He creeps through the undergrowth, keeping his eyes fixed on his prey even as his body moves parallel to it, shadows shifting unnaturally to help him hide. The deer has absolutely no idea that he's here - he makes sure of it, stepping so lightly that his hands and feet make no sound, and he gets closer and closer, circling around to the best position until, finally, he's exactly where his instincts tell him he needs to be.
He crouches, shifting his haunches from side to side, adjusting his footing so he can get his leap perfect. He'll only get one shot at this - he's fast, yeah, but if the prey starts running he might have to get messy with the kill, and that might end up being wasteful. He needs to keep as much of the deer's meat as he can.
Once he's satisfied with the position of his footing, his focuses his full attention on the deer, bunching his muscles up, tensing his entire body-
And ProtoMan springs out of the undergrowth with an ear-piercing shriek.
The deer's head jerks up, startled, but it's too late - ProtoMan's already on top of it. His claws dig into the deer's back and it bucks, trying to throw him off, but his shadows whip out from the undergrowth after him and trip the deer over. Before it can get back up, ProtoMan claws his way over its body and sinks his teeth into its neck, tearing the flesh open.
Warm blood spills out, seeping into his mouth. It tastes way different to data-blood - he's not sure which he prefers, but his cat instincts make him feel like he wants to purr at the feeling of real blood in his mouth, and he has to squash down the urge to keep going, to continue biting into his dying prey and consume it for himself.
This isn't for him. He can eat this stuff, yeah, but he doesn't need to - his operator, on the other hand, does need to.
ProtoMan raises his head, reluctantly dragging his mouth away from the deer's neck. Its struggles are getting weaker as its lifeblood drains from its neck, and again he's tempted to sink his teeth in and eat the whole thing for himself, but he resists the urge.
He does satisfy himself by licking his lips clean of the blood, though. That helps, a bit. Kinda makes him wanna eat the deer even more, but he can sorta temper the urge a bit better this time.
His shadows form up into Dark Shadow, and it snaps its claws out to shred open the rest of the deer's neck. The deer gives one last jerk and then goes still, finally dead.
Take back now? Dark Shadow asks, looking at ProtoMan. Its claws don't have any blood on them despite using them to tear open the deer's neck - the perks of being made of shadows, ProtoMan supposes.
Yeah, he replies, slipping off the dead deer's back. He shakes himself out, hair bushing up to spikes for a brief moment before it settles back down to its usual messiness. I kinda wanna drag it back myself . . .
Dark Shadow looks at him, somehow managing to convey exasperation even without an expression. Last time host almost ate prey, it reminds him.
I won't this time! ProtoMan protests, but Dark Shadow remains unmoved. Promise!
Dark Shadow continues to look at him.
After several moments, ProtoMan sighs heavily and slumps, reaching up to wipe the rest of the blood off his mouth with the back of his gloved hand. Fine, fine, I probably will, he mutters petulantly. You take it back, then.
Dark Shadow nods and raises its arms, which split into tendrils that snake out and pick up the dead deer. It opens its split-mouth impossibly wide and slips the deer inside, and the carcass vanishes without a trace. If Dark Shadow were an actual NetNavi or even a flesh and blood creature, it would never have been able to do that.
ProtoMan's still tempted to take the deer and drag it back himself. There's just something about dragging back freshly-killed prey that makes him nearly tremble with excited anticipation, especially since he'll be dragging it back to feed Mimic. But he knows if he tries, he'll just get tempted to eat it, and then Bass will tell him off again because it's supposed to be for Mimic, not himself.
He darts through the forest, not bothering to be stealthy this time. No point since he's not hunting anymore. Dark Shadow bursts into tendrils and whips along after him, coiling around trees and branches and rustling leaves as they go, and eventually ProtoMan gets bored of just running along the ground so he claws his way up a tree and continues like that.
He makes it back within half a minute, which is kind of a shame since he was enjoying that run, but as soon as he sees Mimic he immediately breaks out into a purr even before his feet touch the ground. She heard him coming and she reaches out to him, welcoming him back with literal open arms.
ProtoMan's purring gets louder and he pulls her into a hug, rubbing his cheek against the top of her head, and his tongue flicks out and he draws it across her hair.
"You morons are so sweet it's fucking sickening," Bass comments idly.
"You're just jealous I'm not licking you," ProtoMan retorts, looking up from Mimic long enough to flash him a sharp-toothed grin.
"Yeah," Mimic agrees smugly, snuggling into ProtoMan happily. "Y'just jelly."
"What the fuck."
"Jealous," Mimic clarifies. "Jelly."
Bass rolls his eyes and goes back to trying to start a fire. He's been trying to start a fire since before ProtoMan left. Then again, that wasn't too long ago, so . . .
"I got a deer!" ProtoMan tells Mimic, grinning down at her. He feels warm right down to his core when her eyes light up. "It's really big, seriously." He glances at his shadows, drifting around nearby in a loose knot. "Show her!"
His shadows dutifully deposit the dead deer onto the ground, and Mimic bounces excitedly.
"You're probably the only NetNavi who's ever actually hunted something that's got a proper heartbeat," Bass says, looking up from his not-yet-a-fire again.
