Author's Note: Thanks a bunch to everyone that reivewed! I'm updating while I can. I wrote A LOT this morning and I'm happy about it. Mornstar, I'm sorry about the suspense, but that's what I'm good at and that's what's supposed to make you keep reading! OOOO...the shrine sounds pretty...but could you put more sapphires than any other jewel on the obelisk? That would be ver ver nice!!! Ulrichxyumi4eva, I love how you tell me your favorite quote from the chapter! It makes me feel like I'm an author worth quoting! CodeLyoko, you sound like your frantic. Are you okay? No, there is no tower activated. They are using the towers for means of transport from one region to the next like they always do. And yes, Jeremy's in Lyoko. Beverly, Vulcan Princess and to anyone else that's confused: THEY DEFEATED THOSE EVIL XANA FREAKS ALREADY. So they are gone. So they cannot possibly pull the plug. So do you see?
All right, then. If there are no more questions, let us proceed...
We appeared slowly into the desert region, every fiber of our virtual being alert. My most dreaded monster, the crab, appeared here very often, making me very wary of the desert. I ran over the flimsy bridge that was created by two logs and scanned the area again, just to be sure I didn't miss some anomaly that could be deadly. The wind stirred the sand at my feet a little, but other than that, everything was silent.
Ulrich's footsteps stopped beside me. "This will take forever!" he complained.
"Then lets start looking," I said resolutely.
I started forward, taking the only path that lead away from the circular area where the tower was situated. The path was pin straight so I could see pretty far forward. What I saw wasn't exactly picture perfect.
The path on which Ulrich and I were running ended abruptly up ahead. I could just make out moving blotches of yellow orange. We had unluckily stumbled upon moving platforms.
"Oh great," Ulrich said, looking uneasily at the first platform that was moving up and down vertically.
"What?" I asked, backing up to get a running start.
"I'm not made for jumping," Ulrich mumbled.
"Well, you better start making yourself for jumping, because you'll be doing an awful lot of it." I suddenly sprinted forward and with a motivating yell, sprang onto the first moving platform when it was level with the pathway. My stomach did an unpleasant somersault when the platform immediately jerked upward. I lost my composed crouch position and steadied myself on all fours. When I felt confident enough, I looked up to judge my next move.
The next platform was one that moved side to side. There were moving platforms situated on both sides of the platform moving side to side, hovering placidly at where the side-to-side platform reached its extent. I bit my lip, memorizing the motion thoroughly in my mind while the platform I was on tried to stop me from doing so. Finally, I shifted into my crouched position again and waited for the moment right before the platform came. Then I unwound and sprang for the platform. I landed on the platform with a thump but it jerked to the right and I rolled toward the side. I was just about to fall off when I extended a hand instinctively and grabbed the edge.
"Yumi!" I heard Ulrich call in worry.
"I'm okay," I said loudly, and then reached up to grab the platform with my other hand. "I think," I whispered to myself. Then I pulled myself up with much difficultly. Breathing out a sigh of relief, I clutched the platform and turned to find Ulrich. He was still on the main pathway, eyeing the first moving platform with an untrustworthy look. I sighed. "Come on, Ulrich. We don't have enough time for you to memorize every crack in that thing. Get moving."
He backed up, just as I had done and sprung for the platform. He landed on it with a wobbly stance and had to bend down to get his balance. He disappeared from view when the platform dipped down and I swung far to my right. I eyed the next platform and jumped when it came closer to me. I landed on this one gracefully. It moved forward and back.
I concentrated on the next one. This one was revolving at an even pace around an invisible center, going around in a circle. It reached to the other end of the solid pathway but one had to jump twice in quick succession. I braced myself and jumped onto the platform that made the circular movement. Then I quickly shifted my position and jumped again. I landed on my feet on the main pathway again. I looked back to see Ulrich jump onto the platform that moved forward and back. He grit his teeth and jumped again onto the next platform. He almost lost his balance but fought to keep it as he jumped again. He landed on his hands and knees at my feet.
"That was interesting," he said, breathing hard.
I smiled. "Don't go jumping around Lyoko much, I see."
He picked himself up. "Not as much as you do."
We continued along the pathway until we reached an odd circular part in the path. There was a little pool of water in the middle of the circular area, also in a perfect circle. I knelt by it and gazed into it to see my reflection stare back at me. "What's this for?" I asked in wonder. I reached down and trailed a finger through it. I expected to feel the coolness of the water swirl all around my finger. Instead I felt...
"Air? This is weird! There isn't any water at all! It's a trick," I said. I spread out my arms and dove through the little pool of fake water. Then I flipped myself around to land on my feet on another pathway parallel to the one we had been on. I looked up to see a huge ball of what looked like fire pulsing up ahead.
