Code Lyoko: New Lyoko Chapter 3: Next Level, a code lyoko fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own Code: Lyoko.

A/N: This chapter is where this story earns its action/adventure genre. Hope you enjoy.

-Someone speaking from the Lab to Lyoko-

Title: Next Level

If there really was a place such as heaven, Odd knew that it could never compare to this place. The sun shined with a light of purest gold against a sky of deepest blue as Odd sat on his throne carved out of solid diamond with cushions as soft as clouds, surveying his kingdom. And what a kingdom it was! His throne was perched atop a gigantic slab of medium-rare steak, its light-red juices oozing out of it in bucketfuls. Trees grew out of a ground made of mashed-potatoes, their branches spreading as wide as houses, bearing king-sized candy bars as their fruits. The scene was completed by a river of steaming hot beef stew, which was fed by a waterfall off a cliff of chocolate cake.

All this, however, paled in comparison to the crowning jewel of Odd's personal paradise-the girls. The beautiful, beautiful girls, dressed in tank-tops and mini-skirts. Every age-appropriate girl he had ever laid eyes upon (with the exception of Sissi, Yumi, and Aelita) was there, cooing at him, latching onto his arms and legs, wrapping their long, slender arms around his neck and waist, or just crowding around him, chanting "Odd, Odd," in adoration. Odd closed his eyes as he sighed in bliss. This was everything he ever dreamed of and more.

"Odd? Odd!"

Odd frowned. All of a sudden, the chanting of the girls had become more insistent than adoring. Also, their voices developed a masculine tone that sounded strangely familiar.

"Come on, Odd. Wake up!"

Groaning in frustration, Odd opened his eyes. And to his shock, the surrounding multitude of girls had transformed.

Each and every girl…

Cooing at him…

Clinging to his arms and legs…

Wrapping themselves around his waist and neck…

Surrounding him and worshipping him…

Each one of the beautiful, beautiful girls had transformed…

Into Ulrich!

"AAAAAAAAAAA!!" Odd's blood-curdling scream sounded throughout the dorm as he bolted upright.

CRACK.

"OW! What the &#?!" Ulrich reeled back, clutching his forehead in pain.

Odd panted as his heart ran a marathon, the red bruise on his forehead that indicated the point-of-impact contrasting against his ghostly-pale skin. Shaking his head to regain his senses, he glared at his roommate. "Dang it, Ulrich, whatever happened to pouring a glass of water on someone?!"

Ulrich returned the glare. "What's your problem? You looked like you where having a nice dream, so I tried to wake you up gently, and next thing I know, you're screaming like you butt was on fire!"

Odd simply shuddered as he thought back to the horrific final seconds of his dream. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Whatever," Ulrich said. "I just thought you should know that you've got five minutes before you're late for class."

"What?" Odd asked. He turned to look at his clock.

8: 55 A.M.

"WHAAAAAAT?!"

Leaping out of bed, Odd yanked his dresser drawers open and began flinging random articles of clothing as he searched frantically for something to wear. "Oh man, oh man, ohmanohmanohmanohman; why didn't you wake me up earlier?!"

Ulrich scowled as he plucked off a pair of boxer-shorts that had landed on his head. "Why should I? It's not my fault you where up 'til one in the morning, singing along with that dumb song you downloaded."

"Dumb?! 'Mad when you're Sad' is the hit of the century! Besides, I was singing it in celebration of Jeremy's success."

Ulrich rolled his eyes. "Oh please, that was two days ago."

"That's how ecstatic I am about it!"

"Whatever. See you in class."

Odd just grumbled as he hopped into a pair of his patented purple pants and pulled on his matching shirt. No time for breakfast, he thought bitterly as the glanced at the clock. Gathering up his homework, he took a moment to check himself in the mirror. After the good news from Jeremy, Odd had finally noticed that his hair had disintegrated from its former glory. The next day, an entire shelf of hair gel mysteriously disappeared from the local store. Satisfied with his appearance (blood-shot eyes, a bruise on his forehead, and his cloths wrinkled, but what the hell did he care? His hair was spiked again!) Odd raced to class.

Internet

Go. Give rise to my power. Begin my new wave of conquest.

X.A.N.A. watched in pleasure as its programs flew off into the distance to fulfill their purpose. In mere moments, the world would once again feel its wrath. But for now, it needed to prepare the welcoming committee. X.A.N.A. turned its attention to the black haired boy kneeling on the floor, his oversized sword lying next to him. William. Now that my plans are coming into effect, I suspect that our old friends will be coming back to offer their congratulations. We must throw them a celebration for their return, don't you agree?

William smiled, the expression like that of a demon anticipating its next slaughter.

Kadic Academy; Science class

"Although paleontology has taught us a great deal about long extinct life-forms such as the dinosaurs, the fact is that a great deal of it involves guesswork, which leaves a lot of room for error. For example, scientists today believe that it is possible that the tyrannosaurus rex was not the mighty predator we once believed, but rather a docile herbivore, based on new theories concerning its weight, physiological structure, and estimated mental capacity. Now, on the reverse side…"

"Boy, talk about disillusionment," Odd whispered to Ulrich. "Playing 'T-rex Attack' with my sisters' dolls was one of the high points of my childhood."

"By the way, guys," Aelita said, "Jeremy wants us to meet in his room before lunch. There's something he wants to show us."

"What's this I hear? Is the Freakazoid Club holding show-and-tell now?"

The trio turned their heads in the direction of the voice. Sitting at the end of the table next to them, her mouth curved up in her trademark smirk, was Sissi. Ulrich returned the smirk smartly. "You tell us Sissi; with Nicolas and Herb following you, you're obviously the president."

Strangely unfazed, Sissi merely batted her eyelashes, her smirk changing into a shy smile. "Oh, you know I didn't mean you, Ulrich-dear. Besides, it wouldn't matter if you were in the lamest club on earth, I'd join just to be near you."

Ulrich scowled at Sissi's ten-millionth attempt to flirt with him. Odd, on the other hand, got a sly look in his eye. "Actually Sissi, we'd love to have you join our group."

Sissi's eyes widened in surprise, "Are…are you serious?"

"Sure. You'd be the perfect target for the We Hate Sissi Club's pie-throwing contest!"

Ulrich and Aelita burst into muffled laughter, while Odd gave a huge grin. However, instead of her usual growl of outrage and frustration, Sissi smiled in what appeared to be relief. "Well finally. It's good to see you're back to your usual self."

Now it was Odd's turn to be caught off-guard. "Wha-what are you talking about?" he stammered.

"You were acting really down these past few weeks. You never wanted to insult me, and you barely ate anything. Frankly, I was starting to worry about you."

Odd gaped at Sissi's sincerity. Then he grinned impishly. Leaning across the space separating the two tables, he fluttered his eyelashes in mock flirtation. "Aw Sissi," he cooed in a syrupy-sweet voice. "I knew you loved me, I just knew it!"

Sissi scowled in disgust at Odd's antic. Then suddenly, her smirk reappeared. Before Odd could even sense the impending danger Sissi shot up out of her seat, her face a mask of outrage.

"Ms. Hertz, Odd is copying off my notes!"

Natural History Museum

Jacob Crane, professional museum security guard, hated his job. He hated the uniform he was forced to wear. He hated how he had to start work early in the morning when the museum didn't even open until about ten o'clock. He even hated the fact that this job was preferable to working in some over-glorified fast-food restaurant. What he hated the most, however, was the pointlessness of said job. The whole museum consisted of a multitude of dusty skeletons from animals that died before the time his grandmother went to preschool (and that was a frigging LONG time ago). Who would care enough to try and steal anything?

