Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko nor do I own Pokemon.
Discovery
"You really should consider your Metang, Jeremy, leaving it in the laboratory all the time," said Aelita, descending down the elevator with him.
Yumi added, "It's not very healthy, you know, to be living next to a computer all day," and hinted about Jeremy's habits.
"Besides," continued Aelita, "you already have the super scan hooked up to your laptop, so I think that Metang needs a break every so often."
"I guess…" Jeremy had forgotten about his Pokemon's needs from the workloads he has been receiving from school and from Lyoko.
"Where's Odd?" asked Ulrich. "We're supposed to be launching the decryption program today."
"He said he had some business to take care of in the woods," said Jeremy. "That's why he left Kiwi with us." He looked down at the Granbull, who barked in response to his name. The elevator had reached the first basement. "You guys go ahead to Lyoko without him." Kiwi followed Jeremy to the computer as the others descended further down to the scanners.
Jeremy looked at the Metang that was roaming aound the supercomputer. "Return, Metang," said Jeremy. "I'm really sorry I didn't think about you before." His eyebrows curved into a frown.
"We're ready, Jeremy," announced Yumi from the floor below.
"Transfer, Scanner, Virtualization!" He virtualized the six into the Mountain Region.
(-o-)
Meanwhile, Odd was in the woods near the Hermitage, trying to search for the girl that text messaged him. He past a couple of old trees.
"Hey, Nicholas!" Odd saw the boy squatting by the dirt path. "What are you doing here?" The redhead looked up and glared at Odd. He leapt towards Odd's hand, took his cell phone, and threw it far into the forest.
"Hey! What was that for?!" Then, Odd backed away, seeing the marks in Nicholas's eyes.
(-o-)
"Come on, Odd," went Jeremy, "pick up!" He tried for the fourth time to call Odd's cell phone through the supercomputer.
"Maybe we should just go without him," said Aelita, standing on the mountain next to Skitty.
"No!" rebuked Yumi. "I told Jeremy that we need everyone present on Lyoko for this mission. He's not going to change his mind again."
"Yeah, alright," said Jeremy, giving up. "Let's go without Odd."
"No." The elevator door opened. Jeremy saw the boy he had been calling for all along. "Take me to Lyoko," said Odd.
"Finally," said Jeremy. "Why didn't you answer? I've been calling you for the last 5 minutes."
"I have my cell phone off," Odd said, slightly sadly.
"Alright," said Jeremy, looking puzzled as Odd descended down to the scanner room. Kiwi's ears perked up and looked at it trainer. It eyes narrowed.
"Bark! Bark!"
"Calm down, Kiwi. It's me, Odd," he cautiously walked over to the Granbull and patted its head. With a slight grumble, Kiwi was carried to a scanner by Odd and was virtualized onto Lyoko with the others.
"That's strange," said Jeremy after completing the process. "It says that there was an error with the virtualization."
Yumi approached Odd. "No, he looks fine."
Ulrich whispered to Aelita. "How come he looks so dreary?"
"Maybe he lost his cell phone," responded Aelita.
"Alright you guys," said Jeremy. "The tower is within running distance." They started off. "Just guard the tower while Aelita and I activate it." They reached the end of a path where a blue tower was sitting inside a mountain. Skitty followed Aelita inside.
"Okay, Aelita," said Jeremy. "If we want to decode Franz Hopper's diary, we need all the power we can get from this tower."
Aelita and Skitty landed on the second platform. "I'm readying the interface," said she.
"I'm activating the tower…now." He pressed a key.
Aelita viewed the screen, which had various windows scrolling in an upward direction. "It's working."
Odd looked up at the tower, which was now glowing green.
"Alight," said Jeremy. "Just as long as XANA doesn't show up, we have nothing to worry about….Uh oh…"
"What, Jeremy?" asked Ulrich.
"Three monsters heading your way."
Ulrich peered down the foggy pathway and saw the three monsters appear.
"It's only a couple of Ninkrelats," said Yumi.
The monsters crept closer, but then they stopped. Out of nowhere, data streams appeared and started to encircle the Ninkrelats.
"What's happening?" asked Jeremy. The monsters that were once feeble Ninkrelats were now vicious Tarantaraks.