"Yep!" ProtoMan agrees cheerfully, letting Mimic slip out of his arms so she can poke at the still-warm carcass. "I'm totally unique!"
"In more than one way," Bass mutters, but ProtoMan hears him anyway, so he just flashes another grin and Bass huffs good-naturedly and turns back to his not-yet-a-fire.
Once Bass eventually manages to get the fire going, he creates one of his Dark Arm Blades and ProtoMan drags the deer over so he can skin it. Turns out Bass is surprisingly good at skinning the things that ProtoMan hunts, which is good because when ProtoMan tried it, he ended up gutting the carcass instead and that was just confusing as hell, and it didn't help that Mimic nearly laughed herself sick at how badly he fucked up.
But even if ProtoMan's absolutely shit at skinning the things he hunts, he's really good at slicing them up, so when Bass is done skinning the deer, ProtoMan cuts the meat off its bones - his shadows swallow up the pieces so they don't go on the ground, which is something they figured out is a bad idea after getting sand and dirt all over some random unknown animal that ProtoMan hunted down back in the desert wasteland.
Mimic's the only one with any actual experience in cooking, though her experience is limited to various flavours of noodles and almost burning down Anetta's kitchen every so often. But she knows enough to know how to make deer meat somewhat edible, or at least edible for herself, and ProtoMan's perfectly happy to eat the meat raw even if he doesn't need to eat, and Bass doesn't even bother eating, he just puts himself on watch while they're enjoying their meal.
"What's this place we're trying to get to, again?" ProtoMan asks, after they settle down. It's not quite night-time yet, but they've been travelling all day, and even Mimic has her limits.
She's sitting on his lap, her back warm against his chest, steadily tearing into one of the pieces of meat she cooked earlier. He's just resting his chin on her head, content to watch her eat, because he's had his fill and knowing that his operator is full-fed and happy makes him happy, too.
He's a simple Navi, who likes simple things. His operator being happy is one of those simple things. Now, if only his other operator and his brother were here, too . . .
"A fishin' village," Mimic replies, mouth half-full of deer. She swallows and continues talking. "Didn't get named, I don't think, but I know it's somewhere . . ." She leans the back of her head against ProtoMan's chest as she thinks. "Up north, I think it was. Baryl told Lan to go that way, I remember."
"North?" Bass pauses and glances over at them from where he's pacing on the other side of the fire. "Which way's that?"
"Fuck if I know," Mimic replies, sinking her teeth into the piece of deer again.
"Oh, that's wonderful," Bass says sarcastically. "You know where we've gotta go, but you don't have a clue as to which direction we need to fucking go in. That's really useful, that is."
"M'not a fuckin' compass," Mimic retorts.
"Neither am I," Bass shoots back. "I never downloaded a damn compass program, you know. I don't know which way's north any more than you do!"
"That's fine." Mimic shrugs. She stuffs the rest of the meat into her mouth, eats it in record time, then raises her arms over her head and wraps them around ProtoMan's neck. "ProtoMan can navigate!"
"I dunno which way's north, either," ProtoMan says.
Mimic freezes.
"Doesn't the PET have a built-in compass?" Bass asks, frowning.
"Well, yeah . . ." ProtoMan wraps his arms around Mimic's waist and purses his lips, suddenly very awkward and more than a little bit embarrassed. "But that's one of the programs that doesn't work anymore 'cus of my glitches."
Mimic slowly slips her arms down, now staring up at him with a look of total dumbfounded shock. It makes ProtoMan shift uncomfortably, and it doesn't help that Bass is staring at him too. The only one who's not staring at him is Dark Shadow, but that's only because it's staring at the fire, completely transfixed.
" . . . When the fuck were you gonna tell us this?" Bass eventually demands, looking torn between incredulous exasperation and frustrated shock.
"I never thought it'd matter," ProtoMan admits, wincing. "I mean . . . before, that is." He buries his face in Mimic's messy hair, though it doesn't do much to temper his shame. "S-sorry . . . I should've . . ."
"S'alright," Mimic tells him, reaching up to pat his head. "There's another way we can go north even if we ain't got any compasses."
ProtoMan raises his head to look at her. "There is?"
Mimic nods, grinning. "Somethin' I figured out myself!" she says proudly. "Sun only goes up an' down in one direction, yeah? So whichever way the sun goes, we can figure out which way's north from there. Easy!"
"Seems simple enough," Bass agrees. "So which way does the sun go up and down?"
That makes Mimic pause. "Um . . . I know it's east an' west . . ."
"Which one's which, then?"
There's an extremely awkward silence for several moments.
Bass sighs heavily and slumps. "You don't know, do you?"
Mimic shakes her head sheepishly.
"Fan-fucking-tastic," Bass grumbles. "Not one of us knows how to fucking navigate, and we're lucky enough to get stuck in a group together."
"At least we only have one human," ProtoMan says optimistically, trying to lift the mood a bit. "It'd be a lot harder to keep going if we had to feed two or three humans, right?"
"You eat more than literally every single NetNavi in the cyberworld put together," Bass snaps, and ProtoMan wilts.
"I don't need to . . ." he mumbles. "I can stop eating . . . I think . . ."
"You're a cat," Bass says. "A makerdamn carnivore. You couldn't stop eating any more than Mimic could stop breathing."
