Pick On Ulrich Week CODE LYOKO Season 5 preview

by Elemental Nova

A preview to CODE LYOKO Season 5, a work in progress. These five episodes make up a Pick On Yumi Week, but for Ulrich. My first two episodes aren't the best I need to edit/cut the romance , but this is still worth a read. T for violence.

I wanted to wait until I finished all 22 episodes (I have guides planned for 6 and 7 and a few later episodes that I don't know where to fit) and then upload them once a week, but I couldn't hold this in anymore! I'm halfway through episode 6 right now, but it's taking me forever because it's hard to find time to write. My first five episodes make up a Pick On Ulrich Week (hey, if there was a Pick On Yumi Week, why can't there be a week about Ulrich? Ulrich is still one of my favorites, I only chose him because it just fit. It also might have had something to do with the fact that there was a week about Yumi too). When I've finished all the episodes I'll probably delete this story and repost them in my planned once-a-week schedule, but for now, enjoy these five episodes! Also, if you want a spoiler, I've reached the part in my sixth episode where Jeremie's form is revealed. He's a clown with a peg leg and eye patch, and his weapon is a hook for a left hand! But that's only temporary…

P.S. These are "shiny" rough drafts. Edited and improved, but still rough. Any suggestions welcome, but I already have all of my secrets and plot twists planned. If something seems like a continuity error, be patient. It will be explained later.

P.P.S. I wrote this from the point of view of an audience watching it on TV. That's why some scenes, especially the one about You'll-Soon-Know-Who, just say "two hands remove…" instead of "[name] removes" because the audience doesn't know who they are yet.

P.P.P.S. I own the plots of these episodes and the new/changed monsters. Other than that, I own nothing mentioned here.

Code Lyoko Season 5

The first episode starts a week after the Supercomputer is shut down. Subsequent episodes, like the real show, will take place one to a few days apart.

#1_HERE WE GO AGAIN

At Kadic Academy in Mrs. Hertz's classroom.

Mrs. Hertz was lecturing her class. Ulrich was staring out the window. Odd was rolling a pencil back and forth with his head resting on the other hand. Jeremie took out his laptop, and Aelita told him to put it back. "I can't help it!" Jeremie responded. "I keep expecting the Superscan to alert us."

"XANA's gone, remember." Aelita reminded him. "We all miss Lyoko, but it's ultimately better now that we don't have to worry about XANA. Just Sissi. Remember how she quit our group the day she was accepted after we said shopping wasn't important and we were too busy to go on weekly sprees?" She joked, trying to make him recall the funny memories and cheer him out of his nostalgia. It didn't work. Jeremie sighed and put his laptop away.

Near the bridge to the factory. It is raining.

A taxi pulls up and a woman wearing a raincoat steps out. Her face and hair are hidden by her hood. She walks to the trunk and takes out a large rolling suitcase. The driver asks why she wants to be dropped off here without a hotel or even a house in sight. She doesn't respond, paying the driver and walking away. She walks across the bridge, ties her suitcase to the rope and lowers it down, slides down the rope herself, then walks towards the elevator with her suitcase and presses the button. As the door closes she takes off her hood, revealing dark pink hair.

At Kadic Academy by the vending machine.

Yumi walks up to join the boys and Aelita. "Wow, I didn't pay attention in class at all! I kept expecting an SOS XANA text!"

"I guess that makes two of us." Ulrich says.

"I had the same problem. Maybe we should form a rehabilitation and support group. How about Lyoko Warriors Anonymous?" Odd jokes. The group laughs. Then Sissi, Nicholas, and Herb walk by.

"What are you weirdoes cackling about?" asks Sissi. "Is something tickling you? Are there feathers in your shoes, or in your heads? It must be your heads, because without any brains, there's more room for the feathers!" Sissi smirks as her two followers dutifully laugh.

"Speaking of heads, Sissi, have you heard back from the psychiatrist? I hear she decided to send the scans of your brain to some super-scientists, but when she went to pick up the pictures, all they showed was an empty space!" Odd replies.

"You went to a psychiatrist?" Nicholas asks.

"Shut up!" Sissi yells. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood today or I'd make a brilliant comeback that would leave you stuttering, Odd!"

"I'd be willing to hear it, too, but I don't have enough patience to wait a year for you to think one up." Odd retorts. Sissi growled in frustration and stalked off with Nicholas and Herb.

In the Supercomputer room of the factory.

The hatch opens and the Supercomputer rises up. A hand pulls the lever and pushes the button, and the Supercomputer lights up. The elevator door closes. The elevator goes up to the computer room. A suitcase is laid down. A hand unzips and opens it. It is filled with CDs and external CD drives. Two hands remove one of the drives. Two hands plug it into the computer. Then another drive is plugged in. Soon all the drives are connected and a CD is inserted into each one. On the computer screen, data starts to zoom by as a progress bar pops up. The data stops at 10%. The CDs are all ejected and new ones are put in. Data resumes flowing and the bar goes to 20%. The CDs are taken out and new ones put in. Data flows and the bar goes to 30%.

At Kadic Academy, in Jeremie's room.

Aelita and Jeremy are staring at his computer. "Do you think my father is still alive and trapped on the network?" Aelita suddenly asked.

"No, he sacrificed himself to give my anti-XANA program power to work." Jeremie replied. "I'm sorry." he said, and then after a short pause, he gently and awkwardly put his arm around Aelita to comfort her. She sighed sadly, then moved close and leaned her head on Jeremie's shoulder and closed her eyes. He blushed deeply, and both of their somber expressions became a little less gloomy.

At the factory, in the computer room.

The progress bar reaches 100%. Two hands remove and repack all the CDs and drives. Two hands type swiftly on the keyboard and two countdowns appear. One starts at 0:30:00 and the other starts at 3:00:00. The elevator door closes and the elevator goes to the scanner room. A scanner door closes. On the computer, the first countdown reaches 0:00:00 and the second countdown starts. On Lyoko, in Sector 5, a person begins to materialize next to a tower. Viewed from high above, the figure is unidentifiable as it runs into the tower. In the tower, in a beam of light, two feet clad in cloth rise off the floor. A soft beeping sound is heard as the figure lands on the upper platform. An interface pops up and a hand is placed on it. A name appears on the screen.

ANTEA

Then the words

CODE

CARTHAGE

All around Antea Schaffer blue screens turn dark pink.

In Jeremie's room.

Aelita had moved into a more comfortable position, snuggled tight against Jeremie. He was frozen, not wanting to move in case he disturbed her and she moved away. Suddenly, the Superscan beeped! Jeremie jumped out of his chair with shock and Aelita fell to the floor. "Jeremie!"

"The…this…it's impossible!" Jeremie panicked. "What's going on?"

"What is it?" asked Aelita. Then she noticed the computer. "The Superscan? An activated tower?" Suddenly the scan froze, fizzled, then shut down. "Huh?"

"I don't like the looks of this. Could be a false alarm, but I think we should check it out just to be safe. It's weird how the Superscan just suddenly shut down!"

But…but…XANA…defeated…we…"

"I know we defeated XANA, but why is there an activated tower?" Jeremie pulled out his phone and called Odd. "Odd, the Superscan went off!"

"Yeah right, Einstein, stop joking around. That's my job!"

"No, I'm serious! I don't know what's going on, but for some reason there's an activated tower!"

"Well, there's only one thing to do. Head for the factory, I'll call the others."

"Hey, that's my line!"

In Sector 5, at the activated tower.

A dark mist seeps from the outside of the tower and spreads throughout Sector 5, and then into the data stream. The Desert sector turns grey. The Mountain sector turns grey. The Ice sector turns grey. The Forest sector turns grey.

In the computer room.

The second countdown reaches zero.

In the scanner room.

A scanner opens and Antea steps out. She takes the elevator up to the computer room and grabs her suitcase.

At the entrance to the elevator shaft.

"Huh?" uttered Ulrich. "Where's the elevator?"

Yumi laughed. "Down below, silly. I'll bring it up." She presses the button. Ulrich is still worried. "How could the elevator be down there? We were the last ones to be here, and we used the elevator to leave, so it should still be up here. Unless…"

In the computer room.

Antea was walking towards the elevator with her suitcase when the elevator started to rise without her. "No!" she cursed.

At the entrance to the elevator shaft.

The group gets into the elevator and takes it down to the computer room. The door opens and Jeremie steps out before the others. The moment he is out of the elevator, a pipe is swung into the back of his head! He crumples to the ground with Antea behind him holding the pipe. Yumi cries "Jeremie!" and rushes out, followed by Ulrich and Odd.

"Whoa!" Odd stops short.

"Um…" stammers Ulrich.

Aelita walks out of the elevator. She began "What's going…" then stopped. "Mom?" she asked incredulously. Antea stared back. She dropped the pipe without realizing it.

"Sweetie?" Then the mother and daughter ran towards eachother with arms outstretched. Just as they were about to embrace, Antea's arms shot out straight and grabbed Aelita by the throat. "You were supposed to die on Lyoko!" she snarled. "XANA killed that fool Waldo, why didn't it kill you? How did you virtualize yourself? I planted a virus in you while you were on Lyoko that should have prevented you from coming back! And what happened to XANA? It wasn't on Lyoko just now. How are you alive? You've wrecked everything!" Aelita's eyes were bugging out as she struggled to breathe.

"Franz sacrificed himself and we destroyed XANA, and we'll destroy you too if you don't let Aelita go!" Ulrich yelled. Odd grabbed the pipe and Ulrich and Yumi went into Pencak Silat fighting stances.

"You destroyed XANA? But I bugged it up so it would be unstoppable! It would turn on Waldo and then Aelita, and then I would erase it. But it looks like you children beat me to it. But no matter. My new program, one of my own creations instead of one that stupid Waldo made, will make XANA look like a prank program! It will utterly crush you all!" Then Antea flung Aelita from her grip. She landed next to Jeremie. Regardless of her own condition, she crawled closer to him and tried to find his pulse. Antea continued. "That is, if I don't crush you first!" She charged at Ulrich and kicked towards his face. He dodged and blocked a second kick at his head. Yumi leapt at Antea, and she turned to knock her back down, but this allowed Ulrich to swipe her legs out from under her. Antea fell, and Odd leapt in with the pipe and gave a mighty swing. Antea caught the pipe and ripped it from his grasp, then thrust it into his stomach. As he doubled over with the breath knocked out of him, she reached up and grabbed his head, slammed her knee into his face, tossed him aside, and stood up. Then, with a powerful kick to his side, she sent him flying into a wall where he slumped to the ground unconscious. Ulrich attempted a crescent kick at her head, but she blocked it and grabbed his leg. Before she could flip him, Yumi came flying in and landed a kick to Antea's stomach. Antea let go of Ulrich and faced Yumi, snarling like a feral beast. She attacked with a flurry of punches. Yumi blocked the first few, but was then overwhelmed. The barrage of strikes soon knocked her out. Antea turned to face Ulrich. Ulrich feinted an uppercut with his right while driving his left fist towards her shoulder, but Antea wasn't fooled by the feint and dodged the strike. She swiftly backhanded Ulrich and he staggered back. Antea jumped forward in a flying spinning kick. Ulrich blocked the kick, but the impact knocked him down. Antea performed an axe stomp into Ulrich's chest, and he heard the crack of a rib breaking. Through his pain, he snatched at Antea's leg, but missed. She kicked at his knee, jarring it, and then again, dislocating it. Ulrich howled in pain. Antea's expression was a blank, cold slate. She grabbed him by the throat with one hand and hauled him upright, then punched him where his rib had broken. She pulled back her hand to launch a palm strike at Ulrich's temple, but a hand grabbed her.

"No, mommy." Aelita said quietly and hoarsely, but with a tone of steel. Antea just reverse kicked Aelita and knocked her flying, but the distraction was enough for Ulrich to grab her wrist and escape her chokehold. He struck her across her head to daze her, then grabbed it in both hands and began slamming her head into the wall. Antea's leg hooked out and tripped Ulrich. As he fell, she grabbed her suitcase and fled towards the elevator. It closed and began to rise up. Ulrich looked down at his chest and saw blood gushing out around a tiny white tip of bone. Jeremie stirred.

"Aelita? Jeremie?" Ulrich gasped. "I need…a return…to the past. Can't…make it to…scanners. Think…rib…punctured…a lung."

"Alright Ulrich, hang in there." Jeremie ran to the computer, then held his aching head. He was about to start a return when Aelita stopped him.

"Jeremie! My mom didn't have time to delete her programs! Look, here's the entire code for her supervirus! If we return to the past, we'll lose it! This is a chance to destroy it before it even gets a chance to do anything!" Aelita was excited.

"Your mom? What supervirus? Huh?" asked Jeremie.

"My mom created something hundreds of times worse than XANA!" Aelita responded.

"Alright, that decides it." Ulrich looked sad. Jeremie continued "I'll return to the past." Ulrich looked up, about to say something (probably along the lines of "it's okay, you can sacrifice me to destroy the program") but decided not to. "We can destroy it now and lose Ulrich, or we can lose it for now, then destroy it later with Ulrich among us. Besides, with a second chance, we might stop your mom from doing all this in the first place. Return to the past now!" Jeremie declared. A white bubble enveloped them all. But then it started to shrink back. When it disappeared, an error blared on the computer screen. "Huh? What just happened?"

