Jeremy awoke very early the next morning. So early, in fact, that it was still quite dark. A blurry, sideways glance at his alarm clock showed him that it was 3:43, and he could hear a light drizzle sweeping through Kadic beyond his window. It would have been an excellent time to sleep, but instead of rolling back over in bed, he stood up, seized his glasses, and plopped himself down in front of his desktop.
He powered it on, and was pleased to see that the data analysis program was, as he had expected, complete; he had reestablished the desktop's connection with the supercomputer several days prior. The files he had downloaded from the mysterious data stream the day before had been decoded, and he now opened them with a rush of eagerness. He knew he ought to wait for his friends to see it too, especially if it really was something to do with Franz Hopper, in which case Aelita especially should have been with him, but he was too excited to wait. . . . But as it transpired, it was not from Franz Hopper, nor did the information seem to be related to him at all.
It was a digital journal, whose cover displayed the words Project New Olympus.
"New Olympus?" Jeremy muttered. He clicked the window and entered the diary. The first page hosted a picture of what looked like an old-fashioned military facility, but it seemed to be underwater. Above this picture was the caption "Thalassa Base."
"What the —?" Jeremy breathed. He began to scroll through the pages, looking in at various segments of the base. Scientists clad in snowy-white lab coats and thick goggles were depicted in many of these images, conducting what seemed to be experiments on other human beings and animals.
Jeremy, eyes wide with horror, paused to gape on a page with what seemed to be a young child, about Milly and Tamiya's age, who was strapped to a bed underneath a bright strobing light, clearly shrieking in agony. The next slide showed the same scene, except that the child was now gone. Jeremy sat there, aghast, wanting desperately to rise from his chair, to delete whatever vile message this was and turn off the computer. But he couldn't. It was as though some unseen force was holding him down, forcing him to remain in place. Horrific though the images may be, he had to see it through to the end. To find out why on earth this message had been sent, or why XANA would feel threatened enough by these scenes to want to destroy it.
On he went, the slides displaying more and more repulsive images, but the final slide bore what seemed to be an unfinished computer program, and a set of coordinates.
Jeremy hurtled out of his chair and seized his schoolbag, extracting his laptop. As he flung himself back into his chair, he opened his laptop and immediately entered the coordinates that had appeared on the desktop screen. The results that popped up displayed what appeared to be an ordinary river, nestled comfortably in a lush forest. But if Jeremy was correct in his suspicions, the Thalassa Base was somewhere beneath that pool of glittering water.
His attention turned instead to the unfinished program. His eyes sped along the length of the template, widening with every line they took in. This program bore unmistakable similarities to that which he had developed months ago to teleport Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita from the Skid into spectral forms in various parts of the world to locate XANA's infected supercomputers. Some codes, however, were completely new to him. In a sudden rush of decisiveness, he powered off his desktop, folded his laptop, tucked it under his arm, and slipped carefully out of his room and down the silent corridors.
Jeremy hesitated for a moment, contemplating whether or not he should wake any of the others. In the end, it was Jeremy deciding that it was too early, and that it was far too risky with them strewn so far along the block, that made him decide to move on and leave them to rest.
He raced down the path, moving as quickly but as quietly as he could, pausing around every corner to listen for Jim. His deep, gruff voice came into hearing soon enough, berating someone for not sleeping somewhere along a nearby corridor.
The coast clear, Jeremy hurried down the corridor to the boiler room, eased inside, and pelted off down the wide sewer tunnels. Minutes later, out of breath, he exited the elevator and propped himself down in his chair in the lab room, the lift doors closing behind him. He took a few moments to catch his breath, then started up the supercomputer, set his laptop gingerly across his knees, and pulled up the program that he had designed months prior, comparing it to the new one he had obtained from the data stream. It was indeed similar, much more so than he had realized.
However, the new lines of code seemed to be taking into account a view of a more permanent virtualization, rather than the temporary spectral existence Jeremy had programmed. Curious, he opened a new window, and began to enter lines from both.
As the alarm clock blared 6:00, Aelita leaned over, tapped the off button, and sat up in bed. She had not slept much, being so excited at the prospect of discovering who the mysterious being that had created the data stream was. Though she was confined to the fact that it may not be her father, the possibility fluttered around in her mind like a restless butterfly. Now she positively bounded out of bed and rushed towards the girls' bathroom. The faster she showered, the faster she could visit Jeremy and find out what the data stream had really held.
On the way, she met Mila and Gabrielle.
"Good morning," Mila said, smiling.
"Hi." Aelita beamed in return.
Gabrielle looked around, then lowered her voice. "Jeremy should have finished with the program by now. What do you think we'll find?"
