Out in the courtyard, the students are talking amongst themselves. "A horrible tragedy may explain the rumor that there's a ghost somewhere at the Kadic Academy," Sissi reads the daily news. "Back in 1905, while the building was under construction, one of the workers, Leon Corbet, is said to have been buried alive under the foundations."
Herb gasps sharply at that. "In the boiler room area, to be precise."
"Heh, now do you believe me?" Nicolas asks knowingly, Herb shaking his head.
"Get real," He denies it. The bell rings and their recent tests are handed back to them by Ms. Meyer.
"Emily, 77, good work. Jean, 87, very good. Elizabeth, a quadrilateral is not a quadrant you do later. 10."
Sissi pouts at the F. "Jeremy, I deducted two points for the ketchup stain on your diagram. 98."
"Huh?" Jeremy looks at his paper.
"Amelia, 95. Ulrich, there's some good, but not enough to make up for what's bad. 58."
Ulrich looks at his paper in dismay.
"Herb, 93. Excellent. Not as good as Jeremy or Amelia, but excellent nevertheless."
Ulrich eyes a folded paper on his desk and opens it. "Meet me in the boiler room at midnight? Sissi?" He turns around to the girl, who looks up with a small smile.
"May I remind you that in the evening, girls and boys are prohibited from straying from their respective floors," Jim walks past all the boys. He's giving them the nightly speech that he gives to both floors every night. "Okay, for any of you who might be thinking of trying to pull anything, remember that the floors are different from each other in that they are either upstairs from or downstairs from the one above. Girls are upstairs, and boys downstairs. Comings and goings from upstairs to downstairs and from downstairs to upstairs are strictly forbidden."
Odd yawns to himself. Jim leans in towards him. "If I ever catch anyone going from downstairs upstairs or anyone going from upstairs to downstairs, he or she is really going to regret it stairs! So, for example, Della Robbia, I better not catch you and your girlfriend Smith in the same room!"
"She's not my girlfriend yet," Odd mutters to himself, blushing. Just hearing her name made him melt inside. He was just glad to be dating her.
"You've been warned. Dismissed!"
Odd is texting Amy, Ulrich laying in the bed next to him. He glances at the time, 11:30 PM. He sneaks past Odd, who pays no attention to him.
He knew that Sissi was the last person that he would want to meet up with. But he was curious to know what was her angle here. But if she ended up tricking him, that'd be the last time he'd listen to her.
He glances around for Jim and sees no one. He silently closes the door behind him and walks down the stairs. Ulrich reaches the boiler room and knocks twice.
"Password?"
"Uh, you didn't give me one," He answers in confusion.
Sissi opens the door with a smile. "Correct! Come in," She moves aside and he walks in. She closes the door and he steps into the room with her.
"Isn't this a bit square for you?"
He's looking at a star that's in the middle of a circle on the floor, which is surrounded by candles. Herb and Nicolas are sitting outside the star inside the circle. He swore he thought that this was some freaky séance or something.
"It's not a square, it's a tempogram."
"Pentagram," Herb corrects her.
"Whatever. Thanks to this, and my psychic powers, I'm going to conjure up the spirit of that poor Leon Corbet. I'm sure if we communicate with him, he can finally rest in peace."
"I can't wait to see this," Ulrich chuckles in disbelief. Never did he think that Sissi Delmas was superstitious. He can already tell that this was doomed to fail.
"Okay, now stand inside the pentagon with me," She gestures to the pentagram. "We will bring together our ping and pong energy and summon up the dead man's ghost!"
"You know what? I think you forgot the paddles," Ulrich laughs at her words. She grabs his arm and pulls him forward with a huff. She holds his hands as they stand between Nicolas and Herb.
"And now, let the ceremony begin!"
"De profundis tenebrae! De profundis tenebrae! De profundis tenebrae," Herb and Nicolas chant in unison. "De profundis tenebrae. De profundis tenebrae."