"I don't know." Aelita responded. "I think that the return started, but then reversed. I bet my mom or her program had something to do with it."

"Whatever happened, I'm healed." Ulrich stated as he stood up and looked at himself.

"Tell me about your mom and this program." Jeremie asked Aelita. She explained what had just happened. "Wow! You finally learn that your mom is alive, and she attacks you and turns out to be an enemy! Uh…I better launch a scan to make sure that the program was erased in the messed-up return." He turned to Aelita and softly added "I'm…I'm here for you if you…" he stammered "…if you need…need comfort." He awkwardly finished. Then he turned back to the computer, embarrassed, and started to type. Bits of binary started racing across the screen. Then it suddenly stopped and an error appeared. "Oh no, bad news." Jeremie announced. "Whatever your mom created, it's still here. Worse, the return to the past is completely disabled. Antea sabotaged it. I'm surprised we even got that half return thing!"

"Can you fix it?" Yumi asked.

"Yeah, but it'll take a while. I might not make it to school tomorrow. You'll have to cover for me."

"You got it!" Odd exclaimed. "I'll just tell Jim that you whacked your head on a pipe and you're at the hospital recovering."

"That's all you can come up with?" asked Ulrich. "That's practically what happened!"

END

#2_ROGUE ROBOT

At Kadic Academy, in the Boy's hallway.

Jeremie walked through the double doors with bandages wrapped around his head in the middle of Jim's roll call. "Ah, Belpois!" he exclaimed. "You're back! How's the head?"

"It still hurts, but the doctors let me come back to school. I have to keep these bandages on, though." Jeremie replied.

"Reminds me of when I worked at a gas station and had to go the hospital because I set myself on…never mind, I'd rather not talk about it." Jeremie moved into his place in the roll call line, in front of his door. Jim finished roll call, then yelled "Alright now, everyone get to sleep! And if I hear any of you being rowdy or noisy, I'll…" The double doors burst open and Principal Delmas strode in.

"Jim! What are you doing? Quiet down or you'll wake up everyone in the building!" All the boys tried to stifle laughs at the sight of Jim's expression in reaction to this rebuke. Mr. Delmas left. Jim turned back around and said, in a more normal volume, "as I was saying…uh…what was I saying? Oh yeah! Go to bed!" He walked out the doors. All the boys turned around and went into their rooms. As soon as Jeremie was in his room with the door closed, he removed the "bandages". Wrapped up in them was a CD in a case. He popped it into the computer. Jeremie and the computer are viewed from the side so the screen isn't seen, but whatever is on it has him very excited. "This is incredible!" he breathes, and then leans in closer to focus.

The next morning, in the cafeteria.

Jeremie walks over to the table where the others are already seated. Odd greets him. "Hey, how's your head Einstein? That's the only part that you use to fight, so it better not be damaged!"

"Did you fix the return to the past function?" Aelita asked.

"What took you so long?" questioned Yumi. "You told us it would only take you a day, but you were gone for two!"

Jeremie responded "Yes, I fixed it. It took so long because I also restored everything else, like the vehicles. Since I wasn't working from scratch this time, it went much quicker. We now have everything that we had when we fought XANA, even my anti-XANA program, but that won't be much use because this new program is more complex than anything I've ever seen. According to Antea…"

Ulrich cut him off. "Antea? When did you talk to her? What were you thinking?"

"Calm down, Ulrich! Antea left something at the factory. I smuggled it into my room. It's a CD with notes and diary entries, sort of like Franz Hopper's diary, but less organized and not as many actual diary entries. But the ones she did leave are super important."

"What did you learn, Jeremie?" Aelita anxiously asked.

"Not much, I tried reading it last night, but I only read a few notes before I fell asleep at the computer. Luckily my alarm woke me up. I did learn something about her program, though."

"What?" Aelita asked, starting to get even more excited. Antea had made a huge slip-up, and now there was hope for the Lyoko Warriors and the world!

Jeremie launched into some computer jargon getting more excited as he spoke. Odd interrupted him.

"Whoa, Einstein, slow down! Translation, please?"

Jeremie complied. "Basically, it's based on a theoretical idea that isn't supposed to be possible. I don't know how she created it, and I have no idea where to start to make an antivirus. It's much more powerful than XANA. And listen to this! Antea was the biggest traitor in the history of traitors. She was stealing and sabotaging Franz Hopper's programs and heading the Project Carthage team!" The group collectively gasped. "She's a much better programmer than Hopper, but she always hid it from him. She messed up XANA so it would destroy Aelita and Franz, and then she would replace it with her program and start Project Carthage. I couldn't quite figure out what it really is, but Project Carthage is much more than just communications." Odd was about to speak, but Jeremie continued, speaking even more rapidly. "There's more. Antea was an expert at Pencak Silat, and then mixed in other martial arts and her own style. Apparently she was a fanatic about all forms of combat, hand to hand, short range weapons, long range projectiles, everything. Her few diary entries detail her practices and the few times she used these skills in public, as well as her betrayal of Franz. It seems like she liked to hide everything, and a computer was the only thing she could trust to tell her secrets to. And…"

"Stop!" Aelita sobbed. She got up and ran out crying.

"I'll go comfort her." volunteered Yumi. "No disrespect, Jeremie, but that was quite harsh. She finally finds her mother, and you go blabbing that she's a psycho killing machine who made XANA evil, betrayed her and her father, and is now trying to destroy everything. You could have worked it in more slowly."

Jeremie hung his head. He suddenly felt very bad. "I never thought of that. I…I guess I should go apologize." He gets up and walks out.

In the woods by the school.

Jeremie was talking to himself. "I know that I made her feel bad, but being sad isn't going to change the fact that her mom is evil. Whoa, Jeremie, even to me that sounded harsh. Say, 'against us' or 'an enemy'. They both sound better than 'evil'. I wonder where Aelita went? Probably to the Hermitage." Jeremie continued muttering to himself about various topics as he walked, kicking a pebble along the trail. He reached the Hermitage and went inside. Aelita was sitting on what was her bed in the past. She looked up and made eye contact with Jeremie. Then they both apologized at once, making the words overlap in an incomprehensible jumble. Nevertheless, they both understood each other perfectly.

"I'm sorry I got so upset."

"I'm sorry I upset you."

In Jeremie's room at Kadic.

The door handle rattles, then turns and the door opens. Antea stands there, holding a hair clip that she had used to pick the lock. She bends down and picks up a box. She sets it on the ground near Jeremie's desk and opens it, then takes out exact replicas of all Jeremie's computer equipment. She puts all of his stuff in the box and replaces it with the components that she had brought. Packing up all his stuff, she left.

In the woods by the school.

Jeremie and Aelita were walking back to Kadic. "So, do you accept my apology?" Jeremie asked.

"Yes." Aelita simply stated. But she let her actions speak louder than her words as she slipped her hand into Jeremie's. He noticed and stopped for a second, but then continued walking. A small smile crept onto both of their faces. They held hands all the way back to the school.

"Hey, come on you two lovebirds, we'll be late to class!" Ulrich called from the doorway.

Aelita turned to Jeremie and challenged "Last one there helps Odd with his homework!" They both let go of eachother's hand and raced to class. They burst through their classroom door just as the bell rang and rushed to their seats. "I win!" sang Aelita. Mrs. Hertz started teaching about different types of radiation and wavelengths of color. Jeremie noticed Odd with a ridiculous, confused look on his face. Then he dropped his head on his forearms and started to nap. Jeremie looked nervously at Aelita.

"About the loser helping Odd with his homework…you were joking, right?"

On Lyoko, in the Sector 5.

A tower activates.

In Jeremie's room at Kadic.

A dark pink crosshairs with a triangle in the center appears on the screen of Jeremie's "computer". Pink lines, so thin that they were practically invisible, light up all over the computer and the other components. The light fades. Author's Note: This is the symbol of the new cyber-enemy

By a bench in the courtyard at Kadic.

After school, The Lyoko Warriors, minus Jeremie, were all sitting on or around the bench. Sissi walks by. "Ulrich, dear," she begins, "I was wondering if you could…"

"…help you with your homework." Ulrich finished in a bored, annoyed tone. "Nice try, but no thanks."

Sissi looked sad. "But…but..."

"Look, just go, your plan didn't work. Go."

"But I'm serious this time! I know in the past I just said that as an excuse to try and be alone with you, but this time I actually need help."

"Well then, leave me alone and go ask Jeremie. He can help better than I can."

"Fine! I will!" Sissi storms off.

"He's probably in his room!" Odd called after her.

In Jeremie's room, at Kadic.

Jeremie sits down in front of his "computer". "That's funny." he says to himself. "I could have sworn that I left it on." He reaches over and presses the power button. It appears to turn on, but instead of starting up his operating system, the symbol appears on the screen and the lines start to glow. Sections of the computer and components, formed by the lines, slide out. Soon everything looks like a mass of 3D Tetris shapes. They begin to reorient themselves and slot back together, forming a blocky humanoid robot about Jeremie's height. The CD tray is now a buzzsaw protruding from above the left wrist. The fingers on the right hand are covered in rectangles of light in different sizes. Blades run down the forearms and shins, and spikes line the upper arms and legs. The screen is in the center of the torso, with the symbol glowing malevolently. The head is squat and brutal-looking with pink eyes and a gladiator-style helmet (faceguard and nose guard with eye slits). On the back is a weave of cables. The cables suddenly untangle and spring up and over the robot and reach out at Jeremie. He backpedals in fear as it advances. Just then, Sissi walks in. The robot slowly swivels its head to stare at her. She stares back. Then she screams.

Outside Kadic, in the courtyard.

Sissi burst out of the doors screaming. Ulrich and Odd looked at her. "Maybe Jeremie tried to explain something in that 'simple' way that he always does, and her mind snapped?" Odd suggested, with emphasized sarcasm on the word "simple".

"Oh, is that what happened to you, Odd? I thought that you were crazy because you always eat so much." Yumi retorted jokingly. Sissi spotted them and ran towards them.

"Sissi?" asked Aelita. "What's the matter?"

"Jeremie…robot…Jim…scary…attacking…aaahhh!" Sissi panted incoherently. But the gang understood.

"Jeremie's in trouble! I bet my mom's program possessed something!" Aelita rushed towards the dormitories, with the rest of the group following close behind.

"Possessed? What? Huh? What's going on, Ulrich?" Sissi implored, but he was already long gone.

In Jeremie's room.

The robot's cables sprang out and caught Jeremie's ankle, tripping him. He fell with a yell. With panic written on his face, he stared at his death. The robot loomed over him, and then picked him up by the throat with the right hand. The CD tray saw on its left arm whirred into deadly life. Jeremie struggled, but to no avail. The saw crept inexorably closer to his neck. Suddenly a foot came out of nowhere and knocked the machine down. Ulrich stood over the robot, with Yumi, Odd, and Aelita framed in the doorway. The mechanical monster flipped upright and hurled Jeremie at Ulrich, knocking him down. Yumi leapt in to help. She grabbed the metal limb with to halt the saw that was descending towards Ulrich's head, but the other hand zapped her. But standing ready to take her place was Odd. He tackled the robot, knocking it over. Before it could repeat its previous maneuver, Ulrich and Aelita pinned it. It stopped struggling. Suddenly it the cables on its back exploded outwards, hurling bodies away. It fired lightning bolts at the warriors. One hit Jeremie's desk and set it on fire. The fire alarm went off and the sprinkler systems activated. The robot went haywire, flailing wildly, then charged out the window. On the grounds, Jim was cleaning up trash with javelin muttering about not being able to find the usual trash-sticker and lamenting why he also had to be a janitor this year as well as a PE teacher and campus staff. He heard the fire alarm and looked up as the robot crashed through the window and fell towards him. Jim dropped everything and ran to avoid getting squashed. The machine impaled itself on the javelin. In Jeremie's room, Odd looked out the window. "Well, we all nearly died, but that's normal. At least that thing is dead. What happened, Jeremie?

"I don't know. I tried to turn on my computer, but it split apart and reassembled itself in that robot form! It was like that movie you made me go see, Transmorphers or something like that. Do you remember, Odd?"

"Yeah, but it was called…uh oh! Scratch what I said about it being dead! Look!" The Lyoko Warriors crowded around the broken window. The machine was covered in a dark mist. It stood up and grabbed the metal head of the javelin. Using the saw and electric hand, it welded a repair patch for the hole the weapon had torn in its torso. When it was finished, the mist was sucked back into the machine and its eyes turned back on, with the strange symbol glowing.

"Get to the factory!" Jeremie yelled.

In the computer room.

Jeremie sat in front of the computer typing. "Bad news, guys." He said into his headset. "My scans don't work for this new enemy. I'm going to send you all to different parts of Lyoko to search for the tower. He then proceeds to send Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd to Lyoko. Then Aelita goes. Yumi is virtualized in the Mountain sector. Odd appears in the Forest sector. Ulrich is in the Desert sector. Aelita materializes in the Ice sector. Jeremie then creates their vehicles. Each warrior speed off to search for the tower.

