Hello, all! I was supposed to be uploading three chapters today, but unfortunately, between typing up the drafts and editing, along with working on my other stories, I only managed to complete two.
New chapters will be posted as soon as possible.
Ulrich's life was not an easy one. He knew, of course, that none of his friends' lives were. On top of all of them struggling with their ongoing crusade against XANA, Yumi had to endure her parents' ever-growing suspicions about her extracurricular activities, and the consequent confrontations they held in which they tried to force her to tell them the truth about what she was really doing; Jeremy had to spend hours a day devoted to tedious programming work to aid in their fight against XANA; Aelita had lost her only remaining family member due to their exploits on Lyoko, and though she never spoke of it, it was obvious that it was still weighing on her; Odd's grades had started to show the familiar strain that accompanied their duties, and though they tried to hide it, it was obvious that the heavy workload was now catching up with Mila and the Corentins as well.
For Ulrich, his main problems now, outside of Lyoko, were his grades, which had started plummeting yet again since XANA's reappearance, and the upcoming soccer season, which would begin that very day.
He had explained to the others, with complete honesty, that he couldn't simply sit by and continue with regular school life while XANA threatened the world again, but it was still quite disheartening, knowing that he had been waiting for the chance for so long, only to have it ripped away from him at the very last moment. Jim and his father had been quite displeased when he had broken the news to them as well. Jim's pains had been, of course, the trouble it was going to bring to replace his star Striker. But his father. . . .
He had seized the opportunity a few nights ago, when Odd had left the room to play video games with Leo and William, leaving him alone to watch Kiwi, to finally call. After several minutes of idle waiting, he took a deep breath, seized his phone, dialed his father's number, and explained to him as calmly as he could what had happened.
Only very few times had he ever heard his father so angry. He had shouted so loudly on the other end, with no prospect of stopping, that Ulrich had had to hang up, looking aghast at the phone as though it was on a timer to explode. Thankfully, his father hadn't thought to phone back since then, and neither had he.
Fortunately, with everything seemingly crashing down around him, Ulrich at least had his friends to make it through the next few days. Though he did not show it — more because he didn't know how to than anything — he was extremely grateful for each and every one of them, William in particular. It was only now that Ulrich truly understood what he had meant at the Haunted House, about needing to be around people who understood, or even shared, his burdens. He had not realized until now how much he had in common with William either, particularly their fondness for martial arts, and with the tension that had cemented between them for the past year having melted away, they were now able to talk and laugh with each other as easily as he would be able to with any other member of the group.
Ulrich, who had been lying awake in bed with his arms folded beneath his head, staring up at the ceiling, prised himself from the mattress as Odd awoke on the other side of the room and together they strode to the washroom. There they met up with William and Leo, with whom they went down to the lunchroom when they had finished showering, and found that Jeremy, surprisingly, was already sitting at the table with the girls.
They exchanged greetings, then sat down, ready to eat. As breakfast rode on, Ulrich couldn't help but notice that Jeremy looked rather excited, not eating, but typing away on his laptop. And sure enough barely five minutes had passed when Jeremy let out a stifled sort of shout.
"Yes!"
Everyone fell silent, staring at him.
"Finally done, huh. Now will you tell us what's going on?" Yumi asked.
Jeremy looked around, then leaned forward and whispered triumphantly, "I've done it!"
"Done what?" William asked.
"The program I've been working on for the past few days, the incomplete template I found in the data stream."
"You mean, you can send us to the Thalassa Base now?" Odd asked, his eyes widening.
"I should be able to," Jeremy said, looking very smug. "But we won't try anything just yet!" he added suddenly, as a wave of excitement rose visibly around the table. "We still need to make sure that the program is completely safe before we can do anything."
"Fair enough, but speaking of programs," Leo said, "didn't you say that you had some new ones prepared?"
"Yep. Well, not completely. I'll be done with them after a few more observations, until then, we'll just have to manage how we are."
"All right then, enough computer talk for now," Odd said impatiently. "Let's talk about the real important stuff: like the football game this afternoon."
Jeremy scoffed. "Football? Really, Odd?"
"Yeah. Well, no, not the game specifically. The pool!"
