Author's Note: Thank you again for all my lovely reviews. I just have to say that I really don't want to have to change all the "Xana"s in my story to "X.A.N.A.". You all know what I mean so I'll leave it. Thanks for the suggestions though! This is a REALLY long chapter, so here we go...

I shook my head as my virtualization pod opened up, trying to clear up my mind. Ulrich walked in front of it and offered me a hand up. I took it and stepped out of the virtualization pod. Then I remembered.

"Odd!" I said, starting to run to the elevator, pulling Ulrich with me. "We have to go help him!"

The elevator came down and when the doors slid open, it revealed Jeremy already inside it. We ran inside and the doors slid shut again. "That was a risky thing you did back there, jumping off the pathway like that."

"It was the only way we could come back, as you haven't figured out a way to materialize us without having us use all our life points first," Ulrich said, tapping his foot impatiently as the elevator went up. "It was the only way to use our life points up."

"Is Aelita going to be okay?" I asked Jeremy. "We left her a bit abruptly."

"Yes, she's fine," Jeremy said, adjusting his glasses. "I explained everything."

We reached the top and ran out over the bridge to the manhole. Jeremy slid in first, I went right after and Ulrich went last, closing the manhole behind him. I grabbed my skateboard and jumped on with a running start. I could just see Jeremy up ahead pushing his scooter with all his might.

He reached the ladder up to the next manhole first. He folded up his scooter and proceeded to climb up. I propped up my skateboard hurriedly, noticing Odd's lonely skateboard there too. I shook my head and ran after Jeremy.

Once out of the tunnel, we ran through the trees and to the cafeteria. It seemed we reached it at the most opportune moment for Odd's rescue to come.

"Help!" Odd was screaming. Eight blocks had surrounded the table he was standing on. All were ready to shoot.

"Oh-no!" I screamed. Odd didn't notice we were there and was still screaming frantically. "But we don't have our powers that we have in Lyoko. How are we supposed to help him?"

"Like this," Ulrich said, reaching down to grab something from the ground. It turned out to be a sizable stone. "Hey, Xana freaks!" he yelled while throwing the stone as hard as he could. "Over here! Come and get us!"

I watched, frozen, as the stone hit the corner of the nearest block. It bounced off harmlessly but the monster swiveled this way and that in confusion. Finally it stopped and focused in on us. Four of the eight blocks did the same. They started toward us.

"Okay, Ulrich, now what do we do?" I asked, backing up.

"I hadn't thought of that yet," he said nervously.

"Run!" Jeremy screamed. Seeming that it was the only good plan we could come up with at the moment, we did so. The monsters scuttled even faster when it realized we were trying to get away. The Xana symbols on them started to glow.

"Bad sign, bad sign!" Ulrich yelled as the first shot at his heels. He dodged them but barely and stumbled once but I caught his arm and pulled him back to his feet again.

"We can't keep this up!" Jeremy screamed, holding onto his glasses as he ran. He was slowing down with the physical exertion this was having on him.

I thought quickly. Just as the second wave of shots was about to begin, I shouted, "Scatter!"

I jumped to the right, Ulrich kept running ahead, and Jeremy jumped to his left into some bushes. The monsters used up their shots but only hit the ground. They swiveled around and around in confusion and then realized what we were doing. They split up as well. Two came after me.

"Geez," I muttered to myself. "I had to get the extra one." I ran as fast as I could around the corner of the building and waited, breathing hard. I could here them coming, their mechanical bodies making mechanical sounds with each step they took. I looked around frantically and spotted something shining bright in the sun. It was the sheet of metal my science teacher was going to show us an experiment with. It was next to the garden shed. "Maybe..." I muttered to myself and took off running towards the garden shed. The monsters appeared around the corner at the same moment and charged up to shoot.

I ran even faster, looking over my shoulder to try to dodge the shots. They were hitting closer and closer to home. I yelped when one singed my arm and saw a little tear in my black shirt where it had flown past it. I redoubled my efforts to reach the metal sheet. Finally I grabbed it and jumped to the side to avoid getting pummeled by laser shots. "Don't mind if I do," I said, and turned to face the monsters.

They shot, too stupid to know what I was intending. I planted my feet firmly, bracing for impact and held out the sheet of metal in front of my body. I felt the shots hit the metal and watched as they got reflected back. All the shots backfired on the monsters and they were the ones that were blown to bits of wood.