After a while, Odd checks in. "No activated towers here! But everything looks weird!"

"No luck in the desert either, but Odd's right. Everything's grey!" Ulrich reports.

Yumi joins the conversation. "Nothing happening in the mountains, Jeremie! But why is the sector in grayscale?"

"Same thing in the Ice sector. No activated tower, and everything's grey." Adds Aelita.

"So the tower isn't in any of those sectors? Then it must be in…"

"…Sector 5!" they all finish at once.

"Okay, everyone meet Aelita in the Ice sector and I'll bring up the transporter." After everyone arrived, Jeremie typed in the code SCIPIO and they were whisked off to Sector 5. It was a dark pink instead of its normal blue. Luckily the key challenge was still disabled, so the warriors on Lyoko had nothing to worry about. Not even any enemies. Jeremie had one, though. The robot had found the factory. It jumped down the elevator shaft without hesitation. Jeremie heard a loud thud when it landed, but paid no attention to it. After the machine opened the access hatch and then opened the elevator doors, however, Jeremie noticed. He yelled out in fear and surprise.

"Jeremie?" Aelita worried. She had heard the scream. "Jeremie, what's going on?" But there was no reply. He had run from the computer and left his headset on the keyboard. Jeremie hit the ground as a bolt of electricity sizzled past. He got back up and the robot strode menacingly towards him. He backpedaled slowly, then felt the wall at his back. He quickly ducked to avoid an electric punch, but was unable to avoid the metal leg that swung forward and slammed him against the wall. Then the machine clomped towards the computer, the buzzsaw whirring. Jeremie recovered and charged the robot, knocking its aim off target by a little bit. It swiped at him with a vicious backhand that sent him tumbling through the air. It turned towards him, strode forward, and kicked his prostrate body into the wall.

On Lyoko, Aelita was panicking. "Jeremie's in trouble! Odd, shoot me, quick! Virtualize me! I…I…"

"Calm down, princess!" Odd replied.

"Yeah! You're the only one who can deactivate towers." Ulrich reasoned. "Besides, we're a little bit better than you at hand-to-hand combat."

"Alright then, go! Energy Sphere!" Aelita yelled, shooting him.

"What's with you, Aelita? You're acting all panicked!" Yumi observed.

"You're worried about Einstein, aren't you?" Odd teased with an undertone implying that Aelita felt more than just "worry" for Jeremie.

Aelita looked embarrassed. Yumi laughed. "If it were possible to blush on Lyoko, you'd be bright red!"

Back on Earth, Jeremie was out cold. The robot stomped toward the computer, powering up its saw. Then the elevator door opened. It had descended without it noticing, and had now come back up. Ulrich burst out and launched a flying double kick at the machine. The strike was so powerful that it smashed the left arm clean out of the socket. Literally "disarmed", the robot slowly turned to face Ulrich, who had gone into a defensive Pencak Silat stance.

On Lyoko, Aelita, Odd, and Yumi had run to the tower. "No monsters. That's weird!" Yumi remarked.

"Don't question it, be grateful!" Odd said.

Aelita ran into the tower.

On Earth, the robot had its right hand around Ulrich's throat. Electricity crackled down the arm.

Aelita reached the upper platform.

Ulrich was being choked and electrocuted.

The interface displayed

AELITA

CODE

She typed in the codeword

LYOKO

All around blue screens fell. "Tower deactivated"

In the computer room, the repair patch on the robot dissolved into a black mist as the spectre left the metal shell and vanished. The robot ceased to function. Ulrich crawled to the chair by the computer and picked up Jeremie's headset. "Jim and Sissi saw the robot. We need to do a return. Can you do it from there?"

For an answer, Aelita simply replied "Return To The Past Now!" and a white bubble expanded to encompass all.

In the hallway in the boy's dormitories.

The Lyoko Warriors ran through the hallway to Jeremie's room. There was a note on his door. "Huh?" wondered Jeremie. He took the note off and read it. "'You won this time, but you won't stand in my way forever. You're in way over your heads. MARA is diverting most of its processes to Project Carthage, but only a fraction of its abilities are equal to XANA's entire arsenal. You will be defeated in both worlds. Give up now.' At the bottom, in fancy, pretty letters in dark pink, it was signed "'Your kind, loving, helpful, compassionate friend."

"You know, that pink color is really starting to bother me." Odd remarked. "So is her sense of humor."

"Who's MARA?" asked Ulrich.

"I'd assume that it's the name of the program." answered Yumi.

"Well, we beat it this time and now we have a few hours to kill. Wanna go downtown?" asked Odd. Everyone nodded except Jeremie.

"I'll stay here and do some research. I'm starting to understand a little bit more about the new…I mean MARA. I also need to write a new Superscan program. It seems like MARA is bypassing this one with no problem at all."

"Okay then, see you tomorrow! Ciao!" They left. Jeremy walked into his room and closed the door.

END

#3_POISON

At the Factory, in the computer room.

Jeremie watched some text fly by on the screen. Aelita was sitting on the floor next to him with a laptop. Suddenly Jeremie shot up, face inches from the screen. "What is…wow! It's…it's incredible! Aelita, you have to see this!"

"But Jeremie," she complained. "I've finally accessed the last data dump before XANA was destroyed!"

"That doesn't matter anymore! Come look at this!" Jeremie was super excited. Aelita got up and walked over.

"Okay, what…wow! That's…that's incredible!"

On the Kadic grounds.

Two shadowy figures, one carrying a satchel, attempted to run stealthily to the dormitory room. Suddenly a beam of light fell on them. Jeremie and Aelita shielded their eyes. Once the light was redirected, they looked up at the wielder of the flashlight. Jim frowned back down on them. "Well, I guess I can't say you were breaking the rules by being in the boy's dormitories again, Miss Stones." As both kids sighed with relief, Jim continued. "However, I can say that you both were breaking school rules by not being in your dormitories at all! Can't you two remember one simple…uh…um…hmm... What don't you understand about sleeping in your own beds in your own rooms at night! Straight A's aren't going to help you if you keep getting detentions like this." Jim drowned out their gasps of surprise and complaint. "Yes, you heard me. Detention! After school! Two hours! I assume that you know the drill, or did you forget after the long time between your last detention two nights ago!" Jim finished sarcastically. "To your rooms, now!" As they scampered away, Jim's expression softened. To himself, he muttered "ah, young love! I remember when I snuck out at night to…actually the only time I…left me all alone in the dark…" As Jim reminisces, a sepia-toned slideshow commences in his mind, showing him as a student and another girl sneaking out and going to the forest. They faced eachother, closed their eyes, and moved in close. Then, the girl ran off. Student-Jim stood there, lips puckered, eyes closed. Then he slightly cracked open one eye…and saw that she was gone. The image disappears as the real-world Jim interrupts himself, saying "I'd rather not think about it." Then he turned and saw another shadowy shape heading for the cafeteria. "Hey…hey you!" The figure fumbled with something near the door handle, and then a click was heard. The door now unlocked, the figure ran inside. Jim followed. The figure leapt over the serving counter and ran for the refrigerator. A hand reached inside a coat and came out holding a small vial with a clear liquid. Another hand reached for a milk bottle, unscrewed the lid, and poured in a drop of the liquid. The lid was screwed back on. As the hand reached for another bottle, Jim burst in through the doors. Startled, the hand withdrew and the figure ran away. Jim walked around the counter to the fridge. "Hm?" He looked inside, shrugged, and closed the door.

The next morning, in the cafeteria.

Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich are next to eachother in line. Yumi picks up a bowl of oatmeal, Ulrich takes a bowl of cereal, and Odd grabs one of each. He cuts in front of Ulrich, sets down his bowls, and grabs the pitchers of milk and water. Before he realizes what he's doing, he pours water into his cereal and milk into his oatmeal! "Oh no! I did this last time we had cereal and oatmeal!"

"If you only took one, you wouldn't get mixed up, Odd!" Yumi said as she brushed past him to pour some water. She walks to a table while Odd quickly cuts in line to grab new bowls. Ulrich tried to pour some milk, but only a drop comes out.

Rosa appears instantly. "Just wait, I'll get more!" She walks to the fridge, opens it, and grabs a bottle…the same one that the mysterious figure had tampered with last night. She closes the fridge and brings the bottle back to where Ulrich was waiting. He pours milk into his cereal and is about to put it back when Odd, trying to push through the other students and get milk and water again, trips. His tray flies out of his hands and knocks the bottle to the ground, where it shatters.

"Know what? I'm not actually very hungry this morning." Odd softly says. He and Ulrich walk to the table where Yumi is sitting. Sissi and her two stalkers walk by. She began to make a cruel remark, but froze mid-sentence when she saw Odd's empty place where his food would have been.

"Odd? Are you okay? Not only are you not having seconds, you're not having firsts! Did someone die? A family member? Were you expelled? Did…"

"Sissi, just shut up and…"Odd's retort was interrupted by his growling stomach. Just then, Jeremie and Aelita showed up with their food. "Jeremie, good buddy, mind sharing some food?"

"No, go ahead and take it. I'm too excited to eat!"

"Me too!" added Aelita as she also handed her food to Odd. He cheered.

Jeremie began. "We've got good news and bad news."

Aelita continued. "That data I collected the last time we were on Lyoko paid off even though you guys didn't think enough of it to put any effort into the mission."

Odd interrupted. "Hey, I didn't fall on that laser trap on purpose! Ulrich pushed me!"

Yumi defended her good friend. "I saw you, Odd, and you fell all on your own."

"Oh yeah?" Odd replied. "What about you? You devirtualized yourself trying new tricks with your fans when you messed up!"

"Guys, just shut up and listen to Aelita! I know you were bored, but she actually found something interesting!" Jeremie yelled as loud as he dared surrounded by other people. "Continue, Aelita."

"Well, we found out what MARA's purpose is! MARA was created primarily for activating and running Project Carthage! Its attack capabilities are only a secondary function for defense, and are written almost like XANA. So the attacks will be similar in form. We're already used to them, but MARA isn't used to us."

"However, there is some bad news. MARA is much more complex than I thought. It's more like an entire operating system than a single program. Also, some old files from a memory dump were accessed recently. These were files that XANA had used, but I don't know what they are exactly. It probably has something to do with its attacks, seeing as it hasn't done anything yet. So far, no monsters have threatened us on Lyoko, and all the attacks here were from Antea. Author's Note: That robot was being driven by MARA, but not possessed. It can't possess yet. Also, both me and Aelita have detention this afternoon, so before you ask, Odd, no, we can't go to Lyoko after school and take on MARA while its weak."

Yumi turned to Ulrich. "Ulrich, are you okay?" Ulrich's eyes were closed and he was slightly swaying back and forth. Suddenly he contorted and grabbed at his stomach. "Ulrich?" Now Yumi's voice had a definite edge of panic. Ulrich straightened momentarily, then doubled up again and clawed at himself. His eyelids flew open, his eyeballs rolled back in his head. He fell off his chair and started to have a seizure. He suddenly calmed. Then he started twitching and jerking and thrashing again, worse than before. His saliva formed foam on his mouth and he howled in pain. Everyone in the cafeteria stopped to stare at him, and then they panicked. Jim came rushing over to see what was wrong. Rosa appeared behind him.

"What's wrong?" demanded Jim.

"Call Mr. Delmas!" urged Rosa. But there was no need, as the principal had just walked through the door. He stopped to take in all of the chaos around him.

"What's going on?" he wondered aloud. He rushed over to Ulrich.

"I think its food poisoning or something!" Jim guessed.

"No way! No one gets food poisoning from my cooking!" Rosa defended.

"Let's not argue about what it is, let's just call the doctors! They'll know!"

Soon an ambulance arrives. Four men rush in to strap Ulrich onto a stretcher. As they carry him out, he suddenly passes out. Everyone follows them out, breakfast forgotten, and looks on as he is driven away. One by one, the students return to their rooms to wait for their classes. After a short time, the gang minus Ulrich are the only ones left. Slowly, Jeremie leaves. Then Aelita goes, followed by Odd, leaving Yumi alone. She stares in the direction the ambulance had gone and whispers to herself "I hope he'll be okay."

"That all depends on your choice." A voice told her. Yumi whirled around to see Antea holding a bottle with a blue liquid. "That clumsy oaf was half right about the food poisoning. Your little friend has been poisoned, but not by food. I intended to contaminate all the food, but I was stopped. But no matter. You see, I guess you could consider him my hostage."

Yumi leapt forward. Antea blocked her kick and flipped her with one hand, the other still holding the vial. "What have you done to him?" Yumi half roars, half sobs.

"Weren't you listening? I poisoned him. In precisely forty minutes, he'll be dead. I am the only one who has an antidote. Those doctors can't do a thing for him."

"You said he was a hostage. What do you mean?"

