HEY GUYS! Really sorry bout the late update, im in year 10 this year and the work load has practically doubled so its taken me forever to write this chappie, but im coming up with a sort of timetable now so i will be able to update way more frequently, again really sorry guys. Oh and for some strange reason, i said in the last chapter, that they were on holidays, i meant weeked, soz. Hope that cleared up any confusion. Btw, im just gonna give you a list of aussie slang that I might unconsciously use in my stories cos sometimes when I'm talking to my friend from America, I'll say something and she has no idea what it means, or she has a different definition of it and laughs at me. So yeah, again, hope this clears up any confusion: Arvo= afternoon/Togs= bathers, swimmers/servo=gas station/rubber=eraser (yes, eraser)/thongs= flip flops/boot (of a car)=trunk/magnum=type of ice cream (its really yummy too )/barbie= BBQ (and no we don't say 'chuck a shrimp on the barbie mate' before you ask ) Maccas = McDonalds/ brekky or brekkie=breakfast.
I think thats it, yeah...
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN CODE LYOKO, ALL RIGHTS GO TO MOONSCOOP
I would not let him win, no way, not in my lifetime. I've worked so hard to stop it from happening, so I defiantly wasn't going to give in now.
"Oh my God, just hurry up and serve the ball" a shrill voice interrupted my thoughts. I rolled my eyes and ignored Channel who was tapping her foot impatiently. Throwing the tennis ball up in the air, the world suddenly seemed to go into slow mo and my racket came down on the ball and it sped forward to the other side of the net. Dad lunged forward to hit it but missed by an inch.
"WOOOHOOO!" I yelled throwing my racket into the air looking like a total idiot. I won I won I won! No one can be in a tennis match, no one, I would never let them.
"I told you I wasn't going to let you win" I jeered while doing a little dance of happiness.
"Luck" he shot back. I laughed silently in my head, dad and I always got so competitive when it came to tennis. Then again, I'M competitive with just about anything.
"Our turn!" Jasmine squealed, clutching her racquet in excitement and running onto the court, eagerly followed by Channel. Rolling my eyes, I jogged over to my water bottle and slumped to the ground in exhaustion. For some bizarre reason, the girls had insisted we play tennis today, and even though I absolutely love tennis, it was so hot! It had to be at least 400C. The wicked witch of the west thought she was melting? Ha! Until she feels this heat she can't complain. I sighed while gulping down the delicious water; the last week had been quiet in regards to Xana. The others had been completely shocked when I told them what happened to me in the digital sea. Jeremy went through my files again and discovered that the cause of it was probably because of the buttons he pushed when he fell asleep on the keyboard. Now that I had had some time to think it over, I guess I was sort of used to it. In fact I kinda liked it. I was a MERMAID...sorta. While I wasn't quite sure how it happened, seeing as mermaids are fictional creatures, but hey, I'm not going to start complaining. I jumped suddenly as a green object flew past me, just missing my head. For a few moments, my face probably made me look like a stunned mullet but I got over that pretty quickly and glared at Jasmine.
"Oops, sorry" she sniggered. I let out a low growl and fought hard to resist the urge to punch her. 'Well, I might as well go home, I've proved to them that I can beat dad in a tennis match, and I really don't want to stick around to watch the girls attempt to hit a tennis ball at one another...or at my head'.
"Sorry guys, but I gotta go" pausing, I tried to think of an excuse "friend emergency..." 'Ugh, good one Zoe' I though sarcastically to myself. Channel and Jasmine didn't even acknowledge me but dad looked at me with surprise.
"What?"
"Sorry dad, but my friends are having a major emergency" I apologised. 'Don't leave me' he mouthed with pleading eyes. I flashed him a sad smile, at least there was someone else who couldn't stand them.
"Sorry" I repeated.
"Fine" he replied giving a dramatic sigh.
