"Absolutely not," Yuichiro says.
Kifune's expression is attempting to be imploring, but given the subject of discussion, it mainly comes off as condescending. Or perhaps that's just Yuichiro's protective instincts flaring up and telling him to get this man as far away from his children as possible, given past experiences of similar events.
"If the Zoanoroids are coming to attack far more frequently and with more firepower-" Kifune begins.
"-then SciLab's defences will be enough," Yuichiro interrupts.
"I mean no offence-" In other words, Kifune means the exact opposite. "-but SciLab's defences have been breached multiple times in the past. Both from the outside and inside."
"Those circumstances were unique and, as you said, in the past." Yuichiro is having to fight to keep his tone level, but he's fairly certainly he's not as successful as he'd like to be at that. "Our defences have been updated since then. Not to mention we've collected quite a few willing volunteers who are more than capable of holding their own against at least one or two Zoanoroids at once. Add in the Hyper-Magnetrons that Makoto has finished developing, and we're able to counter most, if not all, of the attacks the Zoanoroids could throw at us."
"Dr. Hikari-" Kifune tries to say.
Yuichiro leans close to him, cutting him off. "These Zoanoroids are coming after my own children. Do you think you can do a better job of protecting them than I can?"
There's silence for several moments. The others in the room - a few of the higher-ranking scientists who work directly under Yuichiro, along with Famous, some of the Net Police officers who work under Kifune and Manabe, and Manabe herself - are watching the back-and-forth almost nervously. Perhaps it's not ideal, arguing with one of the best allies that SciLab has, but when it comes to the safety of his children - human or otherwise - Yuichiro does not mess around.
And the Net Police have a very bad track record in keeping his children safe. Yes, he admits that may be partially due to how stubborn and unwilling to stay out of danger his kids are in the first place, but the fact that the Net Police - Kifune and Manabe in particular - have continuously failed to properly safeguard his children sours his faith in their ability to do their damn jobs.
Perhaps some of this is his own fault. He gave his kids the means to fight - he invented Cross Fusion, after all, and the fact that all three of his human children are among some of the few who can use it is a source of constant worry for both himself and Haruka, even if they don't let it on to their kids. But he has no doubts that even if they couldn't use Cross Fusion, their kids would still put themselves in danger anyway. At least with Cross Fusion, they can actually defend themselves.
But he refuses to take any chances with this. He trusted the Net Police to keep two of his children safe once, and they ended up almost dying, constantly. It wasn't entirely the Net Police's fault, of course, but these are children he's talking about here - the Net Police have a responsibility, and so does he.
"We're protecting them here, and that's final," Yuichiro declares, straightening up.
"It's worth mentioning," Famous speaks up before Kifune can respond, "that Mimic and Chaud most likely wouldn't want to go into the Net Police's protection anyway, given what happened during the Nebula incident."
Kifune closes his eyes. He looks almost irritated - and for a moment, Yuichiro can't help but sympathise with him. But he still refuses to budge on this, and Famous is right.
It's entirely likely that Lan wouldn't be willing to go into the Net Police's protective custody, either. He's the only one of the three who has no actual issues with Kifune or Manabe, but it's impossible to ignore how badly they've handled Mimic and Chaud. The fact that they're both Famous's personal Net Savers, meaning they're essentially employed exclusively by him and not an actual part of the Net Police, speaks volumes.
" . . . Very well, then," Kifune eventually says, opening his eyes with a slight sigh. "But we will still provide Net Police assistance. Whatever our differences, we are still allies - and we must stand together."
Yuichiro gives him a sharp nod, accepting both the offered assistance and that statement. Inwardly, he's glad that they'll have the extra help, because regardless of how much they've updated SciLab's defences, regardless of how many willing volunteers they have, regardless of new inventions to fight CopyBots with, they're still going to struggle against the Zoanoroids.
There's no question about it. They will struggle. So, yes. The extra help from the Net Police is very welcome indeed.
But he still refuses to allow them to have a direct hand in protecting his kids. If anyone should have that job, it's him.
And god help the bastards who try and touch his children.
Turns out SciLab's got some pretty interesting-looking defences.
They've got normal firewalls - well, they look normal, but they're pretty damn thick and really hard to bypass - and all kinds of security measures in place, but there's also other stuff, too. Stuff that doesn't look like it'd hold up under enemy attack.
And yet, ProtoMan reflects as he looks around at the interior of the play-castle, it's actually the exact opposite.
This play-castle is the last line of defence in SciLab's, well, defences. There's a thin, transparent firewall surrounding it in a panelled dome, and the play-castle has been strengthened to withstand all kinds of attacks, short of the Cybeasts themselves showing up. There's hardly anything that can withstand an attack from those things, except MegaMan and maybe the Poltergeist.
"What do you think?" JunkMan asks, tapping his metallic claw-hands together nervously. "I did my best to make it look like a kiddie thing . . ."
"It's perfect, thank you, JunkMan," MegaMan reassures him, patting the robot-Navi's arm. "You'd better get out of here before the Zoanoroids show up - I don't want you to get caught up in the battle."
"I . . . I could fight, if you want," JunkMan offers, though he looks like he wants to do the exact opposite. Kinda reminds ProtoMan of himself, because even if he's able to fight again, he's still a coward, isn't he? No amount of confidence will change that.
"It's alright," MegaMan replies gently. "You've done more than enough to help this much. Just focus on keeping yourself out of the way, alright? Stay safe."
"Okay," JunkMan agrees with a short nod. He glances over at ProtoMan, tilting his head a little, and the cables that make up his hair shift with the movement. "You're . . . kinda like me, right?"
" . . . I am?" ProtoMan frowns, wondering if JunkMan is a Virus Navi too, but a quick scan reveals that JunkMan is full NetNavi.
"Fighting makes you scared," JunkMan clarifies, and ProtoMan blinks, surprised. "But you still do it anyway, 'cus you want to help your friends. R-right?"
"Yeah," ProtoMan admits quietly.
JunkMan nods awkwardly, tapping his metallic claws together again, and he looks at MegaMan, then Trill, then ProtoMan again. "You- you all stay safe, okay?"
"We'll do our best," MegaMan agrees.
"Thanks, Mr. JunkMan," Trill adds, with a bright but soft smile.
JunkMan nods to them, and then leaves, heading back to the recycling area of the network. It's far enough out of the way that the Zoanoroids shouldn't go near it, so JunkMan should be safe from any attacks.
They won't be, though. But that's kinda the point, isn't it? The Zoanoroids are coming after them - Mimic said they were technically using Trill as bait in the anime, but they're not doing that here. It's pure defence, and the only reason ProtoMan's in here with MegaMan and Trill instead of out there helping to fight is because he's one of the Zoanoroid's targets.
He's not entirely sure if he'd rather be outside fighting instead of in here. Part of him wants to be - the part of him that loves fighting and still does no matter how much of coward he's become - but another part of him is relieved that he can stay in here, and he feels guilty about that part.
Is that wrong? It feels kinda wrong. Like he should be disappointed that he's not gonna fight, even if that one part of him still wants to despite him being a complete fucking coward.
He sees MegaMan looking at him out of the corner of his eyes, and he turns away, pretending that he's suddenly distracted by the need to explore his surroundings. Exploring the play-castle basically just consists of walking around the walls, since it's literally just a single room full of random toys (mostly for Trill's amusement, but ProtoMan can see quite a few cat toys in here too), and it does absolutely nothing to distract him, just like he thought it wouldn't.
Dark Shadow keeps pace with him, silent but supportive, and that does help, a little bit. ProtoMan may be a coward, but at least he's always got Dark Shadow, no matter what. That's definitely a comfort.
Then he sees movement out of the corner of his eyes and automatically snaps his head up to look over at it, and-
Ball.
In a flash, ProtoMan has sprung, and he slams his hand down on the ball, delighted when it squishes under his palm and then rockets off in a random direction. He chases it, bats it away as soon as he's on top of it again, and it ends up bouncing to a stop next to Trill, who's sitting there with a little smile on his face.
" . . . Um," ProtoMan says, blinking, suddenly embarrassed beyond words. He's pretty sure he's gone as red as his armour, and he crouches on the ground, half-wishing it'll suddenly open up and swallow him whole.
"Wanna play some more?" Trill offers, picking up the ball and holding it out to ProtoMan.
"Yeah," he says in a small voice.
Trill giggles and brings back his arm, then hurls the ball away from him. It bounces off the far wall and doesn't even hit the floor before ProtoMan's on it again, batting it back and forth for a moment before hitting it back over to Trill.
The child-Navi picks it up and throws it again, and ProtoMan chases it.
"Good job," he hears MegaMan murmur to Trill, but he's too intent on batting the ball around again to pay much attention.
Arcadia's not entirely sure if the Cybeasts have any spies gathering information for them - it certainly seems like it, given how soon the Zoanoroids come to attack. It's barely been a day since they set up SciLab's defences to protect ProtoMan, MegaMan, and Trill, and already they've fought off no less than five different Zoanoroid attacks.
They have a rotation, just to prevent any of them from getting too tired, though the frequency and scale of the attacks means they don't get much of a chance to rest anyway. The protection squad consists mainly of their friends, though quite a few security Navis and police Navis are also scattered throughout the network.
There are five levels to SciLab's firewalls. Six if you include the barrier surrounding the play-castle, and seven if you include the play-castle itself. Each one of the firewalls is thick and heavily-guarded, heavily-modified, and very difficult to break through. Not for lack of trying on the Zoanoroids' part, though, and if it weren't for Arcadia and the others, they might've gotten through the first firewall by now.
He's tired already. The others are tired too, because even if they're on a rotation, those five attacks were brutal, difficult, and long.
"Whew," Roll sighs, leaning back against the first firewall. "You'd think they'd learn their lesson after the first few times . . ."
"Indeed," Glide murmurs, adjusting his white gloves. As far as Arcadia can tell, he doesn't have any specific reason to wear them, but he's not about to judge a NetNavi for their choice of clothing - after all, Bass literally just wears his cloak because he likes it.
Speaking of . . .
"Has anyone seen Bass around?" Arcadia asks, looking at his friends in turn. "I can't sense his mind anywhere, and I haven't seen him since the third attack was over."
Roll and Glide blink at him, and then exchange puzzled glances.
"Is he not on the other team?" Glide asks, frowning.
"He switches," Arcadia reminds him. "Last I checked, he was supposed to be on our team this time, but . . ."
"That's weird," Roll murmurs. Arcadia senses worry from her, suddenly. "Do you think the Zoanoroids captured him or something?"
"I doubt it," Arcadia responds, shaking his head. "If he had been captured, we would've heard him cussing them out - or I would've sensed it happening. He's just . . . not here."
"Perhaps he will turn up later," Glide suggests. "This is Bass we are speaking of, after all. He has a habit of doing what he pleases when he pleases."
"Yeah," Arcadia murmurs, frowning. "Except ProtoMan's safety is on the line, here. I know Bass would never abandon him like this. He wouldn't abandon MegaMan or Trill, either."
Roll and Glide exchange another glance, and Arcadia senses their worry deepening. Bass would probably get offended if he were here right now, probably he'd say something along the lines of 'the fuck are you doing worrying about me!?' - except he's not here, which is kinda the problem.
And then they don't have any more time to contemplate Bass's worrying absence, because the attack alarm rings out across the network.
Arcadia sets his expression and conjures up two Bound Swords, and Roll lets out an exhausted sigh and pushes off the firewall, activating her Roll Arrow bow. Glide only has a single basic attack - Glide Cannon - but it's relatively decent and even if he's not an actual battle-Navi like the rest of them, he's able to hold his own enough to help out.
This time it's the Falzars who come for them - a bunch of flying Beast viruses, some of them Tin Hawks, along with an actual Zoanoroid. It's Zoano ShiningMan, who Arcadia only recognises because he fought the ShiningMan from this reality in the N1 Grand Prix.
Maker, it feels like forever ago, now. Sometimes he looks back on those days and can't help but marvel at how different he is - it's almost like he was a totally different NetNavi back then.
He was so nervous, still afraid and newly independent, still trying to recover from his first operator's abuse. ProtoMan was the calm one back then, wasn't he? He was kind and gentle with Arcadia, always protecting him even when he let his anger get the better of him. It's amazing how their roles seem to have switched, even if ProtoMan's still his big brother. That's one thing that hasn't changed at all.
So Arcadia brings up his Bound Swords, one held above his head and the other held out in front of him. ProtoMan's the one who needs to be protected now, and Arcadia's not going to let his brother down.
Zoano ShiningMan comes at them with his Beast viruses, and Arcadia jumps into battle.
"It feels like it's been forever since we were last here," Raika murmurs, staring out the window as the plane lands.
"It's only been a few weeks," SearchMan replies, giving him a puzzled look.
"Yes, I know, but it feels like forever."
"You humans and your feelings," his Navi sighs, with a fond shake of his head. As if he doesn't have any ridiculous 'feelings' of his own. Dirty hypocrite.
There's a car waiting as Raika steps off the plane. It doesn't surprise him - he was expecting this, and so he climbs in, and is driven straight to SciLab.
The one thing that did surprise him is how sudden this call was. The Zoanoroids have evidently been far more active in Japan than they have been in Sharo - certainly enough that Lan, Mimic, and Chaud have been a lot busier than he has. But he still hadn't been expecting the call for help, and he wasn't expecting the context of the call for help, either.
MegaMan and ProtoMan now appear to be top-priority targets for the Zoanoroid armies. The Hikari siblings are unable to keep up with the sheer amount of Zoanoroids being sent after their Navis, even with the willing assistance of Bass, and so Raika has been called in to help.
He's not entirely sure how much of a difference he and SearchMan can really make - they're only two people, after all. But he's not about to let his friends face these Zoanoroids on their own, and he knows SearchMan is determined to protect his Navi friends, too.
