Just a warning, there is a bit of foul language in this chapter.
Jeremie felt his head pounding and felt like he'd been crushed by a giant invisible tsunami. His eyes were closed, and his body was limp but he was starting to come back into consciousness. He could hear people's voices around him, panicked, scared, and he heard Jim Morale's voice ordering the girls back to their rooms.
Jeremie felt himself being flipped over and picked up by a pair of strong arms. Someone took his hand as he was taken from where he had been lying face down from Odd's attack. He opened his eyes, squinting at the light and the breeze stinging his eyes as he was carried to what he presumed would be the infirmary. He looked to see who was with him, it was Sissi. Jim was the one carrying him, of course.
"Sissi…" Jeremie whispered. Sissi smiled grimly and squeezed his hand. "Where –"
"Odd took Aelita. Ulrich's going now with Yumi to try to stop him." She said quietly. Jim wasn't paying attention to them, focusing more on getting Jeremie to the infirmary quickly. Jeremie tried nodding, feeling as though his head weighed a ton.
"What happened? Why am I so beaten and you aren't? We both were hit," Jeremie asked. He remembered everything up until Odd's blast hit him.
"Well Odd managed to send you flying through the doors that lead to the stairwell. As for me I just flew into the wall. You fell down three floors worth of stairs." Jim started paying attention, then. He looked down at Jeremie as Sissi opened the door to the building where the infirmary was for him.
"Does anything feel broken, Jeremie?" Jim asked. "That was really something… out of this world!"
They entered the infirmary then and Jim laid Jeremie out on the bed. Jeremie tried moving each part of his body. He felt an intense pain when he tried moving his right ankle and pointed that out.
The nurse asked what had happened, Jim tried to explain it but she looked at him as if he had two heads. She called the principal and looked to Jeremie to explain for himself, choosing to ignore Jim's ridiculous stories.
"I'm going to try to join the others to help. We will call you if we can," Sissi whispered to Jeremie. "Just rest, we'll get her back." She backed out of the infirmary and raced out of the building before anyone could stop her to interrogate her. She took the shortcut through the gym and headed to the factory. She found Yumi at the controls.
"What's going on?" Sissi asked, catching her breath from the run.
Yumi bit her lip. "I virtualized Ulrich to chase after Odd and Aelita. It looks like Odd is taking her to the heart of Lyoko… Are you ready to go in after them?"
Sissi nodded and Yumi started typing. Jeremie had shown all of them how to work all of the virtualization, devirtualization, combat gear, vehicles, and he showed them how to virtualize people directly into sector five
"How's Jeremie?" Yumi asked, her voice drenched in concern.
"Looks like his ankle is at least sprained, he's in the infirmary and Jim is freaking out. I think we'd better sort this out and go back in time," Sissi informed Yumi and the Asian girl nodded.
"Okay, I virtualized our rides. Because Odd can manipulate the overboard for some reason, you're riding with me. I started the delayed virtualization, I just hope I did it right… With any luck we'll be virtualized right into sector five."
The two girls raced down to the scanners just before the doors closed in on them. Sissi closed her eyes and when she opened them, she found herself ascended in the air in a blue dome. She looked down to see the eye of Xana designed on the floor. She and Yumi landed as gracefully as possible and hopped onto Yumi's Overwing. They took off when the passage opened up and waited while the sector began taking shape for them.
The room was just a wide open, empty space. There were ledges further up but nothing else. So far there didn't seem to be any traps set up. Yumi spotted the mechanism on the other side of the room, on the wall near the ceiling. She glanced around to see if any Creepers had shown up yet and didn't see any; she took off to set it off before any Creepers had the chance to stop her.
Sissi kept herself busy monitoring the room for Xana's monsters. She did see some creatures crawling into view from the high up ledges. Sissi called for her batons and began taking them out, one by oone, slowly. She was just starting to get used to keeping her balance with no hands when a surprise creeper attack knocked her off the Overwing. Sissi landed with a less than graceful flip and threw her arms out to balance herself on the ground. Yumi slowed down slightly to look back to make sure Sissi was okay before continuing on to beat the clock.
On the ground, Sissi engaged in close combat with two creepers that were crawling into the room. Using her batons as Sai daggers, she defeated them and managed to fling one of them at a Creeper on a ledge that was shooting at Yumi. Sissi looked just in time and noticed that the floor had been giving away without her notice and she was currently right at the edge, she took off for stable ground and waited for Yumi to set off the mechanism.
Just in time, Yumi set it off and the ground reset itself. Sissi tentatively stepped out and followed Yumi to a newly open corridor. Yumi dipped down close to Sissi and she hopped back onto the Overwing.
"Watch your life points. I think creepers take out twenty at a time so I think I'm down to 80," Yumi said to Sissi, who counted in her head how many times she'd been hit.
"I've got 60 life points left if you're right," Sissi responded. Yumi nodded and they rode on, not seeing any monsters.
"Things are quiet.." Sissi noted after a few minutes.
Yumi gasped, "No there not. Look up ahead!"
Sissi looked to see Ulrich holding his own against seven Creepers and a Manta. Yumi pulled the overwing up so the girls could get a good visual before joining Ulrich.
"Yumi, fly over the Manatee monster," Sissi suggested, not knowing yet what the Warriors were calling it. "I want to try something," Sissi finished. Yumi did as she was asked and Sissi jumped off, calling her batons again and landing on the Manta's back. Caught off guard the Manta moaned and tried shaking her off. Sissi kept her balance and slashed at the Manta's back. She jumped off just as the beast exploded and took out a creeper on her way down. She landed beside Ulrich, who gave a quick approving glance before he destroyed another Creeper before he was devirtualized by a different Creeper.
