Note: It may look like I'm skipping a lot of episodes, and I kind of am. Those episodes don't make a huge impact to the timeline, but episodes that do will be mentioned if they don't make any actual appearances. Also, I know that Ulrich is playing soccer but in Europe football is soccer and American Football is regular Football. In this story, I will refer to it as the series refers to it. So yeah, Ulrich plays football. I will also like to mention I am starting a new trend. We have a Yorkshire-British!Theo in the story... and well, you can guess who else will be British when the time comes.

By the way, I am trying to use old elements left over from Season One and mix it with the series. So, if you're not sure where some things have came from, I do mention them in the notes as "referred to" or "mentions".

Also, I'm waiting for that comment that theorizes this series and how it'll go down for Season Two. Guess all you like! And thanks for reading!

Episodes Used: Cruel Dilemma (referred to), The Trap (referred to), Laughing Fit (referred to), Claustrophobia (referred to), Zero-Gravity Zone.

"...at least, that's what I think."

Odd hummed, laying on the ground of the Desert Sector. It had been at least a couple of months since the "One Year Anniversary" for Ulrich, Yumi and Jeremie meeting Aelita and the purple program. Right now, it was taking its sweet time to enjoy a conversation with Yumi as she walked to school. Back then, they had a talk about her fall and now, it had to guess they were a little bit closer than before. Close enough to engage in morning calls similar to the night calls it would have with Ulrich.

Back to the topic they were on, Yumi was discussing some of the latest human "gossip" in her class. Apparently she was a grade higher than Ulrich and Jeremie and so she had different classes than them, "I see, I see." It nodded, though it didn't quite understand the whole rumor with this girl named Emily. It wouldn't ask Yumi for more clarification, however, since she approached the topic hesitantly and it showed that she didn't like to think of it either. So it took it upon itself to change the subject, "Alright, so how's the family?" It asked, clapping its paws together.

"Way better than before," Hopefully she was smiling, her voice gave that much for Odd to estimate. Its tail twitched behind it and a smile grew on its face. It was uncontrollable, the feeling of giddiness. Sometimes it wondered how emotions were so contagious, "I guess they got some sort of surprise to show me. I won't be back home until after the game though. And Jeremie and I will let you know how that goes."

Ah, she was talking about Ulrich's football game. It would not disclose a secret it had for that. Because it will be watching the game, through the little reporter's cameras. Ever since Ulrich offhandedly mentioned it one night, it investigated using the electrical sockets and kind of... broke it. It was fine after the little girl reset it and now Odd's codes resided in the machine. It could see through it if it summoned up a screen, but if it did that then the camera would lose charge faster. So it would only summon it if needed, or if it wanted to watch something happen out of it.

For now, Odd does not want them to know about it. It'd be its little secret. Maybe it'd let Aelita in on it, but for now it was its secret alone. Plus, everyone has secrets. Right? "Ah, okay." It let its claws scrape against one another, trying to hide its bluff, "Let me know how it goes in the first half and second half, okay?"

"That's perfectly fine." Yumi agreed, "So I'll let you go now- ah!"

Odd jumped, its eyes darting away from the hologram with Yumi's avatar card to look around the dusty orange-yellow sand, "What's going on? Are you okay, Yumi?" It asked worriedly. She was still crying out, like something had attacked her. Oh how it suddenly longed to be the real world, to be able to help her. To be able to see her to see what was going on.

Yumi stopped her cries of surprise, abruptly ending the call with, "Uh, I have to go. Talk to you later Odd."

Then that was that. Even if the Daemon wanted it not to end like that.

"Yes Jeremie," Aelita answered softly, "There's an activated tower in the Mountain Sector."

Odd clapped its paws together, "I'll be right there after this, Aelita." It replied joyfully, trying to somehow get rid of the dark clouds over Ulrich's head. Well, not really. Figuratively, if that's how humans use the term. It tried to act happy, trying to get those emotions to be conveyed through the screen. If it could somehow smile at someone's voice, then it had to work on other people as well.

