Camouflage
Chapter 2: Sector 5
Aelita sat on Jeremie's bed, typing. They had been working on the antivirus research for several hours.
"Ok, I defragmented that last string of code. I'm sending you the results," Aelita stated, breaking the silence that had been building up for the last hour. She closed out of her window and shut her laptop.
"That's it, Aelita. I got it. I think this really could be the key," Jeremie said with excitement and spun around to face her. "All I need is a few more access codes from sector 5, and I think it's ready!"
"That's great, Jeremie!" Aelita said with a smile. "Wait until we tell the others!"
"Well, let's go then!" he turned back to his computer and shut down a couple of the programs he had been using. When he turned back around the look on Aelita's face had changed. "What's wrong, Aelita?"
"Jeremie, it's 1 am. Don't you think this can wait until morning? I'm sure everyone's asleep and, besides, you still haven't eaten anything. Why don't you get something to eat, and we'll go to the factory first thing tomorrow morning?" Aelita suggested, her eyes beginning to droop as she strained to stay awake longer.
Jeremie saw the exhaust on her face and sighed. "But what if Xana attacks before we get the information we need?"
"Well, what's one more activated tower? I'm sure we can stop him. Let's get some rest." She got up from the bed and moved to the door, opening it just a crack to make sure Jim wasn't nearby. "I'll see you in the morning," she whispered before she disappeared out the door.
-m-
"So you're saying this could be our final mission to Lyoko?" Ulrich asked, standing next to Jeremie's chair. They had all gathered at the factory first thing in the morning. Odd was sprawled on the ground, still trying to catch a few more minutes of sleep.
"That's it precisely," Jeremie stated. "With this last bit of information, I should be able to fix Aelita's virus and we can shut down the super computer!"
"Well that's great. Let's get going!" Yumi announced.
Ulrich nudged Odd in the side. "Come on, Odd."
"Just five more minutes," he mumbled and rolled over.
"Let's go." Ulrich grabbed his arm and lifted him off the ground and onto his feet. "You can sleep through science. It's not like you haven't done that before."
Aelita and Yumi chuckled from the elevator as Ulrich and Odd joined them.
The elevator arrived at the scanner room and the team was quickly virtualized into the ice sector. "The edge isn't too far from here. It's just south of where you are now."
Upon reaching the landing, the transporter arrived, taking them to sector 5.
"You're getting faster at this, Jeremie," Odd announced as they arrived arena. "We hardly had to wait for the transporter."
"Ok, focus. The door will open up any second, and then you have three minutes to find the key," Jeremie's voice rang out.
Suddenly the door opened up and the four Lyoko warriors followed the passage to the core zone. This time the room was completely empty with the exception of moving platforms on the ceiling. The key was easily visible on the other side of the large expanse in front of them. The group made an abrupt stop at the edge of the void.
"Oh, great! How do we get to the key now?" Odd asked exasperatedly.
"No one said Xana was going to make it easy for us," Ulrich stated. "Looks like he also sent us a welcoming committee." He pointed to the platforms on the ceiling where three creepers had slithered up to great them.
"How'd they even get up there?" Odd asked, more frustrated than actually questioning. He turned toward the closest one and aimed. "Laser arrow!" The arrow flew just to the right of the creeper in question.
"I have a crazy idea," Aelita said and turned toward Yumi who was blocking the shot from the creepers overhead. "I'm going to need your help if this doesn't work." She eyed the creepers and the platforms on the ceiling and looked back toward the key.
"Aelita, what are you thinking?" Jeremie called out to her.
"Just trust me on this." Aelita eyed the ceiling once more and took a big leap off the end of the platform. Just as she believed her idea was wrong and was about to call for Yumi, it turned out she was right. Rather than plummeting down into the nothingness below her, she soared into the air and landed on the moving platform overhead. She took a second to adjust herself to the change in gravity before swiftly moving across the platforms on the ceiling.
"Great going, Aelita!" Odd shouted and jumped off the edge after her. He landed almost gracefully on the platform overhead. "Laser arrow!" This time he hit his mark. The creeper blocking Aelita's path exploded, leaving room for Aelita to make it across.
"Only 30 more seconds," Jeremie announced.