"Love ya!" I yelled and sprinted full speed towards the safety of home but slowed down when I got away from the tennis courts. Thank God home is only 5 minutes away. There is no way I could have lasted any longer on those courts without doing damage to either Channel or Jasmine. It's...so...hot" I thought as I stumbled along the pavement. This couldn't be a Xana's attack could it? 'Nah, your being paranoid Zoe, plus he's already pulled this one on us and Xana doesn't tend to do the same attack twice, but maybe he's just trying to do something different, you know, spice it up a bit. I swear this heat is making me go delirious'. While walking past an alleyway, a flash of pink suddenly crashed into my side at a high speed. I let out a yelp as I sprawled onto the hot concrete in a very un-lady like fashion and the human cannon ball rolled on the ground next to me.
"I'm sorry I...Zoe?" a feminie voice apologised as the person stood up. I looked up at the girl.
"Aelita? What are you"- but I was cut off by her yanking me to my feet, grabbing my hand and tearing off again.
"Aelita? What's"-
"Just keep running, there's a spectre behind us!" My eyes grew wide and I threw a glance behind us. Sure enough, there was a man dressed in black chasing us, determination clear in his eyes. Gulping, I turned my head back and started running faster than Aelita. My speed didn't last long though, and as we approached the bridge I had practically had no energy left. 'It's such an unfair advantage, that spectre can't feel the heat, it's just not fair I tell you' I thought grumpily to myself.
"Why us?" I panted and jumped without thinking. Leaping off the bridge into the factory, I almost forgot to grab the rope.
"Ah!" I shrieked before grabbing it tightly and giving myself rope burn. 'Ouch ouch ouch' I thought while slamming the elevator button. Aelita just had time to commando role into the elevator before the door shut and we moved down away from the spectre.
"Will someone please tell me what's going on" I wailed while Aelita caught her breath. "Xana attack, didn't you get Ulrich's call?" I pulled my phone out of my pocket, five missed calls from Ulrich. 'Whoops'.
"Playing tennis" I replied simply. "Being in here is like being in an oven" I groaned. Thankfully, the ride was short and the roller door suddenly opened at the scanner room level. Ulrich, Odd and Yumi were already in the scanners, waiting for Jeremy to start the procedure.
"Zoe! Did you get my calls?" Ulrich asked as the doors started to shut.
"Yeah" I nodded. After they were done, Aelita and I jumped in. "Were good Jeremy". The process was quick as usual and I failed to land on my feet...as usual.
"Ow" I muttered crawling to my feet. Looking up I came face to face with William's sword. I shrieked and leaned backwards as far as I could. It flew over me without causing any damage. Thankfully. Standing up to my full height, I glared at the thrower. William just gave me an evil smirk and a cold stare in reply. Looking around, I noticed we were in the forest sector, Odd and Yumi fighting a krab each and Ulrich trying to deflect incoming tarantula lasers and protect Aelita and I at the same time. Aelita stood next to me glancing at William with an expression of nervousness and anger. "Quickly get to the tower" I whispered to her. Nodding she took off behind us. William glanced at her over my shoulder and I could practically see him trying to work out a way to get over there.
"Oh no you don't," I said marching over to him "you know I really don't appreciate you throwing that thing at my head, especially seeing as your 'master' just made me run for my life here in 30 degree heat and just after played a game of tennis, seriously, enough is enough!". He didn't look so scary without his sword and I felt good after my little rant. But my confidence was short lived. Using his smoke to bring his sword back to him, he charged at me with full force. "Whoa" was all I could squeak whilst trying to dodge his incoming attacks. Ok, I was scared now. Suddenly, Ulrich jumped in front of me and deflected his attacks.
"Cheers" I smiled and scrabbled out from underneath him and over to where Yumi was panting. "Where's Odd?"
"He had to go back and help Jeremy with the spectre" she replied. Turing around she added "come on, we better switch into high gear".