They had met up and after Jeremie and Yumi retold the stories from their perspectives (apparently Yumi started to float and Sissi, the girl that chased after Ulrich like a lost puppy to its owner, had her baton drift away into the atmosphere) they had to figure out the best course of action. And the program knew it wasn't going to be good since Ulrich really wanted to play this football game. He had his reasons to play and not save the world.

Parents were... touchy subjects, to Ulrich and Yumi. It didn't have a clue about Jeremie's family however, but the two constants gave it enough data to conclude that families were weird. Ulrich's family didn't really pay attention to him and would get upset with him if he didn't do something impressive to stand out from the rest. And since the secret of the supercomputer cannot be divulged nor ignored, Ulrich cannot really stand out because of it. Ulrich simply wanted to impress his parents, and with this football game he could actually do it. That's why Odd chose to mess with the little lady's camera. So it could be there in spirit for the boy who wanted to impress his world, which was his family and friends.

And Yumi? Her folks have been having heated arguments lately, past the morning calls that Odd started with her after she fell. It has been around long enough to try to make its own conclusions, and they weren't very pretty. It wouldn't share with Yumi what it hypothesized, but it will continue to accept morning calls just to talk with her and make up something to make her smile. Yumi wanted her parents to start smiling again, as they apparently did not smile much anymore. So when they expressed a surprise to their daughter, it knew that Yumi would have dropped everything to go home on time. But she wouldn't abandon her friend's football game because she cares about him, as much as she denied it every time that Odd tried to point it out to her in a call.

Wincing slightly, it didn't even notice that Jeremie, Yumi, and Aelita continued on the conversation by themselves. Jeremie drew out his conclusion for how XANA was disturbing the field of gravity and by the logic in his words, Odd had to agree.

"What's the connection between gravity and weightlessness?" Odd finally joined the conversation again, listening to Ulrich's questioning voice. At least it wouldn't miss out on everything they said.

"The magnetic field. It could be the effect of a very powerful electromagnet that XANA's using to offset the magnetic attraction of the Earth, you see?"

Yumi tilted her head, "How dangerous is it?"

"It's not," Jeremie rubbed a hand on his chin, "If it is in the limits of space and time. But if it's on a larger scale... look what happened to Sissi. Her baton never came back."

The geisha then frowned, "We can't take the risk. We have to go to Lyoko and deactivate the tower." Now that was a punch to the gut. Odd shuffled on the desert ground, already knowing how Ulrich would react. It listened to Ulrich go on and on about his father and how he wasn't good enough, that he wanted to see his father actually smile at him for the first time in his life. To have to abandon the one thing that was sure enough to earn a smile from his father... that had to be painful.

"Well, count me out." And there was Ulrich voicing his opinion. The program clenched its jaw so it wouldn't release a sigh. Hopefully there wasn't going to be any bickering from any party. Just let Ulrich go and Yumi could go to Lyoko and help the program get Aelita to the tower.

Apparently, everyone had a reaction to that but Aelita and itself. Yumi jolted in her seat and Jeremie protested, "You have to be kidding me!"

"No," Ulrich briskly replied, "Count me out. I'll go when the game is over."

"You're gonna abandon the ship?" Jeremie looked hostile. Odd kept its mouth shut, wanting to do something but knowing all the while that if it did it would only make things worse. "For a football game?" Seeing that he wasn't getting a reply, Jeremie got out of his seat and walked up to Ulrich, "Wake up, Ulrich! This is about saving the world and not to mention Aelita who's surely in danger but you would rather k-kick a ball around?!"

Okay, seeing Jeremie smack Ulrich's shoulder made it a bit hostile to the genius. "Hey!" It mediated, raising its paws, "Knock it off!" It didn't name who, but Jeremie did get the memo as he backed away from Ulrich.

