Chapter 35: XANA Makes a Choice
For the record, there will be no snow present when I finally get around to Christmas. The creators of the show didn't show the Christmas episode with snow or the gang in their winter gear, so I'll stay true to that.
It was about a week later after the wild boar incident. Jim still had a cast on his leg, though that didn't stop him from terrorizing the students in his PE classes. I was flipping through the Kadic newspaper on the bench in the campus when I spied the article Milly and Tamiya did about me and Odd.
Yes, I went back to them and gave them an interview. Milly had tried to get a lot out of Odd about our supposed love life- like if we were doing it or not- but a warning shot from me and Tamiya stopped her. Besides, it wasn't like Odd and I were doing anything besides making out. Stupid precocious kid.
I looked up to see a few kids looking and whispering about me. They thought they were being so inconspicuous about it, but they were, like, five feet away from where I was sitting. I had to hold in a snort when they acted surprised when I noticed them. They went away as soon as I saw Aelita running towards me.
"I can't believe you actually went through with this!" she exclaimed when she caught up to me. "Milly and Tamiya are pretty persistent," I said, "and besides, I wanted to clear up any rumors about Odd and me."
Aelita nodded. "By the way, where is everyone?" I asked, genuinely curious. Aelita blinked, then face-palmed. "I completely forgot! Jeremy's trying to upload new programs to the Skid. I was supposed to get you, but I forgot…" she held up the newspaper.
"We should probably get to the factory," I concluded as I stood up. It looked like we were going to miss another perfectly good Saturday.
"I'm uploading the program over to you," Jeremy was saying to Aelita and Devlin in the Skid. "Now the Skid's sonar should differentiate bio signals from the rest of the computer code in the Digital Sea." "Awesome," Devlin said happily as he helped steer us through the water.
"Okay, Jeremy, program received and activated," Aelita said. "So, you think that with this new program we'll find where XANA's keeping the spiritual essence of William prisoner?" Odd asked. "Wow. That sentence actually sounded smart," I said. "Did you finally decide to take your schoolwork seriously?"
"I do occasionally look in my textbooks when I'm bored and have nothing else to do," Odd confessed. "Just ask Ulrich." "Hey, Ulrich-" I began, to only be cut off from the boy himself. "Yes, it's true, though I've rarely seen it," Ulrich second.
"But to answer Odd's earlier question," Devlin interrupted, "we should hope so. Right now, it's our best chance to bring him back into the real world." "Oh, the return of our tall, handsome hero," Odd joked. "I'm sure Ulrich will be thrilled to have his old rival back."
"Odd," Ulrich scolded. "Sometimes, you really are a bit too much."
"And from the sound of things, I might have some competition when William gets back," I joked at Odd's expense. "Ooh, she got you!" Devlin jeered immaturely. "Both of you need to grow up!" Aelita scolded us, but I think she was holding back a smile too.
"But only 'sometimes' being too much?" Odd continued, choosing to ignore my jibe (smart boy). "Oh no, I guess I must be slipping!"
"Though to be honest, I wouldn't mind being in Yumi's shoes for today," Jeremy suddenly said. "Are you kidding? Helping run the outdoor science lab with fifth graders isn't exactly her idea of fun," Ulrich pointed out. "Aw, come on! I bet she's loving it!" Jeremy said wistfully.
"She's not an Einstein like you, remember?" Devlin mumbled under his breath.
As we passed the blue columns in the Digital Sea, Aelita said, "The detection specter is honing in. The sonar is picking up a faint trace of digital DNA in the area. It might be William, or even…"
"Don't get your hopes up," Devlin said grimly. "It'll only be worse for you if it isn't who you're looking for."
"Thank you, Mr. Positive," Ulrich joked sarcastically. "Let's check it out!" With that said, Aelita began steering towards the DNA trace without any objections from Devlin.
"Why now?" Jeremy yelled out, startling us. "Why can't we have an exploratory mission in peace for once?"
"Activated tower?" I asked.
"Activated tower," Jeremy confirmed. "I wonder what XANA has in store for us this time."
