Chapter 3:
Spectromania
It was a warm day in early October and many were in the courtyard chatting with their friends, or simply enjoying the sunshine. Selina was also enjoying the autumn afternoon, although her thoughts were so gloomy that they seemed to darken the sun. The document she was writing on was called What the hell is happening to me?
¿Cyberkinesis?
¿Mutations?
¿Superpowers?
¿Electricity proof?
Under her list of ideas, she'd written the results of her experiments.
August 3: Turn on all the lights on the Champs Elysées for the day by touching the power pole. Achieved.
August 5: Download files from Kingsworth High School by circumventing all security systems and without anyone knowing, by mentally diving into the school's network. Achieved.
August 7: Touch bare wires without gloves and without electrocuting myself. Achieved.
Experimenting on herself had been terrifying, but certainly not as terrifying as the memory of the incident that had almost killed her mother. Every night, she relived the fight she had had with her mother, and the moment she had woken up to her father's piercing screams. The air was crackling, and as she reached the landing, she saw her mother lying on the floor. She was still holding her hair dryer, and her whole body was convulsing from the electricity that coursed through her. All the lights in the house had exploded, and it was as if the electricity wanted to devour her mother, when Selina would never...
Selina would never. Only she had.
After that, her parents decided to enroll her as a boarder at Kadic. She needed a change of scenery, no doubt. What they didn't know was that strange things would continue to happen at her new school. On the very first day, the computers in the library had gone berserk, and Selina could sense that there was a conscious presence behind it all.
At least I'm starting to get a better grip on these powers. She thought. And if not, tell that boy Odd. Making a hyper-realistic hologram of him by hacking the projector and then unlocking a magnetic lock... If I let my emotions not get the better of me, I'll be able to master electricity, instead of it mastering me.
She turned off the laptop and put it in her backpack. Racking her brains out consumed a lot of energy, and the idea of a Lindt chocolate bar was very tempting. On her way to the cafeteria, she bumped into a twelve-year-old boy.
"Did you hurt yourself?" she asked worriedly.
The boy gave him an empty, corpse-like stare. Selina shuddered. There was something very strange about the boy, something that made her blood run cold in her veins, but she wanted that chocolate bar too much to think about it carefully. She shrugged and continued on her way to the cafeteria, trying to ignore the black foreboding that invaded her.
Across the courtyard, Aelita, Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi were chatting animatedly. They were talking about the incident that had occurred the other day in the science lab, the one where Odd adding an extra element had produced an explosion that had cost him his eyebrows.
Suddenly, a little boy appeared and without saying this is my mouth, he hugged Aelita. Everyone was stunned, and Odd burst out laughing.
"Woah, Aelita, you're into first years now?" he said laughing "I hope you know a good lawyer!"
Aelita was not at all amused. The stranger's hug made her feel weak, as if he was draining her energy.
"I feel weird" she mumbled, trying to free herself from his grip.
Ulrich approached Aelita and pushed the boy away.
"Hey, that's enough!"
The kid ran away, but as if he had forgotten something important, he turned around and went after Yumi, giving her the same hug he had given Aelita.
"Is he mad or something?!"
Jeremy stared at the kid, and then he understood. The empty, corpse-like stare, the coldness with which he embraced first Aelita and then Yumi... This wasn't a boy.
"It's a specter" shouted pulling the 'boy' away from Yumi. "Guys, it's a specter!"
The gang ran like hell, with the specter at their heels. They had to get out of there as soon as possible.
"He's outside but... he's not moving"
They were in the library, trying to catch their breath. They had managed to leave the specter with its nose in the air, and now Odd was looking through a crack at the boy who was watching them coldly from the outside.
Now that they were safe, at least for the moment, they were beginning to realize that the specter's hugs were not harmless. Aelita's vision was blurry, Yumi's chest hurt (and not just from running) and Ulrich felt a ringing in his ears. For his part, Odd couldn't quite believe what had just happened.
"But I feel fine!" exclaimed. He couldn't believe that that kid was a specter. "Are you really sure about this? The first year, with his angelic face, a specter?"
Ulrich glared at him.
"There's nothing wrong with you because he didn't touch you, that's all. What's your problem? Do you think that Aelita, Yumi, and I are out of our minds?"
Aelita sighed. This was neither the time nor the place to get into an argument.
"There's no point in getting mad. We're going to deactivate that tower" an idea occurred to her and she gave a mischievous smile. "Odd, why don't you stay here as a diversion? If you're so sure it's not a specter..."
