Code: Lyoko
Sins of the Father (Pt. 1)
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You guys read right, this will be a three-parter. It will mostly take place in the real world but there will be
Lyoko scenes too. There will be a cool Lyoko battle towards the end, but this'll mostly be a mystery story.
Just be forewarned that this'll be different from some of the Code: Lyoko that you'll be used to.
Warning: This is a long one, you might want to get something to eat before you begin.
Review Response:
Chibi-Suiko: The reason is actually fairly simple. I did my research. You know, watch a few episodes, visit the
web site, that sort of thing. I still have no clue as to how all this came about, but I'm adjusting.
I've given up on disclaimers. After eight chapters of them, I should hope it would be obvious for you guys.
Abstract: Ulrich's gone and it's up to Team Lyoko (my own personal name for them) to figure out where he is.
One problem though: the prime suspect in the disappearance is... Yumi!
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There was a clank of soda cans as Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, Jeremie, and Aelita celebrated the completion of the fourth
scanner on the upper level of the factory. It had taken more than a month with a small workteam of monsters
materialized by Xana helping along, but it finally was done.
"I thought we would never finish it," Jeremie said. "Having a little extra help did make things go by quicker."
"Even if that help was machines originally built for battle?" Yumi asked.
Jeremie nodded. Then turned to Aelita. "Hey Aelita, don't drink so fast, you'll give yourself an upset stomach."
"Oh, sorry, Jeremie," the girl replied. "But this soda is very good. I never tasted anything like it before."
Yumi whispered to Jeremie, "I think Odd lit a time-bomb here introducing Aelita to soda."
Jeremie agreed. "Hey Odd, I think you created a soda monster out of Ae..."
"No way!"
"Yes way!" The sound of Ulrich and Odd arguing caught their attention and the three turned to watch this mini-
spectacle.
"Come on, I've heard you before, you couldn't get anything higher than a 3.0."
"Care to test that theory right here and now?" Ulrich asked.
"You bet!" Odd took a long drink of his soda then let out a loud belch. "Beat that, hot shot."
"With pleasure." Ulrich took a sip of his own soda and let out a belch that was a little louder than Odd's.
"It's just a matter of getting enough air."
"They are such children," Yumi said shaking her head.
"Simple minds, simple pleasures," Jeremie quoted. A very loud belch that sounded more like a low rumble came
from next to them. Everyone stared at Aelita with shocked expressions.
"Oh, sorry, everyone," Aelita apologized covering her mouth. "I don't know what came over me."
"I don't believe it," Odd gasped. "A girl who literally came out of a computer is a better belcher than me."
"Sorry, Odd."
"Aelita, don't be sorry," Ulrich said. "Odd needed to be belched down a peg." The others laughed
at Ulrich's comment. Ulrich caught Yumi glancing at him and smiling. He returned her smile with one of his
own. Althought it was difficult for him to admit it, especially to himself, but his affection of her was
growing into, and he really hated to jinx himself like this, love. Don't get him wrong, all of them had grown
especially close, all due to Lyoko, but for two who originally started out as brutal opponents to have grown
so close, that's got to say something.
Yumi was feeling the same way, but for different reasons. For some reason, she couldn't get the words that he
said when they returned to Earth after Xana upgraded them off of her mind.
["I'd rather have you for a friend than have you depressed."]
A friend, just a friend. Nothing more, nothing less.
"So, who wants to be my first guinea pig?" Jeremie asked.
"What?" Yumi asked distracted.
"Who wants to be the first to use the fourth scanner?"
"Ooh, I will, I will," Odd volunteered.
"Your choice," Jeremie said as if he meant to say 'your funeral.' "Let's go down to the lab."
As the group was heading for the elevator, Ulrich's cell phone rang. "Hello?"
"Ulrich, where are you?" It was his Dad and he sounded frantic.
"I'm just out with some friends. Don't worry, we were..."
"Never mind," his Dad interrupted. "Listen very closely, Ulrich. Go to the dorms and wait for me to call
you."
"Huh? But..."
"Don't ask questions, Ulrich, just do it."
"All right, all right, just let me tell my friends where I'm going..."
"No, don't tell anybody. Just go. Look, Ulrich, this is important. I promise I'll explain everything
later on. Please, just go."
"Okay, later," Ulrich said hanging up my phone. "Sorry, guys, but I have to go."
"Where are you going?" Yumi asked.
Ulrich paused. He knew he should obey his father and not tell them that something's wrong, but he
couldn't just blow them off.
"Something just came up," he said with a smile. "I'll see you guys later." And he went through the exit.
"Ulrich, wait!" Yumi called. "Is something wrong? We can help if you'll let us."
Ulrich paused, then turned to her. "Don't worry about it. I'll see you later, Yumi." And he headed over to the
hatch that lead to the sewers.
"Yumi," Aelita called. "Jeremie's already set up to virtualize Odd." With one last look at the disappearing
Ulrich, Yumi joined Aelita by the elevator. The girls went down to the control room.
"So, Odd, what do you think?" Jeremie asked.
The new scanner was a futuristic silver color. The position of the other three scanners had to be moved
but Jeremie didn't believe that it affected anything. The new scanner still had some exposed circuitry and a
porthole on the door that looked like the Lyoko symbol.
"I'm just beating back a 'beam me up, Scotty' comment," Odd replied.
"I think that means he likes it," Yumi whispered to Jeremie.
"Ah. Okay, here we go. Transfer, Odd." The porthole was raised by a metal bar above it leaving a small crack
in between the doors. The doors parted like elevator doors. Odd entered the scanner. The inside was also
silver with a blue ring around it. The door closed. "Scanner, Odd." The blue ring began humming lightly as it
shone light over Odd. "Virtualization!"
On Jeremie's monitor, they saw Odd appear in his avatar form. "How do you feel Odd?"
"Hungry," Odd replied. "But that's natural for me."
"Looks like the plunge was successful," Jeremie concluded. "All right, Odd, try moving around."
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That evening, Odd returned to his room in good spirits. The test run of the fourth scanner was a success. Next
thing would be to test it along with the other three scanners.
"Hey Ulrich," Odd called as he entered the room. "You missed a great show. I played tag with one of Xana's
Roachsters and..." It was then that Odd realized that the room was empty of human presence. Kiwi was sleeping in his
bed/drawer. Odd shrugged and climbed into bed.
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When Odd woke the next morning, the first thing he did was look towards Ulrich's bed. It looked made, like nobody
slept in it.
{That's not like Ulrich,} Odd thought. {He would never make his bed, and especially not in the morning. The last
time he made his bed was yesterday.} Odd dressed and ran to breakfast. Jeremie and Aelita were sitting at their
usual table speaking some sort of computer jargon.
"Morning," Odd greeted. Jeremie and Aelita returned it.
"Where's Ulrich?" Aelita asked.
"Beats me. He never came home last night."
"That's not like Ulrich," Jeremie commented.
"That's just what I was thinking," Odd agreed.
"Maybe Yumi knows," Jeremie suggested.
"I don't think Yumi would know where Ulrich is unless she was with him all night," Aelita commented.
Odd raised an eyebrow towards Jeremie and smiled. "Maybe she was."
"But what could the two of them be doing for a whole night?" Aelita wondered.
Odd chuckled and patted her on the head. "I'll tell you when you're older, Aelita. In the mean time, let's get
to Miss O'Connor's class. With any luck, Ulrich will be there."
But when Odd and Aelita came into Miss O'Connor's classroom, they didn't see Ulrich there.
And they weren't the only ones who noticed. When Miss O'Connor called Ulrich's name, she only got silence. She looked
at Odd. "Odd, d'ye know where Ulrich is?"
"No, ma'am, I don't," Odd replied truthfully.
"Okay then."
Odd, Aelita and Jeremie didn't see Ulrich at all that day. They met Yumi at their usual place that afternoon.
"Hey, guys, where's Ulrich?" Were the first words out of her mouth.
"We were hoping you could tell us," Odd replied.
"Why are you asking me? I haven't seen him since he left the factory yesterday."
"This is serious, guys," Jeremie said. "If none of us knows where Ulrich is, then it's possible that something bad's
happened to him."
Yumi gasped. Then composed herself. "Wait a second, we all know Ulrich, he can take care of himself. He... he's
probably just doing this to give us a scare. I bet he'll show up tomorrow."
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But Ulrich wasn't seen the next day. Yumi started to get really worried. Ulrich would never play a trick like this,
especially not on his friends. The others were also worried.
Odd had just returned to the dorms and was trying to do homework (but his mind was still on Ulrich) when there was a
sharp knock on his door. He opened it to see Jim there with a sharply-dressed man. Odd recognized him as Ulrich's
father.
