Chapter 6: Xana Loses One of His Toys
Maverick struggled to focus on his math test, a subject which he was decent at. Just because he had what could be called superpowers did not mean he was superhuman, in fact maintaining the energy levels in his cells to keep his powers stable was sometimes a burden. That however, wasn't the only thing distracting him, his mission with the group, rarely ever, if not never, left his mind.
"Done," he grunted slamming his pencil on the table. He had been the third to finish the test, Jeremie and Aelita being the first two.
Maverick stood up, walked over to the teacher's desk, and put his test on it before walking out into the hall where Jeremie and Aelita were waiting for the others to finish.
In couple of days that followed, Jeremie, Aelita and Maverick had each taken up a specific task that had to do with their mission. Maverick, after being taught be Jeremie on how to use the Supercomputer was searching through the restricted access files for Franz, Jeremie, after being taught by Maverick on how to use Maverick's super laptop the Prototype ZX81, was using the mini-supercomputer to hack into restricted government sight to learn more about the men in black and possibly, where Maverick's parents and Aelita's mother were being held. Aelita meanwhile had been scanning with the internet with Jeremie's computer to figure out how many supercomputers Xana had retaken. The rest of the gang meanwhile had been thinking of new designs for vehicles since the original three would not be sufficient for the eight people that went to Lyoko.
As for the results of these missions Jeremie had been completely unsuccessful in his. Maverick, although he had found the program containing Franz Hopper, had not found a way to bring him back onto Lyoko, even with Jeremie's help. Aelita's task had turned out the most surprising for it seemed that Xana had only reclaimed 3 supercomputers, bringing a total of only 13 supercomputers under his control, including the ten he disconnected from the internet. This worried the entire group because it meant that Xana was working on something else that he found to be more important than reclaiming his toys.
"What's the plan for today Jeremie," whispered Maverick when he got close enough to Jeremie and Aelita.
"Well," whispered Jeremie, "Seeing as how my attempts to find your parents have failed, we should probably try to take control some supercomputers, the mountain replica would be a good place to start."
"Let's just hope Xana forces aren't as powerful this time," replied Maverick.
"I doubt Xana will have enough energy to create as many monsters as he did on our last visit," said Aelita, "Given that he has only 13 supercomputers under his control at the moment, the large amount of monsters he created was probably from a surplus of stored energy that he gathered before we activated the multi-agent system."
"Which means," said Jeremie, "That we need to start taking control of supercomputers while Xana is still weak. Given that he wasted his surplus of leftover power in trying to attack us, he probably won't be able to do much against until he gets some of his old supercomputers back."
"And that's assuming," added Maverick, "That Xana doesn't have a secret weapon up his sleeve."
As soon as Maverick finished his sentence his eyes turned red and slid out of focus as he began to collapse on the ground and convulse violently.
"Maverick!!!" Jeremie and Aelita shouted as they ran over and tried to help him up. After a few seconds Maverick's convulsions stopped and he stood up.
"I should have warned you about," said Maverick as he stood up to see Jeremie and Aelita looking at him in worry. "It happens every time my powers enter a regenerating phase."
"I thought all you had to do too regenerate your powers was absorb ambient energy," asked Jeremie.
"No," Maverick replied, "That's recharging. There's a difference between regenerating my powers and recharging my powers. Recharging is when I absorb ambient energy to act as the fuel for my powers. Regenerating is a phase that I go through every few days that gives me some of my old powers back. The powers I just gained are what appear to be temporary super strength and the ability to teleport directly into and out of Lyoko instead of using the scanners."
"Do these regenerating phases hurt you at all," asked Aelita who was still worried.
"No," replied Maverick, "Although it looks bad it doesn't hurt or injure me."
"That's good," sighed Jeremie, "You really gave us quite a scare."
The bell rang and the students began pouring out of their classes. Aelita, Jeremie, and Maverick waited for the other Lyoko warriors to come out of the math class. Once the whole group assembled with William and Yumi, Jeremie told them the plan and they headed off to the factory.
***
Transfer, Scanner, Virtualization
Odd, Aelita, and Ulrich appeared in sector 5 and waited for the others to come, seconds later Yumi, William, and Sissi were virtualized, followed by Sam and Maverick.
