Chapter Two - In Your Dreams

Jeremie woke up, surprisingly, without his alarm. He took a look at his clock. Hmm… That's weird. The battery must be dead. He removed a brand new pair of batteries from their package, threw out the ones from the clock, and replaced them. He looked at the clock again. Ugh… Whatever. I'll fix it later. He got up and put on some decent clothes. He logged onto his laptop. 12:00 a.m.? That's wrong… What, is Father Time poking some fun or something? He sighed and closed his laptop. His watch said the same thing. He decided to go check it out. He ran to Ulrich's and Odd's dorm. He knocked softly. Ulrich answered, rubbing his eyes, just in his green, checkered boxers.

"Jeremie," Ulrich stated. "What are you doing here so early? XANA trouble or something?"

"Possibly, but I'm not sure. It sounds a little weird, even for XANA."

Ulrich's face scrunched up. "So… What is it?"

"What time is it, Ulrich?"

Ulrich pulled his cell phone out of his drawer. "Uh… midnight?"

"Ulrich, look outside."

Ulrich drew the blinds. The sky was filled with pinks and purples, oranges and blues. Sunrise.

"Well, maybe it's the satellites."

Jeremie shook his head. "I don't think so. My alarm clock wasn't working at all today."

Ulrich looked at Jeremie impatiently. "So what? Do you think it's XANA?"

"It's the most likely possibility."

"But why… excuse me." Ulrich yawned. "Sorry. Why would XANA do something so pointless? Compared to the Godzilla that XANA usually brings out, this is like… a gecko. Is he pulling a prank? Like, does XANA have a sense of humor or something?"

Jeremie chuckled. "Maybe so. But following XANA's usual pattern of thought, it's most likely a divergence or something. A distraction from something a lot bigger." Ulrich stared at Jeremie. "What?"

"Well, why don't you search for an activated tower, genius?"

Jeremie went agape. "I can't believe I forgot!" He set the laptop down and started sorting through the towers. Finally, he discovered a red one. "Found it. Ulrich, call the girls and wake them up. Tell them XANA has launched an attack."

Ulrich snorted. "Yeah, I was going to tell them we won tickets to the French Open."

Jeremie rolled his eyes, exasperated. While Ulrich dialed Yumi's number, Jeremie picked up a shoe and launched it at Odd. "ULRICH…" Odd grumbled. Ulrich pointed at Jeremie. "Oh, Jeremie?" Odd looked at Ulrich and saw that he was on the phone. Odd turned back to Jeremie. "XANA?"

Jeremie nodded. "I'm going to the factory to prepare, okay? Meet me there ASAP. This may seem harmless, but I don't want to take any chances. Treat this as seriously as any other mission."

Odd watched Jeremie leave. "Harmless," he wondered aloud.

Ulrich glanced at him. "XANA decided to pull a prank."

Odd grinned. "I like this XANA."

Ulrich rolled his eyes. "Make yourself useful and call your girlfriend, will you?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

Sakura woke up to her phone's ringtone. Is it time for school already? She looked out the window. Sunrise? Then is someone calling? She reached for her phone and missed the first time. She was finally able to grab it and answered as soon as she could. "Odd? Why are you calling so early…? Huh…? Ugh… Okay… See you soon… Love you too… Bye." Sakura sighed and shook Sam. "Sam, XANA attack. Come on." They both got dressed and rushed out the door.

Sakura entered 4414416, and the doors whooshed open. "Jeremie. What's going on?"

"Just get in the scanners. I want to stop the attack before it really starts."

Sakura's eyebrows pinched together. She and Sam looked at each other. Sakura shrugged, and the two went to the scanners.

Sakura and Sam fell to the ground, landing on their behinds this time.

"At least it's better than landing on your face," Sam remarked.

Sakura smiled. "True that." The girls walked to the guys. "So… what's the sitch? Or is there one?"

Odd shrugged. "Ask him," he said, pointing at Ulrich. "He's the one that woke me… Actually it was Jeremie… I'm gonna get you for that, Jer!"

Sakura looked at Ulrich. "Apparently XANA has manipulated all the clocks in the world to read midnight."

"What? Is that such a bad thing that you need to wake us up this early?"

"Well, Jeremie thinks it might be a cover for something bigger, knowing XANA."

Sakura nodded. So that's what he meant…

Suddenly, a swarm of hornets appeared. Sakura pressed her tattoo. "Sam, this might be a little difficult for you, so try really hard. You might see if you can deflect their lasers with your blade. Samurai, that goes double for you. Deflect with your sword. Odd, you're fine. Move out."

Sam charged up her cannon. She blasted her energy at the hornets, but they were too quick for her. She popped out her blade and readied it. She dodged one beam, deflected another, but got hit with a third. "Crap."