Grumbling, Jacob continued his patrol into the Hall of Dinosaurs for the third time that day. What really irked him was how his boss insisted that he pay special attention to the dinosaur bones. Now how stupid was that? Some of the creatures on display there were as big as a house! How was anybody supposed to steal them if they couldn't even carry them?

Jacob paused a moment to gaze upon the bones of the most famous dinosaur of them all-tyrannosaurus rex. He had never liked this particular skeleton. He didn't care what scientists said; there was no way something like the T-rex was a docile herbivore. And Jacob couldn't help but get the feeling that this particular tyrannosaurus had been an exceptionally vicious one in life. There was just a feeling about it, a miasma of malice that hung about it even after all these millennia of death.

The sound of electricity sparking startled him out of his thoughts. Whipping out his flashlight (for all the good it would do him) he turned towards the source of the noise. An electrical outlet on the floor that the janitors used for their various custodial technologies was crackling as if it was experiencing some sort of backlash. As Jacob stared curiously at this anomaly, it suddenly stopped, only for something infinitely weirder to occur-a pitch black substance that seemed to be a cross between smoke and oil oozed out of the socket.

Jacob could only stare as the thing slithered across the floor, directed by some unseen force towards the T-rex skeleton. Flowing up the podium, it began to envelop the skeleton, apparently growing in size as did. Once it had covered the entire thing, the blob seemed to be absorbed into the skeleton. For a moment, nothing else happened. Then suddenly, Jacob found the eyeless skull looking right at him.

Jacob nearly jumped out of his skin. Then he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. Of course the tyrannosaurus skull didn't turn to look at him. Obviously, the wiring or whatever had broke, and the skull's weight had caused it to swing towards him. He laughed sheepishly as he reassured himself of this.

But wait. When did the museum install lights in the T-rex's eye sockets? And what was with those eye-like hieroglyphs? As Jacob contemplated this, he heard a sound; something like a cross between a tractor engine and a wolf growling. This time, there was no denying the truth, as impossible as it seemed.

The tyrannosaurus skeleton was growling at him.

Jacob swiftly turned about face and walked away in long strides. Now seemed like a good time to look into working in one of those fast-food restaurant. First, however, he was going to need a change of pants.

Jeremy's room

Jeremy smiled in satisfaction as he checked the data one last time. Everything was operating perfectly. Now all that was left was to wait for the others to get here.

No sooner had he thought this then the sound of his door opening informed him of their arrival. Turning in his chair to greet the rest of the team, he noticed that Odd's face was contorted into a severe scowl. "Hey Odd, is something wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Are you sure? You look the same as you did when you lost to Nicolas in that double cheese burger eating contest."

"It's nothing, alright?" Odd said shortly.

"Don't mind him, Jeremy," said Ulrich. "He's just sulking because Sissi got the last laugh for once."

"Hey!" Odd snapped jabbing his finger at Ulrich. "She only managed that because she cheated."

Aelita rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. You just can't handle the fact that she outsmarted you. Besides, you should consider yourself lucky that Ms. Hertz bought your excuse of dropping your pencil."

While Odd sulked over his friends' lack of sympathy, Jeremy turned back to his computer and began typing. "Odd, I'm about to show you something that will improve your mood. Behold, Carthage II!"

On the screen appeared the familiar white sphere that was Carthage. Everybody crowded around to get a closer look at their potential salvation. "This is amazing, Jeremy!" Odd said.

"Yeah, but does it work?" asked Yumi.

"Yes, but what's really amazing is how it works. First, it sends out trillions of bits of what I call 'unrefined data.' This data is then able to meld with random computer programs on the internet and…"

"Uh, Jeremy," Ulrich interrupted. "This all sounds fascinating, but we're more interested in the ends than the means."

Jeremy frowned at his "nerd-babble" being cut off, but got to the point. "Anyways, this process will enable us to scan the internet for presences such as Xana, accumulate the energy needed for return trips, and most importantly, Virtualize directly into the internet."

"Great job Einstein," Odd said, giving his friend a congratulatory pat on the back. "Now how about that upgrade program, hmm?"

"I've taken care of that to. All I had to do was upload it into your virtual profiles, and presto! The problem is that I have no idea what it did. The only way to learn is to go into the internet and find out."

"No problem," Yumi said. "We can go after classes are over. It would also be a good time to get the layout of the internet."

"Alright, then that's the plan. We meet in the factory right after our final classes."

"Great. Now let's get to lunch," Odd said, rubbing his stomach. "Can't fight Xana on an empty stomach."

Kadic school grounds

Life. It thirsted for life. It wanted to smell blood as it gushed out of its victims, to hear their squeals as their flesh was ripped apart. It wanted to swallow its prey alive, to feel it thrash around desperately in its stomach, to listen to its muffled moans of pain and despair as it was slowly digested.

There. In that strange thing. Some instinct urged it to begin the search there.

Life. Blood. Flesh. Death. Pain. Pleasure.

Lunchroom

The cafeteria was a buzz of conversation, eating often taking second priority. As usual, the Lyoko Warriors were seated together at their favorite table.

"So what kind of upgrades do you think we're going to get?" Yumi asked.

"Maybe we'll get advanced weapons like before," Odd said, his excitement obvious. "It'd be great to have my homing arrows back!"

Odd's imagination: panicking William running like a loon with three laser arrows honing in on his butt.

"Or maybe it's something even better, like enabling us to summon gigantic robot vehicles, like the ones from Power Rangers or something, so we can squash our enemies!"

Odd's imagination: William squealing like a little girl before getting stomped by an enormous purple Odd-like mecha.

"Ooooh, maybe I'll get super-long claws that can slice opponents to pieces with one strike!"

Odd's imagination: Odd, wielding oversized claws, slashes a bewildered William who stands stock-still for a moment before falling apart in vertical pieces.

Ulrich chuckled as his best friend struck a ridiculous pose with his arms held in a mock kung-fu position with his hands imitating claws. "Whatever powers it gives us, I just hope its enough to make us a match for William."

"I agree. What happened last time was a slaughter, pure and simple. If we're going to be matches for Xana from now on, our powers as they are now aren't going to cut it," Yumi said grimly.

While the other warriors conversed, Jeremy simply ate his food in silence, his eyes deep in thought. Finally, he slammed his fork down. "I just can't figure it out," he burst out.

"The upgrades?" Yumi asked.

"No, I mean the way Xana went out of his way to destroy Lyoko. What did he have to gain from it?"

"Now that you mention it, I've been wondering the same thing myself," Aelita said.

"Maybe he did it for safety," Ulrich said. "We needed Lyoko to fight Xana, so by destroying Lyoko, he destroyed our key to attacking him."

"But it would still be counterproductive," Jeremy disagreed. "Even after escaping from the supercomputer, Xana proved that he still needed to activate Towers to attack our world. Otherwise, why didn't he just mount an attack directly from the internet where we couldn't reach him and destroy the supercomputer that way?"

Odd shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? Frankly, I don't want to know what goes on in Xana's head. Besides, now that we can follow him into the internet, it's pretty much a moot point anyway."

"Maybe you're right, but still…"

"AAAAAAAAAAA!!"

Everyone in the cafeteria turned towards the doors as a student burst in, his face as white as a sheet. "Everybody get out of here! There's a living T-rex skeleton headed this way!"

Everyone stared at the shaking boy. Some sitting at the tables closest to him edged away. Some muttered about eating too much sugar, while others looked around for hidden cameras. One group of five, however, shared a very different idea.

"Could it be...?" Yumi asked.

As if to answer her question, the wall of the cafeteria burst inwards, showering students with glass and plaster. There, for everyone to see, was the enormous, white skull of the king of lizards; and it was thrashing back and forth like a fish out of water and roaring like a demon.

