Authors note:
Okay so even though this is about 18 hours since last chapters publishing at this point I wanna say thank you for the kind and positive reception towards Odd's reveal as being transgender, that has restored my faith in Humanity.
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Episode 72: Is anybody out there
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Yumi laid on Ulrich's bed laughing as he struggled to read instructions as he looked at two parts of a cot, he rubbed the back of his head,
"You really don't have to do this" said Yumi rolling towards him and kissing his head, "Dallas could do it, he knows how to build things" she added, Ulrich looked back at her, "I need to learn to provide for the little thing" he responded as he finally connected the two pieces, "I honestly should have done this ages ago" he added as he was getting continuously frustrated, "I'll leave you to it" said Yumi poking his cheek as she stood up and walking towards the door, then it opened to show Odd, "Hey Odd" said Yumi as she waited for him to enter as it was well past the point she could get past him in the door, "Ulrich old buddy" said Odd, but Ulrich said nothing, thinking that he was focused on the cot, Odd sat down on his bed and pulled out one of his collectable comics, "Accident Man had way too short a run" he said trying to make small talk, "Odd" said Ulrich coldly, Odd failed to pick up on the tone, "Yeah Ulrich" he responded cheerfully, "Why didn't you tell me" Asked Ulrich, despite not being direct Odd knew what Ulrich was asking "Ulrich I didn't know what to say" responded Odd putting down his comic, "What even to us, to me your best friend" said Ulrich standing up turning to face him, "See this is why I was scared to tell you, you and everyone else would have a go at me" Said Odd standing up to face his friend with tears starting to form, "I got enough shit from my own family I don't need it from my friends because I felt uncomfortable inside my own body" said Odd as he stormed out of the room slamming the door behind him, Ulrich stood silence knowing he'd crossed a line, one he didn't know if it was possible to return across.
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Sitting outside in the sun before school started was Sissi and her group, in her hands she held a magazine, she was on a bench with Evelyn laying across it to annoy her with Adam next to her appearing not to pay any attention, Nicholas and Herb were standing behind her like the angel and devil on her shoulders, although neither of them filed the requirements,
"that article there" said Nicholas as he pointed towards a specific one, "A horrific Tragedy may explain the rumour that there's a ghost somewhere at Kadic academy, back in 1905 whilst the main building was under construction, one of the workers Leon Courbet is said to have been buried alive under the foundations" Said Sissi as she read the article, this cause Herb to squirm and shudder at the thought of being buried alive, "in the boiler room area to be precise" said Sissi as she finished the article, Nicholas chuckled and said "Now do you believe me", Herb however who was a sceptic looked at him and said "Get real", Evelyn didn't believe the story whatsoever but she looked up at her younger brother who developed a small grin, he stood up stretching and said "I've got some personal things to take care off", Evelyn was confused and decided to follow him as he walked away, "what're you planning" she asked as she grabbed his arm, "It was an interesting story" Said Adam as he grabbed one of his cigarettes "You don't believe in ghosts do you" asked Evelyn mockingly, Adam chuckled as he lit up and said "No but why don't we make a ghost story".
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The bell had rung and everyone had gone to class, Due to their argument Odd and Ulrich were sitting on opposite ends of the room away from each other
"Laura, 88," said Mrs Meyer as she hand-out the results of a the students most recent homework, "Gene, 87 great improvement" she said as she carried on down the room, "Elisabeth, a quadrilateral is not a quadrant you do later, 10" she said, this killed Sissi's happy mood and leaving many in disbelief at how stupid she could be, "Jeremie I deducted 2 points for the ketchup stains on your diagram 98" she said as she handed Jeremie is paper, Jeremie was slightly annoyed and looked at Odd thinking it was him, but Dallas tried to hide a guilty look knowing it was in fact his blood from the fixing of his arm, "Ulrich there's some good, but not enough to make up for what's bad" Said Mrs Meyer, Ulrich was disheartened as he'd put in a lot of effort, "Aelita, perfect score well done" said Mrs Meyer as Odd looked at his score of 54, he was happy with getting it when he felt a note getting passed to him, Sissi had made sure it was passed forward but in a case of crossed wires and because Ulrich had moved it ended up with Odd instead, he opened it and read it quietly to himself, "Meet me in the boiler room at midnight" he said, he blushed slightly, he believed it was a love letter.
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As class ended Adam sat out of sight with his phone in his hand as he dialled a number and held it to his head,
"Yeah it's me" he said then in more code he heard XANA respond, "I think it's time we moved forward with the next project" he said as he blew out some smoke, "Yeah Tonight, i wanna use it on a test run" he said then the response he got allowed for a grin, "Good, I'll place it in the furnace later" he added as he hung up.
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William sat half asleep in his chair, he'd been up all night trying to finish his homework and yet he'd still failed, he was struggling to get on board with balancing his school life and being one of the warriors, even though the others also struggled with it,
"Mr Dunbar" said Hertz as she slammed a ruler down so hard it was amazing that it didn't shatter against the desk, "if you're not going to pay attention here, you may end up having to do so later" she added angrily, William sat up straight in his chair, and as the teacher turned away Yumi began to chuckle, "how do you guys manage with the little sleep we get" whisper William, Yumi rolled her eyes, "I get less than you with this little guy" she said rubbing her belly, "can't wait for it to be out" she said sarcastically, Evelyn watched them from the back on the class room, she was confused as to what Adam was implying, he and XANA often kept her neglected from the planning stages of the attack, and she was getting annoyed by it, "Miss Scylla" said Hertz as she noticed Evelyn looking down for an extended period of time, "Jesus who put a stick up her ass" said Evelyn to herself, "care to repeat what I just said to the class" said an angry Hertz, Evelyn remained silent having not paid attention, "honestly students reach a certain age and then they no longer care about their education" said Hertz loudly to her class as she turned back to her chalk board.