"Sissi you're really catching on fast," Yumi praised. She took out two creepers with her fan, leaving three creepers to deal with, and an Odd to catch up to.
Sissi smiled at the compliment but wasted no time cutting into the creepers. She got rid of two and Yumi took out the last one. "They might be really ugly but they're really easy to get rid of, so it balances out." Sissi said as she and Yumi stood in the middle of that room.
"Ulrich!" Yumi called after a minute. "Are you there? Where to next?"
"Core of Lyoko. Sorry I had to leave before the real show started," his voice called down to them from nowhere.
"Call Jeremie," Sissi told him as Yumi led them out to the edge of the sector. On the Overwing she took them down to an entrance that opened and closed rapidly. Yumi brought them through at the right moment and Sissi took in her new surroundings.
"It was a giant room - one where toward the top of the room, in the center, a large blindingly white sphere rested, floating. Also, there were four Creepers, Three Manta, and one Scyphozoa. Odd was carrying Aelita to the horrible beast and Sissi could see and hear her squirming and crying to Odd to let her go.
"We need to move. I have a feeling Xana wants Aelita to destroy the heart of Lyoko," Yumi breathed as she and Sissi sped upward on the Overwing. Sissi saw there was a blocky, uneven path that spiraled up, but figured she'd stay on the Overwing until need be.
"If Xana has Odd and Aelita under his control… I don't think I need to tell you what will happen." Ulrich warned.
"We get it," Sissi snapped as the Overwing devirtualized. She found the source of the attack and jumped for the Manta, while Yumi managed to grab onto a block of the path. Yumi started up the path, taking aim with her fans and attacking a nearby Creeper as she went.
Sissi decided to try her attack from the last Manta she destroyed. She figured her attack would go as swiftly as it did last time but she was wrong. This Manta shot upward and Sissi had to fight to stay on top of the beast. It started spinning and jerking to make her ride a rough one. She finally managed to dig her baton into the eye and jumped off, barely making it onto the path, near the top where the Scyphozoa and Odd were. She looked to see where Yumi was and saw she was further down, still dealing with the Creepers.
Sissi grimaced, seeing that Odd had handed Aelita to the Scyphozoa and was now coming to face off with her. "Ulrich! What should I do?"
"Get Aelita away from the Scyphozoa before Xana can possess her. Or else, it's all over!"
Sissi nodded. She calculated how she could do this tactfully. She knew Odd would try deflecting any of her attacks aimed for the giant squid monster. She came up with a plan that she hoped couldn't fail.
She made a run for an oncoming Manta and leapt on. She sent one baton flying at Odd, and while he was busy blocking that move, she hurled the second baton at the Scyphozoa. It cut through both of the tenticles it had around Aelita and Sissi jumped off of the Manta, catching her Baton and deflecting the creature's attack as she landed, less than gracefully.
"Sissi, you little shit!" Odd hissed at her, charging and bounding off of the ledge he was on to assault her.
Aelita woke up just then, still under her own control. She got in front of Sissi and deflected Odd's attack with two energy fields. The two girls stood face to face with Xana's Odd. Who had his paw up, ready to send laser arrows their way.
"Odd," Aelita said softly. "Odd, please."
Sissi wasn't quite sure of what to do here. She knew she needed to get rid of Odd, but she also didn't know if devirtualizing him was the way to do it. She stood guarded beside Aelita, calling upon the second baton that Odd had obliterated when it hit him. That was an upside to her weapons, she could rematerialize them even if they are destroyed.
"Aelita, please," Odd mocked, standing in a dominating offensive position.
"Odd, you must stop obeying Xana… we're you're friends," Aelita pleaded.
"Friends? You guys did nothing but belittle my ability," Odd said angrily. He looked to Sissi. "and this bitch caused nothing but problems. I don't understand why she's here at all."
He took aim and fired at Sissi. Luckily for Sissi, Yumi approached just in time. She tried deflecting his attack with her fans and ended up getting herself devirtualized instead.
"Odd, you're stronger than Xana!" Aelita tried again. She took a step toward him. Sissi was still a little shaken by Yumi rescuing her and didn't notice. "You're a Lyoko Warrior, vowed to take Xana down, not help him succeed!" Aelita continued.
Odd felt a small confliction at this statement. He remembered the week when Jeremie discovered Lyoko. Ulrich had accidentally led Odd and Sissi to the factory and he'd been the first to visit Lyoko. He remembered how cool it all was.
He also remembered their pact to defeat Xana. His head began to hurt and he flinched, still holding his offensive position.
Aelita saw this moment of altercation within him and approached him, taking one of his black paws in her hand, lowering his other arm and holding it softly. She looked into his eyes, willing him to break away from Xana, begging even…
Xana saw this moment of weakness as well. "Devirtualize her now!" He commanded.
Odd shook his head slightly, wanting to refuse. He felt his body quake as he moved his arm slightly and obeyed Xana's command. Aelita felt the blow from a close up laser arrow to the belly and saw the pain in his eyes as she pixelated and disappeared in a flurry of a million white squares. Odd took Sissi out next and watched her devirtualize after Aelita.
Odd couldn't help it but he kept remembering the old times, his old life with his friends. He didn't hate any of them, he adored them, each of them. He even liked Sissi to an extent. He felt the flooding of memories being interrupted. Odd felt a horrible war being waged in his head and wasn't sure which side to fight for. It was Odd Versus Xana and he knew he had to fight for himself, and for his friends.
"I'm a Lyoko Warrior, vowed to stop Xana," he said finally. "Xana get the fuck out!"
~Author's Notes~
So there you go~ I'm kind of proud of this chapter… I know it isn't the best, and again, I really think I stink at action scenes. Either way I think this is one of my favorite chapters.