"I summon you, Leon Corbet!" Sissi declares, purple electricity flowing to the furnace. They see it, her minions standing up.
The door closes and Ulrich narrows his eyes suspiciously. No way did he believe ghosts were real, they're purely science fiction. And he's seen a lot of things that would purely come from science fiction. He couldn't believe that he was even doing this, but he wanted to see how this would play out.
"Yes, Leon? I'm listening," Sissi replies in excitement. The door suddenly opens with a specter forming out of it. Herb and Nicolas scream, running off. Sissi and Ulrich stare up at it. "Don't step out of the pentathlon, Ulrich. It protects us! Uh, Leon...Corbet...?"
It jumps forward and then disappears into thin air. "Darn it, he's gone. He doesn't wanna speak to me." She gasps as she sees the specter looming over Ulrich. "Look out!"
He turns around and yelps. It leans in towards him and he steps out of the circle. Sissi screams as it gets closer to her.
"Let's go, quick!" He grabs her arm and runs out of there with her. The specter lands on the ground as they run out the door, shutting it behind them. Ulrich pushes the lockers to the door to block it inside. "Come on," He grabs Sissi's arm and pulls her away.
"It was horrible, Jim!" Nicolas exclaims to Jim as they're trying to tell him what happened. By the look of his face, he doesn't seem to believe them. "No, really, I swear! It's true!"
"Come on, you two, calm down," Jim stops them. He just wanted them to get to the point of this.
"The ghost of Leon Corbet came after us in the boiler room, Jim," Herb explains.
"If anyone's after you two, it's a gym teacher in a tracksuit holding a red pen, which he's gonna use to give you four hours of detention," Jim holds up his pen.
"We better go upstairs, fast." Ulrich peeks through the window to see Jim, and he didn't have time to deal with him.
The ghost phases through the locker, flying up towards the stairs.
Ulrich opens the door to his room, looking at Sissi. After the warning Jim gave before bed, they'd both be in trouble if Sissi, the principal's daughter, was caught on the boys' floor. And with XANA still around, Ulrich couldn't afford to get into detention. Not only that, his parents, I.e. his father, would kill him. "Sissi, you better go back to your room."
"No," She grabs his hand to his confusion. "Don't leave me all by myself, please?"
He stares at her for a few seconds as he could tell she looked genuinely scared. He shushes her and leans back. "Alright. Come in, then."
She beams in relief and they sneak past a now sleeping Odd, who's holding onto his phone. "Wait for me here. I'll be back," Ulrich shuts the door to go warn Jeremy.
Odd opens his eyes as he feels someone else in here who's not Ulrich. "Am I dreaming or what?" He sits up to look at her.
"I'm scared, Odd," She admits to him, "Mind if I sit near you?" He glances at his phone. Amy must've fallen asleep too, because there's been no recent texts from the girl. Either that or she knew that he would fall asleep.
She knows him so well, his little Ames.
"Oh, it's just the nightmare and soon I'm gonna wake up," Odd places a hand on his head, leaning back onto his pillow. And if it's not a nightmare, it's about to become one.
Hopefully Amy will understand...
"Jeremy," Ulrich shakes his shoulder and the boy sits up, looking at him. "I think that XANA has just launched an attack."
"Uh, the laptop," Jeremy points to it, bending down and grabbing his glasses. Ulrich hands it to him. "We'll know in a minute."
He opens it up and Ulrich's suspicions are shot down a few minutes later. "Nope. There are no activated towers."
"It looks like we've got a real ghost on our hands, then," Ulrich comments.
"A what?" Jeremy asks in confusion.
Jim is walking down the halls as the ghost is lurking around for prey. The gym teacher walks around for anything suspicious. Now, he didn't really believe the boys...but it couldn't help just to make sure. He hears a whoosh and yelps, turning around to see nothing. Nothing to make him believe there's an actual ghost.
