Author's Note: To clarify the time system our geisha will be mentioning throughout part of the story: 1 moment equals 1.25 seconds; 1 rotation equals 4 moments; 1 cycle equals 100 rotations; 1 span equals 100 cycles; 1 period equals 10 spans. The basis of this system is the aforementioned rotating tower (though whether or not it actually takes five seconds to rotate in the show, I can't say). In addition, for those of you curious about the timeline, the first chapter happens shortly after the time in which Valentine's Day would have occurred.
A whirlwind of sand tore through the desert accompanied by a yellow streak of light. Racing through the vast, open desert had become one of the samurai's favorite pastimes. Not only was he able to hone his reflexes but he also enjoyed the thrill of the wind and dust flowing past his face as he sprinted under the hot sun. He had long since explored the whole of the desert, finding that, quite to his surprise, the seemingly endless wasteland was rather...small. Occasionally he found something new, be it a group of monsters or hidden sandstone cave, to add to the stone maps he had scattered around the desert. But more often than not he would find nothing new of any note. The pulsations and sandstorms still persisted, remaining centered on the Tornado Peaks, the plateau just east of his oasis. Approaching a series of fin-like rock projections, the samurai weaved in and out and up the thin vertical rock formations, all the while contemplating the lack of anything new. Clearing the windy passages formed by the rocky fins, the samurai surged to a halt. If there was one place that still held the potential for exploration, it was the aforementioned Tornado Peaks and the mysterious red tower that lay within. The samurai caught a glimpse from time to time of the strange structure despite the ever-present sandstorm that cycled through the Tornado Peaks. Turning to send a curious glance in the general direction of said plateau, the yellow-clad warrior debated on whether to attempt, once more, to explore the turbulent plateau. After all, he reasoned, the sandstorm cycled through the enigmatic plateau but never covered the plateau in its entirety. All he would have to do was be patient and observe the path of the storm before venturing forth into the Tornado Peaks. It would take time, of course - a lot of time, but, the boy thought with a smile, he had all the time in the world.
He was bored. The purple-clad hybrid had explored - and re-explored - and looked around again just for good measure - just about everything. He had stuck his nose into every crack and crevice he had found. It had been quite fun - until he had run out of cracks and crevices. Now, without even a few bloks or roachsters to provide him amusement, he was meandering through what he considered to be the most boring part of the world - the Snowy Plains. They were just as they sounded: flat, covered with snow, and devoid of any significant outcroppings of ice that could promise a slippery slide of exhilaration. "Of course some of the best ice slides have to be on the far side of the flatlands of boringness!" The feline complained to himself, having no one else to talk to - or even at. Before he could inundate himself with any further complaints, the hybrid halted in his tracks. A low rumbling had reached his keen ears. He surveyed the horizon, expecting the tell-tale signs of an imminent blizzard. When his eyes found nothing of the sort, the blond-haired boy paused once more to listen to the low grumbling. As he listened to it longer this time, he realized that it was not a pulsation. Rather, it was constant and unwavering - almost like a boulder rolling down a hill. As the distant rumbling grew closer, the purple-furred feline determined its source. Rolling towards him was some kind of smooth, grey boulder. The hybrid tilted his head as he tried to determine more about the oncoming sphere. "What do we have here?" He exclaimed, curiosity piqued. No answer came from the icy wasteland as the massive sphere ground to a halt. The hybrid had a very bad feeling. A bad feeling that was confirmed when a ring of eye-like protrusions emerged from the sphere and it opened up to reveal a blood-red interior of entrails situated around a single large eye. The human-feline lacked the time for even a quip before energy built up in the center of the sphere and surged towards him.
The geisha edged her way down the narrow pathway which led away from the Bowl, a massive crater-valley that seemed to lie in the center of her mountains. She had finally completed her exploration of the massive structure - a process that had taken her almost three spans to accomplish. Still, she figured it was far easier than her exploration of the aptly named Peaks of Confusion. The rocky mountain paths were even more twisted and befuddling there, and in the end it had taken her almost two periods to map out the entire region. In the end, she had managed, and here she was, getting ready to embark on her next expedition into the depths of her mountainous home. Reaching the bottom of the narrow path, the geisha surveyed the mist-covered trails that lay before her. Mere periods ago she would have believed the deceptive pathways to led to the mesa that lay to her right, nearly as large as the one she had emerged from. She knew better now and realized that the twisted path led instead to a cluster of mountains on her left. With that in mind, the geisha quickly - but cautiously - made her way across the land bridge leading towards whatever awaited her among the misty peaks on the horizon.
