Chapter 20: Devilish

I would have gotten this up faster, but I've been feeling sick all week. That, and the Internet browser on my laptop has been wonky.

My schedule had changed once again, so I have no idea when I'll be able to post. Just expect a new chapter once a week, okay?

"What's the situation, Jeremy?" I demanded from the young genius. He swirled around in his chair to face us. Devlin was right beside him, keeping an eye on the screen.

"Good timing, Carter, Odd. Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi are already on Lyoko. They haven't fought anything yet." Jeremy paused. "What's the situation at school?"

"A freaky fog made all the students faint," Odd replied. Jeremy nodded while Devlin looked puzzled. "Does this normally happen when XANA attacks?" the redheaded prodigy asked.

"It's usually something different each time, but it always has something to do with the end of the world," Odd corrected.

Something occurred to me. "Is Stacey still out there?"

Devlin made a face. "She called and told us she was on her way, but that was a while ago. She's probably still with Sissi."

I nodded. Over the last month, Stacey had befriended the school's so-called "diva" for some reason. The rest of us had tried to talk her out of it, but she refused to listen. Devlin figured she was planning something, and I couldn't help but agree with him. I may not have known Stacey for that long, but I knew her type.

"We'll head to the scanners," Odd concluded before pushing the big red button. The elevator doors closed, and we fell to the final floor of the factory.

"The others are in the mountain sector. There aren't any monsters there yet, but you should hurry," Jeremy informed the two as Carter and Odd climbed into their respective scanners.

"Scanner: Odd. Scanner: Carter. Transfer: Odd. Transfer: Carter. Virtualization."

"Do you always say that?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The whole 'scanner Odd, scanner Yumi' thing. Can't you do something different for a change?"

"When you have complete control over the supercomputer, you can say it however you want. Until then, we do things my way."

"But-"

"Shut up, Devlin."

It wasn't until the two of us were safely on the mountain sector before I noticed the watch on my wrist.

Well, it looked like a watch at first glance. But when I studied it, it wasn't a type of clock at all. It was a silver band with a silver bat on it, similar to the one on my chest. It didn't look like much…

"I added a few things to your weaponry in case XANA decided to play unfairly," Devlin's smooth voice rang out over the mountains. "Odd, instead of ten arrows in your hand- er, perhaps I should say paw- you now have exactly one hundred. Ulrich had an extra katana, Yumi has two extra fans, Aelita now can aim better with her energy blasts, and Carter…"

"Yeah?"

"We gave you a shield in case you get in a fight with Wilhelm."

"William. And I told you I didn't need an upgrade."

"Well, we gave you one anyway. Just remember to wave your hand over the bracelet when you need it and tap the shield when you're done with it, okay?"

"Fine. But where are the others?"

Devlin was about to give us the coordinates, but he was knocked aside. Odd and I could hear a scuffle. There was a shout and some mild swearing, and Odd began to look anxious. He shot me look that asked, What is going on over there? I shrugged my shoulders, but I was afraid that XANA had paid a little visit to the boys in the computer room.

"The coordinates are twenty degrees southeast," Jeremy said, sounding out of breath.

"Uh, what exactly is going on over there?" Odd asked hesitantly.

"Well-OW! Hey!" Jeremy shrieked as his head set was jerked off his head. "Apparently, your friend doesn't like it when he's not calling the shots," Devlin snarled. I think he was mostly talking to Jeremy.

"I think we should get going," I said sheepishly. "Do you think we can get there without our rides?" Odd asked as he turned to the east.

We could still hear the two geniuses arguing. "I don't think we have a choice." I followed Odd as we ran at high speed to the nearest tower. It was strange that I could instantly tell which direction I was going in. It made me wish that I had this ability back on Earth. But I didn't have the time to think that. I wanted to try out my upgrade, see how much damage I could do.

Whoa, stop there, I chided myself. We don't need you to go a killing spree, do we?

