Chapter 3

"A what?" Ulrich called up to Stephan.

He skidded down the hill and lifted his finger to his mouth. In a whisper he spoke, "In this anime I watch, Attack on Titan, these beasts wander the earth with one goal. Eat…all…humans." Odd stuck his tongue out in disgust. "They are 3 meters tall at shortest, and normally stop at 15 meters. Jeremy? Have you found the program yet?"

"Yeah but it's locked up. I can duplicate it and reprogram the copy though."

Yumi stepped forward and said, "What do you mean normally stop at 15 meters? That's already over 45 feet tall." The rest of the group nodded in agreement. Stephan breathed a sigh of anxiety.

"One Titan towered over the rest. He was known as the Colossal Titan and stood at just over 50 meters tall. His kick alone devastated the 50 meter tall, 10 meter thick wall that protected the people for 100 years. They are also virtually invincible. Continuous cannon fire would only slowdown large Titans and maybe kill a 3-5 meter tall one. Plus, their flesh regenerates, quickly."

"How do we stop them then?" Aelita hissed out in both fear and impatience.

"One weak spot exists on their entire bodies. The back of their neck is where a bridge between the brain and spinal cord exists. Along with the main artery. Striking deep enough would sever both and kill the Titan. I'm the only one properly equipped to fight this thing. I can work on a program that would get your gear later. Just peek around the corner and you will see what I'm talking about."

The rest of the Lyoko warriors peeked around the corner to bear witness to the great beast ready to kill them all. A Crab was running between its feet. Swiftly like a gymnast, it jumped into the air and shifted all its weight onto one leg. As the first leg impacted the ground, the Crab disappeared beneath the foot as a spider web of cracks emanated from the impact crater made by the single jump. The cracks sprawled out at least a meter in every direction. It then immediately whipped its head around towards them. The group ducked behind the rock. Odd breathed heavily with fear as he stammered out, "You think he s-saw us?"

Stephan looked solemnly at them, "That doesn't matter. It can sense human life and is automatically attracted to large clusters of people." He lifted his hand and pointed up. A fist sized drop of digital saliva landed next to his foot. Above them was the Titan leaned over the rock with his dark maw open. "Fortunately, they aren't very intelligent or creative." His hook shot into a rock as he rocketed out from under it. At that moment, it pile its whole face into the ground. It spat out dust and dirt and swung his head towards the rest. A deep roar emanated from it as an open hand swung towards them. It wrapped tightly around Yumi and lifted her high into the air. As she kicked her legs high in the air, the horrid image popped back into Stephan's mind. It didn't quite fit, but it was close enough to trigger it. This beast was too tall.

The others only stared on in awestruck fear. Ulrich's knees wobbled, Aelita was shivering, and Odd teeth were clenched. Stephan's gut twisted into a knot as graphic visions of the Anime flashed through his head. His hook shot into the back of the Titan's neck. Using momentum, he launched himself into the air. As he whipped by, the blade went through the center of the target. The Titan dropped Yumi and launched its arms back. Catching Stephan, the hand closed tightly around him. The looked on with a smile, then threw him on the ground. A pillar of dust shot into the air as it lifted one leg. Using full force, it literally stomped Stephan into the ground.

"S!" Aelita screamed out as his wireframe faded out. It quickly turned and chased after the rest. Not knowing what to do, they all ran together.

Suddenly, Jeremy's voice erupted over the speaker. "Guys I did it! Get ready for your very own Titan."

Odd managed to say, "Good job Einstein, but we're about to get creamed." Jeremy quickly typed in the command to spawn allied Titan, but nothing happened.

"What's wrong with this thing?"

Back in Lyoko, as they were fleeing, Yumi threw her fans as a distraction. On the way back though, one nicked Odd in the space between his thumb and forefinger. Odd grabbed his hand and groaned in pain. Then the groan turned to a scream. Yumi turned back to see something that just looked painful. Odd was on his knees as blue wireframe spiraled out of his wound to form a giant hand. The Titan stepped over him as if he didn't exist.

Within seconds, the hand turned into an arm, then a torso, then legs, and finally, wireframe built a neck around Odd and a head above him. Solidifying from bottom to top, it revealed a bright white, human like figure. Painted across its face was a right side-up, aqua Lyoko symbol. It was easily twice as tall as X.A.N.A.'s. Its hand grabbed the other's head and twisted it around with force. The other clenched fist impacted its face, multiple times. It then pinned it to the ground with one leg and faced its head towards the other leg. It reared back and kicked with all its force. The smaller Titan's head reacted like a golf ball on a tee, flying into the distance as the body glowed red, then exploded like any other monster.

