After writing the first three chapters of my original story, I found out that my chapters had become much longer due to the extra details I was putting in. When I looked back at this story, I thought about it and decided to re edit it, putting in all the detail that I once overlooked. Please tell me if my attempt was successful.
Disclaimer: Do I really have to put this? Duh I don't own Code Lyoko…
ULRICH POV
Birds chirped merrily and flew above the heads of the various students on their way to their next class. Kadic Academy was a well respected boarding school located in Boulogne-Billancourt suburb in France known for its high amount of graduates. Also, it is known for being the most culturally and racially diverse academy in the surrounding area, containing many French-African, Japanese, German, and students of other races.
Among the milling students was one inconspicuous student named Ulrich Stern. He was German in heritage, and often drew the attention of many girls due to his good looks. He had dark brown hair that was spiked on one side and smooth on the other, and he wore a simple outfit consisting of dark green pants and a tan shirt. Normally, he wore a dark green over shirt as well, but due to the summer heat, he had left it in his dorm.
He was supposed to be headed toward his biology class with Mrs. Suzanne Hertz, but he had stayed behind in order to meet his best friend, Odd. In addition, he wasn't too keen on seeing Mrs. Hertz due to the fact that she absolutely despised him and Odd.
Speaking of Odd, Ulrich could see him coming now.
"Hey, Ulrich, my man how are you doing?" Odd called, walking over to Ulrich, who was currently leaning against a tree in the school courtyard. Ulrich glanced at his best friend. Odd was dressed in his usual purple outfit. Ulrich would bet anything that Odd had a closet filled with seven sets of the exact same outfit.
"I'm dreading biology class. What will be our excuse for being late this time?" Ulrich answered wryly. Last time, Odd had insisted that a teacher had held the two of them behind so that they could be reprimanded for their poor grades. Mrs. Hertz had believed this easily due to the fact that their report cards were nothing to brag about.
"Locker jams maybe? That happens all the time," Odd suggested.
"Yeah, but that would make no sense. We're best friends, and both of our lockers happened to jam at the same time? She would see through that in an instant," Ulrich countered. This always seemed to happen. Odd would put forward a suggestion, and Ulrich would think of many reasons why that suggestion wouldn't work. This process continued for a couple more minutes before the two finally settled on an excuse.
"I've got it! We'll tell her that a kid's backpack broke and that we were nice enough to help him pick up the mess!" Odd exclaimed.
"That might work, but what if she asks what the kids name was?" Ulrich asked. Odd thought about this for a moment before answering.
"Emmanuel Maillard. He does that all the time; Mrs. Hertz would never suspect a thing!" Odd answered.
"Alright then, let's go," Ulrich confirmed after a second. Odd grinned and led the way toward the science building, where their biology class was located.
As we expected, the excuse worked like a charm, and they received no disciplinary action due to their "good deed." Ulrich took his usual seat near the window, while Odd sat at the table near him, next to their other best friend, Jeremy. He was a genius. His grades were through the roof, earning him respect from teachers all over the school. Due to this, Odd frequently called him "Einstein." Jeremy is also the leader of the Lyoko team, for he was the one who discovered the computer in the first place. But more on that later.
"Smooth," Jeremy whispered to Odd. "Just wait until Emmanuel hears that you used him as an excuse."
"He won't care. He would do the same with me," Odd replied, unconcerned.
"Hi, Ulrich," said his friend Aelita from the desk behind him. She was a fairly cute girl with pink hair. While this was abnormal, everyone simply assumed that it was hair dye. No one would ever guess that it was her natural hair color. She was also the reason that the Lyoko team was formed in the first place. Although she didn't know it, Jeremy was in love with her.
"Hey Aelita, what's going on?" Ulrich replied amiably.
"Nothing much, I'm just recovering from the last Xana attack," she answered. Ulrich winced slightly. Yesterday, in the last attack, Xana had infected a nearby cloud and caused a hailstorm with hailstones the size of baseballs. His arm was broken by a particularly large specimen. Ulrich praised Franz Hopper again for the "return to the past" feature.
"Hah, you weren't the one with the broken arm," he commented.
As the lesson started, everyone started doing the same things they always did. Ulrich stared out the window, ignoring the teacher, and Odd began to draw yet another picture of his dog, Kiwi. Jeremy and Aelita, however, were diligently taking notes. It was just another ordinary day. For now.
