Chapter 10: Two Sides, Same Goal
The sunlight gleamed off of the black hood of Aelita's Camaro as she pulled into the Kadic Academy parking lot. She pulled the top back over the car and got out. She laughed to herself at the ogling eyes of the 9th grade boys that were seated around a tree. She pulled her backpack out of the trunk and locked the car. Despite the fact traffic caused her to be a few minutes behind schedule, she was very chipper.
"Aelita!" Sissi called out to her as she headed to homeroom to get her class schedule. She stopped as Sissi jogged over.
"I already tried going to get my schedule," she explained. "But they said we'd have to wait until after the assembly."
"Where are the others?" Aelita asked.
"Already on their way to the factory," Sissi answered. "The assembly is going to start soon. If we're going to leave, we better do it now." They ran past the crowd of students heading into the auditorium. They rounded the corner around the cafeteria and ran face first into Jim Morales, their gym teacher.
"Stones! Delmas!" he bellowed loudly. "Just where do you think you're going?"
"I, uh, left something at Aelita's house last night, Jim," Sissi replied.
"Well you can wait until after the assembly is over to go get it," Jim said. "You'll have plenty of time before lunch. Now turn around and go to the auditorium!"
"Rats!" Aelita mumbled under her breath as she walked into the auditorium and sat down next to Sissi.
"We can head over there afterwards," Sissi whispered to her. "There will be a long break between this and lunch. I'll send Ulrich a text saying that we'll be late to the party." She pulled out her phone.
"That's disappointing," Jeremie commented, responding to Ulrich's news. He stretched his arms a bit in his chair in the lab. "I guess we can manage without them."
"Of course we can!" Taelia added. She and William stood in the middle of the arena of Sector 5, waiting for Jeremie to virtualize the others.
"Alright then," Jeremie said. "You three ready?"
"Ready," Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich all said in unison.
"Transfer. Scanner. Virtualization!" came Jeremie's voice. "Now head to the hangar bay. It should be in the same place as last time."
"Got it," Ulrich said, Super-Sprinting ahead of the others.
Taelia had never seen Sector 5, or any of the other sectors besides the ice sector for that matter. She was curious about the kind of environment this would provide. She was a little disappointed when she saw the doors at the edge of the arena open up to what looked like a very large, extremely geometrically-shaped, blue maze. She was hoping for something a little more, well, more, especially from of the central sector of Lyoko. She was also getting a little tired of the running they had to do. Why Jeremie couldn't virtualize the vehicles was still unclear to her.
Ulrich then came to a stop just ahead of her, and she stopped running. There was a very large, navy blue thing in the middle of the room. It kind of looked like a track or rail of some sort. The others passed her as they ran towards the edge of the platform. She just followed at a walk, trying to figure out what was going on.
Hearing a noise, she looked up and saw a circular platform-like thing descending along the track from above. Figuring that was what took them to the hangar, she jogged to catch up to the others. They all boarded the "elevator" once it came to a stop in front of them. It wasn't very big, and Taelia felt that fitting Sissi and Aelita on the platform would have been a slight challenge. Soon, the elevator began to rise and went back in the direction it had come from.
The walls suddenly changed to a dark navy blue, similar to the color of the track the elevator followed. Looking up, Taelia saw the underside of the hangar and their two submarines.
Jeremie hadn't been kidding when he had said that the hangar had gotten bigger. It was large before, but now it was massive! It had been expanded to give enough room for the ships to move around, as well as two sets of supports. There was even a tower floating a short distance away from between the two Skids. Ulrich couldn't believe that Franz Hopper had designed a program to do just this! As the elevator's rise began to slow, he got a decent glimpse of the second Skid.
It was of the same design of the first one, with two "arms" sticking out of the side and the majority of the ship being vertical. The first noticeable difference between the two ships was the large metallic shell that appeared to cover the Nav-Skids. The second difference was just simply the size difference between the two. The second one with the shell was about fifty percent bigger than the first one. Ulrich guessed that if the Nav-Skids on the second ship were still the same size as they were on the first, then the second ship has loads more to offer than the first ship.
When the elevator came to a stop, Ulrich heard William ask, "So which one are we taking? Papa Bear or Mama Bear?"
"Papa Bear," Jeremie answered, chuckling.