"Woo hoo! Good job Odd!" Yumi yelled and waved her hands. He only lifted his head slightly and started walking towards Yumi. Then, he start to jog and finally started running at full speed. "Odd? Hello? What do you think you're doing?" By the time she realize what was happening, it was too late to turn and run. She tried anyway. With her back turned to him, he reared back the leg already in the air, and charged it forward. The kick sent her flying over the entire Desert zone as she de-virtualized.

Ulrich silently lifted his blade as Odd returned to a standing position. Then, without warning, an open palm rocketed down towards the two. "Sprint!" Ulrich yelled as a flash of light flew behind him. He darted out from under the impact, but forgot Aelita. "Oh no!" he yelled as he heard the impact. He turned around to see a cloud of dust curling around his arm. As his fist left, some dust trailed out between his fingers. Aelita was clenched in his hand. His mouth slowly opened, revealing blue data rather than a deep red. His fist slowly came closer to his open mouth. Aelita was easily out cold, her eyes closed and body limp. Ulrich sprinted up his leg. He jumped into the air and yelled, "Triplicate!" Two clones shot out, each landing on a shoulder. "Strike!" He yelled as he slashed down.

The first wound exposed Odd's body. The other two struck horizontally. The higher one exposed his arms while the lower one finished off the creature. Ulrich landed on the ground behind the Titan. The other two grabbed onto Odd and tried to pull him out. His body was completely unresponsive. The arm the wireframe started from was buried in semi-solid data that held tight to it. One lifted its sword and slashed the data, leaving scars all over his hand. From the moment he was freed, the Titan fell limp, collapsing to its knees and dropping Aelita. The three of them dropped onto the ground safely. Aelita however was falling head first. The first Ulrich on the ground darted between the legs and caught Aelita. However, the monster was still about to fall on them. Without thought, Ulrich threw Aelita one direction and ran the other. Before he could escape, he was crushed under the collapsing Titan.

Aileta's eyes fluttered open in time to see Ulrich under the massive chest of the Titan. "Not Ulrich too!"

She closed her eyes and started to cry. She could imagine the pain everyone had gone through to save her. She didn't think she deserved the pampering. They were all in serious pain due to her and her alone. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She didn't even react. "Why are ya crying?" a familiar voice said. She turned to see Ulrich's smiling face.

"B-b-but I just saw you be de-virtualized." She said in exasperation.

"No, you saw a clone be demolished." The other one flashed his teeth at her in a smile before disappearing.

"But why did Odd turn on us like that?" Aelita answered. Jeremy opened his mouth to answer, when a familiar voice crackled over the feed.

"It's just as I feared. In the Anime, it was quickly discovered that the user had to have a greater willpower than the natural instinct of the Titan." Stephan said. "I'm sure Odd was just getting revenge on Yumi for hitting him with the fan, but he tempted the Titan's natural urges. It just took over."

"How are you even talking to us?" Ulrich asked, having taken in the information, yet confused.

"I got my headset plugged in sitting in a chair. You guys are lucky. You didn't get hit by that thing. Yumi is probably just having a lingering pain, but I was hooked up electronically. When I was hit, I was shocked all over my body. You know the tingly feeling you get when you make your arm or leg go numb? Well imagine that all over your body. I can't even walk right now."

As the others began to de-virtualize, Stephan took off his headset. "Should I tell them? I know I can't keep this to myself though." After thinking for a few minutes, he stated, "Let it be my burden to carry for now."

Meanwhile:

In the factory, the pods opened up as Ulrich and Aelita stepped out. Odd stumbled out like a drunk and struggled to stay on his feet. He felt an itch on his forehead and itched it. "Ahh, still tender." He said as the friendly fire wound burned. He brought it down to look at it and yelped. The group surrounded him as they gazed on at his hand. Jaws dropped. Aelita grabbed his hand and started to rub it as Odd continued to just stare on, dumbfounded beyond speech. Scars from where the wireframe fused with his hand remained all over it.

Jeremy was first to regain his composure. "How is that even possible?"

Stephan's voice crackled over the intercom. "I don't know. But it can't be a good sign. I saw it through the cameras I set up in the factory. I just advise that you try to hide that from other people."

"Agreed." Ulrich said.

"We don't need more attention." Yumi said.

Stephan spoke again. "I can finally walk again. Now if you don't mind, I have a date I need to get to. After I get back I will work on the anti-Titan gear." He dropped the headset without waiting for a response. Getting up, he walked up the stairs and into the living room, where his Aunt was sitting. Having it already planned, she handed him the keys. He then went outside to the Porsche. The car darted out of the lot and down the road. It glided through the streets and up to the entrance to Kadic Academy.

