Powerslave
Chapter 4: Wheels
Meanwhile, the young possessed boy was dealing with the lifeguards easily. With his new superhuman strength, he could push them into the pool or away from him. He seemed unstoppable, as the lifeguards had not been able to apprehend the boy.
Kieran's glare struck fear in the children at the pool, in particular, children in the same grade as him. They could see Kieran in a much darker light, watching him dispose adult men like they were twigs.
Jim observed Kieran taking care of the lifeguards, shocked of what this child was capable of. He didn't really know this kid much, but he wouldn't want to mess with him.
A lifeguard ran up next to Jim and asked, "How is this child so strong?"
"I have no idea. He's a new student here. This is his first P.E. class," Jim answered.
"Well, can you help us calm him down before he causes more damage?" the lifeguard enquired.
"I'll try," Jim responded.
However, he was nervous as all hell. Making the wrong move here could result in flying across the swimming complex. But he wanted to stop the boy from hurting others, and most especially, himself.
Meanwhile, Odd, Yumi and Aelita devised a plan quickly in order to have Aelita reach the tower so she could deactivate it. Odd looked over the hill, checking where the monsters were. They were still in the same position, which was perfect for the plan to work.
Odd gave a nod to the girls, and slowly rose up over the cliff. He slammed his foot on the back of his Overboard, causing him to speed towards the monsters to get their attention. He then fired a laser arrow, hoping it would hit a monster and destroy it.
The arrow hit its target perfectly, and the Tarantula was destroyed. The rest of the monsters noticed this, and aimed their lasers at Odd, who was prepared for the worse. He crouched down low on his Overboard and activated his dome shield, hoping it would prevent him from being devirtualized. The monsters fired rapidly at Odd to take him out, however, most of their shots were inaccurate and only every now and again the lasers hit his shield. Observing this, it boosted Odd's confidence that the plan would work.
Aelita and Yumi watched the monsters hopelessly fire at Odd, glad that they were doing exactly as they planned. Yumi carefully hovered the Overwing over the hill and hugged the perimeter of the area, attempting to find an open path to the tower.
Aelita whispered in Yumi's ear, and pointed out a path she noticed. Yumi drove the Overwing silently to the path that Aelita found. As they approached the gap, Yumi smiled at Aelita, incredibly happy that they could finish this mission right at this moment. Yumi put the Overwing and full throttle and swiftly passed the monsters. However, Odd saw a huge problem with her move, spotting a Krabe who apparently noticed her before, and was targeting her.
"Yumi! Watch out!" Odd yelled.
It was too late, the Krabe fired, and Odd could only pray that the shot did not hit Yumi or Aelita. The laser directly punctured Yumi's Overwing, flipping it over so that the Overwing was upside down. Aelita grabbed Yumi's waist, while Yumi hung onto the handlebars of the Overwing. Odd lowered his shield, noticing that all fourteen remaining monsters were aiming at Yumi and Aelita who were sitting targets. He knew if he didn't do something; the girls could easily be taken out.
Odd fired arrows rapidly at the monsters, hoping he could take out a few of them to give the girls a chance to escape. Yumi was only hanging onto the Overwing by her fingertips, knowing that if she fell, they would land in the middle of the monsters. It was disastrous if that happened, because they would have no defence against the raining lasers upon them.
"Yumi, let go and activate my wings. It's too dangerous here," Aelita ordered.
Yumi agreed with Aelita, she had no choice but to let go of her vehicle. The girls descended quickly, as Aelita was hugging Yumi, adding her weight onto Yumi's. Odd panicked seeing them fall, and aimed at the monsters closest to the girls. He fired again, really wanting to take out a few monsters to make the girls' lives easier. Another Tarantula, Krabe and Megatank were defeated by Odd while the girls were falling. Yumi fortunately spotted Aelita's star bracelet quickly and waved her hand over it. Suddenly, Aelita's wings burst out of her back, stopping their descent completely. Odd sighed in relief, glad that the girls could save themselves.
Aelita turned away from the monsters and quickly picked up speed to return to their hiding spot behind the hill. Odd followed suit, and reached their cover at the same time as Aelita and Yumi. Aelita dropped Yumi on Odd's Overboard, letting her arms rest. The monsters were still attacking them, preventing them from checking how many monsters were left.
"That didn't go to plan," Odd stated.
"And we better think of a new one quick," Yumi responded.
"Jeremie, how is Ulrich going?" Aelita enquired.
Jeremie, who was actually checking Ulrich's fight with William, was waiting until somebody lost some life points. However, nothing was happening, except he could see Ulrich moving back and William moving forward.
"He's on the same life points as he started with. But he hasn't done anything to William yet either," Jeremie answered.