Too bad the German decided to use it to his advantage, as he shot off the bed and glowered at Jeremie, "You heard what I said! I can't go and that's that! Okay?!" He then spun on his heel and walked to the door, his shoulders tense.

Jeremie turned around, finally facing them again, "Somebody say something, will you?! He's dropping us like a smelly sock!" Odd chose not to speak anymore, it wasn't its battle to fight.

Ulrich opened the door, then finally looked at them, "Look, I'm really sorry."

"That's all you can say, you're sorry?! You'd rather please the crowd!" At that point, Ulrich walked out the door and shut it behind him. Jeremie chose to raise his voice and continue his rant, trying to get Ulrich to hear him, "All those admiring fans are more important than your friends!"

At this point, Odd couldn't take it anymore, "Leave him alone, okay?!" It rose its voice, glaring at the blonde. Noticing it never really rose its voice angrily at its friends, the program pushed further just to get it over with, "He has his reasons. His parents are coming to the game this afternoon. Have you ever met Ulrich's dad?" It was a foolish question, none of them had. But from all the words Ulrich shared with it, it could draw its own conclusions, "If you're not first in everything you're nothing in his book. And since Ulrich's report cards are kind of disastrous, the only way to make his dad happy is-"

Jeremie sighed, "When he plays football."

Odd nodded, "Yes, exactly. That's why he's been training so hard for weeks now. He's going to play today's game like his life depended on it." The silence that erupted in the room after that was deafening. It couldn't stand that, so it saluted the screen instead, "I'll meet up with you soon, Aelita." It dismissed the screen and began running to the nearest tower that would take it to the Mountain Sector.

Its claws scraped against the rocky ground, no real sound emitting from it. It watched little white lights prick up from the grey ground where it ran along in a cat-run, it also saw the lights get consumed by the ground. The Mountain Sector was mysterious, from what it could tell. It didn't gather much from here since it disliked this area, it had so many twist and turns that it was afraid to stay here. Even with the map it had access to, it felt like that it could still get trapped somewhere and never have a way out of this place.

It didn't know why Aelita adored this place so much, second to the Forest Sector she woke up in. Then again, it couldn't judge since it always liked to linger in the beautiful darkness that was the Ice Sector and the large, spacious plateaus of the Desert Sector.

A ping went off in the back of its head and then the podcast of Ulrich's game flooded its ears. No one would hear it but it unless it projected the sound, but it knew it could not pull up the screen since it was in a hurry to get to Aelita, "Testing one, two, testing one, two. Here we go! Hello everyone this is Milly and Tamiya reporting to you live from the stadium. It is a big day today because of the ninth grade inter-school final is about to begin between Kadic Academy and Lincoln Junior High School. Although our school is favored to win, a lot of its estimated win is on Kadic's Top Striker, Ulrich Stern and Lincoln's former Top Striker that has recently joined our school's team, Theo Gauthier. We'll be counting on both boys today to bring the win home. And now, it's football time!"

A little smile wormed its way onto its face as it listened to the whistle blow and Milly immediately try to commentate on the action. It longed to plop down and watch the match go down from the camera, but it had important things to do before things get worse with XANA manipulating gravity itself. Sighing, it continued its run, hopping down the many rocks that gave the Sector its name. It could hear the loud crowd cheering and it decided to move that sound all to its right ear, leaving the left accessible for others to talk to it.

"Incredible!" Milly's voice cheered, sounding awed by something. If it had to guess, it was most likely Ulrich's doing, "We knew that Ulrich was in great form but what he's showing us today is beyond even our wildest dreams!" Then, a wild cheer erupted in its ear and it took a lot of willpower not to shout along with them as the whistle blew, "A fantastic goal! The Kadic team makes it one to nothing after only three minutes of play! Looks like Lincoln has to find a way to stop Ulrich if they're going to win this game!"

