Lyoko Returns, Part I: Across the Digital Sea <IC>

[Malshan]

Mitch grinned inwardly at Xana's speech to Tom. He quickly composed himself and limped over to Yuzuki, calling up his lifepoint meter. It was down to 50/400. "Man....that did NOT go well. How the heck are we going to compete with that? Those things just don't die!" He looked at his claws, noticing that they were chipped and scratched. "Well crap....I need to find a way to modify this thing out there in the real world..."

[Nature-Spirits]

Alexis waited until she could no longer see Xana until she allowed herself to fall back onto the ground and close her eyes, taking shallow breaths. A single tear built up at the corner of her eye before the eyelashes clinging to it let it roll down her face, leaving a trail of moisture behind it. She was still aware of her surroundings, but subconsciously chose to ignore them, and a muffled sob sounded in her throat.

[Mewsland]

The Tower VIII shield shut down, and when it did, the energy it was using was used by Hopper to heal Yuzuki. Her LP would rise to 172 points before the tower aura faded into Yuzuki's maroon (OoC note: Xana's towers have a black aura in this RP. Thank Vetega for that idea from the last run).

The Guardian of Lyoko awakened just in time to hear Mitch's remarks. "Your avatar will repair itself as you regenerate your LP. There's no use trying to disrupt the code for damage. The creator of the system, my father, helped me code it in the 2031 upgrades. It's designed to allow a user from Earth to interpret damage in a more natural way than just a number on a stat screen."

Yuzuki heard Alexis begin to cry a few feet from her. As she had been for her older sister during their troubles in the 1990s, Yuzuki wanted to be a comforting presence for someone again. Rising to her feet, she slowly walked over to Alexis, though she was still dragging her right leg along, as if her feet would support her but her leg would not move. The Guardian took a seat on a rock near Alexis. "What's troubling you? I may have been out of touch with Earth for over 40 years, but I know when someone is sad."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

By the time the battle was over, Graham's energy levels for his Arrow Explosion ability was entirely depleted. He also felt himself exhausted. Throughout the battle, he had not gone unscathed, and his life points were down to only slightly above 100 LP. He was partly dissappointed that the battle had ended before he was forced to go out and see just how powerful his Energy Gauntlet was, but he figured that he would have probably only managed to get himself killed if he did, considering he was inexperienced. This was his first time in Lyoko, after all.

When the battle was over, he simply sat down on a rock in order to rest, and, perhaps, regain some energy. He didn't quite understand how that worked yet.

[Vetega]

Xana rested his hand in his hands as he sat on the floor. His base code floated around him. Several lines were colored red. His code was being corrupted by a presence he knew quite well. He stood up and paced as millions of possibilities ran through his mind. The number grew steadily. All of them ended in his destruction.

Xana roared. A huge amount of power exploded from his body. From the top of his skyfortress a red pillar of energy blasted into the sky. Lyoko shifted from such rage. He could feel the worlds shaking. Then, one possibility had a chance of success. He calmed down . However, in order to do it, he would have to control every tower simultaneously. Which would require that he use a vast amount of energy.

'Mitch, begin your observations. Soon, there will ne a great purge. '

[The Mighty Islands]

Tom attempted to stand up, he was mentally exhausted. He made it to one knee and a foot on the ground when Lyoko began to shift around him. He could feel XANA in his mind. Suddenly, he could see what XANA saw, and could hear what he heard. The only thing he could hear was "observations," and "a great purge". Tom lifted his head and screamed before collapsing on his side.

[Nature-Spirits]

Alexis opened her eyes and turned her head to Yuzuki. "Oh, I don't know. It's a number of things, really. I'm scared of Xana, but glad that I'm alive. I'm amazed that a place such as this exists, but disappointed that it's being corrupted. I'm not sure what to do, and I know that my life can never return to normal," she explained ruefully, staggering to her feet and readjusting her skewed hat, which, despite its size, didn't do much to improve her short stature. The girl gave a not-very-convincing, half-hearted smile to convey that she was okay.

[Vetega]

Xana stopped pacing. He could feel someone new for a few seconds. Then, it disappeared. He smiled. The Seed he had implanted within Tom would feed off of Xana's power until it took control of it's host. It was a new creature that was transmitted in the black fog. This was it's first use.

[Mewsland]

"Tom!" Yuzuki rose to her feet and ran as fast as she could to the fallen warrior, calling up a stat screen along the way. "Whoa. Tom's LP are going all over the chart. There must be some sort of bug in his code. I'll run a debug, if we can get him into the tower!"

[Vetega]

Xana closed his eyes and concentrated. Tom was weak now.
"You are mine. "

The Eye of Xana began to appear on Tom's forehead in crimson red.

[Mewsland]

"There's our bug!" Yuzuki began to influx her own energy into Xana's link, hoping to break Tom away from Xana's control long enough to run a debug, totally ignoring the possibility that she herself could be possessed as well...

[The Mighty Islands]

Tom sat up and wiped Yuzuki's hand away. The eyes of XANA grew in his eyes before Tom shut them as tight as he could. When he opened his eyelids, the eye of XANA was still present. Tom focused himself before drawing his knife and stabbing himself in the chest, sending him back to the real world.

[Mewsland]

"Damn. Let's hope that he knows how to do a program reset. Otherwise, he'll be very buggy when he virtualizes again."

