Character Development - I - Forest - Arc I

[[ Continuation of the CD arc. Remember, no new plot elements and such unless a GM character [Pyrrus or Enrix] is introduced. ]]

[[ This is just a placeholder post. ]]

[[ Turn Order: Ulrich // Odd // Aelita // Dunbar // Yumi // Jeremie ]]

Ulrich was first up. He gave Yumi a gentle brush of hands along the way. "Look...when I come back...I'd really like to talk to you," he told her gently, before quickly heading into the scanner.

He hoped it wasn't too abrupt, but given the situation it was the best he could manage on the fly. "Hang in there, Odd..." he told his friend as the scanner's doors closed in front of him...

...and then he was in the tower, garbed again in his new Lyoko form. It was amazing, how fresh the thrill felt now that the circumstances were slightly less dour; more alive than real life....

When Odd landed in the tower it wasn't on his feet. Dressed in his lyoko clothing, his ears were pressed to his head. He opened his eyes to look over at his arm. It looked black, he gulped a bit and got to his feet, looking at Jeremie,"i-is this supposed to happen?" the infection was even stranger in lyoko than it was on earth. The strangest part was that it hurt, he wasn't sure how, but it hurt.

His ears perked up a bit as he saw his friend appear in the tower also, he was dazed through out most of the conversation and had absolutely no idea who was coming along to lyoko. He walked up to Ulrich, and gave him a good slap in the back a huge smile on his face.

The Tower already felt familiar again to Aelita, and she was happy to see Maya Figaro had made the jump without incident as well. She approached Jeremie with a gentle smile, offering him the kitten. "I think she'll like being back with you," she told him warmly.

She only hoped Odd would be alright. Seeing his jovial behavior with Ulrich, though, she felt pretty good about his safety....

William felt a little less comfortable in the tower, it brought on meories from his posession. Shaking the feeling off, he told himself that was a safe house now. Xana didn't have control of him and he wasn't hacking into the super computer...

"How long is this going to take Jeremie?" William tried not to sound as desperate as he felt.


(bah! Why am I always out somewhere when people finally start posting?)

Yumi waited until everyone - including the cat - was safely inside before entering herself. She dropped from a few feet above level, landing easily on her shoes, now equipped with large soles. She looked to everyone to ensure they were in tact (not counting Odd of course) before looking at Jeremie expectantly.

"So what's the game plan?"

(( It's fine. We're not in any hurry! X3 ))

Jeremie opened his eyes - they'd been glued shut as he preformed the transfer. He looked at everyone as Yumi had, but his eyes paused on Odd. His tail curled around his calf nervously. Before addressing any other questions he strode to Odd as Maya followed by his ankles. "Hold still." He put a clawed hand on Odd's shoulder, eyes shimmering. "I'm going to run a scan on that - it's a file corruption from what I can tell," he diagnosed it easily, a screen appearing next to his ear, numbers scrolling.

"As for everyone else," he said, distracted now as the scan ran itself ragged; the numbers glowed brightly, shuffling about in a mad dash. "I've picked up signs of monsters, but I haven't determined their exact location; I've sent a ping out for Pyrrus - it should work like a sonar. Once it hits him it should rocket back to me giving me his coordinates, but until then there's nothing I can do." He scratched at his hairline a bit as Maya leaped onto his shoulder, licking his cheek before obsessing herself with batting at his pony-tailed braid. "G... ..." He went to scold the thing but his eyes softened - he took a deep breath, trying to find a happy medium between 'business' and the comfort he was supposed to be feeling around his friends. He lifted his free hand to scratch at her gently, exhaling.

"Once the ping returns to me I'll send you out, but for now..." His brows furrowed, tail curling tightly. "I'm not sure what we do until then, honestly," he admitted.

It was a surprise, admittedly a pleasant one, for Ulrich to see Yumi follow them, though he supposed it made sense overall. Still, he could not help but admire her new Lyoko form; very graceful, very dignified. Maybe he'd get a chance to talk to her before heading out to search for Pyrrus after all. "We wait," he said to Jeremie. "That's my vote. No sense exposing ourselves without knowing where we're going."

"This time, I agree with Ulrich," Aelita said, doing her best not to laugh at Maya Figaro's antics. "Better safe than sorry, after all."

She smiled as Jeremie petted his kitten; it was good to see she could make him happy. "So don't worry yourself too much about it, OK, Jeremie?" she asked him gently.

[[ OOC NOTICE: The player of Jeremie and Yumi is out of town and will not be returning for a week. 24 hour rule applies to my posts as either character - if I do not 24 hours as of my turn, skip me. If my characters need input / god modded, send me a note either here, on DeviantART, or through AIM. ]]

"I suppose it's our only option" William sighed, he hated being in the tower but Aelita and Ulrich were right-there was no immediate need to leave the tower. Moving on from that William watched Jeremy work on Odd's arm.

