Chapter 2: The Raid

2 weeks ago

It had been two weeks since XANA became free from Lyoko, and it's only taken two weeks for her to conquer most of the planet killing hundreds of millions of innocent people. She has been taking control of several factories all over Europe for those two weeks. Rumors of her armies being made in these factories were spreading fast as the Lyoko Warriors and some new allies of theirs started a plan of attack.

Among the Lyoko Warriors were Yumi's brother, Hiroki, a boy named Kenny and his brother Dante, and two twins named Zoe and Astrid. Kenny and Dante were around the same age as William while Zoe and Astrid were around Odd's age. They all joined the Lyoko Warriors shortly after XANA had taken over France.

By this time Yumi had already told her family of everything she knew about XANA as did the other Warriors. All except for Anja, who couldn't face her parents looking like a dragon, had told their family about Lyoko knowing that there would be consequences to this reveal.

They were all able to find the remaining tech of a military base that was stationed in France the following day after XANA was set free. In the base, Jeremie was able to find and tweak several military grade hardware into things they would all need to fight off XANA.

He got help from both Laura and Dante on the entire tech they would be using. Communicators, transmitters, GPS tracking, satellite imagery, and even a smaller supercomputer used by the military specifically for cyber warfare was what they were going to use to defeat XANA.

For the entire week, Jeremie had been tirelessly searching not only for a way to stop XANA, but also find and bring back his girlfriend, Aelita. It finally donned on him though that stopping XANA was definitely a priority. He put off finding Aelita on hold and located an abandoned old warehouse where XANA had been making her army. He also could detect a strange energy signature from the warehouse basement. Jeremie knew that they had to not only shut down this operation but also find and take the energy source from the basement.

Today

"It's time to get inside." Jeremie said over Yumi's communicator. "Alright everyone, mission is a go."

Once Jeremie said that, Anja was noticeably in the air waving at the Bloks. They fired at her and she easily dodged the lasers, and then she swooped down and slashed through them with her wings. She went back in the air and was being shot by Krabs and Tarantulas. When she saw them she flew low, away from them and they followed her.

When the coast was clear, Yumi, Hiroki, Zoe and Astrid left the bushes and proceeded to the entrance of the warehouse.

"William, you there?" Yumi asked on her communicator.

"Yeah. I'm in position, ready when you guys are." William replied over the communicator.

Yumi agreed and looked at the others. "Ready?" She asked them. They all nodded to her and she got back on her communicator. "William, we're ready on this end. Time to make some noise."

Suddenly, a black cloud of smoke came from out of the city and forced the metal door open. When William opened the door, Yumi and the others went inside and stayed behind William as he started to defend them from the incoming monsters. Luckily there were only Kankrelats guarding the inside while the bigger ones were off chasing Anja. William made short work of the group of Kankrelats while the others were setting up explosives at certain spots inside the warehouse.

"Alright has everyone set their explosives exactly where we said they should be?" Yumi asked the group and they all nodded. "Alright," she pressed her communicator and Jeremie came up again, "Jeremie we're ready. Send Odd and Ulrich now."

Jeremie nodded in agreement, "Odd, Ulrich, you heard her. Time to see what XANA has down there she doesn't want us to see."

The group already inside started to leave, until something caught Zoe's eye at the far end of the warehouse.

"Hey Yumi," She started while pointing, "Isn't that one of those scanner things you guys told us about?"

Yumi and William moved to where Zoe was and saw exactly what the dark skinned girl was talking about. A scanner that was almost completely similar to the ones they use to use to get in and out of Lyoko. The only difference was the inside; it had a red glow inside of it.

Yumi and William stared at the glowing red scanner in shock until they remembered that they had to leave before Odd and Ulrich showed up. Yumi grabbed Zoe by the arm and rushed them all outside followed by William. They were far away from the warehouse when Ulrich and Odd arrived.

"Jeremie, we got a problem in that warehouse." Yumi said to her communicator.

"What's wrong Yumi?"

"There's a scanner in there. And I mean a scanner into the virtual world Jeremie."

"So, it looks like that's how XANA is getting from one place to the other."

"So what do want us to Einstein?" Ulrich started over the comms. "Do we stick with the plan or what?"

"For now stick to the plan. Get to the basement and find that power source. Yumi, you and the others have to get back here. William, you need to go help Anja, she's in trouble with some Creepers and Krabs."

"I'm on it Jeremie." William said as he used his Super Smoke to go into the deserted city.

Yumi turned her communicator off and she got the others to go back to Jeremie, but she was stopped by an all too familiar monster, the Replikator. It had her Yumi form and was standing next to the exit way.

"Hiroki, take this." She said as she handed him her communicator.

"Wait a sec, what are you gonna do Yumi?" Hiroki asked in a very terrified tone. Yumi had told her family of how the Replikator had captured her Ulrich and Odd three weeks ago. Hiroki was already scared at the time, but when he heard his sister mention that time, he was beyond terrified.

"I'm gonna buy you three some time to get out of here."

"But that thing will kill you." Astrid said.

"No, it's not. XANA still needs me, Ulrich, William and Odd, and this is her way of getting us."

The three didn't know how to respond to Yumi's words other than to listen to her and make a break for the bushes. Once there, they made their way toward the gate they had entered through and left, making their way to Jeremie's safe house.

When the three were clearly out of sight, Yumi let out a sigh of relief. She had no idea how she was going to stop the Replikator, but she knew she had to buy Odd and Ulrich some time to get the power source and destroy the warehouse.

Odd and Ulrich

Jeremie radioed the two to tell them what was going on outside and Ulrich didn't know what to say.