As soon as he arrives at SciLab, he heads straight for the main room. That's where the base of operations is - because it's the only room in which anyone can have full access to SciLab's defences, both in the real world and inside the network. Dr. Hikari himself is spearheading the defence, which makes sense since the targets are the NetNavis of his own children.
Upon entering the main room, he's immediately assaulted by Mimic and Chaud. It's lucky for him that they're both half his size and don't weigh much, otherwise they may have knocked him over entirely.
Instead, all they do is threaten to crush his ribs between them, in a surprising show of strength despite them being skinny as twigs.
"Ow," Raika wheezes, though he can't stop the smile tugging his lips upward. He puts one hand on Mimic's back and the other on Chaud's, returning their enthusiastic hug. "Good to see you, too."
Neither of them respond, and that worries him, so he pulls back and takes a good look at them.
They look battered. Tired, even. Which is quite a feat for Mimic, because she's always got those shadows under her eyes no matter what. And most startlingly of all, they both have red marks around their necks, like someone strangled them.
"They can't really talk right now," Lan explains, coming up behind them. He winces. "The, uh . . . the last fight really took it outta them . . ."
Despite their obvious injuries and inability to speak, the twins are sporting equally-bright smiles as they look up at Raika. Their silence does nothing to disguise how happy they are to see him, and his smile softens.
He crouches a little so he's eye-level with them. "SearchMan and I will do everything we can to keep you and your Navis safe." He looks up and locks eyes with Lan over the twins' heads, making it clear that he's included in that, too. "I promise."
[thank you for coming] Chaud signs, and Mimic nods.
"Anything for you," Raika tells them, reaching out to ruffle their hair.
SearchMan heads straight into SciLab's network as soon as he can, which is almost immediately after his operator arrives in the main room. He's greeted by the odd sight of an actual play-castle in the middle of the network, and for a moment all he can do is stare at it, dumbfounded.
"It's pretty durable, despite how it looks," Arcadia says, and SearchMan jumps.
"Don't do that," he sighs, putting a hand on his chest and huffing out a startled sigh. "Please."
"I make no promises," the white owl-Navi replies, giving him a welcoming smile.
SearchMan returns the smile and reaches out to shake Arcadia's hand, but he's surprised when Arcadia bypasses the handshake and hugs him instead. That hug alone tells SearchMan how tense Arcadia is, and although he's a little awkward with this type of stuff, he's able to return the hug, too.
"Thank you for coming," Arcadia murmurs into his chest.
Maybe he is awkward with this type of stuff, but he's not one to invalidate his friends' feelings because of that. SearchMan tightens his grip and lets Arcadia cling to him for a few moments - he doesn't need Arcadia's Empath Program to tell that his friend needs this.
The hug doesn't last very long, but it's apparently long enough to help Arcadia feel better. He lets go of SearchMan and steps back with a sigh, then looks up at him with a smile. The tension is still there, it's obvious to see, but he seems a little calmer now. SearchMan is happy to be able to do that much, at least.
"C'mon," Arcadia says, gesturing for SearchMan to follow him. "ProtoMan, MegaMan, and Trill are inside the play-castle."
Eager to greet his friends - and meet Trill properly - SearchMan follows Arcadia into the play-castle. Unlike the attacking Zoanoroids, they have the clearance to simply walk through the transparent firewall surrounding the play-castle, and after waiting a moment for the play-castle itself to scan them, they head inside.
It's just a single big room, but there are plenty of toys scattered around. SearchMan nearly steps on one - it looks like a building block of some kind. Even with his armoured boots, that would still hurt.
"SearchMan!"
The overexcited yelp is all the warning he's given before something crashes into him, attaching itself to his chest, and he staggers back with a startled gasp. The sudden weight unbalances him when he stops, and he has to wrap his arms around it to prevent himself from falling over onto his face. The only thing he can see when he looks down is a messy bush of white hair.
"Hello, ProtoMan," SearchMan chuckles. If he were human, his ribs would likely have been crushed to dust by now.
ProtoMan raises his head, looking up, and then he rests his chin on SearchMan's chest and purrs happily.
"Hey, SearchMan!" MegaMan's amused voice makes him look up, and they exchange a welcoming grin. "How've you been?"
"Well enough, I suppose," SearchMan replies. ProtoMan shifts in his arms so he lets go, and the red-armoured cat-Navi drops down and bounces back over to MegaMan - or, more specifically, the small child-Navi standing next to MegaMan. "Ah, that's Trill, then?"
"Yep!" the child-Navi agrees happily, waving his arm at SearchMan. There's a ball clutched in the hand he's waving, and ProtoMan reaches out to bat it pleadingly. Trill giggles and chucks the ball, and ProtoMan darts after it.
"We've been trying to keep busy," MegaMan explains, when SearchMan glances at him questioningly. He laughs a little, watching ProtoMan chew on the ball for a moment. "You have no idea how difficult it is to keep Trill and ProtoMan entertained . . ."
"I can for ProtoMan, at least," SearchMan points out, and MegaMan concedes that point with a nod.
SearchMan is introduced to Trill properly, in between the child-Navi throwing the ball for ProtoMan. Trill doesn't remember SearchMan from when he was a baby-Navi - MegaMan thinks that may be something similar to how humans don't remember their time as infants, however much it doesn't make sense for a NetNavi to be the same way. But honestly, SearchMan doesn't mind re-introducing himself, because Trill couldn't exactly say 'hello' the last time they met.
Now he can, and SearchMan can hold a . . . somewhat decent conversation with him. He's not very good with children - well, not young ones, anyway - so it's a little awkward having to work out what's appropriate to say and what isn't, but MegaMan makes it easy. Mostly by giving SearchMan an oddly-impressive flat glare over the top of Trill's head whenever he's about to say something that would be considered 'inappropriate'.
"Oh, by the way," MegaMan suddenly says, after a minute or two, "here, you should download this. Mimic says it'll be important at some point."
Puzzled, SearchMan takes the offered data package and inspects it. "A language data package? This isn't one I recognise . . ."
"It's the language of Beyondard," Arcadia speaks up. "ProtoMan stole it from a Zoanoroid, and we've all downloaded it."
SearchMan recalls Mimic telling Raika that they would get to go to Beyondard at some point, and suddenly the Beyondard language data package makes sense. Of course this would be important at some point - it's a completely different reality, so they would definitely have a different language (though Mimic seems to speak this reality's language just fine), and downloading said language would be extremely useful if and when they go to Beyondard.
He nods and downloads the data package, and is suddenly fluent in a language that sounds like complete gibberish.
"Yeah," MegaMan says, wincing sympathetically upon seeing his expression change, "we got that too. Sounds like total nonsense, right?"
"Very much so," SearchMan agrees, nonplussed. He reflects that it's a good thing Mimic got them this language now, because trying to navigate a completely different reality while not speaking a word of the native language would be insanely difficult.
"I understand it just fine even without the data package!" Trill cheerfully says, sticking his hand in the air.
"That's because you're from Beyondard, Trill," MegaMan reminds him. "You already had the language downloaded."
"Oh, right."
"'Oo guysh talkin' 'bout the da'a pahage?" ProtoMan bounds up to them with the ball in his mouth. He skids to a halt next to Trill and spits it out, letting it bounce, and almost jerks toward it before Dark Shadow reaches out and slaps it onto the floor to make it stop. "Aw, c'mon . . ."
Dark Shadow stares at him, somehow managing to convey exasperation even without an expression.
"It's good that you managed to steal that data," SearchMan praises ProtoMan, giving him an approving nod. "Well done."
For some reason, that makes ProtoMan wince. "Y-yeah . . . um . . . you might not like it so much when you find out how I stole the data from the Zoanoroid . . ."
SearchMan blinks. "Okay . . . how did you steal the data from the Zoanoroid, then?"
"I ate him," ProtoMan admits in a tiny voice.
SearchMan stares at him.
ProtoMan winces again and crouches low to the ground. Dark Shadow is staring straight at SearchMan now, as if daring him to say anything.
He . . . kind of wants to, to be honest. ProtoMan ate a Zoanoroid in order to steal this language data? Is that even safe? Why did he eat the Zoanoroid in the first place, instead of just taking the data like normal?
There are several different methods to downloading data for NetNavis. The most common way is to simply download data directly. Personal Navis have the option to download things to their operator's PET, too. NetNavis can also be forced to download data if you physically shove that data into their body.
But there is another method. It's not something most Navis would approve of, even with the invention of actual cyberfood. To quite literally consume the data, the same way a human would eat food. It's seen as barbaric, to put it plainly.
If ProtoMan ate the Zoanoroid and got the data that way . . . perhaps that was his goal in the first place.
" . . . Why did you eat him?" SearchMan asks, after several moments of silence.
"Mimic told me to delete him," ProtoMan mumbles. "She told me to get Beyondard's language, too, but . . . I mean, I dunno know if I can download stuff normally anymore - not that kinda stuff, anyway - so I thought . . ."
"Delete two Fishys with one attack," SearchMan guesses, and ProtoMan nods. He's still not looking at anyone. "Well . . . I suppose I can't judge." ProtoMan jerks his head up, looking stunned. "I can't, can I? After all, your operator told you to do something, and you did. Perhaps the method was . . . a little bit savage . . . but you were doing your job as a NetNavi, and that's all any of us want to do. So I can't judge you, and I wouldn't even if I could."
ProtoMan almost looks like he's about to cry out of sheer relief. Which is a little more than concerning, if SearchMan is allowed to be honest.
"Huh," Arcadia says, blinking and tilting his head. "That's the kind of attitude the Village Navis have, almost word for word . . ."
"Really?" SearchMan asks.
"Mostly." Arcadia glances at his brother, seems to consider something, and then suddenly has a very uncharacteristically-sly look on his face. "Actually, speaking of the Village Navis . . ."
ProtoMan's mismatched eyes widen with sudden horror. "No."
"You know how Raika has a crush on Princess Pride?" Arcadia asks SearchMan, completely ignoring his brother.
"Arcadia," ProtoMan hisses warningly.
SearchMan raises an eyebrow. "Of course I know. He's my operator. And he's almost banned the use of the words 'princess' and 'pride' in that order because I keep asking him when he's going to ask her out. Why?"
"Don't," ProtoMan says.
"There's this NetNavi who lives in the Secret Village," Arcadia says, grinning. "His name's Crescendo."
SearchMan quirks a little smile. "Go on," he tells Arcadia.
"Don't go on," ProtoMan almost growls. "Don't you dare."
"ProtoMan has a massive crush on Crescendo," Arcadia announces gleefully.
ProtoMan lets out a wordless screech of fury and launches himself at his brother, who squawks and takes off flying to avoid him. Dark Shadow half-stands, as if it's about to go and help, but then it seems consider its options and just settles back down to watch instead.
"Huh," SearchMan says, watching two of the most powerful NetNavis in the entire cyberworld acting like idiots. "I never would've guessed ProtoMan would have any interest in romantic affairs. I thought he was like his operators."
"Honestly?" MegaMan shrugs. "So did I. Guess not, though." He smiles, the same way Arcadia was a few moments ago. "But now we've got someone else to tease about this kind of stuff."
"What's that human phrase?" SearchMan wonders idly. "It was something about milk."
"We're gonna milk it for all it's worth," MegaMan supplies.
SearchMan nods, smirking. "Oh, yes. We certainly are."
"What's going on?" Trill asks, tugging on MegaMan's hand.
"I'll explain later," MegaMan replies. He glances over at ProtoMan, who's managed to drag Arcadia out of the air to batter him with thankfully-sheathed claws. "Right now, I think we should stop ProtoMan from deleting Arcadia . . ."
"That too," SearchMan agrees.
All joking - and teasing - aside, the others still have their jobs to do. SearchMan heads off with Arcadia to get a full briefing on the mission, leaving MegaMan with Trill and ProtoMan inside the play-castle.
They're not cut off from the world outside the play-castle. They have two screens - one shows the main room, where the humans are, so they can talk to their operators if they want to. The second screen shows the network itself, or more specifically, it gives them a view of the battles that are taking place in the network.
MegaMan sits on the floor of the play-castle's single room, Trill quiet on his lap, and together they watch Arcadia and GutsMan fend off another Zoanoroid - this one Zoano SnakeMan, already in his Beast Out form and giving them quite a bit of trouble, but for all his speed and power, Arcadia is able to match and surpass it easily. It seems Zoano SnakeMan is trying a different approach than the others, because he's come alone rather than with a small army of Beast viruses.
ProtoMan is pacing restlessly nearby, occasionally glancing at the network screen. Sometimes he'll stop pacing and just hunker down, curling up on the floor, but that doesn't last very long and he always goes back to pacing back and forth within moments. Dark Shadow is following his every moment with its head, still aside from the flickering shadows making up its body.
" . . . They'll be able to fight the Zoanoroids off, right?" Trill suddenly asks. Those are the first words any of them have spoken since this latest attack began. "Arcadia and everyone else . . ."
"They're doing their best," MegaMan replies softly, tightening his grip on Trill. "They won't let the Zoanoroids get past them if they can help it."
"The Zoanoroids're after you and ProtoMan," Trill murmurs, turning around to bury his face in MegaMan's chest.
"They are." MegaMan doesn't lie. There's no point - it's true, and there's no hiding it, because it's obvious.
"But if they knew about me . . . they'd be after me and ProtoMan, instead."
"I wouldn't let them anywhere near you," MegaMan says firmly. "I won't, even. It doesn't matter if they just want me because they think I can use Beast Out naturally, or if they think I'm the Synchroniser. I'll still protect you regardless."
"And ProtoMan, too?" Trill looks up at him.
"He'll protect you, too," MegaMan agrees, but Trill shakes his head.
"Th-that's not what I meant," he says quietly, lowering his head and pressing his forehead into MegaMan's chest. "I meant . . . you'll protect ProtoMan, too?"
