I was asked to write a recap, since it has been so long since I last updated (last chapter, not this chapter), so I will write a really brief recap of what has happened up to this point.
Recap:
Ulrich had left the gang and transfered to a sports school in America. Naturally, he made new friends, and tried to forget everything involving Xana. One day, he received a call of help from Aelita, the only person who had accepted Ulrich's decision to leave while Xana was still active. Xana had grown a lot stronger than anyone had expected, and Odd was in the hospital, dying from a horrible Xana attack. Ulrich and his girlfriend, Kailey, grabbed the next plane they could to France.
Ulrich and Kailey had barely been in France a few hours when Xana attacked again, this time kidnapping Aelita and almost harming Kailey. Ulrich was forced to tell Kailey the truth, and Jeremie wrote up a program for her to become a Lyoko warrior. While performing a recon mission, Kailey became really ill in Lyoko, forcing Jeremie to pull her out and leaving a lot of unanswered questions, as well as some unknown code. When Ulrich and Kailey left the factory to see if Xana was doing anything, another friend of Ulrich's, Johnny called. Kailey became furious with Ulrich, thinking he had lied to her, when Ulrich told Johnny a blatant lie about what was going on. She left Ulrich, who headed to the factory to see what Jeremie had found out about the code, and went back to their hotel.
While Kailey was at the hotel, Xana attacked her directly, burning down the hotel and the entire street. Kailey had managed to escape and was heading to the factory to warn the others when Yumi and Ulrich found her. Ulrich forced her to go to the hospital because she was badly burnt, and while there, he paid Odd a visit. Odd told Ulrich that Kailey was the means to find the hidden sector where the hidden tower was before whatever Xana did to him forced him into unconsciousness.
Ulrich, Jeremie and Yumi returned to the factory, and Yumi and Ulrich entered Lyoko to try and find any clues of the hidden sector or Aelita's prison. While searching, Kailey was having some weird dreams, prompting the doctors to call Ulrich and making Jeremie pull Ulrich out of Lyoko. Jeremie had tried to pull Yumi out as well, but she was stuck in Lyoko. Ulrich went off to see what the doctors had to say while Jeremie got to work trying to figure out why he couldn't devirtualize Yumi.
Yumi found a weird energy anomaly in the forest sector that could lead to where Aelita was, and Jeremie figured out the reason Yumi was stuck was because of the odd codes left behind after Kailey's virtualization. Jeremie set to work on fixing these codes, and both he and Ulrich agreed they needed another Lyoko warrior. Ulrich made a call to America and had Johnny fly in on the next available flight.
"You might want to hurry up with those monsters, Johnny's program is almost written."
"We're doing the best we can, Jeremie," Yumi called back. She threw her fans once again, taking out two monsters that were advancing on her and Ulrich, but four more quickly filled their place. Ulrich darted in and out of the monsters ranks, doing damage where he could, but those monsters were also quickly replaced.
"I don't think Xana likes what we're up to," Ulrich said, falling back to where Yumi was. He quickly brought up his sword to block a laser attack, but got struck from another one from behind. "Damn it!" Bending over to make himself a smaller target, Ulrich focused and made copies of himself. Charging the enemy that was now behind them, Ulrich and his copies took the monsters out and quickly turned their attention back to helping Yumi.
"I would prefer not to drop Johnny into the middle of a battle with Xana's monsters," Jeremie said. "Would you two hurry up and dispose of them already."
"Whatever happened to learning under fire?" Yumi gasped. She had just gotten hit with a barrage of lasers from some Hornets that joined the fight, and she was beginning to feel the effects of this fight.
"When we're limited on warriors enough as it is, I would prefer not to lose a warrior before they even begin." In the background, Yumi and Ulrich could hear a muffled, "Wait, what!"
"Well, an extra hand would be helpful in getting rid of these monsters." Ulrich barely managed to dodge a blast from one of the Krabs, finding himself struggling to balance on the edge of the path. He quickly regained his balance, only to jump out of the way of another laser.
