"Okay," Lan says, "tell it to me again."
Dingo looks exasperated, but Raika is just as patient as the last twenty times Lan has asked them to repeat this. Twenty times today, that is. Yesterday it was no less than fifty. Yes, Raika's been keeping count.
"Chaud and Maylu are together," he says patiently. "They're somewhere in the west, in what Master Feng-Tian called the 'mountain fields'. They're heading toward this village and we don't have an exact timeframe for their arrival, but it'll probably be soon."
"And Mimic?" Lan presses, leaning forward.
"She's safe from the Zoanoroids," Raika replies. "She rescued herself and she'll apparently find her own way here, though we also don't have an exact timeframe for her arrival, either. We don't know exactly where she is, but she will show up here sooner or later."
"Mimic's safe," Lan murmurs, pressing his lips together. "And Chaud and Maylu are gonna come here soon."
"That's right," Raika agrees.
Just like every other time Raika has told him this, Lan looks close to tears. It doesn't matter how many times he asks to hear this, it doesn't matter how many times Raika (or Dingo, when he's not annoyed by the constant pestering) tells him, he always reacts like this.
Raika doesn't blame him. Mimic was kidnapped right in front of them, so of course Lan would want constant reassurance that, yes, she actually is safe. And they haven't had any word on Chaud and Maylu aside from what Master Feng-Tian told them, so their whereabouts are a constant source of worry for everyone, too.
Even worse that both Mimic and Chaud are Lan's younger siblings. If he didn't constantly ask for reassurance that they're both okay, Raika would be worried.
Ms. Fahran glances over at them from where she's cutting up a large fish - some species that Raika doesn't know the name of nor he does want to know the name of - and smiles a little. She's a good person, Raika has discovered, and she's had her fair share of terrible experiences. Because of that, she understands Lan's need for constant reassurance.
Lan lets out a deep sigh and leans forward in his seat, steepling his hands together and pressing them to his forehead. "They're okay," he says softly. "They're okay."
"Yes," Raika agrees gently.
Dingo's expression softens, and he reaches out to place a hand on Lan's shoulder. Before his hand can even make contact, however, they're all distracted by the sudden arrival of the young pranksters Mick and his NetNavi, who is apprently only known by the nickname of Fuzzball.
"Hey, uh, Lan?" Mick calls, looking around until he spots them in the corner of the kitchen. "There's this girl outside, says she knows you-"
Lan is out of seat faster than Raika can even blink. "A girl?" he demands, gripping Mick's shoulders so tightly that poor boy actually winces. "And she said she knows me? What'd she look like? What's her name?"
"Lan!" Raika says sharply, getting to his feet. "Calm down and let him answer."
Lan lets go of Mick with visible effort and steps back. "S-sorry . . ."
"It's okay." Mick still looks completely bewildered, and Fuzzball is staring at Lan like he's grown a second head. "Uh . . . she didn't give me her name, but she had, um . . ."
"Long brown hair," Fuzzball speaks up, likely out of mercy for his operator. "Wearing a pale dress. She mentioned Trill, too."
Lan deflates. "Iris," he murmurs.
"You're disappointed," Raika observes.
"I don't mean to be, I just . . ." Lan sighs. "I was hoping it'd be Mimic."
Raika nods in understanding. "It's alright. Do you want to go and see her?"
"Who, Iris? Yeah, she came here for me, after all. And we didn't know what happened to her after she got pulled into the Fossa Ambience with us, either. Trill? Trill, where'd you go?"
Trill pops his head up from under the counter. "Over here, Lan! I heard - big sis is here?"
"Yeah, that's right," Lan agrees, nodding. "C'mon, let's go."
They head outside the old school, to where the Navi-girl Iris is patiently waiting for them. She looks faintly surprised to see Raika and Dingo with Lan and Trill, though she appears to recover from that surprise quickly. Lan told Raika about Iris's origins - apparently the Dr. Tadashi Hikari of this reality created her from the kindness and personality data that were removed from the Colonel of this reality, though apparently that kindness and personality data don't necessarily translate to the ability to understand other peoples' emotions.
How Iris found them isn't much of a mystery. Apparently she's able to track Trill no matter where he is - no one's sure how, not even Mimic, but it seems Iris used that ability to find them in this little fishing village.
"Lan," Iris says in her soft voice. "Trill. You're here after all, then. And you're safe."
"We've been here for a while now," Lan replies. "Iris . . . are you okay? We all got pulled into that Fossa Ambience, and . . ."
"I'm functional," Iris says, which wouldn't make any sense if they didn't already know that she's a NetNavi. "Are the others here, too?"
"Not . . . not yet," Lan admits, wincing.
"Chaud and Maylu are apparently pretty close," Dingo speaks up with forced brightness. "And Mimic rescued herself a while ago, so she'll show up here at some point, too!"
Iris blinks slowly. "How can you know that?"
"We met an old man by the name of Master Feng-Tian," Raika explains, and apparently that's all he needs to say, because Iris's slightly puzzled expression immediately clears up.
"I've heard of him," she says, nodding. She turns back to Lan. "I need to ask you to come with me. Trill, too. And your friends."
Lan blinks, surprised. "Come with . . . ? But, Iris, you just got here-"
"My creator has asked to see you," Iris interrupts. "He wants me to bring Trill back to the dimensional area research lab as soon as possible, too. You already seem to know most of the key points, but my creator should be able to answer any questions you may have left."
"Wait a second," Lan says firmly, before anyone else can react to that. "Look, I'm not saying I don't wanna go with you, but we're still waiting for the others to come here. I'm not going anywhere until Mimic, Chaud, and Maylu are with us, too."