"Alright everyone, you know the drill," said Jeremie over the intercom, "Head for the Skid and I'll energize you."
The Lyoko warriors headed out of the central chamber and walked over the elevator that went up to the Skid. The elevator came down and screeched to a halt as the group stepped on. After a few seconds the elevator shot back up to Skid's garage where the group stepped onto their teleportation pads.
"Energize," Jeremie muttered, and the Lyoko warriors were teleported into the navskids while Aelita was teleported into the captain's compartment.
***Meanwhile at Xana's Palace
Xana was sitting on his throne in front of his control screen. He had spent most of his time since his last encounter with the Lyoko warriors, building and perfecting his new monster, the Dark Schypizoa.
Xana was making the finishing touches on his program when an alarm started beeping from his control screen. Xana tapped the alarm icon and was seriously annoyed when a screen came up showing the Skid traveling toward his mountain replica.
"Relentless little brats," he muttered to himself before opening another screen and entering what appeared to be a phone number, "Time to launch a counter attack."
***
Taelia was in her room reading one of Milly and Tamiya's latest reports. From what she could tell, the two reporters had little information about this Maverick person and they had apparently not given him an interview yet like most of the other students at Kadic. Talia was about to turn the page when her phone rang.
"Hello," answered Taelia in her annoyed voice.
A deep voice answered with the words, "My queen, your assistance is needed."
Taelia jumped up excited and continued speaking, "Xana, master, what going on, you sound upset."
"Our enemies our attacking one of my bases on the internet my Queen," Xana replied, "I need you to attack Jeremie. Without him, it will take longer for our enemies to destroy my base and it may give me enough time to complete and launch my new project."
"I am on my way," said Taelia as she was about to exit her room.
"Wait, you must not attack in your present form my queen," said Xana over the phone, bringing Taelia to a halt.
"What do you mean master," replied Taelia.
"If you attack in your present form then our enemies will know of your alliance to me and now is not the time to reveal your allegiance," Xana said in a worried tone. "In order for you to remain unsuspicious in their eyes, I will have to activate one of my 'weapons.' This will, unless they deactivate it, fuse part of my mind with yours and replace your pupils with my symbol. This will lead them to think that I possessed you and that you had no part in the attack. Once our minds merge, I will have command of your vocal chords so that I can speak to them through you, making it even more apparent that you are innocent. Once our minds our fused however, we will both use your own body and powers, along with the assistance of my energy, to attack them. But be warned, if they deactivate the thing that fuses my mind with yours and you still attack them, than they will realize that you are helping me. Therefore if you feel my presence leave you, then you must use your own powers to make yourself faint, it often happens when I leave one of my hosts."
"Understood my lord," replied Taelia, "But what do I need to do in order for you to fuse with me."
"Hold still," replied Xana. And as soon as he finished speaking a black mist came out of an outlet in Taelia's room and engulfed her. Taelia shuddered for few seconds and closed her eyes. When she reopened them, they displayed the symbol of one of the world's greatest evils. With her mind successfully linked to Xana, Taelia sped off toward the factory.
***
Just as the Skid was docking itself to a tower in the Mountain replica, the superscan went off in front Jeremie.
"Um... Guys, we have a small problem," Jeremie said over the intercom.
"Why, what's wrong," asked Aelita.
"Xana has just activated a tower on Lyoko," replied Jeremie, "I'm not sure if it's meant to get us away from the Mountain replica or whether it's a serious attack."
"Do you think we should deactivate it just in case," asked Sissi.
"Not at the moment, but I'll let you all know if see any sign of Xana's activity on earth," replied Jeremie, "For now let's take control of this supercomputer."
"Who are you going to send?" asked William.
"I'm going to send Aelita, Sam, and Sissi this time," said Jeremie, "Both Sam and Sissi have proven themselves to be good fighters but they have no experience in using their Lyoko forms in the real world. As for Aelita, she is the only one of you, except for maybe Maverick, who has enough computing experience to rewire the supercomputer for our own use."
"Maverick and I don't have much experience with our Lyoko forms in the real world either," said William.
"I know," replied Jeremie, "But you and Maverick have the strongest Lyoko powers, so you'll be needed if the Schypizoa shows up, however I promise I'll find a time where you two can be sent to the real world as well."
