Powerslave
Chapter 2: Going Under
The boy returned to his dormitory room in a rush. After being defeated by Ulrich so easily he needed his time alone. He didn't have a roommate in his room, so he could spend all the time in the world in there. Although, recess was ending pretty soon.
Sitting on his bed, he slammed his fist on the pillow, frustrated that he never got his way with everyone. He doesn't have friends that he can trust, and most especially, he cannot trust his family.
Suddenly, as he was relaxing, the door opened, revealing a person he was not in the mood to speak to. He sprung up onto his feet and backed away from the person, staring them directly in the eye. The person was a much older version of himself, as the boy could envision himself to be looking like that man. That man, was his father.
"What are you doing here Dad?" the boy demanded.
His father advanced forwards, frightening the boy, who continued to back away. The man, who could see the boy's fear, felt empathetic, and went down on one knee.
"Look kid, I'm not here to hurt you," the man stated.
"That's what he always says to my Mum, but he ends up hurting her anyway!" the boy retorted.
"I'm not your Dad, kid. I may have taken his appearance, but I am nothing like him," the man reassured.
"Then prove it," the boy proclaimed.
"I haven't slapped you yet, haven't I?"
Usually, the boy's father would greet him with a slap, rather than a simple hello. With that point in mind, the boy took a few steps closer to the man, feeling that he could trust him.
"So, why are you here?" the boy asked.
"I'm here to give you what you want, but first, you have to help me," the man answered.
"Help you with what?"
"This."
All of a sudden, the man transformed into black smoke before the boy's blue eyes. The boy grew terrified, and backed away until his back hit the desk behind him. The boy's eyes were fixated onto the smoke, circulating in front of him.
Then, like a bullet out of a gun, it moved into the boy's mouth. Suffocating, he fell to the ground, coughing loudly. He held his stomach as the smoke consumed his body, doing his best to resist it.
When the bell to end recess tolled, his world was covered in darkness. And even though he felt like he could move, he could do nothing to control those movements.
The next class for the kids was swimming, where they walked to the local swimming pool to participate in aquatic activities. On this special occasion, two class year levels, the eighth and sixth graders, were swimming in the pools to learn skills in the water.
The eighth grade had more difficult activities than the younger grade, but it wasn't something they couldn't do. While the sixth grade easily went through their activities without a hitch.
After the class swimming activities were over, Jim announced that they had free time in the water, providing that they stay in the pool unless they were switching pools, jumping off the diving board or need to go to the bathroom. Most of the kids celebrated by splashing each other or diving off the diving board, enjoying what free time they had before leaving and going to the next class.
However, Ulrich was concerned about his injury more than ever, as a disgusting shade of yellow appeared on his abs. He didn't want to worry his friends that he was hurt by the thief they met earlier, especially if XANA was going to attack today. Somewhat though, he did want to tell someone about it. He didn't know why he felt that way, but he assumed he wanted that burden off his shoulders.
As he was deep in thought, Odd swam in front of him. Then suddenly an idea hit him. He grabbed Odd's left wrist, stopping him from swimming and pulled him over to the edge of the pool.
"Hey, what was that for? I was just showing off to Aelita how to do the perfect freestyle stroke," Odd snapped.
"Can you cover for me?" Ulrich asked.
"What for?"
"I want to talk to Yumi and I don't want to get spotted by Jim."
"Oh, I see. Don't worry; I understand what it feels like to be in love. Go ahead."
"Odd, we're just friends. That's all."
Ulrich pushed himself out of the pool as he heard Odd's response, "Yeah right!" Ulrich ignored him and walked to the seat where he placed his bag. He grasped his mobile phone once he placed his hand in the bag and quickly dialled Yumi's number. He knew Yumi had a spare period during this time of day, so she won't be told off by any of the teachers if she had her mobile phone out.
While the phone was ringing Yumi's, he checked whether he could see Jim looking in his direction. Fortunately, he spotted Jim supervising the line of kids who wanted to dive off the ten metre board.
"Hello?"
Ulrich instantly recognised Yumi's voice on the other side of the phone, relieved she answered his call.
"Hey Yumi. Uh… how are you?" Ulrich enquired.
"I'm good. Hey, how come you're calling in the middle of swimming? I doubt Jim would let you out of the pool," Yumi stated.
"I snuck out. Odd's just keeping an eye on him for me," Ulrich answered.
"Oh alright. So how are you?" Yumi asked.
"I'm alright, except…" Ulrich paused, looking down at his newly formed injury, "I think I'm bruised."
"How?"
"When I got the ball back from the kid, he punched me in the ribs and that area looks yellow, and it feels slightly painful to swim."
"Why didn't you tell us that earlier?"
"I didn't want you guys to worry about me. And besides, it's only a bruise."
In a lowered voice, Yumi questioned, "What if XANA attacked us today?"
"I better hope XANA doesn't see it," Ulrich whispered, and paused once again, "Sorry if I worried you."
"It doesn't worry me too much Ulrich. It's okay. Although, that kid seems really strong though, probably almost as strong as you."
"Yeah. I'm hoping I can find out what he's like and why he resorted to-"
"Hey Casanova, Jim's not preoccupied with the diving area anymore," Odd alerted.
"Sorry, I have to hang up. I'll see you later," Ulrich responded.
"See you at lunch."
Ulrich hung up and quickly placed the mobile phone back in his bag. As Jim looked in Ulrich's direction, Ulrich ran up and jumped into the pool, screaming as he was in mid air enjoying the brief adrenaline rush.
As Ulrich resurfaced, he heard Jim laughing. He spun around to face his P.E. teacher, wondering what he was finding hilarious.
Jim soon noticed Ulrich and shouted, "That's the spirit Stern!"