Iris looks faintly troubled. "But we must go as soon as possible," she insists. "The Zoanoroids could attack at any moment-"
"We've fought them off before," Lan interrupts this time. "But I'm not going anywhere until the others are here."
"But-"
"I'm not going anywhere," Lan insists.
Iris is starting to look a little desperate, now. "Could you not tell the people of this village which direction we're going in? They could direct the others to-"
"I'm not," Lan says slowly and firmly, "going anywhere."
Raika exchanges a worried glance with Dingo, and then steps forward, between them. As soon as he loses eye contact with the source of his growing irritation, Lan subsides, though Iris's troubled expression remains.
"How about a compromise?" Raika suggests, looking between them. "Something that both of you will be happy with."
"A compromise?" Lan repeats, blinking up at him.
"Yes," Raika replies. "You don't want to go anywhere until the others have arrived." He glances at Iris. "And you want to get going as soon as possible. How about this? We wait until either Mimic or Chaud and Maylu have arrived. We know none of them are alone - Mimic has ProtoMan and Bass, and Chaud and Maylu have each other and their own Navis. When one group arrives, we can set off to the-" He pauses. "-dimensional area research lab, did you say?"
Iris nods.
"Right, then." Raika nods firmly. "And like Iris said, we can leave directions with the people of this village, so whichever group gets here second will know which way to go. Does that seem fair to you two?"
Lan stares down at his feet, lips pursed, and Trill reaches up and takes his hand carefully. Lan's eyes flick to him and he smiles a little, but the smile drops quickly when he looks away again.
" . . . I'm fine with waiting for one group," Iris says, after several moments of silence. That's a little surprising - Raika hadn't been expecting her to agree so easily, considering how desperately she was arguing to go right now. "As long as they arrive quickly. We have to get back to the dimensional area research lab as soon as possible."
"Yeah," Lan murmurs. "Yeah, I getcha." He lets out a long sigh. "At least we get to wait for one of them."
"It'll be okay, Lan," Dingo says, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I know you're worried about your brother and sister, but they're pretty resourceful! I bet they're totally fine!"
"I'm a little concerned about Mimic, though," Raika says, making everyone glance at him. "She's in a group with ProtoMan and Bass. None of those three are at all known for their self-restraint or morals. I wouldn't be surprised if they've left a trail of destruction in their wake."
Lan barks out a laugh, looks startled for a moment, and then the smile comes back and sticks this time. "Yeah, that sounds like them!"
"Hey, y'know what you need?" Dingo suddenly asks, grinning. He doesn't wait for an answer. "Some awesome curry, that's what! I can whip up some curry for us if you want!"
"Hey, hey, I'm the cook here!"
They all turn to see Ms. Fahran swaggering out of the old school behind them, Mick at her side with Fuzzball on his shoulder. They've both got little smirks on their faces, but Raika's attention is drawn to Ms. Fahran, who's holding a huge knife against her shoulder like an axe. It's very unsettling.
"If anyone'll be making curry," Ms. Fahran goes on, "it's me!" She points her huge knife at Dingo. "So don't think you can out-cook me, tomahawk-kid!"
"Oh?" Dingo has a very devious smirk on his face, now. "Is that a challenge, Ms. Fahran?"
"Hardly," Ms. Fahran scoffs, though she's half-grinning. "I highly doubt a little runt like you even knows how to cook in the first place, never mind make curry!"
"That's where you're totally wrong, lady!" Dingo exclaims triumphantly. "I got training from a curry master! I know how to make the best curry with any ingredients!"
"Yeah, well, your so-called 'curry master' has never gone up against my cooking," Ms. Fahran retorts. "Wanna make a challenge of it, then?"
"You're speakin' my language!" Dingo eagerly agrees.
Raika, Lan, Trill, and Iris watch this back-and-forth for as long as it lasts. It's . . . very perplexing, Raika has to admit.
" . . . What's going on?" he wonders quietly, leaning down to Lan.
"I think Dingo just challenged Ms. Fahran to a curry match," Lan replies, which tells Raika absolutely nothing.
"I'm not entirely sure what's going on either," Iris admits.
"Well, at least I'm not the only one who's completely clueless," Raika mutters.
SearchMan sometimes does not understand humans at all. Raika is easier than most - of course he is, he's SearchMan's operator. If SearchMan couldn't understand him even a little bit, what kind of NetNavi would he be? But sometimes, there are things that just baffle him about humans in general, and that includes Raika.
This curry match thing is one of those 'sometimes'. He's not sure why Dingo and Ms. Fahran decided to have a curry match, nor is he entirely certain as to why the entire village is getting in on it - but what he does know is that this whole thing is ridiculous, and apparently his friends are crazier than he thought they were because they're all getting far too into this as well.
"It's just a way to relieve stress, I think," MegaMan tells him, when he asks for an opinion for the only other sane person around. "A little bit of silliness always helps to relieve tension. And it's a good way to pass the time until the others arrive."
Well, at least it's not completely ridiculous. Still, SearchMan would rather not watch his operator make a fool out of himself trying to help set up a massive table and getting pranked no less than three separate times by the village tricksters, Fuzzball and Mick. It's entertaining, at least. Embarrassing, but entertaining.
It turns out Dingo really does know how to make curry, because an hour later, he and TomahawkMan - materialised in the real world to assist - bring down enough plates of curry for everyone taking part in this ridiculous curry match. Ms. Fahran comes down moments later with her NetNavi, SlashMan, helping to bring her own curry.
MegaMan announces the curry match to be officially underway, and the humans eat their samples. The Navi-girl Iris is given a place at the table too, for lack of better things for her to do, and the poor girl looks like she's about to scream when she tastes the curry.