"Odd, I'm sure you met Omero."
"Yes. It's an honor to see you again, sir." Ulrich told Odd how strict his father could be so being ultra-polite was
the only way to walk away with everything intact.
"I am looking for my son," Omero said. "Do you know where he is?"
"No, sir," Odd replied. "I hadn't seen him since day before yesterday."
"Where?" Omero snapped. "Tell me where you last saw him." Odd was in a jam, either tell the truth and divulge the
secrets of the factory or lie and risk getting in trouble by the principal. Well, when face with a challenge like this,
there's only one thing to do: compromise.
"I think I saw him heading for the park."
Omero grabbed Odd by the collar. "You think? Be absolutely certain! Is that where you saw him?!"
"Hey, hey, calm down," Jim said. "Beating up on kids won't solve anything." Omero put Odd down.
Odd sighed. "There are two places where I think he could be. One is the park, the other is the abandoned factory by
the waterfront."
"And why would he be there?" Jim asked eyeing Odd. Odd just shrugged. "All right. We'll check the park first. If
he's not there, then we'll search the factory. Thanks, Odd." And they left. As soon as they did, Odd took out his
cell phone and speed-dialed Jeremie. "Jeremie, we have a problem..."
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"Not to worry, Odd," Jeremie assured him as they and Aelita conversed in the factory later that day. "I had a
feeling something like this would happen." He pressed a few buttons on his keyboard and a metal garage door slid over
the entrance. "I had it installed during construction on the fourth scanner."
"But Jeremie, what about Yumi?" Aelita asked. "I called her and asked her to drop by."
Jeremie moaned. Apparently, that was something he hadn't counted on.
It was then that outside, Jim and Omero came up to the entrance of the factory. Jim ran his hand over the metal door.
"I doubt that Ulrich would be in here. This place has been closed for years."
"Would they..." Omero muttered. Jim looked at him questioning. "Never mind."
A small gasp came from behind them. They turned to see Yumi staggering back in fright. "It's Yumi," Jim realized.
Yumi turned and started to run back the way she came. But Omero was much faster and grabbed her by the back of her
tank top. He quickly incapacitated her arms. "Where is he? Where's my son?!"
Jim rolled his eyes. When the principal asked him to help locate Ulrich, playing bouncer wasn't what he had in mind.
Then again, he didn't realize that Ulrich's father had such a short temper. He pulled them apart and addressed Yumi
with his normal stoicness and firmness. "Yumi, we're looking for Ulrich. Have you seen him?"
"Not in the past couple of days," Yumi replied as Omero reluctantly released her arms. "He got a strange call some
time ago and he left without saying anything to me. It's strange since Ulrich normally tells us everything."
Omero's cell phone rang. The talking was primarily done by the person calling him because Omero did not speak
until he hanged up. "Excuse me, I must go."
"Sorry about that, Yumi," Jim apologized. "He's really upset about not knowing where Ulrich is."
"He's not the only one," Yumi muttered.
Jim smiled at her. "If you see him, tell him his father's looking for him." And he walked away following after
Omero.
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Jeremie gathered the others in the lab. Yumi had been let in. "All right, since we can't go to the police so we'll
need to start our own search. Yumi, talk to everyone at school. Someone must've seen Ulrich. Aelita, use the
super computer to hack into the Department of Missing Children and check for anyone matching Ulrich's description.
I'll have Odd and Xana search Lyoko. I'd hate to think what would happen if this was an Invader plot."
Everyone split up to do their assigned tasks. Yumi asked everyone she could find but nobody has seen Ulrich. Yumi
took a small break as she checked in with Jeremie. "Jeremie? No, not yet. But I'll keep searching... no, I can
continue, I don't need a break... right, thanks."
"Yumi!" Yumi turned and saw Sissi stomping towards her with murder on her face. Yumi saw that she was ready to slug
her so Yumi put up her guard and blocked the oncoming punch. "Where is he? Where's Ulrich?"
"I don't know," Yumi replied.
"Liar!" Sissi used her other hand and managed to catch Yumi's temple. The brute force of the punch forced Yumi to
the ground. She was surprised that Sissi had a mean left hook. "Isn't it enough that you beat him up? Do you have
to take it one-step further?"
"What are you talking about?" Yumi asked standing up.
Sissi's eyes were bloodshot. "Don't play innocent with me! Everyone knows that it was you who beat up Ulrich just
before the semester started!"
Yumi knew what she was talking about. The time when Xana took control of her mind and made her almost kill Ulrich.
"No, I didn't!" She argued.
"Hah! No use lying your way out of this! You're the last person Ulrich talked to just before he disappeared."
"Sissi, what's the meaning of this?" It was the principal. He was showing the new security system to a passing
Investor and heard the commotion. It was soon after he appeared that Jim and Omero also arrived. Soon, they
attracted a little crowd, including Milli and Tamille, equipped with a camera.
"Daddy, I know she has a hand in Ulrich's disappearance. First she beats him up then she kidnapps him! I wouldn't
be surprised if Ulrich ran away just to get away from her." The principal was still skepticle. Sissi turned to
Jim. "You were there, Jim, you believe me."
"Well... I did see her over by Ulrich beaten up," Jim admitted.
"Please, sir, you have to believe me, I don't know where Ulrich is. I'm innocent."
The principal pondered the situation before turning to Jim. "Jim, did you see Yumi attack Ulrich?"
"No, sir," Jim replied.
"I see... Sissi, unless you have physical evidence that it was Yumi, I'm afraid I can't accept your accusation.
And even if you are correct, that gives you no right to physically attack somebody." He then turned to Yumi. "Yumi,
I'm sorry, but I must ask you to remain at school until Ulrich is found. If it is discovered that you had a hand in
Ulrich's disappearance, then I'm afraid that charges will have to be pressed."
"Yes, sir," Yumi said quietly.
"I'll arrange sleeping arrangements for you. Now, Sissi, you are coming with me." The principal dragged a protesting
Sissi away and the audience dispersed.
Yumi couldn't help but wonder if Sissi was right. Not about her having a hand in Ulrich's disappearance, but the
possibility that Ulrich ran away because of her. "Maybe she's right."
["Something just came up," he said with a smile. "I'll see you guys later."]
["Don't worry about it. I'll see you later, Yumi."]
Yumi repeated the last sentence he said to her. But... she was worried about him, worried sick. Was... was this what it's
like to be in love?
Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd came out of the shed that contained a hidden stairway to the tunnels. Odd was complaining,
"Xana and I had been up and down Lyoko five times and we haven't found hide nor hair of him. I'm beat."
"Yumi, what's wrong?" Jeremie asked.
"The principal says I have to remain at school until Ulrich is found," Yumi said. "He might think I have a hand in it."
"That's a lie! Come on, guys, let's go talk to the principal. We'll just tell her Yumi was with us for most of the
time."
"And be accused as conspirators?" Jeremie asked. "Odd, let's think about this."
"I know it has something to do with that phone call he received," Aelita threw in.
"His phone!" Jeremie realized. "That's it! I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier." Jeremie took out his own
cell phone and dialed Ulrich's cell phone." He let it rang over twenty times before he hung up. "Nothing."
"Wait, Jeremie," Odd said. "Call it again." He tilted his head as if he was listening for something. Jeremie dialed
Ulrich's cell phone again.
A faint ringing could be heard. Jeremie continued to let it ring. The four of them followed the noise to the bushes
near the park.
"Sounds like its coming from the ground," Jeremie commented.
"You don't think they could've..." Aelita shivered to think what could've happened to Ulrich. Odd leaned into the
bushes.
"I found it!" He cried. He pushed the bushes aside to reveal Ulrich's cell phone, still closed.
"Wait, Odd, don't touch it," Jeremie said. "It's evidence, we could get in trouble if we tamper with it. I'll go get
Jim."
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Jeremie couldn't sleep. Normally when he couldn't sleep, he would talk to Aelita or work on the materialization
program. But Aelita wasn't in communication range and the materialization program was finished.
Ulrich had disappeared, Yumi was the prime suspect and they couldn't tell the truth without putting them in even more
trouble. The analysis of the cell phone revealed no fingerprints and the picture gallery held no visual evidence.
Jeremie wished for a sign. What he got was a scuffle of feet that woke him up and even turned his blood into pure
adrenaline. Jeremie crept to his door and threw it open.
Milli and Tamille fell into the room. They had a camera with them.
"What are you two doing here?" Jeremie asked.
