely able to dodge. Bass actually shrieks and jumps into Lan's arms, and they stagger to the side, thankfully avoiding the attack as well, and the blast of water rips apart a good chunk of trees on the other side of the path along with the majority of the ground itself.
"That's a fucking gun!?" Bass yelps, apparently unaware that he's still clinging to Lan. "I'd call that a makerdamn cannon, fucking hell!"
"Zoano BubbleMan is one of the greatest generals in Lord Gregar's army!" Zoano QuickMan tells them, grinning. "With him on our side, we have nothing to fear!"
Oh, jesus fucking christ.
Things just keep getting worse and worse, and Lan is starting to wonder when things're gonna finally calm down. He remembers Mimic trying to literally count the amount of life-threatening crises they've still got to deal with and almost lets out a groan of despair at the thought, but then Zoano BeastMan's claws come down just inches in front of his face and he yelps, almost tripping over his own feet in his haste to back off, a fact that's not all helped by the fact that Bass is still clinging to him.
"Could you please let go of me!?" Lan wheezes, because Bass's grip is actually starting to strangle him.
"What the fuck-" Bass finally realises what he's doing and, quick as lightning, lets go of Lan and jumps off. "Never mention that. Ever. Or I'm deleting your dumb-"
"Jumping Claw!"
"-motherfucker!" Bass snaps, activating his Air Buster to shoot Zoano BeastMan down before he can jump on them.
It looks like things aren't going so well for Mimic and Chaud, either. Zoano BubbleMan has very quickly figured out that Mimic absolutely hates water and will do anything to stay dry, so he's targeting her - he'd probably target her even if she didn't hate water, she's the one who has ProtoMan right now, and the Zoanoroids want MegaMan and ProtoMan - while Chaud is having to defend Iris from Zoano QuickMan, since said Zoanoroid has apparently figured out that Chaud will prioritise keeping Iris safe over actually fighting anyone.
This fight has very quickly gone downhill for them. Why does it feel like that's been happening a lot, recently?
"Fish Missile!" Zoano BubbleMan shouts, shooting out rapid-moving bubbles from the tank on his head.
Lan's never seen that attack even from the Darkloid BubbleMan, so he has no idea how bubbles translate to 'Fish Missile', but evidently Mimic knows exactly what's coming and she scrambles out of the way.
The bubbles pop on their own, revealing fish-shaped mechanical missiles - well, at least that explains the name - and they shoot after Mimic, homing in on her. She's fast enough to avoid most of them and trick more than a few into hitting each other, but she can't shake off the last ones because there's too few to trick.
Lan decides to intervene before things can go even further downhill than they already have.
"Corn Shot, download!" he shouts. The corn-shaped head-thing looks kinda ridiculous, sure, but it's actually a pretty good weapon.
And he demonstrates it by shooting the remaining Fish Missiles. Corn Shot's got a pretty decent gimmick - it can hit multiple things in a row if they're aligned right, and luckily for Lan, Mimic's running around managed to make the last few Fish Missiles line up perfectly for a blast of Corn Shot, and it even has the bonus effect of zapping straight over to Zoano BubbleMan, who staggers back from the impact and almost falls over.
"Guys!" Lan shouts, getting everyone's attention - everyone on his side, that is. "C'mon, let's go, we gotta regroup!"
There's nothing that can be gained from scrambling around in this mess. The path is too narrow even if they're able to fight properly, and the only one who can make use of this place is Mimic - and she's having to deal with Zoano BubbleMan, who is literally the worst matchup for her. Not in terms of elemental weaknesses, just in terms of the entire reason why they came here in the first place; all of his attacks are water-based.
The twins abandon their fights - Mimic very gratefully, and Chaud only after shooting a hastily-downloaded Air Shot to keep Zoano QuickMan away long enough for him to grab Iris and take off flying past Lan. Bass follows Chaud's example and blasts Zoano BeastMan away before turning to run himself, and Lan turns and darts after his family as soon as they're all past him.
He doesn't need the enhanced hearing of the twins or ProtoMan to hear the trio of Gregar Zoanoroids giving chase as soon as they're on their feet again, which takes an annoyingly short amount of time.