Laser fire pierced the usually serene air of Lyoko, as Aelita sprinted through the forested world. She had been out on one of her patrols of Lyoko, keeping an eye out for any Xana activity while also honing her power of creativity. It was not uncommon for the virtual elf to encounter some of Xana's creatures - but not to run into an entire herd of the things. Aelita flung glance over her shoulder as she ran. The number of monsters chasing her had risen from a dozen or so kankrelats and a few bloks to a couple dozen kankrelats and nearly a half dozen bloks.
'I've got to reach the tower!' Aelita thought even as a stray laser bolt struck her shoulder, sending her stumbling to the ground. Rolling across the mossy grass, Aelita sprang to her feet again and continued to flee. She cursed herself for not bringing one of the vehicles with her, having repaired all of them. 'Of all the days to decide to walk,' she groaned to herself as she pushed her legs to move even faster as she neared the tower.
Rounding a heavily forested part of the path, Aelita skidded to a halt with a gasp of shock and horror. She had reached the tower but so had Xana. Standing guard on three sides of the tower were three megatanks, all angled in various directions. Noticing her arrival, the megatanks deployed and let out three waves of crimson energy. Although none struck Aelita, or even came close to doing so, the pink-haired elf could tell that they were not meant to. At sixty degree angles to each other, the laser waves from the megatanks effectively walled of the tower as they fired again and again.
Aelita was given little time to witness the spectacle as multiple laser blasts impacted the ground around her, reminding her that she was being pursued by a small army of monsters. Cut off from the tower and the rest of Lyoko, Aelita had no choice but to run north, even though she knew that this was the Northern Forest and the only thing that lay beyond it was the Digital Sea. Still, at least running towards the edge of Lyoko would give her some time to contact Jeremy. Focusing, Aelita accessed the networks that interfaced with the supercomputer and called out to Jeremy. She received no reply. She thought of the time as she ran. There was no reason Jeremy should not be answering. It was lunch time, and she knew all to well that Jeremy never went anywhere without his laptop. And he most certainly never turned off the thing.
Gaining some ground on Xana's monsters, Aelita knew she had little time to enact the plan she had just conjured. Kneeling on the ground, Aelita focused as her angelic singing reverberated through the air. Around her, four massive chunks of virtual rock emerged from the ground, forming a shell of protection against the monsters. Aelita knew that the barrier of stone would not last long against Xana's creatures, however, and began attempting to make contact with Jeremy once more. Even as she sent her mind through the network, though, Aelita sensed on the edges of her consciousness the pulsations of an activated tower.
Jeremy stepped away from the lunch line, meal tray in hand, and walked over to his usual spot. Before he had met Aelita, Jeremy would have sat alone, just like he had been doing ever since Aelita had returned to Lyoko. Now with the addition of William into their little group of 'Lyoko Wanderers', as Aelita had coined it, the older boy had taken to sitting at the same table as Jeremy. William had been somewhat of a lone wolf before, albeit one of the more 'popular' lone wolves, and so hadn't left anyone behind with his change in seating arrangements. Although Jeremy sometimes found the upper class man somewhat overly enthusiastic about the whole 'Lyoko thing', Jeremy could not deny that he appreciated William's company.
"Hey, Einstein," William greeted as he looked up from his meal. Jeremy rolled his eyes. He wasn't sure when exactly Aelita had given him that nickname, but William had picked it up almost immediately. Taking his seat at the table, Jeremy's mind was none too focused on his companion but rather on Aelita.
A few snaps and the waving of a hand brought Jeremy out of his dreamy stupor.
"Hey, do you always blank out like that or do you have someone special on your mind? You haven't forgotten that little chat we're supposed to have today?"
