Author's Note: This isn't the same universe as the show, therefore I'm free to create the characters how I see fit. Forget what you know about Code: Lyoko for a moment and enjoy the story I'm telling. All four of the main characters are somewhat more casual at the moment because they have yet to feel the full weight of XANA's effect on their lives...in fact, they are treating Lyoko like a secret game that only they know of right now. Otritzi and Elazul are going to be much, much more serious about everything as they've been fighting XANA longer. Also, Ulrich has a tendency to eat all his meals at school, he doesn't like his dad's cooking. And to Eragon4Life, XANA's pissed at Otritzi, not the Kadic Lyoko Team.

Chapter 5: The Real Battle Begins.

(Odd)

Odd is sitting in the cafeteria eating breakfast with his friends while they have a slightly hushed conversation about Lyoko and XANA. Odd knew that Lyoko wasn't a game...but...nothing there felt real, she could do so much in Lyoko, she didn't have to follow the rules of society, she could be her true self...even though that self was a cat. Although it isn't like she lets society control her anyway, she's mischievous and cunning, as well as outgoing and silly...all in all it was hard to hate her unless she wanted you to.

She sighs and quits daydreaming as the others had asked her a question and were staring at her waiting for an answer.

"I didn't catch the question...could you repeat it?"

"We wanted to know how your last exploration trip to Lyoko went. You've been spending a lot of time inside of Lyoko."

Odd sighs, she knew they were going to ask that. She was plagued with visions so often that she'd begun not telling her friends about them unless it was important...she still couldn't control it, which was what she was after, and why she spent so much time inside of Lyoko, with AelitaV and Otritzi, who seemed to spend more time in Lyoko than she did.

"It went alright, AelitaV and I were exploring the Kadic Arctic region last night. We stopped at one of the towers around midnight and Aelita and I did a little surfing through Lyoko's archives to locate some of the other Lyoko Complexes and try to find a way to jump systems like Otritzi does. Needless to say, we didn't find anything."

Jeremie sighs and leans back in his chair.

"I've been working with AelitaR on programming in a way to weaken XANA, but we haven't had any luck. At the rate XANA is gaining power he'll be capable of human possession by Christmas. Otritzi's been real busy stopping his attacks if you can tell, I think we lived last Friday four times."

Yumi drops her head into her hands and sighs loudly.

"That was the longest day in my life. You guys weren't here for most of the evening and Marco was looking for a fight all evening on Friday. It was ridiculous, I got sick of avoiding him and beat his ass to the ground the third time I had to live it. XANA's got to be running out of ideas by now."

Ulrich, who had been quietly listening to his friends, taps Odd on the shoulder and points to the principle's daughter, Sissi, who is heading their way with her two enforcers, a decently muscled kid named Nicholas and a more nerd-like boy who was rumored to be one of the more cunning students in the school. Odd brings her finger up and taps it to her lips while looking at the others, silently telling them to stop talking about Lyoko. The other two get the message and turn to face Sissi and her posse. Sissi speaks first.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the Misfits. Ulrich, I'll never understand how you can hang out with these three, they are by far the worst people to be hanging out with..."

Ulrich rolls his eyes and interrupts her.

"These are my friends, Sissi. We all have something in common. And to answer your question, I don't care about popularity, they are my friends and I'd rather die than abandon them...Got it?"

Sissi looked completely shocked, probably because he openly said that popularity wasn't everything. She huffed and stomped off, her enforcers following her closely. Ulrich knew pissing Sissi off would only get him and his friends into trouble, but he knew they didn't care. There was nothing Sissi could do to them that they wouldn't be able to fix.

Odd finishes her breakfast and tells the others she's going to go feed Kiwi then walks out of the cafeteria and heads up to her dorm room. On her way into the dorms she is confronted by Marco, a super aggressive Sophomore who likes to bully everybody at school, and his main enforcer, Drake, a musclebound Junior who is Marco's roommate and closest confidant.

"Alright, little lady, now that you're alone we are going to have that little 'chat' I promised you last week."

Odd raises an eyebrow at that, she last week seemed so long ago to her, after all...she had to relive most of the past week more than once, she had completely forgotten about what she had done to make him so mad at her. She quickly takes a step back and puts both of her hands behind her back, extending her claws from her fingertips and smirking at him arrogantly.

"What's there to talk about, you fell victim to one of my many pranks. You know as well as I do that I've pranked over three fourths of the school, including half the staff and all in good fun too. I seem to recall that only you and Sissi can't learn to laugh at yourselves when something ridiculous happens to you. What's the matter, don't like your ego prodded?"