"Who's there?" It was Jim's voice. If he found Milli and Tamille in his room, they'll all be in trouble. Jeremie
half-closed the door and pushed the two school reporters behind it. Jim peeked in. "Jeremie, you're suppose to be
in bed."
"Oh... uh... sorry, Jim, but I was... worried about Ulrich."
"Hey, don't worry, the police will find him. That's why we called them in the first place."
"You don't think Yumi really had a hand in his disappearance, do you?"
"I'll tell you this, Yumi was acting really strange when I found them."
{That's only because she realized Xana made her do it,} Jeremie thought and wanted to say.
"Don't worry about Ulrich, just get some sleep."
"Yes, sir," Jeremie said and Jim shut the door. He took a deep breath and turned to the two girls. "What do you two
think you're doing? Do you know what time it is?"
"Sorry, but we just need to know what's going on with the investigation," Milli protested.
"And why are you asking me?"
"Because you found his cell phone so you're our connection to the investigation. Now, it's my turn to ask questions."
Tamille turned on the camera while Milli began brown-nosing Jeremie. "How was Ulrich acting before he disappeared?
When did you last see him? Is it true that Yumi was behind the whole kidnapping?"
"Hey, hey, hey, this isn't the time or the place..." Jeremie turned towards Tamille. "And get that camera out of my
face..."
The camera.
The camera!
THE CAMERA!
"The camera," Jeremie whispered.
"Huh?"
"Uh... never mind, come on, it's back to bed for you two. If Jim finds you two up at night, we'll all be in serious
trouble." That brought them to reality. They turned and snuck out.
{Argh, I can't believe it. What's wrong with me today? I was so busy worrying about Ulrich that I ignored the
blatantly obvious!} Jeremie sat at his laptop. "I better get Aelita and Xana in on this."
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Thanks to some coaxing from Aelita, Yumi was allowed to spend the night in her room. Before she went to sleep,
Aelita noticed Yumi's face was streaked with tears.
A light tapping brought Aelita out of her sleep, something that she had been enjoying immensely since she became human.
"Aelita," came a whisper.
Aelita immediately recognized the voice. "Jeremie?"
Jeremie hushed her. "Not so loud, Jim's about." Aelita opened the door and Jeremie, dressed for out doors, snuck in.
"Aelita, I figured out..." Jeremie noticed what Aelita was wearing and blushed. It was a pair of pink pajamas that
were a bit too short for her (too short as in Jeremie could easily see her belly button).
"Jeremie, what's wrong?" Aelita asked looking at Jeremie's red cheeks.
"Um... oh yeah." Jeremie lowered his voice. "I know a way we can find Ulrich."
"You can?!" Aelita exclaimed.
Jeremie clamped his hand over her mouth and hushed her. "You'll wake Yumi." The two looked at Yumi but she didn't show
any signs of awakening. Jeremie continued, "Yes, I can, but I'll need your help. I've already asked Xana and he agreed
to help out."
"Then I'll help out too," Aelita decided. "Let's go."
"Right." Jeremie turned to leave but then turned back to look at Aelita. "Um... Aelita, you... might want to put some
clothes on."
"But I do have clothes on," Aelita argued showing off her PJs.
Jeremie's blush lightened, but only by a little. "I mean something a bit more... fitting for going outside."
"Oh, okay."
Minutes later, Jeremie and Aelita, in their normal clothes, snuck out of the dorms. "I forgot that the school
recently had security cameras put in last week."
"So you think they might've recorded Ulrich?" Aelita guessed. Jeremie nodded. "So why do you need me and Xana?"
"Because when it comes to computers, you two are the experts. I'll explain later... wait." Jeremie braced the wall of
the dorms and made Aelita do likewise. He pointed to a camera mounted on a corner of the building. "That's a
security camera. It's sensitive to movement. If it catches us, we're doomed."
"So how do we get past it?" Aelita asked.
Jeremie just looked at his watch and counted down from five. A spark of electricity went through the camera and it
shorted out.
"Good job, Xana," Jeremie congratulated. "Come on, Aelita, it won't be out for long." Jeremie grabbed Aelita's hand
and the two ran across to the next building. They reached past the camera's view angle just as the camera came back on.
"I see," Aelita realized. "Xana activated a tower and is now short-circuiting the cameras."
"Yes, but it's only temporary. If the camera goes off-line for more than ten seconds, it triggers an alarm."
"Oh." Aelita and Jeremie moved silently through the campus grounds, dodging cameras. It was quite the exercise,
so much so that they needed to take a break in the shed. "Hey Jeremie, how much farther do we need to go?"
"Not much farther," Jeremie replied. "We just have one more camera to get by." The camera that Jeremie was talking
about was the one that was aimed at the entrance to the main building. Jeremie saw it short-circuit. "All right,
there's the signal, let's go!" Jeremie dashed out and kept on running until he was at the entrance. While he was
trying to pick the door lock with a Phillip's Head screwdriver, Aelita started her own dash across the field.
Suddenly she tripped and fell to the ground. It was then that the camera turned back on.
"Aelita!" Jeremie shouted. "What's Xana doing?" Then a thought occured to him. What if... this wasn't Xana's work.
Jeremie went into a baseball slide and grabbed Aelita. He tried to get the two of them out of the view of the camera
but they were too slow. They would be spotted.
They would have been, but the camera suddenly exploded. All the cameras begane exploding.
Aelita turned to Jeremie. "I knew it!" Jeremie said. He held up his cell phone which was flashing the Lyoko symbol.
"It's the Invaders! They've taken over the tower that Xana's using."
"That means Xana's in danger," Aelita realized.
"And so are you," Jeremie pointed out. "Come on, we need to get to the factory!"
"But what about Yumi and Odd?"
"I'll call Odd, but we should leave Yumi out this time around. She's already in deep trouble as it is." Aelita
and Jeremie ran into the shed and took the back route to get to the factory. As Jeremie powered up the system,
Aelita used Jeremie's cell phone to call Odd.
"Aelita, it's dangerous, but you must go in and return the tower to normal. Then I'll use the past-return program."
"Right." Aelita ran to the scanner room and got into one of the original three scanners.
"Hang on tight, Aelita, your destination is the desert region," Jeremie told her. "Transfer, Aelita. Scanner...
Virtualization!"
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Yumi groaned and opened her eyes. She forgot for a second that she was in Aelita's room. And she also forgot her
situation.
A faint light was coming from the open window. Yumi looked out and saw Jim grumbling to himself as he tried to fix a
security camera on a ladder.
"Jim?"
"Yumi, go back to sleep, nothing's wrong," Jim said automatically.
"How can I when you're making a racket right outside. What's wrong anyway?"
"Nothing, just a short circuit." Yumi looked around. From her view, it looked like all the cameras short-circuited.
{That's weird,} Yumi thought. {There's no way all the cameras could short circuit unless... it's the Invaders!}
"Uh... Jim, would you mind if I closed the window."
"Hey, I was about to suggest that." Yumi shut the window and drew the curtains just to be on the safe side. She then
went to get some clothes on.
Yumi moved stealthly down the hall and out of the dorms. Jim was still struggling to fix the camera so he didn't see
Yumi make a bee-line for the shead.
"Yumi." It was Odd, who called her over from the shed.
"Odd, I think..." Yumi began.
"Invaders, I know. Jeremie just sent me a text message."
"Huh? That's strange? How come I didn't get one?"
"Ask him yourself." The two went down to the sewers and rode their skateboards through the tunnels to the factory.
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Aelita materialized right in front of the Obelisk tower. "Perfect drop, Jeremie," she congratulated. "I'm right in
front of the tower." Two of Xana's Roachsters stood at the entrance. Aelita ran by them and into the maze.
"Hey Aelita, good news," Jeremie said. "I analyzed the path and its fairly easy. The maze goes in a spiral so all
you have to do is follow the path. But watch out for traps."
"You got it, Jeremie!" Aelita ran through the maze and, to her and Jeremie's surprise, didn't encounter any traps.
Jeremie echoed Aelita's thoughts. "I wonder why there aren't any traps. Aelita, be ready for anything at the
Obelisk. I'll upload your weapon." As Jeremie prepared the upload, he heard the doors open. "Odd, good, you're
here. Listen, Aelita's in..." When Jeremie turned around, he realized that Odd wasn't alone. Yumi was with him.
"Yumi, you shouldn't be here. If Jim finds out you left the campus, you'll be in a whole lot of trouble."
"If we don't stop the Invaders, both Earth and Lyoko will be in a whole lot of trouble," Yumi argued.
"Yumi must really love these suicide runs," Odd cracked.
