It was a week after William Jr. had left the team and sided with XANA; Calvin and Sam headed down to the cafeteria with their breakfast. They then met up with the rest and sat down.
"Oh, hey guys." Rumiko said.
"Hello." Sven-Søren said. He then turned to Calvin. "Uh... New glasses?"
"Yep." Sam said. "The nurse found out he was near-sighted so they gave him a pair." (A/N: See Chapter 8 of 100 Days).
"Well guys." Dennis said. "I may have found a way to bring back William Jr."
"Care to elaborate?" Calvin asked.
"I recently dug up an old program that Jeremie used to bring back my father back when he was possessed by XANA." Dennis said. "I feel that maybe we could use that same program to bring back William Jr."
"But here's the problem:" Ami said. "He's serving XANA willingly. He'll just go back and try to kill us again. Or even worse, he'll kill us as soon as he's on Earth."
"Which is why we're going to grab him and beat some sense into him until he realizes he was lied to." Sven-Søren said.
"We're not going to beat any sense into him." Dennis said to him. "You are."
"You're kidding me, right? I'm strong but he's quick."
"Well we have to do something." Antea said. "We should at least try."
"Agreed." Dennis said. "We'll start this afternoon, after lunch." Everyone just nodded as they threw out their stuff and headed off to class.
Meanwhile, in Sector 5, William Jr. was walking towards an immense chamber where XANA was waiting for him.
"You wanted to see me, Master?" He asked.
"Yes." XANA said. "As you are aware, my newest plan to destroy humanity is coming to full circle. Unlike the last one which took a year to complete, this will only require a few months by my most recent calculations. However, you'll be needed for the first step."
XANA then shot out red smoke from his hand which wrapped itself around William Jr.'s dagger and gave it a bright red glow.
"What just happened?" He asked.
"Your weapon has been imbued with a new virus of mine." XANA said. "You must implant it into one of the Lyoko Warriors so that it may be properly materialized onto Earth."
"And what will that do?" William Jr. asked.
"All in due time." XANA said. "In it's current stage, It'll just cause emotional and neurological alterations upon its victim, but more work will be done."
"And after this, you bring back Russell?" William Jr. asked.
"Yes." XANA said. "Just follow through with what I say, my apprentice."
"Yes, Master." William Jr. said as he left.
"Now to draw their attention..." XANA said as he accessed his mainframe and began to activate a tower.
A few hours later, the team got a text from Dennis to meet him at the factory so that they could begin their next mission.
"Got your message." Calvin said. "Where to?"
"Where were you?" Dennis asked. "I sent that text like an hour ago."
"Sorry." Sam said. "Big math test. The teacher wouldn't even let us use the bathroom."
"Very well." Dennis said. "XANA's activated a tower in the forest sector. I'm sending you, Calvin and Antea first."
"Alright." Calvin said as the three headed down into the scanner room.
"As soon as I send them, I'll send Rumiko, Ami and Sven-Søren." Dennis said. He then set up the virtualization procedure.
"Transfer Calvin. Transfer Antea. Transfer Sam."
"Scanner Calvin. Scanner Antea. Scanner Sam."
"Virtualization."
The three then appeared right in the middle of the forest sector and began to draw their weapons.
"Alright guys, the tower is 20 degrees north by northeast from where you're standing." Dennis said. "And watch out. XANA's not making this easy."
"Roger that." Sam said as the three headed off. As they approached the tower, they came face to face with XANA's monsters: Two Tarantulas, three Krabes, and William Jr.
"Dennis, I just spotted William Jr." Calvin said. "Should I go for him?"
"Not yet, I still have to set up the program." Dennis said. "Until then, go for the monsters."
"Alright." Calvin said as he took his staff and slammed it on the first Tarantula's back, destroying it. He then jumped towards the other, but was shot down by a Krabe. Antea immediately took control of the remaining Tarantula and had it shoot at the Krabes. She was able to take down one Krabe until William Jr. came and knocked her to the ground.
"Okay, now I'm sending in the others." Dennis said as he noticed William Jr. going on the offense. He then set up the virtualization procedure for the other three and sent them to the forest sector.
William Jr. then went up to the fallen Antea and drew the infected dagger. Just as he was about to strike, Calvin ran between the two and blocked the attack.
"If you want her, you'll have to go through me." He said.