It could not work like this, listening to Ulrich's success as it fought the demonic-like AI before it made irreversible mistakes. Sighing to itself, it was glad that it chose to move all sound to one ear to keep its hearing in Lyoko for the time being. By then, it then landed on another rocky platform and saw the familiar blue of virtualization in the air. It stood still as Yumi dropped to the ground with her usual grace, "Hello there Yumi!" It chirped, waving a paw.

"Hello to you too, Odd." She greeted back.

"At least you're close to someone Odd, I can safely say that the tower is thirty degrees west, now hurry up!" Jeremie stated, his nasally voice reaching only the program's left ear. Right ear still played Milly's commentary that mixed with the crowd's cheers and gasps. Turning west, it gladly realized it was heading the right way after all. It then recognized Aelita in the area, twisted around and walked over. Yumi took one look in the direction and ran faster than the cat-boy itself.

She waved her hand, a smile delicately on her face, "Nice to see you two again."

Odd grinned, "It's always a pleasure, Princess." Nicknames were wonderful things, giving people the chance to not state the persons name over and over again. Even if Ulrich discouraged using 'couple' nicknames it did not mean Odd had to stop using nicknames altogether.

Then, the three were off again. Heading west towards the tower, Odd acted like it was mulling over something else instead of the soft words spoken between Aelita and Yumi. It actually was, as humorous as it seemed. It continued to listen to the commentary over the game, trying not to give up the one thing its best friend worked so hard on. The whistle blew again, telling tale that someone scored once more, "There's no stopping the football stars! Theo, with an assist from Ulrich, managed to score Kadic's team its second goal. Now it is two to zero in Kadic's favor and if things continue to go on like this-" Her voice suddenly halted, followed by shouting from afar, "And now things seem to be heating up as well with Lincoln's Star Striker Matt and Theo on the field! Kadic's coach Jim has temporarily benched Theo, most likely to calm things down."

Jeremie's voice reached its ear again, "Oh no, it's ready to attack the school! ...Now I understand!"

"Fill us in, Einstein!"

"If not for what happened today with Yumi and Sissi, we'd have all gone to the game and that's where XANA wanted to trap us because it was its plan. To concentrate all of its energy on the science lab and if we don't make it fast, then there's a good chance that Ulrich's going to finish the game outside of the stratosphere!"

A chill ran down its spine and for experiencing it so much, it identified that as a mixture of fear and worry. All for the samurai, who was working to gain a 'good job' from his dad. "No monsters for the time being, but we're still far from the tower." Yumi replied, most likely talking to herself.

"Ugh, this is awful! I got to find a way to gain some time!"

Jeremie's voice left them alone and they were back to running again. The hushed words and Milly's cheerful voice mixed in the program's head, making it feel like both sounds were layered together. "Fantastic! Ulrich's as good on defense as he is on the attack!" There was a large jump ahead and it didn't take much to land with grace on all four limbs. Another whistle blew loudly in its ear and Milly's voice sounded winded, "And that's the end of the first half! Kadic Team holds a two to nothing lead. Let's see if we can get some comments firsthand. Ulrich!" It took a great amount of strength not to perk up from its run. It instead took to clambering along the rocky ground on all fours, "I imagine you're confident after dominating Lincoln for the past forty-five minutes! What do you think?"

"Has it really been that long?" It muttered under its breath, taking care to make sure Yumi, Jeremie, and Aelita did not hear it. Fortunately, it seemed that it was lucky enough not to be heard as Yumi and Aelita were engaged in their small chat and Jeremie was paying attention to something else.

"Uh, Lincoln Junior High's team is in the finals. That means they're good. Theo came from there and you've seen him in action. And in the words of our couch Jim, "It's our motivation that'll make us winners" and I honestly think that-" Ulrich cut himself off and it left the program longing to pull up the feed to see what was wrong. But there were 'bigger fish to fry', as the human term claimed. Meaning that there were bigger problems at hand and it couldn't drop everything to focus on the first human to really show concern to it, "I uh... I got to go now. Talk to you after the game. I better relax a bit before the second half and see what Jim has to..." By then, Ulrich's words were fading and it was a give away sign that he was walking away from the Kadic News duo.

