COMMOTION
…ten minutes to get this party crashed…
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As Yumi dropped down onto the thick mossy pathways of the forest region she suddenly wished she wasn't there. It seemed as if she was only here hours ago, which was technically the truth. She turned her attention to the walkways nearby. Odd materialized and dropped out of midair on one to her left and Ulrich on one to her right. They ran forward and met at where the paths intersected.
Ulrich scanned the thick green-tinged trunks all around them, noting any disturbance. "Where's Aelita, Jeremie?" he asked immediately.
"In an tower nearby. I'm pretty sure you will be able to see it from here."
Yumi squinted straight ahead and pointed. "There!" Immediately, they took off.
When they got closer, they realized that retrieving Aelita wasn't going to be as easy as it looked. There was a ring of roachsters all around the tower, shooting at it. Higher up, buzzing in a moving circle up in the air, was a ring of hornets, also shooting at the tower. Before the monsters spotted them. Yumi pushed Ulrich behind a mound of mossy rocks to their right and she yanked Odd after her to crouch behind a mossy mound of rocks to their left.
"I'm assuming you did that because you have a plan," Ulrich hissed, rubbing the spot on his shoulder where Yumi had pushed him. She had done it kind of hard.
"Of course, stupid. Now, since you don't have any long range attacks, you jump in with Triplicate and try to wreck as much havoc as you can. Odd and I will back you up with an long range assault. Got it?"
Ulrich nodded and without further ado, he leapt up and ran toward the monsters, yelling, "Triplicate!" Instantly, two more Ulrich slid out of the original. All three of them drew their swords as one.
As soon as Ulrich had left his cover, Yumi scampered quickly to where Ulrich had been. As soon as Odd and her had seen Ulrich multiply himself, Yumi nodded to Odd and they both started their part of the plan. Odd concentrated on the roachsters, shooting three dead right off the bat. Yumi flicked her fan high and sheared off two hornets before her fan came back to her. She cocked back her wrist immediately and did it again.
In no time at all, the coast was clear and Aelita emerged carefully from the interior of the tower. When she saw the three warriors before her and nothing else, her face broke into a smile. "Oh, Ulrich!" she said then, throwing her arms around Ulrich's neck without warning. "Thank you so much for saving me!" Ulrich backed up and looked around at his other two friends, trying to plead with his eyes for some help.
"Hey," Odd said indignantly. "I helped kill those monsters too, you know."
"Come on guys, we have no time to lose," Jeremie said, cutting into the "happy" reunion. Aelita nodded in agreement and let go of Ulrich reluctantly to lead the pack. They didn't question her about where the tower was. All of them already knew from last time. Odd muttered unpleasant things under his breath the whole way, as Yumi kept on shooting him worried glances and Aelita dirty looks.
Right on cue, four crabs barreled in on them at one particularly wide intersection, cutting off every direction. All of them charged up as one. Aelita squealed and clutched at Ulrich, ducking behind him, as if that would give her all the protection she needed. Odd scowled at that and turned to face the monsters.
"Be careful, guys! And make sure to protect Yumi. I mean…Aelita."
Yumi had already deflected the first shot from a crab. She hadn't had time to calculate the angle though, so it ricocheted off randomly, hitting a nearby tree trunk, causing wood to splinter into pieces there. Then she flipped out of the way of another shot while letting her fan fly at another crab. The fan gashed the crab across the front and drained some lifepoints, but the crab merely shook itself and straightened up again, charging up.
Odd bounded around, taking advantage of his cat nature. He never seemed to be able to get high enough though. Finally he sprinted toward Yumi, yelling, "Yumi! Leg up!" Yumi automatically cupped her hands into a foothold and as Odd stepped up into it, she pushed him up with all her strength. Odd fired one laser arrow at the crab opposite him and another at the one he was flying toward. The one he was closest to exploded first, but the other one did just as Odd rolled to a stop on the ground. Yumi grinned at Odd's great feat. Odd grinned as well and looked at Aelita for approval. However she had her mouth covered with her hands and she was looking up at Ulrich in horror.
Ulrich had gathered up his speed and finally launched himself into the air with it. However, before he could strike, the crab he was flying toward just finished charging up. It let one huge laser loose and it hit Ulrich full in the chest. As he was flying back, the crab behind him had also finished charging up. The crab behind him, as a result, hit Ulrich from the back shortly after. Ulrich went flying forward again, his face contorted in pain. Aelita gave a little scream as Odd went to go and try to catch his friend.
Yumi stepped up and blocked two shots from the crabs, which had charged up again. Then she let one past her on purpose, the shot hitting Aelita in the shoulder instead. Aelita staggered back and Yumi resisted a smirk. That's for stealing all my crush's attention, she found her heart saying. In her mind, however, she felt a tad guilty. Especially when Jeremie admonished her for letting that hit get past her. "You're better than that, Yumi. I know you are."