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Later in the evening after class had ended and everyone had eaten, Jim was patrolling up and down the boys floor, after numerous incidents of people sneaking out to see some of the girls he'd decided to put his foot down,
"may I remind you that in the evening, Girls and Boys are prohibited from straying from their respective floors" Said Jim as he marched up and down the corridor like a solider whilst Kidd stood at the other end confused with his arms folded, the students shared the sentiment as they were forced to line up and stand outside there rooms, Odd and Ulrich were standing as far from each other as possible "now any of you who might be thinking of trying to pull anything, remember that the floors are different from each other, they are either upstairs from or downstairs from the one above" Added Jim leaving everyone else in the corridor confused as to what he said, whilst still managing to get the message he was conveying, "Girls are downstairs, and Boys are upstairs, comings and goings from upstairs to downstairs and downstairs to upstairs are strictly forbidden" said Jim, at this point everyone knew what he was saying, and they felt his ramblings on were unnecessary as Odd decided to yawn in the middle of his speech and this earned him Jim looking straight in his face and saying "if I every catch Anyone going from upstairs downstairs, or anyone going from upstairs to downstairs, he or she is really going to regret it stairs", Odd was a little shaken as Jim stood up straight and finished by saying "You have been warned", Dallas who had been bored senseless by the entire speech decided to quickly say "stairs" at the end of Jim's speech, this caused all the students to laugh and even a small chuckle from Kidd, but Jim's reaction was one of anger "Dismissed" he said angrily as he walked away.
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It was getting close to midnight and as Ulrich laid fast asleep having tired himself out from building the cot and having made barely anymore progress, Odd however was feigning sleep as he looked at the clock which now read 23:35, he moved his cover as he got ready for his romantic rendezvous in the basement, he grabbed his clothes and gave a quick and angry glance to the sleeping Ulrich, before walking quietly and slowly out of his room, avoiding the patrols of both Jim and Kidd he creaked his way down the stairs and into the basement corridor, he found the door to the boiler room and opened it saying
"I'm here my love…" then it dawned on him as he saw, Sissi standing there, with Nicholas and Herb sitting cross legged in a sloppily drawn pentagram which was surrounded by candles, "What… what're you doing here" asked Sissi in a shocked manner, "I got a note saying to be here" replied Odd who was just as confused, Sissi rolled her eyes and said "Never mind you'll have to do", she grabbed Odds arm, "This Odd is a temogram" she said, Herb quickly corrected her saying "Pentagram" but she failed to hear him, "thanks to this and my Pyscho powers, I'm going to conjure up the spirit of that poor Léon Courbet" said Sissi in a glorified self-fulfilling speech "I'm sure if we can communicate with him he can finally rest in peace" added Sissi, it took Odd a lot of will power not to break into laughter, "This I gotta see" said Odd holding it back, "okay now stand inside the Pentagon with me" Said Sissi as she was ready to begin the ceremony "Pentagram" said Herb who was again ignored, "we'll bring together our ping and pong energy, and summon up the dead man's ghost" Said Sissi, Odd finally started to laugh "you know I think you forgot the paddles" he said, but Sissi grabbed his arm and pulled him into the Pentagram, "And now let the ceremony begin" said Sissi, then Nicholas and Herb began to chant "'atlhqam qamDu' DechtaHvIS" over and over again, Sissi placed her hands together, "I summon you Leon Courbet" she said, and then sparks began to generate through the cables of the that hung over the boiler, before they entered it, the two stopped chanting as they stood up, Sissi believed that her ceremony had worked, a strange noise echoed throughout the room "Yes Leon" said Sissi, suddenly a silver like substance began to flow out of the furnace before taking a rough humanoid shape, it was smooth and lacking any form of texture, Nicholas and Herb ran away with the fears confirmed and their pants full, Sissi was also scared but she still had faith "don't step out of the Penteparon Odd, it'll protect us" she said, but as the silver man stepped closer it became clear, that the pentagram wasn't going to protect them, "Uhhh, Leon Courbet" said Sissi, but the creatures arms suddenly sharpened out, "That's not a ghost" said Odd as he grabbed Sissi's arm and pulled her towards the door, the silver man began to run at them and as Odd shut the door and the two started to move up the stairs, the man crashed through the doors causing it to disintegrate as it exploded open, Sissi screamed in absolute fear.
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The scream had awoken half the floor, and what didn't help was Nicholas and Herb had ran up and down the building screaming ghost, and with many younger students they'd started screaming and Panicking, Jim and Kidd walked up to the two and stopped them from running,
"I'll calm the children" said Kidd as he left Jim with the two bumbling friends, "What's this about some Ghost" said Jim angry at the massive disturbance, "I swear Jim its true" said Nicholas, Jim decided to be more calm with them "Okay you two calm down" he said, but Herb was still panicking "the ghost of Léon Courbet came after us in the boiler room Jim" he said, Jim was not happy and unzipped his jacket "If anyone's after you two it's a gym teacher in a tracksuit with a red pen that's going to give you both 4 hours of detention" he said, downstairs the Silver man was looking around and taking in its surroundings as it planned its next steps, Odd and Sissi had quickly snuck up to Odd's room "Sissi you better go back to your room" said Odd as he was about to step in, but she was shaking in her shoes and was barely able to speak "Don't leave me all by myself please" she said grabbing Odd's hand, Odd rolled his eyes and gave him placing his finger over his mouth and saying "SHHH" he then put Sissi into his room and shut the door, the shutting of the door, woke up Ulrich who upon seeing Sissi said "please tell me this is a reoccurring nightmare".