Yuzuki sat down on the mossy platform for a moment before standing up again. "We'll all begin to regenerate ourselves when we head into the tower, so let's go in and figure out what our game plan is here. "

[Vetega]

Xana felt Yuzuki barge in, but before he could take control he was cut off by Tom. He opened his eyes and popped his neck.
"Interesting. To save her you sacrificed yourself. However, devirtualizing yourself will not get rid of the bug. I will never leave you."

An alarm chimed. That meant that he was finally at his destination. He looked out a window and saw a shiny black surface outside of the skyfortress. The Inversion. The fortress floated towards a massive gate that had the Eye of Xana on it. It fell away into itself piece by piece. The fortress then floated into the Inversion. Once inside, the gate closed itself. There was one massive structure next to a giant dock on a cliff. The Bahamut came to a stop next to the dock. The cliff was so deep that the top of the skyfortress was barely visible.

Half a mile away, a complex rose into the air. A city sprawled out around it.in the center, four massive skyscrapers stretched to the heavens. Each one was taller than the other. The tallest one held Xana's throne room. Xana walked to his city. There was an army of monsters that surrounded the city. They moved aside for him. He continued on, his red eyes filled with purpose.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Graham continued sitting near the others, and though he felt a bit better, the sensation was minimal. He did not feel with much more energy than he had before, and he certainly hadn't regenerated any of his virtual health, his life points. However, since everyone was out here, he thought it best to stick with them.

It was because of this that he witnessed the scene that occurred with Tom while XANA was attempting to take hold of him. Not knowing what to do, he simply sat there, helplessly watching, as Yuzuki tried to help. However, in the end, the problem seemed to be fixed, if only temporarily... And through rather unorthodox means. The sight of someone stabbing himself disturbed Graham a little, but nothing that was too serious. Yuzuki didn't seem too worried about it, after all.

Finally, when Yuzuki mentioned that they should get to the tower, Graham nodded. "That's probably a good idea." He commented, and continued walking back to the tower.

As he walked, though, he looked around, admiring the place. Eventually, his curiosity grew to such point that, despite his usual silence, he decided to address Yuzuki. "Could you tell me more about this place, please? It's amazing."

[The Mighty Islands]

Tom opened his eyes, he was back in the real world. He checked over himself, realizing he was alive, he cussed. He stood up, and stumbled around until he found an elevator. He stepped inside and went up, compelled to search the factory. He sat down in a dust covered chair, and hit a power button. A massive computer interface activated, showing the world he was once inside. He picked up the headset and spoke softly into it, "Hello?"

[Vetega]

Xana stood in front of the Black Throne. It was dusty. He hadn't used the throne since Aelita's defeat. In truth, it scared him. For the first time in his existence, Xana had felt fear. As a result, the throne was unused. It connected him to nearly every source of power on Earth. It was the key piece of technology used during the Invasion of Earth almost two decades ago.

"Hammer Protocol activate. " he said.

The dark city came to life. The chair itself hummed with power. He sat in it and gasped before regaining his composure. He was now connected with the base code of the Supercomputer in his possession. He activated several pods within a small chamber at the base of the complex. The clones of Aelita's team came online.

[Mewsland]

'Well, hello, Tom. It seems you've found the interface."

[The Mighty Islands]

"Oh," he said, "It would appear that I have. Anything I should be doing right now?"

[Mewsland]

"Get off the computer screen. The holographic interface should have activated by now. The new system lets you interact with the hologram directly."

[Vetega]

Within a complex on Earth a supercomputer came to life. A clear tube in another room hummed to life at the same time. The person inside lifted himself out and rubbed his head. He stretched and yawned. A dark skinned young man with hazel eyes stumbled out into the open. Once he left the area, he ended up in the woods. He leaned up against a tree and finally noticed his surroundings. He had no memory of where he had been or why he was in the woods.

He could see a cluster of buildings in the distance. His eyes flashed red for a moment before returning to hazel. He walked towards the school in the distance, not knowing that he would be the end of this world.

[The Mighty Islands]

Tom stepped back, and the holographic interface activated. There was a huge spike one one of the bars, "Whoa," Tom said, "There was a huge spike in a bunch of levels here. Something bad just happened."

[Mewsland]

"Probably just the interface rebooting. It burns a lot of memory."

[Vetega]

Inversion

The Black Throne was activated once more. He concentrated his energy towards one area. It was the world of Fog. A tower was targeted. The white aura that surrounded it suddenly turned red. The citadel was suddenly surrounded by a raging vortex of flying creatures lifting into the air. A red pillar of energy blasted into the sky from the tallest skyscraper within the Complex.

The Inversion suddenly grew in size.

Earth

The boy came to a sudden stop. The air grew stale. Clouds gathered above him as he turned around. His eyes were red. The wind howled around him for a second before he disappeared. He reappeared at a bridge. There was a factory on the opposite end. He floated across the bridge, into the factory, and stopped in front of the elevator.

[The Mighty Islands]

"Yuzuki, someone's coming inside. And from the looks of him, he doesn't look friendly," Tom felt his head hurt again, "And the interface is warning me that a tower had been activated, someplace foggy. I'm going to see what's going on with this kid. I'll take a mobile interface with me to keep in touch."

Tom walked near the elevator and waited, staying out of sight of the new arrival.