"I'm glad he's still there. It means William isn't going to attack us from behind anytime soon," Yumi replied.
"Yeah, but Ulrich's near the edge of the platoon. So I'm worried… Really worried," Jeremie responded.
As soon as Jeremie finished his sentence, Ulrich stepped to the side as William slammed his blade down. He ran past William and spun around to face him again. He could now see that he used to be near the edge of the icy platform, and was glad Jeremie was talking to the others about his performance. William turned around slowly, annoyed that Ulrich was aware that Digital Sea was behind him. He felt like he had underestimated an injured Ulrich Stern, and grew fixated on exterminating him.
The possessed slave sprinted towards Ulrich and swung his blade. Ulrich ducked, feeling incredible pain by compressing his body. He jumped back, clutching his chest. His body was ready to give up, but Ulrich was not going to allow himself to do that. Ulrich charged forward and sliced William. However, William stepped back, avoiding the attack. He plummeted his large sword again, but Ulrich side stepped to dodge the weapon.
The double sword wielding warrior saw an opportunity. He lunged forward, slashing across William's shoulders. Electricity ran across William's shoulders where Ulrich struck, indicating that he nailed a clean blow on William.
Suddenly, William pulled his blade off the icy floor, forcing Ulrich to fall back on the ground. The impact shook his body, as a thunderous pain went through his body.
"Ulrich, you've lost ten life points," Jeremie informed.
Ulrich jumped to his feet and demanded, "How the hell did I lose ten life points? William didn't touch me!"
"Let me check," Jeremie stated, looking at his computer screen.
On the screen, instead of seeing Ulrich's torso flashing, he saw Ulrich's ribcage flashing between red and white. Jeremie gritted his teeth, as his worse fears for Ulrich have been realised. Ever since he found out that Ulrich had fractured his ribcage and that he was hurting on Lyoko, Jeremie thought that if any attacks were directed to Ulrich's chest could break his ribcage. And if his ribcage was broken on Lyoko, most likely he would have a broken ribcage when he returned to Earth.
"Ulrich… you have to be extremely careful. You lost life points because your ribcage was shaken by the fall. Not only that, if you suffer a broken ribcage on Lyoko, you're going to suffer a broken ribcage when you're back on Earth, and I don't want you to go through that," Jeremie warned.
"Great. Just another thing to hold me back in this fight," Ulrich grumbled.
Ulrich then jumped to his right, avoiding William's blade. William quickly ran up to him and tried throwing a punch to catch him off guard. However, Ulrich anticipated a fast attack, and rolled backwards. Once on his feet again, Ulrich put himself in a defensive position, remembering that he's meant to buy time for his friends, as well as not worsening his injury.
Seeing Ulrich play defensive, William once again charged. This time, he swung his blade at Ulrich's feet. Ulrich sprung into the air and plunged one of his swords at William. However, William quickly dispersed his blade and stopped Ulrich's attack by grabbing his right wrist. Ulrich felt dumbstruck, as he should've known William was going to perform something unexpected. But Ulrich did have a secondary weapon. He attempted to slash William with the second sword. All of a sudden, William blocked the blow with his gauntlet on his left arm. He quickly battered Ulrich's secondary blade away, disarming Ulrich partially. Ulrich kept his eyes fixated on William, now extremely worried that he was completely open to a devastating strike.
"Jeremie, devirtualize me before this guy breaks me!" Ulrich commanded in panic.
William elbowed Ulrich in the stomach and followed it quickly with a thump on his collarbone. Ulrich was sent flying back. He hoped that he was not going to land on his back first so he could prevent more damage to his life points. He couldn't avert it though. He landed on his back, but quickly rolled two full revolutions until his hands halted him. He didn't feel a lot of pain, rather, he felt out of breath. He knew he shouldn't be feeling this way on Lyoko, yet he was starting to feel physical fatigue.
Ulrich whispered a single word before Jeremie stated, "Wow, you were incredibly lucky he did not aim for your chest."
Ulrich chuckled, but was abruptly forced off the ground and into mid-air. He noticed the dark mist around him, annoyed that William caught him again. This time, William was not going to be as merciful. He stomped towards the Digital Sea, with Ulrich nearing his doom each second. He took a quick glance behind him, seeing that there was only a few metres between hovering above ground to hovering above the Digital Sea.
Ulrich wanted to call for Jeremie's assistance, but he had one last trick up his sleeve that he hoped would finish before William pushes him to oblivion.
"Got any last words?" William asked.
Ulrich looked up, then faced William and answered, "Yeah, I do."
"Well?"
"I'm not alone."
