Another day of school rolls around, as normal as can be considering. After the near death and severe injury that I had sustained with the situation with the Return to the Past, safe to say everyone is more on edge with the consequences and all that. As Jeremie had said, we still don't know everything that goes on or has to do with the technology at the factory. Jeremie and I have increased our efforts in trying to find something out but all this time he was always trying to figure out the machinations of Lyoko.
Their wasn't much for us to increase and look for since whoever owned the factory and built the tech still did a very good job covering their tracks. We still got nothing to learn more about the functions of the technology and Lyoko besides just trial and error. Not the best option I want for us to go for considering the possible consequences, but it seems like we have no choice.
"Now then, if you provoke a collision between two neutrons, what do you obtain? Who would like to answer? Anybody?" As I said before, normal day of school with our teacher Hertz. Of course the teacher is met with silence as no one wants to raise their hand to answers the question. "Nobody?"
"Me, Ma'am!" Herb takes the initiative and raises his hand in order to ans—
*RING*RING*RING*
All of a sudden the loud rings of a phone goes off.
"Hello?"
"Hello?"
"Hello?"
But not just one phone but multiple phones all at once. On instinct I go to grab my phone to answer it but when I see everyone ese doing the exact same, I am completely on edge about EVERYSINGLE phone going off at once. Thankfully, I also forgot that I actually did turn off my phone during class so I'm good. With everyone answering 'Hello?' on their phones, it doesn't seem like anyone gets any answers from the caller. I catch eyes with Odd, Jeremie and Ulrich, who are also looking around in concern and confusion at the situation. A quick look to the front to see our teacher is no less annoyed and very building angry at what's going on and I don't blame her.
"Hello? Who is this?"
"Sissi, you the principal's daughter should know the rule dealing with cell phones." Hertz calls out Sissi, who is talking on the phone. "Now why don't you remind us all what that rule is?"
"All mobile phones have got to be turned off before entering the classroom, under penalty of having them confiscated." Sissi drones out in boredom.
"Hand it over!" Of course, Hertz is not happy and demands Sissi's phone, which she does. "And that goes for everyone!"
Obviously, my fellow students all make noises of shock and dismay at this. Even Jeremie is surprised by this.
"Quiet down! Put all your cell phones on my desk right now!" She shouts to everyone to quiet them down and firmly points to her desk. Just as she does, the school bell rings, signalling everyone to head to their next class.
Everyone groans as they all stand up and one-by-one begin dropping off their phones on her desk. "XANA's sure going to be happy about this." Oddd grumbles as he walks past us. I wait for everyone to head forward until I am last to make it to the front of class. Not gonna lie I feel nervous when my teacher Hertz gives me a stern expectant glare.
"Ma'am, what if I actually did have my phone off?" I ask a little hesitantly.
She doesn't answer at first, raising an eyebrow as she does before holding her hand out to me. "Let me see."
Almost reluctantly, I pull out my phone and hand it to her. She gives me a stern glare as she takes my phone and opens it up. She then gets an inquisitive look as she notes its not turning on, even pressing one of the numbers to see if she gets anything.
"Hm, well looks like you were the only one who actually did follow the rules." She hands my phone back to me, much to my relief. "Considering your near spotless record, and the fact I didn't see you actually take your phone out, I'll go ahead and let you keep yours."
"Thank you, ma'am." I give a smile and a grateful nod to her.
"But I or nor any other teacher better not see you with your phone out, understand?" She gives me a stern warning.
"Crystal." Without wasting another moment I speed walk my way out of the classroom and see my friends nearby. As I walk up to them, I notice Yumi running up to us. "Well, that was something." I mutter.
"No kidding." Yumi agrees once she's next to us. "We had this weird problem… This morning, like, everyone's cell phones started ringing, and—"
"The teacher confiscated them. Us too." Odd points out.
"Crazy, huh? All those calls and no-one at the other end? I think I'll contact Aelita. This could be XANA's doing." Jeremie informs us and walks off with haste.
"We've gotta do something. If Jeremie's right, and we can't stay in contact, we're in a real jam.
"I was able to keep my phone, though only barely." I tell them. While one of us is able to keep their phone, it still won't help if only one of us has a phone. We need to have a second one on hand.
"What? How did you manage that?" Odd asks surprised.
I give him a deadpan look. "Because unlike the rest of you I actually did turn off my phone and I didn't pull it out of my pocket."
This gets them all to look away awkwardly.
"Hey, you four!" A familiar annoying voice calls out. We turn and none other than Sissi is who calls us and walks up to us. "I'm organising a meeting. They've got to give us our mobiles back. Well, are you with us?" She quickly asks of us.
"You bet we are!" Before any of us can say or do anything, or voice our opinion, Yumi whole heartedly agrees.
"Huh…no kidding! If you really mean it, we'll see you in the auditorium right after lunch." Siss instructs us. Yumi nods and this prompts Sissi to leave.
"… Okay what was that?" I can't help but ask Yumi.
She gets a grin as she explains. "Well, we need to get our phones back. I doubt any of the teachers would give them back if any of us ask, but if Sissi, the principals daughter, makes a huge fit about it…"
Realization grips me as I give a long nod. "Ohhhhh, okay. I gotcha."
"But even with working with Sissi, there's no telling how long that will take. We've gotta see what's up." Ulrich says and walks off. We follow him.
'Even though Jeremie is checking with Aelita to see if XANA is awake and messing with us, this is still too convenient for it not to be XANA's doing. Without ready communication with us, theirs very low chances of us being able to properly combat XANA, both in whatever means he's using to mess up the real world, and to backup Aelita in the Lyoko. I don't know what Ulrich is planning but I hope it's good.' I can't help but think as we make our way out.
'Okay… I wasn't expecting this blunt of a plan.' Alex thinks as she stares at his friends.
"You're going to take back your cell phone? That's called stealing, you know that?" Yumi voices her opinion and the fact. They are standing outside near the teacher lounge where the teachers took everyone's phones and most likely locked them up. With the potential threat of XANA looming around real soon, its imperative they need to have communication and what better way to do that than by getting their phones back, and what's a faster way of getting said phones back than by straight up taking them back… without permission.
"No it's not! Taking back what belongs to you in the first place is not what I would call stealing." Odd tries to reason.
"But this is the school. They have that right considering you guys broke the rules." Alex tries to reason back.
"Hey, you were able to keep your phone but we still need ours, especially if XANA attacks." Odd retorts.
"He's right you two." Ulrich speaks up. "We have no choice."
Yumi stares open-mouthed at them, at the fact that they are proposing that. They look over to the teachers as it seems like they are starting to finish up what they are talking about.
"Ok Ulrich, let's go." Odd states.
Yumi and Alex look back at the teachers again, then back to where their friends were. Their seats are empty but Alex was barely able to see Ulrich and Odd leave. Alex sighs and shakes his head before turning to Yumi. "Alright, why don't we get out of here. Let's check on Jeremie, see how he's coming along with the scans. If they get caught, then let's just say we did everything we could."
