Jeremy put up his papers. "Last of the history report," he muttered, filing the pile into a folder. He turned to his computer, logging on and pulling up a program. Another window popped up with a tower standing out amongst a 3-D grid of others.
"Oh, no." The boy instantly pulled out his cell phone, dialing Aelita and Ulrich. He started to dial Yumi's number. "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot." He hung up before he finished punching in the digits.
"And Odd." Jeremy called him, hearing the phone ring a while. "Weird, he's not picking up," Jeremy said, pushing the disconnect button. "And I wonder where Kiba went? Oh, well, I'd better get to the factory." Jeremy closed out of the two windows onscreen before turning around and walking out of the dorm.
"Whoa! This thing is awesome!"
"Kiba, wait!" Odd climbed down the last flight before entering the room.
"Man, this is cool!" Kiba looked around the conveyor belts and mechanical hands scattered all around the place.
"Kiba! Come on, we need to get out of here!"
"What? Why?"
"A while ago, X.A.N.A. possessed all of these robots here, and, uh, let's just say it didn't turn out very good."
" 'Kay, if you say so." Kiba turned around and started to walk back up the stairs.
Jeremy lifted the lid of the manhole, climbing into the sewers. He boarded his scooter, zooming through the underground facility and soon climbing out. He saw Aelita on the top of the bridge.
"Oh, hey, Jeremy, has Ulrich or Odd come yet?"
"No, not that I know of. How about Hinata or Kiba?"
"Hinata's just ahead of us. I don't know about Kiba."
"Yeah, we'll probably need to get Hinata, Kiba, and Shikamaru cell phones sometime soon."
"Probably." Aelita grabbed a rope and slid down it, Jeremy following suit. Hinata was waiting right outside the elevator. Aelita and she stepped in, Jeremy entering the control room.
"Transfer, Aelita! Transfer, Hinata! Scanner, Aelita! Scanner, Hinata! Oh, there you are, Ulrich. Get to the scanner room."
"Huh?"
"What?"
"I just heard something."
"I don't know, I didn't hear anything."
"Quiet." Kiba and Odd stood in silence for a while on the first and second stair steps.
"No, I don't hear anything."
"Weird. I could've sworn I heard something move."
"Uh, well, we should probably get out of here..."
"Yeah, good idea." Kiba turned back around and climbed up the stairs. A couple of steps later, he stopped again. Odd bumped into him.
"Hey!"
"I heard it again!" Akamaru yipped.
"Yeah, it was right behind us, just aways down!"
"All right, guys, the tower is west of you guys. I'll go ahead and send your vehicles. Oh! Um, for now, Hinata, you can ride the Overwing with Aelita." Jeremy punched in some keys, and the Overwing and Overbike appeared. Aelita and Ulrich instantly got on.
"This is the Overwing, Hinata. Come on," Aelita said, pulling Hinata onto the Lyoko vehicle. "Let's go."
Akamaru started growling.
"Yeah, I know." Kiba turned to Odd. "I'm gonna check this out." The ninja walked down the stairs and looked around in the fairly dim lighting. He heard a whirring, and his head whipped to the side.
"Whoa!" Ulrich narrowly avoided a laser blast from a hornet, swerving at the last instant.
"Energy Field!" The monster exploded.
"Whoa!" Kiba darted out of the way of a mechanical arm.
"Oh, man, not again!"
"Odd, get out of here! Akamaru and I can handle this!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah!" Akamaru got back on the ground as Kiba got something out of a pocket.
"All right, good, you guys are almost there!"
"Yeah, I can see it."
"Looks like we have company, though!"
Odd darted up to the top of the stairs, but decided to linger to see what Kiba was going to do. The blonde boy turned around for a second to make sure Jeremy was all right, then turned back around.
"All right, let's go!" Ulrich jumped up off of the Overbike, which went careening into a tarantula's leg. The monster toppled over as Ulrich yelled, "Impact!" and thrust his sword into the Eye of X.A.N.A.
The mechanisms were going berserk now, all around Kiba and Akamaru.
"All right, here we go!" Odd saw Kiba put something in his mouth, and he fed something to his pet as well.
"What the?" Akamaru started to turn brownish red.
"Ready, Akamaru?"
"Arf!" The dog jumped onto Kiba, who made a hand sign.
"Man-Beast Clones!"
"Wha?!"
A tuft of smoke dissipated, revealing two distinctly more dog-like Kibas. At this point, almost every mechanism in the floor of the factory was all over the place.
"Fang Over Fang!"
"All right, go ahead, Aelita." Aelita walked into the red-enveloped tower, entering and tilting her head back to ascend to the next level.
The two spun rapidly over each other, traveling around the room and destroying all of the attacking technology.
Aelita placed her hand on the blue interface, and her name appeared. She entered the code and said, "Tower deactivated."
"All right, return to the past now!"
Kiba walked out of the lunchroom and looked around for Odd. "Hey."
"That was awesome!"
"What?"
"That fang over fang thing!"
"Hey, I thought I told you to get out of there!"
"Well, yeah, I guess, but-"
"Okay, whatever." Kiba looked up at the sky. "I'm gonna go ahead and get back to Akamaru."
"All right, see you later!"