'I don't really know," Aelita said. "But I'm sure Jeremy'll be able to tell us. . . ."
But as it transpired, Jeremy was not in his room when they went to check after they had finished washing. Nor was he at the breakfast table with the other boys and Yumi.
"Morning," Aelita said. "Has anybody seen Jeremy?"
"No, haven't seen him since morning. Not even in the showers," Ulrich said. "We checked his room too, but he wasn't there either."
"I wonder where he could be," Aelita said. As the minutes passed, she found herself craning her neck every time the door swung open, or every time she heard footsteps pattering behind them. But still the blond, bespectacled figure of Jeremy did not appear. Sissi, however, showed up nearly twenty minutes into lunch, flanked, as usual, by Nicolas and Herb.
"Hi," she said sweetly. "Jeremy isn't here with you?"
"No," said Yumi. "Have you seen him?"
"Not since last night, no. Oh well, I'm sure he'll turn up eventually. I'd ask if we can sit here but your table looks a little full, doesn't it?" she added, still in that same sugary tone, her eyes passing from William, to Mila, to Gabrielle, and, finally, resting on Leo.
"Um . . . yeah, sorry about that," Aelita said, smiling apologetically.
"No worries, we'll just sit over here!" She waved and, still beaming, led Nicolas and Herb to the empty table two spaces ahead of them.
"That was strange," William said, frowning.
"I'll say," Odd said.
"Are you all sure you're really cool with her?" William looked around nervously and hissed, "I mean, I remember her being pretty suspicious in the past. What if she finds out that something's up?"
"If anything does happen it's nothing a return to the past can't fix," Ulrich muttered. "And speaking of return trips, I think I know where Jeremy might have gone."
"You don't think —?" Leo began, raising his eyebrows at Ulrich.
Ulrich nodded. "He must be at the factory. Come on, we've still got a few minutes of breakfast time left. Let's go check it out."
As their group was now so large, they had to split up and take different routes to the factory so as not to raise suspicion. Yumi, William, Aelita, and Ulrich headed for the passage in the woods, while Odd, Leo, Gabrielle, and Mila ran through the boiler room. The two groups met up underneath the manhole cover, seized their skateboards and scooters, and rode the length of the tunnel. Then they climbed up to the bridge, and swung down to the elevator.
As Ulrich had guessed, Jeremy was in the lab. He looked around, bleary-eyed and bewildered-looking, as the lift door opened and the rest of his friends spilled into the room.
"Morning, Einstein," Ulrich said. "You do know this is why beds were invented, don't you?"
"Oh — hey, guys. I didn't realize it was so — so late," Jeremy said, letting out a huge yawn.
"Jeremy, how long have you been here?" Aelita asked severely. He looked around at the computer screen, found the time nestled in the bottom-right corner, which read 7:33, then wheeled back to face them.
"Just a few hours," he said innocently, but she continued to frown at him.
"You missed breakfast, you know," Odd said.
"That's fine, I didn't have much of an appetite anyway." The appalling images he had seen when he had woken up were still fresh in his mind.
"But why were you even here so early?" Mila asked.
"Take a look," he said, and he gestured at the screen. They all moved closer, peering at the open windows.
"A new program?" asked Yumi.
"Eh?" Jeremy turned to face the computer again, and saw that the new source code he was trying to create was still prominent on the screen. "Uh, no — not this," he said. He began to type impatiently, then the image of the virtual diary he had downloaded from the data stream flitted to the forefront of the screen.
"What is this?" William said, revolted, as Jeremy began to navigate through its contents, displaying image after image of the horrific-looking experiments that had taken place in the Thalassa Base.
"A digital journal, which contains records of what looks like virtualization test trials in a secret, underwater facility called the Thalassa Base."
"Test trials? Done by who?" Leo asked.
"Whom," Jeremy corrected. "And that's what I've been trying to find out. Unfortunately, there aren't any names provided for any of the scientists in the records, and, as you may have guessed, the subjects aren't around anymore either. But along with this journal, I got the coordinates of the base, and an incomplete program that's similar to the one that I used to use to materialize you as specters in the real world from the Skid."
"Your virtual ship that got destroyed?" Gabrielle asked.
Jeremy nodded. "But this one is different. It looks like its original aim was to foster a kind of — permanent virtualization."
"And what does that mean?" Aelita said. "We'd be stuck on Lyoko forever?"
"No, not exactly. Remember how XANA managed to send those Krabs and Kankrelats to earth? They arrived with all their virtual abilities, but with their forms compressed to the dimensions of our world. This program's aim was something like that. Transferring you from Lyoko to the real world in the image of your virtual forms, but as material beings rather than specters."
