MMBN RP - THIR13EN

@scenegraph ✨ @snoruntpyro

>You are walking through a dense forest. It is raining. >How did you get here? >Weren’t you trying to go somewhere else? >Before you stand the rusting gates of an old, abandoned manor. It was cold and damp, in spite of how the weather had been on the way to the Ministry of Science. Lan would find only trees and rain to her left; thunder crashing behind her; more trees to her right. There seemed to only be one place to go, into the manor's grounds. There wanted to only be one place to go. (edited)

Lan was not certain how she ended up here. She barely knew where she was going to begin with, given that she was just going off of directions from her counterpart - but they were hardly bad directions. She only vaguely remembered what SciLab looked like, but she was fairly certain that it was not in the middle of a dark forest - it didn't exactly seem like prime real estate. Though, maybe she was proven wrong by the manor standing right in front of her. Rock quickly appeared on her shoulder, surveying the outskirts and looking just as confused as she was. "The hell...? What is...?" she muttered, putting one hand on her hip. "This ain't the place, right? Looks more like a place straight out of a movie than... like, a government building." Lan lowered her eyelids. "This- that's not- no, this isn't the place," she asserted with mild annoyance, side-eyeing her Navi. "Why would you think that?" "Dunno. What else am I supposed to think?" Rock shrugged. "Well, whatever. I'll shoot hoodie-you a message - we probably took a wrong..." Her voice trailed off as she returned to the PET, earning her an eyebrow raise from Lan. "Out of signal range...?" she repeated, returning to Lan's side a second later. "Uh..." Lan tensed up, suddenly feeling a lot more unsafe. They connected to this world's Net just fine before, so why-? Thunder continued to crash, with Lan sticking herself under a tree to dodge the rain. It was then that she felt unbelievably disoriented; she really could not retrace her steps as to how the hell she got here, and the forest felt like it was boxing her in. There was only one place to go - there was no other way to go. Lan grunted, clicking her PET onto the side of her bag and walking toward the manor's gate. Well. Maybe there'll be an internet connection inside, she told herself, then immediately chastised herself for such a stupid thought. "I guess we could... ask for help. If there's anyone there," she told to Rock, sounding both irritated and uncertain. "I don't know. This is weird."

It had been a few months now since the last time someone had disturbed it to play its game. There were no traces of the last players, since they had long since been absorbed into its mass to further complicate itself. At one time, there had just been this courtyard Lan was looking into with the abandoned golf cart; the facade of a huge manor beyond it; and a front hallway lining the windows. But it had lived for a very long time. Now, the big house was far from a mere facade, and the things inside it had a much larger space to roam. The gates swung open to admit Lan; otherwise, the courtyard was quiet and featureless save for the thick fog that hid it, only hard-packed dirt underfoot. Directly across from her shone the orange-hued windows of the manor, beckoning her closer. Lan was reminiscent of one of its very first players, before it could properly entrap them. But it knew better than to think they were the same person. Lan was new. It kept track of these things. Its rules were what gave it life. (The cart, if Lan chose to examine it, was an early outgrowth; it rendered perfectly convincingly for something meant to be perpetually obscured by fog, but its dashboard was a smooth gray save for three featureless meters, and it had no pedals to drive it with. It also had no gas tank, and the gray smears around its bottom were more suggestions than wheels.)

"I don't like this," Rock muttered to herself as she watched the gate open up by itself. "If this isn't where we're supposed to be, then why does this feel so damn convenient?" She stared down the shining windows - everything about this place screamed bad vibes. Her eyes darted from side to side, confirming for herself how endless the forest seemed. "Why is there... no way out...?" she muttered, her voice shrinking. Lan had already prepared herself for certain... unpleasant emotions... when leaving to drop the core off. SciLab was the absolute last place she wanted to be at the moment - but she was sure that it would be fine, and she was just worrying too much, and she just had to tough it out. She'd be in and out - no more than thirty minutes. It meant that her guard was already up - it seemed silly to treat this like a mission, but she kept her fists close to her chest just in case. Her eyes wandered to the golf cart, noticing the lack of a pedal; that was disturbing, but given how misty and rainy this place was, maybe it just rusted and melted away. She tentatively approached the front of the manor, gazing up at the windows as she searched for some sort of entrance - it felt like she could barely see in front of her. "Guess you could knock," Rock suggested, as Lan squinted her eyes in an attempt to make out some sort of steps or door handles. "I hate knocking," Lan complained, adjusting the straps of her backpack. She didn't know why she did - doorbells and shouts were a lot louder. She just automatically hated the attention.

She didn’t need to knock, anyway. The door swung open for her, with a perfect movie sound-effect creeeeeeeak. Inside, the entry of the manor was lit by orangey bulbs lining the walls and a chandelier overhead, though there wasn’t nearly as much light as there had seemed to be shining through the windows outside. A wilted vase of flowers sat on a table nearby. One door to the east wing; one door to the west; a door at ground level that led directly back into the center of the manor, and a center stairwell to a landing above with double doors out to the same direction. And, of course, the exit that Lan stood at. But she wasn’t a coward, was she?

Lan flinched as the door creaked open, raising her guard as she leaned back. "Okay. That's fuckin' creepy," Rock commented, staring down the choice of doors with endless suspicion. "Is this really..." The feeling of the mansion calling to Lan continued to pulse vaguely. Like she was being taunted with this kind of invitation. There was no way forward other than to step inside - and to figure out who was waiting for her. It would be ridiculous if this was a trap - she'd been given directions here, and why would a trap be sprung so close to what she had to assume was their home base-? (On second thought- were they even close at all.) Lan scoffed at the wilted flower as she stepped inside, keeping her steps quiet. When it became clear to Rock that she planned on standing around and brooding for the next several seconds, she stepped up to actually get things done. "Hellooooo?" she called out, attempting to carry her voice with her hands pressed against her lips, even though that wasn't going to do anything for the hologram. "Someone there? You've got no Net access here, are you insane?!" "Why would you yell like that," Lan complained, averting her gaze. "We can just- look around..." "This is someone's house. Probably," Rock pointed out, rolling her eyes. "Then again, I guess it's like you to snoop around instead of talkin' to someone." Lan couldn't really deny it, so after a few seconds of wordless consideration, she arbitrarily picked the west door to check on first.

The west wing, the final addition to be made to the playing field. There was the standard orange-lit hallway to ensure continuity with the outside, but through regularly spaced openings Lan would be able to see the craft room beyond, a more yellow-lit space. Dolls of all sizes and makes lined the sides of this room, smaller scales sitting on shelves and larger scales standing on the ground. Ameroupian playline dolls with their vapid smiles; Ajinan ball-jointed dolls with their glossy pouts; Japanese collector dolls with their heroine-like faceups; even rag dolls with their button eyes. And in the center of the room were a series of worktables and cabinets. Inset doll eyes for those that didn’t simply use a few coats of paint; heads and body parts, stowed away for later or in the process of being cobbled together into entirely new characters. Clothing in various stages of completion poured off the sides of another worktable, surging over needles and sewing machines.

As Lan crept through the halls, her gaze wandered to the room full of dolls, the sight immediately unnerving her. At least the lighting was okay - an army of dolls in the darkness probably would've been straight from her nightmares, not that she'd ever admit that out loud. It was a good thing that her footsteps were ridiculously quiet, or else she'd have even more reason to fear that those things would jump out at her. "The hell are those dolls? What, does an old person live here or somethin'?" Rock speculated; this kind of aesthetic was something she'd never get. Wily toyed with the idea of model kits on occasion, she knew that - but those at least didn't have those glassy-ass stares. "Not winning any points for has an internet connection so far." Against her better judgement, Lan was enraptured by the desire to wander into the craft room. Taking a closer look, her eyes fell squarely on the cabinets full of their artificial replicas. The pointed ends of the needles and... the maws of the sewing machines freaked her out more than they should. She didn't like needles - it wasn't safe to be standing around near them... "Creepy," she muttered to herself, holding her head low. In spite of that thought, she couldn't tear her eyes off of them - the emotionless stares of the ragdolls and the glassy expressions of the rest. There was nothing objectively eerie about the yellow lighting, but she still thought it made the dolls look scarier anyways. She adjusted her strap, turning back toward the window. (edited)

No more prodding; all it needed to do now was watch. It was only a matter of time. Lan turned toward the window, allowing the room behind her to soundlessly stir to life. Something soft and pillowy reached for her arms and legs, aiming to immobilize her. Behind her, the smaller-scale dolls softly scraped onto the tables, while the largest ones silently advanced toward her. (edited)

Lan was very, very lucky that she had a metaphorical extra set of eyes by her side at all times. While she did not notice the dolls stirring, Rock chanced a look behind her shoulder, still entranced by the lifelessness she'd observed a moment ago. Things had changed, now - the dolls were alive, creeping up on her operator when her guard was down. "Lan! Move!" Lan yelped and stumbled backward, barely avoiding getting grabbed in exchange for falling straight to the floor - not a particularly advantageous position to be in. Her heart froze once she processed the dolls' advances - but her body ran faster than her feelings, and she scrambled against the wall, attempting to hoist herself up. "W-what the hell?!" "Are they robots or somethin'?!" Rock yelled; she took a moment to silently thank hoodie-Lan for the holo-adaptor, as it had come in handy in the most bizarre way possible. She ran a scan for any nearby jack-in points, but she didn't wait for the scan to finish before barking some orders at her operator. "We gotta get the hell out of here! Get back in the hallway!"

When Lan fell, she would be able to see what was reaching out behind her: a quartet of the ragdolls, leering at her with sightless button eyes and fixed, stitched-on smiles. They fell over each other with deceptively soft sounds of plush hitting plush, having missed their target. Ragdolls were floppy, clumsy creatures even when they weren’t animated from within; it would take them a bit of time to stumble back to their feet. Blocking the door was something worse—a vapidly smiling princess doll that easily stood at three feet tall, the largest of the lot. She’d been dressed in a blue pinafore dress that seemed to have come from something much older, with dark spots that could've been mold spots and could've been something else staining the skirt. She crouched low to the ground as Lan came closer, her joints creaking as they utilized their full range of motion. (A collector would’ve noticed that her body was a marvel of engineering, able to move as seamlessly as a human.) (edited)

Lan whined watching the dolls flop over - something about the way they moved was extremely wrong. Rock, too, quickly realized that they were moving distressingly smoothly. They couldn't have been old-fashioned robots - Copybots, at least, could move that smoothly, but she wasn't detecting anything. The way they were animated made it seem as if there was an invisible puppeteer manually pulling the strings; or, worse, that they really were alive. The guardian blocking the door was even worse for Lan to face. Lan was not particularly tall - a doll that was over half of her height (and currently crouching toward her, given that she was still stuck on the floor) was putting in plenty of work to freak her the hell out. She was a quick thinker, at least; diving toward the doll seemed like the fastest way to get caught in its embrace, and she didn't particularly love the idea of slamming chest-first into something so outwardly gross. Lan slid forward and managed to swing her foot toward the doll's right arm, hoping to knock it over. The old, wooden floor was very uncomfortable to spin around on, but tearing her shorts was not her top concern with the oncoming threat of being smothered by living dolls. Lan squeezed her eyes shut as soon as she kicked the other doll, quickly forcing herself up and hoping to make a break for it as soon as the guardian hit the ground. She stumbled backward slightly from trying to stand up too quickly, however, and unfortunately left herself facing away from the table once more - Rock was entirely too distracted with trying to find their escape route to keep watch on any of the still-encroaching threats.

The princess of the craft room shifted her stance to not lose her balance; Lan’s kick met hard plastic, but her opponent, while not able to counterattack, didn’t fall. Behind Lan, some of the one-third scale dolls charged at her ankles, aiming to knock her off-balance instead. Some of the smaller dolls leapt from the shelves for her head, tiny hands outstretched to ensnare themselves in her hair. The ragdolls had tottered back to their feet, too. They began to soundlessly stumble forward again, reaching out with their mittenlike hands. (edited)

Lan's eyes popped open, and she cringed when she realized that her kick was not enough to send the doll toppling. Rock found that to be another distressing addition to the the dolls are alive hypothesis - a robot would not have been able to recover from such a sudden move so easily. She prepared to make a run for it anyways - maybe she could jump over the doll, or kick it in the head? - only to realize that she had become far more surrounded than she was a second ago. "No!" she wailed - she wanted to call for help, but the pit in her stomach told her that no one was going to come. The exit was a lost cause with so many dolls creeping up on her. Before she could think of a plan of attack, though, one of the small dolls managed to latch onto its target, grabbing onto the side of her head opposite to where Rock stood. Lan cried and immediately stumbled to the back wall, tripping over one of the bigger dolls in the process. Her back hit the side of a shelf, which forced her to let out another cry of pain, but she quickly pushed through it and began her attempts to pry the doll out of her messy hair. Though now, she had, quite literally, backed herself into a corner - she was a total sitting duck. "Get the fuck-!" Rock began to yell, before realizing that no one was probably listening. She leapt over Lan's head and swung randomly at the doll latched onto Lan; it accomplished absolutely nothing, much to her fury. "Kid! Just start kicking! Start running! I don't care!"

Indeed, no one was there to listen to Rock’s demand. Lan had backed into the wall—into the midst of the army of dolls that stood guard in both back corners and along the side walls. More small dolls leapt down to pull on hair and clothing while the ragdolls made to immobilize her, but they weren’t planning on leaving her in place. Instead, the throng attempted to move, to carry Lan in the direction of the work table ringed by disembodied plastic heads and arms and wigs and eyes… Across the room, the princess rose to her full height. She crept toward the work table with balletic grace.

Lan screamed as the chances of her escape slowly began to dwindle. She attempted to put her foot down, to launch out of the room at mach speed, but the ragdolls were faster on the draw. Their pull was so obscenely tight - how were they so strong? - tight enough that her thrashing was not accomplishing much. Lan was running on too much adrenaline to start losing hope - but Rock, who could contribute nothing, was beginning to feel helpless. Her eyes were wide open as she realized that Lan's mobility had been restrained - if she had her skates, it'd be different, but she didn't even have time to put them on and there were too many of these fucking dolls, and she couldn't do anything to them and she couldn't even do her job right- Rock choked up and clutched her earpieces, paralyzed with fear as Lan was slowly dragged toward the table. It was not hard to figure out what the dolls' goal was; so many of them had left their resting place just to drag their victim toward their workshop. "Stop! Stop! What do you want?!" Lan yelled as she continued to thrash, attempting to bargain with an enemy that would not listen. She had still not fully understood the danger she was in - tension was running too high, and she was far too overstimulated by the constant tugging of the dolls, still trying desperately to tear them out. ...As she was forced toward their destination, though, and locked eyes with all of the needles once more, it became clear to her that this was their operating table. Many procedures were performed in these places, none of which Lan trusted would ever work. In the past, there was a rhythmic beeping, an assurance that everything was going to be okay even though all that surrounded her was soaked in despair- There were no more audible protests - just whines and tugs. When she was close enough to the table, she made one last desperate move - she shoved her hands toward it and tried to launch herself off of it, hoping to slam herself against the back wall and hopefully shake the dolls off...

The ragdolls were made to be abused in this way, cushioning Lan’s hands and arms from the impact against the table while not loosening their grip. They had been sewn together so carefully that not even a stitch popped out of place while they forced Lan’s limbs to remain still. There she laid, spreadeagled on the work table, the small dolls immobilizing her head by pulling her down to its surface by the hair. Her neck was growing warmer. Something was being done that couldn’t be seen, but nothing was touching her there; it was more like hot air was blowing onto it. In the meantime, the princess doll peered down into Lan’s eyes. She held up one eye chip next to Lan’s face, then another, as if trying to decide. Glittering green, iridescent rainbow, shimmering red… The faces surrounding Lan didn’t change, even as they fought to keep their new acquisition still, little bodies jerking around in response to her struggles. Their smiles and pouts, their personalities, were frozen in time, no matter what purpose they were set to. The princess put her hands under Lan’s jaw, carefully tested the range of the neck joint that had been heated to make it more pliable, prodded at the connection between skull and neck, before she found the angle she was looking for and abruptly WRENCHED.

Lan couldn't even bear to scream, unable to process what was happening around her from the sheer surrealism of it all. She could only let out a pathetic whine as a deathly, explosive pain shattered her mind - -and then she was okay. Lan was not certain how she ended up here. She barely knew where she was going to begin with- There was a brief pause, before Rock abruptly appeared on Lan's shoulder once more, feeling like she'd just been tossed out of a dryer. "Wh... what the hell?!" she exclaimed, waving her arms wildly as Lan stood there in silence, shaking. None of that felt real - and it wasn't? It couldn't have been real, but... It took a few more seconds before Lan was able to shake herself out of her shell-shocked state, spared by the lack of pain reverberating through her. Nothing was touching or grabbing her - she took a deep breath, and forced herself to regain her composure. She was quick to notice how she was standing in the same place, feeling just as disoriented as before, with a brand-new mark on her arm, only barely visible given how dark it was. "Wh..." Lan pinched her cheeks to check; she was definitely not dreaming. "Rock, was that...?" "I'm here," Rock asserted, also pinching her cheeks; it was just as useless as Lan's gesture. "You... yeah, that did happen. You got grabbed by those dolls, and..." She shivered. The helpless feeling was coming right back to her - thank god it wasn't real. "Rock, look. There's... this mark on my arm," Lan wondered out loud, showing it to her Navi peering over her shoulder. At least it didn't hurt or anything, but it was still... chilling. "We... we can't go inside again. We have to get out of here." Yet, as soon as she finished her sentence, she felt the pull of the house again - and a mental reminder of how abyssal the forest around her seemed. Rock was more hung up on the logic of the situation. It had to have meant something, if they had both witnessed it; but they weren't even in Synchro at the moment. "That... really happened. Was like we were stuck in some fuckin'... scary movie," she wondered out loud. "We couldn't even do anything. As if we just had to watch the story play out." She tapped her foot, baffled by the circumstances. "How...?" Lan nodded along; it all felt too convenient. There was a lot she could wave off before with rational explanations, but... being reset like this was throwing her for a loop.

(edited)

It wasn’t supposed to take long for their guest to arrive, so Kaita was ready to start searching within half an hour of Lan failing to show up. “Maybe she’s just taking the scenic route, Kaita-kun,” was Meijin’s affable suggestion. “Maybe she really has gotten lost, though…?” wondered Mary. “It’s a big building, but it’s hidden by the trees…” Kaita made a face. “That can’t be it. I get not understanding Netto’s directions, but Rockman-san must’ve been helping him.” “Let’s ask Netto-kun for, er, Netto-chan’s number if an hour passes,” Meijin said, but Turboman was sending a message through the client Rockman had given him for multidimensional contact before he’d even finished his sentence. “…Or we could just do it now.” The number was received, Kaita immediately called despite it not having been an hour yet, and… nothing. “It is a number from another dimension,” Turboman pointed out. “We’re lucky we didn’t end up patched in to someone else! …Or unlucky, we could’ve done a great prank call,” Ring added. “…It’s acting like her PET’s out of range, though,” Mary pointed out. “But that can’t be!” Kaita redoubled his efforts at convincing Meijin. “Meijin-san, she couldn’t have gotten this far off track on purpose. Something’s not right!” “It is a young version of Netto-kun we’re talking about,” Meijin sighed. “Maybe you really should start looking. She might have gotten sidetracked, or she might just be that lost…” So with their Navis keeping up the effort to contact Lan’s PET, Kaita and Mary set out from the Ministry to find Lan. To keep up with Kaita’s wandering pace, Mary elected to bring the wheelchair she, Meijin, and Kaita had designed for her to use on Net Savior missions. It was a sleek device, designed to multiply the force she used to push the wheels forward into eye-watering speed. blankspace

11:41 PM

Lan was obviously going to be on the outskirts of town, so they took a subway out to one of the further-out stops. Industrial parks mixed with undeveloped brush this far from the city center. In the monotony of it all, it was easy not to notice when something was a little bit off… “Kaita-kun…?” wondered Mary. “This scenery, it’s like…” They were in the painting of a forest, instead of a real one. “A Liminal Space,” realized Kaita. The Net Saviors' eyes met. “You don’t think…?” “I’m already trying the call again, Mary-chan!” reported Ring.

- - Lan had considered going back into the mansion for quite a while, but the longer she stood around, the more that she remembered how nightmarish the doll room was. It really was something straight out of a nightmare - being strapped down and experimented on, like being forced into a twisted surgery. Her neck still felt a little warm, a phantom pain still reverberating in the place where... ...Well, she didn't really want to think about that in more detail, lest she burn the feeling into her head. Neither did Rock, who was trying not to have a breakdown remembering how little she could do. If anything, she wanted to run away ten times as more as Lan did - and she wasn't even the one who... got her neck snapped. Lan nearly jumped out of her skin when she suddenly received a call from her PET, in spite of not having a connection. "W-what the?!" Rock yelled, immediately off-put by the blatant No Caller ID label. "How's anyone calling us?! This is not helpin' the horror movie mood!" On the other hand, Lan acknowledged that she didn't really have a choice in the matter. As creepy as the sudden call was, she only really had two choices - answer the call, or go back in the mansion - and one of them seemed quite a bit less committal than the other. With Rock unwilling to answer, Lan picked up the phone herself, bracing for yet another round of what Rock might describe as 'freaky shit'. "...Hello?" she mumbled, keeping her voice down as a precautionary measure.

(edited)

…Wow, this other version of Netto seemed to be just as quiet as the one they knew, if not more so. Mary held her PET closer to her face so that she wouldn’t miss anything Lan said. “Um, hello—” “Hiya!” greeted Ring at full volume, her form taking up most of the video call screen. “I’m Ring, with the Net Saviors, and this beautiful young lady behind me’s Mary-chan! You’re Netto-chan, right?” “If the PET phone connected, then we’re both in the same space! No wonder we couldn’t reach her!” Kaita exclaimed next to Mary. Mary nodded to Kaita, then scooted Ring to the side long enough to get a better look at Lan’s unnerved expression. “We seem to have all found ourselves in a Liminal Space,” Mary explained gently. “Kaita-kun and I are going to look for you, and then we’ll work on getting us out.” “We’ve solved these before,” Kaita explained. “I know it’s really weird, but don’t worry! We’re on our way to help!” Never mind that there were no landmarks to help them find Lan yet. But this was a Liminal Space; there was always something to find, it was just a matter of finding it. “Stay on the line with me, all right?” Mary asked. “We’ll listen for you!” Ring added brightly.

Lan could not help but flinch and shrink back at the sudden torrent of noise from people she'd never met. It didn't help that she wasn't exactly in the most lively environment, meaning that said noise felt twice as loud. "U-uh? Um? Yeah...?" she stammered, so caught off guard that her voice raised up closer to its normal level. Still quieter than the average person, but it was something! The flood of information certainly did not help with the overwhelming feeling. At the very least, these people sounded helpful, but enough was being said that Lan went silent, half-distracted by the noise of the still-ongoing rainstorm. That necessitated that Rock stepped in; she leaned over Lan's shoulder to butt into the purview of the screen. "Hold on! Slow down! One thing at a time, we're in the middle of some shit," she demanded, waggling her finger. "Uh. First of all- nice to meet'cha. You guys were lookin' for us?" "Net Saviors...?" Lan quietly repeated to herself. "Where have I heard that before...?" "It's what Mayl and hoodie-you are, ain't it? Fuck if I remember what that means, 'tho," Rock recalled, blinking as she furrowed her brow. "Now that I think about it, didn't Megaman mention a Ring, too? Guess that means you're the real deal." Lan relaxed a little, knowing that there was a rescue party on the way - though it was arguably just as concerning that there was something she actually, legitimately had to be rescued from in the first place. (This all really was real? Why was this even here? Was that mark permanent-?!) "Second of all," Rock continued, interrupting her operator's train of thought. "What the hell is a Liminal Space...?" She looked over her shoulder back at the mansion, then back at Ring, who, with how excited she sounded, she couldn't help but think had no idea of what she was getting into. "That name doesn't really tell us anything. Think I'd sooner call this nightmare house more brutalist than liminal." She hesitated, glaring to the side. "Nevermind, I dunno where that came from." Lan looked back at the mansion and whined a little, cradling the PET closer. "Be careful. It's- um... I don't know what's going on," she warned nonspecifically, the bottom of her lip curling outward. "L-let's just... meet up as soon as we can...?" "Then we can do real introductions," Rock added pointedly.