"It's quite simple, really." Antea answered while moving out of Yumi's reach. "You and your little resistance group will vow to never go to Lyoko again, or anywhere in the network. To be sure, you will also destroy the scanners and seal off all entrances to that room. If you do, you will receive this." She shook the bottle. "If you don't obey…let's just say that your club will be minus one member." Then, before Yumi could do anything, Antea kicked her viciously in the face and then ran away.

In Mrs. Meyer's classroom

Jeremie, Odd, and Aelita are in math class learning about compositions of functions. All at once their phones buzz, but Mrs. Meyer doesn't notice. The small screens all display the same message: SOSSOSSOSSOSSOSSOSSOSSOS! "It's from Yumi!" Jeremie whispers to Aelita without being heard by Mrs. Meyers.

"She seems a little excited." Whispered Aelita to Odd without being heard by Mrs. Meyers.

"A little? She's so wound up that she can tell time better than a grandfather clock!" Odd joked. He, however, was heard.

"Odd? Do you have something to share?"

"I said…uh…um…"

Jeremie came to the rescue. "He said that he wasn't feeling well and needed to go to the infirmary. Can Aelita and I take him?"

"Okay, go ahead." Two seconds later, the Lyoko Warriors, minus Ulrich, were sprinting through the woods to the factory.

At the factory, in the computer room

"Okay, Yumi, let me get this straight." Jeremie asked one more time. "Ulrich is going to die in about half an hour if we don't destroy the scanners, right?"

Yumi was in hysterics. "Yes, don't you get it? We have to get to work now! Those things are sturdy! We have to do more than just remove the cables!"

Jeremie tried to reason with her. "Wait a minute! We don't have any tools! And besides, are you going to give in to Antea or try to find an alternate solution?"

"But Ulrich…"

"Wow Yumi, for being 'just friends', you're sure worried about him!"

"Odd…" Yumi threatened, making a fist.

"There's another solution, guys!" Jeremie intervened. "We could just do a return to the past. As long as we do it within the next two hours, Ulrich will be fine. But why wait?" Jeremie pressed some keys. "Return To The Past Now!" But instead of the usual white bubble, the error messages popped up all over the computer screen. "Uh-oh. That's a problem."

"'That's a problem'?" echoed Yumi. "It's a disaster!"

"I bet this is MARA's work." Aelita realized. "MARA's blocking the return to the past! We need to go to Lyoko and deactivate the tower, and then everything will work."

"Well then, let's get to the scanners!" Yumi didn't want to lose precious time.

Soon they were all virtualized on Lyoko in the Forest Sector. Jeremie told Aelita "I can't detect where the tower is. Try to meditate and sense for pulsations, like we did before the Superscan." Aelita sat down and concentrated. A humming sound filled the air. After a full minute, Aelita stopped.

"I'm sorry, Jeremie. I can't detect anything! Maybe I could only sense XANA, but not MARA."

"No, I think it's something else. What's the only tower that MARA has ever activated?" Jeremie asked, using his question as an answer.

"Sector 5!

"I'll call a Transport Orb." Soon they were in Sector 5. The walls opened and Yumi, Odd, and Aelita charged forward. They looked into a large room with a uniform, cube design. The wall that would have existed right in front of them was gone, and so was the opposite wall. A hole was in the center of the floor. But Jeremie had an important warning. "Uh, guys? Remember what I said about no monsters? Forget that. That room is full of them!"

"what are you talking about?" wondered Odd as he looked around. Either they're invisible or you scanners are messed up!" He took one step forward and entered the room. That instant, he suddenly shot towards the ceiling. "Wha…hey! Ow!" He stood up upside-down on the ceiling. Then realized that the one place they had forgotten to look was up. "Oh. That's where the monsters are!" Simultaneously, five Kankrelats, three Bloks, three Krabs, and a Tarantula opened fire. "Shield!" Odd was lucky enough to dodge and block the barrage of laser fire, but then three Hornets flew from the hole to fire on Odd from 'above'. Yumi's fans made quick work of two of them, but the third scored a hit on Odd. Aelita and Yumi started sniping the monsters from their vantage point 'above' them. Aelita took out the Tarantula and the last Hornet, Yumi destroyed two Krabs, and Odd got a Kankrelat. Then the room started to rotate downward so the wall would become the floor and the ceiling would become a wall blocking off the girls. They quickly dove forward through the gap before the new wall completely blocked access. Its gravity slammed them against it. They were in the room able to fight the monsters, but now they were in a position where the monsters could fight back. Aelita launched an energy sphere, but took a hit to the shoulder, and Yumi got shot in the chest after she threw both of her fans. However, their attacks struck true. Two Bloks and a Kankrelat were destroyed. Odd wasn't faring so well. He took a hit from a Krab and was blasted towards the empty space that used to be the entrance.

Jeremie shouted a warning. "Odd, watch out! You're losing too many lifepoints! You've only got 70 lifepoints left!" On his screen, Odd's torso blinked red. "You just lost 20 more!"

"Yeah, but I got that Krab!" Odd defended, although his laser arrow had yet to hit its target. The arrow flew straight at the Krab and struck the Eye of XANA. The Krab disintegrated. "Yeah!" Odd cheered, but as he celebrated he was shot by a Kankrelat. He stumbled back only a half-step, but it was enough. He fell off the wall and through the space where the floor used to be. Normal gravity took over and he was just barely able to dig in his claws in time to avoid plummeting through nothingness into what would certainly be the Digital Sea.

"Odd!" Aelita gasped. The Kankrelat shot at him again. Aelita quickly blasted it, but the laser had already fired. Odd was struck in the face, lost his grip, and began to fall. "Odd!" Aelita screamed, drawing out his name. She swiped her hand over her wristband to activate her wings and sped after him, but a Blok fired an Ice beam and froze her entire body. She crashed back into the wall. Yumi threw her fans. One missed, but the other hit the Blok in the Eye and destroyed it. She caught them when they came back, then activated her Telekinesis. Odd stopped falling abruptly and slowly began to rise. One Kankrelat went after the downed Aelita and the other scuttled closer to Yumi. From close range, it shot her. She lost her concentration and Odd plummeted again. Yumi threw one fan at the Kankrelat and easily destroyed it at close range. She threw her other fan at Aelita. It struck and shattered the ice. Aelita slowly got to her feet as Yumi focused her power again and stopped Odd just short of falling out of Sector 5. Aelita blasted the last Kankrelat with an Energy Sphere before activated her wings again and zooming after Odd, who was slowly rising again due to Yumi. When Aelita reached him, she grabbed him tightly and struggled to fly back up to the wall. As she approached, the room started to rotate again, with the 'floor' moving into the position of the actual floor. Aelita was barely too slow. She hovered with Odd, trying to stay aloft with the extra weight. "Jeremie, Odd and I are stuck. You have to bring us in before I get tired and fall."

"But you need to deactivate the tower! Just hang in there. Maybe the room will rotate again and you can get through.

Aelita directed her next comment at Odd. "You know, Odd, I'm beginning to doubt your claims of being 'svelte'. You weigh a ton!" she joked.

"Yumi, you're on your own for now." Jeremie reported.

"Nice to know. How much time does Ulrich have?"

"Um…about ten minutes."

"Ten minutes? What am I supposed to do? And without Aelita?"

"Um…hold on a second, there must be a Key to reorient the room. I'll run a scan." On the computer, the blueprints and schematics flashed by as it searched for a Key. Soon it was located. "Go to the other end of the room. You'll end up in a corridor. The Key is to the left and the tower is to the right. There's a trap on the way to the Key. I don't know what type it is, though, so be careful."

"Okay, I'm on my way!" Yumi ran across the room. "Jeremie, I'm in the corridor. I don't see any traps. Which way do I go?"

"Left. Be careful!" Yumi made an abrupt turn and then sprinted down the hallway. Suddenly a crisscross of laser beams burst from the wall. Yumi was going too fast to slow down and ran into several of them. "Yumi!" Jeremie wailed as all parts of Yumi's body blinked red on his computer. "You only have 10 lifepoints left! Don't rush so much! Ulrich still has…" Jeremie paused to glance at his computer. The timer displayed 06:30:00. "…plenty of time." Jeremie finished. He knew that if Yumi panicked, she would get divirtualized for sure.

Yumi understood the reason that Jeremie was withholding the time, so she just responded "Yeah, yeah, I get the picture." She began to weave her body through the web of lasers. Then Aelita called Jeremie.

"I'm starting to get very, very tired here!"

"Yeah, well, I'm hanging in here. Or rather, Aelita's hanging me in here." Odd joked.

"Don't worry, Yumi's almost through…I hope" Jeremie said those last to words to himself, too quiet for the others to hear.

Meanwhile, Yumi had gotten past the last laser. She started to sprint forward, but then slowed down to a jog. It was lucky for her that she did, because another laser barrier sprang up. This one was only one layer, but they were so close together that it would be impossible to make it through. Yumi put on the brakes and stared at it in anger. Then she had an idea. Using her telekinesis, she held her two fans in the way of some of the lowest lasers. They broke the beams, but using her powers to hold them there, they also created an opening in the laser wall. Concentrating hard, Yumi crawled forward. With barely a millimeter of clearance on all sides, she made it, right before her fans disintegrated from the lasers. But all the telekinesis that she had done that day had taken its toll. Yumi was barely able to walk straight. She staggered towards the key, but collapsed a little ways away.

"Yumi?" asked Jeremie. "Yumi? Yumi, you want to know how much time Ulrich has? One minute exactly. Hurry and hit the key! You can do it Yumi!"

Yumi looked up at the key with blurry vision. "For Ulrich!" she whispered. Then she forced herself upright, struggled through the final steps, and then hit the key on her way to the floor as she passed out. The room reoriented itself to its original state. Aelita burst through the hole, dropped Odd on the ground, and then shot across the room and into the corridor. With a tight banking turn, she zoomed to the right towards the tower. She entered the room with the activated tower and flew towards it. Out of nowhere, a laser slammed into her shoulder. She cried out as she fell. A Krab walked out from behind the tower, took aim, and fired. Aelita barely blocked it with her Energy Spheres in time. She created another one and hurled it at the Krab and sprinted for the tower. She reached it safely and entered as the Krab exploded. She started to rise.

On Earth, in the computer room.

The timer ticked from 00:10:00 to 00:09:00.

On Lyoko.

Aelita reached the interface. It scanned her hand and displayed her name and then a prompt

AELITA

CODE

On Earth, in the computer room.

Jeremie frantically typed. When he finished, he hovered his finger over the 'Enter' key, waiting for Aelita to deactivate the tower.

On Lyoko.

Aelita entered the code

LYOKO

"Tower deactivated."

On Earth, in the computer room.

Jeremie pressed the 'Enter' key and yelled "Return To The Past Now!" The countdown flipped to one second remaining when it was engulfed by a white light. The light spread to cover the school and the hospital.

At Kadic, in Jeremie's room.

"…and the milk is what poisoned you." Yumi finished explaining to Ulrich what had happened.

"Oh, so that's why you cut in front of me to smash the bottle! I wish I'd been on Lyoko with you guys. It seems like MARA's recreated the monsters to entertain her houseguests."

"But they were no match for Odd the Magnificent!" boasted Odd.

"Don't forget, Odd, you spent most of the trip dangling over a long drop into the Digital Sea while Aelita struggled to hold you up. She's the real hero!" Jeremie reminded him.

"You always say that!" Odd commented.

"Well, Ulrich's okay and Aelita and I avoided detention this time. It seems like nothing…" Suddenly Jeremie's computer beeped. A message icon appeared. Jeremie clicked on it and it opened a file with a bunch of gibberish.

"Hey, whoever e-mailed you should learn to work on their English!" Odd joked.

Jeremie explained the message with surprise on his face. "This…this…it's unbelievable! This is the algorithmic matrix of quantum matrices I was looking for! Combined with a simple Boolean formula and specified quadrants…"

"uh, Einstein? Like I said, work on your English. What does that all mean?" Odd questioned.

"I can use this to derive MARA's digital trace and create a new Superscan!" Jeremie answered with a surprised look on his face.

"That's incredible!" exclaimed Aelita. "Who's it from?"

"You'll never believe this, but it's signed…" he paused with an incredulous expression, and then named the sender. "…Lyoko!"

END

#4_PICTURE PROBLEM

In Jeremie's room.

Jeremie was fast asleep in his pajamas at the computer. Ulrich and Odd walked in, all ready for school. "Hey Einstein, XANA's evil twin brother just enrolled at Kadic!" Odd said.

Jeremie shot upright. "What?"

"Just kidding!"

"You've got to stop working so hard every night." Said Ulrich. "I think your bed's getting jealous of your computer."

"Ha ha, very funny. What time is it?"

"Breakfast!" announced Odd. "My favorite time of the day! Except for lunch. And dinner."

"Okay, I'll be right there. I have some good news for everybody!"

In the lunchroom.

All the rest of the gang was sitting at their table, and then Jeremie showed up, completing the group. "Hey Jeremie, what took you so long?" asked Yumi.

"He was using his keyboard as a pillow again." Odd answered for him.

"Ah. Working all night, I take it?"

"You guessed it!" Jeremie answered. "I've got some great news! Thanks to that new data I received, I finished modifying the Superscan!"

