"What the hell just happened?" I asked waving my sword in front of me madly.
"Ulrich, open your eyes," Sissi yelled to me. "And stop swinging that thing with your eyes shut or you'll kill someone."
I opened my eyes and looked around. We were still in the school's courtyard but there were no people, only the monsters and us. This would make things much easier, since now we didn't have to worry about the safety of the other students.
"Good thinking, Ginda." I said.
"Well, yeah..." she replied, waving the stave a little. "Well, shall we begin?"
With out even hesitating, why they had been stopped in the first place I will never understand, the monsters rushed us. The closest one to me jumped at me but I still had my sword ready and I pushed the blade at the monster cutting into it and spraying myself with blood. The monster swiped at me and I blocked with the sword; then swiped back and cut its arm off. With a twist of my body and a jerk of the sword I made a clean cut through its head effectively killing it.
For a moment I looked around seeing the others fighting. Because this was not Lyoko there were smells and realistic gore... it was nauseating for a second, but only a second. In that second before I had to rejoin the battle I saw Odd stationed safely on top of a light post nearby, Yumi using a combination of the martial arts that she knew and the fan that Ginda had given her to destroy the monsters that came at her, Sam was picking up random objects and either throwing them at monsters-who usually then exploded-or using the object as a blunt or blade weapon, Sissi was moving between us and checking people for wounds but dissolving any monster that got to close, and Ginda was using the stave to bash the monsters into oblivion. Then, after my eyes swept the battlefield I saw my next opponent. It was a relatively small flying monster with razor sharp wings and a mouth and claws to match. But it wasn't the size or danger that attracted me, it was the fact that it was trying to sneak up behind Yumi.
I ran, faster than I remembered being able to, and jumped onto the back of the flying monster. It had a number of long sharp spikes along its back and they nearly dug into my feet, but I jumped again throwing the monster into the ground feet behind Yumi. I then did a flip in the air and brought the sword down on the creature's head. There was a clang as it blocked with one of its wings and we entered a sort of sword battle. I parried as it thrust and scraped my blade against its wing, I then dodged its second wing and kicked it in what I assumed was its stomach. As it was thrown back I drew my sword back and thrust it into the place that I had kicked. There was a clang and then a sickening splat, crunch, and I was sprayed with a small amount of blood. I thrust my sword up ripping it out of the creatures' body and looked for my next opponent.
---
At first jumping onto the lamp post didn't seem like a very good idea, until I realized that the gloves provided good shielding against most of the attacks that I received. I used one glove to shoot and the other to block, which worked well because I could create a kind of shield all the way around my body which deflected one or two attacks at a time. Doing this allowed me to find and shoot any of the monsters that had joined in the battle, and I provided excellent backup for the others. Though I didn't just provide backup; the gloves somehow enhanced my jumping and climbing abilities and I used this to my advantage.
As a large flying monster swooped down to try and take a bite out of Sissi I jumped off of the lamppost and landed on its back. It tried to throw me off but I dug my 'claws' into its back and began climbing towards its head. I had nearly made it there when another, smaller, flying monster flew down behind me and tried to slash my back. I tore one of the gloves out of the bigger monster's back and aimed but just as I did so Ulrich appeared out of nowhere and cut into the smaller monster's back with his sword. They both fell off and I turned my focus back to the larger monster; now that I didn't have any distractions I aimed both of my gloves at the back of its ugly head and shot off a series of arrows. Each one hit and suddenly the monster began flying more erratically. It arched into a ninety degree angle with the earth and I began falling off. Desperately trying to grab onto something I accidentally shot off two more arrows and fell away from the creature. That was a good thing because I had apparently shot off exploding arrows, and there was a loud explosion and gore began falling from the sky.
Now I had the problem of landing... I didn't particularly want to become like that monster, but there wasn't anything for me to grab onto. I could tell that I was really high up because all I could see were clouds beneath me. I didn't know how far up I was, but I hoped that it wasn't too far up. Honestly, how far could that monster have flown while I was still on its back, and after Ulrich had just jumped on? There were two ways of finding out, one was simply waiting, and the second was to try and 'see' how far down I had yet to go. I decided to go with the second one.
