I thought up of this last night. Have to admit, Yellow had me stumped for a while. Until I remember all this "Don't tell me you're scared" stuff that happened during the XANA Awakens episodes. Heh.

I had fun when I came up with the ultimate insult for Sissy.

Yellow

Uh, that electric ball of flying death in the gym? That was bad. He'd have to check in Belpois with that one, but in the meantime he should probably shake the Japanese girl he was practicing martial arts with. Struggling to sound like he wasn't trying to push her off too roughly, he lightly suggested that maybe she could go hide out with her friends for a while.

"I don't...have any friends," she replied through gritted teeth.

Oh.

Ulrich peeked out of the locker door to see the electric ball of death coming closer, straight for them. During their tiff Ulrich had figured that this girl, Yumi, was it? He had figured that she was impossibly stubborn, and if she didn't have any friends...well...

He glanced back at her. She could fight, maybe even better than he could. Shrugging as he grabbed her wrist and tore away from the door to the tunnel to the sewers, he figured that Belpois would forgive him later. After all, Sissy knew everything that was going on with this virtual whatsits, and you couldn't go much more wrong than Sissy.

To make matters worse, she was questioning everything he said to Belpois over the cell phone. He...probably should've waited to make that call because he realized she really was as stubborn as a mule then. Nevertheless, he breathlessly explained everything Belpois was doing at the moment; you know, dragging them into a virtual war, having them suffering over the consequences over this fake virtual girl with a personality on a supercomputer located at the abandoned factory not twenty minutes away from there. Yeah. Makes sense. Makes perfect, lunatic sense.

"Hey...who's that girl?" Jeremy Belpois questioned him as they collided in the sewers. Ulrich had a brief flash of feeling where he wanted to straight-out punch Belpois, but he subsided.

"Her name's Yumi. She was with me when I was attacked, and she can fight so I thought—,"

"Okay okay, later, we gotta go," Belpois interrupted before he zipped off faster than Ulrich could ever think he could go. So much for introductions, anyways.

Yumi was fast, and easily almost overcame all three of them though she had a late start. She wasn't even out of breath when they got to the large dangling wires that they used to leap over the incredibly deep chasm down to the factory that made Ulrich's stomach turn upside down. Part of Ulrich wished she was out of breath.

"Don't tell me you're scared!" she mocked him as she grabbed the nearest wire and slid down it. Ulrich narrowed his eyes in a very practiced glare, and grabbed the wire without another word. Scared? Chicken? Yellow-bellied? Ulrich? Never. He just...had a condition, that's all. Just a condition with heights.

He stumbled on the landing and nearly fell, but he was able to pick himself up before Yumi noticed. Good, good. He'd like to keep his vertigo a secret, especially from somebody as cocky as her. She still beat him to the elevator though, and that in itself did nothing to lessen his locked glare on her. He was starting to second-guess his decision to bring her into this, but her wondrous and confused expression satisfied him enough that he wasn't entirely regretting it so far. Plus, it wouldn't kill them to have a girl on the team anyways. It was made up of mostly guys anyways.

And yes, guys included Sissy. Zing!

Ulrich stifled both his laugh and his groan. What was he turning into, his pea-brained roommate?

Yumi asked Belpois a question about whoever Maya was, but he simply smiled and said she was going to meet her. Ulrich smirked at her and offered no other clarification. This earned him a sufficient glare from her, and he kept the smirk. As long as she was completely bothered by it, then it was better than gold in his books.

"This story of yours is pure science fiction." she dismissed as she stood in the scanner room.

"Well...yeah," Ulrich had to admit that, "Except it's for real."

She frowned at the both of them, Ulrich and his full of crap roommate. Oh well. She'll see soon enough. Despite himself, Ulrich winked deviously at Odd, who bowed and pranced into the nearest scanner. Ulrich too stepped into one, and stared her square in the eyes.

"Don't tell me you're scared." he smiled victoriously at her. She wrinkled up her nose, miffed, but before she could bite back the scanner doors closed and filled with a golden light.

He knew she wasn't scared, or a chicken, or yellow-bellied. He just believed that things would run a lot more smoothly with her around, and he was willing to keep her over everyone else in the group.