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In the Hallway Jim and Kid who'd managed to calm down most of the students were joined by Delmas and Father Mulcahy in the hallway as they wished to know what the disturbance was and the father wanted to reassure the students, Odd however had managed to sneak into Jeremie and Dallas's room, he moved to Jeremie and began shaking him,
"Jeremie" he said, Jeremie shuddered and woke up, "Jeremie I think XANA has just launched an attack" said Odd, Jeremie rubbed his eyes and said "My laptop" as he crawled to the end of his bed to retrieve it, Odd quickly nudged Dallas who shot forward "Wow what's with you" asked Odd, Dallas rubbed his head saying "weird dream, someone had killed their third victim by drowning them in their hot tub", both of them were confused, Jeremie looked at his laptop screen as the super scan was in progress, but the scan turned up negative, "Nope no activated tower" said Jeremie, Odd was now concerned "looks like we've got a real ghost on our hands then" he said worried, Jeremie looked over at him and asked "A what" then there was a scream from the corridor, "me and Sissi may have accidently summoned a ghost" said Odd, Dallas grabbed the Sawn off and rushed into the corridor, Ulrich, Sissi and William each left their rooms as they saw, Kidd unconscious against the wall, Delmas and Mulcahy on the floor and the silver man holding Jim up in the air with one hand whilst his other arm was sharpened like a massive knife, "Let go of me" said a Squirming Jim, Dallas raised the Sawn Off and fired a shot, with a loud metallic clank the man flinched and backed away with Jim falling to the floor unharmed.
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Odd had ran back into Jeremie's and Dallas's room to grab him his jacket and more bullets, the screams from students was almost defining as Dallas slid over to the injured staff members
"What was that" asked the Father as he looked at the Sawn off, "Rock salt" replied Dallas sarcastically, William ran over "Come on" he said as he began to drag Kidd away, Jim managed to stand up and move the father as Delmas moved on his own feet, Dallas fired another shot hitting the silver man, "What on earth is that thing" asked William, Dallas broke the gun and removed the spent shells "no idea but Sally Morgan and Derek Acorah" he said pointing at Sissi and Odd respectively "managed to summon it" he finished, then the silver man's other arm turned into a blade and it charged Dallas impaling him through the chest and tossing him aside with enough force to send him through the door, "Oh shit" said Ulrich as the warriors began to run away, the silver man who had been distracted by Dallas turned and looked at them before he began to walk in their direction.
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"We need to get the girls and head to the factory" said Jeremie, suddenly the silver man ran up to them and suddenly deformed into silver puddle with a large lump in it and then reformed and knocked Odd, William and Ulrich to the ground whilst Jeremie managed to keep running towards the stairs, the silver man moved to grab Ulrich, grabbing him by the leg and began to drag him towards the now sharpened arm, but William managed to stand up and grab the arm by its upper section and managed to hold it back, but the creature was slowly edging the arm forward, Odd tried to pull Ulrich free, but it was no use, "ODD HELP" Screamed Ulrich, Odd let go of Ulrich and grabbed the fire extinguisher and began to smack it into the arm of the silver man but all this did was dent the casing, suddenly it slightly discharged its coolant onto the arm of the creature, it suddenly flinched, "Odd keep doing that" said Ulrich, Odd grabbed the nozzle and began to empty the contents onto the creatures arm until it was frozen solid, Ulrich quickly jerked his leg and the arm shattered off leaving it detached but still wrapped around Ulrich's leg, the silver man stumbled back, William was knocked to the floor, the figure which was facing away from William deformed and reformed again facing him raised its bladed arm and went to strike William, Odd raised the Fire extinguisher but it was empty, William winced but suddenly the Silver man was grabbed by Dallas as he lifted him up and slammed him into the floor with enough force that the wooden floor was unable to take the impact and shattered beneath it falling into the floor beneath them and again until it hit the concrete ground, "Are you okay" asked Dallas as he looked at William, "better than you look" said William as he looked at the massive hole in Dallas's chest skin where he'd been impaled along with some skin missing from his head.
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The faculty and Sissi whilst being a mixture of scared and confused had decided to not hang around in the corridor and after hearing the loud bang from the silver mans impact they'd decided to rush downstairs to see what had happened, the silver figure laid on the ground missing its arm from the elbow down, it was suddenly on its feet by deforming into the puddle before reforming on its feet, however now its shape and figure was slightly different, its body looked less toned and overall it appeared slightly shorter, whilst in there room Aelita and Yumi had been awoken by the initial panic but were half asleep but then the loud roar of the sawn off had shocked them out of the slumbered state,
"Do you really think that was Dallas" asked Aelita as she began to shake in Yumi's arms, the older of the two began to rub Aelita's head to calm her "I think so, XANA has never favoured guns" said Yumi, although she knew that information was only to her knowledge, suddenly Jeremie burst through the door out of breath, "Aelita… Yumi" he said huffing and puffing from the lack of air in his lungs, Aelita stood up and rushed over helping him onto the bed, whilst downstairs Dallas and William moved over to Ulrich as the hand of the silver figure remained in a frozen state around Ulrich's ankle, "Odd what was that" asked William as he knelt down to pick up the fire extinguisher, "Could you get this bloody thing off its freezing" asked Ulrich as he was shivering from the contact of the cold arm, Dallas grabbed it and pulled it, the fingers snapped and fell to the ground as Dallas held up the rest of the arm, "since when could a spectre mould its body like that" asked Odd as he looked around to make sure it wasn't going to return anytime soon, "a what" asked William confused as he'd never dealt with a spectre before, although he'd been duped by one, "it's like a false human that XANA controls" said Ulrich as he stood up, "it's no spectre" said Dallas as he stomped on the fingers cause them to shatter.
