Chapter 8:

How to Fool XANA

If there was one thing Odd was known for, it was having his head in the clouds. He was always thinking about a video game-related project or a new fling, but never about what was right under his nose. That's why, as he walked through the corridors, he didn't realize that he had stepped on Sissi like someone stepping on chewing gum.

"My foot!" she exclaimed annoyed. "Can't you be more careful?"

"Sorry Sissi, I had forgotten that you have such big feet!"

Sissi held back a swear word. How did Odd manage to date so many girls while being such a first-rate prick?

"You idiot!"

The girl glared at him and left, leaving Odd in the company of Jeremy, Aelita and Ulrich, who had just arrived.

"As lousy as usual..." Odd commented, but Jeremy shook his head.

"Don't forget she's our friend now, we're supposed to be nice to her"

"I won't tolerate her for long. XANA is child's play compared to her"

Aelita and Ulrich held back a laugh and they all went to the park together. To see what today's plan was.

"So, what's the subject of today's conference?" asked William.

They were on one of the park benches, with the whole gang, including Selina, gathered to see what Jeremy's new plan was.

"You're going to like it. It's How to fool XANA" explained Jeremy, elated. "You know that X.A.N.A. tries its best to take back the source codes it implanted into you"

Ulrich snorted. He didn't need to be reminded. Although it had been a couple of months since that run-in with one of the specters sent by XANA, the memory of the feeling of weakness that had come over him when the specter had touched him was still fresh in his mind.

"Difficult to forget that"

Jeremy ignored his sarcasm and asked the question he was sure was going to make his friends to flip their their lids.

"What would happen if XANA got fake codes?"

William frowned, not knowing what he was getting at, but Ulrich caught the idea on the fly.

"You're going to implant some codes into us that would be useless if X.A.N.A. steals them, right?"

"Exactly. With these fake codes, XANA wouldn't gain any power. It could even lose some"

"But what would be the effects on us?" asked Yumi.

"That's the problem. I don't have any idea. It may be dangerous" he looked at his friends "So? Will anyone volunteer to risk their life?"

That was the virtual equivalent of Who's going to bell the cat? Ulrich shook his head.

"Said like that, it looks quite appealing..."

"I can do it" suggested Aelita

"No, I need you in the lab" Selina snorted. Not at all, what you want is for your girlfriend to be safe. "But if you really want, I could ask Selina for help"

Aelita shook her head, and Odd held up his hands like Sorry, but I'm not available.

"Sorry, I pass this time. I planned to make up with Samantha today"

Yumi sighed. She didn't feel like putting on potentially dangerous fake codes, but if there was no other choice...

"In that case I can..."

"No!" Ulrich shouted, cutting her off. "That's not okay, I'll do it"

"Are you sure?" asked Jeremy.

"Yeah. Yeah. You can count on me"

Yumi, realizing the reason for his sudden change of heart did her best to hold back the smile that threatened to break out. But Selina, knowing what was going on, burst out laughing.

"Aw, how beautiful is love!"

Yumi and Ulrich landed in the Desert sector and ran towards the newly materialized Overbike. Ulrich did his best to hide the nerves he felt. The first time Jeremy had used him as a guinea pig, it had ended in disaster, but he was willing to take the risk again if it meant Yumi would be safe.

"The way tower is to the north" said Jeremy. "Be careful"

"Got it, Jeremy. We'll call you back"

Yumi looked around, bewildered by the tranquility that radiated from the desert.

"It looks quiet"

"A little bit too much for my taste" Ulrich replied as he hopped on the Overbike, with Yumi as passenger.

The Overbike shot off across the endless ochre and gold expanses of the desert landscape. Leaning on the boy's back, Yumi asked the question that had been gnawing at her since they arrived at the factory.

"Say, why did you volunteer instead of letting me?"

Ulrich almost lost control of the Overbike and crashed into the rocks. His brain began to work frantically trying to find an excuse.

"Welll... I didn't know... It seemed... normal to me"

"Were you worried about me?"