Ah, right. She's likely never eaten anything before today, and her first taste of food is the spicy curry. Then again, SearchMan has never eaten anything either, not human food at least. He wouldn't know what curry tastes like, never mind seafood curry.
He watches Raika curiously, trying to gauge his operator's reaction to the type plates of curry in front of him. Unlike Lan, who shovels it down with alarming speed, Raika takes his time, drinking when necessary, and although he has to pause and pant for a moment from the sheer spiciness, he eats it all.
" . . . And everyone is done!" MegaMan announces, when he sees that all the humans - plus Iris - have finished eating. "Now, make your decisions!"
Even SearchMan, who's still mostly baffled by this entire curry match thing, can feel the tension in the air. He waits with bated breath for the humans to make their decisions, and when they do, the result is very, very clear.
Raika holds up the yellow card, which is for Dingo's curry. Everyone else holds up the green card, which is Ms. Fahran's curry.
MegaMan does a quick tally - though he honestly doesn't need to - and announces the results. "With overwhelming majority, Ms. Fahran's green curry has won the curry match!"
"No way!" Dingo wails, slumping in shock. TomahawkMan immediately vanishes back into his PET, apparently too horrified at the prospect of losing to stay materialised any longer.
"Heh," Ms. Fahran says, crossing her arms triumphantly. "Was there ever any doubt?"
SearchMan wonders what would have happened if she had lost. Would she be horrified like Dingo, or would she be a graceful loser? Dingo certainly isn't being graceful about it.
"Now, head judge Lan!" MegaMan goes on, and SearchMan wonders when that was decided, but they go ahead with it anyway. "Please make a general statement!"
Lan gets to his feet. "Ms. Fahran's green curry brought out the unique flavours of all its ingredients without sacrificing the taste of one over the other," he begins. "But neither did any of the flavours clash. It's an excellent example of seafood curry, and I'm glad I got to taste something so well-made!"
"For me, Dingo's was better," Raika speaks up. He almost looks like he's sulking, but SearchMan knows that can't be possible, because Raika never sulks.
. . . Maybe he really does spend too much time around Navis like ProtoMan. He's becoming far too willing to insult and be sarcastic toward his own operator. He never used to do that.
"On the other hand," Lan says, "Dingo's yellow curry displayed the standard excellence that we all know and love from Number One Curry." That he knows and loves from Number One Curry. "Regretfully, it didn't bring out the flavours in a memorable way. Even I was unsure, but it seems that the best ingredient for Number One Curry really is meat, rather than seafood."
Isn't seafood a type of meat? What's the difference? It's all just curry. These humans are taking this ridiculous curry match far too seriously.
"That's it!" Dingo crows triumphantly, as if he's found the answer to all his problems. "Let's start over! Not with seafood, but meat! I'll trounce you in a meat curry match!"
"There is no meat," Ms. Fahran informs him, and his face falls so fast that it's almost comical. "This is a fishing town, kid. We catch plenty of seafood, so we never have any reason to go inland for meat."
"But that's not fair!" Dingo protests. "I was at a disadvantage the whole time!"
Ms. Fahran shrugs. "That's not my problem. We make the best out of what we have, and what we have is an abundance of seafood. You got a problem with that, go get meat yourself and we'll have a re-match."
"Fine," Dingo says, and then immediately turns and starts marching in the exact opposite direction of the ocean.
"Dingo!?" Lan shouts, looking shocked. Beside him, Raika also gets to his feet, concerned. "Where're you going?"
"I'm getting me some meat!" Dingo throws over his shoulder.
He's gone before anyone can stop him.
SearchMan stares in the direction Dingo went and once again reflects that sometimes, he just does not understand humans at all.
Is it really okay to let him go off on his own like that? the core wonders.
Well, he does have TomahawkMan with him, MegaMan points out, adjusting his grip on the heart container. Then he frowns. But then again . . . this is Dingo we're talking about here . . .
Maybe you should go after him, the core suggests, pulsing with faint worry. He's the human who always gets lost, right? If he goes in the wrong direction, we'd have to find him again.
That . . . is an excellent point, MegaMan admits.
"MegaMan?"
He jumps and nearly fumbles his grip on the heart container, and the core pulses with alarm until he manages to settle it down again.
"Sorry," Trill says, wincing. He's pulling himself up so his head's poking over the edge of the kitchen counter, letting him see MegaMan. "I just wanted to ask . . . do you think Dingo's gonna be okay?"
"I'm sure he'll be fine," MegaMan replies, turning to him. The core pulses with disbelief and he carefully doesn't react.
"But . . ." Trill glances at Raika, who's helping Lan finish off the remainder of the curry from the curry match. "Raika said that he and Dingo got lost a lot 'cus Dingo was the navigator and kept using his tomahawk instead of his brains."
Raika chokes on his mouthful of curry, much to SearchMan's instant alarm.
"You didn't really say that, did you?" Lan frowns at Raika. "That's mean, Raika."
Raika's too busy coughing to answer. Iris, who's just hanging around for lack of better things to do, watches him with faint concern before reaching out to carefully pat his back. It seems to help.
"I kinda wanted to go with him, actually," Trill admits quietly, making everyone glance at him.
"With Dingo?" MegaMan checks, and gets a nod in response. "Why?"
Trill purses his lips and rests his chin on the counter. "I like this village and all, but . . . I'm kinda getting bored of being here all the time. I wanna go out and explore!" He glances at MegaMan. "But even though I wanted to, I didn't, 'cus then you'd get worried about me. I don't wanna make you worry."
MegaMan can't help but smile at that. He wishes he could stay materialised in the real world like Trill can - he wants so badly to hug him, or just pat him on the head, or just do something to show Trill that he appreciates how thoughtful he's being. Trill's really come a long way since he was that bratty little kid, hasn't he?