MegaMan looks up, at where ProtoMan is still pacing back and forth. Earlier, they were able to pacify ProtoMan's nerves by playing with him - MegaMan encouraged Trill to do exactly that, which had the added effect of helping Trill stay happy, too. But Trill's too worried to play anymore, and ProtoMan's too restless to sit still.
And he looks scared, as well. No small wonder - for MegaMan, it's a simple thing, because even if he's one of the Zoanoroids' targets, it's not actually his own ability that they're after. He can't use Beast Out without Trill, even if the Zoanoroids think he's able to do it on his own. But it's not like that for ProtoMan; the Zoanoroids are after him because he can turn into the Poltergeist, and ProtoMan's been able to do that for months, on his own, at will.
The Zoanoroids only think MegaMan is the one they want, but it's the opposite for ProtoMan. He is the one they want. And only the maker knows what the Zoanoroids will do to him if they actually manage to get their hands on him.
ProtoMan slows to a stop and looks over at him, blinking slowly, as if he sensed MegaMan's eyes on him.
"I'll protect both of you," MegaMan promises softly. "You can count on that."
They used Trill as bait to try and catch Iris, Mimic murmurs. So they could get some answers out of her. It didn't work, kinda, since . . . well, she was pretty vague, and the only thing she actually told them was that Trill's the Synchroniser, both she and him're from Beyondard, and she said some vague-ass shit about the 'creation of a third space' from the real world and cyberworld merging together.
But obviously we don't need to lay a trap for Iris now, Chaud says. You've already told us everything anyway. It doesn't matter.
Except a lotta stuff that happened was almost a direct result of Iris getting tricked into getting caught by the Net Police, Mimic replies. I dunno what'll happen if she's not here, or if she's not another target of the Zoanoroids.
You want her to be a target? Chaud gives her an incredulous look.
No, I just . . . Mimic sighs, mentally of course, because she can't really use her voice at the moment - and neither can Chaud. I know what happens if everything else happened, but I don't know what's gonna happen now because all that stuff didn't happen. Or it's changed.
You're the one who decided to take an active role in changing things, Chaud points out.
I know. Mimic leans back against the wall, half-closing her eyes, and she looks around the main room.
Lan is talking to Raika about the rotation of the protection squad, Maylu and the other volunteer operators are clustered together nearby, Dad and Famous are working to fix the damage from the latest attack, and Kifune and Manabe are directing the Net Police Navis and SciLab's security Navis across the entire network. Mimic and Chaud, on the other hand, are sitting in a corner on a nest of blankets that Dad set out for them, exactly where they've been for the last several hours.
Arcadia isn't always fighting. When he is, Mimic and Chaud operate him together. It's not how they normally do things - usually, one of them operates Arcadia, and the other ProtoMan. But ProtoMan can't fight right now, because he's one of the Zoanoroids' targets, and letting him fight would be as good as handing him over to them. So Mimic keeps the red PET in her pocket, and she helps Chaud operate Arcadia as much as she can.
She doesn't know what's going to happen. She doesn't even know if the Zoanoroids who're gonna attack them will be the same - there was Zoano SnakeMan, of course, and next up in the anime was Zoano GutsMan, but the last time she assumed she knew who would show up ended with Beast Cross MegaMan and Beast Out Zoano ProtoMan almost levelling Internet City between them.
Of course she's warned everyone about the Zoanoroids who should show up. Zoano DarkMan is a much bigger threat than Zoano GutsMan because of those portal-arm things of his - he could easily just walk straight into the middle of the network and snag ProtoMan and MegaMan (and maybe Trill) before anyone even realises what's going on.
That's why they've got SearchMan patrolling the outside of the firewall surrounding the play-castle. His Search Program should allow him to detect anyone, even a teleporter, trying to sneak into the play-castle. And failing that, Zoano DarkMan should only be able to take one Navi at a time, and both of the targets are notorious for being stubborn and ridiculously powerful. They won't go quietly, so if SearchMan doesn't detect Zoano DarkMan sneaking in, he'll be available to help stop an attempted kidnapping.
Mimic's gotten used to knowing what's gonna happen, and the fact that she has no idea what's gonna happen now scares her. She's not ashamed to admit that, mostly because anyone who looks at her can probably see it easily - and her twin brother can definitely feel it.
She closes her eyes fully and leans against Chaud, seeking his silent comfort, and he rests his cheek against the top of her head. It helps, a little bit.
The faint sounds of intense battle match up with what ProtoMan sees on the network screen.
Half of him itches to launch himself into battle and go wild, and the other half wants to stay here and cover his ear-discs. He's not allowed to do the former, and he's ashamed of the latter, so all he's got is an abundance of energy with nothing to use it on. Instead of fighting, instead of hiding, he just paces, and he paces, and sometimes he gets too overwhelmed so he just crouches down until he isn't and then goes straight back to pacing again.
There's a colossal explosion from outside - loud enough for even MegaMan and Trill to hear it - and he flinches, jerking his hands up to cover his ear-discs almost instinctively.
"They've broken through the first firewall!" someone in the main room shouts. ProtoMan's not sure who - maybe Famous, maybe just some scientist he doesn't know the name of, or anyone really.
Trill lets out a quiet whimper and MegaMan pulls him closer, looking up and around. ProtoMan stops pacing and simply stands there, trembling with the energy he can't use, wishing he could find the confidence he had when he was doing that Virus Battle thing, because he's fucking terrified right now.
"ProtoMan," MegaMan calls softly, but he still jumps anyway. "Come over here."
He's a little more than relieved to have someone telling him to do something, even if it's literally just 'come here' or whatever.
He crouches next to MegaMan, and his friend - brother, whatever - reaches out to pull him into a one-armed hug, keeping his other wrapped around Trill. ProtoMan presses into his side, squeezing his eyes shut, digging his claws into his hair as the sounds of battle gradually get closer and louder.
Enemies will not touch host, Dark Shadow mutters, a chilly but comforting presence next to him. Will not touch. Will not take.
That helps, too. With MegaMan's calm warmth on one side and Dark Shadow's steady cold on the other, ProtoMan doesn't feel so overwhelmed with fear. It's still there, but it's not so bad anymore.
It seems like forever until the sounds of battle die down. Judging by what they hear from the main room, SciLab has decided to abandon the first firewall, along with the second, because both were heavily damaged in this latest attack. That leaves just three firewalls left, four including the barrier surrounding the play-castle, and five including the play-castle itself.
Two isn't much, but for some reason the loss of those two firewalls just makes reality hit that much harder.
"Can't hold out forever," ProtoMan mutters to himself, hardly aware that he's speaking out loud until MegaMan's arm tightens around him.
"It'll be okay," MegaMan tells him gently. ProtoMan opens his eyes and looks up at him, relieved but still a little surprised to see how calm his friend still is. "Don't worry, ProtoMan."
"It's hard not to," ProtoMan admits in a whisper, pressing a little closer, even though he's practically wrapped around MegaMan - and Trill, by extension - at this point.
MegaMan says nothing, but he threads his fingers through ProtoMan's hair, and ProtoMan just starts purring. The quiet rumbling helps to soothe him a little bit, like it's sending calming waves across his systems and body, and the gentle motion of MegaMan petting him does the same.
CRASH!
ProtoMan stops purring abruptly, choking with shock and more than a little terror, and MegaMan jolts like he's been shocked.
"I need backup!" they hear SearchMan bellowing from outside the play-castle. "NOW!"
ProtoMan scrambles up to all fours almost automatically, but his instinctive urge to answer the call for help is quickly paralysed by his fear flooding back in, and he simply crouches there, letting out a truly pathetic whimper. Dark Shadow crouches over him, split-mouth open in an angry snarl, ready to fight at a moment's notice.
"What happened?" MegaMan calls, looking from one screen to the other. On the network screen, the protection squad are rushing to the aid of SearchMan, and on the main room screen, everyone has suddenly flown into a panic.
The only one who hears MegaMan is Lan. He stops, looking half-panicked, and ProtoMan sympathises with that very much.
"Zoano DarkMan just teleported an entire army into the network!" Lan yelps out.
"What!?" MegaMan gapes at him.
"They bypassed everything but the play-castle's barrier," Lan explains quickly. He has to step forward to avoid getting trampled by a Net Police officer who rushes out of the room, presumably to go and find Kifune and Manabe, who left for a break a few minutes ago. "They just showed up in front of SearchMan - and they've got Zoano GutsMan, too!"
Ah. Mimic said those two showed up in the anime. And she also said that Zoano DarkMan's ability to teleport would definitely be a huge problem - but they thought he'd use that ability to try and kidnap ProtoMan or MegaMan, which is why SearchMan's been patrolling the outside of the play-castle.
Looks like they were wrong.
"Don't worry, just sit tight," Lan tells them, even though he still looks half-panicked and this is definitely a 'please do worry' situation. "The others are on their way!"
"But SearchMan can't fight off an entire army on his own!" MegaMan protests. Trill looks absolutely terrified on his lap, so MegaMan wraps his arms around him, letting Trill cling to him.
"He can stall them, at least!" Raika speaks up, overhearing the conversation. "SearchMan!"
The sounds of rapid-fire blasts reaches the inside of the play-castle. ProtoMan recognises that as the sound of SearchMan's machine gun function - apparently he doesn't like using it much because it rattles his arm and he's better with his sniper function anyway, but of course he'd use the machine gun against a literal army, especially if he's the only thing between them and the play-castle.
But SearchMan is just one NetNavi, and it doesn't matter if he's using his machine gun function. Even without being able to see the immediate exterior of the play-castle, it's easy to tell there's too many for him to fight on his own.
The play-castle rocks with an explosion, and would've knocked them off their feet if they'd actually been standing - which they aren't. Trill lets out a frightened cry and curls up into a ball, the little bells on the ears of his jester-helmet jingling faintly, and MegaMan grits his teeth and curls around him protectively. ProtoMan hisses, pressing low to the ground, and Dark Shadow's cold body presses against his back as it crouches over him.
SearchMan shouts something that's lost in the chaos of noise, and ProtoMan covers his ear-discs again, doing his best to muffle it but getting absolutely nowhere because it's right outside.
A second explosion makes him yelp. Along with that explosion comes the distinct sound of shattering glass, the barrier around the play-castle giving way to the high-powered attacks. It was never meant to withstand this much fire power, since the five - or three - firewalls should've been enough to keep the Zoanoroids out.
They didn't anticipate Zoano DarkMan deciding to teleport in a whole army, though.
The play-castle has better durability than the barrier did, but even it won't hold out forever, just like the first two firewalls didn't. SciLab's defences are amazing and quite possibly the best in the entire country, maybe even the whole planet, but ProtoMan seriously doubts anyone could prepare for an attack of this scale from an army of this scale. Two armies, even.
The sound of heavy and rapid footsteps is all the warning ProtoMan is given before something hits the play-castle's walls hard enough to shake them. One of the walls of the room they're suddenly had spider-web cracks running up it, and then another massive impact has the cracks deepening.
"Stop!" SearchMan shouts, and the sound of machine gun fire follows.
Whatever - or whoever - is cracking the wall doesn't bother to respond beyond a faint grunt amidst the unmistakable sound of SearchMan's attacks hitting their mark. A third impact is all it takes to blow the wall inward, revealing the attacker.
A dark purple-coloured GutsMan, looking far more menacing than the GutsMan ProtoMan is used to. SearchMan's machine gun fire is still pinging off his heavy armour, but Zoano GutsMan - because who else could it be? - continues to ignore it, staring straight at ProtoMan, MegaMan, and Trill. The machine gun fire cuts off abruptly, most likely because SearchMan's attention has been forced elsewhere, and that apparently spurs the intruder into movement.
"Objective found," Zoano GutsMan rumbles, taking a step forward.
Dark Shadow flickers and suddenly it's crouching in front of ProtoMan rather than over him, claws spread wide and split-mouth open wider. That gives Zoano GutsMan a slight pause, and he hums thoughtfully.
"You certainly resemble a demon," he muses. His eyes slide past Dark Shadow and settle on ProtoMan. "So that means you must be Beyondard ProtoMan."
MegaMan puts a hand in front of ProtoMan, glaring at the Zoanoroid as he carefully gets to his feet, still holding onto Trill. "You're not touching him," he tells their opponent.
"And you must be MegaMan," Zoano GutsMan goes on, glancing at him too. "Zoano DarkMan has sent me with a message to deliver to you two - come with the army of Gregar, and we will cease our attack immediately."
"And if we refuse?" ProtoMan calls, forcing himself to sound confident even though he's anything but right now.
Zoano GutsMan's eyes narrow, and he brings up his fist. ProtoMan and MegaMan get ready for the coming attack, but the Zoanoroid isn't aiming for them.
"Shock Wave!" he bellows, slamming his fist down onto the ground.
A literal shock wave blasts out from the point of impact, leaving the floor cracked in its wake. ProtoMan sees MegaMan jumping into the air to avoid the Shock Wave a split second before Dark Shadow whirls around, bursting into tendrils in the same movement, and then darkness covers his vision and everything is completely silent.
It only lasts for a few moments, but those few moments are almost bliss to ProtoMan, especially after all the noise of the battle.
A flash of light comes through the darkness almost too soon, and he unsheathes his claws automatically, already slashing as he comes out of his shadows directly on top of Zoano GutsMan.
The Zoanoroid looks shocked for all of a single second before ProtoMan is on him, and he staggers back with a pained bellow. ProtoMan managed to score a hit right down his face - he can feel his claws tingling where they scraped against the metal armour of Zoano GutsMan's jaw - and it looks pretty nasty. Which is exactly what he was going for, so one point to himself, he supposes.
Then he looks around at the play-castle and discovers that maybe that point is a little premature. There's nothing but rubble surrounding them, and the sky of SciLab's network is fully open to them now, along with a view of the army Zoano DarkMan brought with him.