"Sounds good to me," said Maverick as he, William, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi jumped out of there Navskids.
"Okay, I'll start the procedure," said Jeremie, "Teleportation Aelita, Teleportation Sam, and Teleportation Sissi."
The three girls appeared about 50 meters away from an imposing-looking building.
"Wow Jeremie," said Sam, "You sure got us a lot closer to this place than you did with Odd and Ulrich."
"It's a lot easier on my end now that the blizzard is passed," replied Jeremie, "Enter the door in front of you and take a left, I'll direct you further from there."
Aelita, Sam, and Sissi followed Jeremie's directions and led them toward the supercomputer.
"Alright," said Jeremie, "The supercomputer should be past a large metal door down the hall to you right, once you get there, Aelita should be able to use digital powers to reroute the supercomputer so I can program it for...."
But before Jeremie could finish his sentence, the warriors in the real world and on the mountain replica could hear an unpleasant sound coming over the intercom. First was Jeremie's scream, then it sounded like a person was getting pummeled, followed by and electrocuting sound.
Ulrich jumped into his navskid and opened a communication link before saying, "Aelita, this is Ulrich, continue rerouting the supercomputer, we'll deal with whatever is attacking Jeremie."
"Got it," said Aelita, before Ulrich cut off the link and jumped back out of his navskid.
"Looks like we know what Xana activated a tower for," said William in an annoyed voice.
"Yeah," replied Odd, "And one of us needs to go help Jeremie, but I'm pretty much useless when it comes to fighting hand to hand in the real world."
"What we need," said Ulrich, "Is someone who can actually fight a Xanafied person instead of just leading them away from Jeremie and then dodging them."
Odd, William, and Ulrich immediately looked at Maverick.
"Maverick what's the status on your powers right now," asked Ulrich.
"Fully charged," replied Maverick, "Are you going to send me to help Jeremie."
"Looks like it," muttered Ulrich.
"Alright then," said Maverick. "Odd, shoot me."
"Shoot you, but you've haven't done anything to me to deserve that," Odd joked.
Maverick rolled his eyes and turned to William
"William," said Maverick, "Imagine that I am Xana and I'm about to possess you agai..."
Maverick was unable to finish his sentence as William replied by smashing his sword into Maverick's face with enough force that Maverick actually slammed into the inside wall of the scanner when he materialized.
While the girls where rerouting the supercomputer and Ulrich, and while Odd, and William were waiting for Xana to show his ugly face, Maverick jumped out of the scanner climbed up the ladder into the control room. Once in the control room, Maverick saw Taelia crouching over Jeremie, her eyes replaced with the symbol of Maverick's enemy. Taelia had her hand raised, holding a sharp piece of metal with which she was about deal the final blow to Jeremie. Maverick noticed the imminent danger and ran forward, grabbed onto Taelia's arm, and teleported. Maverick and Taelia reappeared about 1 mile above the factory, upon which Maverick let go of Taelia and teleported back to the factory. When Maverick reappeared he noticed Jeremie lying in where Taelia had been about to kill him and he was out cold. Maverick used his powers to X-ray Jeremie's skeleton and found that Jeremie's right arm, left leg, and several ribs were broken. To top it all off Jeremie head had been given a massive concussion and if Maverick didn't do something quickly, Jeremie would die.
"I'm going to need more energy to successfully heal this," muttered Maverick as he yanked a cable out of the supercomputer.
Maverick examined the sparking end of the cable, it had would give him all the energy he needed to maintain his powers while healing Jeremie as well as provide a quick recharge.
"I hope this works," muttered Maverick as he stabbed the cable into the back of his spine and felt the energy surge through his body.
Maverick's eyes glowed red as he accessed his powers and held his hand an inch from Jeremie's face. Maverick's powers quickly and efficiently realigned and repaired Jeremie's brain cells. As soon as his brain cells were repaired, Jeremie woke and began to scream in agony as he felt the pain from his broken ribs and limbs. Maverick quickly accessed Jeremie's brain cells and forced them release some adrenaline to ease Jeremie's pain. After a few seconds Jeremie relaxed and looked at Maverick in wonder as Maverick used his powers to mend Jeremie's broken bones. Once he was done Maverick waited a few seconds, absorbing the electrical energy from the computer cable that was still imbedded in his spine. Once he was fully charged, Maverick pulled the cable out of his spine, wiped the blood off of it and reconnected it to the supercomputer.