Which is kind of funny, because it honestly wasn't that long ago. Still, though. A lot can change in a few weeks.
Raika finally manages to get his coughing under control, and though he's still a little red-faced, he's able to speak without too much effort. "You'll get your chance to explore at some point, Trill. Actually, maybe that can happen sooner rather than later . . ."
"What do you mean?" Lan asks, glancing at him.
"We're going after Dingo," Raika announces, getting to his feet.
"Wait, right now?" Lan looks down at his half-full plate of curry with an expression of mild panic. "But I'm not done eating yet!"
"Dingo could be in serious danger or completely lost and you're more concerned with the fact that you haven't finished your food?" Raika gives him a deadpan look.
"It's not polite to leave food half-finished if you've still got room to eat!" Lan retorts, and he starts quickly shovelling the rest of his curry into his mouth.
"Lan, you're gonna choke, slow down," MegaMan cautions him.
Not one second after he says that, Lan chokes. Raika sighs and rolls his eyes, Trill giggles, and MegaMan wonders how his operator can be so mature and yet so childish at the exact same time.
Sometimes I wonder what food would taste like, the core muses, making MegaMan glance down at it.
You already know, don't you? MegaMan frowns. You feel what I feel when I eat cyberfood.
I feel what you feel when you eat cyberfood, yeah, the core agrees. But it's not quite the same as experiencing it for myself.
. . . Ah, MegaMan says, more sympathetically now. Right. I'm . . . sorry.
Why? The core sends him a faint pulse of confusion. It's not that big of a deal. Just a mild curiosity is all. I'm happy the way I am now, anyway.
There's no lie in the core's words, but even so, MegaMan can't help feeling a little guilty. Yes, the core would have been deleted if Arcadia hadn't managed to save it, but that doesn't change the fact that its existence is limited to literally just being the digital equivalent of a living heart in a glass bottle. It can't experience the sensation of eating food - cyber or otherwise - for itself, and all it can do is just . . . exist.
I told you, I don't mind, the core insists, picking up on his guilt if not his thoughts. Besides, you've got other things to worry about right now - that human who always gets lost, for one thing.
Of course, MegaMan murmurs. The guilt is still there, though.
Lan finally finishes the rest of his curry - with thankfully no more choking - and Ms. Fahran wishes them good luck in finding Dingo. She even supplies them with an up-to-date map of the surrounding area, which will be extremely helpful since absolutely none of them have any maps whatsoever (Raika said that Dingo traded theirs away to get his tomahawk sharpened, which doesn't surprise MegaMan at all) and the Navis don't know the terrain of Beyondard, so they'd end up just as lost as Dingo if they wandered out without any clue as to how to get back to the fishing village.
Trill tags along, eager for the chance to finally explore outside the village, and Iris naturally follows them as well. If Lan or Raika find it at all odd that the Navis outnumber the humans in this little group, they don't show it - MegaMan can't help but think about it, though, because he's used to it being the other way around. Beyondard is a very strange reality.
SearchMan's Search Program works just as well in tracking human footprints as well as Navi or virus footprints, so they follow his directions as he scans the ground. Occasionally he'll tell them that he found a small cut in the ground, and Dingo's footprints will change direction randomly whenever that happens, so it looks like Dingo is once again using his tomahawk to navigate.
Which is just typical. Raika told them that Master Feng-Tian said that Dingo's tomahawk is actually guided by real spirits, but apparently those spirits are as mischievous as Mimic and Chaud and love to lead Dingo astray most of the time. Except when he's actually needed somewhere, that is - and MegaMan has a feeling that Dingo isn't really needed anywhere right now.
"Wait a moment," SearchMan suddenly says, after they've been walking in silence for a good hour or two. The sun is starting to dip below the horizon at this point, and it'll be dark before they get back to the village.
"What is it?" Raika asks, glancing at him.
"There are more footprints now," SearchMan replies, eyes narrow as he scans the ground. "A second set that belongs to TomahawkMan - it looks like Dingo materialised him. And . . . a much larger set of footprints that . . . I'm not entirely sure what they belong to, but they're definitely not human or NetNavi. A large animal, perhaps."
"Guess he found his meat," Lan says, raising an eyebrow. "Any idea whether he actually managed to . . . what's the phrase?"
"I think it's 'bag some game'," MegaMan supplies, sensing what his operator wants to say.
"Bag some game?" Trill repeats, tilting his head curiously. "Is that like what Mimic does, when she's playing her games?"
"Er . . ."
"It means to hunt and kill an animal for its meat," Raika says. "Which is what Dingo ran off to do. SearchMan?"
"The larger footprints head off in that direction," SearchMan reports, pointing. "They're spaced out, so I think the animal was running. It looks like TomahawkMan and Dingo ran after it. If they did manage to catch it, they didn't do it here."
"Then let's keep going," Raika decides, heading in the direction SearchMan was pointing.
"It could have been a mammoth," Iris speaks up in her soft voice, making everyone glance at her as they walk. "The large animal, I mean. Mammoths are common in this part of the region."
"A mammoth?" Lan repeats, blinking. "But . . . I thought mammoths were extinct."
"They are," MegaMan confirms, when Lan glances at him for clarification.
"What's a mammoth?" Trill asks.
"A type of big, woolly elephant," MegaMan explains.
"What's an elephant?"
MegaMan opens his mouth to explain that too, and then realises he can't. He hesitates, unsure of how to explain the concept of an elephant, but thankfully SearchMan comes to his rescue.
"They look like this," he says, bringing up a holographic screen to show Trill an image of a typical grey elephant. "A woolly mammoth has brown fur all over its body, though."