"No!" he shouted too fast. "I mean... Yes. Well, not really. It's only that... In fact I didn't want you to touch any specter"

The girl smiled. She didn't believe anything he had just said, and she wasn't going to miss the opportunity to tease him.

"You know Ulrich, the fake codes may not have any effect on us"

Ulrich caught the joke and held back a smile.

"You're kidding! Einstein would have told us. He just shut his mouth instead"

"Hey, both of you!" Jeremy exclaimed, pissed off "I can hear you!"

Shortly after Jeremy's retort, they arrived at the passage tower. They got off the Overbike and headed towards the tower, but a shriek startled them. Two crabs were walking between the rock pillars, seemingly oblivious to their presence. Ulrich wanted to unwrap his katanas and plunge them into the monsters' shells, but Yumi stopped him.

"Wait. We didn't come here to fight, the mission is our priority"

"Precisely" snarled the boy, stepping closer until their faces were an inch apart. "If those Krabs shoot at us, the mission will be a failure!"

"But if you fight them" she warned, jabbing a finger in his chest. "I tell you they're going to shoot at you!"

They were about to murder each other with the perfect distance for a kiss, but Jeremy's voice cut them off short.

"Ulrich, listen to the lady. She's right"

"Alright" he said with a mocking singsong voice. "I will enter"

"Ulrich, I..."

The brunette turned and gave her a confident smile.

"See you"

"Good luck" whispered softly.

Ulrich entered the tower and was on the upper platform in no time. He walked to the center of the platform and put his hand on the screen.

"Jeremy? I'm ready. You can send them"

Jeremy took a deep breath and started working, while Aelita studied the codes, then sent them to him. It was now or never.

"Imagine if he turns into a dark Ulrich?" Odd blurted out, half seriously, half jokingly.

Selina looked at him in amazement. She liked Odd well enough, he was like the annoying but cool brother she never had, but he just never knew when to shut up.

"Odd, you're not funny..." snarled William.

Jeremy disregarded off-color remarks and injected the fake codes into Ulrich. At first everything was going well, but suddenly an alarm went off on the Supercomputer screen.

"What's going on?" Aelita muttered as she looked at the screen of her laptop and saw strange source codes.

"Drat, there's a bug!"

Yumi, frightened, watched as the tower where Ulrich was standing turned an eerie shade of red and shook like a blender. What the hell was going on?

"Jeremy?"

In the lab, Jeremy and Aelita worked frantically to correct the problem so that Ulrich would not vanish or return to the real world as a full-blown psycho.

"You were given a 128, 432 and 506" Jeremy explained to Aelita

"Wait, not so fast. 432 and what?"

"506. We need to reconfigure the random components" he typed in some codes, but almost let out a swear word when he saw that the virus seemed immune to his tricks. "This is not working!"

Suddenly, the red alarms disappeared from the computer screen, and a program began to load. Jeremy looked at Aelita, puzzled.

"What did you do?"

Aelita shrugged.

"What you told me"

That "what you told me" could mean many things and some of them not good. Concerned, Jeremy tried to contact Ulrich.

"Ulrich? Ulrich? Are you okay?"

Ulrich didn't respond. With a leap, he jumped out of the tower and unsheathed his katanas, apparently ready to attack Yumi. The girl pulled out her fans, but just at that moment the brunette opened his eyes and burst out laughing.

"Boo! Ha ha! If you could see the look on your face!"

"You're so stupid!" she shouted angrily as they materialized back on Earth.

"So, everything is in order" Jeremy said once Ulrich and Yumi arrived at the lab. "The fake codes have been implanted"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. This time Jeremy's experiment had gone off without a hitch. Aelita looked curiously at Ulrich.

"How do you feel?"

Ulrich shrugged.

"Normal"

"Now all we need to do is wait" Jeremy sentenced. "If XANA sends us a Spectre, it will have a big surprise"

When Yumi, Odd and Ulrich returned to school, they each went off on their own. Odd to his date with Samantha, and Yumi and Ulrich to one of the benches in the courtyard, to rest a bit and just hang out together. That afternoon, sunny and calm, invited to sit on a bench, have a snack and generally enjoy being outdoors.

