The sun was shining through the open window in Ulrich and Odd's room
The sun was shining through the open window in Ulrich and Odd's room. A cool breeze made the curtains gently sway from side to side. All was quiet and peaceful until . . .
"ACHOO!" Odd sneezed. "Man this sucks," Odd muttered as he pulled the covers over his head.
"Your telling me," Ulrich complained as he sneezed under his blanket two times in succession.
"Guys!" Jeremy exclaimed as he rushed into the room. "What's wrong with you guys?" Jeremy asked yanking the covers off of Odd.
"No," Odd moaned as he sat up and grabbed the covers back. Odd blew his nose in a virtual tissue that he'd gotten off the desk. "Hey Einstein," Odd said with a sad smile. "Looks like we have the flu."
"You what!?" Jeremy asked in shock as Odd tossed the tissue into the trash can where it devirtualized by itself. "Guys you need to get up now," Jeremy said urgently.
"Leave us alone," Ulrich sleepily complained from underneath his blanket.
"We have to get you guys up and run some diagnostic checks on you guys. We have to figure out what's . . . wrong . . . oh no," Jeremy whispered as he saw Ulrich sit up.
Ulrich's samurai outfit was gone . . . Ulrich had devirtualized and now he looked miserable in his normal cloths.
Jeremy turned to the opposite bed just in time to see the little blue disk appear above Odd's head. "Great," he muttered. Jeremy swung his bostaff in an arc in front of him, barely clearing Odd and Ulrich's head. Digital code flew from the axe's tip. The Digital code hit the walls of the room and began to run up and down them, forming a digital barrier.
Odd fell on to his pillow devirtualized with a sneeze and a moan.
"Now. Lets get to the bottom of XANA's plan," Jeremy said with an evil smile as two digital needles virtualized in his hands and excitement flashed through his eyes.
--
"Jeremy what's wrong?" Aelita asked telepathically as she tried to open the door to Odd and Ulrich's room. She got another small shock from the digital barrier.
"Odd and Ulrich have caught some kind of disease and I'm assuming that it's contagious. I'm running diagnostic tests right now." Against the far wall of the room Jeremy had set up a virtual labratory and was currently scanning samples of Odd and Ulrich's blood.
"Any progress so far?"
"Yeah. This virus looks like it is mostly digital, but there are a few components that make it real."
"Like what?" Aelita asked confused.
"Like the disease looks like it's a real prokaryotic cell (this is what a virus cell is called for all of you not in biology) but after careful dissection it is full of digital data instead of foriegn DNA."
"Oh. Is there a cure for it?"
"I think that Herve may be able to help, but his magic won't make the virus die. We'll have to deactivate the tower."
"I'll round up a small group and be ready to head out in 1 hour."
"Good. I should be done with this by then."
Aelita nodded to no one in particular as she turned and ran off down the hall to the gym where she hoped she could recruit a couple of people.
--
Aelita pushed open the new heavy and fortified gym doors. She squeezed into the unusually dark room and turned on a light. Aelita almost screamed at the sight before her.
Moans echoed around the building as everyone cowered away from the light. Almost everyone in the gym was devirtualized.
Aelita noticed Nicholas standing nearby trying to help Sissi up.
"Good idea," Aelita said as she rushed over to help Nicholas. "We better get everyone back to their rooms." Nicholas nodded in agreement.
"Jeremy?" Aelita called as she and Nicholas began to ascend the stairs with Sissi between them.
"A little busy here,"
"It looks like the whole school has been infected."
"WHAT?!" Jeremy exclaimed so loud that Aelita cringed a little. "This is more serious then I thought."
"Nicholas and I are trying to get the others to their rooms, but it's going to take some time."
"Good that upgrade worked."
"What upgrade?"
"I gave Nicholas and upgrade that cancels "extra" damage."
"Extra damage?" Aelita asked.
"Like I believe in the snow area, we're going to loose hit points every moment we're there. This virus looks like it was coupled in it."
"Got it," Aelita replied as she and Nicholas carefully laid Sissi on her bed. Aelita spent an extra minute making sure she was comfortable and then rushed out the door. "Have you seen Jim?"
"No . . ." Jeremy replied opening his mind and searching. "He's just entering the gym," he finally replied.
"Got it." "Nicholas?" Aelita asked. The assasian turned to face Aelita. "Can you go ask Jim to help you get everyone upstairs. I've got to go check something in Jeremy's room."
Nicholas nodded and disappeared in a blurry flash as he rushed downstairs.
Aelita smiled as she ran to Jeremy's room. "I was afraid of that," she whispered as she saw the many flashing red screens. Aelita hurried in and began to sort through the screens. Tamiya, Milly, Emily, Ulrich, Odd, Sissi, the list just kept going on. Aelita reached Herve's screen and saw that he had already devirtualized. "Great," she muttered to herself, as she turned to a new screen. Aelita took in a quick breath. "No," she whispered to herself. "Jeremy we have to go NOW!" Aelita said urgently.
"Okay, but why?" Jeremy asked taking down the barrier and dashing down the stairs.
"The virus. It's already taking it's toll on my body," Aelita said typing a few things on the screen.
"Transfering data" the screen read as it quickly transfered the data to Jeremy.
"Okay let's hurry," Jeremy said after studying the screen for a minute. "If the virus doesn't speed up we have . . ."
"About 15 minutes"
"So we're going to have to take a gamble," Jeremy said a little reluctently.
"What kind of gamble?"
"I can't narrow down the location of the real tower and their both in opposite directions. It will take almost 15 minutes just to reach either of them."
"Well we have to try,"
Jeremy nodded to no one, "I know . . . I know . . ."
--
A few minutes later in front of the gym Jeremy, Aelita, Nicholas and Jim went through the game plan one more time.
"Jim and Nicholas will head west while Aelita and I head east," Jeremy commanded. "Find the tower, try to partially deactivate it and report back here."
"Yes sir," everyone replied with a mocking smile.
"Here Jim this is for you," Aelita said tossing Jim a bracelet.
Jim raised an eyebrow in confusion as he put the band on. "What is it?"
"It's a communicator," Jeremy replied. "And we're hoping it works," he muttered to himself.
Aelita smiled. "Sorry Nicholas, we would have made one for you, but unfortunately you don't speak and you're going with Jim." Nicholas nodded.
Jim started running west. With the snap of his fingers his silver disk appeared. Jim jumped on top and flew off. Nicholas ran just a little faster.
"Lets go," Jeremy said as the overwing virutalized. Aelita nodded as she jumped on behind Jeremy and they took off.