The play-castle has been levelled. Just from one attack.
ProtoMan has to admit that's a pretty decent threat.
"ProtoMan!" MegaMan suddenly screams. "Get away from him!"
And ProtoMan abruptly remembers where he is a split second before he sees Zoano GutsMan's big hand coming for him, and he gasps and scrabbles on the ground in a panic for a moment before some of his shadows wrap around his arms and yank him out of the way. He lands near MegaMan, bouncing to his feet immediately, and they face their opponent together.
Zoano GutsMan takes a step forward, and then something hits him with the speed of a rocket and drags him into the air. That something turns out to be Arcadia, who twists around in mid-air and hurls Zoano GutsMan at the ground with a scream of effort - and a little bit of anger, too.
He darts after the Zoanoroid, slamming his talons onto his opponent's head before he even has a chance to get up.
"Don't! Touch! My! Brother!" Arcadia emphasises each word with a vicious Holy Fire-encased punch.
" . . . I think he's got it," MegaMan remarks, and ProtoMan can only nod his agreement.
The rest of the protection squad arrives moments after Arcadia does - Roll, Glide, GutsMan (the one they know, not the one Arcadia is currently beating with his bare hands), and TomahawkMan, along with a sizeable chunk of the security Navis and police Navis who haven't been deleted by previous attacks or even the current one.
They're still largely outnumbered by the army Zoano DarkMan brought with him - that one's a mixture of Zoanoroid foot soldiers and Beast viruses, not to mention Zoano DarkMan himself - but their odds are a lot better than before. ProtoMan'll take it over just himself, MegaMan, and SearchMan (and technically Trill, even if he can't fight).
"Get back," MegaMan says, tugging on ProtoMan as he takes his own advice. "We need to stay as far away from the battle as possible."
"W-wouldn't it be easier if we just - um - i-if we just go back to the PETs?" Trill speaks up in a tiny voice.
"That's a last resort," MegaMan tells him. "The Zoanoroids can attack from the cyberworld or the real world, remember. If we go back to our operators' PETs, we risk inviting an attack on the real world."
"We can deal with that," ProtoMan murmurs, thinking of the Hyper-Magnetrons that Famous's ex-girlfriend made, not to mention they've got all four Cross Fusion-capable Net Savers present, along with two other members of the Cross Fusion team, "but it's easier to do damage control in the cyberworld. And . . . and our operators won't be in danger, this way."
Forget the fact that he's one of the Zoanoroids' targets, he would rather cannibalise himself before he willingly puts one or both of his operators in danger. MegaMan is clearly thinking along the same lines, because he nods his agreement.
A bright explosion from the chaotic mess of a battle makes ProtoMan wince, and he only realises there's something heading toward them when MegaMan gasps. Debris, maybe, or a stray attack - whatever it is, it's coming straight for them.
ProtoMan jolts, about to grab MegaMan and Trill and get out of the way, but then a pale blue barrier of light flashes into existence in front of them. The debris or attack or whatever it is bounces off the barrier, making it pulse and ring with an oddly hollow sound.
"Are you alright?" a soft and familiar voice asks.
Behind them is Iris, in her NetNavi form. Her arm is raised and her palm is bright with the same kind of light that the barrier is made from, but she lowers her arm and the light dies down along with the barrier.
"Iris!" MegaMan exclaims, mouth dropping open in shock.
"Big sis!" Trill cries happily.
"How did you-" MegaMan begins.
"I go where Trill goes, if possible," Iris says. "My purpose is to guard him. And . . . for now, that extends to the two of you." She glances at MegaMan and then ProtoMan as she speaks.
"Thanks," MegaMan replies, with a grateful smile. "Seriously, thank you, Iris."
Iris nods to them, then looks up sharply. Before they can even turn around, she snaps out her arm and another barrier of light flashes into existence, surrounding them in a dome, and something slams into the barrier and bounces off with a dull thump.
ProtoMan whirls around, looking up as well, and nearly collapses when a flash of pure dread makes him slump.
There are flying Beast viruses coming at them from the air, now. They're headed by two Zoanoroids - one of them the previously-defeated Zoano SnakeMan, and the other, much more surprisingly, appears to be Zoano GyroMan.
Well, that's just great. Now they have to fight another evil version of one of their friends, and in the same battle, no less. How many more of these counterparts are they gonna get attacked by, seriously? Zoano ProtoMan, Zoano NumberMan, Zoano GutsMan . . . hell, even Zoano BubbleMan could count, since the Darkloid one is more of a fond nuisance than an actual enemy or anything.
The good news is, the two different Zoanoroid armies hate each other enough that some of them break off from the chaotic battle on the ground to immediately start trying to delete each other. That still leaves the other half of both armies fighting the protection squad, though, and unfortunately those two halves include the actual Zoanoroids.
Iris's barrier fades and vanishes, and she grunts quietly. "I'm sorry," she says. "My shields are powerful enough to withstand most attacks, but . . ."
"You can't keep them up indefinitely," MegaMan guesses.
"Yes," Iris agrees apologetically.
MegaMan's expression tightens and he sets Trill down, carefully nudging him over to Iris. "Look after him. Don't take him away, though." He gives Iris a hard look. "Got it? I just want you to keep him safe."
Iris hesitates for a split second. It's barely enough to be noticeable, but ProtoMan still growls at her anyway, a not-so-silent threat to do as she's told and not steal MegaMan's little brother. He doesn't give a shit if she's a good guy, if she tries to kidnap Trill, he'll eat her.
" . . . I won't take him away," Iris eventually agrees, nodding. "You have my word."
Whatever the fuck that's worth, ProtoMan mutters to himself, turning back to the battle and the two enemy armies.
"Looks like we'll have to fight after all," MegaMan says quietly, glancing at him. "You ready?"
"No," ProtoMan replies.
MegaMan has a wobbly grin on his face as he activates his Mega Buster. "Can't say I blame you. Let's go!"
ProtoMan's shadows swirl around him for a moment, turning his vision black, and when they reteat, he's wearing his helmet. He gets to his feet but stays half-crouched, claws unsheathed and teeth bared.
Zoano SnakeMan drops out of the air and flattens a few of the police Navis, so at least they shouldn't have to worry about fighting him just yet. Zoano GyroMan, on the other hand, is still heading straight for them - he's in his Gyro Form and is dropping bombs as he goes, though, so it's not like he's doing no damage of his own.
MegaMan charges up his Buster and aims carefully, waiting a moment or two for Zoano GyroMan to come close enough, and then unleashes the blast with a yell.
Zoano GyroMan banks to the side, avoiding the attack, and ProtoMan gestures sharply and half of his shadows whip out, quick as lightning, to grab the Zoanoroid's helicopter blades and stop them from spinning. That makes Zoano GyroMan stall in the air, held up only by ProtoMan's shadows, and they make sure their captured prey can't fly anymore by snapping all four of the blades in half before they slam him into the ground.
ProtoMan follows up the attack with the rest of his shadows forming into shadow-claws as he darts across the open ground. Zoano GyroMan shifts into his normal form and manages to get to his feet, only for ProtoMan to slam his shadow-claws into his face and drive him back a few metres.
Funny thing, actually. Before all this, ProtoMan was fucking terrified. Now that he's actually fighting, his fear just seems to have vanished. He's still one of the Zoanoroids' targets, but as long as he's fighting, he's not scared.
Maybe he should've considered fighting-therapy sooner. Might've helped him to not be such a fucking coward all the time.
Zoano GyroMan steadies himself and glares at ProtoMan. "Gyro-" he begins, reaching behind his back, and then his eyes widen when he realises his helicopter blades have been snapped in half.
His shock doesn't last long, because MegaMan blasts him with another Charged Shot that actually hits this time, and while he's staggering, ProtoMan jumps on him, forcing him to the ground, and he sinks his teeth into the Zoanoroid.
The armour is tough and hard and doesn't taste at all pleasant, but like all NetNavis - or just any being of data, that is - Zoano GyroMan's internal data is soft and warm and squishy underneath. It's almost instinctive to keep chewing, to rip apart the Zoanoroid's armour with his shadow-claws and shadows until he's at the internal data and tearing into it with his teeth.
"ProtoMan!" MegaMan's sharp voice brings him back to reality and he snaps his head up, blinking, data-blood dripping from his mouth. "Eat later, focus on the battle!"
ProtoMan spits out Zoano GyroMan's internal data. "Right, gotcha!" he agrees hastily, and he works his shadow-claws into the Zoanoroid's chest until he finds the core and crushes it.
Zoano GyroMan shudders and his body breaks into data, and ProtoMan jumps away and runs back over to MegaMan.
"Sorry," he says, wiping his mouth.
"Focus on the battle," MegaMan tells him again.
"Mm-hm." ProtoMan nods.
A black portal suddenly opens a few feet in front of them, and ProtoMan flinches back almost instinctively. MegaMan's eyes widen and he takes a step back as Zoano DarkMan comes out of the portal, hovering in place for a moment before the portal closes and he drops down to the ground almost gracefully.
"A cannibal, are we?" Zoano DarkMan's eyes flash with obvious menace. "That explains what happened to all the other Zoanoroids Lord Gregar sent after you . . ."
ProtoMan's only eaten one Zoanoroid - well, two, if you count him almost gorging himself on Zoano GyroMan just now - but he remembers very well how the other Zoanoroids who realised that reacted, and it looks like MegaMan does, too.
"I bet you'll taste great!" ProtoMan flashes his best - or worst, depending on your point of view - grin at Zoano DarkMan. "The ones with more power always do!"
"If you have any sense, you'll turn around and leave now," MegaMan adds, aiming his Mega Buster at the Zoanoroid. "Before he gets hungry."
"You believe your scare-tactics will work on me?" Zoano DarkMan's eyes flash again. "I couldn't care less! My mission is to capture both of you, regardless of the cost! If I have to lose an arm down that demon's stomach to complete my mission, so be it!"
His cloak flaps out, but there's no time to see if he has any actual arms underneath it, because a yellow beam shaped like a star shoots out from his ZoanoMark. It looks kinda ridiculous, but they've already learnt their lesson with Zoano BubbleMan's absurdly-powerful Water Gun, so ProtoMan and MegaMan split up to dodge the attack before it can hit them.
Good thing they do, too, because the star-beam blasts out a good chunk of the ground they were just standing on. Maybe they should just make up a thing about these kind of attacks - the more ridiculous it looks, the more deadly it probably is.
ProtoMan skids to a halt, shadow-claws screeching on the ground, and he hears a yelp from where Trill is - a quick looks tells him that Iris is still protecting the child-Navi, but thankfully, Zoano DarkMan is entirely focused on ProtoMan and MegaMan and doesn't care about a couple of random NetNavis. Random in his eyes, anyway. But the reason why Trill yelped becomes obvious a moment later, as ProtoMan spots some of the disintegrating debris from Zoano DarkMan's attack far too close to them.
Looks like they were nearly hit, even if they're staying out of the way. Iris should be able to use her shields to stop anything from actually hitting herself and Trill, so ProtoMan forces his attention away from them and back to their current opponent.
"Flame Tower!" Zoano DarkMan shouts, flinging out his cloak again, and this time two pillars of roaring flames erupt out and shoot toward ProtoMan and MegaMan.
"Aqua Cross!"
Guard!
The Mettaur helmet that materialises around ProtoMan obscures his vision for a few moments, but he feels it heating up and hears the impact of the Flame Tower as it slams into the helmet. There's a loud crash a moment later and the helmet vanishes, allowing ProtoMan to see the tower of flames being spat right back at Zoano DarkMan, who steps into a hastily-created portal to avoid it.
MegaMan, on the other hand, has simply blasted the other Flame Tower with his new Aqua Buster. Good thing they picked that Cross up from AquaMan before they started this operation - MegaMan and Lan've still got a bunch of Crosses left to find, and Mimic said a lot of them are NetNavis from Beyondard.
It's called Reflector, Chaud says, not Guard.
Since fucking when!? Mimic exclaims incredulously.
Since the Link PETs came out.
"Where'd he go!?" MegaMan shouts to ProtoMan.
"Dunno!" ProtoMan replies, looking around. "He went into one of his portal thingies!"
Zoano DarkMan could appear anywhere with those things. He could go back to the chaotic battle over that way and psyche them out, or he could appear above them and throw down some other attack - he's shown off that star-beam thing, and apparently has Flame Tower, which is a pretty old attack to be honest. Who knows what else he's got? That teleporting certainly makes him an annoying opponent to face.
. . . Oh.
ProtoMan blinks, suddenly realising this must be how his opponents feel whenever he breaks out the shadow-teleporting on them. Huh. Well, if this is what he's making his opponents feel, he'll just keep doing it - nothing's more fun to beat up than a pissed-off opponent, after all.
He hears something like tearing paper from behind him, and then MegaMan jerks forward, shouting.
"ProtoMan!"
Something cold brushes against his back and it's not his shadows, so ProtoMan whirls around, snarling, and comes face-to-face with Zoano DarkMan. The Zoanoroid is finally showing off his arms - though not in a conventional way, because the hand that's reaching for ProtoMan is coming out of another one of those portals.
He brings up his shadow-claws to fend off the grasping hand, but Zoano DarkMan ignores the attempted attack and manages to grab ProtoMan's head. Or more specifically, his helmet.
Zoano DarkMan makes a triumphant sound and pulls back, only to stop, suddenly puzzled, as ProtoMan's helmet comes off. ProtoMan only lets him have a single moment to be puzzled before he lashes out with his shadow-claws, ripping Zoano DarkMan's fingers off, and he takes back his helmet and scrambles away before the Zoanoroid can recover.
Which doesn't seem likely right away, because Zoano DarkMan's hand retreats back into the portal, and he simply hovers where he is, groaning. Good, serves him right for trying to steal ProtoMan's helmet, the bastard.