"We're on our way back to our full fighting capabilities!" cheered Aelita. Then William walked by.

"Hey, mind if I sit here?"

"Well…" Yumi was hesitant.

"Oh, come on! I wasn't your enemy willingly, and now that XANA's gone and the supercomputer is shut down, why does it matter?" When William mentioned shutting down the supercomputer, everyone in the group winced. William's eyes narrowed. "You did shut it down, right?"

"Yep, no doubt about it, we certainly shut it down!" replied Odd nervously. "And right now, we have to go…uh…study for class!"

William pointed at Odd's tray. "You haven't finished your food." He remarked.

"Uh…yeah…we're trading food for study time. Gotta go!" Odd and the rest of the group quickly made their exit. William sat down and ate quickly.

Outside, Jeremie said "well, we might as well make good on your excuse. You could use some extra study time, Odd!"

Odd wasn't paying attention. He was staring at a girl. "Is she new to Kadic? I don't think I've dated her before…what did you say? Oh, yeah, studying! Okay, I'm going to the library right now!" but instead of heading for the library, he made a beeline for the new girl. "Hi, I'm Odd Della Robia! You must be new here, or I'd have remembered your beautiful face. Are you a pyromaniac, because you're pretty hot. What's your name?" In response, she slapped him.

Jeremie and Aelita laughed, but not in a mocking way, at Odd as they walked towards the library. Yumi stayed behind with Ulrich. "Uh, Ulrich?" she began. "I was wondering if…well I mean…I thought that maybe…would you like…to go see 'Terror Werewolf 4' with me after school?" Yumi tentitavely questioned. "As friends, though. Just as good friends." She clarified, blushing deeply.

Ulrich also blushed bright red. "Yes! I mean...uh…sure, why not?"

"Okay, see you after school!" Yumi left, heading towards the library. William exited the cafeteria and went for Ulrich.

"Hey, Ulrich! We need to talk. Now."

"Okay, sure. What about?"

"The Supercomputer. You didn't really shut it down, did you?"

"No, we definitely shut it down."

"But is it still off…or did you turn it back on?" William challenged.

"Well, we didn't turn it on…" Ulrich sighed before he told the truth. "But someone else did. But don't worry, XANA isn't back!"

"Then why do you keep going back to the factory? I saw you guys. Either you're lying about XANA, or a new enemy has shown up. Right?"

"Yeah, there's a new enemy. We can't shut down the Supercomputer until it's destroyed. And I think that we could really use your help, but I'm not sure if the others will agree with me. Our enemy doesn't know about you, and the monsters are back in force, but the other's might say that you're too arrogant and headstrong. And frankly, I agree, although I don't see why that's a problem."

"Okay, I'll stay away, but make sure you let them know that I'm here to help if they need me. And keep this in mind: I know about Lyoko, and I can't hold it in much longer. I'm dying to tell someone. If I get a little 'refresher' of why I should keep it a secret, I will. But if I'm not involved, it might not become as important, and I might not try as hard to keep it a secret. Get the message?" And with that parting warning, William walked away. Ulrich was about to leave too when Sissi approached him.

"Oh Ulrich!" she sang. "I have something I want to show you. You know I'm the principal's daughter, right? So I have access to all the school photos? Well, my father's got connections. One of his good friends is a something-graphic-whatever person. I sent him two particular photos with instructions, and he sent me the result. Would you like to see it?" Sissi didn't give him a choice, shoving her phone in his face. On it was a perfect photograph of Ulrich and Sissi kissing.

"Nice try, but you're not fooling me with that edited picture." Ulrich said with a fake display of confidence.

"Maybe not, but do you think it will fool Yumi?" Sissi asked meaningfully. "Why don't we ask her to take a look? Who knows? Maybe she might possibly suspect that it maybe could be fake, but I doubt it."

Ulrich got the message. "All right, what do you want from me? Destroy that picture and it's yours."

Sissi got straight to the point. "I'll only destroy it if you go to the movies with me after school today to see 'Terror Werewolf 4'!"

"Oh no!" Ulrich cried. "I can't do that! Ask for something else!"

"No way! Either you go with me, or Yumi gets the picture." she smirked. Ulrich had no choice but to give in. The bell rang for class and he started to trudge towards the classrooms. "See you after school!"

In Mrs. Meyer's classroom.

"Psst! Yumi!" Ulrich whispered.

"Yeah? What's up?"

"Yumi, I need to tell you something. It's about after school. Sissi…" he stopped when he saw Sissi turn around and wave her phone at him meaningfully. "…nevermind." Yumi frowned, but didn't probe into the suspicious sentence. Ulrich sighed and returned to taking notes.

When class was over he tried to talk to Yumi again, but Sissi stopped him. "Oh, one more thing. If you tell her, I won't send her the picture. Instead I'll send it to Milly and Tamia! Try to explain to everyone at Kadic after it's put in the newspaper!" Ulrich continued on to gym class. Jim stopped all the students outside the doors.

"All right, students. Your principal Mr. Delmas has kindly agreed to my request, which has been pending approval for several years."

"We're going to form a wrestling team?" asked Nicholas.

"You're allowed to use a whip on slackers?" asked a horrified student.

"We get Cheez-Whiz with every meal in the cafeteria?" Odd joked.

"No, unfortunately no, and definitely not!" answered Jim. "I'll let you all in the gym and show you." He smiled, then opened the doors. Gasps and exclemations of awe issued from the crowd. Rows of gleaming, brand-new electronic treadmills, exercise machines, and weights were lined up against one wall. "Yes, you may well look on in amazement. These new machines will be the core of our new gym unit. So, let's start by testing how much work you lazy slobs can do so we can compare today's records with the records at the end of the week." The class worked out and rotated stations, Ulrich straining with extra effort at each one. As the end of class approached, Jim came around getting everyone's totals. "Ulrich, how many reps did you do at the bench press?"

"78!" he proudly replied.

"Odd, how many reps did you do?"

"80!" At this response, Ulrich's face fell and he uttered a small exclamation of amazement and disappointment.

"William, how about you?

"95!" William announced loudly. Ulrich frowned, angry and upset.

"All right, class dismissed!" Jim announced. Everyone started to crowd out of the gym.

On Lyoko, in Sector 5.

A tower activates.

On Earth, in the gymnasium.

As Jeremie picked up his laptop bag, it beeped in alarm. He flipped the laptop open and the Superscan showed an activated tower. At the other end of the room, the Symbol of MARA appears screens on the treadmills. Tendrils of electricity spark from them and reach out to touch the other equipment. None of the Lyoko Warriors noticed. "Hurry guys, there's an activated tower in Sector 5! Let's go!" As they ran for the doors, a treadmill zoomed towards them. Ulrich and Odd jumped out of its path barely in time. Jeremie, Aelita, and Yumi made it out the doors. The treadmill slid towards the doors and slammed into them, closing them and blockading the room. Other treadmills zoomed into positions to block the other doors as well. Ulrich and Odd were trapped.

"First Sissi, and now this." Ulrich muttered. "This is not my day."

"Wait, what happened with Sissi?"

At the bridge to the factory.

Yumi, Aelita, and Jeremie ran across the bridge. They swung down the ropes and into the elevator, and then descended to the computer room. "Aelita, Yumi, get to the scanners! I'll virtualize you in Sector 5." Jeremie exited the elevator and the girls took it down to the scanner room. "Transfer, Yumi! Transfer Aelita! Scanner Yumi! Scanner Aelita! Virtualization!" Yumi and Aeltia appeared in Sector 5. The corridor opened and they ran through. They emerged in a room with a flat floor and wall, but curved walls. Suddenly a block slid down over the doorway to seal them in. Large sections of the circular wall receded. Monsters emerged, but they were slightly mutated. All of them had the Symbol of MARA where they Eye of XANA used to be. There was one Tarantula, but it had Krab legs in addition to its laser legs. It walked forward on the Krab legs, firing with all four lasers. There was a Hornet with two laser tails instead of one. A Creeper emerged, but it had three heads. It fired with the left, then right, and lastly with the center head. The center head fired a laser that was twice as large as the others. A Blok appeared with a Symbol on each face including the top. Three Symbols fired like a regular Blok, but the fourth Symbol spat rapid-fire lasers. There was a Krab that fired a combined laser from the top three generators, but the bottom three fired a scatterburst of laser fire, with lasers refracting and bending to explode outward in a spread of dozens. Another monster appeared. This one was three Kankrelats fused together, legs outward, forming a Y shape. A Megatank rolled forward. It looked normal except it had only eight decorative symbols, one on each 'corner' and was divided both vertically and horizontally. Lastly, a Manta flew in. It had two Tarantula laser cannons underneath its wings. Yumi and Aelita looked at the advancing monsters, then at eachother.

"Uh, Jeremie?" Aelita called.

"Yeah? I'm getting some weird symbols on my screen." On Jeremie's computer, seven squares instead of circles denoted monsters. "Monsters?"

"Yeah. Monsters. And weird ones, too. There's one of every type, but they've been mutated!" Yumi answered.

"Well, just treat they like any other monster. It shouldn't be too difficult."

Yumi dodged a flurry of lasers from the Blok. Then the Manta got her. "That's easy for you to say, you're not here fighting!" Aelita had activated her wings already, and she flew up and fired an Energy Sphere at the Manta from above and hit it on the Symbol. It exploded. "Nice one, Aelita!" Then she was knocked from the sky be a large laser from the Creeper.

"Aelita, you just lost 40 lifepoints with one hit! And that was only to a wing! It would probably be double that if it hit you dead on! Be careful!" Yumi flung a fan and destroyed the Creeper. Then the Megatank split. Into four rounded corners with the Symbol in the center. It charged, then fired a + shaped blast. The two warriors barely dodged.

On Earth, in the gymnasium.

"Wait, Yumi actually asked you out?" Odd asked incredulously, ducking under a flying 100lb disk.

Ulrich avoided another disk weight, but was clipped by a speeding leg curl machine and knocked to the ground. "She wasn't asking me out!" he replied angrily. "We're just friends!"

"…Who happen to be going to a movie." Odd finished. "Hey Ulrich, are you going to hold hands with your 'friend' or hug your 'friend' or kiss…" Odd was abruptly silenced by a dumbbell crashing into his stomach, driving the breath out of him.

"Odd, I swear, if you keep making cracks like that you will feel real pain!" Ulrich threatened. Then he was struck full-on by a treadmill.

"Pain, huh? Like that?"

"Odd, watch out!" Ulrich yelled urgently, getting back on his feet.

"Yeah, I know, you're gonna get me."

"No, behind you!" It was too late for Odd to move, so Ulrich dove and knocked him to the ground. A disk weight flew right through the space where Odd's neck had been moments ago. "That was for you, good buddy." Then he grabbed his arm and twisted it painfully behind his back. "And that's for me and Yumi."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" Ulrich let Odd up. Both of them spun away from a stationary bicycle, which was speeding towards them. "Hey, what do you think is harder, struggling for our lives here in this gym, or the science test on atomic discoveries throughout history that we're missing right now?"

"Definitely the test."

On Lyoko, in Sector 5

The Tarantula was sliced by Yumi's fan, but it only took out its legs. Once it fell, it was easy prey to the second fan. Aelita was blocking rapid-fire bursts from the Blok when it suddenly rotated its head and fired a freeze ray. Aelita barely avoided it. Yumi's fans returned in time for her to block fire from the Hornet. The Kankrelat scuttled behind her and fired its three lasers at once. "Yumi, be careful! You've only got 10…nevermind." Yumi was devirtualized by a regular shot from the Krab. Aelita fired an Energy Sphere at the Krab and hit her target. The Krab exploded. Aelita turned and blocked an attack from the Hornet.

In the gymnasium.

The larger machines had formed a ring around Ulrich and Odd and were tightening the circle. Weights zoomed around like evil homing Frisbees seeking to batter the two heroes into unconsciousness or worse. A particular heavy dumbbell shot forward at Ulrich. He avoided it and slammed his palm into the center bar as it passed by. Even though it weighed a substantial amount, it was redirected enough that it slammed into the window and shattered it. "Odd! Let's go!"

"But we can't!" complained Odd. "All the doors are blocked!"

"No, through the window! Come on!" They sprinted towards the broken window and vaulted over the machines, Ulrich springing off a lateral pulldown machine and Odd bouncing off a stationary bicycle, breaking through the ring of evil exercise equipment. Then they dashed for the window, Ulrich going through first, followed by Odd. "We can't get to the tunnel or the boiler room. We'll have to go through the park." Ulrich remarked.

"Oh well, I could use some good old-fashioned exercise without fancy MARA-fied equipment." Odd quipped as they began to run.

In the computer room at the factory.

Jeremie watched the screen anxiously. Aelita took a hit to the arm and lost 20 more lifepoints. Her voice came through his headset. "Jeremie! I can't hold them all off, and I can't attack them all! When I'm devirtualized, how long will it be before I can go back into the scanners?"

"Um…at least twelve hours. Wait, what do you mean 'when' you get devirtualized? Don't you mean 'if'?"

