Chapter 2: The Plan
After school had ended, the gang and I headed for the factory, just as Jeremie said.
"So, Jeremie. What did you find?" asked Aelita.
"I think I might have found a way to destroy XANA and free Franz from the supercomputer!" said Jeremie.
"What?" everyone shouted.
"Get my father back? Is that even possible?" Aelita asked surprisingly.
"This is too good to be true!" shouted Odd.
"So, when can we get started?" asked Yumi.
"I can start up the program tomorrow and we can start the mission right after school." said Jeremie as he started typing some data into the supercomputer.
"That's fantastic! A world without XANA!" exclaimed William.
"But there's a small problem…" said Jeremie.
"And that might be…" I said.
"I need someone to try out this project…you know, as a…"
"Guinea pig?" said Odd.
"Exactly! So, who would like to volunteer?" said Jeremie.
The room grew silent for a few minutes. It seems like no one was willing to volunteer because of what happened the last time.
"Oh come on, you guys. We need someone to test the program, but we can't risk Aelita and William." explained Jeremie.
"I don't think I want to end up with 3 heads this time…hehe." said Odd with a goofy grin on his face.
"Which leaves Yumi and Ulrich. So…who will it be?" asked Aelita.
"I…" said Yumi before she was interrupted by William.
"I think Ulrich should go. He has a better chance of survival than Yumi does." suggested William.
I couldn't say anything at all. I was shocked by that suggestion because…well, it was a ridiculous reason. I balled up my fists and was about to protest when Jeremie said,
"Alright. Then Ulrich, you will test out the program after I transfer everyone onto Lyoko. I need Aelita to activate one of the towers to make this program possible."
With that said, I kept my mouth shut. I couldn't argue with Jeremie in this situation since he worked long days and nights to get this program started. I didn't want to ruin it, just because I didn't want to be the test subject.
"It's curfew for me. I'd better get going now." said Yumi.
"I'll walk you home." said William as he followed Yumi to the elevator.
All of us headed back to the forest through our secret passage underground. As I began to replace the lid over the tunnel entrance, I saw a slimmer of shadow moving among the trees. I didn't want to alarm the others so I calmly told them to head back to the dorms first.
"Where are you planning to go at this time of night?" asked Jeremie.
"Um…I…I was…" I stammered.
"Ohh…Ulrich wants to spy on Yumi and William!" sang Odd with a teasing tone.
"Uh…yea. That's what I was going to do…" I said, trying to play along.
"Alright, but I'm warning you. Yumi's not going to like it." Aelita scorned.
"I'll take my chances. Go on ahead without me, but can you cover me from Jim?"
"Sure, but you'd better come back quickly." said Jeremie.
"Yeah. Okay." I replied.
They began to sprint back to the school as I stood there listening. I searched among the trees again for the shadow. Unfortunately, I saw nothing.
"Must be my imagination…" I mumbled to myself.
As I began to walk towards the school, a shadow charged towards me. Luckily, I blocked it with my right arm, but it caused 3 streak marks on my forearm. I moaned in pain. I seemed like it has claws…sharp ones. Suddenly, I felt blood trickling quickly down, which meant that it had cut me really deep. When I turned around to face the creature head-on, it disappeared. 'This is confusing! What's going on?'
While pondering about this, the pain in my arm surged through me, causing me to recognize reality again. 'I need to clean this wound before it gets infected.'
To make sure that I wasn't going to be attacked again, I scanned my surroundings. Again, it was dark and I couldn't really make out anything from the shadows of the trees. So I decided to head back to Kadic Academy.
With the lack of keen hearing, a cackling laugh was heard from the creature's mouth. It was concealed amongst the shadows of the trees, out of eye's reach. It stared hungrily at the brunette boy, who was running towards the academy. It cackled again with a devious smile on its scaled face.
"I've found you, boy…"