ProtoMan takes a moment to shove his helmet back onto his head, and then, just because he can't resist, he sticks his tongue out and blows a raspberry at Zoano DarkMan.
"You'll pay for that," the Zoanoroid growls, eyes flashing.
His cloak blows out, and ProtoMan hears the sound of tearing paper from behind him yet again, but before he can react, he's slammed into the ground and held there by Zoano DarkMan's other hand. It's a lot bigger than it should be, maybe an attack of some kind, but all ProtoMan knows is that this feels way too much like Zoano GateMan's Devil's Hand and he's not enjoying this any more than he did that.
His shadows try to rip the hand off him, but its grip is firm and it's too solid for them to tear into. He can hear MegaMan shouting at Zoano DarkMan to let him go - oddly enough, his voice has gotten gentler and more child-like, kinda like AquaMan, though shouting is shouting no matter what your personality is.
ProtoMan! Mimic and Chaud cry.
Area Steal! Mimic continues.
ProtoMan is alerted to the battle chip being downloaded, but all that happens is his body shudders and jerks like he used it. He goes absolutely nowhere, though, and he's still being crushed by Zoano DarkMan's hand. Looks like this hand thing negates teleporting battle chips like Area Steal.
And his shadows can't help him shadow-teleport, either. The hand is pinning him down and in order to grab ProtoMan, they'd need to grab the hand, too, and that would still mean he'd be held in its grasp even inside his shadows.
"Lord Gregar will not mind if you're a little bruised," Zoano DarkMan tells him, slowly coming forward. "My mission is to bring you in alive, not uninjured!"
The hand tightens its grip and ProtoMan lets out a choked cry. He doesn't have bones, not like humans do, but he feels like his body's about to collapse in on itself from the pressure. He won't be deleted from this, but it'll still hurt like hell.
"Let go of him!"
Intense cold blasts out across the battlefield, sending ice forming along the ground as it goes. Half of the combatants in the middle of the battle actually stop fighting for a moment, the shock of cold almost literally freezing them in place, but the worst of it goes straight for Zoano DarkMan, who utters a wordless cry of shock and vanishes into another of his portals. His hand vanishes with him, leaving ProtoMan gasping for air on the ground.
There's an almighty crash as a huge shape lands crouching over ProtoMan, a deep growl rumbling from it. Something slides down from it and drops to the ground, then comes over and kneels next to ProtoMan, reaching out for him.
"Are you alright?" Crescendo asks, helping him up and checking him over.
"Crescen-" ProtoMan gapes at him. "What- h-how did-" He blinks under his visor and looks up, realising that the huge shape crouching over him is actually Mythic. "What the-"
Crescendo gets his attention and gives his a quick smile. "Bass came to get us. He said you needed help."
"Bass?" ProtoMan is way too shocked to do anything more than stare, completely dumbfounded.
And then the loudest scream he's ever heard sends physical shock waves across the battlefield, announcing the arrival of Echo. A chilling howl follows soon after, and ProtoMan sees High-End loping into battle with Temper bounding alongside her, and a whole bunch of other Village Navis appearing out of quite literally nowhere to suddenly turn the tide of battle. Bass is there as well, jumping straight into the fight with a roar that's audible even over the suddenly-even-more-chaotic noise.
The protection squad is mostly bewildered, because no one aside from ProtoMan, Arcadia, and Bass have ever actually met any of the Village Navis, but it quickly becomes apparent to them that the newcomers are actually on their side. Mostly because they're tearing apart the Zoanoroid armies instead of them.
And then Serenade themself appears, hovering over the entire battlefield, and blasts out a massive beam of light that disintegrates a good chunk of both enemy armies.
The battle doesn't last long after that. With the sudden arrival of the Village Navis and Serenade, the Zoanoroid armies are forced to retreat - there's no telling what happened to the actual Zoanoroids who took part in the battle (aside from Zoano GyroMan), and no one's sure if they were deleted or just driven back, but the majority of the armies were torn apart quite easily and the few soldiers that're left over leave pretty quick, evidently not willing to take on everyone who just showed up.
It takes a few minutes for the confusion to die down enough for anyone to get any kind of explanation.
Turns out, the reason why Bass was absent for most of the day was because he was trekking all the way to the Secret Village entirely on his own. He somehow managed to bypass the Dark River's barrier without using a token of any kind and convinced BoatMan to take him across the River to the antechamber where he met Serenade, who miraculously didn't turn him into dust for trespassing and instead listened to him.
And then he managed to enlist the help of pretty much every single Village Navi who can actually fight - along with quite a few who can't, like Crescendo - and Serenade mass-teleported everyone into SciLab's network just in time to pull off the single most unexpected rescue in history, as far as ProtoMan is aware.
It was certainly enough to save his ass, at least. Even if it was completely unexpected, he's still really fucking grateful.
"So . . . you came to save me?" ProtoMan asks, looking up at Crescendo once Bass is finished explaining things.
"Of course," Crescendo replies. He has a soft smile on his face, the kind that makes ProtoMan feel warm inside and has him flustered pretty much instantly. "I may not be able to fight, but I'll do whatever I can to keep you safe." His smile turns more sheepish, and he chuckles. "And I'm fully aware that you're capable of protecting yourself. But . . . still."
"I don't mind you saving me," ProtoMan murmurs, giving Crescendo a shy little smile.
Crescendo's sheepish smile turns back to a soft one, and ProtoMan somehow feels even more flustered than before.
"Get a room, you two!" Bass bellows from next to Serenade, who's watching ProtoMan and Crescendo with a very obvious smile.
ProtoMan glares at him, not that anyone can see it under his visor. "We had a room!" he snaps back, gesturing to the destroyed play-castle. "And then the Zoanoroids blew it the fuck up!"
There's a beat of silence.
Abruptly, ProtoMan realises what he just said, and he blushes furiously.
"Wa-wait- no-" he stammers, eyes widening in horror. "I didn't mean- that's not what I-"
Everyone is staring at him. Somewhere nearby, he can hear Arcadia cackling.
ProtoMan lets out a faint whine and buries his face in his hands. He knows one of the Virus Navis from the Village has the ability to crack the ground in small fissures, and he's seriously starting to consider asking them to make the ground open up and swallow him whole.
"So . . . those are the Virus Navis," Dad says, after several moments of nothing but silence - in the real world, at least. The Navis in the network have started cleaning up after the chaotic mess the latest battle turned out to be, and the Village Navis are helping out as much they can.
[not all are virus NAVI] Chaud signs. [some just NAVIS]
Dad frowns at that. "I thought all of the Village Navis were Virus Navis?"
Chaud exchanges a quick glance with Mimic, and then they both turn back to Dad and shake their heads.
Maybe a lot of the Village Navis are Virus Navis, but there's a lot of normal NetNavis living there, too. Chaud recognises quite a few of them, mostly due to the fact that he's seen them more frequently than others - the most obvious of that group being Crescendo, Mythic, Echo, Temper, and High-End, since all five of them were at the Virus Battle tournament, and they're among some of the Navis that Arcadia and ProtoMan interact with the most in the Village. The only one who's missing is Thirteen, but she's a child-Navi and blind to boot, so obviously she wouldn't be able to come.
"Huh," Famous is musing nearby, watching the main screen up on the wall. "These are the NetNavis from beyond the deep web, then . . ."
"Those NetNavis are all from the deep web?" Kifune looks up sharply, Manabe looking similarly alarmed beside him.
"No, beyond the deep web," Famous corrects him. "They're certainly welcome, especially if they're on our side. I do have to worry whether any of them might accidentally break the network, though . . ."
"There are a few of them who don't appear to be assisting with the clean-up," Dad says thoughtfully. "That huge dragon-Navi, for one. I can understand that, I saw her freezing everything in the battle, and she doesn't appear to have much control over the effects . . ."
Another Village Navi who isn't helping with the clean-up is Crescendo, but that's because he's with ProtoMan, whose blush still has yet to leave his face, a fact that isn't helped by Arcadia wandering by every so often to throw the odd teasing grin their way.
Chaud is suddenly filled with the intense urge to immediately start teasing his primary Navi as well, something which is echoed by Mimic. Out of sheer pity for ProtoMan - mostly because he was almost crushed during the battle, honestly - they don't do that, and instead just leave things as they are, even though it's so tempting to call out the odd suggestion or two.
'Just kiss him already' is the best either of them can think of, and it'd probably get the best reaction, too. They've already had plenty of practise teasing Raika about Pride, and they very nearly can't resist teasing ProtoMan since Crescendo is right there and ProtoMan's crush is so goddamn obvious it's a wonder he's still denying it.
And then they bear witness to Crescendo reaching out and almost tenderly removing ProtoMan's helmet, and ProtoMan lets him, which is quite a shock to see considering he literally ripped Zoano DarkMan's fingers off for taking it from him during the battle.
Chaud glances at Mimic, and they come to the same conclusion without the need for words, mental or verbal.
ProtoMan has a very, very obvious crush on Crescendo, and clearly the feeling is mutual.
"May I ask what a Virus Navi is?"
Chaud jumps, almost stumbling into Mimic, who lets out a faint squeak - both at the surprise and Chaud nearly stepping on her toes - and just barely manages to stop both of them from tumbling over. Almost everyone else in the main room has a similar reaction to the unexpected voice.
Iris is standing just underneath the main screen, in her human form now. It seems she materialised herself while everyone was occupied with the Village Navis' sudden appearance.
"Uh . . ." Lan is the only one who recovers quickly enough to actually give an answer. "A Virus Navi is a NetNavi with virus data in them. Y'know, like . . . like ProtoMan."
"Like ProtoMan," Iris echoes, tilting her head. "Is that why he's able to turn into a demon?"
"N-no, that's something else," Lan replies, with a quick glance at Chaud and Mimic. "Um . . . thanks for protecting Trill during the battle."
Iris nods a little, acknowledging his words.
"You're Iris, then?" Dad speaks up, making her glance over at him. "I've heard about you from my kids."
Iris's expression changes just slightly, enough to convey her unease. No small wonder - she's tried to take Trill away twice now and still doesn't seem to understand why they won't let her even though they've tried to explain. Anything they might have told Dad probably wouldn't paint her in a good light.
Except that's kind of not true. They did tell Dad about Iris trying to take Trill, but they also told him everything else that Mimic told them.
"It's good to finally meet you," Dad continues, nodding to Iris. "Welcome to . . . Beyondard, I suppose."
" . . . Thank you," Iris murmurs, looking faintly surprised.
Dad nods again, and then he turns to take in everyone in the main room as a whole. "Alright, everyone - we've managed to repel this latest attack, so good job. This still isn't over, though, and we need to make sure our defences can withstand another attack like that. We'll take a break and then get back to work."
"Right!" most of the room choruses. Chaud and Mimic just nod.
The clean-up is a pretty big operation even with a lot of NetNavis to help out, so the volunteer operators jack their Navis out of SciLab's network to give those who're staying in the network the space to actually clean up. Most of the Village Navis stick around to help as much as they can under the careful direction of Dad and Famous, and the Virus Navis whose virus data makes it too dangerous for them to help with the clean-up set to patrolling the outer edges of the network.
Lan has honestly never seen such an odd collection of NetNavis, nor did he expect Bass of all people to be the one to bring them here.
"We were wondering where you'd gotten to," Arcadia says to Bass, with a grateful half-smile. "It's not like you to leave ProtoMan when he needs help."
Bass scoffs. "What, you thought I'd just abandon you fu-" He stops and glances at MegaMan and Trill. "-you morons? You're all idiots, but you're my idiots, and I'll delete myself before I let those bas- those stupid Zoanoroids kidnap any of you. ProtoMan especially."
Arcadia giggles and gives ProtoMan a sly look. "Looks like Crescendo's got some competition," he comments.
"I will deep-fry your wings and eat them," ProtoMan threatens.
"There's no competition, I just don't want the cat to get hurt again," Bass says, scowling.
"It seems like ProtoMan only has eyes for Crescendo, anyway," SearchMan speaks up, smirking.
ProtoMan gives him a look of such comical betrayal that SearchMan actually bursts out laughing and has to wander off for a moment to calm down. Raika looks faintly bewildered at his Navi's reaction.
"Is this like how you guys keep teasing Raika about Pride?" Lan asks quietly, leaning over to Mimic and Chaud. They nod, looking decidedly smug, and Lan sits back. "Huh. Cool."
"Those guys were the Village Navis you told us about?" Roll suddenly speaks up, looking at ProtoMan and Arcadia.
"Uh . . . I think we've already established this, but yeah," Arcadia agrees, nodding with a puzzled look on his face. "Why?"
"Are any of them . . ." Roll looks at ProtoMan and winces. "Are any of them like ProtoMan?"
Arcadia blinks, and then his expression falls into a flat look that's almost a glare. ProtoMan just looks confused.
"You mean Virus Navis?" he asks. "Well, yeah, there's a lot of Virus Navis who live there . . ."
"N-no, I mean . . ." Roll bites her lip, winces again, and then lowers her voice. "Are any of them cannibals?"
" . . . Oh," ProtoMan says in a very small voice. Beside him, Bass is starting to look like he's seriously considering deleting Roll, and Maylu shifts nervously, hand edging toward her pocket and her PET inside.
"Not all of the Village Navis eat other NetNavis," a new voice says in response to Roll's question, surprising everyone, even the humans.
The dark-skinned NetNavi with the odd ribbon-like things at their back appears among the group of Navis. Mimic and Chaud told Lan that that NetNavi's name is Serenade, and they - not she or he, they - are also one of the single most powerful NetNavis in the entire cyberworld, maybe even including the four with ultimate programs. Lan can believe that, because he and everyone else bore personal witness to Serenade completely decimating well over half of both Zoanoroid armies entirely on their own.
