Opening Moves

A/N: I understand that it's tiring to see the same event three times, so I'm probably going to only tell this segment from Ulrich and Yumi's perspective, since there's little action going on right now. Besides, I don't know how to capture Odd and Jeremie's thought easily, so I'm probably going to stick to characters I have experience writing from. Also, there's going to be a look-back into "Broken Heart", but it's going to have a small change.

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Chapter 3

The Attack: Ulrich

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"Okay, Ms. Ishiyama, it's okay for you to come in." I heard the nurse say through the open door. I was in a semi-conscious state after they used anesthesia, because the dart wound had to be stitched shut to prevent blood loss.

Yumi walked in, telling the nurse thank you. "Hello, Ulrich." She said, smiling.

"Hey, Yumi." I said, a small smile forming. Then I fell asleep.

I was walking down the street toward Yumi's house, hand-in-hand with Yumi. Suddenly, I heard a movement. Two huge men attacked us. Yumi fell on the ground, and the bigger guy began pummeling her. The smaller one attacked me. Suddenly, I found myself looking at the bigger guy pummeling me. I was watching the attack from Yumi's perspective.

I woke with a start, panting. I understood what the dream meant.

"Ulrich? What's wrong?" Yumi asked.

"Nothing, Yumi. Just a bad dream." I replied shakily.

A few weeks later, I was out of the hospital. They told me to take it easy for a while, avoid doing any risky stuff like sports. Little did any of us know that I would soon be forced to consider exactly what would be considered "risky".

Unbeknownst to us, there was a spark in the school. A large black cloud of smoke left the school and headed out into the parking lot. It entered a car engine, starting the car up with a roar. The owner of the car, who happened to be the principal, ran out to stop what he thought was a carjacking. The possessed car spotted the principal, and drove into him, knocking him into a wall. The car then sped away from the school.

Meanwhile, Yumi and I were walking in the park that was by her house. It was Saturday, so we didn't need to worry about being off school grounds since we both were day students now. Yumi heard it first. A steady roar that was quickly identified as a car engine closing in. That was strange, since the park was closed to cars on weekends (A/N: I'm not sure if this is true, but the park by my house is, and I can only go by that fact.)

"Ulrich, get behind cover!" Yumi shouted, and we both hid behind the bushes lining the road.

I raised my head to see who the driver was, and maybe even get a license number. That's when I understood what the car was, because there was no driver. Under my breath, I muttered, "X.A.N.A." I took out my cell phone and called Jeremie. "Do you see anything in Lyoko, Jer?"

"No, why'd you ask, Ulrich?" Jeremie asked.

"Because there's a car driving around the park, and there's no driver in it. It doesn't seem to be a car that the driver jumped out of, since the doors are closed, and it stopped about three times. Also, there's no hill where I am." I said.

"Okay. I'll ask Aelita if she felt any pulsations." Jeremie answered.

A few minutes later, Jeremie called and said that there were no pulsations anywhere in Lyoko. Something was wrong. Cars don't normally drive by themselves, yet there was one doing exactly that without any explanation.

"Have her check again, Jer. Something's up, I can feel it." I said.

"Will do, Ulrich. Be careful, and, if Yumi's with you, you best stick together. That way we don't waste any time." Jeremie said.

"Right, Jer. The car has moved away for the time being." I said, as I ran across the street toward the bush that Yumi was hiding in. Suddenly, the car turned around and charged toward me.

"Ulrich!" Yumi shouted, running toward me.

I was oblivious to the fact that the car was heading toward me until Yumi shouted. I motioned for Yumi to head back to her bush, and she complied. I decided to try something different. I ran at the car. When it almost hit me, I jumped up, landing on the car's hood. Immediately, it began racing around the park, trying to throw me off (similar to that commercial where a man jumps on the car and rides it like a bull into a gladiatorial-style arena).

I saw, in the corner of my eye, Yumi calling someone, presumably Jeremie or Odd. But there was no time to worry about that now. One wrong move and I could fall off. The car drove over a rock, throwing it into the air. I caught it and began hitting the car with the rock. Then, I jumped off before it drove into the lake.

I ran back to the bush where Yumi was hiding. When I got there, she was telling her cell phone (probably talking to Jeremie) that I had just caused the car to drive into the lake. She then listened for a few more seconds and hung up.

"Jeremie thinks it'll attack us again soon. We'd better get out of here, Ulrich." Yumi said, to which I replied with a nod.

We ran out of the park and toward the factory. My cell phone rang. It was Jeremie.

"Aelita located the pulsations. Odd's being virtualized right now." Jeremie said.

"Okay, tell him that we'll be there in a few minutes. If Jim catches us, there's nothing he can do since it's Saturday." I said.

"Right." Jeremie said.

We ran into the sewers leading toward the factory. Picking up the skateboards, we rode toward the elevator.

When we got there, Jeremie was sitting at the computer console, watching the battle in Lyoko.

"What's going on?" Yumi asked.

"They're in the desert region. There're about six Blocks and four Hornets. Odd's down to 50 life points, and Aelita's been knocked out." Jeremie said.

"Right. We're going in." I said, and Yumi nodded her agreement as we went toward the elevator leading into the Scanner Room.

"I'll put you down right behind the Blocks. That should give you an advantage." Jeremie said, as we stepped into the scanners. We heard Jeremie say "Scanner, Yumi. Scanner, Ulrich. Transfer Yumi. Transfer Ulrich. Virtualization!"

Then we were right behind the Blocks. Suddenly, I heard Jeremie's voice resonate through my consciousness.

"Ulrich, there was a problem during the transfer. You'll lose life points whenever you use your powers, and will be trapped in the Void upon devirtualization." He said.

"Damn…" I muttered, sizing up the situation. They outnumbered us by more than two times, and Odd was now down to 10 life points. I decided to try to get the Blocks quickly.

"Yumi, you help Odd with Hornets. I'll take the Blocks out and help you." I said. She nodded her agreement.

I snuck up on one Block and stabbed it in the X.A.N.A. symbol, destroying it. But a Hornet saw me, and fired a laser. It hit my leg.

"Ulrich, you're at 90 life points. Still stable, but be careful." Jeremie said.

Right when the Hornet was about to fire, it exploded. Yumi had thrown a fan at it, cutting the symbol and destroying it.

Meanwhile, I ran through three Blocks, destroying them. That left two Blocks and two Hornets (Odd had hit a Hornet as well.)

"Um, guys, we've got a problem. There's a huge group of monsters incoming. I'd say about thirty Blocks, twenty Hornets, ten Roachsters, and two MegaTanks." Jeremie said. "This must be a pretty important to send sixty-two monsters. There's a deactivated tower at forty degrees. Go there."

"Will do, Einstein." Odd said, and we ran toward the tower that Jeremie had pointed out.

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A/N: I hope you liked this chapter. More will be posted later, but I'm tired at the moment and am dead-set at getting this up now to compensate for the fact that I won't be able to post for two days (I have to move and register at the new school.) I'll see if I can make it so that I can post the next chapter soon as the network at home is back up.

Then, after September 5th, I will have delays for up to three months because I want to get a scholarship for a college in another country, and that's real hard to get.