"That's a big animal!" Trill exclaims, seeing a human standing next to the grey elephant in the picture. The human looks very small. "You mean Dingo's gonna try and hunt one of those for meat? Wow!"
"At the very least, he won't run out of meat," Raika comments dryly. "If he manages to catch it, anyway. I wonder if he knows how to skin it . . . there's a lot of fur to get through . . ."
"Seriously, mammoths are supposed to be extinct, am I the only one wondering why an extinct animal is apparently common in this region?" Lan demands.
"Dingo and I were attacked by a sabre-tooth tiger a few days ago," Raika tells him, and Lan makes a noise that sounds remarkably like a Ratty virus being deleted.
"It wasn't a tiger, it didn't have the stripes," SearchMan speaks up.
"Oh, not this again," Raika sighs.
"But it didn't-"
"SearchMan, if you mention stripes or tigers again, I'm putting you on mute for the next three hours."
SearchMan looks almost offended, but he stops protesting.
I like listening to them argue, the core, safely tucked away inside Lan's PET just in case anything happens, remarks. They're funny.
They're definitely something, MegaMan agrees, pressing his lips together to hide a smile.
They continue following Dingo and TomahawkMan's - and the mammoth's - footprints until they come across a large lake. Lan squints, trying to make out the far side, but in the gathering darkness, it's difficult - not to mention he doesn't have the enhanced eyesight of Mimic and Chaud. But he can't deny that something doesn't look entirely right about the far side of the lake. It's different to the rest, though he's not entirely sure how.
"Their footprints end here," SearchMan announces, when they get close to the edge of the lake. "It looks like there was a scuffle of sorts, and there's a large shape on the ground where I think the mammoth fell over."
"No blood, though," Raika says, looking around. "Maybe they just knocked it out."
"There's a new set of footprints, too," SearchMan goes on. "I can detect traces of digital residue in them, so they either belong to a virus or a NetNavi."
"Or a Zoanoroid," Lan says darkly, narrowing his eyes.
"Dingo may be in trouble, in that case," Iris says quietly.
Lan feels Trill's grip on his hand tightening, and squeezes back reassuringly. He takes out his PET and tries to contact their missing friend.
"Hey!" he calls. "Dingo, can you hear me?"
He waits a moment, but there's no response.
"He could be on the other side of the lake," MegaMan suggests. "It looks pretty big. Big enough that he'd be out of range."
"Or perhaps he's switched off his PET's communications," Raika says. He glances down at the footprints only SearchMan can detect and follows them to the lake. " . . . Maybe he went swimming."
"Or he could've drowned," Lan mutters, wincing at the thought of losing one of his friends in such a horrible way.
He doesn't know much about drowning, but he knows it's slow and terrifying. He's grateful that Mom took the time to get him swimming lessons, so hopefully he'll never have to worry about that, but he doesn't know if Dingo can swim. What if the owner of the new set of footprints - this Navi or Zoanoroid - dragged him into the water and held him under until he died?
That . . . is a horrifying thought. Lan shudders.
"Don't think about it," Raika speaks up, making him jump. "Besides, this is Dingo we're talking about here. He's too stubborn to drown."
"Don't you mean stupid?" Lan teases, with a slightly weak grin.
Raika rolls his eyes, though he's smiling. "Whatever. Come on, let's head around the lakeshore - maybe we'll find him along the way."
Lan nods and tugs on Trill's hand, and the group starts heading around the shore.
There's a forest just beyond the shore on this side of the lake. Since there aren't likely to be any footprints anymore, SearchMan focuses his attention on the trees, making sure that they aren't about to be jumped from behind - and then it turns out he finds something else entirely.
"Some of the trees have been cut down," SearchMan tells them, and they pause. "It looks like they were used to build a boat, maybe."
" . . . Dingo's pretty good at wood-carving," Lan says, after a short pause. "He showed me a totem pole he made once."
"Hm," Raika muses. "So he came here and carved out a boat, and then . . ." He looks out across the lake. "He used it to get across the lake, maybe. But why?"
SearchMan turns his head and scans the far side of the lake, which they've steadily been making their way toward. "I see a building," he says.
"A building?"
"It . . . looks like a castle of sorts," SearchMan goes on. "It's too dark to make out any details, though."
"Why would there be a castle next to a lake?" Lan wonders.
"You can find castles anywhere," Raika tells him.
"Well, yeah, I know that, but Beyondard doesn't really seem like the type of place to have random castles lying around . . ."
"There shouldn't be a castle here," Iris speaks up. "This is Obsidian Lake - it's supposed to be a reservoir for the Black River below the cliffs. It's a natural reservoir and the water flows down in a waterfall, but . . ." She lifts her head and listens for a moment. "I don't hear the water flowing any more."
"So maybe that castle has something to do with it," Lan suggests, frowning. " . . . How much do you guys wanna bet that Dingo went there?"
"What little money I have," Raika replies dryly. "Let's go, then. At the very least, we can ask whoever owns the castle if they've seen him anywhere."
Lan doesn't have any protests to that, and neither does anyone else, so they set off once again.
They leave the forest behind eventually, and come up to a rocky path overlooking the cliffs down below. Lan carefully inches to the edge, looking down, and sees that Iris was right - the water is no longer flowing, and there's a deep groove set into the valley below where the river obviously used to be.
The thing that's stopping the water from flowing turns out to be a huge, metallic dam. Lan remembers seeing this from the other side of the lake and realises that this must be the reason why it didn't look entirely right - because it's not. The dam is clearly a new feature, and up ahead looms the dark metallic shape of the castle, which is built directly over the edge of the lake.
So whoever built the castle also built the dam, and the owner of the castle must have stopped the water from flowing. Lan can't really explain why, but he doesn't have a good feeling about this. Maybe it's because he can't think of a good reason why anyone would want to stop a river from flowing.