"Fine, but if he stays, he has to promise not to let the specter touch him" agreed Jeremy. "We've lost enough codes already"
"Okay" Odd looked out the window again. The boy hadn't moved a bit. "He's still there"
"We'll leave through the back window"
Aelita, Yumi and Ulrich nodded and left. Jeremy looked a little worried at Odd, but Odd smiled confidently at them.
"Now go, I'll take care of that brat"
The journey through the sewers was not without setbacks. Ulrich was so dizzy that he had to lean against the walls to avoid falling.
"Ulrich, are you okay?" Jeremy asked with concern.
"I'm still fealing dizzy..."
"It's probably due to your inner ear" he turned to Yumi and Aelita. "How do you feel, girls?"
"Aside from nausea, I should be okay"
Aelita bit her lip. Between Ulrich's dizziness, Yumi's nausea and her blurred vision, they were going to have a tough time at Lyoko.
"How are we going to cope with this on Lyoko?"
Jeremy shrugged.
"On Lyoko? Well, you're virtual there, so normally there won't be any trouble"
Everyone sighed with relief. It was one less problem to cross off the list, but that didn't alleviate Yumi's growing nausea.
"Well, I hope so, 'cause throwing up on Lyoko would be weird"
In Kadic, Odd was still locked in the library, as the specter had not moved from its place, but at least he was safe. He prayed that it would get away as soon as possible so he could go help his friends.
But God must have misheard his prayers, because Jim showed up on the scene and got really pissed off when he saw the door barricaded with a broom.
"Della Robbia, get that broom off the door!" he shouted in disbelief. "What the heck are you doing?!"
Odd hurried to remove the broom. Although a scolding from Jim was nothing compared to the specter, with his friends probably needing help, he couldn't risk receiving ten hours of detention. Thanks to his small size and agility, he slipped through the door and took to his heels. The teacher's furious Della Robbia! didn't give a damn. He had to go to the factory and help his friends. But first, he had to get out of the specter's reach, who was bent on stealing his codes.
He took cover behind a pillar, but the cell phone began to ring. That was the clue the specter needed to find him. The "boy" jumped on Odd and hugged him tightly.
"Okay, just tell me what's wrong with you. A lack of affection?"
A lack of codes rather. The specter began to absorb Odd's source codes, but it hadn't been there ten seconds when hands ripped him away from Odd and threw him to the ground.
"Leave him alone!" Selina screamed. It was an intense, animalistic scream.
Odd looked at her in amazement. What was this reaction from his classmate? But Selina's response stunned him even more.
"Odd, run! That's not a human boy. That's an energy field in human form. And it's trying to take something from you"
The specter trembled with rage and surprise, and in his eyes glowed the symbol of XANA. She had discovered him. Odd bolted for the boiler room, with the specter at his heels, but Selina grabbed the creature.
"Oh no, you're not getting rid of me that easily" snarled the redhead.
The specter threw a wave of energy at her to hypnotize her and make her stand still. He couldn't waste his time for a stupid brat. And for a moment, it seemed to work. Selina loosened her grip on him, but then her eyes glowed like blue lightining.
"Really?"
The next thing that happened so fast Odd couldn't take it in. A terrific crunch was the next thing to be heard, the kind of sound you can only make when a fist makes contact with a nose.
Selina looked down at the specter falling to the ground with a smirk, as she shook her hand slightly. Although polymorphic clones couldn't bleed, this one's silhouette glitched as if he had a bug.
Odd felt dizzy. His friends hadn't lied to him about the fact that a specter stealing codes produced some pretty nasty side effects. Or it was simply the fact that Selina had just punched a specter.
In Lyoko, things were also quite busy. Although the virtualization had eliminated the side effects that the specter had caused them, shortly after landing in the Desert sector, Aelita, Ulrich and Yumi encountered the welcoming committee sent by XANA. Ulrich had to jump off the Overbike to avoid being hit by a Tarantula's laser. The same happened to Aelita and Yumi, who took refuge behind a column.
"Jeremy, is there still a long way to the tower?" Yumi asked while calculating the best way to get rid of the Tarantula. "And what about Odd? Did you talk to him?"
"No, he won't pick up his phone!"
Jeremy wondered what on Earth had happened to Odd, but what he saw on the radar snapped him out of his ramblings.
"Watch out, two Bloks are coming from behind!"
Yumi turned and pulled out her fans, while Aelita spread her wings and took flight to get out of range of the block shots. Two energy fields glowed in her hands.