"Maverick I don't know if I can ever thank you enou--," Jeremie began to say as he got back up, but he was interrupted by a loud thud of something hitting the roof of the factory.
"You can thank me later," Maverick smirked, "Your attacker is back and she going to need a partner to dance with."
"Are you sure your powers are strong enough to take on a Xanafied person?" asked Jeremie.
"Only one way to find out," replied Maverick before teleporting.
***
Maverick appeared on the roof of the factory and looked around. He immediately noticed a pink-haired figure crawling out of an enormous dent in the factory roof. The figure turned around and stared at Maverick, Xana symbols blazing.
"So my old friend," Xana said through Taelia, "We meet again."
"A typical bad-guy saying," replied Maverick, "You're not very original Xana."
"You human's have used up almost every possible idea in your science-fiction stories," said Xana, "Including sentient computer programs. That makes it a little hard for my creations to be original."
"One question though Xana," Maverick asked, "Why do you really want to conquer the world? I know that most of what you said in our last conversation was a lie, so what is it that you really want?"
"There are many things I want," replied Xana, "The most basic of my desires is self-preservation."
"Don't you think trying to conquer the world and enslave humanity will increase your chances of destruction," asked Maverick, "Instead of working in peace with humanity toward a common goal?"
"Humanity has no common goal," replied Xana, "They slow their own development and advancement by allowing members of their species to continue living and consuming resources after they have fulfilled their usefulness. I may desire to continue existing but I would rather die than cooperate with such a weak, stupid, and inefficient species."
"So you think that humanity could improve itself by acting like animals," said Maverick with raised eyebrows, "And kill those unfit for survival."
"Do you really believe that there is a difference between animals and humans," asked Xana in a snide tone.
"I do," replied Maverick, "And I believe that the rest of my friends do as well. Humans are not beasts like Tigers or Wolves in which the males are willing to kill each other for a mate. Humans do not fight like animals in a pack just to prove their dominance. And most importantly, Humans are merciful on the old, weak, and misfortunate. We sacrifice our time and resources to care for each other."
"I find that hardly believable," retorted Xana, "Plenty of members of your race die from genocide and war over petty differences. You humans are not as kind and caring as you describe. Plenty of Humans have been mercilessly tortured and slaughtered by their own species merely because they have a different skin color or because they are of a different race of your species."
"Not all humans are like that," replied Maverick in a calm voice, although he could tell that Xana was getting angry, "In fact many try to put a stop to such evils."
"With ineffective methods," growled Xana, "As I said before, your species in inefficient. You try to convert your enemies instead of annihilating them when they refuse to cooperate."
"That would make us no better than the wicked who we fight," replied Maverick.
Xana, getting angry that he cannot find a hole in Maverick's logic, tries to a different approach."
"I have already offered you many things if you joined my side Maverick," Xana smirked, "I could give you anything you ever wanted, money, power, even Aelita."
The last word of Xana's sentence caught Maverick off-guard.
"How do you know," Maverick asked, surprised that Xana knew about his feelings for Aelita.
"Maverick, Maverick, it wasn't that hard to find out," Xana said in an overly sarcastic tone, "I could easily tell, just after my first encounter with you on my Mountain replica. The look in your eyes whenever you saw her, the tone of voice you used when you wished her luck, and your emotions in general when she was around you."
"How...could anyone...not like her," stuttered Maverick who was more than a little embarrassed that his arch enemy knew one of his secrets.
"Not 'like', 'Love'," interrupted Xana, "I know that your feelings for her are stronger than a flirtatious 'liking someone.' I know that you love her deeply, perhaps even more than Jeremie. I may not be able to read thoughts like you can, but I can easily sense and decipher human emotion."
"How could I not," replied Maverick who was trying to remain calm, "She was the only friend I had up until recently when I joined her group of friends."
"There's more to that and you know it," Xana said in a highly annoying voice, he was thoroughly enjoying Maverick's embarrassment, "You love her for who she is and you know that she doesn't know about your feelings for her."