Milly sighed, though it wasn't one of exasperation (it has heard that sigh many times from Ulrich and Jeremie alike) but one of fondness, "Alright! Hey, Theo, any comments on the game so far?"

"Aye," Theo's voice was... weird. It wasn't one that it had heard before, though it had a bit of an inkling to a character from one of the shows it throws on sometimes from the human television, "I'm a bit of a wittler, but Ulrich has it in good hands. Matt's been mithering me since the start of the game but I'll show 'em..."

It listened along to Theo's voice, finding a bit of an admiration to it. It was a nice thing, to say the least. It would have to research the language behind him, maybe it'd ask Ulrich when this was all over. "Hey!" Aelita's voice rose, making it twitch and halt its run. She pointed to a tower afar and it held the familiar red aura that belonged to the deranged AI. Yumi crouched behind the large rocks nearby and the pink elf followed, which made the cat-program follow along willingly. Theo's voice with Milly and Tamiya's commentary fading away in order to focus on Lyoko itself.

"The tower's just over there and so far no monsters in sight." Yumi murmured, placing her fingers over her chin.

Odd shook its head, "Not for long. XANA's most likely waiting to attack." The loud whistle echoed in its right ear, signaling the start of the second half of the game. Silently wishing Ulrich luck, it then attempted to calculate how long it would take just to run across the bridge that tethered the mainland to the activated tower, "My speed would be the fastest to reach the tower in four point five seconds, Yumi's avatar would make it across in five point seven seconds, and Aelita would manage to finish running across a second later."

Aelita sighed, "If we run into any monsters?" She intoned, likely agreeing with the Daemon that XANA would send monsters to attack them there.

"My speed estimation would rise up to seven point two seconds, Yumi's would be up to eight point one seconds, and you would be a stunning eight point three seconds."

"Oh everyone's just numb! The crowd, including yours truly, simply doesn't understand! Why has Ulrich just stop?!"

"It must be the pressure!"

Scratching its claws along the rocky surface, it tried to bring down the thriving panic in its stomach. What was wrong with Ulrich? "So if anything, we just have to clear a way to make sure Aelita gets across the fastest." Yumi concluded, bringing a palm down to her hand.

It nodded, trying to appear as if it was truly paying attention. Instead, it listened to the whistle blow and a cry of Milly's, "Oh no! It can't be! What awful luck for the Kadic team! Ulrich looks hurt from that violent tackle from Matt! ...and it seems he's out of the game as well! Ulrich's leaving the stadium with a knee injury!"

Odd decided to quit listening, noticing that Yumi and Aelita were staring at it. It must have not answered a question. Instead, it quickly decided to address Jeremie to cover up its flaw, "Jeremie, objective in sight!" It spun around, grabbing the rocks of the tall wall with its claws. It dismissed the lingering feeling it left, trying to get away from the rest of the podcast that played in its right ear. Then it took notice at the fact that during the chat it had with Aelita and Yumi that three Hornets had flew in, "The welcoming committee looks manageable! I'll get rid of them in no time at all."

Summoning its gauntlets, it listened to Jeremie's reply, "Okay, I should be able to neutralize XANA. But only for a few minutes. So you have to work fast."

It spun around again, "We gotta move."

"Ten seconds to attack time!" Yumi rushed off after Odd's quick affirmative, leaving it a little time before it started to trail the geisha. It raised one of its paws, taking care to try to directly hit the flying menaces. The sounds of lasers erupted in Odd's left ear and it took a little more focus to notice Yumi's tell-tale sign of throwing a fan. It jumped up with her, shooting off two rounds of three arrows. All three Hornets trailing them erupted in red pixels, leaving nothing behind as they were erased.