For his part, Ulrich unsheathed his katanas and faced the tarantula. Dodging its shots, Ulrich pounced on the monster and thrust his blades into XANA's eye. It exploded instantly, but the surprises were not over.
"There's a third Blok appearing on my screen, but I can't tell where it's coming from" warned Jeremy.
Ulrich looked both ways, but a shot knocked him to the ground. The boy tried to sit up, but was prevented from doing so by another shot. The next laser, similar to that of a Megatank, sent him back to the scanner. Entering the lab he found Jeremy finally receiving word from Odd.
"Odd, finally! Where are you?"
"A specter, Jeremy, it's a specter! Can you hear me?" he shouted as he ran across the courtyard, barely keeping ahead of the specter that was hunting him down. "A leech from XANA, I can't get rid of him! He touched me and I'm having hallucinations!"
"Calm down, Odd, I'll call you back!" he hanged up and turned back to the brunette. "Ulrich, how do you feel?"
"The ringing in my ears is back..."
"Can you go back to the school on your own?"
"I can't leave Odd alone!" he exclaimed as he headed for the elevator.
Jeremy smiled at him and then turned to Aelita and Yumi, who were busy with the blocks.
"I've got some bad news. Odd had some codes taken, and I don't really know which side effect he's experiencing right now, but he's freaking out!"
"Got it Jeremy, we'll do this as fast as we can" Aelita replied, still hovering in the air. Looking down, she turned pale. "Yumi, watch out, right behind you!"
Without even turning around, Yumi threw her fan towards a Blok, which exploded. She caught it in mid-air and turned to Aelita.
"This ground is way too open, we need to get away from here"
Odd's chest hurt from running and he couldn't take another step. He leaned against a pillar, trying to catch his breath. Suddenly, the specter embraced him from behind. Exasperated, he pushed him away.
"Rah, get off!"
Unfortunately, Jim witnessed Odd push an "innocent sixth grader". He was starting to get fed up with the brat's antics.
"Della Robbia, do you want a warning? You really are wild today, attacking such a small guy! Well a smaller person than you, that's not your usual self" he turned to the sixth grader. What about you, are you okay?"
The specter broke free of his grip and ran away. He was past taking Odd's source codes. Especially when the gym teacher and a red-haired girl were hell-bent on screwing up his plans.
Yumi and Aelita were running, dodging the shots from the blocks, but a laser hit the pinkette and knocked her down.
"Yumi, take care of Aelita!" cried Jeremy worriedly. "Remember, she's the only one who can deactivate towers"
"I'm doing my best" she replied while throwing her fan towards another Blok. "Don't you think I know that already?"
Jeremy nodded, but at that moment he received a call.
"Ulrich?"
"I found Odd. We're going to find a safe place" he put a hand on the shoulder of his best friend. "Come on, Jim won't hold him for long"
"Ulrich, I'm deaf"
The boy put his hand on his back and encouraged him to continue. They had to find shelter as soon as possible.
Aelita narrowly dodged a laser. Yumi threw her fan at the block, but he dodged it and shot a laser at the ninja.
"Yumi!"
"Go ahead and deactivate the tower!" shouted the girl.
The pinkette ran up the dune and in a matter of seconds saw the tower. But she could not celebrate her victory. A block came out from the side and in one shot devirtualized her.
"Jeremy, what are we going to do?"
"Aelita needs twelve hours before she can go back to Lyoko" he explained.
"So it's over?"
Jeremy nodded.
"Yes, it is. I'm going to devirtualize you"
At that moment Aelita entered the lab.
"No, Yumi has to stay on Lyoko!"
"What for?"
Aelita took a deep breath. Hopefully she wasn't wrong about her suspicions with the source codes.
"Yumi, can you hear me?"
"Sorry, Aelita, I couldn't protect you"
"Look Yumi, I want you to deactivate the tower"
Yumi couldn't believe her ears.
"What? But you're the only one who's able to"
"I've got a feeling, so why don't we give it a try?"
The idea was pretty far-fetched, but Jeremy knew it was the only option they had.
"Yeah, but Odd and Ulrich could have their codes stolen any minute now. We'd better bring them back here and lock ourselves in"
Aelita clenched her fists. They had to try. If not, Odd and Ulrich were screwed.
"Yumi, do you trust me?"
"Yes. I'll give it a try" she looked to the horizon. "Jeremy, are you with us?"