Jeremy groaned. Since about a week ago, William had taken it upon himself to give Jeremy, being the shy and withdrawn kind of kid he was, tips on romance and dating. Although it was what one might call 'boy stuff', Jeremy suspected that Aelita had a hand in William's undertaking. The virtual girl had always tried, and on very rare occasions been successful, to get Jeremy to interact with other people his age - or really anyone at all for that matter. He also suspected that Aelita sometimes grew tired of his constant work on the supercomputer and its programs.
Fortunately for Jeremy, his laptop let out a small series of beeps. Jeremy scrambled to open his bag in order to avoid any further discussions with William, who was smirking at the younger boy's clumsy haste.
Finally fumbling the bag open, Jeremy pulled out his computer and opened it. William got up to walk around the table to get a better view of what the computer was showing Jeremy. No sooner had he reached the other side of the table when Aelita's frantic face popped up on the screen.
"Jeremy! Thank goodness you're there!" The virtual elf exclaimed, the panic in her voice obvious.
"Aelita? What's going on?" Jeremy asked, immediately concerned. The girl seemed to flinch at some unknown assailant before replying.
"Xana's sent his monsters after me! A whole army! I'm safe for now but I won't be much longer," Aelita reported, calming somewhat at the sight of her friends. She lacked the time to continue further before Jeremy replied, glancing over his shoulder at William.
"Alright Aelita, we'll be there as fast as we can," Jeremy announced before slamming his laptop shut and stowing it away as he stood up.
"Looks like our 'little chat' is going to have to wait - Aelita's in danger!" Jeremy turned to William.
"I heard," William replied, heading off after Jeremy as they exited the cafeteria and headed towards the woods. They elicited a few confused glances from their classmates but neither cared. One was caught up only in the safety of his friend, while the other never let such things bother him anyways.
Clearing the school grounds, the two were about to start down the path towards the manhole cover when a chorus of savage barks met their ears. Spinning around, the two boys were confronted with a snarling pack of dogs, strays judging by the looks of them. What really caught their attention, however, was the fact that each of the rabid creatures occasionally flickered like an old television screen.
"Xana," William growled, bracing his body with his fists raised. "Does he have something with dogs or what? You think these are illusions too?"
"Don't bet on it. Last time Xana used wolves, which aren't very common around here. Stray dogs on the other-hand...much more common," Jeremy replied as he watched the Xanafied dogs edge closer, teeth baring in amplified growls.
"So we should go with the Plan A we had last time?" William asked, referring to the time when Xana had sent a pack of spectral - and real - wolves after the two. Jeremy nodded, keeping one eye on the snarling pack.
"Alright then, on three," William instructed, something on the ground catching his eye. "One...two...THREE!" He shouted, bending down to swoop up a fallen branch and throw it at the dog pack before turning on his heels and running after Jeremy.
Jeremy's lungs heaved as he ran through the woods. Although fighting Xana had kept him fit, he was still far more intellectual than he was athletic. This was accentuated by William's lack of effort in keeping up with him and the vicious howling of the nearing pack of dogs.
As the manhole cover came into sight, William picked up his pace and ran past Jeremy in order to heave the metal disk out of the ground, allowing Jeremy to half-slide, half-climb down the metal ladder, followed swiftly by William, who pulled the manhole cover back over the hole just in time to avoid getting his hand bitten off by a particularly large brute of a dog.
William skipped the last few rungs of the ladder as Jeremy rested his hands on his knees, pausing to catch his breath before standing upright once more and grabbing his scooter.
"Alright, we'd better hurry," Jeremy announced as William grabbed his skateboard and the two took off down the sewers. "Who knows how Aelita's holding up, and knowing Xana I bet he's sending those dogs of his straight to the factory to head us off."
"Then we'll just have to get there faster!" William declared, determination in his voice as he picked up speed on his skateboard.
Dust and pebbles rained down on Aelita as the rock shell that covered her was hit again and again by laser blasts, slowly cracking and falling apart. Aelita covered her head with her arms as a particularly powerful explosion split the dome of stone open and it fell down around her. Aelita gasped at the sight of the dozens of monsters that lay before her.