He narrows his eyes as he swore he heard something. He decides to ignore it, though, and continues walking. There's a thud behind him and he's already had enough. "Someone around here is gonna be in real trouble!" He announces, whipping around quickly.
There's still nothing and he puts his hands on his hips with an annoyed growl. He's suddenly lifted into the air.
"So Leon's ghost came out of the boiler and he was so ugly that even Nicolas and Herb started screaming!" Sissi is explaining to Odd when they hear a scream. Ulrich and Jeremy rush into the hall to see Jim floating in the air. He's screaming as he's trying to reach towards his neck.
"Hey!" He tries to fend off the ghost as Sissi and Odd appear. Sissi screams upon seeing him and he falls flat on his back.
"Jim!" Odd cries out and Sissi runs away. "You okay, Jim?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm alright." They then hear moaning.
"What's that noise?" Ulrich asks, Jim looking up.
"I don't know, but it's getting closer," Odd points out. The ghost gets closer and snatches Odd by his foot.
"Odd!" Ulrich grabs his hand, but he slides as he tries to help his friend. Jeremy grabs a fire extinguisher, running towards them. Jim stares in confusion before he leaves too. Jeremy sprays the area above Odd's foot and the ghost lets go.
Amy suddenly enters the hall, her mouth opening when she sees the ghost. It disappears after a few seconds.
"You saw right," Jeremy speaks up, the boys and Amy turning to him. "The monster did pixelize when I hit it."
"It's gotta be one of XANA's," Odd assumes, as real ghosts don't really exist.
"So why didn't the super scan pick it up, then?" Ulrich wonders.
"I wish I knew," Jeremy puts down the fire extinguisher, hands on his hips. "We better head for the factory. Let's get Aelita."
Odd turns to Amy. "Hey, how'd you know to come here?"
"You butt-dialed me," Amy holds up her phone. "Sissi was talking about the 'ghost' and I wanted to check things out for myself."
They run forward to go downstairs.
Sissi is shaking in a closet. She gasps as the ghost phases through the door. It stands up and she covers her eyes, whimpering. This was it, this is how she's gonna die. The ghost stares at her in the eye before phasing right through her, leaving through the wall. She looks up and sighs in relief...
She then faints from shock.
Yumi is reading a book in bed when her phone rings. She picks it up from the floor. "Hello?" She sits up.
"It's me. There's a big emergency," Ulrich states as Amy opens the door to her room. "Meet us at the factory."
"Got it."
Aelita opens her eyes, looking up. "Jeremy? Amy, what are you doing out of bed?"
"Aelita," Jeremy steps closer. A ghost enters one of the empty rooms in the floor, jumping through the ceiling to grab the blonde genius. He falls onto the ground.
"Jeremy!" Aelita calls out in concern. He crawls around to get the ghost off of him. Amy runs up to the light switch and turns it on. Odd and Ulrich come in as they heard his screams. The ghost is attempting to choke Jeremy.
Ulrich grabs Amy's ruler and stabs the ghost with it. Jeremy coughs as it disappears and Ulrich helps him up. "Hey, this is no time to hang around."
They run out of the room, heading for the factory.
The ghost reappears, trailing after them.
They reach the woods, Odd opening the manhole cover. He puts his arm around Amy's waist. She yelps in surprise, but he climbs down before she can say anything. He needed her to be safe and not be choked by that ghost. Who knows what it could do if it got its hands on her?
Aelita follows after the two.
"Hurry, it's coming," Ulrich glances back at the trees as he can hear the moans. He closes the manhole cover when Jeremy gets through, climbing down last.
Yumi sits in the lab as the door opens. "What took you so long?" She glances at them.
"XANA's attacking us. But the super scan didn't detect anything," Jeremy walks up to the computer.
"Do you believe in ghosts?" Ulrich asks Yumi.
"No," She denies with a scoff.
"Wrong answer."