He steps away from the edge and re-joins the others, and that's when missiles explode out of the water and shoot toward them.
"SearchMan!" Raika snaps, immediately materialising his Navi.
SearchMan raises his Scope Gun and shoots the missiles out of the air, and they explode a harmless distance away from the group. Then he points his Scope Gun at the surface of the lake, which is still rippling from the missiles' sudden arrival, and gives it a quick scan.
Before he can pinpoint the location of whatever threw those missiles at them, a head comes up out of the water. It's either a NetNavi or a Zoanoroid, but either way, it's pretty clear that this guy is where the missiles came from. He - Lan's pretty sure it's a he, at least - looks almost like a blue submarine of sorts, and he's got a pipe in his mouth that doesn't fall out even when he speaks.
"Keep away from the lake," he calls to them.
"You could've just told us that instead of attacking us!" Lan snaps, and their opponent's eyes flick to him.
"Keep away from the lake," he repeats, and then raises a large hand out of the air. More missiles materialise around him, aimed directly at them.
"Trill, stay behind me," Iris quickly says, dragging the little Navi behind her. Lan's confident that Iris's defensive abilities will keep Trill safe, so he doesn't need to worry about that for now.
"Who are you?" Raika demands. "Why are you attacking us?"
"My name is DiveMan," their opponent replies. "And you're trespassing. That's why I'm attacking you." He gestures and the missiles shoot toward them.
SearchMan blows them up before they can get too close, and Raika turns to Lan.
"We'll deal with this, you go and find Dingo," he says.
Lan gives him a sharp nod and takes off. Iris and Trill follow him - he's not sure how safe it is for them to stick with him, but it's better than risking that DiveMan character attacking them just for walking near the lake.
Before they can get very far, though, Lan hears a familiar voice screaming. He slows to a stop, puzzled, and is then shocked when Dingo comes running out of the castle's entrance with TomahawkMan at his heels. TomahawkMan briefly pauses to launch his tomahawk at something behind them, but Dingo doesn't stop.
"I just wanted my meat back!" he wails.
"Dingo!" Lan shouts.
Dingo looks intensely relieved to see him. "Hey, Lan!" he calls back, waving. "Mind helping us out a bit here!?"
"With wha-"
A giant clown with four disembodied hands floating around its body crashes out of the castle's entrance, and Lan stares. While he's watching, he sees the clown jump up into the air - far higher than its size would suggest it's capable of doing - and then its body flaps out and it becomes a tent.
TomahawkMan recalls his tomahawk and throws himself out of the way with a yelp, and the clown crashes down where he was a moment before. The clown's face scowls a little, and it flaps back into a proper body, then brings out a whip.
"Fire Ring!" the clown announces, cracking the whip. A ring of fire appears in front of it, and a mechanical lion jumps out of the fire.
Lan stops gaping and quickly takes out his PET. "MegaMan, go!"
MegaMan shoots as soon as he's materialised, and the mechanical lion is destroyed. The clown doesn't appear to care - it just giggles and does a backflip, though its disembodied hands don't move.
"Happy Clap!" the clown cries.
Two of the clown's disembodied hands vanish and then reappear either side of MegaMan. Lan realises what they're about to do a split second too late, and MegaMan cries out as the hands crush him between their palms.
"Tomahawk Swing!" TomahawkMan shouts, jumping up and slashing down at the hands.
He manages to get rid of them, though all that happens is that they go straight back to the clown. MegaMan is at least released by the hands, thankfully.
"Dingo, what's going on?" Lan demands, as soon as his friend is close enough to hear him.
Dingo stumbles to a halt and gives him a slightly sheepish but wild grin. "Okay, so-" He breaks off as the clown makes to attack again. "Watch out, he's attacking again!"
Thanks to his warning, MegaMan and TomahawkMan manage to dodge the next attack - another one of those Happy Claps - and they throw their own attacks back at the clown.
"DiveMan stole my meat so me and TomahawkMan snuck into the castle to get it back but Blackbeard and Yuika are mean and they imprisoned a bunch of people for stealing water so now we're trying to beat Blackbeard and Yuika to free the people and get my meat back," Dingo explains in a single breath.
It takes Lan several moments to process that. " . . . Who're Blackbeard and Yuika?"
"The operators of DiveMan and CircusMan!"
"DiveMan?" Lan glances at where Raika and SearchMan are still trying to fight DiveMan, though they're not having much luck since DiveMan is living up to his name. "Ah, right. That explains why he told us to keep away from the lake . . ."
"He did the same to us, and then he stole my meat!" Dingo exclaims indignantly.
"What was that you said about prisoners?" Lan asks, glancing back at Dingo.
Before he can answer, they're both almost knocked off their feet by a sudden explosion, and MegaMan and TomahawkMan crash to the ground a few feet away. The clown - CircusMan - giggles and summons another of his mechanical lions from his Fire Ring, and it jumps toward them and explodes again, making them cry out.
"MegaMan!" Lan shouts. He glances down at his PET and grits his teeth. His Navi's HP is dropping way too fast for him to be able to fight for much longer - the limit is ten minutes, sure, but that limit can shortened if the Navi takes damage and loses HP during battle.
Lan quickly brings up the Cross select screen. If MegaMan had more power, he'd be able to fight easily - the most powerful Crosses they have access to right now are Proto Cross and Arcadia Cross, but they're right next to a lot of water, which would make both of those Crosses more or less useless for different reasons. MegaMan won't go anywhere near water in Proto Cross, and Arcadia Cross's Holy Fire wouldn't be much use in this kind of area.