When the lesson ended, their lunch period began. Ulrich and his friends left the science building and walked over to the cafeteria, where they met up with the last member of the team, Yumi. She was Japanese by heritage, but she had taken to the gothic look better, wearing all black but dispensing with the white make-up. Ulrich and Yumi were very much in love with each other, but neither of them knew that the other felt the same.
"Hi guys, what's up?" she greeted them, waving. Ulrich felt a small thrill flow through his body as he drew close to the object of his desire.
"Nothing really, other than the fact that I managed to survive another biology class," Ulrich answered.
"It's not really that bad, I passed it easily," Yumi commented.
"Yeah, yeah," Ulrich remarked.
Once they were inside, the group took their usual table near the lunch line. It didn't used to be their table, but they moved from their original one because they were sick of Odd complaining that he couldn't get to the lunch line quick enough.
The second Ulrich sat down after getting his food, Sissi, the principal's daughter, approached him. Ulrich groaned inwardly. Oh boy, here we go.
"Hi, Ulrich dear, can I speak to you for a minute, alone?" she inquired in a sweet voice. Ulrich sighed and rose to go with her, knowing that he would regret it if he didn't. She had very distinctive ways of getting revenge. Last time he had made her extremely mad because he wouldn't go to a movie with her. In response, Ulrich had then ended up in detention for an infraction he didn't commit.
"Be right back, guys," Ulrich told his friends ruefully. Sissi took him outside near the vending machines, which was the most private place during the lunch hour.
"I was just thinking of Yumi lately and I wondered if you knew some of the things that she has been doing," Sissi began. Ulrich sighed. He should have known it would have been something like this.
"Like?" Ulrich asked, determined to say as little as possible to this disgrace to the female gender.
"I've seen her smoking by the school gates. It was simply appalling that she has been hiding something that gruesome for all this time. I really don't think you should be hanging out with someone like that. Right?" Sissi continued. Ulrich wasn't fazed.
"So we're stooping to lies now? You really think I'd stop being friends with Yumi simply because you don't like her? Think again," Ulrich demanded.
"But I-"
"This conversation is over," Ulrich finished, storming back inside.
"Urgh! Why is he so difficult!" He heard Sissi cry. He grinned in amusement. She is simply pathetic. Once he had sat down with his friends again, Yumi confronted him.
"What did she want?" she asked suspiciously.
"Nothing really. It was just another one of her attempts to get me," Ulrich replied. Yumi groaned and facepalmed.
As the group began to eat, Ulrich became aware of a strange scraping sound emanating from the ceiling. He looked up to see if he could determine the source. As he looked, Jeremy's laptop began to beep rapidly.
"Guys, we have an activated tower in the desert!" Jeremy whispered. Ulrich stood, along with the rest of the group. He then noticed that the scraping sound had become considerably louder, for other students began to notice it. And then, the nature of the attack became terribly clear.
The ceiling tiles in the center of the room shattered as an overly large snake as thick as a human and as long as a table came crashing down. Ulrich could tell that it was Xana's due to the Xana eye clearly visible in the snake's slitted pupils. The room soon resonated with the sound of screams as the students ran for the doors. However, the snake had other ideas. With a sweep of its mighty tail, it sent four students sprawling to the floor.
Ulrich began to survey the room for weapons, but Yumi stopped him with her arm.
"I'll handle this. You guys get to the factory," she said.
"Are you going to be okay?" Ulrich asked, concerned. The last thing he wanted was to leave the girl he loved in a room with a killer snake.
"I can fight just as well as you can, thank you very much," Yumi remarked, referring to all of the training matches that they had been in together. In fact, Yumi was a better fighter than Ulrich, for she nearly always won them.
"Don't get killed," Ulrich warned. "I will be very mad if you do,"
Yumi merely shrugged.
"Come on already!" Jeremy said. Ulrich followed the others as they ran out the door.
"Good!" cried Odd as we ran past the vending machine. "I was getting bored!"
"It has only been a day since the last attack!" Ulrich said incredulously. He couldn't believe Odd's love of action. I mean, he loved it as much as anyone, but this was ridiculous.
"I know! Isn't it awesome?" Odd answered.
The snake hissed menacingly, its forked tongue darting in and out as it scrutinized the whimpering boy trapped in its coils. Shall it crush him to death? Or shall it kill him with its poisonous fangs? This was the most fun it could ever remember having.
Its coils itched, so it decided to eat the boy. Hissing again, it opened its mouth wide………and abruptly received a chair in its maw.
