The inside of the lab is in even worse condition than the outside. If Chaud had to guess, he'd say something attacked this place - violently. Whatever happened here, the lab is lucky to still be standing, and if the readings he's getting from his PET are right, it's still functional.

The grey-and-black tones of his night vision mixed with his enhanced eyesight allows him to see down hallways that the others can't illuminate with the lights from their PETs. What he can see isn't much, honestly, because entire hallways have been blocked off by rubble and there isn't much to see anyway. Mimic doesn't have much luck seeing anything either, and ProtoMan even less than both of them since he doesn't have enhanced eyesight. Arcadia does, except he doesn't have night vision.

"This way," Iris says, holding out her hand ahead of her. A light shines on her palm, nearly blinding Chaud and Mimic.

ProtoMan ducks away from the light with a faint hiss, and shadows reach up to cover his visor and protect his sight. Chaud watches, fascinated, because he rarely ever sees ProtoMan in his element like this. The shadows are almost solid, black rippling shapes eager to obey their host, and ProtoMan's own shadows mingle with them until it's impossible to tell the difference between them. If Dark Shadow formed itself right now, it would probably be more solid than even ProtoMan when he's the Poltergeist. And if ProtoMan goes Poltergeist right now . . .

Chaud shakes that thought of his mind, though Mimic latches onto it and considers it curiously. A Poltergeist made more powerful by the shadows surrounding them. It's an interesting concept, they have to admit. Not one they'd like to see for themselves, since ProtoMan going Poltergeist would mean they're in danger.

Iris leads them through the halls, guiding them with the light on her palm. Trill sticks as close to Lan as possible, and the others stay close together, though Chaud, Mimic, and ProtoMan wander a little apart. They're interested in exploring their surroundings, though they're still following Iris like everyone else.

"This place wasn't like this last time I was here." Baryl's voice echoes through the empty hallways as he looks around, using the light on his Gate. "What happened?"

"Gregar and Falzar wanted the Synchroniser's power, so they attacked," Iris explains. "Trill and I weren't here at the time - he had already escaped from the lab and made his way to Beyondard, and Dr. Hikari sent me to find him. I suppose it's a good thing Trill did escape, in the end."

"The Cybeasts might have taken him if he hadn't," Raika murmurs.

Trill's grip on Lan tightens, and Lan reaches down to pick him up. Chaud exchanges a brief glance with Mimic, then they both wander closer to Lan, who glances at them, but doesn't comment when they walk either side of him. Their added presence seems to help Trill at least, and he stops gripping Lan so tightly.

They continue through the halls, passing a room that seems to house Navi development capsules - Iris tells them that this is where Trill was created, and Trill nearly shudders when he looks at the one he was created in. Chaud doesn't actually know that much about Navi development capsules - they're an outdated form of Navi-creation, at least in their own reality - but from what little he does know about them, they aren't very pleasant. Cold, lonely eggs in which Navis are created, isolated from everything aside from their own creator or creators.

Like he said, it's not pleasant.

A faint hum announces the lab's systems coming online as Iris takes them through another set of hallways. Only Chaud, Mimic, and ProtoMan hear it, and thus only they get any warning when the lights suddenly begin turning on seemingly by themselves.

"The main room is just up ahead," Iris says, lowering her hand and shutting off the light on her palm. It's unnecessary now that the lab is online. "I'm afraid I must ask Baryl and Ms. Fahran to stay here."

The group pauses, and Baryl and Ms. Fahran both look in equal parts confused and slightly offended.

"Wait, what?" Ms. Fahran frowns.

"Why?" Baryl asks.

"Because Dr. Hikari did not request to see you," Iris explains, turning to face them. "He asked only for me to bring the Synchroniser here, along with the humans and Navis from Beyondard. Since he didn't ask to see any humans and Navis from this reality, I must ask you to stay here."

"We'll tell you what happens, don't worry," Lan speaks up, nodding to Baryl.

Iris looks faintly disgruntled. "If Dr. Hikari does not wish to speak with-"

"Look, they're travelling with us, and they've helped us a lot," Lan interrupts. "I'm not gonna keep 'em outta the loop just 'cus Beyondard Grandpa doesn't wanna talk to them."

"He has a point," Raika agrees. "Even if your creator doesn't want to speak with them, it wouldn't be fair to keep them in the dark. Aside from that, it wouldn't be practical, either."

" . . . Very well then," Iris eventually says, with a quiet sigh.

With that settled - more or less - the group minus Baryl and Ms. Fahran head into the main room after Iris. Chaud has a feeling that Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari probably wouldn't mind talking to natives of this reality, but it seems Iris is taking his orders a bit too literally.

The main room is in just as bad a condition as the rest of the building. It faintly resembles the main room at SciLab - though the colour here is grey and muted, and there's a circular dip in the centre of the room where broken computers line the wall, and debris that look like the remains of chairs litter the floor in the dip. At the back of the room, a large screen is set into the wall, but it's crooked and looks as though it's about to fall off. Part of the ceiling has also caved in, blocking off an entire quarter of the room, and while Chaud is a little worried about the condition of the rest of the ceiling, it doesn't seem to be about to fall on their heads anytime soon, at least.

The crooked screen at the back of the room suddenly hisses to life, static-snow screeching for a few moments before a slightly-fuzzy image appears. The main room before it became a ruin, evidently.

"Start up the generator!" a voice calls from the screen.

The image changes to show two scientists inside the dip in the middle of the room, rapidly typing away at their computers.

"Start-up sequence initiated," one of them says.

"Commencing dimensional area experiment," the other adds.

The image changes again, showing another scientist standing in the room above the dip, and Chaud feels a cold shiver down his spine when he recognises this scientist as Dr. Regal. He feels the same thing from Mimic, though it's muted, and slightly tainted with faint acceptance - so she already knew this would happen, and that Dr. Regal (or this reality's Dr. Regal) was involved.

It's odd seeing Dr. Regal with two eyes. Even stranger is the fact that he actually seems human - even back when he was actually human in their reality, he was a cold, uncaring monster of a man, but this version of him has a light in his eyes that their version never had, and that smile on his face is genuine rather than cruel or fake.

"If this works, our dream came finally become a reality," Beyondard Dr. Regal says. Even his voice is different; warmer, more human, and the contrast is startling. "Humans and NetNavis can finally co-exist with each-"

An alarm rings out sharply, interrupting him mid-sentence. He frowns and looks down at the scientists in the dip.

The images changes to the two scientists from before, now looking worried and faintly desperate.

"Viruses!" the first one exclaims. "Viruses have invaded the main system!"

"What?" Beyondard Dr. Regal sounds shocked. "Shut it down, now!"

"We can't!" the second scientist cries frantically. "They've taken control of the generator! It's powering up!"

Now the image changes to show the exterior of the building. Large discs that look very much like the dimensional generators from their own reality twist around and aim upwards, then shoot intense beams of light into the sky. The beams converge into a glowing ball, and a ripple of change spreads across the sky, creating the digital lines that criss-cross the Beyondard sky of today.

Various other clips are shown, now. Mountains erupting, suddenly becoming volcanoes; the ground splitting open, revealing strange manifestations of light deep within the earth; the sky becoming engulfed in auroras of light spreading the digital lines across the world; entire forests and lakes and other terrains drying up rapidly, leaving nothing behind but a wasteland.

Is this really what happened? Chaud asks, unsure if he's asking his twin sister or just so shocked that he can't think of anything else to say.

Mimic takes it as a question for her. It is, she replies. I dunno if this happened all at once or if it was one of those 'over a few days' things, but it was quick, and the Beyondard we've been travelling through now is the result.

He sees Arcadia and ProtoMan exchanging a glance, neither of them able to speak with their own visible shock - both at witnessing the Great Change for themselves, and at Mimic's words.