Jeremy examines the program. "Hey, that's weird. XANA's managed to corrupt the super scan. There's an activated tower. But it can't detect it..." That means he's unable to locate it...
"So what do we do now?" Ulrich asks Jeremy. It'll take too long to fix it with that ghost running around.
"Yumi and Aelita, get to Sector Five as quickly as you can and try to fix the super scan. Amy, Odd, and Ulrich, in the meantime, you can check out the other sectors. With a little luck, you'll be able to spot the activated tower."
"Negative, the specter will strike back soon. I'm staying with you," Ulrich denies, Amy nodding.
"That way, Odd will still have help," She glances at the boy, smiling.
"And who better than my favorite girl?" Odd smiles back, taking a hold of her hand.
"Well, okay," Jeremy agrees with them.
The three girls and Odd enter the scanner room. "The girls will go first. I'll launch the process."
Amy, Yumi, and Aelita step into a scanner. "Transfer Aelita. Transfer Yumi. Transfer Amy. Virtualization." He taps enter and with three whooshes, the girls land in the desert sector.
The fairy looks around, hoping that the tower wouldn't be too hard to find. Between four sectors and dozens of towers, this was going to take a while. Odd lands behind her. "Oh, nice to see you without your pajamas on," Yumi teases him.
"Hm, nice of you to notice," Odd plays with his collar, placing a hand on his hair. He hums playfully, looking around for something. "Jeremy, I'm gonna need a-"
The Overboard and OverRunner materialize behind their owners. "Okay, forget it."
Amy chuckles and jumps into her racecar. Odd jumps onto his board, both of them flying into the air. "Later!"
They take off to search the sector. Yumi and Aelita run in the opposite direction to the edge of the sector. They reach it and wait for Jeremy to do the rest.
"Can you bring up the transporter, Jeremy?" Yumi asks as she looks up at the sky.
"It's on the way," He inputs the password and the transporter arrives in front of them, opening up. It captures the girls inside and they travel all the way to the other side to the center. The walls of code greet them and the transporter goes inside the Celestial Dome. It zips through the Core Zone and into the Arena, dropping off Aelita and Yumi. The wall spins around before slowly coming to a stop.
"The countdown has started," Jeremy announces, "Remember, you only have three minutes to find the key."
They run through the door and the wall opens up into a hallway.
"Jeremy," Ulrich turns to the elevator as he hears the ghost. It enters through the ceiling and jumps over to them.
"What do we do?" Jeremy asks in fear.
"Come on," Ulrich takes off into a run. Jeremy places down the microphone and follows him up the ladder. The ghost follows, looking up to where they're going.
Odd flies above the ground, Amy driving near him. They see the last deactivated tower. "The desert looks normal. Let's move onto another sector."
"I think I saw a way tower on our way here," Amy points to the other direction.
"I'll follow you anywhere, my lady!" He calls out and she laughs, taking the lead.
Ulrich and Jeremy run down the hall, panting. "We can't shake him!" Jeremy glances behind him. The ghost phases through the wall behind him. "There's no point running, he'll catch us everytime!"
"You've got a better idea?" Ulrich asks as they run up the stairs. The ghost hits the floor, rematerializing back into itself.
Aelita and Yumi run down the hall, coming to a stop to see a room with no obstacles. Yumi looks up at all the cubes, as this could be a booby-trapped room.
"I see the key," Aelita points across the room to the opposite side, where the key sits on the wall. They run forward, but come to a stop as they hear a weird noise.
"Too good to be true," Yumi replies knowingly. She gasps as the floor forms into steps. Aelita turns around and gasps.
"Look out!" She warns and Yumi slips as the platform underneath her foot moves. Aelita pulls her by the sash, placing Yumi back on her feet.
Amy and Odd reach the way tower, entering. Amy cringes as she's never used the OverRunner to enter a way tower, but you only live once...