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Jeremie managed to regain his breath as he sat down next to the girls, Aelita had managed to forget her own fears out of concern for her best friend, Yumi held her belly in her hands as she was getting concerned,
"XANA has launched an attack, its some strange Ghost like creature" said Jeremie as he stood up "It attacked the rest of us, and that's what the gunshot was, Dallas tried disabling it" he added, Yumi was sceptical however, "a spectre, why would XANA use such a basic attack when we know how to stop them before we even get to Lyoko" she asked, Jeremie shrugged his shoulders and replied "I have no idea, the scan couldn't pick up anything, so I'm gonna…" but he was suddenly interrupted as the floor suddenly exploded upwards in a storm of shattered wood as the silver figure emerged with its arms turned into hooked blades, the girls screamed with Yumi backing against the wall and Aelita on the floor as it looked down to see Jeremie who had been knocked during its entrance and it raised its arm ready to stab him when suddenly there was another gunshot as its head exploded wide open and the window behind it shattering, the silver figure stumbled "RUN" shouted Odd as William and Ulrich moved to grab Jeremie, Aelita and Yumi, "that should stop it right" asked Yumi as she had her arm around Ulrich's shoulder, Dallas broke the shot gun and emptied the spent shells "It's not a spectre its made of metal" said Dallas, the Silver figures head then reformed and it looked at him, "Go" said Dallas as he grabbed the door, the warriors began to run down the corridor, Jeremie stopped as Dallas held the door shut, but the again sharpened appendages of the figure pierced through the door and Dallas as he stood against it, he looked down at it, "DALLAS" screamed Jeremie causing the others to stop and look back, Jeremie grabbed the gun and began to bash the blade, doing barely an damage or effect, Dallas Grabbed it with his free arm and pulled as hard as he could, he sliced up the skin but managed to snap off the blade, "Got it, you son of a…" started Jeremie but then the blade suddenly disintegrated into a goo substance that dropped to the floor, "No time to hang around" said Dallas as he scooped up Jeremie and the warriors carried on moving.
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The main group of the warriors rushed through the corridor, although it was difficult, the two gunshots had caused a cavalcade of panic, the students were in the corridors, emotions ranged from scared to strange calmness, students were either sitting down in a group shaking or running around, a few were even looking through the shattered floor wondering what had happened, Millie and Tamiya had their reporter instincts and were filming everything,
"No way we can cover this up" said William as the 5 warriors moved through the crowd, Ulrich moved back to help Yumi with her belly it was difficult to move quick enough, "You okay" he asked getting worried, she smiled and brushed back her long hair as she'd forgot to tie some of it back, "Yeah I'm used to the unexpected at this point" she said trying to remain calm and positive, but the stress was getting to her, the crowded corridor was starting to make her feel claustrophobic, and the loud voices were making her panic, "Come on we're nearly out of the building" said Aelita as she shuffled around the hole in the floor, William stood at the door at the end keeping an eye out, "We're clear" he shouted back at them as Odd and Aelita rushed through first, then Yumi and Ulrich bringing up the rear.
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The silver creature looked around its size had once again shrunk and was again more thin than before, it suddenly deformed into the gooey puddle and dropped through the hole in the floor and into the room below, whilst outside the building the warriors had all regrouped and were running towards the forest, the creature moved into the clearing and began to run towards the warriors, it's movement was unnatural, as whilst it was running at an incredible speed it looked like it was barely jogging,
"Behind us" said Odd as he raised his arm firing one of his bolts, but the bolt struck the silver warrior, and then dropped out as the section it struck liquefied before reforming again, "nothing can stop this thing" said William as the group reached the hatch, he quickly grabbed it and began to move it, Dallas quickly raised the sawn off "Shoot the head" said Ulrich as he helped Yumi down the ladder, Dallas however thought for a second and lowered his aim pulling both triggers and firing both shells, the leg of the silver creature suddenly detached and everything that detached suddenly turned to go and the creature was thrown to the floor, "Fuckin A" said Dallas, but the creature had a few more tricks up its sleeves, as its arms once again turned into the hooked blades and began to crawl towards them, "Get down the Hatch Hurry" said Jeremie, William seeing the creature quickly grabbed Jeremie and said "Super smoke" the two disappeared, Dallas fumbled around as he reloaded, managing to get one shell in, he flicked the gun back forward, he was then tripped up by the creature, and he fell to the floor, Dallas reached for the Sawn Off, but the creature used one of its hooks and forced his arm away, Ulrich suddenly emerged back from the hatch, "DALLAS" he shouted, the creature looked up, Ulrich then slid the gun towards Dallas who grabbed it and fired the shell into the creatures head, it exploded backwards sending it goo over a short distance, Dallas threw the motionless body off of him, "Are you okay" asked Ulrich as he helped Dallas up, "Yeah, at least that things dead" he said, but he spoke too soon as the head began to slowly reform from what was left of the main body, "down the hatch" asked Ulrich, Dallas nodded and motioned for them to move, Ulrich went down first and Dallas followed closing it behind him, before padlocking it "If I'm right this should buy us some time" he said before carrying on behind the others.
