Reflection Code Chapter 3:
On the way outside, William ends up being the first to reach the gate; Yumi had informed him that she was picking up some friends to join her, stating the trip would be too dangerous to travel in such a small group. William normally wouldn't object to this kind of thing at all.
Except the problem with that lies with the fact, as William stands beside the entrance from which he had entered Kadic Academy's grounds on, he could hear something typing away on the entrance terminal.
Something with razor sharp nails that caused a screaking sound to be made when its "fingers" touch the terminal's keypad.
William takes a few steps back as he faces the terminal's entrance, and upon the gate successfully being opened, revealing itself in the noon sunlight is a pale skinned, near 8 foot tall humanoid with bird-like feet, what appeared to be a ten digit left hand and a five digit right hand, the latter of which in the form of a massive blade, and a shell for a head which had two gaping holes for "eyes"; the insides of which one can see teeth forming from within.
"Holy-"
William didn't even get the chance to finish his sentence, as within a few seconds flat, space warps around the creature's body as an immense, telekinetic grab leashes itself upon the humanoid entity, all the while the creature lets out a low, pained moan as it suddenly atomizes on the spot from the telekinesis ripping its very body from the cellular level apart, piece by piece.
"S-She wasn't joking about the whole vaporize on the spot bit… the fact it even tried to get through the door somehow knowing the passcode, though…" William says in utter shock and horror as to what he had just witnessed, as Yumi walks up from behind him as Yumi doesn't make too much of a big deal of it.
"That specific creature is what Odd has nicknamed 'Freak'; we don't have any actual names for these beings, but whatever Odd comes up with we just tend to stick with due to lack of a better name." Yumi details to William, as William looks at Yumi with a raised eye.
"… 'We'? Who else, aside from Odd that is, is involved with this little group?" William asks, as Yumi looks towards the open door and walks through outside of the academy grounds. William follows her as Yumi finally speaks up once the door shuts behind them.
"Ulrich and Odd have been through this the least amount of time as myself, and Jérémie actually isn't involved… yet, anyways; the creatures seem to want to attract his attention to the point we might be forced to take action." Yumi tells William as she walks through the forest with him, as William nods.
"So, what exactly am I getting myself into and why are you so willing to let me in on this?" William asks, as Yumi stops in place once it becomes evident nobody else are nearby.
"We're dealing with a life-form that has some kind of vendetta against humankind, and it's not alone; it's being controlled by someone who has it out against Jean due to events we currently have no clue as to what had happened." Yumi tells William, as William awkwardly lets out a whistle as his rolls his eyes.
"So the point is…?" William asks, as Yumi sighs.
"Somebody wants Jean dead, and my telekinesis won't let me scan his mind for clues if there is no lead in information I have prior. Combine that with Freak's appearance over the past few days, as well as another monster that resists my telekinesis to the point I can't overpower it, and folks like Odd, Ulrich, and myself could use a powerhouse like yourself." Yumi states, as she picks up a pulse of something heading in their direction, moving at a high speed.
"So might I ask what exactly this other creature is that you need a physically capable guy like me for?"
The timing was almost too perfect; within seconds, William finds himself telekinetically grabbed by Yumi and pulled out of the way as a creature, on all fours with a human-like face and a massive mouth disguised as a "neck" by its mane, moves to stop in its tracks after having missed its charge against William.
Slowly turning its head around to gaze at William with its disturbingly human-like face but sliming greenish black scaled skin, William looks at the creature with a sense of disgust and horror as Yumi moves to position herself out of the creature's reach.
"O-Okay Yumi, any insight here?!" William asks in a panic, as Yumi nods.
"Analysis identifies as 'Stalka', Phase 1 artificial life-form designed for ramming opponents and negating telekinesis; physical attacks on its mouth will suffice to destroy it." Yumi spouts out in an uncharacteristic, practically a robotic monotone voice, as William raises an eye and doesn't question it right now, all the while the creature, named Stalka, prepares to charge William again.
"Not so fast you're not!" William says as he holds his arms out wide and braces his hands to grasp at Stalka, as Stalka charges directly into William as the tall Scottish man grapples Stalka's head by its mane as Stalka's reinforced skull leaves a tremendous amount of pain in William's chest upon impact.
Stalka, taken by surprise, opens its mouth as its whole neck reveals itself to be a giant gaping maw, all the while a glowing light can be seen inside of its mouth at the deepest part. William, grabbing onto Stalka's tongue, dismisses his thoughts on the disgust of this creature as he yanks at the tongue to try and pull it out by force; Stalka's mouth tries to clamp onto William's arm to try and get him to let go or worse, but William uses his free arm to punch Stalka directly in the eye, causing the horse-like creature to collapses onto the ground with its maul open.
William moves to grab its tongue again with both hands; using his foot to pin down Stalka's head and then forcefully severe Stalka's tongue with raw, powerful strength to the point some of the inside of Stalka's throat comes out with it as well as an extended part of the esophagus. Yumi looks away at the brutality William performed against Stalka, as William stomps onto Stalka's exposed windpipe to suffocate it in case it somehow survived.