Aelita leapt off the final floating platform and fell back toward the ground, flipping in midair to right herself with the new gravity. Yumi's fan hit the final creeper as Aelita ran to the far wall and hit the key, stopping the countdown. As the key receded into the wall, a floor appeared. Odd fell from the ceiling, landing on his hands and rolling into a summersault.
"Good work, Aelita. Head for the celestial dome. Once I get those access codes, it'll be 'bye-bye, Xana' for good," Jeremie's voice rang out.
"Well I guess cats don't always land on their feet," Ulrich said with a laugh as he reached Odd. Yumi smiled and headed after Aelita toward the elevator.
"Very funny, Ulrich," Odd muttered and ran after Yumi, "but at least I took out a monster!"
-m-
"Jeremie, I'm in. It will take me a minute to find the access codes you're looking for," Aelita stated as she began tapping her fingers to the holopad in front of her.
"How about some vehicles, Jeremie?" Ulrich asked looking up at the celestial dome. From where he was standing, he could see the outer wall splitting open. A nest of mantas was about to hatch. "Things are about to get hairy around here."
"No problem. Here are your vehicles," Jeremie announced.
The overboard, overwing, and overbike materialized around the edge of the platform. Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich ran to their respective vehicles, reaching them just in time to greet the mantas.
"Don't worry. We've got your back, princess," Odd said and winked at Aelita before he rushed off on his board, dodging the mantas' lasers.
"Hee-Yaah!" Yumi yelled and threw her fan at the manta in front of her. It stuck dead center, exploding upon impact.
"Nice work, Yumi," Jeremie announced. "Look out behind you guys. Three more mantas heading your way."
"As if we didn't already have enough guests," Ulrich muttered. He turned quickly and rode under one of the new mantas slicing it open from the underside. "That's one more down." He turned to assess the situation. Yumi was following one manta to his left side. Aelita seemed focused at the holopad, hopefully making progress, but safe in any case. To his right, Odd was being chased by the remaining three mantas. He turned in Odd's direction just in time to see one of the lasers hit the overboard. The board began to glitch and then disappeared beneath Odd's feet. Ulrich accelerated toward Odd, catching him before he reached the bottom of the celestial dome. "Did you need a lift?"
"I can always use a good taxi every now and then," Odd said with a shrug and began firing behind him. After missing the first two mantas, his laser arrow finally struck the third. "Yeah-ah!"
Ulrich turned back toward the platform where Aelita was standing. Upon reaching its edge, Odd leapt off, and Ulrich sped away.
"How's it going, princess?" he asked anxiously. "How much longer?"
"I've just about got it. Only a little bit farther," Aelita stated calmly, her hands continuing to peruse through the data on the digital screen.
Yumi let out a yell as a laser hit her in the back. Odd looked up to see the manta was now chasing her instead of the other way around.
"Laser Arrow!" Odd shouted. The arrows flew past the manta, striking the back wall of the celestial dome. The mantas turned and began firing at Odd and Aelita.
"Nice going, Odd!" Ulrich shouted and rushed to block the barrage of lasers. Yumi threw her fan and hit one of the distracted mantas, leaving only two. One continued firing down on Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita. The other began its path toward Yumi. "Yumi, look out!"
The manta that was chasing Yumi fired several arrows, one striking Yumi in the chest. Yumi's image pixilated and disappeared. The overwing spun out of control and plummeted to the platform, landing at Odd's right.
"How much longer, Aelita?" Odd asked, jumping out of the way of another blast of lasers.
"No time at all," She replied and tapped the screen one final time. "I'm finished. You can take over now, Jeremie."
"Alright. I'll open a tunnel to the mountain sector and bring you all home. Do you think the overwing is good enough to make the journey?"
Aelita ran over to the overwing and pulled it upright. "It looks alright, Jeremie."
"Then get going," he replied.
Aelita hopped on the overwing and looked back toward Odd. "Are you coming?" she asked with a wink.
Odd shrugged and fired a few more arrows at the mantas before running over to Aelita. He looked back for another second before hopping on behind her. He placed his hands on her waist, and she took off. They met up with Ulrich as the tunnel opened, and they turned and disappeared together.
