Chapter 11

Jérémie kept his eyes glued to the Chatchat as he found himself dodging the large cat's spiked tail. He quickly jumped to his left, the tail crashing down on the ground where he had been standing heart beats ago. He lashed out the hand holding the dagger, his teeth straining as he ground them together, watching his pugio slice through air. The Chatchat turned around, pouncing its front paws at Jérémie. He avoided the first paw only to feel the claws of the second rake across his chest. His free hand quickly went to the strange electrical crackling, signifying the loss of life points, as his other clutched the dagger tightly.

"Energy field!" Aélita ordered, shooting a ball of pink energy at the Tarantula. The monster quickly raised its arm, shielding itself from the damaging energy. The other arm shot at Aélita, forcing her to run away as she asked, "Why do you get to have a shield?" She dropped down in the run, skidding to a halt as lasers flew overhead. She turned, mostly laying on the ground, and cried, "Energy field!" shooting a pink blast at the Tarantula. The blast made contact, getting her to exclaimed, "Yes!"

"One more hit should do it," Franz said.

"Any news from Ulrich?" Jérémie asked only to be knocked back by the Chatchat's tail.

"He's coming down the ladder now," Franz announced.

"Good, cause I know I'm down to only twenty life points," Jérémie admitted, ducking forward to try and slice at the long nose. "I think it's playing with me!"

"It kinda reminds me of Manchot," Aélita said with a laugh, quickly getting back to her feet.

"At least Manchot didn't want me dead," Jérémie said, jumping back to avoid the cat's big paws.

"When do you think we could get ourselves a cat?" Aélita asked, flicking her hand over her bracelet to create her wings. She flew above the Tarantula, dodging its lasers, as she quickly sent down three energy balls of her own.

"Transfer Ulrich, Scanner Ulrich, Virtualization," Franz's voice announced.

Jérémie looked up, seeing Ulrich's form collect in the air before he fell to the ground, landing on his feet.

"Jérémie!" Aélita cried out.

Jérémie turned his attention back to the Chatchat, the monster collecting energy at its nose. Without there being enough time to move away, he quickly raised his hands to protect himself as the large blast released. He fell backwards, feeling his form disappear to the world.

"Bad news," Franz announced as Jérémie's form totally disappeared. "Xana just activated another tower."

Ulrich pulled out his swords and cried out "Super sprint!" as he ran straight for the Chatchat.

"Xana will not win," Aélita said through clenched teeth. "Energy field!"

An alert started to sound, getting Franz's attention to the windows that should be on the left screen that was instead under other windows. Pulling them forward, he let out a sound of confusion.

"What is it?' Aélita asked.

"Xana's disconnecting the scanners," Franz said, realizing he was down to only two activated scanners. He turned around asking, "Anthea? Can you go down-" he cut himself off, just noticing he was alone in the lab. "Anthea?"

"Did Jérémie make it back to Earth?" Aélita asked.

"I don't know," Franz admitted, turning back to the screens. He quickly typed up something before saying, "I'm going to go down there and check."

"Be careful," Aélita wished.

Franz gave one last look at the map, wishing the two could make it passed Xana's monsters, before turning away. He made his way over to the ladder and dropped down into the scanner room below. His feet sounded against the metal floor as he let go of the ladder. He turned around, taking in the three scanners. "Jérémie?" Franz asked, cautious. He walked around the closest scanner, quickly laying eyes on the man lying on his side outside of the scanner. He crossed the distance in three steps and knelt down, carefully placing a hand on the young man's shoulders. "Jérém-" A movement reflecting off the glass of his watch was the only warning he had, turning him around.

Anthea fell from the ceiling, a growl coming from her as she aimed to land on top of Franz.

Franz quickly ducked and rolled out of the way, stopping on his hands and knees as his wife dented the floor beside Jérémie's fallen form. Franz quickly got to his feet and ran at the woman, grabbing for her wrists as she stood up. Turning her head to look at Franz, fear filled him to see she was under Xana's control. A smile pulled at her cheeks as electricity crackled at her fingertips.

"Everyone will die," Anthea's voice was forced to say.