"They evolved!" said Yumi, taking out her fans. Kiwi was the one to make the first move. He charged at full speed towards the Tarantaraks. A red light was cast on the Intimidated monsters. Odd raised his arm and aimed in the same direction. He fired three laser arrows.
"Bull!"
"Watch it, Odd!" screamed Ulrich. "You just devirtualized Kiwi!" Odd, who had his back to the others, turned around and took a stance. He fired three more laser arrows at Yumi.
"Aggh!" She disappeared along with Misdreavus.
"Jeremy!" called Ulrich, wielding his sword. "I think Odd's being controlled by XANA!"
"You sure?" Jeremy asked as Odd fired dozens of arrows at Ulrich and Nuzleaf.
"I'm sure!" Ulrich defended his Pokemon with his katana.
"Aelita! You have to discontinue the decryption program!"
"I can't," hollered Aelita. Skitty looked upset as well.
"Odd is a polymorphic clone," said Yumi, exiting the elevator.
"Of course," realized Jeremy, turning around in his chair. "We've dealt with them before. XANA can send a specter to Earth in the form of any human he wants."
"But where's the real Odd?" Yumi wondered.
"I bet the real Odd still has his cell phone on," said Jeremy. "Go check in the woods for him."
"Right." Yumi went into the elevator with Misdreavus and started to dial Odd's cell phone number.
(-o-)
"You'll never get away with this XANA!" Odd screamed. If only Odd were twice as tall, he could climb out of the underground well. "My friends will find me; you'll see."
"Oh?" snickered Nicholas. "Would you like them to find you dead or alive?" Odd trembled as Nicholas took out his Pokeball. "Go! Psyduck!" The Water-type Pokemon had the eyes of XANA as well. "Water Gun!"
"Psy-y!" It shot liters of cold water into the well. Odd trembled some more as the well started to fill up with water.
(-o-)
"What do we do?" asked the panicking Aelita.
"Ulrich will have to cut the wires connecting the tower to the supercomputer," figured Jeremy.
"I'll try," responded Ulrich. He had to get these monsters off his back. "Nuzleaf! Fake Out!" It launched a kick towards one of the Tarantaraks and succeeded to destroy it in one hit. Distracted, the second Tarantarak was slaughtered by Ulrich's sword. The Odd clone loaded his wrist.
"You're wasting your time, XANA," said Ulrich. "Odd has never beaten me yet." In response, XANA started to glow orange. The polymorphic clone had transformed into an almost exact copy of Ulrich! "Nice outfit," said Ulrich, remarking on XANA's black-and-orange color scheme. Ulrich stared into XANA's cold, orange eyes on his fierce, gray face.
"I'd like to make this fight even," it said. It pointed its red sword at the third Tarantarak. It started to glow orange as well. Sure enough, it had turned into an exact copy of Nuzleaf. It had almost black skin, and it had orange knees and an orange mask, concealing its orange eyes. Now for the test of truth.
"Nuzleaf! Fake Out!" they yelled at the same time. Which Pokemon was faster? The Brown Nuzleaf pierced XANA's virtual body first.
"Yeah!" cried Ulrich with success. But the Black Nuzleaf was flying towards him. Ulrich swung his sword around, but the evil Nuzleaf got to him. Both Ulrichs flinched.
"This is no good,"thought Ulrich."Separate targets, separate conditions." After he had gotten over flinching, Ulrich grabbed his sword with two hands and charged toward XANA's clone using Agility. But XANA had gotten up as well and was using Agility.
Nuzleaf was using Nature Power, but the rocks did little damage to XANA's Nuzleaf. It closed in on Nuzleaf and delivered a Pound attack.
(-o-)
In the Hermitage, the water from Nicholas's Psyduck was starting to get painful for Odd. After many failed attempts, Yumi found Odd's cell phone on the ground a couple of meters from the Hermitage. Luckily, she heard Odd's screaming as well.
"Not so fast, XANA!"
"Yumi!" Odd was thankful to hear her voice.
"Go! Misdreavus! Use Psywave!" Her wondrous Pokemon emerged from its Pokeball and delivered its attack on the Psyduck.
"What?!" yelled XANA in confusion. Yumi deviously delivered a roundhouse kick to XANA's chest. Both the Pokemon and its trainer had fainted.
"Thanks, Yumi," said Odd, "but how about getting me out of here?!" He had risen up a couple feet from Psyduck's water, but he still couldn't reach the top of the well.
