A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in so long, I've been at a loss for designing Otritza and Myst's Lyoko personas, I'll just leave them out for a few chapters...I'd like some suggestions from you guys on their weapons, appearances, and powers.

Nicknames:

Samurai Ulrich

Kitty Odd

Ninja Yumi

Sniper Jeremie

: denotes entering first person

( ) denotes entering attached third person

" " denotes speech

' ' denotes thoughts and telepathy

Chapter 9: The Threat Outside

(Odd)

Odd yawns, classes have gotten boring since her introduction to Lyoko. She looks over her shoulder at Jeremie and blushes slightly when she catches him looking at her. She quickly turns back and faces the front of the class to hide her blush from Jeremie.

The bell rings and Odd, Yumi, and Jeremie all get up and walk out of the room together, only to be intercepted by Marco and Drake. Marco speaks first.

"Where do you guys go in that forest? The last time we followed you two into the place two of you vanished and one hopped up into the trees, then we were KO'd by blows to the back of the head."

Yumi looks him in the eyes and smirks, her eyes glowing faintly as she uses a telepathic suggestion on the two of them.

"Mind your own damn business, what we do is none of your concern."

Drake shivers.

"Shutting up now."

Drake and Marco both walk away very fast, heading toward the dorm building to catch a nap. Ulrich supersprints up to his friends, just sort of fading into view next to them to the naked eye. Odd turns and grins one of her more kitty-like grins.

"So, samurai, where are you and ninja going out tonight?"

"None of your business, kitty."

Odd scoffs toward Ulrich.

"Fine, I'll just hang out with sniper tonight, I like him better anyway."

Jeremie blushes when Odd says that, not realizing just how much Odd likes him.

"Princess is letting us have the night off from our normal training schedule while she, Otritzi and Maggie figure if we can go to Lyoko without suffering from what Otritzi and Mysti suffered from."

Sissi walks up to the group and asks one question.

"Where do you four always disappear to?"

Ulrich turns toward Sissi.

"What business is it of yours, Miss Delmas?

"I'd like to hang out with you four, my enforcers both ran off after I showed them something."

"Would you be willing to die protecting somebody."

"Depends who I'm protecting."

"The four of us are willing to die to protect another on a daily basis. We also keep a very dark secret."

"Will I have to know this secret to be a part of your group."

Yumi shakes her head.

"You don't want to know this secret and you don't know what it takes to be in this group."

Sissi looks slightly flustered.

"At least let me hang out with you guys for a few days, I've been getting threatening notes from somebody here at school. As far as I know, you four are the toughest group in school, please let me hang out with you tomorrow."

Yumi sighs, then telepathically tells us something.

'She's not lying on the notes, and as far as I can tell, she's scared shit-less about whoever put it in her dorm room. According to her memory, the note says something about enjoying her life while it lasts, I'm guessing some guy's out to kill her or something.'

Odd closes her eyes and then steps forward, wrapping her left arm around Sissi's shoulders.

"Don't worry, you're safe with us. I would like to see the notes though, might help us figure out who's doing this."

:Sissi:

I can't believe they are letting me hang out with them. I hope that whoever my stalker is doesn't mess with me tonight, although I am expecting to find another one of those evil notes in my room tonight. I think I'll start hanging out with them more, this group seems loyal enough to one another.

I watch as the four of them walk off towards their usual bench, I quickly follow, not wanting to be vulnerable. My usual lackeys all laughed and walked off when I showed them the notes, they all said something along the lines of glad it's you and not us. Yumi bristles slightly at my presence, even though she's not looking at me.

"Alright, one thing you have to know if you're going to hang out with us, please do not wear pink, it doesn't look that good on you, maybe some red or purple, but not pink. Agreed?"

I jump at the voice, it sounds like Yumi's voice, but it's not coming from her, it sounds like it's echoing in my head. I try to say something to Yumi but no sound comes out of my mouth. Yumi turns and smiles at me. Again her voice echoes in my head, but the others don't seem to notice her saying anything and her lips aren't moving.