"Either that's Xana, or Lego's has taken things too far!" Odd yelled as everyone took cover under the tables.

"But how can that be?" Aelita cried, "Xana destroyed all the Towers when he destroyed Lyoko! There's no way he should be able to launch an attack like before!"

"Unless…" Jeremy mused.

"Unless what?"

"There is something I want to try. But first, let's get everyone out of here."

Most of the students seemed to have already thought of that, scrambling out through the emergency exits while the skeleton forced itself further into the building and upright, tearing away most of the roof in the process. Snarling, it scanned the crowed of panicking students, trying to single one out. Suddenly, its X.A.N.A eyes fell on one male student who had not joined the mad dash outside. The boy had unkempt light-brown hair and green eyes. His skin had the tanned look of someone who spent a lot of time outside. For clothing, he wore a dark blue long-sleeve button-up shirt open over a white t-shirt, dark black khaki pants, and brown high-top shoes. While everyone else was scrambling for safety, he calmly faced the monster, his eyes showing no fear.

"What are you doing? Run!" Odd yelled from behind the table. The boy just continued to stand there as the T-rex skeleton slowly stalked close and closer.

Then, without warning, it happened…

"ALL HAIL THE GREAT AND MIGHTY BONE LORD, WHO HAS RISING FROM HIS ANCIENT SLUMBER TO LEAD US ALONG THE PATH OF LIFE WITHOUT FLESH!" the boy cried, genuflecting before the skeleton.

"What the hell is he doing?!" Jeremy yelled.

"Begging to get eaten would be my guess!" Ulrich cried as he raced to the rescue.

Oblivious to the fact that it was being worshiped as a god, the Xanafied fossil lunged forward, mouth wide open to snatch up its brain-dead prey. At the last moment, Ulrich, in a flying dive, shoved the would-be-snack to safety. A split second later, the horrid jaws of death closed around him.

"Ulrich!" everyone cried in horror.

"The Bone Lord is displeased with we who cling to their meaty bodies! We must flee or be devoured as sacrifices!" the Funny Farm escapee wailed as he followed the example of saner students and bolted.

Sensing its successful capture, the tyrannosaurus threw its head back to swallow its prey...only for Ulrich to topple down into its rib cage before falling to the floor. Evidently, its lack of a stomach would pose a problem. As for Ulrich, he did what any sensible boy who found himself directly beneath a lizard skeleton with feet bigger than he was-he scrambled to his feet and ran like heck!

"Ulrich, are you alright?" Aelita asked as the warrior rejoined his friends.

"A little freaked out, and I think I bruised my back, but at least I'm not swimming in stomach acid."

"Well, it looks like Mr. Boney is gonna stick to his crash diet whether he likes it or not," quipped Odd. "Personally, I feel sorry for the poor guy."

"You feel sorry for him?! Need I remind you that I was nearly eaten alive?"

"Hey, guys…"

"Oh, he would have spat you out after he discovered how awful you tasted."

"What! I'll have you know that I taste delicious!"

"Uh, guys…"

"Oh please, I've seen what kind of soap you use, all the barbeque in the world couldn't cover up…"

"GUYS!!" Everyone turned to the ticked-off boy genius. "Under different circumstances, I would love to observe this fascinating discussion, but right now, we have more pressing issues to worry about."

"You mean like the life-size tyrannosaurus skull hanging right over us?" Yumi asked.

"Correct. Wait, what?"

Everyone looked up to see the white harbinger of death glaring down on them with menacing Xana eyes. Apparently, the late king of lizards did not find the consequences of a lack of a conventional stomach amusing. Roaring (how it managed to do this continually without the benefit of throat or lungs remains a mystery) it brought jaws down upon our heroes…

"AAAAAAA!!"

…who, in a rather un-heroic fashion, scampered every-which-way like scared mice. Before the monster could single one out, it became distracted by the way a bit of its jaw seemed to explode in an eruption of dust and debris. A second later, the same thing happened to its skull, and then its leg. Confused and irritated, it turned to the side to see what was going on. Fallowing its gaze, the gang saw that it was non other than the police firing their guns on the monster; evidently, a tyrannosaurus rex skeleton walking around town was something people noticed.

"Well, what do you know?" Odd said as the cops continued to pelt the skeleton with bullets, with said skeleton too confused by this attack to do anything, "Looks like someone up there loves us."

"Then let's take advantage of it and get to the factory," Jeremy ordered, "It's time to try out our new equipment."

The officer took his eyes off the target momentarily to check on the kids this…thing was attacking and saw that they were making their getaway. Good, now they could focus on fighting this thing without having to worry about civilians getting caught in the crossfire. He just hoped the reinforcements arrived soon with some bigger guns. As if fighting the living skeleton of an extinct oversized lizard wasn't freaky enough, whatever damage they did to the body simply healed a second later as if it never happened; plus tall, white and boney was starting to look pretty pissed, and it didn't seem like it'd be long before the guns stopped scaring it.

The officer sighed as he reloaded his gun. His brother was right; he should have just gotten a job at some fast food restaurant.

As the gang made their familiar run to the sewer hole, Aelita couldn't help but grin. Although it had only been a little over two weeks, it seemed like an eternity since they had last made this run. It had even begun to seem like they would never make it again. But now everything was back to the way it was before. Now they were once again ready to fight against Xana and whatever he threw at them.

The gang went through the motions that had been ingrained into their very muscles. They climbed down into the sewers, grabbed their skateboards and scooters and started ridding with Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd performing some stunts when the opportunity presented itself, before coming to another ladder. Discarding their wheels, they climbed up to be greeted by the sight of the factory. Running inside, they took turns swinging down the ropes before entering the elevator and hitting the down button. As the doors closed and the elevator started to descend, Jeremy said, "Alright guys, after I enter the lad, you go down to the scanner room and wait until I say OK. Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, I'll send you guys in first, and then Aelita."

"But Jeremy," Yumi said as Odd jokingly muttered about how "Jeremy wants to protect his precious princess, but doesn't give a fig about us." "We don't know what the internet is like. For all we know, we'll end up free falling in a void. Plus, we don't know how Xana is able to launch an attack with all the towers destroyed, so we would have no idea what to do."

"I have a hunch about how Xana's doing this," Jeremy said as he entered the code that opened the elevator doors. "I'll explain later if I'm proven right."

"What do you think he's talking about?" Ulrich asked as the elevator descended another level.

"Who knows? But let's just trust him. Jeremy never let us down before, right?" Aelita said with a confident smile.

"That's true," Odd agreed. "Besides, other than Princess, Einstein is the only one who knows what he's doing when it comes to the supercomputer. Me, I've crashed the school computers just by pressing the space bar."

The elevator doors opened once again, and the warriors stepped into the scanner room. Odd, Ulrich and Yumi each selected a scanner while Aelita stood off to the side. After a minute of waiting, Jeremy's voice came over the intercom, "Just as I thought."

"Care to elaborate, Einstein?"

"It would be easier to explain if I showed you first; starting Virtualization process."

The doors to the scanners opened. Yumi and Ulrich entered theirs' while Odd took an exaggerated step into his saying, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for us. Neil Armstrong, eat your heart out." The doors to the scanners closed.

Back in the lab, Jeremy typed in the necessary information, the new profiles for his friends appearing on the screen. He paused a moment, taking a deep breath. "Here goes everything," and with that, he began typing in the commands while reciting those familiar words.

"Transfer Yumi,"

"Transfer Ulrich,"

"Transfer Odd,"

"Scanner Yumi,"

"Scammer Ulrich,"

"Scanner Odd,"

"Virtualization."