AELITAS POV
I had to stop, all of this running was starting to take its toll on me and looking around, I was totally lost. "Jeremy, where's the tower?" I asked. No response, great. I scanned the forest but there was nothing; I couldn't see the tower anywhere. In desperation, I swiped my bracelet, and took to the skies. 'Maybe I'll have a better chance of seeing it up here'. I peered into the distance but still nothing. I let out a frustrated sigh. "This is ridiculous, where is that thing?" I muttered. Glancing behind me, I felt like kicking myself. I had gone the wrong way!'I'm such an idiot' I thought wearily and started to fly in the RIGHT direction. As I flew, two figures caught my eye. Looking down, I saw Zoe and Yumi running, trying to catch up with me, well, where they thought I was. I wanted to yell out to them, but I could see William not too far away, turn into smoke to go ahead to them, while Ulrich's divirtualising body collapsed beside him. 'If I could get to the tower without William spotting me, I would have a better chance of de-activating it'.
"Houston we have a problem" I muttered. 'I guess I'll just have to go without them and hope I can pull this off'. Without another thought or word, I continued towards the glowing red cylinder. Landing a few meters away from the tower I looked around cautiously, 'this is way too easy'. Shrugging, I went towards the tower anyway 'I guess my mistake was costly for Xana as well'. Thought too soon. As soon as I took just one step, a rush of black smoke flew past my foot and William popped up just one meter in front on me.
"Uh oh" I mumbled as I stood there frozen to the spot in fear.
"Get out of there Aelita" Ulrich's voice boomed. Shaking my head, my senses jolted back to life. Spinning on my heal I sprinted as fast as I could in the opposite direction.
"Hey Ulrich" I puffed "can you bring up the overboard".
"Um..." was his reply.
"Ask Odd, I think..." but I wasn't able to finish that sentence and 'I'm in trouble now' was the last thought that entered my mind.
ZOES POV
'Where was that girl? I know she's a fast runner and all but seriously' we had been running for what seemed like hours but no sign of Aelita, or the tower for that matter.
"Get out of there Aelita" suddenly came Ulrich's voice. 'Huh?' I looked at Yumi, she was obviously having the same thoughts as me.
"Um" he said again. 'What in the world is going on?'
ULRICH'S POV
Things were defiantly not going the way I hoped they would. Aelita had just been captured by William, Yumi and Zoe were far away in the opposite direction and Jeremy and Odd were, well struggling to say the least with the spectre. Moaning, I buried my head in my hands 'what am I gonna do?' Hearing Odd's body slam against the wall, I winced and called out to him.
"You ok Odd?"
"Of course" he replied getting back onto his feet just to have the collar of his shirt grabbed by the spectre. Jeremy bravely jumped onto his back but was easily shaken off. I turned my attention back to the screen.
"You guys need to work out something fast; it's no picnic around here" I babbled into the headphones.
"What do you think we're doing? Having a nap? And where is Aelita? And the tower?" Yumi hollered back.
"She and the tower are the complete opposite direction of you guys, and to make things worse, Aelita's in the hands of William, so move it!"
"Ok ok but how"-
"I'll explain later" I interjected. 'There's no way they're going to make it' I thought biting my nails in the midst of the panic.
ZOES POV
'Please let us make it' I prayed silently. To say my muscles were killing would be major understatement. I had basically spent the whole day running and I was totally exhausted, adrenaline was the only thing keeping me going. Looking at the digital sea, a thought hit me. 'What if I swam there? I would be so much faster and getting to Aelita in time would be a possibility. Plus I could go do with a swim'. Realising the genius idea I just had, I veered off to the left and jumped off the edge without saying a word. While I plummeted below, I heard Yumi yelling my name but I ignored her, grabbed the gem the hung off my bracelet that was now softly glowing and clamped my eyes shut.