"How bad is it?"

Odd looked at Willam then over to Jeremie, he wondered if it looked worse than he thought. To him it hurt, but it didn't look to terrible, in fact a bit better than when he was on earth. " my arms not gonna fall of or anything, right Einstine?" with a nervous laugh he looked around the room at his other friends.

Yumi wasn't sure what could be done - she kicked the scenario around in her head somewhat nervously, not even thinking about what Ulrich was thinking about discussing with her. For now, she was more concerned with getting this over with and allowing them moving on with their lives. She didn't bother speaking - she let Jeremie have his concentration, rubbing her hairline gently as she wondered just what Pyrrus was capable of.

[[ This is no longer a CD arc - we are now transitioning into the next arc! Turn order remains the same. <3 ]]

"Fall off? Hardly," Jeremie muttered, staring intently at the wound as Maya pawed at the holograph screen. "Even if it does I can rebuild it. I mean, if I can rebuild a human body I can rebuild a virtual one." He squinted at the numbers. "Seems to just be a file corruption - I just have to re-arrange the missing and mixed numbers and you'll be fine." As he spoke the blackness on his arm shimmered before vanishing entirely, the pixels stitching themselves back together; within seconds it was like there was no wound at all, just in time for one of the screens to shimmer brightly.

The imp-like man rose onto his feet without another moment's notice, looking at the screen, his tail flicking and his ears tucking under his hairline, brows knitting. "Found him." He said, tracing his claw around the highlighted area over a map, stretching the window so it could be seen easier; a large bulls-eye was hovering over the core of the mountain sector, directly under his fingertip.

Ulrich walked over to the map, observing the location Jeremie had found carefully. "The Mountains, huh?" he asked. "Well, better that than the Ice Sector, I guess."

He dusted off his coat a bit, doing a few quick stretches as he walked to the center of the tower. "Have the Mountains changed as much as the Forest Sector?" he asked Jeremie as calmly as he could, "If William and I are going in, any info you could give us on what to expect'd be pretty helpful."

Odd had a big smile on his face as the pain seemed to vanish. He stretched out his arm to inspect it, and was very satisfied when he saw nothing but a regular arm. "well Einstine, your just amazing as ever huh?" with a smile he walked away leaving the man to explain the difficult situation at hand. He listened in, but as usual he left most of the decision making to the others.

He let his tail swish back and forth as he watched the map from a distance. He wondered how everything was going to play out. When Ulrich mentioned the change in scenery he could only imagine what differences could be instore for them.

Aelita found Jeremie's confidence uplifting, in its own way. A bit arrogant, perhaps, but it at least showed he still had the spark in him to work and keep going, and to believe in himself. It meant something. "The mountain sector has ALWAYS been treacherous," she told Ulrich and William, "I don't imagine that's changed. Whatever else is out there, just be careful."

"I guess we should get going then" William didn't even protest working with Ulrich, he just wanted out of the tower. Though the idea of running around Lyoko wasn't exactly comforting, at least he knew enough to run if he saw a jellyfish. In any case it was better than the tower, and he was wondering just how capable this kin of Xana was.

The thought of facing Pyrrus again sent chills down her spine; the way he had so easily wormed into their lives without a care.

"So we're just... going to rush him?" Yumi had to say the plan out loud to confirm just how it sounded; and honestly it sounded awful. She was impressed with Jeremie's control but there had to be a limit. Once he was out of a tower he probably had no offensive abilities, considering what he was capable of. He was worse than Aelita used to be...

Jeremie parted his hands, pulling up a fitted map of the sector - or, dammit, he tried to. The moment the holograph appeared it broke into static, the blonde yipping and pulling his hands back as if he'd been burned.

"No dice on the, uh, visual," he said somewhat without need, frowning. "There's something blocking me from plugging into the towers in that region, so we're on our own." He looked at William, expression getting a bit sharp. "Basic rundown, you need to avoid getting hit. Keep your wits about you." Cold but necessary - he looked at Ulrich and Odd. "You know what to do. I'm going to arrange for us to, hopefully, reach the Mountain sector. Odds are there's going to be some bumps in transit but you should be used to it by now."

Jeremie opened a new screen of a tower interface - many red lines of characters were hidden throughout the code. He frowned and locked in what he could, plugging in coordinates accompanied by the sector's serial number. The tower lit up, the already bright lights growing in luminosity before ebbing, the darkness below turning a flawless white as the link was set. The void was full of static, however, as Jeremie predicted.

"Scouting crew is William, Ulrich and Odd." He looked at Yumi and Aelita. You'll stay with me because of reasons.

[[ Pyrrus will post the new thread here once it's set. No more turns in this thread until that is up and running. <3 ]]

((Continue here: https://lyokorecode.rpg-board.net/t14-my-body-is-a-cage#264))