"Some do, of course," Serenade goes on, with a glance at ProtoMan. "Those that eat other NetNavis do so for their own reasons - perhaps they need to in order to survive, or perhaps they simply enjoy the taste. Their reasons are their own, and we of the Village do not judge them for it."
"B-but . . ." Roll looks extremely intimidated by Serenade's sheer presence, though she's somehow finding the courage to speak up. "But they're cannibals."
Serenade looks at her. There's not the slightest change in their expression, but somehow, it's like the very air itself has come alive with crackling tension.
"As long as no harm comes to those under my protection, I see no sense in making a problem of this," Serenade says. Their tone hasn't changed much either, but it still makes Lan shiver and suppress the urge to shuffle away.
And the veiled threat isn't missed by anyone, either. Roll falls silent with a croaked squeak, shuffling away until she's half-hidden behind Glide, who's completely frozen with obvious alarm. The other Navis - and more than a few of the humans - are similarly terrified, even Bass himself.
The only ones who don't seem to be affected by Serenade's . . . presence are ProtoMan and Arcadia. Most likely they're used to Serenade, or maybe they're just not affected by the presence because Serenade considers them to be under their protection, and thus isn't making the thinly-veiled threat to them at all.
After several moments, Serenade lets out a faint sigh, and the tension just fades away as if they were the one keeping it there. They probably were.
"I intended to extend an invitation to those who would wish to visit the Secret Village," Serenade says, with a slow glance at Roll, who hides further behind Glide, "but perhaps it is not to be. If some of you cannot let go of your prejudices, then you will not be welcome in the Village."
"Not everyone shares the same opinion, actually," Arcadia speaks up, still completely unaffected by the lingering tension, and ignoring the terrified warning looks some of the other Navis are giving him. "MegaMan and Bass are okay. SearchMan, too. Whatever they think of cannibalism, they're all fine with ProtoMan."
Serenade looks faintly interested, and they glance around at the gathered NetNavis. Their gaze lingers on Bass for a moment, who still looks pretty damn unnerved, and they smile a little.
"Yes, indeed," Serenade says softly. "Which of you are MegaMan and SearchMan?"
MegaMan slowly raises a hand, and SearchMan, after a brief moment of hesitation, does the same.
Serenade nods as if they've answered some unspoken question. They hold out their hands, closing their eyes for a moment, and three odd-looking coins flash into existence above their palms.
"I am aware that the trek through the deep web is not for every NetNavi," Serenade says, opening their eyes and gesturing with a sweep of their hands to send the three coins over to MegaMan, Bass, and SearchMan respectively. "Normally I would simply give you tokens to grant you access to the Dark River, along with passage on BoatMan's vessel. Though Bass is capable of bypassing that without effort," they add, glancing at said Navi, who suddenly looks like he's regretting that decision. "I do not mind, of course." Bass almost slumps with relief. "We were able to assist in defending ProtoMan, and by extension, MegaMan. In light of that, I will grant three teleport tokens - these will take you directly to the antechamber of the Secret Area, and will in turn grant access to the Secret Village itself."
The three Navis who now have teleport tokens hold them in their hands, peering at them with varying degrees of interest and awe. There's silence for a few moments, and SearchMan is the first to break it, looking up at Serenade.
"Thank you," he says solemnly. "I'm . . . I'm aware of the amount of trust you're showing, by giving us these tokens, so . . . thank you."
Serenade nods to him. "The pleasure is mine," they reply. "Any friends of the Village's residents - even the honorary ones - are welcome. Provided you leave whatever prejudices you may hold behind, of course."
"I have none, as far as I know," SearchMan tells them. "Or I try not to, at least."
"An admirable attitude," Serenade says, nodding again. They begin to rise up slowly. "Now then, I must take my leave. I and the other Village Navis are doing all we can to assist in safeguarding this network." They look at Roll and the other Navis who weren't given teleport tokens, and more than one of them tense up or outright take a step back. "That is, if you have no objections to cannibals defending you."
Before anyone can respond - not that anyone can think of anything to respond with - Serenade vanishes in a flash of light.
And with them, the tension in the room also vanishes. It's like something heavy that was pressing down on Lan's chest has just suddenly been lifted - and judging by the gasps and sighs of relief from the others, both humans and Navis, he's not the only one who feels like that.
Holy crap. Serenade is stupidly powerful.
"Are you guys sure that Navi doesn't have an ultimate program, too?" Lan asks, glancing at Mimic and Chaud.
They exchange a quick glance, then turn back to Lan and offer him identical shrugs. That's extremely helpful.
"Hold on, what's this about cannibals?" TomahawkMan suddenly speaks up, looking so confused that it's almost comical. "Seriously, what the hell did I miss in the last few days?"
"ProtoMan ate a Zoanoroid alive," Roll immediately tells him, apparently far more willing to answer than she was when NumberMan asked a similar question.
TomahawkMan blinks, staring at her, and then he looks at ProtoMan. There's another silence for several moments, during which TomahawkMan simply stares, and ProtoMan looks almost intensely uncomfortable.
" . . . Huh," TomahawkMan eventually says. "Cool."
Lan's not the only one who gives him a shocked look.
"What?" TomahawkMan blinks back at them all. "Dingo's told me all sorts of stories from his old village - some of them were about cannibals, and they were awesome. In a, y'know, in a gruesome kinda way."
"The best stories from my old village are the gruesome ones," Dingo agrees, nodding wisely.
"Besides, it's not like he ate anyone we know, right?" TomahawkMan shrugs. "It was a Zoanoroid, anyway. Those guys technically aren't NetNavis, so . . . technically it wasn't cannibalism."
"I'm gonna go and find Serenade, they might want to give you a teleport token, too," Arcadia announces, and then immediately vanishes to do exactly that.
Meanwhile, ProtoMan is just staring at TomahawkMan, mismatched eyes wide. "Y-you really don't mind? That I- that I'm . . ."
"A cannibal?" TomahawkMan finishes. "Eh, it's kinda whatever. I stopped being surprised by all the weird stuff you are or do after I found out about the virus data thing. You could be a werewolf, too, for all I care. Which is arguably even cooler, actually. Are you a werewolf?"
"Maybe he's an alien," Dingo muses, before ProtoMan can respond.
"I'd have something to say about that, actually," TomahawkMan corrects himself. "An alien is a bit too much."
"We've met an alien, though!" Dingo protests.
"An alien god," TomahawkMan shoots back. "Which isn't the same thing, Dingo!"
"How is not the same thing!? They're both aliens!"
Mimic is giving them a look that suggests she's about two seconds away from saying her usual 'Duo is not a god' line. Probably the only reason she's not actually saying it is because she can't talk at the moment, though the deadpan look Chaud shoots at her makes Lan think she probably said it mentally.
"It's amazing how quickly the topic of conversation can shift with you lot," Raika comments idly, having stayed silent up until now. "Half a minute ago we came very close to invoking the wrath of a NetNavi who might just be one step away from being an actual god, and now we're talking about ProtoMan being an alien . . ."
"Honestly?" Lan shrugs helplessly. "I'm used to it by now."
Bass doesn't really admit this to anyone, but he has a list of NetNavis - and humans, too - who're okay. It's not mental, it's a literal list, because if it was mental, Arcadia would probably sense it the absolute second Bass thought of it in any detail, and he would rather keep this a secret because, frankly, it's kinda fucking embarrassing.
At the very top of that list are, of course, ProtoMan and Arcadia and their humans. Under them are MegaMan and Lan, and under them are SearchMan and Raika. There's also Dr. Hikari and Haruka, who're somewhere between MegaMan and Lan and SearchMan and Raika. Those are his top priorities for giving a shit.
The others are all just kinda . . . there. They're on the list, of course - they're all friends of Bass's friends, and he has to fucking tolerate them because if he doesn't he'll probably end up blasting one of them to the UnderNet or something, and that'd upset the ones he does care about. But his opinion of them depends largely on how they treat those who're at the top of the list.
When the others started avoiding ProtoMan for eating a Zoanoroid alive (and Bass is kinda sorry he didn't get to see that, because it sounds fucking awesome), Bass's opinion of them dropped, and there was a pretty decent gap on the list between them and those who're at the top.
But then TomahawkMan and his human Dingo revealed that they actually don't give a shit about ProtoMan apparently being a makerdamn cannibal and even think it's kinda cool.
So, obviously, that made Bass's opinion of them rise, and they're filling the gap on his list of 'people who're okay'. They're somewhere close to almost directly under SearchMan and Raika, and Bass finds himself not at all bothered at the sudden climb. Anyone who's fine with ProtoMan being ProtoMan deserves to be placed higher on that list.
He keeps his list in his inventory data, so as soon as he's on his own - all he had to do was wander off and no one questioned him, so it didn't take much effort - he takes it out and updates it. He can't suppress a little half-smile upon seeing the top of the list growing a little bit. Maybe TomahawkMan and Dingo aren't quite there yet, but if they don't do anything stupid like Roll and the others did, they can earn and keep their place.
"Mind if I ask what that is?"
Bass jumps and hastily stashes the list back into his inventory data, then he whirls around, ready with a scowl to snap at whatever fucking idiot decided to sneak up on him like that.
Crescendo is looking at him, head tilted, not at all put off by the scowl.
"What?" Bass snaps anyway.
"Sorry," Crescendo says, stepping back with a sheepish little smile. "I was just coming over to talk to ProtoMan, and then I noticed you over here, so . . ."
Bass glares at him suspiciously for a moment, but Crescendo doesn't say anything else. Doesn't seem like he saw what was on the list, otherwise he'd probably be commenting on it or something.
Hm . . . the cat's got a crush on this guy, doesn't he? Arcadia keeps bringing it up every time the conversation so much as drifts in that general direction, and Bass could see it for himself after the battle, it was that fucking obvious. As far as he can tell, Crescendo's got a crush on ProtoMan, too.
Maybe he should add Crescendo to the list, then. He has no fucking clue where this one would fit, but it'd definitely be somewhere in the top part of the list, not the bottom part with all the others who Bass just tolerates.
"None of your fucking business," he tells Crescendo. "Don't you have a cat to kiss or something?"
Crescendo blinks, and stupidly enough, there's actually a faint blush on his cheeks. That's just fucking dumb - he seemed perfectly fine earlier when he was making ProtoMan turn the colour of his own fucking armour, so why is the suggestion of kissing him making Crescendo blush like this? Ridiculous.
"Ah- I . . ." Crescendo trails off, and then coughs into his fist awkwardly. " . . . It's that obvious?"
Bass gives him an incredulous look. "What, were you actually trying to fucking hide it? Newsflash, idiot, the entire damn cyberworld knows you two have a crush on each other. Just fucking kiss him or ask him out already, fuck."
"Well, you . . . certainly have a foul mouth," Crescendo mutters.
"Oi, don't change the subject, do you wanna kiss the cat or not?"
"I . . . I do," Crescendo admits, with a faint sigh. He glances over his shoulder at the other Navis, or more specifically at ProtoMan, who's listening to TomahawkMan animatedly ramble about something with no signs of stopping any time soon. "I just . . ."
"He's got a thing for you, too," Bass informs him, because he's not the kind of dumbass who likes to sit back and watch the stupidity unfold. "Look, there's two humans in this stupid group who dance around each other so much it's fucking sickening just looking at them, so I don't wanna see you and ProtoMan doing the same fucking thing. You wanna kiss him, kiss him. You wanna ask him out, fucking ask him out."
"Have you given ProtoMan the same advice?" Crescendo asks, turning back to look at him.
"No," Bass admits. "But that's mostly because the cat would probably just try and delete me if I brought it up. He keeps attacking Arcadia every time he does, and like it or not, ProtoMan's a lot more powerful than I am. I happen to enjoy living, thanks."
"So you're telling me instead, because I can't fight."
"Congratulations, you're a fucking genius. Now are you gonna ask him out or not?"
" . . . I will," Crescendo eventually says, after a short pause. "But . . . not right now, I think."
"Why the fuck-" Bass starts to demand, but Crescendo holds up a hand and he stops.
"There's too much going on," the Virus Navi explains. "I don't want to distract him when he's trying to fight these . . . Zoanoroids, or whatever they are. He's one of their targets, isn't he? The way things are now . . . I just don't want to risk him being hurt."
" . . . Fine," Bass sighs, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "You do you, I guess. Or you do ProtoMan, whatever the fuck."
That makes the faint blush on Crescendo's face deepen a little bit. "I don't think NetNavis are capable of doing that . . ."
"Doing wha-" Bass blinks as realisation dawns on him. " . . . Oh. Yeah, uh . . . never mind, just pretend I didn't say that."
Crescendo nods awkwardly.
Thanks to the help from all the Village Navis, their numbers have grown quite a lot - to the point where Dad thinks they may not even need to rebuild the play-castle or the barrier surrounding it. Serenade themself has said that they'll personally see to MegaMan, Trill, and ProtoMan's protection, which is as good as guaranteeing that the Zoanoroids will never touch them.
Except things don't work out that way. Things never work out the way anyone wants them to, because they can't control what the Zoanoroids do, and if they could do that, they wouldn't need to bother with any of this in the first place.
"Dr. Hikari!" a harassed-looking scientist stumbles into the room, out of breath and gasping for air. "Dr. Hikari, there- there are Zoanoroids attacking the city!"
"What!?" Dad seems completely shocked for a moment, but he blinks and appears to come to his senses. "Give me the details, now."
The scientist takes a moment to gasp in a bit more air. "They . . . they started materialising all over the place. They all look similar - we think they might be Gregar foot soldiers, judging by their appearance."
"The Gregar army must have stashed tons of CopyBots across the city," Manabe speaks up, frowning. "We have to stop them."
Kifune grunts his agreement, grave-faced. "Take as many officers as we can spare - and make sure they're all equipped with Hyper-Magnetrons."
