Author's Note: Again I apologize in advance. This chapter is super short, but the next will be super long, I promise. I would like to thank, again, my wonderful reviewers. Tarotboy, I thank you for having the patience just to read through all these chapters! Son of Xana, I'll be sure to try and put plenty of evil into my sequel if I do it and since there is mixed advice on whether I should have more romance or more action, I'm going with my original plan which is...well...you'll see, won't you? Because you're going to read the chapter! Enjoy!

We rushed out of my house in a blur. I gave my mom a broken explanation before zooming after Ulrich down the road. Ulrich dialed something on his cell phone as he ran. "Hello? Jeremy? What's happening?" His eyes widened as he listened. Then he nodded. "We're on our way."

"What's wrong?" I asked nervously.

"The school is being stampeded by Xana's new human army and Xana's monsters have also made an appearance in the excitement."

"Shoot," I said vehemently.

"Jeremy also said that Aelita spotted some kids in Lyoko. Kids that she didn't know and they were wearing uniforms that show they are apparently in Xana's army. Odd's already on his way to Lyoko. We just have to pray we get there in time." I just nodded, saving my breath for my running.

We skidded to a halt right when we got through our school's gate and watched opened mouthed at the scene before us. Hundreds of kids that went to our school were marching in the same direction. All of their eyes were glowing red and all of their foreheads were marked with the Xana symbol. I gasped in terror and remained immobile until Ulrich grabbed my hand and pulled me into their ranks. We ran through their orderly lines, crouching slightly to stay beneath their eyesight.

"Look!" Ulrich said suddenly, glancing to the left. I turned to look and cringed when I saw Xana's monsters. Five hornets were up in the air, hovering in a straight line and shooting into the crowd. I knew that there were more monsters on the ground because I could hear the shots being fired and I could hear more shots fired than I could see.

Ulrich pulled me to the other side of the marching ranks and led us to the front. I saw ten blocks lined up in a row almost looking like a barricade. They were shooting into the crowd as well. I watched as a girl got shot by a block. She didn't show any signs of emotion but she disappeared in a small flash. I pulled Ulrich to a stop.

"Ulrich, these monsters are virtualizing the army!" I whispered in panic.

"Then, let's destroy the lot of them," he said, letting go of my hand. He reached into his shoe and brought out his yellow crystal. It was glowing as fine as ever.

I knelt to get my own crystal from out of my shoe. I slipped it around my neck and soon I was airborne, hovering off the ground by a couple of inches. I looked down at Ulrich as he donned his beloved sword. He nodded at me and I nodded back. Then he crouched in his fighter's stance, ready to charge.

But before we could, Xana's monsters made the first move. All the hornets turned toward me and started shooting. I flew out of the way, zooming away from their attacks with ease and watching intently as Ulrich charged with his sword held high. "Impact!" I heard as Ulrich stuck his sword squarely in the Xana symbol of the nearest block. He yanked it out again and sprang away as the block exploded.

Shots whizzed by my head. The string of hornets was following me up into the air like a train. I shifted to the left and to the right but they wouldn't give up. I flew lower than them and skimmed over the blocks. One of the hornets shot and it flew way off target, hitting a block and exploding it.

I gazed at the scene for a moment and then the light bulb in my head turned on. I braced myself and as the nearest hornet came toward me, I rushed at it also. I grabbed it and spun it around to face its comrades. It panicked in my hands and shot lasers everywhere. I directed it into the hornets and they exploded one by one. Then I flew it over the rest of the blocks. The confused hornet destroyed them all for me.

"Ulrich!" I yelled to get his attention. He looked up. "Incoming!" I shouted and threw the hornet as hard as I could toward him. He lifted up his sword and jumped up to stick it into the hornet. The hornet exploded and his sword flew into the air. He caught it and gave me a thumbs up. I gave him a wink in return.

I landed on the ground and together we started for the manhole to the factory in a dead run. "At least that took care of that chunk of the Xana army," I panted. Ulrich nodded but didn't say anything in return.

I tried focusing my thoughts on getting to the warehouse as fast as I could, but my mind couldn't help but shudder. Here we go, I thought. The final showdown.