She drives into the entrance as Odd flies inside. Amy drives off the platform, following Odd as they fly through to the other tower. They exit into the forest sector, Amy sighing in relief.
"That was a close one," Odd comments to her.
"True, but you're not losing me anytime soon," She winks up at him.
"I better not!" Odd points at her playfully. "Who else is gonna keep me on my toes?"
"Don't you mean claws?"
"Touche, my little Ames. Touche."
They look around for any towers, but so far see none. The two speed up to fasten the process.
Yumi leaps into the air, landing on a platform safely. She looks behind her to see Aelita jumping towards her, her arms reached out. She catches the edge, but can't hang on for much longer.
"Yumi!" She slips, but Yumi quickly steps in and grabs her arms, pulling her onto the platform. They both pant as they're now standing on a platform...with nothing else to jump onto. "Jeremy, how much time do we have left? Jeremy? Jeremy?!"
Aelita walks towards the edge, looking down. Yumi follows her gaze...to see a Creeper. That was just what they needed.
"This is getting creepy," Yumi comments as there's not one, but four from all sides. "Great. That's all we needed." She spins around, pulling out her fans swiftly.
Odd and Amy's eyes pop out of their head as they think they see it...
But it's not it.
"Darn it! Still no activated tower!"
"Aw man. I hope Jeremy and Ulrich are hanging in there, because so far, this search party is a bust!" Amy pouts as they go to the right.
The Creepers are closing in on them when Yumi throws a fan, but a laser knocks the fan away. It hits a platform from the ceiling and Yumi catches it.
"I must be jinxed!"
"Wait," Aelita holds up a hand. "I have an idea." She starts singing, bending to the ground. Aelita makes a platform right behind them.
"Alright," Yumi winks in realization. "I get it."
They jump over a Creeper and the rest of them reach the top, firing at the girls. Yumi presses her hands to her forehead to move them over to the key. What they don't know is that they only have 24 seconds left...
The four Creepers continue to fire at them. Yumi pulls out her fans and blocks the lasers from behind. 13 seconds are left and they've almost reached the key. Aelita ducks from a laser, but time is up. Yumi presses the key, and it goes in, but the room doesn't change.
"Shouldn't something be happening here?" Yumi asks in confusion as they're still stuck where they are, with the monsters still attacking. They gasp sharply, turning around to the other side of the wall, where they came in. It starts to close. And that's when they realize...
"NO!" Yumi slams her fist on the activated key, knowing that it was too late.
And now they have no way to get out.
"Concentrate," Aelita points to her forehead. "There's still time to get out of here."
Yumi narrows her eyes in determination, nodding. Yumi uses her telekinesis to move themselves over the Creepers. The door is almost close to locking them in. Yumi pulls out her fans, blocking the projectiles. She gets hit in the stomach and is sent flying off the platform. She lands on a Creeper's head, jumping on another before backflipping back to Aelita. She puts her fans down and moves all the way to the door.
The ghost peeks into a room where the boys are hiding. It looks around the abandoned office, seeping over the desk and finding Jeremy. He whimpers in fear as the ghost approaches him.
"Ulrich, I would mind a little help right now!" He calls out. The ghost looms over him and he screams.
Odd and Amy are still searching in the ice sector for the deactivated tower. Amy comes to a stop as a Tarantula is not too far away. Luckily, it didn't sense her.
"Hm, where there's smoke..." He grins down at Amy and she presses a button. Her tires lift up from the ground and turn to the side so that they're hover wheels. She flies above the ground so that the Tarantula didn't hear her coming up. They follow it through an ice trench.
Aelita runs through the closing wall, looking back as it's starting to get closer. She makes it out safely. "Come on, Yumi! You can make it!"
Yumi pants as she runs as fast as she can, but unfortunately, she's squished between the wall just as she reaches the exit.
"Yumi!" Aelita cries out as she's all alone. And without Jeremy, there was no way to get Odd and Amy over.