"What pool?" asked Yumi.
"You know, the pool on which school is going to win."
"Ah, you mean an illegal gambling bet," Gabrielle said, raising her eyebrows.
"Well, that's one way to look at it," William said.
"Don't tell me you're in it too," she said, exasperated.
"In it? He practically started it!" Odd said brightly, clapping William on the back, who grinned in an embarrassed sort of way. "But that's not the point. The whole school's betting. Any other takers?"
He was met with a series of murmurs of dissent and head-shakes.
"Well, I'll be entering," Odd continued, undaunted. "You won't mind if I bet Vankirke, will you, Ulrich? Without you on the team, I can't see much in the way of Kadic's chances."
"Go right ahead, good buddy," Ulrich said dispassionately, taking a swig of his soda.
"Everything okay, Ulrich?" Yumi asked, watching him with concern.
"Hmm? Yeah — fine," he said, jerking out of his reverie.
"Are you coming to the game?" Odd asked him.
"No, don't think I will."
"I get it. Anybody else?"
After a short discussion, they agreed that Jeremy, Aelita, Leo, Gabrielle, and Ulrich would spend the session in the factory, and everyone else would go to the game. Their first class of the day was English; for one hour they flicked through the pages of one of their Shakespeare books, listening to their teacher recite boring literature, though it seemed intriguing enough to her to reduce her to tears of wonder. Gym Class was next, where they were forced to scale the rock wall. Odd, Ulrich, Mila, Gabrielle, and even Aelita all managed the wall in good time, but Jeremy fell off on his first try.
Jim did not let him off, however. He demanded that Jeremy return to the platform, shouting words of encouragement and disappointment all at once, and only when he'd made it to the top, on his third try, did Jim pronounce himself satisfied and move on with the rest of the class.
"That's more like it!" he roared, as Jeremy tried to climb back down, slipped, and went crashing to the rubbery mat below.
They went to lunch afterwards, trading tales of their horrible first sessions with William, Leo, and Yumi, while students furtively appeared in singles and pairs around their table to meet with Odd and William, placing bets on the match. Their next class was Science, but the lesson, thankfully, was cut short by the approaching match, which was the opening game of the season. Odd, Mila, William, and Yumi trooped down to the field with the rest of the students, while Leo, Gabrielle, Ulrich, Jeremy, and Aelita snuck off to the factory.
Leo, Gabrielle, and Ulrich talked in a corner while Aelita and Jeremy worked on their incomplete programs; or, rather, Leo and Gabrielle talked while Ulrich sat with his head in his hands, plagued by wistful visions of himself back at school, marching onto the field with his fellow football players. The conversation had just steered into childhood memories territory when a series of blaring filled the room, accompanied by a cry of shock and anger from Jeremy.
Leo leapt to his feet at once. "Is that —?"
"Yeah, XANA really doesn't know when to take a break, does he?" Jeremy said angrily. "A tower has been activated in — hey. . . . This one's not on Xanadu, it's actually on Lyoko. The Ice Sector."
"Should we leave now or wait for the others?" Gabrielle asked.
"Hang on, I'll try to call them first."
William couldn't decide which was worse, Kadic's abysmal performance, or Odd's consequent delight. He had not been a student at the school during the previous football season, when Ulrich had been the team Striker, and though he only ever heard praising remarks about his time on the team, and a few comments of disappointment from others who had heard he had no plans to play this year, William was confident that their team would pull through. With the way things were going, however, it was quite clear that he had been very wrong. And from the looks of it, many other students had predicted this as well. No doubt each of them would be going to bed with their pockets stuffed this evening.
Jim was looking at a loss for words. He was gazing blankly out at the field, but he winced each time the rival team scored a goal. William, who had indeed pawned the idea of a pool in his confidence that Kadic would make it without Ulrich, was almost glad when his phone rang, as it served as a distraction from the slaughter going on below him. Almost.
"Hello? Jeremy?" He had to shout into the phone, one hand over his other ear, in order to hear. "An activated tower? All right, we're on our way." He dropped his phone hand and looked around at his friends, who had not heard a word of his conversation in all the racket. "We've gotta go, there's an activated tower on Lyoko!" he shouted.
