Phantom Thieves of Reality! The Mirage Space! || Rockman.EXE Mirage

snoruntpyro

Exactly once a day, a beaten-up train made a round-trip through the network of a dying industrial town to a Hell that had endured several apocalypses in spite of how much it deserved to die. To the few who cared about these distinctions, the Undernet was more of a purgatory; it was infinitely large, with too many layers and sectors to ever be documented. Some were bustling against all odds, others had melted away from meddling of outside forces. The final layer, perhaps, was the Eternal Net, an prison with no inmates.

But then there was the 'Hell', which may as well have been a wholly separate existence. The knowledge of why the Scrapyard existed had long since lost been time. The inhospitable landscape of garbage data and endlessly ferocious viruses were all that remained, and for many years, such an environment made it the perfect dumping grounds for disposing of Navis that were no longer of use to anyone. Disobedients, unfixables, vanity projects that went nowhere...

The daily train was the only escape for any Navi to escape and carve out their own life, if they still had their sentience to make it to the boarding platform. It was only step one, though - security waited for them on the other side of the trip. Security was one of the only technological sectors that seemed to keep itself up to date, just so that undesirables could be disposed of the most efficiently.

Today, on the train ride back from the Scrapyard, a small handful of HeelNavis awaited their chance at escape. The main Net wouldn't suffice, but even the worst corners of the Undernet were better than surviving a relentless assault of chimera viruses. Silently, each of them twiddled their thumbs, planning out how they would make a break for it. And then, beep beep beep beep

Part of the train abruptly lurched into the air as the sound of an explosion rippled through the train. It slammed back onto the tracks, with some of its cars disconnecting and grinding to a halt. The passengers stood up in a panic, the train having been stranded in the middle of the network. It was then that a distorted voice echoed through the orphaned cars, like the bomb had somehow come with a pre-recorded message.

"Go! This is your chance at freedom! Run while you still can!" the voice of a young girl shouted. "Don't allow your future to be stolen away! Everyone can help make a better world!" The passengers began clambering out of the train, paying little attention to the entirely too enthusiastic voice. "In the darkness, I steal away the roots of injustice! Signing off, Phantom Thief Kirin!"

...In the skybox of the Cyberworld, an array of red hexagons flared for a brief moment, like a higher power was observing the desperate plea toward fate.

I don't think it needs to be this way! We'll solve the mysteries of this world together, alright?!
Maybe when we're done... the world will basically look like a whole different place...!

THE LOOPING MYSTERY YET TO BE UNDERSTOOD
ALL THE TRUTHS MELT TOGETHER INTO ONE!
OVERRIDE YOUR DESIRE WITH A MIRROR!
ONE CATASTROPHE REPLACED WITH ANOTHER!

**=== Rockman.EXE Mirage ===**
       💔⚙️💧🎣🌺🔦🎃
       🌟⭐🎵❣️♠️🔧🧭
**===========================**

scenegraph

The Second of the Silver Division had grown up under the sterility of commercial lighting. She didn’t do ‘dark and mysterious’ in her work spaces. It hardly mattered how unusual her subjects were; they were all dragged into the light one way or another, their secrets extracted for her to see.

But this… In all her years of quantifying the phenomena this world had to offer, the task before her was the most unusual of all.

The only way she’d even known what she was looking at when it had first appeared had been thanks to a similar substance being documented in the Seventh’s blood. (At least the bastard could continue to be of some use to her after everything he’d done.) Now, it was trapped in a cage of metal and mineral, indicator lights blinking red as it transmitted a picture of a rundown Cyberworld unlike any she knew to exist here.

She was so very, very close. Just a few more tweaks along these lines, and the whole thing would almost certainly stabilize…

“Ciel. How is the next prototype coming along?” came a deep, rumbling voice.

The Second looked up into the floor-length mirror at her back. Shadowy figures lurked inside, some closer to her than others. Closest of all was a skull-like face familiar to her from intelligence reports she’d read in her past life, the ichor streaming from its mouth now tinted a strange red instead of the black it’d always been reported as.