Mimic takes in a deep breath and holds it.
"Forever," Bass adds, and Mimic lets out her breath noisily. He sighs again. "This is gonna suck."
"All we gotta do is go some direction that ain't sunrise or sunset," Mimic tells him. "One of 'em's gotta be north, right?"
"And if we end up going south, instead?"
Mimic hesitates.
"We're screwed," Bass deadpans. "We are so very, very screwed."
They take note of which way the sun goes down, but it's not much help since Mimic still doesn't have a damn clue whether it's east or west. This is probably something she should know, but if they've ever covered it in school or whatever, she doesn't remember.
The next morning, they set off in a random direction that isn't sunrise or sunset. No way of knowing whether they're going north or south, but at least with sunrise and sunset ruled out, there's only a fifty-fifty chance they're totally wrong.
Of course, with this fifty-fifty chance also comes the risk that they're gonna be going in the exact opposite direction they wanna go in, so . . . yeah, Bass is right. They're screwed.
They keep going through the forest the next morning. Mimic's fine with skipping breakfast until they stop later - Bass is the only one who's figured out how to make a fire, and that deer ProtoMan hunted should last a few days at least. Doesn't stop her stomach from grumbling a little bit, so while they walk she has some of the remaining bits of deer meat she cooked last night, which Dark Shadow stored inside itself along with the raw meat.
The sun's pretty high in the sky by now, and the trees are beginning to thin out. They're starting to see the wasteland more and more now - from what they've seen so far, the desert wasteland is the most common biome there is. Or . . . whatever the word is. Mimic can't remember what it is, but 'biome' is what she's got from games, and that's what she's going with now.
And then they stop on the edge of a mossy, vine-covered cliff, and down below them is what looks like a small town. The buildings look more like wooden shacks and only one in maybe five actually look to have been made with any kind of effort, and Mimic's enhanced eyesight lets her pick out a marketplace of sorts in what seems to be the main street running straight through the shack of a town.
"I say we go down there," Bass says, much to their surprise. "Don't fucking look at me like that, I might only be willing to tolerate five or six humans but even I know we can't survive on dead deers and shitty campfires forever. Maybe we can get some actual survival gear from that market."
"What does survival gear even look like?" Mimic wonders.
" . . . Hell if I know," Bass admits, after a short pause.
"Maybe it includes a tent?" ProtoMan suggests, shrugging helplessly.
Mimic suppresses a sigh and looks down at the shack town again. They really aren't doing too well, are they? Just her luck that the Zoanoroids decided to prioritise capturing ProtoMan over MegaMan - though if they had tried to capture MegaMan instead, it'd be Lan in this situation instead of her.
Honestly . . . she has to admit, she's not sure Lan would survive the same way she has. Chaud'd be able to, she knows that. But then that'd mean Chaud would've been kidnapped instead of her.
Fucking shit-dammit. This whole thing is a no-win situation, isn't it?
"Maybe we could ask for a compass," Mimic says, getting the Navis' attention. Well, the Navis' and the shadow-demon's attention.
"Do you even know how to use a compass?" Bass asks doubtfully.
"Might not know which way's north, but I do know that a compass always points north," Mimic says proudly. "So . . . kinda."
"Best option we've got so far," ProtoMan points out, when Bass glances at him for an opinion. "You don't have a compass program, mine doesn't work, and Mimic doesn't know which way's north. If a compass really does point north all the time, then we won't need to worry about that, right?"
"I guess so," Bass mutters thoughtfully. He gives the town below them a considering look, and then nods. "Alright, we'll see if we can find a compass first."
"No money, though," Mimic reminds him. "Not for this world."
Bass frowns, and then glances at Dark Shadow. "You've still got that deer skin, right?"
In response, Dark Shadow vomits up the deer skin. The blood has dried and is the colour of rust by now, and there's a huge tear on its neck which ProtoMan and Dark Shadow itself made when they killed it. Otherwise, though, it's more or less pristine.
"Maybe we can trade it," Bass says, nodding to the deer skin. "That's a thing, right? Trade something like deer skin for a compass or whatever?"
"We could also trade the meat, if we have to," ProtoMan muses. "Me and Dark Shadow can always hunt down something else for food."
"Skin for trade, meat if we have to," Mimic agrees, nodding. "Right, let's go."
She makes to step away from the cliff and find a way down that doesn't require her to use her cat abilities (just in case she freaks out the locals or something), but Bass stops her.
"Hold it," he says. He looks at ProtoMan. "Red isn't exactly orange, but it's close enough that those humans might freak out."
ProtoMan stares at him blankly for a moment, and then he jerks. "Ah! R-right, Zoano ProtoMan . . ." He winces. "I'm . . . not sure what to do about that, actually . . ."
"Maybe wear the fur-cloak?" Bass suggests.
But ProtoMan shakes his head, wincing again. "I don't wanna overheat . . ."
"We've still got the colour-change program," Mimic offers, taking out her PET and holding it up. "You could pretend to be Blues again. Blue's a way different colour to orange, right?"
"And I'd suggest taking off your helmet, too," Bass adds, nodding. "That way you'd look even less like Zoano ProtoMan."