Meanwhile, Sissi was walking down the hallway typing on her cell phone as fast as her fingers would allow, when she suddenly bumped into a unknown boy.

"Hey, you! Do you need some glasses of what?"

The boy smirked and his eyes shone with a strange bluish glow. Sissi felt that her neurons were unable to synapse. She tried to open her mouth, but could barely form monosyllables. She was hypnotized.

Walking past Sissi's gawking smile, the specter continued its way. After such a long time without being able to attack because of that redhaired girl, that day he was ready to feast on source code.

In the lab, William was preparing for his history exam while Selina worked on her computer. She had so many thoughts in her head that she didn't know where to start. While she had taken a huge weight off her shoulders by confessing the truth to her friends, she now had a big mystery to solve: was she really her parents' daughter, or had XANA kidnapped her when she was two years old?

She was starting to search through the hospital records where she had the surgery, when the beeping of the Holomap startled her.

"Hey, an activated tower in the Desert sector" exclaimed Jeremy. "I'll launch the visualizer"

While Jeremy was trying to figure out what the specter looked like, Aelita picked up her cell phone and called Ulrich. She explained the situation and hung up. The moment of truth had arrived. He and Yumi began to examine all the students in the courtyard one by one to see if any of them was a specter.

"Over there" Yumi said, pointing to a boy in pink looking at his cell phone, but Ulrich shook his head.

"No" he saw the science teacher walking around the courtyard looking very peripatetic, compared to her somewhat frumpy appearance of the previous year. "Did you see Mrs. Hertz? Hasn't she got a new haircut?"

"No"

"What about him?" he said, looking at a boy who seemed to be chatting with his friends. "Is he looking at us?"

"No, he always has a strange look"

The door to the gym opened and out came Jim, walking briskly toward where the two teenagers were standing. Startled, Yumi grabbed Ulrich's hand and squeezed it, trying to give herself comfort and at the same time reassure the boy. Apparently, the moment of truth had arrived.

The man almost ran up to the boys... and pointed his finger at them.

"Ah! I was looking for you. Don't forget about the training session. 7PM this evening, okay?" warned them. Yumi and Ulrich let out a sigh of relief: it wasn't a specter. Jim looked down at Ulrich and Yumi's hands, still intertwined, and held back a grin. "Sorry for disturbing you"

Yumi let go of Ulrich's hand as if holding a red-hot iron and tucked a lock of hair behind her ears.

"Not at all, Mr. Morales"

The professor gave them a little I know what it's about smirk and went off to do the day's chores, leaving Yumi cooling her heels and Ulrich letting out a nervous laugh.

In the hallways, away from that awkward moment, Odd was walking towards the location of his date with Samantha, when he bumped into Sissi.

"Again? Are you in love with me or what?"

Sissi looked at him without really seeing him. She seemed to be sleepwalking.

"Sorry Odd..."

"Are you ok, Sissi?" he asked worriedly, but the girl kept walking. Beginning to realize what was happening, he pulled out his cell phone and called Jeremy "Jeremy, spectre spotted. It's Sissi"

"Are you sure?"

"She didn't even insult me when I jostled her, isn't that proof?" Jeremy explained the idea he had in mind, but Odd shook his head. "Follow her? Oh no, I've got a rendezvous with Samantha right now!" he snorted in frustration when he realized that what Jeremy was saying was unarguable. "Fine"

He hung up and started to follow Sissi, but then stopped. Was it really worth sacrificing his date with Samantha so he could follow a specter who was in any case going to get the surprise of ita life when it attacked Ulrich?

"Jeremy must have told Ulrich, after all" he said to himself before running to the bench where Samantha was standing. "Hey Sam!"

"Well, here's the guy who likes beets..." said the girl, looking up from the book she was reading.

"Sam, absolutely..." then he realized what the girl had just told him. "Wait, why are you talking about beets?"