“Excellently, Sigma,” the Second—or Ciel, now, with no Silver Division left for her to be a part of—said softly. “We will be able to attempt bringing a soul over in our next test.” She knew by this point in their partnership not to say it aloud, but it remained difficult for her not to call any of the things behind Sigma a specimen.

“My children yearn for a place to call home,” Sigma said, apparently pleased. Ciel, too, was pleased; the idea of the things those creatures could do with Sigma’s ambition backing them thrilled her. She had studied the Seventh’s battles in depth in the months leading up to his recruitment. Now, she would get to see him be torn apart in real time, and pick apart his remains at her leisure.

Sigma turned to face the world inside the Mirage Mirror. One figure was far closer to him at the front, and Ciel behind him, than any other. Ciel could even pick out two gleaming eyes and a cavernous mouth from the towering, shapeless mass of its shadow.

“Go forth, my disciple!” bade Sigma grandly. “Claim your place in the world!”

That, in turn, was Ciel’s cue. “Activating the Unity Engine,” she reported, watching carefully on the monitor as the energy levels rose. “Fossa Ambience in three… two…”

snoruntpyro

Ever since the incident at the casino, Lan had felt increasingly more and more anxious any time that her mother was home early from work. It wasn't like it ever made a difference to her in the past, but with her web of things she really didn't want to tell people about thickening once more, she wanted to avoid any possible confrontation. She was lucky enough to begin with that Kaita was the one who visited and not literally anyone else. Let alone the fact that she now had Kokoro pestering her, too...

So, every time Lan snuck downstairs to retrieve water or laundry or something like that, she treated it like a stealth mission. Rock thought it was a pretty funny habit, and lightly jabbed her about it as she began the process once more. "You know, it's not like things have changed that much," she joked. "You don't gotta act like you've got a big scar to hide, kid."

"...Don't want to," Lan grumbled, not even bothering to finish her sentence as she scurried down the stairs and hugged up against the wall. Right! Now to scout out the kitchen and plan a path to avoid any human contact. The TV was on, so maybe that was a good sign? Maybe that would be a free pass to get to the fridge without being noticed, so she slowly scooched against the wall, spotting the TV out of the corner of her eye...

"...finding it difficult to work with the authorities in this unprecedented situation," a newscaster was saying. Her mom was, in fact, watching the TV with great concern. "As of now, there are no concrete reports on if there are any casualties. Few seem willing to approach the area..."

Lan's mission came to a screeching hault as she got a better view of what was actually on the TV screen. A feed from a helicopter was displaying what looked like two buildings attached to each other in what looked to be Marine Harbor. One part of a skyscraper was glued to the side of another, impossibly floating in the air, while sand poured from the other skyscraper's windows and onto the streets below. The streets looked distorted, like they were being displayed under a filter, except the footage surrounding it was completely normal. Lines looked like they were duplicating themselves, and the elevation jutted up at random points.

"...Is this a movie?" Rock mumbled, trying not to blow Lan's cover but knowing she shouldn't not voice her concern. "No, this is..."

Lan choked a little as she pinned herself back to the wall, staring at the footage playing out. Why was sand there? Why did the sky look like it was tinted ever-so-slightly red? Why did it look so unnatural? There wasn't... any way that... this could be...?

She swallowed and ran back upstairs, giving up her position to her mother, who was watching in silence. "Honey? What are you doing?" Ms. Hikari asked, watching her daughter scurrying up the stairs and come back with her bag not a moment later. "Wh-where are you going?"

"Friend's house! I'm late!" Lan effortlessly lied, grabbing her rollerskates and barreling out the door. It couldn't be. It didn't look like it, and it wasn't possible. But she couldn't risk letting this by, especially if... this might be her fault. She had to check.

scenegraph

Halloween was swiftly approaching the Ministry of Science once again. The Net Saviors were hard at work decorating the lobby for the season and occasionally pulling cheap costume pieces out of the pile Meijin and Hikari-hakase had somehow managed to unearth for them.