"W-W-… W-William, I think you went a little overboard there…" Yumi remarks in horror and disgust, as she sounds like she's about to become very sick at the mere sight of what had happened, as well as Stalka's stench becoming all the more prevalent. William drops the internal organs he had grasped from Stalka by force, as William looks at Yumi.
"S-Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that." William tells Yumi, as Yumi nods to reassure him.
"I can understand; you don't have any actual weaponry yet so you couldn't help it." Yumi tells him, as she holds in an attempt by her body to vomit, as she takes in a few deep breaths to calm down. "Doesn't make Stalka any less disgusting, though." Yumi adds, as William nods.
"We'd better get moving in case any more of these things try and come after us." William tells her, as Yumi nods.
"Alright, follow me, just give me some quiet to make a few calls to Odd and Ulrich." Yumi says, as William nods, watching her grab out her cellphone as she dials Ulrich first.
"Ulrich? Can you meet me out towards the Hermitage? I know you're not going to like this, but we've recruited somebody new here and we need assistance making sure the close is clear." Yumi speaks into the phone, as an odd mixture of an English accent and a German accent can be heard speaking on the other end.
"Yumi?! What happened? Did Stalka ambush you again?" Ulrich speaks in a rather youthful voice, as Yumi nods.
"Yeah, I'm a little disorientated, but the new recruit handled it just fine surprisingly. Listen, get Odd and Keiko stationed in case Garuda tries sending any other monsters, heaven forbid Tripod of them being next."
"Roger that, Yumi; just focus on getting to the Hermitage as quickly as you can, just, well, be careful about it, please." Ulrich tells Yumi, as Yumi nods.
"A-Alright, I'll see you guys there." Yumi says as she hangs up, as William raises an eye.
"Keiko? Somebody else I need to know?" William asks, as Yumi shakes her head.
"Transfer student from Japan; that's literally all I'm allowed to tell you about her unless she speaks for herself." Yumi tells William, as she musters the strength to regain her senses as she runs towards the game trail in the forest as William quickly runs after her.
A new sound can be heard as wingbeats akin to an avian but moving at the speed of an insect's wings can be heard, as something large is moving around the air, with more just like it nearby. William takes notice of the flying entities, noticing their eel-like bodies with three avian wings and incredibly large, razor sharp chins akin to sword blades.
"William get down!" Yumi says as she ducks after one of the flying creatures attempts to go after her, just as William likewise ducks and slides as another creature just barely missed him.
"Such speed! Can you take care of em?" William asks Yumi as he gets back up, unaware of a third creature heading his way, only for it to be shot out of the sky by an unknown ally. William looks to the sound of what seemed to be a gunshot, as William sees Odd with some kind of custom built knuckle gauntlets on his hands that can fire bullet s from them. Odd, seeing the other two creatures making a turn around, jumps into the air without facing either of the two as he fires two shots, one from each hand respectively, and takes both of the flying creatures out.
"Nice to have you on the team, William, just need to get you to Lyoko to see what kind of weapon suits your style." Odd says, as he reloads his knuckle mounted shooters, as Yumi heads back to running towards what could vaguely be seen out as an abandoned building in the middle of the forest; William follows Yumi once he realizes he's not in a position to ask questions right now, especially with hostiles making it clear that it'll just waste time.
Odd follows William and Yumi as well, practically running on all fours due to how horizontal his spine is to the ground as he runs. Odd's speed allows him to reach the Hermitage building first, as Odd opens the door first after quickly punching in the passcode for it, as Yumi and William gasp in shock and horror as Odd doesn't realize until just a moment afterwards that another Freak is waiting behind the door, letting out a low, human-like moan of a roar.
"Out of my way!" Yumi says as she telekinetically grasps with her own hand out to Freak, before causing its whole head to explode apart as Odd shoots a few bullets into Freak's chest to verify the kill. Odd and Yumi brush the body to the side as they walk into the building, as William enters inside and locks the door behind him, with Yumi and Odd barricading the door as much as they can.
Heavily breathing as all three collapse against the door, William notices everything seems to have quieted down after the intensity of what was happening in such a short amount of time; he wasn't expecting he would get involved into so many encounters with creatures that were artificially made, yet alone deal with a psychic Japanese woman and Odd's wrist mounted-
"Wait a sec, Odd, are those… actually built into your very hands themselves…?" William asks upon realizing his own error; they weren't wrist mounted attachments, but instead Odd's own hands transformed to reveal cybernetic components as Odd transforms his hands back into their seamlessly organic appearance they have by default.
"Okay now you have every reason not to tell anyone a word about what's going on, William." Odd tells William, as William looks at Yumi, concerned over the implications of Odd's hands; Yumi gives him a solemn nod with her eyes closed, as William softens his expression as he moves to stand and look around the building.
"Okay, so lemme see if I got this; crazy scientist and his AI creation conjure up monsters that attack the real world and some can even manage to invade human settlements by knowing how to open door terminals, and then you guys are part of an underground agency trying to fight against this crazy, sick fuck of a man who is trying to more or less cause a war if the general public gets alarmed by this? Did I miss anything?" William states, then asks about what he had just said was true or not.