The recording - because that's what it is, Chaud realises - fizzles and then cuts off, the screen becoming black and dead once again. And then a voice rings out from apparently nowhere.

"And so ends the recording I made of the failure of the dimensional area experiment, now known as the 'Great Change'."

A holographic light appears in front of them, projected from a unseen source on the ceiling. Inside that light, a human figure appears, static making them too fuzzy to look at for a moment before their image sharpens and becomes clear.

Chaud has only ever seen a picture of Dr. Tadashi Hikari once. Dad was telling him, Mimic, and Lan about some experiment or other that he and his father - Lan's grandfather, and technically Chaud and Mimic's too - were collaborating on, and he showed them a picture of Dr. Tadashi Hikari when Chaud asked to see him, because he didn't actually know what the man looked like.

The clothes are a bit different, but otherwise, the holographic image in front of them is the Beyondard version of Dr. Tadashi Hikari.

"From this laboratory's records, at least," Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari continues. He gives them a warm smile. "Welcome, visitors from Beyondard."

"Is that . . . ?" Raika trails off, glancing at Chaud and his siblings.

"Grandpa," Lan breathes.

"Ah, yes," Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari says, nodding slowly. "Iris told me your name - Lan Hikari, isn't it? And these two children-" He glances at Chaud and Mimic. "-must be your siblings, Mimic and Chaud Hikari. Yes, indeed, I am Dr. Hikari - though you likely know me as the Beyondard version of your grandfather."

"Y-yeah," Lan manages.

"But the one you're speaking with now," Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari says, "is not the 'real' Dr. Hikari."

"Huh?" Dingo looks blank. Chaud doesn't blame him - that statement makes very little sense.

"He's the memories of Beyondard Grandpa," Mimic speaks up, making everyone glance at her. "The 'real' him died ages ago, I think. But he made an electronic thingy - electronic version of himself. That's this dude."

" . . . When exactly were you going to tell us this?" Raika asks, looking faintly disturbed.

Mimic shrugs. "When it became relevant." She glances at Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari. "It's relevant."

Chaud opens his mouth, then closes it with a shrug. Yeah, that's fair.

Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari looks interested in Mimic. "Yes, indeed," he agrees. "I am, as you say, the 'electronic version' of the real Dr. Hikari. I am the memories and intelligence of Dr. Hikari, copied and imprinted into an electronic brain housed deep under this laboratory. In fact, you could even say that I am this laboratory."

"Yeah, that's . . . kinda confusing," Lan says.

"The fundamentals behind the concept are not something I have the time to explain, I'm afraid," Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari tells them. "Moving on from that, I wish to ask you something. Iris has told me that you already appear to have some knowledge of the war, and the Synchroniser's origins."

"My name's Trill," Trill speaks up, and the hologram glances at him briefly before continuing.

"Please, if you wouldn't mind, could you tell me what you know?" he asks.

"Shouldn't you already know all this yourself?" Chaud asks, frowning. "I mean, you're the one who created Trill, and from what we know, you've been around since the Great Change itself."

"I was alive back then, of course," the hologram says. "But after the Great Change happened, my health declined, and I transferred my memories into this electronic brain. So, yes, I do know. But I wish to know what you know."

"I think I get it," Raika says, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "He wants to know what we already know so he can fill us in on what we don't know."

"That actually made sense," Dingo says slowly. There's a pause, and then he blinks. "Yeah, no, it's gone again."

Raika sighs heavily.

"He's trying to figure out what we know," Maylu impatiently explains. "That way he can tell us what we don't know, get it?"

"Uhh . . ."

"We're going to be here all day if we keep trying to explain this," Chaud interrupts, before Maylu can try again.

"We know this war was orchestrated by the Dr. Wily of this reality," Lan says, getting everyone back on track. "He used the dimensional area experiment to spread his Beast Factor across the world, and that's why the experiment failed and why the Great Change happened. The Great Change was the real world merging with the cyberworld, and that's why beings of data like NetNavis or viruses are able to materialise themselves. Gregar and Falzar are a result of the Beast Factor - either they came into being on their own or Dr. Wily made them himself - and they infected NetNavis and viruses with the Beast Factor and started fighting each other." He pauses for a moment, thinking. "And . . . I think that's about it, at least for the war, anyway."

"What we know about Trill is a bit less in-depth, I think," MegaMan speaks up, appearing on Lan's shoulder. "He's the Synchroniser - you created him to end the war. He's able to use the Beast Out ability, though we're not sure how that translates to ending the war."

"Allow me to explain the Synchroniser, first," Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari offers.

"My name's Trill," Trill mutters, pouting.

"I did create it to end the war," the hologram says, ignoring Trill's interruption. "The ability to use Beast Out is a result of being able to harness the abilities of the Cybeasts Gregar and Falzar intermittently - which is by design. The Synchroniser's power is meant to be activated much like the Beast Factor when the Great Change occurred. In theory, the Synchroniser should be able to cancel out the Beast Factor using its own power, thus erasing the Beast Factor from this world."

"So Trill really is able to end this war," Lan says softly, eyes widening.

"You said 'in theory'," Raika interjects, frowning. "Does that mean you're not sure if this will work?"

The hologram shakes his head. "The Synchroniser is the only one of its kind - the only one I was able to create with the limited resources available to me. It is both the prototype and finished product. Its true power has not been tested, and cannot be tested. The only way to find out if it works is to take it to the Wily Research Facility and have it use its power there."

"The Wily Research Facility?" Lan repeats.

"Yes," the hologram agrees, nodding. "Allow me to elaborate on what you already know. You are correct - Dr. Wily, who was my best friend and rival, did indeed create the Cybeasts Gregar and Falzar."

So it was him after all, Mimic mutters mentally.

Why did you think it wasn't? Chaud asks, curious.

The games were different, she replies. Gregar made itself outta bugs, like the Gospel beast did. Then Falzar was made by some human scientist to take it down. Dr. Wily had nothing to do with their creation.

Ah, Chaud says. You got the two different versions mixed up, then.

Pretty much.

Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari continues talking, drawing their attention to the verbal conversation once again.

"Much like myself, only Dr. Wily's consciousness remains today," the hologram explains. "However, unlike me, he seeks to resurrect himself. He thought to do so using the Beast Factor, and used the dimensional area experiment to spread it throughout this world - and once the real world was inhabitable for data with the Beast Factor inside it, he programmed the Cybeasts Gregar and Falzar to attack each other, thus starting the war that has ravaged this world. The two are of equal power, but they have the ability to absorb the data of their fallen enemies - meaning Zoanoroids, and each other. If the two Cybeasts were to ever fight to the death, the victor would absorb the fallen's data, and will become a new, more powerful Cybeast."

"Super Cybeast," Mimic says, and the hologram glances at her questioningly. "That's what it was called, I think."

"Yes, Super Cybeast would be an apt name for such a creature," Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari muses. "When the battle between the Cybeasts is finally over, Dr. Wily intends to use the more powerful Cybeast to resurrect himself. May I ask how you know this, Mimic Hikari?"

"You may not," Mimic replies. The hologram looks like he's about to protest or maybe insist, but she continues before he can. "Look, Dr. Wily already knows that you made Trill. Don't ask me how he found out, he just did. Consequences of that? Dr. Wily's plannin' on usin' Trill's power to totally fuse both of the Cybeasts together, an' then get the 'ultimate body' for himself. If he already knew about Trill, he's probably got some way to hack into this lab or whatever. So, no, you may not ask how I know."

There's silence for a good ten seconds.

" . . . Dr. Wily's planning to what?" Lan eventually manages to ask, in a hushed tone.

Chaud gets a very strong sense of awkwardness from Mimic, and she bites her lip.

" . . . Wasn't gonna say it," she mutters, almost to herself. "Shouldn't've said it."

"Mimic?" Chaud prompts carefully.

