Katrina and Ulrich remained at Katrina's apartment while the others went to Lyoko to deactivate the tower. She wondered if staying inside the apartment was a good idea or if she and Ulrich should leave and head for the factory. After speaking to Jeremie briefly on the phone, he suggested the two stay where they are convinced that the specters in black suits were most likely targeting Katrina.
"I hope this gets resolved soon. If mom and dad find out I'm being targeted by two strange men in black suits I can kiss my freedom goodbye" She commented. Normally Ulrich would think that his sister is just overacting, but this time she wasn't. He knew that if their parents found out that she was in any type of danger they would force her to move back home, pull her out of on-campus classes and make her continue her education online until she graduated. It didn't matter to them that Katrina was now more than capable of defending herself. Maybe if she hadn't been gone for several years' things would be different. She never forgave Franz Hopper for trapping her inside a virtual world for most of her teenage years causing her to miss out on important life events and she never intends to. In fact, part of her hated the scientist and even regrets the fact that she did an internship under him. "I knew I should have just worked in that pharmaceutical lab when I had the chance" She then complained with a groan as she buried her head into her hands sitting on the couch with her knees to her chest. Ulrich felt bad for his sister. She kind of had a point though. Had she chosen the pharmaceutical lab internship she would have never worked under Franz Hopper and would have never gotten stuck on Lyoko.
"Why did you choose interning under Hopper anyways?" He asked her.
"I didn't choose him specifically. I wanted to work in a government run lab because I thought it would look good on my resume when graduate college. They assigned me to Hopper's project as his assistant" She responded.
"More like lab rat" Ulrich muttered although it was just coherent enough for Katrina to understand him.
"Oh so now it's okay to joke about it?" She questioned slightly insulted. Every time she joked about her experience her little brother would just glare at her saying that there was nothing to joke about.
"I didn't mean it as a joke" He noted. Katrina rolled her eyes turning her head to look out the window. At the moment, there was nothing out there. No sign of the two specters anywhere. She looked away with a sigh of relief. Ulrich's phone rang again, and he picked it up immediately. Yet again, it was Jeremie on the other end. Ulrich seemed concerned so it couldn't be good. After he hung up, he looked at Katrina. "We have a problem, Yumi got devirtualized and Odd is one hit away from getting devirtualized too" He told her.
"Should we just risk the specters coming after us and head to the factory?" She questioned. It's not like they had much of a choice. The mission to deactivate the tower might fail if Aelita gets devirtualized.
"Jeremie says that you should stay here. I'll go to Lyoko" He said to her.
"No, we should both go. On the off chance that Aelita is devirtualized I should be there to deactivate the tower" She argued. She had a point and Ulrich knew it. The two left the apartment together constantly checking their surroundings making sure they were in the clear from the specters. So far, the coast was clear. They made a run for the factory hoping that they wouldn't get spotted by the specters. To their surprise, they made it to the factory without any encounters. The swung down the ropes into the elevator heading straight to the scanner room. Once the two were in their scanners, Jeremie virtualized them onto Lyoko right into Sector Five. They sprinted through the passageway into the big room where the button was, but lucky for them the countdown was already deactivated. They ran through the big room into another passageway that took them to the elevator hopping on going up to another room where Odd, Aelita, and possibly the tower was. They jumped off the elevator running into their supposed destination spotting both Odd and Aelita instantly. Odd tried to jump across the large blocks that were constantly moving up and down but missed one of the jumps. He hung onto the edge of the block with his claws digging into the side. He tried climbing up but found himself losing his grip. Katrina sprang into action when she saw Odd was about to fall again.
"You go back the Princess. I'll rescue the kitty" She said before taking off. Ulrich didn't say anything giving her a nod of acknowledgment before going after Aelita. Katrina turned on the magnification on her boots allowing her feet to cling to the surface as she hopped across to Odd. Just as Odd slipped off Katrina grabbed his hand.
"I always knew you were a goddess Trina" Odd commented with a smirk. Katrina rolled her eyes in response.
"I will let go if you don't stop" She warned him. Odd apologized as she helped him up onto the surface of the block. Right after that, a creeper shot Odd in the back devirtualizing him. "Wow, I'm so glad I went through the trouble of saving him" She said unamused. She turned her attention to Aelita and Ulrich who were making their way to the activated tower. Ulrich did his best to deflect the shots coming from the creepers that surrounded them with both his swords. Katrina pulled out her laser pistol shoot and a few of the creepers successfully hitting them. Aelita took a hit from one of the creepers.
"Aelita, you only have ten life points left!" Jeremie announced. That just meant if she took another hit, she would be devirtualized. Katrina jumped from platform to platform making her way over two with her shield up and shooting at the creepers along the way. Ulrich and Aelita made it to the tower, unfortunately, Aelita was hit again by a creeper devirtualizing her before she had the chance to enter the tower. "Well Katrina, I guess it's up to you now" Jeremie then commented. She wasn't surprised at all. Every time she came to Lyoko, she found herself being the one deactivating the towers.
"You guys are way too dependent on me" she muttered as she made her way to the tower. Luckily with her shield up, the creepers lasers wouldn't be able to touch her. She made it to the tower putting in the code deactivating it. After the tower was deactivated, Katrina and Ulrich were rematerialized back onto Earth with the group gathered around Jeremie at the supercomputer.
"It's interesting how Xana specters were only after Katrina. I thought for sure they would come to the factory and try to destroy the supercomputer like the other ones" Jeremie commented.
"Well you said when we first rematerialized Katrina that she has a special set of codes. What if Xana knows that and is after the codes?" Aelita questioned.
"Again, why didn't I do that pharmaceutical lab internship instead?" Katrina complained with a slight whine. Things got more complicated for Katrina now that she basically had to watch her back every time she stepped out of her apartment. Maybe she was better off staying with her parents getting her degree online after all.
AN/: I somehow managed to bust out a decent sized chapter with the little free time I had this week. I'm aiming for the next chapter to come out by May 23rd .