Thank you to my reviewers: Princess Angel Aelita- I'm thinking Scyphozoa but I've got a few different ideas up my sleeves. Dying English- srry I didn't mention you in my last chapter, I appreciate the criticism on hunter and his character I'm working on something for him. Patattack- glad you like it cuz I plan to write more of this story. I don't own Code lyoko, but Hunter Adams belongs to me.
"I'll reprogram Ulrich's weapons, for now I need you guys to get to the edge of the sector so I can send you to Carthage." Jeremie commanded.
Hunter stood confused, then chasing after his fellow fighters. "What's Carthage?" He panted.
"Carthage is where XANA used to live before he went into the network. It contains extra data that isn't completely accessible to us all the time. Whenever we need some data for a program that we don't currently have, we have to go to sector 5 to get it." Yumi explained. The three came to a screeching halt at the edge of the ice block they were on. Within seconds, Ulrich felt weight return to his back.
Reaching his hands back, Ulrich pulled out his twin swords. "Good to be able to use these babies again."
"You guys can make up later, I'm entering the code SCIPIO." The transporter appeared and sliced itself in half as the trio of warriors was carried to the inner network of Lyoko. Within seconds the orb released the three teens as the dome continued to spin around.
"That was awesome!" Hunter exclaimed.
"It was just a ride to Sector 5." Ulrich replied.
"I know, but I love adrenaline from rides and stuff and that was enough for me." Yumi and Ulrich stared at Hunter with a high eyebrow. "Don't worry don't worry. My adrenaline won't affect my a game." He reassured them.
The dome stopped spinning as the entrance appeared to them. "Alright, you've got 30 seconds guys. Now... FIND THAT KEY!" Jeremie screamed.
Ulrich and Hunter raced as the steps continued to form as they sped along. From there, they entered the center of the arena and there sat hundreds of thousands of towers (A/N: the cube towers that they jump on not the towers they use on Lyoko). "Alright look for something that looks like XANA's eye, once you do hit it." Yumi instructed, narrowing her eyes in search.
"Don't worry guys, Aelita's on the way. Odd too." he informed. "For now just clear the way and we'll get this fixed up in no time."
The group continued to search as Hunter saw a creature he'd never seen before. It was a creeper, but nobody told Hunter that. Crawling over to him, the creeper was joined by two more of its kind as they open fired on the black warrior. Hunter took a chest hit and as sent back a few feet. "Nobody told me about those." Hunter groaned as he returned fire.
"It's Lyoko. You should learn to expect the unexpected." Ulrich slashed a creeper in half as Yumi's fans sliced through another one.
Hunter finished the round with a laser in the face of the remaining one. "Guys, you've only got 15 seconds left!" Hunter scanned the room frantically for the eye of XANA. Resetting his laser shooter, he looked to the right and saw what they were looking for.
"There's the key." Hunter ran towards it. Seeing two creepers on the sides firing.
"Five seconds... four... three... two..." Hunter spun his body around and fired his lasers, both directly hitting the creepers. With a little luck, Hunter jumped towards the key and hit it with half a second to spare. Jumping back from the wall, he flipped backwards.
"Nice job Hunter." Yumi commented.
"That was pure luck." Ulrich shrugged.
"Ulrich don't be so gloomy." Yumi argued back.
"No, I'm with Ulrich on this one. The shot was nice, but catching the key was pure luck." Hunter admitted.
"Well either way, nice snag. I just talked to Aelita, she's coming down to the scanner room now." Jeremie smiled.
Aelita walked to an open scanner and waited for the space to enclose her. "Transfer Aelita. Transfer Odd. Scanner Odd. Scanner Aelita. VIRUTALIZATION!" Aelita and Odd felt the accustomed rush and blinding white light. The two dropped to their feet, now surrounded by the uninhabited ice sector.
"Get to the edge guys, I'll enter the code." He instructed.