"Jeremy, we didn't get the key, I'm all alone," Aelita whimpers in fear. She knows that without anyone, the Scyphozoa will follow...
Ulrich thrusts down electric cables onto the ghost, electrocuting it. He ducks as it swings at him, and it eventually disappears into thin air.
"Man, he was a tough one," He looks down at Jeremy.
"Let's get to the lab. The others probably need us."
They run through the double doors, not noticing the ghost reappearing...
The Tarantula continues crawling through the trench, Odd skating against the walls. Amy spins around above him and he looks up, surprised by her move. She winks and flies in front of him, looking down at the monster. Odd chuckles as they finally stumble upon the activated tower!
"Jeremy, we've found the tower! Jeremy?"
"Jeremy?" Amy calls out in concern, but there's no answer. She glances back at Odd, both of them shrugging in confusion. They fly in the Tarantula's sights and it fires at them.
"Uh oh."
The Tarantula fires at them repeatedly. Odd charges at it as Amy is distracting the monster. He flies into the air above it, flying around the tower in a circle. Amy holds out her hand. "Ice Flame!"
A flaming ice ball fires at the Tarantula, but it fires at the projectile, destroying it. "Oh icicles," She mutters under her breath. Odd flies away from the monster, only for his tail to be hit by a stray laser. "Odd! Are you okay?"
He looks at his tail and wags it to douse the fire coming from it. He sighs in relief, staring at his black-tipped tail. "I'm fine, Ames," He tells her and their eyes widen as they hear another roar. Another Tarantula appears from behind the tower. "Jeremy, what's going on?!"
"Odd, I think something might've happened to him," Amy says in worry.
Jeremy and Ulrich run to the elevator, Jeremy getting grabbed by the ghost. He screams as he's lifted in the air.
"Don't panic, I'll get you out of there," Ulrich declares, clenching a fist. He didn't know how he would do that, but he had to trust his instincts on this one. He does a few poses and jumps into the air, kicking the ghost, but he lands back on the ground. The ghost laughs as Jeremy continues struggling with a scream. Looks like hand-to-hand combat wasn't going to help him out this time...
The two monsters fire as Odd swerves back and forth, firing Laser Arrows twice. "Jeremy! I don't like the looks of this!"
"We just have to hold on!" Amy tells him, pointing her finger at one of the Tarantulas. "Shattering Ice." The dozens of ice shards fire, but the Tarantula moves out of the way, dodging all of them. Her mouth opens in shock at the move.
Odd and Amy fly around the tower as the Tarantulas fire again. He jumps off his Overboard, preparing to pounce, but one hit devirtualizes him immediately.
"Odd! Oh no!" Amy calls out as his Overboard hits the tower, devirtualizing it too. She cringes at the monsters down below. What good would come out of going to Sector Five herself? She has no way to call the transporter, but if she tries to fight those Tarantulas herself, she'd be gone too. And she had a feeling that Aelita was in trouble.
She had no choice but to go back.
Amy revs up her car and drives up to the Tarantula. She jumps out of it just as it crashes into the monster, devirtualizing only one of them. Her wings appear behind her as she's still in the air and flies off to the edge of the sector.
Odd appears in the scanner room in his pajamas, holding his head. He gasps sharply as Yumi is laying there on the ground. The walls squishing her in Sector Five had taken a toll on her.
"Yumi!" He runs up to her.
"Aelita's all alone in the Arena. Hurry up," She mutters under her breath. Odd nods slowly.
"But Amy's still there. She can make it! I know she can!" Odd clenches his fists faithfully. He rushes to the elevator.
"Jeremy," Aelita whimpers as she turns around to see the Scyphozoa. She gasps in horror as it floats in front of her. Aelita backs away to the wall, trapped. "Jeremy...!"
Amy lands at the edge of the sector, looking around. "Okay...how do I summon the transporter with Jeremy gone? Aelita did it once, I should be able to do it too..."