William immediately knew what Ulrich meant, but was already too late. The other two Ulrichs each grabbed one of William's arms, apprehending him. The real Ulrich landed back on his feet, free of the smoky hold. With their other hands, they drew their weapons and stabbed William in the chest.
The XANA possessed William let out a furious scream, frustrated that he was defeated by one of his enemies. Not to mention that enemy was incapacitated. The Ulrichs let go of William, who staggered backwards, watching his body from the inside out disappearing.
In his rage, he shot out two smoke blasts at the two fake Ulrichs, removing them from existence immediately. He then faced the real Ulrich, who looked exhausted but was smiling in victory.
"You! I could've killed both you and Aelita today! But you defied logic! You… an imperfect being… defeated my henchman! How? How could this possibly happen?" William barked in fury.
"I use whatever strength I have to protect my friends and this world," Ulrich responded.
"That… doesn't make any sense!" William roared, "No matter, I'll just take you with me!"
In his last act, William threw a smoke ball at Ulrich. Ulrich was caught by surprise, and was unable to avoid it. While William dispersed, Ulrich was propelled back and over the edge of the platform. Ulrich's worse fear was almost about to happen.
He called out Jeremie's name as he reached for the icy platoon in front of him. Ulrich felt his fingertips touch the edge, and soon his body stopped moving away from land. His body then slammed on the side of the icy platoon, but he ignored the pain.
"Ulrich, are you alright? I saw William disappear from my-" Jeremie enquired.
"No time! Devirtualize me before I fall into the Digital Sea!" Ulrich commanded.
"Right."
Ulrich, feeling the pain erupting throughout his body, let go of the ledge. He was plummeting down to the deep blue, with many pressing thoughts in his mind. He closed his eyes, wanting to ignore that he was falling to an eternity on Lyoko. He hoped that Jeremie was able to save him in time.
Then, he picked up the hissing of the scanners. He opened his eyes, seeing two doors parting to reveal a room with two large cylinders and a large door. Ulrich sighed in relief. Never had he'd been so relieved to return to Earth. Ulrich soon took his first step out of the scanner, and staggered across the room. He was really feeling the pain of his fracture, desiring it to stop. Jeremie saw this on the security video. At first, he was glad Ulrich was safely back on Earth, but was shocked to see him in the state that he was in.
"Ulrich, stay in the scanner room. You won't risk hurting yourself. You've done more than enough," Jeremie stated.
Ulrich agreed. He'd actually didn't want to push himself any longer. His body was screaming in pain and needed to rest it.
As he was about to sit down, a thought hit his head. What about Kieran? After overhearing Jeremie talk to the others about his profile, he grew more curious about the boy's past. He wondered why Kieran was expelled from both his previous schools and why he came to Kadic.
Ulrich knew there was only one way to find out. However, Jeremie was keeping an eye out on him. If he tried to head to the elevator Jeremie would lock it down and make it inaccessible to use. Then another thought came to mind. What if Jeremie was telling his friends the good news that he managed to defeat the XANA possessed William for the first time? He had to take that distraction to get out of here at least.
The fourteen year old dashed to the elevator, really hoping the Jeremie didn't see him. He felt that it was in his best interest to help out Kieran in whatever way possible, even if he was risking himself.
The elevator doors soon opened before him. He stepped inside and quickly pressed the button to go up to the ground floor of the Factory. He spun around, noticing that his and his friend's swimming bags were still in the elevator. Since he was still shirtless, he grabbed a blue buttoned up t-shirt from his bag and put it on. He didn't feel nervous at all, but was extremely worried whether he was going to reach Kieran in time.
"Guys! I've got the best news ever!" Jeremie exclaimed.
Jeremie's loud voice stopped the three from discussing a new plan. They could tell by the sound of his voice that he was extremely excited.
"What is it Einstein?" Odd asked.
"Ulrich managed to defeat William!" Jeremie shouted.
The trio cheered, and yet they were amazed that Ulrich could pull it off for the first time. However, Aelita was concerned if William was still there to be rescued.
"Wow, have we done that before?" Odd questioned.
"I don't think so. It must be a first. I can't believe he managed to beat him while he was injured," Yumi stated.
"What about William? Can we still save him?" Aelita enquired.
The group was shot into silence by that question. Now they wondered if there was any hope of saving William from XANA's possession or not.
"I'll check it out," Jeremie responded, "Think of a plan so we can finish this off."
The group acknowledged Jeremie, as Yumi and Odd looked over the hill to check how many monsters were left. Both of them counted eleven monsters were still standing. However, Odd noticed that there were a lot of Tarantulas there. Five of them in fact, probably to make up the abundant firepower. He also spotted two Krabes, two Megatanks and two Bloks. Odd tried to figure out how to switch their formation, so the Tarantulas would be on one side while the slow firing monsters would be on the other side.