"I'm telepathic, before you ask, the rest of my friends know as well. Kitty, samurai, and sniper all told me to let you in on our powers, seeing how you're going to be hanging out with us for quite some time. I'm referred to as ninja, we may eventually let you in on our big secret, but for now that's all you need to know, we need to run adding you to the group by our fifth member before we can let you in on the secret, you MUST never divulge this secret to anyone, period."

I nod without thinking about exactly what kind of promise I'm making. Yumi must not have been lying about being telepathic, cause her voice echoes through my head again.

"Think about it thoroughly, once you become a member of this group, you cannot leave, the vow to join this group is not to be taken lightly."

I think about everything she's rolled into my head...my only question won't be answered until tomorrow I guess. I turn and sit down on the edge of the bench beside Yumi, my face buried in my hands as I recite a silent prayer for guidance, obviously Yumi heard my thoughts again cause she wrapped her arm around me, pulling me against her in a very sisterly gesture.

"Take your time, it's safe for now."

Yumi must have said that with her normal voice, cause it came from behind me and was so quiet I almost didn't hear it. Out of the corner of my eye I see Herb looking slightly angry as Yumi holds me against her side protectively. I notice Odd up in the tree behind the bench, she looks almost asleep. I see Jeremie typing away on his laptop under the tree Odd's sitting in, maybe he's talking with this mysterious fifth person. My cell phone goes off, indicating a text message.

U DIE

2MORROW

X-

I shiver again, Yumi looks at my cell and the whole group moves to see the message, whoever this X- is I don't want to meet him.

:Ulrich:

My friends and I have decided to protect Sissi, we even decided to let her in on our secret, she'll be hanging out with us so much for the next few days, we may as well...I mean we might even have to bring her to the KLC during our training sessions and missions, oh well...as long as she doesn't tell anyone about Lyoko after we introduce her to it.

We have to tell her of a few of the attacks that have happened, oh she's going to flip when I tell her about how Sniper kissed her on the lips last week, and right before a RTP as well, oh that'll be priceless. I can also say that I'd like to see her reaction when she hears about Otritzi and Mysti as well, that'll be hilarious.

I see Drake and Marco come out of the dorm building looking severely pissed, this is a perfect time to stop a rampage before it can get off the ground, I nudge Ninja and indicate the terrible twosome that are rampaging their way towards us. Ninja smirks and gives me the go ahead to stop the rampage. I activate my Supersprint power, slowing everything around me to a crawl.

I run over to where Drake and Marco are and set a pair of skateboards about where they will step next, then run back over to the group, retaking my seat as I return to normal speed, watching as Drake and Marco slip onto their backs and crack their heads on the dirt, even Sissi chuckles at it, looking at me.

"How did you do that? I didn't even notice you moved."

I lean back on the bench smirking to myself.

"I'll tell you tomorrow, after we get the OK from our friend to allow you into the group, if you still want in that is."

I notice Sissi shiver under Ninja's arm, she's scared again...I don't know why anyone would want to kill Sissi...but that message was right, she's going to die tomorrow and be reborn as a Defender, just like Kitty, Ninja, Sniper, Otritzi, Mysti, Elazul and myself. Kitty, sniper, ninja and Sissi all head off to the dorms for the night as I walk home.

:Jeremie:

I sent a message to Aelita about perhaps adding another member to our group last night, she accepted but made me promise that the new person will keep the secret of the 'old abandoned factory' by the river, even though it's not really abandoned anymore and was never a factory. The four of us often wondered what Sissi would do if she had powers like us, although we never knew if she was trustworthy enough...I guess we find out today.

The four of us, plus Sissi, meet in the cafeteria for breakfast, since it's Saturday we all head for the manhole in the forest. Yumi made sure we weren't followed again, I guess Drake and Marco's failed attempts at following us haven't taught them a lesson. I'd have to say it took guts on their part to attempt it in the first place, especially after Odd whooped the two of them by herself.

After we all climb down into the sewer I pick up one of the skateboards and toss a second one over to Sissi. Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich all get stretch and get ready for their race through the sewers. Sissi and I take off on the skateboards. I'm surprised Sissi even knows how to ride one, she never came across as somebody who would be coordinated enough skateboard...but I guess there's things we'll never know about her.

