Walking isn't the fastest option, but it's definitely the best in terms of staying undetected. He's fully aware that time is working against him - he has two missions, one of which takes priority over the other due to the fact that it involves the rescue of a child - but if he rushes in blindly, he could mess both of those missions up.
And Baryl's two missions are of the upmost importance.
Unfortunately, since he's travelling to his destination - the Gregar army's camp - on foot, he's having to use more supplies than he would if he had taken the vehicle Commander Mask offered him. Not to mention he had to give up some of his supplies to the boy he met several days ago, Lan Hikari.
So he's having to make a quick detour to a small town nearby. Thankfully it's not much of a detour, given that it's just a little way off the route he's taking to get to the Gregar army's camp, so it's no more than a day or two out of his way.
Colonel's Navi-hologram appears on his shoulder, and Baryl glances at him.
"The town is five miles ahead of you," Colonel reports. "You will arrive within the next hour if you continue at this pace."
Baryl nods to him, a curt acknowledgement and dismissal, and Colonel vanishes. He has no feelings to hurt, but even so, Baryl still feels a faint flicker of guilt.
Sometimes he looks at Colonel and wonders if anything would have changed if he hadn't asked Dr. Hikari to take out his Navi's kindness and personality data. Would Colonel still be as affective as he is now, as an emotionless machine who only follows whatever orders Baryl gives him and nothing more?
It would certainly make long journeys like this more bearable. At least then he'd have someone to talk to.
But Baryl dismisses the thought as he always does. The world has been torn apart by the war - in order to be effective in battle, one must throw away their heart. Otherwise, they might hesitate when the moment comes to make a decision, and hesitating could cost the lives of hundreds, thousands, even millions. It sounds cold-hearted, and it is cold-hearted, but that's how Baryl has survived this long.
You can't survive if you're a bleeding heart, after all. It's nice to be, well, nice, but it's not practical in a war.
As Colonel said he would, Baryl arrives at the small town within the next hour. It's too small to be considered a town, but it's too big to be considered a village, so 'small town' is the only description that can be applied to it.
The small town doesn't have a name. That helps to keep it under the Zoanoroids' notice - which is perfect, because this town has often supplied the CM Forces with ordnance. Of course, they have to pay for said ordnance, it's only fair. The townspeople have to make a living somehow. And not paying for the supplies would be like robbing them.
Baryl has been to this small town several times - both on his own when carrying out solo missions, and with small units of the CM Forces. Never with anything resembling the large unit that Commander Mask and his two second-in-commands personally oversee, though, because a large group has a high chance of attracting the attention of the Zoanoroids, and since only five people in the entire army have NetNavis, it's not smart to have large groups of humans travelling around without proper weapons.
The point is, he's been to this town before, so he knows what it looks like. And what he sees when he comes into town makes him stop short.
There are great scars cut into the ground. Some of the houses have ragged holes in them. The marketplace near the entrance of the town is a complete mess, stalls and supplies scattered everywhere. Rubble and debris litters the ground in a similar manner.
To put it bluntly, it looks like a great battle has taken place here, and very recently judging by the looks of things.
Yet none of the townspeople seem afraid or worried. They're actually quite excited - they talk to each other as they work to clean up the mess, eyes bright and voices cheerful, a stark contrast to the destruction Baryl sees.
"Oh, Mr. Baryl, sir!" A young man with a scar pulling up the corner of his mouth spots him standing at the town's entrance.
Baryl watches the scarred young man approach, uncertain as to what he's feeling right now. Concern, obviously, due to the destruction, but also confusion, because what caused this destruction in the first place? Where has it gone? And why are the townspeople so cheerful despite their town being in shambles?
"What happened here?" Baryl asks the scarred young man, as soon as he's close enough.
"There was a Zoanoroid attack," the scarred young man explains, and Baryl's heart nearly stops. "The Sunset Warrior came out of nowhere and attacked us. I think . . . I think he was converted, because he had the symbol of the Gregar army instead of the Falzar army, and everyone knows the Sunset Warrior is a Falzar Zoanoroid . . ."
"The Sunset Warrior attacked you?" Baryl gets them back on track. The scarred young man has a habit of going off on a tangent if you let him talk for too long.
The scarred young man nods. "It just happened so suddenly. He just . . . showed up out of nowhere, like I said, and . . ." He shudders.
"Was anyone killed?" Baryl asks sharply. "Any injuries?"
There's a saying about the Sunset Warrior. 'Like the setting sun heralds the coming of night, the Sunset Warrior's arrival heralds destruction and death'. There's a reason why he's called the Sunset Warrior - and he's very well-known for his destructive and chaotic nature. Reports of sightings of the Sunset Warrior are always accompanied by reports of wholesale slaughter, and entire towns have been wiped clean off the map just by that one Zoanoroid alone.
So Baryl is understandably shocked when the scarred young man shakes his head.
"He wasn't here long enough to actually hurt anyone," the scarred young man says, glancing over his shoulder to take in the town. "He was just breaking things, tearing stuff apart, trying to scare us I think. We . . . we were terrified he'd start tearing us apart next."
"Why didn't he?" Baryl frowns. The Sunset Warrior isn't known for leaving survivors. Only the extremely lucky - or the extremely unlucky - are able to survive an attack from that Zoanoroid.
"This girl showed up," the scarred young man tells him. "She had a black NetNavi with her, a really powerful NetNavi. He fought the Sunset Warrior to a standstill and then-" He breaks out into a grin. "-then he deleted him!"
"What?" Baryl whispers, eyes widening.
"The black Navi deleted the Sunset Warrior!" the scarred young man repeats excitedly. "I didn't see exactly what happened, the fight kinda got messy and there was dust and sand everywhere, but the Sunset Warrior was gone when it cleared away and the black Navi said he'd deleted him!"
"A NetNavi with the power to fight and even delete the Sunset Warrior himself," Baryl says softly. "I can't believe it. I didn't think such a NetNavi could exist."
But Baryl has known the scarred young man for as long as he's been coming to this small town, so he knows this young man isn't lying. This would also explain why the townspeople are so cheerful despite their town being in shambles - the deletion of the Sunset Warrior is something everyone can celebrate, because it means one of the most powerful and most feared generals in the Falzar army is no more.
"Where is this girl now?" Baryl asks. "The girl who was with the black Navi."
"She didn't stick around long," the scarred young man replies. "We offered to let her stay for the night, but she said they had to keep moving, they're looking for their friends or something. We gave her some supplies and she headed out of town."
"When did she leave?" Baryl presses. "Which way did she go?"
The scarred young man blinks at him. "Mr. Baryl . . . ?"
"That girl's NetNavi is powerful enough to take down the Sunset Warrior himself," Baryl explains, somewhat impatiently. "That kind of power is something the CM Forces could use. Now tell me where she went, hurry!"
"Ah, right!" The scarred young man turns and gestures to the second entrance on the opposite side of town, just visible through the main street. "She left about an hour ago, heading in that direction. If she kept going straight, she might be passing the old bath house by now. Actually, I think she might be there, I remember the black Navi telling her she needed a bath . . ."
"Thank you," Baryl says, nodding to the scarred young man.
He makes to head off toward the second entrance, but the young man stops him.
"Wait, didn't you come here for supplies, Mr. Baryl?" he asks.
Baryl pauses. "Ah . . . that's right, I did."
He'd almost gotten too caught up in the excitement. But who can blame him? It's not every day you hear about a girl with a NetNavi who's apparently powerful enough to delete the Sunset Warrior, after all.
After quickly re-stocking his supplies - and making sure he has more than enough for two humans, because he still has two missions and one of them is still to rescue a child - Baryl heads out of town in the direction the scarred young man pointed him in. He knows where the old bath house is, it's a relatively decent landmark that the CM Forces have previously used to locate the nameless town.
And now it might just be the place where Baryl can meet a new, powerful ally.
The old bath house is a relic from long before the war, weathered by time and coated in the dusty sand of the desert wasteland. The roof has crumbled in some places but is miraculously still intact, and it only has a single, large room in which all four of its old baths now languish. Rain falls very rarely in the desert wasteland, but when it does, the old pipes - exposed as they are to the elements - collect it, and that rainwater flows into the largest of the four baths.
It's not the cleanest bath out there, but it'll do for travellers who aren't aware of the town nearby. It's likely the girl with the black Navi didn't know she could have asked for a bath back in the town, or perhaps she didn't want to burden the townspeople further after they gave her supplies as thanks for saving them.
Either way, Baryl thanks whatever gods are out there that the girl was headed in this direction. The old bath house is the only structure visible for miles, so it would make an obvious rest stop as well.
The wind is howling, kicking sand into his eyes, so Baryl shields his face and keeps going. This isn't the beginning of an actual sandstorm, but if it were, at least he'd be able to take shelter in the old bath house, regardless of whether the girl with the black Navi is there or not.
The old bath house is just up ahead, now. He sees it even though sand is still threatening to blind him, and then the wind dies down all of a sudden and that's when he hears the screaming.
Baryl lets out a startled grunt, and immediately picks up the pace until he's running. Nothing ever makes a sound like that unless it's terrified - which means it could be the sound of a human in danger.
He darts into the old bath house and immediately presses himself up against the dividing wall between the small area that used to be a lobby of sorts and the main room behind it. The screaming is much clearer now, and he hears a harsh voice shouting over it.