In order to avoid the curly wig sitting ominously near the bottom of the pile, Enzan had tactically chosen a high-collared cape with a red lining early. (He was pretty sure nobody had ever heard of a ‘disco vampire’, after all.) From there, he’d chosen to focus on the task at hand, arranging various spiders and other creatures around the lobby to lurk in the wake of all the cobwebs Kaita was hanging up.

They were nearly finished when Meijin burst into the lobby at a run. The Net Saviors all straightened in anticipation. But instead of telling them all to come into the Main Room, he stopped in front of Enzan. “Could you come with me, Enzan-kun?” he asked.

Enzan knew what that meant right away. So did Meiru, staring at Meijin in shock. “What’s going on?” asked Kaita, earning him a concerned look from Enzan; the younger Net Saviors would have no way to know what was happening.

“Commissioner Manabe has been receiving reports of an incident at Densan Harbor. Not that we can do anything about it, but…” Meijin turned back to Enzan. “I just figured I should alert you anyway.”

Meiru asked, “Roll, what’s the news got to say?” Ever since the substantiation ban, it had been Meiru who got surreptitiously dispatched to these sorts of incidents, not Enzan. But now Rush was missing, and Enzan had a far more reliable Support Program of his own. It was clear from the look on her face how troubling it was to her.

“It’s definitely some kind of a Dimensional Area,” Roll began. “But, well…” She displayed Densan News Network’s coverage for everyone to see. Two skyscrapers had merged into one impossible mass overlooking the bay.

Netto observed, “It’s just like… the Dimensional Area’s scrambling everything inside…”

“That’s a Dimensional Area?” Kaita wondered, shocked.

“It isn’t of a type we’ve seen before, either,” Meijin said.

“No, I’ve seen something similar,” Netto said, less shakily. “It’s trying to load in something it shouldn’t, and that’s causing the whole Dimensional Area to freak out.”

But what Enzan noticed first was the sand pouring out of the lower skyscraper. He could accept everything else, but where had that come from?

“…I’ll drive us over,” Meiru told Enzan. “It’ll be just as fast as you’d be in Cross Fusion without using up any chips, and when I’m there I can at least help any bystanders evacuate.”

“I’m coming, too!” Netto said.

“But you can’t Cross Fuse now!” Meiru protested.

“Neither can you!” Netto argued back.

“Then, if that doesn’t matter, Mary-chan and I should also go!” Kaita decided.

Nearly as one, the older Net Saviors put their feet down: “Absolutely not!”

“You’re not in any sort of condition to be so close to the danger,” Rockman told Netto worriedly. “Your body wouldn’t hold up to a Cross Fusion, even if we had a Synchro Chip!”

“But—!”

“Netto-kun, Kaita-kun, Mary-chan, I’d like you to ride in the van with me,” Meijin decided before Netto could continue to argue. “Once Enzan-kun has the situation under control, we’ll be able to investigate safely. In the meantime, we can relay word back to Hikari-hakase, and vice versa.”

Reluctantly, Netto nodded before turning to Enzan and Meiru. “Just… make sure you really do get it under control.”

“We’ll be in broad daylight, remember?” Enzan pointed out with a smirk. “I’ll make it look easy. It’s part of the job now, remember?”

With their driving arrangements decided, Meiru and Enzan made a beeline to the former’s car.

snoruntpyro

It was a damn good thing that the trains never stopped running no matter what. What if someone needed to get to work!, was the logic Lan had to assume they were working off of. But it worked in her favor, since she could still quickly make her way to Marine Harbor in an inconspicuous manner.

The few people on the train seemed awfully nervous, though. Lan wasn’t listening, but she unwillingly caught a whisper from an older man. “… something like Copybots,” was all she heard, which was enough to alarm her by itself.

“Trying to read the news,” Rock covertly reported as the train closed in on its destination. “Can’t find anything that isn’t live coverage. It’s… is this really two different buildings? But that can’t… it isn’t…”

Lan had to resist not to bolt off the train as soon as it arrived so as to not attract suspicion, but even if she had broken out into a sprint, a certain impossible-to-miss aight would have stopped her dead a moment later anyways. What looked to be a tear had opened in the sky, tinting the clouds around them red, like a storm from Hell had rolled in. A bizarre hexagon-like pattern briefly flashed through the air in the distance, as well.