His twin sister sighs and glances at him. "Told myself I'd only tell you guys about that if it became relevant. Guess it is now, maybe, but . . . I thought maybe we could avoid that, an' we wouldn't have to deal with it. Moot point now, anyway. 'Cus I'm a dumbass."

"Dr. Wily knows of the Synchroniser's existence," the hologram says, getting everyone's attention again. He looks incredibly surprised, as if he hadn't thought of the possibility that his 'rival' would figure out everything. "I . . . assume this also means he knows what I planned to have the Synchroniser do?"

"Think so," Mimic replies, with a little nod.

"This is . . . troubling," Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari murmurs, frowning.

"If this reality's Dr. Wily is such a fucking problem," Bass speaks up, "why not just delete the bastard and be done with it?"

"That would be murder," Raika says, giving him a hard look. "You may not have an issue with it, Bass, but we do."

"That bastard's responsible for an entire war that's torn apart this reality and is currently threatening to tear apart our own reality!" Bass retorts, glaring at him. "Don't take the fucking moral high ground with me, he deserves deletion just as much as that asshole those two had to call a father!" He points at Chaud and Mimic angrily.

"I never called him 'father'," Mimic corrects him.

"Whatever, the point still stands, just delete the bastard already."

"We can't," Raika insists.

"Actually," Chaud says, "we can."

Everyone stares at him. He shrugs.

"Well, Bass is right - this reality's Dr. Wily is the cause of literally every single problem that's happened so far," he explains. "And aside from that, if Mimic is right - and she's almost always right - then Dr. Wily is going to use Trill's power to cause even more trouble. Mimic," he begins, turning to her, "could you tell us exactly what Dr. Wily does with Trill's power?"

She tilts her head, and he can feel her curiosity, feels the silent question she's asking, but she answers him anyway. "Like I said. He uses Trill's power to fuse the Cybeasts and makes the ultimate body for himself. An' then . . ." She hesitates for a split second. "Then he starts layin' waste to this world."

Lan and the others take in sharp breaths. Chaud very carefully controls his own reaction, instead waiting for his twin sister to continue.

"It's really strong," she goes on. "Like, even stronger than the normal Cybeasts. Ain't called the Super Cybeast for nothin'. Thing blasted apart an entire mountain with one shot."

"Dear god," Raika whispers, horrified.

"An' then it goes into our reality and starts doin' the same thing there," Mimic says. "Thing kills hundreds'a people, maybe thousands. M'not sure, honestly. Took Lan forcin' Cross Fusion with Beast Out MegaMan and usin' Super Beast Out to take the fuckin' thing down."

"Super Beast Out?" Lan looks shocked at that revelation.

"Chaud an' Bass're right," Mimic says, glancing around at everyone. "If Dr. Wily ain't in the picture no more, we ain't gotta worry about him usin' Trill's power that way. Just the Cybeasts, an' if we can use Trill's power the way he-" She gestures to Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari, who's listening with quiet shock. "-intended, we can get rid'a them easily, too."

"So we kill him," ProtoMan says simply. "Dr. Wily, that is." He pauses, looking faintly puzzled. "Wait, if he's just an electronic brain like Beyondard Grandpa over there, would it be 'kill' or 'delete'?"

"Who cares what the term is?" Raika demands, before anyone can answer that. "You're talking about murdering someone! Actual, literal murder!"

"We've deleted plenty of opponents before," Arcadia speaks up. "I don't see how this is any different, honestly."

"NetNavis and data are one thing," Raika snaps. "Murdering a human is something else entirely!"

"But he's not human," ProtoMan points out, even more puzzled now. "He's like Dr. Regal was - a data-human, or whatever."

"An' you didn't have any problem with Lan killin' him back when he was human," Mimic adds.

Lan looks very disturbed, suddenly. "Wait, I didn't kill anyone, what are you talking about?"

Mimic gives him a flat look. "Dude, y'fuckin' blew a hole right through Dr. Regal's body. Don't care what y'are, that'll kill just about anythin'."

" . . . Oh," Lan says in a small voice.

"It's okay, Lan," MegaMan says gently. "Dr. Regal was going to hurt a lot of people if we didn't stop him." He glances at Raika. "The same way Dr. Wily is hurting a lot of people right now."

"You're agreeing with this!?" Raika gapes at him.

MegaMan looks vaguely uncomfortable. "I . . . don't really enjoy hurting humans, but . . . if that human is hurting others, then we have to stop them. That's our duty as Net Savers, and heroes, right? If the only way to stop Dr. Wily from abusing Trill's power and laying waste to both this world and our own is to kill him . . ."

"Then we kill him," Chaud finishes, nodding. "It's nothing more than deleting a glitched computer program, anyway."

"I'm a glitched computer program," ProtoMan reminds him.

"You know what I mean."

"But-" Raika begins to protest again.

"It sounds as though you've come to a decision," Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari interrupts, in a faintly mournful tone. "While it saddens me to know that the only way for this war to end is with the true death of a man who was once my best friend, I must accept that fate. I have no desire to see this world suffer any longer." His image flickers suddenly, becoming fuzzy and static-like in appearance for a brief moment before clearing up again. "Ah . . . it appears my time is up."

"What?" Lan looks at him, wide-eyed. "What do you mean, your time is up?"

"Iris has already informed you of the attack on this laboratory," the hologram says. His image flickers again. "The damage was extensive. There was only so much power left in this building. What little there was, I have just used up to speak with you."

"O-oh," Lan says softly. "So you're . . ."

"I was already dead long ago anyway," Beyondard Dr. Tadashi Hikari reassures him. "This is merely . . . hm . . . let's call it 'long overdue', shall we?" He gives them a smile, eyes light and almost peaceful. "I don't think I need to worry about this world anymore, though. Not when it's fate is in the hands of such brave heroes." His flickers, and continues to flicker. "Take the Synchroniser to the Wily Research Facility, brave heroes. End this war, and save both of our worlds."

His image becomes faint, and then the light splutters and dies, taking the hologram with it.


The only lights left now are from the emergency backup generators, which don't hold enough power to bring the lab fully back online. Meaning that Beyondard Grandpa is pretty much dead all over again, but at least they got to talk to him before he 'died'.

And, according to Mimic, what they got out of that talk was a lot more in-depth that what their anime-selves got. In the anime, half of the conversation had apparently been taken up by Beyondard Grandpa explaining Iris's origins, but since they already know Iris's origins, they were able to focus entirely on the actual issue - namely, the war between the Cybeasts, and Trill's role as the Synchroniser.

Lan's still a little bit shaken from the sudden revelation that he actually killed someone - even if it was several months ago - but he has to admit, he agrees with Bass and his siblings. If they can take out Beyondard Dr. Wily, they won't need to worry about him abusing Trill's power, and once Beyondard Dr. Wily's outta the way, all they need to worry about are the Cybeasts. And, as Mimic pointed out, if they use Trill's power the way Beyondard Grandpa intended them to, they can get rid of the Cybeasts easily.

The only problem is, they need to convince some of their group that killing Beyondard Dr. Wily is their best option. Raika is the most vocal in his protests to this plan, and Maylu and Roll agree with him - they can't murder a human, regardless of what that human is responsible for. It seems Dingo and TomahawkMan also agree with that, because even though they aren't actively arguing against the plan, they both look very disturbed at the idea of killing someone.

What's surprising is that SearchMan doesn't agree with his operator, though. Neither does he agree, actually, because he hasn't said a word so far, and his expression is completely unreadable. The only one who might have any idea as to what he's thinking right now is Arcadia, but Arcadia's not saying anything about what SearchMan is thinking.