Odd got a head start as he ran as fast as his cat paws could go. Aelita flashed her hand over her bracelet as her wings appeared on her back and she flew to her destination within minutes. Not a moment after landing, the transport orb swiped through their forms and carried them off to the land that once was the home of the Princess' prisoner.
Both was released from the transporter and the room slowed its spinning to an abrupt stop. Odd felt his usual wave of nausea and raced to the opening. The Princess hurried along as she tried as quick as she could to catch up to her friends. "Alright guys, the others are waiting for you near the arena."
The group turned to see Odd and Aelita racing towards them. "I hope we weren't too late to the party." Odd joked. Everyone gave him a patented eye roll as they hurried along.
"So where's the tower Einstein?" Hunter asked as they rushed along.
"It should be outside the dome and to the right." The group followed Jeremie's instructions and found the tower dead ahead.
The group stopped as Yumi put a hand behind her. "hang on... this is way too easy. Out of the entire area of Sector 5, we only saw three creepers. This is too easy... there's gotta be a trap somewhere."
Everyone looked around and noticed that Yumi was right. The ground beneath them began to collapse as they ran further to the tower.
"No offense Yumi, but I hate it when you're right." Hunter panted. All of them stood merely inches away from the tower that had an eerie glow of red surrounding it.
Creepers soon surrounded the entire group as each warrior fought against a pack of the crawling monsters. Ulrich and Yumi teamed up as they both sliced through the monsters like they were made of paper. Odd and Hunter brought them down teaming up their shooting skills.
Whenever one was destroyed, the group had two more creepers to take its place. "XANA's really going all out on this one. If his security is tough here, what's he doing on Earth?" Hunter thought as he panted to shoot the foul creatures to pieces.
Jeremie thought about that deeply, I tower in sector five but no changes to Earth. He opened a window to check the news, nothing out of the ordinary. No real monster, no bugs, no possessed people, not even a specter of someone they knew. The only guess Jeremie could assume was that maybe the attack was inside Lyoko.
"guys, I've checked the news and there's nothing going on around here. My only words are to be on your guard okay?" He warned them. The other heeded Jeremie's words as the last of the creepers became gushes of parts on the floor.
The warriors panted as they caught their breath. Ulrich was panting the most. "That's gotta be the most monsters we've ever fought at one time before." He said between breaths.
Looking from behind the cubic structure, Aelita saw the fight was over and her friends were victorious. "Good job you guys." she commented. She ran by them all and went to the tower. As she walked to the entrance of the tower, inside was a pile of black smoke at the bottom. Aelita wondered what it could be, her curiosity took control as she felt her feet step closer to the black mystery in front of her.
The smoke rose from the surface and took a form, and the form was of William. Aelita stepped back in fear. William chuckled evilly as he walked over to Aelita. "Come now Aelita. You didn't really think that my master would make this too easy for you now, did you?" He cupped her chin as he spoke. He grabbed her by the throat and threw her out of the tower.
William followed as his sword appeared in a shroud of smoke. "You won't get any of us deleted William." Yumi said as she opened her fans in a battle stance.
William jumped into the air and kicked Yumi back to the ground. Yumi groaned as she tried to get up, but had William's sword pointed straight at her. "Oh dear Yumi, who said anything about deleting you?" Yumi was deeply confused.
William thrust his sword up and hit Yumi. Expecting the pain to be over, Yumi had a thought of relief but her relief was replaced by searing pain. Blood dripped from Yumi's arm as the sword dug deep into her digital flesh.
Hearing Yumi's cry of agony, Ulrich raced and hit William from behind. William was knocked out, Ulrich ran to Yumi and pulled the sword from her arm. Yumi screamed as the sword was removed. "This is the XANA attack, all damage done by William is dealt as actual blows." Yumi limped over to the side.
"Jeremie, you need to bring Yumi in. She's hurt, William's blows deal damage to us in life points and actual injuries." Ulrich pleaded.