Yumi swiftly finished off one crab by cutting it down to size. After her fan sheared off the crab's legs, she then exploded it with a smart flick to the Xana symbol. Just as the one behind her was going to hit her with its laser, Odd slid in and shot it into pieces. Yumi turned around breathlessly and smiled at Odd. "Thanks. I owe you one."
Odd smiled back at her and winked. "Nah, don't mention it." Yumi almost melted and then did smirk at Aelita. Aelita didn't see, however; she was busy worrying over Ulrich and how he was feeling.
They continued on their way to the activated tower and when they got there, the monsters were waiting, just as they knew they would be. Two megatanks rolled around and around the tower entrance and a few roachsters milled around at the base of the tower as well. Jeremie's voice suddenly made its way to them. "Please hurry. You guys have ten minutes to get this party crashed."
Aelita nodded and took a deep breath. "Okay, I can still dive through the monsters like last time and hurry up with the code. But this time you guys can't let anything hit tower, got it?"
Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd nodded. Aelita took one last lingering look at Ulrich and then sprinted her way toward the tower. Just like last time, she timed it perfectly and slipped in between the two rolling megatanks. By the time the roachsters had started shooting, Aelita was already in the tower, waiting for the volley of lasers to stop.
Without hesitating, Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd plunged into the monsters, weapons out and thrashing. Odd jumped on top of a rolling megatank and kept balance on it as it rolled like he was part of a circus act as he shot off roachsters left and right. Ulrich tried to draw off the other megatank as Yumi covered him from the roachster shots.
"Uh-oh! Two laser arrows left!" Odd announced a couple minutes later. He jumped off the megatank and quickly ran to one side as the megatank snapped open just as fast and tried to hit him. The megatank missed and instead demolished two roachsters in the way. Yumi immediately jumped in front of him to protect him.
"Save them," she yelled at him over the loud noise of battle. "You'll need them to take the last megatank."
"YES!" Odd said, doing a little dance as Yumi blocked off more shots for him. "I love destroying those guys!"
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Aelita stepped into the middle of the Xana symbol, the sounds of the fight totally gone in the serene tower. She was gently flown up to the next level and here she also stepped lightly onto the platform. Then, as she had done many times before, she walked to the center of this one and put out an outstretched hand. A screen beeped into existence and the word "CODE:" appeared on it in those familiar white letters…
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"Now!" Odd yelled to himself, firing his last two laser arrows, one right after the other, at the megatank that was right beside the tower, charging up at him. One hit right on the mark and the megatank exploded in a shower of broken pieces. The other laser arrow, however, sped on past the now destroyed megatank and continued in Ulrich's direction. "Uh-oh," Odd mumbled under his breath as he watched tensely.
Just at that moment, Yumi's fan finished off the last two roachsters she was going after. It curved back and Yumi gasped as she realized what was going to happen. Directly in the return path of her fan was the tower and she hadn't known her fan to take detours before. "NO!" she screamed loudly.
Ulrich, at the same time, had just killed the last roachster and monster that the three of them had faced. He turned at the sound of Yumi's voice and saw the fan. His eyes widened and, by instinct, he swung his sword around, trying to hit the fan. He did so and the fan went spinning off into the tree trunks, almost as if he had hit a homerun.
The problem with this was that now Ulrich's sword was closing in on the tower's base. Ulrich had no way of pulling back because he had thrown all his momentum into deflecting Yumi's fan. Ulrich closed his eyes and waited for the jar of the hit…
Just at that moment, the extra laser arrow that Odd had shot collided into the tip of Ulrich's sword. Ulrich felt the jarring sensation, but it made him swing the other way. Not able to hold onto the sword much longer, he let it go and it skid to a stop in the mossy pathway a little ways away.
It was then that all three at the same time realized just how miraculous that whole chain of events was. All at once, they started whooping and celebrating, coming in for a group hug…
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Aelita's hand reached forward again and typed in "LYOKO" in those same white letters. Then she smiled as she watched all the different windows on the side of the tower fly downwards and out of sight.
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"Return to the past now!"
Author's note: So apparently is being a little fussy right now, eh? Sorry, reviewers! Hopefully we'll get that resolved soon. So for now, I just want to say that I love you all, like always, thank you so much for reviewing my story and please leave another! I love to hear from all of you! And yes, one more chapter after this one (please do not cry, like I deserve your tears; I'm not that good of a writer yet) which will be short. So you were warned. But at least it will be over. And no, no catch. I know I usually write an elaborate plot line that takes forever to unravel but like I told you in the very beginning, this one was a short random thought strand that turned into a short story. So enjoy and pwease review!
