Chapter 6: Lyoko at Last
In due time, Jeremie returned to town, to see that the power was on. "We're in luck, guys- I bet X.A.N.A. only thought to cut power where we were staying because he figured we wouldn't get back here- so we can get into Lyoko and save Aelita! I just hope she's doing alright-" he sighed and gave a downcast look to the steering wheel with his shoulders hunched over. Then he remembered the reason they were away from Lyoko in the first place. "But if she's not okay- I know who to blame!" He shouted as he plowed Jim's car into the forest and got out, Yumi and Ulrich close behind. "It was your fault we went on that stupid skiing trip anyway! I tried to make you stay here, but nooooo- never listen to Jeremie-"
His voice diminished as he climbed down the ladder on his way to the lab. Ulrich and Yumi rolled their eyes at each other, before remembering why they weren't speaking and looking away hastily. Yumi followed Jeremie down and Ulrich brought up the rear.
The three hurried down without further quarrel for Aelita's sake- and soon Jeremie reached the super computer as Ulrich and Yumi continued down in the elevator to the scanners.
Jeremie ran to the computer and booted it up. "Aelita!" he shouted to the screen, hoping that she would hear him and be able to respond.
For a few, agonizing seconds Jeremie thought she didn't make it. He furrowed his brow and clenched his teeth together. "You better not have left me, Aelita! Not now! I'm so sorry; I should have gotten here sooner- Aelita!" He held his head in his hands, not knowing how to act or what to do if she didn't show up on the screen soon.
"Jeremie!" Aelita finally appeared on the screen, although she seemed weak and out of breath.
Jeremie snapped his head up at her voice. "Aelita! I was so worried, I can't believe-"
But Aelita cut him off. "I'm really glad to see you're here, Jeremie, but we have urgent matters to attend to. I found the activated tower; it's in the mountain region. Do you have anyone at the scanners? There are already so many blocks guarding the tower and I've been hiding, but they keep coming!"
Jeremie had never been so relieved in his life to see Aelita, but he snapped himself back to reality. Later would be the time to talk to Aelita- now was the time to send Ulrich and Yumi to help her. "Yeah, I've got Ulrich and Yumi down there; I'll send them as quick as I can.
Just then, Ulrich used his cell phone to call Jeremie through the computer. "Jeremie, we're down here and ready to be virtualized, whenever you're ready." Before Jeremie could respond, he hung up.
"That's my signal," Jeremie whispered to himself, and prepared to send his friends into Lyoko another time.
"Scanner: Yumi.... Scanner: Ulrich." He paused for a few seconds, hoping that they could save Aelita without Odd's help. Then he thought of Aelita, hiding from the blocks, and knew the only way to save her was to try to help her as much as possible. He hoped for the best as he said boldly and clearly, "Virtualization."
Aelita looked to the sky frantically, hoping that Ulrich and Yumi would hurry up and get there. There were already ten blocks waiting for them, and without Odd, they'd each have five blocks to deal with on their own. If worse came to worse, Aelita was capable of protecting herself, but she had no offensive powers to get past the blocks if Yumi and Ulrich were devirtualized.
She peered over the medium-sized rock she was hiding behind and was relieved that no new blocks had appeared, so she figured X.A.N.A. thought they weren't coming because they were already unusually late. Then her hopes for defeating their opponents soared, as she saw Yumi and Ulrich had virtualized behind the guard the blocks had set up. Aelita watched closely as both Ulrich and Yumi snuck up behind the blocks and destroy two each before the blocks knew what hit them.
"Four down, six to go, guys. That's three for each of you. No life points lost, either, which is a good thing. Good start, guys. If you can, draw the blocks away from that little cluster of rocks to the right of you- that's where my computer detects Aelita is staying safe." Jeremie tried to help out his friends as much as possible, but today he was feeling particularly helpless. He sometimes felt like this- he felt as though he should be in the action, directly helping defeat their enemies, instead of watching from the sidelines. He shook his head to rid him of those thoughts. "This is no time to think about that, Jeremie- snap out of it. You are the only one who knows how to operate the super computer and you know it. No one would be able to get into Lyoko if it wasn't for you." He said to himself, and almost cheered himself up, before he saw Yumi take her first hit from one of the blocks.
Yumi took the hit full-on, and it sent her tumbling down. But she willed herself to get up- she knew the monsters wouldn't get defeated without her help. She charged full-force at the block that had hit her and threw her fan at its mark. At the same time, the block charged up its laser for another hit- but Yumi's fan struck dead on before it could release. Her fan followed its usual boomerang pattern and found its way back to her hand. She chanced a look around the field and spotted that in the time she was hit and had destroyed one block, Ulrich was more than making up for it, destroying two of his own. That left only 3 blocks. They were doing well, especially with the absence of Odd, whose weapon would have been the most effective in this situation.