"But why would the Thalassa Base be experimenting with trials like that?" Ulrich asked, looking startled.
"Your guess is as good as mine. But I think the answer lies in the Thalassa Base itself. Which is why I imagine whoever set up the data stream sent the coordinates as well as the dematerialization program."
"You think they want us to go there?" Odd asked.
Jeremy nodded. "Which is what I've been doing here. I've been using segments of code from both this program and the one I'd already set up, to try to create a new one with the capability of materializing one without the need for the Skid, and with the possibility of being able to revert to your normal selves."
"Any luck so far?" William asked.
"Actually, yes. The program seems to be coming along well enough. But I'm not going to test it until I'm absolutely sure that it's safe. The last time we tried to send someone somewhere with a faulty program . . ." Jeremy broke off, shuddering.
"Are you finished?" Aelita cut in abruptly.
"Well, yeah, I suppose, for now —"
"Then let's go," she said firmly, and she seized his arm and heaved him from his chair, dragging him towards the elevator door.
"Aelita!" Jeremy protested.
"You've been working for hours, Jeremy. You haven't eaten and you look terrible. You can finish your work later — I'll help you with it if you'd like — but for now, you have to get cleaned up and get to class."
"But —"
"Now, Jeremy," Aelita said, in a very final sort of tone.
An hour later, Aelita, Odd, Mila, Gabrielle, and Ulrich were sitting by the swimming pool in Gym Class, watching Jim demonstrate the movements they were to practice for that lesson. Yumi had gone off to Science Class with Mrs. Hertz, and William and Leo had snuck into the cafeteria and seized a few snacks for Jeremy, who had gone up to take a shower in the dorms under cover of being ill in the infirmary.
They slipped into his room down the hall and passed him the snacks, which he ate gratefully. Apparently he had much more of an appetite than he had led on.
"Should I be worried about how you got these?" he asked them, with a suspicious glint in his eyes beneath his spectacles.
William and Leo grinned at each other.
"Nope," said Leo. "I think we covered our tracks pretty well."
"So, about the Thalassa Base," William said, as Jeremy finished a bag of dry cereal. "You said they were doing virtualization test trials?"
"That's what it looked like, yes," Jeremy said.
"But why would they have done that, unless there was somewhere they could be virtualized *to*? You don't thimk they could have known about — about Lyoko?"
Jeremy crumpled up the empty cereal bag and dropped it in his garbage bin. "I don't know," he said. "There weren't any dates in the slides, so we can't know how recently they'd taken place. But I don't see how it could have happened before Lyoko had been created. For one thing, whoever uploaded the data stream knew enough about Lyoko to activate a tower there."
"Well, that's true," Leo said. "But do you think that's all that person wanted to show us? The virtualization records in the Thalassa Base?"
"Again, I can't be sure, but I feel like there's more to the story. More that we can only find out at the Thalassa Base itself."
"And what about XANA?" said William.
"What about him?"
"If it knew enough about the data stream to want to destroy it, do you think its next target could be the base itself, to stop us from going there?"
"I doubt it, to be honest. XANA's latest methods of attack give the impression that he's still nowhere near the level of power he had even when we'd just turned on the supercomputer. A few monster jack-o-lanterns and a thunderstorm? Believe me, XANA's capable of much, much worse. I don't think he has enough power, at the moment, to launch a full-scale attack on a military base underwater." He worked his way through a bag of nut brittle and a cherry soda, then stood up and stretched.
"Feel better?" Leo asked.
"Yeah, much better, thanks!" Jeremy said brightly. "I think we should get to class —" But at that precise moment, his laptop began to blare on the bed where he'd left it to shower. "Huh? No, not now!" he cried, rushing over to it. As he flipped it open, his heart sank horribly. The Super Scan had picked up an activated tower.
Jeremy grit his teeth, closing the laptop so that the noise died down. "We have to get to the factory," he said. "How are we going to tell the others?"
"Leave it to me," Leo said. "You two go on, we'll meet you there."
"Be careful," Jeremy told him, and he hurried off with William. Leo bolted through the hallways in the opposite direction, coming out on the other side of the school. He darted along the block leading to the Science Lab; Yumi would be much easier to extricate than any of the others, who were all stuck at the pool with Jim. He ran the length of the corridor, squinting anxiously around for teachers, but to his relief he saw none.
He reached the classroom unhampered; hoisting himself up on the ledge, he spotted Yumi, then angled his hand so that the sunlight would glance off the face of his watch and attract her attention. She had been doodling absently in her notebook, but as the faint glare hit her eye she sat up and looked around at the window.
Leo waved vigorously, doing his best to transfer the message via hand signals. He didn't think he was doing a very good job, but Yumi got the point regardless.