Sissi and I arrive at the ladder up to the KLC only to see Odd as she jumped down from the top of the bridge and landed in front of me in a very cat-like pose. She stands up and clears her throat.

"Ahem. Alright, Sissi, welcome to the Kadic Lyoko Complex. The first rule of knowing about Lyoko is you don't talk about Lyoko, got it?"

Sissi raises an eyebrow at Odd's statement.

"Kinda like that American movie, Fight Club, right?"

Odd smirks at that.

"Yes, just like Fight Club. IF anyone finds out about this place aside from us we could be dealing with another enemy, not just XANA."

Sissi looks slightly pleased with herself at picking up on the reference, although when Odd says XANA's name she quickly loses the look of pride and gains one of confusion.

"Who's XANA?"

"Have Jeremie tell you, he can explain it better than the rest of us, seeing how he's the computer genius, and not me."

As the three of us walk into the KLC, Odd jumps down to the floor of the factory, landing in a cat-like crouch again then taking off for the lounge on all fours. I turn to see Sissi looking slightly confused.

"How does she do that?"

"What, the whole jump from a great height and land on her feet thing?"

"Yeah, that."

"You know how Ulrich's always calling her Kitty, right?"

"I've heard him call her that on occasion. What does that have to do with it?"

"It's a descriptive nickname. Odd's Lyoko form is a demi-human cat with the ability to fire arrows from her gloves."

"I see...what's your Lyoko form?"

"My nickname is Sniper, and my power's invisibility. You figure it out."

AelitaR walks up to us after we slide down the ropes to the lower level of the ground floor of the KLC.

:Sissi:

A girl with pink hair, wearing a brown and pink overcoat that goes down to her knees walks up to me and smiles at me. Her voice sounds kinda nice, but a bit synthetic.

"Hello, my designation is Aelita. I'm an Automated Cybernetic Avatar, or ACA for short. I have a counterpart in Lyoko also named Aelita who is a Keeper. Jeremie and his friends are not just humans anymore, they are Defenders, as you will be soon. By the way, Jeremie XANA's virtualization program only allows us to virtualize one person at a time without side effects."

The girl said she was some kind of robot, I don't believe it, she looks and acts so human. I shake my head to clear my thoughts as I follow her to the elevator. Jeremie didn't come with me...I'm actually starting to feel a little scared, I don't know this Aelita very well...but the others seem so confident that she's not going to harm me...I guess I'll believe them, for now.

The door of the elevator opens up, revealing a massive computer terminal and with a projector built into the floor that has a hologram floating above it. My jaw drops open, this stuff is amazing...I've never seen anything like it before, it's amazing. I guess I wasn't paying attention cause Aelita poked me gently in the side before talking to me.

"I said welcome to the Holo-projector Room. This is where I spend most of my time. Come over here with me so I can put your basic information into the computer before you head down to the Scanner Room for your first trip to Lyoko."

I nod and follow her over to the terminal, she sits at the terminal and information begins flying across the screen at amazing speeds, I can't even follow it. She doesn't even touch the keyboard as a window opens up and an elvish face pops into it, the two of them converse for a while and then the window closes again. I turn my head to look at Aelita.

"Who was that?"

"That was my Virtual counterpart, the Keeper of the Kadic Lyoko System, Aelita. Everything's ready, get in the elevator and go down one floor, once there enter one of the big golden tubes and I'll transfer you into Lyoko. Once the doors close, don't move."

"Alright."

I walk over to the elevator and enter it, going down a floor to reach the Scanner Room, as Aelita called it. When the door opens I see eight pods set in two perfect lines with cables running from their base and top off into the shadows. I hear Aelita's voice come over what I guess is an intercom.

"Step into one of the pods and I'll transfer you to Lyoko, you'll undergo a minor transformation, it won't be much, you'll just get a power and your clothes will change, unless you're like Odd who became a cat-girl."

I step into the nearest pod and the door closes behind me. I freeze, listening to the machine boot up and I close my eyes as a bright light fills the pod. I hear Aelita's voice echo down, almost like it's in my mind.

"Profile, Sissi; Scanner, Sissi; Virtualization."