Standing under the gate was a girl he had taken a liking to. She had glasses, dark long hair, a black T-shirt over a red undershirt, jeans, and red/black tennis shoes. Her voice was sweet. She was smart, funny, and cute. Her name was Emily. Ulrich would know her whether the rest did or not. They had started talking almost immediately after he approached her. Being a grade under him, she had only heard rumors. Like the rest of the girls, she fell hopelessly in love with the rumored appearance of him. During lunch, she saw him surrounded with Ulrich's gang, which kind of scared her off. She just didn't understand that group, or why Ulrich insisted on hanging with them. She did notice that the table was unusually surrounded. People normally stayed away from the group, but girls had swamped the general area, just to get a peek at him.

That was when she saw the rumors were true. His dark hair did curl over one eye, his beautiful aqua eyes. His chiseled features defined him amongst the group. His fashion showed his was a dark, broody type, like Ulrich. She heard his voice, the smooth tenor echoed through her heart. His arms were somewhat muscled, but not to the point of having been a weights junkie. Then, he looked up and their eyes met. He smiled at her, revealing his shining white teeth. Then she lost it, literally. She actually dropped her tray on the floor and ran off, giddy like a little girl.

He approached her after lunch. Walking up to her, she blushed with both embarrassment and delight. "I saw you in the lunchroom." He started.

"Yeah… uh… about that." She started. But Stephan grabbed her hands, lifting them up to eye level.

"Your hands, they're so soft and pretty. But your face is many more times beautiful." She giggled and blushed even more.

"M-my name's Emily."

"I would be Stephan." He bowed in front of her. "Would you like to go to a movie tomorrow?"

"Yes!" she said excitedly. "I mean… I would like that. Your choice."

That was how they met, and now, her two day dream of going out with the new kid was coming to life. She got in and they drove off to a scary movie. The entire time, she was holding onto his arm. Every time a jump scare appeared, she would scoot closer to him, and he would give a warm smile. As they were exiting the movie, she had her arms around his waist and he had one arm on her shoulder. "That was a pretty scary movie." Emily admitted. "Sorry I held on so tightly."

"It's alright. In fact, I felt better having you by my side." Emily then got on her tippy-toes and kissed Stephan on the cheek. He then dropped her off the school, where his friends were waiting for him.

As Emily headed off for her dorm, Odd walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "So, how did it go?"

"It went great. I feel like we're really connecting on a deeper level. Anything happen while I was gone?"

"Not really." Ulrich said as he approached Yumi. "Except when we were in gym class, Jim was teaching us how to do a front flip in gymnastics."

"I bet that went well." Stephan said. He looked directly at Ulrich, who stood next to Yumi, and winked.

Jeremy smiled wide, remembering the show Jim had put on for them. "Ya see, since we didn't have anything to do today. We decided to ask Jim if he would mind training us a little bit. So he showed us one advanced technique in gymnastics,"

"Only one?" Stephan said, his voice full of curiosity.

Aelita couldn't hold herself back anymore and erupted in light-hearted laughter. At the same time, Yumi spoke out loud as he walked by, "Let's just say that his font flip ended as more of a front flop. He jumped forward off the ramp, but only spun halfway and landed on his butt. He ended up heading for the infirmary with a mild case of soreness." She snickered a little bit as she walked down the sidewalk towards home. It was easily late in the day, about 7:00 at night.

"That sounds pretty great. Before you leave though, I want to tell you that I got anti-Titan gear that I've been working on. It should be ready for testing tomorrow if you want to meet at the factory."

"Sounds good, Stephan. We'll be waiting for you in Lyoko then. Where should we gather up at?" Jeremy stated while Ulrich and Odd yawned.

"It will be easiest to test the gear in the forest zone." Stephan then roared the engine once and left for his home.

Odd stretched his arms out and started heading for the dorms himself. "I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow. A hero like me needs his beauty sleep after all."

The other three turned and ran off towards him as Aelita said, "You should try getting some more if that's the case."

The next day… yet another scanner alert sounded off, causing Jeremy to jolt out of bed. "You've got to be kidding me. Can't X.A.N.A. take a rest for more than a weekend?" He approached his computer, and saw the alert was coming from the Forest sector. "Surely Stephan isn't waiting for us already." He got his red shirt and cargo pants on. Walking out into the hallway, he looked down it. Ulrich and Odd were rubbing their eyes and getting ready for the day. "Sorry to be the buzzkill, but we got an attack."