As she finishes her little taunt Marco and Drake quietly slip on some brass knuckles and Marco takes a swing at her face. Odd merely leaned away from the punch and watched it fly past her, the arrogant smirk still in place, despite her opponents having weapons when she seemed completely unarmed. Marco pulled his hand back and Drake went to kick her with his rather heavy boots, she jumps up and over Drake, landing squarely on his shoulders and putting her clawed hands on the top of his head. Odd clicks her tongue at Drake's pathetic attempt to kick her and gracefully backflips off of his shoulders, knocking him face first into the dirt while she lands like a cat on a nearby tree branch. She makes another sarcastic remark toward Marco.

"Nice chatting with you, maybe we can do this again sometime, but right now, I've got somewhere I need to be."

Odd hops off into the trees and drops down from the tree closest to the dormitory buildings. Odd quietly walks into the building and heads up to her dorm room to feed her dog.

(Marco)

Marco can't figure it out. Odd had never been THAT athletic before, maybe she was faking being clumsy or something, she never seemed to get hurt when she tripped or fell anymore and her reaction time was insane, she had just gotten out of a fight that was supposed to leave her broken and bloodied by escaping to the trees and running through them like it was a natural thing for her.

He growls at himself for letting her escape and heads into the cafeteria with Drake, who was still dusting himself off from his fall. The two of them get their food and walk over to their usual seats to plot and plan like normal. Drake looks up from his plate and asks one question to his friend.

"How the hell did she do that? She's never been that quick before."

Marco stabs his fork into the piece of mystery meat the cafeteria ladies call sausage on his plate and growls again.

"It's almost like she's not human anymore. Maybe she never was, you know she had cat claws on her hands while she was crouched on your shoulders. Perhaps she's some kind of mutant or something?"

Drake puts a large spoonful of cereal into his mouth, chewing a bit before swallowing.

"You know, Ulrich's been getting a heck of a lot faster at the soccer games and sometimes he even seems to vanish with the ball and reappear next to the opposition's goalie, maybe whatever affected Odd affected him and their friends too. You know the goth girl and that Jeremie kid."

Marco's eyes widen as his partner says that, he'd never thought about it like that. Perhaps Odd and her friends had done something to themselves and gained some kind of super powers or something. Marco vowed to himself to find out what they were doing when they practically disappeared.

(Ulrich)

Ulrich watches as Marco and his bodyguard walk into the cafeteria. Drake had obviously gotten his face shoved into the dirt at some point on his walk over to the cafeteria. He would have to ask Odd if she did it at lunch.

Ulrich gets up and dumps his tray walking out of the cafeteria, he was closely followed by Yumi, who had been talking to him using her new Psionics, it was comforting how she was nice enough to ask permission before reading his thoughts, although...he did have to be careful to hide his feelings deeper than usual. He and Yumi walk in a rather comfortable silence for a while, Ulrich was walking her to her first class and he didn't realize it until Yumi spoke up.

"Thanks for walking me to class, Ulrich, but you had better hurry to your next class, the teachers are going to wonder why you're late."

Ulrich blushes a bit and tells her.

"I'll see you at lunch, Yumi."

Ulrich mutters the command to activate his supersprint and takes off for his first class of the day, World History, the effect of that in the real world makes him little more than a blur to everyone else in the school as he runs on the wall to avoid being tardy. His teacher starts taking role call as his students find their way to their seats. He answers when his name is called and then promptly rests his chin on his arms with his eyes closed, thinking about Yumi and how much he likes her, glad that they had finally confessed their feelings about one another.

While Ulrich was walking toward the cafeteria for lunch he sees Yumi, Odd and Jeremie walking toward him from the building where their last class of the morning was. Yumi telepathically greets Ulrich as he dashes toward them, without the aid of his supersprint. Ulrich slows down to a walk and walks beside his friends as they head toward the cafeteria. In the line to get their food Ulrich asks Odd about what happened after she left breakfast to feed Kiwi.

"So...what happened to you after you left our presence this morning?"

Odd orders her food from the lunch lady and starts heading over to the gang's usual table.

"Not much, Marco and Drake tried to start a fight with me, I dodged their punches and kicks and took to the trees after knocking Drake on his face. Why do you ask?"

Ulrich orders his food and follows Odd over to their usual table.

"When the two of them walked into the cafeteria Drake was dusting himself off as if he'd tripped or something a few moments before. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity."

Odd smirks as she sits down to eat.

"You know that curiosity killed the cat, right?"

Ulrich smirks back and replies in kind.

"Look who's talking, kitty."

Odd makes a strange purring noise as she responds to his jab.

"So what, I'm a cat...big deal...the saying still holds true, samurai."

Yumi walks over to the table accompanied by Jeremie. Yumi sits beside Ulrich and Jeremie sits beside Odd.