"Can we call it that?" Odd asked excitedly.
"There's a reason why we didn't let you name it the first time around, Odd," Yumi countered. "We're not naming it Papa Bear! What would we call the–?"
"Baby Bears!" Odd answered before she finished.
"Right," Taelia said sarcastically. "And what will the cockpit be called? Goldilocks?"
"Whatever floats your boat!" Odd replied, bounding away. "Or I guess in this case, sink it!"
"What are we going to name it?" William asked, following Odd. "Big Kahuna?"
"That's even worse than Melanie!" Ulrich complained, laughing.
"Skidbladnir is from old Norse mythology, right?" Taelia asked.
"That's what Aelita said," Jeremie replied. "Why do you ask?"
"I thought the name was familiar," she explained. "That was Aelita's favorite story when we were kids. Of the Norse legends, my personal favorite would be of the Hringhorni, the greatest of all ships."
"Well that's fitting with this second one," Ulrich said, stepping onto one of the large circles on the floor. "Jeremie, we're ready to be energized into the Hringhorni!" He gave Taelia a wink. She smiled.
"Okay," Ulrich heard Jeremie say. "Energize." The hangar turned into a bright yellowish white light for a second. As the light faded away, Ulrich was surprised to find that instead of standing in his own sub, he was standing next to William, Yumi, Odd, and Taelia in the cockpit of the Hringhorni. Since he was the only one to never be inside the cockpit of the Skidbladnir, he wasn't as shocked at the size of the cockpit as Odd and Yumi were.
"Was there always standing room in the Skid?" William asked.
"No," Yumi answered. "There was only room to sit at the control panel. Jeremie, do you mind explaining what the Hring has that the Skid doesn't?"
"I'd be glad to," Jeremie said, sounding cheerful. "For starters, that big metallic shell is not just for show. It provides additional protection to the ship in the circumstance that the shields are overloaded by something, like the Kolossus for example. The shell will open up to allow the Nav-Hrings to disembark. It will also open up to allow the highly advanced weapon-system to fire. Multiple types torpedoes can be launched all at once. One type of torpedoes can send out an electric net when close to an enemy and ensuring a hit, and another type is extremely large and then breaks up into smaller torpedoes upon impact.
"The Nav-Hrings cannot only operate in the Network, but also on land. They can transform from submarines into vehicles with wheels or wings. The Hringhorni can do the same but only as like a flying spaceship thing and can't land anywhere. Their shields are higher as well as the energy supply. The weapons are not as advanced as the Hring's are, but they pack a bigger punch and cost less energy. To get to the Nav-Hrings from the cockpit, you open the door that's to your left. It leads to a ladder or platform, depending on the orientation of the sub. The only drawback is that you can't go in there when the shell is open. Otherwise, it's permanent virtualization.
"The teleportation program has also been upgraded. Its range has been increased to include the entire globe. But that only means that you have an unlimited range as to how far you can go. I'm still working on trying to get the initial teleportation up to that range. Within the teleportation program though, I can transfer your return to the digital world into the Skid and vice versa, just as long both ships are docked at a tower, which is why there is a tower an equal distance from both ships. Behind you should be a couple of large chairs. Sitting in those chairs would also transfer you to the Skid directly."
"Wow!" Odd exclaimed in excitement. "That's some upgrade!"
"What are we waiting for then?" Taelia asked, sitting down in the pilot's seat by the controls. "Let's get a move on!" The others stood around her as she opened the interfaces.
"Alright," Jeremie said. "Dropping Supports 2." The set of supports surrounding the Hringhorni dropped away.
"We have ignition powering right," Taelia reported, gripping the throttle. The Hringhorni's side thrusts kicked on and forced the ship slowly to the right until it was lined up perfectly with the opening to the hangar. "Powering vertical. Liftoff." The Hring began to rise in the air as its rockets pushed it up, out of the hangar, and into the celestial dome.
"All indicators are go," Jeremie reported. "Clear to leave Sector 5. Tunnel open south of your position."
"Roger," Taelia replied. The ship glided around the core-zone and through the indicated open tunnel. Ulrich loved how fast the ship could go. Once it cleared the tunnel and was above the Digital Sea, Taelia stopped it.