The majority of their group agrees to the plan, though. Baryl and Ms. Fahran - once they've been let into the main room and had the situation explained to them - also agree that taking out Beyondard Dr. Wily is their best option. Iris doesn't seem to care either way, just as long as they can use Trill's power to erase the Beast Factor, and Trill himself even says he doesn't want his power to be abused by Beyondard Dr. Wily.

"Look, I'm not saying I don't understand any of this," Raika says vehemently. "I know damn well what this reality's Dr. Wily has done. I know what he will do, if we leave him to continue doing it. I'm just saying that I don't want to kill anyone!"

"Then don't," Chaud bluntly tells him. "We can handle it - you don't need to get your hands dirty if you don't want to."

"It's not about getting my hands dirty!" Raika snaps. "I don't care about that! I care about the fact that you all don't seem to give a damn about murdering another human being!"

"It's not murder unless he's innocent," Mimic says. "This'd be . . ." She thinks for a moment. "More like assassination, I think."

"That's even worse!"

"This war has been going on for years," Baryl speaks up, frowning at Raika. "We finally have a chance to end it, and you don't want us to do it because you don't want to kill a mass-murderer?"

Raika looks about ready to pull his hair out. "That's not the issue here, for god's sake!"

"I don't wanna kill anyone 'cus the idea of it makes me feel sick," Maylu says, wincing. "I . . . I-I mean, we'd be as bad as Dr. Wily if we murdered him, wouldn't we?"

"I'm a cannibal," ProtoMan reminds her. "You gonna tell me that's just as bad as being a mass-murderer?"

"May as well be," Roll mutters under her breath.

"Who gives a shit about morals?" Bass demands incredulously. "Just delete the bastard already!"

"Bass, seriously, stop swearing," MegaMan sighs.

"We're literally talking about murdering some asshole and your issue is the fact that I'm swearing?"

"Bass."

Bass rolls his eyes. "Fine, I'll stop swearing."

"Perhaps there's a middle ground somewhere," SearchMan speaks up suddenly, making everyone glance at him.

" . . . A middle ground?" Raika repeats, blinking. "What do you mean?"

"You don't want to kill anyone," SearchMan says, nodding to his operator, "and they think the only way to end this war is to kill someone." This time he nods to Lan and the others who're arguing for the plan. "Maybe we could compromise, like Lan and Iris did yesterday."

"Was it really just yesterday?" Lan mutters to himself, a little surprised. "Wow, feels like it's been longer . . ."

"I fail to see how we could reach any sort of compromise," Raika says tightly, ignoring Lan. "They want to murder someone, I don't."

"We don't," Maylu corrects him, gesturing to herself, Roll, Dingo, and TomahawkMan.

"We don't want to murder someone," Raika amends. "What possible middle ground could there be for that?"

"It sounds as though this reality's Dr. Wily was able to abuse Trill's power because no one could stop him from doing so," SearchMan says. "The easiest solution to prevent that is simply to kill him, yes, I'll admit that. But what if we can divide his attention, instead? That way, he won't be able to use Trill's power, and if we can keep his attention away from us, we might be able to use his facility to erase the Beast Factor."

Raika's starting to look faintly interested in that, and Lan can see the logic of it himself. SearchMan's right - there might not be a need to kill Beyondard Dr. Wily if they can just distract him long enough to erase the Beast Factor, and then whatever happens afterwards, happens.

Except Mimic doesn't look too enthusiastic about that idea. "Don't think it'll work," she says, and everyone glances at her. She looks vaguely uncomfortable at suddenly being the centre of attention, but Chaud stands next to her, and she seems to draw a bit of strength from his presence. "The Great Change happened 'cus Dr. Wily activated his dimensional generators at the same time this lab activated theirs, an' that's what made the Beast Factor go boom across the world."

"So if Trill's power has to be activated in the same way, that means we'd need the generators from this lab to activate as well," Lan realises, eyes widening. He glances around at the half-dark main room. "But . . . this whole place is pretty much dead, now. Isn't it?"

"Only emergency systems still work," Iris speaks up, confirming that. "Basic defences and the like. The dimensional generators used in the original experiment may still work, but they won't have the power necessary to help erase the Beast Factor."

"Yeah," Mimic says, nodding to her. "See? Won't work."

"Then how did they erase the Beast Factor in your anime?" Raika demands. "Surely they didn't just leave it there!"

Baryl and Ms. Fahran exchange puzzled glances, and Lan wonders what that's about. Then the thought is pushed out of his mind when Mimic replies.

"They didn't," she says. "The Cybeasts showed up an' started fightin' to the death, an' a Fossa Ambience got ripped open 'cus'a that. SciLab's dimensional generators replaced these ones-" She gestures around at the ruined lab. "-an' MegaMan activated the Wily research Facility's generators to use Trill's power and get rid'a the Beast Factor."

"MegaMan did?" Lan blinks, glancing at MegaMan, who looks just as startled. "Why MegaMan? It's Trill's power, isn't it?"

Mimic winces. "Yeah, except . . . Dr. Wily abusin' Trill's power to fuse the Cybeasts and get the ultimate body for himself pretty much killed Trill. They had to combine Trill's raw data with MegaMan an' make him the Synchroniser, instead."

Lan finds himself tightening his grip on Trill, who suddenly looks very scared. MegaMan has gone still, and Lan can see intense emotions battling in his eyes, something like protective anger and horror.

Mimic shakes her head. "Point is, even if we can distract Dr. Wily, we'll need to rip open a Fossa Ambience an' get Dad's help to use Trill's power."

"I highly doubt Dr. Wily will be very distracted if we rip open a hole between realities right in front of him," Arcadia speaks up dryly. "Besides, if the only way to open a Fossa Ambience is for the Cybeasts to fight, then we'd be in serious danger, wouldn't we?"

"So basically what you're saying is that our only option is to kill Dr. Wily and hope that the Cybeasts don't kill us as well," Raika says.

" . . . Basically," Mimic admits, after a brief hesitation.

Raika buries his face in his hands and heaves a deep, frustrated sigh.

"So much for finding middle ground," SearchMan mutters, and Raika raises his head just enough to shoot him an annoyed glare.

"What was that you said, about an 'anime'?" Baryl suddenly asks, making everyone glance at him. "I'm . . . not sure I understand that. Is that just another word for Mimic's dreams?"

"Mimic's what-now?" Lan looks at him blankly.

Mimic purses her lips, suddenly looking very awkward, and Chaud raises an eyebrow at her. Lan desperately wants to know what they're saying to each other, especially when Chaud lets out a faint sigh, and ProtoMan and Arcadia share barely-suppressed grins.

"Are you going to explain this anytime soon?" Baryl presses, frowning.

"Yeah, I'd like to know what the heck's going on too, actually," Ms. Fahran says, raising her hand with a very confused look on her face.

"What did you tell them?" Raika sighs, looking at Mimic.

"I lied," she says defensively. "What'd you expect me to do? I fuckin' panicked, okay? Hakuna your fuckin' tatas, muscle-mint!"

" . . . Muscle-mint?"

"What do you mean, you lied?" Baryl asks sharply. "Is this anything like those scams you and your Navis were running?"

"What scams?" Lan asks, now completely lost.

"I think we've lost track of this conversation," Arcadia observes idly. "Maybe we should back up a little."

"Forget backing up, what's this about Mimic lying?" Baryl demands.

An alarm rings out suddenly, startling just about everyone, though Mimic looks extremely relieved to have the conversation abruptly halted.

"Now what?" Raika complains.

"It says . . ." Iris concentrates for a moment, and then her eyes widen. "Zoanoroid attack!"

"Oh, right, this thing," Mimic says, tilting her head. "Forgot about this, honestly . . ."

"What's going on?" Lan asks her.

"Basically, Zoano CloudMan's attackin' with an army of soldiers," she replies. "Oh, and Falzar's gonna show up, too."

Everyone stares at her.

" . . . Maybe I should've mentioned this earlier," Mimic says, looking awkward.