ProtoMan perks up. "Yeah! That's a good idea!"
It barely takes a minute for them to get that done. Mimic hasn't seen ProtoMan in his colour-disguise since she was going to school as Chaud 'pretending' to be Mimic Lostie, and he still looks so different decked out in MegaMan's colours instead of his own. Once he takes off his helmet, too, he looks like a totally different Navi, and the only thing that marks him as ProtoMan is the fact that his eyes are still the same colours - left eye red, right eye blue, both of them full cat-eyes. And his hair's still the same white colour, too, but Zoano ProtoMan's hair was silver, and that's not the same as white.
With ProtoMan now disguised as Blues and completely helmetless, they find a 'safe' way down to the shack town. It doesn't take long - there's a path they come across that leads right onto the main street, which they apparently missed because they came at it from the wrong direction. Go figure.
There's quite a lot of people around, but not enough that their arrival doesn't go unnoticed. A few people actually stop and stare, and Mimic thought she was getting better with this kinda shit, but apparently not because there's an uncomfortably tight feeling in her chest and she can't stop her eyes from darting everywhere, trying to take in everything at once and figure out what might be a threat.
It helps when ProtoMan reaches out and takes her hand, giving it a light squeeze. Light because anything more would probably crush her hand. Mimic squeezes back and he lets her hold onto him as they walk, and she feels the cold touch of his shadow-tail brushing against her lower back - they figured Dark Shadow's demonic appearance might freak people out, so ProtoMan's shadows have formed into his shadow-tail for now.
Bass takes the lead as they get closer to the marketplace, since he's the only one who doesn't have any kind of anxiety around large groups of people. He just hates them, mostly, but ironically he's better at dealing with strangers than Mimic and ProtoMan are.
They're still getting stares, though. It takes Mimic a moment to work out why - she can't see any NetNavis or viruses or anything in this place. It's just humans, and the occasional animal or two. ProtoMan and Bass are probably the only digital creatures in this entire shack town right now.
The noise of the shack town isn't overwhelming, but gradually, as more people begin to notice them, it becomes almost deafeningly silent. It gets to the point where the people in the shack town see them coming and actually move out of the way, which does absolutely nothing to help Mimic's nerves.
Doesn't help ProtoMan, either. Maybe it's just anxiety talking, but Mimic thinks she can feel a few hostile looks from these people - and ProtoMan's had way too much experience with hostility like this. He presses closer to Mimic as they walk, shadow-tail nervously twitching from side-to-side, and makes a quiet noise that's almost a whimper.
This is almost torture. Mimic's starting to regret coming down here, and she can tell by the way Bass keeps shooting them worried glances over his shoulder that he's thinking the same thing.
But they still need a compass, at least. They have no clue what survival gear looks like, but they definitely need a compass. And if this place has any compasses, then . . . they need to endure this. They have to, or they might not find their family or friends ever again.
They can't find any market stalls with anything that looks like compasses, though. Probably too much to hope for from a shack town like this - most of the stalls are food and odd-looking fabrics and stuff like that, though there is one stall that looks to be selling maps. It's at this stall that they stop at, trying to ignore the stares. They don't do too well at that.
"Uh . . . you got any maps for this . . . country?" Bass tries, keeping his eyes on the stallholder. Though Mimic can tell he's having to force himself; he clearly wants to keep an eye on the people around them instead.
The stallholder looks extremely uncomfortable and looks down at his maps - if that's what they actually are - without responding.
" . . . Region, maybe?" Bass tries again. Still no response. Bass frowns, and glances at Mimic and ProtoMan. "The translation should work, right? He can understand me?"
"He should be able to," ProtoMan murmurs faintly, shying away from a few of the people staring at them.
"I can understand you," the stallholder says in a wary tone, looking up.
Bass looks relieved as he turns back to the man. "Oh, thank the maker," he mutters. "Listen, we need to know which way-"
"I'm sorry," the stallholder interrupts, cringing, "but . . . I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave."
" . . . What," Bass says flatly.
The stallholder almost flinches. "I-I'm sorry," he says again. "Please, understand, it's not . . . it's just . . . you're a NetNavi." He glances at ProtoMan. "S-so is that one."
"Yeah, and?" Bass narrows his eyes almost dangerously. Mimic reaches out and touches his arm gently, and his expression softens a little bit.
"NetNavis . . . they're bad news for this town," the stallholder explains, glancing around at the silent crowd watching them. "Wherever they go, trouble always follows. Viruses, Zoanoroids . . ." He winces and gives them an apologetic look. "I'm . . . I'm sorry, really I am, but . . . I can't sell anything to you."
"How about trading?" Bass tries to offer. He's clenching his fists like he's holding himself back from punching the stallholder in the face, which is frankly impressive given how he's usually the quickest to anger. "We've got a pretty good deer skin that-"
"I can't trade, either," the stallholder says, shaking his head. "If I could help you, I would, but . . . please, you have to leave. We don't want any trouble."
Bass's trademark scowl snaps into place. "I'll show you fucking trouble!" he snaps, taking a step forward, and the stallholder flinches.
"Bass," ProtoMan hisses, snatching his arm and dragging him back before he can do any actual damage. "C'mon, don't start a fight, he's only human . . ."