"Yeah, whatever," Jeremie said in response to Odd's comment. "Just get down to the scanners, both of you. Upload:
Lyoko Wand!"
"As they rode down to the scanner room, Odd said, "Look, Yumi, don't be too upset at Jeremie, he's only looking out
for you."
"I know," Yumi replied. "But... if Ulrich is really in danger, then I want to do anything possible to help find
him, even if that means defying a few rules."
"All right," Odd accepted. They arrived at the scanner room.
"Transfer, Yumi. Transfer, Odd. Scanner, Yumi. Scanner, Odd. Virtualization!"
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As Aelita entered the Obelisk, she stopped dead in her tracks. Xana was being suspended in the air by energy ropes
around his arms and legs. Two Blow Fish were circling him.
"Xana!" Aelita gasped. The Blow Fish saw her and dove towards her. Aelita set up a barrier and made the Blow Fish
self-destruct before reaching her.
A loud hissing came from above Xana. A large red serpent-like creature with feet slithered down Xana's body to
Aelita.
Jeremie's pre-battle screen showed "Aelita vs. Setor." It's life points were over 500. "Aelita, please be careful.
It's life points are bigger than yours."
But to Aelita's further surprise, Setor didn't attack Aelita right out. Instead, it slithered back up Xana's body
and bit into his shoulder." A loud groan came from Xana. Aelita gasped and fell to her knees. "Wh... what's
happening."
Of course, Jeremie guessed it right off the bat. "The Invaders must know Aelita's connected to Xana! That's why
they captured him in the first place. With Xana incapacitated, they can attack him all they want and kill Aelita in
the process!" Setor continued to bite into Xana, causing both him and Aelita to moan in pain.
"I... I have to... get him... off Xana," Aelita gasped. She placed her staff on the ground. "Gravity Bind!" A
vortex opened up underneath Setor and tried to suck it in but Setor hung on tightly to Xana." Being rapidly drained
of both her energy and life points, Aelita couldn't hold the Gravity Bind spell and dispersed it. She collapsed to
her knees. As she looked up, she spotted Xana staring down at her. She felt an emotion from him, much like she did
when he first upgraded her. But this emotion was... sorrow! Xana fired an energy beam from his chest/head and
disintegrated Aelita.
Once again, Aelita was ejected from her scanner.
"Aelita!" She could hear Jeremie called out to her.
"I'm all right, Jeremie, I just got devirtualized and..." Aelita dropped to her knees. She felt pain. But that
didn't make any sense. Any pain felt by a Lyoko attack will disappear when devirtualized. So how could she still
feel it?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yumi and Odd arrived at the entrance to the Obelisk. Jeremie reported Aelita's status to them.
"Wow, these guys aren't playing around," Odd realized. "All right, Jeremie, load us up and we'll go in."
"Upload: Disk Launchers. Upload: Wrist Claws." As Jeremie uploaded their weapons, he wondered what Xana's reasoning
behind his actions. Was he trying to protect Aelita?
"Hey Jeremie, we're in the Obelisk," Yumi reported. "Xana's in pretty rough shape. Can you re-virtualize Aelita?"
"Sure, but it'll take a while."
"Please hurry."
In Lyoko, Yumi and Odd squared off against Setor who still had his body wrapped around Xana. Yumi fired her disk
launchers while Odd let off a barrage of Laser Crescents. The attacks together made the Setor drop from Xana.
"Wow, he's a lot bigger up close," Odd commented.
"Keep him busy, guys. I almost reset Aelita's avatar."
"I don't think that'll be a problem," Odd told Jeremie. Then noticed Yumi get in front of him. "Yumi, what..."
"You..." It took Odd a moment to realizing that she was talking to Setor. "Our friend has disappeared. We're
trying to find him! And nobody, especially not some overgrown water snake, will stop me from finding him!"
Yumi made a gesture with her hand. Her aura began flaring. For once, Odd was at a lost for words. "Mystic
Aura... REDUCTION!" Yumi sent her aura into the Setor. The Setor shrunk until it was about Yumi's size.
"Good job, Yumi, but using your aura like that drained you of all your energy plus forty life points."
"That's fine by me," Yumi said firmly. She ran forward and engaged the Setor in hand-to-hand combat. The Setor was
obviously relying too much on its size to fight. Yumi was a dynamo. She fought so fiercely that for a moment, Odd
wondered if Xana was controlling her again. For the coup d'grace, Yumi fired her disk launchers which dealt the final
blow. The energy ropes surrounding Xana disappeared and he fell to his knees. He looked weak. Yumi summoned her
mystic aura again. "Mystic Aura... Regenerate!" Yumi used all but ten of her life points to restore Xana to normal.
But he still looked weak.
Aelita then came in. Jeremie had managed to re-virtualize her. The Obelisk had returned to a tower. "You two take
Xana outside. His monsters should be able to take care of him." Yumi and Odd dragged Xana out of the tower as
Aelita made her way to the upper level. She placed her hand on the center screen and typed in the code.
L-Y-O-K-O
"Return to the past now!"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hey Jeremie, how much farther do we need to go?"
"Not much farther," Jeremie replied. "We just have one more camera to get by." The camera that Jeremie was talking
about was the one that was aimed at the entrance to the main building. Jeremie saw it short-circuit. "All right,
there's the signal, let's go!" Jeremie dashed out and kept on running until he was at the entrance.
Aelita started her own dash across the field. Suddenly she tripped and fell to the ground. To make matters worse,
the camera turned back on.
"Aelita!" Jeremie shouted. "What's Xana doing?" Then a thought occured to him. What if... this wasn't Xana's work.
Jeremie went into a baseball slide and grabbed Aelita. He tried to get the two of them out of the view of the camera
but they were too slow. They would be spotted.
They would have been, but the doors opened and someone pulled them inside.
It was Yumi!
"Yumi, what are you doing here?" Aelita asked.
"Xana sent me a message explaining what's going on. I got in through a window."
"D'oh," Jeremie said. "Why didn't I think of that?"
"Come on."
"Yumi, you do realize that if someone catches you here..."
"Ulrich's my friend too, Jeremie, I want to help find him, even if it's just a little." Yumi lead Jeremie and Aelita to
the security room.
"How do we get past the officers in there?" Aelita asked.
"I don't think we need to," Yumi said. "Look." She pointed to a security guard that was K-Oed on the ground. Jeremie
and Aelita looked at Yumi. "It wasn't me," she admitted. "So how do we get in?"
"This is where Xana comes in," Jeremie said. He should make his move right about..." The door opened. "Now." Jeremie
and Aelita entered while Yumi stood guard. The security room had one wall covered with monitors and control panels.
The opposite one was a shelf filled with marked video tapes. There were two chairs there. One of the monitors was
flashing the Lyoko symbol.
"What do we do now?" Aelita asked.
"As soon as I find the right tapes," Jeremie said studying the shelves. He threw a CD-ROM case to Aelita. "Get ready
to download to this." Aelita set up the downlink. Jeremie took seven video tapes. "These video tapes contain all the
film recorded from the day Ulrich vanished." Aelita, begin downloading them onto CD-ROM.
"You got it, Jeremie." Aelita moved her fingers over the controls. Slowly, a meter bar appeared. It became blue from
the left side to the right. Aelita repeated the process several more times. "There, done."
"Hey, what's going on here?" It was a security guard.
"I thought he was knocked out," Aelita whispered.
"There must've been two of them," Jeremie whispered back.
"What are you two kids doing here?" With a loud battle cry, Yumi leaped into the air and slammed her foot into the
back of the security guard's head. The guard fell over.
"Sorry about that," Yumi apologized. "He must've been coming from a different direction. Don't worry, he'll be all right.
I doubt he'll remember anything from tonight."
"Jeremie, it's all done," Aelita reported.
"Good, let's go."
"Hey Jeremie, do you really think this will help us find Ulrich?" Yumi asked.
"Almost positive, Yumi."
{Ulrich, please be all right,} Yumi prayed. {I almost lost you a first time, I don't want to lose you again.}
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He had a massive headache, like someone slammed his head with a baseball bat. He tried to gather his senses but it was
hard. He knew who he was and what he had done in the past, but it was hard to figure out where he was and why he was
on the ground.
Slowly, his eyes opened. He was in a large dark room. Tin roofs, concreate walls, tons of boxes, must be a warehouse.
"Hey, he's awake," he heard a voice say. He stood up and looked around, realizing he wasn't alone. There were two men
and a woman in the room with him. All of them had guns.
"What happened?" He whispered. "Where am I?" They smirked at him.
To Be Continued.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next time, the mystery deepens as the gang race against time to find Ulrich. But is it already too late?
