Chapter 4: In Lyoko…

Kurama felt himself getting lightheaded as the pod faded from view. His next sensation was of floating and he opened his eyes to see an ice world before the sense of falling. Luckily he managed to land in a crouch position, having the keen instinct of a cat to land on his feet.

"Ops…I tried to tell you about that." He heard Jeremy say. Kurama looked around and didn't see the boy, but did see the other three. The fighting had ended, so he studied them just as they studied him. He realized that even though it looked liked he was in an ice region of some sort, he was not cold. Well not as cold as he could have been were this a real place. He still felt a chill through his thin white tunic.

Odd looked like a cat-man of sorts. His hair was the same spike blonde with purple stripe, but he was wearing a purple body style outfit, with tattoo markings on his face and he notice claws. There was a picture of a dog on his chest and Kurama could see a tail twitching behind him. Yumi looked like a geisha, only wearing a shorter kimono that was red and black shorts, but he had no doubt that it was a cover for her skills. Ulrich looked like a modern day samurai, in shades of brown, complete with a katana at his hip.

"And just what are you suppose to be?" Ulrich asked, noticing the silver ears and a tail that was twitching with what he thought was nervousness, but was actually excitement.

Kurama didn't answer as he mentally studied himself. He had Youko's image, but all of his human traits. Like one, he was not seven feet tall like Youko. He was his human height of about 5'7". Two, he did not have Youko's attitude because the spirit fox was still in the back of his mind and he heard. 'Well this is amusing, but not at all what I had expected.' He was glad to be Kurama and not the harsh, ruthless spirit fox, who obliviously had been hoping to come out and play.

"He's a spirit fox." Jeremy's voice was heard.

"Oh my." Was all Yumi could say, getting a look from Ulrich.

"I guess you three deserve an explanation." Kurama said, noticing the third difference. He had Shuiichi's voice and not the cold deep tone of Youko. "I will give you the short version that I gave Jeremy and explain the rest later." He received nods from everyone.

"Like Jeremy said, I am a spirit fox and this is somewhat my true form. It is a long story as to how I came to be in the human world and I would rather not go into the story right now. I ask that you trust me and I will help you in any way I can in getting your friend back. You can call me Kurama."

"I don't know." Ulrich said, placing his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"This is kind of weird even for me." Odd said, scratching the back of his head in confusion.

"Listen guys, we don't have much time. Aelita is in trouble and I trust him, don't ask why…I just do." Jeremy's voice came from the sky.

"Where to then?" Yumi asked.

"You need to head east, to the tower. Her signal is no longer there." Jeremy informed.

"I will follow your lead." Kurama said.

"Then try to keep up." Ulrich said and took off, running just below his 'super sprint' speed.

"Don't pay attention to him. He doesn't play well with others." Odd said with a smile.

"That's fine…he kind of reminds me of a very close friend." Kurama said and took off running to catch up to the fighter.

Ulrich looked to the fox before going into 'super sprint', leaving the fox behind. Kurama backed off and waited for the others to catch up. In a few minutes, they were in view of what looked like a white tower.

Kurama stopped and placed his hands on his knees, panting lightly. The other two stopped beside him. Looking to the tower, they saw Ulrich already there, pacing with his hand on the hilt of his sword and looking somewhat annoyed.

"Are you okay?" Yumi asked after catching her breath, Odd was still panting beside her.

"Now I know he is related to Hiei." Kurama smirked.

"Who?" They both said, confused.

"Nothing…just a joke, now what?" He asked, walking to the tower and not seeing an entrance.

"Her signal is now in the forest region. I don't understand why she keeps moving and how she's moving so fast and I still can't make contact." Jeremy said.

"How do we get to the forest area?" Kurama asked.

"We have to go through the tower and it will take us there." Yumi answered. "Just follow us."