"So is Mimic," Bass hisses back, glaring at him. "She can't live off dead deer forever, dammit!"
"But if this guy won't trade, neither will anyone else!" ProtoMan replies, tightening his grip on Bass.
"Maybe we should go," Mimic murmurs, eyes darting around to take in the faces of the people staring at them.
More than one of these people are watching ProtoMan and Bass with obvious wariness, like they're just waiting for either of them to go nuts and start destroying the town or something. Bass's outburst probably didn't help much, honestly.
"Yeah," ProtoMan agrees. He glances at the stallholder, who freezes upon locking eyes with him. "U-um . . . we're sorry to have troubled you. We'll . . . we'll go, now."
"The hell we will-" Bass begins to snap, but Mimic grabs his other arm and, with ProtoMan's help, manages to drag him away.
Getting out of the shack town is even worse than coming in. Absolutely everyone is staring at them now, and it's not just Mimic's anxiety - there are definitely a few hostile looks here and there, and she's suddenly extremely grateful that the map stallholder was . . . not nice, exactly, because she can't really call turning them away 'nice', but he wasn't an asshole about it, at least.
They don't stop until they're back on the cliff above the town, just out of sight. Mimic makes absolutely sure, poking her head over the edge until all the townspeople have gone back to their business, though she spies more than a few of them keeping an eye on the route they took to leave town.
"Fucking assholes," Bass is fuming when she draws back. "Why'd they turn us away like that? We weren't doing jack shit to them!"
"But if they've had bad experiences with NetNavis before . . ." ProtoMan trails off, wringing his hands. His shadow-tail coils around his legs, but it's not clear if it's trying to comfort him or just reacting to his emotions.
"That's no excuse to tell us to fuck off!" Bass growls. He lets out a frustrated noise and whirls around, kicking a nearby tree. It cracks and shudders, leaving rustling violently, but it doesn't do more than that.
"Not really the first people to be like that, I think," Mimic murmurs, folding her arms thoughtfully. "There was that hot springs town that Raika and Dingo ended up gettin' to. They were kinda . . . not that welcomin', honestly."
"Did they kick Raika and Dingo out, too?" ProtoMan asks.
"No," Mimic is forced to admit. "They just got into a lotta trouble 'cus they didn't have any money from Beyondard. Or . . . they're gonna get into a lotta trouble, anyway. Though the hot springs people weren't too welcomin' 'cus Beyondard Narcy was terrorisin' 'em with VideoMan . . ."
"Narcy?" ProtoMan blinks at her. "Really? I find it hard to believe that he'd be an issue . . ."
"People with NetNavis in this reality have more power over the ones who don't," Mimic reminds him.
ProtoMan hums sadly, deflating a little bit.
"Doesn't fucking matter what some other town is like, our issue is that one down there!" Bass snaps, angrily gesturing to the town below them. "How the fuck're we supposed to figure out which way's north if none of those assholes will even bother to give us the time of day?"
They all go quiet for a moment, thinking that over.
He's right, obviously. Just their luck that the first town they come across is one that turns them away just because two of them are NetNavis. Everyone else'll be finding towns that're full of people who're perfectly happy to help total strangers, though that might have something to do with the fact that, usually, Lan and the others have saved someone who lives in that town or something.
. . . Wait a second.
Mimic's eyes widen as an idea suddenly comes to her, and she grins.
"Haven't seen that smile in a long time," ProtoMan comments, raising a pale eyebrow.
"She looks like she's about to eat some innocent program," Bass says, looking vaguely unsettled.
"I got an idea," Mimic tells them.
ProtoMan perks up. "Yeah?"
"F'it works, we might be able to get 'em to give us stuff for free," Mimic goes on. "Depends on how they react."
"So don't keep us in fucking suspense, dammit!" Bass exclaims, leaning forward. "What's this idea of yours?"
Mimic turns to ProtoMan. "You any good at actin'?" she asks.
ProtoMan winces. "Mimic, c'mon, you know I'm bad at lying . . ."
"Not what I asked."
Now he looks kinda confused. "But . . . isn't acting just advanced lying?"
"Not always," Mimic tells him. "Mostly it's just pretendin' to be somethin' you ain't."
ProtoMan blinks. "Oh. Then . . . I guess I can do that. Why?"
Mimic's grin gets wider. "We're gonna scam 'em."
It doesn't take long to get Mimic's idea set up. Another quick use of the colour-change program, and ProtoMan's ready to go. He puts his helmet back on and takes off, shadow-tail whipping behind him, leaving Bass alone with Mimic up on the cliff.
"You sure this is gonna work?" Bass asks her. "If those humans figure out we're scamming them . . ."
"We'll cut an' run," Mimic replies, shrugging. "What've we got to lose?"
"Our lives?" Bass suggests dryly.
"Eh," Mimic says, shrugging again, and Bass is seriously starting to question his human's sanity now.
Still, he can't deny that the idea of scamming those asshole humans down there appeals to him very much. Doesn't fucking matter if that map-human was 'nice' about it, he still basically told them to fuck off, and for literally no reason. They weren't even doing anything! And Bass wasn't even swearing at him or anything, at least not until later in the conversation.
