Opening Moves
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A/N: This chapter is mainly an introduction chapter, and is therefore short. The next chapter will have a rather surprising turn of events. However, don't expect any role for Yumi or Odd until the next sequel, as this arc will end the Opening Moves story.
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Chapter 12
Surprising Experience
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I ran, ran, and ran some more. I hoped that the tower hadn't been affected by the warping. If it had, then Yumi, Odd, and the entire hospital was finished. Out of nowhere, a rock went flying at me. Putting Aelita down on the ground, I drew my sword. Then I cut the rock into many pieces.
Aelita began slowly drifting toward the hole, and I noticed that it was growing in size. Desperately, I ran to her, slung her over my shoulders rather roughly, and sprinted off.
"Jeremie, I need some help over here!" I yelled desperately, as my powers weakened. I felt myself slowing rapidly, as the force that was destroying Lyoko slowly weakened the structure. Looking at my hand, I noticed that it had turned into a green mesh for a second.
"Ulrich, I'm having trouble forcing it out of the system. You'll need to get to the nearest unaffected tower. Get out of the forest region. I'll try to reroute X.A.N.A.'s signal to a tower in the desert region. Go there soon as Aelita's back to full health." Jeremie said.
"Will do, Jer." I replied, sprinting off to a tower that I noticed stood right on the edge of the hole. I hoped desperately that the hole wouldn't spread into the tower. That would mean that we'd be trapped there as it slowly got reformatted... And us with it!
Suddenly, the ground ripped apart. Trees flew up into the sky, where they promptly shrunk into data and flowed into the hole. I leaped over the gap that was forming, and managed to grasp a ledge. Aelita began to split into 1's and 0's, and then return to her usual self. I was sure that the same was happening to me.
"Ulrich, the signal's been transferred." Jeremie said.
"Good. I'm in a bit of a tight spot here, though." I said, grunting as I tried to pull both myself and Aelita onto the platform with one hand. Around me, rocks were falling into the abyss that was forming. As they fell, they were deleted. I felt a strong pull on me, as the powerful force dragged me further into it.
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Jeremie
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I watched in horror at the screen. Ulrich and Aelita were about to fall into the gap that was forming, and I couldn't do anything. Wait... There was something I could do. I remembered that I had created a program to control the scanners remotely. I could virtualize myself with it and help Ulrich!
Plugging my laptop into the lab supercomputer, I began to transfer the program onto it. "Ulrich, hang on. I'm taking the plunge." I said, trying to shake the fear out of my voice. What if the program didn't work? I had never tested it before. Still, I decided to press on. There was never a better time to test it than now.
I watched frantically, urging the data transfer to finish. When it did, I immediately loaded it into the scanner's memory. Then I set the coordinates. The program would activate the moment it detected a new body in the scanner.
I ran into the elevator, going down to the scanner room. I had established a combat avatar for myself, and uploaded it into memory as well. Fearfully, almost reluctantly, I stepped into Odd's scanner. Immediately, the program began the virtualization.
"Transfer. Scanner. Virtualization." The computer said mechanically. Immediately, there was a powerful gust of wind, and I felt my hair fly up. Then I was virtualized.
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A/N: I hope that was a satisfactory introduction to the next chapter. Don't worry, I will explain the hole in Lyoko very soon.