Jeremie sighed. "Sam, it's okay. Just don't get hit again or you'll lose more life points."

Sam nodded. She charged up the cannon and tried again, this time succesfully.

Ulrich was also having a lot of trouble, just as Sakura had predicted. He launched a grenade at the hornets, and missed wide. The grenades were too small and too slow-moving to cause any damage. He focused his energy on defending himself. "Triplicate!"

Odd rode on his overboard. "Sam, you might want to try using your overjet." He launched an arrow at the hornet closest to him and destroyed it, while another hit him in the side.

"Careful, Odd," Jeremie warned.

"Jeremie, I'm doing my best here, okay? Hornets aren't the easiest things to fight."

Sakura shot in rapid succession at the hornets. Most shots missed, but a few hit. These hornets were smart, though. They had spread out over the virtual sky, so they were harder to target. Sakura had a great advantage over her teammates, though, because she could attack quickly. Soon, thanks to Sakura, there were only two left. "Guys, let's team up. Sam and I, and Odd and Ulrich."

Sam held Sakura's waist and flew her up to the hornet. Sakura took aim carefully and shot, but she was too careful. The hornet disappeared, but its laser remained. It hit Sam, and Sakura fell to the ground.

"No," Sakura whispered, as Sam burst into white particles.

Odd and Ulrich took care of the remaining hornet. Odd boarded over to where Sakura was kneeling. "Blossom, it's okay."

"She's going to hate herself. It's my fault. I took too much time."

"You took just as much as you needed. She was going to get struck eventually. We all did."

Sakura knew there was no point in arguing the matter. She looked up. "Sorry, Sam."

Sam walked over to the supercomputer. "Don't worry about it."

Sakura smiled. "Man," she said. "Where was Yumi when we needed her?"

"Sorry, Sakura," Yumi said.

Sakura jumped. "Geez, you scared me, Yumi. I might have attacked you, and that wouldn't have done any good."

Yumi laughed. Suddenly, a whole army of krabes appeared.

"What's with the welcoming committee," Sakura asked. "XANA must be in a good mood today."

"For sure," Ulrich remarked.

"Jeremie," Sakura called. "Status report."

"Aelita just arrived. I can't send her in, with conditions like that. Get rid of these krabes, will you?"

"I'd be more than willing," Sakura replied. "Ulrich, this'll be your game. You still have one clone left. They're all in rows. Just jump on their heads and stab them."

Ulrich nodded. He and his duplicate got to work.

Sakura, Yumi, and Odd looked at each other and nodded once. They split up; Odd took the left side, Sakura and Yumi took the right. Odd used his overboard to glide over the monsters' heads and shoot arrows, while Sakura used Ulrich's method, shooting the vermin in the head. Soon enough, they had the whole militia exterminated.

"Okay Jeremie," Sakura called. "Send down the princess."

Just as Jeremie was about to virtualize Aelita, Ulrich said, "Hold that thought. XANA is in a really good mood today…"

Sakura groaned. "You know, I love Terminator as much as the next guy, but this is really starting to get annoying."

A mix of what seemed to be 30 creepers and tarantulas came crawling toward them. Since the krabes were so easy to defeat, Ulrich still had a clone left.

Sakura analyzed the team of monsters. "There seem to be a significant amount of creepers, many more than there are tarantulas, which is a plus for us. Concentrate on attacking the tarantulas, since they seem to be exponentially more powerful than the creepers. Ulrich, if you can, cut off their cannons. Yumi too. When all the tarantulas are gone, then you can focus your attention to the creepers. Everyone got it? Okay, good. Go get those ugly creatures. Sakura out." Ulrich and Yumi charged at the monsters. Yumi threw her fans, attempting to sever the weapons of the tarantula ahead of her. One missed, and the other succeeded.

Ulrich cut off the arms of his tarantula, then stabbed it. His clone managed to remove one of the arms of a tarantula, before being shot by the other. Ulrich shook his head and moved on to another. He was able to cut off both its arms; however, he was so focused on it that he didn't see the creeper's shot hit him. Luckily, he still had enough life points left to continue fighting, so the shot only made him even more aggravated – unfortunately for the monsters around him. Thank God for triplication…

Sakura and Odd shot from a distance. Because of this advantage, they were valuable to the team, so they had to be careful. Even though she had given the team orders to focus on the tarantulas, Sakura saw what had happened to Ulrich and rapidly fired upon the creepers. She was able to eliminate most of them before she even had to dodge a single shot. One of the tarantulas that the team hadn't gotten to yet shot at her; she moved and was able to dodge the laser by a millimeter. She quickly got back to shooting again, and had the monsters destroyed in minutes. However, her finger slipped, and Ulrich disappeared with the rest.

No one moved. Sakura turned white. "Shit."

Jeremie hit the desk. "Nice going, Sakura," he said condescendingly.