Yumi looked over to where Ulrich was. Even though he had been gone for so long, he was fighting like he did when they found themselves facing Xana every day. Yumi turned her attention to the Hornets, dispatching them quickly with her two fans. For now, all that was left were the ground monsters, and they were causing more than enough trouble.
"How good are your telekinetic skills?" Ulrich asked, rolling in next to Yumi to avoid another barrage of lasers. Yumi blocked another wave of lasers and looked at Ulrich incredulously.
"I haven't been able to focus enough to use telekinesis since you left to go to America." Ulrich winced. Although things had been better slowly between the two of them since Yumi helped Ulrich attempt to rescue Kailey from the fire, there was still tension and resentment in Yumi's statement.
"Well, now's a good time to try again." Ulrich ducked another laser attack and took out the Krab who shot it, only to quickly return to Yumi's side once more. "See if you can dump these monsters off the ledge."
Yumi stared at Ulrich in shock for a few seconds before turning her attention once more to the monsters. When Ulrich was with the gang, Yumi could only move one monster, at best. But she was now years out of practice, and Ulrich was asking her to attempt to move multiple monsters.
'There's nothing to lose,' Yumi thought as she put her fans away. 'If I fail, we're still in the exact same position we were in before I tried. If I somehow pull this off, then we might actually succeed.' The Krabs seemed to know what Yumi was about to do, and their attention turned to her. Ulrich, though, got between them, blocking each shot and trying to give Yumi time.
Yumi focused her energy on the first Krab, and the sight of Ulrich buying time for her brought a flood of emotions. All the good memories of the days before Ulrich became a jerk and abandoned them, all the pain at being left behind and in the dark. Yumi's energy surged and she found herself controlling the first Krab with little effort. Carefully, Yumi cast her mind farther, grabbing hold of as many other monsters she could. When she felt her energy start to waver, she changed her tactics from grabbing monsters to dragging monsters. Slowly, the crowd of monsters in front of her and Ulrich found themselves closer and closer to the edge.
Yumi felt her hold on the monsters weaken, and the monsters began to fight her hold even more. She heard the zing of the lasers, but she never felt the bite. Looking up momentarily, she saw Ulrich still standing in front of her, his sword flashing as he tried to stop the lasers from reaching her. In the distance, almost as if it was a dream, she heard Jeremie's voice encouraging her, trying to keep her focused on the task of dropping Xana's monsters over the edge. The energy anomaly she felt earlier was back, almost exactly where she was kneeling, and Yumi felt a surge of anger at all Xana had done recently. The anger reinforced her grasp of the monsters, and Yumi gave one last mental push. All the monsters she had held with her telekinesis tumbled over the edge, leaving behind a handful of stragglers.
Ulrich broke away from defending Yumi, taking the momentary confusion of what just happened as a chance to destroy the last of the Krabs. With the last of the Krabs gone, Ulrich heard the beginning of a virtualization happen, and he turned to Yumi.
"Are you feeling ok?" Yumi looked up from where she slumped to see Ulrich leaning over her, hand out to help her up.
"I've been better." Yumi accepted Ulrich's help. She doubted she could stand on her own, the amount of energy she used to control Xana's monsters was incredible. Yumi looked around once she was on her feet. All signs of battle were gone. All that was left was her and Ulrich, and a very scared and confused looking blond guy wearing black pants and a cream colored wrap around shirt.
"Yumi, this is my friend and teammate from school, Johnny Powers." Yumi just nodded at him. Her energy levels were severely low. She needed to get out of Lyoko and get some sleep before she would be any use in freeing Aelita.
"Jeremie, how close are you to figuring out how to devirtualize me?" Yumi called out. She was still hanging on to Ulrich to stand, and she felt embarrassed by it, especially because it was showing a weakness to somebody new, somebody Yumi couldn't trust yet.
"I have something that should work almost done, but I need you to stay in Lyoko and find where Xana's hiding Aelita."