"We'll have to turn around," Devlin said, beginning the procedure. Aelita did the rest, and soon we left behind the DNA trace.
After a few minutes of silence, Jeremy broke it. "I just figured out what XANA's planning. XANA used a satellite to change the course of the comet passing by Earth today. It's going to create a meteor shower that will pour down on Earth!"
"Please tell me you're joking. Please tell me he's joking!" Devlin pleaded with all of us. Not like that we could reassure him.
"According to my calculations, most of the meteorite should burn up in the Earth's atmosphere," Jeremy said. "On the other hand, there's a huge chunk coming behind it that will crash directly into- oh crap- into the factory!"
I remembered something just then. A meteor shower, a large chunk of asteroid crashing into the ground… a Wasteland simulation! That was why Devlin was freaking out! I couldn't blame him at all; that one was pretty awful to experience.
"Jeremy, you have to get out of the computer lab right now!" Aelita ordered him. "I can't do that," Jeremy said. "If the computer lab gets destroyed, you'll be stuck in the Digital Sea and at XANA's mercy. We have to deactivate the tower!"
"Relax, Jeremy," Odd said reassuringly. "We'll get to it in no time."
"Yeah, but it's not going to stop the meteorite from falling!" Ulrich pointed out, sounding kind of freaked.
"That's true," Jeremy said. "And that's why I'm staying here at the control center to launch a return to the past before we're hit by it." "All right," Devlin said. "Full speed ahead!" I could feel the Skid quicken its pace to something that felt like warp speed.
"There's a hub near your location," Jeremy said quickly before we could pass it. "Hub located," Aelita notified, and we swerved towards it. But then the sea turned a blood red, and a force field blocked our path.
"What is that?" I asked, though it was probably obvious. "A firewall. No doubt a present from XANA," Aelita told me. "Don't worry; I'll get us out of it." A few seconds later, she said, "It's not working. Jeremy, we have a problem."
"I can see that," Jeremy said. "I'm already on it."
"The firewalls energy is based on a fairly simple algorithm," Devlin noted. "All we have to do is crack it and we'll be able to slip through a breach in security." "Good idea," Jeremy congratulated. "Hey, I think I understand what XANA's really up to."
"Well then, Einstein, you finally realized that it wants to destroy the supercomputer and keep us from pulling the virtual carpet out from under him?" Odd asked. "Well, obviously," Jeremy said. "But this time he picked the perfect moment."
"Of course!" Aelita cottoned on. "By destroying the supercomputer, XANA will not only destroy Lyoko, but our only way back into the real world."
"And he wants to trap us here to get a hold of Aelita," Devlin stated, fully understanding what Jeremy was getting at. "You're the one XANA has wanted to capture ever since we recreated Lyoko," Jeremy told her. "It's called 'killing two birds with one stone.'" As someone who wasn't here during that time, I wisely stayed quiet. If it was really important, I would find out more about it.
"I found the weak link in the algorithm!" Devlin whooped after a few minutes. "It's as plain as day! The system overcompensates pressure, but it takes three milliseconds to reverse its polarity."
"Of course! By synchronizing the initial pressure, you can neutralize the signal-sorter distortion," Jeremy tried explaining for the rest of us. "Translation?" Odd begged.
"Rubber band system," Aelita shortened the explanation. "Hang on!" We suddenly reversed before shooting forward at an impossibly fast rate. The Skid rattled and shook, and I was starting to feel queasy. When I opened my eyes, the sea had returned to its natural blue color, and we were on our way back to Lyoko.
On our way in, Jeremy found a way for us to get some extra time to defeat XANA. If he was able to control the satellite that would blast the meteorite into a billion pieces, even for a minute, he could delay the attack. Yumi was still at school with her brother Hiroki, so she would connect to the satellite from the science wing's roof with Jeremy's laptop. It was a risky plan, but it was worth a shot.
We were in the desert sector, and Aelita was steering us towards the activated tower. It was nice to travel in style like this.
The trip was short, and I was able to see the tower from my seat. "Teleport," Aelita commanded, and in a second, I was surrounded by white light. When I opened my eyes, I was on solid ground, outside the Skid. The others materialized right next to me.
