Chapter 4

"Hey Einstein, who's got the highest score on Lyoko?" Odd asked, walking with his two friends as they headed to the picnic area to wait out Danny's detention. From what they'd heard, this one was from lack of homework.

Jeremie rolled his eyes, knowing his friend cared too much about the stats. "As of this morning? Aelita."

Odd pouted, getting a laugh from his friends. "Just wait till I get back there. Then I'll be in the lead again." Odd punched the air as they found Danny's friends also waiting for the boy.

"You talking about a video game?" Tucker asked, waving the three over to join them.

"Ya, Invader Three." Odd lied, sitting down at the square picnic table.

"Hey, after Danny gets out we're planning on hitting the arcade. You wanna join us?" Sam asked, half sounding like she didn't like the idea.

"Sure." Ulrich shrugged.

"It's better than Dash." Jeremie growled.

"Shouldn't you be with Sissi?" Odd asked, pointing towards Sam.

The goth pulled a face of disgust. "I'm ditching her."

"Ulrich dear! There you are." A female voice called, getting both Ulrich and Sam to drop their heads.

"Call the devil and she appears." Sam whispered.

Sissi walked up to the table, Herve and Nicolas behind her as she stopped at the table next to Ulrich, eyeing Sam. "How come everywhere you go, you attack girls in black?"

"Sissi, go find a pond and get lost." Ulrich said, looking up at the girl.

"I'm ignoring the comparison to a gold fish." Sissi drowned before smiling, "I thought we could go and watch Blue Moon together. It's supposed to be a romantic."

"Oh, too bad I saw it yesterday." Ulrich smiled, "It wasn't worth the money."

"I'll go with you, Sissi." Herve said, smiling at the girl as if she was all that existed.

Sissi grounded her teeth to keep back a retort to her friend and turned back to Ulrich. "One day you will want to go with me on a date." She threatened, pointing a finger at him. "One day, Ulrich Stern." She turned around, brushing her hair back and walked away, her two posy following close behind.

"You seriously didn't see Blue Moon, did you?" Sam asked, grossed out.

"Ug, no. I hate romantic movies." Ulrich rolled his eyes. "But I'd go to a theater with Odd before I'd go with Sissi."

"Hey, my feet don't stink that bad!" Odd retorted.

"Uhm, ya they do." Jeremie pointed out.

"Oh I have something that might-"

"Tuck! No." Sam interrupted, stopping the boy as he dug through his book bag.

"What?" Tucker asked, pulling out a can of deodorizer. "It works."

"As a ghost and people repellent." Sam reminded, holding her nose.

"Hey guys." Danny called, walking out of the building. He froze as a wisp of air came out of his mouth, getting his attention up towards the sky.

"There you are, child!" Technus laughed out, getting the six to look up at the ghost.

A beep came from Jeremie's laptop, barely heard to the teens as a black smoke came out of Danny's pocket. Xana, surprised at seeing the ghost, concluded to float over to the shadows of the school before commencing with his plans.

"I, Technus, Master of all things electronic will do what no other ghost has accomplished!" Technus cried out, calling forth all electronics within his vicinity.

Danny took the confusion the ghost caused as his break and ran for the shadows, quickly changing to Phantom before going back to the picnic area.

"I will take you down so all my wonderful technology can rule the world!" Technus cried, pointing at Danny as the ghost appeared floating in front of him.

Danny crossed his arms, shaking his head with a smile. "Still blathering your plans to the world? That's so 1.0." Danny shot a quick burst of energy at the quickly constructing monster of technology. A few pieces fell off, giving Danny enough reason to keep hammering away piece by piece.

Jeremie managed to grab his laptop as it fell back to the Earth, the fight and banter continuing. He opened it as he found himself being pulled away by Sam and Odd only to see a message from Aelita on his screen.

"Replica found connected to Amity."

Jeremie closed the laptop as he hid with Sam, Tucker, Odd, and Ulrich. "Hey, where's Danny?" Jeremie asked, noticing the boy was missing from their hiding spot.

"He must've gone the other way." Tucker said, no concern in his voice as he watched the ghosts fight.

"Jeremie." Ulrich hissed, pointing towards the smoke floating towards Phantom as the ghost used his own thermos to suck in Technus.

"Phantom!" Odd called out in warning, running towards the ghost only for the smoke to take over.

Phantom dropped down to the ground as Xana fought to take control. He looked up at the five, a pointed smile on his face as the eye of Xana took over his blue color. He stood back to his feet and raised a hand burning with a mix of ectoplasm and electricity.

"Run!" Odd cried, jumping away just in time to miss the shot aimed at him.