-m-
"Odd, can you keep your stomach quiet?" Ulrich muttered.
"Well if I had gotten breakfast, this wouldn't be a problem," Odd whispered.
The rest of the class was busy taking notes on the Black Plague and spread of disease throughout Europe. Mr. Fumet paused his lecture and glanced at Ulrich and Odd. Just then, Odd's stomach let out a huge grumble. The whole class laughed.
"If you boys would like to disturb my lesson by missing breakfast, I would suggest you do it in the principals office. Maybe that will give you some time to think about how to get up early enough to eat. I never would have expected this out of you, DellaRobbia."
"Sorry, sir," Odd grumbled and got up. Ulrich followed him out.
-m-
"Slow down, Odd. You're eating like it's going to disappear," Jeremie said.
"Haha," Odd said after he swallowed his mouthful. "I'll be happy to remind you that we missed breakfast because of you this morning. It's not my fault I'm starving."
"We needed to get the codes from Sector 5," Aelita interrupted. "If anyone is to blame here, it's Xana."
"Thank you, Aelita," Jeremie stated and smiled.
"Yeah, well, I guess we can thank Xana for our detentions too," Ulrich groveled.
"You two got detention?" Yumi asked, looking up from her plate and over to Ulrich. "What for? I thought you made it back in time for class."
"Yeah, well, Odd's breakfast didn't, and his stomach couldn't keep quiet," Ulrich glared toward Odd who was finishing his plate of spaghetti less than gracefully. Yumi and Aelita giggled and looked toward Odd.
"A guy's gotta eat. I can't help it if my stomach acted up," Odd stated and took his final bite. "Besides, there was no reason for Mr. Delmas to give us detention just for missing breakfast."
"How much did you get?" Aelita asked nervously.
"Just an hour," Odd started, "but it's with Jim in the library."
"Oh good," she replied with a smile.
"I know you like libraries and learning and books and whatnot, but I don't see how any of this is good," Odd replied.
"I'm just glad you'll be out in time for dinner," Aelita stated.
"Now that's a girl after my own heart!" Odd said and smiled. "Good thinking, Aelita. Dinner is the most important meal of the day."
"I thought that was breakfast," Ulrich laughed.
"That's where you're wrong, good buddy," Odd retorted. "Dinner is by far the biggest meal, which obviously makes it the best."
"Well, regardless of being the best meal or not, I think she was hoping you guys would be free because we're going out for tacos. Weren't you, Aelita?" Yumi asked.
Aelita smiled and nodded. "I'm glad we all get to hang out and do something other than fight Xana."
"It does seem like we've been doing that a lot lately, but as soon as I finish adding these codes to my program, it will be 'hello, antivirus, bye-bye, Xana,'" Jeremie stated giving his laptop a firm pat. "While you guys are in detention, I think I'll head back to the factory to work on it."
"But first, it's time for math class! Let's go, Einstein!" Odd laughed and got up from the table followed by Aelita and then Jeremie.
Ulrich hung back for an extra second, pausing to wait for Yumi.
"Did you need something, Ulrich?" Yumi asked as she stood up with her tray. They walked together to put their trays away and paused by the door.
Ulrich looked across the way to where Odd was waiting for him. He knew he had to say something now or not at all. "You've been, uh, hanging out with William quite a bit lately, and, uh, I was just wondering if anything was going on, erm, between you two," Ulrich finally stammered out. Yumi looked at Ulrich with a slightly confused face before answering.
"Between me and William? No not really. Why?"
The image of William placing his arm around Yumi entered his mind. He balled his hands into fists. He looked back toward Odd who was motioning him to hurry up. "I was just wondering since, well…," he trailed off, unable to find the words he wanted to say.
"Look, Ulrich, can this wait? We need to get to class. I'll talk to you after detention, ok?" she said with a smile.
"Yeah, ok," he muttered. Yumi walked away toward the science building, leaving Ulrich to head toward Odd.
"What took you so long? Jeremie and Aelita went on without us," Odd stated. "Did you finally ask her out?" Odd smiled.
"No, I didn't ask her out," Ulrich said defensively. His hands were still clinched. "Let's just get going before we're late."
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