4-7: Returning

The point of my stories is to warp your minds so that I control you all! Mwahahahaha! Bow down and accept your fate, pitiful humans! Oh, and could one of you guys bring me a bowl of marshmallows?

(((-7-)))

The pink-haired girl clenched her fists. Jeremy depended on her! Maybe she didn't have a weapon, but she did know how to trick it.

She dashed toward her opponent suddenly, and as it fired, sprang into the air. She landed on top of the box, making it stagger. It was confused by the unexpected weight. Aelita leaned a hard right and the Block unwillingly tottered that direction until it lost footing on the green slimy fungus and toppled off the edge of the Forest region into the void below.

Lyoko's only inhabitant landed neatly on her feet and dusted her hands off. Now for the Tower.

She had gone no more than three steps when something virtualized between her and the spire. Aelita tensed and backed away. Not a Megatank!

(V)

Yumi put a hand to her head as she rose to the upper level. She had no idea what was going on up there and it was making her nervous. She pressed the button to stop the lift and punched in three numbers for the code.

The doors opened and the black-haired girl barely ducked in time! Janika, covered all over with blackened, blistering skin, swung a heavy metal bar that she shouldn't even have been able to lift in her condition.

Yumi dropped to her knees and then pushed off from the floor, plowing into her former friend's stomach to knock the wind out of her. Janika let go of her weapon and grazed the other girl's face with short but sharp fingernails as she fell to the ground.

Jeremy was lying prone across the room. His friend couldn't tell if he was all right. She hoped he was still alive as she scratched her enemy back.

(V)

Aelita took a running leap and sailed over the Megatank. Unfortunately, the metal monster wasn't stupid. Halfway over, the armored ball suddenly let its energy beam flare! The digital girl was struck in the midsection and landed on the ground, gasping with pain.

How many lifepoints had she lost? Too many, surely. The tank rolled toward her as she rose to her knees. Her eyes closed and she hummed a plaintive note that echoed and rebounded throughout the Forest.

A barrier of stakes rose from the ground at her call, blocking the Megatank. As it paused, the sharpened palisades spread underneath it, lifting the robot up above the forest floor. It opened and readied to fire one final blast when a stake suddenly shot up and pierced the eye-like symbol!

Aelita nearly collapsed as the explosion rocked her back. She had never drawn out her Synth-song so long, and her lifepoints were nearly depleted. But at least she had defeated it.

The way was clear, but she was almost completely exhausted. No, she had to do it.

(V)

Yumi slipped under Janika's guard and elbowed her in the gut before throwing her to the floor. "I don't want to hurt you, even if you are possessed by X.A.N.A."

"Then you're making a grave mistake, girl!" Janika muttered as she slipped an arm up and bashed the other in her face.

Yumi staggered back, blood leaking out of her nose. Jeremy was suddenly beside them, holding the burned girl in a firm headlock with one arm. The other he was holding at an odd angle.

"It's too late, X.A.N.A.. Aelita is entering the code now!"

Janika snarled angrily and tried to toss him off, but suddenly she froze, eyes widening and then sliding closed as she went limp. The blonde boy let go of her and hurried to the console. He typed in some digits with his good hand and gave Yumi a look.

"Ready to go back?"

"More than ready."

(V)

Janika blinked and looked around. She saw the ceiling of the scanner room and Jeremy and Yumi were standing over her.

The tall girl looked down at her. "You ok?"

"What just happened?" she wondered as she got to her feet. The world tried to slip out from under her.

Jeremy helped keep his friend steady. "You don't remember?"

The dark-haired teenager shook her head. "I...I remember fire and...and you. I said something important, I think...but I can't remember what it was. What's the matter?"

Later after Janika had been filled in on her possession, Jeremy typed notes into the super-computer's databank. The boy still couldn't believe X.A.N.A. had been able to affect a person directly. He still had no idea how it happened. But what really bothered him was the partial message. She had known something.

Jeremy sighed and leaned back. "What is it Janika was trying to tell me?"

Don't worry, you'll find out in the next part of the saga, but I'll need my readers' help. Are you people willing?