Here's the finally! I hope you enjoyed the story,

and Happy Halloween everyone

The Night Beast pt.3

Ulrich stood in shock, staring at the broken window in front of him.
He was so shocked that he didn't even hear Yumi, Aelita and Jeremie barge into the room.
"Ulrich?" Yumi asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. "What happened?"
"Odd. It's Odd" Ulrich said. "He's the beast"
"Odd? But how?"
"It must be his Lyoko form" Aelita said. "Something in its programming must've gotten corrupted somehow, but even then it shouldn't have reacted like this unless..."
"Unless what?" Jeremie asked.
"Later. Let's find him quickly before he can do any more damage" Aelita said, looking at the window. "Or before he kills someone"

Rage and anger coursed through it. It had been denied its meal too often, and now, mad with hunger it desperately started searching for food.
But where?
The park had little sustenance, only mice, rats, rabbits.
The large building behind it. No, too many enemies too disturb it.
Where? Where? Where?
Confusion, fear and hunger swept through its mind, only to be replaced by an image, a small building, a small group inside.
Food. Shelter. Perfect.

"Hey, what's going on up here? Where do you think you're going?" Jim asked as Yumi, Aelita, Jeremie and Ulrich ran past him.
"No time to explain Jim!" Jeremie shouted as they ran down the stairs.
"Hey, get back here! Hey!" Jim shouts followed them as they ran out of the school and into the schoolyard.
"Ok Jeremie, where'd he go?" Aelita asked, scanning the wide open space of the school. "Give me a sec... Got it!" Jeremie said as he held up the now beeping sniffer device he had build.
"Looks like he went off in that direction" he said, pointing to the left.
They ran down trail, following the machine's beeps until they came to one of the walls surrounding the school.
"Jeremie, I think you'd better stay here. If Odd does attack us we can at least defend ourselves." Aelita said.
"Yeah, I know" Jeremie said, dejection in his voice.
"Here" he said, giving Aelita the sniffer. "You'd better hurry"
"Will do" Aelita said. "Ready guys?" she said, holding up her watch.
Yumi nodded, Ulrich stayed silent, head down.
"Ulrich?" Yumi asked, standing next to him.
"I can't do Yumi. I can't fight my best friend"
Yumi put a hand under his chin and lifted up his face, looking straight into his tear filled eyes.
"Hey, don't worry. We'll get him back, I promise"
"How can you be sure?" Ulrich asked.
"Because we're heroes. And because Odd has a friend like you.
Now, are you coming, or what?"
Ulrich smiled and held up his watch.

A few blocks away, in the suburbia region, at the house with the post box "Robbia", a large feline-like shape was slowly slinking closer and closer.
Yes, this is the place. Food. Shelter. And more.
It was like this place was pulling him. Confused, it tried to figure out this feeling.
Why was it here? Food of course. Or was it?
Shaking its head it regained its bearings. Yes, food. Food now, and nothing more.

Side by side, running as fast as their legs could move Yumi, Ulrich and Aelita ran down the streets, tracking Odd's scent.
"How far to go Aelita?" Ulrich asked.
"According to the machine" Aelita puffed, "Just two more blocks"
"What! Oh no..."
"What?" Aelita asked, stopping.
Yumi looked at Ulrich before turning to Aelita.
"Odd's family lives in that direction"
"You don't think he'd..." Aelita gasped, staring in horror at Yumi.
"In his state he might" Ulrich said, "Come on, we'd better get there fast!"
"You guys go, I'm going to try something else" Aelita said.
"You're leaving us? Why?"
"You'll see" Aelita said, already running off back down the street.
"Just keep him busy for a while until you get my signal!"
"What signal!" Ulrich shouted, but she was already gone.
Ulrich sighed, turned to Yumi and said "Yumi, climb on my back and hold on. We're going to have to move fast"

"Hey Mom, I think there's something out there" Gina said, pointing out of the kitchen window. Mrs Robbia walked up to her daughter and glanced out into the backyard. "Where?"
"It looked like a big cat, over by the bushes"
Squinting her eyes Mrs Robbia said "Well, I don't see anyt-" just as a large form blurred across the yard and jumped straight at the window and its occupants.