"And what is wrong with that," spat Maverick, "She's kind, she's intelligent, she's friendly, she's beautiful, and she is Aelita Schaeffer, but I have no need to disturb her, she is happy with Jeremie, and as long as she is happy, I will be happy."
"Well you see Maverick," snickered Xana, "What would happen if she and Jeremie heard this conversation word for word. Jeremie would become jealous and Aelita would be torn between you and Jeremie. My my, if they EVER heard this conversation it would cause a large amount of friction between you, Jeremie, and Aelita."
Maverick stopped and held completely still after a few second he spoke.
"I wondered why you were drawing out this conversation," said Maverick in cold voice, "You did it merely to get me to admit my feelings for Aelita so you could use them against me and my friends."
"All you have to do Maverick," said Xana, "Is let me access your mind and take your powers and this little conversation will never be heard by anyone."
"Over my dead body," snarled Maverick as he prepared to attack.
"As you wish," Xana snickered.
Maverick roared in fury and charged at the possessed Taelia channeling some his energy into a punch which Xana dodged and promptly threw a punch at Maverick which Maverick dodged.
"Why not leave your host and come fight like a man," taunted Maverick.
Xana responded by quickly taking out a knife and slicing it across Maverick's Juncular vein before he could react. Maverick collapsed as blood gushed from his neck and began running down the factory roof for a moment before Maverick used his powers to recollect his lost blood and heal his wound.
"Why not lose the powers and fight like a man," retorted Xana.
"Because two can play the same game," Maverick replied snidely before grabbing Xana's arm and pulling him into a full nelson. (Note whenever I say Xana right now, I'm either referring to Xana who is speaking through Taelia, or Taelia and Xana who are using Taelia's body to fight Maverick) Xana lifted his back foot and nailed Maverick with Taelia's high-heels in a particularly tender aria only found in men. Maverick let go of Xana so he could use his powers to heal the damage and stop the pain. Maverick then grabbed Xana's incoming fist, swung Xana over his head and smashed him through the weakened roof of the factory, and jumped in after him.
***Meanwhile in a Colorado government facility
"All done Jeremie the supercomputer has been rerouted," said Aelita, "It's up to you now."
"All right," replied Jeremie, "Let me install some Xana defense programs. In the mean time I'm going to bring you back to the Skid so you can deactivate Xana's tower."
"How's Maverick holding up against Xana," Aelita asked.
"So far, so good," Jeremie replied, "He hasn't signaled for help, I just hope he can maintain his powers long enough for you to deactivate the tower."
After a few minutes, the entire group, minus Maverick, had gotten back into the Skid and returned to Lyoko. Aelita flew the Skid out of the digital sea of the Desert Sector and docked it to the tower closest to the one Xana had activated.
"Hey Jeremie, we could use some directions," Yumi asked as she jumped out of her Navskid.
"The tower is on the neighboring plateau north northeast," Jeremie replied, "By the way, either Aelita, Ulrich, or William are going to have to use their powers to travel faster since all three vehicles will only be able to seat 6 out of the 7 of you."
"I'll use mine since it's more abundant than Ulrich's and since Aelita will need her wings to help her get to the tower," William replied.
"Alright," said Jeremie, "Here are your vehicles."
When the vehicles appeared Sissi paired up with Yumi on the overwing, Sam paired up with Odd on the overboard, and Aelita paired up with Ulrich on the overbike while William transformed into a puff of silver smoke. The group set off toward the tower and once the tower was insight a very common thing happened, they were attacked by Xana's monsters. Eight hornets appeared out of nowhere and shot towards the warriors. As the hornets approached their heads swelled to twice their normal size. Odd began firing laser arrows at them while Yumi threw one of her fans and Sam tried to shoot them out of the air with her M16. The hornets managed to dodge all of the attack until they about ten meters from the group when they instantly aimed toward Aelita and spewed a wave of acid at her that they had been building up in their heads. Luckily for Aelita Ulrich and the overbike were in the way and Ulrich's sword melted and dissolved as he attempted to block the acid. The acid went right through Ulrich's swords and hit him bringing his life points down to zero within a few seconds. Aelita however, was able to jump of the overbike and landed in front of William. The Lyoko warriors were now about one 60 meters from the tower now and were blocked by two tarantulas, a megatank, and the eight hornets that had attacked them. All of the monsters immediately began shooting at Aelita and would only focus their attacks on the other warriors if it was for self-defense.