Its gauntlets whirred to it, speaking of six arrows in the left gauntlet and all twelve in the right. It hadn't been paying very much attention as the Hornets rammed into both it and Yumi and knocked them to the ground, "Pretty smart for flying insects! Has XANA given them a thought processor?" It attempted to joke, but Yumi didn't crack a smile. It scowled lightly to itself, wondering when it would be able to make them smile from a silly 'joke'.

Shaking its head, it made sure to try to research more jokes later because now wasn't the time to get upset for failing to get a laugh out of its jokes. "It was only just two more, maybe XANA has-"

"Nope, a new swarm is coming your way! XANA is surely bringing out the big guns this time around!"

"Alright then," Yumi took the information with stride, "Then there'll be a change of tactics. Now it's time for a diversion!" It took off at those words, quick to shoot off more three layered arrows at a time. Two more Hornets exploded from the rain of small electric pieces trapped in metallic holders shaped like arrows before one smartened up and shot it directly in the chest. Holding its chest, it barely had time to summon up a shield to deflect the other laser and destroy the Hornet that decided to act upon its weakness.

Its tail wriggled and it gestured behind it, "Come on Yumes, it's your time to shine!"

Her grunting was the only reply it would get as it saw the large boulders take to surrounding both it and her. It then took the extra shielding to its advantage, "Laser Arrows!"

The whirring of its gauntlets told it that it had barely any arrows to shoot and thankfully Jeremie chimed in, "Your gauntlets should have access to forty more lasers, Odd!"

"Thanks, I'll be needing them since they just keep on coming! It's like there's no end to them!" It backed away closer to Yumi, who finally was able to engage in speech again for a short amount of time, "What do we do?" It couldn't keep on firing arrows and hope for the best, it needed a plan... it needed a command, for once.

Yumi thankfully did not catch on to what it really meant, "The best defense is an offence, right?"

"Right!" Somehow, it knew to agree. Maybe it'd figure that one out later, "But that depends on the number of enemies." It instinctively threw up a shield at the nearest laser that headed towards it but thankfully the rock blockade took the hit for it. Yumi then took up a few more rocks to her spinning guard and Odd took its que, shooting up a storm with as many arrows as it had.

"You have to hang on now so Aelita can get through. Yumi, Odd, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," The commentary was now just getting on its nerves and if it had the time, it would so dismiss it, "We're having the time of our lives here Jer!" It winced, yanking its hand back to stop the wayward laser from making contact with its arm. It continued to shoot off laser arrows until Yumi took a laser to the back. It spun around immediately, shooting down the Hornet that dared to harm her as she struggled to keep up her rock barrier.

She took a few seconds but she was soon back at it again. This time she wouldn't be able to talk to it again for she needed her concentration and Odd left her to it. It was another few minutes by then when Jeremie re-engaged contact, "Odd, Yumi, what's happening?"

This time it couldn't keep up its peppiness in battle, "It's very bad, Jeremie! I'm almost out of arrows, the telekinesis has completely worn Yumi out, and the more Hornets I kill the more there are!" Priorities were set and Odd was ready at a moments notice to spring from its spot and protect Yumi from the swarm of Hornets that would surely devirtualize them when the rocks fell. For now, all it could do was encourage Yumi, "Yumi, hang in there! We're almost at the other side! Come on, I know you can do it!" Her groans were growing loud enough that concern fell onto its shoulders. It turned around and faced her, halting its rain of arrows on the flying creatures, "No, not now! Concentrate! Give us just a few more seconds!"

A bright light that usually coated the geisha when she activated her telekinesis faded as her last groan fell out of her lips. Her knees quaked before she lost control of them and slumped to the ground. Her breaths were uneven and it looked like she was attempting to sleep on the ground of the Mountain Sector as the rocks from her blockade fell apart around her, "I can't do it Odd... I'm sorry..."

Unsurprisingly, feelings that were unidentifiable festered in its gut, "No no no Yumi, you have nothing to be sorry about." It clambered over to her as the Hornets buzzed around them. Weirdly enough, they gave it a chance to summon up a familiar purple shield around them and it angled its wrists to hover above her while it knelt at her side, "I'm sorry that I hadn't managed to get rid of them all-" Its words died at its lips at the sight of Aelita summoning her own path, walking to the activated tower out in the open.