I aimed my upper body downward and put both hands in front of me. Aiming my right arm with help from my left I pointed myself directly downward and tried to focus beyond the clouds. Suddenly I found myself 'zooming' in on the battle taking place beneath me. Yumi was still slicing and dicing away with her fan, Ulrich was doing the same, but with a little less martial arts, and with his sword, Sam was beating off the monsters, and she seemed to have found a long metal pole somewhere, Sissi and Ginda were nowhere to be found. I looked around trying to find these two and saw a group of monsters crowding near an overhang. I could only assume that that was where they were hiding from the monsters that were attacking them, and I knew that I had to do something about it. Aiming my arm into the center of the group of monsters I fired five of the same arrows that had blown up the large flying one. The arrows hit after a surprisingly short time and they all suddenly flew apart spewing a bubble of blood everywhere. That took care of them, so I decided to see what else I could get from up here...
---
I heard a slight whistling noise and looked behind me. There were three monsters huddled in a bunch around the door leading into the school. I had seen Ginda and Sissi run into the school just a moment ago so the monsters must have been following them. Suddenly I realized what the whistling noise was and looked up, sure enough there were a few arrowheads flying down at the monsters and they hit each one. Then, without any warning, all the monsters exploded in a fountain of gore. This was starting to become quite disgusting...
I sensed something wrong, turned to my right, and slashed with my fan just in time. A monster had started charging me and I had just barely stopped it... you don't really want to know how. I looked over at Ulrich and saw that he was doing well, a little bloody but fine just the same. Sam was the same and I had no idea where Odd was. It seemed that our time in Lyoko, and what ever Sam went through, had led to us becoming fairly good fighters. Perhaps we had a chance after all...
"Yumi," Sissi called from somewhere high. "Yumi up here." I looked and saw that she was on the roof. "We need you, hurry."
I ran to the door and tried to open it but it was locked. I saw no reason to break into the school, and remembered that I had 'learned' to 'fly' recently. Jumping as hard as I could I went up three stories and landed on a windowsill. I turned to face the wall nearest me, which was perpendicular with the wall that I was on. I jumped to it and kicked off. Suddenly I realized that I was doing something that they did in movies.
I landed on top of the roof and looked around. Sissi was waiting for me and Ginda was standing next to what looked like a giant robot. Well, it was more like a semi-giant robot. Its body was roundish and probably about four feet in diameter, its legs were almost human but you could clearly see the hydrolics. It had six arms that ended in a gun barrel just slightly smaller than my head. Its color was almost completely white but it had a dark glow to it, as if it were made of a semitransparent plastic that had black mixed in.
"What the?" I asked surprised. "What is that thing?"
"This is a suit that was designed many, many years ago in the traveler's birth universe. He didn't have enough power or resources to ever really manifest a real one but... well, it comes in handy now that we can materialize it." Ginda told me.
"So why did you need me up here?" I asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Sissi retorted. "You are the one who is going to use it."
"What?" I asked, astonished. "Why me?"
"You have telepathic abilities, as well as telekinetic abilities. You are the one out of your group that is best suited to do this."
"But... why can't you do it?" I asked.
"Because I will be controlling those." She said pointing around the roof and at the roofs of the other houses.
All around them there were things that looked like really big spiders. They had eight legs and their bodies were shaped like one section of a spider's... except that the top part of it lifted off and showed a number of very strange looking weapons. It looked kind of like the roachsters in Lyoko except with more weapons...
"Those? All of them? But there are hundreds, thousands..."
"Four hundred thirty six thousand five hundred sixty two. To be exact." Ginda corrected. "And I could bring more, and bigger ones if Gwydion would let me..." she said with a little resentment creeping into her voice.
"Alright... how do I pilot the thing?" I asked.
"Simply get in and you will know the rest." Ginda said.
The back of the thing opened up slightly and a very comfortable chair turned around and moved towards the ground. I sat in it and was lifted and turned so that I was facing the inside. I could hear the gears turn as the back locked into place, and then there was a rush of air as the inside was pressurized. The screen lit up and I noticed that it took up the entire wall in front of me. After a few seconds, as the thing 'booted up' I was able to see the outside again, as well as a wide assortment of little displays and windows showing all the various weapons. Suddenly I got a shiver of excitement and realized how some people must feel when they buy a new video game...