'So that's the XANA attack.' he acknowledged. "Alright, I'll bring her in, but you're gonna have to distract William for a little while."
Hunter armed himself. "Guess it's time for round two William."
"Are you crazy Hunter?" Yumi said as she limped to the side. "He tore me apart, and he has a score to settle with you. If this is me, what do you think he'll do to you?"
"Don't worry, he might be strong, but I'm strong and I've still got speed too." Hunter said seriously. 'Hopefully I can devirtualize him first so we can get this over and done with before someone dies.'
Walking over, Hunter heard a groan emerge from William's stricken form. "You're going to pay for that boy." William armed his sword as it glowed. A beam of light flew from the sword, heading for Hunter. Thinking quickly, Hunter spun but it was no use. The beam followed him and struck his leg.
"Is... that... all... you got" Hunter managed to say as he propped himself up and fired. William easily moved out of the way of fire and sliced Hunter's arm on the left. Hunter crawled back to the rest of the gang. He had a sight of relief, as he saw Yumi's form disappear. 'At least somebody's getting away.'
The others also devirtualized, all at the same time. Yumi's scanner opened and she fell to the ground, collapsing form exhaustion. She had wide eyes as she saw her arm, still laced up with tissue and slightly bleeding. "Jeremie." She called up. "Get Hunter out fast, my injury is real! Hunter is still fighting William!" she screamed.
Hunter continued to dodge blows, but his energy was wearing fast ans he kept flipping and spinning away from William's long sword. "Jeremie, I don't know how much longer I can keep this up." he begged.
Hunter backed up his last step, behind him stood the edge of the dome and the digital sea beneath it. "Master XANA will soon make you another of his soldiers." William chuckled. Hunter thought quickly, he had one shot left and it took one left to send William back to his new master.
Aelita was standing in the sideline, Hunter had forgotten all about her and apparently... so did XANA. Hunter yelled at Aelita to go, she did as he commanded. William turned to see her. "MANTA!" he screamed. The stingray-like beast rose from the digital sea and flew over to Aelita. William, distracted by Aelita ad her soon to be victory, was kicked in the face by Hunter.
On his back, William's sword out of his reach. Hunter placed his foot on him and shoot him in the face. William left but not without a trademark trick, as he left he moved his sword over and stabbed Hunter in the heart. Aelita was already in the tower and rising. Hunter choked as blood began to rise from his throat and out of his mouth.
"Hurry Aelita, Hunter is really hurt!" Jeremie yelled to his princess.
Hunter fell to his feet and choked, feeling himself slipping out of consciousness. Aelita placed her hand on the screen. AELITA. CODE LYOKO. The tower was deactivated and the tower returned to normal. "Run a return to the past and quickly Einstein!" Odd begged. Jeremie complied and hit the enter key.
"RETURN TO THE PAST NOW!" he yelled as Earth and Lyoko were engulfed in a white light.
They all rewound night before Jeremie was with the gang in the cafeteria, Yumi at home and Hunter in his room. Everyone immediately, much to Odd's dismay, threw their food away and sprinted to Jeremie's room. Opening the door, the found Hunter asleep on his bed. "Hunter! Hunter wake up!" Ulrich shook him wih no response.
"Call Delmas!" Odd yelled to his genius friend. Hunter's body still had the cuts and bruises, and his heart was repaired... as far as an of them could tell.
Hunter was fully conscious, but unable to move from the pain. His eyes began to shut, and heard an eerie voice in his ear. 'I'll be watching you boy, you may be the new warrior I need.' the voice hissed. With that, Hunter blacked out.
Yes I am that cruel, and to anybody who will ask. The other didn't fight because Ulrich was concerned with Yumi and Odd was out of arrows just so no one thinks that they abandoned Hunter. Aelita just had to be alive to deactivate the tower, now tune in next chapter to find out what becomes of Hunter. Will his Lyoko days be over? Will his REGULAR days be over? R&R and you'll be in less suspense.