"Fucking get in the water already, damn human!"
Baryl narrows his eyes. That can only mean one thing - a Zoanoroid must be attacking a human.
He creeps along the dividing wall and peers around the side, and his eyes widen as he takes in the sight before him.
The Sunset Warrior is lounging near the largest bath, reclining on his side and completely at ease despite the horrible screaming. A black creature of similar size and shape to him is resting its chin on his side, glowing white eyes blank and staring. In the rainwater in the largest bath, a black Zoanoroid that Baryl doesn't recognise is trying to drown a small, skinny child. The child is struggling and screaming bloody murder, clawing at their would-be murderer, but the black Zoanoroid's grip is too strong.
"Will-" The black Zoanoroid jerks his head to the side to avoid a punch. "-you-" He struggles to keep the child in place. "-stop-" The child kicks out and tries to pull away from him, but the black Zoanoroid yanks them back easily. "-struggling!"
"Y'know," the Sunset Warrior drawls lazily, "there's probably an easier way to do this."
"I don't see you fucking helping, you lazy bastard!" the black Zoanoroid snaps.
"I hate water even more than she does," the Sunset Warrior says, nodding to the child.
"FUCKIN' LET GO'A ME, YOU ASSHOLE!" she screeches, lashing out with her fingers curled into claws while the black Zoanoroid is distracted.
"Piece of-" The black Zoanoroid grabs her wrist and trips her over, and she vanishes into the water with a startled squeak.
Baryl doesn't know or care why the Sunset Warrior is here despite the fact that he was supposed to have been deleted earlier today, but what he sees before him are two Zoanoroids attempting to drown a small child, and he refuses to sit by and allow that to happen.
"Colonel," he snaps, jumping out from behind the dividing wall and pulling out his Gate, "transmission!"
His sudden appearance - not to mention Colonel's - surprises the two Zoanoroids. The Sunset Warrior scrambles up to onto his hands and feet, almost like an odd humanoid cat, but Colonel is on him before he can do more than that, swinging his Sword.
The Sunset Warrior lets out a squeak not unlike the one the child let out just moments ago and darts out of the way, leaving Colonel's Sword to strike nothing but air. Not to be deterred, Colonel immediately whirls around and goes after the Zoanoroid, and then the black creature with the glowing eyes seems to burst apart and turns into lashing tendrils of what look like shadows which latch onto Colonel and drag him back.
Baryl forces himself to ignore that for the moment, and turns his attention to the black Zoanoroid, who's staring at him and Colonel with an open mouth. The child has managed to get her head above the water and seems to be dazed, because all she does is blink and stare in shock.
"Release that child, now!" Baryl tells the black Zoanoroid, whipping out his steel rod and extending it to its full length.
"What the shit-" the black Zoanoroid begins, and then Colonel hurls the Sunset Warrior at him and they both fall into the water.
Baryl starts forward, intending to grab the child and run before either of the Zoanoroids can recover, but the Sunset Warrior bursts out of the water, screeching even louder than the child was before, and starts zooming around the room - and up the walls, oddly enough - like he's on fire. The odd tendrils of shadows snake into the water and pull out the black Zoanoroid, who looks completely bewildered, before depositing him onto the ground beside the bath and then whipping after the Sunset Warrior.
"Screen Divide!" Colonel announces, and the black Zoanoroid's eyes widen a split second before the energy hits him and throws him into the wall.
Colonel follows up with another Screen Divide, then follows his own attack on foot just as the black Zoanoroid manages to cut the energy in half with a dark Sword of sorts, and the two of them end up clashing in a frantic sword-fight.
Baryl quickly checks to make sure that the Sunset Warrior isn't about to attack - it seems he's still running around the room, screeching his head off, and those odd shadows appear to be attempting to stop him - and splashes into the bath.
The child tears her eyes away from the spectacle in front of her, and Baryl gets his first proper look at her.
She's small, and very skinny, to the point where he can almost see her ribs. She looks to be ten years old maybe, with long, tangled hair made wet by the rainwater in the bath. The top half is white, and the bottom half is black. Her eyes are also two different colours - the right is a bright blue, the left is an odd dull black colour, and a terrible scar runs through her left eye. Her eyes seem to flash in the darkness, like they're reflecting whatever light there is, and there are deep shadows under them, as if she hasn't slept properly for weeks.
Something about her seems familiar, but Baryl can work that out later. Right now, he needs to focus on getting her away from her captors.
"Come on, hurry," Baryl tells her urgently, dragging her up. He notes that she's completely naked and wonders if the Zoanoroids made her strip down just to humiliate her before they killed her, and decides he'll give her his coat as soon as they're away from the two Zoanoroids. Hopefully he can get her some clothes in the small town.
He manages to drag her out of the water - one-handed, and very easily at that. She feels very frail, which makes him wonder if these Zoanoroids have been keeping her prisoner for a long time and haven't been feeding her properly. She certainly looks like she hasn't had a decent meal for a long time.
As soon as they're out of the water, the child seems to come back to life. She blinks and stares up at him, incredulous, and then offended, for some reason.
"Pervert!" she snaps, and even though he's trying to rescue her and time is of the essence, Baryl stops and stares at her. She starts struggling, kicking him with her bare feet, and bares oddly sharp-looking teeth at him. "You fuckin' lemme go right now! ProtoMan!"
The panicked screeching of the Sunset Warrior cuts off abruptly, and then something slams into Baryl and knocks him into the water. It only comes up to waist-height for him, so he isn't as soaked as he could be, and he gets to his feet, even more confused than he was before.
He turns around, and sees the Sunset Warrior holding the child is what's obviously a protective embrace, baring sharp teeth and fangs at Baryl. An angry hiss builds in the Zoanoroid's throat until it becomes an angry yowl, and the tendrils of shadows bunch up into a writhing mass behind him. The child isn't struggling at all.
And Baryl realises, very suddenly, that he may have made a mistake.
"Colonel, stop!" he shouts, looking over his shoulder at where his Navi and the black Zoanoroid are still fighting.
Upon hearing his order, Colonel immediately stops. The black Zoanoroid, startled, stumbles mid-swing and almost falls flat on his face, but manages to use his dark Sword to prop himself up. He stares up at Colonel, a confused scowl on his face, and then glances at the Sunset Warrior questioningly.
No, Baryl realises. The black Zoanoroid is glancing at the child, not the Sunset Warrior.
He turns back to the child and the Sunset Warrior. The child is glaring at him now, and the Sunset Warrior is attempting to cover her up with a ragged-looking cloak he produced from apparently thin air, but as soon as he notices Baryl looking, he spits out a hiss and drags the child back a few paces, allowing a few of the tendrils of shadows from the writhing mass behind them to snake out and pull the cloak over the child instead.
Baryl clears his throat, suddenly feeling very awkward. "I think there may have been a misunderstanding."
"You think?" the child snarls, and the Sunset Warrior hisses his agreement.
The two Zoanoroids are not, as it turns out, Zoanoroids. They're actually NetNavis, and only when he learns that does Baryl realise this child must be the girl who saved the small town from the Sunset Warrior.
Except the Sunset Warrior is right there, still baring his teeth at Baryl from where he's crouching beside the entrance of the old bath house, like he's making sure Baryl doesn't do anything stupid. Which is odd enough on its own, until Baryl realises something else.
The Sunset Warrior's armour is red. It wasn't as obvious in the gloom of the old bath house, but now that they're outside, Baryl sees the colour difference easily. He knows the Sunset Warrior's armour is the colour of an orange sunset - which is another reason for the title - but this one's armour is bright red.
So this is not, in fact, the Sunset Warrior. Or at least, it's not the Sunset Warrior that Baryl knows - or is at least aware of. He's never personally seen the Sunset Warrior and frankly he's glad he hasn't, given the stories he's heard, but he was perfectly willing to throw himself into the path of a Navi he thought was that same Zoanoroid in order to rescue a child in danger, even if it turns out that child wasn't in danger at all.
The girl eventually comes out of the old bath house, now wearing her clothes. The ragged cloak that the Sunset Warrior - or whoever he is - was attempting to cover her with earlier is folded over her arm, but the black Navi who walks out after her takes it from her and wraps it around her shoulders.
Baryl finally works out why this girl seems familiar. He hadn't realised it in the bath house because things were moving too quickly and he couldn't see her properly, but now that she's in the light and now that he's seen her in her actual clothes, he finally remembers.
He's seen this girl before, in one of the pictures that Lan Hikari showed him. He also recalls seeing a red-armoured Navi who looked very similar to the Sunset Warrior (and even shared the same name, though he refrained from mentioning that to Lan in case he caused the boy any distress), although the red-armoured Navi wasn't wearing a helmet in the picture, and the black Navi was also in that same picture, though he was wearing the ragged cloak the girl is now wearing.
Baryl feels like an idiot for not realising it sooner.
These three are from Beyondard. The girl is Lan's missing sister, Mimic Hikari, who was apparently kidnapped by the Zoanoroids, though she seems perfectly fine, if a little annoyed. The red-armoured Sunset Warrior is Beyondard ProtoMan, and the black Navi is called Bass, he believes.
"I'm sorry for attacking you," Baryl says, once Bass is finished making sure the ragged cloak is snug on Mimic's body.