Yumi and Mila looked relieved at the idea of leaving the scene below behind, and Odd disappointed.
"Come on, Odd, you can find out the scores later," William said, making to stand, but Yumi suddenly gasped, her hands flying to her mouth as she stared, horrified, at the field below. William spun around as cries of terror rang out from around the stands.
Pools of black lightning were now swirling around at several different spots on the field, and all the players were fleeing at breakneck speed, screaming in alarm. When the sudden surge had cleared, William's mouth had fallen open in genuine terror as well.
Three massive black spheres were now resting on the field, each the size of a car, gleaming in the bright sunlight. XANA had managed to teleport three Megatanks.
"What?" Jeremy gasped.
"It's true, it's just happened, three of them!" William told him.
"But — that's not — how —?"
"The 'how' doesn't matter, Jeremy! You've gotta deactivate the tower now, you know what the Megatanks are capable of, they could destroy the whole school in seconds!"
"All right, we're on it," Jeremy assured him. "You guys be careful." He hung up, then addressed Leo, Aelita, Gabrielle, and Ulrich, typing at the same time. "Listen, you guys, you've got to get to Lyoko now, XANA's just managed to teleport three Megatanks directly into the stadium."
"Megatanks?" Leo repeated, stunned. "But — they're some of XANA's most destructive monsters, that's what you said, isn't it?"
"Yes, which means we don't have a second to waste, they could wipe out the whole town in a matter of minutes," Jeremy said. "Head for the Scanner Room."
Within a few minutes, they had climbed down into the Scanner Room, taken their places in the Scanners, and been virtualized into the frosty terrain of the Ice Sector. The Overrose, Overbike, and Overboard were already waiting for them. As they moved to take their places, Jeremy called, a little slyly, "You'll be able to handle it, right, Gabrielle?"
"Oh, no problem," she said cheerfully, leaping onto the Overboard. They flew off towards the tower in the distance, Gabrielle zipping along as easily as if it had been designed for her and not Odd. As they rode, another tower swam into view, directly on their right.
"Wait, hold on!" Leo called. Ulrich, Gabrielle, and Aelita pulled their vehicles to a halt, looking around at him curiously. "Jeremy, there's a neutral tower nearby."
"Yes, I can see it, Leo. What's going on?"
"Well, think about it. If XANA teleported monsters that dangerous, the others are going to need help more than anyone back home can provide."
"What are you —?" Jeremy began, but then it seemed he understood. "No! Absolutely not, it's still untested!"
"Well, this is your chance to test it, then," Leo said. "You'll send one of us back home to help with the Megatanks, and the others will head for the tower."
"Leo that's — that's actually a good idea," Gabrielle said, looking as surprised as Leo did by her agreement with him.
"But —" Jeremy protested.
"Have you got a better idea?" Leo demanded. "William, Odd, Yumi, and Mila could die, along with everybody else at school. And then where would we be? You're the ones who told us — returns to the past don't work on skeletons."
There was a deeply uncomfortable silence. Then, in the gentlest, most fearful voice Leo had ever heard him use, Jeremy said, "Leo . . . are you sure?"
Leo was about to respond, but Ulrich suddenly spoke up, "It's the only way, Jeremy. They'll go to the tower, and you'll send me back home. I trust you, Jeremy."
These words seemed to act as a kind of stimulant. "Okay," Jeremy said, voice firm once more. "Aelita, Gabrielle, Leo, go on. Ulrich . . . head for the neutral tower."
Ulrich slipped off the Overbike and Leo moved forward, grasping the handles. He, Aelita, and Gabrielle were all looking at Ulrich, who grinned back at them.
"Don't worry about me, guys. It'll take much more than an untested program to get rid of me. Go on and get that tower deactivated, I'll go help our friends in the meantime."
They all exchanged looks. Then they nodded at Ulrich and took off, and Ulrich sprinted towards the tower. Boosted by his virtual speed, he covered the distance in seconds, then burst into the tower, coming to a halt in the dead center of the platform, while Jeremy began to set up the new program. After a few moments, he said, "Are you ready, Ulrich?"
"I'm ready."