-.-.-.-

Yumi forced her way past her husband's coworkers and ran towards her friend's daughter, the girl now looking to be stuck in her twenties as she straddled her father. "Odd!" Yumi cried out, moments before her shoulder made contact with the girl's side. Yumi rolled with the naked newborn against the asphalt a moment, flipping over Odd with her, before coming to a stop face down against the street. She pushed herself up, desperate to find the Xanafied girl before she could get back to her feet. Throwing her hair over her shoulder, she scrambled to her feet and looked in the direction the newborn had rolled.

Samantha pushed herself on her hands and knees, her head turned to look at Yumi as a growl pulled at her face.

Yumi took the fraction of a second she knew it would take Xana to get back to her feet and come at her to steel a glimpse back at Odd. The man who still didn't look his age looked even younger knocked out in the middle of the street. A purple lightning tree covered his face, matching the purple splotch in his hair. Yumi noticed the baton laying on the ground beside him and made a grab for it just as Samantha grabbed her around the waist.

Yumi felt the asphalt scrap her cheek as they tumbled. She struggled out of the girl's grip, rolling away before stopping with a hand and knee to the ground. Yumi pushed herself forward, grabbing the baton from beside Odd's limp form, and swung it like a sword towards Odd's daughter. Yumi found herself slicing the baton through the girl's shoulder and out her side, her form shifting around the police stick as if through fog. Yumi pulled the baton back up to try again only to see Officer Bourgeois running over, a police shield strapped to his left arm and a pistol griped in his right hand. "Don't shoot!" Yumi ordered.

Bourgeois pulled the trigger, two sparks revealing it to be a Taser as two prongs shot towards Samantha's back. The small metal pieces made contact, clipping into her skin, as 50,000 volts was shot into her. The man's face dropped in surprise as, instead of just freezing like a normal person would, electricity visibly dancing on her skin.

Samantha reached behind herself and grabbed the two thin cords, pulling them out of her back now that the Taser was out of juice. She looked over her shoulder, turning to face the man still holding the other end of the Taser and released electricity back down the twin cords. The man let out a scream before falling to his knees, the shield falling out of his grip as his body convulsed.

Samantha turned to Yumi, the only one left standing, and smiled as she quickly flashed out a hand. Yumi raised up the baton to try and protect herself as Samantha's form jumped to standing directly in front of her, the girl's hand reaching for Yumi's neck. Yumi made a feeble attempt to knock the girl's hand away only to be lifted off the ground, her throat being squeezed tight. The baton dropped out of Yumi's hand as she reached for the hand holding her neck, her mouth gasping for air as she stared at the girl trying to kill her.

-.-.-.-

Ulrich let out a scream, running at the Tarantula with his swords gripped tight in both hands. A blast shot out just missing his back just before he took the second needed to collect the energy at his feet and pushed off, jumping high into the air as he forced his two katanas into the eye of Xana on the Tarantula's long nose. He flipped over to land on his feet behind the Tarantula as it exploded. He pushed off towards the last monster, just hoping to distract it long enough Aélita could make it to the tower. He caught the spiked tail in between his swords and stole a glance over his shoulder to see Aélita making a run for the tower. "Go!" Ulrich ordered, the Chatchat ripping its tail out of his swords. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her enter the tower only to be swiped away, falling to the forest ground as he was devirtualized.

Air decompressed as he opened his eyes, watching the scanner doors open to reveal Franz dodging a punch from his wife with Jérémie laying on the ground. Ulrich jumped out of the scanner and dropped down next to Jérémie. He grabbed his friend under the arms and pulled him completely out of the scanner. He propped the man against the scanner whose wires weren't connected as he said, "Jérémie?" Not getting a response he said, "Jérémie, Aélita needs you!" He slapped the man across the face trying to get a response out of the man.

Jérémie's eyes flashed open, his glasses now sitting crooked on his nose. "Ow, what?" Jérémie asked, rubbing his cheek with one hand before he fixed his glasses.

"Get up to the lab," Ulrich ordered, turning his attention to Franz and Anthea fighting behind Jérémie's hiding spot. "Aélita's all alone on Lyoko and there's still an activated tower."

ODD: I don't like this.

AN: You're still alive, Odd. I can't kill you off.

ODD: I'm not worried about myself.