Internet

The wire outlines of the three Lyoko warriors shimmered into existence before solidifying into their virtual forms. Then the familiar drop came, from which the three landed nimbly. Yumi gave silent thanks to whatever deity was listening as her feet touched solid ground. Ulrich and Odd landed next to her as she looked around. "We're in Jeremy, so what do we…do…now…no…way."

Yumi's eyes went as wide as dinner plates while her jaw dropped down to her chest. Unseen by her, Odd and Ulrich were reacting in similar manners.

"It can't be!"

"It's impossible!"

"It's…it's…"

"…the Forest Sector."

Kadic School

It roared in rage as it was attacked by these creatures that could hurt it without touching it. More had come, and added their strength to the attack. Through its anger and confusion, an overwhelming instinct took control, urging it to fight back and go to another place. A place where it would find the prey it was supposed to find. With a challenging roar, it leapt into battle.

Forest Sector

It was indeed non-other than the Forest Sector. Despite all logic to the contrary, it was all there. The same bright green color scheme, the same trees that had no visible tops, the same bodies of water, the same light coming from an unseen sun, the same everything!

"How is this possible?" Odd demanded. "The Forest Sector was the first sector that Xana destroyed. I should know I was there when it happened!"

-The only explanation is that Xana recreated it- Jeremy said, his voice seemingly coming out of nowhere. -I'm not sure what the raw materials where, but he obviously used the data he got from Aelita when he drained her memories to recreate the Forest Sector right inside the internet. And if he's recreated the sector, he's obviously recreated all the towers that came with it. That's how he's able to launch an attack like before-

"So basically we're standing in some sort of 'New Lyoko' or something," Ulrich said.

-That's about it. Anyways, after I send Aelita in and materialize your vehicles, head southeast towards the Tower. Oh, but first, you should take a moment to get the feel of your new avatars-

Yumi's virtual form maintained its geisha theme, but apparently had been customized into a more manga-style version. Her hair, instead of a topknot, was clipped in a ponytail with some hanging lose to frame her makeup-free face. She still wore a kimono that was modified for battle, but this one was somewhat longer, reaching the midway point between her hips and her knees, and the bow was only half as large as it was before. The dress was colored dark indigo, with bright red outlines, with the bow a deep purple. Her hands and forearms were adorned with white, skin-tight finger-less gloves, while the bare space between her shoulders and elbows bore elaborate orange tattoos resembling phoenixes. Her formerly red skin-tight pants were exchanged for a slightly baggier, emerald green pair, while her knee-high boots remained unchanged.

Ulrich, likewise, retained his samurai theme, albeit heavily modified. His entire outfit was baggier than it was before. His "coat" was longer, with a flowing "tail" emerging from underneath a long, silver tie-on belt. The coat was colored deep gold, with dark-black patterns running all over it. The Oni picture that had previously adorned his back was replaces with the image of two oriental dragons, one gold and one black, circling each other in a yin-yang formation. Both sleeves were long, stopping just short of his wrists. On his hands he wore a pair of black leather gloves. Underneath the outer coat, he wore a white undershirt. His black pants were more lose fitting, now resembling those of a traditional martial-arts gi. Finally, he was armed with two katana, one bearing a yin symbol on the hilt, while the other bore a yang symbol. Both were strapped to his back, obscuring the dragon picture. His headband remained unchanged.

Odd's avatar was changed the least, but the alterations were still extensive. Gone were the cute Kiwi-themed decorations, while the outfit as a whole bore a fiercer appearance. His gloves/hands were still paws, but with the fingers resembling armored claws. The diamond shapes were replaced by orange tiger-strips that adorned the entire outfit. His costume itself was colored a deeper purple than before, while his shoes and knee pads were changed from their previous bright-yellow to dark orange. His cheeks were adorned with the same orange strips as the rest of his body, two to each. Finally, the picture of Kiwi urinating that had previously adorned his chest was replaced by one of said dog chasing his own tail.

"Nice, I like these upgrades already," Yumi said as she examined her elegant new outfit.

"Awesome, two swords, now I can do twice as much damage," Ulrich said as he drew his new weapons and twirled them around expertly. He noticed vaguely how the sheaths and the straps that held them to his back phased into his body, as if to avoid hindering his movements. "Hopper's really outdone himself this time.

"Speak for yourself, I still look weird" Odd moaned. "Oh well, at least I don't look like as big a ninny as I did before."

"It's your own fault, Odd. Remember, our virtual forms are based on our subconscious desires," Yumi said.

"Hey, for the last time, I do not dream about being a giant purple cat!"

Aelita suddenly, and literally, dropped in and the gang got a look at her own new outfit. She looked even more like the princess everyone frequently called her. Around her head she wore a golden circlet with a pink ruby resting on her forehead. Her ears remained as pointed and elfin as always, but instead of one hanging ball earring, both ears bore an earring with a small, glittering diamond hanging from each of them. She wore a short, pink robe that ended just beneath her waist, with sleeves reaching just past her elbows, and tied shut with a pink belt. The edges were skillfully bejeweled with gems of every color of the rainbow. On the lower half of her body, she wore a skirt similar to the one she wore before, except it had golden patterns sewn into it. For pants, she wore a skin-hugging, pale yellow pair with matching boots. On her right wrist, she wore a jeweled bracelet. All in all, it made for an absolutely beautiful outfit that this writer is sadly unable to describe properly at his current level of ability, so readers will have to use their own imagination and hope for the best.

Odd whistled in approval. "Wow, now that's a good look for you, Princess. Jeremy, you really don't know what you're missing here."

-I'm sure you can tell me all about it later, Odd. Right now, we've got bigger things to think about. I'm sending in your transports-

Ulrich frowned as the Overvheicles that shimmered into existence seemed identical to the ones they always used. "Hey Jeremy, didn't you say that there were going to be upgrades to our vehicles as well?"

-There will be, but I thought you should get used to your new avatars first-

The samurai shrugged his shoulders. "Fair enough," he said as he returned his swords to the sheaths that reappeared the instant he thought to do so and hopped onto his Overwheel while Odd mounted his Overboard and Yumi her Overwing, with Aelita taking position behind her. Together they took off towards the Tower enveloped in a red mist-like aura, weaving around trees ad they flew.

"Jeremy, I should probably ask before we see any fighting," Aelita spoke up. "What powers do our new avatars come with?"

-Well, the thing is, I don't know-

"What?"

-According to your father's message, the superior powers the upgrading program provides you with are based on the theme for your virtual forms and your individual fighting styles. You first have to activate them through the power of your own mind, after which you'll be able to use them normally. Right now, your profiles only say that your powers are inactive, so you're on your own. Sorry-

"That's OK,' Odd quipped. "I rather like surprises."

-Well then here's one I think you'll love. There are five monsters directly ahead of you, but they don't match anything I've ever seen before!-

"We see them Jeremy," Ulrich said. Jeremy was right; these were not like any monsters they've encountered before. They were about the same size as Kankrelats and just as misshapen, but the similarities ended there. These creatures had rectangular bodies segmented in several places, resembling pieces of an extremely fat belt. The front ends of their bodies narrowed into a point in the semblance of heads, with the Xana symbols on the front. The tips of their "heads" seemed to have been scoped out with circular glass inserted in the hallow area. They moved on spindly metal legs that almost seemed to scamper on the ground. The nature of these things was obviously mechanical from their metallic appearance and the whirring sound they made as they moved. "Guess X.A.N.A.'s decided to make himself some new toys."

"Well then let's break them. Laser Arrows!"

Said projectiles streaked towards the advancing enemy. Most of them missed, but one was about to his its target dead center, but failed to do so as the creature performed a sudden side flip, dodging the attack completely.

"Whoa, did you see that?" Odd cried. "These things are definitely a step up from the average Kankrelat!"