Fucking assholes. They deserve to be scammed. And if Bass, Mimic, and ProtoMan end up getting some free shit as a result? Even better.
There's a sharp whip-like noise from down below, and then an explosion of sound. The panicked screaming of humans, stuff getting destroyed, and finally high-pitched half-mad laughter that makes Bass's systems crawl even though he knows what's making that sound.
"Fucking hell," he mutters. "Can he get any more dramatic?"
"I did say to play up the 'insane Zoanoroid' thing," Mimic muses, shrugging. She glances at Bass questioningly. "Shall we?"
Bass finds himself grinning. "Let's fucking go."
They run back down to the path they took into the shack town, following it until they come up to the town itself.
It's easy to slow to a stop like they're shocked at the destruction, because honestly? It kinda is shocking. It's been, what, maybe less than a minute? And already some of the shack buildings are little more than piles of wooden rubble and debris, some strewn across the main street like they were tossed around. There's humans running away from the source of the destruction, screaming and shouting, and Bass hears what a few of them shout as they run past.
"It's the Sunset Warrior!"
"We're all gonna die!"
"Just run, hurry!"
"He'll kill every last one of us!"
Bass exchanges a quick glance with Mimic, and they rush forward into 'danger'.
Up ahead in the marketplace, ProtoMan is going wild, still shrieking out that half-mad laughter that Bass is almost convinced is real. Wouldn't fucking surprise him if it was - ProtoMan's the craziest damn NetNavi he knows.
The cat's armour is orange, now. The same kind of orange that Zoano ProtoMan's armour was - and it was a simple matter for Mimic to change the design of his NaviMark to the yellow star of Cybeast Gregar.
Yeah, sure, Zoano ProtoMan was a Falzar Zoanoroid, but they know Zoanoroids can be forcibly converted to the opposite side. ProtoMan wouldn't be able to pull off the bird-Navi thing, he doesn't have wings and he couldn't pretend to be a bird if his life fucking depended on it, so they went with the next best thing - have him go full-fucking-feral cat on the humans, pretending he's a converted Gregar Zoanoroid. His shadow-tail's even formed some spikes on the end of itself, just like Gregar Zoanoroids sometimes have, to help sell the image.
Seems like ProtoMan's enjoying himself, at least. He's even gotten himself a hostage - some small human who looks absolutely terrified, too terrified to realise that ProtoMan's not actually hurting her or any of the humans in the shack town. Most of what he's doing is wrecking the stalls or ripping apart the wooden buildings.
But to the terrified humans of the shack town, it certainly looks like he's actually attacking them.
Mimic drops back, stumbling like she's suddenly scared shitless, and Bass keeps going until he's a few metres away from the 'rampaging Zoanoroid'.
"You!" he roars, getting ProtoMan's attention.
The cat spits out an explosive hiss, digging his claws into the clothes of his 'hostage'. Again, she's too terrified to realise that he's not actually hurting her, so she cries out and flinches.
"So you're attacking this town too, you mad bastard?" Bass demands, bringing his hands up. He lets his power leak through like it does when he's actually pissed off, and black energy crackles along his palms. "What, deleting Blues wasn't enough for you?"
ProtoMan snaps his teeth at Bass, playing up the 'insane Zoanoroid' act so well that Bass almost believes it even though he's in on it. The cat's acting more like a wild animal than he normally is - there's no way ProtoMan could hope to emulate Zoano ProtoMan's stupidly-formal way of talking, so he's just pretending he's gone insane. Not that he's gotta pretend that much, he's already insane.
"Let that human go," Bass barks, holding his hand out to 'threaten' ProtoMan with his power. "Or you'll be fucking sorry!"
ProtoMan lets out a wild screech and launches himself at Bass, dragging the small human with him. She squeals, still too terrified to realise he's actually not hurting her, and Bass spits out a curse and ducks under the cat's claws.
He shoves a crackling fist into ProtoMan's chest. There's no force behind it - all he's doing is covering his hands with his power, not actually attacking with it - but the cat jumps away like Bass punched him properly, leaving the small human where she is and landing a few metres away, pretending to stumble.
"Get outta here," Bass tells the small human, shoving her toward Mimic, who's still hovering back like she's too scared to come any closer.
The small human squeaks out a 'thank you' and scrambles over to Mimic, who helps her get away. Bass turns his attention back to ProtoMan, who's 'recovered' from the attack and is now letting out a low growl, pacing back and forth on all fours, tail lashing from side-to-side, baring his sharp teeth at Bass.
"Time for some revenge," Bass snaps. "Hell's Rolling!"
He makes two rings from his power and hurls them, but they're weak and barely even solid enough to be considered attacks. The good thing about being in a totally different reality is that no one knows anything about Bass's actual power - so as far as these humans are concerned, the power he's displaying right now is actually the best he has, not just a tiny fraction of what he's actually capable of.
ProtoMan activates his Proto Sword - they can't make it look jagged like Zoano ProtoMan's, but it's not like these humans will be paying much attention to those kind of details - and easily deflects the weak Hell's Rollings, sending them flying into the air where they fizzle out harmlessly.
"Dammit!" Bass activates his Air Buster and starts firing, making sure to keep his blasts slower than normal. He can't control the energy output of his Air Buster, but he's capable of controlling the rate at which it fires, at least.