Scrambling to her feet, Aelita barely managed to avoid the barrage of laser fire that chased her to the edge of Lyoko. She skidded to a stop on an outcropping of rock. She glanced fearfully over the edge of the precipice. The sound of gears whirring and metallic legs striking the ground caused her to swirl back around to face the assorted mass of kankrelats and bloks.
'So this is how it ends,' Aelita thought, despair replacing fear as the creatures drew closer. She closed her eyes as hope left her before they flashed up open, determination and fury lighting them. If she was going to die today then she was going to go down fighting!
She focused, calling upon her creativity, readying an attack on the growing army of monsters that would drain the remainder of her life-points but would not leave any of her foes to exist another day.
Just before she released the full power of her creativity, the revving of an engine caught her ears. Looking past the army of bloks and kankrelats, Aelita was just in time to witness the overbike slam into three of the bloks, destroying them instantly. The assortment of monsters were quick to swivel around to confront their attacker. Before they could, though, William's sword cleaved half a dozen kankrelats in half.
Aelita smiled in relief as William surged from the forest to attack the remaining monsters. Her smile grew even larger when she heard Jeremy's voice.
"Aelita! Aelita, are you alright!?" She heard Jeremy ask, his voice nearing record levels of panic.
"I'm fine now Jeremy," Aelita assured, deciding not to tell her friend about what she been about to do before William had arrived.
She watched William spin in a massive circle with Zweihänder in hand, demolishing any monsters in sword length.
"Did you have any trouble getting to the factory?" Aelita asked, thinking back to the pulsations she had felt earlier.
"We ran into some four-legged friends of Xana, but other than that everything went fine," Jeremy replied, calm now that Aelita was out of harm's way. "Anyways," Jeremy continued, keys tapping in the background. "There's still a tower that needs deactiv - wait, this can't be right."
"What is it Jeremy?" Aelita inquired, casting a glance over to William, who was still fighting what was left of the army of kankrelats and bloks.
"The tower's deactivated itself! I don't understand it."
"Isn't it a good thing the tower's deactivated? I mean after all - "
Aelita was unable to finish her question as she heard a faint humming behind her and white light engulfed her.
William turned around from the blok he had just slain when he heard Aelita's scream. He was just in time to see a strange white sphere bearing a blue eye of Xana surround the virtual elf and zoom off into the distance.
"Aelita!" William shouted even as he blocked a laser blast from a nearby kankrelat before making sure the monster regretted it.
Jeremy's hands flew over the keyboard as he scanned the computer screens for any trace of Aelita.
"William! I've lost Aelita from my screens! What happened?" Jeremy shouted.
"Some kind of - white sphere - came up from - the virtual sea - and engulfed her before - flying off," William reported, his words punctuated by grunts and the sound of his sword devirtualizing monsters. "Do you think she's..."
"No, I...I doubt it," Jeremy replied, faltering as he continued to scan the screens. "I think she just...disappeared from the screens almost as if - hey, wait! This is strange."
"What is it?" William asked, breathing normally now. Jeremy glanced at the virtual map to confirm that William had managed to clear out the small army of monsters.
"Aelita's...well, she's not on Lyoko anymore - I mean not anywhere I've seen. It's almost like there's another virtual reality or another part of Lyoko that's not part of the forest."
"What? Another Lyoko? Have you gone crazy or what?" William asked, sounding just as confused as Jeremy felt. Jeremy continued to input commands to determine what was going on.
"No...," Jeremy grumbled in reply to William's outburst. A new window popped up on the screen. "Wait. there's something here - it's a message of some sort. Welcome to Carthage."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I think it has something to do with the Punic Wars, you know, the wars that were fought between Rome and Carthage. Anyways, there's a password here. I think it will provide access to wherever Aelita is."
"Well you better hurry up, Einstein," William voice came even as a series of beeps from the map of Lyoko indicated the arrival of two krabs. "Skip the history lesson and figure out that password!"
"Wait, that's it!" Jeremy exclaimed, glancing at a nearby pile of books, which he had scavenged from the Hermitage. "I bet that's just what I need - a history lesson!"
Jeremy began to scan through the book on the Punic Wars, searching desperately for any clue as to what the password was.