Mimic suddenly skids to a halt and whirls around, throwing out her arms, and her shadows whip out and wrap around the trees on either side of the path. She hisses and yanks sharply, ripping the trees out of the ground, and then hurls them all at their Zoanoroid opponents.
"I thought we were supposed to keep damage to a minimum!?" Lan exclaims as Mimic darts after him, leaving the Zoanoroids to struggle with the sudden obstacle.
"Tell that to them!" Mimic snaps back, springing into the trees and jumping along the branches.
"I think at this point, damage control has gone out the window," Chaud says from above. He's kinda holding Iris a little awkwardly - even if he's technically a NetNavi right now, she's still a bit taller than he is, but having an awkward grip on someone who's taller than you is better than leaving them for dead or whatever.
Bass offers no opinion of his own, but Lan can see his grin. Obviously he's pleased that he doesn't need to hold back anymore - and Lan wonders just when he became the sane one out of everyone here. Or at least the only one who's not willing to break the battlefield on a regular basis.
They keep running - or jumping and flying, in Mimic and Chaud's case - until they come up to a fork in the path, and it's at that point that Lan realises maybe they should've downloaded a map from the hiking centre before coming out here. They have no idea which path will lead where, and if they come across some unlucky hikers who got caught in the dimensional area's barrier, they'll have to not only protect themselves and Iris, but also the humans.
"Chaud!" Lan calls, looking up. At least there's an easy solution to that issue, now. "Can you sense any humans around?"
Chaud's wings beat with an odd silence as he lowers himself down. He doesn't land himself, but he sets Iris on the ground, and then hovers in place for a moment, concentrating.
" . . . No," he eventually replies, much to Lan's relief. "The only sentient creatures inside the barrier right now are us and the Zoanoroids-"
He suddenly stops, eyes widening, and that's all the warning Lan gets before Chaud abruptly whirls around, facing a seemingly-random direction. The reason why becomes obvious very quickly - there's a roaring stream of fire heading straight toward them from one of the paths.
Mimic jumps out of the trees and lands in front of them all. "Proto Shield!" she snaps, holding out a hand.
The full-size Proto Shield materialises in front of her just in time to absorb the stream of fire. The Shield is practically glowing with Heat-element energy, to the point where Lan can actually see the air warping around it, and Mimic hisses and steadies herself so she doesn't get pushed back. It clearly takes a lot of effort, and Lan wishes he could help, but Mimic's the only one with this kind of Shield.
By the time the stream of fire is over, Mimic's Shield is almost white-hot with energy. She takes a step forward and makes to shove the Shield, evidently intending to send the energy back to whoever threw it at them, but at the last second she whips her arms up and the Shield's energy blasts up into the air rather than the trees.
It takes several moments for the Heat-element energy to die down, and when it does, Mimic's Shield disintegrates immediately and she drops to her hands and knees, panting. Chaud lands beside her and puts his hands on her shoulders, but before he can drag her away, they all hear footsteps crunching on the path ahead of them.
Lan looks up and his shoulders slump. There are no less than three more Zoanoroids on the path - all of them aligned with Falzar, judging by the symbols on their NaviMarks - and two of them are very familiar.
One is obviously Zoano SwallowMan. Lan remembers Mimic saying he showed up in her anime. The second one is where the fire came from - Zoano BurnerMan, with white-hot flames burning in his arm-cannons, ready to be blasted at them again. Mimic didn't mention him, but then she also didn't mention Zoano BeastMan or Zoano BubbleMan.
And the third Zoanoroid is one that Lan doesn't recognise, but he guesses that one must be Zoano GateMan. Mimic mentioned him, definitely. He's the one who would've kept Dad and Maylu underwater if they'd gone on the ship. Now it looks like he's just simply attacking them. Honestly, Lan's not sure which is worse.
"Give us the Beyondard NetNavis known as MegaMan and ProtoMan," Zoano GateMan calls in a ringing voice.
"What is with these fucking Zoanoroids and assuming we'll just hand 'em over?" Bass growls, clenching his fingers into claws, black energy sparking between them.
"Hold it, blub!"
Shock mixed with exasperation floods through Lan's systems and he whirls around, already dreading what he's gonna see. The three Gregar Zoanoroids have finally caught up to them, and they're on the path directly behind them.
That makes six total, even if they're split up evenly on completely different sides. Doesn't matter which side these Zoanoroids are on, because their goal is the same - get MegaMan and ProtoMan.