Ring and Kaita, being familiar with the handling of shyer creatures, immediately simmered down; the former when Rock stepped in, and the latter when Lan tried to speak up. Mary, being the softest-spoken and least threatening of their unthreatening bunch, was the one to explain, “Well… in response to your first question, a Net Savior is a sort of… deputized Netbattler with the Net Police. We investigate incidents that have to do with the Cyberworld, or things from it.” “This Liminal Space is one of those!” Ring added. “It’s a story from the Cyberworld brought to life.” “Well… sort of. It’s an unstable space where the Cyberworld leaks into the real world, that people and Navis can fall into,” Mary clarified. “The things inside it always seem to be based off of stories passed around online, though…” “So if you know how the legend goes, you’ve got a pretty good idea of how the things inside are gonna behave!” finished Ring. “There’s still an awful lot we don’t know about why they turn up, but we do at least have a decent idea of how they act once they’re there.” “We’re looking for a house, yeah?” Mary prompted gently. “And when we get there, we’ll be near by to you.” "Let's start looking, guys!" cheered Kaita, though not at top volume in consideration of Lan.

Lan was a little uncertain of what to make of Mary's definition, but the two Net Saviors she knew had both done a lot to help her out. So, she swallowed her pride and pressed onward; she was still frowning a little, but frowning was her default face most of the time, so it wasn't like it stuck out at all. "S-so... wait. Are you saying we're... in the Cyberworld?" Lan questioned, still sounding a bit meek from having to wrap her head around everything. "But this doesn't seem like the Net at all..." "I don't think it is the Net," Rock speculated, tapping her fingers. "Which means... it's probably that substantiation schtick that we've heard about, right?" Lan's eyes widened, and she nodded in agreement; when she'd first had to grip the concept, she imagined it more like the viruses appearing at the aquarium, so an entire space appearing from nothing seemed a little absurd... but it would certainly explain the situation they were in. Lan glanced at the house again, then continued to nod for Mary's sake. "Y-yeah. It's... this creepy mansion, surrounded by trees. Is it raining where you are...?" she described. "I didn't get very far inside, but... there were these awful dolls, and..." Her eyes squinted, and she held up her arm in front of the PET camera, showing the two Net Saviors the mark she'd gained. "I think I... died, but... not really...?" she explained, her tone a bit tense. "I don't really remember how I got here, and then I went in, and... then there was that, and then I was out here again like nothing ever happened..." "A legend, huh," Rock speculated. "I thought this place had some serious horror movie vibes. Y'think that's what's going on here?"

Mary listened to Lan’s questions and explanations intently. “I see…” “That’s a lot,” Ring marveled. “Creepy dolls and mansions totally sounds like a horror movie, but it sounds like loads and loads of horror movies! It's hard to pin it down...” “At any rate, we need to find you first, Netto-chan,” Mary said decidedly. “This isn’t the Cyberworld, but it does have things in it that were generated via substantiation. That house, quite likely.” “Maybe even the rain,” Kaita said distractedly. They were looking for rain and a mansion, so Mary scanned what she could see of the skyline as she rolled and Kaita bounded forward, looking for signs of darkness. “This way!” she exclaimed on top of Kaita’s own shout. They shared a smile—of course they’d both thought to check for clouds!—before picking up the pace. In the meantime, Ring was joined by Turboman in the video call to Lan. “Looks like they’re cruisin’ now,” he reported to Lan. “Just stay parked right there, okay? We’ll be there in record time!” “This is my partner, Turboman!” Ring explained. Without a second thought, she added, “He likes to seem dependable, but he’s really just a big kid.” “Don’t say that in front of our client!” Turboman protested.

“A-alright,” Lan nodded along quietly, indeed still not moving an inch lest something random jump out at her at an inopportune moment. “I’m a client…?” Rock also found the description amusing - it made their drop-in trip sound way more professional than it actually was. (Though, if they’d somehow gotten trapped in some liminal hell space, maybe it was becoming professional…? It definitely was a lot crazier than the aquarium, that was for sure; at least they’d been able to take care of themselves that time.) She gave Turboman a little wave, then put her hand on her hip. “Eh, sure, it’s close enough to our rendezvous,” she muttered to herself. “Nice meetin’ ya, Turboman.” She couldn’t help but smirk a little at Ring’s offhand comment. “Name’s Rock - guess the kid’s my partner.” “I think… Ring meant Navi partner,” Lan awkwardly corrected. She wasn’t sure how Rock could have possibly misinterpreted that, but it wasn’t like she knew that many Navis, anyway. “Oh. Well, in that case,” Rock sputtered, averting her eyes. “We’re kind of a solo act, I guess. Lookin’ forward to the team-up… ‘specially if it gets us out of… whatever this place is.” (edited)

“Yeah, exactly!” Ring agreed. “We’re Net Savior partners! Though we were also a team before it ever got made into an official thing…” “Like Ring-chan said, we’ve solved Liminal Spaces before,” Turboman reassured Rock. “We’ll get you two outta this jam for sure!” Turboman was right. It was professional now! This was a rescue! Kaita made as much of a beeline as he could toward the ominous rain clouds, Mary right next to him. Along the way, though, he felt a pull on the edges of his mind, familiar from the other incidents of this nature he and Mary had solved—a suggestion, a sort of instruction that subconsciously told a Navi to behave in a certain way. “It’s leading us to the center,” Mary realized next to him. “We decided it was all horror movie stuff, didn’t we?” Ring thought aloud. “It’s a waste of a movie if nobody’s in it.” “But, Ring-chan… didn’t Netto-chan say she died in it?” Mary wondered. “That’s also what happens to people in horror movies,” Ring shrugged. “She’s fine now, so clearly it doesn’t stick.” Before Kaita could wonder what the point of that was, he felt a raindrop hit his nose, then another atop his head. He lifted his PET arm to look at Lan on the other end. “We’re getting closer!”

Rock had half a mind to wonder how Ring could be so casual about this, but to her credit, it was helping to calm Lan down. The idea of dying just happening as if it was a whoopsie-slipping-on-a-banana-peel type event moment was almost funny. "Yeah, we just... warped back here," she recalled, curling her wrist. "There's gotta be more to it, 'tho, right? Especially if this is some place that needs to be solved..." Lan glanced at the line on her arm again and shivered. "B-but the mark," she mumbled, narrowing her eyebrows. "Does this mean that we... could die again...?" "Maybe it's like a counter. Three strikes and you're out," Rock speculated. The concept sounded rather morbid, now that she put it into words. "And if I'm right, hopefully we won't find out whatever you're out means." The rain was barely visible on the feed of Kaita's PET, giving Lan some time to brace for impact. "R-right. There's this... dark aura in the trees, and it leads toward the mansion. We're standing near the edge... I guess you'll see a golf cart...?" Now that she thought about it, what did a golf cart have to do with a horror mansion...? Was golf that scary...? (edited)

“Just three?” wondered Ring as the Operators moved into the rain. “That’s not much time…” “We don’t know that yet for sure, though,” Turboman pointed out. “It could be more than that, or it could just be to make you guys skid out.” “A red herring, in other words?” Ring thought aloud. “I don’t wanna discount anything yet, though…” Lan’s observation was hard to hear over the white noise of the rainfall by the time she said it. Kaita lifted his PET close and said, “I bet that’s a suggestion call! It makes you want to do something.” “I still don’t like how it can affect people when we’re riding through one of these,” fretted Turboman. “It’s weird enough when I’m in one of them.” “Kaita-kun! Over there!” called Mary. Kaita looked up to see a sodden mop of brown hair, now only separated from them by a few trees. Perhaps unnecessarily, Kaita waved his hand as he sprinted over. “Netto-chan!”

"A suggestion...?" Rock wondered out loud. "You're... sayin' that the Liminal Space is making us do stuff? That's... fucked." Both Rock and Lan found the idea pretty creepy - especially if it affected humans. This substantiation stuff was no joke; it brought back bad memories of the rescue, with the Pulse Transmission and SoulNet mechanisms they'd totally evaded. At the very least, it didn't seem like there was an evil mastermind behind the scary haunted house, compared to that. "I... When we first got here, it felt like I didn't have anywhere else to go," Lan recalled somberly. "I guess that's what you mean..." As soon as Kaita called out, Lan turned to face the direction of the noise; and sure enough, she spotted a very goofy tuft of dark blue hair amidst the leaves - it was pretty hard to see, but it was there! Her initial confusion was soon followed up with an, "over here!" and a wave of the hand that probably wasn't as exaggerated as it should have been. Her call turned out as more of a strange squeak instead of a yell for help. And then, at last, they'd met up in front of the mansion. Lan had to take comfort in the strength in numbers. When Kaita and Mary arrived, Lan relaxed a little bit, though she still kept her fists clutched over her chest as a reflexive defense - it wasn't like she'd met these people before, after all. Rock was standing on her shoulder, and gave them a little wave; her expression was pretty unreadable, being a strange mix of relief, confusion, and an infinitesimally small amount of fear. "Um... Hi. I guess you... know who I am already," Lan greeted, briefly averting her eyes. "You're... Mary, and... uh, Kaita...?" She pointed at each of them as she talked.

Mary and Kaita quickly closed the gap, Kaita ending the call as they made it into speaking range. “Yeah!” Kaita brightly supplied as the answer to Lan’s question. “We’ve done this before, don’t worry!” He wasn’t surprised at all that this Lan seemed nervous upon meeting new people; Netto would’ve been, too. “You must be Netto-chan,” Mary said, equally unsurprised by Lan’s reticence. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person.” “Uh-huh! Nice to meet you!” Kaita remembered to say after Mary had said it. “So, this is the place,” Ring surmised, appearing on Mary’s shoulder. She looked up at the sky; it was raining buckets around the mansion, same as it had been for the entire time Lan had been there. “Seems like a good idea to get out of this rain—though that could be the Liminal Space talking, who knows.” “I should’ve brought an umbrella,” sighed Kaita. He could feel the pull too, of course; but it would be better to make sure Lan was on the same page as them first, so she could be at least a bit less worried. “We’re not in the Cyberworld, but we’re not in the real world, either,” he explained. “So the trees oughta shield us from the rain some while we get ready.” With that, he and Mary wasted no time getting the group underneath the densest clump of branches. The wheelchair was waterproof and its seat moisture-wicking, and Kaita doubted they could catch colds from what had to be an obstacle digital in origin, but it was still more comfortable this way. “So,” began Mary. “Before we go in there, we should have some kind of a plan. For starters… how far in were these dolls, Netto-chan?”

“Y-yeah. That’s… um, me. Nice to meet you,” Lan absentmindedly repeated, bowing her head ever so slightly before catching herself; now really wasn’t the time to try and be as polite as possible. Especially when these two looked to just be her age, anyways…? “In person, huh?” Rock added, putting one hand on her hip. “Dang, kid. Sounds you’re the talk of the town!” Lan glared back at Rock. “Shush,” she complained. “That’s not true.” She said that to banish the thought, but it’d been plenty obvious that Kaita and Mary were at least passingly familiar with her, and she found that confusing. Her counterpart must’ve said something - which was a strange thought, considering she kept any and all of her chatroom information locked up inside her head. (And with Triese.) She gazed up into the rain as they ducked under the branches; she hadn’t really cared about getting wet, since her fluffy hair might as well be a towel over her head. “Uh. Right, the dolls,” she repeated, nodding at Mary. “When you go inside, there’s a couple paths you can go, and we went to the west hall. The dolls were there, in a side room connected to the hallway.” “So that means there’s still a couple other wings to check out,” Rock added. “Y’know, thinkin’ about it… if this is a horror movie, I kinda just yelled into the hallway. Wonder if… whoever’s inside still knows we’re here, or if everything reset.”

Mary nodded along, pensive, while Kaita enthusiastically added to Rock's thought, “We should see how it looks now, and what’s in the other wings!” He did not have a towel to offer other than the one hooked through his backpack that was covered in grease (and now, rainwater). It was hard to say whether it would be an improvement for Lan’s hair. Turboman pointed out, “You know whatever’s in there’ll be just as rough a ride, right…?” “Netto-chan’s fine now, though,” Ring assured Turboman. “It isn’t like a Liminal Space to not give us a fair chance,” Mary said, though not nearly as confidently. “Then that settles it! We’ve got to go see whether the mansion reset when Netto-chan did!” Ring concluded. “Let’s go!” “Yeah!” seconded Kaita. Then, he turned to Lan. “I guess it’s really up to you whether you want to come with us. Usually it’s just us Net Saviors figuring this stuff out…” He looked around at their gloomy, damp surrroundings. “But I don’t really wanna leave you out here by yourself.” “Splitting up the group is always a mistake in these films,” Ring agreed sagely.

Both Lan and Rock seemed almost indignant at the idea of being left behind. "W-wha... no, yeah, that's a terrible idea!" Lan protested, furrowing her brows. "I'm coming with. I can handle myself!" She then blanched, realizing how aggressive that sounded. "I-I mean, we're still sticking together, it's just- you know what I mean." "Half the reason we got got was 'cuz we didn't know what to look for, anyways," Rock added, lowering her eyelids and nodding along with her operator. "But now we're prepared, and we can go for a team-up! 'Specially if we're gettin' a fair chance like Mary is saying." Lan rested her hands on the straps of her backpack, glancing back at the mansion for a moment. "I've been on missions before, so I'm not going to drag you down or anything," she insisted. The defensiveness was only rising, in spite of it just being a polite suggestion from Kaita. "Besides, the more hands, and... um, legs, the better." "Right. So let's get a move on!" Rock decreed. "Plenty more to explore, so we can solve whatever puzzle this place's got. Keep one eye behind your back!"

Kaita was a bit surprised at Lan’s defensiveness. How often had she been told to stay behind, then…? His grin only widened. “Then we’re sticking together!” he cheered. “The Netto in our world became a Net Savior when he was even younger than we were, didn’t he?” Mary pointed out to Kaita. “It’s only natural that Netto-chan’s been on missions of her own, then.” She smiled at Lan. “Glad to have you along.” Turboman huffed a sigh. “If we’re gonna do this, let’s ride already!” he complained. “I’m only getting more second thoughts the longer we’re idling here.” “Okay, okay!” Even Kaita’s natural state of cheer couldn’t hold up against the mansion’s courtyard, though. “It really is like something out of a scary movie,” he marveled, the most hushed he’d been all day. Mary split off to investigate the golf cart; even on this terrain, Kaita’s engineering didn’t fail, and the wheelchair glided across the dirt without issue. “It’s definitely some kind of object from the Cyberworld,” she reported back to the group. “Ring-chan, can we plug into it?” Ring focused for a moment. “It’s part of the Space’s network, but there’s no port,” she said. “Weird.” “Then that port must be…” Mary looked up, up at the manor’s facade. “…closer to the center.” (edited)

Lan was equally surprised as Kaita was that her insistence was met with such enthusiasm. She ought to get used to more people inviting her along like this; it'd been a while since she'd been outright rejected. Mary's musing was equal parts reassuring and worrying - it was nice that they were willing to accept her, but this was a new piece of history that she didn't remember hearing. She's saying it's inevitable, one part of her mind said. All of us just have to keep fighting, and we've always been fighting, because that's what the world wants out of us- She shoved those feelings aside, threw away that fraction of a second of weakness she might've shown in her eyes, and went back to being polite. "I guess you could say that," she responded to Mary. "I-I mean, I just keep myself busy, that's all. It's, uh, not that notable." A massive lie, but Rock let her live with it. Their mini-investigation provided a natural subject change. "So these places do have networks?" Rock said, sounding almost relieved. "'K, good. Yelling can only do so much, y'know?" They hadn't really paid any mind to the cart before - it mostly just added to the spooky atmosphere. "How'd a golf cart get here from the cyberworld, anyways?" Lan furrowed her brow, putting her metaphorical thinking cap on. "Do people play golf in the cyberworld...?" she wondered, going off on a completely absurd track. She caught herself, though, and thought of a more productive question to ask. "Well... um, I guess I don't really know what the Net looks like here. I mean, we don't even have substantiation - so, I don't know, do people just make random objects and they can just... show up...?"

Kaita and Mary exchanged glances, but let the subject change without pressing Lan. “No clue,” Turboman said honestly to Rock’s question about the origins of the golf cart. “These places just seem to decorate themselves according to whatever story they’re following, y’know?” He thought aloud, “What’s the point of having it here when it can’t do anything, anyw—“ “You betcha!” Ring cheered at Lan’s question. She almost certainly would’ve been flashing a v-for-victory if she’d only had fingers instead of mitts. “You’re talking to Internet City’s very first mini-golfing champion!” “Well, um, it’s more of a novelty thing,” Mary explained softly. “But programming an object is relatively simple…” “Loads of people come up with sports games,” Kaita added cheerfully. “And then you can play them with your Navis online!” “I guess anything that’s in the Cyberworld can wind up in reality, if it’s affected by substantiation,” Mary continued. “But for places like this… well, it’s more like what Turboman was saying. It was generated by the Space.” “Yeah, once we take care of whatever’s going on it’ll all totally disappear,” Kaita agreed. “The Space’s stuff is its own thing, not something it pulled out of the regular Internet.” …Whether he said that or not, the manor was still incredibly creepy. He turned to Mary. “…Ready?” Mary took a deep breath, then met Kaita’s eyes. “Let’s focus on finding that plug-in port, first and foremost.” And with that, they advanced toward the manor's front doors. (edited)

Both Lan and Rock seemed strangely impressed by Ring's claim to fame. "That's real...?" Lan murmured to her Navi as they exchanged glances. Rock looked a little jealous - why couldn't she play mini-golf? She'd probably be okay at it! "Well... um, yeah. I guess that makes sense. If you can just... program anything, then anything goes. And... it'd be the same if it's all based on a story, too." The concept was a bit scary to grapple with, but she had no room to dwell on that. Their mission was more important, and if Kaita and Mary were confident in their ability to handle it, then she absolutely should be. It was just a story, anyways - it couldn't really hurt her. At least, she hoped. Rock, meanwhile, was elated to know that their mission dealt with something she could actually help with. With any luck, they'd find the port, and she could get some payback for having to sit and watch... whatever happened earlier. "Right. We'll be way more effective in the cyberworld, so we'll keep our eyes peeled," she said, nodding. "Tho' you guys probably know a little more about what that cyberworld looks like." Lan approached the front doors first, immediately feeling deja vu. "Let's be quiet... in case it reset, and it doesn't know we're here," she whispered, before slowly creaking the doors open. Said creak was probably a giveaway, but it couldn't be helped.

“You betcha my mini-golf game's the greatest!” Ring said confidently. “Though I’m great at everything, of course!” “Do people send Navis into games like that where you’re from?” wondered Mary. “We just have an awful lot of online games and webpages, I suppose…” “Mary-chan and I love adventuring through all of ‘em!” Ring enthused. Even the Operators closing in on the mansion’s double doors did nothing to quell Ring’s excitement. She stared up at the facade, eyes reflecting her eagerness as much as Turboman’s posture gave away his nervousness. “You said you went this way before, right?” Kaita asked Lan in a whisper, gesturing toward the west wing. “Then we’d better go—“ “—The complete opposite way!” suggested Ring, barely in an undertone. “Netto-chan’s more familiar with the inside than we are, so maybe it should be up to her…” murmured Mary.

Lan seemed a bit uncertain of how to answer Mary's question. "Ummm... not really?" she mumbled tentatively. "I've never seen games like that, at least... but, uh, we can talk about it later." Exploring the scary mansion certainly seemed like the far more pressing concern than online mini-golf, really. Neither Rock nor Lan were feeling particularly brave after already having been here once; it was a good thing they knew it was all some sort of construction, now, because if they were alone then they would probably have melted into puddles. (No, wait - Rock was very brave and if they had to do it alone she would be very strong and protect Lan. Without failing at all.) "Kinda agreeing with Ring here," Rock shrugged. It felt weird to not be using some sort of nickname, but she was at a total loss for what to possibly call this Navi. Loopy sounded way too much like an insult. "Not really... um, feelin' a repeat. If this didn't reset, then... those creepy dolls are probably ready for us." Lan nodded tentatively. "Um... the more we see of the mansion, the better, probably," she mumbled to herself. "And... keep it down." She grimaced; really, she just didn't want to see the dolls again.

With silent nods of agreement, Kaita and Mary started down the path to the east wing. Turboman’s hologram floated a bit closer to Ring’s, as if ready to hold a hand to her mouth at the drop of a hat. They were met with a long, torchlit hallway, tall windows providing less of a look at the outside than a reflection of what was inside. Strangely, there were no doorways to other rooms down this one—it was oddly plain, and what decor it did have was simple and uniform. With a nervous glance over to Mary, Kaita stepped forward, leading the way down the hall. As they traveled down it, the storm just outside seemed oddly quiet relative to how ferocious it had been when they were in it. What was more noticeable were the sounds of the mansion itself, creaking as it shifted on its foundation… and something rustling just out of sight. Ring wasn’t fazed, probably assuming they were ‘typical creepy manor sounds’, but Turboman was on alert, and Mary looked quite serious as she stared down the far side of the hallway, where it turned a corner and created a blind spot.

The first thought that Lan had when they entered the windowless hallway was that something would sneak up behind them. She quickly found herself drifting toward the back of the pack, despite commandeering their entrance. Her instinct told her to put her back to the wall, so that nothing could sneak up on her - but Kaita and Mary had her covered from the front, so she hopefully didn't need to worry about that? "They're forcing us in the gutter, huh," Rock muttered quietly, made uneasy by the same blind spot that Mary was staring down. Her eyes darted back and forth, as if she'd spot some sort of trick in this featureless hallway. Reminding the group to keep their guard up was probably not necessary, given how literally everyone other than Ring looked. The closer they got to the corner, the further Lan drifted to the wall anyways. The rustling was getting to her, so the better view she had of what was coming, the better off she'd be. Once they got close enough, she shuffled forward and peeked her head around the hallway, tilting her body at a very awkward angle.

Lan would notice something large blocking her sight, though with how close she was it would probably take her a second to identify the figure as humanoid… …and wielding a chainsaw. Which, judging from the unmistakably loud noise it made centimeters from Lan’s face as it revved, definitely worked.

...For a moment of frozen confusion, Lan was not certain how she did not spot the figure directly in front of her. The very recognizable sounds of the chainsaw snapped her right out of it, though. The sheer absurdity of the situation instantly put Lan right back in adrenaline mode - which, usually, also, was NetBattling mode. So instead of her first instinct being to run, like any normal person would, she ducked underneath the blade and tried to slide between their legs; the mansion floor was awful for traction, but she hoped the surprise value would make up for it. "Shit-!" was all Rock said, once she had been jolted to attention by the exact same revving noise. Now that she was very aware of the fact that she was in a horror movie, she had some choice paralysis over whether or not scattering was a good idea. Random screaming would have to do. "Move! Move!" It said a lot about how disoriented Lan was that she legitimately thought for a second that she would be following up her janky slide with a Roller Blade to the back. Instead, she tried to lurch upwards and kick their sudden guest on her way up.

Kaita and Mary, being Net Saviors, moved to help their new friend instead of running away. For Kaita, that meant trying to reach Lan’s side, though he was farthest away from the corner; for Mary, that meant trying to analyze the situation before she closed in, since she was well aware of her own general uselessness without having a plan of action. The hulking figure’s legs were probably a bit of a tight fit even for Lan; one massive gloved hand reached down to grab at the leg kicking out at it, and the other kept a firm hand on its chainsaw.