"No, I meant 'when'. I can't see any way out of this!" Aelita said, in a calm voice struggling to hide her fear. Then her representation on the computer blinked red again, this time in the leg. She lost another 30 lifepoints.

Jeremie clutched his head in his hands. "It's over. Odd and Ulrich…"

"What about us?" Odd asked through partially open elevator doors.

"Odd! How did…never mind. Aelita needs help right now! Get to the scanners!" Ulrich pressed the button and the elevator doors closed. When they opened again in the scanner room, Odd rushed into a scanner. Ulrich paused when he saw Yumi.

"Yumi! I need to warn you about something. After school…"

"Ulrich, come on!" Odd interrupted. "Aelita needs our help!"

Ulrich sighed, then got in a scanner. The doors closed.

On Lyoko, in Sector 5.

Aelita blocked a shot from the Blok, then turned and ducked under a double shot from the Hornet while blocking a laser from the bottom laser generator from the Kankrelat. The Megatank opened up and prepared to fire. As it charged, two beings began to materialize over it. Odd and Ulrich had arrived. Ulrich fell directly at it and instinctively grabbed a katana and stabbed the Megatand in the Symbol. "Whoa, what was that? It looked like a Megatank, but it wasn't normal!"

"Compared to those, I'd say it was pretty normal!" Odd said pointing at the other monsters. "Laser arrow!" He fired and the Hornet was destroyed.

"Supersprint!" Ulrich ran forward and drove both of his katanas into the Kankrelat, which disintegrated. Aelita turned and activated her wings and flew over the Blok, dropping an Energy Sphere on its Symbol as she passed overhead. It was destroyed.

"You guys arrived just in time!" gasped Aelita. At the other end of the room, a small doorway opened up.

"Great work, guys!" Jeremie congratulated over his headset. "The tower is through that door. Make a left, then a right." The three virtualized heroes ran in the directions Jeremie specified. "Now go halfway down the hallway and take the branch on the right. You'll find a small platform." The others reached the space.

"We're here, Jeremie. Now what?" asked Aelita.

"You're directly above the tower. Aelita, fly off the edge and underneath the platform and you'll see it." Aelita did as directed and sure enough, there was the tower. She flew down and landed right in front of it, then walked in. She began to rise. When she reached the interface, she pressed her hand into it. The screen displayed her name.

AELITA

Then

CODE

She typed in

LYOKO

and blue screens fell. "Tower deactivated." She announced.

"Great work! I'll bring you in." Soon everyone was home. As Ulrich exited the scanner, he headed straight for Yumi, who had waited in the Scanner room.

"Yumi, I…"

"No time now, Ulrich!" she interrupted. "We'll be late for school! If either of us get detention for skipping class, we'll miss the movie!"

"Yeah! You don't want anything to interfere with your first date, I understand." Odd said. Yumi slapped him so hard he fell down!

"IT'S NOT A DATE!" she and Ulrich yelled at him.

After school, near the front gate at Kadic.

Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd were walking towards the open gate. "Wow, we were sure lucky that Mr. Chardin forgot to take roll call today and didn't notice we were absent." Yumi remarked.

"Yeah, but Italian was killer! I just can't keep up with all the new vocabulary words!" Ulrich complained.

Odd laughed. "Hah! Italian is so easy that I took a nap during the entire class!"

"You do that in every class anyway, Odd!" Yumi laughed. Then Sissi strode towards them. She grabbed Ulrich's arm and started dragging him away.

"Come on, Ulrich dear, we'll miss the movie!" Ulrich looked helpless. Yumi looked outraged!

"You…you're going with her? What about me? Ulrich, how…fine, go! See if I care!" She turned around angrily and marched off. Odd followed her.

"Hey, wait a minute! Yumi, he's not…oh forget it." She kept walking, ignoring him. He walked away.

Then she heard Ulrich laughing and Sissi yelling "Ulrich! Give it back! You're not allowed to do that! Give it back!" She turned around with a confused expression to see Ulrich racing away with a small pink object in his hand, with Sissi chasing after him. Ulrich fiddled with the object as he ran. Then he dropped it. Sissi stopped to pick it up. It was her phone. "No! You deleted it!" Sissi growled in frustration. Ulrich walked back to Yumi.

"What was that all about, Ulrich?"

"Uh…forget it. It never happened. Can I…can I still go to the movie with you?" he asked hopefully.

Yumi glared at him. "No. Not until you tell me why you were going to go with Sissi!"

"Blackmail. Can we leave it at that?"

"No way! What are you hiding from me? If you think that it would have made me angry at you, then you obviously did something you don't want me to know about!" Yumi walked away, angry. "Well, the movie's off! We're still friends, but…"

"Wait, Yumi! I didn't…" but Yumi was already gone. Ulrich stood there for a while, all alone. Then he walked back towards the boy's dormitories.

END

#5_MONSTERS, VERSION 2.0

At Kadic, by the vending machines.

Ulrich is leaning against the wall, doing nothing. Odd walks up to him. "Hey Ulrich, how did things go between you and Yumi?"

"Lay off, Odd. Just because you have no success with girls doesn't mean that you have to check up on other people's successes or failures." Ulrich sounded annoyed.

"But which one was it, success or failure?" he persisted.

"We made up." He simply stated.

"Did you kiss and make up?" Odd teased. "Whoa, don't get carried away, I was just joking!" He said as Ulrich made a fist. "Actually, I came to give you something. I've been experimenting with photo editing, and Sissi's plan gave me an idea. What do you think?" Odd displayed two pictures, not badly made, yet still with notable errors. One was of Sissi kissing Nicholas and the other was of her and Herb.

"Nice try, good buddy, but I don't want to see another edited picture as long as I live! Too much trouble!"

Yumi walked under the overhang to join them. "Hello, boys! What's up? You haven't seen Jeremie and Aelita, have you?"

Odd pointed over her shoulder. "There they are right now! They look excited." Then, mimicking Jeremie, he said "Guys, Aelita and I stayed up all night and you'll never guess what we found!"

Just then, Jeremie got close enough to start talking, and he jumped right into it. "Guys, Aelita and I stayed up all night and you'll never guess what we noticed!"

"Oooh, so close Odd! Off by one word!" Ulrich remarked to him. Jeremie didn't notice and continued talking.

"At around 11:30, a pulse of energy was released from the tower at Sector 5. It definitely had MARA's trace. We couldn't tell what it meant, but I think that was deploying troops to the other sectors."

Aelita offered her opinion. "At first I thought that it was to disperse monsters throughout Lyoko too, but it seemed more like a search. But what could MARA be searching for?"

"I noticed that too, but there was no reason for a search, so I still say monsters." Jeremie argued. Then William walked over to the vending machines. The group stopped talking. William popped in a coin, hit a button, and then turned as his cup filled with a brown liquid.

"Look, you guys are acting like I'm still an enemy! I've learned my lesson! I want to fight!"

"William, this group was formed a while ago, an unbreakable barrier against XANA. When you joined, it was weakened and XANA wreaked havoc. I think that we're better off without you." Yumi spoke. William looked angry.

"I just want to help! I can't just sit back while I know that I could be saving the world!" he yelled.

"Quiet down!" warned Odd. "Someone will hear you!"

"I don't care! If you aren't going to care enough about me instead of your selfish little group, then I'm not going to care about your secret! I'll blab it all out to the world! I got kicked out of my last school for posting love letters everywhere. Who do you think will get kicked out if I posted Lyoko letters all over, describing how you selfishly endangered the school several times by not accepting help, and how you continued to fight even when Aelita was cured and you could have turned off the Supercomputer, and how you messed with time, and a million other things! You'd have some serious explaining to do. If I'm not included, you'll regret it!"

"Jeremie, if anyone else finds out, they'll force us to shut down the Supercomputer and then we won't be able to fight MARA!" Aelita whispered urgently.

Jeremie tried to reason with William. "William, we could use your help, but we can't accept it. With everything going on right now, any additional change would make it very hard for all of us, especially having a new warrior on Lyoko to worry about. We…"

William snapped. Grabbing Jeremie, he yelled in his face "Stop treating me like a child who has to be looked after! I can take care of myself, you hear!"

"William, let him go!" Yumi yelled. "This is exactly why we don't want you. You are too hot-headed and stubborn! Your 'I can take care of myself' attitude is what got you captured by the Scyphozoa and made XANA's slave!" At the mention of the Scyphozoa, a change came over William. He dropped Jeremie and recoiled, staring slightly upwards.

"Don't…ever…mention…that monster…again!" he said, voice quivering in fear. "You…have…no…idea…the memories, the nightmares, remembering the feeling of utter helplessness…" he trailed off. Then his voice hardened with determination. "I want revenge. If I don't get it…" he drained his cup with one gulp then crushed it in one hand and dropped it in the trash before walking off. The group looked at one another.

"Well, he'd be a good ace-in-the-hole. Antea doesn't know about him." Mentioned Odd.

"We could use another fighter." Ulrich stated.

"He already knows about Lyoko." Jeremie reminded everyone.

"He could easily catch up to our fighting level." said Aelita.

"True, we could use the backup, but not William. He's too volatile!" Yumi argued. "We can't afford to change anything right now."

"Well, who would you suggest?" challenged Odd. Fortunately for Yumi, the bell rang and she didn't have to answer. The group headed off to their classes.

In science class, Mrs. Hertz was giving a lecture on amoebas while some students, like Ulrich and Odd, took notes. From an angle behind and above the two boys, their notes are revealed to instead be an art battle. Odd had drawn a Kankrelat, which Ulrich had countered by drawing a Krab impaling it with its foot with a question mark over its head to symbolize how it was an accident. Odd had then drawn himself shooting the Krab from his Overboard. Ulrich responded by illustrating a Tarantula destroying the Overboard with one shot. Then Odd drew a giant Kiwi chewing on the Tarantula, making Ulrich chuckle. Mrs. Hertz heard him. "Stern, what do you find so amusing about pseudopodia?"

"Um…"

"Can you repeat what I just explained about the origins of the word psuedopod?"

"Uh…um…well…"

"No, I did not say 'uh um well'. I had just taught that pseudopod means false foot. Amoebazoa use them for many different purposes. Amoebazoa is a kingdom in the Eukaryota domain. They use phagocytosis to eat, which means when they come into contact with a food particle, a pseudopod extends to engulf it and bring it into the amoeba. They also use pseudopodia to move. During tough conditions, such as a shortage of food or being immersed in a solution with a high salinity, amoebas can form a microbial cyst, which is a hard spherical shell of sorts that protects it from harm until conditions are favorable again." The bell rang. "Okay, class dismissed, and be sure to study this on your own because we aren't going to review it again until the quiz in one week." She instructed the students as they filed out of the classroom. With school done for the day, Ulrich, Odd, Aelita, and Jeremie headed for the bench in the courtyard that was one of their many meeting places. Odd and Ulrich were still holding on to their drawings.

"And with another victory over his nemisis Ulrich the Scribbler, Odd the Artist moves into the lead three wins to two!" Odd boasted.

"Aw, come one, that one two days ago wasn't a win, you folded the paper over on my rocket ship and said it was buried in an earthquake!" Ulrich complained. Aelita laughed.

"Well, it looks like you two will either need to put in some serious actual studying or pray that the test involves art, because I don't see how those notes relate to anything we learned today!" Aelita said in a cheerful mood.

"What do you mean 'these don't relate to anything we learned today'?" protested Odd. "Look at that blob!" He was pointing to Ulrich's amazing illustration of a Krab. "With such an undistinguishable shape, it must be an amoeba! What else could it be, a Krab?"

"Ha ha, very funny. Look who's talking. You're Kiwi looks more like the fruit than the dog!" Ulrich said, making a comeback. None of them noticed a figure sneak behind them and then sprint for the dormitories. In Sissi's room, she was attempting to instruct Nicholas and Herb in the art of braiding hair.

"Arrrgh! You idiots can't do anything right! This is why I'm the only girl in school who can't wear braids. When I said I wanted braids as a different style, I didn't mean different like this!" Just then a note was slipped under her door. It said in pink writing

If you want to find out the secret of Jeremie's gang, meet me at the abandoned factory in five minutes. Bring your two friends.

Sincerely,

A friend.

"Unbraid my hair. Now!" Sissi barked.

"But Sissi, you told us to…" began Herb.

"I don't care what I told you before, unbraid my hair and come with me! We've got to meet a friend at the abandoned factory. At last, I'll find out what Jeremie's gang is always up to!" Then, talking to herself, she continued. "Why do they listen to him? He isn't handsome or popular. People should follow hot and popular stars…like me!"

At the bench.

Yumi had already arrived and was listening with the others to another one of Odd's jokes. "…so then his cell phone goes off and he answers. The person on the other end says, 'I just heard on the radio that there's a crazy person driving the wrong way on the freeway!' and he says, 'It's not just one, they all are!'" Everyone burst out laughing. Just then, Sissi, Herb, and Nicholas ran from the dormitories out to the sidewalk by the street.

"I wonder where they're going?" questioned Jeremie.

"Probably to some sale at the mall or something." Yumi guessed.