He could try Tengu Cross - he remembers that one's pretty powerful, they used it in a battle against some Beast viruses that tried to attack the village yesterday and ended up blowing the whole lot away in one attack - but decides against it for similar reasons, because Tengu Cross is Wind-element and the extreme wind that MegaMan would be using could whip up a twister or something by accident. That leaves Slash Cross, Tomahawk Cross, and Aqua Cross.
The obvious choice is Aqua Cross, because of all the water.
"Cross System-" Lan begins, about to select Aqua Cross.
"Wait," Iris says, stopping him. "Try using Beast Out, instead."
"What!?" Lan gapes at her.
"Wait, doesn't MegaMan go nuts when he uses Beast Out?" Dingo asks, looking faintly worried.
"Yeah, and that'd be really bad here, big sis!" Trill says, tugging on her hand desperately. "We're all in the real world, and if MegaMan hurts Lan or any of the other humans, he'd be really sad!"
"There's no danger of that here," Iris tells him. "In this reality, I can control the two of you."
Lan blinks, and abruptly remembers that Iris is supposed to be Trill's caretaker. "Is this one of the abilities you have?"
Iris nods. "Dr. Hikari-" It takes Lan a second to work out that she means Beyondard Grandpa, not Dad. "-gave me the ability to calm and control the Synchroniser's power should the need arise. I didn't have access to my full abilities in Beyondard, but here, there's no need to fear MegaMan going on a rampage. But . . ."
"But?" Lan presses.
"I'll be vulnerable to attack," Iris says. "My energy and concentration will be spent keeping MegaMan and Trill under control. I won't be able to defend myself."
"That's fine!" Dingo says, nodding. "Me and TomahawkMan can protect you." He turns to the battle between their Navis and CircusMan. "Hey, TomahawkMan, get back here! We've got a plan!"
TomahawkMan immediately abandons the fight and scrambles away, and MegaMan freezes for a second, looking at Lan questioningly. Lan looks back at him, hoping that his Navi won't freak out too much when Iris does her thing.
"Alright," he says, turning back to Iris, "do it!"
Iris nods and brings up her hands. She holds them half a foot apart, palms facing each other, and closes her eyes. There's no indication of what she's actually doing, but Lan guesses she's activating whatever program she has in her that allows her to control Trill's Synchroniser abilities.
And then Trill is engulfed in a bright blue light, and Lan flinches away instinctively. The light shoots into the air, hangs there for a moment, and then darts toward MegaMan.
"W-wait-" MegaMan begins, eyes widening, and then the light hits him and he screams.
It's not a pained scream, this time. It's a shocked scream, of course, because MegaMan wasn't expecting it and there wasn't any time to explain - but it's also a scream of energy, like there's so much of it that MegaMan has to scream to let it out or he'll explode. Maybe it's the same kind of energy that Proto Cross gives him, just multiplied.
CircusMan drops back, suddenly looking concerned, and two humans come running out of the castle. A large man with a moustache that looks like it's made from his nose hairs (which is a very disgusting mental image), and a teenage girl with a heart-shaped tattoo on her right cheek. Blackbeard and Yuika, Lan guesses.
"What the hell is going on!?" Blackbeard demands, and then he sees the tornado of energy swirling around MegaMan and goes quiet.
"I-is that . . ." Yuika trails off, gaping.
The energy stays blue for a few moments, and then shifts to purple, and finally red. Lan sees the familiar bird-shape of Falzar Beast Out a moment before the red tornado of energy bursts apart and reveals MegaMan's changed form, now floating several inches off the ground.
Lan's heart thuds almost painfully against his ribs. Despite Iris's reassurances, he's still terrified that MegaMan will end up going on a rampage - their previous experiences with Beast Out haven't exactly been positive, after all.
And then MegaMan's eyes snap open, and instead of the deep red of a wild beast, they're his usual calm green. Lan lets out the breath he didn't know he was holding, so relieved that he nearly falls to his knees then and there.
"Whoa . . ." MegaMan says softly, looking at himself curiously. "So this is Beast Out?"
He spoke. He actually spoke. He's conscious!
"A Zoanoroid!?" Yuika squeaks, looking terrified all of a sudden. "A F-Falzar Zoanoroid!?"
"He was a NetNavi two seconds ago!" CircusMan protests, stepping back.
MegaMan's eyes snap to him, and CircusMan freezes.
With a single beat of his metallic wings, MegaMan is suddenly right in front of CircusMan. Before the Navi can react, MegaMan lashes out with his claws and sends CircusMan flying into the lake water, and CircusMan flails around for a moment before his body fizzles and vanishes.
Lan would be surprised that was all took for CircusMan to be defeated, but then he remembers that they were already fighting before MegaMan used Beast Out, and who knows how long Dingo and TomahawkMan spent running from CircusMan before that.
MegaMan beats his wings and turns to face the lake, eyes darting across the surface, and then he brings up his arm and materialises a red Buster. He fires sharpened metallic feathers into the water, and judging by the wail Lan hears from underwater, his attacks have hit their target.
"DiveMan, time for retreat!" Blackbeard snaps, running for the water with Yuika at his side.
They jump into the lake just in time for DiveMan to resurface. A couple of red feathers dig into his armour and it looks pretty painful, and although DiveMan winces, he picks up Blackbeard and Yuika easily.
Then his head comes off, almost like he's half-decapitating himself, and he puts them inside his body. Lan stares, unable to process what he just saw, because he had no idea that kind of function was even a thing - though he supposes it makes sense, since DiveMan is apparently a submarine-Navi.
DiveMan puts his head back on, swallows his pipe, and a metallic mouthguard slides into place over his mouth. He vanishes below the surface of the water with barely a ripple.
"They're getting away!" Dingo exclaims, starting forward.
"Not if I can help it!" MegaMan replies.