Jeremy took a deep breath, then tapped the enter key. "Code . . . Zero."
The Megatanks did not immediately move, and neither, unfortunately, did the crowd. Though they had been frightened by the sudden surge of electricity, enough so to hurry away from the field, their curiosity of the appearance of these three large black spheres kept them rooted to the spot in the stands. Even Odd, Yumi, Mila, and William were gazing out at them, wondering what was happening.
"Did something go wrong with the teleportation?" Mila asked. "Why haven't they done anything?"
"Maybe XANA was too weak to pull it off," Odd suggested hopefully. "Maybe he oversold himself, thought he could do it, but then —"
A loud, metallic, all-too familiar whirring noise rose across the air, reverberating from the stands, and, one-by-one, the three Megatanks prised themselves apart, revealing their belt-like interiors. They began to build up energy, charging it into the symbol at the center of the belt, and luckily, the crowd's fright seemed to outweigh their curiosity. They began to scream again, rushing away from the field as fast as they could.
Then the Megatanks fired. Three enormous walls of energy burst outwards from the belts, slamming into the walls around them; the first ripped across the field, vaporizing the goal posts, narrowly missing the Vankirke goal-keeper, who almost fell over in his haste to escape. The other two crashed into the bleachers; one of them struck so close to their stretch of the stands that the impact sent Odd, Yumi, William, and Mila, who had been running away from the spot, flying across the stands.
They crashed heavily, groaning as they prised themselves from the cold ground of the stands. Then they got to their feet, their muscles aching, and looked up to see one of the Megatanks turned directly towards them, preparing another attack.
They tried to move, but it was too late. The wall of energy erupted from the Megatank's belt and flew towards them, and Odd knew that it was over. He closed his eyes, waiting for the blow to land, his ears full of Mila and Yumi's screams. But it never came. In its stead, he heard the strangest sound, a grating, rasping sound, like the noise he would sometimes hear when the gardener, Mr. Rouiler, was sharpening his tools in his shed. He opened his eyes and saw, to his astonishment, Ulrich standing before him, wearing his Lyoko gear, exactly the way they did when they had been telported from the Skid.
"Ulrich!" William said. He was standing with his sabers crossed diagonally, keeping the Megatank's blast at bay. "How did you —?"
"No time, just get out of here!" Ulrich said urgently.
Odd and William leapt to their feet and dove aside, Mila and Yumi just ahead of them, and Ulrich moved away, letting the blast hit the wall, which crumbled beneath the blow. As the blast faded away, Ulrich raced towards the Megatank, then jabbed his sword into the mark protruding from its belt. The monster faded away like a kind of crude hologram. Ulrich sheathed his swords and raced back towards his friends.
"Ulrich!" Yumi said, staring at him in awe. "But, how are you here?"
"Jeremy's new program," Ulrich said. "It actually works. Happy to see me?" he added, grinning.
"You have no idea," Mila said, relief flooding through her.
Ahead of them, the ground started to rumble as the remaining two Megatanks rolled towards each other, closing in on their targets.
"Hurry," Ulrich said, suddenly grim, "get to the factory, I'll take care of them."
"But didn't Jeremy say that this teleportation was permanent?" Odd asked quickly. "So if you get hit —?"
The Megatanks began to charge energy again.
"No time, Odd, just go!" Ulrich said.
They dashed away, and seconds later, as they reached the gates, they heard the sound of a colossal explosion. They looked back as they ran, but Ulrich was lost to view behind a massive cloud of dust.
Aelita, Leo, and Gabrille sped towards the tower. As they got nearer, they could make out several figures hovering around its base.
"Heads up, you three," Jeremy called. "Three Krabs ahead of you, and Porphyrion and Altaea are there too!"
"Ah great, just what we needed," Leo said bitterly. "All right, Aelita, you take care of the Krabs, we'll try to buy you time with the Harbingers."
"In that case, Leo, you take Porphyrion, a ranged weapon would be better against his abilities, and Gabrille, you handle Altaea, but remember to avoid getting hit by her paralysis ability," Jeremy said.
"Okay, let's go." Aelita fell behind as Leo and Gabrielle surged forward. Just as they had done their first time in the Sea Sector, they broke off in different directions, and Porphyrion and Altaea followed obediently, leaving Aelita with the Krabs.