William ran his hand along Zweihänder's blade as the sound of more monsters arriving grew more pronounced. He was unsure of how many life-points he had left, and he had no desire of getting devirtualized and leaving Aelita to fend for herself. He might have asked Jeremy how many life points he had left, but the young genius was busy rambling on and on about the Punic Wars, attempting to decipher the password.
"...general of Carthage?...Hannibal...no, that's not it..."
"Any time now Jeremy," William urged his friend on, catching a glimpse of the approaching krabs.
"Hey, I'm doing my best!" Jeremy protested. William could picture him pressing his hands against his head in frustration. "Gah! I'm going in circles! Let's see...'Welcome to Carthage'. To go into Carthage you have to do what? Defeat it! Who defeated Carthage?...Scipio! That's it!"
"Did you get it?" William asked at Jeremy's cry of exultation. Before Jeremy could answer, the same sphere that had picked up Aelita emerged from beneath Lyoko and engulfed William, who had backed up onto the same ledge Aelita had stood on.
Aelita stumbled as the white sphere that had captured her dissolved around her and moved away. Her head moved back and forth as she surveyed the chamber she had arrived in. The room was a translucent blue and white with the eye of Xana engraved on the spinning floor.
A corridor of light descended along one side of the room, thudding against the floor. The room slowed to a stop, and Aelita took a few hesitant steps towards the corridor before taking off down the hallway at full sprint.
The hallway telescoped out in front of her as she ran, wall after wall parting before her. The corridor finally came to an end in a large open, maze-like room. Aelita glanced over the side of the chasm that occupied most of the room. Although the digital sea did not lay at the bottom of it, Aelita had no doubt that falling from this height would damage her enough for devirtualization. She swiveled her head to her left and right as she surveyed the respective paths. She decided on the leftmost corridor and ran off in that direction, but in truth she had no idea where to go. Whatever this place was, it was far stranger than the forested world of Lyoko.
Rounding another corner and shooting out of its passageway, Aelita came up short as she had found yet another cavernous room, similar to the one she had just left. Lips curling in frustration, Aelita scanned the room. That was when she noticed something strange. On the far side of the room was a small switch-like object that resembled the eye of Xana. She ran the circumference of the room until she was in front of the strange device jutting from the wall.
She hesitated before hitting the switch with the palm of her hand. The device retracted into the wall, letting out a series of blue flashes as it did. Suddenly, the room began to shift as various parts of it slid against each other. She jumped off the platform she was standing on as it jerked downwards. Within a matter of minutes, the room had completely reconfigured itself, blocking off the path she had originally come from.
A hissing noise to her right caused her to turn her head in inquiry. A few meters away from her a part of the wall had retracted to reveal a new passage. She was debating whether to explore it when she heard a dull roar behind her. Whirling around, Aelita gasped at what she saw.
Emerging from some of the pits that had formed in the room was a plethora of brown snake-like creatures that appeared to be partially made of metal. The nearest creature roared again as it neared the virtual girl, pulling itself along the floor with two tendril-like legs that sprouted from its torso. Aelita backed up towards the corridor that had opened behind her, the doorway looking far more inviting now. Roaring again, the creature reared its head, which bore the mark of Xana, energy building in its mouth before launching said energy at Aelita. The blast missed Aelita and impacted the floor in front of her, but it was enough to get the girl to leap backwards before turning tail and running down the newly made corridor, the strange monsters in hot pursuit.
"Aelita? Aelita can you here me!?" A familiar voice reached her ears as Aelita sprinted down the corridor. Aelita glanced upwards in gratitude.
"Jeremy! I need help! I don't know where I am - it doesn't look anything like the rest of Lyoko!"
"I know, it's another...I guess extension of Lyoko. It's called Carthage. Are you okay?"
"If being chased by giant snake-like cyborgs is okay, then yes," Aelita panted as she reached the end of the passageway and emerged into yet another room.
"Jeremy! I've entered another room," Aelita reported glancing around the room. Suddenly a strange, shrill almost clicking-like snarl came from behind. Whirling around, Aelita's eyes widened at the sight in front of her, and she screamed.
The bright light of the sphere retreated as Jeremy's calls of panic filled William's ears.
"Aelita? What's going on? Aelita!?" Came Jeremy's frantic cries. "William, I think Aelita's been attacked! You have to get to her and fast! A passage way should open up soon."
