Jeremie wasn't very comfortable with this; he was never very comfortable when they were in the process of doing one of Odd's schemes. They were going to break Emma out of the hospital and Jeremie's only real part was driving the car, and disabling the hospital security. No big deal.
Odd and Aelita would go to work getting Emma, while Ulrich and Yumi acted as a distraction or did whatever they could to guard Aelita and Odd while they took Emma back to the car, where Jeremie would gun it when everyone was accounted for. He would take a windy path and try blending into traffic as he took them back to the factory, where they would go down to the scanners and Jeremie would disable the elevator to prevent any possible followers from interrupting them.
Piece of cake, right? Probably not. Jeremie wasn't very confident in his driving; he'd been the best during the latest practice session that the school held, but he still wasn't sure if he'd be able to get them all in and out of this mission safely.
He got them to the hospital just fine, and he watched them as they ran into the hospital. He got to work hacking into the security system and easily disabled it. Now it was up to his friends.
Odd and Aelita entered Emma's room with no problems. The only obstacle they saw was sticking out of Emma's arm; an IV. Aelita grabbed some tape and cotton from the supply cupboard and sat down next to Emma, while Odd made sure no one was coming. Yumi and Ulrich were nearby as well, monitoring the situation. Odd watched as Aelita disabled the IV machine and tore tape off of Emma's arm, pulling the needle out. She pressed the cotton onto the wound and taped it down. She threw the used IV needle into the waste can.
"Wow, Aelita, where did you learn to work an IV machine?" Odd asked her as he picked Emma up in his arms.
"There is a simple off procedure. Are you ready?" Aelita asked him, glancing out the door. She gave Ulrich a signal and he started walking toward the elevator, pressing the down button. Lucky for Odd, Emma's room wasn't far from there. Yumi started yelling at a nurse in the hallway and drew the attention of everyone there. Odd and Aelita slipped out of the room with Emma, speed walking.
"Hey!" A nurse called from down the hall. "Stop them!"
Odd ran into the elevator, followed by Yumi and Aelita. Ulrich pushed the close doors button and the doors closed them in before anyone could reach them.
"They must hate us, we're always stealing their patients," Yumi breathed and smiled. When the elevator doors opened, she left first, followed by Aelita, Odd followed with Emma, and Ulrich brought up the rear, holding off security guards.
Yumi kicked a security guard that was coming at them from in front and Aelita and Odd ran out of the hospital, toward where Jeremie was parked. The four of them ran into the car, Jeremie had the gas floored before Ulrich even managed to close the door.
A high speed chase commensed but Jeremie managed to confuse their chasers, snaking throughout traffic in the city before they reached the factory. Jeremie just barely stopped in time before the car crashed down to the floor where the elevator stood.
"Now comes the hard part," Jeremie breathed. "Fixing her! Go, go, go!"
They sprung out of the car, Odd first. He slid down the rope with Emma over his shoulder and returned her to the bridal style position. He carried her to the elevator and the five of them rode down, panting and catching their breath. Jeremie went to the calculator room and the other five went to the scanners. Jeremie scanned Odd and Emma first, in the forest sector, where Odd carried her to a tower and stood guard.
"Now, you three need to go to sector five and retrieve some data for me that will help me break X.A.N.A. hold over Emma. If you fail, We risk Emma's nightmares turning into a real health hazard for her," Jeremie told Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita as they stepped into scanners. He virtualized them directly into the arena, where they waited for the wall to open up so they could get into the Core Zone.
"Get to the interface panel on the surface!" Jeremie directed when the wall opened up. They warriors went off; Yumi stayed back to battle a group of creepers that were trying to keep them from the elevator, while Ulrich and Aelita went on. When the two finally managed to reach the elevator, A creeper shot Ulrich once.
"You just lost 40 life points, Ulrich. Be careful!" Jeremie demanded. "Get the information we need from the interface, hopefully it doesn't take too long."
"Hey, Jeremie!" Odd called suddenly. Jeremie turned his attention to the tower and Odd. There were two megatanks and five kankrelats shooting at the tower; Odd was trying to destroy them, slow but sure. "Reload me!"
Jeremie did so, setting Odd up with twenty laser arrows. He watched as Odd jumped onto a megatank after it tried attacking Odd with a horizontal blow. "Laser arrow!" Odd shouted and sent the megatank toppling to destruction. Odd turned his attention to the Kankrelats, who were leaving the fighting to the megatanks while they fired at the tower. Odd shot at three of them and kicked one over the edge into the digital sea. The last one fired at the tower again and Odd kicked that one into the air and fired, watching it shatter.
"Jeremie, are they almost done? And what would happen if the tower keeps taking hits?" Odd asked as he watched X.A.N.A. send him a Krab.
"You don't want to know," Jeremie told him honestly. "Just keep defending it. Aelita is done finding the information and she and Ulrich are coming back there now. I'm starting the process to heal Emma."
The megatank fired a laser and Odd dodged it easily, launching itself at the creature and sending a laser arrows straight in its eye.
Before he knew it, he was on to the Krab, who didn't seem willing to stand still. Out of nowhere, Ulrich's bike crashed into the krab and Ulrich jumped on top of it and sliced through its shell, jumped down next to Odd. Aelita ran into the tower and Odd followed, while Ulrich waited outside.
Emma was lying in the center of the tower, hovering slightly. Aelita was standing over her, telling Jeremie what she observed. Odd just watched them, watched Emma particularly.
"This is going to take a few minutes… and I hate this, I can see the nightmares on my screen through the process," Jeremie said, sounding shaken. Yumi's voice came from the background, sounding just as disturbed.
"What are the nightmares?" Odd asked. Aelita looked up at him, worry in her eyes.
"Odd, I don't think I can tell you," Jeremie replied. "It's… too brutal. Ask her yourself to see if she wants anyone to know."
Odd nodded, wanting so bad to embrace Emma, to take her pain away but he knew he couldn't touch her or it would mess up the process. He left the tower to compose himself and Ulrich looked at him with concern.
"Is she going to be alright, buddy?" he asked. Odd looked up and nodded.
"Jeremie said it will take a minute."
"It's all done now, actually. I want you two to devirtualize each other," Jeremie commanded. "I'm bringing Aelita and Emma in after you two are there. Emma's going to be weak when she comes out but she'll be okay."
Ulrich and Odd nodded and took aim at each other. "1, 2, 3!" Ulrich said and they hit each other, watching the other pixelate.
In the scanner room, Ulrich and Odd stepped out of their scanners, shaking the disorientation out quickly. They went directly to Emma's scanner and waited.
Aelita came out first and joined the boys. Emma's scanner opened and she was curled up, hugging her knees, asleep at the bottom of the scanner; she looked better, calmer, than before. Odd picked her up out of the scanner and carried her to the elevator, followed by Aelita and Ulrich, who were exchanging worried glances. Odd didn't say a word.
When they went up to the lab, Emma started waking up, making groaning noises and opened her eyes. They shot open suddenly and Odd struggled not to drop her as she wriggled slightly in his arms out of panic. He knelt down and set her on the floor.
"Emma?" Odd asked and she looked at him blankly.
"What happened? I felt like I was sleeping and couldn't wake up," she said hoarsely, her voice weak.
"X.A.N.A. trapped you in your own nightmares and intensified them. If we hadn't stopped it, you could have suffered some severe brain damage from the effects of his control," Jeremie explained. "For now, the hospital it trying to find you. I'm launching a return to the past," Jeremie announced and pressed enter.