Before I could deduce who the hell I was talking to inside my head, I saw Ulrich and Yumi fighting some krabs. Aelita was almost to the tower, but there were a few hornets blocking her way.

"You take the hornets. I got the krabs," I told Odd. "Sweet! I get to try out the new laser arrows!" Odd whooped as he ran to save Aelita. I ran in the other direction to help Yumi and Ulrich.

There were exactly three krabs. Yumi was using nearly all her fans, but was having trouble killing one because a second was trying to take her out. Ulrich was baiting the third, super-sprinting all over the place to get the seafood platter angry. Ulrich flaunted his second katana; I hoped that when it came down to it, he would be a match against William.

Just then, Yumi let out a yelp. One of the krabs had hit her in the leg, and the two of them surrounded Yumi as she was kneeling on the ground, nursing her wound. I rushed over, daggers drawn. I jumped onto the nearest one and jabbed one of my daggers into the eye of XANA. The other krab saw me and tried to shoot at me, but I leaped over to the other krab and landed on its shell just as it shot at the first krab.

The shot knocked the krab a few feet away, so Yumi wasn't affected when the krab finally exploded. I quickly dug both of my daggers into the second krab, pulled the daggers out, and jumped off. I landed in front of Yumi and waved my hand over my left wrist, where the watch was. A silver disk instantly popped out, five feet in diameter. I used the shield to protect the two of us as the second krab exploded.

I turned to Yumi. She was up again, shaking off the shock of getting hurt. "I get an upgrade and I could barely use it," she grumbled.

"Don't beat yourself up. XANA likes to play dirty."

"True. Awesome shield, by the way."

I examined it. It was surprisingly lightweight, and despite taking the brunt of the krab explosion, it looked shiny and new. The only problem with it was that I wouldn't be able to use both of my daggers at once when I had it out. Sure, my defense would be covered, but defense wouldn't defeat William.

Speaking of that son of a bitch, where was he?

Ulrich super-sprinted over to us as I tapped my shield and watched it go back into the watch (is 'watch' a good word to use? Whatever, I'll keep using it). Ulrich had finished terminating the last krab, and he looked extremely pleased with his new toy. "You guys okay?"

"I'll be fine, but I wonder how many life points I have left," Yumi said as she looked towards the sky. "Jeremy, are you there?"

We heard the sounds of a fight, a lot more swearing, and an evil laugh. There was a coughing sound, and we could hear the meek voice of Jeremy as he said, "Stacey's been XANAfied. Yumi, you have twenty life points left. Carter has one hundred, and Odd and Ulrich both have ninety."

We looked over at Odd. He had just finished off the last hornet and was cheering about his victory when who shows up?

William, with two tarantulas, that's who. They were both blocking the way to the tower, and Aelita had to turn around and hide behind a rock so the tarantula blasts wouldn't get to her.

The three of us ran over to Odd, who was near Aelita, trying to cover her. "Carter, can you use your shield as defense?" Odd asked, his arm raised and tensed. He was prepared to fire a laser arrow at any on the opposing team.

"I can, put I don't know if it can take a blast from one of those monsters." I peered over the rock. William was directly in front of the tower, sneering and beckoning us to attack him. The tarantulas stood guard on either side of him, waiting to attack the Lyoko warriors. Not a new tactic, but a deadly one nonetheless.

"I'll be the first to attack," Yumi stated. "I have the least life points, and Jeremy and Devlin might need my help with dealing with Stacey," she added before Ulrich could protest otherwise.

"We'll take it from there," Aelita said, giving Ulrich a look. And before any of us knew it, Yumi was suicide charging towards the tarantulas.

Even William was stunned by that, but not for long. He took out his sword and ran, but not at Yumi. No, he was aiming at the rest of us.

Yumi was able to dodge all of the lasers and swing two of her fans at the tarantula on her right of the tower. She had been close enough for one fan to hit the tarantula on the eye. Just as the fans were returning to her, the tarantula exploded, but the other was still very much alive.

