Code: Lyoko

Pass the Ball

By: Chibi

Disclaimer: Chibi does not own the characters of Code: Lyoko. Though she is unsure of the people who DO, she's positive that it isn't her.

Summary: As an end-of-term fever buzzes around every student, the Principal, pressured by Sissi, agrees to throw a bash in honor of the students who would be graduating that year and all of their accomplishments. Everyone has their eyes set on someone but complicated measurements may keep them from going with who they want to go with. These measurements in turn lead to some of the most crazy matchmaking mix-ups possible. More of a social fic than a XANA-attacks-Earth-and-almost-kills-off-an-important-character fic.

Warning: Includes Yumi/Ulrich, Odd/Sam, and possibly Jeremie/Aelita. Also a good amount of Sissi-scheming.

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Chapter Six

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Meanwhile, outside, the group of five were running towards the pothole that would lead them back to their gateway into Lyoko.

"It's XANA! It's gotta be! I should have known that he couldn't be silent for long!" Jeremie shouted as they all cluttered onto the underground latter as fast as possible without stepping on anyone's fingers or heads, and all of them took either a scooter or a skateboard and rolled down the tunnel.

"Hurry to the scanners!" Jeremie continued, "You too, Aelita; I'm sorry but we'll have to leave our night here for now." He added less enthusiastically.

Aelita sighed, "I really enjoyed my time with you tonight Jeremie. If we can, I'd like... I'd like to do it again."

Jeremie grinned, "If everything works well in Lyoko, we may just be able to do that." They nodded to one another and she left, running after the others and grabbing the scanner with Yumi (because there's only three) before the door closed and began to morph them into their Lyoko avatars, "Scanner Yumi... Scanner Aelita... Scanner Odd... Scanner Ulrich... Transfer Yumi... Transfer Aelita... Transfer Odd... Transfer Ulrich... Virtualization!" He shouted.

The entire Lyoko group was re-stabilized in the Plains Region.

"Okay, Jeremie, it worked." Aelita said through their Direct Connection.

"Any pulsations Aelita?" He asked as he typed furiously on the Super Computer to load the Lyoko members' Life Point graphs.

"Yes; to the North." She replied. They heard nothing but silence as Jeremie looked into the mapped area.

"Right, they're towards the Polar Region. I say head there now and be on your guard. I'll warn you if I see any of XANA's creatures running up to you." The others nodded to heed his warning and Ulrich and Yumi pulled out their swords and fan while Odd readied his arrows, "...Be careful; there are a couple of Crabs coming up on your left." Jeremie stated and Odd leapt forward to take the offensive incentive.

"Gotcha!" He shouted and struck one of them immediately with his arrow. The other made to attack him but was viciously whipped by a fan swooping from above, "Thanks Yumi." Odd told her with a smile. She nodded and smiled back before jumping off of the rock she had stood on.

"Guys, this is no time to be worried about manners! There are four Blocks coming up from behind and six more Crabs rounding up the front, left, and right paths! It's a lock-down; XANA doesn't plan on letting you through willfully so I guess you'll have to make your own way." Jeremie watched as the others began to take their offensive positions.

"Princess, I'd say it's time to make your way to a hiding place." Odd stated as a Crab leapt at the two and he destroyed it in mid-air. She nodded and began to run behind the exact rock that Yumi had been standing on.

Ulrich was in the middle of dodging a single Block and Crab, completely unaware that another duo was ready to leap on him from behind. He multiplied into three copies of himself and dashed straight forward, slashing his sword in a failed attempt to reach the Lyoko sign before the Block used his defense mechanism to render his attack useless.

"You wanna play rough?" Ulrich muttered angrily; he didn't want to deal with this today. Unintentionally, he looked over to see Yumi standing in front of the rock, defending both her and Aelita from another three Crabs and a single Block. She was having a bad time, especially when close combat wasn't her better of skills. Ulrich turned back and leapt up and over the Block before it was able to generate and emit a perfected attack. He jumped on top of the Block and, while it was busy trying to turn and spot him again, shoved his sword straight into the Lyoko symbol successfully, "HAH!"

Odd was currently dodging two Crabs, seeing as speed was his best bet of winning. He smirked, seemingly deciding on a tactic for victory, and stepped on the manual pedal, revolving continuously around the two XANA creatures, confusing them as they tried to catch sight of the real him.

That was when he made choice moment to strike one and ended up dematerializing it into nothing. The other took the incentive and hit him in the leg, sending him to the ground.

"ODD!" Yumi shouted, trying to see if he was okay and being hit in the chest, herself, by the Block she was facing. He got up and questioned Jeremie about both their status's.