"Preparing to dive," she said, pressing the necessary keys and buttons. "Shields: activated. Sonar: activated. Stabilizers: online and checked out. Primary access: clear. Laser generators: online. Connection to Skidbladnir: established. Shell: sealed. Ready to dive, you four?"
"Ready when you are princess!" Odd answered cheerfully, looking at the Digital Sea. Taelia scowled and slammed her fist into his stomach without taking her eyes off of the controls. Odd fell to the ground, gasping for breath.
"That nickname will NOT work for me," Taelia stated. "You have been warned."
"Duly noted," William said, backing away from her slightly as the Hring plummeted towards the Digital Sea.
"I'm sending you the coordinates of the Ice Sector replica contained inside the Siberian research facility supercomputer," Jeremie told Taelia, typing on the computer. "You should be able to get there pretty quickly."
"I'm getting tired of all this waiting around," Ron said. "Why can't we just go get George now?"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all standing in the back of the Kadic Academy auditorium, out of sight from the other students. Ginny was standing up by the stage, as per the plan.
"Because, Ron," Hermione explained. "We need to know more about who we're up against. If you go now, you'll be going in blind as a bat!"
When Ron and Ginny had joined Harry and Hermione on the campus, Harry immediately told them his idea. He thought that the only way for them to definitely get enough information about Franz Hopper without bringing unwanted attention to themselves was to become a student at Kadic. The only way to justify their presence, more to the Ministry than to the school, was to say that Hogwarts was participating in a foreign exchange program with Kadic Academy. Of course, they quickly had to talk to Professor McGonagall about doing such a thing. After explaining the situation to her, she agreed to the idea, but only one person out of the four of them could go. She ended up drawing names out of a hat, and Ginny's name was picked. She then only allowed Ginny to go to Kadic and made the other three promise to either allow Ginny to go or to not have anyone go. She also arranged for Ollivander to arrive at Hogwarts the morning of September 2nd, in order for the incoming student to receive a wand. Robes and other supplies were to be supplied to the student upon arrival on Platform 9 ¾.
With Professor McGonagall satisfied, they went to the principal of Kadic Academy. They discussed with him about the foreign exchange program. He at first didn't want to partake in it, but Hermione helped him "remember" the agreement he had made with them earlier that summer. They did not tell him about Hogwarts being a magical school. In order for one of the Kadic students to have a chance at Hogwarts, they would have to have magic somewhere in their bloodline. Hermione came up with a solution: when the principal wasn't looking, she cast a spell on the bowl that contained the sheets of paper of all the students' names. The spell would cause the principal to only pick a name who had magical blood, even if that person didn't know it.
Of course, since Ginny had been picked to stay at Kadic, Hermione helped her study all night on how to use cell phones, computers, and pencil sharpeners. Strangely enough, using pencil sharpeners was the hardest part for Ginny. She couldn't understand it. But, lo and behold, she finally learned what she needed to know, including the translating spell Hermione had learned over the summer. She had also given Ginny one of the fake Galleons from three years ago so she could stay in touch with them. Hermione really wished that she was staying at Kadic instead of Ginny, but Professor McGonagall had made her choice and wasn't going back on it.
"But Hermione," Harry argued. "I can kind of see Ron's perspective in all this. Don't get me wrong, I still think staying here is a good idea. Even with George, I think knowing as much as we can about a possible new enemy will turn out to be a wise decision. But I think the three of us need to be just as proactive as Ginny is."
"Yeah," Ron said, picking up on Harry's point. "We can't just sit here and do nothing!"
Harry's eyes had drifted onto a girl with short, pink hair who had just entered the auditorium. Ron and Hermione's voices somewhat faded out for a moment, and Harry was solely focused on the girl. He couldn't take his eyes off her. She glanced in his direction as she sat down but didn't register his presence. She looked irritated about something, but the mere sight of her face made Harry's heart pump a little faster. The little dragon inside of him that had once growled towards Ginny now growled its approval at this girl.
"Pull yourself together, Harry," he told himself silently. "You've already got a girl. You've got Ginny." But he still couldn't pull his eyes away from her.
"Harry? Harry!" Hermione said, slapping his arm and capturing his attention once again. "Did you hear me?"
"Uh," Harry stuttered and shook his head. The girl had turned around again and this time registered his presence. They stared at each other for a bit before Harry turned to Hermione.