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The Creature's head reformed and it then used some of its body mass to reform its leg, but it took a moment to examine itself to see it was now a shadow of its former self and it moved back towards the pile of goo that was its leg and placed its foot into it, the pile of goo began to return towards the main body and it again began to bulk out, satisfied it returned towards the manhole cover and suddenly extended its arms into the hooks and tried moving the cover, but as it tried the cover would only budge, but wouldn't come free, it then deformed into the goo and tried to slime its way through the thin gaps, but the small pile in the goo wouldn't go through and it exited the gap and reforming again before turning and running towards the main road, leaving any of the students who saw screaming and terrified except a few who were stunned by the strange creature they laid their eyes on as it,
"What the hell is that thing" asked Nicholas as he rubbed his eyes, Herb pushed his glasses up, "Doesn't look like any ghost to me" he responded, he rubbed his chin saying "from the loud pinging noise, I'd say it's a kind of liquid metal" said Herb with a smile "I know I'm shit for brains but that's the stupidest thing I ever heard" said Nicholas looking at his friend.
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Ulrich and Dallas entered the lab, the others who'd been there for some time looked as the door open, Yumi moved towards Ulrich hugging him,
"What took you so long" she asked worried, Dallas moved towards Jeremie saying "splitting headache" as he hunched over looking at the screen, "no activated towers" he asked in a slightly annoyed tone, Jeremie activated the scan "Do you see one" responded Jeremie, Dallas shook his head in disbelief as it failed to locate one, "what're we gonna do" asked Odd as he stepped forward, the others got scared as Aelita moved towards Ulrich and Yumi joining their hug for comfort, Dallas and Jeremie looked at each other, "You're not serious are you" said Jeremie reading Dallas's look, Jeremie turned towards the others, "Guys head to the scanner room, we'll have to manually locate the tower" Said Jeremie, the others were confused "You want to be left defenceless" said William as he stood forward but his words were silenced as Dallas loaded the 1887, "I'm gonna blow that thing into puddles of sludge" he said as he finished hot loading the weapon, "You haven't been able to stop it thus far, plus its stopped you at least once" said William as he stepped forward in frustration, "I'll stay behind to help him" said Ulrich, Yumi started to tremble, "it's too dangerous" said Odd, but Ulrich didn't acknowledge him, "You're gonna need every bit of help you can get" said Ulrich, Dallas nodded and handed him the sawn off and the remaining bullets he had in the box, "Use them sparingly" he said, Jeremie turned back towards the screen, "Okay here's the game plan" said Jeremie as he loaded the Holo map showing all 5 sectors "Odd, you search each sector to try and locate the activated tower, William, Aelita and Yumi, go to sector 5 to try and fix the super scan, we'll retaliate on two fronts" said Jeremie as he began typing again.
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William, Aelita, Odd and Yumi stood in front of a scanner each, Jeremie rapidly typed locking the elevator before switching to the virtualization program,
"I'll Launch the process" said Jeremie as he quickly typed selecting the virtual avatars, "Transfer Aelita, Transfer William, Transfer Yumi, Transfer Odd" he added as the four began to spin and rise, "Scanner Aelita, Scanner William, Scanner Yumi, Scanner Odd" said Jeremie as he finished the code "Virtualization" he said as he hit enter blasting them with air and sending them to Lyoko, their blue square outlines appeared gaining details and dropping to the ground, "Nice to see you without you Pyjamas on" said Yumi as she stood up looking at Williams outfit "Nice of you to notice" said Odd, not realising that she wasn't talking to him, he brushed through his hair before he realised, "Jeremie I'm gonna need a…" started Odd before the Over-Board started to appear, "Okay forget it" he said before jumping on and taking to the air waving back and saying "Later" as the other stood and watched him, "He enjoys this way too much sometimes" said William as he rolled his eyes, "What and you don't" replied Aelita sarcastically, "Vehicles coming up" said Jeremie as the Over-Wing and the Over-Bike appeared, William could faintly hear Ulrich shout "Don't scratch my bike", he just chuckled as he mounted the cycle and began revving the engine, Yumi and Aelita boarded the Over-Wing and the two vehicles shot off towards the edge of the sector, unbeknownst to them was Evelyn was watching them from atop of a dune, she grinned as she jumped down.
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Dallas and Ulrich sat near the hatch looking up, their guns sat next to them within arm's reach, ready to grab them at the sound of any trouble, suddenly there was a small whistle, Dallas stood up aiming his riffle, Ulrich grabbed his leg,
"Relax, you're getting paranoid" said Ulrich, Dallas sat back down replying "I find you live much longer that way", Jeremie watched the map as the main group reached the edge of the sector, the vehicles came to halt as they dismounted "can you bring up the transporter Jeremie" said Yumi, William looked back at the empty horizon behind them, he was getting jumpy at the almost too quiet atmosphere, Aelita turned and placed her hand on his shoulder, "It's on the way" Said Jeremie as he typed in Scipio, the sphere suddenly arose from the digital sea before opening and absorbing the three warriors, they were suddenly transported towards the centre of Lyoko, Sector 5, the sphere appeared inside the dome at the centre, it opened up releasing them before disappearing again, Yumi grabbed her stomach feeling slightly woozy, "Jeremie are you sure I don't have an embryo here" she asked half-jokingly, then the wall opened up followed by Jeremie saying "The Countdown has started, you only have 3 minutes to find the key", The three quickly ran out of the room with William taking the lead, with Aelita in the middle and Yumi bringing up the rear, they ran forward as the wall opened in front of them.