Lan's reaction speed was above-average, so she did catch the windup of the glove aiming to intercept her attack; for a fraction of a second, she winced, as if the glove was going to latch onto her and crush her foot like it was a glass slipper. She really did not like feeling small. Leaning backwards wasn't enough to completely open the gap, though, and the leg hit the glove as a glancing blow. She hadn't gotten grabbed, but she did begin to lose her balance. With a little bit of quick thinking, though, she hopped up on her other leg to attempt to reset herself; she stumbled backward a bit, but she didn't completely fall on her ass. She wasn't about to have a repeat of the doll room. The sensible thing to do would be to run, but seeing Kaita try to approach her made that option feel bad. No way she was going to ditch someone - or back down from this creep. She took another step back, clenching her fist - and she stared down the figure with an exaggerated glare, foolishly sending a wordless challenge their way. She'd do it! She'd try again! Even though they were way bigger than her! Rock counted her blessings that her operator didn't immediately get grabbed, but was baffled by her operator's decision to have a standoff. It pissed her off - and it really made her wish that she could just tag in. (There was a latent feeling in her chest, reaching for Lan - but they were on opposite sides of a mirror. She still couldn't do anything.)

The massive figure didn’t say a word; it simply revved its chainsaw and continued its slow approach, steadily closing in on Lan. Mary was at a loss as to what she could do. “There’s no ports,” Ring muttered next to her, saying what her Operator had already noticed for herself. “Nothing we can use!” Kaita had noticed the same thing—and he could see no doorways past the monster-man’s shoulders, either. “Mary-chan, leave this one to me! Go see if you can find a port somewhere else!” Once he was satisfied she was gone, he hurled the screwdriver hanging off his backpack at the back of the creature’s head. “Hey! Over here!” Metal hitting flesh at least made the figure pause, now that it had nearly closed entirely on Lan. But instead of turning its back on Lan, it jabbed its chainsaw forward, attempting to leave a wound…

Lan continued to back away, and made the observation that she'd been backed into a corner at about the same time that Kaita did. Rock, meanwhile, raised her guard, desperately trying not to freak out at Ring not being able to spot any solution she must have missed - did this guy even care that she was there? The screwdriver punting into the figure gave Lan some serious pause. For a moment, she considered asking what the point of that even was - but the sudden aggro from the figure immediately stopped her. Lan reflexively lurched away as the chainsaw was thrust towards her, and was very lucky that the only cut it left was on her jacket. There was no time to be upset over the obvious rip, though. Rock continued to mentally reach for Lan, in the vain hope that she could just pop out and kick this guy in the face - but then she felt a little twinge of focus, and the same focus hit Lan a moment later. Said focus gave her an entirely unearned confidence, and arguably stupid spur of the moment ideas - but what else was she going to do?! Lan, instead of backing away from the chainsaw like a sane person, ducked and darted underneath it, hopping up to grab the figure's hands and attempt to rip the chainsaw out of their hands like she was a toddler trying to steal a toy from an enemy toys-player.

Kaita was quite amazed at how scrappy this Lan was. And it seemed to be working out for her really well! The creature was forced to take a hand off the chainsaw’s trigger in order to get a better handle on her… …but it was still aiming to get her into a one-armed chokehold. Kaita needed to be doing something while the chainsaw wasn’t running… and he had a backpack with plenty of metal tools inside. Emboldened by Lan’s boldness, he took a swing at the enemy’s head from behind.

Lan was too distracted by fighting against the figure to notice that Kaita was making his own move, instead trying to wrestle the chainsaw out of the figure's hands. She had no idea what she was going to do with the chainsaw once she got it, but that didn't matter when she was running on this much adrenaline. The hologram of Rock distorted as it overlapped with the figure, and... ...then... Lan... became a bit too aware of her surroundings. A bit too aware of the fact that she'd completely thrown herself in front of a blade that could make her a bloody mess the second she lost her grip, if she made any mistake and there was a soft ringing and what- where am I- this is wrong this is wrong you're an idiot- Lan froze for a moment, and that moment of weaknesses was all that was necessary for her to lose the fight. The figure gripped her by the neck, and she could do little else other than wriggle around like her life depended on it. (In a sense, it did...)

Kaita’s attack on the creature’s head seemed to have not done anything yet again, even though he could see where the blow had left a mark. “Come on—!” He swung again; the bag was connecting, but the figure refused to move. At least with one of its massive arms busy with squeezing the air out of Lan’s chest and throat, the chainsaw trigger couldn’t be held. It, and the creature’s other arm, was presumably out of play— The creature brought the chainsaw down on Lan’s head blunt side first, as if striking her with the pommel of a sword. Kaita cried out in horror at the sound of it, still trying desperately to knock the humanoid down. But an impact like that meant he was running out of time fast.

During the moment where Lan struggled against the creature's grip and watched Kaita bash and flail around in an attempt to free her, there were a lot of things that she supposed might happen. Retaliation, a breakthrough, her head being cut off - being slammed in the head by the chainsaw was certainly not on her list. Lan, her head now stinging and dazed, was unable to process much of anything other than being stunned that she was still 'alive'. Rock, meanwhile, was desperately trying to come up with a solution to the deadly puzzle. "K-kid! Other kid! Kaita!" she stammered, finding the clarification necessary. "Might need to get a little more hands-on here! Guy's a glutton for punishment-!" Lan, attempting shaking off the confusion, began to wriggle her legs back and forth; the adrenaline was really wearing off now, but she was trying her damndest to make an opening for Kaita. She continued to wrestle against the monster's grip, growling incoherently and managing a one, singular insult of "Freak!!"

The massive thing that had Lan in its grip seemed… surprised, when its attempt to stun her worked about as well as Kaita’s attempts to stun it. “I dunno how!” protested Kaita, his oversized backpack now sporting a blackish stain on one corner. Dark, almost greasy-looking blood was falling down the side of the creature’s head, a rivulet trickling under and out one of the holes in its crude mask, but it didn’t seem impaired by its head injuries at all. “I don’t think you’re supposed to,” Turboman finally found the wherewithal to pitch in. “Get Lan out of there and run!” The creature raised its weapon to try to stun Lan properly this time.

Lan’s energy was virtually spent by now, and the momentary surprise of the creature was not nearly satisfying enough to give them a second win. The second time the chainsaw hit her in the head - the more pointed, violent time - her will to keep thrashing and gnawing ran out. The blunt force of the chainsaw cleanly knocked Lan out, her head going limp and leaning against the monster’s hand, much to Rock’s horror. “Kid!! God damn it,” she yelled. It wasn’t nearly as blood curdling as the first time she screamed, given they were aware of what kind of loop they were in right now, but a rising fear of a very unpleasant visual quickly overtook her. Squeezing her eyes shut, she yelled, “I-I’m not about to give away our game!! What the car said!! Gotta go for the hands, kid!!” Not that the advice really mattered at this point. The creature would presumably have a free hand now - so they’d lost their chance. Rock flinched as her body tightened.

Now that Lan was inert, it was easy enough for it to backhand Kaita away when he tried to swing at its hands and wrists. He was unused to this sort of treatment—he fell to the floor, more shocked than stunned. The figure pressed Lan into the wall by the windpipe, hard enough that inertia would keep her standing while it pulled the trigger on the chainsaw. Kaita regained his senses just in time to watch the figure bury the spinning chainsaw blade in Lan’s gut. There was no chance of repairing that sort of damage, none at all. A horrible, sickening despair overcame him, and he had to look away while he fought the nausea sprinting up from his gut. “Kaita, move!” barked Turboman. “Where’s Mary?!” Mary should not have been in a place like this. Lan could defend herself, but Mary couldn’t even— Kaita bolted for the entrance they’d come from, not even noticing how doing so had made him evade the chainsaw that would have sawed one of his legs off. He made it to the doorway, where the entrance hall was painted with blood. Mary’s wheelchair was tipped on its side, a bloody trail leading Kaita’s eyes across the room to a figure in a striped sweater. It turned from the tangled mass of blood-matted yellow-white hair it was running its knife-claws through, and that was the last thing Kaita saw before he felt a sudden shock through the back of his neck. There was a moment where he fell, unable to feel his body.

Lan was not certain how she got here. She barely even knew where she was- Her eyes snapped open as a familiar, fuzzy feeling hit her like a slap in the face. She had no memory of what had happened to her - she was thrashing, and trying to escape, and there was a buzzing feeling in her chest… When Rock came to, and popped her eyes open, she realized that she absolutely made the right decision. She couldn’t stop herself from hearing some disgusting sloshing sounds (and Kaita’s screams), but she at least didn’t have to know what had actually happened to her operator. The rip in her vest was thankfully gone now, repaired by the loop - and after peering over Lan’s shoulder, she caught sight of a second mark added to her skin. “Ugh,” Lan groaned, clutching her head as she bent down. “I feel like I just got thrown out of a washing machine…” Rock narrowed her eyes as she searched for the Net Saviors. “Well… you tried, kid,” she muttered, sounding a little dejected. “Looks like you’ve got another mark. I guess it really is a tally.” At the very least, the Navis didn’t have to deal with their own tally reminders, but the fact that they were seared on humans made it almost worse. Lan groaned, shaking her head and ruffling her hand through her hair as rain dripped onto it once more. “Ew,” she muttered to herself, the buzzing bothering her more than anything - and a weird, racing energy still bouncing around in her head. “W-where’s Kaita and Mary…?” she asked, beginning to look around.

It would take a bit of searching to find the Net Saviors. They had been deposited on the other side of the clearing, where Kaita had promptly sunk onto his knees on the muddy ground, too shocked to put anything into words. He knew he was supposed to be acting as a sort-of leader here, being the one with the badge. But if he tried to hold his tears back, he felt certain he would throw up. Mary was kneeling next to him. She wasn’t really the touchy-feely sort, but she seemed to understand that Kaita was feeling particularly alone and helpless at the moment. More importantly, the wheelchair was gone, probably still on its side in the foyer. Thinking about whether that trail of blood was still on the ground made Kaita feel nauseous again, and the tears came harder to compensate. It had been so, so stupid to walk into that sort of danger… …and yet he could feel the tug of a suggestion command prickling at the back of his mind. It was probably time to call in the adults. Once Kaita could stand, that was.

Lan, unbothered by the memories of her own death, was able to search and find the Net Saviors pretty quickly - and was visibly surprised to find Kaita crying on the ground. She just... sort of stood there awkwardly for a moment, watching, uncertain of what to say. What had happened to make him feel that way? It must have been after she passed out...? "H-hey," Lan stammered, extending a hand toward Kaita, "...are you, like... okay...?" Rock found the question a bit odd, but at least she was trying. "Obviously not," she murmured to her operator, omitting the 'I heard him scream' just in case they were overheard. "I dunno everything that happened, but you were the one that challenged a monster with a chainsaw. Nothin' good is gonna come from a stupid decision like that." "I was trying," Lan whined, side-eyeing her Navi. "A-and if you thought it was a bad idea, shouldn't you have warned me...?" Rock narrowed her eyes, faking a cough. "Uh, I thought you'd win," she mumbled to herself. Lan chose to ignore that, and turned back to Kaita, extending a hand. "Um, do you... need a hand...?" she offered, before her eyes darted to Mary. "U-uh, you, too, it's just... uh..." She shook her head, her attention momentarily falling on the mansion (tug...) before she looked back. "I-it's not real, and it didn't leave any... damage, so... um, it'll be okay," she weakly attempted to assure. "I think." "It will be okay," Rock corrected, sounding a bit more confident.

“I saw you die,” Kaita finally managed to say in a small voice. “And you might’ve been already dead,” he told Mary. “I remember,” Mary agreed quietly. “Being cornered by that thing with the knives.” She left out the part about how slow it had been. Lan wasn’t fazed, and Mary didn’t have the luxury of panicking, unless she wanted to chance adding a few unforced marks onto her arm. No need to make Kaita even more upset. (Their own Navis, having seen them die, were uncharacteristically quiet, hidden in their PETs as Kaita and Mary talked to Lan and Rock.) Kaita was still in no state to answer Lan. Mary clasped his hand, adding onto Lan’s reassurances, “We know we’ll wind up here again if we choose the wrong path, and there’s only so many more of those there can be.” “Your arm…” croaked Kaita. “I know,” Mary said. Looking at it still felt ominous, like there was an expiration timer counting down on her arm. And Lan had two now, which meant that might not have been far from the truth. “We’re not going to find out what this does when we get too many, I promise you.” She sat back on her heels to better address Lan. “We’ll plan our next route here, before we try again.” That would also give Kaita, Turboman, and Ring time to calm down. “N-no,” Kaita protested. “You should join us when we find the port, Mary-chan. There’s no point to…” He shuddered, cutting himself off before he could explain further.

Lan stood there and quietly listened, frowning with one hand on her elbow. She glanced at the marks on her arm when Kaita pointed them out; she had to swallow a bit of her own fear for his sake. "Oh," she quietly responded. It wasn't a very specific descriptor, but it wasn't like watching anyone die was going to be pleasant. "Uh... I'm sorry." Rock noticed that Mary seemed to think Lan was a bit less fazed than she actually was, though she couldn't tell if Lan was trying to act tough because she'd already died before or because she wasn't actually conscious for her second death. (What an absurd phrase.) "Uh, yeah. There's only so many ways," Lan quietly agreed with Mary. "And I already know what's down one of the paths, so..." "I dunno if we ever figured out if that one was a dead end, but if the opposite side was, then we might not wanna bother," Rock added pointedly. "That just leaves the north wing, right? Should be a little less horrible, now that we know not to challenge scary chainsaw monsters." "Stop rubbing it in," Lan groused. The absurdity of the situation was something of a bandaid on how horrible it all was. "A-anyways, I don't think we should split up again, if... uh, it ended that way for us that previous time." Lan went silent, staring at Kaita for a few more seconds as the artificial rain continued to droop on their heads. She really disliked watching how rattled he'd been by the experience, and the longer the quiet lingered, the longer that his recollection bothered her. Like he had seen something he shouldn't, something that should've only been reserved for her head. (Too slow.) (edited)

“How does that sound?” Mary asked, steadfast as ever in a pinch. "We're not going to split up, and we'll head straight toward the north wing." Kaita really, really wasn’t sure if he’d have been able to do this whole Net Savioring thing without her. He took a deep breath, then answered, “Okay.” Kaita wiped his eyes, pointless as that was when the rainwater was there to replace the tears, then remembered that, in turn, someone else had watched him die. He whipped the PET on his wrist to level. “Turboman!” “Kaita,” worried Turboman. “I don’t wanna see you die again. That was something outta my nightmares…” “We’ll be more careful this time, I promise,” Kaita hurriedly reassured his Navi. “It’s gonna be a lot better when we can actually do something with that port, right?” “Right,” Turboman said. “It’d be nice to contact Netto-san and everyone else, but…” He peered out to the manor in the distance. “I get the feeling there’s no way out until we’ve solved it.” “Ring-chan, we’re okay now,” Mary soothed next to him. “There’s only one direction left for us to search in. We’re going to find the port, and then we’ll be out of here, okay?” “I don’t think I like scary movies anymore,” sniffled Ring. “But okay.”

Lan was visibly relieved that Kaita had calmed down - and almost had bounced right back? She was very surprised at how he was crying on the floor one moment, and then raring to go the next. They did have a mansion to solve, but Lan knew that if she had to cry like that, she'd probably be stuck for a decent while longer, and maybe also she shouldn't be thinking about this right now. Rock felt bad for the two Navis, especially since they had not figured out her brilliant trick of closing her eyes. Hopefully they wouldn't need to, though. "I get it. It sucks to watch," she said, sympathetically gesturing toward the Net Saviors' PETs. "But it is kind of like a weird dream, ain't it? It's something weird and awful your head conjures to freak you out, but it's not actually real, so it can't hurt ya." "Right," Lan quietly agreed. "It's just... like, uh..." She bit her lip, trying to think of an alternative comparison and failing. "It's like a hallucination." She sincerely hoped that no one would ask her why she used that specific choice of word. The fact that they were on a mission and had a plan would probably save her from that conversation, though. Rock nodded. "I dunno if we can even contact anyone else, anyways, if you guys couldn't call us while we were stuck here," she said to Turboman. "So we're in this together. Somethin' like that." "Yeah. So... let's... um, let's make this quick," Lan decreed, trying and failing to sound confident. The mansion was still calling for them - she couldn't tell if the pull was getting stronger, or the atmosphere was just crawling into her skin that deeply. Mansion entrance - attempt three!

“A hallucination?” wondered Kaita. “It felt real, though…” “That’s the point, I guess,” Turboman said morosely. “And Mary’s wheelchair’s gone, too. It was real, but we’ve rewound.” Saying that aloud made Kaita realize that while they had reset, the mansion and the objects left inside it hadn’t. It probably remembered them, too. “I worry about what happens when we earn too many marks…” Mary contemplated the one on her own arm, then shook her head. “But for now, it effectively wasn’t real. We’re all still alive.” Kaita was mostly worried about their inability to call for backup—they had been spectacularly ineffective against the monsters, after all. “We just can’t get caught,” he decided. (He half-expected Ring to chime in with a breezy “Obviously!” She didn’t.) “Let’s go!” he called, intentionally ignoring the way that he felt the mansion’s intent in the back of his mind. Attempt three!

"Yeah, it feels real, in the moment," Lan said to Kaita, narrowing her eyes. "It takes up all the space in your brain, so you're not thinking about anything else, other than the awful stuff you're seeing." It only occurred to her after she finished talking that her specificity might be a cause for concern. She really, really did not want to talk, or think about that right now. Rock evidently noticed that her operator was troubled by the thought, giving her a brief acknowledging glance. "Yeah. Evading it all seems like a pretty good strategy," Rock agreed, nodding along and crossing her arms. "Think our mistake last time was splittin' up, so if we bunch together, then we should be able to react to most things, right?" Lan's expression grew more dour as she walked toward the mansion, unable to ignore the suggestion as well as Kaita could. (She hadn't even noticed it before, but now that it had been pointed out, it was really bothering her.) "If we're lucky, then we can just brute force through everything else," she stated incredibly seriously. "But we should probably find that wheelchair first..." She still opened the lobby door as carefully as she could, despite knowing that the mansion probably was prepared for them by now. She'd already raised her guard even faster than she did previously - but Kaita and Rock were right. Unfortunately, she just had to react, instead of trying to defeat the problem.

Kaita noticed all the detail Lan was supplying. “So you know how it feels, then…” He nodded, more to himself than to her. “And you’re not fazed. So I’m not gonna be, either.” Mary merely offered a companionable smile; there was a difference between being brave and being unfazed, after all. “Yes, let’s get moving.” So they approached the double doors in silence, fears tamped down for the moment. The wheelchair was right where Kaita had last seen it, on its side in the foyer. Mary set it back upright. There was no blood or dirt on it, just a pair of rips in the cloth of the backrest. “We only have the back doors to search, now,” Mary noticed. There was a back door on the ground floor… and one up a flight of stairs. The thought of Mary being even less able to flee another attacker like those monsters didn’t sit well with Kaita. He was more worried than she seemed to be, though; she didn’t seat herself in the wheelchair, clearly allowing the rest of the group to decide. To Lan, she explained, “I can’t move very quickly on my feet… But I can still walk perfectly well. No matter what you decide, I’ll manage.”

For a moment, Lan stared at Kaita with a subtly incredulous expression, displeased with any implication that he was drawing some sort of conclusion about her. That feeling was quickly replaced, though, with reacting to his own resolve. She simply curled her lip and leaned her head, unable to comprehend why Kaita seemingly saw her as a point of reference. Lan wasn't 'fazed' because she couldn't allow herself to be fazed - it was as simple as that. Once they were inside, mulling over their choices as they retrieved Mary's wheelchair, Lan couldn't help but think about how, very shockingly, the scary Liminal Space haunted house didn't actually have any wheelchair access for the stairs. "It might be better to check the ground floor first," she surmised. "If we have to run again, then it's... um, it's probably better that you can use your wheelchair." ...It was a little strange to her, now that she turned to face the door, that the two of them were letting her do the decision-making. It didn't really matter, but they were certainly putting a good amount of faith in a person they didn't know. Her scattered thoughts were a bit dizzying, but she couldn't let her guard down, now. Instead, after giving a small nod to Rock, she stepped forward and led the charge into the backmost door.

“It’s not that weird, is it?” wondered Kaita as they started walking, looking at the variety of expressions flitting across Lan’s face. (Netto did that sometimes, too, when he’d phrased something oddly…) Inside the manor, once Lan had weighed in, Kaita readily agreed, “Yeah, it just makes sense! We did say we weren’t splitting up, huh.” “We’ll know for certain whether we even need to go upstairs, at least,” Mary ventured. “Even if we ‘need’ to, how about we don’t anyway,” Ring said. “We could always—“ Kaita cut himself off. “Anyway, we’re not going there! Let’s keep moving!” Through the door here was… an atrium, to Kaita’s surprise. It was ringed by the upstairs, and the center area was thick with plants, bushy ferns and slim foliage alike forming a miniature jungle. Though there was clear spacing between the plants, enough for people to walk through, Kaita couldn’t see to the other side. “Why isn’t it raining?” wondered Turboman, sounding genuinely bothered. “It’s a continuity error,” Kaita decided. “Just like a real movie.” Unlike the upper floor, there was no pathway ringing the greenhouse area. They would have to walk (or roll) through it unless they decided to take the upper floor.

It's pretty weird, Lan thought, keeping it to herself so that she didn't have to consider this conversation further. Not that it would have lasted long, given that the atrium quickly stole the show. When Lan stepped inside, a sense of deja vu overcame her - another jungle, sort of, though this one was a lot denser and damper than the one on Oran. Their trip on the island was vivid enough in her memory that she could imagine a million ways that this could go wrong. "Be careful not to trip," Lan warned, keeping half of her vision angled toward the ground. "Let's, um... let's stay close together, too." "I don't think tripping's only gonna happen in here as an accident, either," Rock added pointedly. It was very easy to imagine a vine coming alive, curling outward, and snatching up one of the kids' ankles before they could even react. "The foliage's thick enough that they could hide every trap imaginable in it." The wheelchair plan seemed even wiser now, since a stray vine would have a harder time completely disabling Mary compared to what it could do to Lan or Kaita. Knowing this, Lan stayed close to Mary, staying on high alert; Rock, perched on her shoulder, was practically spinning like a record with how vigilantly she was checking every possible direction a scary evil plant could come from. "At least we don't need an umbrella," Rock joked, acknowledging Turboman. "Tally up another mark on the 'shit that doesn't make sense' list." She blinked, pondering her words. "Ahaha. A tally, like... ha, yeah, get it," she blankly mumbled to herself, not even finding her own attempt at dark humor particularly amusing. (edited)

The attempt at humor visibly perturbed Turboman; Ring attempted a half-hearted, “Tally ho!” in solidarity as the party started moving, but then sighed. “Sorry, I’m just not feeling it.” As the group plunged deeper into the manmade jungle, the quiet rustling of their bodies brushing past leaves and fronds began to be accompanied by something else. A gentle breeze, perhaps. The plants themselves were becoming more unusual—more colorful, more alien shapes to their more numerous blooms, larger. Kaita looked ahead. No end in sight. He looked behind them; he could no longer see the doorway they’d entered from. The ‘breeze’ was slowly, nearly imperceptibly, picking up in intensity. And then, sudden silence. Kaita had a horrible feeling something was going to happen, that they’d walked right into the maw of a beast.