"That was what you called me the other day"

"Really? You must be wrong, it's just that... I'm not good at excuses" he paused before continuing. "Will you... forgive me?"

Samantha smiled and they started talking about a lot of things. Meanwhile, Ulrich and Yumi followed Sissi. In case she was a specter looking for codes, she was in for a big surprise.

"I'll go" said the brunette before running to the girl. "Sissi! Sissi!"

The boy grabbed Sissi's hand as if he was going to kiss it, leaving the girl gobsmacked.

"Are you okay, Ulrich?"

"Uhh... Yes..." he replied, realizing that she wasn't a specter. "And you?"

"Me too... I guess"

Sissi gave him a puzzled look and walked away, leaving Ulrich not knowing what to think and not realizing that behind him was a specter ready to suck Yumi dry of source codes.

"It's not Sissi" Aelita murmured as she saw the spectra display program begin to show the face of a boy, fine-featured and quite handsome.

"Do you know that guy?" asked Jeremy, but Aelita and William shook their heads.

In Kadic, that specter had looked into Yumi's eyes and hypnotized her. Ulrich saw that something strange was happening to the girl and tried to shake her out of her trance, but when he looked up he saw the cause.

The specter hypnotized him, leaving him paralyzed, while Yumi, still somewhat dazed, started to run, aware of what was happening.

"Ulrich! Ulrich! Ulrich!" Sissi's voice brought him out of his trance, causing him to instantly utter his first concern

"Where's Yumi?"

"She left with that handsome guy. Why?"

Realizing that Yumi was in serious danger, he leave Sissi hanging and dialed Jeremy's number. Luckily his friend picked it up on the first try.

"Yes Jeremy, it's a spectre. He's doing something strange with his eyes, you get confused when you look at him" when Jeremy asked the million-dollar question, the brunette shook his head. "No, I couldn't touch him. He's suspicious. I think he knows about the codes"

"Not good. Ulrich, you are going to pass him your fake codes, okay? If possible before he touches Yumi"

Ulrich hung up and did what he never thought he would do: chase a specter so it could steal his codes. Back at the lab, Jeremy was breaking the bad news to his friends.

"XANA knows about it"

"But how could it?" asked William.

"I don't know... It may have spied on us. Or..."

"The bug!" exclaimed Aelita and Selina, simultaneously coming to the same conclusion. "When you were injecting the codes into Ulrich!"

"I should have guessed. Alright, let's change our plans" he turned to William and Aelita. "You are going to Lyoko. I prefer to watch my back"

The two nodded and went to the scanner room, but shortly after they virtualized and will head for the activated tower, Selina walked away from the Supercomputer and went to the elevator.

"And where are you going?" asked Jeremy.

"As you very well said, Ulrich has to catch the specter, not that the specter is going after Yumi" she replied resolutely. "What I'm going to do is to see to it that the specter goes after Ulrich, even if it's with a lot of punches"

Yumi was desperately trying to flee from the specter that stalked her. Hiding behind some bushes, she waited for the specter to leave before entering the classroom building, where she could be more protected.

Once the specter left that part of the garden, Yumi ran into an empty classroom and hid behind the desk, praying that she would not be caught. But at that moment the phone rang. It was Ulrich, concerned for her safety. The boy was desperately trying to get him to answer the call, but Yumi's ringing phone was like a flare screaming "Here I am!"

The specter, following the ringing phone, entered the seemingly empty classroom. Yumi, scared to death, grabbed an eraser from the desk, and pocketed it, with an idea forming in her mind. She only hoped to put it into practice before the specter caught her.

In the Desert sector, Aelita and William had just arrived in the vicinity of the activated tower. Apparently all was quiet, but Jeremy denied it.

"XANA set up a reception committee. Two Krabs. Can you see them?"

Aelita had to duck at tremendous speed when two Krabs passed within a short distance of her.

"Affirmative. Any news from the others?"

"No, not yet. But be ready to fight"

"Of course, XANA was expecting us" mumbled William. "We could get rid of those Krabs first, no?"