The third path is still wide open, MegaMan reminds him, and Lan's eyes widen. He doesn't dare turn to look at it in case he alerts the Zoanoroids to the escape route, so he trusts his Navi and waves his hand behind him.
He doesn't know if he's gotten the attention of the others, but he signs anyway. It's a little awkward doing it with one hand and backwards no less, and Iris doesn't understand sign language even if she is paying attention, but when he finishes, a tendril of Mimic's shadows snakes out in front of him and forms into a very faint and odd-looking thumbs-up.
"Those NetNavis belong to us!" Zoano BubbleMan tells the Falzar Zoanoroids, brandishing his toy gun at them. Even if that thing looks ridiculous, it's definitely no joke.
"Lord Falzar ordered us to capture them," Zoano SwallowMan retorts.
"We don't care," Zoano BeastMan snarls back. "They're ours and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"Don't we get a say in this?" Lan mutters to himself.
"Evidently not," MegaMan replies.
"Out of the way, Gregars!" Zoano BurnerMan snaps, bringing up his arm-cannons. The white-hot fire gets more intense, and you don't need to be a genius to see that he's about ready to blow.
"You get out of the way!" Zoano QuickMan rips off the Boomerang on his forehead and makes to throw it.
"Flash Bomb!" Lan quickly shouts.
All six of the Zoanoroids stop, startled, and Lan hurls the Flash Bomb as hard as he can at the ground. If he hurls it anywhere else, Mimic's more likely to chase after it, because it's not like she can help it - Bombs and ball-shaped things are one of ProtoMan's biggest weaknesses, another being his absolute hatred of water (which unfortunately carried over to Mimic and Chaud even outside of Cross Fusion).
The Flash Bomb explodes upon impact and lights up the entire area. The six Zoanoroids let out various cries - some of them startled, some of them angry - and then Lan hears the faint scraping of claws shooting past him. His vision clears up just in time to see Mimic in the middle of the path, arm held in a way that looks like she's about to draw a Sword.
"Machine Sword!" Mimic announces.
Lan's first instinct is to duck down, but MegaMan quickly reminds him what Machine Sword does - so when Mimic spins in a full circle and blasts out a Sonic Boom from the Machine Sword, he stays standing, allowing the energy to simply pass through him, and the only ones who're actually hit by the Sonic Boom are the stunned Zoanoroids.
"Go!" Chaud snaps, and Lan springs into action.
He grabs Iris's hand and runs straight for the only escape route they have, hearing Bass running after him, seeing Mimic claw her way into a tree and then dart along the branches with Chaud flying overhead once again. The Zoanoroids are still stunned from the Flash Bomb and still down from Mimic's attack, so none of them can get up to stop them.
Mimic and Chaud are probably having to slow themselves down considerably in order to stay with him, Bass, and Iris, but Lan would rather have them forcing themselves to slow down than see them run on ahead only to get caught by more Zoanoroids they didn't know were here until they announced themselves in typical violent fashion.
Today is not a good day, Lan reflects.
The path they're running on now eventually leads out into a wider clearing - not really that massive, but big enough that if they end up having to fight, they should be able to manage it without doing too much damage to the scenery. They're gonna need more space now that they have six Zoanoroids coming after them.
Lan stumbles to a halt and puts a hand on a nearby tree, trying to gasp air back into his lungs. Iris is similarly out of breath, but no more than he is despite the mad dash - if Lan hadn't believed Mimic when she said Iris was a NetNavi, this might've been enough proof to make him believe it. No human could endure that kinda run and only end up being out of breath.
Bass is breathing a little heavier than normal, but Mimic and Chaud are perfectly fine. Mimic jumps down from the tree Lan's leaning on with barely a sound, and Chaud lands beside her, head twitching this way and that.
"Do you . . . think we lost 'em?" Lan asks, half-joking. Of course they can't lose their opponents, they're in a dimensional area - and even if they weren't, the Zoanoroids found them all the way out here anyway.
"Shh," Chaud replies softly, still looking around. It doesn't take a genius to realise what he's doing, so Lan keeps quiet and lets his brother concentrate. After a few moments, Chaud twitches. "Ah . . . looks like we've got two less Zoanoroids to deal with."
"Did they delete each other?" Bass asks.