"Ma'am, may I please go to the restroom?"
"Have you finished copying the notes from the board?" asked Mrs. Hertz.
"Erm —"
"Well in that case, the answer is no, Ms. Ishiyama," she said sternly. "You may go when you've done so."
Yumi gave Leo a furtive, hopeless gesture and he slid back down to the ground, cursing Mrs. Hertz. Yumi would have to catch up as soon as she could, he thought, and he rushed instead towards the pool.
Inside, he saw Aelita, Mila, Gabrielle, Ulrich, and Odd sitting side-by-side at the pool edge. Jim was watching two other students doing some complicated movements in the water. While his back was turned, Leo seized the opportunity to wave at Odd, who was nearest to the door. Sissi, however, was the one who caught the movement. She leaned forward and muttered something to Odd, who looked up, then nudged Ulrich in turn. The message spread quickly and silently, and they all turned towards him.
Leo didn't know how on earth they were all going to escape the hard, suspicious gaze of the Physical Education teacher, but if there was a clever way to do so on their own, he didn't find out. He heard a funny crackling noise behind him, and as he turned around to investigate he saw, to his horror, three plumes of dark smoke streaming around the schoolyard outside.
One of them plunged headlong into the ground, seeping into the earth; another soared into the air, dispersing rapidly across the bright blue sky; the third veered straight for him, bowled him over, and soared into the room, drawing the attention of everybody else inside. There were screams and a great scrambling to escape as it dove into the pool with a loud splash. Leo rolled to one side as Jim and the other students dashed past him, but there were even louder screams coming from outside now. Leo stood up and peered outside. A gigantic mass of bubbling, steaming mud was advancing upon Leo, beside it a swirling mass of greyish smoke, like a living storm cloud. In the center of each figure, Leo could see XANA's specters swirling around like fog trapped in a glass sphere.
Aelita and the others met him at the door, hurrying away from the third creature, which looked quite similar to the other two, but water-based.
"We have to get to the factory!" Aelita said urgently.
"Oh yeah, and how do you suppose we do that with these three wanting to play with us?" Odd said.
"You guys go on, William and Jeremy are already there, I'll deal with them!" Leo said.
"No, don't be stupid, you'll never manage on your own!" Ulrich said. "Go on, Odd, you guys get to Lyoko, I'll stay here with Leo!"
The air creature suddenly came gliding towards them, and from its spiraling chest burst a bolt of lightning. They all dove aside, but the impact still blasted them away. Fortunately, they recovered quickly enough.
"Go!" Leo screamed, leaping up. Ulrich ran up towards him as the others vanished from sight.
"Okay, how do you wanna play this?"
"Two on three, I guess —"
The mud creature launched a thick jet of steaming mud, cutting him off mid-sentence. Before he could react, someone tackled him from behind, pushing him and Ulrich out of the way.
A moment later, Ulrich, sounding relieved, shouted, "Yumi!"
"Need a hand?" she said, grinning, as they all got to their feet.
"Okay, one for each of us then," Leo said. "Yumi, you take the mud one; Ulrich, you get the water one —"
"Uh uh, no way. Any other one, but not that one," he said at once, shaking his head.
"Hey, is this because of what happened at the swimming pool?" Yumi said, staring at Ulrich with an expression of mingled suspicion and exasperation.
"Why? What happened at the pool?" Leo asked blankly.
"Nothing," they both said quickly, blushing.
"Fine," said Leo, "I'll take the water monster. We'll lead them away from the other students so that nobody else gets hurt, then we'll meet up when we're done. Ready?"
"Ready!" Yumi said, and they all scattered.
Aelita, Odd, Mila, and Gabrielle reached the factory within twenty minutes, all out of breath. Leaning against the elevator walls and clutching their chests as they drew deep gulps of air, they looked up when the door opened.
"Ah, at last," Jeremy said, peering around the computer screen at them. "Hmm? The others —"
"Are trapped at school," Odd panted. "Fighting a couple of XANA's monsters — elementals."
"We have to deactivate the tower, fast," Aelita said.
"Right, head down to the Scanner Room, all of you." Jeremy swiveled around in his chair, preparing the virtualization process as they all climbed into the room below using the bars to their right. When they had called up to say that they were in position, Jeremy started. "Here we go. Transfer, Odd! Transfer, Aelita! Transfer, William! Scanner, Odd! Scanner, Aelita! Scanner, William! Virtualization!"
When their digital avatars had loaded, and their labeled dots appeared on the screen, the scanners reopened as Jeremy prepared for the second virtualization. "Transfer, Mila! Transfer, Gabrielle! Scanner, Mila! Scanner, Gabrielle! Virtualization!"
