Author's Note: Thanks for some of the great - and not so great - reviews. Althought it's good to receive constructive criticism. I'll try and make my men more manly, okay? Here's the next chappie, all! Hope you'll like it.

Chapter 6 - Ekahj?

Jeremie and Odd stopped by Ulrich's dorm room. They explained the situation to him, and he text-messaged Yumi. His message read: "XANA. All-out attack. Need help. Luv, U" He had felt the impulse tack the last sentence on, and had sent the message before he could stop himself. Then he followed Jeremie and Odd to the factory, while Starry followed not far behind. Yumi met up with them once they'd been at the factory for a few minutes.

They were trying to discuss how to save Aelita, when Starry walked out of the shadows and said. "I can help, you guys." They all stared at her in shock.

"How'd she get here?"Jeremie exclaimed, color coming to his cheeks.

"Must've followed us," Ulrich concluded.

"Yup," she agreed.

"So...what are we going to do?" Jeremie started.

"I said I could help!" Starry said again with a bit more edge in her voice.

"How?" Odd asked, eager for something to be done to save his love.

"Simple, I'll go to Lyoko with you," she stated matter-of-factly. Everyone stared at her.

"Okay...what?" Yumi managed to say.

"I've been to virtual worlds before - I know of another one not too far from Lyoko...but I'll tell you about that later on. Right now we've got to help Aelita, right, Odd?" She winked at Odd. His cheeks reddened, and Yumi gave him a questioning glance.

"Long story," Odd told her. "Tell ya later, okay?" She nodded.

"Now, how many scanners do you have, exactly?" Starry asked as if she'd been doing this kind of thing all her life.

"Uh, 3," Jeremie replied. 'Gosh, I hate it when I stutter in front of girls I like! Grr...' he mentally slapped himself and told himself to shape-up before it was too late.

"And how many should go to Lyoko?" Starry asked.

"Oh shoot!" Yumi suddenly exclaimed. "Today's Tuesday!"

"Uhh...so?" Odd questioned.

"It's the second day of school!" Yumi yelled at him. Odd gave a sheepish grin that seemed to say "oops". Yumi backed-off slightly, but still ended up yelling at him again. "How do you think we're going to save Aelita while we're supposed to be in school? Jim will get suspicious and go looking for us, or tell the principal, and either way we will get in big-trouble, and possibly give our long-kept secret away, when we were only 1 day away from materialization! ONE DAY!" Both Ulrich and Odd were sheepishly backing away from Yumi at this point. Jeremie cringed in his computer chair. Starry didn't even flinch. What was up with that girl?

"So then how are we going to pull this off, huh?" Jeremie was becoming very flustered, embarrassed, and confused, all at the same time. 'Girl's,' he sighed to himself. 'Sometimes I think that life would just be easier without them...' Starry and Yumi both glanced at him, and he continued. "XANA is trying to pull off the biggest attack of all time. We need more than 1 person to be in Lyoko to help Aelita out or she's not going to make it," at this he glanced over at Odd, who had a concerned look on his face, "but then there's school. Most of us need to be there, otherwise Jim will get too suspicious. Sure, one or two of us could try and pull off the infirmary excuse, okay. Then one of them would have to be me, seeing as we need someone to work the supercomputer, but then that would leave us with only 1 person to go into Lyoko. It's a lose-lose situation here."

"Not necessarily," Starry grinned.

"How's that?" Ulrich asked. All of them turned to look at her. She gave them all another big smile. Jeremie melted. 'I love her smile,' he thought dreamily to himself. A tint of blush came to his cheeks. Fortunately, no one noticed. They were all looking intently at Starry.

"Like I told you earlier, I've been to virtual worlds before," she started. They all nodded, prompting her to continue. "There's another virtual world close-by called Ekahj. It's not too far from Lyoko. I know another virtual being, as well as a few real people, who could help us out. They don't go to your school, and their school hasn't started yet, so they would be free. Sound good?"

"Yes, but how exactly would they be getting to Lyoko? They do have virtual cards, correct?" Jeremie hurriedly said. 'Obviously he would like to talk to her,' Odd thought to himself. 'Maybe he's gotten over Aelita after all...'

"Easy," Starry replied casually. "Jump through the portal from Ekahj to Lyoko. I'll get all of my friends from the other district and a couple virtual friends to help you guys out, that way most of you can be in school. Jeremie's going to have to stay here to control the super computer, because I have no experience whatsoever controlling a computer of this type. But the rest of you can go on ahead and go to school. Then, once school's over, the rest of you can come and help out if we're not done yet. Sound good?"

"Wow," was all Jeremie was able to utter. "That's awesome, Starry. You're so great. I mean, uhh..." He blushed a bright red, and Yumi stifled a giggle. Ulrich chuckled and Odd burst out laughing.

Starry looked over at Jeremie. "I get what you're saying," she said, giving him a slight smile and winking over at him, causing his cheeks to redden even more. Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi were watching them with big grins on their faces. Odd was happy because he knew for sure now that Jeremie was over Aelita and he didn't mind that he had feelings for her. Ulrich was glad that Starry was helping them out so that they could save his best friend's "love". Yumi was overjoyed that Jeremie and Odd crisis was over, but then she frowned slightly. Last night had been the best night of her life. She only hoped that Ulrich shared the same feelings for her that she had for him.

Ulrich noticed her frowning. "You okay, Yumi?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, just great," she replied.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, it's nothing, really," she said, trying to hide her emotions, hoping her true feelings didn't show on her face.

"So, anyway," Starry spoke again. "I'm going to go 'round up the crew. I'll be back. Jeremie, why don't you come with me?" she asked purposely.

"Sure," he managed to stutter out. She giggled and grabbed his wrist, pulling him along behind her.

"We'll see you all later," she chirped.

"See ya," Jeremie said as Starry whisked him out the door.

Odd laughed again. "Have a great time, you two!" he teased.