Yumi laughs a little and nods before they walk off.
Not long after we find most of our group back in Jeremie's room. The scan is running on Jeremie's computer while he, I and Yumi watch. Kiwi is asleep on Jeremie's bed.
"How do you think they did?" I can't help but ask out loud. This knocks Jeremie and Yumi from staring at the screen and towards me as I sit on floor.
"Honestly if I was there I would have told them it's not really a smart thing to do." Jeremie bluntly says as he stares back at the screen.
"More like a desperate thing to do." I mutter.
"While yes it would be good to get our phones back, if they get caught stealing, from the teachers, for breaking in of all things, pretty sure the police could get involved and lock us up."
"Even if only for a day, if XANA is active, that would leave half of us out of commission to fight XANA on Lyoko and help Aelita." Yumi points out.
"Not to mention if things get bad out here, at least one of you would be needed to deal with anything XANA is doing out here." Jeremie also points out.
"Let's just hope they actually—" I begin to say until the door opens. We all turn to see Odd walking in with a big grin and holding something in his arms with Ulrich following in after. This causes Kiwi to wake up and look to him.
"Haha! Mission accomplished!" Odd proudly proclaims as he drops the phones on the bed, allowing Kiwi to sniff at them.
"Huh, nice work you too. I'm pleasantly surprised."
"Wait a second, did you doubt us?" Odd asks like he is offended.
"No! Of course not. I would never doubt Ulrich… you however…" I leave the sentence unfinished but keep the smile on my face as I stare straight at him.
Odd pouts as this gets a laugh out of the others.
"Still, let's hope that nobody finds out!" Yumi hopes once she finishes chuckling.
Odd pets Kiwi as he starts barking to calm him down.
"Even so, I think you all should keep phones in your pockets… and on vibrate." I warn them. The amount of trouble our group would get in if they were busted with their phones and I'm pretty sure they would also take mine regardless if I was a part of it or not. "Whether XANA is actually doing something or not, I think we can agree things would be very bad if we got expelled when XANA isn't active." Chances are XANA is active what with that phone trick and all, but on the slim off-chance XANA is not and it was pure coincidence, I would prefer if me and my friends did not possibly get expelled or worse thrown in jail for stealing, breaking-and-entering, and being accomplices to said crime.
Either way it would suck.
"I'd rather hope that we're worried over nothing." Odd mirrors my hope of the situation too as he and the others take back their phones.
"For now, the scan hasn't found an activated tower." Jeremie informs us.
"I haven't seen anything either! False alarm." Aelita also inform us.
"Well then, lets hope it was just a coincidence and—" Jeremie suddenly bolts to his feet in alarm. This puts us all on edge as his glasses fall but he manages to catch them. "Jeremie? What's wrong?" I ask in concern at his sudden moment of surprise. The computer is still scanning for an active tower so it can't be—
"XANA!" He suddenly calls out. I'm confused at first until I follow his eyes. Looking at the course, right there, clear as day, is the symbol for XANA pulsating on the screen.
'And there goes the hope.' I mentally grumble with a sigh.
With the revelation that the blank calls for everyone's phones was indeed a plot from XANA for some reason, the Lyoko warriors all got to work in trying to figure out a game plan in figuring out what to do and what the rogue A.I. was planning to do.
The gang now find themselves walking towards the science building with Jeremie leading the pack carrying some device.
Why would XANA be interested in mobile phones, huh?" Ulrich asks in wonder. That's a question that's pondering everyone's mind at the moment.
"Hm…" Yumi hums in agreement, along with a nod from Alex.
"That's what I'm hoping to find out by checking out the school's antenna." Jeremie says as she fiddles with the device to figure something out.
"Well, I'm off to the meeting. I promised Sissi." Yumi states as she runs off, leaving the boys of the group to their devices.
"Let's hope Sissi's protest gains enough attention away from the school for us to investigate without getting caught."
"Let's hope." Ulrich agrees with Alex as they continue walking to the science building. Thankfully they manage to make their way cleanly through the building up to the roof where Jeremie's device is going crazy. So they don't get spotted they quickly go through the door and close the door.
"Eh? Hey, who let you guys up here?" Unfortunately they didn't expect Jim of all people to be there fiddling with the antenna. "Trying to stop me from disconnecting the antenna?!" He accuses them, making them all nervous.
"U-us? Nooo… We were just passing by." Ulrich nervously states.
"Wait, what are you doing? Why are taking down the antenna? Is this about the phones?" Alex asks with increasing confusion at the lengths the gym teacher is taking to keep the students from using their phones.
"Well how else are we going to keep you kids from breaking the rules about using your phones and having them on?" He asserts as he goes back to trying to rip the piece of equipment down.
"But… then the faculty won't be able to—" Alex begins to quietly state on how the teachers will be screwed on that department too.
*ZZZZZTTT*
He is interrupted when a bolt of electricity zaps Jim, making him tense up and groan through gritted teeth.
"Careful!" Jeremie calls out but its too late.
Jim cries out in pain, letting go of his support and falling from the roof, screaming.
"JIM!" They shout with them bolting forward with Ulrich and Alex reaching him first. Just in time they manage to grab onto Jim before he plummets to the ground. It takes a lot but all four of them manage to heave him back up onto the roof, grunting as they do. Jim is a big man after all.
"Is he okay?" Odd asks in slight concern. His answer comes from Jim letting out a low groan with his eyes closed.
"He's alive but I don't know what damage that electricity fried within him." Alex surmises.
"We'll take him to the infirmary." Ulrich proposes, not getting an negatives from the others for the suggestion and all agreeing.
"Ok. I'll try to find out what XANA's done to the antenna." Jeremie informs them as he grabs his device and begins scanning the antenna.
"Don't touch it." Alex quickly warns him as he and Ulrich grab Jim, slinging his arms over their shoulders and standing.
"Wasn't planning too." With Jeremie's reassurance, they make their way to the door with Odd opening the doors for them and making sure they don't fall down the stairs.
Only several minutes later with them rushing through the halls do they make it to the infirmary. "Hello? Nurse?" Odd calls out as he walks into the medical room, quickly looking around but finding the place empty. "She's not here." He quickly says as he opens the door wider, allowing Ulrich and Alex to drag Jim in.
"Damn. Let's at least get him on the bed." Alex instructs as they move him to the empty patient bed. They carefully lay him on it as Odd helps lift his feet. Once he's laying flat on his back on the bed, they stand around to make sure he's okay.
"Hey, Jim. Can you hear me?" Ulrich asks in slight concern.
"Smells like roast chicken, huh?"
"Pretty sure that's burning hair Odd." Alex chastises him as he snuffs a small smoking edge of Jim's hair. Jim groans still.
"Jim. Hey, Jim! Yoo-hoo…" Ulrich snaps his fingers in front of his face to try and rouse him but nothings working.
"Forget it Ulrich. Let's go see if we can find the nurse to help him. Let's try the staff lo—" Alex begins to propose they do until they hear steps behind them. This time its nurse Yolande as she steps into the room.