Yumi panted, "Misdreavus, go retrieve Odd."
"Mis." It floated down into the underground well and Levitated Odd out of the hole.
"Thanks," he said. "No girl's ever kept me waiting that long." Under his drenched hair, he still managed to smile.
(-o-)
"XANA's taken control of the tower!" announced Jeremy. "Ulrich!"
Ulrich looked up at the color-changing tower. "Better use a different tactic," said Ulrich to himself. He ran across the plateau to a landing where many of the towers' wires were protruding from the ground. He jumped on one of them and used it to launch him in the direction of the incoming enemy. XANA quickly defended with his sword.
He did so again, but XANA mirrored Ulrich's moves. "Nuzleaf!" Ulrich called out. "Switch!" Nuzleaf looked up and dashed away from the dark Nuzleaf. They passed an invisible baton and switched targets.
Ulrich studied his opponent as the Nuzleaf took many short strides at him. At the right moment, Ulrich ducked to avoid the Nuzleaf's Pound attack. As the Nuzleaf flew in midair, Ulrich stuck his arm up at the Nuzleaf's stomach, destroying it once and for all.
Ulrich's Nuzleaf used its Rock Slide attack via Nature Power. This was no match for XANA, though. He could easily destroy each falling rock by swiftly stabbing each one until it fell apart.
(-o-)
"We'd better get back to the factory now," said Yumi.
"Why wait?" asked Odd. He didn't know it, but Nicholas had opened his eyes again. The mark of XANA flashed in his eyes once more.
"Grr!" It stood up and growled and the three.
"I think we'd better get out of here!" said Odd and ran with Yumi in the direction of the factory.
"Confuse Ray!" ordered Yumi. Misdreavus cast a spotlight on Nicholas, but the Psyduck got in the way. "XANA must have activated another tower," she said.
(-o-)
"Ulrich!" called Jeremy. "Nuzleaf's ready to learn a new move. Torment."
Ulrich ran up to stand behind his Pokemon. "Take away Growth." Jeremy did so and loaded up the new move. "Alright, Nuzleaf," called Ulrich, "Torment!"
"Nuzleaf! Nuz Nuz Nuzleaf Leaf!" It put its fists on its waist, and gray smoke came out of Nuzleaf's mouth. In response, XANA-Ulrich was immobile. Or maybe just his sword. His sword couldn't move! XANA tried his hardest, but it wouldn't budge. The red katana shot out of XANA's grasp and into its socket. Without a sword, XANA cried in despair as the rocks came tumbling down.
"Now, are you ready Nuzleaf?" Ulrich held up his own sword. "Agility!" The two of them sprinted towards the enemy. Ulrich used Quick Attack right on XANA, and Nuzleaf Pounded from behind. XANA disappeared through a mist of digital, white squares.
"Nice job, Ulrich," congratulated Jeremy. "Now head over to the tower and cut the cables!"
The two dashed over to the tower, but Ulrich paused after his first slash. "There are too many cables, Jeremy. I don't think we'll be able to make it in time!" Just as if the tower had heard Ulrich, the aura of the tower turned from red to white.
"Franz Hopper's taking control of the tower!" Jeremy said happily. He watched as the progress of his decoding program quickened.
(-o-)
Back in the woods, Nicholas and Psyduck were leaping towards Odd, Yumi, and Misdreavus. Thanks to Franz Hopper, XANA's attack had ceased.
"What?" Nicholas stood up. "Where am I?" He took a good look around.
Yumi acted quickly. "Are you okay, Nicholas? You look beaten up. We were walking in the woods, and then we came across you."
"You should head back to school and take a nap," added Odd.
"Alright. Thanks." Nicholas walked away with Psyduck, rubbing his head and looking confused.
(-o-)
Everyone gathered around Jeremy to view the first entry of Franz Hopper's diary. On Jeremy's monitor, the familiar man with the thick, dark glasses was seen sitting in the lab.
"…and then I created Lyoko. With some time, I'll be able to go with my daughter to live there. Forever…"
"That's strange," said Aelita. "If his daughter was also virtualized onto Lyoko, I would have known about it." Jeremy gave Aelita serious look. "I'm…Franz Hopper's…daughter?"
(.o')(-o-)('o.)
Finished 12/16/07