But while she chanced her look around, she had lost concentration- and the one block that wasn't bearing down on Ulrich took her inattentiveness as an opportunity to fire one of its lasers. Yumi only realized it in time to start to get out of its flight path- not enough to dodge it entirely but enough so that it hit her shoulder instead of her neck.
"Yumi! You only have four more hits! You're losing life points! Be careful, Yumi!"
She heard Jeremie's reassuring voice and it gave her a new will to fight- she had to destroy these blocks in order to save the people she loved most- her friends, her family, Ulrich... she thought before she could stop herself. She shook her head quickly and charged at the block that had hit her and put it away, no problem. In the meantime, Ulrich had done away with one of the remaining two blocks. The other one changed its target and went for Yumi instead of Ulrich.
The block was just out of the range of her fan, but not out of the range of its lasers. It began relentlessly pounding her with lasers in the arm, front, leg- instead of charging toward it to finish it off, Yumi was pushed back by the force of the hits and couldn't see the cliff looming behind her that she surely would've fallen down if Ulrich hadn't seen it first.
Ulrich knew Yumi only had one hit left before she was devirtualized, and for one second he contemplated letting her have it. After all, who was she to talk about him behind his back? Then he thought back to the car- Yumi had said that he had been the one talking behind her back. Why would she think that? Ulrich thought. If she had been talking behind his back she sure covered it up well- and then Ulrich gasped as he realized something. He had heard from Parker that Yumi was talking about him behind his back- the same Parker that X.A.N.A. had created to try to disband the group and knock everyone unconscious so that they couldn't get back to Lyoko. Parker probably made all that up about what Yumi said so we would fight and work against each other!
And with that realization fresh in his mind, he stormed at the block that was attacking Yumi from behind, leaped up onto the top of it and plunged his sword into the center of the target before it could get Yumi another time. "Impact!" Ulrich shouted, glad that that was the last of the blocks. Unfortunately, the block's last blast had hit Yumi in the leg, and she was so close to the edge that when it threw her legs out from under her, the lower half of her body was flung over the cliff and for one awful second Ulrich just saw her falling and he was unable to help her in time.
Then, as he sprinted full-speed toward the cliff with vain hopes of saving her, he saw her fingers hurriedly clutch at the edge of the cliff and she hung there for just long enough for Ulrich to reach her and grasp her wrist.
"U- Ulrich...." Yumi looked up so see him grasping her wrist and with effort, pulled her up to the safety of the ground above her. "B- but Paige.... Paige said...."
Ulrich just smiled and added, "Yes, Yumi. Paige said." Then it clicked in Yumi's brain and she threw her arms around Ulrich in a big hug.
"Oh, Ulrich... I'm so sorry I ever thought you would...."
"It's okay, Yumi. I made the same mistake." Ulrich cut her off and hugged her back. "I'm just glad we figured it out."
Meanwhile, Aelita had saw Ulrich destroy the last of the blocks and hurried past him to deactivate the tower.
Jeremie sighed and smiled. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes because he knew they were all safe now. Once Aelita had entered the code, though, he sat back up straight and hit the return key on his keyboard. "Return to the past, now."
Yumi, Ulrich, and Jeremie found themselves sitting back in Odd's and Ulrich's room before they had boarded the bus. Yumi glanced up at the clock.
"Odd's left to find a pair of socks, remember?"
"Uh-huh." Ulrich and Jeremie smiled.
"Okay, well, I think I'll go down to the bus and reserve some seats." Jeremie picked up his suitcases by the door and hurried down to the pick-up station.
"Good idea," Yumi muttered before Jeremie had left.
A couple minutes after Jeremie had left, Odd burst into the room with a pair of clean socks. Ulrich and Yumi cracked a smile and shook their heads.
"What, we have no idea how hard it is to bum a pair of socks off someone in this school?" Ulrich asked before Odd could say it.
"Wha.... how'd you know that's what I was going to say?!" Odd breezed past his two friends and hurriedly packed the rest of his stuff.
Yumi and Ulrich just smiled again and laughed. "We'll fill you in on the bus, okay? Jeremie's saving us seats so we better hurry." Yumi told Odd.
Odd just hummed, scatterbrained as he was, and finished packing. "I just hope X.A.N.A. doesn't attack while we are gone, like Jeremie's worried about!"
Ulrich and Yumi laughed harder. "Odd," Yumi gasped between giggles, "I hope you're right!"