:AelitaV, Kadic Arctic Region:

My ACA told me that I'd be meeting the new Defender today, I'm interested in meeting this girl they called Sissi, it'll be nice to have another person from Earth here. I watch as she's virtualized in the air above the glacier I'm standing on. She drops down and lands on her backside, I guess that always happens on the first trip. As Sissi stands up I see she's dressed in a flesh colored full body suit and a pair of deflection gloves, they allow her to deflect shots with greater accuracy than a sword. She looks at herself and growls when she sees her outfit.

"What the hell am I wearing?"

She obviously hasn't seen me yet, I decide to make my presence known.

"I don't know why you are dressed in that, but I don't know if the guys will be able to take their eyes off you."

I hear something land behind me. I turn around and see Elazul standing there, his core sparkling as it should, indicating that he's the real Elazul.

"Hello, Elazul. What's going on with Otritzi and Mysti?"

Elazul chuckles and sits down against a crag on the glacier.

"Otritza and Myst are working on getting their own bodies back, XANA's little Virtualization program was a one shot trick, he probably did it to make Otritza mad. By the way, who's the young lady behind you, Aelita?"

I turn my head to see that Sissi's now staring at Elazul, I guess she finds him attractive or something, her mouth is wide open. She recovers and introduces herself to Elazul.

"My name is Sissi, this is my first time here on Lyoko. Now, who the hell are you?"

Elazul only chuckles, stretches and stands up, addressing Sissi with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"My name is Elazul, I'm a Defender, like yourself. My power is called Lifecore, see this gem sitting below my throat? If that gets damaged I get devirtualized. If that gets damaged while I'm on Earth, I die. I could survive getting shot in the head, but if my core gets so much as a scratch on it, I lose consciousness. If it gets removed, my body will turn to dust."

Sissi only nods when she hears Elazul explaining his power, I guess it shocked her to hear him talking of such things so casually. My ACA called down from above us, waking Sissi from her stunned state.

"Incoming monsters, two Krabs."

:Elazul:

I grumble a bit as I stand, preparing to do battle with the two Krabs that are headed our way. Sissi brings her hands up into a defensive posture, I'm guessing she thinks her only attack is deflecting the enemy's shots back at them with her gloves, I guess she hasn't noticed the spear on her back yet.

"Sissi, you've got a spear holstered to your back, use that instead of your hands."

Sissi reaches back and wraps her hand around the spear, pulling it in front of herself just in time to see the two Krabs plant their feet and start charging their tri beam gatling guns. I quickly draw my sword and hold it in front of my core, the only part of me that really needs protecting. I see Sissi holding her spear behind herself with one hand while her other hand is ready to deflect any lasers that head her way. I assume she doesn't know what her power is yet, otherwise she probably would have used it to get a preemptive strike, oh well.

The Krabs open fire, moving quickly I methodically deflect the shots aimed at me, chancing a glance at Sissi I see that she's not standing around to fight with the one aiming for her, she dashed off to one side, probably trying to confuse the thing, it unloaded it's shots at her and she deflected two of its shots back at it's symbol while dodging the laser fire, destroying it without attacking with her spear. I'm impressed, she may have what it takes to be a Defender already.

I deal with my Krab by jumping forward and landing on its top, stabbing my sword into the symbol, pulling it back out and then quickly jumping off while the Krab is stunned before it explodes. As I land on the ground I receive a message from Maggie, she's going to recall me in a few seconds, good. I bid my farewell to Sissi and then vanish from the Kadic Lyoko System.

:Sissi:

I watch as Elazul fades out. I don't know how I did what I did, it was like my mind was on autopilot, it was amazing. I loved the rush I got as I dodged and deflected those lasers. I guess I was thinking at a very high speed, the lasers came toward me so much slower than I thought they would. That table-like monster didn't stand a chance against me, but it was strange, I was intimidated at first, but after I saw Elazul draw his sword I knew I could take them. I turn to address Aelita.

"Alright, that was easy, could you send in the others? I want to see their Lyoko forms."