ProtoMan easily dodges every single blast, but they put on enough of a show that it looks like he only just barely manages to dodge. Each Air Buster shot blasts up a small cloud of dust, gradually coating the makeshift battlefield in a larger dust cloud, until eventually both Bass and ProtoMan are mostly obscured from sight. They're aware that their shapes are still visible, though, so they keep up the 'fight'.
"Think we're fooling them?" ProtoMan mutters, getting in close to lash out with his claws, an attack which Bass jerks away from and evades easily.
"They looked scared enough," Bass mutters back. He makes to grab ProtoMan's arm and the cat twists out of the way, tripping him, though his shadow-tail comes up and helps to steady Bass even though, to anyone just watching, it looks like it's trying to unbalance him further.
"Maybe we should step it up," ProtoMan suggests.
Bass can't help but grin, and the cat responds with one of his own.
"You're fucking on," Bass says, and he banishes his Air Buster in favour of two Dark Arm Blades.
ProtoMan lets out a delighted hiss that sounds demented to anyone who doesn't know him, and lifts his foot to kick Bass in the stomach. It doesn't hurt much - more like a violent tap than an actual kick - but Bass staggers back as if it were a full attack, ending up outside of the dust cloud, and he wheezes like the wind got knocked out of him.
He crosses his Dark Arm Blades above his head when the cat comes jumping out of the dust cloud after him, Sword slamming into the point where the Dark Arm Blades are crossed. They struggle together for a moment, and then Bass 'gets the upper hand' and shoves, abruptly uncrossing his Blades with a faint screech of energy.
ProtoMan's the one who staggers this time, and Bass follows up with a double slash - one after the other. Neither of them actually touch the cat, but they come close enough that the casual observer wouldn't know the difference, and ProtoMan lets out a very convincing shriek of pain.
Bass kicks him - the same kind of light tap that ProtoMan used on him - and the cat shoves himself away and ends up back in the dust cloud, out of sight except for his vague shape.
"Bass!" Mimic shouts, and that's the signal.
He drops his Dark Arm Blades and half-charges a Darkness Overload, then unleashes it into the dust cloud with a cry of faked effort. None of the humans see it, and Bass himself doesn't see it because his back is to her, but he knows Mimic's downloading a Rock Cube because that's exactly what she said she'd do back up on that cliff.
Bass sees the shape of the Rock Cube materialising a split second before his half-charged Darkness Overload hits, and it explodes. It was too fast for anyone who wasn't in the middle of the 'battle' to actually see, so all anyone else hears and sees is the impact of Darkness Overload hitting something, and then the cat yowls out a dying screech that ends with an abrupt choke as he's 'deleted'.
Bass lets the sudden silence stretch out for a few tense moments, acting like he's making sure that his 'opponent' has been deleted, and then the dust cloud starts to clear up and reveals the disintegrating pixels of the Rock Cube.
ProtoMan himself is nowhere to be seen. The disintegrating pixels from the destroyed Rock Cube are easy to mistake for the disintegrating pixels of a deleted NetNavi, so that's the only thing the humans of this shack town see.
Bass lets his hands drop to his sides, slumping as if he's exhausted, and falls to his hands and knees. The sound of frantic running footsteps is all the warning he's given before Mimic is kneeling next to him, grabbing his shoulder and leaning in close like she's checking him over.
She's holding her PET in her free hand, and ProtoMan waves cheerfully from the screen before quickly vanishing from sight, just in case anyone sees him. Even though Bass already knew what was gonna happen, he's still relieved that the cat's alright - he'd fucking hate himself if he accidentally hurt ProtoMan when he wasn't supposed to.
Mimic puts her PET away just as a few of the shack town humans cautiously make their way over to them. One of them is the map-human from before, looking awed and more than a little grateful, which is exactly what they were aiming for.
"Th-thank you," the map-human says shakily. "We . . . we really can't thank you enough for saving us . . ."
"Don't fucking bother," Bass growls, curling his fingers into claws. He grits his teeth, acting like he's hurting. "I wasn't fighting that asshole for you. He deleted Blues."
"Blues?" the map-human repeats, looking faintly puzzled. He glances at Mimic, who lowers her eyes like she can't bear to look at him, and he frowns. "Wait . . . what happened to that blue Navi who was with you before?"
"I fucking said," Bass snaps, glaring up at him. "That damn Zoanoroid deleted him!"
The map-human's eyes widen. "O-oh . . . I'm . . . I'm so sorry . . ."
Bass snorts and pretends that he's struggling to sit up properly, and he draws Mimic into a gentle one-armed hug like he's comforting her. To help sell the image, she presses into his side and keeps her eyes low, shuddering.
"Whatever," Bass mutters. "At least we managed to avenge him . . ."
"Blues . . ." Mimic mumbles. She almost looks like she's gonna cry. "He . . . he t-told us to run . . . a-and then that Zoanoroid just . . ." She whimpers and buries her face in Bass's chest. "He killed him!"
"It's alright, that bastard's gone now," Bass murmurs, pulling her into a proper hug. "You don't need to be scared anymore."