"Odd, Ulrich, Alex? What are you doing here?" She asks in confusion. Alex steps out of the way, showing her new patient. Her eyes widen as she gasps at the state the gym teacher is in. "Jim! What happened to him?" She asks in concern as she rushes over to him.
"Oh, you know how Jim is. He's a regular live wire, so- Oh! I mean- Ow!" Amidst the shocked expression on the nurses face, Odd yelps as Alex elbows him harshly, with a glare to go with it.
"Is Jim a licensed electrician?" Alex asks.
"No. Why?"
"Because he got shocked trying to take down the schools antenna."
"He what?!" She shouts in surprise before boiling down to anger. "I knew Jim going to take it down was stupid." She quietly mutters, not enough for the others to hear before sighing. "Thank you for bringing him here. You can go ahead and go. I'll take care of him."
The three boys nod and make their way out of the room. Once they are far enough away and no one else is around, Ulrich speaks up. "Well, at least that's done. Think Jeremie got anything from the antenna?"
Just as Ulrich asks, Alex gets a text message on his phone. Finding a secluded corner, and with Ulrich and Odd playing cover and lookouts at the same time, he quickly fishes out his phone and reads the message.
"What's it say?" Odd asks with a glance back.
Alex shuts his phone and leads them back to the dorms. "Jeremie's got something. Back to his room." They jog back to the geniuses room.
It doesn't take long for the few of them to make it back to Jeremie's room, also happy to find Yumi is there to meet them.
"You see these waves?" Jeremie begins to explain. "XANA's using the school antenna unit to try to plug into the main television dish." His computer shows circles that are radiating out from the science building on a map of the school.
"That's why all the phones rang?" Yumi asks.
"Right. It jams their frequencies. If XANA manages to take control of the dish, he'll have direct access to the satellites that are now orbiting the Earth." The circles reach a building in town, which begins radiating its own circles further out.
"So it wasn't XANA's nefarious scheme to take away our phones and limit our ability to communicate with each other." Alex surmises, receiving a nod from Jeremie in return. Alex shakes his head with a sigh. "Should have known. No way XANA was that crafty to mess with us."
"But why need the satellites? Is XANA trying to escape?" Yumi asks in worry but Jeremie shakes his head no.
"No, what he'll be able to do is only guide a military satellite."
"Hm."
"…ok, but for what reason?" Yumi asks, still not sure what's going on.
"I wish I knew. In peace time these satellites are used for spying, but if XANA reprograms one, who knows?!" Jeremie informs them.
"It's a military satellite." Alex begins to say, "XANA being in charge of military anything is always a recipe for disaster." He remarks, receiving nods from the other.
"That's obvious." Odd mutters.
"Alex is right. Who knows what they have on satellites. Jeremie and Alex are right, this is serious." Ulrich voices his agreement.
"You'd better believe it, Ulrich." Jeremie says before he glances at the computer. "The scan has detected a tower!"
Just as he says this, the scan shows the activated tower, along with Aelita.
"Jeremie! XANA has activated a tower in the Polar Region!" She hurriedly informs everyone.
"We're on our way."
"We better hurry!" Ulrich says as everyone gets up.
"Let's get to the park." When Jeremie says this, everyone quickly makes their way out the door, with Odd telling his dog Kiwi to stay put. Little do they realize that after they leave the room, Kiwi is a crafty one as he jumps onto the handle and opens the door, letting himself out.
A few minutes pass as they make their way through the school until they come across the protest that Siss is setting up, along with a ton of students and several signs to go along with it.
"I'll stay here in case XANA's got plans to attack the school." Yumi offers, receiving nods from the others.
"Hey, are you with us or not?!" Sissi calls out to her.
"Good luck." Alex murmurs to her and runs off to catch up to the others, leaving Yumi to grin and laugh nervously, suddenly realizing that she is not too happy with staying than what she was thinking a little bit ago.
She lets out a resigned sigh and goes to join the protest.
"Let's hope we can get to this tower in time. I really don't want to see what XANA's got in store for us." Alex mumbles as he climbs down the manhole ladder, meeting up with Ulrich and Jeremie at the bottom.
"Agreed." Jeremie agrees before looking up to see Odd barely climbing into the manhole. "C'mon Odd! We need to get moving."
"Kiwi, what are you doing here?" Odd suddenly asks. Alex, Ulrich and Jeremie look at each other confused.
"Incredible. For a dog, he's stubborn as a mule!" Jeremie mutters in exasperation.
"What do we do now?" Alex asks, not really sure how to go about this new development since bringing a dog was not in the plan.
"Well, now that you're here, come on." Odd offers his arm and Kiwi jumps on it, carrying him down the ladder with him. He lands with a small grunt, allowing Kiwi to jump off before nodding. "Let's go." They all grab their means of transportation and begin zooming off down the sewer, with Alex lagging behind a little.
"And the dog comes with us… alright then."
Despite the extra now tagging along, they make it to the end of the sewer line with Kiwi hitching a ride with Jeremie as he carries the dog up the ladder. From there it's a short run across the bridge to the impromptu way the boys use that lead down to the factory floor, with Kiwi finding his own way down.
The five of them make it into the elevator and head on down to the scanners. First stop, Alex, Ulrich and Odd make their way out of the elevator with Jeremie and Kiwi staying in.
"Be ready. I'll check in where Aelita is and send you guys there."
"Sounds good." Ulrich nods as the doors close.
The three of them make their way to the scanners and wait for Jeremies announcement.
"Well, are you ready?" After a few minutes, Jeremie calls to them on the speakers. "Here we go." Transfer, Ulrich. Transfer, Odd. Transfer, Alex." One by one, all of the Lyoko warriors step into the scanners and get ready. Scanner, Odd, Scanner, Ulrich, Scanner, Alex." The boys close their eyes as they feel themselves float up in the scanners, feeling the effects of going to Lyoko take place. "Virtualisation."
With a grunt, I land on the ground, bending my knees as I do. I quickly look around to make sure there are no enemies around.
"Alex, Odd, Ulrich!" Immediately someone else finds us first, and she's friendly. A short distance away we see Aelita waving to us.
"There she is!"
"Let's move." I say after Ulrich and we book it to her and meet up.
"Aelita, you okay?" I ask, hoping she hadn't run into any trouble before we could help her.
"I'm fine. So far I haven't seen any of XANA's monsters but we're at least on the right track towards the tower." She points in the direction of the pulsations appearing on the ground.
"Good news!" Jeremie calls out with news. "XANA's still not in control of the TV dish. That gives us a little time. I'll try to find out which satellite XANA might want to get his hands on, but it won't be easy."
"Then let's not waste time." I order as I pull my sniper rifle from my back. "Let's move out people." No argues as we speed along the icy floor, following the pulses as we do.
Minutes pass as we keep going, the pulses continue to go as we run along the platform.
"Where can that tower be?!" Odd can't help but voice is displeasure at the lack of progress we make.