"Fine. Ok, I'll tell you how to do it"
"Go on" she took out her fans and prepared to face the Blok.
"You need to take the same way as Aelita"
"Understood"
Running down the dune and dodging the Blok's lasers, Yumi launched her fans towards him, knocked him down. Yumi run and hopped onto the Overwing that Jeremy had materialized. She had to get to the tower as soon as possible.
Walking through the halls of the academy, Odd and Ulrich searched for a safe place to hide. They were very weak and doubted they could last much longer.
They entered an empty room. Ulrich bolted the door and, hearing a whistle, looked out the window. Jim was chasing the specter. He let out a sigh of relief. For the moment Odd and he were safe.
Yumi had the tower within reach, but the block was hot on her heels. As she plotted a strategy to get rid of it, Aelita explained what she had to do.
"I'm there. What do I have to do now? I... put my hand on the wall like you do and that's all?"
"Yes, but with a desire to enter. It's intuitive"
Yumi nodded, while dodging a shot from the Blok.
Odd paled as he saw how the specter had detected their presence. He heard him run up the stairs.
"No way: he saw us"
"How did he escape Jim?" wondered Ulrich as he and Odd placed a bed to bar the door.
One shot knocked Yumi off the Overwing. She fell to all fours and ran. Before the shots from the block could reach her, she dove headfirst into the tower, who received her willingly.
"I did it!" she looked around. "It's incredible"
Jeremy smiled in relief. Aelita was right.
"Now go to the center, and go up to the next level"
Yumi walked slowly toward the center of the platform. A bluish light enveloped her and she soared into the air.
The key fell out of the lock. Odd and Ulrich could barely contain the specter's attempts to enter the room.
Yumi landed on the upper platform and a screen appeared before her. She placed her hand on it.
"Now enter the code" explained Aelita.
Yumi took a deep breath and typed CODE LYOKO
Just as the specter was about to enter the room, he exploded in a burst of greenish light. Odd and Ulrich looked at each other with both amazement and relief.
"The ringing is gone!"
"Ear ringing? You were luck, I'm deaf" then it dawned on him. "Well... I was"
The phone rang. Ulrich picked it up at the first note of the polyphony.
"Yeah, Jeremy?"
"Are you ok? Did you get away? Something weird happened on Lyoko. Aelita got devirtualized and asked Yumi to carry on instead of her and it worked!"
"What? Wait a sec, I'm turning the loudspeaker on"
He activated the loud speaker and Odd could also hear what Jeremy was saying.
"The tower was deactivated by Yumi" he repeated. "I wonder if it's due to the source codes you have in you" he looked at the screen and was stunned. "Wait. I don't understand; I think there's a second tower"
"A second tower?" asked Aelita. "How is that possible?"
"I guess it was hidden by the first one's signal. A trick of XANA" then spoke to Odd and Ulrich. "Bad news, a tower has been activated on Lyoko"
"What?" Odd said in disbelief. "Does that mean another specter?"
"Yeah, I think so"
"And where is that tower?" asked Ulrich.
"Also in the Desert Sector"
Odd already had its own security plan in place.
"I'm not going to leave this room till the end of the day. Till the end of the week! And never again, actually. We'll buy some locks, we'll have pizzas delivered, and..."
Jeremy shook his head. He hated to screw up his plan, but they had no choice.
"Odd, I'm sorry but Aelita and Ulrich have already been devirtualized. Yumi's alone, you have to come"
"Pfff... I'm coming... But at least try to find the specter. So we don't have to lose more code on the way. And so we don't become mute... deaf... or whatever!"
"Take care of Yumi while I analyze the tower's signal to see if I can find something on what the specter looks like" Aelita asked Jeremy.
Jeremy nodded and then turned to the ninja, who was already on the lower plataform of the tower.
"Well, Yumi, you have to go outside. The only problem is that the Blok is outside" the girl could see the Blok stalking her outside the tower. "I'll run a program so you can see it for a moment. Good luck"
Ulrich opened the door cautiously, to make sure the coast was clear. Once he checked that the hallway was clear of specters, he and Odd started running down the stairs.
Yumi unsheathed her fans and exited the tower, jumping right on top of the Blok. The monster spun on itself, trying to knock the ninja off balance, but she threw her fans towards the monster, somersaulting backwards as the Blok exploded. She jumped onto the Overwing and shot out towards the next activated tower.