Kurama followed, still unsure as to how to get into this tower thingy. He watched as Ulrich walked right through, dissolving into the structure, Odd followed, then Yumi. He just shrugged and walked through, watching the ice region dissolve before finding himself in a round room, black all around, except the floor that had some type of symbol made of black and white circles. It began to light up as the others walked over it to the other side. He walked over to them and waited.

"Jeremy, we're ready." Yumi said, opening her arms and leaning forward. She then proceeded to 'fall' off the platform.

"What!" Kurama gasped, his eyebrows raised as he walked to the edge to look over. It was nothing but a black hole.

"It's okay." Jeremy said. "It will take you to another tower…just follow what the others do."

Ulrich didn't even look at the fox as he too opened his arms and proceeded to fall off the platform.

Odd looked to him and smiled. "See you there." He said as he too fell off, disappearing into the darkness.

Kurama didn't know what to think. This whole thing was starting to get to him, even with everything he'd been through in his experiences, yet he knew he wanted to stay here. Youko's curiosity was still pushing him forward. He walked to the very edge and opened his arms. If the others could do it, which obviously they have many times before, then so could he, so closing his eyes, he let himself fall forward. Opening his eyes, he found himself falling, but not as fast as he would be if he were, like falling off a building. He was being controlled by some sort of gravity. As he fell, he had the sense of falling 'up' to something and his body did a flip before he was above another platform. He went to place his foot down to land, but his balance was a little off, making him want to fall backwards and he flared his arms in attempt to catch himself.

A hand reached over and grabbed his wrist, stopping him from falling back over the edge. After he righted himself, in mind and in body, he looked to the hand on his wrist. Ulrich quickly let go and walked the platform to the other side, dissolving to the outside.

"Thank you." Kurama said softly, he was sure the boy had heard him because he got a soft. "Yeah whatever" before he disappeared. Kurama controlled a smirk and headed out with the others as they too made their way out of the tower.

Upon exiting this tower, he saw they were in a forest that looked, well, virtual. Kurama didn't know how to describe it, except like some type of computer game scenery.

"Jeremy, we're here." Yumi said.

"She's south-east of you, on the far edge of the region." Jeremy's voice said. "She's not moved for awhile…get there as fast as you can."

"We could use our vehicles." Odd said, looking to the sky. "If you don't mind."

"Can do, just give me a minute."

Before Kurama's eyes, three 'vehicles' appeared, a one wheeled motorcycle, an oversized base floating scooter and a floating skateboard.

"You better hurry guys. I just picked up an activated tower in the desert region and something just came on the cameras, the warehouse is being surrounded by snakes." Jeremy informed them.

"When it rains, it pours." Odd said.

"Okay Jeremy." Yumi said.

"That doesn't sound good." Kurama said.

"Its okay, all we need to do is get Aelita and she'll deactivate the tower and everything will go back to normal." Odd said. "Besides, Jeremy's locked in the control room. He can hold them off until we get the princess and then we can go back."

"How?" The fox wondered.

"No time to explain. Trust us, we know what to do." Yumi said, jumping on her over-wing. "You can ride with me, hop on."

Kurama felt eyes boring into him and looking to Ulrich, the phrase 'if looks could kill' came to mind. So picking the better part of valor, he decided against riding with Yumi. He was going to ask Ulrich for a ride, for he liked the idea of the motorcycle, but the boy kicked the machine in gear and road off, leaving the others in the dust.

"Hop on with me. I'll take you on the ride of your life." Odd said with a cocky smile.

Kurama shrugged and watched as Odd did a mid-air flip, landing on the floating board. He then cocked his head, motioning for him to 'hop on'. Kurama smiled and doing his own flip, landed on the board behind the show off kid.

"Hold on." Odd warned, tapping his foot. The board shot off with Yumi following behind.

Kurama didn't think he needed to hold on until the board started picking up speed and Odd started swerving hard, almost throwing him off and giving the fox no choice but to grab onto the small waist.

End Chapter 4