Ulrich shook his head as Odd swam up next to him, looking at Jim also. Odd gave Ulrich his wide smile, happy that Ulrich perfectly covered the fact he just broke a rule moments before.
Nearby, Aelita and Jeremie were relaxing at one of the edges of the pool, talking about happenings at school and other things. It was a first time in a while that they had a conversation not involving Lyoko and XANA, helping them enjoy their time at the pool.
However, something big was on Aelita's mind, which was the construction of their submarine that could travel through the Digital Sea in Lyoko unharmed by its environment. It was significant to Aelita, who believed that she may find her missing father, Franz Hopper and bring him back to Earth to finally reunite with him after twelve long years.
"How's the construction of the submarine going?" Aelita enquired.
"It's fantastic. With your help last night, the amount of time to complete it has been reduced greatly," Jeremie proclaimed.
"By how much?" Aelita asked.
Ulrich and Odd just swam in front of Jeremie and Aelita, where Jeremie thought it would be best if all were to hear when this submarine was completed.
"Hey guys, I've got big news for you!" Jeremie shouted.
The boys immediately stopped splashing each other and approached Jeremie and Aelita. Aelita was anxious to hear the news, even though it was good news.
"What is it Einstein?" Odd asked.
"It's about the progress of the submarine. It's going along greatly. In fact, it's going to be completed very soon," Jeremie stated.
"Can you give us a date?" Ulrich enquired.
"It's going to be fully operational in two days time," Jeremie answered.
"Wow that's great! We can finally search for my father," Aelita replied.
"And I can't wait to drive it!" Odd exclaimed.
"I doubt Einstein would let you drive it," Ulrich retorted.
"Why? You're not better than me at driving."
"Last time I checked, Aelita said you drove like a lunatic on your Overboard."
"Hey! That was so uncalled for!" Odd shouted, heaving water into Ulrich's face.
Ulrich responded with the same attack, and the roommates began their aquatic brawl. Aelita and Jeremie could only laugh, as they knew that they were pointlessly arguing between each other.
Soon enough, Ulrich and Odd turned their attention to their intelligent friends and gave them a taste of the chlorinated water of the pool. Both Jeremie and Aelita were taken by surprised and immediately countered their attack with another wave of water. The four friends were intensely involved in the water fight, even using tactics such as submerging themselves underwater to avoid the inevitable counterattack. Therefore, the person spraying the water on their opponent must use trickery to fool them.
However, as they were playing, Aelita spotted on the other side of the pool a boy that looked very similar to the thief that almost made it off with the soccer ball. That boy was wearing black board shorts with green lines down the sides of them. She felt that she was staring at the same boy from earlier, and felt the need to tell the rest of the group this.
"Guys, can we stop for a moment?" Aelita enquired.
The boys stopped a minute after Aelita spoke, slowing catching their breaths and wiping the water off their faces.
"What is it Princess?" Odd asked.
"Just look over there," Aelita stated, pointing in the direction where she noticed the boy, "He looks familiar, doesn't he?"
The boys looked over where Aelita was pointing, and there was the boy, sitting on a bench. He was looking over at the other pool opposite the pool the group were in. Despite that his back was turned, Ulrich instantly recognised him. Seeing his back most of the time during the chase, the boy's brown hair was very distinctive to Ulrich.
"I need to talk to this kid," Ulrich declared.
"Why? He's more trouble than he's worth Ulrich," Odd proclaimed.
"I just want to know what's the matter with him," Ulrich stated.
"We'll keep an eye out on you, just in case," Aelita responded.
Ulrich swam across the pool, keeping his head low to avoid being splashed or hit by a projectile. His eyes were focused on the boy, whose stare was fixated on something in the distance. He approached the edge of the pool, resting his arms on that edge. He looked up, surprised that the boy wasn't even looking the other way. It seemed unnatural to the fourteen year old soccer star, but did not feel like he was in any danger.
"Hey kid, are you alright?" Ulrich enquired.
The boy didn't respond back, causing Ulrich to wonder if it was something serious. Then again, sometimes Ulrich didn't answer his friends, but that was due to his introverted personality.
"Look, I'm not here to hurt you. I just want to try to understand you," Ulrich affirmed.
With those words, the boy turned his head to the side. Ulrich backed off. What he saw was the worse thing that could've possibly happened.
That boy was possessed by XANA. Ulrich had to swim away before the poor kid attacked. Although, he was afraid that his bruise was too noticeable and the possessed kid would see it.
As Ulrich was spinning away, the blue eyed boy leaped towards him. Ulrich felt the younger kid land on his back, and he immediately sunk, making a huge splash. Ulrich held his breath, hoping that he could hold out long enough to escape. He began kicking his legs and piercing his arms through the water to reach the surface. However, the XANA possessed boy quickly grabbed one of Ulrich's arms and pulled it back. Ulrich felt a sharp pain throughout his left shoulder, but kept on holding his breath, knowing if he didn't he would most likely drown. Ulrich continued fighting for his life, knowing that despite he was in huge danger, he felt like he was making progress towards the surface. The boy tried to push down Ulrich, but since he was only recently possessed, his strength was not equal to Ulrich's. Ulrich seemed to have the upper hand.
The possessed boy suddenly struck Ulrich's stomach. Even though the blow did not directly hit the bruise, Ulrich felt a thunderous pain throughout his body. It forced him to let go of his available oxygen, increasing his desperation to reach the surface. The child then pushed Ulrich in the back, sending him down towards the bottom of the pool. Ulrich quickly realised the kid now possesses superhuman strength, and knew he wouldn't last long without intervention.
Ulrich turned around, spotting the possessed kid burst through the water. XANA was determined to end him. There was no way he could avoid him, and he was rapidly running out of breath. Ulrich looked up, hoping for someone to save him, but there was no shadow covering the lights. He was running out of time.