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Back in the lab, Dallas and Ulrich were now pacing back and forth, then they heard another noise coming from the hatch, Dallas quickly moved towards the corridor and rushed up the ladder, he raised the riffle,
"Nothing" he said as he lowered the riffle, but then suddenly through the cracks between the elevator door the goo began to slide through before solidifying and then splitting and moving them apart for the rest of the goo to slide through including the small lump, before forming back into the metal figure, "DALLAS" screamed Jeremie as its arm formed into a blade and swung towards him, Dallas ran back and jumped down, Jeremie fell out of his chair as the creature swung its arm with enough force to remove the top of the chair, Ulrich raised the Sawn off and fired, he struck the shoulder creating a loud pinging noise and sending some of the goo onto the floor, Dallas raised his riffle and fired several shells into the creature, pulling the lever down chambering each bullet, the pinging noises continued to ring as the creature was thrown back and Ulrich helped Jeremie get clear, pieces of Goo were flung to the floor, then Dallas's heard a clicking noise "Oh Bollocks" he said, Ulrich and Odd moved towards the Ladder and began ascending as quick as they could, Dallas followed after them having gained some time as the creature had decided to reabsorb the goo, "The Desert looks Normal" Said Odd as he finished checking the towers, but his words went unanswered, however he didn't think much of it as he darted around to move towards the way tower.
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Jeremie, Dallas and Ulrich had ran into one of the empty machine rooms of the factory, Dallas was reloading the Riffle as fast as he could, the creature was keeping pace with them,
"Can't shake him" said Jeremie as he was beginning to run out of breath being athletic like the others "It'll just catch us" Added Jeremie, Dallas quickly picked him up and turned firing the riffle before flicking it forward chambering another bullet, the shell struck the creature in the chest, knocking a small amount of goo from it "Got any better ideas" asked Ulrich as the creature stopped to absorb the goo again before resuming chase.
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Aelita, William and Yumi ran out of the corridor into a massive open room, there was nothing of immediate threat, no monsters, no hazardous terrain, William broke the silence
"this doesn't look good" he said stating the obvious, the three looked around trying to locate any sign of danger or the key, then Aelita pointed forward "I see the key" she said as it sat across them at the other end of the room, The Three quickly ran forward before stopping upon heading a grinding noise, "Too good to be true" said Yumi, suddenly the floor began to shift and raise whilst other small sections would lower or raise to varying different heights, "HANG ON" Shouted William as his platform raised to a lower height than Aelita and Yumi, "Lookout" said Aelita as she turned around to see Yumi almost fall as their platform separated, Aelita quickly grabbed Yumi's back and managed to pull her back up, "ARE YOU OKAY" shouted William as he looked up at the girls, "Should be" said Aelita back with her words echoing through the room.
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Odd quickly darted towards the Way tower, passing through the wall without even an ounce of slowdown he quickly descended before reaching the point where he was now ascending and exited the tower into the Forest sector darting outwards at an incredible speed towards the next tower, whilst back in sector 5, Yumi and Aelita were hoping from platform to platform, trying to get closer to the key, Yumi made it onto one, but it suddenly began to raise, Aelita quickly ran up and jumped but she was unable to make a landing and barely gripping on with her finger tips,
"Yumi" she said as she began to slip, but Yumi reacted quickly enough and grabbed hold of Aelita's arms and began to pull her up, the two were exhausted from all the hoping about, "ARE YOU TWO OKAY" shouted William as he stood at the bottom of the platform, "YEAH WE'RE FINE" Yelled back Yumi as it echoed through the room, then the two girls noticed that the floor had raised itself up to a point that the floor below along with William were nearly invisible, "Jeremie how much time do we have" Asked Aelita, but there was no one in the factory to hear her question, "Jeremie" said Aelita starting to panic, William who wasn't hearing yelled out himself "Jeremie are you there" he said, but then he turned around to see Adam walking towards him clapping, "I believe it's a dead line" said Adam with a laugh, "You son of a bitch" Said William as he held his sword forward and charged Adam grinned and quickly side stepped, William missed and swung with his sword again but Adam quickly dodged the cumbersome sword, "funny I'm used to a challenge" said Adam mockingly, William lunged forward again, Adam side stepped again and kicked William in the legs knocking him down, "you're trying to be someone you could never be" added Adam, this got under Williams skin as he jumped up and swung his sword down, this got closer as Adam had less time to move and barely dodge the swing, he drew his own sword during the dodge, "Makes me miss the challenge that Dallas presented" Added Adam, William got really angry as he swung his sword and just as he was about to hit Adam, the later dodged, but William shouted "SUPERSMOKE" and he disappeared and a split second later, he reappeared behind Adam grabbing him from behind and pinning him down with his head off the platform, Adam struggled and tried fighting back by grabbing Williams neck, "Finally a challenge from you" he said with a chuckle, William then noticed one of the platforms raising towards the two, "Heads up you bastard" he said as he waited until the last second before letting go, Adam didn't realise what he meant until he heard the grinding noise and he was decapitated the platform, his body devirtulized as William grabbed his sword.