They immediately reacted, firing a volley of lasers. Aelita swerved around the strikes, weaving through the space between two of the Krabs, and circled around the tower. As she appeared around the other side, she raised her hand, cried, "Energy Field!" and an orb of bright pink, restlessly swirling energy appeared above her palm. She pointed her hand at one of the Krabs and the ball flew from her fingers, engulfing the creature in a surge of energy.
As it exploded, she glided past the remaining two, still dodging a barrage of lasers. Then quite suddenly one crashed into the Overrose, knocking her off course. It skidded along the Desert floor and sent her tumbling off. Rubbing her head, she stood up; a quick glance behind her showed the Krabs advancing upon her. She sprang to her feet and pelted away, still dodging lasers.
Ahead of her, Leo revved the Overbike furiously, trying to put as much distance between himself and his pursuer, but Porphyrion followed dutifully, his enormous legs tromping along quite fast behind him. Leo glanced back in time to see him hoist his large, silver, shield-like weapon, pull it into two huge swords, and swing.
It seemed like a pointless move at first — Leo was well out of range. But then he heard a distinct hum and looked around again to see a circular surge of energy flying towards him. He tried to veer the vehicle away, but the blast hit its rear before he could turn and the Overbike dematerialized instantly: Leo went skidding away across the icy floor, his lightning bolt clattering alongside him.
"Leo!" Jeremy called.
He skidded to a halt, then got to his feet, still listening to Porphyrion's great feet crunching against the ground behind him as he drew closer. Leo dove straight for his lightning bolt, and electricity crackled along the grate as his fingers closed around the shaft. He sent out a jet of electricity to keep the giant at bay, but Porphyrion deflected it with one of his swords and sent another blast of energy hurtling towards him.
Gabrielle soared past on his right as he dodged the monster's attack, whipping along on the Overboard, twisting and turning in midair with expert skill as she dodged jets of scarlet light from Altaea.
She glanced sideways, saw Leo, and changed direction, shooting straight towards him. As she zipped by, Leo jumped onto the Overboard and she plunged upwards.
"Nice one, Sis!" Leo said, as Porphyrion let out a bellow of rage. Blasts of glistening silver-blue energy now joined the streaks of scarlet light as the giants attacked in unison. Gabrielle dodged them all, but Porphyrion stopped quite suddenly. He was holding out an enormous hand in front of him, and to their horror, the outlines of three Flying Mantas suddenly appeared out of thin air before him, materializing in an instant.
"Jeremy, can you see this?" Gabrielle called.
"Yes, Gabrielle, I can, get out of there now!" Jeremy said urgently.
"Wait, hold on. Wanna try it?" Leo asked Gabrielle.
She looked at him as if he'd gone mad. "Now?"
"Good a time as any, right?" he said, shrugging. She shrugged, smiled back, halted dead in the air, and said, "Fine, you steer, then."
They switched places, and Leo set off again, though much less smoothly than Gabrielle. Behind him, she began to sing. She had always had a beautiful voice in the real world, and it seemed that had carried over to Lyoko as well. A few days ago, on one of their previous missions, they had discovered one of her hidden abilities, the power to take control of a sentient being that heard her voice as she sang, which Odd had dubbed "Siren Song." It only worked on one at a time, and she was, as yet, unable to secure hold of any of her friends, so she instead directed her voice at the monsters they had just summoned rather than trying it on either of the Harbingers, which would surely fail.
Her voice swooped and trembled as she belted out magnificent notes, and a faint blue aura appeared around the Manta in the middle, thickening with each second that passed, until finally it was as bright and clear as the energy that composed Gabrielle's blades. As Porphyrion made to leap atop his mount, the Manta wheeled around with a screech of fury; a laser burst from its stinger and shot at the giant, knocking him backwards in surprise.
Then the stolen Manta swooped away from its peers and came gliding towards them. The process now complete, Gabrielle stopped singing, and Leo hopped onto the Manta's back, grinning at his sister as she resumed her place at the vehicle's helm.