"In due time!" I reply without us stopping.
"One thing at a time, Odd." Jeremie chimes in with some grave news. "First of all, I figured it out. I know what XANA's after. He wants to gain control of a highly accurate and destructive satellite. If he does, he can destroy whatever he wants!"
"How destructive and how accurate we talking about Jeremie?" I can't help but ask. Not really surprising that XANA decides to use a type of secret weaponized satellite to do his bidding. Don't know who would have one, I can think of several governments who would make it in secret, but just having it under his control is really bad as it is.
"This satellite has a laser weapon attached to it, able to zoom in straight to the surface of the planet with real-time footage played straight back to the satellite for live coverage that you can see the exact faces of whoever you're looking at. As for the weapon itself and how destructive, it's not like its powerful enough to be nuke but it's strong enough to make a crater in just about anything several dozen feet wide."
"… Okay. I really don't like that." I can't help but grumble at the picture I now have In my head at the devastation XANA can bring.
"Don't worry. The factory's safe. XANA wouldn't fire at himself." Odd points out a crucial fact, which alleviates my worries for us and Jeremie. The supercomputer is too close to risk a shot on him.
"Right! That'll give us time to take care of things on Lyoko."
"Sounds good! But if XANA decides to destroy the school…" Ulrich also points out another crucial fact. As much as XANA hates us, their really isn't much stopping him from attacking other random humans and racking up the body count before we can take notice. However that would also bring in the attention of other human governments and authority's on the academy and the factory. We the Lyoko warriors like Aelita and are willing to fight to protect her and stop XANA. Others though… they wouldn't care and just destroy the supercomputer, ending both XANA and Aelita… or possibly weaponizing XANA. Either option is not preferable.
"Remember, Yumi's there, so that's for sure what he's gonna do! We have to warn her! But without a mobile…" Jeremie groans. We may have our phones but at this point XANA probably fried the schools antenna to get what he wants after Jim's shocking lightshow, rendering our attempts to keep our phones useless without a means to communicate to the school.
"Either way, we can't let XANA use that satellite." I voice my opinion. "Whether its on Yumi or some random group of people, we can't let him."
"Don't worry about Yumi. I just got a plan to warn her." Once Jeremie says that, we hear the sound of his headset shuffling.
"Let's hope his plan works." Ulrich mutters.
"Yeah. Aelita, how far to the tower?" Odd asks.
"The pulses are getting stronger. We should be close. Even though we can't see the tower yet, remember theirs ice crevices all over. We may have to check inside the ice itself for the tower." Aelita informs us.
"Super." Ulrich sarcastically says and I'm right there with him. We come across a bridge of ice of sorts.
"Alright, the message is sent. Hopefully she'll get it in time. Now," We hear him typing on the computer. "According to the Holomap, the tower is just across the bridge, but be careful, it's probably guarded by those uh…" Jeremie trails off as we spot the supposed guards. Four Hornets in the sky can be seen between us and the way to the bridge, and the way the pulses are leading us.
"By the Waspsters. Thanks, we've noticed." Ulrich grumbles as he grips his sword tightly when he pulls it out.
"I hate wasps." I mumble angrily as I take my rifle from my back. "Hate them in the real world. Hate them in here."
"Ditto." Odd agrees with me as he takes aim.
"Remember, the poison they're carrying will kill your life points, so watch out." Jeremie feels the need to warn us. I appreciate it but we all know all of XANA's monsters aren't not going to hurt us with anything in their arsenal.
I shoulder my rifle and take aim when I notice something interesting when we wait a few seconds.
Nobody attacks on either side.
"What're they waiting for?" Odd asks our thoughts.
"They don't need to attack us," I mumble, quickly figuring out what's going on. "They just need to delay us."
"They must just want to hold you there until XANA's able to control the satellite. You've gotta get past them!" Jeremie calls out.
"Shouldn't be a problem." Odd confidently says as he aims.
"Hold up." I quickly grab his arm and stop him from shooting.
"Hey! What gives?" He angrily shouts at me messing him up.
I don't reply to him, instead staring intently at the hornets before glancing around. Just behind us I see a large cliff jutting out from behind us, above the height of the hornets. I smirk as a plan begins to form. "Give me a sec. I'll give you guys the signal to attack." I say before sprinting back the way we came.
"Wha- What signal?!"
The trio of warriors stare at the retreating form of their friend before they lose sight of him when he turns a corner.
Aelita and Ulrich look oddly at where he left but Odd grumbles annoyed at being ignored.
"Well, now does anyone else know what his plan is?" Odd sarcastically asks as he turns back to the hornets still hovering in the same spot.
"Don't know, but he's usually got a good head on his shoulders." Ulrich says, a little unsure but not completely dismissing the vague plan.
"He's got this." Both of them look to Aelita as she wholeheartedly agrees.
"How do you know?"
"I'm… not sure really. Just a feeling I have. He's always got a plan to help." Aelita says with a smile, only glancing at the others before staring straight ahead. She wasn't exactly why she wasn't at least somewhat skeptical of the plan that Alex hadn't said, but ever since the amount of times he's joined their group, the times he's helped, she's been willing to trust him wholeheartedly. Granted the others have helped her out plenty of times too, but their was just something about Alex that she knew, somehow in her heart, that she was going to be okay with him around.
"Well he better hurry soon. The longer we wait then the more time XANA has to get access to the sate—"
*PCHOO*
Ulrich is interrupted as distinct blaster shot can be heard. Snapping their heads up, they see as a blaster bolt flies through the air from above them and nails one of the hornets.
"Nice!" Odd cries out.
*PCHOO*
Another shot is heard but this time the bolt goes wide, prompting the hornets to scatter.
"That's two! Let's go!"
"Laser arrow!" All three of them take off forward, with Odd firing an arrow to scatter the hornets further. His shot misses but he wasn't expecting to hit. They manage to make it to the bridge and begin running to get as far away from the monsters as they can.
"That was amazing!" Odd cries out with a smile.
"Yeah! Alex really came through!" Ulrich shouts through panting breaths.
"I knew he would." Aelita smiles, keeping in step between them.
"Let's hope he can catch up with us." Ulrich hopes as they notice the hornets beelining for them.
"Uhhh, I think he might be delayed." Odd points out, thumbing back in the direction they came from. Without stopping, Aelita and Ulrich look back grimacing as they see the cliff that Alex was on has several lasers being shot all over the place but they can't see him.
"Oh no." Aelita breathes out in worry.
"Don't stop! We have to keep moving." Ulrich calls out.
Odd looks back as the hornets get closer and closer onto them. It isn't until they get within range that one of them shoots a spray of poison at the group. Odd's eyes widen at the attack as he shifts direction. "Watch out!" He yells before tossing himself forward. Aelita and Ulrich are too late to dodge the attack as they turn slightly to see but Odd jumps forward, getting knocked to the ground as the spray of poison slams into his chest. He grunts at the hit, as well as slamming into the ground.
"Odd!"