Ulrich and Odd came down the stairs with eyes everywhere. They feared that at any moment a specter would swoop down on them and steal their source codes. Even their lifelong classmates seemed to Odd like incognito specters.
Meanwhile, Jeremy and Aelita were trying to figure out what the second specter looked like. A string of data caught Aelita's attention. That digital energy transfer had to be the specter they were looking for.
"Jeremy, I found something. I think that's it. I'm sending it to you"
The boy looked at the data displayed on the screen. That was it. They could get a visualization of the specter. Jeremy had no trouble translating the data into images, but when he saw what the specter looked like he was stunned. It looked exactly like Ulrich.
Odd and Ulrich were walking to the park when Odd's phone rang. He picked it up at once. It was Jeremy, and with very disturbing news.
"Odd, watch out. I know what the specter looks like. And... well, how do I tell you this... It's Ulrich. Well, it has Ulrich's looks"
His blood ran cold in his veins. Ulrich frowned, noticing that his friend was as pale as paper.
"Are you talking to Jeremy?"
"Err. I think I'll go on my own now"
He turned and ran away, leaving Ulrich without a clue. He tried to chase after him, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a boy emerge from a pillar.
It was him. But it wasn't him. It was a specter.
Yumi was flying through the canyon, dodging the stone columns that crisscrossed it, when a shot almost knocked her down. She managed to dodge it, but in doing so, hit her face against a column. She fell to the ground and ran, with a Krabe at her heels.
A laser hit her shoulder and she took cover behind a column. It didn't look good.
"That was the last blow you can take" warned Jeremy. "Next time it's game over for you!"
"But where's Odd? Did he stop midway to have an iced tea or something?"
When it came to contradicting assertions about himself, Odd was the man of the hour. His voice sounded loud and clear in the lab.
"I'm here, I'm here! Jeremy, I'm in the scanner room. Can you hear me. I'm taking my place"
Jeremy sighed in relief.
"Yeah, yeah, I can hear you. Starting the virtualization" then turned to the ninja. "Yumi, Odd's on his way. Hold on"
Odd landed with a thud, just in time to see the Overboard materialize at his feet. He hopped on and shot off toward the activated tower.
Ulrich ran into the park, with his doppelganger hot on his heels. He had no concrete plan, just to get as far away from his pursuer as possible. He tripped on a branch and fell. A twinge of pain shot through his ankle, but just as the specter was about to pounce on him, a slim, swift girl stepped between them.
"Another energy field in human form?" Selina shouted. "But what the hell is going on?"
Ulrich's jaw dropped. Another energy field in human form. That meant Selina had encountered another specter and recognized it as such!
He looked at the girl. Her eyes sparkled like lightning and her long flame-red hair couldn't hide the dried bloodstain on her forehead.
"For an energy field, your friend sure knows how to punch!"
She clenched her fists and prepared to attack, but didn't get the chance.
The specter raised his hand, as sparks of electricity ran through his fingers, and fired at Selina.
Bang! Selina found herself flat on her back. Her mouth tasted like burnt aluminum foil. She lifted her head and saw that her clothes were smoking. The lightning had gone straight through her body and out her ear. Her face was black with soot.
The specter smirked and advanced toward Ulrich, who was too horrified by what had just happened to run away.
"Leave him alone" Selina said hoarsely.
She was supposed to be dead. But Selina could feel every muscle in her body responding again. She stood up and didn't know who was more shocked, her or Ulrich's doppelganger.
"¿How are you alive?" the specter's form flickered. "That was enough lightning to kill ten people!"
"My turn" Selina said and pounced on the specter.
Yumi was running in a desperate attempt to get out of reach of the Krabe, which was chasing her. She stopped for a few moments, trying to catch her breath. It seemed too cruel: she could see the tower a few meters away, but it was on a platform that was impossible to reach.
A creaking sound startled her. Turning around, she found herself face to face with the Krabe. But before the monster could shoot her, Odd charged in. He fired laser arrows, but they bounced off the Krabe's shell. Yumi pulled out her fans and threw them at the monster, but it dodged them, and shot at Yumi.
Furious at how his friend had been devirtualized, Odd fired bursts of laser arrows at the crab, which finally exploded. Problem solved. But there was still a big problem: without Yumi, how they be able to deactivate the tower?
"Jeremy, what do we do now?" he asked worriedly.
"If Yumi could do it, why can't you? Come on, go!"
Odd gave the Overboard gas and in no time he was in front of the tower. He ran towards it, but it was like hitting a brick wall.