"I don't know. The mall is in the other area of town. There's nothing in the direction that they're going, except for residential houses and an abandoned factory." Ulrich mentioned. "Wait…that's it! The factory! They might be on to us. We have to get there before them! Good thing we know a shortcut." The five students rushed to the tunnel in the park.

On the bridge

The group came up through the trapdoor in the bridge. Author's Note: I just realized something. How can there be a tunnel that comes up in the middle of the bridge if the only thing under the bridge is empty air and water? To their surprise, William was sitting at the end of the bridge pitching pebbles into the water.

"William?" Yumi asked.

"I had my suspicions that you might come here sooner or later, so I came here right after school." William explained. "I don't have anything else to do except for homework, and I'd rather be saving the world than doing math." He stood up and faced them. "So, where's the tower? And don't try to leave me out of this one! I'm coming even if I have to force my way into a scanner!"

"Uh, actually, there's no tower. We just saw Sissi and her gang heading this way and thought that they might have found out about Lyoko. I was going to go and quickly lock down the elevator." Jeremie clarified.

"Well then, why did the rest of you guys come?" William asked.

"Do we need a reason?" asked Odd. "We're a team! When there's trouble, we all come."

"Team, huh? What about me?" William shot back.

"Stop arguing!" Aelita commanded. "We have to get in there before Sissi comes!" The group went to the ropes, but stopped.

"Uh oh." Murmered Ulrich. They all lay down to minimize their chances of being seen. Antea was on the floor of the factory talking to the three kids. "Too late."

"So what's their secret?" asked Sissi.

"Patience, you young and beautiful girl!" Antea said, flattering her. "I can't explain. I'll have to show you. Jeremie is creating evil computer programs to take over the world! The others are like bodyguards for his programs. There are scanners which download them in digital form so they can defend his creations."

"What? This is nonsense!" exclaimed Herb.

"Come on, I'll prove it to you. All you need to do is get in the scanners and I'll do a mini version of what they do. It won't hurt, you'll see." Antea tried to convince them.

"No! I think that you're just a crazy old bat who doesn't know anything!" Sissi accused. Then she ordered her two companions that it was time to leave.

"Whew!" sighed Jeremie. "It's a good thing they didn't believe her lies. If they were just scanned, Returns To The Past wouldn't affect them. Then we'd be in real trouble!"

"We still are in trouble!" What happens when they find us!" Odd worried.

"They aren't going to find us because we won't be here. Let's go!" Yumi commanded. But the moment they were out of their earshot, Jeremie's laptop beeped. He flipped it open and the Superscan indicated an activated tower.

"What?" Jeremie exclaimed. They all turned around and ran back. When they looked down again, they saw Sissi, Herb, and Nicholas flicker grey for a second like a possessed person.

"Now you will go to the Scanners!" Antea crowed.

"I'll distract them!" William volunteered. Before anyone could stop him, he swung down the rope to land in front of them. "Hey, possessed cretins and ugly witch! Catch me if you can!" With growls, the four enemies pursued William around the factory. He climbed a large pillar, followed closely by his hunters. Antea, who was in the lead, managed to grab his left shoe, but he just slid his foot out of the shoe and kept climbing. When he reached a crossbeam at the top, he walked across it until he could jump back down on the ledge by the bridge. He sprinted out over the bridge and disappeared. The three MARA-fied students and Antea ran out over the bridge to catch him. They didn't realize that William had swung under the bridge and was clinging on. After he heard them pass, he pulled himself up and ran to the factory, swung on the rope, and entered the elevator. Jeremie hit the button and it began to descend. Jeremie fired up the computer while the rest of the group headed for the scanners. Jeremie virtualized everyone in the Desert sector.

"Looks like MARA got tired of Sector 5 and decided to take a vacation by the beach!" remarked Odd.

"Well, the color's back!" observed Aelita.

"But what are those?" asked Yumi, pointing to some blurry shapes that were rapidly moving towards them.

"Um, guys?" Jeremie began. "I'm picking up something on my computer screen. Looks like maybe thirteen monsters, but I can't identify the type! Twelve are moving towards you, and the last one is guarding the tower."

"We see them clearly now, Jeremie. They're monsters." Ulrich reported.

"Which ones? Tarantulas? Hornets? Krabs?"

"Sorry Einstein. You got a 0 on that test! They look like…none of the above!" The monsters were definitely new ones created by MARA. There were five glowing blue-green orbs floating forward. There were four thick disks with eight Symbols that doubled as laser generators indented into the circumference. These spun slowly as they moved forward hovering in the air. Behind them rolled two larger machines. A little bit larger than a Megatank, they moved using two trapezoidal structures that acted as treads. Wedged in between the treads was a spherical structure with a hexagon on top and bottom. Extending from the bottom hexagon were two small tubes. The top hexagon had two rocket-shaped objects. Another monster was in the center of the formation. It was a large box, looking very much like an oversized Blok. One side had a Symbol. Three other sides had nine rockets, primed and ready. The last two sides had several thick spokes extending outward, connected to large rims angled slightly inward. On the outsides of the rims were angled spikes. The monsters advanced, and the Lyoko Warriors took a defensive stance. "Let's take 'em out!" Ulrich growled. They charged forward. The disks started spinning much more rapidly and zoomed out in an arrowhead formation to meet them. The ones on the flanks fired continuously, alternating generators so it would always be firing forward. Because they spun so quickly, it seemed as if there was only one rapid-fire generator instead of eight normal ones. Yumi flipped and jumped away as laser fire peppered the ground where she had been standing. Ulrich's arms were a blur as he blocked lasers, but after only a few seconds first one sword and then the other were blasted out of his hands and he had to roll out of the way. Odd continued running forward, jinking left and right to avoid getting hit. When he got close to one of the two lead disks that weren't firing yet, he leapt in the air after it.

"Odd, what are you doing?" asked Aelita.

"Playing catch!" Odd replied as he grabbed the disk and flung it at one of the attacking ones. It flew hard and true, and both exploded on impact. The second, and now only, lead disk broke off and followed him as he landed and tried to run back to his companions. "Ahh! I wanted to play catch, not tag!" he yelled as it fired on him. Flying low, it shot forward and slammed into his arms, swiping them out from under him. Then it zoomed up into the air and arced back down. Ulrich, who had retrieved his katanas, Supersprinted to his rescue. The disk hovered over Odd, stopped spinning, and then fired simultaniously from all eight Symbols. Ulrich slid to a stop as he ducked, killing his Supersprint. Luckily for Odd, Aelita was already airborn and flying to the rescue. She scored a direct hit with an Energy Sphere and the disk exploded. Yumi took care of the last one. But the other monsters were closing in. One of the vehicles turned its rocket launcher towards the heroes and fired two rockets. They scrambled, expecting the projectiles to land where they had been gathered. "Ha! Too slow!" Odd crowed. Then one of them curved towards him and exploded, striking him in the chest and tossing him into a large rock slab. "Ow! Hey, that's not fair!" he moaned.

"And you think I'm too cocky?" William jokingly asked Yumi, referring to Odd's actions.

"Less talking, more fighting!" was her only response. The second rocket curved after Aelita, but she evaded it by looping in the air. It curved for a while, but then lost its lock on its target and flew in a straight line. Although she hadn't planned it, Aelita had caused it to lose its lock when it was facing the group of monsters! It flew straight forward and struck the large Symbol on the vehicle that had fired the missile. It disentigrated, but something still solid fell out. It looked like a monkey, with flat flaps for feet and laser cannons for arms. The tail had a rocket on the end, and the head was a misshapen blob. It ran forward like an ape, alternating between feet and arms. Then it sat down, aimed, and began firing at William. He held his sword in front of him and absorbed the lasers. Then he charged his sword and swung, hurling an arc of energy at the monster. It backflipped over it, and continued firing. William was hit and knocked down. Aelita swooped in front of him and blocked another shot with Energy Spheres. Yumi hurled a fan and in no time the monster was gone and she had her fan back. Then the large block on wheels fired nine rockets. The block rotated with a clicking noise of reloading rockets, and the Symbol was now in the back instead of on top. The Lyoko Warriors scattered and tried to evade them. Three curved after Ulrich, who Supersprinted across the desert. Two followed Odd. He shot them both down with Laser Arrows. One locked on to Aelita, and she was unable to shake it. She was blasted back to the ground.

"Aelita!" Jeremie wailed. "You're nearly out of life points!" In the lab, he's looking at the screen with several windows, showing statistics, a map, and other important info. "The rest of you aren't doing so well either!" he added.

"We're trying! All you're doing is watching the show!" Yumi snapped. Jeremie's eyes narrowed. She eyed the rocket heading towards her. When it got close, she ran towards a rock slab. At the last second, she leapt forward, flipped off the wall, and the rocket zoomed under her and exploded against the rock. William tried to roll out of the way of the last one, but it tracked him and exploded.

"William! You only have 10 lifepoints left!" Jeremie called.

"What's the big deal?" he asked. He was upset at his poor performance. "I'll just get devirtualized." Then the blue-green spheres floated out from behind the rocket-launching machine. Odd shot one with a Laser Arrow and it exploded, splattering green gunk all over the ground which quickly fizzled and then disappeared. However, the other ones surrounded him and one fired a green beam at him. It was shaped like a double helix, two crisscrossing corkscrews. Odd was hit in the back and suddenly he was outlined in a green glow. The four orbs scattered before he could get off a shot and they took cover behind some rocks. On Jeremie's computer, a new window popped up showing multiple errors with Odd.

"Oh no!"

"Whoa! What was that?" wondered Odd.

"Odd! Take cover! Run! Get out of there!" Jeremie screamed in panic.

"Why, what's the matter?"

"Your DNA sequence code has been scrambled! If you're devirtualized, you won't be coming back…at all! You'll be trapped somewhere in a void between Lyoko and Earth, slowly deleting yourself!"

"What?" everyone gasped in astonishment. Then the vehicle started firing its lasers, swivling the hexagonal base to spray laser fire everywhere. Luckily, Odd got his shield up just in time or he would have been a goner.

"Hey, that's not cool! Someone take it out!" Odd wailed. William and Yumi raced forward. William swung his sword to charge it as he ran. Yumi's fans were blurs as she blocked lasers while running, and William held his sword in front of him, its giant size shielding all but his head. He leapt forward and drove his zwiehander towards the Symbol, but the machine turned and William instead slammed into the tread. He still did some damage, however. His sword was buried up the hilt in a giant crack that it had made, and then more cracks spread from it. William pushed off the tread right before it shattered. His sword was blown back to him and he caught it in one hand, spinning once to absorb its extra momentum. Yumi darted and dodged and slashed the Symbol with both fans. The machine was destroyed and the monster inside fell out. Meanwhile, the cube on wheels fired another salvo at Odd and Aelita. She fired one Energy Sphere after another, destroying the ones tracking her. Odd ran like crazy, resulting in two pairs of rockets slamming into eachother and the fifth one losing its lock. The box rotated again with the clicking, reloading sound. Ulrich, who had been Supersprinting back, saw the Symbol move from top to back. He altered course towards it, intending to stab it, but it swiveled on its spiked wheels and shot all nine rockets at him. He had no choice but to turn around and run again. The battle had now moved close to the tower. Ulrich suddenly stopped, ducked, dodged, and evaded as the rockets, which had increased their speed, flew too fast to alter course and shot out over the Digital Sea and remote destructed. The rocket launching machine turned to fire another round at Odd and Aelita and then turned towards Ulrich. It zoomed forward, lining up the spikes on the left rim with Ulrich. Ulrich charged forward to meet it. Suddenly, he took a few steps to the side and slid under the block. As it passed overhead, he stabbed his two katana into the Symbol and let go. It rolled forward a tiny bit more and then exploded. Ulrich's swords landed point down on both sides of him. He stood up, grabbed them, and sheathed them. Odd and Aelita headed towards the tower while Yumi and William held off the last attacking monster. The spheres hadn't shown up again.

Meanwhile, back at the entrance to the factory, four people showed up. Antea and the MARA-fied students jumped down without bothering to use the ropes. Antea rolled to break her fall, and Sissi, Herb, and Nicholas were unaffected. Antea pressed the button to call up the elevator. It began to rise, and Jeremie didn't notice. He was too busy focusing on something that the others hadn't noticed on Lyoko. Ulrich was a good distance off from the others, but there was something much closer on the other side of the tower. Jeremie tried to warn him. "Ulrich! Did you forget about…" suddenly, something slammed into Jeremie's head. He was knocked off of his chair at the computer and was out cold, a hairbrush lying beside him. The elevator was open and a possessed Sissi stood with her arm still outstretched from throwing the brush. Antea walked to the computer, taking her time. When she reached it, she typed some stuff and a countdown popped up. Being controlled by MARA, Sissi and the two boys knew to go to the scanners. They closed the elevator doors and descended.