"Odd!"
Both Aelita and Ulrich stop to call out his name but Ulrich quickly pushes her back some more as some drops of poison almost hits them.
Despite their worry, Odd rolls on the ground roughly at first before he lands on his hands and knees, staring back at the hornets. "Laser arrows!" He shouts as he fires three arrows at the hornets. None of them hit as they scatter. "Go! Go! Get Aelita out of here! I'll hold them off!" Odd shouts as he waves for the others to go before aiming back at the monsters.
"He's right you two! XANA's almost got access to the satellite we need that tower down now!"
Ulrich grunts in frustration before smirking at his friend. "You're nuts you know that? Let's go!" Ulrich says before grabbing Aelita's hand and taking off.
"Yeah I feel like it." Odd comments back before firing another arrow. It misses again but it throws the hornets aim off for Odd to jump to the side, taking cover behind an ice wall. "Jeremie! Where's Alex? The others can use some backup just in case!" He flinches as a laser shot impacts his cover.
"What's what I'm trying to figure out. ALEX!"
Moments Earlier…
"Okay. This should be good." Alex mutters as he finishes climbing up through the ice tunnel, finding himself at an incline leading to an edge. He holds his rifle in one hand, not on the grip and trigger but just under the barrel, and carefully climbs his way up the small incline, careful not to make any sudden movements or anything that gives him away. He grips the edge of the incline and I carefully pulls himself up onto a relatively flat section of the edge. With careful movements he scoots himself forward prone until he makes it to the very edge, where he has a clear line of sight of the area. "Okay… let's see." He mutters again before looking around. Thankfully he doesn't have to look long as he is at the exact cliff edge he saw when he was with them. "Perfect." He smiles and finds the hornets, still hovering in the air at the exact area than when he left. Pulling his sniper rifle up, he lays it on the edge and scopes in. With both hands held tightly on the rifle and keeping it steady on the icy surface, his aim is steady and on point as he lines up his crosshairs on the right middle hornet.
It bobs up and down slowly but it only takes a short moment for him to match its pattern of movement… until…
*PCHOO*
With the crack of his blaster shot as it cuts through the air, sailing above the others until it slams into XANA's eye symbol on the front of the monster. It explodes in a spectacular fashion but he has no time to see it as he's already moving his crosshair onto the next hornet. "Gotcha…" He smirks as it barely looks over at its destroyed friend before he's already pulling the trigger.
*PCHO—*
"Arhhh!" Alex shouts as something slams into his back. The shot goes wide, missing the hornets as they scatter. Gritting his teeth he turns around and sees who just shot him. He groans as he sees three kangkrelats staring at him, with one of them charging up its laser. "Woah!" He shouts and rolls to the side, barely missing the laser meant for him. The other two begin charging up their laser shots too. "No way." He grunts and pushes himself forward down the incline. Without bracing himself on the ice, he begins sliding himself down the incline and heading right towards them. His sudden movement throws off their aim as they fire. On instinct he brings his arms up in a cross, with his rifle too, to protect himself from the hits. They miss as he slides right past them and slides towards the tunnel he clambered up earlier. Without bracing himself though, the icy tunnel turns into a slide as he goes this way and that, winding down the tunnel as he even goes a completely different route than when he came up. "Oh crap." He mutters in frustration, trying to have some semblance of control on the sliding but to no avail.
Alex continues sliding down the tunnel until he comes to a long barely curvy section of the tunnel… that leads to the digital sea. "No." He firmly says as he tries to force his hands and feet against the walls of the tunnel, trying to stop himself but finding that he can't. Even going as far as stabbing his rifle against the ice wall but that only leaves carve marks in the "No… nononononono!" His shouts of denial fall on deaf ears as he continues to slide without stop. "No no no no NOOOOO!" He shouts as he makes it to the end, reaching over his shoulder just as he disappears out the tunnels exit.
…
Silence follows his disappearance for a few seconds.
Unbeknownst to him, the kangkrelats had followed him down the tunnel, sliding as they do without control like Alex. All three of them come across the same lengthy tunnel and still have no control of stopping as Alex did. It's not long later that they slip through the exit and fall out tumbling down to the seat.
Three consecutive beams of energy shoot into the sky as the kangkrelats land in the digital sea.
…
"ALEX!"
"… Nnnh." A grunt can be heard, along with the stabbing and crunching of ice. "… Hunnnn… c'mon… Nahhh… stupid ice." A gloved hand shakily grabs the edge of the tunnel, gripping it tightly before more grunts of effort can be heard. A kukri comes up and stabs in the icy tunnel as well. It's Alex as with gritted teeth he pulls himself up, angrily grunting as he brings the top half of his body up before stabbing once again with his knife and swinging his legs up and out of danger. He lets out a sigh of relief as he lays there in the end of the tunnel, his body curved in a small half moon crescent shape with the circularity of the tunnel. He takes a few seconds to breathe, pulling his mask down as he does, before leaning over just a little and staring down at the digital sea. "… Hm… déjà vu."
"ALEX!"
"Hey Jeremie." Alex nonchalantly answers with a small hand wave, even though he's pretty sure his friend can't see it. "How'd it go? The others make it to the tower?"
"Unfortunately, no. The hornets, what left of them there were, chased after them and Odd stayed behind to hold them off while Ulrich and Aelita make it to the tower. If you can they sure could use the backup." Jeremie explains.
Alex takes a look up the tunnel and grunts. "Don't know how well I can help. I'm kind of stuck here in this tunnel and even if I use my knife to climb my way back up, it would take too long for me to help out."
"Not necessarily. From what I can see on the map, you have two ways to get out of there. Theirs the long tunnel you originally went down which as you said will take too long to scale back up, or theirs another tunnel near you just barely connected that should lead you to the surface much quicker."
"Another tunnel?" Alex mutters in confusion as he looks around at the tunnel and finds nothing connected. "Jeremie? What other tunnel? I don't see any other tunnels in here and you better not be suggesting I scale the OUTSIDE of the ice wall to find said tunnel because you can go right back and—!" He begins to angrily go off on a tangent until he notices something with the part of the ice his feet are laying against. He notices it looks just a bit too thin. Tapping his foot a couple times on the icy wall, he hears the taps of the hollowness of it.
*CRACK*CRASH*
All it takes is two stomps with his boot, one to crack the ice, the next to completely bust a hole into the tunnel and reveal the tunnel Jeremie was talking about. "Alex? You okay?"
Alex smirks, "Yeah, all good Jeremie. Found the tunnel you were talking about. Tell the others I'm on my way." He informs him as he smiles at the exit for the tunnel a little ways away, but this time not as much of a hassle in maneuvering it. He checks his weapons, making sure he still has his pistol and rifle, and sheathes his kukri and begins crawling forward.
"Great work! By the way, you have 90 life points left. I'll let them know that you're on your way now. Good luck."