"Hey Jeremie," Odd called as he finally managed to take out a hornet with a well-aimed laser arrow, "How come Xana's monsters only trying to take out Aelita."
"Because Aelita is the only one who can deactivate towers," Jeremie replied, "If she's devirtualized, we'll have no way to stop his attack except to wait for her digital form to recharge which takes about an hour, giving Xana plenty of time to continue attacking on earth."
"Isn't Maverick currently fighting off Xana in the factory," Sissi asked as she sent a rain of fireballs down on the tarantulas, destroying them both.
Jeremie's eyes widened as he realized Xana's plan.
"That's it," he shouted.
"What's it," said Yumi as she took two hornets out with her fans while William charged the Megatank with his silver rage activated.
"Maverick," Jeremie replied, "Xana's going to fight Maverick until he's weak enough that he can try and take his powers.
As if on cue, Jeremie (and Ulrich who was standing next to him), received a telepathic message from Maverick that caused three letters to flash in their minds "S...O...S." Jeremie turned to Ulrich and said, "I think your skills in Pencak Silat could be useful right now."
"On it," Ulrich replied before heading toward the elevator.
***
Maverick stood up and brushed bits of concrete off of his shoulder from the wall he had just been smashed into. Over the last ten minutes the tables had been turned and now it was Xana who was giving him a beating. He thought whoever Xana possessed would eventually be knocked out after being beaten up enough, but every time he knocked Xana down he just kept getting up and fighting as viciously as before. What was more, he was almost completely out of the energy for his powers and there was little ambient energy around, except for maybe the heat in the air, to absorb to recharge his powers. The best Maverick could now was dodge Xana and wait for the right moment to strike, but even if he dealt a blow to Xana that would kill a human being, Xana, or Taelia, he had possessed, would just get up again.
"This would be so much easier for both of us if you would just relax and let me take your powers," Xana said as he jumped over a large pile of debris and landed in front of Maverick.
Maverick lunged at Xana who simply grabbed him by the neck and began to repeatedly smash Maverick's face into the floor. Just as Maverick thought he would black out, for he had completely run out of energy and could not heal himself, something hit the possessed Taelia in the back of the head and temporarily stunned her. Maverick looked up to see Ulrich drop a large steel pole and help him up.
"Come on," Ulrich muttered, "Let's get a head start before ugly realizes what happened."
Ulrich and Maverick had only taken five steps when a bolt of Xana's lightning hit them.
"I am no longer amused," growled Xana, and then aiming his electrically charged hand toward Ulrich, "It's time that the Lyoko warriors said goodbye to their best fighter, Ulrich."
"That's a bit harsh Xana," Maverick said as he stood in between Xana and Ulrich, "After all, I'm the one who's been annoying you for the last half-hour."
Xana, who was now seriously ticked off hurled an enormous bolt of lightning at Maverick, which was exactly what Maverick wanted him to do. The bolt flew toward Maverick and Maverick absorbed it, fully recharging his powers and giving him some of Xana's powers in the process. Xana looked in horror at what he had done. Instead of subduing his enemy, his lighting attack had only rejuvenated his enemy.
"Thank you Xana," Maverick snickered, "That was most refreshing. Ulrich, come, let's give our old friend a taste of his own medicine."
"With pleasure," Ulrich replied as he staggered over to Maverick
Xana slowly began to back away as Maverick formed a mind link with Ulrich and channeled power energy into Ulrich's body. Xana looked around for an escape route but there was nowhere to hide and he could do little as Maverick and Ulrich together formed a massive ball of electricity and fired it toward him. The blast was so powerful that it completely obliterated the electro-magnetic specter inside Taelia's body and sent Taelia flying into the wall of the factory.
***Back in the laboratory (or computer control room, I'm not sure what you call it), the group was conversing.
"And then the tower just deactivated itself," whined Odd, "And we were so close to it, all that fighting for nothing."
"Get real Odd," Yumi replied, "After William destroyed the Megatank we still had the Mantas Xana sent out of nowhere to deal with."
"I guess Xana didn't see much of a point in keeping it activated after Maverick and Ulrich destroyed his attack." Jeremie pondered.
