2g.) Iko

It was a few hours after the supposed tournament. Luke found himself going back to the college dorms, to see if there were any goings on, perhaps to pick up something quick to eat at the student cafeteria.

Taking a shortcut back through an isolated road, Luke again heard the device go off in his backpack. Sighing, he swung it off, taking it out, and examining it again. If the data was corrupted, he didn't know why he brought it with him...

Pressing a button randomly, the prongs shot up, a holographic image appearing before him: a blue, three-dimmensional, triangular arrow. "What the hell...?" Luke said to himself, glancing off in the direction the arrow was pointing.

Down a dark alley... Luke pressed a few buttons, and, eventually, figured that this wasn't a natural function of the watch. Something was going on... a virus, a set-up? These were the first two things to come to Luke's mind. Nevertheless, he edged out, walking carefully down the alley, taking care to check his blind spots.

It was a proverbial labyrinth back in this area; despite the arrow's direction, he often found himself having to backtrack, the simple straight-path arrow leading him to a dead end. As he moved through the alleys, he found the arrow pulsing faster and faster... until...

He turned a corner, finding the cloud of fog, occasionally sparking with static energy. "Okay... this is odd..." Luke said to himself, taking an unconcious step backward. He looked down at the watch, which was now pulsing a white outline rapidly, every fourth of a second.

Sighing again, Luke pushed through the fog, covering his eyes with his left sleeve. When he had made it through, however, he found that there was no static cloud inside, but only a faint, blue light. Curious, he walked slowly, looking around. Garbage cans lined the side of this alley, but there was not alot of area for cover.

There was a sudden noise in this area of absolute silence that attracted Luke's attention. Turning quickly, he saw a figure walking out from behind the corner, at the perimeter of this cloud. The C-ranked, wolfen Iko, stood before Luke, still missing half of his right ear, now clutching his right arm with his left hand. The time before the transfer, given Iko's distance to the main forces of darkness on the other side, didn't give Iko the liberty to rank down and make the process easier: hence, he was attacked, but not entirely defenseless...

"I... Iko?" Luke asked, stepping forward. The wolfen figure looked over at Luke, not immediately responding, as his body reverted to its squirrel state, removing the 'fracture' wound on his arm, but not recovering his ear.

"What's going on here?" Luke asked, half to himself, taking a step backward, bumping into a trash can, causing slight pain to his back. Pain... so, this wasn't a dream. Yet, it was lucid with the sensation of this light, as Iko walked forward, now in the form of a squirrel.

"Are you Luke?" Iko asked. Somewhat taken aback that the squirrel could talk, Luke nodded in response.

Without waiting for further questions, Iko darted up Luke's jeans, quickly perching on his shoulder. "We have no time to waste," Iko said. "First, we get out of here... then, I explain..."