Even though he found a safer way back to the surface, Alex would be remiss to admit that he was kind of hoping he would have had a break after the near-death, near-devirtualization?, he had, but he'll push on regardless. "No rest for the wicked." He mutters under his breath. Taking a break would have been nice still but as long as XANA is still active, he and the others still have a job to do.
"Alright guys! Good news! Alex managed to lose his attackers and is on the way to you know, but he got sidetracked so he's going to take a minute." Jeremie informs the others as he types on the super computer, multi-tasking multiple open windows as he keeps track of XANA and the state of the others on Lyoko.
"Good to hear Jeremie. Aelita and I are still on the trail for the tower."
"Great."
"Ow!" The sudden yelp coming from his screen makes Jeremie flinch, making him look and see the state that Odd is in.
"Odd! Be careful. You're down to only 20 life points now." He informs him.
"Well that's just great." Odd grumbles as he fires more laser arrows.
"Just keep them occupied until—" Jeremie begins to advise until he gets some warning alarms on another window. "Hold on…" A few types on the keyboard and his eyes widen behind his glasses. "Oh no! XANA's got access to the satellite!" He worriedly states before watching as the space satellite begins moving. "Wow…what an incredible technological masterpiece." He can't help but mutter at the piece of technology. A very dangerous piece of technology. He manages to look at the specs and what the satellite is looking for. It zooms in and locks onto France, more specifically, Paris.
It zooms in on the school. "Parameters locked in place. Target localised." The automated voice can be heard from the computer. "Already?!" Jeremie exclaims, having not anticipated XANA's relatively quick acquisition of the satellite, nor its lock-on target. "We were right. The school's in the satellite's line of fire. But…" Jeremie begins to focus as he watches as the camera zooms in more and more until he spots several in a line making their way out of the school grounds, with one specific dot highlighted.
"Oh no." He breathes out in worry.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Lyoko warriors are continuing to push their way to the tower. Ulrich and Aelita arrive at the edge of a tall platform. Problem is, the location of the pulsations end right there at the tower, which should be indicative of the location of the tower but as they look around they see nothing.
"What's going on? I thought the tower was supposed to be here!" Ulrich frustratingly states as he looks around. The sounds of distant laser shots can be heard off in the distance. Ulrich looks over and sees Odd running from the hornets, and getting hit by another laser.
Odd tumbles and rolls after getting hit.
"Ten life points left!" Jeremie calls out.
Odd manages to get on his feet and fires another arrow but misses. With his last arrow shot, he gets down on his knees.
"Guys, it's… game over for me." Odd sadly states as his life points drain away, returning him to the real world.
"Oh no!" Jeremie suddenly cries out now that Aelita is sort one backup. "Ulrich, Aelita! The Waspsters are after you! The Holomap doesn't lie. It's gotta be there somewhere." He tells them.
Ulrich grunts as both he and Aelita book it to the edge of the platform. He aims for one of the hornets in front of him as he and Aelita jump off the edge, with Ulrich taking a swipe at the hornet as he does, missing. It keeps the monster off them as they yell as they fall but not for long as they land on a platform not far below from. The hornets are hot on their tail as move in to attack, forcing Ulrich to deflect several lasers away from Aelita. Aelita runs to the edge again, followed by Ulrich, who is running backwards and deflecting more lasers from her. Ulrich suddenly stops and readies his sword.
"Triplicate!" He activates his ability, making copies of himself as he gets ready to fight the monsters. "Go on! Don't worry about me." He warns to Aelita to keep moving.
She nods as she keeps running and jumps down from ridge to ridge, intent on finding that tower. With her momentarily out of danger, Ulrich readies his sword as he stares at his opponents. "C'mon." He mutters and charges with his clones.
"I wonder how accurate this satellite really is." Jeremie mutters as he stares at the screen of the satellite. The satellite switches to a photographic view of the area around the school. A much clearer picture begins to show Yumi and Sissi standing in front of Principal Delmas. Jeremie's eyes widen as the crosshairs line up with Yumi's head. "I don't believe it…" He mutters stunned at the target. It was an obvious choice before to know that XANA would try to take out the only one of their members that isn't in the factory, but to actually see the target in-line with XANA's sights still leaves Jeremie worried. A signal on the screen shows the laser arm of the satellite arming itself.
Just then the sound of the elevator can be heard behind Jeremie. The doors open as they reveal a panting Odd in the lift.
"Yumi's in danger! The laser's aimed right at her!" Jeremie quickly explains to him.
"What?! But what about your message?!" Odd shouts his question in return.
"The principal stopped her. Get to the school and get her out of there. If you two can make it to the sewers, then XANA won't be able to hit you, or at least be accurate in hitting you."
"Roger." Odd quickly hits the button on the lift and heads back up, intent to try to save their friend and any other innocent lives.
"Please hurry." Jeremie whispers, both to Odd and the others in Lyoko.
Back in Lyoko, Ulrich continues to try to take on his opponents. One of Ulrich's clones is knocked back after he is shot. This presents Ulrich with the opportunity to charge and destroy a Hornet.
On the ground level though, Aelita runs around frantically looking for the tower. She trips as she just barely manages to dodge some lasers that were meant for her. She grunts as she falls to the ground before she quickly rolls over unto her back, narrowly dodging another laser. However she is not fast enough to move out of the way as two Hornets hover over her.
"Aelita!" Ulrich shouts, wanting to move and protect her, however he's forced to turn away and block a couple lasers from some more hornets that joined the fray. He grunts in frustration as he and his clone manage to dodge out of the way of more laser.
"Oh no!" Aelita shouts in shock as she brings her arms up in an attempt to lessen the attack on her person.
Both hornets flex their stingers to shoot and spit poison.
*PCHOO*PCHOO*
Two blaster shots go off from the side, one impacting the eye on one hornet, but the other slams into the side of the second hornets abdomen stinger. This throws the last monsters aim way off, making its laser shot fly off in a random direction as it corkscrews heavily into the ground, slamming into icy floor with some disgusting meaty slaps as it spins around, its wings desperately trying to bring itself back into the air. With the franticness of it going on, it spits poison out in a wide arc, the majority of it heading right for Aelita. "OhhhAhhh!" She shouts as she covers her head to protect herself from the caustic liquid.
A blur flies forward in front of her. She flinches as she hears he sound of the poison slamming into something but it only takes her a second to realize its not her. Cracking open an eye she watches as a brown article of clothing floats to the ground before slamming into the ground with a wet 'slap'. However the poison eats away at the clothing rapidly.
Aelita's confusion is on her face for a second before the sound of a blade slicing through the air can be heard. She flinches as she watches something slam into the hornet still writhing on the ground, destroying the monster in a small explosion.
"Huh?" Aelita mutters in confusion at the item that saved her: A Kukri knife stabbed into the ground.
"Aelita!" A new calls out. Aelita is elated to see her savior being Alex standing in the middle of a tunnel exit in the middle of the icy cliff wall.
"Alex!" Aelita cries out in joy at seeing him here to help.
Alex shoulders his rifle and slides down the wall and runs forward as he hits the ground, running to a slow stop as he steps next to Aelita. "You okay?" He reaches forward and extends a hand to her.