She closes her eyes in concentration, trying with all she can to make it appear. She doesn't see the white orb floating in front of her.
Odd walks into the lab to see no one. Not even the ghost. "Jeremy?" He looks around. "Ulrich?"
"Help me!" Aelita calls out and he rushes to the computer. He puts on the microphone.
"Oh man. How does this thing work?" He scratches the side of his head. He's the one with the least amount of experience with the supercomputer. He had no idea what buttons to push or even how to see Aelita. He tries a key and the TV screen appears.
"Well, Fritz Huckleberg has done it again! His third straight title, what a champ! He's amazing!"
"Wow, he even has TV on his computer," Odd comments in awe.
"Jeremy?!" Aelita calls out at the voice.
"Huh? No, it's not Jeremy, it's Odd."
"Odd, type in the code Scipio. Quick," Aelita tells him, the tentacles about to touch her face.
"Uh, but I don't know how to do that, Aelita."
"No need!"
"Huh?!" Aelita and Odd gasp in shock as another dot appears on the screen. Amy spins around from the ceiling, landing on the Scyphozoa.
"Amy!" Aelita cries out in relief. Amy pulls out her spear and throws it, slicing off the tentacles. She lands in front of Aelita and the Scyphozoa leaves, Amy smiling with her hands on her hips. "But...how did you...?"
"Easy. I called the transporter from when I reached the edge of the sector," Amy shrugs at her. "No biggie."
"But no one's ever been able to do that besides Aelita!" Odd comments in shock.
"Well, now I'm the first," Amy rubs her chin, wondering how she was able to call it at beck and will...oh well. "Come on, let's get out of here before the Creepers show up."
Aelita nods and the wall to the Arena opens. They run through it and end up at the entrance again. "Odd, type in the code Scipio, quick. We have to deactivate the tower."
"Uh, I'd love to, but how?"
"Third window on the second screen," Aelita tells him. He looks to the right screen to see the password box.
"Okay. I got it. S-c-i-p-i-o. There."
The transporter appears and they're sucked into it, disappearing. "Aelita, Ames and I spotted the activated tower in the northwest part of the ice sector."
"Okay, we'll go. But where's Jeremy? And Ulrich?"
"Are they there with you?" Amy calls out.
"Uh, no idea. I'll go look for them. Ames, protect Aelita and guide her to the tower."
"Okay," Amy nods as they're back on the ice sector. "Good luck, Odd."
"You too."
Amy opens her wings and holds Aelita's waist, flying over the land.
Ulrich rushes towards the ghost, stick in hand. He yells as he jumps into the air, going to hit the ghost, but it flies the stick out of his hand. It then thrusts an arm towards Ulrich, grabbing him by the waist and capturing him like with Jeremy. Ulrich pulls out the arm, but it's too rubbery.
The two reach the tower, Amy looking over the edge to see the lone Tarantula.
"Ohhh, shoot. I forgot about him," She facepalms, turning to Aelita, who growls in frustration at all she's been through today. First the difficult room, then Jeremy, not being able to press the key, losing Yumi, almost getting her memory taken away, and now a Tarantula.
She really, really hated XANA today.
"Dang it!" Amy shouts at her faulty memory, punching the ground before taking a deep breath. It's almost as if she and Aelita were feeling the same thing, it was kind of weird and familiar... "I'll distract it, you head for the tower."
"But Amy..." Aelita frowns in worry as she'll surely be devirtualized.
"Listen, Aelita. You know that you're the only one to help Ulrich and Jeremy. Just trust me. Someone has to help."
"Okay," She nods at the brunette, inspired by her words. Amy backflips into the air, the Tarantula firing at her. Aelita runs for the tower past the Tarantula while it's distracted, Amy getting hit twice and then devirtualized. She runs into the tower safely, finally, finally reaching the center of the pad. She flies up to the top.