"Jeremie, I'm as concerned about finding Aelita as you are, but I really am in no shape to help break Aelita out of a prison, let alone search for her right now." Yumi tried to stand up on her own, but ended up collapsing back into Ulrich. Ulrich just held her tight, keeping Yumi firmly on her feet while Johnny looked at his surroundings in wide-eyed wonder.
"Yumi, I'm sure you're fine—"
"Damn it, Jeremie, just pull her out!" Yumi was surprised by Ulrich's outburst. He had always been so calm in the face of what Xana would do. 'It's Kailey,' Yumi realized. 'It's Kailey, and bringing Johnny here, as well as blaming himself for letting Xana get this strong.'
"Ulrich," Yumi whispered, but she wasn't sure Ulrich heard her over Jeremie consenting to pull Yumi out. Soon enough, Yumi felt the familiar sensation of devirtualization. She closed her eyes, hoping she'd open them in the factory.
Johnny looked at the fading girl Ulrich was holding in shock. When she completely disappeared, Johnny jumped.
"What happened to her? She's not dead, is she?" Johnny looked around him again. Seeing all those blimps on Jeremie's computer screen and hearing everything that was going on during the fight made Johnny realize the type of trouble he was now involved in.
"Yumi's fine." Johnny winced. Ulrich sounded exasperated, but that's pretty much how he sounded since Johnny's plane landed. Now Johnny could understand why. Everything that has happened, from seeing the remains of the horrible fire to watching Yumi fade away, has shown Johnny a side of Ulrich he didn't know existed.
"If she's fine, where did she go? Will I disappear like that?"
"If you're lucky, you will." Ulrich looked at his friend. "Johnny, I know you're still trying to understand everything that's going on, but what happened to Yumi is completely normal, and a good thing. Jeremie devirtualized her, which means she is currently in the factory, resting and getting ready for the next round."
Johnny nodded and looked around him once more. He heard Ulrich sigh, and he snapped his attention back to Ulrich really fast. Ulrich didn't say anything, instead walking to seemingly inconspicuous spot and standing there.
"Jeremie, are you getting any odd readings from where I'm standing?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary, it seems like every other spot in the forest region." Johnny heard typing come from the sky, but he kept his focus on Ulrich. If the nonexistent typing didn't bother Ulrich, Johnny wouldn't let it bother him. Ulrich chose Johnny to come to France to help because, for some unknown reason, Ulrich trusted Johnny would be able to help. Johnny didn't understand what was going on yet, but he wasn't going to let his friend and former teammate down.
Ulrich moved a few feet from where he had stood and walked around the spot before returning to it. There was definitely some sort of energy anomaly going on there, but Jeremie's scanners weren't picking it up for some unknown reason.
"Hey, Johnny, come here. Does this spot feel odd to you?" Johnny jumped from whatever thought he was engrossed in and headed over to where Ulrich was. As Johnny entered the area where the energy anomaly was felt, he jumped. Ulrich watched as Johnny retreated, only to return the same spot with a confused look on his face.
"What the hell was that?"
"Your guess is as good as mine." Ulrich shrugged and cast a glance around them. There were no signs of anymore of Xana's monsters for the minute, and Ulrich intended to use as much of this time as possible. "The best I can describe it is some sort of energy anomaly that could possibly be feeding a prison that had Aelita, but I don't see anything." Johnny looked around real quick as well. He had no idea what this place was supposed to look like, but there was something about it he didn't like, almost as if there was a haze in one area.
"Ulrich, what's this place usually look like?" Ulrich looked at Johnny in confusion, and Johnny hesitated before continuing. "I mean, is there usually this haze stuff here, or what?"
"What haze?" Ulrich looked around once more, and Johnny could see confusion on Ulrich's face. "I don't see any—" Ulrich stopped abruptly midsentence. He couldn't see the haze, Jeremie's programs couldn't detect the anomaly. It required somebody actually inside the program to feel the energy, because Xana could not disguise that. What he could do, though, was disguise what the energy was connected to, and somehow attach a code sequence to it to keep the Lyoko warriors Xana knew from seeing the disguise.
"Jeremie, I think we've found Aelita!"