"Got it," William nodded, his eyes finding the aforementioned passage. Hefting Zweihänder onto his shoulder, William began to run through the narrow corridor.
"O-okay," Jeremy began as he steadied his breathing and calmed down. "Some sort of timer has been activated. From what I can tell, you have under three minutes to find a switch that will deactivate it."
"Great," William exclaimed as he ran into a rather open room filled with massive pillars. "Any idea where this switch is?"
"Uh, hold on," William heard keys clacking in the background as Jeremy replied. "It should be right above you to your left."
William looked up and around for the switch before his eyes finally alighted on it.
"Okay, I see it," William reported. "Though I guess I know why its so close to the entrance and not on the other side of the room."
Near the top of the room, nearly inaccessible if not for the columns that were scattered about the room, extruded a switch in the shape of Xana's eye. William began to race his way up the rugged and makeshift stairway towards the switch.
"Well, hurry," Jeremy snapped, his fear for Aelita's safety clearly getting the best of him. "You have less than a minute!"
"Alright, alright! Almost there," William grunted as he leaped from pillar to pillar.
"Twenty seconds!" Jeremy cried out. William didn't waste his breath in replying instead hurling himself forward and slamming into the switch.
Losing his balance due to his massive sword, William fell off the platform. His shout of shock was cut short as he landing on a rising pillar. Climbing to his feet, William saw that the entire room had reconfigured itself to reveal a new corridor.
"Alright, William, head down that passage and I'll instruct you after that," Jeremy instructed. "And hurry, I still don't have any contact with Aelita."
William made his way through the corridor and the maze that awaited him, executing Jeremy's commands on a dime until he was greeted with the sight of a cavernous chamber. William skidded to a halt in shock. Looming in the center of the room was a strange jellyfish-like creature that was holding Aelita captive in its tentacles. The monstrosity was surrounded by three snake-like creatures.
"Uh...Jeremy?" William said, readying Zweihänder. "There's...something here...and its got Aelita."
"I'm on it!" Jeremy replied before exclaiming in shock. "Oh, no! William! That thing's stealing Aelita's memory! You have to stop it!"
"You don't need to say anymore," William affirmed, rushing towards the monsters that held Aelita captive. The creepy snake-like creatures roared at his approach as they fired energy bursts from their mouths. William dodged each one.
"You get away from her!" William shouted as he whirled Zweihänder - and himself - around in an arc, slicing through the rampant creatures. Driving more momentum into the sword, William carried his swing over to the creature that held Aelita captive, slicing through its tentacles in the process. The virtual elf fell to the ground with a gasp even as the creature let out a shrill, warbling snarl as it retreated. William bent down, resting his sword on his shoulder, and placed a hand on Aelita's.
"Aelita, are you okay?"
The pinkette cracked her eyes open as she focused on the dark-haired boy standing over her.
"I-I'm fine," She replied. "W-what happened?"
"That's a good question," William replied, helping the virtual elf to her feet. "And I'm sure Einstein has a few ideas, so what do you say to getting out of this hellhole?"
Aelita returned his comment with a weak smile and a nod as they headed back to the platform they had first come from in order to return to the forested world of Lyoko and leave the metallic one of Carthage behind.
The samurai walked through the sand dunes of the Sandy Hills. He was in no particular hurry to get to his location. Besides, he was busy thinking about his choice of name for this particular plateau. In hindsight, he probably should have just called the place 'Sand Dunes' rather than 'Sandy Hills'. Of course he had not come up with the word 'dune' yet when he had explored the place. He shrugged the topic off. Not like there was ever going to be anyone to talk to him about it anyways, so he might as well just keep the name. It would save him from having correct his maps anyways. A shrill roar broke him away from his thoughts. Lashing out his katana, the samurai surveyed the horizon for the source of the menacing sound. It did not take long for him to spot the source. Approaching him was some sort of spider-like creature whose legs seemed to be metal cylinders while its head was white and shaped like a saddle. Whatever a saddle was. The beast, spotting the boy, roared and leaned back on its hind legs to prop up its forelimbs. The samurai dived out of the way as twin blasts of energy struck the ground he been standing on. He had recognized the two metallic limbs as laser cannons. Activating his super-sprint as he called it, the samurai ran circles around the creature, dodging its blasts all the while searching for a weakness. He knew he could not keep it up, however. This creature was smarter than the other monsters and had already begun firing its lasers along his path, forcing him to be more unpredictable. 'If only there were more of me!' The warrior thought in desperation, focused on the creature in front. To his surprise, as soon as he had the thought he felt a strange electrifying sensation surge through him as two doubles of himself suddenly shot from his body. His moment of surprise was cut short when one of the doubles was hit by the monster and disintegrated into glowing, blue dust. Although shocked by the sudden death of his copy, the samurai steeled himself as he glanced at his other clone. At least now he had a fighting chance.
