Chapter 35
(Alex first person)
We all sat in the dorm on a Saturday at noon.
"What is the plan for today?" Odd asked. "Studying the data?"
"Actually, I was hoping we could get away from the computer, today," Aelita said, to Jeremie as more of a command than a hope.
"Sounds good to me," he said back to her. "What's the plan?"
"I don't know," she said.
"How about the pool?" Ulrich asked.
"After last time?" Odd asked. "No."
"What about the rec room?" William asked.
"Again, after last time?" Odd asked again. "I think not."
"We could just go for a walk around town," Crystal said blankly, half ignoring the idea of doing something non-productive, half actually wanting to walk around town.
"Well, I'm going to the pool," Ulrich said. "Wanna come, Yumi?"
"Glad to," she said smiling. "Let me just run home real quick." The two of them left the room.
"We still haven't settled the Foosball battle game," Peter said to William. "I called a rematch."
"Let's go," William said accepting the challenge. They stood up and walked to the door.
"Dang it! I wanna see that!" Odd said when the two of them had reached the door. That left Aelita, Jeremie, Crystal, and I alone in the room.
"So, how about that walk?" Jeremie said standing up.
"Really?" Crystal asked.
"Yeah, why not?" Jeremie asked. "It's starting to be about dinner time anyways."
"Okay," I said walking over to the closet. I opened it and took out a bit of money. We walked outside and walked out the gate.
"Where are we going?" Jeremie asked.
"I don't know," Crystal said. "Anywhere I guess." We continued walking around town for about fifteen minutes.
"How about here?" Aelita asked. It was a fairly nice restaurant and we were all hungry anyways.
"Seems like a plan to me," I said. I opened the door and held it as the others walked in.
"Greeting, sir," the man at the counter said to me leading the group. "A table for four, I assume? Right this way." He lead us to a table on the far side of the restaurant where we ate our dinner.
We walked out of the restaurants after our meal, my arm around Crystal and Jeremie's around Aelita. We were laughing and talking about various things. We turned a corner and heard the sound of glass breaking.
"Well, well," A man in an alley way said grabbing another glass of liquor from one of his 'friends' and pulling off the lid. He took a large swig with his left hand, holding a bat in his right, which led me to believe he was playing baseball with the empty bottles. "What do we have here?" He pushed Jeremie backwards and put his hand under Aelita's chin. He leaned real close to her. She winced at the smell of alcohol on his breath. I know she did. I did too. I stepped in between the alley and Crystal. I was protective of Aelita, but territorial of Crystal.
"She sure is a looker," one of the guys behind him said. It was obvious they were all perverted and drunk, not the best combination.
"Man, I sure would like to kiss you," the man said running his fingers through Aelita's hair.
"Get in line," Jeremie said pushing the alcoholic back with his left hand and Aelita behind him with his right. Behind them a door opened and a man stumbled out surrounded by smoke. He fell to the ground, his bottle breaking against the ground. The group entirely ignored him, eyeing down Jeremie. The man threw his half-full glass against a wall and grabbed the bat with both hands. He swung at Jeremie's head. I quickly stepped next to him, grabbing the bat with one hand. The pressure of my hand and the force of the man made the bat snap in half. The sharded edge of the wood missed Jeremie's face by inches. The man stumbled around and fell to the ground. I threw the bat at his forehead, knocking him out. The people behind the man all threw their liquor and picked up various objects: bats, crowbars, long pieces of wood, and one of them even pulled a small pistol out of his back pocket. I pushed the others behind me. One of them swung a bat at me. I grabbed the bat, hit the guy in the wrist to take the bat from him, and swung it back at his face, knocking him against a wall. I tossed the bat down. Another swung at me with a plank of wood. I stuck up my hand, breaking the wood as it hit me, then punched the man in the nose, knocking him back to the ground. The man with the gun walked up, obviously having trouble aiming it under intoxication. I grabbed his wrist and kicked his legs out from under him. A man with a bat walked up and attempted to swing the bat down on me. I rolled out of the way and he hit the man with the gun. I fired the gun, shooting the man at the back of the group in the leg, causing him to fall over. I stood on my hands and kicked the guy with the bat in the head. I walked back to the group. Behind us, the guy that was thrown out of the alley bar stood up and walked toward us. When he was a couple of feet from us, he put his hands up. We all observed the eye indicating XANA's possession in his eyes.
"Run!" I yelled pushing the others ahead of me. We took off down the street towards the factory. I pulled out my phone.
"Hello? Ulrich? Are you with the others? Good. XANA is attacking. We are on our way to the lab. Hurry." I hung up my phone and continued running. The man was catching up to us.
"Do you think it's a XANAfied person or a specter?" Aelita asked while running.
"I think it's a XANAfied person," I said. "A specter wouldn't be drinking."
"Either way, what difference does it make? He is still chasing us!" Crystal said.
"If it was a specter, it could fly at us or pass through walls and stuff," Jeremie said. "It gives a huge tactical advantage to know its state." We ran across the bridge just as Ulrich pulled open the lid to the sewers.
"Let's go!" I said running by. I jumped onto the rope and slid down. Everyone else followed. Everyone climbed in the elevator. Just as the doors closed, the XANAfied man jumped down from the stairs. Everyone walked over to the supercomputer.
"The activated tower is in the forest sector," Jeremie said. Jeremie and I got out of the elevator at the control room.