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Higher up in the room, atop of the raised platform, Yumi and Aelita heard a strange noise, the two looked at each other having given up on trying to contact Jeremie, and they decided to look down only to see 4 creepers climbing up the sides of the platform, one per side,
"This is getting creepy" said Yumi as she drew her fans ready for them, "Shit, that's all we needed" she added, Aelita began to get worried as they were effectively cornered, whilst in the forest sector Odd came across another unactivated tower and had gone through each tower in the sector, "crap, still no activated tower" he said before looping around and heading towards the way tower, back in sector 5 Yumi threw one of her fans, it just missed one of the creepers and in retaliation it fired a laser at her and in turn it missed, Yumi grabbed her returning fan, "I Must be jinxed" said Yumi as she packed away her weapons, "Wait I have an idea" said Aelita as she dropped to her knees, a small levitating pad began to appear, whilst behind her one of the creepers began to emerge into view, "Aelita" said Yumi, but before the creature could climb up suddenly William appeared in a puff of super smoke with his sword raised above his head screaming as he dropped down, his blade sliced through the creature and then into the platform itself, "William" said Aelita as she stood up, but he yelled towards them "Go on ahead I'll hold them off", Yumi and Aelita jumped onto the pad as the Creatures turned their attention towards William, One of the creepers fired at William, it hit his hand and he lost grip with it, "Shit" he said as he quickly grabbed it again, as the creature began to swing on the sword handle before letting go and flipping onto the nearest creeper, the creature flinched as he grabbed onto its neck he then turned it as far as he could trying to divert its laser towards one of the other creatures, as this was happening Yumi quickly placed her hands on her head and started to move the small pad began to move forward towards the Key, the pad stopped as Yumi drew her fans to block any lasers fired by any Creepers that weren't distracted By William, she then continued to move the pad, but before Aelita could press the key the timer ran out, Aelita pressed the button but nothing happened, William looked around before shouting "ISN'T SOMETHING MEANT TO HAPPEN" towards the two girls, then the two girls realised that they'd taken too long, they turned around as the laser fire was increased, "We've gotta get out of here" said Aelita, Yumi quickly placed her hands on her head and began to move the pad towards the other side of the room, "careful" said Aelita as she realised that Yumi was getting close to exhausting herself, William watched as the pad moved and as it got close, he quickly climbed onto the Creepers head and jumping off and landing on the Pad, "William" said Aelita as he looked back.
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Back in the factory, Jeremie, Dallas and Ulrich moved into the old control room having been chased across the factory, the creature was still in hot pursuit, Dallas put Jeremie down,
"Keep moving I'll hold this bastard off" he said as he Raised the riffle, Jeremie stood up and ran to him, "It'll kill you" he said but Ulrich tugged on Jeremie's shirt saying "It won't be the first time", Ulrich and Jeremie ran off into the next room, the Figure followed into the control room but was met with a hail of gun fire as Dallas unloaded every shell into the creature, due to the quick ferocity of the shots, he didn't have time to aim and mainly struck the chest area, the creature looked at the damage but still moved towards Dallas, hearing the clicking noise from his riffle Dallas threw it down and went to punch the creature, but predicting his movement the silver figure turned its arm into a blade and extended it slicing into the side of Dallas's face leaving his cheek area exposed, it then morphed its other arm and impaled him through the stomach region before dropping him to the ground, Dallas looked up almost unfazed by the injury and charged at the creature pinning it to the wall, but it suddenly and rapidly deformed and reformed facing him and head butting Dallas knocking him away before it dropped down and sliced off his arm and kicking him away knocking him out.
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In the Ice Sector Odd was traveling as fast as he could when he spotted a Tarantula walking by itself, Odd smiled as he realised what this meant,
"Where there's Smoke" he said as he circled around and began to slowly follow it into an ice canyon, whilst back in sector 5 Yumi's over use of her Telekinesis was catching up with her as she was falling behind Aelita and William as the wall quickly closed up behind them, William and Aelita exited into the dome, the later turned around and called out "Yumi" but the wall closed too quickly crushing and devirtulizing Yumi, only her arm made it through, "Jeremie we didn't get the key, its just me and William" said Aelita, but there was no response and William looked up "Jeremie come on dude" he said, but again there was no answer.
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Jeremie and Ulrich had run out of space and were now effectively cornered in the power room, the two were crouched behind an over turned desk, the silver figure walked into the room slowly looking around trying to locate them,
"Any Ideas" whispered Ulrich, Jeremie looked around close to panicking then he spotted a couple of cables, "Just one" he said, then the Silver warriors blade slice down the desk between them scratching Jeremie's Arm causing him to scream as the figure shoved the two halves of the desk away, Ulrich quickly dived for the Cables and the creature had decided he was the bigger target and followed him, Ulrich took one of the cables and stabbed it into the figures leg, before standing up and forcing the second into its neck, sparks exploded from the creature as it began to struggle to keep its shape and its forms began to change between each of the warriors each a silver figure lacking any detail, "Quick" said Jeremie as he grabbed his bleeding arm, he stood up and ran to the door followed by Ulrich as the creature stood consumed in sparks.