Mimic mumbles something, a faint scowl on her face.
"What?" Baryl frowns.
She glares at him, puffs her cheeks out, and blows out an annoyed sigh.
"She said 'you'd better fucking be'," Beyondard ProtoMan speaks up, crawling over to crouch beside her. No, he isn't crawling, he's walking on all fours, almost like an animal of some kind.
"Right," Baryl says slowly. He's not sure why a ten-year-old would use such language, but maybe that was just Beyondard ProtoMan paraphrasing. Though he did hear the girl swearing earlier, so . . . hm. "I thought you were being attacked. It . . . sounded like you were being attacked."
Mimic mumbles something again. Baryl frowns, straining to hear, but he can't make out a word of what she says.
Bass sighs heavily, rolling his eyes. "Fix your fucking audio program, you dumb human," he snaps. "She said 'you're the one who grabbed me when I was totally naked'."
"Again, I thought you were being attacked, and I was going to give you my coat once we were safe," Baryl explains. He pauses. "But . . . if you weren't being attacked, why were you screaming like that?"
Once again, Mimic mumbles something he doesn't hear. Baryl is beginning to wonder if she just doesn't want to speak to him because he accidentally embarrassed her.
"I'm sorry, I can't quite hear you, would you mind speaking up?" Baryl asks, trying to be polite.
If anything, his attempt at being polite only seems to annoy her even further. She mumbles again, and he still has no idea what she says.
"I don't-" he begins.
"I said I don't fuckin' like water, you deaf cunt," Mimic suddenly says, very loudly.
Baryl blinks, taken aback, and she scowls at him and then transfers her glare to the ground. If it weren't for the fact that her skin is so strangely pale, he wouldn't be able to see the faint flush on her cheeks.
"She's a cat," Beyondard ProtoMan says shortly, coming to her rescue. "So am I. We both hate water. So, we scream."
Ah. That explains why he was running around and screeching like that after Colonel knocked him and Bass into the water. Both Beyondard ProtoMan and Mimic are dry now, thankfully, but they're both obviously still annoyed, and Bass doesn't look very pleased either.
"She doesn't look like a cat," Baryl notes, giving Mimic a considering look.
She transfers her scowl back to him. " . . . liked . . . you better . . ."
"What?"
"I liked the other you better," she snaps.
It takes him a moment to remember that Lan mentioned he had a counterpart in Beyondard, and now her words make a little more sense.
"You're Mimic Hikari, aren't you?" Baryl asks.
He expects her to be surprised. Maybe her eyes might widen a bit. Maybe the two Navis with her might be a little startled that he somehow knows their operator's name.
But none of them are at all surprised. Mimic barely even blinks, and the only reaction he gets from the two Navis is Beyondard ProtoMan tilting his head ever-so-slightly. Bass doesn't even twitch. A slightly disappointing lack of reaction, if Baryl is being honest.
"I met your older brother a few days ago," he goes on. "He told me about you, and your other brother. Your friends, too."
"I know," Mimic says, still oddly quiet but loud enough for Baryl to actually hear her. She doesn't look entirely happy about having to speak like this. Perhaps she's just a normally quiet person?
"You do?" Baryl frowns. "How?"
"'Cus I do."
" . . . Right." His frown doesn't leave, because he's never met anyone half as confusing as this girl. "Well, Lan also told me that you'd been kidnapped by the Gregar army."
"I got better," Mimic replies.
This conversation is going absolutely nowhere. Lan didn't mention anything about his sister being a confusing person to talk to, did he? Or perhaps she's just acting like this because he attacked her and her two Navis by mistake. Perhaps she just doesn't like him very much.
"You were in a small town recently, weren't you?" Baryl asks. That finally seems to get a reaction, even if it's just Bass narrowing his eyes suspiciously and Beyondard ProtoMan shuffling in front of Mimic protectively. "I came into town just after you left. One of the locals told me that you deleted the Sunset Warrior."
He glances at Beyondard ProtoMan as he speaks, and the red-armoured Navi lowers himself a little closer to the ground.
" . . . I'm guessing that's not entirely true," Baryl says, when none of them speak. "Red isn't orange, but it's close enough that most people might not notice the difference - especially if they're under attack, right?" He narrows his eyes a little. "What exactly are you playing at, Mimic?"
"Why the fuck should we answer that?" Bass demands.
"Because I have a sneaking suspicion that the three of you scammed that town," Baryl bluntly replies. The only reaction he gets is Mimic blinking slowly, but that's enough to confirm his suspicion. "You did, didn't you? You tricked the townspeople into thinking they were under attack from the Sunset Warrior, and then pretended to delete him."
"And what if we did?" Mimic's expression is unsettlingly cold for such a small child.
"They gave you supplies out of gratitude."
"Yeah, so?"
Baryl almost glares at her. The only reason he doesn't is because he suspects Beyondard ProtoMan would hiss at him if he does more than just narrow his eyes a little. Even if he isn't the Sunset Warrior, Baryl would rather avoid provoking the wrath of this NetNavi.
"You need to give those supplies back," he tells Mimic. "They don't belong to you."
"People gave 'em to me," Mimic says, shrugging. "Stuff's mine now."
"You tricked them into giving you those supplies."
She just shrugs again. Baryl's frown deepens, and he wonders if this girl is normally like this, or if he's just lucky enough to catch her in a bad mood.
"You do realise you tricked those people out of supplies they might need at some point?" Baryl demands, unable to contain himself. "Or maybe another traveller might need something you took, but they can't have it because the townspeople gave it to you out of false gratitude."
"Ain't my problem, though, is it? I'm not that traveller."
"Where are your morals?" Baryl snaps, stepping forward almost automatically.
Beyondard ProtoMan immediately draws himself up to his full height - which isn't much taller than Mimic, honestly, but it's still somewhat intimidating - and shields his operator, spitting out an explosive hiss, hair bristling into a wild bush. Bass brings up his forearms, glaring fiercely, and black energy crackles on his hands.
Baryl backs off, and thankfully they both relax a little, but only enough that they don't look like they're about to attack. He has a feeling that both Navis can and will get far more violent than they were inside the old bath house - perhaps the only reason they didn't is because Baryl and Colonel took them by surprise.
"Don't you feel even a flicker of guilt at tricking innocent civilians into giving up their supplies for you?" Baryl continues. "Those people thought you saved them! They were grateful, they were happy! How do you think they'll feel when they find out you were scamming them the whole time?"
"They won't," Mimic retorts, and Baryl's mouth drops open at the sheer audacity of this small child. "We ain't goin' back there. So they ain't gonna find out."
"They will if I drag you back and tell them the truth."
"Try it," Beyondard ProtoMan snaps, baring his sharp teeth as those odd shadows writhe around him. "Go on, see how far you get before I rip off your arm and beat you to death with it!"
The violence of that threat surprises Baryl, and all he can do is stare. Even worse is that he can tell this Navi isn't lying - if he tries to do what he said he would, Beyondard ProtoMan will kill him. That's not a very comforting realisation.
"Not like it's the first town we've scammed, so what does it matter?" Bass snorts, and Baryl transfers his shocked stare to him. "What? You thought we just came up with this shit on the spot? No way."
"Technically it was on the spot," Beyondard ProtoMan says, turning his head a little to glance at Bass. "For the first one, anyway."
"Well, yeah, but I meant we didn't just see that random town back there and decide 'hey, let's scam 'em'," Bass clarifies.
"Good point," Beyondard ProtoMan admits.
"How many towns have you done this to?" Baryl almost whispers, too horrified to be any louder than that.
Oddly enough, it seems Mimic hears him just fine anyway. "Ten, maybe?" she guesses, shrugging. "Dunno, kinda lost track. First one was some town in a forest."
"And then there was that one in the valley," Bass adds.
Mimic nods. "Couple that were kinda close together, looked a bit like that one back there," she says, gesturing in the direction of the small town. "An' there was one by a river, wasn't there?"
"Yeah, I did not enjoy that one," Beyondard ProtoMan says, disgruntled. He frowns at Bass. "You kept trying to throw me into the damn river. Thanks for that, by the way."
"Eh, you could do with a good bath every now and then." Bass shrugs carelessly.
"I'm a NetNavi!" Beyondard ProtoMan exclaims, offended. "I don't need a bath! Also, I'm a cat, so even if I did need a bath, I can just give myself a tongue-bath."
"Can you gimme a tongue-bath, too?" Mimic asks, perking up. "Rather have one'a them 'stead of a water-bath."
"Okay," Beyondard ProtoMan immediately agrees, and quite eagerly too.
"Fuck's sake, no," Bass snaps. "You're not an actual cat, you dumbass human. You need a proper bath, not a fucking tongue-bath." He glares at Beyondard ProtoMan. "Also, a tongue-bath is unhygienic as fuck."
"Again, I'm a NetNavi," Beyondard ProtoMan points out. "I won't have any germs or whatever. I can give her a tongue-bath if I wanna!"
"That's fucking disgusting!"
"Can we get back to the fact that you've tricked multiple towns with this exact same scam?" Baryl asks loudly, getting their attention again. "Why are you doing this, anyway? What possible reason could you have for tricking civilians into giving you their supplies?"
Mimic's expression falls into a flat glare. "'Cus the first lot didn't wanna give us anything."