Sins of the Father (Pt. 1)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You guys read right, this will be a three-parter. It will mostly take place in the real world but there will be
Lyoko scenes too. There will be a cool Lyoko battle towards the end, but this'll mostly be a mystery story.
Just be forewarned that this'll be different from some of the Code: Lyoko that you'll be used to.
Warning: This is a long one, you might want to get something to eat before you begin.
Review Response:
Chibi-Suiko: The reason is actually fairly simple. I did my research. You know, watch a few episodes, visit the
web site, that sort of thing. I still have no clue as to how all this came about, but I'm adjusting.
I've given up on disclaimers. After eight chapters of them, I should hope it would be obvious for you guys.
Abstract: Ulrich's gone and it's up to Team Lyoko (my own personal name for them) to figure out where he is.
One problem though: the prime suspect in the disappearance is... Yumi!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There was a clank of soda cans as Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, Jeremie, and Aelita celebrated the completion of the fourth
scanner on the upper level of the factory. It had taken more than a month with a small workteam of monsters
materialized by Xana helping along, but it finally was done.
"I thought we would never finish it," Jeremie said. "Having a little extra help did make things go by quicker."
"Even if that help was machines originally built for battle?" Yumi asked.
Jeremie nodded. Then turned to Aelita. "Hey Aelita, don't drink so fast, you'll give yourself an upset stomach."
"Oh, sorry, Jeremie," the girl replied. "But this soda is very good. I never tasted anything like it before."
Yumi whispered to Jeremie, "I think Odd lit a time-bomb here introducing Aelita to soda."
Jeremie agreed. "Hey Odd, I think you created a soda monster out of Ae..."
"No way!"
"Yes way!" The sound of Ulrich and Odd arguing caught their attention and the three turned to watch this mini-
spectacle.
"Come on, I've heard you before, you couldn't get anything higher than a 3.0."
"Care to test that theory right here and now?" Ulrich asked.
"You bet!" Odd took a long drink of his soda then let out a loud belch. "Beat that, hot shot."
"With pleasure." Ulrich took a sip of his own soda and let out a belch that was a little louder than Odd's.
"It's just a matter of getting enough air."
"They are such children," Yumi said shaking her head.
"Simple minds, simple pleasures," Jeremie quoted. A very loud belch that sounded more like a low rumble came
from next to them. Everyone stared at Aelita with shocked expressions.
"Oh, sorry, everyone," Aelita apologized covering her mouth. "I don't know what came over me."
"I don't believe it," Odd gasped. "A girl who literally came out of a computer is a better belcher than me."
"Sorry, Odd."
"Aelita, don't be sorry," Ulrich said. "Odd needed to be belched down a peg." The others laughed
at Ulrich's comment. Ulrich caught Yumi glancing at him and smiling. He returned her smile with one of his
own. Althought it was difficult for him to admit it, especially to himself, but his affection of her was
growing into, and he really hated to jinx himself like this, love. Don't get him wrong, all of them had grown
especially close, all due to Lyoko, but for two who originally started out as brutal opponents to have grown
so close, that's got to say something.
Yumi was feeling the same way, but for different reasons. For some reason, she couldn't get the words that he
said when they returned to Earth after Xana upgraded them off of her mind.
["I'd rather have you for a friend than have you depressed."]
A friend, just a friend. Nothing more, nothing less.
"So, who wants to be my first guinea pig?" Jeremie asked.
"What?" Yumi asked distracted.
"Who wants to be the first to use the fourth scanner?"
"Ooh, I will, I will," Odd volunteered.
"Your choice," Jeremie said as if he meant to say 'your funeral.' "Let's go down to the lab."
As the group was heading for the elevator, Ulrich's cell phone rang. "Hello?"
"Ulrich, where are you?" It was his Dad and he sounded frantic.
"I'm just out with some friends. Don't worry, we were..."
"Never mind," his Dad interrupted. "Listen very closely, Ulrich. Go to the dorms and wait for me to call
you."
"Huh? But..."
"Don't ask questions, Ulrich, just do it."
"All right, all right, just let me tell my friends where I'm going..."
"No, don't tell anybody. Just go. Look, Ulrich, this is important. I promise I'll explain everything
later on. Please, just go."
"Okay, later," Ulrich said hanging up my phone. "Sorry, guys, but I have to go."
"Where are you going?" Yumi asked.
Ulrich paused. He knew he should obey his father and not tell them that something's wrong, but he
couldn't just blow them off.
"Something just came up," he said with a smile. "I'll see you guys later." And he went through the exit.
"Ulrich, wait!" Yumi called. "Is something wrong? We can help if you'll let us."
Ulrich paused, then turned to her. "Don't worry about it. I'll see you later, Yumi." And he headed over to the
hatch that lead to the sewers.
"Yumi," Aelita called. "Jeremie's already set up to virtualize Odd." With one last look at the disappearing
Ulrich, Yumi joined Aelita by the elevator. The girls went down to the control room.
"So, Odd, what do you think?" Jeremie asked.
The new scanner was a futuristic silver color. The position of the other three scanners had to be moved
but Jeremie didn't believe that it affected anything. The new scanner still had some exposed circuitry and a
porthole on the door that looked like the Lyoko symbol.
"I'm just beating back a 'beam me up, Scotty' comment," Odd replied.
"I think that means he likes it," Yumi whispered to Jeremie.
"Ah. Okay, here we go. Transfer, Odd." The porthole was raised by a metal bar above it leaving a small crack
in between the doors. The doors parted like elevator doors. Odd entered the scanner. The inside was also
silver with a blue ring around it. The door closed. "Scanner, Odd." The blue ring began humming lightly as it
shone light over Odd. "Virtualization!"
On Jeremie's monitor, they saw Odd appear in his avatar form. "How do you feel Odd?"
"Hungry," Odd replied. "But that's natural for me."
"Looks like the plunge was successful," Jeremie concluded. "All right, Odd, try moving around."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That evening, Odd returned to his room in good spirits. The test run of the fourth scanner was a success. Next
thing would be to test it along with the other three scanners.
"Hey Ulrich," Odd called as he entered the room. "You missed a great show. I played tag with one of Xana's
Roachsters and..." It was then that Odd realized that the room was empty of human presence. Kiwi was sleeping in his
bed/drawer. Odd shrugged and climbed into bed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Odd woke the next morning, the first thing he did was look towards Ulrich's bed. It looked made, like nobody
slept in it.
{That's not like Ulrich,} Odd thought. {He would never make his bed, and especially not in the morning. The last
time he made his bed was yesterday.} Odd dressed and ran to breakfast. Jeremie and Aelita were sitting at their
usual table speaking some sort of computer jargon.
"Morning," Odd greeted. Jeremie and Aelita returned it.
"Where's Ulrich?" Aelita asked.
"Beats me. He never came home last night."
"That's not like Ulrich," Jeremie commented.
"That's just what I was thinking," Odd agreed.
"Maybe Yumi knows," Jeremie suggested.
"I don't think Yumi would know where Ulrich is unless she was with him all night," Aelita commented.
Odd raised an eyebrow towards Jeremie and smiled. "Maybe she was."
"But what could the two of them be doing for a whole night?" Aelita wondered.
Odd chuckled and patted her on the head. "I'll tell you when you're older, Aelita. In the mean time, let's get
to Miss O'Connor's class. With any luck, Ulrich will be there."
But when Odd and Aelita came into Miss O'Connor's classroom, they didn't see Ulrich there.
And they weren't the only ones who noticed. When Miss O'Connor called Ulrich's name, she only got silence. She looked
at Odd. "Odd, d'ye know where Ulrich is?"
"No, ma'am, I don't," Odd replied truthfully.
"Okay then."
Odd, Aelita and Jeremie didn't see Ulrich at all that day. They met Yumi at their usual place that afternoon.
"Hey, guys, where's Ulrich?" Were the first words out of her mouth.
"We were hoping you could tell us," Odd replied.
"Why are you asking me? I haven't seen him since he left the factory yesterday."
"This is serious, guys," Jeremie said. "If none of us knows where Ulrich is, then it's possible that something bad's
happened to him."
Yumi gasped. Then composed herself. "Wait a second, we all know Ulrich, he can take care of himself. He... he's
probably just doing this to give us a scare. I bet he'll show up tomorrow."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But Ulrich wasn't seen the next day. Yumi started to get really worried. Ulrich would never play a trick like this,
especially not on his friends. The others were also worried.
Odd had just returned to the dorms and was trying to do homework (but his mind was still on Ulrich) when there was a
sharp knock on his door. He opened it to see Jim there with a sharply-dressed man. Odd recognized him as Ulrich's
father.