"You both lost twenty Life Points, Odd and Yumi. You need to be careful. Don't get distracted by them! That's exactly what XANA wants!" Jeremie scolded before blinking as he looked at the maps again, "Oh my... Guys, we've got a problem. XANA's planning to ambush you while you're in the middle of your battle. I've spotted another two Crabs and four Blocks coming in from all angles. He's got you right where he wants you! You need to do something or it's hopeless." He shouted frustratedly as the amount of enemies multiplied to the third power.

"No problem Jeremie. We can handle it!" Odd stated, tackling the last Crab he was forced to match off with and sending it into oblivion, "Yumi, make a wall for Aelita, you, and me and get us all settled behind it. We can attack from there and keep up our shields and strengths; it'll ensure our safety."

"But what about--" Yumi caught sight of Ulrich facing off against another Block, too preoccupied with his battle to notice anything going on with them, "--All right." She closed her eyes and focused all of her attention on the single rock that had been used twice all ready for protection and shuddered as she felt her Psychic powers rising it into the air, also crushing it into six separate panels.

Slowly, they all fell to the ground around the three Lyoko members, keeping them hidden for the most part. Odd took one side while Yumi took the other and Aelita watched from the center to keep an eye out for anything that might sneak up on them.

"HAH!" Odd stated as he successfully shot the Lyoko symbol of a Block from a thirty foot distance. But his high self-esteem was short-lived as he shot at another and it closed its shell protectively.

"Be careful Odd, you only have five more arrows left." Jeremie warned as he saw the boy's weaponry arch draining slightly, "And Yumi, don't risk anymore of that Psychic power of yours or you'll dip into your Life Points, and you can't afford anymore of that!"

"Right." She replied calmly, as she threw her fan towards a Crab and seared it across its symbol, destroying it on contact and deleting it.

"GUYS!" It was Ulrich, and he was sporting his sword and an expression of... Well, it was a lot of things, and let's just say that joy wasn't one of them, "I need your help over here!" He was currently facing off between three Crabs and two Blocks.

Fortunately, things couldn't seem to get any worse.

"Yumi, Odd, Aelita, one of you will have to go defend Ulrich while the other guides Aelita to the Tower in the North. I don't see any other way around this!" Jeremie shouted in earnest. The others nodded to each other and Yumi jumped over their defense and decidedly began running towards Ulrich while Odd destroyed another Block, losing one of his precious arrows, and helped run Aelita straight through the fray of enemy bodies.

"What are you doing here?" Ulrich asked impatiently as Yumi stepped up to his side and threw her fan between the shafts of another Block. He, himself, was currently fighting off two Crabs at the same time, forcing them back while he readied to strike with his katanna.

"It doesn't matter to you, does it? I'm here to help; that's what I was told to do." She replied stiffly as she grabbed her fan from the Block in question and kicked it right over the cliff.

"Fine. You wanna help? You take that half and I'll take this one." Ulrich wasn't going to complain about assistance but he certainly didn't want to be this close to her when they were on such terms.

They evenly divided the opponents so that Yumi had two Crabs and a Block and Ulrich had two Blocks and a Crab. Then they set off to do the dirty work: Getting rid of them.

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Warning Two: This part also contains slight implications of Odd/Aelita. Believe it or not, it was unintentional. (But, um, just for the Hell of it, let's dedicate the Odd/Aelita stuffing-ness to my dear friend, Ulrich/Raven/Ayashe!)

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"All right Princess. I don't know how long I'll be able to help you so if I fall behind with the party, you'll have to go ahead by yourself!" Odd shouted at Aelita as he drew in another Mega-Tank and destroyed it on impulse, before running from behind the mound of snow they were breaking around now.

Aelita nodded and followed, running steadily as she felt the pulsations under her feet increase. They were blasting with more agility now, which meant that the two of them were getting closer to their destination. She saw Odd halt and turn but kept running, finally spotting a snow-enveloped tower in the distance. It was about two hundred-fifty meters ahead.

"LOOK OUT!" Odd shouted, as he threw her aside and took the blast of an attack that was meant for her. She felt his arms around her as she was thrust to the ground, then slowly turned her head as she saw him wavering to stand, "Sorry, couldn't let the Dear Princess hurt herself." He smiled cattily at her and then destroyed the offending Crab.

"I-I'm sorry Odd; I--" She was interrupted by Jeremie.

"Odd, you have two arrows and ten life points left and you still have a Mega-Tank and a Crab after you. Make a run for it!"

"You heard him, Princess." Odd stated with that same sheepish smile, and he took her hand and ran, Aelita following silently after him.

A hundred meters from the tower, they saw a snow-covered mountain being obliviated and turned to see the two XANA creatures hastily following after them; they were getting too close for comfort. Odd stopped and let go of Aelita's hand, pressuring her onward.

