Disclaimer: I don't own Code: Lyoko or anything related to it. So don't sue me.

Chapter 3: Preparation

"Ulrich! What are you doing?!?!?!?" Odd screamed.

"I'm taking you to my headquarters," Ulrich replied coolly.

"Oh!! So you AREN'T Ulrich. You're..." Odd began, but was cut off.

"Yes, I'm X.A.N.A. I can't believe I didn't think of this before. Infect one of you brats and then kidnap another. Then there's one person to protect Aelita!" Ulrich–X.A.N.A. (who I will call X–Ulrich for now on) said smugly.

"That's great except for two things. One, Jeremie has found the antivirus." X–Ulrich looked shocked. "And two, we have a new member, Fianna." Odd finished.

"I don't believe the genius brat figured out the antivirus so quickly... As for Fianna, she can be taken care of," X–Ulrich smirked.

'Odd! You really shouldn't have told X.A.N.A. about Aelita and Fianna. Smooth,' Odd thought to himself. 'Well, at least X.A.N.A. is taking me to his headquarters. I can learn something that can help the others. His plan is probably to have two warriors away and attack, but he didn't count on Jeremie getting the antivirus and getting a new member.'

In the factory

"I can't locate Ulrich or Odd!" Jeremie panicked.

"Calm down everyone. Jeremie, may I try?" Fianna said.

"Sure," Jeremie conceded reluctantly as he let Fianna sit down.

"Jeremie, you and Aelita might want to watch the scanners. They might come out, or there may be clues there. Yumi, I need you to answer one question: did Ulrich open a portal to somewhere else?" Fianna instructed.

"No, he just ran off with Odd in tow," Yumi replied.

"Thanks. At least now we know where to look. They were last in the desert region..." Fianna said typing on the computer quickly. She scanned for any activated towers. There was one. "Great, a X.A.N.A. attack when we least want it," Fianna said, annoyed.

"Yeah," Yumi said rather sadly

Fianna typed swiftly. "Hey look at this, an energy dome. I wonder what that is for..."

At the scanners

Aelita watched Jeremie as he paced in front of the scanners. Ulrich's and Odd's were still closed and didn't seem like they were going to open soon. Aelita walked up to Ulrich's scanner and gasped. "Jeremie! It's X.A.N.A.!"

"What do you mean, Aelita?" Jeremie asked, confused.

"Look! It's X.A.N.A.'s symbol. He must be possessing Ulrich!" Aelita cried.

"Of course! So it's not really Ulrich's fault that he kidnapped Odd," Jeremie said, relieved.

"Of course not. Ulrich wouldn't just run away with Odd, would he? Now if Fianna is going to be any help in Lyoko, we need to build another scanner," Aelita began.

"How did she get in before?" Jeremie wondered.

"I created a portal in her laptop and brought her to Lyoko. It only lasts 10 minutes, enough to get me to the tower. If she is going on the rescue mission, we need more than 10 minutes," Aelita explained.

"Then what are we waiting for?!? Let's go!" Jeremie cried as he grabbed tools for building a fifth scanner.

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