"Yeah." Chaud's eyes narrow, and then he nods. "They just lost another one. I don't know which side they were on or who they were, but there's only three left now. They're still coming after us, though."
"I can hear 'em," Mimic speaks up, pulling her lips back a little to show her needle-sharp teeth. "One's way too fast, doesn't touch the ground much - probably QuickMan."
"Guess that'll be your job to handle him," Lan jokes, pushing off the tree.
Mimic's the fastest out of the four of them because of ProtoMan - and Lan really, really hopes that Zoano QuickMan isn't faster than she is, otherwise they're screwed. That's probably why she immediately attacked him when the battle started, just to try and eliminate him from the fight. Having blinding speed on your own team is an advantage, but when it's used against you, it's definitely hard to fight. Especially since Lan doesn't know any good counters for speedsters, despite working with two on a regular basis.
Lan takes in a deep breath and lets it slowly in a sigh, then turns to Iris. "Hey, do you think you can log out from here?"
"What?" Iris blinks at him.
"The dimensional area merges the real world with the cyberworld temporarily," Chaud explains, glancing at her. "You might be able to log out of the real world and get into the cyberworld through the dimensional area - then you won't be in danger anymore."
Lan nods his agreement. They're already having to protect themselves - well, himself and Mimic - from the Zoanoroids, but having to protect Iris as well is making things way more difficult than they would be otherwise. If Iris can log herself out of the dimensional area, they can focus on protecting themselves.
"I'm . . . not sure," Iris says, after a short pause. "I'll try. Give me a moment."
She takes out a PET and holds it up, concentrating for a moment. That kinda strikes Lan as weird, because what NetNavi has their own PET? But then he realises that the PET is probably Iris's way of getting in and out of the cyberworld.
Lan waits expectantly, but it quickly becomes clear that she isn't going anywhere. She eventually sighs and lowers her PET, putting it away again, and gives them an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry," she says. "It appears I'm unable to log out like I can in the cyberworld. Perhaps the dimensional area's temporary state makes cyberspace too unstable for me."
"I can get in and out of it just fine," Bass speaks up, frowning. "Why the fuck're you having problems?"
"Maybe it's 'cus she's using a CopyBot?" Mimic suggests.
"That could be it," Chaud murmurs. He jerks his head up, eyes widening. "Watch out!"
Lan grabs Iris automatically and drags her down to the ground. His siblings and Bass throw themselves to the ground at the same time, just in time to avoid a blast of energy rocketing overhead, and it snaps a bunch of trees in half before it vanishes.
Zoano GateMan steps out of the trees from where the blast came from. An odd-looking thing on his chest is open, revealing it to be a gate of some kind (well, at least that explains his name) and there's a giant cannon sticking out of it. As he stops, the cannon retreats back into his chest, and he closes the gates.
Mimic gets to her feet first and hisses at him, and then something hits her with the speed of a bullet and knocks her into the trees on the other side of the clearing. Chaud lets out a muffled yelp, jerking at the impact, as Mimic slides down and just barely manages to catch herself before she collapses entirely.
"Mimic!" Lan shouts, scrambling to his feet.
Zoano QuickMan - now looking far more ragged and animal-like than before, complete with a lashing mechanical-looking tail - is standing in the middle of the clearing. Upon hearing Lan's shout, he glances over his shoulder, and he's got a black mouthguard up now but the way his eyes narrow makes Lan think he's smirking.
Zoano GateMan - whose entire face is a mask aside from his eyes - scowls at him. "How many more times do we have to tell you, Gregars? These Navis belong to Lord Falzar!"
"And how many times do we have to tell you?" Zoano QuickMan retorts, glaring back at his enemy. "Get out of the way!"
Zoano BeastMan flashes out from behind the trees Mimic is half-collapsed against, and Lan sees her hair bushing out a split second before the Zoanoroid is on her. He brings his claws up and she scrambles back, trips over, and then quickly curls into a ball just in time to avoid getting skewered as Zoano BeastMan slams his claws down into the ground, effectively caging her in.
Her shadows whip out and coil around Zoano BeastMan, yanking him away, and Mimic scrambles up onto all fours and darts in the opposite direction. Chaud jumps to his feet and spreads his wings, evidently about to rush to his twin's aid, but then an odd gate - it looks kinda like the one on GateMan's chest, actually - materialises behind him.