Rock didn't exactly mind her joke falling flat, immediately becoming more serious as they advanced further into the greenhouse. The plants' progression was perturbing to both her and her operator; if anything, she would've expected them to get less crazy the further they went, to make them let their guard down. "I don't like this," she mumbled. "Really is just a buncha movie tropes, huh. It gets twisted the further you go in." Lan had spent long enough in the rain that she didn't quite notice the breeze at first, but her rising paranoia eventually alerted her to it. She held her head low, reacting to their alien surroundings with various "mmm"s and "hmm"s. Her walking speed slowed to a crawl, then to a full stop, as she gripped the side of Mary's wheelchair like her life depended on it. She felt like she was in a stand-off with the plants, like any second they'd lurch out at her and she'd have to kick them away... "What's on your mind, kid?" Rock quietly asked, tilting her head. Her operator stared at a group of twisted plants, paying far too much attention to their shapes and patterened colors than she maybe should. "I keep thinking they're shaped like... weapons, or something," she said. "Or... body parts. I don't know why..." Rock glanced at the same cluster Lan was fixated on, and couldn't detect anything of note. "You might be thinkin' about this too hard, kid. None of this makes sense," she said. "You're, like, Rorschach-testing yourself."

“We’ve got to be at least halfway,” Kaita said, trying to reassure the group and himself. “They’re not gonna get up and walk after us, so we’ve just gotta keep moving, right…? The next crossing between plants was a bit overgrown, so that Kaita had to hold aside a few low-hanging branches to let the girls through. Once they’d walked (or rolled) by, he pulled his arm back. A sticky, sap-like substance pulled away with it, keeping it attached to the plant by long, clear strings of itself. “K- Kaita—!” gasped Turboman.

"Wouldn't be so sure about that," Rock responded grumpily. She wasn't necessarily proven wrong in the next few seconds, but she quickly freaked out nonetheless when it was revealed that Kaita was now trapped. "Wait! Don't make any sudden movements! If you don't move, then it won't see you, and it won't maul you!" she whisper-shouted. Lan pivoted on her heel to survey the situation, briefly yakking from the way the sap dripped from Kaita's arm. "Rock, it's not a bear or anything," she said, unclipping and digging into her backpack. "Ummm... how do we unstick sap...? I mean, you can't really cut that..." "I thought cutting was the solution to all problems," Rock commented, flatly enough that Lan legitimately couldn't tell if she was joking or not. Lan pulled out her half-filled water bottle, hoping that she could literally wash away the sap - but she wanted to stay far away from it, lest she also get grabbed. Uncorking the top of the bottle, she shoved it forward with one hand, water splashing onto the sap strings (and probably also onto Kaita's clothing). "U-uh, sorry," she pre-emptively apologized.

The sap stung, causing Kaita to instinctively pull away from the plant. But the ropes of sap were somehow only getting thicker, and the water landing on them was wicked off by its natural sheen. Mary grabbed onto Kaita’s non-stuck hand and tugged as hard as she could. “If we don’t run now, we’ll miss our chance to!” she called. She wasn’t successful at pulling him away, but she did refocus his attention on her. “In the outside left pocket of my backpack, there’s wire clippers!” Once he’d managed to direct her, Kaita gasped as if he was trying not to drown in the middle of a miles-long lake. Mary wasted no time maneuvering to his back and cutting him free, causing him to stagger sideways. The entire length of his arm was still coated with the stuff, though, and it had already eaten holes into his sleeve and red burns onto his skin. “We’ve got to hurry,” she murmured, her face sheet-white. “It—but—“ Kaita managed to protest, seeming alarmingly dazed. “We don’t have time to think about it, Kaita!” Turboman yelled. “Just move!” He projected himself in the direction they’d been heading—toward the other end of the atrium. “This way!” Turboman knew his Operator well; with a deep breath to steady himself, Kaita followed the little red hologram deeper, Mary keeping pace alongside in case he passed out completely.

Lan was disappointed by the ineffectiveness of her water trick, and then promptly horrified by how much effort it seemed to get him out of this sticky situation. The burns on his skin made Lan feel queasy, but they didn't have any time to dwell on it. (Why did he have wire clippers lying around...? Maybe he had the right idea... maybe she should carry around way more sharp things...) When Turboman commanded them to book it, she did so. Lan, being quite the speedy speed girl, gained quite some distance on them before she realized she should absolutely be checking on them more than she was. The way Kaita seemed exhausted by the incident was concerning to her - did the sap feed on more than just his skin...?! "Are you okay?!" Lan exclaimed, slowing her pace. "Y-you can lean on me, if you need to...?!" Rock winced at the proposition. "Are you kidding?! You don't want that to spread to you, kid!" she whispered harshly. It was a wonder to her that none of it had gotten on Mary, frankly. "Let's stick with the plan and dart for the end!"

Lan had pulled a bit too far ahead; the plant right ahead of her opened up its flowers, spitting droplets of green-black muck toward her face and chest. “Netto-chan, get down!” worried Mary before Kaita stumbled again, recapturing her attention. He managed to catch his balance, though not before Mary noticed the wounds on his arm had worsened to the point of bleeding. “Keep going!” urged Turboman to the Net Savior pair.

Lan yelped when the plant spat at her; she lean back in time to barely dodge the muck aimed for her face, but quite a few splotches managed to hit her chest, anyways, including one near the dead-center. At first, Lan winced, expecting them to stain her clothes - but then, she heard a sizzling sound, and was hit with such a wave of dread that she nearly stumbled over. The 'muck' was none other than acid, which was quickly burning through her jacket. "Oh, shit," Rock mumbled, eyeing the holes opening in her operator's clothes. "Kid, do you still have any water left to wash that off...?!" Lan scrambled to dig her water bottle out of her bag, but was quickly hit with a wave of nausea. The acid had melted completely through her jacket, but the burning feeling did not stop; instead, there was a distinct tickling feeling coming from her skin. "U-um, um," she stammered, shakily yanking her bottle out of her jacket and dumping the rest of it on her jacket. It provided a brief relief from the burning feeling, but none of the acid was actually washed off. Rock could do little else than play at being a guard, so she returned to her frenzied surveying of the area, half out of genuine desire and half so she didn't have to look at the burning holes. If the water didn't help, then... "Uh... hey," Lan murmured, her steps becoming more labored. The holes were growing bigger, and the acidic, scorching feeling was beginning to feel deeply ingrained in her, in some indescribable way. "R-Rock, I don't... um, I don't feel good..." Saliva dripped from her lips, and as she stumbled forward, pushing herself to complete their goal, she caught sight of her chest. There was a gaping hole, dead in the center of it, hitting her repeatedly with a feeling that tingled and burned and stung and stabbed and made her want to puke. "Rock, uh, I don't, uh," Lan mumbled deliriously. "K-Kaita, Mary, uh... hurry..."

Mary could only watch the wounds worsen in horror. Now that she was the one on the receiving end of having to watch her friend and new acquaintance slowly die, it was nauseating, to the point that she was suddenly aware of her heart flutter-pounding in her chest. “Keep moving, Mary-chan, please…” begged Ring in her ear. Keep moving, that was what she always had to do. Don’t panic, don’t hurry, just keep moving. “Kaita-kun, Netto-chan, stay close. Just follow my voice,” Mary said, though it was shaky. “Mary-chan, breathe,” Ring urged her worriedly. “Your heart rate’s spiking…” “Keep moving,” Mary murmured, partly to assure herself and partly to give Kaita something to stumble toward. “Just keep moving…” And there, just beyond the thorns, was a landline phone. “A connection,” Turboman noticed. “There’s the network!” Ring exclaimed at the same time. “Plug us in, hurry!”

The sickening sizzling only worsened, digging deeper and deeper, making Lan gag and cough up a dark green fluid when she realized that the acid was gnawing on her bones. She couldn't form much of a coherent sentence anymore to express her pain, especially when droplets of blood began to drip out of the holes in her chest like leaky faucets. Ring's comment gave her a second wind, though, only helped by Rock noticing the telephone just thereafter. "Oh, thank fucking god," she mumbled, glancing at her operator for a moment and then immediately freezing in horror as she fully processed Lan's dead-looking expression. "K-kid, kid, don't sputter out on me here! You heard the others!" Lan hobbled over to the telephone, her steps so labored and scattered that she nearly fell into a thorn bush, cutting a bit of her ankle on one of its many needles. She thrust her PET forward, which only made the acid hurt more. "Cut... the, uh," she mumbled, her breathing becoming more labored. Eventually, she couldn't take it anymore. She kneeled down as Rock was connected to the phone, putting herself in striking range of many an alien plant. "S-sorry," she mumbled, blood still dripping from... the wound in her chest. There was a wound in her chest. A hole was there. There was a hole in her chest, like before, and it made her breathe even heavier than before. There was a hole in her chest, and that terrified her.

Eyes screwed shut in pain, Mary lifted a shaking hand, leaning heavily on the wheelchair’s armrest for support. “P—“ Ring cringed as Mary gasped for air. “Plug—“ But she knew what Mary was trying to do; she leapt into the Liminal Space’s network, away from exactly the situation she had been created to assist with. As soon as she was in, Ring sent out a ping for an ambulance even though she knew it wouldn’t reach the outside—that was what the artificial instincts she’d been booted with told her to do, and it was safer somehow to follow them than to think. Rock had said she hadn’t looked when Lan had died the first time. Ring didn’t open a window, even though she knew from those same instincts that she should be there to comfort her Operator, and sobbed into her knees on the ground instead. “Ring-chan!” Turboman must have been plugged in successfully, because he was there next to her. “We can still fix this, we just have to find the final room!” She scrubbed at invisible tears, unable to quash the dread. “But these things always end up having one piece in Mary-chan’s world and one in ours…” She hugged her knees. “She’ll have to come back here. That’s too much for her.” “It’s too much for Kaita, too,” Turboman sighed. More resolutely, he said, “But there’s only one way out for them now, and I can’t just idle here and let them stay trapped forever.” Ring and Turboman knelt together in silence for a moment. Then, Ring got to her feet. The entire area in front of them was flat and barely-textured, save for a fountain-looking object in the center. After another moment, she realized it was the chandelier from the mansion’s entry. She looked up to see the same candles and lamps fixed onto the walls and the wood floor, all the same as in the human world, only upside-down.

Rock arrived in the comp a moment later, squeezing her eye shut and writhing a little from also having to neglect her purpose. She couldn't really tell if Lan was conscious anymore, and she certainly had no idea how long a human had to live when their fucking body was being melted by acid. (It would probably be very concerning if she did know!) She caught up to Ring and Turboman shortly thereafter, doing a not-so-great job of how much the comp unnerved her. "Geez. It's like it's unfinished," she observed out loud. "Doesn't have much to do with a telephone, either. It's more like a weird mirror, if anything." The upside-down doors quickly caught her eye. For a brief moment, she wondered if the real-world surroundings would be completely mirrored - if so, then it was time for a little payback. She was missing a good bit of information, though. "Right. 'These things'. There's two parts to 'em?" she asked to Ring. "Run me through how this works." They were too far away from Mary to realize what was going on, but Rock was good enough at reading emotions that she could tell the Net Saviors were pretty messed up. Inching closer to them, she extended a hand. "And... hey, I know this really sucks. Being helpless is... an awful feeling," she offered quietly, averting her eyes. "Seems like we can actually fight, now, 'tho. We'll get our operators outta here, promise."

“These places usually are ‘weird mirrors’,” Turboman explained. “One part in the human world, and one in the Cyberworld.” “And at the end, one area where the two link together completely,” Ring finished. “Where we… solve the puzzle. Together.” (It went without saying that she was absolutely dreading that ‘together’ part. If only their Operators didn’t need to be there.) “They’re usually side-by-side, though. This kind of course layout where we’re on the ceiling and they’re on the floor is new,” observed Turboman. “But we know where we’re going—back across the atrium! Let’s ride!”

>You are walking through a dense forest. It is raining. >How did you get here? >Weren’t you trying to go somewhere else? >Before you stand the rusting gates of an old, abandoned manor. >What are those black lines marking your arm, their tips peering out from under your sleeve? It took them a while to reset this time. Kaita remembered only bits and pieces—Mary slumped in her chair, falling into the thorns, stinging turning to numbness as the sap ate through his nerves. Lan decomposing more and more every time he managed to lift his head enough to look at her. Unable to struggle as the plants grew, only to wait for the awful process to be done. Even now that he was back outside in the rain, now that he could feel it on his skin (now that he had skin again), it took him a second to remember how to move. Or maybe he was just losing his will to, because the mansion had eaten away at his soul like the plants had eaten his body. He shivered, either at the thought or at the rain. It seemed that anything touching them was carried back to the start with them; Kaita’s jumpsuit and backpack, Mary’s wheelchair, and Lan’s jacket were all there.

Rock was, admittedly, a little disappointed when she realized they were heading for the door that was considerably easier to reach. She was already planning out a sick as hell wall jump in her head to reach the doors stuck to the ceiling, kicking them open to lead the way...! But, it wasn't really time to be stylish right now. "Huh... a puzzle that links together?" Rock repeated. "I was expectin' it to be a whole different comp, but it's like the place doesn't even know what to do when a Navi gets jacked in. Just puts them through the same crap, only... weird." She curled her wrist, before breaking out into a sprint toward the upside-down atrium door. "Right! Let's crack this riddle, then!" Rock was not particularly built to be a puzzle-solving Navi, so she was admittedly a bit anxious. Lan was smart, and Ring and Turboman had the experience they needed to 'solve' this place. But after leaving her operator to die three times in one night, she very badly wanted to actually accomplish something. A guttural feeling in her chest burned.

Lan took considerably longer to shake off the grogginess this time. The previous cycle was more of a shock, like she'd been smacked upside the head, but now, she struggled to even get up at first. Like something was keeping her stuck to the ground, something sticky that was sapping her energy and burying a hole in her chest- She abruptly gasped, forcing herself off the ground and blinking five times in a row. "U-uh, crap," she muttered, checking her arm - yeah, there were three marks. "Okay, uh, it's not three strikes and you're out..." This time, Lan rushed over to Kaita and Mary with maybe a little too much concern, enough that she immediately tried to brush off her deeply worried expression. "Hey, are you okay?! That was awful," she exclaimed, immediately checking Kaita's arms. She breathed a sigh of relief, then composed herself - she didn't like displaying this much concern. "I... it's still not real, so I hope you didn't see very much, um..." She wasn't very good at this. It wasn't like she didn't remember that acid burning into her chest. She was delirious for most of the time, but the latent buzzing feeling at the spots where the acid had landed were bothering her immensely. ...In that moment, she thought about the hole in her chest she remembered a little too clearly, and she failed to stifle a whine. Her eyes were pretty obviously glassy, but she quickly checked in on her PET, hoping Rock would ground her. Then, she remembered - Rock wasn't by her side as a hologram. They'd made progress...?!

Ring and Turboman wasted no time following. The sooner they were in position, the sooner this nightmare would be over. The expanse of the center room’s ceiling was broken up by the glass in the middle. From above them came the trembling branches of the tallest plants reaching for the light, a mirrored set of upside-down staircases leading to other rooms at their feet, and a number of blades, held by suits of armor and other decor. Before them stood the two figures from their Operators’ first encounter, knives and chainsaw respectively at the ready. “You’re on my racetrack now,” Turboman warned them, “and you sure don’t scare me.” “You idiots just brought blades to a Ring fight,” Ring pronounced, before adding, “And also a tire fight.” °°° Kaita had seen everything, all right, but what came out instead of a confirmation or denial of that was a strange little sob. When he looked into Lan’s face, all he could remember were the plants slowly feasting on it, its eyes sunken and face gray. The worst part of all had been Mary’s death; he’d known since that electrical fire Teruo had set in Mary’s house that she had a heart condition, and he also knew that had to be what had killed her. Lan’s death had been as violent as the one before it, but Mary’s had been so mundane, something he knew he could easily watch happen in a place where there weren’t any resets, and that haunted him most of all. He understood why his mother was less than enthused about his and Turboman’s adventures, seeing her worst fears play out this way. And Mary certainly seemed to remember dying. She was very still, her arms wrapped around herself, eyes focused on nothing in particular, the way she got when she was struggling to calm herself down. Kaita just wanted a hug. He tucked into a ball, crying hard into his knees.

Rock basked in a little bit too much glee when they encountered the monsters from before, immediately lighting up with a wicked smile. At last, she had a target to let out all that pent-up anxiety on. She tilted her head forward, letting a little bit of shadow cover her face; revenge would be very, very sweet. She was plenty happy - and a little amused - that Turboman and Ring were as confident as they were, even after all they'd had to witness. It'd make the beatdown all the more satisfying, especially since she didn't have her operator by her side at the moment. "Finally," she said, unclasping her blades. "I've been waiting for this all day. DIE!" Rock did not hesitate to leap straight toward the figure holding the chainsaw, ducking under him and swiping her leg in an attempt to pierce him and knock him over. She threw one of her own blades at the figure's face as well, aiming to overwhelm it. "Doesn't feel so good, now, does it?! Hah!"

Lan sank into herself slightly when neither of the two responded to her. She glanced at her PET again for a second, fiddling with the controls only to be met with a no connection notification; she sank even further, suppressing the desire to whine and sigh loudly. It was fairly evident to her that Kaita had seen much more than she had. She knew that kind of look; an expression that wasn't really looking at what was in one's line of sight, but the skies straight past it. The feeling associated with it echoed in her mind; cold uncertainty and thoughts crawling to a halt... Rock wasn't here, and that was practically making Lan sweat bullets. They still had a mission to keep up with... right?! Lan was feeling incredibly nauseous and dizzy even thinking about going inside the mansion again, the memories of acid eating her becoming clearer, but she knew they couldn't give up. They needed to support their Navis so that they could escape from this place! ...That left Lan to figure out how to calm Kaita and Mary down. Missions helped her distract her, but she doubted that talking to them about the mansion would help at all. "Um," she mumbled, walking over toward them. "H-hey, uh..." Her mood worsened when she realized she had no idea what to say. For a few seconds, her eyes darted to her side, twiddling her fingers together, before her rising panic implanted a very stupid idea in her head. Another few seconds passed, Lan still finding herself at a loss for words - so in desperation, she kneeled down and immediately captured Kaita in the world's most awkward hug, her expression comedically flat and uncomfortable. (edited)

The chainsaw-wielding figure didn’t seem to know what to do with an opponent that could actually fight back. It fell back quickly, though it continued to have inhuman amounts of stamina even in the face of Rock’s onslaught. So too did its partner with the knife-fingers, knocked back but not out by the four projectiles that careened into it from Ring and Turboman. The two creatures continued to guard the end of the ceiling over the terminal where the Navis had been plugged in—and the doorway for the Navis to pass through. “The end must be through there,” Turboman noticed. “All we’ve gotta do is cruise past ‘em!” “They can barely fight back at all!” Ring agreed confidently, before a plume of flame whizzed past her pigtails. “What the—?” Down below, the decor of the second-story balcony was beginning to stir. xoxo Kaita didn’t even see Lan’s expression; he just hugged her back and bawled, eventually pulling both of them to their feet in order to add Mary to the hug via draping themselves over and around the wheelchair. It seemed to be working, though; Mary’s heartbeat slowed to the same even rhythm it always seemed to be at before too much longer. “It’ll be all right,” she reassured Lan and Kaita. “We all plugged our Navis in, right? Then we just need to find them and get to the last room.” “Mm-hm,” sniffled Kaita. “We really do have to go upstairs, though…” “I can manage,” she reassured him. To Lan, she assured, “It’s not that I can’t walk, you know… I just can’t run. If something happens, Ring-chan’ll be there to protect me this time.” Kaita stayed in their hug until he was sure he wouldn’t cry, because his heartbeat had calmed to match Mary’s. Then, careful not to roll onto the other two in an uncomfortable way, he picked himself up and got to his feet.

Rock was quite dissatisfied with how cowardly their opponents were. She scowled as they retreated, throwing both of her blades at the chainsaw figure only for them to bounce off. Unwilling to fight, yet sturdy as hell - so boring. They really did just seem like simulacrums of humans who were in over their heads. "Fine, we can ditch 'em," she replied to Turboman, sounding a little bit like a child that had just been told it was time to get off the computer. Something else was clearly calling for attention, though, as she had to duck out of the way of the same fireball that headed past Ring. She smirked as she pivoted on her heel. "What's that? Somethin' a little more interesting...?!" Rock tilted her head up; the way this reverse world worked was pretty fucking confusing. The upside-down knights were shuddering, like at any moment they'd be leaping off their pedestals to attack. She pre-emptively summoned her brass knuckles, aiming to smash the metal in before they could accomplish anything.

Lan did not particularly like physical contact, so the fact that Kaita gripped onto her so tightly only made her exponentially more awkward. Mary would certainly get full view of how strange she felt about doing this, but the anxiety eased a little when she realized that it was working. It was a little strange to her, but it was working. She stifled a sigh of relief when she was finally let go from the hug, extremely thankful that Kaita was pulling himself together. "Um... right. Yeah. We're almost there," she sputtered out, shaking off the awkwardness and putting on the best determined face she could muster. Turning to Mary, she said, "Uh... yeah, upstairs. I know, it's just - we wanna be careful. I can try to carry your wheelchair, if it helps...?" Taking one step toward from the mansion, she forced away the dread, almost paving the way for the 'suggestion' to burrow inside her head. "So... let's go, before our Navis get too far ahead," she suggested. And... worst comes to worst, they did have a few more chances, probably. A very morbid comfort. (edited)

There was a crunching noise as one of the armor suits nearly imperceptibly let go of its sword, sending it falling to the glass ceiling below it to leave a nasty-looking impact, cracks spreading across the surface. “Or did it just rise to the ceiling above it?” marveled Ring. “Either way, it’s bad!” Turboman zoomed at top speed to the non-glass edge of the ceiling as more swords fell around him, plucking Ring up by the collar as he sped past her. “I coulda made it!” Ring complained. “You can’t jump here, remember?” Turboman pointed out. “Oh…” Ring looked up at the minefield of hanging (growing?) plants and other obstacles that remained above her. “Oh. Right. I knew that.” “Need a lift?” Turboman asked Rock as the first shard of atrium glass… rose past them to hit the floor (for the Operators; the ceiling for them). xoxo Mary smiled a bit apologetically at Lan. “Sorry about that… We just needed a moment.” She blinked in surprise at Lan’s offer. “It is pretty lightweight, so it shouldn’t be hard for an ordinary kid to carry…” she mused. “Thanks! That’s awfully generous of you.” Their return to the mansion’s foyer was marked by one notable addition to the decor. “Dolls?” wondered Mary. She marveled, “That’s one of the first Pretty Force characters!” Unlike Lan’s earlier encounter, these dolls were distinctly not moving. “I dunno,” Kaita said. “Everything else in here’s a trap, so I wanna keep moving.” With a nod of agreement, Mary followed Kaita in making a beeline up the stairs, leaving the wheelchair behind for Lan to carry. (edited)

Rock quickly dodged out of the way, receiving a startling reminder of how fragile the floor they were standing on was. Her guess as to how the armors would attack was completely wrong, and she winced her cheeks in shame as she evaded another falling sword cutting her in half like a cake. Part of her did want to jump up and and retaliate, only for the wind to be taken out of her sails. "I also knew that!" she confidently declared, despite not knowing that at all. The reverse world was a lot to process, and she really, truly, only now processed that the same plants that had caused one of Lan's several deaths were still present, and probably ready to snack on her, too. Turboman's offer wounded Rock's pride a little, given that she was pretty speedy herself. It was probably difficult to outspeed a literal car, though, and a few more shards of glass falling out from near her feet was enough to convince her. "Uh- sure, I guess," she answered, reaching to hang off his shoulder as she got the sickest idea imaginable. "Hey, we can totally do a hit-and-run. I can bash those assholes as we speed on by!"