I didn't open them until I entered the digital sea. It took me a couple of seconds to adjust to my surroundings. It took a few more to get used to my tail, but I soon found myself travelling through the digital at high speeds that I never could have achieved on land, without or without all of my energy. I tried to keep my eyes above me so I would be able to see Aelita if she were hovering over the edge and it only took a couple of seconds before I spotted her blurry pink figure up in the sky. I stopped, swam downwards and then shot myself up as fast as I could. As soon as I broke free of the water I yelled "overboard, now!" Lucky for me, I had given myself enough push to just reach the edge but grabbing Aelita's unconscious body almost made me let go.
For a couple of short seconds, I just hung off the edge still in my mermaid form, clasping the hand of my still unconscious sister who hung limply below me and William stared down at me, blinking in surprise. 'Well this is awkward' I thought, it literally felt like time had stopped. That's all I got though, a few short seconds, then William shook off his initial shock and stepped very, I repeat, very hard on my already slipping hand and yelping in pain, I had to let go.
"Ulrich!" I screamed, my voice rang throughout the sector and I swear if someone was in sector five they would be able to hear me. Even William winced slightly. I felt so helpless as we fell, sure, I would fine if I fell into the digital sea, but Aelita certainly wasn't going to be and there was no way I was going to let her fall, well, I wasn't if there were anything I could do to stop it at least, but right now it was up to Ulrich and I was sure he didn't have a bloody clue on how to work the supercomputer.
"You are so lucky I'm back" Jeremy's voice rang as Aelita and I crashed onto the overboard. "Ow" I muttered and grabbing the glowing blue gem, I turned back into a human. Glancing over to Aelita, I saw the impact seemed to wake her and she groggily opened her eyes and stood up. "Morning" I smiled cheerfully while jumping up as well and steering us away from William, who just attempted to throw his sword at the overboard to make it disappeared but missed it by an inch.
"Fail!" I yelled up to him. Anger plastered on his face, he glared darkly at me.
'He really needs a new expression' I giggled to myself. Aelita gave a small laugh and threw an energy field at him, which got him right on his stomach making him disappear into red and black smoke
"Win!" I exclaimed and high fived Aelita. We were only about 3 meters away from the tower when A sharp pain in my back propelled me off the overboard and crashing onto the hard ground below.
"That was...unexpected" I wheezed and struggled onto my knees. I looked over my shoulder to see a tarantula give some sort of a battle cry and continued to charge forward, firing lasers at Aelita like it was going out of fashion.
"Not cool man" I yelled shaking my fist. It stopped and looked at me. 'Uh oh, now I've got its attention. Well that was stupid Zoe, oh my God this is gonna hurt'. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited to be divirtualised. I heard an explosion of some kind and cautiously, opened one eye. Aelita casually sauntered into the tower and Yumi stood not too far away with a confident smile as she caught her returning fan. "Yeah I'm amazing I know" she grinned. My face relaxed and I collapsed on the ground whilst letting out a long sigh of relief.
"Thank you!" I said, sticking a thumbs up in the air to emphasise my gratefulness and waited to be brought back to earth.
"Well, that was a painful and stressing experience" I remarked sitting Buddha style in the bottom of the scanner.
"Aren't they all?" Yumi said stretching her back as she clambered out and headed towards the elevator. Scrambling up on my feet I skipped over to where she was, followed by Aelita.
"Oh God, were back in the oven" I cried dramatically. The girls laughed and we all were grateful when the door opened up at the computer lab.
"Well, this is a sorry sight to behold" I commented. Jeremy, Odd and Ulrich were all sitting on the floor next to each other, leaning against the wall and taking deep breaths. There were cords and wires strewn all over the floor, there were dents in the wall...the place seriously looked like a teenage party had been held in it.
"Should we do a return?" Yumi asked.
"No, no need, I'll fix this place up later" Jeremy replied, staring at the floor. The next hour went fast. We filled each other in on what happened on Lyoko, like how the hell Aelita went from being behind us to in front of us without us seeing her, things like that. Luckily, as the day progressed, the suns heat died down. Nevertheless though, it was still hot and while staring at the water below the bridge as we walked back, I had another genius idea, the second one for that day.