She smiles and clasps his hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet. "I am now. Thank you."
"No problem." He smiles at her. "Got a little sidetracked back there. XANA just loves to keep us company huh?" He sarcastically states as he goes and takes back his kukri and sheathes it.
This gets a laugh out of her as she giggles. "You're not wrong. Though to be honest I much prefer your company than his monsters."
"Aw stop. You're going to make me blush." Alex rubs the back of his head with grin before composing himself. "I'm just glad I got here in time." He comments as he looks at where the hornets were.
"I am too. Sorry about your jacket." She says as they look at his clothing item. It too her a second to notice Alex no longer has his duster jacket on, but once the danger was passed, it doesn't take a genius to see that he threw his duster to block the hornets attack from taking her out.
"Ehh, I can work without." He shrugs before looking around. "Is the tower close to here?" He quickly asks, going to his professional mood.
"It's supposed to be. The pulsation ripples all lead to this area but no matter where I look I can't find it." She begins to explain. She then flinches as she hears the sounds of Ulrich's grunting and the laser sounds from the hornets. "XANA's already got access to the satellite and Ulrich's barely hanging on against the rest of XANA's monsters."
Alex grunts in frustration before quickly looking around. An idea quickly forms as he nods. "Okay, do what you can to keep finding the tower but don't expect it to be obvious. These ice walls have caves and tunnels all over the place leading deep into everywhere. Don't assume it's in plain sight. Be creative in your search." He sprints to the side of the ice walls and begins climbing his way up. "I'll backup Ulrich then head back to you when we're done! Keep going down! It's got to be hidden somewhere!" He calls out one last time as he quickly begins scaling the wall.
Aelita stares at Alex as he keeps going before looking behind her. Just as he said, theirs another ledge that leads further down the way. "Alright then. Keep searching." She sprints forward and after looking down to make sure she's not jumping to her death or the digital sea, she jumps off too.
"Grah!" Ulrich shouts as he blocks a laser shot meant for him. He grunts in frustration still as one of the four hornets he's now fighting takes out his last clone, some more monsters having joined the fight before. "Great. Just what I need. Along against a bunch of monsters. Perfect." He grumbles as he tightens the grip on his sword.
Suddenly, several blaster shots can be heard firing. The shots come in from behind Ulrich as they head straight for the hornets. Five shots make the hornets scatter, with one of them getting nailed and blowing up.
"Ulrich!" The person of said name looks back to see Alex sticking the top half of his body over the edge with one hand gripping the knife with his blade and the others holding his blaster pistol. "Get out of there!"
"On it!" Not wanting to be swarmed anymore at his current location, he sprints away from the recovering hornets right to Alex. Alex fires a couple more shots to cover Ulrich and once his friend leaps off the edge, Alex pulls his knife up and lets himself fall a little back down. He only falls about halfway down the wall before slamming his knife back into the wall, stopping him from continuing down further. Ulrich for his part lands harshly on the ground where Aelita was earlier ago, tucking into a roll to avoid taking damage. When he stands back up, he look towards Alex in alarm. "Look out!" He warns while pointing.
Alex looks up but huddles himself closer to the wall as the hornets fly over the edge and right towards Ulrich, having not seen Alex behind them. They begin firing at him one after another with Ulrich barely able to block the first salvo of shots aimed at him. Bracing his feet against the wall but still keeping a tight grip on his embedded kukri, he aims his blaster pistol at the hornets while their backs are too him. Problem is, he notices at his angle Ulrich is right in past them too.
"Ulrich! Watch out!" He warns his friend. He looks confused for a second before his eyes widen and he gets ready. The sudden shout distracts one of the hornets as it turns around to Alex. He fires the last three shots of his pistol at the monsters, hitting and destroying the one that turned to him but just barely misses the others. Alex curses himself at the other misses but turns to worry at the shots heading straight for his friend.
He's about to call out another warning until he watches what happens next.
While one shot misses Ulrich completely, the other heads straight for him and intends to damage him. The swordsman however is ready and uses it to his advantage. With angled measured grace, he slashes the blaster shot, deflecting the red bolt away from him and towards a new target: one of the hornets. The deflected shot hits true and makes the second hornet blow up in a small explosion. "Yes!" Ulrich fist pumps in joy at the takedown, leaving only one monster left for them to deal with. The last hornet erratically moves about before buzzing closer to Ulrich. Before he can fully prepare himself, the hornet sprays poisonous acid towards the celebrating boy. Ulrich barely manages dodge out of the way of the majority of the attack but his hand barely gets covered in the stuff, forcing him to drop his sword. "Ahhh!" He shouts as he rolls once before stopping, cradling his sparking hand.
"Careful Ulrich! After all the hits you've taken your down to 20 life points."
"I'll try not to get HIT!" He shouts as another spray almost hits him. This time he sprints away, barely able to get out of the way of the continuous stream but also having to slow himself down less he run right through the pools and puddles of acid and tearing apart the last of his life points. "Oh man! Alex, a little help!" He calls out for help as he barely manages to dodge a pool of acid.
"Working on it!" Alex calls out as he presses the trigger again on his pistol, instead of a shot he only gets the overheating hiss of his weapon. "Oh c'mon!" He shouts in frustration at the lack of ammo. In his anger he throws the weapon at the monster. The weapon just barely clips its wing, making it list a little in the wrong direction but quickly regains its baring to continue to chase after Ulrich. Without his pistol, and not able to hold his rifle one handed and shoot as well, his mind quickly tries to formulate a plan until a risk one comes to mind. "Okay okay… let's get this." He braces his feet against the wall of ice and grabs his kukri with both hands and gets ready. "C'mon… c'mon…" He turns his head and stares intently at the monster, watching as it buzzes about until… "NOW!" He shouts and pushes with his feet with all his might, pulling his knife with all his might as well. He wrenches his blade out of the way and soars through the air towards the monsters. He had to time it carefully but his planning worked, allowing him to land roughly on the main body of the hornet. "Gotcha!"
The hornet begins buzzing about too and fro with Alex clutching onto it for dear life. "Alex! Careful!" Ulrich calls out in worry as he stops at the edge.
"Not really my choice!" Alex shouts as he is swung left and right, sometimes up and down. "C'mon you overgrown insect! Who's your daddy?! Who's you're daddy?! Who's you're daddy?!" He laughs a little at having the upper hand on the monster.
*SMACK*
"Aghhhh!" He shouts as the monster slams him into the wall, immediately killing his mood. "Okay, enough fooling around." He grumbles as he pulls up his kukri as the hornet flies downwards towards Ulrich's direction. With one well-placed and violent thrust, the blade stabs right into the center of XANA's eye symbol on the monster.
It freezes up for a second before the monster explodes in a small explosion. Alex screams as he's thrown clear of the monster. "Ale- Oof!" Ulrich tries to call out in worry but he's interrupted as Alex's body is thrown towards him. Both boys grunt as they are thrown off the cliffs edge and fall down. Thankfully, they land again a second later on solid snowy ice, leaving the two of them in a small groaning pile.
