The school day had just ended and the Lyoko Warriors were leaving for the factory when William ran to them.
"William? What's wrong?" Ulrich asked in a leery way. He, just like everyone else, knew that this could be a trap.
"X.A.N.A. attacked... Mary's trapped... She sent me to get help..." William explained, panting; he had ran all the way from the factory to the school.
"What happened on Lyoko? Why didn't you call right after being devirtualized?" Odd inquired. William took the remnants of his phone from his pocket and showed them, still trying to steady his breathing.
"Some weird balls... destroyed the tower... Then came the Scyphozoa creature... Two of them... We were surrounded... Mary returned me back to the scanner... Told me to get help... said she'd hold on for long enough," he explained as briefly as possible.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Odd shouted and was the first to start running towards the park. The others followed.
"You stay here at the school, just in case," Jeremy said and followed the others.
"But..." William started but Jeremy was already gone. He sat down to the bench and decided to return to the factory when he would have managed to steady his breath. Somewhere deep inside he was angry because his conversation with Mary had been interrupted so cruelly. And now Mary was in trouble.
Some had noticed how the Lyoko Warriors had stormed away fast when William had run to them. And now Milly and Tamiya went towards William, hoping to get a scoop. After all, reporters had to be ready to act whether they worked for a big tabloid or a minor school newspaper.
William forced his breathing to steady and looked at the approaching reporters. They had caused enough harm to him already. Therefore, he headed towards the dormitory with hopes of losing the girls there and get to the sewers and factory via the school hall.
"William! William! Do you have a moment?" Milly shouted to him. The reporters turned to follow him and William hastened his steps. Soon he ran the stairs up two steps at a time, trying to get as much distance as possible between himself and the girls.
"William!" Milly shouted.
"No time now!" William could not help shouting down and disappeared into the corridor.
"He seems to be in a huge rush to run everywhere today," Tamiya noted.
"Sherlock," Milly huffed, frustrated. Before, William had been the easiest to interview even though he had spoken a lot of nonsense, but now he could not be interviewed if he wasn't tied still.
William looked behind without seeing anyone following him. Triumphant, he headed to the corridor which led to the hall the fastest.
In the meantime, on Lyoko all forces had been unleashed: X.A.N.A. had brought an enormous arsenal after Mary had destroyed the Megatanks and made the Scyphozoa inoperative. The Lyoko Warriors had arrived and used all their abilities and weapons at full power. Mary had turned into a dragon to protect herself from some of the life point loss and to roast the monsters efficiently with her fire breaths. Yet there were still too many monsters. Yumi was devirtualized.
"Mary, try to find a tower somewhere! You need to be materialized!" Jeremy shouted. Mary shouted that she could not locate a single tower in this mess but instead of that what came out of her mouth were a new surge of fire and roaring.
"What's the situation?" Yumi asked after climbing to the lab.
"A horseshoe, a rabbit paw and a four-lead clover would be useful for a change," Jeremy informed.
"And William?"
"I told him to stay at school."
"Will he stay there?"
"He didn't," came a voice when the elevator opened. William walked into the lab.
"Why did you come back here?" Jeremy asked, amazed. He was surprised that William had fully recovered from his run this quickly.
"I thought that it's better be here and try to help rather than be tortured by Milly and Tamiya," William blurted. "So, can I help you in any way?"
"No, it seems. I can't virtualize anyone who's been devirtualized back to Lyoko in a couple of hours," Jeremy told. William nodded but his chagrin was visible on his face.
"What about Mary?" he asked. The elevator opened again. Now Ulrich came.
"It's not going well," he reported and noticed William. "Hey, what are you doing here?"
"I came to see if I could help," William answered, trying to ignore Ulrich's hostile tone. Staying even-tempered became slowly harder as his frustration accumulated.
"Jeremy, since you're probably having easier time there, could you help me look for that tower?" Mary shouted and roared a cry of pain when a Hornet shot her down.
"Careful, Mary, your life points are at half!" Jeremy warned.
"Stop staring at those life points and help!" Mary bellowed.
"Uh, yeah, sure... Wait... The closest tower is 29 degrees to southwest," Jeremy told.
"Which direction is southwest? I already lost my sense of orientation!" Mary shouted.
"To the left," Jeremy answered.
"Thank you!" Mary shouted and transformed back into her dragon form, breathed the last fires on the Crabs and turned to fly towards the tower. She did not make it there when a shockwave she had learned to call with the name Laser Air shot her down.
"What? No, it can't be! William's here!" Ulrich shouted and turned to look at William only to see him turn into digital dust. "It was a clone!"
"Mary, look out!" Yumi cried out into the microphone. Jeremy was about to tell Aelita and Odd to help Mary but then he saw that Odd had already been devirtualized and Aelita was being devirtualized just now.
"Did Mary get to safety?" Odd asked; he had climbed the ladders up to the lab.
"William's still on Lyoko and attacking her!" Jeremy answered. "And all the vehicles are unavailable! The rest is up to Mary herself."
Odd took a deep breath and tried not to panic. Mary fared against William last time as well and has survived when he's been Xanafied. Surely she'll fare, he assured himself. He descended a couple of steps and looked down to the scanners. Aelita had returned to the scanner more or less safely.
"Mary, do you hear me?" Jeremy asked.
"I don't have time to talk," Mary cried. "A clash with the meanie himself is about to start here!"
/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Lyokostar story series and its original characters (c) Me/
