Opening Moves
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Chapter 16
Ulrich's Return - Ulrich
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"Ugh, where am I?" I thought groggily, my eyes fluttering open. It looked as though I was in space, only there were no stars. My breath seemed to get stuck in my throat, causing pain.
"Ah, so you're finally awake." Came a strange, reverberating voice. It seemed similar to the strange thing I saw after getting Aelita to Jeremie before falling… Wait, was I in the Void? "No, you are not in the Void. I see that my contacting you then was a big mistake. If I had not caught you in this energy bubble, you would have been out of my reach."
"And that would somehow hurt your 'master plan', X.A.N.A?" I asked coldly.
"Yes, Ulrich, it would. However, I am not X.A.N.A. I am the being that was destroying Lyoko. That was my last hope to crush the evil. But it failed. The evil was too resourceful, there in it's own home. Ulrich, your friends need you. However, I will give you a power that will help you defeat the enemy. Only use it if you need to and it's not too risky. Using it while virtualized will devirtualize you. Even worse, if you use it in the real world, you will be killed." It said.
"So then why give it to me?" I asked.
"Ah, in a questioning mood, are you? It is because it is needed in order to stop the evil. Even if you unplug X.A.N.A, it will not help in the least. The evil that I fear is stronger than anything in this world. It is not something that can be trapped. What I fear can even destroy the entire planet, and I don't mean Lyoko."
"Will I be able to see everyone if I accept?" I asked.
"Of course, Ulrich."
"Very well. I accept it."
Immediately, the blackness of the world around me turned into bright white. It enveloped me completely. I felt my clothes changing. The clothes I wore in Lyoko turned darker, more armored, more foreboding. My katana grew longer, more pronounced. Then a strange mark was burned onto my forehead, a deformed circle.
Then everything went black.
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When I awoke, I was in Lyoko again. A strange person wearing ninja clothes was throwing shuriken at Blocks and trying to deflect a bunch of lasers, but a few hit him. Aelita was hiding behind a tree, but would be spotted the moment the ninja was devirtualized.
Immediately, I snapped out my katana, feeling and savoring the blade gliding in my hilt. "Triplicate!" I felt myself divide into three copies of myself. All three of me jumped up, landed on a Block, stabbed it's eye, and leaped off, all in the time it took to turn your head.
All three Blocks exploded. Instantly, a hail of lasers flew at me, and I arced in the air to dodge them. I landed effortlessly on two feet, and deflected two lasers. All of them bounced off my sword and hit the bulls-eye on the Blocks, destroying those two as well. The rest retreated into the Tower, presumably to report to their master.
"Not bad at all, Ulrich." The ninja said, and I realized that he was the boy who had hurt Odd. I turned on him, trying to hit him, but he dodged.
"You're one of X.A.N.A.'s cronies, aren't you?" I demanded, anger building in me. He was part of the reason my best friend was in the hospital. He was a spy!
"I was, Ulrich, but not anymore. Now put the sword away. You may be stronger than before, but I can still defeat you." He said.
"Okay." I said, reluctantly sheathing my blade. "Now, what are you pulling?"
"I already told you, I am no longer working for X.A.N.A. He has been growing in power, as I'm sure you noticed, what with the energy clash." He said.
"That was not just X.A.N.A. There's another evil, more powerful than him. I think that that evil is what held X.A.N.A. at bay." I said.
"Hmm…" he said, obviously dumbfounded by the idea of a being more powerful than X.A.N.A. "Now that you mention it, he did mention something about the 'Arrival of Shadow' in one of my conversations…"
"What did he mean?"
"I am unsure, Ulrich. The Shadow, however, must be the force that Galotos told you about."
"Galotos?"
"The force that stopped you from falling into the Void. It acts as a subordinate program to the supercomputer, so it has the same powers to manipulate the real world as X.A.N.A. does. However, he has greater power, even if the power is limited. If he were to use his full power, Galotos would kill every program here. However, he cannot do this unless the Shadow is gone, for it is not bound to the supercomputer as X.A.N.A. is. He would leave the planet defenseless."
"I see…"
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A/N: Sorry for the delay, but a lot has been happening, what with midterms, a program I want to get into, and my plans to go to Japan for one year as an exchange student.