"Aelita?" It asked, tuning out Yumi's labored breaths and the humming of the Hornets as they started to drift closer. Amber eyes gazed over her and suddenly it was hit with information of fake fake fake. Yumi pulled herself up from underneath it and gently pushed its shield away. It dismissed it, simply watching the fake Aelita use creativity to forge a rocky path.

"It's too soon!" Yumi attempted to yell but it only sounded like a tired comment. It didn't attempt to address the copy any longer, simply doing as what the Hornets did earlier. It watched the clone attempt to make it across, being bullied by the Hornets as it went.

"Well Matt has the chance to tie the score with his penalty shot-!" Everyone erupted in screams and the podcast shut down, likely dropped to the ground... or flying up in the air broken.

It shivered as Yumi continued to try to gather the clone's attention, "Aelita! You're insane!"

"No no no!" Jeremie shouted along, completely fooled.

"I don't believe this... Aelita, stop! Retreat!" Yumi's words were dying on her lips but Odd couldn't bring itself to point out the clone itself. It couldn't for some reason. It only watched as the Hornets continuously shot at her until one finally managed to make her slip up and fall and they quickly went after her falling body to shoot it some more as overkill. Or maybe there was a platform below. It wouldn't know because of the dense fog that always lingered around the Sector.

"AELITA!"

Yumi ducked her head, likely trying to hide the beginning of tears that Lyoko wouldn't let form. It looked over past Yumi and seen the pink elf wink at it and say, "As soon as you're finished crying, just let me know."

Jeremie sounded choked up when he commented again, "Aelita, thank goodness..."

"You were just luring them away!"

Aelita winked once again and it left the program wondering if she too studied a bit of human culture on her off time. It had yet to master the wink, after all. Jeremie ogled over his mic, shouting, "Aelita, you are the greatest!"

"No time to be smooching up to your girlfriend!" Odd replied hastily, ignoring the laugh it drew from Yumi and the spluttering over the com, "Aelita, hurry and deactivate the tower!" As if remembering why she was over here, she immediately took off running past them. Odd flocked behind her and so did Yumi and by the time they reached the tower, Aelita was already in it.

Yumi snidely looked over to him, "Didn't you say she was the slowest?"

Odd decided not to grace that question with a reply. It knew she was just joking, after all. Instead, it looked on as the tower's shade of red faded to that of a beautiful deep blue. Then it continued to watch as Yumi disappeared in a beautiful grace of seafoam green pixels as Jeremie's voice came in and faded with, "Return to the past now!"

A few minutes after those words, the program took to adjusting its sound to hear from both ears again. Aelita stepped out of the tower and stared at it for a second, asking, "Did your coding tell you that clone was a fake?" It nodded, mulling over the idea to use the reset tower as a way to a different sector. It could only stand the dark and murky colors of the Mountain Sector for so long, "So what were you keen on listening to back there?"

It felt its fur bristle at that comment, "What are you talking about?" It kept its voice flat, using all the notes it gathered from the internet on deceiving and lying. What it had learn may as well be useful here, it might be thanking Ulrich after the repeat of his game for making it research this.

Aelita smiled, a small laugh bubbling from her lips, "You're not going to fool me with that attitude. When Yumi and I were talking, you were obviously listening to something else because we brought up your name a few times."

"I was being respectful of your conversation?" It tried.

She giggled, patting the cat's shoulder. Its fur calmed at her touch, appeased with her purify codes leaking over its own temporarily. It took a while for Aelita's annex program to 'clean up', but after deactivating a tower her program would temporarily be exposed before shutting down until re-use, then repeat, "Yumi insulted you twice."