The only thing guarding the tower was a krankelet. "The tower's only fifty meters away," Ulrich told Jeremy. "How much time do we have?"
"Enough, if you can get rid of your welcoming committee." The krankelet shifted its bulbous head to the left, and then scampered away, behind the tower. "He ran away," Odd said in disbelief. "Why waste a perfectly good laser arrow on a coward, anyway?"
We ran towards the tower, only to stop short when the tarantulas came out from behind the tower. "So that's why he ran away," I said weakly. There were three of them, plus William. "This just keeps getting better and better," Devlin grumbled as he got out his weapons. I did the same and aimed for the tarantula closest to William.
"All of a sudden that tower seems a lot further away," Odd joked feebly. Sometimes I hated it when he was right about something.
Aelita was hiding behind a shield of virtual rock while we took care of the rest. Ulrich super-sprinted to one of the tarantulas and tried jumping on it, only to be blasted away by another monster.
It would have been funny if it wasn't so real.
William was just standing there, his oversized sword in the ground, his usual sneer plastered all over his face. Odd tried shooting at the tarantulas but to no avail. I tried throwing one of my daggers at one of them, but it was blasted away by a laser.
"This isn't good," said Devlin, who was trying to shoot at one of the monsters.
"We'll never get through at this rate," Aelita said grimly. "You should never say never," Odd said with a smile on his face. Taking Odd's advice, Aelita shot a pink ball of energy at one of the tarantulas and sent it to pixilated heaven.
"Nice one, princess!" Odd congratulated her. I then saw the krankelet sneak up behind him and try to shot him. Odd looked behind him to see me stab it in the XANA eye. "Don't waste a perfectly good laser arrow on a coward," I reminded him happily.
"We have to change tactics," Ulrich said as William finally got his sword out of the ground. He had finally decided to do something. Devlin ran out from behind the shield and started shooting at the tarantulas.
And I thought I was reckless.
It seemed to work; he had shot one tarantula clean in the eye, but he was blasted away by the other one. William paid him no heed and sent the final tarantula after us.
"I got this," Ulrich told us as he ran up to William. That left us with Ugly shooting lasers at us. Odd tried to do what Devlin did, but he wasn't as lucky. A laser got him in the stomach and he laid on the ground. I ran up to him and angrily threw my dagger at the remaining creature, watching him explode. I enjoyed that too much.
I helped Odd up as Aelita ran to deactivate the tower. William shot at her with his own black energy balls, but he even when Ulrich was down, he intentionally missed. That gave Aelita an idea.
She stood there, a foot away from the tower, and stared at William. He didn't shoot at her. "What are you doing?" I yelled at her. "Deactivate the tower!" Jeremy was yelling, reminding us that we were running out of time.
Devlin was up by then, close to where Aelita was. "Shoot and devirtualize me!" she ordered him. "Are you insane?" he yelled at her. But then he saw a still Ulrich and William, both just staring and watching the scene unfold. William then started towards then at an almost leisurely pace, a frown on his angry face.
Devlin shot Aelita in the heart. She pixilated into nothing. With an angry scream, William escaped into the Digital Sea. I turned to an equally confused Odd. "What was all that about?"
Before the return trip, I saw the tower go white.
"So, you're more important than the supercomputer?" I asked back in Jeremy's room. "XANA wanted to capture me more than he wanted to destroy the computer," Aelita explained. "With me back on Earth, he couldn't do either."
"Awesome," I said as Yumi walked through the door. "How was your day?" Jeremy asked politely. "Believe it or not, we got the highest grade," Yumi said cheerfully. "I also promised John that I would keep his moon as a present." She held up the little red ball in her hand. She threw the ball in the air and caught it. "I owe him at least that, even if he doesn't remember anything."
"Looks like your brother's not that bad after all," Aelita said. "Yeah, he can be pretty handy when he wants to," Yumi admitted. "That's why I'm worried."
"How come?" Ulrich asked. Yumi closed the door behind her. "Because now I know it's useless to keep the door locked to my room."
Hiroki and Odd are my two favorite characters. I don't know why, they just are. XD