Yumi and Odd both nod to him, as William lets out an exasperated groan of annoyance.
"Typical; first day on the job as chief of security at Kadic, and already I'm being drafted into a conflict far beyond my own power and abilities. What next do you guys have some kind of underground lab or something?!" William says as he moves to punch the nearest wall, revealing a pressure plate in the wall which activates and reveals a trap door in the floor of the room, as William looks upon it with interest as Odd and Yumi both head down to the unknown floors below, with Yumi gesturing for William to follow.
"Give me one good reason why I should-" William coldly tries to remark, but unfortunately a good reason presents itself with multiple Freaks just outside, with the door slowly opening as one of the Freaks moves its giant, bludgeoning hand inside as William quickly realizes he has no other choice and quickly bolts down the trap door with the others, as the trap door seals itself completely as the Freaks enter the room; William literally just underneath the floor.
'What do these things want? Why are they here?' William thinks to himself in hopes Yumi will answer him.
"Creep… creep… reap…"
Not words but, rather, sounds of words, can be heard coming from one of the Freaks upstairs in a garbled voice of sorts.
"Creep… reap… seep.."
'Any translation if possible?' William asks Yumi, or, at least tries to.
'They're losing interest; they can't determine the trap door's existence.' Yumi tells William telepathically.
"Keep heading down here, they'll lose interest if they can't see any of us." Odd whispers up to William, as Odd works his way down the ladder in the hidden passageway, as does Yumi as well; William follows suit, knowing full well that while he could handle Stalka, he most certainly couldn't see himself taking on Freak, let alone multiple of them.
As the trio head down into what appears to be some kind of dark, dimly lit cavern of sorts, Odd and Yumi get down as they can give William room to get down and onto the cavern's ground as well. Despite the way the inside of it looks, part of it has an artificial feel from what William can judge; nothing about it seemed natural, no cave based organisms living here, and plenty of oxygen in the air, borderline surface level at that.
"What is this place?" William asks, as Yumi and Odd lead the way down a path that has a glowing light in a downward direction, as William quickly realizes he's being left behind and moves to catch up with Yumi and Odd. Hearing someone move frantically behind him, however, catches William by surprise as he moves to turn around and grasp hold of whatever tried to sneak up behind him, all the while Yumi and Odd look back in shock as the person William grabs hold of yells out.
"William! Calm down! That's Ulrich, he's with us!" Yumi tells William as William snaps out of his immediate reaction and calms down; letting Ulrich go by setting him down as Ulrich looks at William completely stunned silent; William had him in a death hold and could've easily had Ulrich dead in a small moment, but the others just barely saved his hide from William almost committing accidental murder.
"S-Sorry… I was reckless to just run ahead expecting you to quickly adjust… Already having the PTSD, eh? Been stuck with that for the first month of being a part of this group." Ulrich tells William in a spastic fit, as William looks at Yumi with concern.
"Um, no actual mental disorder inherently, but he does suffer from PTSD a lot due to having been involved in the more nastier fights…" Yumi tells William, as Ulrich scoffs in regards to her comment.
"It's not PTSD! I swear what is it with you thinking I'm so hopeless in this situation?!" Ulrich tells Yumi off, as Yumi simply gives Ulrich a glare as she moves to head down to the lower floors, as Odd walks up to William and Ulrich to take the situation into his own hands.
"Look you two, what I need from both of you is to man up and take responsibility here; you're both adults, but you're different ages I can tell. Just take a while to relax while we go meet up with Keiko and we'll have you back at Kadic in no time, alright?" Odd says to William, as he gives Ulrich a pat on the shoulder to calm him down as well. William and Ulrich both nod in reassurance, as they proceed to head down to the lower floor with Yumi up ahead.
Meanwhile…
"So, maintenance is today, yes?" A crewman asks as he unloads a case of supplies he needs to fix something up, much, much further away from the others; a laboratory in the middle of nowhere, as the scientist looking at the crewman nods.
"Yes, very well; you will be required to assist us with repairs on storage unit 0 at the bottom most floor the facility. We have a very special, very dangerous artifact in storage that we need to keep secured and safe from harming others outside." The scientist tells the man, as the crewman nods.
"Roger that, boss." The crewman says as he and his fellow workers proceed to head inside, as the scientist follows them inside.
Just outside, a rift in space opens from out of their range. Something with metallic, razor sharp, but also incredibly rusted claws begins to tear its way out of the area unknown to this location. However, its grasp within the fabric of space weakens as it slips back into its own realm.
"J-Jérémie…"
AN: Odd has cybernetic hands due to an accident that predates this fic; they didn't give him the hands out of choice, but rather a necessity as Odd would've died from blood lose otherwise. Odd's hands replicate his Lyoko form's hands which can utilize the laser arrowheads that he can fire to damage enemies with. He is not, however, the only member of the group to have such a modification on them, but all of the group have differing reasons as to why they have their modifications over others; even Yumi's telekinesis is the result of yet another modification here.