He glances back at it, momentarily distracted, and it opens up and a big evil-looking purple hand comes out and snags him. It squeezes hard enough to make him cry out, and Mimic staggers to a halt, nearly tripping over again.
"Dammit," Lan mutters, activating his Mega Buster. Bass gets to his feet as well and activates his Air Buster, and they take aim at the gate.
"Not so fast!" Zoano GateMan shouts, waving his hand in a sharp movement.
The evil hand gripping Chaud tightens, ripping another cry out of him, and Mimic curls into a ball and lets out a choked moan, clutching at her chest like her ribs are being crushed.
"If you even think of shooting, my Devil's Hand will crush him," Zoano GateMan tells them.
"Fucking bastard," Bass spits out, but he lowers his Buster the same as Lan anyway.
"Thanks for wrapping this one up for us," Zoano QuickMan says, stepping toward Mimic. "Guess you Falzars have your uses, after all."
Zoano GateMan gestures and another gate materialises, opening up to let a second Devil's Hand shoot out. It's too slow to grab Zoano QuickMan, but it's enough to make him back off to Zoano BeastMan's side, and Zoano BeastMan paces back and forth, growling.
"If you would be so kind, MegaMan." Zoano GateMan raises his voice, looking at Lan. He curls his finger, gesturing for Lan to go over to him. "Once I have both you and ProtoMan, I'll let him go. You have my word on that."
"Shit on your word!" Bass snaps before Lan can even think of saying something similar, if only with less swearing. "We know you're not gonna keep it, you'll just crush him anyway!" He raises his Buster and aims it at Zoano GateMan, this time.
"Hm," Zoano GateMan says, in a tone that suggests he'd be raising an eyebrow if he had one. "So you're not as stupid as you look, then."
Bass growls, glaring heated daggers at the Zoanoroid.
"I suppose we can make do with one." Zoano GateMan looks down at Mimic.
And it's only then that Lan realises her efforts to get away from Zoano BeastMan have put her far too close to Zoano GateMan. He's close enough to reach out and touch her.
"No!" Lan cries, starting forward, but he's not gonna make it and he knows it.
Mimic's entire body is being constricted and her bones are fucking grinding, and it's all because of that damn Devil's Hand. Chaud's in too much pain to concentrate enough to unleash any kind of attack on it so he can free himself, and she's in too much pain from Chaud being in pain to do it for him.
She's not sure why Lan and Bass aren't doing anything to save Chaud, but maybe they can't for whatever reason. Zoano GateMan's not the only enemy here, after all, a fact that she was abruptly reminded of when Zoano QuickMan knocked her into that tree, and then it got hammered home when Zoano BeastMan tried to turn her into a fucking kebab. Maybe those two are stopping her brother and Bass from saving Chaud.
And then she feels a hand around her throat, the ground vanishes from beneath her as she's lifted up, and suddenly she's being strangled along with being constricted, and this is definitely not a fun thing.
"Let go!"ProtoMan chokes out. "Let- let go- of-ff- m-my-"
"Silence," Zoano GateMan interrupts.
There's fingers under the bottom of Mimic's helmet, feeling around. For what she doesn't know, and then all of a sudden her helmet comes off, and Zoano GateMan tosses it aside like it's rubbish. It's absurd that the first thing Mimic thinks is, I didn't know I could remove my helmet, too, instead of trying to think of some way to escape from Zoano GateMan's clutches.
And then she feels Zoano GateMan's fingers in her hair, pressing against her scalp, and the memory of what happened to Zoano NumberMan in the anime comes back to her in a flash.
There's nothing she can do to stop it, though.
White-hot pain courses through her entire body from the tips of Zoano GateMan's fingers, and she screams. Even through the blinding pain, she can hear the half-glitched mess her voice has become, but then suddenly she can't think about that anymore because Zoano GateMan's whatever-the-hell-this-is is forcing her to think of other things.
Memories, she realises. He's sorting through her memories, going from the most recent ones backwards, just like ProtoMan did when he ate Zoano NumberMan and stole his language and memory data.