Below them, Porphyrion let out a roar of fury. He charged both swords, and energy burst out in waves. Leo's newly acquired Manta wove around the strikes with an easy grace as Gabrielle pulled away. He charged his thunderbolt and fired, but again the giant deflected the blast. Gabrielle whipped by and ran her shell-blade across one of the remaining Manta's backs, so that it exploded before the giant's very eyes. Altaea jumped atop the final mount and flew off, her enormous mace raised, glinting menacingly. Leo headed right for her, preparing another attack.
She dodged easily, the strike ripping past her as she moved, then she soared up beside him. Leo, however, did not have time to dodge. As she swung, he threw his hands in front of him and cried, "Aegis!" and the golden halo that had suffused his form on one of their more recent trips appeared again; Leo, an avid fan of Greek mythology, had taken the name from the shield of Zeus, the King of the Gods, which he had granted to his daughter Athena, and which was said to be impenetrable: it had seemed quite fitting in context. Her mace bounced as harmlessly off of him as if she'd struck a stone wall.
He kicked his heel against his Manta's side so that it wheeled around and fired a new laser. The attack shot between the giant's legs and hit the Manta, which exploded. Altaea fell heavily towards the ground, but landed quite easily, glaring up at him through those fierce green eyes.
Leo looked around and saw Porphyrion still chasing Gabrielle: one of his energy waves hit the Overboard point-blank and it vanished underneath her; Gabrielle went plummeting to the ground. Leo veered for her, but just as he swooped, the Manta stopped dead, so suddenly that Leo lost his footing and went bucking off. Altaea had frozen it in its tracks. He hit the ground hard, ending in a roll, and landed beside Gabrielle. The two giants were rushing towards them from behind, the triumphant siblings.
"Hurry!" Leo said. He jumped to his feet and the pair darted off, the Harbingers in hot pursuit. "You wouldn't happen to have any more hidden abilities, would you?" he asked her, slightly desperately.
She shook her head. "You?"
"Nope. Jeremy, any ideas?"
"No, sorry, guys. But Ulrich managed to get to the school in time, the others are on their way, you'll have to try to hold out until they get here so I can send them over for backup."
"Emphasis on try." Leo and Gabrielle came to a halt and turned in unison. Leo raised his thunderbolt, and Gabrielle seized her shells; blades of bluish-green energy erupted from the pearls within. Leo fired, but Porphyrion blocked the charge yet again. Altaea darted past him and leapt out, her huge mace swinging downwards. Gabrielle and Leo jumped out of the way, and Gabrielle sprang up as the giant bore down upon her, meeting her massive attacks with quick swipes of her own.
Porphyrion now came swooping down upon Leo.
"Aegis!" The monster tried to stab him, but the blade ricocheted off, and the giant stumbled. Taking advantage of the Harbinger's misstep, Leo turned the edge of his bronze cylinder towards him and a streak of lightning erupted from the shaft; it poured into the giant's face and the force pushed him backwards. He turned almost instantly, shooting another bolt at Gabrielle and Altaea, causing the pair to break apart.
Then Leo flung himself to the ground and slid forward on his back, using a move that Yumi and Ulrich had taught them; Gabrielle recognized the technique and jumped, landing on his outstretched feet, and Leo propelled her upwards. She zipped through the air and landed behind the giant, raking her shell-blades through Altaea's back as she fell. The giant screeched in pain and fury as she recoiled, dropping her mace, and Leo attacked again —
Altaea exploded into a cloud of dust and disappeared with a grating wail.
"Well done, you two!" Jeremy yelled. Gabrielle looked up, beaming at her brother, but her face fell immediately.
"Leo!" she screamed, pointing. Leo looked around and saw Porphyrion approaching, moving so fast that he was a blur; a gleam of silver shot out, Leo felt something rip through his chest, and he vanished with a scream in a whirl of digital strips.
Porphyrion let out a cruel laugh, then looked down at Gabrielle, smiling wickedly. "You're next, girl."
Before she could react, he swung downwards — at the same moment, a sudden whirring sound crossed the air; a glowing disk shot from behind Gabrielle and knocked the monster's sword from his hands; a second landed in his chest, causing him to stagger. Gabrielle whirled around and saw Yumi, her arms raised as she waited for her fans to return to her hands.