"No, it would reveal our location to XANA and it would send many others"

"Then we had better split up. As soon as Jeremy gives us the green light, I will take care of those Krabs while you try to reach the tower"

"Okay!"

As Aelita turned her eyes back to the tower, William transformed into smoke, ready to make a shore dinner of the Krabs.

Hiding behind the desk, Yumi grabbed the eraser and after making sure that the specter did not see her hiding behind the desk, she threw the eraser into a corner of the classroom.

As the specter went to see what had happened, the girl got up and scurried out of the classroom. She prayed that Ulrich would arrive soon.

Aelita was about to come out of hiding and run towards the tower, when a Block cut her off. But before it could shoot her, the pinkette threw an energy field at it. The monster exploded, and the shockwave threw her backwards.

She was about to congratulate herself on that small victory, when a squawk startled her. Three blocks came out of their hiding place and formed a tight circle, cornering her.

"Jeremy, I've got a problem..."

"Okay, I'll send you some backup" then he turned to William, who was busy chasing a Krabe. "William, Aelita is in trouble. No time for discretion anymore, just rush in"

"Got it, Jeremy" he ran towards the crabs and just when it looked like he was going to attack them, he used his Supersmoke and shot out. "Hold on Aelita, I'm coming!"

On the other side of the concourse, Aelita was deciding on the best course of action to get rid of the monsters. But the adrenaline resulting from the panic was making it very difficult.

"Easy, Bloks..." she raised her hands and made energy fields appear. "I've got a little present for you"

She launched the energy fields at the block in front of her, almost at the same time William came out of nowhere and thrust his sword into the monster on his left. Unfortunately, from that position, he could see how the remaining block prepared a laser shot.

"Aelita!"

Too late. A shot impacted the girl's chest and William could only hold her as she devirtualized.

Furious, he threw the block against a rock and thrust his sword into it. A screeching sound made it turn around. The crabs had a score to settle with him, one he was only too happy to settle.

In the scanner room, Aelita emerged from the scanner feeling like an idiot.

"It's not a big deal, Aelita" Jeremy said to comfort her.

Aelita shook her head. With XANA on the hunt for Yumi and unable to deactivate the tower, things were looking very bad. She wished with all her heart that Ulrich would pass all his fake codes to the wraith. Because otherwise, her friend was screwed.

"Jeremy? The spectre is chasing me" Yumi whispered into the phone, hiding behind a pillar. When Jeremy asked her if she had encountered the cavalry, the girl denied. "No, I don't know where Ulrich is"

"The mission is cancelled. Try to hide in gymnasium. We'll take care of the tower"

Yumi hung up and ran off to the gym, with the specter chasing after her, but a rumbling sound made her stop. It was Selina. The girl had leapt at the specter like a cheetah and pinned it to the ground, relentlessly punching it.

"Run!" shouted the redhead. "I'll try to warn Ulrich!"

Yumi broke into a run towards the gym, without looking back, with a lot of hiding places in mind, but mostly with an intense concern for Selina. She knew the girl was tough as nails, but that didn't take away from the fact that facing a specter in hand-to-hand combat was absolutely insane. As she ran, she wished Ulrich would find them before things ended in disaster.

On the other side of the school, Odd was enjoying his date with Samantha. The girl kept explaining to him her wanderings the entire time she had been away from Kadic.

"And then I got expelled from school for the second time. My dad got mad! He told me: This time you're heading for the boarding school! And I said: Okay, but I want to go back to Kadic. So..."

Odd's phone rang and he took the call, puzzled. Who was it to interrupt a date?

"Just a second... Yes, Einstein?" when he explained the errand, the boy's heart dropped to his feet. Did it have to be right now? "Oh no, you can't do this to me!"

"Sorry Odd. It's a complete failure. Yumi is in danger and William is alone on Lyoko"

Odd sighed. When it came to dating, the prevailing law for him was Murphy's Law, only instead of Everything that can go wrong, goes terribly wrong it was Every time a date is going well, XANA attacks and duty calls.