"They don't seem to be much smarter, though," Yumi pointed out. Indeed, the impressive stunt of the one creature caused it to collide with its companions like a bowling ball. Now the group found itself scrambling about, trying to gather its bearings and failing miserably to do so.

"Either way, it's time to kick it up a notch; banzai!" Odd cried as he kicked his Overboard into full speed. Going into a corkscrew spin, he prepared to shoot the monsters from an upside-down position. Unfortunately, this tactic failed when one of the more organized creatures reared onto its hind legs and fired a laser from its "nose", hitting Odd right between the eyes, sending him flying backwards while his board continued to spin right into a tree, exploding.

Odd came crashing to the ground, flopping along it a few times before coming to a stop. The other warriors pulled up to check on him. -Odd, you just lost ten life points," said Jeremy. "You have to be more careful!-

"I know, I know," Odd groaned as he got to his feet. "But those Newts are some darn good shots."

"Newts?" Aelita asked.

"Seems like a good name for them."

"Whatever you want to call them, they've got to go," Ulrich said as he dismounted his Overwheel and drew his swords. "I'll take the front." Crossing his blades in front of him, he yelled out "Triplicate!"

Nothing happened.

"Um, I said Triplicate!" Again, there was no effect. Ulrich kept yelling the command of his signature ability, holding his swords in different positions, while the Newts just stared at him in what one could almost call a "what the heck is he doing?" fashion.

"Jeremy, mind telling me why I'm still an only child?" Ulrich growled.

Back in the lab, Jeremy fidgeted in his chair. "Uh, I guess that with the new abilities the upgrade program gave you, there was too much data to include your old abilities, so they were deleted."

"I see. Please explain why you're only telling us this NOW!"

"Hey, I didn't even know until now, OK? Just try and figure out your new powers quickly and do your best."

"Terrific," Ulrich muttered darkly. "If that's the case, then Super Sprint's probably gone to. Looks like I'll have to do this the old-fashioned way." With that, the samurai leapt into his full "natural" speed, the golden comet-tail signifying how fast he was going.

In the lab, the computer screen displayed ULRICH VS NEWT. However, Jeremy missed this as his attention was drawn somewhere else. "Guys, watch out, there's a new monster approaching, and…oh no…no, it can't be!"

Just as Ulrich was about to make the attack, a laser blast caught him directly in the chest, sending him back with the rest of the team. Once he got up, everyone got a good look at the attacker.

The monster's body was best described as a piece of mental rope, segmented to the point where it could almost be considered some sort of chain mail. Its "tail" consisted of two blades positioned so as to resemble a tuning fork. Its head was shaped like an arrowhead, with its laser mounted underneath and to the front, while the Eye-of-Xana symbol adorned the top. The whole thing was colored pale green, with the exception of the Xana symbol being a stark white. And standing atop this serpentine creature was one single, solitary figure; a figure whose appearance filled some with anger, and all with shock.

"Oh my God," Yumi whispered.

"You!" Ulrich snarled.

"Hey, guys. Nice to see you again," William said in a deep, unnatural voice that carried all the malice that showed in his eyes.

Outside the Factory

Close. It was getting closer. It could feel it. Just beyond these barriers; barriers it ripped into with its teeth. Soon. Soon it would feed.

Feed on pain.

Soon.

Battleground

Like the warriors, Williams outfit had changed tremendously from what it was previously. Gone was his silver colored outfit, replaced by a pitch black body suit that covered all except for his head, with the Eye of Xana displayed on his chest. On his right arm he wore a spiked manacle. In his hand, resting on his shoulder was his oversized sword, just as nastied-up as the rest of him, with black vines crawling up the blade and the Eye of Xana embedded in the hilt.

For several long minutes that stretched into eternity, the two parties just stared at each other, no one making a sound. Even the monsters refrained from attacking, as if sensing the enormity of the reunion. Inside the warriors' minds, however, it was anything but silent…

Hi, my name is William Dunbar.

I pasted love-letters all over the hallways.

You need to talk to Yumi, from the heart. Or else I'm going to. And then I really will be your problem!

Yes Yumi, I go crazy when I have feelings for a girl.

Listen Ulrich in the race for Yumi's heart, I'm not in the lead.

How do you feel?

Like fighting Xana and all his goons!

"William?" Aelita asked…

…and then suddenly, the tension broke.

With a battle-cry, William leapt from his mount, raising his sword high as he descended upon the Lyoko warriors, who managed to leap to the sides as he landed, his sword connecting with the ground to create a gigantic crack. Pulling his weapon out of the miniature canyon he created, William raced to Ulrich, swinging his blade in an overhead arc, only to be met with Ulrich's two much smaller blades held in a cross-formation. Ulrich grunted from the extreme force of the blow. If he had still been limited to just one sword, William's would have cut right through it and into his body.

"Laser Arrows!" Odd shouted, sending three shots towards William's unprotected back. The X.A.N.A. warriors simply shoved Ulrich back with his sword and swung it around, knocking the Laser arrows away. Charging his blade up, he swung again, sending an unpleasantly familiar crescent shaped wave towards his attacker.

"Wah!" Odd yelped as he dove to the side, the lopsided attack just nicking the tip of his tail.

Leaping into the battle zone, Yumi reached behind her back for her own weapons, only to find none. Franticly, she patted herself over. "My fans, where are my fans?"

Suddenly William appeared right in front of her. "I'm a BIG fan of you, Yumi," he said mockingly before kneeing her in the gut with such force that her feet were lifted off the ground. Yumi grunted more out of instinct that the pain her virtual body was unable to feel. With a vicious spinning kick, William sent her flying into a tree.

"Is that anyway to treat a lady, William?" Ulrich quipped, holding his swords in an offensive stance. William's only answer was to charge, swinging his sword vertically at Ulrich who leapt back to avoid the blow then swung his own swords in a downwards arc. William blocked this attack and swung at Ulrich's left shoulder, which Ulrich parried. Then Odd leapt into the air, firing a stream of Laser Arrows from both wrists at William's unprotected side. Suddenly, however, William sped away, trailing a purple "comet tail", leaving the blasts to harmlessly collide with the ground while their would be target circled around at high speed and towards Odd's back, into which he drove his fist, sending the purple clad boy after his arrows.

"Hey, he's using Super Sprint! Super Sprint is MY thing!" Ulrich seethed.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Odd muttered.

"Energy Field!"

Suddenly, William was hit by a familiar pink blast, sending him flying. Looking in the direction it came from, the boys saw their teammate of identical hair-color holding her arm out in front of her, palm open, with a smug smile on her face. Just behind her was Yumi. "I guess not everything was lost."

"Great shot Aelita that should take care of tall, dark and mean" Odd said. His relief evaporated as William got to his feet, severely ticked-off, but otherwise looking none the worse for wear. "Uh oh, guess I spoke too soon."

"No way," Aelita cried. "My Energy Field should have destroyed him!"

-Actually, all it did was lower his life points from 100 to 70-

"What!"

"Looks we we're not the only ones who got upgraded," Ulrich commented darkly. "Aelita, go and deactivate the Tower, Odd and I will handle William."

"I'll help," Yumi said, assuming a martial arts stance.

"No Yumi, you help Aelita get past those Newts and that Kobra. Something tells me she's gonna need it."

"Kobra, eh? Good name, I approve," Odd said, giving Ulrich two thumbs up.

"Eyes on me!" William roared, firing an energy wave at the group, forcing them to dive out of the way.

"Go! We'll be fine!" Ulrich ordered. Yumi nodded. "Come on Aelita, you've got a job to do."

The two boys briefly watched as their teammates ran towards their other enemies before turning back to William. "Let's do this," Odd said, readying his launcher.