"Pick on someone your own size!" Yumi shouted. Irritated, the snake broke the chair in two with its powerful jaws. Interesting. So the humans were brave after all. But they were still weak, as it demonstrated with a sweep of its tail. Yumi was hit directly in the stomach, knocking the breath from her lungs and sending her tumbling to the floor.
Acting quickly, she dived under a nearby table as she tried to catch her breath. But the snake had other ideas. It sent its tail under the table in order to try and fish her out. It found her ankle and fastened around it. Yumi responded by sinking her teeth into the reptilian flesh. The snake cried in pain and withdrew its tail.
Yumi dived out from underneath the table and opened a nearby door.
"Get out!" she cried to the boys nearby. She didn't need to tell them twice. They ran like frightened rabbits out the door to freedom. Yumi soon followed them, shutting the door behind her. She knew that the door was too weak to hold the snake for long. But she couldn't run either, because then it would simply attack other students. She needed to distract it for as long as she could. Huh. Easier said than done.
"You know what?" Yumi said to the snake. "Reptilian flesh tastes awful!" Then she spat on the floor.
Ulrich found himself once again dashing through the park. One of the most inconspicuous passages to Renault Factory was through the manhole leading to the sewers.
They stopped once they reached the manhole. Ulrich mentally braced himself, because Jeremy would, as usual, shove the manhole cover into his chest.
"Hold that," Jeremy ordered, shoving the manhole into Ulrich's chest. He let out a small exclamation.
"You have got to stop doing that," Ulrich complained. Jeremy ignored his usual complaint and climbed down the ladder. Ulrich followed him, and Odd and Aelita were not far behind.
Jeremy and Aelita grabbed their scooters, and Ulrich and Odd hopped on their skateboards. Ulrich thought it was pathetic how the two geniuses never used skateboards. He guessed that they were too scared to attempt the jumps. One swift movement and they were on their way to Renault.
Yumi picked up the chair and bashed the snake across the head as it lunged at her. Never before had it been denied prey like this, and it was getting angrier and angrier.
Under the circumstances, Yumi thought that she was doing quite well. She had lured the snake out of the lunchroom and into the science building. This building was always empty when lunch began so it was a perfect place to keep the snake occupied.
She was currently in the hallway on the second floor. For a weapon, she had grabbed a chair from a nearby classroom and was prepared to use it. However, it was the only chair she had, for the snake had caused some of the ceiling near the classrooms to collapse, blocking them off.
Yumi jumped over the snake's tail as it attempted to knock her off her feet. Although she had been doing a remarkable job, the snake saw that she was beginning to tire. She would soon be to fatigued to fight properly, and that's when the snake knew that it could eat her. The snake began to salivate simply at the thought.
Yumi swung the chair again, but this time, the snake used its versatile tail to snatch the chair from her and smash it against a nearby wall. Now she had no weapon.
In one swift move, the snake grabbed hold of Yumi using its powerful coils. She struggled, but the snake was too strong. It was time for revenge. This was not going to be quick. No one lasted this long against the snake and got away with a quick death. This was going to be long and slow.
"Help!" Yumi cried, but they both knew that it was in vain. There was no one to help her now.
Ulrich, Odd and Aelita took the elevator in the factory down to the scanners, while Jeremy stayed in the lab.
"Guys? I just looked at the holomap and Xana has his tower well guarded," Jeremy warned them over the intercom.
"It's nothing we can't handle." Odd replied, cocky as ever. Ulrich agreed. Xana's monsters were tough, but they didn't stand a chance against the whole team.
"Four tarantulas, two mantas, three crabs, and a megatank." Odd's jaw dropped. He sputtered incoherently for a moment.
"W-what?! That's insane!" Odd yelled. Ulrich too was daunted. Those were not favorable odds.
"Looks like we actually have to use tactics," Aelita responded calmly.
The three stepped into the cylindrical scanners in the room and prepared for the transport. Ulrich hated the transfer to Lyoko. It's kind of hard to get used to every atom in your body being ripped apart and reassembled in a virtual world. But that was just his opinion.
"Virtualization," Jeremy called, confirming the transfer. In the scanners, the temperature instantly rose forty degrees for a second before Ulrich felt his atoms disperse.
He felt them assemble almost a split second later in thedesert region of Lyoko. Aelita and Odd soon joined him.
"Get down!" Ulrich whispered, crouched behind a rock. For in front of him was the tower, and its guards were not far away.
"What do we do?" Odd asked frantically. Aelita also looked over at Ulrich. He thought for a moment before coming up with a plan.
