Chapter 4
"Haah!" Ulrich screamed charging at the tree and threw a punch at the trunk. He reeled back in pain clenching the hand he hit it with.
"I forgot it was a tree." Ulrich said with a grin which quickly changed to a frown, "But how are we going to defeat them?"
"Ulrich, they are trees right? So maybe if we could catch them on fire we could beat them." Sissy pointed out while dodging a branch coming her direction.
"Your right, I'll let Odd and Yumi know since they are outside the trees trapping us." Ulrich said, "Yumi! Odd! Go back to the school and get something to set the trees on fire!"
"Right!" Odd and Yumi said together and Ulrich heard them run off.
"We'll just have to hold them off until they get back here, just try to dodge any attacks they throw at you." Ulrich said ducking from a branch swinging over his head.
At the factory Jeremy and Zac were still trying to contact Aelita.
"So where do we shut Xana down?" Zac asked looking around the room.
"The switch is in a different room." Jeremy said still trying to gat a hold of Aelita.
"So why are we in here?" Zac asked.
"I have to ask Aelita if she can find a link between Poliss and Xana and we can't shut Xana down until I can virtualize Aelita" Jeremy replied.
"Do you have to virtualize Aelita? I mean if we don't shut Poliss down he could end up destroying the Earth." Zac said, "For all we know Aelita may be Poliss but as a virtual character waiting until you can bring him to Earth."
"Poliss is not controlling Aelita!" Jeremy shouted spinning his chair around.
"How do you know? You didn't even know about Poliss until I told you!" Zac said starting to shout too.
"I know a lot more about Aelita than you do!" Jeremy said not knowing Aelita had finally answered back to him, and that she was listening to him fight with Zac.
"How can you be so sure, Poliss could have just acted all nice and lied about everything she told you." Zac yelled. Jeremy hesitated for a moment and started to say something but stopped.
"So you believe him, Jeremy?" Aelita asked after about five minutes of silence.
"No…I, Aelita…" Jeremy stuttered as Aelita left without saying another word.
"…See what you did!" Jeremy yelled, "You made her think that I believed you!"
"I'm not the one who didn't fight back." Zac said.
"You're the one who said that Poliss was controlling her in the first place!" Jeremy shouted tears starting to come from his eyes. "Now she may never talk to me again!"
"I was just trying to help." Zac said.
"You've helped enough; I think my friends and I can handle it from here, just leave." Jeremy said sitting back in the chair.
"Jeremy, I…" Zac started to say but was cut off.
"I said leave!" Jeremy shouted and Zac left without another word. Jeremy spent the next few hours trying to get Aelita to come back and explain everything.
Sissy and Ulrich were still trying to defend themselves from the trees. A large branch had hit Sissy in the side and she slammed into another tree and fell to the ground. She got up and saw Ulrich narrowly dodge a branch coming his direction. She looked around for something that may help them until Yumi and Odd got back. She saw to long sticks laying on the ground. She picked one up and tossed the other to Ulrich.
"We can use these to smash the smaller branches!" she shouted up to him as he dodged another branch.
"Good thinking that will at least trim down the number of branches attacking us." Ulrich said smashing to branches at once with his. After smashing 3 branches Sissy heard Yumi and Odd running back shouting for them.
"We have a lighter; it might not work though so we brought some stuff from the chemistry lab." Odd told them while he tried to set one of the trees surrounding Ulrich and Sissy on fire.
"Okay, one of you go to the factory and get on Lyoko. Jeremy is already there." Ulrich said noticing Odd had succeeded in setting the tree on fire.
"I'll go." Ulrich heard Yumi say and then heard her running towards the direction of the factory. The tree Odd had set on fire finally burnt down and Odd ran in the enclosure Sissy and Ulrich had been in.
"Here." Odd said tossing Sissy and Ulrich tools to set the trees on fire. "Use these to catch the trees on fire."
"Um, Odd, did you bring any water or fire extinguishers to put out the fires we start?" Sissy asked looking at the fire spreading that Odd had already started.
"Oh, um I don't think so…" Odd said feeling stupid for not thinking about it.
"Well hurry up and find some nearby. Before the fire spreads to fire that we can't control it." Ulrich said.
"Okay." Odd said and ran off.
"I'll call Zac and ask him if he could find some for us too." Sissy said taking out her cell phone.
"Who's Zack?" Ulrich asked burning the top of a tree.
"I'll explain later." Sissy told him. Zac answered and Sissy asked where he was at.
"I'm next to a fire station." Zac said.
"I thought you were with Jeremy…" Sissy said.
"If you thought I was with Jeremy why did you ask where I was at?" Zac said
"I don't know, but anyway can you grab some fire extinguishers for us? We need them to put out the fires we started trying to defeat the trees." Sissy said.
"Sure…wait we? Who else is with you?" Zac asked.
"My friends Ulrich and Odd they came and helped me Odd is looking for Fire extinguishers and water nearby. Please Hurry the fire is spreading fast!" Sissy said and hung up the phone.
"Is he coming?" Ulrich asked.
"Yeah and he was right next to a fire station too." Sissy said.
"That's convenient" Ulrich said as he dodged a branch that was on fire. Sissy noticed that the trees were now walking into the fires purposely. Sissy tried to think why they were doing it and then it came to her. They setting themselves on fire: so they could burn everything in their path including Ulrich and her.
"Ulrich! The trees are setting themselves on fire on purpose now!" Sissy shouted running away from a nearby tree that was on fire, "They are trying to burn everything they touch!"
"Why are they walking towards the school then?' Ulrich asked.
"They probably think Odd is over there." Sissy said, "I heard Jeremy say that they only attack you guys."
"You're right!" Ulrich said, "Odd must've went back to the school!"
"One of us has got to warn hi-." Sissy began to say but realized they were now surrounded by fire. Everywhere she looked there was a fire, but there was very small paths they could follow.
"Ulrich we have to get out of here!" Sissy shouted and began to cough from the smoke that filed the area, "We need to get to Zac's house, I'll show you where to go!"
"Okay." Ulrich said and was coughing just as much as Sissy. They ran through the parts of the forest that wasn't on fire while dodging falling branches that were on fire. When they were about a mile away from Zac's house they noticed nothing was on fire anymore which meant that the trees had either not reached that part yet or they weren't coming this way. They got to Zac's and Ulrich began looking for a fire extinguisher as Sissy started to fill buckets with water.
"At least if it catches on fire over here we have water." Sissy said.
"Yeah…" Ulrich said, "Odd and the school!"
"What about them?" Sissy asked as she filled another bucket.
"The trees are heading down there!" Ulrich shouted and darted out the door before Sissy could stop him. Sissy ran outside to try and stop him but it he was already gone. She looked around one last time and noticed fire surrounding Zac's house. The trees had found her.