Manabe nods and calls together the officers in the main room, and then rushes out to collect more from across SciLab.
Lan itches to go and help, but he forces himself to stay put. This is exactly why they had Makoto making all those Hyper-Magnetrons in the first place, and the Net Police officers should be able to handle the Zoanoroid foot soldiers. Besides that, his own NetNavi is one of the targets these Zoanoroids are after, so going out there to fight would be as good as handing MegaMan over to them. He's not willing to endanger MegaMan like that.
He's suddenly distracted by a tug on his sleeve, and glances at Mimic, who looks pretty worried. Anything that worries her is definitely bad, so Lan is even more tense upon seeing that expression.
"What's wrong?" he asks.
[where are dark and guts] Mimic signs.
It takes a moment to work that out, and he realises that she's right - there are Gregar foot soldiers attacking the city, but there's been no mention of Zoano DarkMan or Zoano GutsMan. Arcadia confirmed that Zoano GutsMan somehow managed to slip away from him, which isn't entirely his fault because he was kinda angry at the time and hardly anyone can actually pay attention to what they're doing when they're angry, and Zoano DarkMan bailed out of the fight as soon as the Village Navis arrived.
"Dad-" Lan begins, about to warn him.
An alarm screeches, cutting him off, and Lan automatically reaches out and pulls Mimic behind him. Nearby, Chaud is looking around wildly, teeth bared, and the other volunteer operators are kinda freaking out, too.
"The Falzar army has invaded the network again!" Famous exclaims, looking up from the console.
"Dammit," Dad mutters, scowling up at the main screen. The image has changed now, and is showing an absolutely absurd amount of Falzar foot soldiers and Beast viruses, all lead by Zoano SnakeMan, who's coming back for a third attempt.
"Get MegaMan and ProtoMan out of the network, now," Kifune orders, looking at Lan and Mimic.
"What?" Lan almost gapes at him. "But what about-"
"The Zoanoroids are already attacking the city, it doesn't matter anymore," Kifune interrupts. "Leaving MegaMan and ProtoMan inside the network will just needlessly put them in danger. Jack them out, now!"
"Do as he says," Famous adds, when Lan and Mimic still hesitate. "They'll be safer in your PETs right now."
Mimic is the first to move, taking out her PET and immediately jacking ProtoMan out of SciLab's network. His flickering Navi-hologram appears on her shoulder a moment later, looking very worried, and Lan quickly follows his sister's lead and jacks MegaMan - and Trill - out of the network as well.
Chaud wordlessly jacks Arcadia out of the network right after, and Bass follows quickly. Lan can understand the logic behind that - if the Zoanoroids decide to attack SciLab in the real world right now, the only actual defence they're going to have is Cross Fusion and Bass's ability to materialise himself in a dimensional area. Most, if not all, of the Net Police officers have gone off with Manabe to fight the Gregar foot soldiers in the city.
"SearchMan, you come back too," Raika says, also jacking his own Navi out.
"Um, hey, I hate to be that guy, but . . ." Dingo winces when everyone turns to look at him. "Where's Zoano DarkMan and the other GutsMan?"
"Oh, no," Dad says, eyes widening, and then the doors are blown open with a colossal explosion.
Lan whirls around and grabs Mimic and Chaud, throwing himself over them, and is just barely aware of everyone else scrambling out of the way as well. The doors slam into the main screen and smash it to pieces, cutting off their view of the network, but the two Zoanoroids standing in the gaping doorway are much more concerning at the moment.
"If we cannot take them in the cyberworld, we will take them in the real world," Zoano GutsMan declares.
Dex makes an odd noise that sounds like a balloon deflating, staring at the Beyondard counterpart of his own NetNavi. Mimic and Chaud would probably be able to sympathise with his obvious shock, because the first doppelganger Zoanoroid they came across was Zoano ProtoMan.
"Which of you are the human operators of MegaMan and ProtoMan?" Zoano DarkMan demands, floating a few paces into the room.
Lan keeps his siblings behind him, arms out to shield them, even though he's technically one of the targets right now. Call him crazy, but he'd rather have the Zoanoroids coming after him than trying to attack the twins.
MegaMan turns to Trill, evidently thinking along the same lines. "Go into sleep-mode, we might need to use Cross Fusion soon," he quickly mutters. Trill nods, looking absolutely terrified, and he vanishes from MegaMan's side and into Lan's PET.
"They're not here," Dad calls, pulling himself to feet and glaring at the Zoanoroids. "We put the operators as far away from here as possible, and now their NetNavis are with them. You're too late!"
"You are lying," Zoano DarkMan says, and Dad jolts like he's been shocked. "We can detect the data signatures of MegaMan and ProtoMan in this room."
His head turns slowly, eyes flashing, and Lan steps back, pushing his siblings further back, when Zoano DarkMan's gaze rests on them. Too late does Lan realise they probably should've gotten their Navis to go back into the PETs, too, because having MegaMan on his shoulder is a pretty big giveaway.
"Them," Zoano DarkMan declares.
Zoano GutsMan lets out a roar and immediately uses Beast Out, and Dad jumps into action.
"Dimensional area, activate!" he snaps out, slamming his hand down on the button.
Lan's first instinct is to use Cross Fusion as soon as the dimensional area has formed, so that's what he does, regardless of his original thoughts of putting MegaMan in danger. Right now, there are two powerful Zoanoroids standing in the room, and only four of the humans here are able to fight back - they can't afford to cut that number in half, not when Dad and everyone else are in danger, too.
Mimic and Chaud dart past him as soon as they Cross Fuse, and Lan barely even waits for the light of his own Cross Fusion to die down before activating his Mega Buster and unleashing a flurry of blasts at Zoano GutsMan. His siblings run under and fly over his attacks and slam into the Zoanoroid at the same time, sending him flying back.
Another burst of light from nearby heralds Raika using Cross Fusion as well, and Lan allows himself a brief moment to be happy that all four of the Cross Fusion Net Savers can finally fight together again. Raika's still got SearchMan's machine gun function active from the previous battle, so he opens fire and manages to push both Zoanoroids back a little bit.
And then Bass announces his arrival with an Earthbreaker that sends the two Zoanoroids crashing through several walls until they're both outside.
"Can you try not to break the building, kids?" Dad shouts after them, as the five of them give chase.
"We'll try not to!" Lan calls back, at the same time that Mimic says, "No promises!"
Mimic and Chaud get there first, predictably. They split up by some unspoken agreement - probably mental agreement, actually - and bodily slam into the Zoanoroids, sending them skidding further back and sending puffs of snow up from their feet. The twins break off immediately, leaving Zoano DarkMan and Zoano GutsMan wide open for another attack.
Lan happily obliges. "Spreader!" he snaps, and fires as soon as the weapon materialises on his arm.
He aims for Zoano DarkMan since he's the more dangerous of the two, but the Spreader does exactly what the name implies and the damage spreads to Zoano GutsMan, too, forcing both of them further back. Get these Zoanoroids as far away from the building as possible and hopefully none of the humans will be in danger.
Raika follows up with a hastily-downloaded Machine Gun, which doesn't push the Zoanoroids back, but it does make them stop and try to defend themselves against the onslaught of rapid-fire blasts. Bass rushes in under the Machine Gun fire with yellow energy glowing in his palms, and then unleashes point-blank Shooting Star blasts right in the Zoanoroids' faces before darting away.
"Killer's Beam!" Zoano DarkMan shouts, throwing out his cloak.
"Watch out!" MegaMan quickly warns Lan, giving him a flash of memory - the previous battle in the network, and Zoano DarkMan using that exact same attack, which looks kinda ridiculous but it's still powerful enough to blow up the ground.
"Reflector!" Lan slams his hand down on the ground and lets the helmet materialise around him, and the Killer's Beam bounces off it and goes straight back at Zoano DarkMan.
Unfortunately, Mimic used that same tactic in the previous battle, so Zoano DarkMan is already prepared for it. He rips open one of his portals and steps into it, and Zoano GutsMan, who doesn't have that ability, simply thunders out of the way and heads straight for Mimic with a loud bellow.
Chaud dive-bombs him from above, quite literally bombing him with a Firebomb, and Mimic darts between Zoano GutsMan's legs, letting her trailing shadows whip at them as she passes under him.
Satisfied that the twins have got Zoano GutsMan handled between them, Lan turns his full attention to Zoano DarkMan, who's stepping out of a portal nearby, cloak already flapping out.
"Ice Wave!" the Zoanoroid shouts.
A blast of cold air shoots out in a visible wave, heading straight for Lan, but before he can even consider jumping out of the way or even attacking back, Raika darts in front of him and raises his arm.
"Fire Burn!" he snaps, and a flamethrower that kinda reminds Lan of Arcadia's Flashfire except the normal red colour instead of white roars out of his weapon.
The Ice Wave is melted before it even gets close to Lan, and Bass hurls multiple Hell's Rollings at Zoano DarkMan, keeping him busy and evidently venting some frustration at the same time, judging by the half-mad grin on his face.
"Thanks," Lan says to Raika.
"You're one of his targets, remember," Raika tells him, glancing over his shoulder. "Mimic is fast enough to dodge most anything they can throw at her, but you aren't. Don't put yourself in danger if you can avoid it, got it?"
Lan puffs his cheeks out, a little annoyed, but he can tell that Raika's stern scolding is coming from very obvious worry, so he's not as annoyed as he would've been otherwise.
"Got it," Lan agrees. He raises his arm and aims at Zoano DarkMan. "Mega Cannon!"
Yuichiro would rather not have any of his kids in the middle of this mess right now, but the sad fact is, they're literally the only ones who can fight at the moment. Most of SciLab's defences are network-based or inside the building itself, and the kids have managed to drag the battle outside, no doubt trying to keep the humans out of harm's way.
And aside from that, he and Famous are having to spend all their energy focusing on the battle going on in the network. It's more like a full-scale war at this point, which is essentially what this entire thing is, so that's not an entirely inaccurate description.
Even with the help of the Village Navis, they're struggling. Most of the police Navis have left with their operators - not all of the Zoanoroid foot soldiers attacking the city are actually in the real world, after all, there are quite a few attacking via the cyberworld as well - and a lot of them were deleted in the previous attack, along with a good number of SciLab's security Navis.
To put it bluntly, they're struggling. Three separate attacks - one in the city, one in the network, and one that involves all of his kids, all happening at the same time. His attention is divided and even with Famous's expert help, not to mention the scientists who work under them, it's difficult to keep up.
"The Gregar Zoanoroids likely used the foot soldiers as a distraction," Kifune is saying. He's the head of the Net Police, but he's no good with this level of technological skill, so he can't do much at the moment.
"It worked well enough," Yuichiro replies tightly. "Dammit, I can't connect to visuals . . ."
"Do you think they were aiming for this?" Famous wonders, glancing up at the destroyed screen.
"Most likely," Yuichiro mutters. "If they weren't, it was a good shot either way. Good for them, bad for us."
He's about to try something else when two NetNavis materialise in the main room. Everyone left is immediately on-guard, but they pause when they realise the newcomers aren't Zoanoroids.
One of them is the black-armoured Virus Navi called . . . Crescendo, Yuichiro thinks it was. He's tall, almost as tall as Yuichiro himself, but his companion is much smaller and has a fairly plain design in comparison.
"Dr. Hikari?" Crescendo asks.
"That's me," Yuichiro replies, raising a hand. No need to ask how these two got into the real world - the same way Bass did, of course. The one thing all of the Village Navis have in common is that they're all independent Navis, according to Mimic and Chaud.
Crescendo nods. "Serenade sent us to help you with the network visuals. Well, they sent Echo."
The smaller Navi waves.
"And you're here because . . . ?" Famous trails off, leaving room for an answer.
Crescendo glances at the massive hole in the room, looking out at the battle taking place outside.
Yuichiro abruptly remembers something he witnessed at the end of the previous battle. ProtoMan was with this NetNavi, and they both seemed to be . . . well, for lack of better words, they looked like they were flirting with each other. Or Crescendo was flirting with an increasingly-flustered ProtoMan, at least, who definitely seemed to be enjoying the attention.
Yuichiro is married. He loves Haruka, and the only thing he loves just as much as her are their children. So he understands the obvious attraction between ProtoMan and Crescendo, even if he's still somewhat surprised at the idea of NetNavis being romantically involved with each other.
But perhaps he shouldn't be surprised. After all, NetNavis were created by humans, to have human emotions and their own free will. Of course romantic love would be among those emotions.
"He's alright," Yuichiro tells Crescendo, and the Navi jerks his head around, eyes wide. "He's Cross Fused with Mimic right now - they're a good pair. Don't worry."
" . . . It's hard not to," Crescendo admits quietly.
Beside him, the Navi called Echo rolls his eyes and wordlessly steps up to the console, reaching out to nudge Famous's hands out of the way so he can work on it instead. Yuichiro's first instinctive reaction is to wonder if Echo is a Virus Navi and whether or not his virus data would cause any problems with the real world, but Echo seems to know exactly what he's doing and Yuichiro has to admit he's actually impressed.
Within moments, a holographic screen flickers into sight above the console, showing an overhead view of the battle. The image is moving, not static, and it's moving in such a way that makes Yuichiro think perhaps this is an image from a sentient computer program rather than a program made for visuals.
Echo leans back and gets Yuichiro's attention, then signs. [PEAKO has camera data will provide sight] he explains. [connect to PEAKO he stays above battle for you]
"Peako . . . ?" Yuichiro repeats, bewildered by both the unfamiliar name - because it's obviously a name - and the sign language.
[bird NAVI] Echo tells him. [used to work with films]
"Oh." Well, Yuichiro's not going to say 'no' to the offered assistance, no matter how unconventional it is.
"What's going on?" Famous mutters, nudging him.