He flies higher into the air, moving away from the dam, and then turns around. He raises his hands and charges some kind of red energy on his claws, then hurls the energy at the dam, making it shudder. The claw-energy cracks open a giant hole in the dam, and water floods out onto the empty riverbed down below.
There's a loud wail and suddenly DiveMan's submarine-form comes gushing out of the hole along with the water. The wail gradually fades as the Navi vanishes from sight, taking Blackbeard and Yuika with him.
" . . . They still got away," Dingo points out, as MegaMan lands beside them.
"They got away on our terms, not theirs," MegaMan retorts. "Besides, I don't think this dam is meant to be here anyway."
"It's not," TomahawkMan says. Raika and SearchMan come over from where they were watching the battle, too. "Those prisoners we found in the castle said that Blackbeard and Yuika control the water and force the people who live around here to pay for it. Before they showed up, the water was free for everyone."
"I knew I had a bad feeling about this place," Lan mutters to himself.
MegaMan nods solemnly, and then glances at Iris. Neither of them say anything - Lan's not sure if Iris can say anything, right now - but MegaMan nods again and rises gently into the air.
A glowing ball of light appears, hovering overhead. MegaMan allows it to engulf him, then Iris takes her hands apart and raises them into the air, and the ball of light splits in two. The balls hover for a moment, then descend until they're just an inch or so above the ground, and then break apart to reveal MegaMan and Trill separated once more.
"That was awesome!" Trill immediately gushes, jumping up and down excitedly.
"I could definitely get used to that," MegaMan comments, smiling.
So could Lan. It's a relief knowing that MegaMan won't go on a rampage every time he uses Beast Out from now on, at least. Not to mention the looks on Blackbeard and Yuika's faces when they saw Beast Out MegaMan were absolutely priceless.
They do a bit of cleaning up, afterwards. The first thing they do is find the prisoners and release them - a lot of them look pretty thin and weak, so they have to be helped down the cliff, where their friends and families have apparently been watching the battle. Everyone's grateful that Blackbeard and Yuika are no longer controlling the water.
And Dingo even gets his meat, too. He refuses to leave without it, and it turns out he is able to skin an animal carcass - which is something Lan never thought he would have to witness in his entire life - but there's way too much meat for him to carry, so he just cuts off a big piece to use for curry ingredients and gives the rest to the people down below the cliff.
Lan's a bit worried about what happened to Blackbeard and Yuika, though. He has a feeling this won't be the last they've seen of them - it doesn't help that Raika finds the symbol of Cybeast Gregar in the control room of the castle, either, so that means the Cybeasts really do employ human agents. That's not a comforting thought.
But for now, at least, they can head back to the fishing village and celebrate with mammoth-meat curry. Lan just hopes Dingo knows how to cook it.
Apparently mammoths aren't extinct in this reality, which is something Chaud never thought would be possible. Then again, this is Beyondard - animals that are extinct in this reality might well be common animals in their own reality, and vice versa.
Still, at least the existence of mammoths means he and Maylu won't be going hungry any time soon. There's even enough for Arcadia to have some, though Roll refused the portion they offered her, for some reason. She looks faintly disgusted, watching them eat what used to be a living animal, but honestly, what did she expect? This is what all meat used to be, after all.
"This is surprisingly good," Maylu says, voice muffled by the meat in her mouth.
"I've had better," Chaud replies, with a little shrug. "But I'm not going to complain, food is food."
"Stop lying, you love this," Arcadia laughs, looking up from his own meat.
"You three are weird," Roll sighs.
Chaud is about to take another bite when he hears the sound of rushing water, and his hackles raise almost instinctively. Arcadia glances at him, puzzled, and Chaud forces himself to relax.
"I think I hear water," he says. Even to himself, his voice sounds far too serene.
Arcadia frowns and gets to his feet, standing on the toes of his talons to look at the dry riverbed they've been following since before the sun set. "I don't see any-"
And then everyone can hear it, and Chaud spits out a hiss and scrambles as far away as he can from the sudden rush of water that flows down the dry riverbed. Arcadia just stares, dumbfounded, and Maylu and Roll exchange a startled glance with each other.
" . . . That wasn't there two seconds ago," Arcadia finally manages to say.
They hear a faint wail just over the rushing water, and an odd submarine-like thing washes past them.
"Um," Arcadia says, blinking.
"I'm not helping them, whoever they are," Chaud says, pressing himself against a rock. "They're in the water. I hate water even more than I hate holes."
"That's fine, I could sense they weren't very nice people, so they probably deserved . . . whatever happened to them," Arcadia tells him, and Chaud nods firmly.
"Good."
"Something must've happened up ahead," Maylu says, looking upstream. There wasn't an upstream a minute ago, and Chaud is still annoyed that there is one now. "Maybe we should go check it out."
"Yeah," Arcadia agrees, nodding.
"But it involves water!" Chaud protests, as Arcadia and Maylu begin to pack up their makeshift camp. "Lots of water! Probably that damn lake Moliarty mentioned, actually. I'm not going anywhere near water!"
"You're coming with us or we're leaving you behind," Arcadia tells him.
Chaud gapes at him. "You wouldn't!"
Arcadia looks at him and doesn't speak.
After several moments, Chaud lets out a despairing sigh. "Fine, fine, I'll come," he grumbles, getting to his feet. He clutches his meat to his chest and bares his teeth at the rushing water. "But I'm still not going anywhere near the water."
"I'll fly you over it, don't worry," Arcadia says.
Well, it's better than nothing. Chaud still hates the water, though. It's cold, and it's wet, and he just- he just doesn't like it, okay? He'd rather jump into a pool of lava than a pool of water. And that's saying something, because the lava would kill him.