The two materalized in midair, above the Arena of Sector Five, then landed beside the other three.
"I'm bringing up your vehicles at the Celestial Dome," Jeremy told them. "Hurry up!"
"Let's go!" Odd said cheerfully, and the party sprinted off through the open footbridge in front of them. Together they ran the length of the Core Zone and took the elevator up to the Celestial Dome, where the vehicles were indeed waiting for them. Aelita and Mila veered immediately for the Overrose, and Odd and Gabrielle launched themselves upon the Overboard. William, however, hesitated, looking nervously at the stationary Overwing.
"Something wrong, William?" Jeremy called, noticing that he had not moved.
"Um — no, nothing," he mumbled, and he dashed onto the Overwing, leaning his sword across the floor of the vehicle.
"Here we go!" Odd cried. They streaked off towards the glowing access to Xanadu, dove into the tunnel, and sped through, bracing themselves for what came next.
"AGH!"
The sudden scream reverberated inside Jeremy's head, and he sat bolt upright in his seat, terror flooding through him. "Odd? Odd, what just happened? Aelita, are you all okay?"
There was no response.
"Odd, Aelita!" Jeremy said, more insistently. "Are you there? William? Mila? Gabrielle? Answer me, please!"
"Jeremy," Aelita's voice replied, and Jeremy felt a powerful wave of relief surge through him, "it's all right, we're all okay. But, you'd never believe where we are. We — we're underwater."
"What?" Jeremy yelped. "What do you mean?"
"The fourth core sector of Xanadu seems to be some kind of — virtual marine setting. Here, I'll send you a visual."
A new window suddenly sprang open on the screen, and he saw the miraculous scenery through Aelita's bright green eyes. They certainly were gliding through a vast pool of water, looking around at an underwater environment, illuminated by a bright blue light and encased in a large, glittering, bubble-like dome. There were tangles of dark weeds, reefs of coral-like structures, vast channels of mud, and many strange-looking plants with glowing leaves. Bubbles the size of megatanks were rising up all around from the velvety-black depths of the sector, floating right up to the top.
"Incredible," Jeremy said, awed. "You were right, Odd — XANA is an incredible designer, whatever else we might think of him. But — uh — are any of you having trouble breathing?"
"No, we were scared at first, but then we realized we could breathe just fine," Aelita said.
"Good thing, too," Jeremy said, his tone suddenly grim. "Because I've spotted the activated tower. It's straight ahead of you, and it's being guarded."
Aelita, William, and Odd all came to a halt, and everyone squinted through the brightly lit water at the tower in the distance. Three mantas were hovering around its base — and each one was being ridden by a Harbinger.
Leo had had plenty of practice running before. From Gabrielle, when they were younger playing tag; in Gym Class for his old school; and for physical training with the rest of the Lyoko Warriors. He had never had much trouble with it before, but he had to admit that there was something quite different when being chased by a massive, roaring wave in a vaguely humanoid form that could shoot hose-like jets of water.
He had darted around the other side of the school, rushing through the courtyard, and the aquatic creature had followed, like an obedient dog accompanying its master — if the dog was twelve-feet-tall. It let out a rushing sound, the sound of waves crashing against the shore, and from the inwards-swirling spiral that was the specter holding its form together burst a jet of water. Leo dove aside, narrowly avoiding the speeding sheet. As he rolled, he glanced up. The water crashed against the walls of the Gymnasium, and huge cracks spread along the stone under the immense pressure.
Leo sprang to his feet, seized a large stone lying at his feet, and flung it at the monster; it sank harmlessly into the gurgling pool of its body. He had not expected the stone to do any form of damage, but he hated the overwhelming feeling of helplessness, running away from the beast with nothing he could do to fight back.
A huge crash sounded somewhere nearby and Leo, momentarily distracted, looked around. Ulrich was pelting around the other side of the courtyard, having just appeared from the opposite direction, the storm creature in hot pursuit, shooting bolts of lightning much like the ones Leo produced on Lyoko after him. One bolt struck the vending machine, causing it to explode, spilling snacks and various beverages all over the ground. And Leo had an idea.
"Ulrich, head this way!" he shouted. He saw the other boy look over at him, clearly bewildered, but Ulrich changed direction nevertheless. Leo rushed off towards him.
They ran on opposite sides of the path, weaving around blasts of lightning and water, drawing closer with every second, until they were mere feet away from each other. Ulrich caught on remarkably fast, mirroring Leo, leading the monsters closer and closer into direct proximity —
"Now!" Leo shouted. Directly in front of each other, they both leapt sideways. Lightning erupted from the spiraling specter of the air creature, and water from the water creature. The two blasts shot through the air, passing within inches of each other. The lightning ripped through the water creature with a noise like an explosion, sending small splotches of water crashing down around them, and leaving a giant scorch mark above the steaming ground; at the same time, the hyper-pressured water blew through the air creature, dispersing it to tiny wisps of silvery-grey smoke.