Yuichiro abruptly remembers that Famous doesn't know sign language. "He said a NetNavi called Peako can provide visuals for us," he explains.
"Ah." Famous's expression clears. "That'll definitely be useful. Thank you, er . . . Echo, was it?"
The apparently-mute NetNavi nods. Yuichiro wonders if he is indeed a Virus Navi, and if his virus data makes him mute for some reason.
There's a sudden sound like paper being torn behind them, and Yuichiro turns around, puzzled. That puzzlement turns to shock when he sees a black portal opening up near the wall, where the volunteer operators - all of them his kids' friends, including the NetNavi girl Iris - are huddling.
A giant hand reaches out of the portal, grasping at them, and Iris steps forward with a determined frown and raises her own hand. Light flashes and suddenly a pale blue barrier is stopping the giant hand from moving any further, much to the shock of everyone who didn't already know about Iris being a NetNavi.
Yuichiro has absolutely no idea what's going on, but he recognises that hand as the thing that almost crushed ProtoMan before the Village Navis showed up. And he knows it came from Zoano DarkMan.
"Get away, now!" he shouts at the volunteer operators.
Most of them do as they're told. The only one who doesn't is Iris, because she's still holding off the hand.
It suddenly opens and slams clawed fingers into Iris's barrier, sending sparks flying. She winces, the barrier flickers, and then it shatters all at once as the hand grabs her.
"Iris!" Maylu cries out, darting forward before any of the others can stop her.
She wraps her arms around a finger on the giant hand and tries to pull it off, but she can't make it move. Then Dingo comes forward, a small axe in his hand - and Yuichiro is a little more than alarmed at that, because what child carries around an actual axe? - and tries to hack the giant hand open, but all he gets for his efforts is his axe stuck in the flesh.
The hand retreats back into the portal, still clutching Iris, dragging Maylu and Dingo with it, and the portal vanishes.
Raika would very much like for things to start making sense again, but 'making sense' was thrown out the window when the damn Darkloids showed up, and that was months ago. His life is insane and he has to accept that, now.
For example, shooting a machine gun variant of his NetNavi's Scope Gun at the face of a teleporting Zoanoroid with no visible arms is arguably not the craziest thing that's happened to him so far. It's up there, yes, but it's not the craziest thing.
They have the Zoanoroids on the ropes, now. Mimic and Chaud are almost finished with Zoano GutsMan - he may be using Beast Out at the moment, but the combined onslaught of the two Cross Fusion NetNavis who're arguably the most powerful and definitely the most insane out of every Cross Fusion member is too much for anyone to bear for very long. Meanwhile, Raika, Lan, and Bass aren't giving Zoano DarkMan a moment to rest, because if they let him, he'll use his portals to kidnap either Mimic or Lan and that is not an ideal outcome for any of them.
"Dark Arm Blade!" Bass snaps.
"Long Blade!" Lan cries at the same time.
Raika almost tells Lan to stay the hell away from Zoano DarkMan, but he and Bass are in and out as quick as a flash - Bass by blasting his way out, adding insult to injury, and Lan by downloading an Area Steal as soon as he slashes with the Long Blade. Well, at least there's that.
"Super Vulcan!" Raika announces, quickly discarding his Scope Gun and aiming as the weapon materialises on his arm.
He makes sure Lan and Bass are well clear before opening fire, and Zoano DarkMan is lost in an explosion of snow and blaster fire. The Super Vulcan lets Raika do more damage than the machine gun function of Scope Gun, but it doesn't last forever, so he has to stop firing when the Super Vulcan overheats and then banishes it from his arm because it's no longer useful.
Raika quickly picks up his discarded Scope Gun, takes aim, and then jumps when Zoano GutsMan lands between him and the cloud of snow obscuring Zoano DarkMan from sight.
Mimic slams into Zoano GutsMan's chest, digging her foot-claws into his armour, and starts tearing into him. It's almost too brutal to watch, but then Chaud unleashes a blast of Holy Fire and quite literally melts Zoano GutsMan's head off, so Raika has to rethink what he considers brutal and reminds himself that the twins are insane and leaves it at that.
With his head gone, Zoano GutsMan is hardly more than a dying computer program in a CopyBot, and Mimic puts him out of his misery by sending the sharpened ends of every single tendril of her shadows stabbing into his chest. She jumps clear just as the CopyBot begins to blow up, taking Zoano GutsMan with it, and she and Chaud refocus their attention on Zoano DarkMan.
"We know you're still there," Chaud calls. The twins' apparent muteness has been fixed by Cross Fusion, apparently, which Raika finds . . . oddly convenient. Whatever works, he supposes. "I can sense you."
"May as well give up now, you fucker!" Mimic adds gleefully, bouncing up and down in the snow like an excited kitten. Raika would say 'puppy', but she and ProtoMan would probably take offence to that.
"Could you two please not taunt the teleporting Zoanoroid?" Raika asks irritably.
"But it's fun," the twins complain.
Raika sighs heavily and wonders why in the hell his first actual friends are all complete lunatics.
The silence from the cloud of snow is a little worrying, though, and his attention is drawn to it. As is his suspicion. In his experience, an enemy out of sight and silent is never a good thing. The only warning they're going to have if Zoano DarkMan tries to teleport behind them or something is Chaud's Empath Program, and since Chaud has just confirmed that Zoano DarkMan is still there . . .
Raika raises his Scope Gun again. "Zoano DarkMan!" he calls. "Show yourself, now!"
"Ice Wave!"
That's not the answer he was hoping for.
Raika braces himself for the attack, seeing the others do the same. Chaud literally covers himself and Mimic in his wings - of course, Mimic is more vulnerable to the cold in ProtoMan's Cross Fusion - and Bass simply covers his face with part of his cloak. Lan just drops down and covers his head with his hands.
The Ice Wave dies down quickly, thankfully, and it also had the added effect of blasting away the snow cloud, so now they have full view of Zoano DarkMan.
Except there's a portal next to him, and a giant hand is reaching out of it. Clutched in that hand is the Navi girl Iris, and hanging on for dear life are Maylu and Dingo, who appear to have been trying to free Iris before the hand took all three of them.
"Maylu!" Lan cries, jumping to his feet. "Dingo! Iris!"
"Let them go, now!" Raika snaps, switching his Scope Gun's function back to sniper. If he has to shoot Zoano DarkMan to free them, he'll need precision.
"I think not," Zoano DarkMan replies. "You understand what this is, yes?"
"A hostage situation," Chaud answers, cold and calm even though his eyes are nearly burning with anger.
"Correct," the Zoanoroid says. The portal rises higher, taking the trio of humans - well, the two humans and one NetNavi - up into the air. Maylu squeaks and clings tighter to the hand, and Dingo almost falls off before he manages to get a better grip on his tomahawk. "I propose a trade. You have something I want, and I have something you want. Hand over MegaMan and ProtoMan, and I will release these humans."
Raika's first instinct is to tell the Zoanoroid to shove it, but his second is to rescue the hostages, and those two instincts end up clashing. That leads to him unable to do anything but grit his teeth and keep his Scope Gun trained on Zoano DarkMan.
"How do we know you will?" Lan demands. "You Zoanoroids aren't exactly known for being honourable or anything!"
"Perhaps most of my brethren aren't," Zoano DarkMan admits. "Those in the Falzar army are particularly savage. But I believe in civility when possible-" Mimic snorts disbelievingly. "-so I will keep my word. If you hand over MegaMan and ProtoMan, these humans will be released."
"Unharmed?" Chaud speaks up, eyes narrow. "You'll put them on the ground, without just letting them drop?"
Zoano DarkMan is quiet for a moment. "You are an oddly perceptive human," he eventually says. "Yes, they will be unharmed."
"Fine."
Raika snaps his head around to gape at him, as do Lan and Bass. But Chaud doesn't even look at them - he simply gestures to Mimic, and she starts forward, on all fours, creeping like a nervous cat.
"What are you doing!?" Lan demands.
Chaud still doesn't look at him. He keeps his gaze fixed on Zoano DarkMan, and then his eyes flick to the side very briefly.
It's only noticeable enough for those on their own side to actually see, because Zoano DarkMan is entirely focused on Mimic creeping across the ground. Raika sees movement in the shadows, a pair of glowing white eyes, and realises Dark Shadow is moving parallel to her.
Oh, Raika thinks, so that's their plan.
Lan and Bass have noticed too, and they immediately turn away to avoid giving Dark Shadow away. Not that their sudden lack of complaining has been noticed by Zoano DarkMan - he's still focused entirely on Mimic.
By now, Mimic has gotten close enough for Zoano DarkMan to just reach out and touch her if he actually had arms (maybe he does and maybe he doesn't, Raika has no idea). He starts hovering down, also lowering the portal with the hand, but stops just shy of actually touching the ground.
"Both of them, if you please," Zoano DarkMan says, looking up. Mimic stops where she's crouching, looking up at him. "I will not release these humans unless I have-"
Shadows wrap around him so suddenly that Raika actually jumps, even though he was expecting something like this. Zoano DarkMan utters a startled cry and is dragged back, and his portal starts flickering, apparently becoming unstable.
Raika raises his Scope Gun to shoot the hand, but Mimic is already ahead of him. She jumps onto it, starts tearing into it with claws and teeth until the fingers open, and Chaud shoots forward and manages to grab all three hostages before they can even hit the ground. The only reason he manages it is because he catches Iris in his arms and grabs Maylu and Dingo in his talons, but even if he's technically a NetNavi at the moment, he still struggles with three people to carry.
Lan darts over and under him, raising his arms, and Chaud lets Dingo drop first. Lan catches him easily, then does the same for a very relieved Maylu, and Chaud lowers himself down and sets Iris onto the snow-covered ground himself.
"You guys okay?" Lan asks, as Raika runs up with Bass.
"I don't like teleporting," Maylu says, looking faintly green.
"Get back inside," Raika tells them, because he can see Zoano DarkMan struggling free of Mimic's shadows. "Now, before he tries to grab you again!"
The same trick won't work twice, and Zoano DarkMan might actually kill them if he gets his hands on them a second time. They can't afford a second hostage situation - they have to defeat Zoano DarkMan now, before the Falzar army decides to bust out their own CopyBots and make things even harder.
"Flame Tower!" Zoano DarkMan roars, unleashing the towering flames without needing to blow out his cloak. Maybe he just does it for the flair, then.
Mimic's shadows immediately let go and come back over to her, and Raika steps forward with Lan as the Flame Tower comes roaring towards the group.
"Life Aura!" they cry in unison, slamming their hands onto the ground.
The barrier shimmers into existence just in time to stop the Flame Tower, and it splutters out and dies quickly. Raika is a little puzzled for a moment, because he'd expected a much stronger attack, but then he hears the sound of tearing paper behind him and whirls around.
There's a portal directly above Mimic, and before she can scramble away, a giant hand reaches out and snatches her. Chaud lets out a wordless cry and darts forward to try and save her, but the hand vanishes into the portal and takes Mimic with it.
"No!" Lan cries, whirling around to face Zoano DarkMan again. "No! Mimic!"
Zoano DarkMan laughs darkly, and another portal appears beside him. The hand comes out and deposits Mimic into his cloak - it looks like he's using arms, even if they can't see them, which doesn't make sense at all and Raika is focusing on the entirely wrong thing right now - and she struggles, clawing and biting, shadows whipping, but Zoano DarkMan just laughs and ignores everything she does.
"One is better than none!" the Zoanoroid crows triumphantly. "Lord Gregar will be pleased with the demon, at least!"
"Give her back!" Chaud nearly shrieks, Holy Fire sparking and flowing from him like a firestorm.
"I think not."
Something floats out of Zoano DarkMan's cloak, and whatever it is, it makes Mimic stop struggling as soon as she sees it. Raika can't see her eyes through the blue-tinted visor, but he recognises a look of horror when he sees it, and for a moment he can't figure out why she would be so horrified at the sight of a small metal ball.
Then the ball floats high into the air and splits in half, revealing some sort of mechanism inside, and black energy sparks from it. Something like red light flows out of the ends, covering the entire area in the colour, and then there's an odd wave of energy.
A Fossa Ambience tears open in mid-air, and suddenly Raika understands why Mimic is so horrified.
Zoano DarkMan rises up toward it, apparently of his own will, but there's an odd kind of pull that seems to be trying to suck everything into it. This isn't anything like the Fossa Ambience that Chaud, Arcadia, and Bass described from the military base - it's got far more power, and it was made right in front of their eyes.
"Chaud!" Mimic shouts, struggling enough to get one arm out, but all she can do is reach out toward her twin.
Chaud immediately takes into the air, Holy Fire blasting out in all directions, but he's too late. Zoano DarkMan touches the Fossa Ambience, and an explosion of energy blasts out, nearly sending Chaud slamming into the ground. A CopyBot falls out from Zoano DarkMan's body, but he's still there, and abruptly Raika remembers what Mimic told them about Beyondard.
Beings of data are able to materialise in that reality. The opening of a Fossa Ambience in the real world is merging the two different realities enough to allow Zoano DarkMan to exist even without a CopyBot body.
Zoano DarkMan's laughter fades as he vanishes into the Fossa Ambience, taking Mimic with him, and Chaud lets out an agonised and half-mad screech and flies after them.
"Wait, no, Chaud!" Lan cries, starting forward, but Chaud flies straight into the Fossa Ambience without looking back.
"Oh, god," Raika breathes, almost dropping his Scope Gun as he slumps. "Oh no, no . . ."
The pull from the Fossa Ambience intensifies, and suddenly Raika finds himself in the air. He nearly panics, flailing around, only just barely aware of the others doing the same - Lan, Bass, Maylu, Dingo, and Iris, all of them being pulled into the Fossa Ambience the same as Raika.
They can't resist it, and the last thing Raika sees is a flash of brilliant white and odd shifting colours before everything goes dark.