“What… the hell…?” Lan muttered to herself. To anyone else, it probably would have looked like the world was ending. “Hey, Rock, this isn’t…”

She shook her head, then broke out into a sprint. “Hey! Kid, what are you talking about?!” she barked. “Don’t just go running in…! We don’t know what could be up ahead-“

“Do you remember the haunted house? When it all started melting together and mirroring itself, and we could see each other on the floor and the ceiling?” Lan rambled as she stopped to put her skates on. “I-I thought… somehow, there was a Liminal Space, or something, but it doesn’t look like it, and… and, it shouldn’t be possible…”

As soon as she noticed that she was the only one going toward the red sky and not getting the hell away from it, she ducked closer to the pier so she wouldn’t have to skate by people who might yell at her and try to stop her. She’d navigated Marine Harbor in a panic before, anyways, so she was sure it wouldn’t be long before she’d find wherever the hell that-

…She turned a corner, and she realized she was not where she was supposed to be. Why was there a cafe to her side? There wasn’t a cafe there. That was just part of a building. Where did the building go?

A harsh noise hummed in the air as hexagons flickered in front of her face. Lan blinked, then swatted at them like they were bugs. The air felt… heavy.

Rock could sense her operator’s fear, and began to panic in turn. “H-hey, kid, do you have a plan at all…?!” she barked, as Lan continued to skate along and take note of the completely incorrect layout of the district. It didn’t take long for Rock to also notice some of the buildings were in a completely different style than the others, looking much cleaner and sleeker than… anything local. “We should… we should really figure out what the fuck’s going on instead of running toward it, ‘cuz, god damn, feels like we’re coming up on the apocalypse-“

“We can’t wait!” Lan hissed back. “If this has something to do… with the chatroom, or Alpha, then we have to do something, right?!”

Rock’s eye twitched. “Just… just jack me in, please!” she shouted. “There’s got to be some explanation we can find… right?!”

Lan skidded to a halt, raising her shoulders nervously as she scanned the area for any nearby electronic devices. “I… I guess… yeah, um, sorry,” she mumbled, before shooting straight into her practiced pose. “Cut the light, Rock! Execute!”

scenegraph

R-Blues burst toward the sand-shedding skyscraper with the help of an Air Shoes chip as soon as Meiru parked the car, leaving her to lock up, fix her witch hat back on her head like it really was a magic talisman, and make her much slower way into whatever was happening at the harbor.

“These buildings…” Meiru slowed down as she walked by an industrial warehouse that had been partially subsumed by what looked like an old office building. “Some of them are far too run-down to be in this part of town…”

“It’s like they got taken out of the outskirts and mixed in with Densan Harbor,” Roll mused from her perch on Meiru’s shoulder. “But we didn’t get any reports from there.”

Meiru wasn’t sure if that necessarily meant anything; the parts of the city that had never gotten rebuilt from the substantiation attacks of years past had become the sort of place where anyone could hide without fear of being reported upon. But it was true that something on this level would still garner enough attention to make the news.

And it was also true that Meiru, for all her years of investigating those ruined roads, didn’t recognize any of the buildings that had been mixed into Densan Harbor at all. There were none of the characteristic signs of damage from a virus or Cyber Beast, either. They were just in need of some refurbishment.

The air began to press down on her as she ventured deeper into the affected area, much like it had in R-Roll and R-Blues’s battle underneath the Citadel. Every now and then, she could see red hexagons flickering in and out of existence. It seemed, between the red color, the heaviness of the air, and the wrongness of the terrain, that Netto was right about this Dimensional Area being glitched in some way. She hugged her PET wrist closer to herself. “What a terrible time for this to happen,” she murmured.

“We’ll manage, Meiru-chan,” Roll reassured her. “I’m still getting signals from the local networks. I’ll be at the ready, so plug me in the minute any enemies appear, and I’ll take ‘em down the old-fashioned way!”