"Ulrich, listen to me. Yumi knows what she's doing, she'll be fine." Odd tried to convince Ulrich of the current situation and Ulrich quickly understood what they needed to do.

They made their way to a set of stairs just as Jeremie was instructing them to. They went down as quickly as possible until they reached the bottom. There, they saw something else that reminded them of what was on Lyoko, a core.

It was like the core from Sector 5, only instead of a blue holosphere; it was red and had tubes coming out of it. It had this strange red glow resonating from it, almost like it was keeping more than the warehouse running. The tubes went all the way to the top of the ceiling and were clearly going to the surface from where Odd and Ulrich were seeing.

"Uh, Einstein." Odd started rather hesitantly. "What do we do now? This looks like a core or something."

"A core? So this must be something XANA created to run this building and keep in contact with the virtual and digital world." Jeremie said through Odd's communicator.

"Jeremie, we don't have enough time for you to figure this all out. How do we take it?" Ulrich asked in a frustrated tone.

"I anticipated something like this you guys. You have to install the program me and Laura made into the core's central mainframe, bypass the firewalls, reroute the circuitry, and-…" Jeremie was stopped by a confused Odd.

"Hold on there Einstein. We don't even understand half those words you just said."

"Okay then, I'll make this simpler. Do see that console next to the far wall?"

The two looked for and found the console, and they went to it and waited for Jeremie.

"Okay, take out the center panel on the center of it and place the terabyte I gave you guys in the open usb port. When you do that, take these wires in this order out of the console; last on the left, last one on the right, the center wire, and the wire two spaces to the right of the last wire on the left."

The two followed Jeremie's instructions to the letter and waited for his next orders.

"Finally, all you have to do is link any of the tubes off the core and onto the terabyte hardrive. Hurry up you guys, Yumi isn't going to last much longer."

The mention of Yumi's situation was enough motivation for Ulrich to grab the nearest tube he could grab and pulled it out of the core. Suddenly the red glow started to fade from the core and the two knew they had to hurry. Ulrich quickly linked the tubes to the terabyte and the two objects started to meld together. The core was starting to fall to the ground slowly as the terabyte started to glow the same red glow the core had glowed.

When the process was done, the terabyte was released from the tube and it was floating in front of them. Odd grabbed it and carefully put it back in his backpack. They made their way back up the stairs and ran into the Replikator. It had Yumi in its hand just like last time.

"YUMI!" Ulrich shouted, but the Replikator wasn't letting Yumi go.

Ulrich and Odd were beginning to be cornered by it and had no way out. Ulrich sighed and bumped Odd on the elbow. He gave Odd a stern look and Odd understood what this meant. It meant get ready to run for the exit.

Ulrich pulled out a detonator to all the explosives out of his pocket and shouted, "RUN ODD!"

He pushed the button as Odd made a break for the entrance. As the explosives went off, the Replikator looked around at the destruction happening around it, and this was Ulrich's perfect opportunity to grab Yumi and carry her out of there.

He successfully pulled Yumi away from the Replikator's loose grip and put her over his shoulder. Ulrich ran towards the exit but was stopped by the Replikator who jumped in front of him.

"Dangit," Ulrich said to himself as the Replikator was getting closer.

The explosions from the bombs were starting to get toward the two of them and Ulrich didn't have enough time to attempt to fight the monster. Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, Anja came from the entrance and scooped Ulrich and Yumi to her. She used her wings and formed an almost impenetrable shield around them. As the explosions overcame the warehouse, Odd looked on at the fiery inferno and hoped that none of his friends were hurt in any way.

He was happy to see his best friends and girlfriend coming out of the top of the flames with everything still attached to them. He let out a sigh of relief and waited for Anja to come and get him. As she flew low, Odd jumped on her back as she came to him.

"Man that must have been intense." Odd declared as they flew back toward Jeremie's safe house.

"Hahaha Odd." Ulrich said as he was trying not to fall off Anja's back. "That's not all that funny. Hey, you still have the terabyte right Odd?"

"Yep, right in my bag." Odd patted his bag to signify his statement, and hung on as they landed in the front yard of the Hermitage.

"Nice flying baby." Odd said as he and Ulrich got off Anja's back.

"No problem at all babe." Anja said as she kissed him.

They went inside the Hermitage and went straight to the basement where everyone was waiting.

"YUMI!" Hiroki yelled as he went to console his older sister.

By the time they were down the stairs Yumi was coming to and had a pretty bad headache.

"I'm fine Hiroki, just a little sore."

"Oh man, you had us all worried Yumi." Astrid said.

"Sorry for that you guys. Didn't want XANA to take or kill any of you."

Everyone nodded in agreement and Odd handed Jeremie his bag with the terabyte in it. Jeremie slowly pulled it out of the bag and was marveled by its enticing glow.

"Hmmm." Jeremie started as he examined the terabyte. He looked around to everyone and had a very interesting and yet a very crazy idea. "I think I may know what to do with this energy source, but it's going to take a while to get it started until I get all the required parts."

Everyone else had no idea what Jeremie was thinking. He had this look he usually had when he was in deep though, the kind of thought that could very well change how the Lyoko Warriors can fight XANA and win.

"Well, what are you thinking of dude?" Dante asked him.

Jeremie stood up and looked around one more time before addressing everyone.

"We need to stop XANA. And I think each and almost every single one us needs to decide right now."

"Decide what exactly?" Laura asked hesitantly.

"To become a virtual avatar in the real world. Basically," Jeremie breathed deeply, "to become a Lyoko Warrior here, in the real world."

So sorry it took me some time to get this chapter up. Been working on another story and then I accidently forgot about this chapter. LOL. Anyway, hope you enjoy this one and as always, PEACE.