"Ulrich! Alex!" Aelita calls out in worry. The boys landed on the ledge below that Aelita fell down too. Right next to a pool of water and a waterfall too. The girl in question runs up to the two of them and looks on in worry. "Are you both okay?"
"Define 'okay'?" Alex's muffled voice can be heard as he lays face down on the floor.
"We're alright… sort of." Ulrich grumbles as he rolls off of Alex, landing on his back before pushing himself up on his elbows.
"Some of us." Alex grumbles as he pushes himself up into a crouch before sitting down, not at all happy with being thrown about like a ragdoll just barely a minute ago. He takes a quick look around and notices the semi-new locale they are in, nor any monsters nearby. "Did you find the tower?" Alex asks, really hoping she did as he's not sure how much more both he and Ulrich have in terms of fighting prowess.
Aelita smiles and points towards the waterfall. "I did. It's just behind the waterfall. I was about to go in when I saw the both of you fall."
"Well, don't let us keep you." Alex mumbles as he lays back on the floor.
"Yeah, let's be done with XANA already for today and shut down that tower.." Ulrich agrees with her moving on from them.
"Alright, thank you." She thanks them for their help and runs towards the waterfall, jumping through it without stopping and heads toward the activated tower.
With no more monsters in the area, both boys relax and just wait for their friend to finish with the deactivation. "We did it." Alex mutters with a smile as he stairs into the sky.
"Yeah, we did. Nice work back there." Ulrich compliments him.
"Back at you. Sorry for almost shooting you but that was a beautiful deflect you did." Alex compliments him back. If he hadn't hit the shot back and nailed one of the hornets, it's hard to tell whether they both would have been able to take them out effectively with their weapons, especially Alex with his weapons out of ammo.
"Yeah, when I saw you aiming at them, I got ready in case some of your shots missed. It didn't take much for me to take that miss and use it against XANA's monster."
"Well, it paid off. Nice one."
"Thanks." Their conversation was simple but that's all that was needed as they waited. Soon enough, the world they are currently in begins to be engulfed in white.
The same day rolls around again, this time Odd is placing a poster on the outside of the window for the cafeteria. Soon after Sissi exits the building and takes notice of Odd immediately.
"Invitations to a party?" She assumes and excitedly asks.
"Mm… not really." Odd kind of corrects her before he dashes off, giggling as he does, not wanting to suffer the ire of Sissi as she sees exactly what the poster is about.
The girl in question leans closer to the poster in curiosity. "What is this thing? 'Official school policy reminder to all students: All mobile phones not turned off before entering the classroom will be immediately confiscated?!' Huh!" Her voice gradually gets angrier and louder by the time she makes it to the last part.
Nearby, myself, along with Odd as he joins us, Odd and Yumi laugh quietly at the reaction from the principals daughter.
"That's incredible! Talk about teachers' pets! Humph!" Sissi angrily states and stalks off with an angry scoff and sticking her nose. "Anyway, I'd like to see someone try to confiscate MY mobile!" She practically issues a challenge to anyone as she walks off.
"You're so brave, Sissi…" Herb in his usual lovestruck way keeps to Sissi's heels, complimenting her as she does.
With Sissi's obvious discomfort with the whole situation, this gets a laugh out of me and my friends.
"I still can't believe we talked to the teachers about that. The look of surprise and confusion on their faces was beautiful." I can't help but comment as we walk away.
"Yeah, so worth it." Yumi agrees with me.
"I don't like turning off our phones either but if it means you-know-who doesn't pull anything like that again, then I'm all for it." Ulrich is disappointed with the change as well, as am I, but the benefit to not getting screwed by XANA is a big plus.
"And to top it off we get brownie points with them for this." I can't help but add. By asking the teachers to do this, I'm hoping they'll think our little group is a bit more trustworthy. Hopefully that'll translate to them giving us a little more leeway in the future, if only a little.
"Do you really think they'll like us more for this?" Odd asks out loud curiously.
"Truthfully, and technically, teachers can't be biased towards specific students." Yumi also points out that fact.
"But I like to think that we at least cast some good grace on them for the future." I add. Even if Yumi is right and the teachers don't like to make it obvious they appreciate this suggestion we made, at least the gesture is cemented in their heads so in the future we need their confidence in something important, I'm hoping they'll at least not give us such a hard time should something come to pass that requires it.
"Here's hoping." Ulrich wishes before he gets a smirk on his face. "Either way it was so worth it annoying Sissi like that."
Everyone laughs at that, finding just a bit of enjoyment at Sissi's reaction to the poster, and the overall annoyance she'll find with the rule from then on.
Overall, the whole mission was tense but I'm glad we were able finish it without anyone getting hurt, or worse.
I really hope all our future missions go this well considering.
Here we go. This took a bit longer than I would have liked but I'll get to why in a moment. Kept to most of the episode as how it went but I decided midway to have a bit more free reign in terms of the fights in Lyoko. I liked how it turned out and hope you all like it too.
Here are the reviews:
Pyrojack25: Thanks, I appreciate the understanding. Yeah that stuff with the RTTP really threw me for a loop. Its an interesting take on the whole situation and to really hammer home the consequences of using that function. It's a heck of a thing to learn about. We'll see if more comes of it.
Rainsfere: Glad you liked his choice in helping. For the future I'll try to blend elements of Alex helping out in Lyoko and in the real world. Glad this one was a good one.
Yeah the RTTP is still a pretty experimental piece of technology, being one of its kind no doubt. The dangers it could cause are pretty bad, as we've already had the potential to find out. They'll have to figure something out to better prepare themselves for the dangers of outside threats.
Thanks for your words. Things are currently looking up for my family so provided nothing else troubling comes up, I'd say we're good. I hope future chapters continue to impress you as they comes about.
Now I will say this new year has been quite a ride so far, and it's only been a few months. The obvious factor of course is the fact that Russia actually decided to invade Ukraine. That both surprised and confused the hell out of me for one. Don't really wanna get into the specifics revolving the whole situation, besides that it sucks, but I will say that my heart goes out to the civilians in UK who wanted nothing to do with this fight, and to those in Russia who wanted nothing to do with or be involved with said fight.
But on a slightly lighter note that doesn't involve with the state of affairs in the world: Elden Ring. I mentioned earlier this chapter took a bit longer than I would have liked but that's mostly because I've been playing the ever living crap out of Elden Ring. I wasn't expecting to get into it like I am now, I've played the Dark Souls games before and I completed them but Elden Ring just feels like a completely different beast altogether. The scale and size of the game is something I was not expecting and absolutely love altogether how it blends together. It's such an amazing game and I love it.
Anyway, thank you all for reading. Take care everyone and I wish luck and good health to everyone out there and those reading this. Thank you all for your support, go ahead and fave, follow, review, whatever you wish. Good luck to everyone, having fun reading, but most of all, have a great day.