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Odd rode out of the canyon to see the tower at the centre of an opening, several Tarantulas guarded it with Evelyn standing and watching Odd, the Tarantulas opened fired at Odd, but he managed to dodge there shots, he quickly dropped close to the floor to go in for an attack, but Evelyn quickly ran up and two footed lunged him off of the overboard he landed on the floor and before he could react she pulled her musket and pulled the trigger as she uttered the words
"Pathetic" as Odd Devirtulized on the ground, Odd collapsed out of his tower, the first thing he noticed was Yumi as she was laying on the floor unconscious, he was worried as he ran over to check her, then he rushed to the ladder and climbed up into the computer room, inside the dome William kept pounding against the wall, "Jeremie" said Aelita trying to reach him then she heard a noise, and turned around to see the Scyphozoa behind them, William turned to see it and went to draw his sword but he remembered he'd lost it, Aelita started to back away as the squid like creature reached forward but William dived forward pushing the two of them under the creature and giving them more space to run, "Jeremie" said Aelita again as she and William ran away, Odd looked around the computer room "Jeremie, Ulrich" he said noticing the room was ready then he heard Aelita call out "Jeremie" and he rushed over to the computer and sat down, "oh man how does this thing work" said Odd as he put the ear piece in, he then pressed a random button and a news window opened up, "well Franz Ungelbert has done it again, his third straight Title what a champ, he's amazing" said the newscaster, Odd was stunned "Wow he even has tv on his computer" he said to himself, "Jeremie" said Aelita again, Odd quickly panicked and said "No its Odd" William looked back at the Scyphozoa "Odd help" he said, Aelita was starting to run out of breath "Odd type in Scipio Quick" she said, Odd looked at the keyboard like it was a book in a different language, "I'd love to but… how" asked Odd, Aelita quickly responded "Second window on the right", followed by William shouting "HURRY", Odd quickly started typing and said " O" and hit enter, as the Scyphozoa was about to get Aelita the transport sphere suddenly descended and absorbed the two leaving the creature without a victim, "Aelita, William I found the activated tower in the north west area of the Ice Sector" said Odd as he sat down calm for the minute, "Okay we'll go, but where's Jeremie Or Ulrich" responded Aelita, Odd was just as confused as Aelita and William "Uhh I have no idea I'll go and look for them" said Odd as he got out of the chair.
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Upstairs in the factory, Jeremie and Ulrich had found Dallas and were now struggling to carry the half conscious cyborg away from where the Silver figure was, however the creature had managed to get out of the trap that Ulrich had set and was now gaining on them,
"This thing won't give up" said Jeremie as stopped and grabbed his arm in great pain, on Lyoko the Transport sphere thanks to Evelyn's Influence at great pain of her own forced the transport to arrive in front of the tower, "Great" said William as he looked at the threat, "Aelita I'll distract them" he added, Aelita was about to stop him but William had already ran forward towards Evelyn, She went to raise her musket as he yelled "Super smoke" he disappeared into his cloud of smoke and moved towards Evelyn, the two Tarantulas with her opened fire trying to hit the smoke but they struggled to even get a close hit, Evelyn was nearly hit by the Tarantula fire and in a fit of anger she fired her Musket at one destroying it, and William seized his opportunity and reappeared and whilst Evelyn was distracted he threw a punch that landed into her side, she turned to hit him but William quickly ducked and threw another punched knocking her back, "Right" said Aelita as she quickly decided to run forward and as the other Tarantula turned around to strike her but it had been distracted for far too long and she passed into the tower, "Yes" said William slipping up and allowing Evelyn enough time to draw her sword and slice through William devirtulizing him, Aelita quickly arose to the top platform and placed her hand on the screen the word AELITA typed out followed by CODE LYOKO and the tower deactivated.
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However this didn't do much to help Dallas, Jeremie or Ulrich as the Figure was still moving towards them but suddenly it stopped and temporarily collapsed as it deformed into a blob of metal before reforming and moving towards them again,
"What the hell" asked Jeremie, Dallas looked at the Sawn Off and grabbed it from Ulrich "Is there still a bullet" he asked, Ulrich nodded as Dallas stumbled forward and as the figure charged towards them he pulled the trigger, with a pinging noise the head of the figure was launched from the body, the rest turned to goo as the head landed near the other two who stepped away, "What the fuck is this thing" asked Jeremie as he knelt down to look at it, the head was still vibrating as it tried to move but Dallas didn't care to find out as he picked it up and dropped it down the elevator shaft, "what about the rest of it" asked Ulrich, Dallas looked back saying "I doubt it's of any harm".
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Some time passed, and the warriors had regrouped in the computer room, they'd had no more trouble from the silver figure, Ulrich was hugging Yumi up against the wall, Dallas placed the still frozen hand of the Figure on the floor
"So what the fuck is it" asked William as he crouched down looking at it, "I have no idea whatever it is, it was like metal" said Jeremie, Dallas shook his head, "It was when all together but as soon as a bit separated it was like a goo substance" he responded before looking up at Jeremie, Aelita placed her hand on Jeremie's shoulder and said "I think we should launch a return to the past", Jeremie looked back at her and smiled feeling her touch.
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Authors Note:
Thanks for reading guys I originally went into this chapter thinking not much to change in this one just add, Dallas, William, Adam and Evelyn but I think about halfway through the watching of the episode so I had an idea of what I wanted to do, I realised hey why not bring forward the launch of a monster I'd been planning to introduce and this one is going to have a big role much, much, much later, also the line about the third victim being drowned in a hot tub, that was actually an original line before it was changed in the actual episode, the news reporter was originally meant to report on a serial killer, but they changed it to a sports report.