"Very well." William Jr. said. He then rose the dagger and slashed Calvin right in the chest and he fell to the ground. Just then Rumiko, followed by Ami and Sven-Søren, came up. Sven-Søren held back William Jr. and the monsters while Rumiko helped Calvin up.
"Are you all right?" She asked.
"Yeah." Calvin said. "I'm just...Ow." As he got up, he felt a sharp pain go through him.
"Are you sure your alright?" Rumiko asked.
"Yeah, just..." He said but was interrupted by a huge blur that zoomed by him and devirtualized Calvin with an unknown weapon.
"Calvin!" Rumiko shouted as the blur took her out too. It then ran up to the others.
"Guys, look out!" Dennis shouted.
"What is it?" Sam asked.
"There's some unknown thing coming towards you; it already devirtualized Calvin and Rumiko."
"Alright." Sam said. "Me and Ami will handle the monster while Sven..." Just then, the blur came up and destroyed every monster it saw with lightning speed.
"Hey, Dennis." Ami said. "Are you sure this thing's dangerous? Because it appears to be helping..." However, the unknown thing jumped down and devirtualized both Ami and Sven-Søren in one attack. It then went up to Sam and pinned him to the ground; Sam looked up and immediately recognized it.
"ANAX?" He said before he himself was devirtualized. Antea realized that she had to get to the tower before ANAX would kill her as well.
"Wait!" Dennis said. "I haven't finished setting up the program yet."
"Well, we can't just wait here and let this thing try to kill us." Antea said. "We'll have to try some other time."
"Very well." Dennis said. Antea then ran towards the tower. William Jr. threw his dagger towards her but she dodged it and ran inside the tower. She then went up and entered CODE: LYOKO and before she knew it, she was back on Earth.
Back at the lab, everyone began telling Dennis about what happened.
"Alright, we weren't able to bring back William Jr. this time, but we will keep trying." Dennis said. "What we still don't know is what that mysterious creature was."
"I know who it was." Sam said. "It was ANAX." Nobody said anything.
"Really?" Dennis asked.
"But how?" Calvin asked.
"I don't know, but just before he devirtualized me, I could see that it was indeed ANAX." Sam said.
"If it was ANAX, why was he attacking us?" Antea asked.
"Not to mention he also attacked XANA's monsters." Ami said.
"I'm guessing something went wrong and he got bugged up." Dennis said. "We'll have to focus our priorities on that from now on. Once we fix ANAX, then we can try to save William Jr."
"What will we tell Mom though?" Ami asked. "About William Jr.?"
"We tell her the truth. She already knew about Lyoko, so there's no point in keeping it a secret." Rumiko said. "Also, are you still okay Calvin? You looked a little out of it when William Jr. hit you."
"He probably just hit me too hard." Calvin said.
"I'm checking for any marks just in case." Dennis said.
"Very well." Calvin said as he began to take off his shirt. "Antea, don't look."
Antea then turned around as Dennis looked at his body.
"No scratch marks." Dennis said. "So it wasn't anything like XANA's sword."
"Alright." Calvin said putting his shirt back on. "Come on. Dinner's almost ready."
They then left the lab and headed back to the school.
Back in Carthage, William Jr. came up to XANA.
"Has the virus been implanted?" XANA asked.
"Yes." William Jr. said. "I was intending to hit Antea, but Calvin tempted me so I hit him instead."
"Very well." XANA said. "Just as long as it has a human body to fully mature in."
"How long until that happens?"
"By my calculations, around a month." XANA said.
"I can wait that long. Even for Russell." William Jr. said as he walked out. He then turned back around. "Oh, I forgot to add."
"What's is it?" XANA asked.
"Lyoko's only permanent defense, The ANAX Program, has apparently been bugged up and will try to attack the Lyoko Warriors." William Jr. said. "The only downside is that he's unaligned; he'll still try to attack you and your monsters."
"Nevertheless." XANA said. "We'll just increase our defenses each time the Lyoko Warriors try to intervene. You may leave now, my apprentice."
"Yes, Master." William Jr. said walking out.
Okay, I'm beginning to see the difficulties of focusing on two stories at once. Because of this, I may put Race for Control on hold until I get far enough on 100 Days or until I get enough time to work on it some more. However, I might put 100 Days on hold and focus my effort on this story instead, but I'll leave that up to you to decide. Please place in your review whether you want this story updated and have 100 Days put on hold, or have me focus on 100 Days and put this story on hold. I equally enjoy writing both stories, so don't worry about wanting me to work on a story I enjoy less.
Please Review.