Meiru nodded. “Thanks, Roll.” With a bravado she didn’t quite feel, she refocused on her search for bystanders. At the very least, it seemed that nobody had been trapped so far. She kept her eyes and ears open for anyone who needed help to escape as she continued her investigation.

snoruntpyro

The moment Rock materialized, she was forced to brace herself, lest she get blown away like a twig by the sandstorm that had overtaken the Net. She stood her ground, activating her visor so the sand wasn't smacking her in the face. Grumbling, she took a few steps forward; she quickly realized she wasn't sure if she had ever dealt with wind before. "The... fuck...?! What is this...?!"

The sandstorm was thick enough that it completely covered her surroundings. All she could really make sense of was the floor beneath her, which... even that didn't seem right, did it? It looked like multiple textures were overlapping and clipping into each other... Was the main harbor net just like this, or...?

Lan, meanwhile, kept pushing onward through the distorted scenery. The air around her was getting... heavier. She didn't want to have it slow her down, but her shoulders lowered nonetheless; something felt wrong about being here, in a way that the substantiation she'd seen previously didn't. It felt wrong, it looked wrong... It was like her surroundings had been cut up and shuffled around like some kind of art project. And it was here. It was real. She definitely, absolutely, with certainty, was not asleep right now. Or hallucinating. (She hoped.)

...Absentmindedly, she looked behind her, and stopped dead when she realized her surroundings were blurry. More specifically, the view out into the harbor in the distance had been completely subsumed by indistinct blobs. She was pretty sure she didn't need glasses, because she could see the quality drop after a certain point. It was like a weird funhouse mirror, or something, stopping her from seeing past the horizon...

"Rock... I hate this," she mumbled sadly as she shuffled forward. She was starting to regret her decision, but it couldn't be long before she reached wherever the news was showcasing. "I-I... I know it's not a nightmare. It's real, but... shouldn't it be a nightmare?!"

Rock hadn't made much progress, in the meantime. It was hard to tell where the paths were even going; the rare sign or streetlamp implement was not even remotely helpful besides providing silhouettes amongst the sand. "Kid... just say calm, and watch your back," she advised. "There's gotta be some explanation for all of this, but I don't want to see you get yourself hurt tryin' to..."

Her voice trailed off as she spotted an odd figure standing on a ledge in the distance. It took a moment for her to realize what she was looking at... but as the figure shifted and hoisted something over their shoulders, Rock put together that it was some kind of floating, humanoid figure lugging around... a coffin? Were those... chains? There were other metal implements, too, but...

"Hey!" Rock shouted in the sandstorm, as soon as the figure flinched and began to move. "Someone alive out there?! You got an explanation for this?!"

The figure didn't respond, instead leaning over and disappearing into the sand... which, as far as Rock was concerned, was pretty damn incriminating. "Get back here!" she shouted, drawing her blades and pushing against the wind. "Is this your doing?! Hey!"

scenegraph

Never one to pass up a dramatic entrance, R-Blues elected to enter the fusing skyscrapers by smashing through the nearest unblocked window rather than working his way up the stairs. But inside, all there was to see was more and more of the same sand pouring itself all over the street below. Surely, it had to be coming from a source, being the only thing in sight that absolutely didn’t belong in an office building…?

R-Blues noticed that, despite how full up with sand the building seemed from the outside, the door to the stairwell was still open. “Let’s start heading downstairs, then,” Enzan decided. R-Blues slid down the dune created by the sand pouring through the entrance and found the stairwell to be like a waterfall of sand, easy enough to traverse with his inhuman reflexes.

The next floor was similarly devoid of any clues; and the next, and the next. “Are we in the wrong place?” Enzan wondered.

“Enzan-sama, watch out!” R-Blues turned and plunged an Aqua Sword into a Sunaamu leaping from overhead, then cut through two more following it. Perhaps this was the right place after all…

The way the air kept thickening reminded Meiru of trying to enter the Blood Point-infested Dimensional Area back in Darkland. But what was even stranger was how she was failing to find anyone, alive or dead. “Why is this happening…?” she wondered.

“Why does Rush have to be gone now…?” bemoaned Roll. “There hasn’t been any real danger yet, but this’s still really, really bad to be wandering around in…!”