Ulrich stepped up next to me to view the odd spectacle. "Shit, I hate these things," he glowered. "Guardians." He stepped forward to take a closer look. I followed close behind. "Looks like this one has Odd trapped."
I stared hard inside the pulsing orange ball and saw Odd's body suspended in the middle of it. "We have to get him out of there," I said. "But how?"
"Use your powers, Yumi. Create a clone of Odd. That way you'll trick the guardian. Meanwhile, I'll use powers of my own." Ulrich slipped out his sword and stepped into his fighter's stance. I turned to find two crabs crawling their way toward us. I cringed as I noticed that beyond the guardian that had Odd trapped in it, there wasn't anything but a freefall downward. We were trapped.
Immediately I concentrated and dropped to my knees, closing my eyes and placing my fingers up to my temples. I focused on what Odd looked like, a virtual Odd. I saw him in my mind's eye immediately and I settled on an image of him shooting a laser arrow. Slowly I strained my mind on only his body and blocked out everything else.
"Yumi, could you hurry it up a bit?" came Ulrich's voice but it was very faint. I scrunched up my face in concentration and slowly conjured up a clone of Odd standing to my right. Then I opened my eyes and backed away from the guardian. The guardian started to jiggle and fidget like it was jello. Then it shifted completely over to the clone of Odd. Quickly, I lunged forward and grabbed the real Odd before the guardian would know otherwise. Slinging Odd over my shoulder, I waited until Ulrich had exploded the last crab. Then I ran to him and put Odd down on the ground.
"Can you wake him?" I asked.
"I think so," Ulrich said.
"Hurry."
Ulrich took Odd's shoulders and shook them hard. Odd's head just rolled around a few times. Ulrich slapped Odd's head and face but Odd wouldn't budge. Ulrich growled in frustration. "Odd, wake up you big loser!" he shouted in Odd's ear. "Uh," Ulrich said disgusted as he rocked back on his heels. "He really isn't any good unless it comes to eating." Suddenly Odd stirred.
"Eating?" he said weakly. "Did someone say eating?"
I laughed. "Yeah, I would say you're right, Ulrich. Odd, are you okay?"
Odd rubbed his head and straightened up slowly. "Yeah, I'm fine. But I am hungry."
Ulrich glanced at Odd with an annoyed expression. "Well save it. We still have to rescue Aelita and Jeremy. They are probably trapped just like you, in a guardian."
"Whoa, Jeremy's here?" Odd asked, standing up with the rest of us.
I nodded. "Involuntarily."
Odd snorted. "Yeah, no kidding. One of those pesky boys trapped us and forced us to Lyoko. As soon as I stepped foot in Lyoko, that lethal guardian just up and pretty much swallowed me whole."
"Those pesky boys turned out to be with Xana," Ulrich said.
"They what?"
I looked at the place where we were in Lyoko. We had literally run ourselves into a dead end. "We can explain later. Right now, all I want to know is how do we get off of this little island?"
"Wha..." Odd suddenly crumbled to his knees, holding his head with both hands.
Ulrich and I immediately bent down to support him. "Odd are you okay?" Ulrich asked worriedly.
A moment later Odd shook his head and stood up again. "Fine, guys. Just had a vision. Apparently to get off of here, you just jump."
"Come again?"
"Like this," Odd said running up to the edge and jumping off.
"Odd!" Ulrich and I yelled at the same time, running to where he had just jumped off. Odd was already gone from view.
"Is he insane?" Ulrich asked nervously.
"Well, I'm going after him," I said and before I could think about it more, I jumped off the side as well.
Mist surrounded me for a while and then suddenly I broke free of all fog and I was speeding toward another pathway. Odd was waving at me from down below, since he was already standing on the pathway. I landed in a crouch and straightened up to see Odd wink at me. "Told ya," he said triumphantly.
Ulrich plopped down beside us a minute later. He landed on his back. "Ouch!" he exclaimed and then slowly got up, rubbing his smarting back. "Could have warned me, you guys."
"Don't blame me," Odd said, crossing his arms across his chest, his purple tail swishing. "Blame Yumi. I just had another vision."
"Of what?" I asked curiously.
"Aelita," Odd said informatively. "She seems to be in the polar region, on an little ice island in the middle of the blue ocean."
"Aelita?" I asked in shock. "She's still alive?"
"And how are we supposed to get in the middle of the ocean?" Ulrich asked, defeat evident in his voice.
"Let's get to the polar region first," Odd said, pointing at a tower just ahead in between two giant sand dunes.