"Odd, I'm sure you met Omero."
"Yes. It's an honor to see you again, sir." Ulrich told Odd how strict his father could be so being ultra-polite was
the only way to walk away with everything intact.
"I am looking for my son," Omero said. "Do you know where he is?"
"No, sir," Odd replied. "I hadn't seen him since day before yesterday."
"Where?" Omero snapped. "Tell me where you last saw him." Odd was in a jam, either tell the truth and divulge the
secrets of the factory or lie and risk getting in trouble by the principal. Well, when face with a challenge like this,
there's only one thing to do: compromise.
"I think I saw him heading for the park."
Omero grabbed Odd by the collar. "You think? Be absolutely certain! Is that where you saw him?!"
"Hey, hey, calm down," Jim said. "Beating up on kids won't solve anything." Omero put Odd down.
Odd sighed. "There are two places where I think he could be. One is the park, the other is the abandoned factory by
the waterfront."
"And why would he be there?" Jim asked eyeing Odd. Odd just shrugged. "All right. We'll check the park first. If
he's not there, then we'll search the factory. Thanks, Odd." And they left. As soon as they did, Odd took out his
cell phone and speed-dialed Jeremie. "Jeremie, we have a problem..."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Not to worry, Odd," Jeremie assured him as they and Aelita conversed in the factory later that day. "I had a
feeling something like this would happen." He pressed a few buttons on his keyboard and a metal garage door slid over
the entrance. "I had it installed during construction on the fourth scanner."
"But Jeremie, what about Yumi?" Aelita asked. "I called her and asked her to drop by."
Jeremie moaned. Apparently, that was something he hadn't counted on.
It was then that outside, Jim and Omero came up to the entrance of the factory. Jim ran his hand over the metal door.
"I doubt that Ulrich would be in here. This place has been closed for years."
"Would they..." Omero muttered. Jim looked at him questioning. "Never mind."
A small gasp came from behind them. They turned to see Yumi staggering back in fright. "It's Yumi," Jim realized.
Yumi turned and started to run back the way she came. But Omero was much faster and grabbed her by the back of her
tank top. He quickly incapacitated her arms. "Where is he? Where's my son?!"
Jim rolled his eyes. When the principal asked him to help locate Ulrich, playing bouncer wasn't what he had in mind.
Then again, he didn't realize that Ulrich's father had such a short temper. He pulled them apart and addressed Yumi
with his normal stoicness and firmness. "Yumi, we're looking for Ulrich. Have you seen him?"
"Not in the past couple of days," Yumi replied as Omero reluctantly released her arms. "He got a strange call some
time ago and he left without saying anything to me. It's strange since Ulrich normally tells us everything."
Omero's cell phone rang. The talking was primarily done by the person calling him because Omero did not speak
until he hanged up. "Excuse me, I must go."
"Sorry about that, Yumi," Jim apologized. "He's really upset about not knowing where Ulrich is."
"He's not the only one," Yumi muttered.
Jim smiled at her. "If you see him, tell him his father's looking for him." And he walked away following after
Omero.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeremie gathered the others in the lab. Yumi had been let in. "All right, since we can't go to the police so we'll
need to start our own search. Yumi, talk to everyone at school. Someone must've seen Ulrich. Aelita, use the
super computer to hack into the Department of Missing Children and check for anyone matching Ulrich's description.
I'll have Odd and Xana search Lyoko. I'd hate to think what would happen if this was an Invader plot."
Everyone split up to do their assigned tasks. Yumi asked everyone she could find but nobody has seen Ulrich. Yumi
took a small break as she checked in with Jeremie. "Jeremie? No, not yet. But I'll keep searching... no, I can
continue, I don't need a break... right, thanks."
"Yumi!" Yumi turned and saw Sissi stomping towards her with murder on her face. Yumi saw that she was ready to slug
her so Yumi put up her guard and blocked the oncoming punch. "Where is he? Where's Ulrich?"
"I don't know," Yumi replied.
"Liar!" Sissi used her other hand and managed to catch Yumi's temple. The brute force of the punch forced Yumi to
the ground. She was surprised that Sissi had a mean left hook. "Isn't it enough that you beat him up? Do you have
to take it one-step further?"
"What are you talking about?" Yumi asked standing up.
Sissi's eyes were bloodshot. "Don't play innocent with me! Everyone knows that it was you who beat up Ulrich just
before the semester started!"
Yumi knew what she was talking about. The time when Xana took control of her mind and made her almost kill Ulrich.
"No, I didn't!" She argued.
"Hah! No use lying your way out of this! You're the last person Ulrich talked to just before he disappeared."
"Sissi, what's the meaning of this?" It was the principal. He was showing the new security system to a passing
Investor and heard the commotion. It was soon after he appeared that Jim and Omero also arrived. Soon, they
attracted a little crowd, including Milli and Tamille, equipped with a camera.
"Daddy, I know she has a hand in Ulrich's disappearance. First she beats him up then she kidnapps him! I wouldn't
be surprised if Ulrich ran away just to get away from her." The principal was still skepticle. Sissi turned to
Jim. "You were there, Jim, you believe me."
"Well... I did see her over by Ulrich beaten up," Jim admitted.
"Please, sir, you have to believe me, I don't know where Ulrich is. I'm innocent."
The principal pondered the situation before turning to Jim. "Jim, did you see Yumi attack Ulrich?"
"No, sir," Jim replied.
"I see... Sissi, unless you have physical evidence that it was Yumi, I'm afraid I can't accept your accusation.
And even if you are correct, that gives you no right to physically attack somebody." He then turned to Yumi. "Yumi,
I'm sorry, but I must ask you to remain at school until Ulrich is found. If it is discovered that you had a hand in
Ulrich's disappearance, then I'm afraid that charges will have to be pressed."
"Yes, sir," Yumi said quietly.
"I'll arrange sleeping arrangements for you. Now, Sissi, you are coming with me." The principal dragged a protesting
Sissi away and the audience dispersed.
Yumi couldn't help but wonder if Sissi was right. Not about her having a hand in Ulrich's disappearance, but the
possibility that Ulrich ran away because of her. "Maybe she's right."
["Something just came up," he said with a smile. "I'll see you guys later."]
["Don't worry about it. I'll see you later, Yumi."]
Yumi repeated the last sentence he said to her. But... she was worried about him, worried sick. Was... was this what it's
like to be in love?
Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd came out of the shed that contained a hidden stairway to the tunnels. Odd was complaining,
"Xana and I had been up and down Lyoko five times and we haven't found hide nor hair of him. I'm beat."
"Yumi, what's wrong?" Jeremie asked.
"The principal says I have to remain at school until Ulrich is found," Yumi said. "He might think I have a hand in it."
"That's a lie! Come on, guys, let's go talk to the principal. We'll just tell her Yumi was with us for most of the
time."
"And be accused as conspirators?" Jeremie asked. "Odd, let's think about this."
"I know it has something to do with that phone call he received," Aelita threw in.
"His phone!" Jeremie realized. "That's it! I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier." Jeremie took out his own
cell phone and dialed Ulrich's cell phone." He let it rang over twenty times before he hung up. "Nothing."
"Wait, Jeremie," Odd said. "Call it again." He tilted his head as if he was listening for something. Jeremie dialed
Ulrich's cell phone again.
A faint ringing could be heard. Jeremie continued to let it ring. The four of them followed the noise to the bushes
near the park.
"Sounds like its coming from the ground," Jeremie commented.
"You don't think they could've..." Aelita shivered to think what could've happened to Ulrich. Odd leaned into the
bushes.
"I found it!" He cried. He pushed the bushes aside to reveal Ulrich's cell phone, still closed.
"Wait, Odd, don't touch it," Jeremie said. "It's evidence, we could get in trouble if we tamper with it. I'll go get
Jim."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeremie couldn't sleep. Normally when he couldn't sleep, he would talk to Aelita or work on the materialization
program. But Aelita wasn't in communication range and the materialization program was finished.
Ulrich had disappeared, Yumi was the prime suspect and they couldn't tell the truth without putting them in even more
trouble. The analysis of the cell phone revealed no fingerprints and the picture gallery held no visual evidence.
Jeremie wished for a sign. What he got was a scuffle of feet that woke him up and even turned his blood into pure
adrenaline. Jeremie crept to his door and threw it open.
Milli and Tamille fell into the room. They had a camera with them.
"What are you two doing here?" Jeremie asked.
