Hey this is a long chapter, but I think it's worth it. Please review, I'm planning on making this story a lot longer than "All alone," let me know what you think.
Ulrich, Yumi and Aelita headed to the scanners. They materialized in the forest region.
"All right guys the tower is just south of you, Odd is on his way so you'll have backup soon."
Ulrich frowned, he had hoped to apologize to Odd before they went to Lyoko again. Yumi and Aelita took off running and Ulrich snapped out of his thoughts and followed after them. Two hornets came swooping down at them. Aelita dove behind a tree and Ulrich and Yumi stood side by side to face the attackers.
"You go first Yumi"
Yumi nodded and threw both of her fans at the monsters. They both missed, but one of the hornets dove toward the ground to avoid the fans and Ulrich picked him off with a quick stab. The last hornet flew into the trees and disappeared.
Yumi caught her fans and walked over to Ulrich, "That's weird, they usually don't run."
"Yeah I know, keep an eye out for other monsters."
Aelita came out from behind the tree and walked over to the two warriors. They headed towards the tower. Odd materialized right behind them and walked stealthily up behind Ulrich. Odd poked Ulrich in the side.
"What the…," Ulrich yelled as he jumped back a few feet and entered a defensive stance, sword at the ready.
"Oh I got you good," Odd coughed out between bouts of laughter.
Yumi and Aelita laughed and Ulrich just frowned.
"Jeremy, why didn't you tell us Odd was virtualized?"
"Sorry Ulrich, Odd asked me to play along, you did jump pretty high."
"Ha ha, I'll get you two back for this," Ulrich said smiling.
The four ran towards the tower.
"Guys you have a welcoming party."
"Thanks Jeremy, I'll take them," Odd said still laughing.
Odd ran ahead of the others and a swarm of six hornets dove upon him. Odd jumped up into a tree and started leaping from limb to limb firing as he went. Two of the hornets fell prey to Odd's arrows, but the others kept coming. Aelita ran for the tower with Ulrich and Yumi in pursuit.
"Aelita watch out!"
Jeremy's warning came just in time as four boxes stepped out from behind the trees surrounding the tower and opened fire. Ulrich ran ahead and dove in front of Aelita deflecting lasers as they came. Odd was still bouncing around in the trees, and that left Yumi to deal with the blocks while Ulrich deflected lasers away from Aelita. Yumi pulled out her fans and threw them, but the blocks dodged, luckily on their return flight they picked off one of the hornets following Odd.
"Thanks Yumi!"
"No problem," Yumi said throwing again. This time with better luck taking out one of the boxes.
Aelita made it to cover and freed up Ulrich to fight. He ran forward and stabbed the block on the far right. It exploded leaving only two blocks left.
"Laser arrows," Odd unleased a barrage of arrows toward his final three attackers and finished them off and landed gracefully at the bottom of the tree.
"Well this is getting easier isn't it?" Odd smirked.
The last two blocks were picked off by Yumi and Ulrich and Aelita came out of hiding.
Jeremy saw all the monsters vanish from the screen. "Aelita its all clear, go!"
The pink headed girl sprinted for the tower with her friends in tow. Twenty yards away Jeremy saw red dot after red dot pop up on his screen.
"Guys get out of there now!"
It was too late, twenty hornets swooped down from the sky and crabs were pouring into the small clearing from all sides.
"Oh crap, everyone surround Aelita." Ulrich spat out.
The three gathered around Aelita and all faced outward. The hornets and crabs opened fire. Ulrich and Yumi focused all their energy on deflecting laser after laser, unfortunately for Odd and Aelita they couldn't deflect only dodge. Seeing the flaw in the three sided defense the monsters started concentrating their fire on Odd. Odd grabbed Aelita by the hand and rushed towards the nearest crab.
"Odd what are you doing," stammered Aelita.
"Just trust me princess I have a plan." Odd said confidently. Odd secretly wished he felt as confident as he sounded.
The monsters turned to follow the blonde boy and the elf like girl.
"Laser arrow." Odd shouted as he leapt into the air above Aelita and shot the crab. The crab burst into pieces and for a split second provided an opening in the circle of monsters. Aelita burst through the opening with Odd right behind her. The majority of the crabs turned and followed Odd and Aelita, but the remaining hornets and crabs surrounded Yumi and Ulrich.
Yumi looked over at Ulrich, "Well I guess this is it for us huh?"
Ulrich nodded and deflected another laser, "I'll see you in the scanner room."
A barrage of lasers sped towards the two warriors standing back to back. Ulrich and Yumi both felt comfort in the feeling of the others back pressed against their own. The lasers hit and the two were lifted off their feet and thrown against a tree. As the life points faded to zero, Ulrich reached over and grabbed Yumi's hand, she smiled at him and the two faded still holding on to each other.
Odd had no idea what to do now. He was running for his life once again and this time he had to protect Aelita. A hornet flew in behind them and fired catching Aelita in the right shoulder. Aelita was knocked to the ground and skidded to a stop in front of a tree.
"Odd help me…" Aelita's plea for help was cut off by another laser to her side.
Odd rushed to her and picked her up and continued running. He dove into a large grove of trees.
"All right, stay here, I'll lead them away."
Aelita still in pain nodded and Odd took off running. The monsters seeing Odd move chased after him and left Aelita alone. Once the monsters had passed, Aelita slowly crawled out of the trees and headed back towards the tower.
"Aelita where are you going?" Jeremy cried.
"I've got to deactivate the tower Jeremy."
"It's too dangerous without the others and you already lost half your life points, if you lose them all you won't come back." Jeremy sobbed.
"I'm sorry Jeremy, but this has to be done, if I don't…." Aelita couldn't finish what she was going to say. She just kept running with tears flowing from her eyes.
"Odd they rely on you to be their strong one." Odd couldn't get Sam's words out of his head. With lasers blasting the ground and branches all around him he couldn't think of anything but what Sam had said. He started heading back towards the tower. I'm not going to make it there, but at least I can get a shot or two off to protect Aelita.
Sam stared at her computer screen, the red dots were everywhere. "Oh Odd hurry," she muttered to herself.
Aelita made it back to the clearing and ran on a dead sprint for the tower. Monster popped out of the forest and started firing from all directions.
"Jeremy help me!" cried Aelita.
"I… there's nothing I can do.." Jeremy said with tears streaming down his face.
Ulrich and Yumi limped their way to the control room and stood behind Jeremy.
A streak of purple and blonde ran into the clearing and shoved Aelita out of the way of two laser bolts. Odd's push shoved her into the tower where she floated up onto the platform. The monsters surrounded Odd, angered that he had ruined their chance at capturing Aelita. Odd stared wide eyed as the monsters all charged their lasers.
Aelita typed in Lyoko on the screen and the white burst of light enveloped them.
Odd cringed as the lasers leapt out towards him only to be swallowed in the white light.
"Return to the past now." Jeremy shouted in relief as he hit the enter key.
The light enveloped the control room and Ulrich laid a comforting hand on Jeremy as they all returned to the past.
Sam seeing the white light approaching smiled and closed her laptop.