Flashes of the battle she's in right now going by too quick for her to catch more than a fleeting glimpse, a brief moment to linger on the conversation with Iris - it seems like Zoano GateMan is interested in that, but ProtoMan forces the memories away to try and protect Iris, and no matter what the Zoanoroid tries to do, he can't bring them back.
"Give them to me," Zoano GateMan hisses, bringing Mimic closer and tightening his grip on her head. That makes the pain spike, and she kicks out, trying to make him to let go, but he doesn't and she's in way too much pain to put much force behind her kicks. "Give me your memories, ProtoMan! Show me your demonic power!"
ProtoMan's still forcibly burying the memories, but he can't stop Zoano GateMan from trying to drag them back up.
Zoano GateMan grunts, flinching, and at first Mimic thinks maybe one of her kicks finally did something, but she sees a flash of black out of the corner of her eye and realises it's her shadows. They're an unstable, flickering mess, barely visible and barely tangible, but they're doing their absolute best to mess with the Zoanoroid and make him let go of Mimic.
"Let go of her!" she hears Lan scream, in vain of course because Zoano GateMan will not let go of her.
She tries digging her claws into the hand holding her throat, but Zoano GateMan is either too focused on trying to read her memories or he's just powerful enough that he can simply ignore her claws. She still tries anyway, and she tries swinging her legs up to wrap around the Zoanoroid's arm and claw at him with her foot-claws, but that gets just as few results as the claws on her fingers. Which is none at all.
Zoano GateMan utters a frustrated growl, and his grip somehow tightens even more, to the point where Mimic's pretty sure her head would've come off if she weren't a NetNavi right now. Then Zoano GateMan's body lights up with energy, and she realises what it is and only has a moment or two to feel the cold dread before the energy dies down and reveals Zoano GateMan's Beast Out form.
Like the other Zoanoroids, not much has changed about his actual appearance. He looks more ragged, wilder, more like a beast - and she can feel his fingers digging into her neck and head, now clawed like hers. She never saw Beast Out Zoano GateMan in the anime and wasn't entirely sure if he even had the ability to do it, but evidently he does.
And with that boost in power comes the inevitable ability to forcibly drag Mimic's memories back up - or more specifically, to drag up ProtoMan's memories. They come through in a flood because ProtoMan was still trying to bury them even after Zoano GateMan used Beast Out, and the first thing that comes through with absolute clarity is ProtoMan eating Zoano NumberMan alive.
Zoano GateMan's eyes widen. "What . . . ?"
That's it. That's the only opening Mimic needs.
Food time! she snaps.
Thinking of food immediately snaps ProtoMan into eat-eat-eat mode, and the memories of eating Zoano NumberMan come through in full detail. Tearing into digital flesh, consuming the warm and squishy internal data, ripping apart struggling prey, and the absolute joy of finally getting to make use of the most basic instincts of a cat.
Zoano GateMan lets go of her so abruptly that she's actually left stunned at the sudden lack of intense pain, and she crashes to the ground, landing in a heap. She hacks out a cough, half-dizzy, drawing in ragged, rapid breaths to fill her lungs with air.
"You . . . you're a cannibal . . ." Zoano GateMan sounds absolutely horrified. He takes a step back as Mimic raises her head, even though she's too weak to do anything other than stare at him. "Is that . . . is that why Zoano ProtoMan has gone missing? Because you ate him, like you ate that Gregar Zoanoroid?"
"What!?" Zoano QuickMan exclaims. Mimic doesn't even bother to turn around and look at him, mostly because she can't. "What Gregar Zoanoroid? Which of our fellow soldiers did that demon eat, dammit!?"
"Zoano NumberMan never came back from his mission," Zoano BeastMan growls, and Zoano QuickMan lets out a shocked grunt. "He was sent to gather information on MegaMan and ProtoMan . . . but he never reported in, and he vanished, too."
"Yeah, that's right!" Bass shouts, nearly making Mimic jump, and definitely startling the three remaining Zoanoroids. "The cat's a fucking cannibal, he ate your stupid soldiers! Whenever we come across a new one, he always asks if he can eat 'em first!"
"It's not just Zoanoroids!" Lan adds. "He eats your Beast viruses, too! That's what demons do, they eat other NetNavis and viruses, and ProtoMan's favourite food right now are you Zoanoroids!"