Hands shaking, I lowered the sheet of metal and examined it. Now there were a bunch of indentations in it. "Well," I said, hurriedly putting back the piece of metal before anyone saw what I had done, "I don't think we're going to have that science experiment anytime soon." Remembering Ulrich and Jeremy, I started after them in worry.

I ran back around the side of the building to the path where we had separated. It was quiet and still. I plunged ahead into the bushes were Jeremy had run into, searching everywhere to find him.

"Jeremy?" I said quietly, looking around at my surroundings. It was a good place to hide but a hard place to find people. "Jeremy? Are you there?"

"Look out!" Jeremy cried, standing up from behind a few bushes on my right. I turned to my left and saw to my horror a monster just about to fire a bunch of shots right into my body. I cried out and shielded my face but then I heard another person's cry.

I opened my eyes just a slit to see Odd jump in sideways and throw a silverware knife right into the middle of the monster's Xana symbol. It froze for a moment and then blew up. Odd slid on his shoulder on the dirt ground for a while and then straightened himself up. "All right Yumi?" he asked.

"Fine. You?"

"Ha, after I found silverware, I was fine and dandy." He smiled wide and showed me a handful of forks, spoons, and knives. "The spoons don't work as well as the forks and knives but they distract the monsters pretty well. I grabbed them from the kitchen when all the lunch ladies took off screaming."

Jeremy shook off the leaves and branches and came out from behind the bushes he was using as cover. "That jump you did, Odd, almost made me think you were back in Lyoko."

Odd smiled even wider. "I guess that's where I learned it from."

Suddenly we all froze when we heard a scream pierce the air. "Ulrich!" I yelled, recognizing the voice in an instant. I sped out of the trees and ran in the direction he had gone. Odd and Jeremy followed close behind.

I spotted him in the worst situation ever. He was plastered against a column and couldn't move with the monster right in front of him. I could tell the monster was about to shoot. I ran faster and right toward Ulrich. I saw the monster clearly now and its Xana symbol was growing stronger by the second. I ran faster. "Okay, lets see what I've learned from Lyoko." I jumped out and pushed Ulrich out of the way. I heard the shots blast into the column and heard the monster scuttle this way and that in confusion.

I landed on top of Ulrich but rolled away quickly to try and cough up the dust from the dirt to get some fresh air. The dirt we had slid in clouded up all around us. I wiped at my eyes and looked up to see Odd taunting the monster. It looked his way. Mistake. The next instant it had blown up with a fork right through the center of its symbol.

Ulrich coughed a few times and sat up wearily. "Are you okay?" I asked anxiously.

"Yeah, only because you saved me back there," he said, giving me a slight smile. I smiled in relief back at him. Despite the situation, I felt myself glowing.

"You guys okay?" Odd asked, running up with Jeremy right beside him. We nodded and Odd laughed. "Looks like I'm not the only one who's benefited from fighting in Lyoko." He glanced down and me and gave me a hand up. "Nice one, Yumi." Jeremy pulled Ulrich up next to me.

"Are all the monsters destroyed?" Ulrich asked.

Odd nodded. "All that I know of."

We looked around. The school didn't look that bad. It wasn't in smoky ruins or anything. But there were a few evident places where something had taken place, like the charred black spots on the column Ulrich had been plastered against not to mention the numerous ones on the ground. We all walked to the cafeteria where the real damage had been. Chairs were broken and overturned and so were some tables. The roof was now a huge vent with all the holes in it made by the blocks' lasers.

"Well," Odd said cheerfully, "it didn't wreck the cafeteria that badly."

"Right Odd," Ulrich said, sarcasm obviously layered onto his words. "That's all your worried about."

"At least they're all gone," Jeremy said, sighing in relief. "I realized I can't fight them not only in Lyoko but in real life as well." He hung his head in shame.

"Oh Jeremy," I said, walking up to him and putting my hands on his shoulders. "Don't be ridiculous. Of course you can fight them. I'm pretty sure we had a hard time ourselves. I mean, you saw for yourself when Odd was up on that table screaming for help like a mad man. We aren't much better off than you are."

"Hey," Odd said indignantly, "you try being stuck on a table with eight of those blocks surrounding you, ready to turn you into Swiss cheese. I don't think you would have been anything close to cool, calm, and collected." Ulrich shot him an annoyed look.

"Exactly," I said. "So...Jeremy don't feel bad."

"Besides," Ulrich said, suddenly backing up. "Here's your chance to prove yourself."

I looked up and gasped. More blocks had come.

Four more to be exact.

But this time, they looked different, because this time the blocks were...

"Colored?"