Ulrich and Jeremy continue to struggle from the ghost, Odd just arriving. He picks up the stick and goes foe it, yelling. He stabs the ghost, but it does nothing to stop it. The ghost turns around to Odd.
"Well. Feeling so cocky now, are we?" Odd teases, but the ghost hits him, knocking the boy to the ground. He tries to get up, but the blow was too strong.
Amy falls onto the ground in the scanner room.
Aelita presses her hand to the interface.
Aelita
Code
Lyoko
Ulrich and Jeremy are released, falling onto the ground with a thump.
"Tower deactivated."
Odd rubs his head as he gets to his feet. He walks up to the others. "You okay, guys? Say something."
"Something," Ulrich replies with a smirk.
"Hey, no stealing my jokes, okay? I only let my favorite girl do that," He warns them as they sit up.
"Since we didn't fix the super scan in Sector Five," Jeremy speaks when they're all back in the lab. "We have no choice. We've gotta launch a return in time."
Unfortunately, since everyone except Ulrich was on Lyoko, they couldn't go back, making the super scan irreparable. And they couldn't waste time waiting to go back and fix it, not when XANA is still out there. The return in time was the only thing that could fix it now.
"Oh great. XANA gets an advantage because of his own dirty tricks on us, and I get even more fuel to the mystery of me," Amy places a hand on her head in dismay. She would question summoning up the transporter further, but it would hurt her brain and she's gotten little sleep tonight.
Jeremy launches the time return. "Return to the past now."
Everything is reset to the séance. "And now, let the ceremony begin," Sissi announces as she's holding hands with Ulrich.
"De profundis tenebrae," Herb and Nicolas repeat again. "De profundis tenebrae. De profundis tenebrae. De profundis tenebrae. De profundis tenebrae."
"I summon you, Leon Corbet!" Sissi holds out her arms.
"De profundis tenebrae!"
"Who dares call my name?!"
Ulrich says nothing at the familiar voice, which the others don't recognize. "Well, I do," Sissi answers bravely.
"Beat it, Miss Delmas. You don't know who you're dealing with!"
Her eyes widen in fear. "SCRAM!" Thunder strikes at the threat.
Herb and Nicolas scream, running away. Sissi follows them and Ulrich chuckles, turning to the boiler. "You can come out now."
Odd peeks his head out from behind the boiler, Amy giggling as she's holding a recorder.
"Well, I don't think she's gonna try to wake the dead again!" Odd chuckles as he and Amy high five their friend.
"Nice thunder sound effect," Ulrich winks at Amy as they walk away.
"Thanks. Got it from Jeremy. He created the sound for me," She smiles widely. And all she had to do was help him the next time he's trying to create the anti-virus for Aelita...a noble sacrifice indeed.
When they leave, the boiler room door closes on its own with a creak once the three are gone...
Amy yawns and stretches her arms. Odd sees just how tired she is. "I think it's time for Sleeping Beauty to get her rest," Odd places a hand on her shoulder. "Come on, we'll go to my room."
"Odd!" Amy takes his hand off her shoulder in surprise. "We'll get in trouble."
"But I wanna cuddle with my Ames," He wraps an arm around her shoulder.
"I'm leaving before I become the third wheel," Ulrich walks off.
"Well...okay, but I'll be gone in the morning," She tells Odd once he's gone.
"As long as I have you tonight, I don't care."
Ulrich is asleep once they arrive back, wearing his pajamas. Amy has changed back into hers. She turns around as Odd changes since he took a shower long ago.
"Don't you wanna see?" Odd winks at her and she crosses her arms, blushing.
"Isn't being in your room enough already?"
He chuckles, sitting down as he's fully clothed. "Alright, come on."
She slips into his blanket and he follows after her, cuddling the brunette. His head rests above her hair as they're covered in a layer of blanket and each other's warmth. He presses his body against her in a comforting way before they both fall into a peaceful slumber.