Lies, lies, lies, all very obvious lies, but the Zoanoroids are too shocked from the revelation to notice the poorly-thought-out lies. Mimic's honestly fucking proud of Lan and Bass for this one - and it's something she's more than happy to support as much as possible.
She calls her unstable shadows to her, now starting to solidify again because she's no longer having her memories forcibly dragged from her mind, and they help her to stagger to her feet. She can barely stand up, so her shadows end up supporting her, but they're coiling around her in a very deceptive manner, not making it obvious how hurt she is and instead emphasising the fact that they're there, helping to amplify the image of an insane demon-Navi.
"Food time," ProtoMan sings, because Mimic's throat hurts too much for her to talk right now.
It doesn't hurt so much that she can't bare her teeth in the widest, scariest grin she can manage, which is pretty fucking scary, and Zoano GateMan takes another step back and shudders. She makes sure to keep her eyes wide, making herself look as scary and crazy as possible, and she half-wishes it was night time because then she could angle her face just right and make the light reflect in her eyes, but she'll take what she can get and she'll fucking roll with it.
"I-" Zoano GateMan takes a third step back, now looking very terrified. "I'm not- I- n-no, I-"
"Darkness Overload!"
"Charged Shot!"
Zoano GateMan vanishes in the midst of both attacks, and Mimic jerks back, shadows helping her to stay upright. She hears the familiar sound of digital things disintegrating into deletion, and glances over her shoulder.
There are two Devil's Hands, it turns out. The one constricting Chaud loosened up a little when Mimic was terrorising Zoano GateMan, and there's a second one blocking Zoano QuickMan and Zoano BeastMan's way, stopping them from grabbing Mimic. Both of those Devil's Hands and the gates they emerged from vanish.
The constricting feeling on Mimic's body also vanishes, much to her intense relief. Chaud drops to the ground, limp with his own relief, and Iris darts out from behind Lan and drops to her knees beside him, quickly checking him over. She has to check his wings, too, because they seem pretty stiff, and Mimic doesn't have wings at the moment but she can feel the phantom aching in them anyway.
Unfortunately, even with Zoano GateMan now deleted, that still leaves two Zoanoroids on the battlefield.
Mimic turns to face them both properly, and they actually take a step back. With the state she's in, it's honestly surprising that they're at all intimidated, but maybe the wounds she's suffered are actually helping the 'insane demon-Navi' image. Who wants to mess with a NetNavi who can still stand after being put through something like, and one who's also a cannibal on top of it?
She certainly wouldn't want to. Not in a serious fight, anyway.
Then she feels phantom heat on her palms and looks over at Chaud just in time to see him on one knee, trembling a little but holding a fiery bow with a red-tipped Avenger's Arrow nocked on the bowstring.
Her shadows drag her away and she lets them, covering her face to avoid the glare of white fire as Chaud fires directly between the two Zoanoroids. It blasts out in a massive explosion of Holy Fire, damage converted into power along with the added boost of Cross Fusion, and the two Zoanoroids scream.
Cooked meat, ProtoMan murmurs, giving Mimic the mental image of him licking his lips. She'd laugh, but she can't make her voice work, so she just quirks her lips up in an actual smile and responds with her own mental amusement.
Is food the only thing you can think of right now? Arcadia joins in on the joking, but Mimic can sense his worry - and his pain - through her connection with Chaud. Look, if you really want some food, we can get some fish from Internet City later, okay?
Fish! ProtoMan is predictably and immediately distracted by the joyful prospect of eating fish. Fish, fish, fish!
Mimic somehow manages to croak out a laugh at that.
Gradually, the explosion of Holy Fire dies down, leaving behind nothing but burnt ground - along with a few blackened trees - and the scorched remains of the CopyBots Zoano QuickMan and Zoano BeastMan were using. It's safe to say that all six of the Zoanoroids who attacked them have now been thoroughly deleted, and only half of them had to be taken down by Mimic and her siblings and Bass.
Thank fuck these Zoanoroids hate each other too much to form any sort of alliance with each other. They certainly hate each other too much to realise that if they'd actually bothered to team up, they could've easily beaten Mimic and her family.
The dimensional area overhead starts to fade as soon as their opponents have been confirmed deleted, and Mimic Crosses Out automatically, as do her brothers. Bass is forced back into the cyberworld, but Iris is the only one who stays where she is - because, of course, she's using a CopyBot.