"I said that you should follow Ron to Siberia," she repeated herself. Harry looked to where Ron had once stood, slightly alarmed. Sure enough, Ron was already gone. "He's going to need a coat considering he just Disapparated." She pulled out two winter coats out of her small bag.
"Right," Harry said quickly, taking the coats and putting one on. "Are you coming?"
"No," Hermione answered. "I don't think that it's a good idea to leave Ginny by herself in an unknown environment. Good luck!"
"Thanks," he said and Disapparated, making a small crack as he left.
Aelita sat facing the empty stage, scowling. Suddenly from behind her, she heard a small crack. She turned around and stared at the back of the room. Two figures were standing against the wall. It was hard to tell with the lighting exactly what their features were. One figure eventually turned to the other in conversation, and Aelita faced the front again.
"What is it?" Sissi asked.
"I thought I heard something," she said, shrugging. Then she heard it again. Just a small crack coming from behind her. She turned around again and looked at now one figure standing against the wall. She couldn't tell if the second figure had left the room or not. "I think I'm just paranoid, that's all," she added, more to herself than to Sissi.
"May I have your attention, please?" Mr. Delmas said, signaling for the assembly to begin and for the voices to quiet down. Aelita faced front and rested her chin on her hand. "Welcome to a new school year, everyone!"
Cold wind and snow hit Harry's face. He held up his hand against the wind and squinted his eyes so he could see better. Fifteen feet away from him, he saw Ron crouching by a snow bank and staring at the door to the research facility.
"Ron!" Harry called over the wind. Ron turned and saw the coat Harry was carrying. He quickly grabbed for it.
"Remind me to give Hermione a big kiss for this when we get back," Ron told Harry, putting the coat on.
"You're on your own on that one," Harry replied back. "Anything change with that door over there?"
"No. Apart from the lights being on, all seems quiet."
"Well, here's an idea: How about we go inside? I doubt George is in one of these snow banks." Ron nodded, and together, wands at the ready, they walked over to the door into the facility.
When they reached the door, Ron said, "There isn't a handle to open it. How're we going to get in?" Harry's eyes just happened to land on what looked like a button that controlled the door.
"Like this," he told Ron as he pushed the button. The door hissed and slid open, allowing them inside. Giving the signal, both of them jumped into the hallway, wands raised.
"This way's clear," Harry said, seeing the end of the hallway. Looking at the ground, he saw the missing handle to the door.
"So is this way," Ron observed. With another hiss, the door closed itself, blocking out the freezing wind. Ron pulled out a piece of paper with a picture of the layout of the facility.
"According to this," he said. "We are here." He pointed on the map. "The room where George may have made the video message is here." He pointed somewhere else on the map. "We have quite a distance to travel to get to him."
"Well then what are we waiting for?" Harry asked. "Let's get a move on! But be careful! Who knows what we might find." They began walking down the hallway. Every now and then, they'd have to step around some chunks of the ceiling that had fallen down. The placement of the chunks was peculiar considering where some similar-sized holes in the ceiling were a good ten feet horizontally away.
The Hringhorni shot out of the Digital Sea and rose above the ground of the Ice Sector replica. It flew towards the nearest tower at the edge of the sector.
"Dock the Hring there," Jeremie told Taelia. "That way we can see anything coming from a mile away."
"Like the Kolossus?" Yumi asked.
"Exactly," Jeremie said. "Although I don't think we'll have to worry about that for awhile. X.A.N.A. can't have possibly gotten enough power to recreate the Kolossus again. It could be that there was only one, and he just transported it from place to place, giving it energy from all of his replicas. If that's the case, then that means Ulrich destroyed the only one X.A.N.A. had. It will probably be a long time before X.A.N.A. can recreate it."
"I sure hope you're right, Einstein," Ulrich said warily.
"Docking," Taelia reported when the ship reached the tower. A pink beam shot out at the tower and soon began circling around the tower and the Hring.
"I'm activating the tower," Jeremie said, as the tower's flame turned dark green. "Ulrich, William, Odd. How'd you like to go to Siberia?"
"Sounds good to me," William answered.
"Alright then," Jeremie responded. "Teleportation."