“You’re right,” Meiru said, stopping and taking a better look around. The strange textures, the red hexagons in the air… it was definitely a form of Dimensional Area. But if it wasn’t a standard Dimensional Area…

With the confidence and dramatic pose of a heroine, Meiru held her PET arm aloft. “Plug in, Roll! Transmission!”

An eerie silence fell over the warped street.

“I don’t think it works that way, Meiru-chan,” Roll finally admitted sheepishly. “I did try…”

“No people, but no viruses…” Meiru’s shoulders slumped. “What am I doing here? Some help I am…”

“Maybe we should head back to the car for now,” Roll suggested. “We can always patrol the perimeter to make sure nobody tries to get in.”

As a last-ditch attempt, Meiru called, “Hello! Is anyone still here?” Still a bit embarrassed about the failed plug-in, she turned around to take Roll’s advice.

snoruntpyro

It took a while for Meiru's plea to bring anything of note. The sand that had overtaken the skyscraper had begun to creep on its surroundings, carried around by an unnatural wind rippling through the equally unnatural not-Dimensional Area. But if Meiru's eyes followed the wind, then perhaps out of the corner of her eye, she would spot one person hiding behind a nearby brick building, who immediately ducked out of the way from the threat of being spotted.

Despite her fixation on getting to the center of this mess, it was hard for Lan not to notice her Navi yelling and giving chase. "Rock?! What's going on?!" she yelled, picking up the pace and turning one last corner to get a clear view at the supremely messed-up skyscraper.

Rock had lost track of the silhouette, but continued darting through the sandstorm nonetheless - even if she got ambushed, that'd still be bringing the Navi to her, right? "If that Navi ain't the culprit... I dunno who is!" she shouted back. "Kid, pass me a Fire chip! I can use it as a light, or somethin' like that!"

Lan was a little too preoccupied to appreciate Rock's ingenuity, but she absentmindedly reached for her bag, anyways. "Battle Chip, Element Flare...!" she shouted, though her voice trailed off as she stared up at the skyscraper. No one was around, having fled both the sight of the disaster and the increasingly heavy air around it. At least it made Lan less embarrassed about standing around and trying to act like she could do something about it.

...What happened to the people inside the building? What happened to the people that were in the parts of the building that didn't exist anymore...?

A cold feeling ran up her body. That realization had made this scenario feel even more nightmarish than it already was. Maybe she... should get out of here. Before more people came... and paid attention... to something as horrible and ridiculous as...

...Then, Lan felt a presence behind her, and without even thinking, she whirled her foot around to slam it into whatever had crept up on her. What a weirdly Rock thing to do, she thought, just before her eyes caught up. She nearly lost her balance when her foot whacked into... more sand? It looked like a hand... Hadn't she seen that before-

She yelped as the hand clamped down on her foot, and she managed to yank it away in time before she could lose her shoe. "Groooaaaaah," came a groan from beneath the street. Lan backed away as she nervously glanced down at her PET, where Rock was trying and failing to use the Element Flare like it was a carry-around torch.

"Gwahhh!! How dare... a human... trespass on this fertile ground?!" the voice continued shouting, as a pitfall began to form a few feet in front of Lan. "You are irrelevant! You are insignificant! You are hardly worthy... of being replaced!!"

Lan blinked heavily; she finally realized where she knew that voice from as soon as a familiar form rose out of the sand - but this time, right in front of her. Not behind a screen. Very much a few feet in front of her, which made the scale of what she was up against abundantly clear. "D-Desertman...?" she mumbled, reeling back in terror. "Rock! Rock! Um! Rock! This is bad!"

...As if solely to make things worse, Rock had finally caught sight of the Navi once more as soon as a stabbing pain went through her chest. "H-hey- stop-" she yelled as she turned her attention back to her operator. "What? Desert... who??"

"I-I... but I already..." Lan continued blubbering, before recalling that Rock wasn't even here for her battling that Navi. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd thought about Desertman, or Sunayama, for that matter. (...If Desertman was here, then where was Sunayama...?)