"You think?" Raika demands in a high voice.


Mimic is right about it being Zoano CloudMan. He's right on their doorstep - figuratively speaking, of course - with an army of Falzar Zoanoroid soldiers, an even greater number than the ones they took out earlier today. Which isn't a comforting thought.

And now the sun has done down, and the sky is dark. It's difficult to see exactly how many Zoanoroid soldiers there are because their armour is dark grey, which helps them to blend in with the darkness of night, and Zoano CloudMan himself is only visible because his armour is a kind of dirty orange, and the cloud he's sitting on occasionally flashes with lightning.

"By the order of Lord Falzar," Zoano CloudMan calls out in a ringing voice, "you are to give up the Navis known as MegaMan and Beyondard ProtoMan. If you do not, we will commence our attack and take them by force. You have one minute to decide!"

"Aw, they're giving us warning before trying to delete us, how nice," ProtoMan says brightly.

"This is not the time for your weird sense of humour, cat," Bass replies.

"Hey, if I can't joke under intense life-threatening pressure, when can I joke?"

"Guys, not now," Arcadia speaks up, and they stop.

"There are at least four hundred soldiers," SearchMan says, scanning the enemy lines with his Search Program. "Perhaps more. I can only count the ones I can see."

"And that's not even getting into the Beast viruses," Raika mutters, glancing up at the dark sky, where flying Falzar Beast viruses are eagerly awaiting the order to attack.

"I don't see Falzar anywhere," Chaud says, scanning the area. His eyes flash in the darkness, able to see far better than ProtoMan can because of his enhanced vision, and ProtoMan is definitely not envious of that.

Alright, fine, he's a bit envious. Dammit, he wishes he could see as good as his operators, okay? But he's got his own unique abilities anyway, so he can make up for it. Mostly. Kinda. Whatever.

"It didn't show up until later," Mimic says. "But it'll be here, don't worry."

"Mimic-"

"I know, I know," she sighs. "That's a thing for worry. You know what I meant."

"Considering the amount of collective power we have access to right now," Baryl says, "we should be able to defeat Zoano CloudMan and the soldiers. Falzar itself, though . . ." He doesn't need to finish that sentence.

"They used the lab's defences in the anime," Mimic says, turning to Iris. "Some kinda weapon that evaporated viruses and soldiers when it touched 'em. And the generator was able to stop Falzar from movin' long enough for MegaMan to kick its ass and send it runnin'. Or flyin', whatever."

Iris considers that for a moment, and then nods. "We should be able to utilise the same method here, then. I'll need two of you to help me with that."

"I can do it," Chaud immediately offers. "Mimic can operate both Arcadia and ProtoMan on her own." Mimic nods her agreement, and Chaud hands over his PET.

"I'll help, too," Raika says. "SearchMan, will you be alright to fight on your own?"

"I can stay here and provide support, and act as a last line of defence for the humans," SearchMan agrees with a nod. "I'll be fine, Raika."

Raika nods and materialises him, and Iris leads Chaud and Raika back into the building.

ProtoMan's both grateful and a little bit disconcerted that one of his operators is leaving. On one hand, that means Chaud won't be in any immediate danger - but on the other hand, it also means Mimic will have to split her attention between both ProtoMan and Arcadia. It's a good thing they can both more or less operate themselves.

"Your minute is up!" Zoano CloudMan shouts. "What is your decision?"

"Can I answer him?" ProtoMan asks eagerly, as the other humans materialise their own Navis one-by-one. "Please?"

Mimic blinks and exchanges a glance with Arcadia, and then shrugs. "Sure, go ahead," she says.

ProtoMan bounces, and then allows his shadows to whirl around him and swallow him into darkness. He unsheathes his claws, readying himself for his attack, and sees a flash of light suddenly.

His shadows spit him out mid-air, directly in front of the first line of Zoanoroid soldiers, having crossed the distance in less than a moment. ProtoMan lets out a wild screech, internally laughing at how comically-startled the Zoanoroid soldiers and Zoano CloudMan look at the sudden attack, and ProtoMan lands on the first soldier and starts ripping it apart.

He's half-tempted to eat it, especially when his claws find the warm internal data, but there's too many other soldiers around for him to do that safely. So instead of eating the soldier his claws are buried in, he hurls the soldier's rapidly-disintegrating body into another one, and then chases them and splits them in half with his claws.

His shadows ripple and lash out eagerly, sharpened points piercing through the bodies of the Zoanoroid soldiers. Some of the tendrils whisper over ProtoMan's skin and form over his hands and feet, forming his shadow-claws, and he uses the boost in power to happily rip apart his enemies with claws and kicks.

He hears shouting as his friends join in on the attack, and sees bright flashes of purple light blasting into some of the soldiers and deleting them instantly. MegaMan and SearchMan unleashing their Mega Buster and Scope Gun attacks respectively. TomahawkMan apparently decides to copy ProtoMan and opts for a physical attack, launching himself into battle with his tomahawk axe swinging, and Roll focuses her own attacks on the Beast viruses above the soldiers.

Bass runs into battle with an eager battle cry, and Colonel follows him with SlashMan on his other side. For all that SlashMan has only just joined their merry gang of idiot heroes, he does pretty well - he hops up onto Colonel's offered arm, uses it as a springboard, and then flings his arms out wide in mid-air and hurls sharp knives into the fray. When he drops back down, he twists and becomes a spinning tornado of sharp claws and knives, slicing apart the Zoanoroid soldiers and Beast viruses as easily as Bass and Colonel do with their Swords.

Then there's Arcadia, a white shape flying well above the battle, blasting Holy fire at anything that moves - well, anything that moves and isn't an ally, at least. He doesn't need a targeting system, because his Empath Program lets him know who's a friend and who's an enemy.

ProtoMan gets back to his own attack, a whirlwind of claws and shadows and screeching madness to anyone who happens to look at him, and he's more than happy. The darkness of night is practically his element - his shadows are stronger, more solid, and far more energetic than they are in the daytime, and so is he. The fact that he's a cat-Navi and the host of a literal cyberworld demon means night-time is his time.

And these assholes are intruding on that time.

"Why're you running?" he cackles gleefully, grabbing a Zoanoroid soldier who's trying to scramble away from him.

The soldier makes a very satisfying noise as he tears its throat out with his teeth, and once again the urge to eat it is nearly overwhelming. He manages to control himself, though, and leaves the Zoanoroid's disintegrating body on the ground so he can find something else to delete.

He nearly attacks Colonel before he recognises him, pulling up just short of slashing his blue cape in half with his shadow-claws.

"Sorry!" ProtoMan calls, grinning at his ally.

Colonel glances at him, acknowledges the apology with a curt nod, and then unleashes a Screen Divide that cuts a massive scar straight through the army of soldiers. That was pretty damn cool, ProtoMan has to admit.

He giggles and leaves Colonel to it, allowing his shadows to take him to another part of the battlefield. Now he's a lot closer to Zoano CloudMan - and he remembers that the Darkloid counterpart of this guy was one of Dark MegaMan's lackeys. He also wasn't too bright, ProtoMan remembers, because Mimic pretty much 'noped' him when he showed up to try and kidnap her. That was pretty funny.

Maybe it's just the rush of battle, but ProtoMan suddenly finds himself wanting very desperately to sink his teeth into Zoano CloudMan and eat him. Forget holding himself back like he's been doing with the Zoanoroid soldiers - the urge is way too strong this time, and now he's just overcome with the sudden need to eat, eat, eat.

No time like the present, right?

ProtoMan's shadows help him to rip apart a few of the soldiers surrounding them, and then they happily pick him up and shadow-teleport him straight over to Zoano CloudMan. The Zoanoroid general looks startled to suddenly see ProtoMan right in front of his face, but ProtoMan gives him no time to adjust.