Lan could only tilt her head awkwardly in response to Mary's apology. She raised her shoulders and smiled very slightly at the thanks. "U-uh, I get it. It's... no worries," she responded, trying to play everything off maybe a little more than she should. She was quite unnerved by the sudden additions to the lobby, and she had even less faith in them than Kaita did. "Don't even get near them," she immediately warned - not that it really mattered, considering the Net Saviors were already scuttling up the stairs. She wasted no time in scooping the wheelchair up; carrying it normally seemed like it'd slow her down, so she awkwardly hoisted it over her head instead. As she ran up the stairs, she kept her eyes trained on the dolls, worried that they might follow her. The new dolls were so out-of-place compared to the ones that'd popped her head off that it unnerved her deeply. "There was an overhead walkway, right? We'll have to be careful," she pointed out as she rushed up the last few steps.

“Check out our drift!” Turboman called to Ring once he’d picked up Rock, then sprinted at top speed toward the pair of assailiants across from them. “Wait for meeeeee!” Ring cried somewhere in the distance, running along after them. Down below, though, something caught Ring’s attention—the sound of the upstairs door creaking open to admit the Operators. “Mary-chan! Up here! Look!” She waved eagerly as Mary, now holding onto the back of the wheelchair, craned her neck to meet Ring’s eyes. “You’re upside down!” “I think you’re the one who’s upside down, Ring-chan…” Mary did oblige Ring in waving back, though, giving Ring a new burst of energy to skip in place. “You need to watch out for all those suits of armor!” Ring warned after she was done waving. (The novelty never truly got old.) “The fireplace can shoot fire, too, and I dunno about the stairs.” “I guess we should just avoid everything?” wondered Kaita. “But the walkway’s too narrow…” “I know! I’ll draw their swords to me, so you can just follow me through,” Ring decided. “Ready when you are!”

Lan was significantly more surprised at the sight of the Navis on the ceiling than the Net Saviors were. Her mouth gaped open as she fully took in their presence, especially when Mary acted so casual about it. "Wh- whuh," she mumbled, pausing to check her surroundings in paranoia. She couldn't let her guard down! Ever! Rock was also momentarily distracted by Ring's callout, and turned her head to notice her operator gawking at her in... the cyberworld? The real world? Both? They did tell her that they'd 'meet up' at a point, but she didn't expect it to be so literal. "Kid?! Wait, hold on!" she called out, winding up a punch as she and Turboman barreled into the creatures guarding the door. The chainsaw figure got an uppercut to the chin, while the other was slashed across the neck at point-blank by a Roller Blade. The two of them successfully crashed through the door, disappearing behind it and leaving Lan to gawk at Ring prancing around the glass ceiling. "Like the aquarium...?" she muttered to herself, still reeling from being so close to Rock for just a moment. When they fought alongside... Reg, they were behind a glass wall the entire time - but there wasn't anything separating them, now. It was extremely weird to her. "Right, um! We're ready, I guess," she called out, taking her place behind Mary like they were about to bunch up in a bizarre conga line. "Wait, should we spread out? Maybe then they'll have a harder time hitting us...?" The plants' proximity to them did not go unnoticed to her; she tilted closer to the guard rails, as if she'd be safer pressed up against it.

The two creatures actually fell to their feet, allowing Turboman to run roughshod over them—even flaring up his foot wheels to leave behind scorch trails. As the glass shattered behind them, the creatures fell up and away while the glass rained down into the plants below. Turboman came to a stop at the far side of the room, with a move that resembled a figure skater’s T-stop. “Nice!” he complimented his shoulder rider, giving her a thumbs up. In the meantime, Ring said, “Once the sword’s gone, I haven’t seen them move otherwise. So you oughta stay close to where I am!” “I see,” Mary said. “If we’d gone through this room first, we wouldn’t have had any warning.” “I’m gonna keep an eye out too, just in case,” Kaita decided, choosing to stay at the back of the pack. He was also quite wary of the plants. “We should probably stay close to the middle of the walkway, or we’ll get brushed…” With that, Ring began walking them across the way; but when they got to the fireplace, she stopped—and a massive column of fire spat out in front of them. “Leave this to me. Bubble Shot, slot-in!” Mary called. Ring shot downward to douse the fireplace, and their journey continued. “Uh…” Kaita turned to Lan and Mary nervously. “I don’t think those were there before…” At the entrance to the door, still lying very still, were the dolls, many of them the same ones from the foyer.

Rock was quite satisfied from watching the monsters fall to their doom; for a brief moment, she gleefully hoped that the plants would feast on them, just to make sure they wouldn't be coming back. "Hah! Sick," she laughed, hopping off of Turboman's shoulder and giving him a comedically large smile. "Right, so - what're we lookin' for, now? You said there was a puzzle, so..." Her eyes wandered throughout the room. "Man, I'm no good at puzzles." Lan, meanwhile, was bewildered by a Battle Chip being used to solve problems in the real world. The ones at the aquarium might as well have been projections, but Ring absolutely did, for real, save their very real hides. "W-wah!! Uh, thanks," she murmured, a bit spooked by the encounter. She immediately whipped her bag over her shoulder, trying to think of some way to take advantage of the situation. Their victory was short-lived, however, when Kaita pointed out their new adversaries. "Oh, I knew it!" she hissed, eyeing the dolls with a mixture of fear and venom (mostly fear). "Just keep moving! If they grab you, you're dead!" She then realized, though, that the dolls must've only moved when they weren't looking; so, pressing her back to Mary's wheelchair, she stared the dolls down. Still wary, she decided to slot in a Battle Chip, just to see what it'd do. "I wonder... Side Bamboo, slot in!" she shouted, more to herself than to her Navi, since they were in two different rooms for each other. Rock felt the chip data load, but, uncertain of why, she sat on it.

“I think Ring-chan’s got it,” Turboman pointed out. Indeed, Ring was quite ably leading the group across the walkway, sidestepping swords as she did. “We’re in… the center of the Liminal Space.” There was something alive about their surroundings, an alien feeling of organic life in the walls and fixtures. It was a room that seemed to resemble a cavernous pit, the walls gently arcing outwards, with doll arms, armor glaives, candleabras, and other objects bulging out of it at random. At the center back of the room was a fireplace, and in the center was a book. But nothing was moving yet. The Operators had not yet joined them. With Lan and Kaita keeping an eye on the dolls, they seemed not to move at all. Up above, though, shadowy phantoms of tiny figures in dresses were zooming toward Ring, and she wasted no time hurling a Ring Boomerang at them. “Corn Shot, slot-in!” called Mary, noticing the attack. “Thanks!” Ring called down, firing on the shadows to get them to dissipate. Their disrupted shadows remained as a mist in the air, though. “Let’s keep going!” Before long, they’d reached the doorways—one at the top of the ceiling for the Navis, and one in front of the Operators. “Well, there’s no use waiting, especially with those guys behind us,” Kaita said. “Let’s go!”

Rock was especially unnerved by this room, with how being in 'the center of the Liminal Space' made her feel like the alien, out-of-place being. Being around this organic mass of connected parts made her feel a little nauseous - like this was someone's brain, with information stored in and stapled to random places. It was like their entire bad day was melted together for one sick display. "What's this book for...?" she muttered, waltzing up to and reaching for its cover. She hesitated for a moment, getting an absurd idea in her head that if she popped open the book, she'd be sucked inside and lost forever. But the Net Saviors had described the Liminal Space as being created from a 'story', so maybe... "Is this where they're keepin' the entire story?" Lan was still in awe at how the Battle Chips were tangibly appearing in the real world, even ones as goofy as Corn Shot. It was like a rush of power; now, they could actually fight back against the spirits that had been menacing them all day. There was maybe a little more blatant admiration in her sparkly eyes for Ring than she'd normally be feeling; the exhaustion was probably getting to her. She was more than happy to follow the Net Saviors through this mysterious door, and both her and Rock were mutually surprised and awed at their ability to share the same space as soon as they'd stepped through. "Hey, kid," Rock greeted, sounding surprised. "What was the chip for...?" "Rock, we can use Battle Chips here!" she communicated, the tiniest shred of enthusiasm evident in her voice. "There's more of those dolls coming, so get ready...!"

The Net Savior quartet looked around at the room, getting a sense of where everything was—and then the candles flickered as the book whipped itself open, releasing a purple-and-green ghoul into the air. “Here we go!” Kaita said, readying his first Battle Chip. “Heat Shot, slot-in!” The ghoul whipped out of the way of Turboman’s opening shot before firing a strange orb of energy toward him and Kaita behind him. He plucked Kaita up under his arm and dodged in turn, leading the ghoul away from Mary, Lan, and their Navis. “Well… what do we do now?” wondered Mary. “It’s a demonic tome, innit?!” Ring pointed out. “So we throw it in the fire!” The ghoul whipped its head back around as if alarmed at what Ring was discussing, allowing Turboman to bean it upside the head with a Turbo Wheel. It dove at him and he responded in turn, the battle raging safely away from the book but closer to the fire.

Rock jumped away from the book when the ghoul erupted from it, giving it the same wicked grin that she gave the monsters from before. "This the boss of the place?! You're speakin' my language, now," she boasted, unclasping both of her blades. She then realized, though, that if they really were sharing the same space, she ought to be more careful. "Time to put the pain on for someone who actually deserves it!" The ghoul's reaction was a dead giveaway as to what they were going for, but both Lan and Rock were feeling so fighty that they convinced themselves they could vanquish this spirit through sheer force of will. The Side Bamboo actually had something to target, now, so she activated the chip data, briefly summoning a Kilby virus to stab the ghoul through the back. Lan watched in awe as as the virus vanished; everything felt so much closer here than it did behind a glass wall or a screen. "We can totally keep this guy at bay!" she cheered, pumping her fists. "This is so weird, but..." She dug through her bag and pulled out another chip, backing up toward the wall to stay away from the fireplace. "Element Ice, slot in!" Rock's right arm changed into a sprayer weapon with a blue tint as she dodged an oncoming fireball. She'd have to take some of the heat off of Turboman, anyways, since he had Kaita in tow. With a confident leap and twirl in mid-air, she bounced around the ghoul and unleashed a spray of ice into its face, hoping it'd keep it down. Lan's eyes sparkled with admiration.

The ghoul crumpled in the air like a wind sock, but didn’t disappear entirely. Getting the Element Ice to the face caused it to fall to the ground, where it seemed to be trying to twitch itself loose. “Now’s our chance, Ring-chan,” Mary reminded Ring. The girls picked the book up, hand in hand, then walked to the fire to deposit it inside while the ghoul finally jerked itself free of the ice chunk weighing it down. The plant pots on the wall, though, were beginning to twitch; and outside, something was knocking politely on the door. Ring had to abandon the book for a moment to take her largest pigtail rings in hand, cutting down the vines that shot out of the wall to try to impede her and Mary’s progress toward the fireplace. “We have to do it together—we always do,” Mary explained to Lan, keeping behind her Navi where it was safest. Turboman vaulted up the side of the cavernous wall to kick out at the ghoul, now fluttering overhead once again. It released two orbs this time, one toward each of its assailants, then dove right at Rock.

Lan was momentarily distracted by the knocking at the door - it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who their guests were going to be. Mary's suggestion was enough to tear her focus away from the battle flying around in front of her eyes, though. "Together...?" she repeated, realizing that she probably meant they'd need to finish the fight together. Well - against the book, not the ghoul, but the ghoul was certainly part of that. Rock slid under the ghoul as it dove for her, feeling its cold embrace as it whirled past her. Keeping her focus on the enemy, she kept a blade close to her chest, ready to free Mary and Ring should those vines become a bigger problem - only to be briefly distracted by a deep breath, and the sounds of a certain teenager sprinting across the room and stopping just behind her. Rock turned her head to spot Lan standing behind her, her arms spread outward with a fierce glare on her face. "Kid, what are you-?!" "Didn't you hear Mary?! We have to do this together!" Lan insisted, holding a handful of chips in her hand. "It makes sense, right?! We can't ditch each other if we have to finish out a story..." Rock raised an eyebrow, worried at the prospect - but when she remembered that they finally had the upper hand here, that she could fight back and actually do her job properly, she relented. "Right," she smirked, giving Lan a thumbs-up. "Then stay close, 'k? Don't want you to run off." "Yeah," Lan nodded, giving Rock a warm grin. "Let's keep it stunned, so we can finish the job! Battle Chip, Bubble Foam! Slot in!" Rock felt close enough to Lan, close enough to her beating heart, in that moment, that she understood to save it for the perfect time. Instead, she changed out for her brass knuckles, their shine glistening in Lan's eyes behind her, and stomped her foot forward, attempting to bait the ghoul into attacking her.

“The pairs of us acting together, that’s always how these last pieces work,” Ring clarified. “Operator and Navi.” She then whirled around to slash at more of the plants. “We don’t always have to all work together,” Mary said. “But whoever makes the last move has to do it together with their Navi. Or Operator, since Ring-chan figured it out first.” There was another knock at the door, and then it creaked open. Shadowy forms, the things that had been animating the dolls, wriggled and squeezed through the inched-open space in the doorway. “Oh, boy,” Ring mumbled nervously. Kaita whirled around to see the doll-shapes floating closer. “Flame Sword!” Turboman had to abandon his chase of the ghoul to dash through the little shadows gathering at the door. He brandished the Flame Sword like it was a torch, driving them away from the humans. The ghoul swirled in the air, diving in a spiral before hopping upward and past another Turbo Wheel like it had been caught by an errant puff of wind. It hopped one more time before resuming its dive down, past Rock’s shoulder spike, mouth leering open as it closed on Lan—

Lan was momentarily distracted by the shadows creeping out from under the door; somehow, she found these quite a bit less creepy than the animated dolls, but they were still a threat to her nonetheless. Rock noticed her anxiety and tossed one of her blades in their general direction, but returned it as soon as Turboman plowed through with the Flame Sword. That small diversion, however, was enough for the ghoul to sneak straight past Rock. Lan screamed and backed away as the maw blocked half her vision, and as she stumbled over, the ghoul managed to nick her slightly, biting through a part of her jacket and leaving a cut across her shoulder. Lan shoved herself off the ground, gripping the wound tightly as it bled. Rock immediately turned around and smashed her fist into the side of the ghoul, her anger doubling when she checked on her operator and saw the blood on her shoulder. "Don't you fucking dare touch her!" she snarled, turning back toward the ghost and leaping after it. Lan forced herself up and ran after her, clenching her fists. She growled as she propped her head up, running to hide behind Rock once more. "We have to... 'attack' it again! I won't let it get me this time, I promise!" she shouted. Rock's mouth popped open, and after another second of thought, she winked to show she got the hint. "Alright, you shitty ghost! You really think a kid looks all that appetizing?!" she taunted. "I know I look spiky and all, but I've got way more awesome data for you to fill your liminal-whatever, right?! Pick at something more satisfying, man!" Jumping around like a maniac to confuse the ghoul, she waited for it to dive toward her once more; Lan followed with her fists pumped for good measure. Once the ghoul was close enough, she pressed her hand to the ground and summoned a line of foam bubbles that trapped the ghoul in a far bigger bubble once it made contact. Both Lan and Rock beamed, though the continued bleeding on Lan's shoulder made her hesitant for a high five. "Kaita! Mary! Now's your chance!" she called out, gripping the cut.

Together, Mary and Ring approached the fireplace, demonic tome held between them. But as they tried to feed it into the fire, it seemed as though the air itself was trying to fight them. The book didn’t fall, instead pushing back against their hands. They could feel how old this book that served as the heart of the Liminal Space was, older than any other they’d encountered; its memories of all the people who had wandered inside it, including a brunette with braided hair pressed against the hallway wall and a boy and girl staring up in horror in the yard, pushed against their minds. Ring shook her head, reoriented herself, and found that they were no closer to the fire than before they’d seen all those people. “Uh, Turboman, a little help here…” “One sec!” Turboman sliced through the shadows with one more Flame Sword slash. “We won’t have a ton of time…” “Wait a second! I know!” Riding on his shoulder, Kaita fiddled through his Battle Chip collection. “This one! Rimorosoku, slot-in!” Turboman placed the candle by the door, where it could ward the shadows away like an oversized citronella torch; then, he cruised over to join Mary and Ring. (Kaita looked extremely used to riding along.) Their combined willpower began to overpower the Liminal Space's; slowly, as the ghoul let out a horrified rattle, they started to feed it into the fireplace... (edited)

Lan and Rock dashed away from the shadows and past the ghost as the Liminal Space itself fought against their victory. Even from where they stood, they could feel the windy memories pushing back against Mary and Ring - and for a moment, when Kaita and Turboman joined them, the two waited with bated breath for their victory. ...But then, the Liminal Space made one last gasp for air, pushing the four back once more. It was at that point that Rock noticed the book was slowly slipping out of Mary and Ring's hands. "Shit! It's gonna fly away!" Rock shouted, anxious that the ghoul would break free of its prison at any moment. "If that freak gets his hands on it..." "We can't let that happen!" Lan shouted with determination. The book continued to slip away - they needed to act now. "But how are we gonna catch it...?! That ghost'll get to it first!" The wind was picking up, and with their time running out, Rock quickly calculated the trajectory the book would fly out at. "Then we have to handle it, right? The last move has to be between the both of us," she confidently repeated, smirking at Lan as she offered a hand. "C'mon. Just mirror me for a sec!" Lan hesitated for the single second she was allowed to. "Rock? What are we doing...?" she mumbled, though she grabbed on, careful to use the arm that didn't have blood trickling down it at the moment. Her heart thumped for something, though she couldn't tell what. "Handling it. Hold on tight!" Rock answered, leaping across the room and dragging Lan into the air with her. Lan yelped, dizzied for a moment from feeling Rock's mobility, but being so close to her intensified that understanding between the two of them. She joined Rock at her side as they made another leap into the air, winding themselves up... The book flew into the air at the exact angle Rock had hoped for, and with one more defiant cry, the two whirled their legs and spun around each other in perfect sync, slamming the book with such force that it went flying back into the fireplace. Lan's eyes widened and sparkled as the two fell back toward the ground, her leg aching and her chest buzzing slightly.

As the book was devoured by the flames, the entire Liminal Space lurched and began to float away, its data disappearing in flurries as if carried by the wind. The Navis were last to disappear; they shared a group hug with Kaita and Mary, and then they were swept back into their PETs in a similar burst of data. When the world around them stabilized, they were alone in what seemed to be an old construction site, a patch of dirt cleared out of an ordinary forest. Over the trees, the skyscrapers of Densan City’s business district were visible; Kaita estimated that they were only a twenty-minute walk from the Ministry of Science. Mary’s wheelchair was next to them, and some shards of trash littered the ground; but other than the cut on Lan’s arm and other, smaller smudges and scrapes, there was no sign that they had ever been trapped within the manor, nor that there had ever been a manor to begin with. Kaita looked at his arm to double-check; the marks were gone. “You guys were really cool!” Kaita congratulated their guests. “Thanks, and…” His smile wavered a bit; glad we’re all still alive. “Let’s not sit here a second longer,” Ring decided even as Mary sat heavily in her wheelchair. “I’m calling ahead to the Ministry!”

12:00 AM

‘The Ministry’ had no intention of making them travel back on their own after hearing where the Net Saviors and their guest had disappeared to; once they navigated out of the woods and to the parking lot indicated by their leader, they found a van sitting there to take them the rest of the way. The door slid open to reveal Meijin, who looked them all over before commanding, “I want you to clean up at the Ministry before you’re dismissed.” More defeatedly, he mumbled in Kaita’s direction, “Your mother is gonna put my head on a pike if she sees you like this.” “No!” protested Kaita as he and Mary piled into the van, Kaita lifting the wheelchair into the empty space next to the two seats they usually sat in and leaving Lan to ride shotgun. “We all talked it over! Besides, Mama wouldn’t do that!” With a strange, faintly terrified little smile, Meijin said, “Kaita-kun, I know your mother loves you very much, and she would never raise a hand against you. But she absolutely would to me.” Having made that clear, he turned to their guest. “I’m Eguchi Meijin, with the Net Saviors. Welcome aboard, and make yourself at home.” More to himself, he said, “I’m not dealing with interdimensional mothers tonight, too.” (edited)

(They had hardly any time to react to the Liminal Space disappearing on them. Simultaneously with the Net Saviors, Lan realized that she couldn't pass up an opportunity like this, and immediately, carefully, embraced Rock in a hug of her own. Rock had no time to react beyond a short gasp, quickly, if slightly awkwardly, returning the hug before she was returned to her own PET. Lan took a second to regain her bearings once they were back in the real world; the cut on her shoulder still being there was unfortunate, though it was at least hidden by the jacket. It'd be easy enough to clean up... really, it wasn't that bad... Rock beamed upon Kaita's compliment. "Heh! It's no sweat. I'm just glad we're out of that goddamn nightmare," she exclaimed. Lan wasn't so keen on them hopping up immediately, since now that they were in actual daylight, she wanted to bundle up for a bit. The mention of the Ministry reminded her, though, that they miraculously still had something to do here. Shockingly, living through the scary killer horror mansion wasn't actually their plan for the day! "Oh. Yeah," she mumbled, propping herself off the ground and following the group.)

Lan's reaction to Meijin's presence was equal parts bafflement and a vague intimidation. Her thought of, what? This person? Again?? The third time??? What???, was best kept to herself. Rock, at least, had never seen this guy in her life, so she was able to present herself more normally. She gave a little wave from her perch on Lan’s shoulder. "U-uh, hello... Meijin-san...?" Lan tentatively greeted, clamping her hands together as she gave him a little bow. The way he talked to Kaita and Mary certainly implied that he was some sort of authority figure, so it was best to play things safe. "You, uh, you don't have to worry about my mom, it's fine." Not pictured in that statement was the ludicrous lying by omission that she lived and died by. If her mother had gotten the details about her getting killed repeatedly in an alternate dimension, she would be quite mad, but she didn't need to know that, nor why she had to wash a small bloodstain off her jacket. Riding shotgun was only going to make things more painfully awkward, but she had no other choice. She sat very still, the seatbelt wrapped around her tightly, with a blank expression. She didn't really want anyone asking questions, so she pushed out the tension and anxiety in her expression and body language, leaving only her disorientation at finally being in the real world again. (edited)

“No need for formalities, Netto-chan!” Meijin assured her while Kaita and Mary shared an amused smile in the back seat. “Should we get shakes while we’re out? You all look like you could use them.” “We were supposed to be getting that vault to Hikari-hakase, weren’t we?” Mary asked. “Not that I’d mind a treat, but…” “Let’s drop off the vault first, and then we can order something!” Kaita suggested. “Lots of stuff delivers to the front gatehouse!” With that decided, the van was on its way through Densan City. They passed through the business district, with its tall skyscrapers emblazoned with company logos; the government center, with its neoclassical architecture; and finally, a more sparsely populated road with a guardhouse facing it. Meijin’s van was waved through, and the Ministry complex loomed before them, separated from them by a long road.

After being stuck for so long in the Liminal Space, the peppy mood was incredibly jarring to Lan. Fortunately for Meijin, she would be taking his request incredibly seriously. "Uh... yeah, I guess... milkshakes would be nice," she muttered, realizing immediately after how automatically she answered. She shouldn't be asking for people to buy her more things...! But, her filter was a little broken after such an... experience. "Almost forgot about that whole vault thing, given how off-track we got," Rock declared, jabbing a thumb toward her operator. Lan could very obviously tell that she was trying to appear cool and sociable now that they were out of the woods. "We just wanted to drop it off, and... then, well. Heh. Least it worked out!" Lan spent a good portion of the car ride staring out the windows blankly. She'd spent most of her trip with her counterpart glued to him and focused on what they were doing, so she didn't exactly have the opportunity to sink the atmosphere in before - it was almost dizzying, though part of it was that she didn't go to the city all that often. Much to Lan's relief, the Ministry complex was completely unrecognizable. She'd only been to her own a handful of times, when she was very little, but she distinctly remembered it as a muddy, grey building next to the city waterworks - and this was its own complex entirely, almost overwhelmingly big compared to what she remembered. She let out a little exhale as she let through, causing Rock to raise an eyebrow.