"We can't have those mantas laying their mines, so seeing as we still have the element of surprise, we need to take them out first. Odd, aim for the one on the right. Aelita, you get the other," Ulrich ordered.
"Then what?" Aelita pressed.
"Then I want you two to cover me as I go in," Ulrich added.
"What? You're insane!" Odd protested. "There's too many!" Ulrich sighed. Odd was really exasperating sometimes.
"Look there. There is a small choke point between those two rock formations. If I can lure the monsters there one at a time, they should be easy pickings." He explained. Odd didn't seem convinced, but he relented.
Ulrich raised his hand gently, and then he dropped it. Odd and Aelita jumped into the open.
"Laser arrow!"
"Energy field!"
The mantas turned to face them, but too late. They were hit directly in the eye on top of them and they exploded harmlessly. Then hell began.
The tarantulas instantly went into firing position and opened fire at the two kids. The megatank and the crabs stood their ground, obviously believing that the tarantulas could take care of it.
Odd and Aelita took cover behind the rock formations, occasionally firing once or twice. Ulrich however, had used his triplicate ability to produce two clones. He stayed behind cover while he ordered his clones to attack. The first clone went down almost instantly, but he absorbed enough attention so that the other clone could get close enough. Then that clone was shot, but not before it threw its sword, destroying one of the tarantulas. The real Ulrich took refuge at the choke point, making sure the tarantulas knew where he was.
Two tarantulas came forward and entered the choke point in single file. The first one poked its head out, looking left. But as it looked right, it promptly received a sword in its eye. The other one fell in an instant to one of Aelita's energy fields.
The other monsters got smart. They now knew that to enter the choke point was to be destroyed, so now they stood their ground.
"A stand-off," Odd sighed. "Any more plans, General Ulrich?" Ulrich resisted his sudden urge to smack Odd.
"I might have one, but it requires you to sacrifice yourself," he replied. Odd groaned.
"Not again!" Odd complained. Ulrich grinned.
"I need you to charge out, firing as many arrows as you can. The monsters should be taken off guard by this reckless move. While they're firing at you, I can triangulate the megatank. Then, Aelita can run through," Ulrich continued.
"It's risky," Odd pointed out.
"Do you have a better idea?" Ulrich snapped.
The snake squeezed slowly, delighting in the small gasps of pain form Yumi. This was so fun, it wondered how long it could draw this out. Maybe, one or two hours.
Then, in an instant, the tables turned. A teen came running up the stairs behind the snake. Seeing it, the teen executed a skilled roundhouse kick to the snake's head. Disoriented, the snake released Yumi, who ran toward the teen.
"Emmanuel? What are you doing here?" Yumi asked, surprised. Emmanuel grinned in his infectious way.
"Helping you. Come on!" he cried, grabbing Yumi's wrist. "Run!"
The snake hissed in rage as it saw its hard won prey escape. It slithered down the stairs behind them.
As Yumi and Emmanuel ran, Yumi couldn't help but notice the Emmanuel seemed a lot different from the kid who had tried out for Odd's band earlier in the year. He seemed…skilled, confident….like he knew what he was doing.
"Hey, Yumi," Emmanuel called as they ran. "I heard Odd and Ulrich used me as an excuse to get into class!"
"Time and a place, Emmanuel!" Yumi replied, chuckling despite herself.
"No time like the present, I always say!" he shot back, laughing. But he said no more about it.
Soon, they left the science building. Yumi was alarmed, for she had planned to keep the snake contained in there. But as Emmanuel led her toward the gym, she realized what he was going to do.
"The boiler room? Do you know what you're doing?" Yumi cried.
"Right on!" was his only response.
Yumi and Emmanuel locked themselves in the boiler room, but they knew that the simple lock would not hold for long against a creature of that size.
"There's another way out of here. There's a passage that leads to the sewers," Emmanuel told her.
"You know about that?" Yumi asked, surprised.
"Heck yeah!" he responded.
The door rattled fiercely. The snake was on the other side, determined to do whatever it took to consume its quarry. No one had ever stood up against it and lived. Never!
Emmanuel motioned for Yumi to head down the path.
"What about you?" Yumi asked anxiously.
"I'm going to buy you time! Now run!" he yelled. As soon as Yumi entered the sewers, the door shattered, and the snake came through. Emmanuel picked up a nearby crowbar.
"Alright, beastie! Let's see what you got!" Emmanuel challenged. The snake happily obliged, lunging forward.