Yumi dodged the first laser, but not the second. In a moment, she had pixilated, and was now back in the real world.

"Ulrich, you take Captain Cocky. Carter and Odd, you take out the tarantula. When I see an opening, I'll take it," Aelita ordered us. We all nodded grimly, and then I jumped into the line of fire. I waved a hand over my watch, and the shield popped out. I ran towards the next tarantula with Odd in tow. I didn't see Ulrich take on William; I was too focused on not getting devirtualized.

I didn't have much time; the shield was giving out after the third laser. "Odd!" I called out warningly. A forth laser- and the shield had been devirtualized.

"That's it, Odd. Take the shot!" I yelled at him as I drew my daggers. I swear, that tarantula was laughing at me.

And then I heard a whizzing sound go past my ear and hit the tarantula's weakness. Too late did I realize that it was Odd's laser arrow. XANA's last monster exploded.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Odd cheered. "Odd the Magnificent does it again!"

I smirked at his bragging as I put away my daggers. "Let's go see how Ulrich's doing."

He was doing pretty well, actually. With his extra katana, Ulrich could easily attack and defend William's Zweihander. Aelita had seen a chance and crept past William. She was now running to the tower's entrance. For the first time in his evil career, William didn't notice.

Odd and I watched as Aelita safely entered the tower. And then we turned our attention to William. "How are your arrows? Do you think you can get a shot at him?" I asked Odd.

He looked to William, then back at me. "What a devilish mind you have there." Odd pretended to be shocked as he prepared to fire. "He has his back to us. This should be easy." And then Odd fired a single laser arrow at William's back.

William howled in pain as Ulrich took one last desperate jab at William's torso. But before the saber could connect, William disappeared into black smoke and vanished. I looked at the tower. It was white, the color of neutrality.

I high-fived Odd. "Do you think Jeremy can devirtualize us?" Ulrich asked as he ran towards us. "Jeremy, are you there?" Odd called out to his friend.

"I'm here, guys," Jeremy croaked. He sounded like he had been smoking an entire pack of cigarettes. "I'm doing a return to the past…now."

And then Lyoko was swallowed in white nothingness.

Yumi had thought that with Devlin and his fighting skills around, she didn't have to worry too much about XANA attacking the geniuses controlling the supercomputer.

She was wrong.

When she arrived to the supercomputer room after being devirtualized, she saw a terrible scene: Jeremy sprawled on the floor, coughing up spittle and nearly dry heaving, and Devlin and Stacey duking it out with their bare hands.

As Yumi ran to help Jeremy, she saw the battle. Stacey had all the signs of being XANAfied, with the eyes and terrible grunts showing her possession. Devlin had not taken out his energy guns, possibly out of fear of damaging the supercomputer. Both of them were using moves from karate, kung fu, kickboxing, and even Pencak Silat.

Those scientists really knew how to train their test subjects.

But no matter how awesome Devlin was at fighting, he was tiring, while Stacey still had plenty of energy. Yumi was very glad when Aelita deactivated the tower and Jeremy had enough strength to do a return to the past.

Before the world travelled back a day, Yumi looked at the scene before her: Jeremy nearly passing out in front of the supercomputer, Stacey slumped on the floor, and Devlin looking fierce after his battle.

Yumi closed her eyes, and only one thought entered her mind before the white nothingness came over her.

Sometimes, it doesn't pay to get out of bed.

Preview of the coming chapter:

Odd contemplates his Halloween costume.

Jeremy thinks of a possible XANA motive.

And Aelita goes steam punk.

I know a few of you have been wondering about Odd and Carter's relationship, and don't fret; there might be some action next chapter. No promises, though.

So what should Odd's costume be? I have a few ideas, but I want to hear your thoughts on this. And remember, this is Odd we're talking about. It obviously has to loud and flamboyant.