Ulrich and Leo sprang up, simultaneously relieved and impressed.
"Nice job," Ulrich said.
"You weren't too bad yourself." Leo grinned, then he looked around. "Do you think they'll reform?"
"Let's not stick around to find out."
The pair hurried off towards the cafeteria, where a series of heavy crashes was coming from. No doubt Yumi was there, still fighting her own elemental creature. They followed the trail of destruction, the air thick with dust. Coughing, they hurried onwards, and finally they reached her.
She was dodging massive plumes of mud, weaving around the strikes with ease. Enraged, the monster let out a terrible bellow and began to fire again, but this time the mud solidifed in midair, turning into giant boulders the moment it had released them. Yumi dodged these as well, but she was clearly running out of space to move. With every rock the monster hurled, walls tumbled downwards, rocks blocking the path. It moved closer towards her, and Ulrich detected an air of savage triumph about the beast. Yumi was trapped between it and the solid wall of one of the block classrooms.
"Yumi, no!" Ulrich screamed.
The mud creature struck out, sending giant boulders lashing out towards her. But Yumi ducked aside; the boulders pelted against the wall, and the whole structure came tumbling down, burying the creature in an avalanche of cascading rocks. There was an unpleasant squelching noise, then silence.
Leo and Ulrich froze in their tracks, staring in horror at the mound of boulders. Then Yumi suddenly jumped around from behind it, smiling smugly.
"A problem, boys?" she said.
"That was great, Yumi!" Leo told her, a smile of his own breaking across his face.
"Thanks. Now let's get out of here, before —"
But it was too late. The rocks upon the pile began to shift, and as they turned, they saw that the mound was slowly decreasing in size. Mud welled up from the spaces between the rocks like water from a spring, and the mud creature rose upwards, covering the entire pile. It was devouring the rocks, growing larger with every one it consumed. The air around them got colder, and they wheeled around again; the storm creature had reformed and was gliding towards them, lightning crackling at its center, the water creature behind it, though much smaller than before.
"Any other ideas?" Ulrich croaked.
"Yes, one: RUN!" Yumi screamed.
They ran.
"All right, William, Gabrielle, you handle the cyclops. Aelita, Mila, you take the one with the mace. I'll take care of the lizard."
"All alone?" Jeremy said.
"Odd, you can't —" Aelita began.
"Don't worry about me, Princess. Just work on getting past the other two." Odd sped over to William's side, and Gabrielle changed positions, gripping William's waist as she hopped onto the Overwing.
"Now!" Odd yelled, and the three vehicles ripped through the air, darting towards the tower.
"Energy Field!" Aelita shouted. A rippling orb of pink energy appeared in her hand and she threw it. It flew through the water, soaring towards the blue-robed giant, but once again it raised its massive hand and fired a burst of red energy, which collided with the Energy Field, stopping it dead in position. The giant kicked into motion, hurtling towards them on her own manta, and Aelita veered leftwards towards a massive coral reef that rose about twenty feet.
Odd, however, zoomed straight towards the dragon-headed giant. The manta it was perched on fired.
"Shield!" Odd cried. His violet barrier appeared before him, deflecting the blast, then Odd raised his hand in the giant's direction. "Laser Arrow!" A volley of arrows burst from his knuckles, but the lizard-like giant deflected them with the metallic-looking scales along its massive arms.
"You'll have to do better than that to defeat Orion the Terrible!" it rasped.
"The Terrible?" Odd repeated, bemused.
"The name's a work in progress," the giant said, shrugging. "Shadow Scale!"
"Odd, watch out!" Jeremy warned. Tiny scales zipped across the battlefield with alarming speed. Odd zoomed straight upwards, rising towards the twinkling bubble overhead. He wove around the incoming projectiles, then swooped downwards.
"Laser Arrow!"
Three arrows barreled through the water, one after the other. Orion swung his arms before him, deflecting the first two, but the third sank into its chest, causing it to stagger. Odd dove once more, this time taking aim for the manta. His arrow hit the target dead-on between the giant's legs and it exploded. The giant fell through the gloom with a dramatic, rasping wail, and Odd followed.