"Alright, I'm coming" then he turned to Samantha. "Sam, I..."

"Just go and join your friends, what are you waiting for..."

"I'll be back very soon!" he yelled as he run to the park. "I promise!"

"I'll be back soon! I promise!" she mimicked, pissed off.

Inside the school, Ulrich searched for Yumi like a dowser. When his cell phone rang, he thought it was the girl, who had finally called him, but it was actually Jeremy.

"Jeremy? No, I didn't manage to touch him, I'm looking for Yumi right now" he almost breathed a sigh of relief when he found out where Yumi had gone. "What? The gymnasium? Okay"

He hung up the call and ran down the hallway. He didn't give a damn about the funny looks from his classmates or the possible scolding from teachers: all he cared about was protecting Yumi.

William, sword in hand, ran towards the monsters that awaited him: four Bloks and two Krabes. Using his Supersmoke he ran right into the marabunta, only to use an energy slash to destroy several monsters in one go. But the resulting explosion threw him several meters away from his sword.

But just before a Blok could shoot him, Odd, riding his Overboard, came out of a corner firing at it several laser arrows. He had narrowly escaped.

"What have we left?"

"Just one Krab left" he replied, picking up his sword "And a few Blocks wandering around"

"Okay. Let's take care of them"

William frowned as he noted the bitterness in the boy's words. What had happened to him?

"What's going on? You look upset"

"If you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about it"

Meanwhile William, in a tackle, knocked down a Blok, leaving it upside down like a cockroach. He climbed on top of it, and thrust his sword at it, just in time to see how Odd was playing his ass off.

"Odd, watch out!"

Odd, who was perched on a Krab shell, jumped just in time to avoid being shot by a Blok. The laser hit the Krab, making it explode. William was amazed.

"You have never done such a thing before..."

Odd gave him a proud smile, but Jeremy wasn't the least bit amused.

"Be careful, Odd. If you get devirtualized no one will be able to deactivate the tower"

"Yeah, Einstein, I know what my job is!"

William smiled. He had finally realized what had happened to Odd.

"Well, I guess you had another problem with Sam, right?"

"No comment" he snarled, but Jeremy's warning startled him.

"Watch out guys, some monsters are showing up on my screen!"

The two teens turned just in time to see three blocks and a crab emerge from behind the tower. They broke into a run for the rocks ahead of them, intending to stay safe, at least for the time being. But even sheltered from the monsters' gunfire, Odd began to bemoan his bad luck.

"No way! I really thought I could quickly finish this and see Sam again!"

William smiled understandingly and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't give up with that girl, Odd. Just look at me. I never lost hope with Yumi!"

"Yeah, but have not been especially successful so far..."

"You know, I think nothing is impossible" the dark-haired boy put his hands on his shoulders and held him firmly, trying to talk some sense into him."Look, Odd, as long as there is hope, you have to hang on"

Having said that, he used his Supersmoke and came out from among the rocks to attack the monsters, thrusting his sword backwards into a block. A laser knocked him to the ground. A Krab approached him and tried to skewer him with one of its legs, barely dodging them, but a laser ended his pathetic escape attempts. Odd's soul fell to his feet: now he was really screwed up.

"Thanks for setting an example..."

"Yes, Jeremy?" whispered Yumi, hidden behind a pile of mattresses "I'm in the gymnasium. I..."

A sound of footsteps startled her and she hung up the phone. Panicked, she was about to run away, but a familiar voice startled her.

"Yumi? Where are you?"

"Ulrich? It's you?"

The boy nodded and smiled, incredibly relieved to see how his friend was safe and sound.

"Yes, it's me. Come on, we have to form a plan before the specter arrives. I highly doubt Selina can stall him any longer"

"Odd?" Jeremy shouted, worried about what had happened to Yumi. "Do whatever you want, but do something!"

Odd, attentive to the screeching of the monsters that were about to shoot at him, looked at his board. A plan began to form in his mind. An absurd and crazy plan, worthy of him, but a plan nonetheless.