For his part, Kaita was just trying to hold it together until tasty treats were in hand. He knew better than to upset poor Meijin-san, who was just doing his best and hadn’t known the nature of what was waiting for the Net Saviors. (He got the sense that, until he and Mary had happened along, Meijin hadn’t been planning to take on any more kids quite as young as them; and that his mother was not helping Meijin’s misgivings on that front.) So other than when he was being directly asked for said treats, he was fairly quiet, eyes blankly processing buildings and trees and streetlamps. Turboman and Ring were also unusually quiet, probably muted in one of their PETs while they talked amongst themselves. Mary was huddled into herself, probably remembering the feeling of the death that had stalked her for her whole life catching up to her, and Kaita gripped her hand in his until they came to a stop at the end of the long driveway and piled out of the van. “Okay. I’m ordering dinner and those shakes, and I want you all to get cleaned up in the meantime,” Meijin declared as they entered the Ministry lobby, giving the three of them another once-over. To Lan, he said, “We’ve got to patch that jacket up, too, and we’ll give it a good cleaning while we’re at it. Would you mind if I borrowed it while you’re in the shower?”

Lan's eyes kept wandering to the back the more she realized that the events of the day were catching up to Kaita and Mary. It made her feel pretty bad, as if she was throwing the two of them under the bus simply by putting on a brave face. She wasn't sure what either of them had seen compared to her, but their empty stares just reminded her more of how it felt to have those dolls crawl across her body, and... rip her head off. Rock was also craning her neck to check on the kids, but she wasn't sure what to say, especially with Lan as on edge as she was. The Liminal Space was bad enough, but arriving at their actual, planned destination - the one she was dreading all day - was only making her more nervous. At the very least, Lan had, somehow, after all of this, decided she was comfortable enough with Kaita and Mary to bunch up with them as they walked in; they'd lucked out, getting paired up with kids that pulled their weight and weren't trying to pry anything out of her or make terrible assumptions about her. The expression Lan wore on her face when Meijin talked to her was so confused that he might as well have asked her to jump off a cliff. She gripped her jacket with one arm, looking tentative for a moment, before she relented. "U-uh... okay," she agreed, wrestling off the jacket and cradling it in her arms. Truth be told, she had no plan for the tear in it; she would've had to come up with some excuse, but getting it repaired here was probably smarter. She wasn't doing as well of a job hiding her discomfort now that they were in the building. Again, it was entirely unfamiliar - but she could guess what kind of place this must be, so her guard was up nonetheless. Her attention was darting back and forth between the emptiness of the lobby and the Net Saviors.

Kaita was grateful to have Lan’s companionship at that moment. They really did just need to let themselves rest, just for an evening. It would all feel less terrible after showers, and shakes, and sleep. He wasn’t sure how long it would last—Netto and the other older Net Saviors would return at some point from their party, and in the morning they would all have to put on a normal face in front of their families—but for now, he needed to let this moment happen without thinking about its end. Meijin accepted the jacket with a little bow and an almost playful, “Thank you, Netto-chan.” (It was Yuuichirou who had a knack for these little repairs, not him. But it seemed like their world was home to the one totally normal version of him, from what Netto and Meiru had reported—no telling what ‘Netto-chan’ would say…) “There’s a locker room over this way,” Kaita found himself stumbling out before leading the way. This place had been so unfamiliar before, but after all the time he’d spent in it over the summer, it was more like a comfortable warren than the cold maze it appeared as at first. Still, it felt like his skull had been scooped hollow—he was so tired it almost hurt. “It has a couple showers in it, so I guess you two should go first, and then I can.” “There’re gowns in the exam room we can borrow,” Mary added. “It’s not a proper nightgown or bathrobe, but it’s something while we get our clothes clean, isn’t it?”

Lan found Meijin's attitude impossible to read, so she simply played along and gave him a weak, if slightly fake, smile. She followed Kaita closely, quietly wondering to herself why the Ministry would possibly have showers and gowns lying around - but then again, this place was a lot closer to a college campus or something, compared to the office building that she was expecting. Rockman had described it as a place where they keep track of "mysteries", so maybe it really was just all-purpose...? "Right. Um... sure. I'll make it quick," she quietly agreed, side-eyeing Kaita. "I don't want to keep you waiting or anything." Rock was bemused that they were going through this song and dance to begin with. It was definitely nice to be getting proper accommodations compared to something like the rescue - though, then again, they were the ones that denied a ride to the hospital. She briefly wondered if Lan would've done the same here, if not for the fact that they had a reason to stay. "Heh. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were asking us to prepare to stay here for the night," she joked, before blinking heavily. "Unless... uh, that is what you're saying?? Kid, are you...?" Lan could only offer an equally confused blink in response. "I'm... uh, just going with the flow here," she mumbled quietly. "I'm... tired."

The Ministry’s clinic was tucked into a suite on the second floor. Apparently, it was so well-furnished because of the Cross Fusion days; once, Netto had cheerfully related to Mary’s monthly battery of tests by explaining his own monthly MRIs in the very room next to this one. (She got the sense they had expanded to... other things, in Darkland. But they had started here.) It was laid out a lot like most clinic and hospital rooms were, so she had no problems locating the drawer full of hospital gowns and taking out three clean ones (making sure to skip the first one with its slight layer of dust). With that taken care of, she returned to the group. “I dunno,” Kaita said when Rock asked how long this was going to last. “We could…?” He sighed. “I don’t really want to say anything to Mama without sleeping on it first, so I guess I should…” “We should,” Mary agreed, and that seemed to decide it. She turned to Lan. “Come on, this way.” Showering really was the right idea. Mary felt calmed by the feeling of her skin being clean and warm, and the Ministry’s side-tying gowns were thick enough that they really did feel more like a robe than a piece of paper. She sat on one of the benches outside the locker room while they waited for Kaita to take his turn with a long sigh, eyes half-closed. “They’re really wonderful people, you know,” she mused aloud after a while of not really staring at the seam between the wall and ceiling. “It seems like any other office at first, but after a while, it starts to feel more like… a treehouse, I suppose. A place where you don't have to be lonely.”

Another heavy blink, when Lan realized that she really had been pulled into another sleepover. She couldn't tell if the fact that she was so agreeable to it was if she was that tired, or for some other reason. This place was big enough that you could probably find a lot of places to hide, should it come to it. "On it," Rock said before Lan could even ask, also amused and interested by the prospect. She disappeared from Lan's shoulder as the two of them hunted down their shower. Lan didn't feel quite as refreshed after the shower as Mary did, but at least it let her wash off the dried blood. The robe was certainly comforting to snuggle up in, like a strange cocoon that would shield her from oncoming attacks. It painted a particularly comedic image, especially with her fluffy hair having been totally flattened by the water. It took her a second to acknowledge that Mary was talking to her - she was already zoning out and staring at the walls as they waited around. For a while, she had no idea how to respond, staring blankly at her. "W-well," she mumbled. "I mean, everyone's been pretty nice." It was a totally nothing response, now that she'd said it out loud. It was true that the people here had been very kind to her, but Mary's point was a little grander than that. "Sorry, uh," she continued. "I haven't really been to a place like this before. Not that I don't believe you, it's just..." She shuffled in her seat, curling up into the robe. "Uh, I don't know."

“You just got here,” Mary said agreeably. “It’s… a bit weird to hit you with that straight away, isn’t it? Sorry…” After a moment, she added, “I, um, hope you have a nice stay here, either way.” She glanced down at her PET on her wrist, but it was empty; if only Ring and Turboman weren’t checking in with Hikari-hakase… Fortunately, Kaita burst onto the scene, carrying his backpack with him. “That was quick,” Mary remarked, surprised. “Yup!” replied Kaita. Mary’s nose told her that he’d even used shampoo! It was a shocking amount of clean for such a small amount of time. “Come on, let’s go to the Main Room and check in with Meijin-san! I bet the food’s here by now!” The reminder of their Net Saviorly duties also reminded Mary of what their visitor was doing here. “That’s right… We’re supposed to see what Hikari-hakase has to say about that vault…”

Lan was immediately apologetic upon Mary's reaction. "U-uh, no, it's fine," she said, averting her eyes. "I just wasn't... uh, sure of how to respond, but it obviously, uh... was important for you to say." Her stare became a little emptier as her eyes fell onto the wall. "I'll be okay. I've... well, it could've been a lot worse." She immediately chastised herself for how strange that response sounded. Kaita's shower speedrun interrupted them before she could be put on the spot, however, and she exhaled a little bit. That momentarily relief immediately went down the drain, however, with the mention of Hikari-hakase - they'd briefly mentioned him a while ago, and she knew he'd be here, but only now, after the shower, was she fully processing what was coming for her. "Uh... right. Yeah," she responded emptily, standing up off the bench as she continued staring at the wall. The idea of wandering around in these robes for a few hours seemed a little weird to her, and made her feel a bit exposed, but she supposed she didn't have any other choice. They were being very kind to her to offer to clean up for her, anyways. Now that her operator was ready to go, Rock appeared on her shoulder once more. "It's been pretty easy to forget, yeah," she agreed, hoping to take the heat off of Lan. "I didn't even realize you guys'd know about it in advance. Or us, really. This got super off-track from the world's weirdest mail drop-off I thought it was gonna be." (edited)

Mary smiled; at least Lan had gotten the right idea…? “Just… don’t be worried,” she tried to explain, and then Kaita burst into the scene. As they started walking, he listened to Rock explain her surprise. “Of course!” explained Kaita. “We were going to meet up with you anyway! ‘Cause Netto was worried you might be nervous, and he thinks I have a… ‘ferociously reassuring aura’.” He tilted his head. “I don’t think I’m supposed to worry about it, though…” “I can’t say I quite understand the whole story, but…” Mary said, “I guess we get to be a part of it, just for this afternoon.” The trip to the Main Room was fairly short, since they already knew where they were going. It smelled of gloriously fried food. “Knew it!” cheered Kaita. He looked to the overhead monitor, where Turboman and Ring were waiting. “We’re here!” “I can see that!” Turboman cheerfully greeted, and wasted no time returning to his PET. Kaita wasted no time nabbing a sandwich, fries, and shake off the table for himself. The styrofoam cups were helpfully labeled, so that Kaita could accurately target the strawberry shake he wanted. “Mary-chan!” Ring called, bounding back into her own PET and materializing in front of her Operator. “You look a lot better!” “I feel a lot better,” Mary gamely agreed. “Let’s see…” There was a cup of baked beans that Mary immediately took for herself, along with a cookies and cream shake and a veggie burger. Then, she turned to Lan. “Help yourself!”

Lan was pretty embarrassed by Kaita's explanation, curling into herself at the prospect of her counterpart spilling out all her secrets. Well- that probably wasn't what happened; he'd surely understand how it'd feel if someone else blurted out sensitive information about you, or to have people make assumptions about you when they'd never met you... right... Rock, on the other hand, failed to stifle a laugh. "Well, glad he's lookin' out for her, at least! You don't have to worry about us, 'tho," she replied. Lan did not like being pitied, and the last Rock would want is for the conversation to turn in that direction. "'Ferociously reassuring', huh. Like, we're gonna be comfortable, whether we like it or not? Heh." Lan raised an eyebrow at Kaita as they entered the Main Room, confused at what he could possibly mean. He... seemed nice, yeah, but that was quite a strange, specific descriptor for someone like her counterpart to give. She'd have to ask him about it later. For as tense and prickly as she was currently being, she, too, was not immune to the smell of the promised treats. Again, her eyelids fluttered at the consistent kindness that she was being offered - it was very strange to her to be treated like this, especially after what they'd been through. "Uh... yeah, thanks," she mumbled, shuffling over to the table and scooping up a burger and fries of her own. Lan was very specific in her choice of seating, sitting in the seat one seat over from Mary rather than the one directly next to her. Rock appeared on the table as her operator scooched her chair in and pressed as close to the table as she could, like she'd be able to hide behind it. She gave her a brief smile, then turned to Ring. "Hey," she greeted casually. "Surprised you guys ran ahead."

“I don’t totally get it, either, but yeah!” Kaita cheerfully agreed. “It’s more comfy that way for me, too! It’s weird otherwise, after… y’know, after everything.” His smile weakened, but didn’t fall away entirely. Once he was settled with burger and shake, of course, Kaita was too focused on enjoying his food to offer up much conversation other than, “Mmm, I’m so glad we’re alive…” “Well, somebody had to tell Meijin what happened, and we sure weren’t gonna make it any of those kids,” Ring pointed out to Rock. “But now that’s all done and dusted, so all you’ve got to do is the easy part!” Meijin, nibbling on a fried pickle chip, raised his PET hand before swallowing. “Just hand the vault program over to Gateman, and he can take it straight to Hikari-hakase’s office,” he explained. “I’ll get a proper explanation over to him, as well.” Gateman, a stern-looking orange Navi, set his hologram down about equidistant from both Ring and Rock. He extended a hand with a professional sort of grandeur. “If you would, young lady,” he told Rock in a deep, resounding voice.

"Y-yeah...?" Lan responded awkwardly in between fries. The fact that he was thankful for something that dire was almost... comedic, in a dark way. It hadn't fully settled in for her just how messed up of a situation they'd escaped; it kind of still felt like a nightmare to her. "I feel like I've barely thought about any of that being... real, yet." Rock hummed along in response to Ring. "Might as well've, anyways. I think you guys understand what's goin' on more than I do," she said. Lan, at least, was handling herself well, though she looked uncharacteristically awkward and... gentle. The rate she was eating her food was gradually increasing the longer she stayed in the room. Turning to her operator, she said, "Yeah, feels like it's best to think of it as a weird dream, anyway." Gateman looked vaguely familiar to Lan, though she couldn't quite place why. Rock found his demeanor a little funny, but she gave him a nod, briefly disappearing into Lan's PET to pick the vault up. She pulled up a video feed of the vault above the PET screen to give some context as she cleared her throat and sent the vault over to Meijin. "Right. So, we ran into this thing when we were searchin' for MagnoMetal on Oran," she said. "We've got no clue what it is, but it turned into this messed-up virus monster called the Lovers." "It was really creepy," Lan said, amidst a bite of a burger. "I've never seen anything like it before. But... at least it hasn't done anything while it's been sitting in our PET." Rock crossed her arms. "I dunno where it could've come from. There was some other weird shit on that island, too, and a couple people from... some company or other, but they didn't seem to have a problem with us." She narrowed her eyes. "Wasn't there, like... some super-ancient door?" "Yeah, in the cyberworld. Roll said it was some kind of... ancient technology," Lan agreed, still baffled by the idea. "We never got an answer if those people had put that door there or not, though, did we?" (edited)

Kaita nodded, eyes still firmly on his burger. “It was way too real, to me…” Mary looked over at him, a bit worried. “They’re dreamlike, but…” It was, she supposed, much easier to dismiss the feeling of dying when one wasn’t constantly being told how dire her situation was. (Just how much had Kaita seen, anyway…?) “We’ve already reported it in, and nothing that happened in it followed us out,” Turboman pointed out. “So you guys definitely don’t have to dwell on it anymore.” Still, Mary felt as though they couldn’t completely forget. They were, after all, compiling information on the Liminal Spaces and their capabilities. “He and Rock’re right, y’know! You’re alive,” Ring reassured her. “You’re alive.” Mary nodded, taking a well-practiced calming breath. They’d have the time and space to talk about it without Meijin in the room shortly, anyway. Gateman listened to Lan and Rock’s recollection with the same serious expression he always wore. “Thank you for your testimony. I shall report this to Hikari-hakase.” Kaita, meanwhile, seemed quite happy to be distracted. “Ancient technology?” he wondered. “Like that stuff we saw underwater? That’s amazing…”

After Kaita spoke, Lan's attention briefly dropped to her food, looking a bit forlorn. The reassurance that they were 'alive' was... well, helpful enough to Kaita, she supposed, but it was a pretty shallow point. Kaita was so rattled when they were in the Liminal Space that Lan doubted he was completely okay. (Now she was just remembering that she had to hug him, again, and was momentarily exceptionally embarrassed by it.) Lan knew a bit too well of how awful stuff tended to worm its way into your brain, ensuring that it would never be forgotten. Maybe she was able to rationalize the Liminal Space away as fake, but her... hallucination... certainly felt as real as Kaita was probably feeling. "I know it sucks," she murmured, her eyes still firmly on her food. "I don't know. This... kind of stuff is... painful, but none of the stuff you felt can actually... hurt you anymore. It's just a memory." Her gaze was unmoving - it was evident how shy she was about speaking up at all. "And those can suck, too, but... uh, you can't let them... control you." Rock gave Lan a brief, warm glance before she tilted her head in response to Gateman. Her recounting being referred as a testimony was pretty funny to her. Lan, meanwhile, frowned at the mention of Hikari-hakase, but managed to keep her cool; it helped that she had a burger to mask her feelings with. "Underwater...?" she repeated. "Right, of course this stuff ain't new for you. I always get the feeling all you guys here are, like... experts on weird shit." "There's... a lot we don't know, yeah," Lan replied in agreement, averting her eyes. "I mean, it's not like I've heard of something like a Liminal Space before, either... I don't even know if that can happen."

“…Yeah,” Kaita said. Then, with more conviction, he agreed, ‘Yeah! It doesn’t have to happen that way. It won’t!” He beamed at Lan. “You’ve really thought about this, haven’t you?” he asked cheerfully. “Thanks. I’m really glad you were here today!” Mary nodded along, quietly staring at her food. (She could not say for certain that it wouldn’t, not the way Kaita said it. But she wouldn’t let it agitate her, either.) “We’re not sure of why it happens, not just yet,” Meijin said, while Gateman went on his way to Hikari-hakase’s lab ahead of him. “The earliest Liminal Space we know of formed six years ago, before we knew what they were. But now, they seem to be increasing exponentially in number.” He gathered a burger and fries off of the desk, as well as the other cup of fried pickle things. “Before, we could attach substantiation incidents to culprits. But Liminal Spaces form spontaneously. It ought not to be possible…” “We’re—well, Kaita and I are pretty new to all this weirdness,” Mary admitted, finally calm and comfortable enough to speak. “I guess there was a bit of a drought, for a while there…” “More like it just moved somewhere else,” Ring muttered. “That Netto sure is a danger magnet.” “But now, we’ve seen all kinds of really cool stuff! And scary stuff, but mostly cool stuff!” Kaita chimed in. “Eventually, we’ll get to the bottom of this, Netto-chan,” Meijin reassured her. “And to the bottom of this vault program of yours, too! Now, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I'd like to retrieve Gateman and see if I ought to assist Hikari-hakase…” With his and Hikari-hakase’s food in hand, he left in the direction of the lab.

Lan was confused enough by Kaita's sincere reaction that she actually did, in fact, make eye contact for a moment, her expression completely incomprehensible. "U-uh... I guess," she admitted, flabbergasted, before kicking herself - she really shouldn't say too much. "You're... welcome...?" It seemed to both her and Rock that this 'substantiation' was becoming more of a problem for multiple worlds, if the aquarium was any indication. Well, it was already a major problem here, if her counterpart was to be believed, but Meijin's claim of exponential increase was worrying; hopefully, she wouldn't have to get stuck in another if she kept visiting, or at least get stuck in one that was a little bit less life-threatening. "Weird," she muttered, more to herself than anything. "I'm... uh, glad we could help, at least...? There isn't any substantiation, period, where we're from, so..." "Yeah, you're a magnet for different kinds of danger. Got that much in common," Rock joked, earning her a sneer from her operator. She awkwardly laughed in response. "C'mon, we handled it...! And we got to team up, too!" Lan averted her eyes. "Well, yeah," she mumbled. As soon as Meijin left and the room went silent, her attention slowly drifted to Kaita and Mary. "I guess... well, it's not something you see every day, even with how terrible it was. And the end was..." Her voice trailed off, like she was unwilling to admit how cool she actually thought sharing a space with the Navis was. "'Cool stuff' keeps you from getting bored, right?" Rock added cheerfully, jabbing a thumb toward her operator. "You need enrichment."

Kaita, of course, wasn’t fazed at all; he beamed and nodded back when Lan acknowledged his thanks. “Most of them are more like it felt at the end,” Mary explained. “Like a fantasy world, with...” She smiled fondly. "With your Navi alongside you." “There’re other parts of the world where you can have Copyroids, or in-home Dimensional Areas,” Ring explained. “But here, it’s rare for Navis to get to come out into the real world like that.” Wistfully, she confessed, “Sometimes I almost miss the house in Kingland, just for the room with the Dimensional Area.” “But my friends are here,” sighed Mary. “I’d really rather not return to Kingland.” “And nobody’s gonna make you, especially with an excuse like this Net Savior badge!” Ring brightly said. (Evidently friends overshadowed Dimensional Areas in terms of excitement.) “We’re in the middle of an investigation, here!” Kaita, seemingly quite happy to be around his friends (Lan included), took a decidedly cheerful bite of burger. “Cool stuff is just so cool!” He enthused to Rock, “Isn’t it neat to find something nobody else knows about yet? Or figure out the way something’s put together?”

Lan blinked blankly at Kaita as she tilted her head, almost confused by his enthusiasm. It was easy to read how excitement bubbled from a person like Triese, but she couldn’t quite understand why Kaita was already so comfortable with her. He certainly had a kind of aura, though Lan couldn’t place what it was. Was she just that good of a hugger…? “I like the sound of that,” Rock replied to Ring, smirking a little. “Well, the fantasy stuff, not the Dimensional Areas. I still think they sound a little freaky, but it was nice to… y’know, live out that fantasy for a sec. I don’t think something like that could ever happen where we’re from.” “It was nice,” Lan murmured to herself wistfully, in between bunches of fries. “Kingland… that’s pretty far…” Their musing about Mary’s situation, however, was swiftly interrupted by Kaita’s endlessly growing enthusiasm. Rock gave Kaita a cheeky grin as she replied, “It’s pretty satisfying to hunt stuff down, yeah. Learn something, and get the kid out of the house. It’s a package deal for the ages.” Lan huffed, turning her shoulder toward her Navi. “There’s a lot we don’t know,” she mused to herself. “I kind of want to figure… that kind of stuff out, just because it’d be useful.” “‘That kind of stuff’?” Rock repeated in befuddlement. “Too shy to admit you liked modding our PET?” Lan averted her eyes, which Rock responded to with a playful hum. “I know it’s hard to find stuff where we’re from, but that’ll just make it all the more satisfying when we strike gold, right? And find some real excitement?” Giving an aside glance to Turboman and Ring, she concluded, “I’m pretty new, in the grand scheme of things, so we haven’t gotten a ton of chances to adventure yet.”

Neither Mary nor Ring was too disappointed to have the subject changed. They’d managed to dodge the bullet for another school year, but eventually her mother would want to return… “Kaita-kun’s great with that sort of thing,” Mary said, smiling. “Pulling things apart, and putting them back together…” “We’re more at home exploring the Internet for what we wanna find,” Ring said cheerfully. “It’s always what we did to pass the time, so it comes naturally by now!” “It’s a lot more fun with friends,” Mary said, smiling. “I’m really happy that I get to help people, too…” Evidently, the thought was enough to restore her appetite; she was now enjoying the veggie burger, instead of halfheartedly nibbling at it. Ring tilted her head, humming a bit at Rock’s admittance of newness. “Eh, nobody can tell anyway, usually!” she concluded with a shrug. “I don’t really keep track of time since activation, for me or for anyone.” “It doesn’t make any difference most of the time, does it?” Turboman said. “A freshly booted Navi can still shut out an older one, if the course conditions favor it.”