"Danny!?" Sam exclaimed, rushing over to the ghost only to be thrown back into the school wall. She fell down to the ground in an unconscious heap.

"What on earth?" Tucker asked, surprised his friend would hurt Sam. He stepped up to Danny, ready to do what he could to fight his long time best friend.

"Get out of my way." Danny growled, grabbing the boy by his neck to send hundreds of volts into his body. He threw Tucker's body towards Sam's as he laughed.

"Leave them alone, Xana! It's us you want." Ulrich said, putting himself in front of the two as they started to recover.

"Xana?" Tucker asked, freezing in surprise.

"Jeremie, get them out of here!" Odd ordered only to be shot backwards with the same mixture of green and purple. He fell to his butt, surprised at the force behind it as his shirt showed a burn mark.

"No!" Sam demanded, scrambling up to her feet as she dodged Phantom's shots. She made it back to her bag and pulled out a pistol like gun to aim at the ghost, getting a chuckle from him. "Danny! You can fight him!"

"No he can't." Danny/Xana growled, throwing both his hands out to send a shockwave like blast that hit all five with the ecto-electricity.

"I'm getting tired of being forced to my butt." Tucker complained as he held his chest. Behind him, Sam lost grip of her gun, sending it flying.

"Come on, Xana." Odd jeered, jumping to his feet with Ulrich only seconds behind him. "You're getting lazy."

Danny/Xana growled before jumping up and flying at the boy, grabbing Odd before heading up.

"Hey, I didn't mean anything!" Odd tried, clenching to the ghost's arms as tight as he could as Xana lifted them to almost 20 stories off the ground.

Xana let got, smiling as he forced Odd's hands to go through him as he went intangible.

Odd's eyes widened in fear as his hands lost anything solid to grip and started to fall.

"ODD!" Jeremie cried, all four on the ground forced to watch.

"Anybody need a taxi?" a female voice asked as a gray blur caught Odd.

Odd looked up, a smile on his face as he saw the Japanese girl in a skin tight costume. "What took you so long?" Odd asked, standing up and keeping a grip onto her as they descended back to the ground.

Danny/Xana growled in frustration before shooting himself down towards Earth, a buildup of ghostly energy so strong a green fire burned out of his eyes.

"All off." Yumi ordered, floating above the ground only long enough for Odd to drop off before she pulled back on her Overwing and started a game of chicken with the ghost boy's body. She flicked out a fan and threw it at the ghost only for Xana to let the device go right through him.

The tessen turned around and came back to Yumi, only for it to cut Danny down the back, forcing the boy to cringe.

Phantom's eyes closed as he slowed down to just falling. The ghost inside was fighting Xana for position of the body as his green blood-like ectoplasm dripped off his body backwards as the wind drew it up. A white ring appeared around the ghost and split, changing a suit of black and white to a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

"Danny?!" Odd exclaimed, recognizing his new friend's body falling closer to the ground.

Yumi caught him as he fell onto her Overwing and gently took him down, parking the vehicle next to the five.

Sam and Tucker ran to the friend, trying to see if they could help him.

"Aelita, did you deactivate the tower?" Yumi asked, looking upwards to receive an answer.

…

Aelita glared at the black forced before her, in her hand a pink energy blocking the sword. "No, how's everything on your end?"

"Um, confusing, but contained." Came Yumi's answer.

"Erg!" William growled, putting more strength into his sword.

Aelita pushed forward, feeling the energy dying. She jumped back, letting William's sword plunge into the white ground.

Aelita quickly regained her balance and shot a ball at the teen as he struggled to free his sword. Being thrown onto his back, William held up his hand and called back his weapon.

"Jeremie just found the tower deactivated itself." Yumi said as Aelita watched William turn tail and jump off the platform.

"Do we need to return to the past?" Aelita asked, turning back to look at the Skidbladnir attached to the tower. The world around her resembled the forest sector but colored as if the background artist of a cartoon was too lazy to do so.

"Ya." Yumi said after a few moments as if talking with the people she was with.

"Alright. I'll bring you back in a minute." Aelita said, hurrying over to the tower. She went through the roots and entered the code to send her back to the cockpit of the ship.

…

"So this Xana thing…" Tucker started, trying to understand. "It's a ghost and a computer program?"

"Yes and no." Jeremie said, willing to explain.

"Jeremie, it's not worth it." Yumi said, shaking her head as she rested her hands on her hips. She looked up as if hearing something they could not before saying, "See you."

"Bye Yumi." Ulrich waved as the girl before them disappeared.

Sam looked up from here position next to Danny's body, surprise on her face. She looked up at Tucker to see the same emotion mirrored in his face. "Where'd she go?" Sam asked the three from France.

"Magic." Odd said with a smile as a white light bathed them.