"Mraoawr!" The hybrid yowled in surprise as he yanked his head back into the tower he had taken shelter in from the blizzard and the megatank (as he coined it) that had just attempted to sever his head from the rest of his body. He growled and lashed his tail as he cocked his wrists. "Come on load up," he muttered to himself. He had discovered in a fight with a half dozen or so bloks that he had a limited amount of arrows - about ten per wrist or twenty in all. Fortunately he had also discovered that the projectiles could be reloaded in the towers. None of that seemed to matter much when facing the metallic monstrosity that lay outside the tower. From what he could tell the only weak point of the metal sphere was the eye that lay in its center. He had tried piercing the metal shell of the sphere but to no avail. A resounding 'click' came from his wrists signaling that the reloading process had finished. "Okay then," the feline murmured. "No time like the present, right?" Taking a deep breath, the hybrid surged through the side of the tower and into the frosted air of the outside world. No sooner had he cleared the tower than a crimson wave of energy cut through the air where he had been. Skidding to a stop before running on all fours in a zigzag pattern towards the megatank, the hybrid barely dodged the megatank's next shock-wave. The energy pulse struck an ice block near the feline, shattering it and sending him skidding across the icy ground. "Is that all you've got, tin can!?" He shouted, readying his laser arrows. As the megatank turned to face him, the feline rushed forward before somersaulting over the massive, metal sphere. The hybrid aimed his arm at the center of the sphere before unloading a flurry of arrows into its core, now opened and exposed. The arrows struck true and the megatank exploded into a flurry of metal shards, as the feline landed on the frozen ground of the tundra. He gazed behind him at where the megatank had once stood before a huge grin broke his face and a loud 'woohoo!' could be heard throughout the icy wasteland.
The massive form of the tower dominated the landscape even when surrounded by mountains. A ripple of light appeared at its base as out from it emerged a geisha. The geisha surveyed the landscape before nodding to herself, content that the mountains had reappeared from the last set of pulsations. At the thought of the mysterious pulses, the geisha glanced in the direction of the red tower, the Tower of Dissonance as she had come to call it. She held her gaze on the horizon for a moment more before turning back to survey the uncharted territory that lay beyond her in the Peaks of Solitude. Walking towards a rock bridge that led deeper into the mountains, the geisha paused at a series of clanging noises behind her. Whirling around, the raven-haired girl whipped out her tessen fans which glowed white as energy surged through them. The geisha expected a group of roachsters or bloks to be before her. Instead, she was confronted by a massive, red crab standing over her. The geisha's eyes widened at its size, having never seen a monster so large before. Her shock nearly cost her as a rapid volley of laser bolts shot from one of the multiple eye-like structures of the crab. Thinking on reflex, the geisha back-flipped to avoid one volley after another until she finally leaped over a rock to take cover. Pressing her back against the rock, the geisha shut her eyes before opening them in determination. Using one of her fans as a mirror, the geisha waited until the menacing creature got close enough. Hopefully what she guessed about the monster's weakness, if it had one, was correct. Bracing herself, the geisha sprang up onto the the rock that had sheltered her and catapulted herself over the crab, even as it angled itself upwards to try and shoot her. As she soared over the crab she found her target: a large eye-like symbol on the monster's shell. Hurling both of her fans, the geisha landed with an air of grace on the ground behind the crab even as it's shell shattered and its legs fell useless to the ground before disappearing. Standing up, the geisha caught her fans before continuing her journey into the mountains