With the last of her strength gone, Mimic falls again, just barely managing to catch herself on her hands and knees. She doesn't feel like she's about to pass out, but she can barely keep her eyes open, and her breathing feels too ragged to be normal.
"Mimic!" ProtoMan's worried voice makes her look up a little, just enough to see her PET on the ground in front of her. Ah, looks like she didn't catch it after Crossing Out.
Sorry I didn't catch you, Mimic murmurs. Even her mental voice is exhausted, holy shit.
ProtoMan looks just as battered as she feels, but somehow he's got more energy than she does. "I don't care about that, what about you!?" he exclaims. "Are you oka- no, you're not okay, fucking hell, I'm an idiot . . ." He buries his face in his hands for a moment, and then looks up again. "Lie down before you actually collapse, please, Mimic . . ."
Okay, Mimic agrees, carefully lowering herself down. She has no objections to doing what ProtoMan tells her to right now - she's too exhausted to do anything else.
"Mimic?"
The gentle voice makes her look up again, but she can't keep her head raised for more than a second or two, so she rests her chin on the half-burnt ground and gives Lan a tired smile as he crouches beside her.
"You don't look too good," Lan murmurs, clearly worried.
What about Chaud? Mimic asks, before realising that there's no way for Lan to hear her mental voice.
ProtoMan can, though. "She wants to know if Chaud's okay," he tells Lan.
"Iris has got him," Lan replies, shuffling to the side a bit to let Mimic and ProtoMan see past him.
Iris does indeed have Chaud. He's just as exhausted as Mimic - their shared sensations is probably one of their biggest weaknesses in a Cross Fusion battle - and Arcadia and Bass are crowding him (as much as they can when they're small Navi-holograms, anyway) out of obvious worry. Iris is the only one who can actually do anything to help him, so she's checking him over again, making sure he's actually okay, aside from the obvious exhaustion and stuff.
Mimic lets out a long, quiet sigh and closes her eyes. Almost immediately it's like there's a fog in her mind, threatening to pull her under, and the sensation is doubled from Chaud's end of their connection.
She feels Lan's hand on her head, a comforting and warm weight, and she and Chaud let the fog pull them into sleep.
The twins are either asleep or unconscious, Lan's not entirely sure which, but he's grateful they're okay - objectively speaking, that is.
He picks Mimic up - and her PET, too, can't forget that - and takes her over to where Chaud is, then lays her down beside him. If it weren't for their clearly-exhausted states, they'd almost look like they just fell asleep while on a camping trip or something. A fact that's kinda hammered home when ProtoMan and Arcadia flop down in the space between them, almost as exhausted as their operators, and Bass stands watch over all four of them.
"I'm glad we didn't take Trill with us," MegaMan murmurs, looking at them. "This . . . kinda turned out to be a complete mess, huh?"
"Yeah," Lan agrees, with a half-laugh that doesn't feel at all genuine. "If this is the kinda stuff the Zoanoroids're gonna be throwing at us now, I don't think we'll be able to keep up . . ."
He gives himself a few minutes to rest, even though he's nowhere near as physically exhausted as the twins or their Navis. Emotionally exhausted, maybe, from the tense fear and the horror of watching his little brother and sister be tortured like that and being unable to do anything until Mimic apparently force-fed Zoano GateMan the memory of ProtoMan cannibalising Zoano NumberMan.
Yeah, they definitely won't be able to keep up with this if things keep going the way they are now.
They managed to do this kinda thing when Duo was sending his Asteroid Navis to attack them, but that was only because they had a huge team of fourteen operators - plus one extra NetNavi - to fight with.
There're only four of them - himself, Mimic, Chaud, and Bass - able to fight in a dimensional area right now, but four isn't enough. They can't handle this on their own anymore.
After coming to that conclusion, Lan sighs quietly and looks around for Iris, wondering if she has any allies in Beyondard she could call on to help.
But she's gone. It seems like she vanished some time ago - he certainly didn't see her leaving. He wonders briefly when she left, and why she didn't say goodbye, but maybe that's just how Iris prefers to operate.
Lan lets out another sigh and slumps where he's sitting. After a moment, he takes out his PET and calls for help, because even if the twins are smaller and weigh far less than him, he doesn't think he can carry both of them at the same time.