"Okay, got it, Jeremy. You just needed to ask"

He jumped on the Overboard, and dodging the lasers of the Bloks, he shot out to the tower

"What are you doing, Odd?"

"I'm attacking! As long as there's hope, you have to hang on" he replied, remembering William's words.

The boy jumped over a block and landed back on his board, like a professional skateboarder, ignoring Jeremy's protests at his crazy plan.

"Odd, that's too dangerous!"

"You asked for it"

Dodging the lasers from the Bloks, he lunged at a Krab, dodging underneath it and deftly avoiding its attempts to skewer him. The Overboard hit the ground and disappeared, but Odd used the force of the impact to catapult himself into the tower. He landed on the tower platform like a sack of potatoes, but still smiled. He had made it.

"Jeremy? You're not going to believe this! I passed through!"

He stood up and concentrated to levitate to the top platform of the tower. A bluish light enveloped him and lifted him into the air.

Yumi entered an empty classroom filled with gym equipment. Turning around, she came face to face with the specter. His eyes began to glow in an eerie bluish glow, but just before her brain stopped working, she could see Ulrich right behind the specter.

Odd landed on the top platform of the tower. He walked to the center, and in front of his nose a screen appeared.

Yumi looked anesthetized, but just before the specter could step forward and steal her codes, Ulrich put a hand on his shoulder. Small electric currents began to run through the specter's figure.

"Ulrich, it's working!" shouted Jeremy from the lab. "We're stuffing him with fake codes!" he smiled as he watched the specter fill up with false codes, incredibly damaging to its structure. "Take this"

Just as he finished absorbing the last fake code, the specter exploded, knocking Ulrich out cold and Yumi free of her trance.

Odd was about to put his hand on the screen when it closed. He frowned, puzzled

"It's okay, Odd. The specter has been destroyed" Jeremy said. "I'll bring you back"

"What?" he couldn't believe that he had missed his date with Samantha and made real prances on the Overboard for nothing. "Oh no, not cool. I did all this for nothing?!"

"Ulrich!" Yumi shouted anguish at the sight of the unconscious boy on the ground. She pulled out her phone. "Jeremy? It's Ulrich..."

The boy began to stir and soon opened his eyes, smiling faintly. Yumi almost burst into tears of relief.

"If only you could see your face..."

"You're so stupid..." she replied and hugged the boy.

Soon Selina arrived, and smiled in relief to see that her friends were safe and sound. But she didn't want to disturb them. Having XANA data in her head was a double-edged sword, and virtualizing on Cortex had reaffirmed that connection she had with XANA. She could sense her friends' source codes, and how they synchronized to the rhythm of his vital signs. She could now sense how Yumi and Ulrich's hearts had the fluttering of a hummingbird every time one was near the other. And in those moments, what the girl perceived were two hummingbirds beating at the same tune.

Back in Kadic, settled in their corner of the courtyard, the gang was discussing the mixed results of that mission.

"Well, enough with fake codes" Jeremy sentenced. "It's not worth it"

"But XANA lost some power as expected, right?" asked William.

"Yes, but it comes with a price. Just ask Ulrich"

The boy shrugged, trying to appear normal, although in reality he didn't even have the strength to lift a finger.

"I'll be fine..."

"No, it's too risky. And XANA was suspicious, it could have stolen Yumi's codes instead. We'll find another way to counter XANA"

"Well, enough chatting" Odd said, rising from his seat. "I've got to make up with Samantha"

"It looks somewhat complicated with that girl" Aelita replied, snickering.

Odd jumped from his seat in the gallery, but had the misfortune of practically jumping on top of Sissi.

"Again?" she shouted furious. "Are you doing that on purpose or what?"

"You said it Sissi. In fact you're the wife of my life!" he replied, pursing his lips for a kiss.

The gang burst out laughing at their friend's antics, while Odd picked up his backpack and ran after Sissi.

"Don't get too close to me, idiot!" snarled the girl.

"As a matter of fact, for Odd" sentenced Ulrich. "All girls are complicated!"

Everyone laughed, while the bell rang.