William grinned, "Sounds good to me."

The Lab

BATTLE CARDS: ULRICH/ODD VS. WILLIAM

BATTLE CARDS: AELITA/YUMI VS. NEWTS/KOBRA

As Jeremy watched from his station, he couldn't help but sigh in frustration. Their first trip to Lyoko (if the place his friends where in now really was Lyoko) in weeks and already things were going bad. Of course, the battles had rarely been easy, but with two new breeds of monsters that were comparatively stronger that anything they've faced before, a human warrior working for Xana, and powers they had no idea how to access or even what they were, things seemed to be going downhill fast.

Jeremy was suddenly distracted by a strange noise coming from overhead. It sounded like metal tearing and concrete being crushed. Jeremy frowned as he tried to think of what could cause such noise. Then his eyes went wide when it came to him.

"Guys, you've better hurry up, cause I'm about to receive some unwanted company here!"

Lyoko

Hurrying was not something the warriors would be doing any time soon. Despite attacking from two sides, the two male warriors found themselves completely outmatched by the Xanafied William. With his vastly superior speed and strength, his gigantic sword which his twirled around with an obscene ease, and his superior firepower, William merely flicked his opponents measly attacks away while tossing the poor duo around like rag dolls. What made it all the more insulting was the knowledge that the only reason they hadn't been devertualized within the first ten seconds of the fight was because William was playing with them.

Aelita and Yumi didn't have it any better. Although the Kobra, as Ulrich had named it, was evidently a replacement for Xana's Krabs, its flexible design made it by far more maneuverable than its insect-like predecessor. Every time Aelita threw an Energy Field at it, it just bent to the side, avoiding the attack by several inches. It didn't help that there was a small swarm of Newts circling around her, firing at very inconvenient moments. Yumi wasn't much help either although not by any fault of her own. After attempting to invoke it, she confirmed that she had lost her Telekinesis just like Ulrich lost his Triplicate ability. Additionally, she had yet to find where her fans where stored, leaving her to fight with just her hands and her feet. Of course, unarmed combat is not a very effective way to fight opponents who can shoot lasers at you.

All in all, things were looking bad for the Warriors of Lyoko.

"William, you're under Xana's control, you have to fight it!" Ulrich pleaded as he retreated from a series of swings from his opponent before attempting a cross-strike, only to have it blocked. "Come on William, we're your friends! Well, technically you and I don't like each other, but I voted for you," William's only response was to shove Ulrich's swords away, unwittingly leaving himself open to attack. Sensing this, Ulrich moved in to stab him, only for William to disappear in a purple blur. Numbly feeling a tap on his shoulder, he turned around, allowing William to punch him in the gut and send him flying.

"Laser Arrow!" Odd yelled, finally able to attack without the risk of hitting Ulrich. William simply used his sword as a shield to block the arrows before speeding towards Odd, stopping an inch short of him in a crouching position, which he sprang out of in the process of delivering an uppercut of such force that had Odd not been a virtual being at the time, his jaw would have been obliterated. He then proceeded to zip back and forth between the cat boy and the samurai at high speed, cruelly knocking both of them to the ground as they tried to get back up.

Damn it, he's too fast! This isn't Super Sprint, it surpasses it! Ulrich thought, his frustration mounting with every blow. It was the battle at the old Carthage all over again, only a thousand times worse. Even if I still had Super Sprint, I wouldn't be able to keep up with him. How can I fight him if I can't keep up with him? I have to keep up with him! I have to become faster!

It was then, in the haze of his rage and frustration, something in Ulrich's mind opened. It was as if someone had inserted a key into a lock in his head and turned, opening the door to the secrets behind it. The words came to his lips unbidden…

"Super Sonic!"

Just as William was about to deliver another blow to Ulrich's head, the boy leapt away, leaving a solid gold "tail" behind, landing upright twenty feet away. Both boys looked shocked at this. William recovered first and ran at Ulrich at full speed, sword raised for a strike. Evidently, the Warrior of Xana had decided to stop playing around. The instant before the attack connected, however, Ulrich zipped a good distance to the side. William repeated the attack, only for the same thing to happen. This pattern continued until it evolved into an all-out race to see who could run circles around each other, with Ulrich winning. If William's speed surpassed Super Sprint, then Ulrich's new Super Sonic ability completely outstripped it. He never imagined he could go so fast! Finally, with a sudden sharp turn, William managed to get in front of him, swinging his sword for a killing blow. Ulrich merely leapt backwards, performing multiple mid-air backwards summersaults, landing nimbly beside Odd.

"Dude, where did that come from?" asked an amazed Odd.

"I'm not entirely sure," said Ulrich, who quite frankly was just as wowed as Odd, was. "It's as if I've always known how to do it, and simply remembered just now. But one thing is certain," now Ulrich was grinning. "I can't wait to see what else these upgrades have in store for us!"

As the two Warriors of Lyoko stood facing William, waiting for him to make the next move, Odd couldn't help but feel more than a little jealousy towards his best friend. It's not fair. Ulrich gets this cool super speed power, and probably something else just as cool. Everyone else will probably get something awesome as well, while I'll still be stuck with just shooting arrows, and maybe creating a shield. The only cool power I ever had was Future Flash, and Jeremy said that it was useless. Excuse me, but what helped up find Aelita when she was trapped by that Guardian? Or helped me save her whenever she fell off a cliff? Man, if I had something like that now, I'd be just as cool as everyone else!

No sooner had Odd thought this then he felt something unlock in his brain, and he gasped as a familiar sensation came over him.

/A shadowy figure loomed tall behind Odd and Ulrich, raising a sharp dagger, moving to plunge it into their unprotected backs./

"Ulrich, watch out!" Odd cried, literally jumping to push the samurai away just as a laser blast struck the spots where they once stood. Looking up, they saw that a second Kobra had snuck up behind them.

"Odd, you knew what was about to happen, didn't you? Did you regain…?"

Odd shook his head, "No, that wasn't Future Flash. It wasn't so much a vision of the future as it was some sort of sixth sense."

William glared at the attempted ambusher. "This is my fight! Go help the others." With a hiss that sounded strangely like a "yes sir," the Kobra turned about face and slithered towards the other half of the battle. As Odd and Ulrich got back up to continue the fight, they silently prayed that the girls had their own situation under control.

Sadly, their prayers seemed to be going unanswered, as Aelita was now running to avoid an attacking Kobra, while Yumi had yet to launch an effective assault against the Newts. She estimated that by now she only had about twenty or thirty life points left.

"Dang it, this would be so much easier if I just had my fans. Where the heck are my stupid FANS?!" In her frustration, Yumi unconsciously flapped her arms…

…and lo and behold, there were her fans, right in her hands (rhyme not intended).

Yumi stared at the weapons that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth, she threw her twin weapons Frisbee style, taking out two Newts simultaneously. Catching them on their return trip, Yumi began using them to deflect the laser-blasts from the remaining two Newts. After parrying a few shots, she threw one fan, which missed its target when it ducked. However, the Newt had failed to notice the boomerang nature of the weapon, and was sliced from behind, exploding when the blade cut its Eye of Xana. Catching the weapon, Yumi proceeded to run towards the last little monster, blocking laser fie all the way, and kicked it like a football, sending it soaring over the edge. As it fell into the digital sea, Yumi examined her geisha styled weapons. On a sudden inspiration, she performed a sort of reverse flick of her wrists, which amazingly caused her folded up fans to slide into her wrists, like a cat retracting its claws. With a normal flick of her wrists, she brought her fans back out. Well now, this could prove convenient, she thought, smiling.