One by one the others are virtualized and drop onto the glacier, all four of them landing on their feet. Ulrich appears first, he's dressed in a short yellow and black kimono and has a bandanna with a moon symbol on it. Odd drops in second, looking very cat-like, and wearing a pink belly shirt under a purple long sleeved vest and a pair of purple trousers that have a hole for her tail, she also has a pair of gloves that look like cat paws, complete with claws. Yumi drops in next, wearing a short kimono with several colors on it and a ribbon tied around her waist, she also looks like she's wearing a lot of makeup. Jeremie drops in last, wearing a blue body suit, not unlike the one I'm wearing, he also has a sniper rifle strapped to his back and a pair of Desert Eagles holstered around his waist, each gun with an extra clip attached to it's holster. I can now see why they each have their nicknames.

I watch as the others practice their moves, we even destroy more of the monsters, a few of the ones that they referred to as Kankrelets and several more Krabs, each time I was shot at it seemed like everything slowed down, I guess my ability is Danger Sense or something like that, cause any time the slowdown occurred I was being attacked. They showed me several different strategies and techniques for wiping out XANA's monsters. About four hours later AelitaR's voice comes down from above us.

"It's lunch time, I'm going to Devirtualize you one at a time to avoid any problems. AelitaV, you should probably head for a tower."

One by one the group's virtual bodies shatter away, Yumi, Odd, Ulrich, Jeremie then myself. I close my eyes for a second and when I reopen them I'm standing in an open Scanner with Odd, Yumi, and Jeremie looking at me. I hear Ulrich's voice from behind them.

"What do you think of Lyoko, Lancer?"

Odd reaches her hand forward and pulls me out of the scanner, practically dragging me to the elevator. The elevator carries us up to the main floor of the Kadic Lyoko Complex.

:Yumi:

I float into the rafters, followed closely by Ulrich as he Supersprints up one of the support beams. A few seconds later the two of us are cuddling up to one another, watching the other members of our gang chill on the sofa in the lounge. I decide to strike up a conversation inside of Ulrich's head.

'I can't believe how quickly Sissi adapted to Lyoko.'

'She fought alongside Elazul after she was virtualized. I bet that he helped her.'

'I'm having trouble believing that she wiped a Krab with only deflections, that was really something to see, I'm glad Aelita sent us that visual of the fight.'

'We saw it, what's not to believe. I think she's trying to prove to herself and us that she's not weak. But, I can't help worry that she may become overzealous and get herself into trouble.'

'Elazul seems to think she will attain level 2 before we do. Something about being devirtualized in combat lowering our XP values or something, it all sounds like one big RPG unless you experience it firsthand.'

'We can use that one. Lyoko, a future RPG that the five of us are conceptualizing. Yeah, that'll be a good one to use if anyone ever comes at us asking what Lyoko is.'

We stop talking for a while over the mental link, I lean on Ulrich's shoulder and close my eyes.

"I'm tired, Kitty sleeps with music on all night, it kept me awake for most of the night. Let me sleep here."

"Sweet dreams, Ninja."

:Odd:

I watch as Yumi falls asleep on Ulrich's shoulder, too cute to disturb. I climb down to the lower level of the ground floor and walk into the lounge to see Jeremie working on one of the terminals in the lounge. Sissi is sitting on the sofa with a can of soda in her hand, watching recordings of us fighting in Lyoko, which are quite amazing, really. I plop down on the sofa next to Sissi and lay my head back. I try to strike up a conversation with Sissi.

"You realize that we may occasionally call you Lancer, right."

"Ulrich already has started calling me Lancer. It's not really that much different than everyone in school calling me Sissi when my real name is Elizabeth Delmas."

I nod at that point.

"I personally think Lancer sounds better than Sissi. I can't believe how well you did on Lyoko for your first fight, that was amazing how you took on those five Kankrelets by yourself in close range combat and didn't take a single hit, it was almost like you could see their shots two seconds in advance."

Lancer smirks and leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees.

"Just between you and me, my Lyoko power is Danger Sense, it slows everything around me down as the shots come in, giving me plenty of time to plan my dodge or deflection. I'd have to say I like my power."

"It's better than Precognition that you can't control, some of these visions I get are a pain in the ass."

"Yeah, but you've got those cool kitty powers too. I'd have to say being a Defender is nice, but I wonder if I'll ever see the world the way I used to."