"It was a freaking accident! It could have happened to anyone! I defeated so many of those monsters! All I should hear coming from your mouth is gratitude."

"Sakura's right," Yumi interjected. "She made a mistake, but there's no need to be upset with her. We take it for granted that Sakura rarely ever causes accidents."

Ulrich appeared. "Don't be mad at her, Jeremie. And Sakura, you have a tendency to be hard on yourself, so… Relax. Everything's okay. Just concentrate on what you need to do. You're the best of all of us, but even the best make mistakes. All right?"

Sakura smiled internally. It wasn't like Ulrich to be so sensitive. She nodded. "Thank you, Ulrich."

"Jeremie," Aelita started timidly, "I think you should apologize to Sakura."

He stared at Aelita for a second, then sighed. "Sakura, I overreacted. I'm sorry. You are right about all of it. Thank you for everything you have done today and for this team. Please forgive me."

"Thanks, Weirdo. You're forgiven." Sakura paused, and a grin appeared on her face. "Even though I know Aelita forced you to apologize." Jeremie grumbled.

Odd ground his teeth. "Guys, a line of blocks on their way."

Sakura turned around. There must have been 40 blocks all in a line. "Will it ever end?"

"I don't know," Odd replied. "Blocks are my absolute favorite to fight, but this is just too much."

Yumi agreed.

Sakura sighed. "I'll take the center. Yumi, take the left. Odd, take the right. We're all long distance fighters, so try to stay back as far as possible. It'll give you more reaction time. I'll probably finish pretty quickly, so I'll help you when I'm done, Yumi, since you'll probably have the most trouble. I'll try not to shoot any of you. Haha. Everyone, let's go!"

Sakura was right. She finished her batch really early. She moved quickly to help Yumi. Odd was forced to do some acrobatics as the blocks attacked him ceaselessly. Thankfully, he could shoot in mid-air. He also still had his board, and could move fast. Too fast. He ran straight into a laser; even his cat-like reflexes weren't sharp enough to avoid it. Having already taken a hit previously, Odd devirtualized, leaving only two Lyoko warriors to take care of defeating the monsters.

"Come on, Yumi," Sakura said. "It's just you and me now."

Yumi nodded, and the two quickly eliminated the rest of the blocks.

"Please tell me that's it," Sakura groaned.

"Don't hate me if I'm wrong," Jeremie started, "but that appears to be it."

"Okay. Now will you send Aelita down?"

"Transfer. Scanner. Virtualization."

Aelita dropped to the ground. Sakura smiled. "Long time no see, Sweet Pea." She turned to Yumi. "Okay, just because there appears to be no monsters, doesn't mean you should let your guard down. Have your weapons in hand. Look all around you. However, let's take advantage of the silence and ride to the tower."

They were about 50 meters away from the tower, when two megatanks and the schyphozoa came out of nowhere. Sakura looked up. "Jeremie, I hate you." She pressed her tattoo. "Yumi, you take care of the scyphozoa, but be sure to watch out for blasts from the megatanks. One is lethal."

Yumi nodded. While she was waiting for the schyphozoa to put its tentacles on her teammate, she concentrated on a megatank. She missed it through the hole on its left side. "Dang it," she spat. Sakura was able to shoot one megatank while avoiding its blast. "Nice going, Sakura!"

"Arigatou onee-chan. I'll take over from here. Go protect Sweet Pea."

Yumi nodded and started walking toward Aelita. However, Sakura saw the megatank charging up, and shouted, "Yumi! Look out!" Yumi turned around but couldn't make it in time. Sakura dove for her, knowing full well that she was the kamikaze here. A meaningful sacrifice. She felt the burn of the laser blast and grimaced, just thankful that she could save Yumi. She waited to disintegrate, but nothing happened. "Jeremie, why am I not devirtualizing?"

Jeremie stared blankly. "I'm... not sure. I think it just grazed you. Most of your life points have been deducted, but you still have enough left to fight." The team marveled. They had never seen, in all their years, someone survive being hit by a megatank laser. Even the megatank seemed to be surprised.

Yumi grinned and pressed her tattoo. "I have an idea."

Sakura cocked her eyebrow, and watched Yumi's telekinesis. The megatank dropped of the ledge. Sakura gaped. "How did you do that?"

"I figured Franz upgraded our powers as well."

"So basically, you went on a hunch and had no idea if it would work."

"Basically," she grinned.

"Oh looky there. It's peanut butter jelly time," Sakura said, pointing at the schyphozoa.

"I'll take care of it. Watch my back."

"Will do."

Yumi cut off the schyphozoa's tentacles, then helped Aelita to the tower. Thankfully, they had apparently worn out their welcome.

"Return to the past now."

Jeremie woke up with his alarm. He glanced at the time. He got dressed and waited outside for his friends at the bench, their usual custom.