A second later, William, Odd, and Ulrich appeared right by the door to the research facility. They looked at each other in their Lyoko forms.
"Jeremie," William said. "When you get the next opportunity, can you upgrade our forms? If anything, at least make us look like we're supposed to be in high school. We still look like kids."
"Yeah, I'll work on it," Jeremie replied.
They walked towards the door and pressed the button to open it, not even noticing the missing door handle. They walked inside and watched the door close behind them with a hiss.
"Odd, do you remember which room the supercomputer was located?" Jeremie asked. "It's okay if you don't."
"Vaguely," Odd answered. "All I remember of this place is being attacked by robots."
"That's fine. Just follow the hallway in front of you," Jeremie explained. "It should end at the room where you and Aelita had found all of those robots. Hopefully, they're not there anymore. But be careful, there is an activated tower on the replica. Until we know what the activated tower is for, I'm not going to have Taelia leave the Hring to go deactivate it."
"Okay then. But those robots better not be active," William said, already jogging down the corridor. The other two followed him.
"What do you think these suits are for?" Ron asked Harry, staring at his reflection in one of them.
"I'm not sure if I'd call them suits," Harry said, standing farther away. "See how some of them look like they had been moving? I'd say these were robots. Robots with a bad purpose."
"What should we do with them?"
"Let them be for now. They appear to be off and aren't giving us any trouble. When we get George, we'll discuss it then. In the meantime, we should keep going. Through this door, right?"
"Well, well, well," X.A.N.A. said with his eyes closed. His prisoner was conscious and sat on the ground next to the supercomputer. "Your name is George. Interesting name. Your friends are here to 'rescue' you. They act as if that it will be easy." He chuckled and looked at George. "I'm going to show them how wrong they –" He stopped talking suddenly. He scowled. "I thought I had made myself clear with Aelita," he muttered. He paused, lost in thought, and then he smiled. "Maybe I can use this to my advantage." He walked over to George and grabbed the collar of his suit.
"I hope you like the jungle," he whispered into George's ear.
George's eyes widened as sparks started to appear around him and X.A.N.A. He yelled as loud as he could as the two of them began to disappear into the sparks.
"AAUUGGHH!" echoed George's voice throughout the halls. Harry and Ron glanced at each other only for a second before running at a break-neck pace towards the sound. They threw their coats to the side as they only slowed them down.
William, Odd, and Ulrich heard the yell as well. Without saying a word, without sharing a glance, they took off. They ran across the gigantic room where all the robots stood at attention, but they paid neither them nor the two coats on the ground off to the side any notice.
Harry got to the room first and saw electric sparks floating next to the supercomputer. They only floated for a second before they dove into the supercomputer.
On the replica, a large red and white ball appeared out of the sky and began to fall towards the Digital Sea.
"Jeremie," Yumi began, still inside the cockpit.
"Stop it," Jeremie told her. "It's X.A.N.A.! He's fleeing the replica!"
"But how do I do that?" Yumi asked. Taelia turned and pointed to the door.
"Get to a Nav-Hring!" she said. "I'll open the shell as soon as you're in one. Go, go, go!" Yumi ran to the door, flung it open, and began climbing down the ladder. "Jeremie, if you want me to help her, you're going to have to either transfer the boys to the Skid on Lyoko or bring them back here!"
"I know," Jeremie yelled, typing furiously. "I'm already working on it! But unfortunately, it's going to take some time. I'll only be able to do the transfer one at a time!"
"Then get cracking!" Taelia yelled back.
"Nav-Hring to cockpit," came Yumi's voice over the radio. "I'm ready to launch."
"Okay. Opening shell," Taelia reported. The shell began to open, sliding in layers upon itself. "Nav-Hring away!" One of the Nav-Hrings fell towards the ground. A second before it crashed, however, airplane-like wings shot out of the sides. It flew up and away from the Hring towards the red and white ball that was X.A.N.A.
"Taelia, you've got some company coming," Yumi reported back to Taelia. "Tarantulas by the looks of it. Want me to take care of them?"
"No! I'll handle them! You focus on X.A.N.A.," Taelia replied, punching keys and buttons as fast as Jeremie's typing. "Closing shell. Disembarking." She appeared directly underneath the ship as the metal shell closed back up. She struck her necklace, activating her wings. She flew in the air towards the incoming Tarantula, Energy Fields in hand.