"Go on, Aelita; I'll keep them busy." He sounded way too serious to be Odd but Aelita nodded numbly again and dashed forward, evading a laser splice that was aimed at where her feet had stood a moment before.

Odd took his place behind a dead pine tree and waited. He looked around his hiding place and saw the two monsters going after Aelita, who was a mere fifty feet from the tower. He leapt from behind and took the creatures by surprise, destroying the Mega-Tank and then skidding straight past the Crab, which turned its head in his direction and attempted to aim its beam at him.

He dived and managed to miss the impact but, turning, he saw that the Crab had now forgotten all about him and was using its tiny legs to run after Aelita, who was twenty-five measly meters from the tower.

"Not happening!" He shouted and sprung his last arrow on it...

...And missed as his target scuttled around the targeted point.

"No..!" He saw it aim its laser at Aelita this time and attack. He leapt forward and, seeing the blast, threw out an arm to stop it from going any farther, as though in a game of volleyball.

The impact made him dematerialize and reappear in the scanner back on Earth, but it had given more than enough time for Aelita to envelope herself within the towers walls.

-

Ulrich was frustrated. No; he was VERY frustrated. And it wasn't about the fact that he was facing off against two Mega-Tanks and a Crab. He could have handled that. It was Yumi. She'd taken another hit in absence of concentration and she only had twenty life points left. It wasn't like she'd be deleted if she was dematerialized. It was just that Ulrich knew that her lack of nerve and focus on her battle was because of him, and he couldn't help but feel responsible.

He wanted to apologize but... Something was stopping him. What if his saying sorry didn't make a difference? What if Yumi thought that he'd gone too far this time and settled on the fact that nothing could go on between them? The fact was that he still wanted to be with her. Corny though that sounded, he loved Yumi in a way none of the other people he knew could match up to, or understand. She was more than a sister, more than a friend to him...

"ARGH!" He shouted as he was thrown back onto the ground. He had been thinking so hard that he hadn't noticed the Crab take a shot at him. He got up and cursed as he re-obtained his sword for the battle and immediately whisked it through the minuscule XANA Monster's head. It was completely destroyed and he jumped again as he somehow sensed the Mega-Tanks take aim and fire a double attack.

He couldn't keep thinking about the "what if's", he couldn't depend on the thought of apology to help him get to that point, and he couldn't live with himself knowing that Yumi would always think of him the way that she probably did at that point.

He jabbed his sword towards one of the Mega-Tanks; it shielded itself, and he did a sort of dodge, turning left, then back RIGHT, and aimed another hit at the totally exposed Lyoko symbol, making full contact. This left him with one opponent, a last Mega-Tank, which he went head to head with, throwing his sword against the steely surface.

There was a point in time in which he remembered being rolled back by the Mega-Tank, and hit again, but he didn't care anymore. All he cared about at this point was apologizing to Yumi for what he'd done half a week before, even if she would still never truly care for him again.

He got back to his feet and dashed around the Mega-Tank, then made a skidding kick to the round bottom, sending it straight into the air. He leapt up and literally turned the temporarily unresponsive XANA creature on its head, noticing its symbol fully visible, and thrusting his sword deep inside.

"Grr... YUMI, I'M SORRY!" He shouted as the Mega-Tank took one last chance to attack and hit him square in the chest, sending him flying off and to the ground, dematerializing at that point in time.

"What?" Yumi shouted. She turned-she had heard, seen everything-and smiled. Her Crab poised its beam and struck her in the arm, making her fan fly from her grasp. She realized she was hit for the last time and disappeared in a wisp of data particles just as a blinding white light enveloped the land.

-

"Return to the Past!" Jeremie shouted, tapping the 'Enter' key with his finger as everything vanished from his sight and he reappeared again in another time and place entirely.

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A/N: Yes, the plot is officially dead. I've got the next chapter all planned out and everything and, whether it's written or not, it's still all THERE, ready to be posted... Kinda. Anyways, thanks for reading this far into the plot; I know that it was probably EXTREMELY hard for you to stay interested, which was why I included a XANA fighting scene. I thought that it might liven up the whole thing.

Also, I'd like to apologize to the readers for the following.

1.) I'm sorry that it's taken me this long, yet AGAIN, to update this fic. Like I said last time, my computer was rebooted, and the only place I had this fic stored was on a CL website... And it was, like... My draft-version, so some changes had to be made.

2.) I'd also like to say sorry for the missing XANA creatures. I know that there are at least three that I'm missing, and that I probably mixed a couple up but please... Just ignore it. The main purpose of this attack was to give our favorite lovers (U/Y) an intervention so that they could regroup and have a second chance. Otherwise, this whole thing wouldn't exist.

Anyway, please grace me with a review and thanks for reading!

Chibi is ending transmission.

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