"But Blues . . ." Her breath hitches, and her performance is so convincing that Bass nearly forgets it's just an act.
"He sacrificed himself to save us," Bass 'reminds' her gently. "He'd want us to keep going. You know that, right? I'll keep you safe, I promise."
Mimic whimpers again and tightens her grip on him.
"Is . . ." The map-human is still hovering nearby, and he exchanges a quick glance with some of the other humans before turning back to Bass and Mimic. "Is there anything we can-?"
"Don't even try!" Bass snarls, scowling up at him. "This is your fucking fault in the first place! If you hadn't turned us away like that, we never would've run into that damn Zoanoroid, and Blues would still be alive!" He tightens his grip on Mimic and looks away, like he's too pissed off to look at the map-human anymore.
"Please, allow us to make up for it!" the map-human insists.
Bass is the only one who sees the faint smile on Mimic's face, and he has to fight to keep his scowl fixed.
"Make up for it?" he repeats, glaring at the map-human again. "And how the hell're you gonna make up for sending our friend to his deletion?"
The map-human winces, but replies anyway. "We could . . . give you supplies," he offers, with another glance at the other humans. A few of them nod their agreement. "That's what you were after earlier, right? And we know there's another town nearby, so we could point you in the right direction if you want."
Bass grunts as he gets to his feet, pulling Mimic up with him. He makes sure to keep an arm around her shoulders like he doesn't want to let go of her in case she gets hurt. That's pretty easy to fake, because he really doesn't want her to get hurt, and if these humans figure out the whole 'fight' was a scam, they're gonna need to make a fast exit.
"We can't accept that," Mimic mumbles, pulling up the collar of the cloak she's wearing so it covers the lower half of her face. It's actually Bass's cloak, but she needs it more than he does, so he's lending it to her while they're in Beyondard. "We . . . w-we'd be happy to trade . . . ?"
"No, we insist," another of the stall-humans says, stepping forward. "As a gift for saving our town. Please, accept it!"
A few of the other humans echo the sentiment, and it takes nearly all of Bass's willpower not to burst out laughing. These humans are gullible as shit, seriously.
The humans of the shack town get together some supplies - mostly food, thankfully a better variety than the random assortment of animals that ProtoMan keeps hunting, but there's a couple of boxes of matches too, which'll definitely be useful since Bass was starting to get sick of fumbling around with rocks all the time. There's a blanket, too, which'll also be useful, along with some basic cooking gear. Thank fuck they can use the storage space inside ProtoMan's shadows, otherwise they'd have to drag this stuff around everywhere, even if the shack town humans give them a couple of packs to shove it all in.
What these humans don't give them, however, is a map or a compass. None of them have any compasses to give away, and it turns out the maps that the map-human is selling are from way before the Great Change, so they're basically useless since the geography is now totally fucking different. Apparently he's just selling them as novelty items or something.
But at least the shack town humans are able to give them directions to the next town. It's better than nothing, so Bass and Mimic don't complain.
They head out of the shack town with the humans' well-wishes and goodbyes, and only when they're well out of sight and hearing of the shack town do they stop. Mimic goes quiet and still for a moment, checking the area for anyone who might see them, and then she takes out her PET and materialises ProtoMan.
He barely waits for Mimic to switch off the colour-change program before he attaches himself to her, rubbing his cheek against the top of her head and purring like there's no tomorrow. It was weird seeing him in the blue colour of MegaMan and even weirder seeing him in the orange armour of Zoano ProtoMan, so Bass is relieved to once again see the red armour he's used to.
"We got food!" ProtoMan breaks off his purring long enough to cheer. "Yay!"
"Cooking stuff, too," Bass adds, grinning. He opens up the pack he's carrying - this is the heavier one, which he insisted on carrying, and Mimic's got the other one - and rifles through it until he picks out one of the match boxes. "And some fucking matches! Goodbye dumbass rocks, hello easy fires!"
"Good job," Mimic tells ProtoMan, and the cat beams. "Now all we gotta do is get to the next town. Maybe we can figure out which way's north from there."
"I just realised," Bass says slowly, glancing over his shoulder back in the direction of the shack town, "we could've asked them when we were there."
Mimic freezes. After a moment of total silence, she lets out a loud groan and drops her forehead onto ProtoMan's chest.
"Shit," she mutters.
"Well, we can hardly go back now," ProtoMan says, patting her on the back. It's not really clear whether that's meant to be comforting or condescending. "Doesn't matter anyway. We can always ask at the next town, right?"
"Mrgh," Mimic grumbles. She raises her head and looks out at the path stretching ahead of them. " . . . What're the chances that the people in the next town ain't gonna let us have anythin' for free?"
Bass exchanges a glance with ProtoMan. "Pretty fucking high, I guess," he says.
"Yeah." ProtoMan lets out a faint sigh.
"But if we save 'em from, say, a surprise Zoanoroid attack . . ." Mimic trails off meaningfully, glancing at both of them.
Bass finds himself starting to grin again. The cat's no better - he's sporting a smile that's almost identical to that creepy one Mimic had earlier, when she came up with this scam idea.
"You guys wanna scam the next town, too?" Mimic asks.
"Hell yeah!" ProtoMan agrees instantly.
"Fuck yes," Bass says.