After a few minutes of flying, Yumi was just about to reach X.A.N.A. when a Megatank from the ground below shot a beam directly at her. It hit her Navi-Hring, causing it to spiral out of control towards the ground. By the time she had gained control again, X.A.N.A. had already jumped into the Digital Sea. Knowing that chasing him through the Network by herself would be a bad idea, she regretfully spun back around to the ground.
The Megatank began charging up again, and Yumi took that opportunity to fire a torpedo, or a rocket in this case, at said Megatank. The rocket exploded upon impact, wiping out the Megatank before it even had a chance to fire again. Yumi turned towards the Hring to help Taelia with the Tarantulas.
"You thought you could just walk in here and take George away, didn't you?" a voice announced from the supercomputer. The voice was loud enough for even William, Ulrich, and Odd to hear it, and they hadn't gotten there yet. "Well, you couldn't have been more wrong! Boys, you know what to do!"
William was the first person to reach the hallway that lead into the room with the supercomputer. He skidded to a halt as he saw two men standing in the doorway, listening to the voice. Just as Ulrich and Odd reached him, a trail of lightning came out of the supercomputer.
The trail of lightning flew across the floor past Harry and Ron and into the hallway. Harry's eyes followed it and then fell onto three very strangely dressed individuals that were staring back at them. Harry didn't move. His wand was at his side at the moment and didn't want to raise it in case the three individuals would attack. Thankfully, Ron did the same.
No one said a word. They just glared at each other, only twenty feet of empty space separating them.
Finally, Harry broke the silence by saying three words, all without breaking his glare, "Where is he?"
Odd and Ulrich couldn't understand a word that the black-haired man just said. They knew it was English but didn't know what he meant. They just continued to glare back at him.
William however, understood it perfectly and responded, "As if you don't already know."
Harry raised an eyebrow but didn't break his glare at the one man with black, messy hair who spoke. "What do you want with him?" Harry asked, assuming that these three were the "boys" that voice had mentioned.
"Information," William answered, assuming these two men were X.A.N.A.'s specters, the "boys" whom X.A.N.A. referred to. "He can tell us more about you."
"For Franz Hopper?" Harry asked, going out on a limb with his question.
William narrowed his eyes at the X.A.N.A.-minion. "Yes," he said slowly.
"I knew it!" Harry thought to himself, struggling to keep a straight face at the revelation. "Well that's too bad then," he said to the man. "Because George is going with us!" He raised his wand and aimed.
Odd didn't need a translation. He didn't question the reason why X.A.N.A. would have a stick as a weapon but quickly aimed and shot three laser arrows at the black-haired man. Said man swiped his stick through the air and somehow managed to block the laser arrows.
Ulrich charged at the red-haired man, swords drawn. But the red-haired man made some quick movement with his stick, and the swords flew out of Ulrich's hands and behind the three of them. The red-haired man smiled and moved his stick again. Out of nowhere, Odd quickly jumped in front of Ulrich and held up his shield at the beam that shot out of the stick.
While Ron dueled against the cat and samurai, Harry focused on the third individual, the one who had spoken to him. At first, Harry thought it would just be a simple Stupefy, and the fight would be over. But when Harry raised his wand again, the man turned into black smoke and flew across the floor.
"Death Eater!" Harry immediately thought, his eyes unable to follow the fast smoke. The boy rematerialized right behind Harry and gave him a swift kick in the back. Falling to the ground, Harry turned around and shot a Stunner at the Death Eater. From out of nowhere, the Death Eater pulled out a gigantic sword and blocked the spell.
William grinned. X.A.N.A. couldn't beat him that easily. The man quickly got up and sent a red beam at him, but William dodged it. He formed a smoky black ball in his hands and sent it towards the man. The man blocked it like he had the laser arrows and shot a silver-colored beam over William's shoulder. It was too late when William realized the man had been aiming at Odd, who had been shielding himself and Ulrich from the other man's attacks. The beam hit Odd in the back, and chains suddenly wrapped themselves around Odd, causing him to fall to the floor with a yelp.
