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11

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Sissi hit the bottom of the ladder just as the elevator doors opened. Ulrich stepped out, nodding to her.

"Go on, Sissi. I'll get the stuff on Lyoko. As soon as we shut the tower down, whatever that thing is upstairs should stop; without the towers, XANA can't possess things."

Sissi nodded and took off down the hallway on her map; she heard the scanner close behind her and the swoosh of energy as Ulrich was virtualized. She rounded the first corner and found the blue arrow markings on the wall, and quickly set off to follow them.

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"Come on Herve. This place is empty, and it's all freaky and creepy too…"

Nikolas followed his friend as he stalked down corridor after corridor, descending further into the old abandoned workings of the factory. Herve didn't slow down at all, heading toward another flight of stairs down. Nikolas reluctantly followed him down and into another series of hallways. The light had gotten even darker, with barely any visibility so deep into the place. Nikolas could hear rhythmic thumping of machinery somewhere in it all.

Herve was moving ahead again, picking up speed and rounding another corner. Nikolas ran to catch up, finally grabbing his friend's arm.

"Hey! Let me go!"

"Listen Herve! You're not thinking this out!" Nikolas yelled, finally losing his patience. "You don't even know where we're going, we're just getting more and more lost in all of this piping and machinery and stuff! I get that you want Sissi to see you as a man, but you're going about this whole thing totally wrong!"

Herve shook his arm free, yelling back. "If you don't like it, you can go get lost! Some friend you are!"

Nikolas growled and grabbed Herve off the ground abruptly by his shirt collar, holding him right up to his face, his voice suddenly more aggressive and loud. "Being your friend doesn't mean I won't punch you right in your stupid face for being stupid, stupid!"

The two looked at each other, both glaring and grinding their teeth. Then, suddenly, Nikolas realized something.

The rhythmic machine pounding had stopped.

Down the hall, something groaned.

Herve and Nikolas both slowly turned their heads to look down one of the darkened halls.

Glowing amber eyes looked back.

Then whatever it was roared at them, a terrible sound like drowning beasts, and it charged.

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Sissi heard the screams before she saw anything, coming to a halt suddenly. She quickly looked at her map again and rushed up another staircase and down another hallway, trying to follow it. She skidded to a halt as she reached the hallway that led to the security doors. The second to last one was nearly slammed to pieces, and the rest were crumpled inward, but there was no sign of whatever had done it.

Well, almost no sign. Strangely, the floor was absolutely covered in wet, thick moss. And as she looked down, Sissi realized that the light bleeding from the security hall showed wet round mossy footprints leading away from the hall. Hesitating only for a moment, she quickly followed them.

Somewhere ahead, she heard Nikolas and Herve's voices screaming again. If anything happens to them, it's going to be all my fault! I've got to find them!

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Back on Lyoko, Ulrich was charging directly at the Megatank, swords drawn. Odd, at the same time, dive-bombed it on his Overboard, peppering it with arrows. A little ways behind them, Aelita had extended her wings and was preparing to dive.

Overwhelmed with targets, and with the primary target out of range, the tank swiveled back and forth, arrows shredding sinew, before it closed up and charged at Ulrich. As soon as it closed, Aelita dove for the tower

Ulrich crossed his swords to catch the charge. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, and the Megatank slammed into the swords, pushing Ulrich back until he was brutally crushed against a tree and instantly devirtualized, disintegrating into pixels of data.

Odd yelled to Aelita. "Keep going, don't stop!" He quickly charged the tank, hammering away with arrows even as it began to turn toward Aelita and reopen.

Aelita hadn't slowed one bit, nearly to the tower.

Odd's arrows hammered home on the tank, but at the last second it fired. The wave of energy slammed into him and shredded him, devirtualizing him even as the tank exploded.

Aelita pulled in her wings and dove through the tower entrance, only feet ahead of the wave of energy.

The tower shook with the impact, but Aelita was safely inside.

Moving to its center, she began to rise to the top.

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Sissi rounded another bend and skidded to a stop again. Ahead of her, something enormous, thick, and smelly was hammering at a strong thick doorway. She couldn't get a good view in the dim light, but she quickly ducked back behind the corner again, breathing fast. The beast thing was massive, and it was roaring and hammering at the door again and again. Beyond the door, she heard Herve and Nikolas's frightened yelps and screams. As she pulled out her map again, she saw that it was a boiler room they'd closed themselves into; the map made the door look thick, and the monster was having a hard time breaking in it looked like.

She glanced back out, pulling out her cell phone and dialing Jeremie. When he answered, she spoke quietly into it.

"Jeremie, it's Sissi. Herve and Nikolas are shut up in a boiler room, and the monster is hammering at it."

Jeremie's voice came back. "Can you tell what it is?"

"No, I can't see in the dark, but it's huge, and it's leaving moss all over, and it stinks something awful! Like rotten plants or something!"

"Alright. Aelita is about to shut down the tower. It should be only another minute."

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Inside the tower, Aelita tapped at the interface at its peak, entering the code to deactivate the tower. "Tower, deactivated."

Outside, the tower's red glow turned blue and serene.

Jeremie pumped a fist. "Yes! Good going Aelita!" He held up the cell phone.

"Sissi, the tower is down. The monster should be stopping now."

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As Sissi watched, the monster stopped mid-swing, pausing as if uncertain. Then it bellowed even louder and angrier than before and began to slam the door again harder than ever. Herve and Nikolas cries started up again, as the heavy door now began to buckle.

"Jeremie…he's not stopping."

"What?"

"The monster. It's not stopping."

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