A short distance away, William and Gabrielle were being chased by the one-eyed Harbinger. The manta it was riding let out a relentless flow of lasers, but Gabrielle deflected them all with her shells. William suddenly wheeled around, sending the Overwing rocketing towards the giant. He wove around the manta's oncoming strikes, darting forward, and the giant separated his shield-like weapon into two huge swords again. With one hand on the Overwing's handle, William seized his own sword with the next. They lashed out at the same moment; William's enormous blade parried the Harbinger's strikes, but Gabrielle had taken a long slash as they passed, ripping through the giant's side.
Grunting in rage, the giant wheeled around again, and William turned as well, just in time to see something shoot suddenly from the Harbinger's face.
At first William pulled aside, believing it to be some kind of projectile hurtling towards them. But he soon realized that it had stopped moving, a short distance away from the giant. As the sea's soft blue light crept over the sphere, they saw that it was the monster's own eye. Gabrielle made a noise of disgust, but William was surveying the eye with suspicion more than revulsion. The red iris was now glowing, a blazing crimson beacon against a brilliant expanse of blue.
"Uh!" William wheeled around just as a wave of red light erupted from the eye, flooding through the water. He had put on a burst of speed, but the light passed over him regardless. The water around him turned scarlet, as though an enormous ink bottle had spilled across the entire sea. And William's body slowed down. It felt as though they were moving through molasses.
"What — what's going on?" Gabrielle demanded.
"I don't know, I can't go any faster!" William yelled.
The giant's rumbling, derisive laughter echoed through the water. William and Gabrielle turned their heads, very slowly, to look at him. The Harbinger and its manta were soaring towards them, seemingly unaffected by the wave of red light.
Jeremy suddenly gasped. "Now I understand, it's the eye! The eye is slowing you down! This must be the giant's ability to counteract Ulrich's speed! William, you have to get out of the range of the eye!"
"No kidding, what do you think I've been trying to do!" William said angrily. He forged onwards, pressing as hard as he could against the force acting against them. They could see the sapphire waves rolling around ahead of them. Just a little further —
"William!" Gabrielle screamed. The giant was right behind them, its swords raised, ready to strike. A laser blossomed from the manta's stingers and soared through the water; it crashed into William's back and blasted him off the Overwing, through the slow-moving, scarlet-lit water and into the roiling, sapphire waves. Gabrielle seized the controls as quickly as she could, but the giant now came bearing down upon her. He struck out — but a bright pink light suddenly crossed the dark-tinted water and crashed against the giant. As he recoiled, Gabrielle burst out of the red glow, resuming her normal speed.
Aelita, who was gliding above them, still hounded by the blue-robed giant, had spared enough time to assist. Dodging yet another burst of red light, she zoomed upwards, and the Harbinger followed. The red aura behind Gabrielle suddenly disappeared, and Gabrille looked around to see the monster's eye darting back towards him, sinking into place in the hollow space of its forehead.
Grunting in rage, it threw one of its swords. The blade spun through the water, the blue light glancing off its gleaming metal as it flew — William suddenly swam up in front of Gabrielle and threw his own. They flew by each other, the Harbinger's blade sinking into William's chest, and his own enormous blade embedded itself in the giant's torso, vaporizing it in a cloud of black-and-red smoke as William vanished in a whirl of light blue strips. As they disappeared, Gabrielle seized one of her scallops and sped towards the manta. She flicked her wrist, intercepting several lasers, then opened the shell, so that her blade of energy hummed to life. She swooped, plunging below the manta, and ran it through the creature's underside.
It exploded. For a moment, it looked as though she'd won — then a pale white object, roughly the size of a baseball, with a pointed, protruding edge appeared directly in front of her, embossed with the symbol of XANA. It began to glow.
"Huh? No —!"
It exploded, and she vanished amid an eruption of piercing white light.
"No!" Aelita said. She wove around yet another streak of red light, and turned to face her advancing enemy, her expression hardening. "All right, enough fooling around! Energy Field!"
Her attack flew straight up to the giant. She half-expected it to simply immobilize the strike, but the giant swung her enormous mace and deflected it instead. Her manta fired, and Aelita veered upwards, but the giant threw up her hand, cleaving upwards with the mace. The Overrose devirtualized at the impact, and both Mila and Aelita fell, screaming.
Aelita's hand flew to the star-shaped band on her wrist and her glowing, fluffy, pink wings sprouted behind her. She righted herself in the water, then dove for Mila, but the black-haired girl had drawn her whip. As the female giant zoomed by atop her manta, the glowing whip cracked out, wrapped around the giant's mace, and yanked it from her hands. The giant bellowed in shock and anger, but Mila wheeled around in the water, swung her whip, and slammed the mace into its owner's chest, knocking it off the manta.
With a screech, the Harbinger shot another jet of red light as it sank into the gloom. Mila froze mid-fall, and the manta soared towards her, blasting her into another whirl of digital strips.