Baryl blinks. "What?"
"They turned us away, just because me and the cat are fucking NetNavis," Bass replies sharply. "Before then, Mimic was just surviving on whatever meat ProtoMan could hunt down. That's great and all, but we could barely make a fucking fire, and none of us knows how to cook properly."
"Even Mimic can't eat raw meat," Beyondard ProtoMan murmurs, shrinking in on himself a little. "I mean, she can eat meat that's a little bit raw, but . . . we needed more. We needed better food, better supplies, stuff we could actually use."
Some of those odd shadows swirl around, and he reaches into them and pulls out a box of matches, holding it up for Baryl to see.
"I had to use shitty rocks before we got those," Bass explains, nodding to the box in Beyondard ProtoMan's hand. "But we wouldn't have gotten anything like this at all if we hadn't scammed those assholes into giving up their shit. And what're the odds of other people being the same, huh? This whole world has turned into something worse than the fucking UnderNet itself because of this damn war. None of the human towns we came across would've given us the supplies we need if we didn't trick 'em into giving them up first."
Baryl honestly doesn't know what to make of this.
On one hand, he's still deeply offended that this girl and these two Navis are perfectly happy going around scamming civilians out of supplies. The very act of doing such a thing is almost villainous, especially in the middle of a war like this. What if those civilians need the extra supplies, but they no longer have them because they gave them away to Mimic and her Navis out of false gratitude?
But . . . he has to admit he understands their reasoning. Based on what they've told him, it sounds like Mimic was literally surviving off badly-cooked meat for who-knows-how-long, and she may have eventually ended up getting sick. If the first town they scammed refused to give them the supplies they desperately needed, he can certainly see why they thought scamming that town and any others they came across was their only option.
That still doesn't excuse the act, of course. But he understands why they're doing it.
"The people of that town back there are good people," Baryl tells them. They seem surprised that his tone has softened - perhaps they expected him to still be angry at them. "They may not have been able to give you much, but if you really are as desperate as you're saying, they would have given you whatever they could spare if you'd just asked. There was no need to destroy their homes."
For the first time, Beyondard ProtoMan looks faintly guilty. "W-well . . . I made sure not to hurt any of the humans . . ." he says, wincing. "Buildings can be fixed, right? But humans can't be fixed. The worst I do to the humans in those towns is pretend to take one hostage, but I still don't hurt them. I scare 'em, I mess up their towns, but that's it, I promise."
"Sometimes it's me pretending to be the Zoanoroid," Bass adds. "I do the same as the cat. I don't hurt any of the humans, I just bust up their buildings a bit."
"Even so, they would have given you supplies if you had asked," Baryl says again.
"How're we meant to know that?" Mimic demands. "How were we s'pposed to know they'd give us what we wanted, 'stead'a tellin' us to fuck off?"
"How did you know they wouldn't?" Baryl retorts.
Mimic hesitates.
Baryl waits a moment, and then sighs. "Fine," he says. "I won't force you to give back the supplies you took from that town."
"You make it sound like we robbed them," Beyondard ProtoMan says, frowning.
"You did," Baryl replies, and the Navi considers that for a moment and then shrugs, conceding the point. "But from now on, you're not doing it anymore. Understand?"
"And how're you gonna stop us from scamming more towns, huh?" Bass challenges him, narrowing his eyes. "You gonna babysit us?"
"I'm tempted to, but I have a mission to complete," Baryl says. "I had two, but one of them involved rescuing you-" He nods to Mimic, who raises an eyebrow. "-and seeing as how you've apparently rescued yourself, I don't need to worry about that one anymore. What I will do is point you in the direction of-"
"-a fishin' village, right?" Mimic interrupts, and he stares at her. She shrugs. "Yeah, we were headin' that way anyway. Goin' north and all that."
" . . . We're in the south."
It's Mimic's turn to stare at him now. The two Navis also stare, startled into silence.
"If you'd kept going in this direction, you'd be going even further south," Baryl tells them. "Did you not realise this?"
"No," Mimic eventually says, after an extremely awkward pause.
Baryl frowns. "You have two NetNavis with you, and you didn't realise you were going in the exact opposite direction you wanted to go in?"
"I don't have a compass program," Bass says.
"And mine doesn't work," Beyondard ProtoMan adds.
Baryl sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "You . . . are terrible at this."
"Yeah," Mimic admits sheepishly.
"We got directions from some of the towns we scammed," Beyondard ProtoMan says, "but either we got turned around somewhere, or they gave us bad info."
"It's more than likely you just got ridiculously lost," Baryl sighs, lowering his hand. "Does your memory work, at least?"
"It does," Beyondard ProtoMan replies. "Why?"
"Try following the sun, instead," Baryl tells them. "You know which order the directions on a compass go, right? The sun rises in the east, and it sets in the west."
"I knew it was one'a them," Mimic says happily. Bass gives her a flat look but refrains from commenting.
"If you follow the sun - or in this case, follow parallel to the sun - you shouldn't get lost again," Baryl says. "Keep going north and you'll eventually hit the coastline. Based on where we are right now . . ." He thinks for a moment, going over the mental map he memorised of this region. "Just head east when you come to the coast. You should come across the fishing village eventually. I've already sent your older brother that way, so hopefully he'll be there already. I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."
"And what're you gonna be doin'?" Mimic asks, tilting her head.
"I said I have two missions," Baryl replies. "One of them involved you. The other . . ." He holds up the bag Commander Mask gave him. "The other involves this."
"What's in the bag, then?" Bass asks curiously.
Baryl sees no harm in telling them. They're technically civilians, but they're also from Beyondard - and based on what Lan told him, he knows they've been actively fighting against the Zoanoroids, same as any member of the CM Forces.
"A new weapon that my organisation developed to combat the Cybeasts and their armies," he explains, lowering the bag. Mimic looks nervous all of a sudden. "My mission is to infiltrate the Gregar army's camp and use this weapon to defeat Cybeast Gregar. If we can take out the leader, the rest of the army will fall into chaos. With any luck, the Falzar army will crush what's left of the Gregar army, and then we can do the same to the Falzars themselves and pick off the remaining-"
"It won't work," Mimic interrupts him again.
" . . . I'm sorry?"
"It won't work," Mimic repeats, and there's something in her quiet tone, a sort of desperate urgency that makes Baryl stop and listen even though there's no actual reason why he should. "Cybeasts are too strong now. Might've worked before, but it won't work now. You'll only end up givin' Colonel to the enemy."
"What?" Baryl's mouth drops open.
"Gregar'll infect him with the Beast Factor and he'll turn into a Zoanoroid an' try an' kill you," Mimic says quickly. "You'll lose him. Twice, actually, 'cus he'll come back but then he'll delete himself to get into the Wily Research Facility-"
"He'll delete himself to do what?"
"It won't work!" Mimic insists, and she's getting frantic, too frantic, so worked up that she apparently isn't capable of making sense anymore. Her Navis look extremely concerned, and Beyondard ProtoMan puts a gentle hand on her shoulder, but she shakes him off and gives Baryl a desperate look. "That weapon ain't gonna work, it's only good against the viruses, nothin' else! Not against the Cybeasts!"
"How can you know that?" Baryl tries to ask.
"You can't go!" Mimic cries, at what would be normal volume for most people, but is probably akin to shouting for her. "Don't go! Don't go, okay? Just don't, please!"
"Alright!" Baryl holds up his hands and she stops, trembling. "Alright. I won't go. Okay?"
" . . . Okay," Mimic says faintly, shrinking in on herself. Beyondard ProtoMan immediately wraps her into a hug and she presses her forehead into his chest, squeezing her eyes shut.
Baryl cautiously lowers his hands. "How do you know the weapon isn't going to work?" he asks again, when she seems a little less distressed.
Mimic mumbles something, too quiet for him to hear. Beyondard ProtoMan dutifully translates for her.
"She says 'I know stuff'," he says, looking at Baryl. "That's . . . that's kind of her thing. Knowing stuff like this."
That makes no sense. Even less sense than Mimic insisting that the new weapon won't work against the Cybeasts.
"How can she 'know stuff'?" Baryl asks. "From what I can tell, she's talking about events that will happen. As in, they're going to happen in the future. And no one can predict the future."
Beyondard ProtoMan hesitates. "Mimic can," he eventually replies. "That's the stuff she knows. The future and all that. It's . . . well, it's her thing, like I said . . ."
"That's impossible." Baryl frowns. "How is she able to know the future?"
Mimic pulls away from Beyondard ProtoMan enough to open her eyes and look at Baryl. "I can see stuff. In my dreams, I mean. Like . . . 'visions of the future' kinda stuff. I had a dream about you goin' to the Gregar army's place, an' then . . ." She nearly flinches, and Beyondard ProtoMan pulls her closer again. "An' then all that stuff happened."
Something clicks into place, and Baryl's eyes widen. "Is that why the Zoanoroids tried to take you prisoner? Because you can see the future?"
"No, that was . . ." Mimic glances up at ProtoMan, who looks back at her quietly. "That was somethin' else. Zoanoroids don't know about me seein' the future. If they did . . ." She doesn't need to finish that sentence.