However, Yumi's mind was elsewhere. She was wondering how the hell Ulrich managed to defeat William while dealing with his fractured ribcage. She was tired of looking over at the monsters, and looked around her surroundings to try to get her mind off that thought.
But if Ulrich did defeat William, then logically, he should still be on Lyoko. It would be perfect if he could help out the team with their monster problem.
"Jeremie… Can Ulrich help us? He should still be on Lyoko, right?" Yumi enquired.
"Uh… He isn't. I had to devirtualize him before he fell into the Digital Sea," Jeremie responded, switching windows to see how Ulrich was coping.
Jeremie jolted. Ulrich was not in the Scanner room. He quickly looked at the other sercurity cameras to see if he was in the Factory at this moment. However, he was no where to be found.
He attempted to call up Ulrich, hoping he was carrying his cell phone. However, the dial rang out, and was met with a pre-recorded message directing him to Ulrich's message bank. The window on the Supercomputer tracked down where the phone was, telling Jeremie that Ulrich's mobile was still in the elevator, most likely in his swimming bag. He realised where Ulrich would be heading to, and slapped his forehead. Feeling extremely stressed out about Ulrich's safety, he had to tell the rest of the group.
"Great. Now the worse possible thing has happened," Jeremie concluded.
"What is it Jeremie?" Aelita asked.
"Ulrich's going to the swimming pool. He's probably trying to protect the people there from Kieran," Jeremie answered.
"Why would he still be thinking about Kieran at this time? That kid almost killed him!" Odd proclaimed.
"I really want somebody to chase after Ulrich before he gets seriously hurt, but it could jeopardise the mission on Lyoko," Jeremie replied.
Yumi bit her lip, having a feeling that Ulrich would place another life before his own. She scanned her surroundings once again, trying to conjure up something to help her teammates.
Suddenly, she spotted a part of the hill that looked like it could break off at any moment. Best of all, it would slide down towards the monsters if it did snap off. Then, an idea clicked.
"Jeremie, I've got a solution. There's something on the side of that hill that can be broken off. I'll break it off, hopefully it'll take care of some monsters and then Odd and Aelita can devirtualize me so I can save Ulrich," Yumi explained.
"It sounds like the best shot we have," Jeremie stated.
"Yeah, I can't think of a better plan. I hope that cliff edge takes care of heaps of monsters," Aelita responded.
"We'll see what happens," Yumi affirmed.
Yumi reached out with her right hand as far as she could and pressed the fingers of her left hand on her temple. She focused her thoughts on severing the cliff so that a large icy rock would roll down the side of the hill. The icy rock lifted up slightly, but was still connected to the side of the hill. Yumi concentrated harder on the ice, knowing that she needed to focus more.
Suddenly, Aelita watched the icy rock break away from the cliff. She smiled, and peeked over the hill to see what damage the rock would cause.
Yumi let her telekinetic hold on the icy rock go. It fell down with a large thump, grabbing the attention of all the monsters guarding the tower. Aelita observed the monsters attempting to run as far as they could. However, some of them were too slow, as they were ran over by the large icy rock. The icy rock promptly stopped when it crashed into the side of the tower. Aelita saw that there were still monsters left; however, their numbers did not look so intimidating anymore. She tried counting the remaining monsters.
While she was doing that, Yumi faced Odd, indicating that now would be a good time to devirtualize her. Odd acknowledged Yumi and fired two laser arrows at her chest. She was immediately devirtualized.
Aelita stared at Odd and stated, "Oh, Yumi's gone already. There's five monsters left Odd. We stand a pretty good chance now."
"Great, did you get that Einstein?" Odd asked.
"Sure did. Remember Odd, protect Aelita-" Jeremie announced.
"Until she deactivates the tower. I know the drill," Odd retorted.
"And a careful plan along with it. Just because Yumi wiped out six monsters doesn't mean you're going to do that easily," Jeremie added, noticing that Yumi was exiting her scanner on security footage.
Yumi sprinted to the elevator, crossing her fingers that Ulrich wasn't too far from the Factory. The elevator doors opened before her. She stepped inside, immediately noticing that Ulrich had been through his bag. She wished the elevator moved faster. Time was of the essence. She knew if she didn't reach Ulrich in time, he would be dead.
Author's Chapter Notes
It bugged me that Ulrich's triplicate was heavily underused in Series 4. And during the two times he used it in the entire series, he ended up devirtualized. So despite it not being used in Series 4 often, I decided to have him use that ability.
Once again, thanks to those who read and reviewed this fic so far and I hope I still receive your continued support.