"You know, we often say that our old selves died the day we entered Lyoko and we were reborn as Defenders. We don't even think we're human anymore, just virtual beings given a real life, kinda like what Sniper wants to do with AelitaV, but he hasn't had much luck. If he does find a program that can materialize a being that is purely virtual, like AelitaV, we won't have to worry about the Void Crawlers anymore."

"I haven't seen a Void Crawler, what do they look like?"

"They are a shapeless mass with a XANA eye on the outside, if one absorbs you it's like getting thrown into the digital void below the regions. They're nasty critters."

"Sounds nasty. I don't want to meet one."

"We haven't met one yet, the only reason we know what they look like is cause Aelita found the blueprints for one in a tower and showed them to us."

There's a comfortable silence that fell between the two of us, we both focus back on watching the fight shown on the screen, it's one where Yumi takes on two Megatanks and gets them to destroy one another, a tactic we've all used on various monsters, it seems to work so well against the Megatank though, as they tend not to watch their fire.

I get up and walk over to the fridge, getting out a pair of sodas for myself and Lancer. As I walk back over to the sofa I toss one of them to her before plopping down beside her again. She looks over at me then smirks.

"Just how much of a cat are you?"

"I don't really mind water, touch my ears without permission and I'll rip your arm off at the shoulder, I don't really mind having my ears scratched, I've got four of them, the two on top of my head are hidden under my hair, and the two on the sides of my head don't actually hear anything, but you better ask permission before you even attempt to touch them."

"Sure, it's interesting how yours and Elazul's transformations were so much more involved than anyone else here."

"I can't tell you why we got what we did, I guess our luck was just out of it or something, cause I didn't ask to be turned into a half cat and Elazul didn't ask to be turned into a Jumi. I don't know if Otritzi asked to be turned into a Fire bird or not, but that's what he was before the Virtualization incident that turned him from a guy to a girl and made it so he couldn't use his normal character card until he gets his male body back."

Lancer raises an eyebrow at that last sentence. I reach over and pat her on the back.

"Don't worry about something like that happening with you, we know how to beat the system, we aren't about to make a mistake on that until we fix the problem."

Lancer nods and relaxes on the sofa.

"Hard to believe that I never found this place when I was a little kid, I used to play around here a couple years ago, it made a nice playground, as long as I was careful. I thought I had covered every inch of this place, only to find somewhere I never saw four years ago. It makes me wonder just how observant I was back then."

"It had nothing to do with your observation skills, entering Lyoko opens your eyes to this place, I can indicate where each hologram is that we passed through on our way into this room if you want."

Lancer just shakes her head, the amount of tech in this place is astonishing, I'll give her points for keeping her sanity so far. I love going to Lyoko, it drives me nuts to have to come down from the high that Lyoko gives me, now if only I could get music to play in Lyoko, I'd be a happy girl.

I look at Lancer when she turns the Screen off, then stands to stretch, I get a terribly catty idea. I grin at it, what fun I could have with Lancer, I've always been known around school as a nut and I like to live up to that title. I creep up behind her as she turns toward the fridge and slowly bring myself to my full height, just behind Lancer. I wrap my arms around her waist and put my chin on her shoulder, nuzzling her neck a bit, a small show of affection from my kitty self.

:Sissi:

I feel Odd wrap her arms around my waist and nuzzle my neck with a purr. I grin a little and pat the top of her head gently with my hand in an almost petting motion, getting her purr to get louder. I've always been a cat person, I had four cats at my mother's house before she died in a drunk driving accident and I had to give them away cause there was a rule against having pets in the dorms of Kadic, the only other place I could live. Despite my dad being principle, we aren't rich, in fact...we barely scrape by working for Kadic Academy.

I suppose joining this group could be a good thing, they're loaded. This place must cost a fortune in upkeep, I guess the place is pretty well funded, even though nobody's supposed to be here. I guess whoever made Lyoko must be regretting the decision, financially anyway, probably morally too. I stop petting Odd for a second, realizing just how that probably looked to Jeremie and AelitaR. I feel myself turn a nice shade of scarlet before I decide to walk out of the room and get some fresh air.