Odd yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Does he know what time it is in the morning?"

Ulrich raised an eyebrow before speaking. "Odd, you do know that we've almost missed breakfast, right?" Odd put his hands to his cheeks and screamed. "What's wrong?" He said.

"All that food, and I won't even get a bite." Odd ran back into his room. Within a couple minutes, he reappeared fully dressed and with Ulrich's outfit in his hands. "Get dressed or get out of the way." He said as he dashed between the two and down the steps.

"What a nutcase." Jeremy said as Ulrich disappeared into the bathroom to change. A few minutes later, he reappeared and walked down the hall with Jeremy and grab some breakfast.

When they opened the door, they immediately saw small scraps of food in the air. One random splotch of gravy even hit Ulrich right between the eyes. Jeremy sat down next to Odd, who was the source of the disturbance, and Ulrich sat across from Odd. Aelita was looking down at her food. Yumi was eating like a proper person, but he didn't see Stephan. With a hint of irritation in his movements, he took a finger, wiped it off his forehead and flicked it all over Odd's face. He stopped eating only long enough to get the stuff off his face and into his mouth. Looking on in disgust, Jeremy looked through the group. He saw Aelita, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, but no Stephan. "Well gang, unless Odd already told you, we have a X.A.N.A. alert."

Aelita looked up. "Odd's not very good with communication when he's hungry." Her voice was heavily latticed with both boredom and suspicion.

"Is something wrong?" Yumi asked as she put her fork down on her tray. However, she didn't make contact with any of her food. "What the?" She said as she looked down at her tray. It was empty. She looked up at Odd. "Odd! Why did you do that?"

"Sorry Yumi. I'm not very communicative when I'm hungry. I was going to ask, then it just happened." He smiled his shiny white toothed grin. The group got up so that they could head for the factory.

As they left the building, Aelita opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Jeremy. "You noticed that Stephan hasn't showed up to school yet? I don't really feel like we can trust him yet."

"It's a little late for that Einstein." Ulrich said as he pulled up the rear.

Odd's ears perked up as his head jerked back. "I thought I just heard screeching tires."

"You're just delusional Odd. Like the idea of you getting away with stealing my breakfast." Yumi said as she slowed down to walk by Ulrich. That undeniable sound screeched out again, louder. All their heads jerked towards the iron front gate to the school. The white Porsche Carrera of Stephan's whipped around the corner about two blocks away from the school.

"Jeez, it's just one tardy. It won't kill him to slow down." Jeremy said as he turned back towards the woods on campus. "The tower's in the forest zone. We'll probably just deal with it during lunch. I'm not seeing any signs of an attack yet." The car whipped around and stopped directly in front of the entrance. Stephan got out and ran across campus towards them.

He stopped directly in front of them. He was panting while he tried to regain his breath. Someone opened their mouth to speak, but he raised his index finger to silence them. Finally standing straight again, he started, "Activated tower…pant, pant…ice district…need to go now. X.A.N.A. is on the attack right now."

Aelita stepped forward. "What do you mean ice district? You mean in the forest region?"

Stephan lifted an eyebrow. "Weird. Coincidences are abound. I can't believe it happened to go off."

"What do you mean? I'm a great programmer." Jeremy said this, a fire in his eyes.

"That wouldn't matter considered I hacked it. It was reconfigured to pick up JB on radio to mess with you." Stephan said this as he took a ring out of his pocket. It was a silver band with a sapphire gem on it cut out like the X.A.N.A. symbol.

"Why would you do that!?" The group exclaimed in near unison.

"Because that was my first orders when I got here." Stephan fiddled with the ring in his fingers. It was a beautiful ring, except for that accursed symbol.

Aelita's eyes widened with fear as if she was remembering something from a dream. "He did it because-" she tried to finish, but a loud, thunderous sound erupted from around the corner Stephan had sped around with his car. The entire group turned their heads towards the sound they had heard.

"An earthquake?" Ulrich asked as another sounded off. Then another, and finally, one, immense leg stomped into the ground around the corner. It was pinkish purple in color and was incredibly ripped. The next step revealed the entire monster. Standing at 15 meters tall, was a real, live Titan. It's twisted grimace formed a Jeff the Killer smile as it began to run down the street after them.

"I guess you deserve an explanation." Stephan said as he tossed the ring in the air and caught it. "You see, metaphorically speaking of course, I am… how can I say this? Well…um, I'm the son of X.A.N.A. and that Titan over there is X.A.N.A's attack strategy to finally get rid of you, which had regrettably started with me."