"Yumi!" she said in relief.
"You look like you could use a hand," she said, smiling. Porphyrion rose behind them, his towering form trembling with rage — then the tip of an enormous, curved blade blossomed from his chest and he vanished, just as his sister had, in a haze of darkness. William stood behind him, chortling.
Out ahead of them, Aelita was still locked in battle. Though she had disposed of the first with ease, the two remaining Krabs were proving difficult.
"Laser Arrow!" came a sudden shout from behind her, and the Krab stumbled, a chink of light shining from its shell from where the arrowhead had hit: it exploded. The second looked around for the source of this disturbance, but a streak of bright gold shot out from its left, cleaving off its legs so that it crumbled pathetically to the ground.
Mila came into view, beaming at her mentor as she recoiled her whip. Aelita smiled back, relieved.
"Energy Field!" The pink sphere flew through the air, hit the Krab, and it exploded.
"The coast is clear, go on, Aelita!" Jeremy said.
"On my way!" She dashed past Odd and Mila and spread her arms wide as though to embrace the tower; a second later she had disappeared into the pillar, and within a few minutes the scarlet halo faded, replaced by one of a pale blue.
"Nice job, everyone," Jeremy said happily. "Get ready for a return trip."
"On your mark, Einstein," Odd said happily.
"Return to the past, now!"
"So about this new code, Jeremy," Aelita said, once they had adjusted to the abrupt return to that morning's breakfast.
"It was amazing," Mila said. "But how does it work, can you teleport any number of people, or only one at a time? Does it have to be undone manually or will it wear off eventually?"
"Well, when I was working on it, I was taking into account the levels of virtualization that exist in both my original program and the one that we found in the data stream. I didn't even consider looking at the regular virtualization program we use for the Scanners. The idea came to me earlier and I used it, to try to create a reverse-virtualization."
"Reverse?" Ulrich asked.
"Well, yes. When someone is virtualized onto Lyoko, their human body is basically broken down into digital pieces of information, transported through the Scanners' wires, and uploaded into the supercomputer, where they're rebuilt into a virtual form adapted to existence in a 3D plane. I tried to do the opposite, using the towers to break down Ulrich's digital form and transporting the virtual information through the supercomputer's wires so that it would reform in the material world. The tricky part was tweaking the process so that the codes for his human DNA would be stored inside the activated tower, that way only his digital information could be processed, and when they were, he was reformed as a kind of specter, but compressed to be able to exist in the dimensions of our world.
"With his human information stored inside the tower, his existence became that of a permanent 'specter,' and he would exist that way on earth until his human information is reuploaded to the materialization process. Which is why I decided to call it 'Code Zero,' as the program effectively separates you from your human essence entirely, keeping you in a material, digital form, suspended in a kind of Zero Space. So, to ensure that there wouldn't be any problems, I've set up an automatic timer for this, of at least 25 minutes. It can work on any number of people, just like the scanners, but I don't feel too comfortable uploading information as vital as all of your human codes into one tower. We know exactly how sensitive XANA is when we try to touch his stuff."
"That's amazing, Einstein!" Odd said. "Now we can pay XANA back in full, fight specters and all his other monsters with the Lyoko Warriors' full potential!"
"Well, there's that too. But our main priority right now is the Thalassa Base. Now that the program is tested, we can explore any time now. And since we don't have any classes tomorrow —"
"Exploration again," Ulrich said happily.
His mood had taken a definite upturn since his battle against the Megatanks. Strangely, the risks of disappearing for good with only one hit had made the encounter all the more thrilling, and by the time the teleportation had worn off, he had forgotten all about the match, and his father's anger.
At the end of Science Class, however, the memories came swimming back to the forefront of his mind. But instead of dwelling on them, he pushed them firmly away. It was no use allowing himself to be engulfed by wistful fantasies; he had his own mission, and the footballers had theirs, so he spent most of the session shouting encouragement at them from the stands. They seemed to take his words to heart, and by the time they had finished, Odd, and most of the school, seemed to be on the verge of tears, for none of them had expected the complete turn-around that occurred halfway through the match, earning them their first win of the season.