YAY! End of the story- I'm sorry it took SOOOOO long to get it finished, guys- I lost my motivation halfway through, but I finished it because of three cool reviews that motivated me... so thanks to all my reviewers, but especially sea-tiger170, Travis1593, and supersayian1! I hope everyone enjoyed this story. Wrin
In due time, Jeremie returned to town, to see that the power was on. "We're in luck, guys- I bet X.A.N.A. only thought to cut power where we were staying because he figured we wouldn't get back here- so we can get into Lyoko and save Aelita! I just hope she's doing alright-" he sighed and gave a downcast look to the steering wheel with his shoulders hunched over. Then he remembered the reason they were away from Lyoko in the first place. "But if she's not okay- I know who to blame!" He shouted as he plowed Jim's car into the forest and got out, Yumi and Ulrich close behind. "It was your fault we went on that stupid skiing trip anyway! I tried to make you stay here, but nooooo- never listen to Jeremie-"
His voice diminished as he climbed down the ladder on his way to the lab. Ulrich and Yumi rolled their eyes at each other, before remembering why they weren't speaking and looking away hastily. Yumi followed Jeremie down and Ulrich brought up the rear.
The three hurried down without further quarrel for Aelita's sake- and soon Jeremie reached the super computer as Ulrich and Yumi continued down in the elevator to the scanners.
Jeremie ran to the computer and booted it up. "Aelita!" he shouted to the screen, hoping that she would hear him and be able to respond.
For a few, agonizing seconds Jeremie thought she didn't make it. He furrowed his brow and clenched his teeth together. "You better not have left me, Aelita! Not now! I'm so sorry; I should have gotten here sooner- Aelita!" He held his head in his hands, not knowing how to act or what to do if she didn't show up on the screen soon.
"Jeremie!" Aelita finally appeared on the screen, although she seemed weak and out of breath.
Jeremie snapped his head up at her voice. "Aelita! I was so worried, I can't believe-"
But Aelita cut him off. "I'm really glad to see you're here, Jeremie, but we have urgent matters to attend to. I found the activated tower; it's in the mountain region. Do you have anyone at the scanners? There are already so many blocks guarding the tower and I've been hiding, but they keep coming!"
Jeremie had never been so relieved in his life to see Aelita, but he snapped himself back to reality. Later would be the time to talk to Aelita- now was the time to send Ulrich and Yumi to help her. "Yeah, I've got Ulrich and Yumi down there; I'll send them as quick as I can.
Just then, Ulrich used his cell phone to call Jeremie through the computer. "Jeremie, we're down here and ready to be virtualized, whenever you're ready." Before Jeremie could respond, he hung up.
"That's my signal," Jeremie whispered to himself, and prepared to send his friends into Lyoko another time.
"Scanner: Yumi.... Scanner: Ulrich." He paused for a few seconds, hoping that they could save Aelita without Odd's help. Then he thought of Aelita, hiding from the blocks, and knew the only way to save her was to try to help her as much as possible. He hoped for the best as he said boldly and clearly, "Virtualization."
Aelita looked to the sky frantically, hoping that Ulrich and Yumi would hurry up and get there. There were already ten blocks waiting for them, and without Odd, they'd each have five blocks to deal with on their own. If worse came to worse, Aelita was capable of protecting herself, but she had no offensive powers to get past the blocks if Yumi and Ulrich were devirtualized.
She peered over the medium-sized rock she was hiding behind and was relieved that no new blocks had appeared, so she figured X.A.N.A. thought they weren't coming because they were already unusually late. Then her hopes for defeating their opponents soared, as she saw Yumi and Ulrich had virtualized behind the guard the blocks had set up. Aelita watched closely as both Ulrich and Yumi snuck up behind the blocks and destroy two each before the blocks knew what hit them.
"Four down, six to go, guys. That's three for each of you. No life points lost, either, which is a good thing. Good start, guys. If you can, draw the blocks away from that little cluster of rocks to the right of you- that's where my computer detects Aelita is staying safe." Jeremie tried to help out his friends as much as possible, but today he was feeling particularly helpless. He sometimes felt like this- he felt as though he should be in the action, directly helping defeat their enemies, instead of watching from the sidelines. He shook his head to rid him of those thoughts. "This is no time to think about that, Jeremie- snap out of it. You are the only one who knows how to operate the super computer and you know it. No one would be able to get into Lyoko if it wasn't for you." He said to himself, and almost cheered himself up, before he saw Yumi take her first hit from one of the blocks.
Yumi took the hit full-on, and it sent her tumbling down. But she willed herself to get up- she knew the monsters wouldn't get defeated without her help. She charged full-force at the block that had hit her and threw her fan at its mark. At the same time, the block charged up its laser for another hit- but Yumi's fan struck dead on before it could release. Her fan followed its usual boomerang pattern and found its way back to her hand. She chanced a look around the field and spotted that in the time she was hit and had destroyed one block, Ulrich was more than making up for it, destroying two of his own. That left only 3 blocks. They were doing well, especially with the absence of Odd, whose weapon would have been the most effective in this situation.