"Alright then," Baryl says warily. "Say I believe you about your . . . ability. You've already convinced me not to go to the Gregar army's camp. But what am I supposed to do now? I had two missions, and I haven't been able to complete either of them. The first one I'm not sorry about - I'm actually glad that you managed to rescue yourself. But the second one . . ." He glances at the bag containing the new weapon. "What am I supposed to tell the commander of my organisation? How do I explain that I didn't complete my second mission because a little girl said she saw me fail in her dreams?"
"Commander Mask's a good guy," Mimic says, and Baryl is surprised because he's fairly certain he didn't mention Commander Mask by name, yet she somehow knew who he was talking about anyway. "He'll understand. I think." She doesn't seem entirely sure of that, though.
Baryl watches her, and as the silence stretches on, she seems to grow more and more uncomfortable under his gaze. She fidgets and eventually goes back to hiding her face in Beyondard ProtoMan's chest, and he lets her.
Eventually, Baryl sighs. "There's only one solution I can think of, here."
Mimic raises her head and looks at him questioningly. So do her Navis.
"I'm supposed to rendezvous with Commander Mask's unit after completing my missions," he explains. "Since I haven't completed either of them, I'll have to head to the rendezvous early. I won't be able to explain why I haven't even come close to the Gregar army's camp, so you'll just have to come with me."
Mimic's eyes widen.
"You can tell Commander Mask what you told me," Baryl says. "If you're as convincing as you were just now, maybe he'll understand. Or maybe I'll tell him. Either way, having the person who actually told me to abandon my mission in the first place sitting next to me will make this seem less insane than it already is. I'll escort you, so you won't get lost along the way. Deal?"
There's a brief moment of hesitation, but eventually, Mimic nods. "Deal," she agrees quietly.
Baryl quickly learns two things about Beyondard ProtoMan and Bass. One - they're both able to stay materialised in the real world despite being NetNavis. And two - they're both extremely protective over Mimic.
The first one is . . . odd, to say the least. Apparently Bass is an independent NetNavi, which means he's capable of materialising himself without sacrificing his HP. Baryl hasn't seen or heard of any independent Navis since the war started - they were among the first Navis to become Zoanoroids, and the vast majority of them were willing. But Beyondard ProtoMan is connected to Mimic's strange-looking Gate (which she refers to as a PET), so he shouldn't be able to stay materialised, and yet he can. According to Mimic, it might be because he's a Virus Navi, though Baryl isn't entirely sure what a Virus Navi is and none of the trio offer to explain.
The second one is understandable. Mimic is small, and fragile, and very much human. Baryl can easily pick her up in one hand and lift her with little effort. That's very worrying, especially given that she's a child, but apparently this means absolutely nothing to Mimic because she seems just as agile as Beyondard ProtoMan, and has almost supernatural speed and reflexes. The fact that she's so skinny apparently means nothing to her.
But still, both Navis are very protective over her, and she doesn't seem to mind. When Beyondard ProtoMan isn't off hunting down food, he spends most of his time sticking very close to her, sometimes even carrying her. Bass isn't as clingy as Beyondard ProtoMan appears to be, but Baryl sees him watching Mimic closely even when Beyondard ProtoMan is around. Which is most of the time.
The first time they settle down to sleep, Baryl intends to stay awake and keep watch. He's surprised when the only one who actually goes to sleep is Bass - Mimic and Beyondard ProtoMan stay up well into the night, although they eventually do go to sleep, snuggling together under a thick fur-trimmed cloak that looks vaguely similar to the ragged cloak Mimic is wearing. Even stranger is that they both wake up very early despite going to sleep very late.
And Beyondard ProtoMan's shadows - because apparently those shadows are his - don't go to sleep at all. Which sounds absurd, now that Baryl thinks about it, but the shadows form into a strange black body-double of their 'host', which is apparently what the shadows call Beyondard ProtoMan, and it doesn't go to sleep at all, it just sits up and keeps watch with Baryl.
It's very strange. But Baryl isn't going to complain - even if the way the shadow-creature's glowing eyes just stare into the darkness is deeply unsettling, it's somewhat of a relief knowing that someone (or something) is keeping him company through the night.
He learns more about his temporary companions as they continue travelling to the rendezvous point.
For one thing, Beyondard ProtoMan is a cat-Navi, and the one thing he hates more than anything is water. They stop to rest near a river at one point, and Bass decides Beyondard ProtoMan needs a bath, so he hurls Beyondard ProtoMan into the water. And Beyondard ProtoMan, after spending several minutes running around and screeching madly, promptly levels a good chunk of the area trying to grab Bass in revenge.
It also turns out that Beyondard ProtoMan wasn't kidding when he said Mimic is also a cat. She looks human - and for all intents and purposes, she is - but she has some very strange characteristics that can only be explained as feline. Her eyes reflect light, and she has night vision, which is an ability that humans don't have naturally. Her agility is almost on par with Beyondard ProtoMan's, and she has very sharp teeth that remind Baryl somewhat of a shark, just without the multiple rows.
It's quite odd that the most human of this strange trio is Bass, a human-Navi, who's only human in appearance. He doesn't seem to find it strange that neither of his companions are entirely human - and when Baryl asks, Bass just shrugs and says he never knew them before they became cats, so he only knows them as cats.
Beyondard ProtoMan eventually gets a chance to give Mimic a tongue-bath, much to Bass's annoyance. Baryl is unlucky enough to come back just in time to see Beyondard ProtoMan starting on her skin, so he dumps the firewood he managed to collect and promptly turns around and leaves them to it. He doesn't know if any of them understand the implications of such an act, but perhaps they're just too close to each other to notice. Or perhaps they just don't care.
A very strange trio, to be sure.
One thing he does find quite vexing is the fact that all three of them appear to be miniature agents of chaos. They come across a town and decide to re-supply just in case, and Mimic and her Navis immediately begin planning to scam the townspeople.
Baryl stares at them until they realise he's staring, and they sheepishly stop scheming. Perhaps they just got too used to immediately scamming towns they come across. But they don't need to do that anymore, because Baryl can easily pay for the supplies, and he knows this town is perfectly fine with NetNavis, even ones that can apparently stay materialised for far longer than the usual ten-minute time limit.
He also discovers how they managed to pull off the Zoanoroid scam so easily. There's a program on Mimic's PET that they refer to as the colour-change program, and it allows her to change the colour scheme of Beyondard ProtoMan. She used it to turn his armour orange and give him a fake Gregar ZoanoMark, and when it was Bass's turn to pretend to be the Zoanoroid, Beyondard ProtoMan transferred the colour-change to him after Mimic designed it.
It would be a very bad idea to walk into town with a NetNavi who looks almost exactly like the Sunset Warrior, so Mimic uses this colour-change program to make ProtoMan blue. Appropriately, he calls himself Blues while using this colour-disguise. He even takes off his helmet, revealing his own odd-coloured cat eyes, just to make doubly sure that none of the townspeople will mistake him for the Sunset Warrior.
Baryl has to admit he's impressed with the level of thought that goes into these things. It seems Mimic is very good with elaborate tricks, but has a perfect understanding of simple tricks as well. She is a very intelligent child.
Now if only she'd use that intelligence for something other than scamming people . . .
It's night by the time they arrive at the rendezvous point, and Baryl has grown somewhat accustomed to this quirky trio. So accustomed, in fact, that he almost forgets the problem that stems from Beyondard ProtoMan's red armour.
The trio he's travelling with doesn't forget, however.
"Is it a good idea to walk down there?" Bass asks, jerking his head toward the camp of Commander Mask's unit. They're on top of a ridge overlooking it, and no one has noticed them yet. "Those humans might think ProtoMan's the Sunset Warrior, like you did."
"Hm," Baryl muses, frowning.
"We could do the Blues thing again," Mimic offers, holding up her PET. Beyondard ProtoMan nods, looking faintly nervous. That's understandable, since they don't want Commander Mask's unit to attack him because of a case of mistaken identity.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Baryl tells her. "I'd rather not lie to Commander Mask or any members of his unit."
"Wouldn't be lyin', we just won't tell 'em the truth," Mimic says, shrugging.
"That's the very definition of lying."
"Not always."
This girl exists to infuriate people, doesn't she?
Baryl sighs and shakes his head. "I don't want them to mistake ProtoMan for the Sunset Warrior any more than you do, but I still don't want to make them think he's someone else entirely. They're fully aware that you're from Beyondard - and they already know that you're the operator of the ProtoMan from that reality. If you show up with a NetNavi who isn't ProtoMan but still somewhat resembles him, they're going to be suspicious, and when the lie is inevitably found out, they won't trust you."
"No one trusts me," Mimic says.
"I trust you," Beyondard ProtoMan immediately tells her.
"No one but ProtoMan trusts me," Mimic corrects herself.
"Chaud and Arcadia trust you, too."
"Don't," Bass speaks up, as Mimic opens her mouth again. "We're gonna be here all day if we do this." Mimic closes her mouth with a faint snap.
"Regardless of whoever may or may not trust you," Baryl says, getting them back on track, "I'd rather tell the truth right from the start instead of trying to hide it."
"I could just take my helmet off," Beyondard ProtoMan offers, doing exactly that as he speaks. His shadow-double - it's name is Dark Shadow when its in this specific form, though why it doesn't have a name in any of its other forms has yet to be explained - reaches up and takes it from him, then swallows it whole. Beyondard ProtoMan doesn't even blink. "Apparently I look so different without my helmet that even some of my friends don't recognise me."