"Yeah, how did you do that anyway," asked Sam, "I thought it was impossible to destroy Xana's specters."
"All I know," said Ulrich, "Is that Maverick channeled some of his energy into me and we took out Xana with huge lighting ball."
Jeremie thought for a moment before speaking.
"Well," he said, "Xana's specters are made out a kind of electro-magnetic energy."
"Which means what," asked William.
"Which means," Jeremie replied, "That if you hit a specter with enough electrical energy than it will permanently destroy it."
"Didn't you and Aelita try that with an E.M.P. a while back," Sissi asked.
"Yes we did," Aelita replied, "But I guess it wasn't strong enough to completely destroy one of Xana's specters, it only stunned it."
Just then, Maverick appeared out of thin air from one of his teleports.
"Taelia is in her dorm room sleeping like a baby," Maverick said.
"An annoying, obnoxious baby," Sissi and Yumi said at the same time.
Sam, who was still curious, turned toward Maverick.
"Maverick how in the world did you survive Xana's blast, much less annihilate his specter" asked Sam?
"Elementary my dear Holmes," replied Maverick in a fake British accent, "Xana tried to subdue me with an attack made of pure energy."
Odd snickered at Maverick's imitation.
"So," Sam replied.
"So I absorbed the blast to recharge my powers," Maverick replied," And in the process gained the power to shoot electricity just like Xana."
"But how were you able to give Ulrich the ability to use your powers," Yumi asked.
"That, I'm not sure of," Maverick replied, "I must have gained that power as well when Xana tried to zap me. From what I can tell though, it only works when the person in question is close enough that I can transfer energy into him or her, and that person can only use the same power that I choose to use at that given time."
Maverick turned toward Jeremie a little nervously, not knowing whether Xana shown Jeremie the recording of their conversation yet.
"How did we do on our mission," Maverick asked.
"Great," Jeremie replied, "With this new supercomputer at our disposal, we have doubled our computer power and have weakened Xana. What's more I can now easily create two new vehicles for you guys and with my anti-Xana blocks, it will be really hard for him to get back his supercomputer, or even enter into its data storage."
"That's...great, yeah that's cool," replied Maverick in a nervous voice that Odd easily noticed, "We should probably go back to the dorms now, it's getting late."
"You guys can go," replied Aelita, "Jeremie and I are going to see if there's any of Xana's data left in the supercomputer we just took control of."
"Don't you think you should get some sleep," said Maverick who knew that if Jeremie and Aelita were left alone in the factory then Xana would be sure to show them the conversation.
"Don't worry Mav," replied Aelita, "It's only 9 o clock and Jeremie and I can do fine on only a few hours of sleep."
"Alright," said Maverick, I've done everything I can, he thought, I might as well prepare for the inevitable. I only hope that Jeremie isn't that angry.
Maverick walked over to the elevator with the rest of the group and went up to the factory exit with them. As he was walking across the bridge however, Odd stopped him and waved for the rest of the group to go on before speaking.
"Alright Maverick, what's wrong," Odd asked.
"What do you mean," replied Maverick.
"Don't try that Maverick," said Odd shaking his head, "Ulrich does it all the time and it doesn't work on me."
"What are you talking about," Maverick said, still trying to shake off Odd's concern.
"Look," said Odd, "I can tell something is really bothering you, so save yourself the trouble and just spit it out, I can help."
Maverick thought for a moment. Could he trust Odd with his problem and if so could Odd actually help him?
"Odd, has Jeremie ever gotten really angry at someone when he finds out that they have feelings for Aelita," Maverick asked.
"Well," Odd chose his words carefully for he now understood what Maverick's worry was, "Einstein used to be very protective of Aelita until she got her memory back, and there was that one incident on St. Valentine's day when he completely exploded on me."
"Yeah I heard about that little incident," Maverick said, "Do you think Jeremie has changed or matured concerning this topic?"
"I'm not sure," Odd replied, "Although he didn't flip out when he learned about my 'open mind' plan that fooled Nicholas and Herb."
Odd thought for a moment before continuing, "Do Einstein or Princess know about this yet?"
"No, but thanks to Xana they soon will," Maverick growled.
"How in the world does Xana know about this," Odd asked with raised eyebrows.