Twitching at that, it then crossed it arms, "I have a secret, can you keep it?" It held out its paw and she gladly shook it, her lovely smile never leaving her face. It was calming enough that the program did not flee into the tower and get lost in whatever sector it lead to, "I uh, I can possess things. Kind of like XANA," Okay, her smile was fading so it had less time to properly explain it. Darn those shows for telling it to get the conversation over with, it was causing a huge problem now! "Okay, not exactly like XANA. The gang knows I can possess their phones and take calls, little things like that. But I can take control of a things like cameras and other electronic devices but I wear out the battery much faster than usual. I don't manipulate it for my own purposes and make it do my bidding, I just use it to appease me. Like for example, there's these reporters at Kadic who record things and replay them for the school to watch. They're call the Kadic News and they have a camera. I took control of it and now I get a feed for it with sound included."

It decided showing was better than telling, so it summoned the camera footage. A dark-skinned girl was fiddling with it, muttering about how she needed to buy a new charger for the machine, "See?" It gestured, nervousness crawling around its digital incarnation.

Aelita placed a hand on her face, sighing, "Oh Odd..."

"I'm not doing anything bad, I swear! I only took control of it for Ulrich's game so I can watch my friend play!" It felt like curling into a ball and hiding away in the Ice Sector. Heck, maybe it would.

"Alright, and after that you'll disconnect from the machinery?" It didn't understand why she was so... agitated, because of this.

It held up its hand in the air, "As humans say, scouts honor!"

She then patted its back, "Alright then." She turned away from it and began to head to the reset tower. There went its plan for using it to head to a different sector.

"Y-...Y-You're not gonna watch with me?"

"No thanks, I'll hear the recap from Jeremie." The pink elf dismissed and escaped from their talk by phasing through the wall of the candle-like tower. It sighed, turning tail and fleeing from the scene on two legs instead of all fours. Maybe it'd locate another tower soon and stay away from Aelita for awhile, well, as long as it can get with XANA lurking over them.

Speaking of XANA, the program halted its run to the nearest tower and watched cautiously as a Blok skittered next to it. It listened to its gauntlets, hearing the whirring sound tell it that it had three arrows left in its right gauntlet and that was it, "Hey Blok-head," It greeted, letting itself slip into a fighting position. Couldn't let its guard down around these things and if there was one, there might be more lingering around it, "The party was over a bit ago, sorry to burst your bubble."

The tan creature stared at it with its eye of XANA, not moving nor firing off one of its many available lasers. After an estimate of three minutes, it decided to wave its other paw at the creature, keeping its gauntlet covered paw raised at the creature, "Hello? Anyone home?"

It continued to stare and Odd decided to humor it, staring back at it. Maybe it wanted to play the human game called a 'staring contest'? After initiating the game, another estimate of five minutes passed along of it taking in the tan squared creature before it blinked and sighed, "Alright, well, I'm just gonna go-"

The Daemon cried out as a laser slammed in its chest all of a sudden, thrown off guard by the speed of it. It gazed over its paws while laying on the grey-purple ground, seeing a bright yellow glow attacking its purple coat before disappearing like nothing had happen. And yet, it wasn't devirtualized like it should have been after running calculations. The Hornets left the program with ten life points and a Blok's laser should have had enough damage to it to devirtualize it temporarily, "That wasn't very nice!" It hissed, springing to its feet and shooting the medium-sized creature.

At least the Blok had the decency of following the usual 'laws' when it came to Lyoko and exploded into red pixels. With its adversary gone, the program started to run diagnostics over its coding. Apparently, the laser had the damage impact of five. It had no other description sadly, but it gained the knowledge that it had five life points left.

Deciding that it would gain no other answers from the sudden attack, it made way to leave and head to the nearest tower. But by then, the little blip of the camera echoed in its head and Milly's commentary filtered in. Abandoning that idea, it plopped down and summoned the screen of the camera to enjoy its best friend playing a good game of football. After all, there was always after the game to check over its codes at the tower.

Yeah, Odd agreed to just do that as the whistle blew and Ulrich went to work to win the game for his team.