"Yeah, wasn't there that whole thing with Glide?" Bass speaks up. "And you said that the Village Navis kept telling you that you've got pretty eyes or some shit."
"Especially Crescendo," Mimic giggles, with a sly grin.
Beyondard ProtoMan's cheeks turn the colour of his armour. "Shut the fuck up," he hisses, but that only makes Mimic's grin widen.
"Can we get back on track?" Baryl asks. It feels like he's had to say those exact words far too many times since he met these three.
"Absolutely," Mimic agrees. "What were we talkin' about?"
Baryl sighs heavily and wonders which deity he offended to deserve this.
Removing his helmet does indeed make Beyondard ProtoMan look different enough that he isn't easily recognised as any version of ProtoMan, and short of getting him to keep his helmet on and risking Commander Mask's unit attacking him on sight, it's the best option they have that doesn't involve lying.
They head down to the camp below, and Baryl strides as confidently as he can with a small child and two very strange NetNavis bickering at his heels. Some of the unit members greet him cheerfully enough, though they look faintly puzzled to see him so soon, and when they see his tagalongs, they look even more confused. Some of them glance at Beyondard ProtoMan quickly and then do a double-take, but aside from open-mouthed staring, no one says anything.
In fact, the silence spreads throughout the camp until the only sound is the faint murmuring coming from the command tent. One of the unit members ducks inside when she sees Baryl approaching, and within moments, the murmuring cuts off as well.
Baryl pauses outside the command tent, and his trio of tagalongs peer around him curiously. It doesn't take long for someone to emerge - and as luck would have it, it's Commander Mask himself.
"Colonel Baryl!" Commander Mask greets him like an old friend, pulling down his scarf to show his smile. "I wasn't expecting you back so soon. And I see you've made some new friends!"
"They're extremely annoying," Baryl bluntly replies. He can almost feel the offended look Bass is giving him, but all Mimic and Beyondard ProtoMan do is giggle quietly. "They were also scamming their way across the region when I met them, so . . ."
"Ah." Commander Mask nods understandingly. "That explains why you brought them with you. Why don't you come inside? Mysteriyu and Black Rose are waiting with the others." He turns his head a little, looking at Mimic. "You can come inside too, kid. You'll have to leave your Navis outside, I'm afrai-"
"Why?" Mimic interrupts, and Baryl internally winces at her lack of respect. "You guys ain't makin' your Navis sit outside."
"I go where Mimic goes," Beyondard ProtoMan speaks up, drawing his operator into a protective embrace.
"Same," Bass adds, glaring at Commander Mask suspiciously.
Commander Mask stares at them for a moment, and then looks at Baryl.
"They're very protective over her," Baryl explains. "It would probably be best to just let them do as they please. Arguing with them is pointless." He pulls a face. "And annoying."
After another moment, Commander Mask nods. "Alright then," he agrees. "Come on inside, all of you."
Mimic mutters something under her breath, and judging by her expression, it's likely an insult of some kind. Baryl can barely hear her even though he's standing right next to her, so hopefully Commander Mask didn't hear it either.
They head inside the command tent. As Commander Mask said, Mysteriyu and Black Rose are also inside, sitting on chairs at the back of the tent. A third chair lies empty between them - likely where Commander Mask was sitting before - and various other chairs are arranged in a very loose circle in the tent.
Upon those chairs sit several of the highest-ranking members of the CM Forces, including the mercenary-turned-freelancer, Kirisaki - also known to his enemies as Dark Scythe. Like Baryl, he prefers to work alone, but is willing to work with and even command other members of the CM Forces if the situation calls for it. Baryl has a healthy respect for Kirisaki, and vice versa, so they exchange a polite nod.
Mimic seems immediately fascinated by Kirisaki, and although she's not very obvious about it, she glances at him occasionally. Baryl remembers what she said about her being able to see the future in her dreams and wonders if she's ever had a dream about Kirisaki, because that's the only reason he can think of for why she's so interested in him.
Commander Mask invites them to settle down. The only two chairs available are directly across from Commander Mask, Mysteriyu, and Black Rose - so Baryl and Mimic end up with their backs to the entrance of the command tent, which Mimic apparently finds uncomfortable, because she doesn't look very happy.
"I'm sorry there aren't any chairs for the two of you," Commander Mask says to Beyondard ProtoMan and Bass.
"That's okay," Beyondard ProtoMan replies, and more than a few of the people in the command tent jolt upon hearing his voice. Beyondard ProtoMan either doesn't notice or just ignores them, and he settles down next to Mimic's chair with his limbs tucked under his body. "Chairs are overrated."
"I'd prefer to stand anyway," Bass says curtly, staying behind Mimic's chair.
There's a few moments of silence.
" . . . Colonel Baryl," one of the other high-ranked members says in a deceptively calm tone, "would you mind explaining why you've brought the Sunset Warrior into our camp?"
"He's not the Sunset Warrior," Baryl immediately tells them, because Bass looks ready to attack something and Mimic and Beyondard ProtoMan look ready to bolt. "You're all aware of Beyondard, yes?"
"Of course," Commander Mask, one of the few people who didn't react to Beyondard ProtoMan's voice, says. "I take it that means this is the Beyondard version of Zoano ProtoMan, then?"
"He's not a fucking Zoanoroid," Bass snaps. "He's a NetNavi. Get that straight or get the fuck out."
"These three are from Beyondard," Baryl quickly explains, before anyone can get offended at Bass's abrasive personality. "In fact, this girl here is Mimic Hikari."
"Mimic Hikari?" Black Rose looks surprised. So do several of the other people in the tent. "Isn't that the name of the girl who was captured by the Gregar army?"
"Apparently she rescued herself," Baryl says, nodding.
"I think you're going to need to explain this," Commander Mask says, glancing at Mimic briefly. "Colonel Baryl, if you wouldn't mind giving us a full report?"
"Of course, sir." Baryl nods.
He tells them everything he can. How he stopped off in that small town for supplies and learnt of a girl with a NetNavi who could take down the Sunset Warrior, and how he followed her trail until he came upon them in the old bath house. He also has to mention the brief case of mistaken identity, along with everything he learnt from the following conversation.
Quite a few of the high-ranking members don't look very pleased upon hearing how Mimic and her Navis have been scamming towns. The girl shifts uncomfortably under their disapproving frowns, and Beyondard ProtoMan raises his head and growls at them faintly. Their very healthy and very reasonable fear of the Sunset Warrior makes them look away, though Baryl suspects that even if they weren't so afraid of the Sunset Warrior, Beyondard ProtoMan's general intimidating aura would make them back down anyway.
And then, of course, comes the moment that Baryl is . . . somewhat dreading. The moment when he has to explain why he abandoned both of his missions - the first is easy to explain, because Mimic rescued herself and made that mission void.
The reason why he abandoned his second mission is less easy to explain. Regardless of whether he was being sarcastic when he said it, Baryl's reason for abandoning his second mission essentially boils down to 'a little girl said she saw me fail in her dreams'. She quite literally begged him, in fact, and she's very persuasive when she wants to be.
When Baryl is finished giving his report, he sits and waits. The silence in the tent is almost too much to bear, and Mimic looks as though she's seriously considering just bolting out of the entrance then and there.
Eventually, the silence is broken.
" . . . You have the ability to see the future in your dreams," Commander Mask says, glancing at Mimic.
She nods, a quick, jerky movement that betrays her nerves upon suddenly being the centre of attention. This near-silent personality is very strange to see, especially given how she's been acting the whole way here.
"I admit that does sound . . . quite fantastic," Commander Mask goes on, frowning. "Almost unbelievable, one might say."
"It's true," Bass says, and Beyondard ProtoMan nods his own eager agreement.
"I didn't say I didn't believe you, just that it sounds unbelievable," Commander Mask tells them, and they look surprised. He smiles at them, and glances at Baryl. "It would certainly explain why Colonel Baryl listened to Mimic, at least. If such an ability truly does exist . . ." Now he glances at Mimic. "I'm glad that it's in the hands of someone who cares so deeply."
Baryl almost begs to differ, but he remembers Mimic nearly having some kind of breakdown when she was begging him not to go to the Gregar army's camp. It appears that, despite her trickster personality, she does care on some level. Quite a paradox, he must admit.
"The news that our new weapon won't work against the Cybeasts is worrying, though," Mysteriyu says, in her soft-spoken tone. Even when she shouts, she's still soft-spoken. "This means our plans are now essentially useless."
"The fact that the weapon will work against viruses is somewhat of a comfort, at least," Kirisaki speaks up. Baryl rarely ever hears him speaking above his faint mumble, though he's nowhere near as quiet as Mimic appears to be. "Better than trying to send our soldiers into battle with nothing more than the rod-and-wire weapons we developed before."
Baryl's own rod-and-wire weapon works very well, in his opinion, but Kirisaki brings up a good point. The rods are only useful if you're close-up, and by that point, you're already in the middle of the battle. The new weapon allows you to attack from a distance.
"There is that," Commander Mask agrees, nodding. He turns to Baryl and Mimic. "If you don't mind, I'd like to discuss this with everyone else. We'll call you back in once we've come to a decision."