"One of us should stay behind and protect Jeremie," I said.
"Got it," William said.
"Watch Aelita," I whispered to Peter as he passed.
"I will," he said. They all rode the elevator down to the scanner room.
(Third person omniscient)
[Lyoko]
Peter fell into the midst of the six others. He twirled his bow in his left hand.
"The tower is east, north-east. Here come your vehicles," Jeremie said. Crystal stepped into the driver seat of the OverCar. Peter climbed in beside her. Aelita jumped onto the OverWing with Yumi. Everyone rode east, except William who supersmoked. They arrived at the area of the tower. It was an uphill slope onto a small ring by which the tower was held. At the base of the slope there was a row of four Krabs. In front of them there was a row of eight Tarantulas. Peter stood in his seat and shot at the group. The arrow went through the face of one of the Tarantulas. Odd flew upside down and shot on of the Krabs in the face. The Krabs fired up at him, hitting his OverBoard out from beneath him. Odd fell, shooting at the group as he decended, hitting one of the Tarantulas in the mouth. Yumi threw her fan at the group, hitting the legs out from beneath one of them on the side. It lost balance and fell off into the digital sea. William appeared under a Krab. He swirled around, cutting off all of its legs. He put his sword up, hitting it through the bottom as it fell. Crystal drifted sideways, pulled out a throwing knife, and tossed it over the top of the OverCar and into the face of a Tarantula. Behind the group, a herd of Bloks walked towards them. Ulrich drifted around to face them, holding one sword in his hand. He charged at them. One of the Bloks shot a freeze ray at him, freezing his OverBike to the ground and sending him flying over it. He twisted in air and cut one of them down the side. Odd turned to face them. He cat-ran at them. He jumped in the air to shoot at them, but was shot in the back by one of the Tarantulas. Peter stepped out of the OverCar while it was moving and shot it in the neck.
[The Lab]
The bar man climbed across the ceiling above Jeremie and Alex. Alex took an attack stance. The man dropped from the ceiling, shaking the lab slightly. Alex kicked him back against the wall. He ran at him and swung his right fist at him. The man moved out of the way, leaving a large crack in the wall. He kicked Alex back. The man ran at him with his arms reached out towards him. Alex grabbed his right arm and twisted it around, kicking him back to the wall.
[Lyoko]
Odd shot two of the Bloks while lying on the ground. Ulrich used both swords to cut through four of the Bloks. Peter turned around and shot the last Blok as it was charging a laser to hit Odd. William appeared and overhead swung his sword at a Tarantula. Another one shot him in the back. He turned around and supersmoked to in. He landed on it and cut through its neck. A Krab hit him in the chest into a tree causing him to drop his sword. The Krab held him against the tree. Smoke flew parallel with the right side of the OverWing. It solidified just long enough to reveal Dark William before cutting through the side of the vehicle and smoking again. Aelita flew off the side and towards the digital sea. Crystal drove as fast as she could off the side of the forest sector. She fell, shifting gears as she turned vertical. She flew under Aelita, catching her in the passenger seat, and flew back up to the landscape. Peter ran at Dark William, twisting apart his bow. Dark William swung his sword down at him. Peter caught it between both of his scimitars and kicked him in the chest. Dark William supersmoked behind him and slashed for Peter's legs, but Peter jumped over it. Dark William kicked him back against a tree. Odd attempted to shoot William in the side of the head, but William turned and blocked it with the side of his sword. Yumi turned around and threw a sword at him. He turned and parried the fan. Crystal landed the OverCar. Aelita stepped out and shot an energy field at William, but he absorbed it into the side of his sword. Crystal charged him and put both arms around his waist and fell off into the digital sea.
[The Lab]
Crystal stepped out of the scanner. She checked the elevator access button, but it didn't open.
"Jeremie must have shut it off to keep the guy from getting into the lab," she said, then started to climb the ladder. Upon reaching the top, she immediately noticed Alex in full combat with the guy. She climbed up and ran at the man. He kicked her back into the wall, both hands on Alex's right arm.
"Crystal!" Alex yelled looking at her. The next thing Alex said was horrifying to Crystal's ears, a large snap, followed by Alex screaming. Crystal looked at him, his right arm was in an awkward position behind his back, being obviously bent beyond its intended position. Blood trickled from a part in his arm where his humerus was sticking out of his skin. Crystal ran back at him, swinging her left fist at him, then her right. The man deflected both hits, then picked her up by her neck. She also began to scream as his grip slowly tightened.
[Lyoko]
"Supersprint!" Ulrich yelled before running ahead of Aelita. He jumped onto the Krab holding William and stabbed in into the head. William picked up his sword and ran to Aelita, pulling her towards the tower. A Tarantula shot at Aelita. Yumi jumped in front of it and threw one of her fans at it as she absorbed its laser in her thigh. William continued running and pushed Aelita into the tower. She floated up to the top floor of the tower.
[The Lab]
Crystal stopped screaming, no longer able to breathe. She looked out the corner of her eye and saw the tower highlighted on the screen of the supercomputer turn from red to blue.
"Return to the past, now!" Jeremie yelled.
(Alex first person)
We walked out of the restaurants after our meal, my arm around Crystal and Jeremie's around Aelita. We looked at the rout we traveled the time before, and decided it would be better for each of us to take a different route back to school.