Ulrich stared at Odd in shock. He didn't think he would have to witness the horrors of Drain Claw again that soon. He definitely didn't expect to see two monsters get drained at the same time. That made it so much worse. He felt sicker than he did the last time he had witnessed it. Just like before, he found it hard to tear his eyes away. It was so horrifying, yet so hypnotic. He felt sorry for Odd, who had to see it all up close.
He couldn't believe that the Creepers had followed them. He did hear something on their way up, some kind of scraping, but he had brushed it off. He thought it was nothing to worry about immediately. He had been so very wrong. He was thankful Odd hadn't devirtualized himself and he took care of those Creepers, even if their deaths were one of the sickest things he's ever seen.
He looked over at Yumi. She hadn't said a word. She was still staring in Odd's direction. He looked to see where her eyes were focused. They were locked onto Odd's claws, now shimmering a deep blue, filled with the monsters' source codes. He thought he could see Yumi trembling, but maybe he was just imagining it.
Yumi had told him after the first use of Drain Claw how creeped out she was by it. She couldn't believe Jeremie would design such a program. Ulrich doubted that Jeremie knew the effects of the attack other than the source code drainage. He didn't really blame him for creating the program. They did kind of need it. He also couldn't really fault Yumi for being squeamish. It would be hard to get used to these deaths. Yumi wished she could unsee what she did with the Block.
Aelita shared her sentiments. She was even more disturbed by it. Ulrich deduced it was because she grew up, a sense, on Lyoko. She spent ten years on it. The monsters were almost her neighbors. Hostile, murderous neighbors, but still neighbors nonetheless. To see them get deformed and mangled like that, it wasn't something she felt she could handle. Ulrich recalled her being particularly squeamish when Jeremie unleashed Marabounta on XANA's monsters. And Marabounta's attacks were a walk in the sunshine compared to Drain Claw.
Ulrich couldn't help but shudder when he saw something flash in Odd's eyes. He saw a brief look of twisted satisfaction reflect in them. It was gone as soon as he saw it. He thought at first he imagined it, but he saw Odd's look of fear. Brief, but it was there. Odd knew he felt satisfaction from the monsters' deaths.
The thought disgusted him. He refused to believe his best friend would get a kick out of something like this. It was sick. It was twisted. It was vile, and so many other negative words Ulrich could think of. Perhaps he was due for another talk with Odd. He wondered if his nightmares would shed any light on this. Just what has Odd been dreaming about?
He looked over at Aelita. She was still looking through the data. He didn't know how long she had before more monsters came. He hoped XANA wouldn't make a move until they were ready to leave. He really didn't want to see Odd use Drain Claw again. Not today.
sss
"So this is the sample from Odd Della Robbia?" A man asked, frowning at a vial of dark red blood.
In front of him stood Nurse Yolanda. She had went over to the hospital to drop off the blood. She watched as the man investigated the vial, tilting it from side to side and watching it slide. The blood drained slowly from side to side.
"Yes." Yolanda said. "I need to have some tests run on it. Something is not right with the boy's blood. I was hoping you could study it and give me your informed opinion."
The man asked, "Why do you think something is wrong? The blood seems normal. Okay well not totally normal. It's thicker than usual. But that's all I can see."
Yolanda shook her head. "I took blood out of Odd's fingers. Pricked them. The blood should be a much lighter color. It's only dark when the blood is taken from the veins." She frowned at the vial. "Blood as dark as that," she pointed at the vial, "shouldn't come out of a tiny cut in the finger. It should be bright red."
"Ah I see." The man nodded and walked away.
He went up to his desk. Books lined it, most of the dusty from lack of use. On one shelf, there were rows of different blood vials. He took out a marker and wrote down Odd's full name on the vial and put down a code on it. He set it down next to the other blood vials.
"I will run tests and I will call you when I have something." The man said.
"Thank you." Yolanda said. She turned and left.
sss
Aelita looked through the different windows that popped up. Data lined all of them, floating in front of her like it was in water. She frantically searched around for any information at all on Therizino. There were no monsters around, but she sensed more were going to come. It wouldn't be long now before a group would show up and start attacking. Odd's Drain Claw couldn't be used that quickly; it took time, and when the monsters find out how big of a threat he was, they would focus on him and devirtualize him.
She had to hurry. She wanted to find the information so badly. But it didn't seem to be here. She was finding nothing. Maybe XANA really did store the information only in one computer. And if that was the case, there were only two reasons she could see him doing this.
The first reason: A security measure. He may have worried that they would try to hack information regarding Therizino to find a way to stop her. Locking the information up in one location could be considered a fail safe of sorts. It would make it harder to find the information.
And the second reason: XANA considered Therizino a failure the entire time. Maybe XANA was never happy with Therizino and just let her run amok since she wasn't screwing up any of his plans. He wasn't doing any attacks at the time anyway, so nothing to ruin. Maybe he didn't want to create anoture failed experiment and thus never bothered to back up her information.
Regardless of which reason it was, Aelita knew one thing. If any of those two turned out to be true, she and the others could just kiss finding Therizino's data goodbye. She began to wonder if this was all a big waste of time. Maybe she should call Jeremie and tell him to bring them in.
Then finally she found something. Hidden deep in the data was a folder. The icon was so small, almost invisible. She clicked on it and a single text file appeared. It was not the source code she was hoping for. But it might actually help them out. She read through it briefly.
Her eyes widened. A small smile appeared on her face, although she appeared slightly shaky. Yes, this would help. But she wasn't sure if she wanted to read it. The information was regarding how Therizino was created. It detailed how XANA got a hold of part of a human mind and use it to help create Therizino. She didn't want to read about that. She turned her head away. No, she wouldn't read it. Jeremie might be able to handle it better on an emotional level. And she'd never show Odd it, not after what happened to him.
She forced herself to look back. She pressed a few buttons, initiating a file send sort of transfer. "Jeremie, I am sending you the data."
"I am on standby." Jeremie said.
Aelita pressed one more button. The information she found started to send to Jeremie. She hoped the information she found was helpful in the end. She hoped that they could figure out how to stop these monsters from getting more powerful. She hated to think of what would happen if they were too late.
"Okay, Aelita. I got the data. Thank you."
Aelita simply nodded in response and said in a very soft voice, "No problem, Jeremie."
Then she heard scraping sounds. Her eyes widened. She flipped her head to the right. She couldn't see it, but she heard the sound of another Creeper coming up. And she thought she heard a Manta overhead.
"XANA's sending a couple monsters your way!" Jeremie cried.
"Yes, we can see that!" Ulrich shouted as he readied his sword. "I just hope for one thing."
"And what is that?" Yumi asked, pressing her back against him as they waited for the small group of monsters to get closer.
Ulrich said, "That we don't have to bear witness to Odd's Drain Claw again today. It's too...twisted."
"Don't remind me!" Odd shouted from the distance as he jumped onto the back of a Manta.