"Who's there?" It was Jim's voice. If he found Milli and Tamille in his room, they'll all be in trouble. Jeremie
half-closed the door and pushed the two school reporters behind it. Jim peeked in. "Jeremie, you're suppose to be
in bed."
"Oh... uh... sorry, Jim, but I was... worried about Ulrich."
"Hey, don't worry, the police will find him. That's why we called them in the first place."
"You don't think Yumi really had a hand in his disappearance, do you?"
"I'll tell you this, Yumi was acting really strange when I found them."
{That's only because she realized Xana made her do it,} Jeremie thought and wanted to say.
"Don't worry about Ulrich, just get some sleep."
"Yes, sir," Jeremie said and Jim shut the door. He took a deep breath and turned to the two girls. "What do you two
think you're doing? Do you know what time it is?"
"Sorry, but we just need to know what's going on with the investigation," Milli protested.
"And why are you asking me?"
"Because you found his cell phone so you're our connection to the investigation. Now, it's my turn to ask questions."
Tamille turned on the camera while Milli began brown-nosing Jeremie. "How was Ulrich acting before he disappeared?
When did you last see him? Is it true that Yumi was behind the whole kidnapping?"
"Hey, hey, hey, this isn't the time or the place..." Jeremie turned towards Tamille. "And get that camera out of my
face..."
The camera.
The camera!
THE CAMERA!
"The camera," Jeremie whispered.
"Huh?"
"Uh... never mind, come on, it's back to bed for you two. If Jim finds you two up at night, we'll all be in serious
trouble." That brought them to reality. They turned and snuck out.
{Argh, I can't believe it. What's wrong with me today? I was so busy worrying about Ulrich that I ignored the
blatantly obvious!} Jeremie sat at his laptop. "I better get Aelita and Xana in on this."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to some coaxing from Aelita, Yumi was allowed to spend the night in her room. Before she went to sleep,
Aelita noticed Yumi's face was streaked with tears.
A light tapping brought Aelita out of her sleep, something that she had been enjoying immensely since she became human.
"Aelita," came a whisper.
Aelita immediately recognized the voice. "Jeremie?"
Jeremie hushed her. "Not so loud, Jim's about." Aelita opened the door and Jeremie, dressed for out doors, snuck in.
"Aelita, I figured out..." Jeremie noticed what Aelita was wearing and blushed. It was a pair of pink pajamas that
were a bit too short for her (too short as in Jeremie could easily see her belly button).
"Jeremie, what's wrong?" Aelita asked looking at Jeremie's red cheeks.
"Um... oh yeah." Jeremie lowered his voice. "I know a way we can find Ulrich."
"You can?!" Aelita exclaimed.
Jeremie clamped his hand over her mouth and hushed her. "You'll wake Yumi." The two looked at Yumi but she didn't show
any signs of awakening. Jeremie continued, "Yes, I can, but I'll need your help. I've already asked Xana and he agreed
to help out."
"Then I'll help out too," Aelita decided. "Let's go."
"Right." Jeremie turned to leave but then turned back to look at Aelita. "Um... Aelita, you... might want to put some
clothes on."
"But I do have clothes on," Aelita argued showing off her PJs.
Jeremie's blush lightened, but only by a little. "I mean something a bit more... fitting for going outside."
"Oh, okay."
Minutes later, Jeremie and Aelita, in their normal clothes, snuck out of the dorms. "I forgot that the school
recently had security cameras put in last week."
"So you think they might've recorded Ulrich?" Aelita guessed. Jeremie nodded. "So why do you need me and Xana?"
"Because when it comes to computers, you two are the experts. I'll explain later... wait." Jeremie braced the wall of
the dorms and made Aelita do likewise. He pointed to a camera mounted on a corner of the building. "That's a
security camera. It's sensitive to movement. If it catches us, we're doomed."
"So how do we get past it?" Aelita asked.
Jeremie just looked at his watch and counted down from five. A spark of electricity went through the camera and it
shorted out.
"Good job, Xana," Jeremie congratulated. "Come on, Aelita, it won't be out for long." Jeremie grabbed Aelita's hand
and the two ran across to the next building. They reached past the camera's view angle just as the camera came back on.
"I see," Aelita realized. "Xana activated a tower and is now short-circuiting the cameras."
"Yes, but it's only temporary. If the camera goes off-line for more than ten seconds, it triggers an alarm."
"Oh." Aelita and Jeremie moved silently through the campus grounds, dodging cameras. It was quite the exercise,
so much so that they needed to take a break in the shed. "Hey Jeremie, how much farther do we need to go?"
"Not much farther," Jeremie replied. "We just have one more camera to get by." The camera that Jeremie was talking
about was the one that was aimed at the entrance to the main building. Jeremie saw it short-circuit. "All right,
there's the signal, let's go!" Jeremie dashed out and kept on running until he was at the entrance. While he was
trying to pick the door lock with a Phillip's Head screwdriver, Aelita started her own dash across the field.
Suddenly she tripped and fell to the ground. It was then that the camera turned back on.
"Aelita!" Jeremie shouted. "What's Xana doing?" Then a thought occured to him. What if... this wasn't Xana's work.
Jeremie went into a baseball slide and grabbed Aelita. He tried to get the two of them out of the view of the camera
but they were too slow. They would be spotted.
They would have been, but the camera suddenly exploded. All the cameras begane exploding.
Aelita turned to Jeremie. "I knew it!" Jeremie said. He held up his cell phone which was flashing the Lyoko symbol.
"It's the Invaders! They've taken over the tower that Xana's using."
"That means Xana's in danger," Aelita realized.
"And so are you," Jeremie pointed out. "Come on, we need to get to the factory!"
"But what about Yumi and Odd?"
"I'll call Odd, but we should leave Yumi out this time around. She's already in deep trouble as it is." Aelita
and Jeremie ran into the shed and took the back route to get to the factory. As Jeremie powered up the system,
Aelita used Jeremie's cell phone to call Odd.
"Aelita, it's dangerous, but you must go in and return the tower to normal. Then I'll use the past-return program."
"Right." Aelita ran to the scanner room and got into one of the original three scanners.
"Hang on tight, Aelita, your destination is the desert region," Jeremie told her. "Transfer, Aelita. Scanner...
Virtualization!"
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Yumi groaned and opened her eyes. She forgot for a second that she was in Aelita's room. And she also forgot her
situation.
A faint light was coming from the open window. Yumi looked out and saw Jim grumbling to himself as he tried to fix a
security camera on a ladder.
"Jim?"
"Yumi, go back to sleep, nothing's wrong," Jim said automatically.
"How can I when you're making a racket right outside. What's wrong anyway?"
"Nothing, just a short circuit." Yumi looked around. From her view, it looked like all the cameras short-circuited.
{That's weird,} Yumi thought. {There's no way all the cameras could short circuit unless... it's the Invaders!}
"Uh... Jim, would you mind if I closed the window."
"Hey, I was about to suggest that." Yumi shut the window and drew the curtains just to be on the safe side. She then
went to get some clothes on.
Yumi moved stealthly down the hall and out of the dorms. Jim was still struggling to fix the camera so he didn't see
Yumi make a bee-line for the shead.
"Yumi." It was Odd, who called her over from the shed.
"Odd, I think..." Yumi began.
"Invaders, I know. Jeremie just sent me a text message."
"Huh? That's strange? How come I didn't get one?"
"Ask him yourself." The two went down to the sewers and rode their skateboards through the tunnels to the factory.
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Aelita materialized right in front of the Obelisk tower. "Perfect drop, Jeremie," she congratulated. "I'm right in
front of the tower." Two of Xana's Roachsters stood at the entrance. Aelita ran by them and into the maze.
"Hey Aelita, good news," Jeremie said. "I analyzed the path and its fairly easy. The maze goes in a spiral so all
you have to do is follow the path. But watch out for traps."
"You got it, Jeremie!" Aelita ran through the maze and, to her and Jeremie's surprise, didn't encounter any traps.
Jeremie echoed Aelita's thoughts. "I wonder why there aren't any traps. Aelita, be ready for anything at the
Obelisk. I'll upload your weapon." As Jeremie prepared the upload, he heard the doors open. "Odd, good, you're
here. Listen, Aelita's in..." When Jeremie turned around, he realized that Odd wasn't alone. Yumi was with him.
"Yumi, you shouldn't be here. If Jim finds out you left the campus, you'll be in a whole lot of trouble."
"If we don't stop the Invaders, both Earth and Lyoko will be in a whole lot of trouble," Yumi argued.
"Yumi must really love these suicide runs," Odd cracked.
"Yeah, whatever," Jeremie said in response to Odd's comment. "Just get down to the scanners, both of you. Upload:
Lyoko Wand!"