He launches himself at Zoano CloudMan, easily avoiding that black cloud he's sitting on (is he sitting? Or is that black cloud his legs? Who knows), and digs his claws in and climbs his way up to the Zoanoroid's head.

"Get off me this instant!" Zoano CloudMan roars, trying to grab ProtoMan and yank him off with his hands.

"Nah," ProtoMan says, startling the Zoanoroid into pausing, and then he grins and bares his teeth. "Dinnertime!"

"Wait, wha-"

ProtoMan's shadows wrap around Zoano CloudMan's arms and tighten. They're already sharp, so it's easy for them to slice off the Zoanoroid's arms just below the shoulders - which ProtoMan has no objections to, honestly, because Zoano CloudMan's arms seem to be more armour than arm, and he's discovered that armour doesn't taste that good. Besides, the best bits are in the torso area, where the actual internal data is.

But he supposes he can draw this out. Sure, this is the first time he's seen Zoano CloudMan, but his Darkloid counterpart did try to hurt Mimic - and ProtoMan doesn't like it when people try to hurt his family.

So instead of immediately ripping apart the armour on Zoano CloudMan's chest to get at his internal data, ProtoMan digs his claws in, getting a better grip, and then sinks his teeth into his prey's neck. There's barely any neck there for him to actually bite, but what little neck there is is also thick, and the part he sinks his teeth into is completely unarmoured.

"NO-!" Zoano CloudMan chokes on his own data-blood, cutting off his scream, and ProtoMan tenses and pulls back.

Part of Zoano CloudMan's thick neck comes with him, and he gulps it down before turning his attention to the rest of his prey. His shadows eagerly help to pull Zoano CloudMan down to the ground, and some of them peel off to lash out at the nearby Zoanoroid soldiers who try to help their general.

With half of his shadows keeping his prey held down and the other half keeping anyone from interrupting, ProtoMan is able to prise off the armour and tear into the bodysuit to get at the internal data. He starts eating, nearly purring at the sound of his prey's terrified, choked screaming, and this time, he doesn't slurp the data like noodles - he just chews, and gulps it down like normal, because this feels better and more natural and it's way more satisfying, too.

He's just finished eating through Zoano CloudMan's memory data when he hears a kind of rhythmic beating sound, accompanied by a loud screech and a blast of wind that makes his bristling hair whip around. He looks up, data-blood dripping down his mouth, and sees lightning flashing in the distance.

For a second, that lightning illuminates the form of a huge shape gliding toward the battle, and ProtoMan remembers what Mimic said.

Looks like Falzar has finally arrived, then.

"L-Lord Fal-F-Falzar-" Zoano CloudMan chokes out. It's honestly a surprise that he still has the energy to speak. "Please- he-help- help m-me-"

"Shh, food doesn't get to talk," ProtoMan says softly, and Zoano CloudMan lets out a desperate sob.

He's suddenly distracted by a flash in the corner of his vision, and ProtoMan glances to the side and sees a beam of white light hitting a group of Zoanoroid soldiers and Beast viruses. The light turns into a translucent coloured cloud of energy which quickly evaporates the group it hit - the laboratory's defences at work, no doubt.

He wonders if it was Chaud or Raika who fired that particular shot, and then decides it doesn't matter. The number of enemies has fallen considerably, far quicker than nine NetNavis could manage on their own, so Chaud and Raika have evidently been busy.

Another beam of light cuts through a bunch of soldiers, but there's something different about this beam. For one thing, it's two thin beams of yellow light, and rather than becoming a cloud of energy when it hits enemies, it instead just deletes them outright. It splutters and then dies down, and a NetNavi ProtoMan somewhat recognises jumps into view.

At first he thinks it's KillerMan, that killer-crazy NetNavi from the CM Forces humans, the one with the cool scythe-thingy. Then he realises this Navi doesn't have a scythe, and while they do resemble KillerMan very closely, it's not KillerMan.

"Hey, ProtoMan!" the Navi shouts upon spotting him. "You having a quick snack?" He lets out a wild laugh, and ProtoMan finally realises who it is.

Looks like Mimic has given Lan Killer Cross, then. ProtoMan was wondering when she was gonna do that - and he was also wondering what MegaMan would actually look like in Killer Cross. Guess he knows, now.

"Hi, MegaMan!" ProtoMan shouts back cheerfully.

MegaMan's mouthguard is up, so he can't see his friend's mouth, but he can see how MegaMan's eyes narrow like he's grinning. Then MegaMan glances to the side, catching sight of a few soldiers trying to take advantage of his distraction to sneak up on him, and his eyes flash and let loose another twin beam of light that cuts right through them.

That's a pretty cool attack, ProtoMan thinks, impressed.

His prey suddenly moves under him and ProtoMan abruptly remembers that he's supposed to be eating, but he can hear Falzar's screech again, and it sounds a lot louder than it was before - so Falzar's getting closer, then.

"Dammit," ProtoMan mutters to himself, now faintly disappointed. He was kinda hoping to draw this out, but he's not gonna risk getting distracted by eating Zoano CloudMan when there's a Cybeast on the way.

"N-no, please-" Zoano CloudMan tries to beg, as ProtoMan lowers his head and takes a huge chunk out of his internal data.

He rips it out, gulps it down quickly, and then sees the Zoanoroid's core spluttering in his open chest. He digs his claws into it and Zoano CloudMan chokes on a scream, and then abruptly falls silent as ProtoMan crushes the core. His body begins to disintegrate, and ProtoMan takes another quick bite out of his internal data before he vanishes entirely.

As soon as his prey is gone, ProtoMan looks up, checking where Falzar is. The Cybeast is almost here - you don't need enhanced eyesight or super-hearing to know that, because everyone can see it, now.

"MegaMan!" ProtoMan shouts, getting to his feet and looking around. "MegaMan!?"

"Take that, and that, and that! Yah-hah!"

ProtoMan turns around and sees MegaMan happily chopping away at a few Beast viruses with a Bamboo Sword. It's always funny when MegaMan's Crosses give him the personalities of the Cross Navis - and even funnier that MegaMan's getting the personalities of NetNavis he's never even met. Lan must be so confused right now.

"MegaMan!" ProtoMan shouts again, finally getting his overly-enthusiastic friend's attention. "Falzar's coming!"

"Aw." MegaMan actually slumps in disappointment. "But I wanted to kill some more things . . ."

" . . . Don't you mean delete?"

"Nah."

ProtoMan blinks under his visor, then shakes his head and decides to ignore that. "C'mon, we gotta get going!"

They take off running back toward the laboratory. By this point, nearly the entire army that Zoano CloudMan brought with him has been deleted or evaporated - what few enemies are left are quickly taken care of by Chaud and Raika, and it looks like the other Navis have the same idea as ProtoMan and MegaMan, because everyone else is heading back to the lab, too.

The Navis convene back into a group in front of their operators - most of their operators, anyway, since two of them are inside the laboratory - and turn to face the final enemy as it approaches.

You okay? Mimic asks, and ProtoMan glances at her.

"I'm good," he replies, giving her a sharp-toothed grin. "I got to eat Zoano CloudMan!"

Poor Maylu looks faintly green upon hearing that. "Oh, great . . ."

"Could you not talk about cannibalism right now?" Roll mutters, making a face.

"What do Zoanoroids taste like?" TomahawkMan asks curiously, ignoring her.

"Well-" ProtoMan begins.

"Focus on the battle," Baryl cuts into the conversation. "You can discuss . . . taste . . . later. For now, we have a Cybeast to deal with."

Fucking rude. But he does have a point, so ProtoMan turns his attention back to the approaching Cybeast.

The last time he saw Falzar, he, Mimic, and Bass were hiding under a rock after very narrowly escaping the clutches of both Cybeasts. They couldn't risk fighting Falzar or Gregar then, because it was literally just ProtoMan and Bass and Mimic is still human even if she's a cat, and even if they could've taken down one Cybeast, they still would've had the other one to deal with.