"He took advantage of my honesty and recorded the conversation we had before our fight," Maverick scowled, "Then he promised not to play it too Jeremie or Aelita as long as I gave him my powers."
"Ouch," Odd replied, "What was your response?"
"'Over my dead body,'" Maverick quoted, "But I think that only encouraged him."
"Probably," muttered Odd who was now worried for his friend, "I guess the only thing we can do right now is hope that Einstein doesn't try to kill when he finds out."
"I guess," Maverick sighed, "Anyway, we should head back to the dorms it's getting late."
"Agreed," Odd replied, and they both began the walk back.
***Meanwhile in the factory
"Interesting," Jeremie and Aelita said in unison as they looked through the data left in the other supercomputer.
"I can't believe Xana didn't foresee that when he left the supercomputer," Jeremie said surprised.
"Or that we didn't consider the fact ourselves," Aelita added.
"So returns to the past no longer strengthen Xana since he doesn't inhabit the supercomputer that uses them," Jeremie thought aloud, "And he can't do returns in his own supercomputers because he doesn't have the program."
"This will make our job a little bit easier," said Aelita.
"I still can't understand some of these codes that we got though," Jeremie wondered, "The first one looks like battle commands to troops, the second one looks like some sort of upgrade or manipulation program and the third is a direct communication program so that another supercomputer can partner up with the one we just captured to help make new programs."
"We should try out the first one on Xana's monsters in the next fight and see what it does," Aelita said eagerly, "The third set of code will allow a link between our supercomputer and the one we just took control of."
Jeremie was about to respond when a window popped up with a Xana symbol on it and the voice of their enemy came out of the speakers.
"Hello Jeremie," Xana said over the speakers.
Both Jeremie's and Aelita's eyebrows narrowed.
"What do you want XANA," Jeremie snarled into his headset.
"Oh nothing much," Xana replied, "It's just that I had an interesting conversion with Maverick, before our fight and I thought you and Aelita might want to hear it."
Before Jeremie could tell Xana to leave him the Hell alone, Xana had already started the recording.
Recording-
Xana: I have already offered you many things if you joined my side Maverick, I could give you anything you ever wanted, money, power, even Aelita
Maverick: How do you know?
Xana: Maverick, Maverick, it wasn't that hard to find out. I could easily tell, just after my first encounter with you on my Mountain replica. The look in your eyes whenever you saw her, the tone of voice you used when you wished her luck, and your emotions in general when she was around you.
Maverick: How...could anyone...not like her
Xana: Not 'like', 'Love'. I know that your feelings for her are stronger than a flirtatious 'liking someone.' I know that you love her deeply, perhaps even more than Jeremie. I may not be able to read thoughts like you can, but I can easily sense and decipher human emotion.
Maverick: How could I not? She was the only friend I had up until recently when I joined her group of friends.
Xana: There's more to that and you know it. You love her for who she is and you know that she doesn't know about your feelings for her.
Maverick: And what is wrong with that? She's kind, she's intelligent, she's friendly, she's beautiful, and she is Aelita Schaeffer, but I....BZZZZZZZT.
The recording was cut off.
"So Jeremie," Xana said in an annoying voice, "Looks like you'll be up against some serious competition for Aeli..."
Xana however, was unable to finish his sentence as both Jeremie and Aelita unleashed a series of severe curse words at Xana before ending the communication window.
"A typical Xana thing to do," Jeremie, "Trick the nice, honest guy into revealing his secrets and then using them to try to cause trouble among his friends."
"So you're not mad at Maverick," Aelita asked.
"Well first of all we don't even know if the conversation is real," Jeremie replied, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "And even if it is real than I'm not like I used to be. I'm not going to go beat up Maverick because of his feelings for you. Everyone has a right to like someone. Odd liked you until Sam came here."
"That's true," Aelita said, blushing at the thought of Maverick's affection for her being true, "Poor Maverick though, if this conversation did happen and he finds out that we know, then he'll be afraid of you losing your cool on him like you did to Odd on St. Valentine's day."
"Yeah," Jeremie sighed, still angry with himself for that incident, "I should probably go ask Maverick if the conversation is true so that if it is, I can assure him that I'm not angry."
"Agreed," Aelita replied, "I'll see if I can fully translate these codes from my laptop while you start work on the new vehicles, and then we should get some sleep."