Ron knew he'd have to thank Hermione for teaching that spell to Harry. With that cat's shield gone, he could easily take care of the samurai. But the samurai was already on top of him, grabbing Ron's wand arm and knocking his wand out of his hand. Ron was clearly losing at the new hand-to-hand combat that had begun. This guy clearly knew his martial arts skills where Ron did not.
Distracted by the chains that had immobilized Odd, William soon found his Zweihander flying through the air and across the room. He quickly Super-Smoked his way around the man again. But the man knew better this time for another beam was shot at William and hit him, causing him to fly into the nearby wall. As he rematerialized, he quickly sent a smoky ball at the man. The man didn't react in time, and the smoke encircled him in the same way the chains had encircled Odd. But instead of falling to the ground, the smoke kept the man levitating parallel to the ground. He picked up his Zweihander and walked towards the man, eager to end this fight.
"You have lost," the Death Eater said to Harry, looking down at him and smiling. Harry struggled against his smoky bonds but to no avail. He began to panic as the Death Eater lifted that giant sword over his head. But then, the panic disappeared in an instant with a sudden flash of golden light in front of his face.
The Elder Wand floated above Harry's chest, pointing directly at the Death Eater. The Death Eater paused for a moment, his smile fading. But he shook his head and swung the sword downwards.
The blade never touched Harry. The Elder Wand shot out the ever-familiar red and golden wave at the Death Eater. It blasted him and caused him, the cat, and the samurai to vanish in thin air. The smoke holding Harry up also disappeared, and he fell to the ground with a thud, blacking out.
Yumi just flew over an iceberg and saw the Hring about a mile away. Suddenly, the tower exploded, creating a blast about ten times bigger than the Hring. Blue dust and balls of fire engulfed the Hringhorni as well as Taelia and the Tarantulas below. The shockwave from the explosion caused Yumi's Nav-Hring to fly backwards over the iceberg she just passed. She fell towards the ground as she began pressing buttons and keys. Soon, wheels appeared underneath her Nav-Hring and cushioned her hard land against the cold ground. She skidded to a halt and watched as the cloud of dust, now no longer containing fire, flew over her and obscured her view.
In the lab, Jeremie was just about to finish transferring Odd, the first person to transfer, when the explosion happened. He stopped typing, too stunned from what he was seeing to move. Suddenly, an alert appeared on the left monitor. A split-second later, he heard a BANG and crash down in the scanner room. Looking at his monitors, he saw that Taelia, William, Ulrich, and Odd had all been devirtualized. Of the three scanners, however, only two of them were responding. The third would not charge up for materialization. He got out of his chair and ran to the ladder that led down to the scanner room to find out why.
When he got in there, he saw what he had feared. Two of the scanners were closed, and from the noise they were making, charging up to materialize someone. But the third scanner was completely destroyed. Wires were everywhere; parts of the exterior of the scanner lay scattered throughout the room. Smoke was hissing out of where it once stood. Looking across from it, Jeremie gasped. There was William, slumped unconscious against the wall and covered in bigger pieces of the scanner. Jeremie ran over to him just as the other two scanners opened. Ulrich and Taelia fell out of them and onto the floor, still conscious but extremely light-headed. One of the scanners closed again, charging up. A second later, Odd nearly fell on top of Ulrich.
"What happened?" Taelia asked groggily. Jeremie didn't answer. He was too busy trying to rouse William.
"William. William. WILLIAM!" he yelled, shaking him. He checked William's pulse. It was there but weak. Picking William up, he walked over to the elevator and opened the door. He surely hoped Aelita and Sissi would get there soon.
"And so please give a warm, Kadic welcome to Ms. Ginny Weasley," Mr. Delmas was saying. The student body applauded. This foreign exchange program was out of the blue. Sissi didn't know anything about it, but it did explain why no one had received their class schedules yet. No one knew who was going to represent Kadic for one semester in England.
"Because Ms. Weasley had been chosen at random to represent her school," Mr. Delmas continued. "It is only fair that we randomly select one of our students to represent Kadic Academy." He pulls out a fishbowl filled with tiny strips of paper. "In here are names of all of the students that go to our fine school. All I have to do is pick one at random." He then reached into the bowl, fished around a bit in the paper, and pulled one out.
A drumroll could be heard offstage, supposedly building suspense. "And the student to go to England for the semester will be," Mr. Delmas said, reading the slip. "Aelita Stones!"