Baryl nods and gets to his feet. Mimic looks faintly puzzled for a moment before she does the same, and they head out of the command tent, Beyondard ProtoMan and Bass quickly following. Baryl doesn't think he imagines the faint relieved sigh he hears from a few of the people in the command tent as soon as Beyondard ProtoMan has left.
" . . . Didn't think they'd believe that," Mimic comments, looking up at Baryl. "The dreams thing, I mean."
"Why wouldn't they?" Baryl raises an eyebrow.
"It's . . . not really somethin' you'd take someone's word on," she clarifies. "'Sides, I told 'em their weapon ain't gonna work. People don't tend to be very happy when they get told somethin' they made ain't gonna work the way they want it to."
"Commander Mask and the CM Forces are practical and rational people," Baryl tells her. "If a new invention fails to meet the task we created it for but still has a use outside of that task, then it can still be useful. Besides, we already know it works on viruses - I've seen it work when it was being tested."
"Oh," Mimic says, blinking. "Cool."
"They don't like me much, do they?" Beyondard ProtoMan speaks up, glancing at the entrance of the command tent. The flap is down and the occupants are hidden from sight, but given what Baryl knows of this Navi's abilities, it's entirely likely that he can still hear every word being spoken.
"You look exactly like the Sunset Warrior, barring the lack of helmet and your red armour," Baryl reminds him. "I don't blame them for being wary. Some of them were lucky enough to survive some of his attacks. Or unlucky, if you prefer."
"I don't prefer," Beyondard ProtoMan murmurs, hunching his shoulders in a wince. "We've met Zoano ProtoMan before. He . . . wasn't nice."
"You've met him?" That's news to Baryl. "What happened?"
"He showed up, nearly levelled Internet City, then fucked off," Mimic explains, though it's not much of an explanation. "We've got no idea where he is now, but he's not with the Falzars, we know that much."
"Did you see that in one of your dreams?"
"No, we got attacked by some other Zoanoroids and one of 'em asked if ProtoMan ate Zoano ProtoMan."
Baryl stares at her.
"I'm not kiddin'," Mimic says.
"I've eaten a Zoanoroid before, actually," Beyondard ProtoMan says, and Baryl transfers his stare to him. "The armour wasn't too good, but the internal data was really tasty."
Baryl has questions. Baryl has several questions.
But he doesn't get a chance to ask any of them, because it's at that moment that they hear a panicked scream from the other side of camp, and then a shock wave of sound sends everyone to their knees. The worst affected are Mimic and Beyondard ProtoMan, though Beyondard ProtoMan seems more concerned with his operator's well-being than his own.
The shock wave of sound cuts off abruptly, leaving silence to ring out across the camp, and then another blasts out. This time, it's a physical force that sends vehicles and small tents flying, but it seems more concentrated than the previous shock wave and doesn't deafen everyone.
"What the hell is going on!?" Commander Mask demands, rushing out of the command tent with the others on his heels. They all stop short upon seeing the destruction. "What the-"
A dark shape swoops down from the night sky and grabs one of the unit members, whisking them off into the air. They're released when they're far too high for any human to survive, and Baryl whips out his Gate.
"Colonel, transmission!" he snaps.
Colonel doesn't need orders. He immediately jumps into the air and catches the unit member, landing safely and setting them down, before turning around with his Sword activated and staring up into the night sky.
"I see something up there," Beyondard ProtoMan says, stepping forward. His eyes flash in the darkness as he looks up. "It's flying around in a circle, but I can't make it out properly. Mimic?"
Mimic looks up for a moment, following her Navi's gaze, and then her eyes widen. "ShadeMan!" she yelps.
Beyondard ProtoMan jolts like he's been shocked, and Bass whips his head around to stare at her, suddenly horrified.
"Zoano ShadeMan?" Commander Mask's sharp voice asks. "How did he find us? We have sonar disrupters!"
"Perhaps he isn't here for us," Baryl says, looking at Mimic. She stares back at him, terrified.
"There are five NetNavis here," Black Rose says. She glances at Beyondard ProtoMan and Bass and corrects herself. "Seven. We should be able to fight him off."
"If he's anythin' like the one from our reality, even that ain't gonna be enough," Mimic mutters darkly.
Before anyone can respond to that ominous statement, Zoano ShadeMan swoops down again, talons reaching out to grab another unit member. Colonel unleashes a blast of Screen Divide to fend him off, and Commander Mask takes out his own Gate.
"SharkMan, transmission!" he announces.
Without even waiting for an order, SharkMan hurls out a Fin Cutter to force Zoano ShadeMan away even further. Black Rose and Mysteriyu send out their own Navis - WoodMan and SkullMan respectively - but rather than sending them to fight Zoano ShadeMan, they instead begin working to evacuate the unit members.
That's good, they need someone to get the humans out of the way - Zoano ShadeMan is well-known for taking hostages and not being at all gentle with them. Even with two NetNavis focusing on evacuation, that still leaves five to fight the Zoanoroid.
And then Kirisaki sends out KillerMan, and things get . . . wild, for lack of better words. KillerMan is an interesting Navi - and Baryl means that in the most polite way he can manage, because, for some reason, KillerMan seems to have an eager obsession with . . . well, killing things. That's fine, as long as he doesn't try to 'kill' anything on their side. He's a little too eager, in Baryl's opinion.
"Hell's Sickle!" KillerMan shouts excitedly, unleashing a blast of energy of his scythe. It cuts through the air and slams into Zoano ShadeMan, blowing him back, and KillerMan laughs.
Beyondard ProtoMan starts forward to add in his own assistance, but Bass yanks him back.
"You're not allowed to fight!" Bass snaps.
Beyondard ProtoMan gapes at him. "Wha-"
"He's after you, you fucking idiot!" Bass tells him. "Stay here and protect Mimic!"
That makes Beyondard ProtoMan pause. He glances at Mimic, who still looks looks terrified, and then turns back to Bass and nods.
Bass nods back and dashes out into the middle of the camp, black energy crackling on his palms. He brings up his hands and unleashes a huge beam of black energy, and suddenly Baryl is very grateful that the accidental battle he and Colonel got into with this quirky trio was cut off quickly. He doesn't want to find out what that attack is like when it's aimed at himself.
Zoano ShadeMan vanishes into the air, dodging the beam of black energy, and then Bass materialises a Buster and starts firing machine-gun blasts of concentrated air. Several of them manage to hit their target, and Zoano ShadeMan lets out a screech of pain.
"Screen Divide!" Colonel bellows, unleashing his own attack, and he manages to blast Zoano ShadeMan out of the sky.
SharkMan runs forward a few steps and then slams his hands down onto the ground. "Aqua Tower!"
Zoano ShadeMan sees the tower of water approaching him and pushes himself upright, but Bass hurls a blast of yellow energy at his feet and makes him stumble. SharkMan's Aqua Tower hits and sends the Zoanoroid flying. KillerMan eagerly follows up with another Hell's Sickle, and Zoano ShadeMan shrieks.
This is working, Baryl thinks, hardly daring to believe it. This is actually working! We might be able to defeat Zoano ShadeMan!
And then, of course, everything goes wrong.
Zoano ShadeMan staggers to his feet, vampire fangs bared in an enraged scowl that's visible even from this distance, and he flings out his arms, spreading his bat-wings wide. Before the humans can warn the Navis, Zoano ShadeMan screeches out a physical blast of sound that cracks the ground and sends the four Navis flying.
"Bass!" Beyondard ProtoMan cries, jerking forward before he remembers he's supposed to stay out of the fight.
Unfortunately, that shout gets Zoano ShadeMan's attention. His head snaps around, and his mouth quirks up in a grin upon seeing Beyondard ProtoMan.
"Run!" Baryl snaps, hauling him back. Suddenly it doesn't matter that Beyondard ProtoMan looks almost exactly like the Sunset Warrior - all Baryl can think is this is a child, and he is in danger.
Too late, though. Zoano ShadeMan is a Falzar Zoanoroid, and like all Falzar Zoanoroids, he has the speed that's characteristic of such a beast.
He's on them in the blink of an eye, reaching out to grab Beyondard ProtoMan. The Navi's shadows whip up to fend off their host's attacker, but Zoano ShadeMan screeches and they tremble and break apart at the force of it.
Then Mimic is there, between them, and she looks like she has no idea what she's doing - it's likely she just jumped in front of her Navi out of pure instinct, but even if she has those odd cat-like abilities, she's still human.
Instead of grabbing Beyondard ProtoMan, Zoano ShadeMan grabs Mimic. He doesn't look too disappointed about that - rather the opposite, in fact. He must know she's Beyondard ProtoMan's operator. He immediately takes to the air, dragging Mimic with him, ignoring her terrified struggles.
"No!" Baryl shouts, but it's no use, there's nothing he can do now.
"Do you see this, demon?" Zoano ShadeMan calls down. It takes Baryl a moment to work out that he's speaking to Beyondard ProtoMan.
"A-ahh . . ." Beyondard ProtoMan gasps, eyes wide, his entire body trembling. "M-Mim . . . mic . . ."
Zoano ShadeMan digs his claws into Mimic's body, and she cries out. Beyondard ProtoMan lets out a ragged noise. His shadows are beginning to tremble too, and they're letting off sparks of energy blacker than Bass's own power.