Sakura and Sam were the first to arrive, whispering away.

"What are you two scheming?"

Sakura beamed. "Well..."

After everyone had arrived, Yumi walked up. She saw everyone laughing, as Odd was imitating various farm animals. "Hey guys," Yumi said. "What's so funny?"

"My Kitty-Kitty is just the most adorable thing ever," she cooed.

Odd smiled heartwarmingly. "With the exception of yourself, my darling."

They kissed, and the other members ignored them.

"They really love that game, don't they?"

"Game?" Aelita asked.

Jeremie smiled softly. "They like making everyone feel uncomfortable. Otherwise, they wouldn't act like that."

Sam had a look of realization. "So that's why..."

After they had finished making out, Sakura pouted. "Jewwy, you're so unfair. I wuv my Oddy-woddy."

"And I love you, my Blossom." They resumed their make-out session.

Jeremie rolled his eyes. "Things haven't changed much. Sakura is still the same."

"Speaking of changes," Yumi started, "wasn't that weird this morning? I mean, XANA doesn't usually behave like that."

Jeremie looked puzzled. "Like what?"

"Being all mysterious, just pulling useless tricks on us. And sending out groups of monsters. There must have been hundreds."

The rest of the team looked at each other.

Sakura cut in. "What's that you said, Yumi? I was a little... preoccupied." She winked at Odd.

"I said I thought this morning's attack," she made air quotes around attack, "was a little weird."

Sakura's eyebrows scrunched together. "What attack?"

"The one where XANA messed with all the clocks and sent out fleets of monsters in Lyoko."

Sakura laughed. "Right. As if XANA would be so stupid. Are you feeling okay, onee-chan?"

Yumi turned to Ulrich. "You were the one that woke me up. Sakura shot you, on accident, and you devirtualized."

Sakura and Ulrich exchanged a quick, meaningful glance. He turned his gaze back to Yumi, and made a concerned face. He grabbed her hands. "Maybe... you should take some time off. We can handle it. It seems like it's getting to you, if you're having such crazy nightmares."

"It wasn't a dream though."

Sakura scoffed. "Obviously it was, if I accidentally shot Ulrich. I would never make such a careless mistake."

"But it was so real. And you did something really cool too. You were hit by the megatank and survived."

Sakura grinned, "I did, huh?" Ulrich glared at her.

Aelita hugged her. "I think you're just exhausted. Ulrich might be right. A vacation wouldn't hurt. Out of all of us, you have the most stress, having to evade your parents all the time. Wouldn't it be nice to just relax from time to time?"

"But," Yumi started to protest.

Jeremie gave a sympathetic look. "Yumi. Let me ask you something. Did you wake up after the XANA attack happened?"

"Yes, but..."

"But what?" Jeremie asked.

"But it was after the return to the past! Because I was sleeping before the attack."

Odd walked to Yumi and put a hand on her shoulder. "Yumi. None of us remember it." He looked at her intensely, trying to convey the message.

"Fine," she conceded. "I'll accept that it was a dream. But I am NOT taking time off," she growled.

They all burst into laughter, even Ulrich had to join. Sakura grinned. "That's my girl."

They continued laughing, and Yumi's face got red. "You guys, that wasn't funny!"

They laughed once more. "Yes it was."

Ulrich smiled slyly. "You're kinda cute when you're angry."

She blushed even deeper. "You. Don't talk to me."

Ulrich pouted. "Aw, don't do that to me. Sakura blackmailed me."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really. She's giving you and me Subdigitals tickets. Right, Sakura?"

"Oh, I don't know, Ulrich. You could have said a lot more." He gaped. "Just kidding, Samurai. I'll get you the tickets."

Yumi's glare faded a bit, and, slowly, she started to smile. "I guess it was a little funny, huh?"

Sakura beamed. "Try hilarious."

"I bet it was all your idea wasn't it?"

"Onee-chan knows best."

"So now that that's all cleared up..." Yumi started.

Sakura answered her previous question. "You're right. It was a crazy attack. I have never seen so many monsters in my life." Sakura's face lit up. "Hey! Maybe that's why..."

Jeremie stared at Sakura. "Elaborate, please."

"Maybe that's why he did something so trivial. Because he thought he could eliminate us with just the monsters? If you think about it, not many of us were left. And if he would have suceeded, no one would be left to guard Aelita."

Jeremie's eyes widened. "Sakura, I think that's the smartest thing you've ever said."

"Oh, give me some credit, Einstein. I may not be on your level, or Sweet Pea's, but I'm pretty intelligent. Anyway, wasn't that the most awesome thing you guys have ever seen? I totally showed those megatanks who was boss. Maybe this is more like the Matrix than I thought. Maybe I'm like, The One."

Ulrich snorted. "In your dreams."