"It's not working, Jeremy! Are you certain that I can do it too?"
Aelita sighed. Apparently, this was the day to give crash courses on how to enter towers and disable them.
"Odd? Aelita's speaking. You have to wish to enter in order to enter. It's intuitive, do you get it?" Odd launched himself towards the tower, only to receive a superb whack. "Be natural: forcing things won't help at all"
"Because you find it natural to enter a wall?" he replied in disbelief.
"Put your hand on the wall and calm down" explained Yumi. "Aelita's right, if you're stressing out, you won't go anywhere"
"I'm not stressing out!" he shouted as he put his hand on the wall. "It's just... not working!
Okay, yes, he was stressing out.
"Okay, fine, you're right, I am stressing out"
"Touch the wall and tell yourself that you want to enter"
Odd took a deep breath and followed Yumi's instructions. He wanted to enter, he wanted to enter...
Before he could realize what had happened, the tower sucked him in and landed face first on the platform.
"I'm never going through a wall again" he mumbled, rubbing his head. If he wasn't an avatar, he'd have quite a bump.
"Now go to the center, and go up to the next level" explained Aelita.
Odd walked to the center and jumped, but his feet didn't leave the ground a millimeter.
"Darn, that's impossible"
"Odd, what are you doing?" Jeremy asked, not understanding anything.
"Stop talking! I'm trying to focus here. I want to go up, I want to go up" he smiled as a blue light enveloped him and lifted him into the air. "Oh, yeah"
"Selina!" screamed Ulrich as he saw the specter throw her against a tree. She collapsed on the ground, limp as a ragdoll.
The specter advanced toward Ulrich. There was no escape.
Odd landed on the top platform and headed for the center. A screen appeared.
"Here it is! I understood, that's actually suuuper easy! I enter the code..."
He put his hand on the screen and typed CODE LYOKO
Ulrich, unable to get up, backed away in a desperate attempt to get out of the specter's reach. The specter reached out his hand, ready to steal the boy's source codes. But at that instant, his silhouette began to tremble and exploded into thousands of shards of greenish light.
Ulrich let out a sigh of relief. They had deactivated the tower just in time. A movement behind him startled him. Selina was beginning to regain consciousness. He moved as close as he could to the girl, who was soon on her feet.
"Ulrich! You're alive!" she shouted hugging him. "I'm so glad to see you're all right"
The boy held back a groan. His ankle hurt like hell. Selina's eyes darkened.
"I see" she murmured, examining the ankle. "I'm no doctor, but I think it's a sprain. Come on, I'll help you get back to school"
"But you're all right?"
Selina stifled a giggle. Actually, her head hurt like a bitch and the bump on her head made her feel like a mutant about to spawn an alien, but she didn't care. She was thrilled to be alive.
"I think an aspirin and an ice pack will do the trick. Come on, Ulrich, the nurse is waiting for us"
She helped him up and put his arm around her shoulders.
"Thank you for saving me and Odd" he whispered as they walked back towards the academy.
The next afternoon, the gang was assembled in Jeremy's bedroom for a damage count. Physically they were fine, with the side effects of the specter practically gone, and in Ulrich's case, with a sprain from which he would be recovered in a few days. What they didn't know was how many codes the specter had stolen from them. Luckily Jeremy had the solution to their problems.
"I call then Transwatches" he explained as he connected that kind of smartwatches to his laptop. "They can measure how much code you have left in you. XANA's source codes are hidden in the electromagnetic streams in your bodies. Transwatches can measure them"
He showed the screen to his friends so they could see the results. Aelita had 92 % of the source codes left, Odd had 89 %, Yumi had 93 % and Ulrich had 90 %.
"Greeaaat, I'm the one whose lost most of them" Odd commented in annoyance. "To be honest, I lost quite a handful today"
Ulrich glared at him.
"So abandoning me was the best you could do?"
"You could have been the specter" he said, trying to defend himself.
"If I had, I'd have lept on you way earlier, you idiot!"
"That's debatable"
Jeremy sighed. What was done was done. Now it was time to find out the extent of the attack.
"Ah, here's the code to power ratio"
"How much, Jeremy?" asked Yumi.
The boy watched as the power bar rose to 52.5%.
"Almost 53%"
Yumi took a deep breath and asked the question no one wanted to say.
"And what's going to happen when XANA reaches the 100%?"
"It'll be more powerful than ever" Aelita replied, grimly. "It'll control the global network. And no one, not even us, will be able to stop it"