Back on Lyoko, something moved from behind the tower and attacked Ulrich. A large transparent gelatinous black mass drifted out. It had a two-dimensional Symbol that somehow faced anyone who looked at it floating in the approximate center. Its edges pulsed and fluxuated, pseudopods extending and retracting at random. Ulrich sensed it and turned around, but it was too late. It surged forward and Ulrich was pressed into it, creating a space that instantly sealed behind him. Soon he was completely engulfed. The other warriors looked on in horror as he was moved closer and closer to the Symbol. Ulrich couldn't move his limbs at all. Aelita threw an Energy Sphere, but the monster just extended a psuedopod and absorbed it. Ulrich was moved closer and closer to the Symbol. Then contact was made. The monster no longer became transparent and all of the pseudopods retracted and it stopped moving entirely. Yumi threw two fans but they bounced off an invisible barrier that glowed pink when hit. After a few seconds, the blob turned transparent again and Ulrich was squeezed out. It retreated across the desert landscape. The other warriors looked on in apprehension, worried if Ulrich was okay. He stood up…but his outfit had changed to a bulky, armored black suit with red veins of light running through it. His swords were blood-red and thicker. He faced the group, spun both swords, and then charged forward. "It's a new Scyphozoa!" Yumi finally managed to shout. William panicked.

"Scyphozoa? I thought…but it's…there can't be another monster like it! There can't be! It's not possible!" William was more scared of possession than he was of spiders. He lost all focus on everything else. Because he wasn't paying attention, he was hit by a barrage from the monster he and Yumi had been fighting and was devirtualized right before Yumi destroyed it. The blue-green orbs moved towards the group from their hiding place behind them while the possessed Ulrich Supersprinted forward.

In the scanner room, the elevator doors opened and Sissi, Nicholas, and Herb walked out. The elevator closed behind them and began to move back up. When it reached the computer room, Antea ran to it and took it to the top level. The countdown on the screen showed 00:10:50. In the scanner room, a scanner opened and William came out. He looked up to see Sissi and her gang. "Uh, can I help you?" he asked sarcastically. Then he stood up and charged them. No sooner had his scanner door closed then it opened again, and the other two as well. William grabbed Sissi's arm and swung her into Nicholas. They both went down. Herb jumped him from behind, but William grabbed his arm and flipped him over his head. Sissi stood up and fired a bolt of lightning at him. He dodged, but Nicholas came in low and tackled him. He tried to kick him off, but Nicholas still clung to him. Herb grabbed one of Williams arms, but with his other free arm, he grabbed Nicholas's hand and shoved it off of his leg. He pushed himself upright, only to be flattened by a flying kick from Sissi. William was knocked down. Nicholas let go so he could try to pin William by the shoulders, but it was a mistake. The moment his legs were free, he swung out at him and swiped his legs out from under him. As Nicholas went down, William struck Herb across the face and then stood up with Herb still pinning one of his arms. With a well-placed kick, however, Herb's grip was broken and he was knocked back. William turned and grabbed Sissi's arm from behind and tried to swing her again, but she grabbed his arm with her other hand and flung him into the side of a scanner. He stood back up and then tackled her.

On the bridge, Antea looked at her watch. "The self-virtualization should have run by now. Once they've been in the scanners, the Return To The Past won't affect them anymore and those brats will have to deal with even more complications! And I can just imagine that girl going to her father to complain about 'Jeremie's evil computer programs that looked like monsters and tried to kill her!' I wonder if they'll be expelled or arrested?" she mused as she walked away.

In the computer room, the countdown had finished.

In the scanner room, the scanner doors closed and activated…but they were empty inside. MARA's victims realized this and turned on William in fury. He was propping himself up on a scanner. He didn't know much about the systems, but he knew enough to guess what he had just foiled. "What's the matter?" he taunted. "Miss your bus? I'm sorry for the delay." The three charged at him. A moment later he was flying through the air and slammed into a wall. "Ow. I wonder how the others are doing?"

On Lyoko

Odd flew through the air and slammed into a slab of stone. "Ow. I wonder how William is doing?" He squirmed to one side as Ulrich came soaring in and slammed a sword where Odd's head had been a few seconds ago. Yumi hurled a fan at his unprotected back, but he flicked his second sword up behind him to deflect it. Aelita launched an Energy Sphere, but he ducked and it soared overhead. He laughed darkly. Suddenly he spun away and Supersprinted at her. She took to the skies to escape, but he jumped to intercept her with his boosted momentum. He savagely swung a sword at her, and she conjured up two Energy Spheres to block it just in time. While she wasn't hurt, she was knocked from the sky. Ulrich landed on top of her with his swords crisscrossing across her throat, jammed into the ground and pinning her. He drew them back and prepared to plunge them, but broke off when he saw two fans heading for him. He batted them both away and they spun off crazily before looping back to their owner. Then Odd got him from behind with a Laser Arrow. Ulrich spun to face him and his eyes narrowed. Without warning, he Supersprinted forwards. Then he broke off at a right angle and headed for Yumi. Odd watched, confused…until the sword Ulrich had flung before he turned stabbed into his arm. Odd gasped in shock, and then in relief when he found that he wasn't dead yet. "Hey Aelita, what's the smallest positive number that doesn't equal zero?"

"Why?"

"That's how many Lifepoints I have. I think I need to sit this one out." He ran to a rock and clawed his way to the top and sat there, watching Ulrich battle Yumi. He hacked and slashed at her, but her hands were always there holding Tessen fans to block the strikes. However, she was being driven back very noticeably. Ulrich swiped low, then high, and then he feinted a sideways strike. Yumi fell for it and moved to block it and his sword collided with the backs of her hands, knocking her fans away and bringing down her Lifepoints as well. She dropped to the ground to avoid a punishing swing at her head and swung her legs to take Ulrich down. However, having sparred with her so many times, he had anticipated this he had already jumped. With Ulrich's sword cleaving the air before, Yumi curled up into a ball and then sprung apart. Her feet connected solidly with him on both sides of his sword and launched him from her without her being touched. She jumped upright and then went right back down as she rolled forward and came up with her fans in her hands again. Ulrich stood up and glared. With his sword held high in two hands, he charged forward, and then his speed suddenly increased immensely as he activated his Supersprint. Luckily for Yumi, although he succeeded in striking her, his maneuver made it impossible to slice with his sword in time. Instead, he just ran Yumi over. When he turned he saw Aelita land beside her and her wings folding back in. She created an Energy Sphere and aimed it at him with steel in her eyes. Ulrich grinned, dropped his sword, and opened his arms wide. It was impossible for Aelita to miss. Ulrich was knocked down to 10 Lifepoints and was blasted backwards into a slab of stone. It was the one that the orbs had hidden behind. One of them came out and, as Aelita prepared to fire again, it shot Ulrich. It was too late for Aelita to cease fire, as she had already launched the Energy Sphere.

"No!" A fan flew in to intercept the Energy Sphere and it exploded right in front of Ulrich. "What do we do now? We can't kill him, but we won't survive forever either!" Yumi panicked.

Meanwhile, Odd was staring glumly at his hands on top of the rock. "Stupid blob of goop!" he barked, naming the orbs. "Me, put out of commission by a monster who doesn't even do damage!" Then the outline around his body suddenly flickered. "Huh? What's going on?" The outline fizzled out. Odd's DNA was back to normal again. "Yeeha!" He yelled, leaping from the stone. "Killer Odd is back in business!"

The last Scrambler exploded as a fan scythed through it and returned to the hand that had thrown it. It was glowing green. Another hand conjured up two Energy Spheres to block a sword that was descending. Those hands were also glowing green. Ulrich face wore an evil grin as he pressed Aelita back. He was leaving himself open to an attack from Yumi, but she didn't dare strike while his DNA was scrambled. Suddenly the words "Laser Arrow!" were shouted and one of the little projectiles zoomed towards Ulrich. He backflipped out of the way. Odd was standing there, one hand aimed at Ulrich and the other one holding his other katana. Odd then noticed the green glow. "Whoops. I guess we have to wait for it to wear off before we defeat him. It shouldn't be that hard." He said that last part loudly, goading the possessed Ulrich into charging at him.

"Odd! How are you back to normal?" Yumi questioned.

"It looks like it's only a temporary effect. We're lucky." Aelita answered for him. Odd wasn't doing too well against Ulrich. He was unused to using a sword. Ulrich struck with two swift downward chops. Odd blocked them both, but clumsily. Ulrich feinted towards Odd's legs, and then redirected his strike towards his head. Odd fell for the trick, but was able to react in time by falling backwards. With a crushing blow, Ulrich smashed the sword from his hand, and then stabbed downwards. Odd was devirtualized.

In the scanner room.

William slammed into another wall, smoke rising off of his clothes. Sissi stood with her arm outstretched, having just blasted him with lightning. William shook off the effects and charged at her. At the last second, he dove to the side to avoid another bolt of electricity and rolled to a stand behind Herb. Grabbing him, he threw him into Nicholas, knocking both of them down. Then a scanner door opened and out stepped Odd. His face looked exhausted and his eyes were downcast. Then he noticed Nicholas and Herb at his feet and he snapped alert. "What the…William?" he asked.

"Don't stand there gawking, help me fight!"

"On it!" Od leapt in the air and came down on top of Nicholas and Herb, who were starting to rise. They were flattened again by Odd's falling smash. "Yeah! That's how to keep an enemy…" Suddenly he was blasted into the air by two bolts of electricity. He fell back down and landed on someone again, but this time it was William.

"Ow! Odd, is this what you call 'helping'?" They both stood up and moved into fighting stances. As one, they charged forward. William managed to land a flying double kick on both Nicholas and Herb, knocking them to the ground. Odd charged at Sissi. She sidestepped, but he launched himself sideways and tackled her.

On Lyoko.

Yumi ducked under the sword that cleaved the air on its way to her head. As soon as it passed overhead, she jumped over the katana scything at her legs. Ulrich spun again, lashing out with his swords. Yumi backflipped out of reach, but it was only momentary. Ulrich pressed forwards, aiming a strike at her neck and another lightning fast blow to her back. She blocked both with her fans. He launched into an attack to fast to see all the individual slashes and stabs. Yumi frantically whipped her arms and wrists back and forth as she blocked his onslaught. She managed to catch one of his swords in between two fans, but before she could wrench it away, Ulrich kicked her in the stomach, knocking her back. As she stood up, he Supersprinted forwards and knocked her flying. He returned to normal speed, sheathed his swords, and watched Yumi plow a small furrow in the ground from the impact. He strode forward menacingly until he reached her. Suddenly, the green glow around him flickered and faded. Yumi raised her fans and flung them at him. He dodged, but this allowed her the time to stand back up. The Tessen fans boomeranged back to her and she stood facing off against the possessed Warrior. Ulrich slashed with one sword and then the other at her legs, and then swung them, carrying the momentum, towards her side. She turned and blocked them. She turned back to face him, but Ulrich brought the swords over his chest in an X and then slashed outward with tremendous force. Each sword smashed a fan from her hands. Ulrich kicked the Yumi down and held both swords over his head in preparation to strike. Suddenly, there was a pink impact in his back and he dissolved. Through the wire frame that remained for a split second Yumi saw Aelita, hovering in the air with a hand outstretched.

"Thanks. That was a close one!"

"No problem! Now come on let's deactivate that tower!" Yumi ran and Aelita flew towards the activated tower. Aelita reached it and attempted to go inside, but the tower remained solid. "What's going on?" She asked astonished. Then she answered her own question. "Of course, our codes are still scrambled."

"Mine isn't!" said Yumi. A green outline flickered around her, and then faded.

"Well, we were hit at about the same time, so…" Aelita didn't finish because her form was returning to normal as well. "Well, now that that minor delay is over, I've got a tower to deactivate." Aelita entered the tower and ran to the middle of the platform. She floated up to the top one and the interface formed. She placed her hand on it and she was identified as

AELITA

Then she typed in

CODE

LYOKO

On Earth, Sissi, Nicholas, and Herb suddenly froze, fizzled like they had an electronic bug, and then collapsed. William and Odd looked at eachother in relief. The scanner doors opened and Ulrich came out. "What happened?" he asked, dazed. Then the other scanner doors opened and Aelita and Yumi got out. They dragged the three unwelcome students to the elevator and took it up to the computer room. Jeremie was just getting up.

"What happened?" he asked groggily.

"We were fighting the enemy, the voice in our heads fell asleep, Ulrich got possessed by an amoeba thing, the usual stuff." Odd answered nonchalantly. "Oh yeah, William panicked and got devirtualized, but it was lucky because he was able to stop three MARA-possessed students from becoming immune to Returns To The Past." He added.

"Come on, we've got to get these guys back to school before they wake up or we'll need to do a Return To The Past. We'll give you more details on the way." Aelita told him. "Give me a hand with Sissi. For how much she goes on about having a perfect body, she's pretty heavy!" Jeremie grabbed her arms and Aelita grabbed her legs. She lifted Sissi's prone body, but Jeremie collapsed.

"Come on, use those muscles, you sluggard! I've never seen such a wimpling!" Odd barked, imitating a certain PE teacher.

"Yes, Jim." Jeremie sighed. "But Odd, seriously, stop calling me 'weak' or I'll start calling you 'scrawny' again!"

'Hey! That's not the same! You are weak, but I'm not scrawny! I'm svelte!"

"Sure, Scrawny!"

END