This time, they've got a lot more firepower - not to mention numbers - and there's only one Cybeast. Mimic didn't say anything about Gregar showing up, so hopefully it won't, and they can focus their efforts on fighting off Falzar or maybe even deleting it.

Okay, the deleting thing is kind of a long-shot, but even if they can only manage to just fight Falzar off, that's still a win.

"MegaMan."

They all glance back at the lab's entrance. Iris is standing there with Trill by her side, and the little child-Navi is watching Falzar approaching with wide, scared eyes. Iris, however, is looking only at MegaMan.

"The only way to fight off Falzar would be to attack it with something of equal power," she says. "If you use Beast Out, you and the others stand a very decent chance."

"Do I get to kill Falzar?" MegaMan eagerly asks.

Iris looks faintly confused. "Um . . ."

"Sorry, Killer Cross apparently makes him way too eager to . . . kill stuff," Lan explains, with an apologetic wince.

"Funniest Cross ever," Mimic says, giggling.

"Uh, guys, Falzar's here!" Pat exclaims, pointing.

Everyone turns to look just as Falzar swoops past, sending down a harsh blast of wind that nearly knocks them all off their feet. With that wind comes the coldness of the night air, and although ProtoMan's battle-fury kept him warm enough before, the cold wing cuts right through to his core, and he hisses and wraps his arms around himself.

"We'll keep it occupied," Arcadia says, looking at MegaMan and Iris. "You guys do what you have to." He turns to ProtoMan and the other Navis. "Let's go!"

He immediately takes into the air just as Falzar comes swooping past again, and unleashes a painfully-bright blast of Holy Fire directly into its face. Falzar screeches and brings up its talons to retaliate.

ProtoMan launches himself into the air and sends a thick, writhing tendril of shadows whipping upwards, and it cracks against Falzar's armoured leg. The Cybeast stops its attack and looks down, just as Bass lets loose a powerful Darkness Overload which clips its wing.

ProtoMan reaches out and lets his shadows grab him, allowing them to deposit him onto the roof of the laboratory, and the other Navis join the attack. Colonel darts out into more open ground with TomahawkMan, and they both let loose their own ranged attacks - Colonel some kind of massive cannon that looks like a Tank Cannon but very obviously isn't, and TomahawkMan his Tomahawk Air Raid attack, and both attacks clang off the Cybeast's armoured body.

It seems SearchMan is opting for a more calculated approach, though. He takes careful aim, charging up his Scope Gun, and then fires off a Zero Charge Shot that scorches Falzar's tail-feathers.

Falzar lets out a dull screech that rises into a much higher-pitched sound, and ProtoMan presses his hands onto his audio receptors, spitting out a pained hiss. What is with these high-pitched noises and trying to delete his hearing, seriously? And he can see Arcadia wincing too, as he flies by overhead to get some distance between himself and their Cybeast opponent, just in case Falzar takes advantage of the pause in battle its screech caused.

"Roll Arrow!" Roll exclaims, one of the few who wasn't completely blindsided by that screech, and she fires off a bunch of Arrows that ping off Falzar's armour.

Her attacks don't do much damage, but she does manage to get Falzar's attention - which gives SlashMan the opportunity to jump up to the roof of the laboratory, spring off it, and then throw a Wide Slash at Falzar's back.

Falzar screeches again and tries to sweep SlashMan away with its metallic wings, so ProtoMan sends his shadows up to grab SlashMan and yank him back down to the roof before Falzar can hit him. SlashMan gives ProtoMan a grateful nod before turning his attention back to the Cybeast, spreading his arms wide and materialising a bunch of knives that immediately launch themselves at their opponent and bury themselves between its armour.

Another screech splits the air, and then a blast from Colonel's cannon explodes against its chest, driving it backwards a little. Arcadia hurls double Firebombs at its back and forces it forwards, and every other Navi aside from MegaMan unleashes whatever long-range attacks they have at the same time.

Falzar almost vanishes under the multi-coloured light of the combined attacks, and they explode against it, obscuring it from sight for a moment. Then Falzar sweeps the cloud away with its wings and opens its beak wide, and lets out the loudest, highest-pitched shriek that ProtoMan has heard from it so far.

It fucking hurts. The noise goes right through his audio receptors and all the way down to his core, and he can almost feel it rattling in his chest. Pressing his hands against his audio receptors does absolutely nothing to help.

ProtoMan falls to his knees, squeezing his eyes shut and begging for this torture to be over. He feels more than hears a faint impact nearby, and cracks open an eye to look - Arcadia has fallen out of the sky and thankfully landed on the roof, but like ProtoMan, he's in agony from the sound, and he's pressing his hands against the sides of his head, curling up into a tight ball, teeth gritted.

SlashMan, for all that he doesn't have the same sensitive hearing, looks to be in almost as much pain. He's trying to block the noise the same way ProtoMan and Arcadia are, wincing, but aside from that, he's still standing.

Mimic and Chaud're probably in just as much pain as me and Arcadia, ProtoMan thinks, and although his guardian-function is almost screaming at him to destroy the thing that's hurting his operators and brother, he's in too much pain to do anything.

ProtoMan curls up, pressing his forehead into the material of the roof, and wishes for this sound-torture to be over. Falzar is a computer program, though, so it doesn't have lungs and probably doesn't need to stop to take a breath - and that means it'll keep screeching until their heads explode or something.

And then he hears something like a laser being fired, and an explosion forces the torturous screeching to abruptly cut off.

For a few moments, everything is blissfully silent. Then sound gradually comes back, and ProtoMan somehow finds the will to push himself upright, though it's quite a struggle and his arms shake so much he nearly falls over.

He shakes his head, trying to clear it of the pain and dizziness, and looks up.

Falzar bats something away with its wings, and that something crashes into the roof just a few metres away from ProtoMan. The impact would've made him fall over if he wasn't already on his knees, and then the something jumps out of the hole and crouches for a second, just long enough for ProtoMan to see it.

It looks like Killer Cross MegaMan, but he has a tail and claws, and it takes ProtoMan's pain-ridden mind a second to work out what he's looking at. Killer Beast Cross, he supposes this would be called - the only other Beast Cross he's seen has been Proto Beast Cross, and he has to admit that Killer Cross suits Beast Out pretty well.

MegaMan gets to his feet and lets out a roar, and then unleashes another twin-beam from his eyes. Falzar dodges to the side and MegaMan turns his head, following its movements, and his twin-beam catches Falzar on the side.

Falzar screeches and ProtoMan flinches, hands jerking up to cover his audio receptors again. His hearing's too tender right now, especially after that screech earlier. Dammit, why'd they have to get attacked by the loud Cybeast? Gregar's powerful, but at least it doesn't screech all the makerdamn time.

MegaMan launches himself up at Falzar, tail cracking against the roof like a whip and giving him a boost that also kinda smashes a few panels to bits. Oops.

But MegaMan either doesn't notice or doesn't care, and he collides with Falzar mid-air. Falzar is blown back but recovers annoyingly-fast, and MegaMan ends up crashing to the ground down below, sand exploding up from the impact.

A twin-beam of yellow light flashes up from MegaMan, but Falzar easily dodges the attack. It brings up its talons and hurls phantom, half-there talons everywhere, slamming them down onto the ground and at MegaMan. The other Navis down below rush to intercept the phantom talons, destroying them or deflecting them, keeping the things away from the humans and the lab.

ProtoMan manages to drag himself to his feet. His shadows help him to stay upright, but his movement catches Falzar's attention, and it snaps its head around to look at him.

Oh, right, ProtoMan suddenly remembers. I'm one of Falzar's targets.

