Chapter One

Ulrich's Thoughts. Reflections of the Present

He ran down the street, hard. They were close, he knew it. He could almost feel them. He checked his gun, a semi-auto Star Model B handgun, not exactly his favorite but it would have to do. He ran faster, the trees around him rustling in the cool night breeze.

"Ulrich look out!" the voiced screamed into his ear. He dodged left as the Hornet's shot smashed the ground leaving nothing but rubble in it's wake. He turned towards the creature and fired four shots in its general direction. Two of the shots got lucky and hit their mark. The hornet fell to the ground, its lifeless body hitting the pavement, its blood pooling around it. The Hornet's friends came swooping, seeking revenge. The pair flew down close, firing as they did. Ulrich rolled out of the way at the last second. One of the Hornet shots nicked him in the back. He got up, wincing in the pain as he felt the blood roll down his back.

"Ulrich, are you all right?" the familiar voice asked ringing through his ears.

"Don't worry, I'm fine, I can still fight!" he shouted into the communicator attached around his head.

The voice grew silent on the other end. One of the Hornets came for another run, but was unlucky in this venture as Ulrich shot it down before it even had a chance. The last one came in the opposite direction from the other one. It came down in range and began firing at Ulrich, it's shot buzzing by his ear. Ulrich fired a few rounds at the Hornet, and it too met a similar end as its partners.

"Ulrich here, Hornet patrol has been eliminated." He said in to his radio

"Good work. Odd, Yumi, Jeremy, and Aelita are just finishing now. Come on back to base. Jeremy and Aelita have already volunteered to stay behind and watch over the rest of the raid. Do you want an escort to come pick you up?"

"No, I'll walk. I'm not far now. Thanks anyway Sissy." he told her, beginning his walk to the school.

"Alright then. You all did good work today." she praised him and his team.

He walked on and thought of the events that took placed.

'Raids' he thought, 'Xana has many warehouses around the city we raid them, take the food and gold mined from Lyoko, but these raids do nothing to his forces'

So many thoughts ran through his head all at once it was hard to sort them out. He thought of his enemy: the computer program X.A.N.A.

'Well he is no longer a program anymore nor are his monsters merely mechanical creatures' Ulrich thought, continuing through the deserted city. Xana's monster ate, bled, felt, and slept. These monsters were vicious, they killed anything that stood in the way of their mission. He approached the school.

'Well its not really a school any more' hethought. As Odd put it, it was a school for people who liked to blow things up, which happened often when leaving him with low yield explosives. Odd always made the hard times seem bearable with a good laugh or two. He walked towards the main building, or the center of operations. Yumi was waiting for him outside. Every time he saw her his heart skipped, he loved her and she loved him back, but unlike Jeremy he did not want to make that last jump yet especially in the way things are today.

He walked over to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She smiled and gave him one in return.

"So, how did things go on your end?" he asked making their way through control center.

"Few cubes, not hard with Odd's new explosives" she said with small smile.

Odd had become quite the explosives expert when this started. Jeremy had showed Odd how to make small distracting explosives, and from then on Odd began making his own bombs. He made simple bombs, from Molotov cocktails to complex house leveling charges.

'Yep, ol' Odd has become a real explosives expert. Now if only he would stop blowing up the lab we might get some real work done' he smiled mentally as they walked passed the control center.

He looked at the room, rows of computers with operators giving orders to the night patrols roaming around the school.

Ulrich's eye fixated on the only operator wearing pink. She was rocking back and forth in her chair. Her voice stood out from he rest because he was used to hearing it almost everyday.

"Okay, that's good to hear Aelita. Come on back to base as soon as you can."

Sissy set her communicator on her desk, stood up, stretched, and walked over to Ulrich and Yumi. Sissy had changed. She matured had over the years, probably because of her losses. She lost her friend Herb, who went missing after Xana had attacked the factory, and her father who died in that same battle.

'The factory was the only other base we had to fight Xana, but that had eventually fallen and we lost many allies there' Ulrich mentally shook his head again this time in grief at his lost comrades.

"Well, Jeremy and Aelita said everything is going smoothly. They found a decent amount of gold and enough food to last us a few months. Jeremy already has plans to buy some more helicopters with the gold in case you were wondering." She told them both.

"That's good. Hope we get some decent equipment this time not that old out-dated crap again." Yumi said looking at her friend.

"No, not this time. Jeremy said he'll make the exchange, I remember what happened when Nick did it." Sissy assured them.

'That's right Nick, Sissy's other friend had gotten them old out-dated equipment from like the 1980s. Everything was falling apart or beyond repair'

After talking with Sissy for few minutes, Ulrich and Yumi decided it was time to retire to their room. Once they got to their room, they changed out of their current clothes and into something more comfortable to sleep in. Yumi climbed in first. She tried acting tough all night but in reality, she was exhausted from the day's events.

'Poor girl. Patrol after patrol during the day and raiding storehouses at night can take a lot out of a person, I feel sorry for Jeremy and Aelita though they must be exhausted' Ulrich thought.

He got into bed next to Yumi, who was already fast asleep. He smiled and kissed her again. He laid back in the bed and his mind began to wander again.

'This began thirteen years ago didn't it? That day, the day we thought our troubles had ended' He gazed out the window 'Boy, were we wrong' his eyelids slid closed, and the former Guardian of Lyoko was fast asleep.