The sound of laser fire and the cries of a certain girl snapped Yumi out of her thoughts. Turning around, she saw that Aelita had fallen to the ground and was desperately crawling backwards to avoid being hit by the Kobra's laser. Growling, Yumi raced towards them, yelling "Hey, why don't you pick on someone your own size?!" Whatever was so special about this comment, Yumi would never know, but suddenly, she felt a strange unlocking sensation in her head, and she immediately knew what to do.

Jumping between Aelita and the attacking monster, Yumi retracted her fans and made an unusual hand sign. With the first and second fingers of both hand extended, she clasped those of her right hand into the palm of her left, while gripping her left wrist with the remaining fingers of her right hand. Holding this in front of her face, the tip just under her eyes, she whispered "Mystic seal." Suddenly, a pentagram like image with elaborate designs inside of it appeared in the air before her. Bringing her hands apart and spreading her fingers wide, Yumi thrust them before her and into the pentagram, causing a shimmering light to emit from it, which enveloped the Kobra. Suddenly, the serpentine monster began to shrink. It continued to decrease in size until it was half the size of a gerbil. Yumi smirked down at it as it shot her with lasers that probably didn't cause even half a life point worth of damage combined. Then she quite firmly stomped on it, grinding it into the ground.

"Well, so much for tha-argh!" Yumi cried as she was hit in the side with a blast from the Kobra who, this time, had much more success in its sneak attack. It immediately fired another blast, hitting the downed warrior in the back, devirtualizing her.

Scanner Room

Yumi's scanner opened, releasing the Japanese girl, her body fatigued from the side effects of being converted into a virtual being and back again. Weakly slamming her fist on the floor in frustration at herself for lowering her guard, she silently prayed to whatever deity was listening that the others would be able to pick up the slack and get Aelita to the tower.

Lyoko, Forest Sector

"Yumi!" Ulrich cried, seeing his friend/love interest disperse into pixels. Then something else occurred to him. "Oh no, Aelita's in trouble!" He raced forward, only to have his way barred by a sneering William. "Get out of my way, William!" Ulrich snarled, swinging his left sword, only for William to meet it with a swing of his own, destroying it, before sending Ulrich flying back with a strike from the dull edge of his blade. Ulrich's anger mounted as he glared at the boy who, in all honesty, should have been fighting along-side them as a fellow Lyoko Warrior, but thanks to a certain deranged computer A.I. with a God complex, was fighting as some sadistic dark warrior. "I said get out of my way!" Ulrich screamed, charging the black clad boy, his sword at the ready. Barely noticed through his anger, Ulrich felt another unlocking sensation in his head, and once more, words came unbidden to his lips.

"Elemental Aura: Fire!"

A cloak of red flames suddenly covered Ulrich's entire body, yet he was not harmed. On some instinct, he willed the fire into his remaining sword, making is glow like lava. With a war-cry, Ulrich swung his sword, meeting William's in a head-on clash...

…and sliced through the larger blade like a hot knife cutting butter! William stared at his shorter-by-a-half blade as Ulrich raced past him, intent on helping Aelita.

"Way to go, Ulrich, you rock!" Odd cheered as the warrior raced to help their friend. Then he turned to William and saw that the dark warrior, now quite thoroughly ticked off, was charging up the remainder of his weapon, ready to unleash an attack that, though most likely only half as effective as before, would surly devirtualize the unsuspecting target.

"NO!" Odd cried, and in his panic, he forgot all about his laser arrows and instead raced to body slam the other boy. At the last second, he remembered his fantasy about slashing William with super-long claws. Once again, there was a peculiar unlocking sensation in his brain, and quite suddenly, his "fingers" grew a good five inches. Sailing past William, Odd slashed the Dark Warrior of Xana on the wrists, causing him to drop his damaged weapon in mid-swing. The weapon fell to the ground, while the energy it was charged with dissipated harmlessly.

"All right, I KNEW I'd get something like this!" Odd said as he admired his newly acquired close-range weapons. Glancing up, he briefly saw an absolutely furious William hold his arms out horizontally to his body with his fists tightly clenched, before slamming the two fists together, with Odd's skull between them. Fortunately, the laws of physics on Lyoko were far removed from those on Earth, so while his life points where dropped to zero, his head remained intact. Of course, the numb sensation of having said head smashed between two boulders would be leave him with a killer headache for days to come.

Lab

Jeremy could only stare in fear as the lab's ceiling was ripped open bit by bit. If the others didn't deactivate the tower soon, he would have several hundred pound of fossilized calcium dropping on top of his head, ready to tear him in half. For a brief second, he wondered why in the world he was regretting not going into the fast food industry before chalking it up to anxiety messing with his head. For crying out loud, he wasn't even old enough to get a job!

Lyoko, Forest Sector

In the past, the species of monsters Aelita always had the most trouble with were the Hornets. Due to their capacity for three-dimensional flight, they tended to be more maneuverable than their land confined comrades, and since Aelita's Energy Field attacks weren't quite as fast as fast as Odd's laser arrows, the Hornets often managed to dodge the deadly pink spheres. Now Aelita was facing the same problem with the Kobra. No matter how many Energy Fields she threw at it, it would simply bend smoothly to the side, looking like it was performing some sort of snake dance. Aelita wished she could just use Creativity to send it into the digital sea, but she estimated that she only had about ten or twenty Life Points left, and any use of Creativity cost her about fifty of them.

A laser hit her in the shoulder, sending her back to the ground. Struggling to get back up, she saw the Kobra taking aim, ready to send her back to Earth, where a gruesome death was almost certainly awaiting her. She braced herself for the inevitable.

"Ya!!" Aelita opened her eyes as a familiar voice cried out, while an equally familiar golden streak zipped up into the air and landed atop the Kobra's head, causing its shot to miss Aelita by several feet. "Impact!" Ulrich yelled as he drove his remaining sword into the Eye of Xana. The Kobra flayed around for a few seconds, looking like a wet noodle, before its head exploded, leaving only part of the tail, which quickly disappeared as well. While all this was happening, Ulrich had leapt off and landed in front of Aelita, extending a hand to help her up. Smiling, she took it. "About time you got here," she said good naturedly.

"Sorry, got held up by an old acquaintance," Ulrich apologized before making an extravagant "ladies first" gesture towards the activated Tower. "Now, if you would be so kind, Princess."

Aelita nodded and started running towards the Tower. Off in the distance, William looked on, his eyes alight with anger. He felt the desire to attack, but felt unmotivated to do so, probably because he knew he would not make it in time to do anything. All that was left now was to face Lord X.A.N.A. and hope that he wouldn't be too furious with him. Sighing in acceptance of his defeat, he walked to the edge of the landmass and calmly jumped into the Digital Sea.

Lab

Jeremy cried out in fear as a hole was finally ripped in the ceiling and the same T-rex skeleton from before began pushing itself through, its mouth aimed right at him. If the "field team" was going to accomplish anything, they were going to have to do it within the next few seconds. Otherwise, they were going to find themselves short one member-permanently!

Aelita phased through the Tower's exterior without breaking her run, skidding to a stop right in the middle of the lower platform. Clearing her mind, she felt the familiar energies of the Tower which only she could connect to, and willed herself to float up to the upper platform. For a moment, she felt a twinge of fear. What if she couldn't deactivate the Tower like she could on the Lyoko she knew? But there was nothing to gain worrying about that now. Only thing she could do now was do as she always did and hope for the best.

Jeremy couldn't even bring himself to move, except to fidget in his chair. The tyrannosaurus was almost halfway through the opening it made, and about two-thirds of the way to being able to chomp on him.

On a whim, Aelita performed a mid-air back flip before passing the upper platform and landing on it, causing it to light up. She approached the center as the familiar touch screen appeared in midair before her. Like she had done so many times before, she pressed her palm in the middle of it.