"As they rode down to the scanner room, Odd said, "Look, Yumi, don't be too upset at Jeremie, he's only looking out
for you."
"I know," Yumi replied. "But... if Ulrich is really in danger, then I want to do anything possible to help find
him, even if that means defying a few rules."
"All right," Odd accepted. They arrived at the scanner room.
"Transfer, Yumi. Transfer, Odd. Scanner, Yumi. Scanner, Odd. Virtualization!"
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As Aelita entered the Obelisk, she stopped dead in her tracks. Xana was being suspended in the air by energy ropes
around his arms and legs. Two Blow Fish were circling him.
"Xana!" Aelita gasped. The Blow Fish saw her and dove towards her. Aelita set up a barrier and made the Blow Fish
self-destruct before reaching her.
A loud hissing came from above Xana. A large red serpent-like creature with feet slithered down Xana's body to
Aelita.
Jeremie's pre-battle screen showed "Aelita vs. Setor." It's life points were over 500. "Aelita, please be careful.
It's life points are bigger than yours."
But to Aelita's further surprise, Setor didn't attack Aelita right out. Instead, it slithered back up Xana's body
and bit into his shoulder." A loud groan came from Xana. Aelita gasped and fell to her knees. "Wh... what's
happening."
Of course, Jeremie guessed it right off the bat. "The Invaders must know Aelita's connected to Xana! That's why
they captured him in the first place. With Xana incapacitated, they can attack him all they want and kill Aelita in
the process!" Setor continued to bite into Xana, causing both him and Aelita to moan in pain.
"I... I have to... get him... off Xana," Aelita gasped. She placed her staff on the ground. "Gravity Bind!" A
vortex opened up underneath Setor and tried to suck it in but Setor hung on tightly to Xana." Being rapidly drained
of both her energy and life points, Aelita couldn't hold the Gravity Bind spell and dispersed it. She collapsed to
her knees. As she looked up, she spotted Xana staring down at her. She felt an emotion from him, much like she did
when he first upgraded her. But this emotion was... sorrow! Xana fired an energy beam from his chest/head and
disintegrated Aelita.
Once again, Aelita was ejected from her scanner.
"Aelita!" She could hear Jeremie called out to her.
"I'm all right, Jeremie, I just got devirtualized and..." Aelita dropped to her knees. She felt pain. But that
didn't make any sense. Any pain felt by a Lyoko attack will disappear when devirtualized. So how could she still
feel it?
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Yumi and Odd arrived at the entrance to the Obelisk. Jeremie reported Aelita's status to them.
"Wow, these guys aren't playing around," Odd realized. "All right, Jeremie, load us up and we'll go in."
"Upload: Disk Launchers. Upload: Wrist Claws." As Jeremie uploaded their weapons, he wondered what Xana's reasoning
behind his actions. Was he trying to protect Aelita?
"Hey Jeremie, we're in the Obelisk," Yumi reported. "Xana's in pretty rough shape. Can you re-virtualize Aelita?"
"Sure, but it'll take a while."
"Please hurry."
In Lyoko, Yumi and Odd squared off against Setor who still had his body wrapped around Xana. Yumi fired her disk
launchers while Odd let off a barrage of Laser Crescents. The attacks together made the Setor drop from Xana.
"Wow, he's a lot bigger up close," Odd commented.
"Keep him busy, guys. I almost reset Aelita's avatar."
"I don't think that'll be a problem," Odd told Jeremie. Then noticed Yumi get in front of him. "Yumi, what..."
"You..." It took Odd a moment to realizing that she was talking to Setor. "Our friend has disappeared. We're
trying to find him! And nobody, especially not some overgrown water snake, will stop me from finding him!"
Yumi made a gesture with her hand. Her aura began flaring. For once, Odd was at a lost for words. "Mystic
Aura... REDUCTION!" Yumi sent her aura into the Setor. The Setor shrunk until it was about Yumi's size.
"Good job, Yumi, but using your aura like that drained you of all your energy plus forty life points."
"That's fine by me," Yumi said firmly. She ran forward and engaged the Setor in hand-to-hand combat. The Setor was
obviously relying too much on its size to fight. Yumi was a dynamo. She fought so fiercely that for a moment, Odd
wondered if Xana was controlling her again. For the coup d'grace, Yumi fired her disk launchers which dealt the final
blow. The energy ropes surrounding Xana disappeared and he fell to his knees. He looked weak. Yumi summoned her
mystic aura again. "Mystic Aura... Regenerate!" Yumi used all but ten of her life points to restore Xana to normal.
But he still looked weak.
Aelita then came in. Jeremie had managed to re-virtualize her. The Obelisk had returned to a tower. "You two take
Xana outside. His monsters should be able to take care of him." Yumi and Odd dragged Xana out of the tower as
Aelita made her way to the upper level. She placed her hand on the center screen and typed in the code.
L-Y-O-K-O
"Return to the past now!"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hey Jeremie, how much farther do we need to go?"
"Not much farther," Jeremie replied. "We just have one more camera to get by." The camera that Jeremie was talking
about was the one that was aimed at the entrance to the main building. Jeremie saw it short-circuit. "All right,
there's the signal, let's go!" Jeremie dashed out and kept on running until he was at the entrance.
Aelita started her own dash across the field. Suddenly she tripped and fell to the ground. To make matters worse,
the camera turned back on.
"Aelita!" Jeremie shouted. "What's Xana doing?" Then a thought occured to him. What if... this wasn't Xana's work.
Jeremie went into a baseball slide and grabbed Aelita. He tried to get the two of them out of the view of the camera
but they were too slow. They would be spotted.
They would have been, but the doors opened and someone pulled them inside.
It was Yumi!
"Yumi, what are you doing here?" Aelita asked.
"Xana sent me a message explaining what's going on. I got in through a window."
"D'oh," Jeremie said. "Why didn't I think of that?"
"Come on."
"Yumi, you do realize that if someone catches you here..."
"Ulrich's my friend too, Jeremie, I want to help find him, even if it's just a little." Yumi lead Jeremie and Aelita to
the security room.
"How do we get past the officers in there?" Aelita asked.
"I don't think we need to," Yumi said. "Look." She pointed to a security guard that was K-Oed on the ground. Jeremie
and Aelita looked at Yumi. "It wasn't me," she admitted. "So how do we get in?"
"This is where Xana comes in," Jeremie said. He should make his move right about..." The door opened. "Now." Jeremie
and Aelita entered while Yumi stood guard. The security room had one wall covered with monitors and control panels.
The opposite one was a shelf filled with marked video tapes. There were two chairs there. One of the monitors was
flashing the Lyoko symbol.
"What do we do now?" Aelita asked.
"As soon as I find the right tapes," Jeremie said studying the shelves. He threw a CD-ROM case to Aelita. "Get ready
to download to this." Aelita set up the downlink. Jeremie took seven video tapes. "These video tapes contain all the
film recorded from the day Ulrich vanished." Aelita, begin downloading them onto CD-ROM.
"You got it, Jeremie." Aelita moved her fingers over the controls. Slowly, a meter bar appeared. It became blue from
the left side to the right. Aelita repeated the process several more times. "There, done."
"Hey, what's going on here?" It was a security guard.
"I thought he was knocked out," Aelita whispered.
"There must've been two of them," Jeremie whispered back.
"What are you two kids doing here?" With a loud battle cry, Yumi leaped into the air and slammed her foot into the
back of the security guard's head. The guard fell over.
"Sorry about that," Yumi apologized. "He must've been coming from a different direction. Don't worry, he'll be all right.
I doubt he'll remember anything from tonight."
"Jeremie, it's all done," Aelita reported.
"Good, let's go."
"Hey Jeremie, do you really think this will help us find Ulrich?" Yumi asked.
"Almost positive, Yumi."
{Ulrich, please be all right,} Yumi prayed. {I almost lost you a first time, I don't want to lose you again.}
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He had a massive headache, like someone slammed his head with a baseball bat. He tried to gather his senses but it was
hard. He knew who he was and what he had done in the past, but it was hard to figure out where he was and why he was
on the ground.
Slowly, his eyes opened. He was in a large dark room. Tin roofs, concreate walls, tons of boxes, must be a warehouse.
"Hey, he's awake," he heard a voice say. He stood up and looked around, realizing he wasn't alone. There were two men
and a woman in the room with him. All of them had guns.
"What happened?" He whispered. "Where am I?" They smirked at him.
To Be Continued.
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Next time, the mystery deepens as the gang race against time to find Ulrich. But is it already too late?