Aelita ran down another street, stopping to check her watch's readings before turning left and continuening on until she'd reached one of the large mobile phone signal poles of the city. She stood before it, placed her hands together and started to sing. In front of her the air started rippling, blurring before pixelating.
She flung her hands open, splitting the air and forming a portal to Lyoko, a tower's base right in front of her.

"Daniella, take Gina and Tommy and run!" Mr Robbia shouted, swinging a golf club in front of him. Growling the black beast slowly moved closer, keep outside of the man's swings. "What about you?" Mrs Robbia shouted, holding her two children close to her. "Forget about me, just GO!" he roared, lunging forward and taking a huge overhead swing at the monster's head.
Only it was the beast's bulk that hit him, smashing hard in the chest before flinging him back to smack against the wall. "Daddy, no!" Gina cried as the beast lunged forward, claws outstretched for the kill.
"Odd, No!" Ulrich tackled his monstrous friend in mid-air away from the fallen father. Together they landed in a heap in the living room, Ulrich jumping away before a slash from Odd nearly decapitating him.
Behind him he could hear Yumi helping the Robbia's to escape.
"Look Odd, don't do this. Fight it" he said, staring deep into the large yellow eyes of his bestial pal. "I know you're in there. Come on, fight it!"
With a roar the beast jumped, snapping its fangs together on Ulrich's body.
Or would have had Ulrich not jumped out of the way.
"Sorry Odd, but you've left me no choice" he said, pulling his sword, sheath and all from his belt. "I won't kill you, but I will stop you" he said, going into a warrior stance. Tail flicking wickedly the beast regarded him before jumping back and jumping unto the wall and hanging there, using it's claws to dig in deep, before climbing like a spider up to the roof and lunging down at Ulrich.
It happened so fast that Ulrich barely had time to swing up, smacking it right on the nose, the wood hitting it with a hard crack!.
Yelping the beast dashed to side, up to the wall and crawled around a corner.
Ulrich ran to catch him before he escaped only to get hit by the cunning beast, hiding away behind the edge to jump out and tackle.
Grunting, Ulrich struggled to keep its spittle-coated fangs away from his face.
Suddenly with a whack! an invisible force threw it off Ulrich and back to the living room. "You Ok?" Yumi asked, standing in the doorway.
"Yeah. Thanks"
"Anytime" Yumi smiled at him.
Ulrich felt himself blush, but quickly got back up and opened his scanner watch.
"Minarrette activate!" he said. The minarrette glowed, enveloped him in green energy before splitting up into four exact copies who ran forward and tackled the monster, pinning him to the ground, holding him tight as he roared and twisted.
"That should him" Ulrich said, just as a row of bony spikes erupted from Odd's legs and shoulders and impaling copies, destroying them in a heartbeat.
Standing up, looking stronger and deadlier then ever it slowly walked towards them, the growl in its throat building up with each step.
Ulrich and Yumi prepared themselves for the fight of their lives.
Suddenly the Beast stopped, its eyes glazed. It shuddered before dropping to the floor, shivering. Ulrich and Yumi watched in amazement as the claws, fangs, spikes and fur slowly disappeared, the bones reducing and reshaping before finally leaving Odd on the floor, back to normal.
"Hey guys!" Aelita's voice suddenly came in over their mikes. "Get ready!"
"For what?" Ulrich asked, just as the white wall of return time caught him and Yumi and flung them back to the past.

"Ta-da!" Aelita said, pulling out the minarette from Odd's scanner.
"Right under our noses, and we didn't have a clue"
"So I had this all the time?" Odd asked, holding the small tube like object in his hand. "Yep" Aelita nodded. "I never did check my brothers other watches for minarettes since he kept most of them in Lyoko and only had the most important ones in his. I think the activation of the watch must've started it up, slowly building up until it had the power to activate fully. And with Odd being like a cat it was more easier for it to influence him"
"Beast program huh? Cool!" Odd grinned, placing the power object back in its holding place. "At least that explains the weird dreams I've been having"
"Odd, you always have bad dreams" Ulrich said.
"How would you know, Mr Earplugs?"
"Finally caught on huh?"
"Oh, that does it!" Odd shouted, grabbing a pillow.

The End

Next Up: Yumi's Bad Day(s)