With a roar of triumph, the tyrannosaurus skeleton pushed all but its hind legs through the opening it made, descending upon a screaming Jeremy.

Username: Aelita

Code:

The jaws of the fleshless beast were ready to snap shut. It was all over now.

Code:

Lyoko

Dark. It was getting dark. It couldn't move. Its prey was almost in its grasp, but it couldn't even close its mouth. What was happening? Dark. So dark. Just like before. Sleepy. So sleepy. Everything was fading away.

"Tower deactivated."

Opening his eyes when he did not feel the laws of death take hold of him, Jeremy saw the white skull hanging a mere two feet away from him, suspended by its hind legs that were still stuck in the hole, the Eyes of Xana no longer glowing in its empty sockets.

Jeremy let out an explosive breath. Although it went against his nature, he had definitely earned a nice, long break after all this. But first things first. Turning back to the computer, he typed in another set of commands while reciting while reciting another set of familiar words.

"Return to the past, now."

And with that, the world was encompassed in a familiar white light.

Jeremy's room

(HL-ok, from this point onwards, while they are on Earth, all the characters, Lyokian or otherwise, will be wearing the clothing they have during the real fourth season of the show. Although I wasn't impressed with the team's virtual attire in the fourth season (with the obvious exception of William) I like their new civilian clothing, and I was planning on changing their wardrobe anyway, so as to follow the example of Phantom1, who inspired me to redesign the gang's virtual forms into what they are now. Now then, back to the fic)

The team all sat comfortably in Jeremy's room. It was about the same time they had met there previously. Only this time, they had even more reason to celebrate.

"I can't believe you let Sissi pull the same on you as before, Odd," Ulrich laughed. "It's almost as if you did it intentionally."

Odd just shrugged his shoulders. "Well, she seemed pretty sincere about being worried about me for the past couple weeks, so I figured I'd cut her some slack. Besides, I'm in too good a mood to try and be obnoxious. We totally wowed them with out comeback tour today!"

Aelita nodded in agreement. "And it's all thanks to my father."

"I agree," said Yumi. "I hate to admit it, but if it weren't for the powers that came with our new avatars, we might not have been able to defeat William and those new monsters."

"And something tells me that's only the beginning of the new surprises Xana has in store for us," Jeremy said, sitting in his computer chair. "We still have a long ways to go before things are resolved, and it's only going to get tougher as we go. But for now," and at this, the boy genius brightened considerably, "let's celebrate!" Opening a bag at his side, he pulled out a couple of cans of soda, tossing them to his friends. "Everyone's favorite soda, on me!" After everyone opened their cans, Jeremy raised his own. "To the future of all worlds, virtual or otherwise; may we always be ready to defend it without hesitation."

Smiling, everyone raised their own drinks. "To the future!" And with that, they all drank deeply, knowing that whatever was to come, they would face it head on, without hesitation.

Together.

X.A.N.A.'s lair

X.A.N.A. observed William kneeling before it in apology for his failure. However, X.A.N.A. was not the least bit angry.

Rise, William, X.A.N.A. said. There is no need to feel ashamed about your defeat. To be frank, all this was merely a trial run of sorts, to see if everything was working properly. And don't worry about the new tricks your former friends have learned. I've have a few things ready that should be able to keep you ahead of them. At this, William smiled, excited by the prospect of receiving even more power. Now rest, X.A.N.A. ordered. I need to plan our next course of action. Plus I must see to rebuilding of the rest of Lyoko. Once that is done, I will finally be able to set my master plan in motion.

"Master plan?" William asked, his voice full of confusion.

All will be revealed in good time, William, X.A.N.A. said. But know that once it is complete…

…even the throne of God will be mine for the taking!

Next Level-End

Highlord Langslock-whew, THAT WAS A FREAKING LONG CHAPTER! Seriously, thirty pages! I wish I could say that was the reason I took so long to upload it, but sadly, I can only blame myself and my own laziness. Of course, in retrospect, it's probably a good thing I dragged it out so much. It gave me time to think up the right powers for each character to receive. The next several chapters shouldn't be quite so long, although I can't make any promises. What I can promise is that I will try to post each one sooner than I did this one.

Now for a few things before the preview…

1. If anyone felt dissatisfied with the powers displayed in this chapter, all I can say is that Naruto started out as a rather paltry ninja before evolving into the awesome powerhouse he is now. Also, if anyone felt that I made the warriors out to be weaker than they really are, even if you ignore the fact that they had yet to even learn what their new powers were, I'm truly sorry, that was not my intention. But keep in mind they were not used to fighting monsters like the ones that appear in this chapter. Also, one of the things I look for in a story is development of the development of several aspects of the characters, and their strength is one such aspect. One of the things I plan to focus on in this fic is the development and advancement of the warriors' strength, both in terms of their special powers and good old human martial arts. Trust me, before this fic is over, the Warriors of Lyoko will be capable of some truly AWSOME things! Just wait and see!

2. If anyone felt that I was stingy with the powers I gave Odd, all I can say is that it wasn't until the latter half of the pre-time skip series that Naruto started learning the Rasengan, easily his most destructively powerful technique. I plan to have Odd develop a really sweet power that will take his strength to all new levels. But it won't happen until many, many chapters from now, so if you want to find out, you'll just have to keep reading.

3. Now to give credit where credit is due…

Phantom1-I owe a lot to your Code Lyoko fic The Next Level. If I hadn't found it, the "upgrades" I would have given the Warriors of Lyoko would have been very lame and unappealing. But once I read your fic, I was inspired to work to create upgrades that would truly take the warriors to, as we say, "the next level".

LyokomanYumisfan-I have to confess, the "Elemental Aura" thing I've come up with is based loosely on the powers of your story's version of William on Lyoko. I'll say again, loosely, and there are many differences, but I felt that it was close enough that you deserved to be given credit. Thank you.

Also…

Lord Maximus-I've read your latest fic, and I know your mimicking material from mine. I have to confess, I'm flattered that you've read my fic and consider it mimic-worthy. However, I must ask that you keep it to an absolute minimum, or else I'll start to feel as if you are actually stealing my material. Also, if you are going to use material from this fic, could you at least include it in your list of favorites? You know which one I mean. One more thing-think you could do a Code Lyoko/Kim Possible crossover fic? That's one of the fics I'd like to see before I croak, and I can't think of anyone better suited for the job than you. Could you do so, pretty please? Not out of any favors, but rather the fulfilling the humble request of a reader and fellow author who truly admires your work.

4. I'm thinking, once I get a good handle on this fic, and the rest of my life, I might start a Naruto/Kim Possible crossover fic with Kim and Ron being born in the Naruto universe and being trained by some of our favorite Naruto character. Would anybody like to read a fic like that? Plus, if anyone has already found a fic like that or any other crossover of the two, please inform me. Oh, and if anyone would like to use the idea I just presented, feel free to do so, I don't consider it plagiarism.

And now for the preview…

The police finally draw some connections between William's disappearance and the Lyoko gang and starts pressing them for information. It gets even worse when William's parents start giving them grief. Since they can't tell the truth, for several very good reasons, and they have a long ways to go before brining him back, Jeremy does the next best thing-use Carthage's Tower to create a polymorphic clone of him! Of course, it's going to be hard pressed convincing the parents that he's the real deal, as he's even denser than a bowling ball. His intellect is the least of everyone's worries, however, when Xana takes over Jeremy's Tower, taking control of the clone and setting a time bomb to delete Carthage. If Mr. and Ms. Dunbar thought that a missing William was bad, wait until they get a load of a rampaging one! And if the team can't shut down the Tower, there're going to be right back where they started!

Yep, just like the good old days.

Until next time!

Highlord Langslock