I walk through the door of the Lounge and sit down against the wall, sighing heavily.

'That was embarrassing.'

I stiffen as Yumi's voice breaks into my thoughts.

'What was embarrassing? Petting Kitty? Feh, that's nothing, I've had to do that for hours on end to get her to go to sleep. I'm sure once she makes her move on Jeremie he'll be the main victim of her kitty attacks, like what she did to you.'

'Odd's done that to you too?'

'And Ulrich, both Aelitas and even once to Jeremie, although she pulled away before Jeremie got to react to it.'

'What does it mean when she does that?'

'Her cat half trusts you instinctually. I suppose the five of us are linked through Lyoko, but I've got it the worst of all of you, if any of you get hurt I feel it, not pleasant.'

'Hmm...impressive, now where the heck are you?'

'"Sleeping" on Ulrich's shoulder, I hope you're not too jealous about that.'

'You're lucky you have him. If you ever hurt him, I'll be there to pick up the pieces, but still, don't hurt him.'

'I wouldn't dream of it, he is, after all, one of the few people I would trust with my life, why betray that?'

'Good point, I hope I can find a guy like him somewhere. I personally thought Elazul was kinda cute, but I doubt I'll ever see him in real life.'

'You did see what he looks like though, that's fairly close, just change the clothes and you've got Elazul as a human.'

'It's interesting, I never realized that I could have whole conversations without opening my mouth, I feel a lot better, thanks Ninja.'

'Your welcome.'

Yumi's voice fades from my mind and I smile, I turn my head a little to the side to see Odd prowling up on all fours again. I turn just in time to get tackled to the ground by the purring Odd. Suddenly I stiffen underneath Odd's warm embrace. I felt it, something's coming. I turn my head to the side a bit and see a figure standing at the entrance to the factory. I whisper into Odd's ear that we've got a visitor and she picks me up with ease and brings me back inside the lounge, assuring me that we'll be safe inside of there.

:Intruder:

The last signal I got from that transponder I had imbedded inside of that brat Sissi came from this factory. I don't know how, but the transponder has suddenly stopped working. I look around the lower areas of the factory, but I only see an empty factory below me. I sigh and mumble to myself.

"Looks like I won't be killing her today, I'll have to do it at school then, the boss won't be too happy 'bout that."

I turn and walk out of the factory, but I get the feeling I'm being watched...oh well, I guess I'm just paranoid right now, what with having my state of the art bio-tracker malfunction last night, then just this morning when the tracking beacon I had implanted into her during her last inoculations suddenly failing, it was like someone had already killed her or something. I just shrug, I won't get paid until her funeral happens. The strange feeling passes as I walk across the bridge leading back to town.

:Jeremie:

I had used my Fade power to get a better handle on the situation, I learned that our intruder was the one who was out to kill Sissi, but the way the intruder talked it was like he was only the contracted killer for this, taking him out wouldn't end the death threats. I return to the others with news that our intruder has left the KLC and is currently on his way to the school to look for Sissi.

"Guy and gals, we have a situation, whoever that was had packed some serious tech. Sissi, do you have any rich enemies?"

"Only one, but her name doesn't start with an X, it's Janice from the 7th grade. I made fun of her clothes and she got mad and attacked me. Her parents are insanely rich, the girl is spoiled rotten, even worse than I acted while I was with Herb and Nicholas."

"Definitely our main suspect then, any other people who have threatened to or have attacked you before?"

"Not really, Milly and Tamiya may have threatened to hurt me, but would never do this. They prefer to try and humiliate me with their news stories."

"Alright, X is the killer. That's all we know. I vote we have Yumi crack our intruders mind tomorrow when he tries to kill her. Lancer, we are going to have to rely on your Danger Sense power to get us through this. The moment you feel the slowdown occur move get out of the way and indicate where the attack came from, I'm sure your power tells you by how you were able to dodge in Lyoko."

Odd butts into the conversation.

"True, but shouldn't we all keep our senses open for this killer, I'd think Yumi would know who it was before the rest of us, seeing as she can read the minds of those around her."

Everyone nods at this, four of us would have to go back to the school eventually, like it or not, it's where we live. The group all get ready to leave the KLC and back to the school.