"Energy Field!" The bright pink orb soared through the water and hit the manta, enveloping it in glistening pink energy, and it exploded.
"Nice one, Aelita!" Jeremy called. "Now head for the tower, while Odd is still keeping the other one busy!"
"On my way!" Her wings flapped about her and she took off through the stream, flying towards the tower. Above her, Odd and the Harbinger, Orion, were still locked in fierce battle.
"Porphyrion! Altaea!" he rasped. "You'll pay for them!"
"Sibling drama, nothing new," Odd said in a bored voice. "Laser Arrow!" The arrowhead fired from his wrist, streaking towards the Harbinger's dragon-like head, but its snout suddenly flared. The arrow sank into the roof of its mouth just as Orion's scales ripped through the water; they crashed into Odd, blasting him off the Overboard, and both vanished amid digital bits. Ahead of them, Aelita entered the tower, and vanished.
"See anything?" Yumi whispered.
Ulrich emerged from underneath a countertop on the other side of the room, stood up very slowly, and peered out through the windows; the path outside was quite deserted. "No, nothing." They had managed to escape from the elemental creatures earlier by darting into the library, diving through the back windows while the monsters proceeded to wreck the front, and then rushing to the other side of the school and taking shelter in the Science Lab, where they hid beneath the tables, awaiting Jeremy's message that the tower had been deactivated.
The other students had taken refuge in the basement below the school, where they waited in fearful silence, listening to the sound of the monsters ravaging the school above. At last, Ulrich's phone rang. He answered at once.
"Jeremy? . . . She's inside the tower? Oh, that's great, because we're about ready to be fried over here. We — ah!"
A colossal quake shook the lab, and they flew out from under their hiding places, smashing against the wall. Groaning, Ulrich stood up and hurried to the window. They had been found. The mud monster was hurling boulders up to their section of the block, the aquatic creature shooting jets of water, and the air creature blasting them with lightning, rising slowly upwards towards their window.
"How long did he say until the tower was deactivated?" Leo yelled, as debris rained down around them.
"A minute or two!" Ulrich yelled back. "We just have to —"
A bolt of lightning ripped through the window, striking Leo squarely in the chest. He screamed, and the force of the current sent him flying across the room once again.
"No, Leo!" Yumi shrieked. The noise outside suddenly stopped. Ulrich hurtled to the window. Down below, the three creatures melted away: the mud and water slopped lamely to the floor, and the greyish smoke dispersed upon the air. Yumi, who had joined Ulrich at the window to investigate, now dashed to Leo's side, feeling for a pulse.
"He's not breathing!" Yumi shouted, in a voice choked with panic. Ulrich whipped out his phone again and dialed Jeremy's number.
"Jeremy! Leo was hit by a lightning bolt just a while ago, fired by one of XANA's monsters! Hurry, you have to launch a return to the past, now!"
Jeremy began to splutter in shock and bewilderment, but cut himself off immediately. He hung up, and Ulrich assumed he had realized the severity of the situation and set to work at once to launch the return trip as he fell to Leo's side again.
"He — he's still not breathing!" Yumi cried, tears welling in her dark eyes. "Ulrich, what if he's — if he's . . . You know the return to the past won't work if he's —"
"No, don't talk like that!" Ulrich said harshly. "He'll be fine. . . . He has to be. . . ."
They stared down at his lifeless body in desperation, hoping, praying. The seconds that passed between them felt like hours in that agonizing wait. . . . Then the all-consuming light erupted into the sky far away, in the direction of the factory, spreading outwards in every direction, enveloping the entire school. . . . When it had died down at last, they were at the lunch table once more.
Yumi and Ulrich blinked, adjusting to the change in scenery. There he was right ahead of them, looking confused, but mercifully unscathed. "You're okay!" they both said in relief.
"Well, I don't feel like it," Leo grumbled, examining himself. "I swear I still smell like I was singed."
"As long as you're all right, it doesn't matter," Yumi said, smiling at him, and Ulrich nodded vigorously in turn.
Leo smiled back. "Anyway, is Jeremy at the factory again?" he asked.
"Nope, he's right here," said a voice. Jeremy had appeared at their table and dropped into a seat, placing a tray carefully on the table. "Glad to see you're okay," he assured Leo, smiling. Then he continued, "The supercomputer programs aren't affected by the returns to the past any more than we are. The programs I've been working on are still there, so I hurried back as soon as I could. From this point forward, I'm going to try to obtain more data on the Thalassa Base. Then, as soon as I'm done with the new energization program, we'll check it out."
"Sounds good to me," William said eagerly, and they all nodded, smiling.