On the contrary, Lan's rate of burger consumption seemed to be slowing down, apparently lost in her own thoughts. It certainly made sense that Kaita and her counterpart would get along, if that was a shared interest of theirs. She found it difficult to avoid the contrarian bug in her brain telling her how much it sucked, though, even with her Navi exposing her feelings in front of everyone else. Rock raised an eyebrow. "Course...?" she began to mutter to herself, before realizing what Turboman meant and quietly laughing to herself over it. "Anyways, you're right about that one. I can keep up like nobody's business. I mean, I'd like to think I was doing a pretty good job in that liminal-whatever." She jabbed a thumb toward her chest, looking overly proud of herself. "Though, I dunno if very many new Navis where we're from could keep up with me, anyways!" Lan slumped on top of her arms, lazily eating a fry. "I mean, it's not like very many new Navis are being made, period," she corrected. Hanging around with these people was enough of a reminder of that; for some reason, in the moment, it was making her feel weirdly self-conscious. She felt a bit out of place; perhaps the anxiety was starting to get to her. Rock averted her eyes. "W-well... that's true, but I was more... y'know, saying I'm the best there is," she meekly corrected. "But it's good to run into a little bit of bullshit like this every now and then, right? Keeps my blades sharp." "Right," Lan begrudgingly agreed.

Kaita, too, was slowing down… because he was running out of food to eat. Kaita and Mary exchanged glances at the idea Lan had put forward as truth for her. “I know you’re from another world, but… not many new Navis?” wondered Kaita. “That really is different.” “Not even mass-produced ones, like for business?” asked Mary. “I suppose I understand not making a lot of new Custom Navis, but…” “What, because they’re commissioned for kids half the time?” Ring asked. “Even so, you’d still run into cases like me...” Less confidently, she wondered, "Wouldn't you?" For Lan’s sake, Mary explained, “Ring helps manage my pacemaker, as well as serving as a companion. So she serves a bit of a special purpose.” Ring giggled at Rock’s insistence at being ‘the best’. “But that means you've got less competition!” she pointed out. “It must be nice to pop into existence as the head of the pack.” Realizing she’d used an auto-related turn of phrase, she said, “I sure don’t know if that ever applied to Turboman here…” (Thankfully, Turboman did not have much of a face to be read. He wasn’t instantly the best at Netbattling, but he had been the best in his field.) “H-hey,” Kaita said, a bit defensively, “I think Turboman’s really cool!” It was inarguable that they had needed to put in a lot of hard work to get to where they were, though. “You two are pretty evenly matched, nowadays,” Mary pointed out before Ring could get too carried away.

Lan curled into herself a little more, realizing that she'd totally put herself on the spot. "U-uh, well, I don't know that many people... but that's the impression I have," she explained, backpedaling vaguely. "I mean, our Net's kind of boring. Business people just use empty Navis. A-a lot of stuff happened, so..." Rock could tell that Lan was not particularly interested in telling the Autuvera story for the millionth time today, so she settled for a, "The Net's not that popular anymore, is all." She laughed along with Ring's compliment, even though on a deeper level, she found the concept pretty depressing. "Either way, I guess you could say I've got a special purpose, too. Legally, I'm this kid's bodyguard. She didn't have a Navi for a while, and then... well, once she started getting targeted by certain kinds of people, she needed someone like me." Her lip twitched. "Well, I don't... mean... literally legally, but, y'know..." Lan's expression thawed out a little when Kaita dug his feet in, though. "You guys... um, made a good team... at the haunted house," she said to him, remembering how joyous Kaita had seemed cruising alongside his Navi. Her face then immediately went red, realizing how uncharacteristic that was for her to say. "S-sorry, uh. Just seemed like... you guys were pretty experienced." Rock crossed her arms, staring silently at her operator as she munched on her burger. Surprisingly to her, Lan kept talking before she could come up with anything worthwhile to say. "Feels like cheating," she muttered to herself. "All of it." "Huh?" Rock mumbled right back. Lan slumped back into her arms once more. "N-nothing. It's... just," she began, gritting her teeth. "I don't really get this stuff. Being here... feels like cheating." She kicked her feet underneath the table. "I mean, the sleepover made sense, but you guys are nice, when I don't know you and you don't even know me, and...?" It was evident how confused she sounded. "S-sorry. I'm rambling."

“Oh…” Kaita was surprised to hear that Lan’s version of the Internet was unpopular. It was more like a utility to him—he’d seen corners of it become more or less popular for certain purposes, but he’d never imagined the entire thing being unpopular. “It’s official, then?” Ring asked Rock, eyes twinkling. “I get the sense you two have the same habit of getting ahead of yourselves…” muttered Turboman. Upon hearing Lan’s compliment, he said, “And, thanks. It took a lot of practice laps, but we’re some of the best drivers in the city now.” Kaita smiled down at Turboman. The idea of an ‘unpopular’ Internet, one where a Navi like Turboman wouldn’t have existed, was worrisome even if he knew it wasn’t possible here. Perhaps that was why Lan’s outburst made complete sense. He listened to it with quiet empathy. “No, it’s okay!” he reassured her. “I’m just being nice because I feel like it! It’s not some kind of pity thing, I promise.” With a wavering smile, he explained, “If I weren’t, after a day like today, I’d feel weird.” “It’s an effect of that chatroom our senpais are in, isn’t it?” Mary thought aloud. “That you get to see all these other places… It’s like me making it all the way over here to have this chance to make friends, in a sense. It feels like a sort of accident of fate.”

Rock stood proud, with her hands on her hips, seeing Ring admire her job description so clearly. "Right! Guess that's a better word," she agreed. "Sounds like you've got a big task, too, keepin' up with Mary's health. Glad that... uh, people trust you enough to do that job right." What went unsaid was Rock realizing how both of them must have felt equally helpless inside of the Liminal Space - but they were out of there, now. No use dwelling on that. For a moment, Lan was running herself up a wall, remembering how Kaita mentioned that they knew she'd be nervous, and that maybe they were pitying her, but Kaita called her out on that before she could get that far. "O-oh," she muttered, shifting in her seat a little. He did have a point. "Well... I guess I feel the same way. I didn't want you guys to be... upset, when we were stuck in there." "Look at you, looking out for other people like that," Rock confidently teased. "Honestly, you're acting like you just don't want to admit that you're feeling alright right now. Don't tell me you think makin' a few more friends is 'cheating'." Lan was a little uncomfortable with jumping to the friend conclusion so quickly, something that her flattened expression gave away a little bit. "Yeah. Fate... you're right about that," she responded to Mary. "I guess... if you feel the same way, then it's not really 'cheating'. It's just... something I've been wondering about. Everyone here's really nice, and... um, there's other nice people, too. I don't know."

Mary nodded along with Lan’s thoughts. “I was always… excluded, back in Kingland,” Mary admitted. “I spent so much time online because… it was the only place I could go.” “Finding the nice people’s hard for anybody,” Ring said. “Mary-chan had given up, when we first arrived. But they’re out there! Even if this is a kinda different way to meet people, it’s still valid!” Kaita noticed Meijin at the doorway first. “Meijin, you’re back?!” he wondered, calling Mary’s attention to the door as well. “Kaita-kun,” greeted Meijin. “Hikari-hakase was wondering if the three of you wanted to hear what he’s found so far. Though, of course, it’s completely optional; he can send a message your way later if that would be more comfortable for you, Netto-chan.” “I guess it’s up to her, then… But Hikari-hakase is really, really kind. I promise,” Kaita reassured Lan. “Our Netto was really worried about meeting him at first, too, but everything turned out fine.” “I think that’s for a different reason than Netto-chan’s,” Mary pointed out. “Oh, um, yeah!” Kaita hurriedly corrected himself. “No pressure!”

"Mmmm," Lan mutedly agreed, nodding in agreement with Ring. Wouldn't that have been nice, she thought to herself. Having a living, breathing escape, instead of a screen that just stared back at you all the time, and never really got you away from all that stupid silence for years and years, all the lazy browsing and watching- she stopped herself. That wasn't a real bitterness. Maybe there was the tiniest bit of envy for a second, but Mary was too nice - they had too much in common. She wasn't going to allow herself to feel that way. "Yeah. Things just... move fast, is all..." Speaking of things moving fast, the sudden appearance of Meijin definitely spooked Lan. Feeling embarrassed, she quickly gobbled up the last of the fries and sat straight up in her seat, like the teacher was about to call on her. And then, of course, the question of the hour came. Hikari-hakase. They'd given her the out. She could've just decided to stay in here, and sit out the meeting in this lonely room, and gotten what she came for later. But staying behind here almost felt worse than having to see... him, again. Rock shared in a similar worry, staring at her operator expectedly and giving Kaita and Mary quick glances. Oddest of all was Kaita's comment about her counterpart; she couldn't figure out why he had to be ashamed of his own parent, if SciLab still existed and she was here and being treated this kindly. But she knew the broad outline of what he had to go through, and running away from this situation knowing that he'd braved it felt extraordinarily pathetic. Really, she should just deal with it. Why couldn't she just deal with it? (She really didn't want to be alone right now.) "U-uh... I can... come. It's fine," she agreed, much to Rock's surprise. Her Navi gave her a quick glance that said, 'are you sure?', to which she tepidly nodded back. "I'll, uh, I'll be fine, I think."

Kaita could tell Lan was nervous. “Are you sure?” He still remembered the level of nervous Netto had been, how he’d disappeared into the mazelike Ministry hallways for a full afternoon and part of the evening under the pressure of meeting someone from the past he wasn’t mentally prepared to. That was, perhaps, a bit too much nervous for Lan to have to feel, if this was a Netto but not their Netto. But they couldn’t keep Meijin waiting at the door, either. “Netto felt like he’d disappointed Hikari-hakase,” he explained after they’d started walking, through the carpeted hallways and past offices in wildly varying states of deserted or full. Thinking of just how sad Netto had been tamped down some of Kaita’s ambient energy. “I don’t think you’re worried because of the same exact thing, but… it’s a feeling just as strong, isn’t it.” Mary nodded in agreement next to him. “I, um… I still don’t think you should feel pressured, either way,” she told Lan. “If there’s something you need to talk about with your Navi, since she knows you best…”

The fact that they, obviously, had to walk to the office, instead of just suddenly teleporting there, just made Lan feel like she was being marched to her death. Regret was already setting in, especially when she thought longer on her rationalization and remembered that Rockman had specifically said that his 'Papa' had not done terrible things. The question of what her counterpart actually had to face, though, was answered by Kaita before she could speculate on it herself. "Disappointed...?" she muttered to herself, confused. Why would he think that they'd be disappointed? He was the one that had the courage to fight back in the first place, against the General and all that stuff, right...? But in that same conversation, he had also spoken of his friends that came to drag him back like they were ghosts; she couldn't fully understand it. Shaking her head softly, she turned to Kaita. "N-no, it's not really that, it's... just," she mumbled. "I don't... like... thinking about, um, that kind of stuff. You don't have to worry about it- it's just, uh, I should be able to deal with stuff like this, or..." Rock raised an eyebrow at her decision to brush her feelings off as unspecified "stuff". She'd never seen a Dr. Hikari outside of photos, but she was well aware of how unpleasant Lan found his memory, and the fact that she was forcing herself to see him was baffling. "You know no one's makin' you, kid," she pointed out. "I know! It's... it's nothing, I promise," Lan retorted. Her slightly red cheeks betrayed the amount of shame she was shoving down her throat. "I-I'm just... it's just being... professional. Right." She twiddled with the sleeves of her gown, wearing a weak smile that was just a little bit fake.

Yuuichirou had been warned, of course, to stay in the lab and not shock anyone. The existence of the chatroom, and what he had subsequently learned from Netto about the various other versions of himself, had come as a bit of a surprise to him. Were there really so many other worlds where he had no regard for anyone else…? So it came as even more of a surprise when Mary, Kaita, and Meijin were accompanied by a girl with a surprisingly familiar face. It had to be ‘Netto-chan’. Assuming she would be most comfortable if she was allowed to hang back for a bit and watch, like his own son sometimes was, Yuuichirou acknowledged the entire group with the same awkward wave he normally would. “Hikari-hakase!” greeted Kaita. “Thanks for waiting, everyone,” Yuuichirou said in return. “If nobody minds, let’s jump right in.” He brought up what would be a familiar sight to Lan: the vault from the center of the creature that had attacked the team on Oran Isle.

They stepped into the room, and there he was, just standing there like nothing had ever happened and it was okay to rip this kind of image straight out of her memories and splatter it everywhere for everyone to see. Well, in fairness, he did look slightly older, but that only added insult to injury; he had somehow earned the right to experience the passage of time instead of just being a framed memory. Older and wiser and free of the disheveled mania that she would never forget as he screamed to her about love that never existed. Rock didn't feel quite right about responding to Hikari-hakase's wave, so she just gave him a look of acknowledgement. Lan, on the other hand, stood rigid, hiding in the shadow of the group as she fiercely stared the ground down. The situation reminded her of how she felt during the 'meeting' they'd had at Triese's house; the shame and embarrassment and anxiety and jealousy. Lan couldn't muster a verbal response, so her attention zipped upward, eyeing the vault on the computer screen with occasional glances at the doctor. There was definitely a little bit of venom in her eyes, like a shadow was being cast over them. She would handle this. She did before. She could be 'professional.' (But before, she didn't have the memories of the Angel to taunt her, and how badly the ghost that didn't come home wanted everything to snap back to how it was before. As if her current life wasn't a thousand times better than anything previously.) Lan continued to half-hide herself behind Kaita as Rock decided that she should probably acknowledge the doctor in her stead. "No problems from us," she said, which she knew was probably a lie. "Got any idea if this has anything to do with the 'ancient technology' stuff?"

Kaita definitely noticed the tension radiating out of Lan. He felt a bit worried; she’d said it was fine, but it was growing less fine, and he remembered what that had looked like before. Still, they could get through this. “I suppose the best place to start out with is what we actually know about this program’s purpose,” Hikari-hakase explained. “Basically, it serves as a sort of frame, encapsulating several components like a Navi’s does.” “It does look kinda like a box,” Kaita noticed, doing all the interacting for Lan. Hikari-hakase continued, “The inside contains a series of commands that are probably intended to construct the outer form Meiru-chan reported fighting, but it receives that information from an outside source. Unfortunately, as it is, there’s no way to reopen that connection. It doesn’t have any record of where it’s supposed to be connecting to.” “Then… that means it gets triggered from the outside every time, doesn’t it?” observed Mary. “Quite likely, Mary-chan!” Hikari-hakase agreed approvingly. “As well, it contains code formatted in the protocol for wireless communications. That probably explains why it was able to cause Meiru-chan and Netto-chan so much trouble on Oran Isle—it was able to send itself into whatever system it pleased.” “I see,” marveled Kaita. “Now, as for what the ‘box’ structure itself is made out of…” Hikari-hakase brought up a pair of readouts. “It seems as though it’s been made in two different languages, oddly enough. One is completely unfamiliar, but there’s a more recognizable one being used as an intermediary so that regular systems can support it.” With a friendly smile and nod toward Rock, he added, "That unfamiliar syntax could be from, as you say, a language made for controlling 'ancient technology'."

Lan was perfectly content to let Kaita do the talking and hide in his shadow for now. Everything that Hikari-hakase was saying made sense, and it lined up with what they saw, but the boiling in her brain made it a little hard to parse. She could so easily imagine him stopping in the middle of his explanation, too, and turn straight toward her and say, oh, and I know things are hard for you, Netto-chan, my condolences to your family, your suffering must have been horrible. And then would come the judgmental looks and the train of condolences for when the others learned why she would be getting so much pity, and… She shook her head subtly, stopping herself from the rabid train of thought. That wouldn’t happen. In fact, they seemed to be avoiding the subject as much as possible. (Cowards.) It didn’t matter; she was just here for information and nothing more. Her glances at Hikari-hakase only got emptier the longer she stood there, trying a bit too hard to stay fixated on the vault. Rock, meanwhile, was taking as many mental notes as she could, because her operator sure as hell wasn’t listening. “Some kind of server, huh?” she mused. “We never figured out where that door went. Wonder if they connect up to the same place.” Shaking her head, she continued. “But if it was remotely activated, that means someone must’ve sent it after us on purpose, right? I thought it was just a big-ass virus, but you’re makin’ it sound more like a weapon.” “Someone targeted us, then,” Lan muttered to herself, clenching one of her fists. “There’s only so many people that could’ve done that, right…” Rock eyed her operator nervously, crossing her arms. “Well, if it was all wireless, then there’re gonna be more options than you think, right? Explains how that thing got into our drill machine without us noticin’, too,” she said, before turning back to Hikari-hakase. “Mmm. That’s what Roll seemed to think, yeah. But if there’s modern code inside, there’s somethin’ deeper going on there, at least.” “It’s a weapon,” Lan continued to mutter, stewing in her own confused emotions. “It has to be. Someone sent it after us. Why?”

“I’m afraid you’ll just have to keep your eyes open for now; that goes for everyone,” Hikari-hakase explained. “We’ll only be able to find more answers if we can secure one of these vaults while it’s still connected to its master server.” “So we’ve got to bring it in alive…” mused Kaita. “We aren’t in this chatroom thing, remember?” Ring pointed out, probably to defuse Kaita’s concentration for her own amusement. “If anyone’s bringing anything in, it’s Meiru-san and Roll-san.” “I dunno if me or your mom would want you tangled up in that chatroom, with that scare we had,” Turboman agreed. “Sounds like a course for expert drivers only.” Kaita had nearly managed to forget ‘the scare’ they’d had over… another Hikari-hakase…? They’d wound up staying at the Ministry for a few days, which had been fun, but nothing had really come of it. He and Mary had also learned that alternate dimensions were real and that Netto and the others had been to one before, which was awesome. “We are expert drivers, relatively speaking,” Ring pointed out. “You’re selling yourself short again! Which would be okay, except you’re also selling me short in the process.” In the meantime, though, it seemed as though Lan really needed an excuse to leave the room. “If that’s all there is to know for now… Netto-chan, let’s figure out where we wanna sleep!” Kaita suggested.

Lan found that kind of conclusion incredibly annoying; that there wasn't anything to do and they just had to sit there, lie down, and wait for the enemies to come to them. It felt so much better to hound Kituvest rather than react to wrongdoings after it was way too late to do anything about it. Capturing another one alive felt like an insurmountable task; really, she was better off hoping that another wouldn't show up. Turboman's apprehension about the chatroom only annoyed her further. She couldn't allow herself to think of the chatroom as 'dangerous' anymore, not after her counterpart had gotten so wrapped up in that line of thought. And it was selling themselves short - they'd proven themselves perfectly capable in the Liminal Space. The fact that there was so little to find made Lan dread the next steps in their conversation. He'd said all of you - it wasn't like she was a ghost or anything, no matter how badly she wanted to turn transparent in Kaita's shadow. How are you doing? Do you like the building? This is where the future is built, I'm sorry for your loss. Etcetera, etcetera- ...And then her train of thought crashed when Kaita reminded her that they had, ostensibly, agreed to a sleepover. "O-oh. Uh... right," she mumbled, her tension being defused in favor of confusion. "I-I mean, it's not like... I really know anything...?" Rock was thankful for the sudden intervention. "You guys know the building better than us," she pointed out. "So I guess it's up to you. What do you think's the coziest place in... y'know, an office building...?" "Yeah, I guess," Lan mumbled, gripping her arm with her opposite hand. The earlier subject continued to gnaw at her, which, after a few seconds of silence, resulted in her giving Kaita a comedically serious glance. "And... don't... put yourselves down. That sucks. I-if... people keep making the chatroom out to, uh... be a place to be scared of, then nothing good's gonna come of it."

When Rock asked Kaita for advice, he immediately replied, “I know the coolest place! Follow me!” He turned to Mary. “You can come too, if you want!” “In a little bit,” Mary said cheerfully. She did have pills to take before bed, Kaita remembered, so she probably didn’t see the point in setting up camp only to backtrack. “I think I know where you’re headed.” “Okay!” Kaita turned back to Lan, only to hear her advice. “…Okay. Thanks!” He smiled. “I guess nothing ever came of that, anyway.” “It was kind of whatever,” Ring agreed. “Mama wouldn’t need to know about the chatroom anyway, would she?” Kaita blithely told Turboman. He took Lan’s wrist to better steer her out the door; she seemed like the sort to stand still and think about everything in place for ages, like most of Kaita’s friends. “Asuna-san always finds out,” Turboman ominously told Lan and Rock in an aside. With more determination and less worry, he added, “But... if you think we can handle it, then maybe we really can!” First, Kaita led Lan to the proper closet to retrieve the sleeping bags from. There were also flashlights and similar pieces of emergency equipment inside; it seemed that the Ministry was prepared for a storm or similar disaster. Most recently added was a month’s stash of Mary’s medication, so she didn’t have to call home.

Lan and Rock were quickly swept up by Kaita's excitement, the former so surprised by Kaita grabbing onto her that she kind of just let him drag her around like a plush toy. "Came of... what...?" she sputtered, giving the vault onscreen one last glance as she was pulled out of the metaphorical danger zone. "D-did something happen...?" Rock sat on Lan's shoulder as they were led around, keeping her hands pressed down so she didn't fall off. "Eh... it's not like we tell the kid's mom about any of this stuff, anyways," she offered with a nervous smile. It was technically the wrong thing to do, but there was no way she was going to sell Lan out on all of the absurd adventures they were going on; she liked that most of that stuff, too. It meant Lan was making more friends, as bizarre as the circumstances were. "It's not like we're little kids, right? We've got our own social lives!" Lan was thoroughly intimidated by Turboman's warning, however - so much so that it gave Rock pause. A quick jab to the neck was enough to set her straight, and remind her that she was right here. "...Uh, yeah," she mumbled, tilting her head. "I-it's, uh, it's up to you, but that's just what I think..." The closet being so well-stocked was surprising to the both of them. Once Kaita had pointed them out, she plucked a sleeping bag out of the closet and hoisted it over the shoulder that Rock was not occupying. "If I didn't know any better," she mumbled to herself. "I'd think you guys had this closet stocked for war or something..."

“Oh, I guess one of those… uh, bad versions of Hikari-hakase said he would go after people Netto knew,” Kaita explained. “Like his family, or me, or the other Net Saviors. So we all stayed here for a few days again, like we did when Darkland was around…” He shrugged. “But I’ve never seen that Hikari-hakase. Like I said, in the end, nothing happened.” “Asuna-san has to know, though,” Turboman protested. “Because if we stay overnight, or we end up cruising over the seas, or anything like that, she’ll notice.” “Mama gave Turboman to me when I started going to elementary school, so I guess he’s been a double agent for her all along,” Kaita added, with a bewildering lack of ill will. “Don’t say it like that!” protested Turboman. “But…” Unable to truthfully protest, he sheepishly finished, “I was supposed to keep an eye on you, yeah.” “We are in middle school now, though,” Kaita mused. “And we’re Net Saviors, too, and there are people our age in the chatroom. Maybe we’ve grown up enough for it by now!” “We should still tell your mother,” Turboman said, though the thought evidently drained him of all enthusiasm. Both Kaita and Turboman sobered quickly when Lan made her observation about the supply closet, though. “No, definitely not!” Kaita protested. “That’s… that’s what Netto had to go through, not us. This is all just for emergencies, like typhoons…”

The fact that they'd all hid here after those chatroom incidents was pretty shocking to Lan. She supposed they did the right thing, but she'd just kept her guard up when things got bad; those kinds of people were going to be sorry, if they dared to try and do anything to her or Triese again. Kaita and Turboman's ensuing back and forth made Lan a little uncomfortable; she'd resolved to tell her mom about her own troubles from now on, but with how badly Triese's initial interaction with the chatroom had went, she'd completely backtracked on that. She couldn't let her new life be seen as a liability. 'What Netto had to go through' was also quite surprising to the both of them, though knowing him, both Lan and Rock stifled their surprised reactions for his own privacy. Lan supposed that there being a 'General' did imply... war, after all. She couldn't even begin to fathom what that entailed, and she got the sense that now was probably not the right time (or person) to ask about that. "A double agent, huh," Rock repeated with amusement, winding the subject back. "Must be funny to have someone you've gotta report back to. Lookin' after the kid's totally up to my very reliable discretion." She crossed her arms. "I mean, I could tell the kid's mom about stuff, but I'm not ratting her out. Not like she made me." Lan huffed a little, leaning the side of her head against the sleeping bag. She couldn't understand how Kaita wouldn't be mad about being watched from behind his back. "We're not kids," she mumbled. "I mean, we're the same age, I think." "If anything, you've got more credibility than the kid. She ain't a 'Net Savior', after all," Rock added lightheartedly, earning her a glare from her operator. (edited)

“Mama just worries, that’s all,” Kaita said. “She doesn’t like the idea of me getting in over my head…” More than that, she hadn’t wanted what had seemed to happen to Netto happening to him. Most of Densan still believed that Netto had died in that subway ‘accident’, and a solid chunk also thought Netto being on that train was no accident. The truth hadn’t been that much better, but at least they had Meiru and Enzan there to give it a veneer of oversight. “You guys are thirteen,” Turboman said flatly to Lan’s mumbled protests. With more fire, he added, “You can’t even get your learner’s permits yet!” “But, I guess Meiru-san started when she was our age,” Kaita explained, leading the way toward the nearest elevator. “And we don’t usually get sent to the really dangerous stuff, either, so it was easier to get Mama to agree.” “Hikari-san talked to her, too,” Turboman recalled. “I don’t know what she said, but it must’ve been really convincing…” The elevator doors opened. With the assurance of someone who’d done this several times before, Kaita confidently punched the button for one of the highest floors.