But while she chanced her look around, she had lost concentration- and the one block that wasn't bearing down on Ulrich took her inattentiveness as an opportunity to fire one of its lasers. Yumi only realized it in time to start to get out of its flight path- not enough to dodge it entirely but enough so that it hit her shoulder instead of her neck.
"Yumi! You only have four more hits! You're losing life points! Be careful, Yumi!"
She heard Jeremie's reassuring voice and it gave her a new will to fight- she had to destroy these blocks in order to save the people she loved most- her friends, her family, Ulrich... she thought before she could stop herself. She shook her head quickly and charged at the block that had hit her and put it away, no problem. In the meantime, Ulrich had done away with one of the remaining two blocks. The other one changed its target and went for Yumi instead of Ulrich.
The block was just out of the range of her fan, but not out of the range of its lasers. It began relentlessly pounding her with lasers in the arm, front, leg- instead of charging toward it to finish it off, Yumi was pushed back by the force of the hits and couldn't see the cliff looming behind her that she surely would've fallen down if Ulrich hadn't seen it first.
Ulrich knew Yumi only had one hit left before she was devirtualized, and for one second he contemplated letting her have it. After all, who was she to talk about him behind his back? Then he thought back to the car- Yumi had said that he had been the one talking behind her back. Why would she think that? Ulrich thought. If she had been talking behind his back she sure covered it up well- and then Ulrich gasped as he realized something. He had heard from Parker that Yumi was talking about him behind his back- the same Parker that X.A.N.A. had created to try to disband the group and knock everyone unconscious so that they couldn't get back to Lyoko. Parker probably made all that up about what Yumi said so we would fight and work against each other!
And with that realization fresh in his mind, he stormed at the block that was attacking Yumi from behind, leaped up onto the top of it and plunged his sword into the center of the target before it could get Yumi another time. "Impact!" Ulrich shouted, glad that that was the last of the blocks. Unfortunately, the block's last blast had hit Yumi in the leg, and she was so close to the edge that when it threw her legs out from under her, the lower half of her body was flung over the cliff and for one awful second Ulrich just saw her falling and he was unable to help her in time.
Then, as he sprinted full-speed toward the cliff with vain hopes of saving her, he saw her fingers hurriedly clutch at the edge of the cliff and she hung there for just long enough for Ulrich to reach her and grasp her wrist.
"U- Ulrich...." Yumi looked up so see him grasping her wrist and with effort, pulled her up to the safety of the ground above her. "B- but Paige.... Paige said...."
Ulrich just smiled and added, "Yes, Yumi. Paige said." Then it clicked in Yumi's brain and she threw her arms around Ulrich in a big hug.
"Oh, Ulrich... I'm so sorry I ever thought you would...."
"It's okay, Yumi. I made the same mistake." Ulrich cut her off and hugged her back. "I'm just glad we figured it out."
Meanwhile, Aelita had saw Ulrich destroy the last of the blocks and hurried past him to deactivate the tower.
Jeremie sighed and smiled. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes because he knew they were all safe now. Once Aelita had entered the code, though, he sat back up straight and hit the return key on his keyboard. "Return to the past, now."
Yumi, Ulrich, and Jeremie found themselves sitting back in Odd's and Ulrich's room before they had boarded the bus. Yumi glanced up at the clock.
"Odd's left to find a pair of socks, remember?"
"Uh-huh." Ulrich and Jeremie smiled.
"Okay, well, I think I'll go down to the bus and reserve some seats." Jeremie picked up his suitcases by the door and hurried down to the pick-up station.
"Good idea," Yumi muttered before Jeremie had left.
A couple minutes after Jeremie had left, Odd burst into the room with a pair of clean socks. Ulrich and Yumi cracked a smile and shook their heads.
"What, we have no idea how hard it is to bum a pair of socks off someone in this school?" Ulrich asked before Odd could say it.
"Wha.... how'd you know that's what I was going to say?!" Odd breezed past his two friends and hurriedly packed the rest of his stuff.
Yumi and Ulrich just smiled again and laughed. "We'll fill you in on the bus, okay? Jeremie's saving us seats so we better hurry." Yumi told Odd.
Odd just hummed, scatterbrained as he was, and finished packing. "I just hope X.A.N.A. doesn't attack while we are gone, like Jeremie's worried about!"
Ulrich and Yumi laughed harder. "Odd," Yumi gasped between giggles, "I hope you're right!"
YAY! End of the story- I'm sorry it took SOOOOO long to get it finished, guys- I lost my motivation halfway through, but I finished it because of three cool reviews that motivated me... so thanks to all my reviewers, but especially sea-tiger170, Travis1593, and supersayian1! I hope everyone enjoyed this story. Wrin