"I'll give you a choice!" Zoano ShadeMan tells him. "Agree to come with me and use your demonic power for the glory of Lord Falzar, or watch your fragile little pet human die!"
Beyondard ProtoMan goes completely still. Even his shadows aren't moving, save for the black sparks.
It's suddenly gone very, very cold. The desert wasteland generally tends to be cold at night, but this is colder than that, a kind of cold that seeps into your blood and freezes your bones in place. The kind of cold that accompanies a nameless sort of terror.
"Well?" Zoano ShadeMan snaps, tightening his grip on Mimic. His claws puncture her skin, and blood that looks almost black in the darkness of the night trickles down her arm in a faint stream. "What's your answer, demon?"
"Let . . . go . . ." Beyondard ProtoMan chokes out. "L-let . . . let go of . . . her . . ."
"Do you want her to die!?" Zoano ShadeMan shouts.
Beyondard ProtoMan screams.
The sheer volume and force of it shocks Baryl and practically everyone else watching, including Zoano ShadeMan, who jerks back with wide eyes. Black energy whirls around Beyondard ProtoMan in a tornado and the pressure in the air becomes very intense all of a sudden, and what look like actual glitches spread out all around him.
Bass is on his feet, running toward them and waving his arms frantically. "Get away!" he shouts. "Get away from him right now!"
Baryl doesn't question him. He just runs.
A glitched screech rings out, even louder than the shock waves of sound Zoano ShadeMan was blasting out, and overwhelming fear hits Baryl harder than any blow could ever hope to manage. He staggers to a halt, gasping through the unexplained terror, and somehow gathers the courage to turn around and look.
Beyondard ProtoMan has, for lack of better words, turned into a demon. It's made of shadows blacker than the night, body rippling like fire, and its mouth tears open and reveals a glowing white energy within.
The demon that was Beyondard ProtoMan screeches and the air distorts around it, and suddenly it's in front of Zoano ShadeMan. Black tendrils of shadows lash out and for several moments nothing can be seen except those shadows, and then Zoano ShadeMan comes flying out of them and slams into the ground nearby.
The shadow-demon drops down next, holding Mimic is a surprisingly-tender grip. It sets her down gently. She doesn't seem worried that her NetNavi has turned into a demon, and her hands trails across its head. A faint noise that sounds like a thousand half-glitched whispers comes out of the shadow-demon's mouth, and it presses its head into her hand.
Zoano ShadeMan somehow manages to find the will to climb to his feet, and the shadow-demon's head snaps around to look at him. He chokes on a terrified cry and takes a step back, but the shadow-demon glitches and is once again directly in front of him, lashing out.
Its claws dig deep into the Zoanoroid's chest and it pulls him to the ground, then crawls on top of him. For a moment, Baryl can't figure out what it's trying to do, and then it opens its mouth wide and-
Oh, god. It's eating him. This shadow-demon that used to be Beyondard ProtoMan is eating Zoano ShadeMan alive.
The sound is horrifying enough to listen to, but watching it is even worse. Zoano ShadeMan's pained screeches can't quite conceal the sickening sounds of armour snapping and data being chewed, and when the shadow-demon manages to get its way into Zoano ShadeMan's internal data, it buries its head deep inside him for a moment, then comes back up with the digital equivalent of entrails in its mouth, which become taut and then snap as it pulls them out and gulps them down.
Evacuation has stopped. Everything has stopped. No one can take their eyes off this horrifying spectacle - Baryl wants to look away, but a sickening sense of curiosity keeps his eyes on the scene in front of him.
Mercifully, it's over within less than a minute. Zoano ShadeMan's body eventually gives up and his core - now perfectly visible because the shadow-demon ate the armour and internal data concealing it - splutters and dies. He breaks up into data and that data disintegrates, and the last expression the Zoanoroid has is one of intense relief.
The shadow-demon crouches there, data-blood dripping off its mouth and face, for several moments. Then it flickers, suddenly, and there's a flash of red underneath that shadowy body.
The shadows peel off, revealing Beyondard ProtoMan crouching in the shadow-demon's place, and he sways a little before catching himself with his hands. He lowers himself down, laying his head on the ground with an exhausted sigh.
All of a sudden, the overwhelming fear that paralysed Baryl - and everyone else in the camp - is gone. The unnatural cold vanishes too, leaving the usual cool night air of the desert wasteland to rush back in, and it feels almost warm after all that.
Mimic, still apparently unconcerned with everything that just happened, runs straight over and drops to her knees beside her Navi. Beyondard ProtoMan manages to raise his head enough to give her a weak grin, mismatched eyes flashing unnervingly in the darkness, and she reaches out and places a gentle hand on his head. He lays his head back down on the ground and she pulls him into a hug.
Bass, who's also completely unconcerned, staggers over from where he was and sits down heavily next to them. "That's one way to solve a problem," he jokes.
"Eating the problem is always the best solution," Beyondard ProtoMan replies faintly, letting out a weak laugh. "Maybe you could try it sometime."
"I don't think I've got the stomach for it," Bass says. "Literally."
Mimic says something that Baryl can't hear, laughing a little as she gently running her fingers through Beyondard ProtoMan's hair.
"We're stupid?" Bass gives her an offended look. "Says the dumbass who jumped in front of a fucking Zoanoroid! What the hell were you thinking!?"
Mimic winces and says something else.
"You're damn right you weren't," Bass snaps. "Next time, just leave it to us."
She lets out a sigh that Baryl doesn't hear but definitely sees, and cuddles Beyondard ProtoMan a little closer. He snuggles right up to her, purring loud enough to be heard even from this distance.
"We've come to a decision on your new mission," Commander Mask says the next morning.
The camp is in shambles and the unit is going to pack up and leave soon, just in case more Zoanoroids show up, but thankfully everyone managed to get some sleep last night. How much sleep is up for debate, especially after what they all witnessed. The only ones who don't seem bothered are Mimic and Bass, along with Beyondard ProtoMan himself, though he's apparently exhausted from his transformation and needs to recover inside Mimic's PET.
"This girl is clearly a high-priority target for the Zoanoroids because of her NetNavi's power," Commander Mask goes on, nodding to Mimic, who blinks at him and tilts her head. Bass, standing at her shoulder protectively, simply raises an eyebrow. "Your new mission is to guide and protect her while she completes whatever task she has in our reality. See that she finds her way back to her friends."
"Understood, sir," Baryl agrees, with a sharp nod.
"And . . ." Commander Mask turns his gaze to Mimic, now. "Try not to get yourself into trouble, alright, kid? Don't do anymore of your scams, and don't throw yourself in front of Zoanoroids."
"Yeah, yeah," Mimic sighs, rolling her eyes. Baryl hopes she's actually taking the commander's words seriously.
Commander Mask frowns at her, but doesn't push the issue further. "Good luck, Colonel Baryl, Mimic Hikari."
"The fuck am I, an empty data package?" Bass scowls.
"Thank you, sir," Baryl says, before things can get out of hand - again.
Commander Mask nods briskly and turns to leave. Kirisaki, who was watching quietly from the side, makes to follow him.
"Wait!" Mimic suddenly steps forward, getting their attention. "Uh . . . Kirisaki, right?"
Kirisaki turns to face her. "That's my name, yes," he replies.
"Can I . . . get some data from your PET?" Mimic asks him. "Or . . . wait, no, it's a Gate, ain't it?"
Kirisaki raises an eyebrow, but after what happened last night, no one is willing to question Mimic. Not if it means invoking the wrath of a demon who will quite literally eat anyone who so much as looks at her wrong. Baryl is very, very grateful that he and Colonel didn't end up on the wrong side of that.
"Alright," Kirisaki eventually replies, taking out his Gate and offering it to her. "What kind of data do you need?"
"Uhh . . ." Mimic looks lost for a moment, but then the flickering Navi-hologram of Beyondard ProtoMan appears in front of her.
"I know what to get, don't worry," he reassures her. "Just gimme a second."
He vanishes into Kirisaki's Gate, and then returns a moment later with a small data package. Then he flickers and vanishes again, going back into Mimic's PET.
"And one last thing," Mimic says, not bothering to explain what any of that was about. "Do you know the CutMan Clan?"
"They're a Clan of Zoanoroids in the employ of the Falzar army," Kirisaki says, nodding. "KillerMan and I have deleted a good number of them. What about them?"
"There's five of 'em near a tunnel that goes under the ocean," Mimic tells him. "There's a base or somethin'. A fortress. They're gonna want revenge on you an' KillerMan at some point for deletin' their Clan members." She glances at Commander Mask. "They're gonna . . . they're gonna kidnap your 'weak point'."
"My weak point?" Kirisaki glances at Commander Mask too. "Hm . . ."
"Thank you for the warning," Commander Mask says to Mimic, even though her 'warning' made very little sense.
Commander Mask nods to Baryl and Mimic - and Bass too, just in case he gets annoyed at being 'forgotten' again - and then he and Kirisaki head back to the camp to help with packing up. It'll probably take a while for that to happen, given how much destruction Zoano ShadeMan caused.
" . . . Well, I suppose we're travelling partners again," Baryl comments, glancing down at Mimic.
"Yay!" Mimic cheers, throwing her arms into the air. She gives him a bright smile. "You know how to cook, right?"
Baryl blinks, and then sighs heavily. He suddenly has a very bad feeling about this journey.