Falzar immediately turns its full attention to him, and then it's flying straight for him. ProtoMan takes a step back, shadows whipping around him and sharpening to points, ready to defend him as Falzar stretches out its talons to grab him.

And then Arcadia's there, right in front of him, pulling back the fiery string on his Avenger's Arrow bow, and the tip of his arrow is red and glowing. He wastes no time with words, and just lets his arrow fly.

The red-tipped Avenger's Arrow hits Falzar right in its chest, and the explosion of white fire threatens to blind anyone who looks at it. ProtoMan closes his eyes and covers his face with his arms, feels his shadows coming up to help give him more cover, but he can still feel the intense heat of Arcadia's fire even through the cold shadows.

It's not as powerful as it could be, given that Falzar's screech didn't do that much physical damage - but it was more than enough to boost Arcadia's Avenger's Arrow to the point where the bird Cybeast definitely feels it.

There's a harsh gust of wind and the intense heat is replaced with cold, cutting wind, and ProtoMan uncovers his eyes cautiously. Falzar has swept away the Holy Fire with its wings, but there's a very obvious scorch mark on its chest, and its wings aren't beating as easily as they were before.

Arcadia damaged it.

Upon thinking that, ProtoMan can't help but grin - his little brother actually managed to damage a Cybeast. Fucking hell, he's proud.

"Killer Death Beam!" MegaMan shouts from below, abruptly reminding everyone that he's still in the game.

The twin-beam - Killer Death Beam, which is an apt name, ProtoMan thinks - seems thicker this time, more powerful. MegaMan probably overcharged it, and that's enough to cut straight through Falzar's armour and blast through its body. The Cybeast screeches, but this screech is pained, and although it grates on ProtoMan's hearing, it's not nearly as bad as before.

Falzar evidently decides it's had enough, and it rises higher into the air and takes off. There's a huge, gaping hole of a wound on its body, sparking with data, and for a second ProtoMan wonders what the Cybeasts themselves would taste like - he eats Zoanoroids happily enough, and those guys taste pretty good (well, their internal data does, anyway), so would the Cybeasts' internal data also taste good?

"I think the Cybeasts would be too big for you to eat," Arcadia comments, and ProtoMan glances at him. "Just saying."

"Aw," ProtoMan says, slumping.

"Don't worry," Arcadia laughs, patting his shoulder. "The next Zoanoroid we come across, you can eat that and take as much time as you want, okay?"

ProtoMan cheers up immediately. "Yay!"


Defeating Falzar - even if it wasn't permanent - was a pretty big victory for them, so Dingo and Pat cook up some damn good food for a little celebration. Apparently the lab's still got some food stored away, and surprisingly enough, most of it's still good to eat.

And it helps when ProtoMan offers up a couple of deer carcasses that he's been saving, too. Maylu looks a bit startled to see dead deers, and a little bit queasy, but Dingo eagerly takes the carcasses and skins them with some help from Bass, who's gotten pretty good at skinning prey that ProtoMan brings back.

Mimic, for her part, is just extremely fucking grateful that they finally have someone who can actually cook in their group. Baryl turned out to be incapable of doing anything more than starting fires and cooking meat to be somewhat more edible than what Mimic managed, but now they've got an actual gourmet cook with them, and it's the best goddamn thing ever in her opinion.

They called Pat 'fish lady', but there's no fish (yet). Doesn't matter anyway, because anything Pat cooks is awesome, if the praises that Lan sings the woman are true (and Mimic is more than willing to bet that they are). They can always find fish at some other point.

"So," Raika suddenly says, after the group settles down to eat properly, "what do we do now?"

"Do?" Lan glances up from his meal questioningly.

Raika frowns. "We still haven't decided on what we're actually going to do. Obviously we need to go to the Wily Research Facility, but we have no idea where it is or how far it is, and we don't know what we're going to do once we actually get there."

"Yeah we do," Mimic says, slightly muffled since she's happily tearing into a deer steak. Or whatever the word is. "Get to the Research Facility, kill Dr. Wily, rip open a hole in reality, link up with SciLab, an' then use Trill's power to erase the Beast Factor."

"There are so many issues with that plan, I don't even know where to begin."

"You're not still on about that, are you?" Chaud sighs. "Look, it's fine if you don't want to kill anyone, but the only way to be sure that we can safely use Trill's power is to get rid of Dr. Wily, and the only way to do that is to kill him."

"I'll delete him if you don't want to," Bass offers, not even bothering to look up from the piece of meat he's dangling in front of ProtoMan, who's completely ignoring everyone else in favour of catching his claws into said piece of meat and trying to chew on it, only for Bass to tug it out of his claws and repeat the process.

"This is still not the issue," Raika mutters.

"If there really isn't any other way," SearchMan speaks up, appearing on his operator's shoulder, "then we have no choice, do we? Besides, I don't think the Dr. Wily of this reality would survive this war either way." He glances toward the centre of the main room they're sitting in, at where Beyondard Grandpa's hologram was before it vanished. "And technically he's already dead, so we would just be deleting a rogue program of sorts, I suppose."

"Not you too," Raika groans. "I thought you, of all people, would agree with me!"

"Raika, we have to be practical about this," SearchMan says. "I don't like the idea of killing a human - even a data-human - any more than you do, but if the only way to truly end this war is to kill Dr. Wily, then so be it. Besides, what if we do manage to find some way to leave him alive, and he ends up doing something even worse in an effort to . . . 'resurrect' himself, like Dr. Tadashi Hikari said? We would be responsible for that, because we didn't take him out when we had the chance."

"But . . ." Raika's protest is weaker than before, now. He still tries, though. "We're talking about murder."

"Ms. Yuri did the exact same thing to Dr. Regal back in our reality," Arcadia speaks up, making everyone glance at him. "I'm not sure if Dr. Regal was the same kind of being that Dr. Tadashi Hikari and Dr. Wily appear to be, but no one had any objections when Ms. Yuri literally stabbed him right in the heart. Not even you, Raika."

"Well, I mean . . ." Raika looks faintly uncomfortable. "I didn't see it happen, and I only found out about it after it happened. Besides, we had to deal with Duo right afterwards, so . . ."

"It's still basically the same thing," Arcadia argues reasonably. "Kill one human to save the entire planet from that human's insane plans. Dr. Regal unleashed the Dark Aura on us. Dr. Wily has unleashed the Beast Factor on this reality. I know you have your morals, but you don't need to throw them away for this - some humans don't deserve mercy or morals, and the Dr. Wily of this reality is one of those humans."

Raika is quiet. He looks almost desperate, but after a few moments of silence, he lets out a heavy sigh and presses a hand to his face.

" . . . I still don't like the idea of killing someone," he says, "but I can tell there's nothing I can say or do to discourage you all from this."

"I don't wanna do it," Maylu speaks up in a faint, worried voice. Dingo, who's been quietly eating his own food and carefully not contributing to the conversation, swallows a quick mouthful and then hesitantly nods his agreement.

"You don't have to," Baryl says, with surprising gentleness. "You may be willing to assist in ending this war, but you're still just children - I won't burden any of you with something like that. I'll kill Dr. Wily myself."

That's quite a dramatic statement, though it's kinda ruined by ProtoMan letting out a happy cheer as he finally manages to catch the piece of meat Bass has been taunting him with for the past several minutes.

"Yesss!" he hisses, gulping it down, and then he looks up and tilts his head, visor flashing in the half-light. "Um . . . what're we talking about?"

"Killing Dr. Wily," Chaud tells him.

"Oh." ProtoMan tilts his head the other way, then waves his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Just eat him and be done with it. Is there any more meat?"

Pat lets out a bark of laughter. "Well, at least you've got your priorities sorted out!" She picks up a cooked steak from a small pile on a plate and chucks it to him. "There you go, kitten. Enjoy!"

ProtoMan lets out a delighted squeal and starts tearing into the steak eagerly.