She stood her ground, clenching her fists and glaring back at Desertman as if she could possibly threaten this thing twice her size. "Wh-what's going on...?! I want an explanation! Now!" she shouted, her voice trembling a little.

scenegraph

Meiru squeezed her eyes shut against the sand carried by the wind, then saw movement as soon as she opened them. “Wait!” Meiru immediately gave chase, sprinting around the corner of the brick building where she’d sworn she’d seen someone retreat…

Rather than indulge Lan, Desertman simply laughed, “Gwa-ha-ha-ha-ha…” Sand began to pulse out from his main body, aiming to knock Lan off her feet and pin her legs under the sand. “Carry the sight of this Mirage Space to the afterlife!”

The building was so entirely filled with sand that R-Blues had a hard time hearing anything that was going on outside. But he could faintly hear laughter rumbling from below. He easily cut through the Sabotekoron sailing toward his head, cleaved the Sunaamu trying to surprise him from behind in half, and ran for the window outside.

snoruntpyro

It was hard for Lan to keep herself straight, which made her all the more susceptible to Desertman's trap. "Wh-what the hell is..." was all she could blurt out, before her feet began to sink into the ground. It was a really weird feeling, more than enough to distract her from the horror of whatever a Mirage Space was. She knew it was useless to beg... so she yanked her foot upward instead, kicking away the sand before it could completely subsume her.

Rock continued her chase through the sandstorm, which seemed to only intensify as Desertman's growls rippled through the PET speakers. Lan's adrenaline and fear coursed through her, somehow even more intensely than it had back in the Liminal Space, and it instantly brought back her feeling of helplessness. "K-kid! Don't do anything stupid! Just- just book it!" she yelled, as a gust of sand slammed into her and knocked her back. The PET wasn't detecting any more jack-in points around them... so Rock felt even more lost in the storm than she already was.

(...If there was a Navi running around in the real world, then was the operator running around in the cyberworld...? No, that's stupid... That was an excuse, since she was being so useless... She knew she should jack out, but that Navi clearly had something to hide, and... and...)

Lan stepped back, dizzily taking in her surroundings as Desertman loomed over her. All that this 'Mirage Space' was showing to her was some kind of twisted wasteland... with the life ripped out of it. She... she couldn't die here, could she?! No! Never! Sh-she couldn't let any of this happen...!

Impulsively, she swerved her arm around to reach inside of her bag, cradling her free hand around her chest defensively. Her eyes shimmered with fear and rage as her hand shakily wrapped around the hilt of the knife she'd been keeping in her bag. A little shadow flickered over her face as she whipped the knife in front of her, breaking into a charge. "N-not... happening!!"

... To her credit, she was faster than Desertman could have expected. Maybe a little too fast. But she thrust the blade into Desertman's side with as much force as she could muster... and realized she was stabbing sand. With a knife.

She paused for a second, unsure of what she even expected.

"Gwa-ha-ha... How funny," Desertman slowly laughed, tickled by this feeble human's terrible attempt at murder. Sand quickly coalesced around Lan - who had to keep herself from stumbling over when she pulled the knife out - and formed into beastly constructs, trapping her on all sides. "You will be remembered amongst the dead for your insolence... but was it worth it, in the end?! Lion Head!"

scenegraph

Meiru looked around the alleyway she’d run down, even toward the rooftops, in an attempt to find the person she thought she’d run after. “Where are you?” she called. “Please come out! It’s not safe here!”

R-Blues pushed his way through the office space to the window below. He saw Desertman, the Lion Heads, and the tiny mop of hair in front of the mountainous Navi that the Lion Heads were aimed for; and leapt straight down, landing hard in front of Lan. “Dream Aura!”

He’d barely made it in time; sand went flying both inside and out of the Dream Aura as the Lion Heads, too close to completely block, were torn apart instead. R-Blues moved to block as much of it as he could from the human he’d rescued. “We need to get you out of here,” R-Blues said, his eyes fixed on Desertman. It was only then that he turned around and, while reaching a hand out to pick her up, realized, “Netto-chan?!”

…Was that a knife in her hand? If she seriously thought she was going to be backing him up with that, she had another think coming…