Odd had obeyed Ulrich's command, charging madly through the choke point, shooting wildly in all directions. He was quickly shot and devirtualized, but not before taking out two crabs and a tarantula. Ulrich then followed through with his part, quickly destroying the megatank.
"Aelita! To the tower! Now is your chance!" Ulrich shouted. Aelita nodded and sprinted as fast as she could. The tarantula immediately aimed for her, but she destroyed it with an energy field.
"Die, you stupid crab!" Ulrich yelled, deflecting laser by laser with his trusty katana. he dashed around it, trying to confuse it. Ulrich succeeded, because it spun around so many times it had no idea where he was. He saw his chance.
"Hyyyyyyaaaaah!" He plunged my sword into the eye on top of the crab. "Impact!" It exploded.
Aelita, tired from all of the running, entered the tower. Just inside was a small platform with Xana's eye on it. She walked delicately to the center. Suddenly, she was surrounded by a glow and she rose into the air. She landed on yet another platform. The rings of the Xana eye beneath her lit up, as usual. A screen suspended in midair appeared before her. Aelita placed her hand on it; it beeped in recognition.
"AELITA" It read. "CODE?"
Smiling, she put in, "CODE LYOKO."
"Tower deactivated," Aelita announced triumphantly. Jeremy sighed and slumped back in his chair. Jeremy is the only one who can use the supercomputer located in the factory.
"Okay guys, I'll launch the return to the past," He said in a somewhat relieved voice "That will teach Xana from messing with us for a while."
He pressed the ENTER key on the computer. (A/N. Notice that whatever function Jeremy is trying to do, he always presses the enter key. I mean, a little variety here?)
That moment, the entire world went back in time one day.
Right when the blinding light faded, Ulrich rushed to find his friend Odd. Ulrich found him hanging out near the vending machines. Odd saw him and grinned. Ulrich groaned. Loudly.
"No more lame jokes please!" he cried. Odd pretended to be offended.
"Leave my lame jokes alone, Ulrich, what did they ever do to you?" He said.
"Besides occasionally ruin my day? Nothing really." Ulrich retorted. "Anyway, where are the others?"
"They went to get lunch," Odd answered. "Speaking of which, I'm hungry."
"When are you not hungry?" Ulrich joked. They laughed and walked toward the lunch room.
They entered the cafeteria and looked for Aelita's signature pink hair. (A/N. Wonderful way of finding someone, no?)
"Over here!" Ulrich heard Yumi call. He saw her and walked over to them.
"I'm always exhausted after a Xana attack," Ulrich said, sitting down. Jeremy looked behind him.
"You guys did a great job! I never thought you were that good at tactics, Ulrich." He said admirably.
"I learned from the best," Ulrich replied. Jeremy looked confused.
"Who?" he asked, curious.
"Me. I guess it was from me beating him so much in his favorite strategy game," Aelita remarked.
"Where's Odd?" Jeremy asked, changing the subject. Ulrich rolled his eyes.
"Where else? In the lunch line," he said snidely. Odd then walked over to them carrying two entrees, two deserts, and two each of every extra. Ulrich glanced at the food.
"One of these days, Odd, you're going to explode," he remarked. Odd shrugged and started eating.
"Trouble alert. Here comes Sissi," Jeremy warned us. Odd grinned, remembering what Sissi had said the first time around.
"Hi, Ulrich dear, can I speak to you for a minute, alone?" Odd said in a very good imitation of Sissi and her sickly sweet voice. Ulrich moaned. Sissi chose that moment to walk up to him.
"Hi, Ulrich dear, can I speak to you for a minute, alone?" Sissi said, exactly as Odd had expected. Odd thought this was hilarious and snickered. Sissi shot him a glare.
"One, I'm not your Ulrich dear, and two, no, I will not stop being friends with Yumi, so just drop it and get a life," Ulrich told her rudely.
"What? How did you…but…Urgh!" Sissi cried incredulously before storming away in a huff. It took exactly two seconds before they all laughed.
"Oh my, that expression was priceless!" Odd cried, choking out these words in between laughs.
Once the hilarity died down, Yumi looked at me.
"She asked you to stop being friends with me??" Yumi asked, not really surprised. Ulrich nodded.
"Figures."
Jeremy's laptop beeped. He immediately opened it, knowing that it never did this unless it was important.
"WHAT!?" He exclaimed.
What do you think? I did my best to add a little bit more detail. A little bird told me that readers might want to know what the attack actually was and to add a LOT more detail.