"Hey! Do you guys want to come back to my place for a swim?" I asked excitedly.
"Yes!" Odd yelled, pumping his fist in the air. The others grinned and nodded gratefully. Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, Jeremy and Aelita all split up and went either to the academy or home to grab their togs and anything else they thought they might need. I raced home, went up into my bedroom and completely ignored Channel and Jasmines gazes. After changing in a stripy baby blue and white bikini, I went back down the stairs again (and almost tripped on a hairbrush) and skipped to where mum and dad where sitting in the lounge room.
"Hey, you guys don't mind if my friends come over for a swim right?" I asked sweetly.
"Sure hun, you can introduce them to your cousins" Clarissa replied, not shifting her eyes from the TV. 'Yeah, I'm sure my friends will be thrilled' I thought glumly.
"Thank you!" I wrapped my arms around her neck and gave her a kiss on the cheek. A knocking sound could suddenly be heard.
"Come in!" I yelled walking over to the front door where my five friends now stood. The boys were all wearing board shorts, Yumi had a simple black one piece on and Aelita had a plain pink bikini that had a strap that went around her neck, and bows on the side the bottom half. I had to get them outta here, and fast. Unfortunately for me though, just as I was about to direct them out of the house and into the pool area, Channel and Jasmine marched in.
"Who are these people?" Channel questioned rudely, tossing her hair behind her like the girls in the Pantene ads.
"Not that it's any of your business" I rolled my eyes "but there are my friends. This is Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, Jeremy and Aelita" and gestured to each of them.
"You? Friends?" Jasmine snickered.
"Yeah, you jealous that I have some?" I shot back hotly. The others broke into fits of laughter as my cousins stood there looking flustered.
"Jealous of you? Yeah right" Jasmine rolled her eyes "come on Channel, let's not waste our time with these losers". Gently tugging on her sister's sleeve they disappeared upstairs.
"You have to live with that?" Odd asked, gobsmacked.
"Yep" I replied with a sad smile "But only for two more weeks then they're outta here!" Turing my back to them, I started to run towards the pool.
"Come on guys, last one there is a rotten egg!" I laughed as they chased me outside, chucked our towels to the side and we all jumped into the pool and the exact same time, it's times like these I wish I had a camera. We spent the rest of the afternoon mucking around, trying to drown Odd, throwing plastic pool things at each other, you know, stuff like that. It was now 5:00. We were all lying on our backs in the water, not saying anything, just relaxing.
"Well, we'd better head off now or Jim will kill us" Jeremy yawned. The others nodded and so slowly, we all got out and dried ourselves off. Everyone made an effort to make it the slowest process in the world, occasionally dabbing one of the water droplets that clung to our slightly shivering bodies. When they did eventually leave, I collapsed on my bed and sighed in happiness. We hadn't been bugged once by Channel and Jasmine and I was more than happy to forget they were in my house.
"OMG yes!" I heard Jasmine squeal from the room next to mine. My head jerked up. "He was so hot I almost died. How did Zoe manage to score a friend as good looking as him" she continued. 'Huh?' I crawled over to the wall and pressed my ear against it.
"What was his name again? Ulrich wasn't it?" Channel inquired. I had to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing. Channel and Jasmine have a crush on Ulrich! That was just...hilarious. "Do you think he was the one she snuck out for the other night to go and see" smile quickly dropped. They had heard me sneak out the other night! 'Uh oh'.
"I don't know" Jasmine replied "but I say next time she does, or next time she says her friends are having an emergency, we follow her! Discreetly of course". 'MAJOR UH OH!'
So what did you think? And yes I understand this chappie didn't have a great plot to it, sorry bout that. Guys Im stuck and i need you help. Should i make odd and Aelita and zoe and Jeremy the official couples, or keep it Jeremy and Aelita and Zoe and Odd. HELP! Sorry this chappies a bit short, until next time
Aelitagirlrox101