Lan huffed at Turboman's assumption, and only grew more annoyed when Rock snickered along. "What's that supposed to mean?" she grumbled, curling her hands - and her sleeping bag - over her chest. "What I'm saying doesn't have anything to do with cars... I-I mean, I know I'm old enough not to need supervision or anything." "You know, besides me," Rock continued to joke, earning her a fiercer glare. "I'm kidding! I mean, I know your limits, but you know I'm not bossin' you around or anything." She shrugged; those 'limits' were pretty high, given that her operator had already dealt with infiltrating an abandoned military base before she even existed. "I get trying to avoid hitting that limit to begin with, 'tho. Can't just throw yourself into danger for no reason." (She said, knowing that she probably would, in fact, throw herself into danger for no reason.) As Lan followed Kaita inside the elevator, she averted her gaze, pressing her back up against a corner. "I think it's weird to tell her, but if... she just 'knows', then... whatever, I guess," she muttered. Kaita's mother sounded intimidating, and the idea of... her own mom, having to talk someone down like that, was completely alien to her. On second thought, she remembered this world's Hikari-san pulling her into a hug without a second thought, and suddenly Turboman's recollection made a lot more sense. After a second of silence, she tilted her head. "Sent to do... dangerous... stuff...?" Rock put her hand on her hip. "Well, Mayl seemed pretty prepared for the worst back on Oran. Guess it makes sense, especially with all the crazy shit we've heard about," she mused out loud, before mumbling to herself, "Though, it'd be beyond me if that haunted house didn't count as 'really dangerous stuff'." (edited)

“You know, like responding to substantiated attacks on the city,” Kaita explained as they started moving. “The kind of stuff they used to send a Cross Fusion after.” He did not point out that the Liminal Space they’d just left had been a bit over his and Mary’s pay grade. “But we don’t really have those anymore. And even if we did, you guys are still a little young for that kind of stuff,” Turboman pointed out, somewhat nervously. “It’s not like you have to, like it was when Meiru-san and Enzan-san were starting out.” To Rock, he clarified, “Most of the Liminal Spaces aren’t… like that.” The doors opened up, letting Kaita and Lan out into a small room. Kaita opened the door across from them to reveal a skywalk with a glass ceiling. “This is it! One of the best places to camp in the Ministry!” “There are four of them, one on each side. So it’s ‘one of the’ instead of ‘the’,” Turboman explained, evidently happy to be in front of something sufficiently distracting. Indeed, when Kaita switched the lights off and retrieved the small lantern he kept in his backpack, the night sky was perfectly visible through the glass.

Cross Fusion. There was that term again. With it being used in the same sentence as substantiation, Lan could hazard a guess as to what that meant; but it was evident enough that they should move on with the conversation. The fact that Turboman implied the older Net Saviors had to battle against things that were worse than the Liminal Space was worrying enough. Rock was the first to marvel at the view of the night sky - their hologram hack had made it a lot easier for her to appreciate these real world spectacles. "Woah! This is sick!" she beamed. "Can even see the stars and everything." She smirked. "It's a lot better of a view, compared to the kid's windowsill." Lan's eyes darted from side to side, before she cocked her head and fully soaked in the night sky. The sky always made her feel a little forlorn, and with the exhaustion from the day settling in, that emotion was certainly settling in. She was quick to lay out her sleeping bag, with her backpack right next to it, and lay down flat without a word, though she didn't tuck herself underneath the sheets quite yet. "It's cool," she finally mumbled after a brief silence. Rock hopped off her operator's shoulder and leaned up against her backpack, standing just to the side of Lan's head. "Just cool?" she joked. "You're hard to please." Lan huffed a little, staring blankly into the sky for a while. Now that things were quiet, she began to think over the day's events, and how she'd (poorly) tolerated being in Hikari-hakase's presence. All of them had needed constant distraction to steer away from all the unpleasant crap that'd happened, and she chastised herself for needing the most of it. They were barely in the room for that long- and they worried about her, because they'd been warned beforehand, and... "Sorry," she suddenly mumbled, cocking her head away from Kaita. "I know I'm... weird."

Kaita was quite happy to see that Rock approved! …Though the view seemed to be making Lan sad. Maybe she was just tired; he could certainly understand that feeling. The trauma of making it through the Liminal Space was catching up to him, and he could tell that he would be fast asleep once he managed to get cozy. He spread his own sleeping bag. It was the one he usually took, so his pillow was still inside, ready to be set at the head. Thankfully, the stars above were distraction enough, the feeling of endlessness overhead keeping him from seeing visions of death behind his eyes… It took him a moment to blink back to awareness when Lan spoke, then another to register what she was saying. “No, it’s okay! I’m pretty used to it, from the Netto who lives here.” That had been a real doozy of a thing to hear, Rockman’s whole report to them about what he’d learned about Netto. And yet, it had made everything slide into place. The way Netto didn’t know his own capabilities, the way he tried to push people away, it was all to keep him safe from the outside. And Lan did the same thing, in many ways. “You’re just trying to keep yourself safe,” Kaita murmured, thinking about what Netto had said about his counterpart’s father. “I think that’s a pretty normal thing to wanna do.”

Rock flinched when Lan spoke her mind, and continued worrying as Kaita responded. It was late at night, after all. She waited, not saying anything other than giving her operator a sympathetic acknowledgment. And Lan continued to stare into the abyss, not entirely able to free herself of thoughts of death like Kaita was. Not just from the Liminal Space, but from feeling like she was out of place, cheating her way away from a place that her head constantly told her was rotting and decaying. Hikari-hakase hadn’t rotted. This building hadn’t rotted, like the one she remembered had. She found Kaita’s response strange, in the most neutral way possible. Flopping her head to her side, she stared at him blankly, the thoughts of rot still swirling behind her irises. “Oh,” she mumbled. “I guess.” “It is what we do,” Rock quietly added. “The kid’s right. There’s nothin’ wrong with that.” Part of Lan wanted to be bitter about Kaita saying he was used to it, but she couldn’t muster up that energy. “I just don’t get it. Everyone wants to know. Even… people in the chatroom,” she mumbled. “And then I blabbed a bunch of stuff to… Netto-san, because I was being weird, and I thought he’d get it, and now- you know all of that stuff, too, even though I’ve never met you until today, and it’s just… normal, to you.” She flopped her head back toward the sky. “It’s stupid. I’m being stupid. I-I mean, I know you were warned, but…” It was somewhat evident that Lan believed she was being treated nicely because it was some kind of request from her friend. But Kaita, and Mary, and their Navis, and everyone else, weren’t really pitying her. They were just being… patient. “I want to… fight, really bad, to make sure I’m safe. When… Rock was there, in the Liminal Space, I knew everything would be okay. Because we could fight,” she admitted. “But you guys… treat me like it’s already safe, here. So… maybe it is. I don’t know.”

“That’s because it is safe!” Kaita immediately reassured Lan. “It might look like some big, important building on the outside, but it’s actually really warm! You’re Netto’s friend, and you’re a Netto yourself, so everyone just wants you to feel welcome.” “I think Netto-chan takes offense more to Netto telling us why she was so nervous about meeting Hikari-hakase,” Turboman pointed out. “I get the sense that was supposed to stay between them.” “…Oh,” Kaita realized, slowly at first but rapidly gaining steam. “Please don’t hold that against him! I mean… Netto just warned us because he didn’t want anyone making you meet Hikari-hakase,” Kaita explained. “He just said that your Hikari-hakase was a bad person, and that you wouldn’t want to see him, so we shouldn’t try and force it.” He thought aloud, “It’s weird to think about a bad Hikari-hakase. But it must’ve felt really weird for you to see a good Hikari-hakase.”

Lan seemed to be getting more nervous as the two of them responded, making a half-hearted attempt to pull part of the sleeping bag over her chest instead of just ducking inside of it like a normal person. "I-I don't know," she defensively mumbled. "I guess it's not really that weird- I mean, it's just friends talking... to each other, I guess- and I just don't... talk... to very many people." She shook her head. "Sorry- I'm not mad at him, or you, or anything, it's just..." She went quiet, dropping the sleeping bag back on the ground as Rock looked onward with concern. When the silence dragged on for long enough, her Navi turned to Kaita, finally voicing her own thoughts. "I get the sense that you guys take the chatroom stuff pretty seriously," she said. "Y'know, if the laptop creep's threats were enough to get you guys camping out here." She shrugged. "You've got, like, a 'Ministry' to report to. We've just got... us, y'know? So it makes sense to me." Lan continued shuffling around for a few more seconds, eventually nodding in agreement. "I-I mean, it's stupid. It shouldn't be that weird," she started mumbling, much to Rock's concern. "I knew it was coming, so it shouldn't matter. You shouldn't have to pity me. I already knew that things weren't gonna be... wrong, here." She bit her lip. "But I hadn't wanted to see him since..." She then made eye contact with Kaita for a little too long, which made her tell herself she needed to backpedal out of this conversation before it was too late. "Uh, nevermind. It's nothing."

It was a lot to take in, especially this close to bed! Kaita listened to Lan and Rock with earnest eyes. She didn’t talk to many people… like Mary, or like Netto. She really did fit in at the Ministry, in a way! “I guess… Netto and Enzan-san had to fight armies from another dimension, once,” Kaita explained first, for Rock’s sake. “They were at war with each other, and they were also beasts? Or, they were led by beasts? It was really confusing…” “But long story short, they’ve seen this interdimensional stuff before. And it used to be it was all speeding into our world to attack,” Turboman explained. “So they knew to take it seriously, from the moment Meiru-san told us about that first bad guy scientist.” (Unfortunately for Lan’s comprehension, the Dr. Regal of this world had been active a bit before Turboman had needed to pay attention to Internet activities outside of motorsport or Kaita’s education.) “Of course you didn’t wanna!” Kaita said. “That’d be like… like Enzan-san wanting to see his dad, I think, but crazier…” He shook his head, scrunching his eyes shut. That was a can of worms for someone older to explain. “It’s weird for things to be so different, but I guess it’s just… possible, with all these other dimensions out there.” (edited)

Lan was slowly beginning to understand what her counterpart meant by Kaita having a "ferociously reassuring aura". The way that he looked at her so... un-judgmentally, without expectation, was weirdly unnerving to her, but not in a bad way. He sort of reminded her of Triese, only with a seemingly endless well of enthusiastic patience stacked on top. It confused her; she didn't know very many people who were... like this. That train of thought crashed immediately once Kaita gave her the strangest answer possible. "Beasts?" she repeated incredulously. Rock shifted in a subtly uncomfortable way, though Lan didn't notice. "R-right. Well... you guys always seem to get the weird stuff, so I guess that makes sense." She shook her head; there was a sad look in her eyes as she recalled the 'first bad guy scientist'. They were lucky that Triese was okay, now. "You guys made, uh, the right decision, I think." The sudden information about Enzan made sense, too, though the fact that her situation was being claimed to be worse than his was something she couldn't fathom. Instead of asking about that, she pivoted to his other topic. "And... um, yeah. It's weird," she mumbled. "It was kind of... hurtful, at first, when I learned there were worlds where... um, some bad stuff didn't happen." "But there's just as many where you've got somethin' in common, right?" Rock added confidently, before her operator accidentally reopened old wounds. "Double-edged sword, but you're gettin' the good side more often than not." "Yeah, I guess," Lan agreed. She finally shuffled under the sheets of the sleeping bag, tossing around for a few seconds before looking back at Kaita. "I'm over the bad stuff, by now." She then realized how hypocritical that sounded with her moment in the meeting room, and averted her eyes. "Well, mostly."

In response to Lan’s incredulity, Kaita could only shrug. “Everyone’s really careful, aren’t they?” he said. “It feels like the only thing to do when you’re up against someone else who’s super prepared. But maybe it’s a little overboard when it’s something like this chatroom thing?” He listened along to her exchange with Rock, thinking it over. “It’d be weird to be over something bad really quickly, wouldn’t it?” Kaita wondered aloud. “Especially something that took a long time to get through.” The novelty of just having the one job didn’t seem to have worn off for Enzan, and Netto was only just now going to places for fun on his own again. (Kaita got the impression that, much like it had taken some time for Netto to start doing that when he was living in the Nova base, he’d needed to get more used to living at his house.) “I guess… everyone does it at their own speed.” With that, Kaita settled in himself. From the elevator came a distant ping, causing him to sit up straight in a flash. “Mary-chan!” he greeted Mary once she was a little closer. “Ah, I see everyone’s falling asleep,” she observed, smiling. “There’s something about being so close to the treetops, isn’t there…” Kaita looked around at the woods outside the skywalk for himself while Mary set up her own sleeping bag, also with its proprietary pillow. “It’s like a dream!” he agreed cheerfully. “Like we’re flying,” Mary giggled in agreement. “We should totally get one of those mini fire things up here!” Ring suggested. “You can make s’mores!” “Good idea,” Kaita said, only half asleep but already dreaming of s’mores. “But for now, I think everyone just wants to get to bed,” Mary remarked cheerfully. “Good night.” “Good night!” Kaita returned.

Rock nodded as her operator shifted her head against the pillow. "It kinda sucks to be on guard for somethin' that you don't know'll ever come, right?" she said. "We're not experts or anything, but I don't think it was right that your guys' Netto was holing himself up over some empty threats. Sort of defeats the point of connecting ourselves, if the chatroom becomes this big, scary thing." "Yeah," Lan quietly agreed. "Those connections are... really important." She averted her eyes. "It'd be good for... all of us, to stay in contact, I think." When Mary arrived, Lan gave her a side-tilt of acknowledgement and the world's smallest wave. Rock's wave was also small, though for much more literal reasons than Lan's was. Their observation got Lan staring outside the window again; her view at home had a couple trees again, but this... was a lot cozier, wasn't it? They were surrounded by so much more nature than there was at ACDC; it was pretty empty, where Lan's house was. "S'mores are a banger idea," Rock agreed cheerfully, even knowing that she couldn't eat them for herself. Something about how squishy they were was just appealing to her. "But you're right. Been a long day. Might as well try and sleep." She side-eyed her operator snarkily. "And there's no hope of you stayin' up watching things with only your PET on hand." Lan wasn't planning on it, but she huffed in embarrassment anyways. "Right," she murmured, before giving Kaita and Mary one more glance. Her expression was simultaneously forlorn and a little thankful, like the façade of emptiness had cracked to reveal the slightest bit of vulnerability. "Good night..." As Lan closed her eyes and shuffled underneath her sleeping bag, Rock walked around her and stared upward through the glass ceiling. She stood there in silence for a while, contemplating the day's events and how Lan actually seemed to get along with these two. Rock was pleased that they were making more proper friends than just the handful they trusted already. Then, that cold feeling of helplessness she'd experienced in the Liminal Space hit her all at once, and she shuddered. That kind of weakness wasn't acceptable. She was the kid's bodyguard; she couldn't let that happen again. The desire to do better flickered inside her core, where she felt a faint, whirling burning feeling.

Kaita slept so heavily that he felt as though he was still asleep when he woke up the next day. Mary remained sleeping next to him, her sleep probably every bit as heavy and dreamless as his had been. Maybe it was a good thing they’d slept out of the way of the adults, even though Kaita had chosen the spot for its views alone. He could always go back to sleep until he actually felt rested… Slowly, he recalled that Netto, Meiru, and Enzan were supposed to have returned from the beach party by now. There was a characteristically simple message from Enzan, telling him that they had both returned safely and had heard about the uncharacteristically violent Liminal Space. There was also a message from Meiru getting directly to the point and asking if he was okay. Kaita smiled weakly at both of them. He flicked the message window away. Even Turboman hadn’t awakened from sleep mode yet. The screen was empty save for its icons, and… was there one more than usual…?

Lan did not sleep all that well compared to her unexpected companions. Distressingly, she dreamed of a dark room and moving dolls, like she was back in the Liminal Space, only with Rock by their side. Both of them were equally helpless. Both of them were unable to stop the tide of dolls flowing toward them, stumbling over each other and flowing into each other like they were liquid, staring at them with frenzied eyes like they were monsters waiting to absorb them... She woke up with an ache in her chest, Rock already at her side and silently checking in by shooting her messages. Her mom had approved the "sleepover" as usual, and was none the wiser as to the absurd shit they'd seen. Lan was a little dreary as she responded to Rock's questions, telling her that she was going to be okay and that, in a weird way, a situation like this was kind of familiar. It was then that she turned over and noticed that Kaita was awake as well. "Oh," she mumbled as her eyes fell on him, hoping she was quiet enough not to wake everyone else up. "Good morning." He looked pretty disoriented - more than Lan was expecting - so she gave him the best smile she could manage this early in the morning, which was admittedly still pretty weak. (edited)

Lan did manage to grab Kaita’s attention away from the mystery sitting on his homescreen. “Good…” He yawned a big, long, yet quiet yawn. “…morning.” Mary, dead in her chair. A jolt of alarm turned his head to see that Mary was alive next to him, breathing. They were alive, they were fine, they'd made it out and it was morning. He laid back again, energy cut with the reassurance. Thankfully, the trees blocked enough of the direct sunlight that he could fully absorb his attention into the feeling of the sleeping bag. “I don’t really feel rested, though…” Idly, he wondered, “Do you have to get somewhere, or can you just kinda… hang out, too?” He peered back at the PET homescreen through half-open eyes. The new icon was still there. “Wow, this is weird.” Should he press it? He’d seen what could happen when a Navi interacted with an unfamiliar object… “I should wait until Turboman wakes up. I guess.” The more he looked at it, the more he wanted to either tap it or succumb to how wiped out he felt.

"Well... yeah. I don't have anywhere to be. It's the weekend," Lan answered. "I mean, I didn't really make plans or anything, besides this." Thinking about her plans made her remember that Triese had spent all of yesterday going to that beach party - she was sure she'd be getting an earful about that later. There was a small part of her that wondered what would've happened if she did go to that party. At least now she had a better retroactive excuse than not owning a swimsuit. It was evident that Kaita was still freaked out over yesterday, so she continued to give him the softest look she could muster, like she was trying to get a cat to come over and jump into her arms. She wasn't sure how much longer she should stay, given they'd only asked permission for the sleepover, but she didn't want to ditch them without a second thought, either. Anything for a reality check after that night's sleep. Rock, meanwhile, had been given the go to speak, so she took a few steps over to where Kaita was laying. "What's up? What's weird...?" she asked, quickly checking in with her equally exhausted-looking operator.

Indeed, there was little doubt that someone would eventually be along to ensure they had breakfast, be that Kaita’s mother or one of the older Net Saviors. But none of those people would care how long Lan stayed, so Kaita wasn’t thinking about it, either. “Oh,” he said in reply to Lan’s explanation. “Thanks for sticking around, then!” If anything, Lan’s sympathy and company were greatly appreciated, as was the distraction on his homescreen as long as it didn’t infect Turboman with a virus or something. Said Navi emerged from sleep mode at last, apparently having put the extra defragmenting time to good use. “It’s this app on the bottom,” Kaita explained to Rock, pointing out a suspiciously familiar icon. “It must’ve gotten downloaded overnight, ‘cause I don’t think it was there yesterday.” “That’s weird,” Turboman said in awe. “It wasn’t there when I entered sleep mode last night…” Not a moment later, he snapped to attention. “Oh, right! I should scan it to make sure it’s clean!” “Good idea, Turboman!” Kaita encouraged.

"Uh... you're welcome," Lan mumbled, as she shuffled around in her sleeping bag to get a closer look at this sudden new mystery. Rock noticed the app icon first, and her eyes went wide with recognition, just as the mention of a mysterious app gave Lan her own sense of deja vu. After all, an app suddenly 'appearing' was what'd happened to Lan as well, that one random night when Triese woke her up with excited texts about more other worlds. Rock tilted her head. "Hey... that's the chatroom!" she exclaimed, confirming Lan's suspicions. "Oh, boy. Speak of the devil and he shall appear, I guess." The fact that this had only appeared after Lan had talked to Kaita about it was only fuel for those ominous claims that the chatroom chose who had access to it; but there was no way someone was really listening, right? "Creepy... but it works out, I guess." "Oh," Lan mumbled, similarly disturbed. "Huh... Well, I guess we can stay in contact that way, then." She forced herself to crawl out of her sleeping bag in order to stand up and stretch, quietly yawning along the way. At least the sun wasn't beating down on her already. Kaita was right - this was a nice spot to take in what Triese would probably describe as 'vibes'. "Right, speakin' of chatroom stuff," Rock muttered, teleporting onto Lan's shoulder and facing her like she was giving a status report. "I wonder how that beach party went." Lan shrugged. "I'm kinda glad I didn't go," she admitted. "This, uh... well, it didn't work out how I thought it would... but it worked out." "Exactly! You made two whole new friends! That's a victory in my book," Rock beamed. Lan didn't verbally respond, instead blushing and averting her eyes like she was trying to avoid the subject. She wasn't wrong, though; in spite of the horror, things had worked out. Lan had suddenly gained two more people that she was comfortable around. That wasn't nothing.

“This… is the chatroom?” wondered Kaita, somewhat awed. He got to go to the chatroom? It was incredible and maybe a bit scary, after everything he’d heard of it. Like a second great responsibility, after the Net Savior job being the first. Then, Lan cut to the truly important part of that, and the chatroom turned from an ominous portend to overwhelmingly good news. “All right!” cheered Kaita. “I’m gonna try it out right now! Can we add each other, or something?” “I’m not even finished yet!” Turboman protested. Mary, finally roused by the relatively quiet commotion, pointed out, “Well, if the chatroom comes from some mysterious source, wouldn’t it be safe to say that it doesn’t want to give you a virus…?” “Yeah, it would!” Kaita happily agreed. “Hurry up!” Ring urged Turboman. “I wanna see!” “We can always hear about the beach party later,” Kaita told Rock, finger hovering over the chatroom icon like it was a present on Christmas morning. “And I think it worked out, too! I’m really glad we met you, Netto-chan, Rock!” If Kaita had any say in it, this would not be the last time they all hung out like this, not by a long shot. There was a long moment, where all eyes were on Turboman; then, finally, he relented, “Yeah, it… seems? To be clean.” “Woohoo!”