"So, Ulrich, what were the two of you talking about?"

Ulrich turns to Jeremie and smirks.

"What happened to Drake this morning."

Yumi appears to be quietly eating her food she was talking telepathically with her friends.

'So Odd purring had nothing to do with your conversation?"

"Actually, Yumi, Odd was probably just purring because I called her kitty."

Yumi nods while putting another piece of her meatloaf into her mouth. She asks another question telepathically to her friends.

'You guys know that Aelita's expecting us to stop by the KLC tonight for another training session. How's your visions coming, Odd.'

Odd lowers her eyes to her food.

"Not good actually. I can't control anything about them...it's driving me nuts, what good is Precognition if I can't use it when I want to."

Odd starts to quickly pack her food into her mouth and chews just throughly enough to be able to swallow. Jeremie speaks up next.

"AelitaR and I have been working on a way to increase the range she is able to get from the KLC. So far we haven't been able to get her farther than the front door, but we're trying. If I can I'll try to get it so she can get to the store near the factory so she can keep the fridge in our little lounge stocked. She's got access to a lot of funds, considering Lyoko Industries has stopped monitoring the Lyoko Complexes but is still funding their upkeep."

Odd swallows her the last bite of her food and looks at Ulrich who had barely touched his food.

"Hey, samurai, you going to eat that?"

Ulrich looked at Odd then back to his plate and stuck his fork into his meatloaf.

"Kitty, I just want my meatloaf and drink, you can take the rest."

Odd purrs and quickly moves most of Ulrich's food from his plate.

Yumi's phone begins to vibrate in her pocket, signifying a text message, as she gets ready to go put her empty tray away. She quietly uses her clairvoyance to look down at the message. As she walks toward the trash can she telepathically talks to her friends.

'Aelita says XANA's awake and has activated a tower. She also says to hurry, he's taken over the city's mass transit system and is bringing the vehicles toward the school.'

Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremie simultaneously stand and dump their trays, all walk out of the cafeteria together.

(Drake)

Drake and Marco both stand and dump their trays, following after Odd and her friends as they silently but swiftly leave the cafeteria and head towards the park. Watching the four friends closely they notice Jeremie vanish into thin air and Ulrich vanishes in a blur, Odd jumps towards a tree and practically flies up it and Yumi turns to look at the two of them, her eyes glowing dangerously.

Drake watches as Marco is struck from behind by Ulrich, who flew out of nowhere, a split second later and then feels a heavy blow against the back of his head from something else. As he lays on the ground, stunned, he sees Jeremie fade back into view next to Yumi, Odd drop out of a nearby tree beside Yumi, and Ulrich run, at normal speed, up to Yumi. The four quietly turn and leave the clearing where Drake and Marco were laid flat.

(Jeremie)

Jeremie and his friends quietly open the manhole cover in the park and climb down, Yumi replacing the manhole cover with her telekinesis as she climbed down to where she and her friends had left their skateboards and Jeremie's scooter. The four of them take off for the KLC through the sewers, not feeling bad in the least for flattening Drake and Marco for trying to follow them. Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi all step into the elevator and go down to the Holo-Projector room. AelitaR is standing next to the elevator's door when the it opens.

"Get down to the Scanners...AelitaV needs your help in the Kadic Mountain region, she's trapped in a cave with a horde of Kankrelets and Blocks patrolling the area. You need to get there before the Scyphozoa shows up and finds her!"

The elevator door closes and the four friends go on down to the Scanner room, once inside the four of them dash off to their scanners and await virtualization. They hear AelitaR's voice echo over the PA system.

"Transfer, Jeremie; Transfer, Odd; Transfer, Ulrich; Transfer, Yumi...Scanner...Virtualization!"

The four of kids appear above a plateau as a several of the Kankrelets and Blocks turn to face them. Ulrich, thinking quickly activates his supersprint and dashes past several of the Blocks slicing them in half with his sword. Yumi pulls out her fans and Jeremie uses his power to get over to AelitaV while the others lure the monsters away from Aelita's hiding place. Jeremie reappears beside Aelita, deactivating his power and signals for her to be quiet while they sneak off toward the tower. Aelita follows his instructions and the two of them take off running for the activated tower.

AelitaR receives an instant message from Elazul at the terminal and reads it to the group in Lyoko.

"Otritzi's coming to help you guys, he'll be there momentarily, he said he spotted the Scyphozoa traveling between systems away from our system, go nuts guys."

(Yumi)

Ulrich, Yumi and Odd have taken down most of the Kankrelets and all but a couple blocks when a weird wall of energy cuts through the middle of their group, blasting one of Ulrich's clones. The other clone and the real Ulrich fuse and the group all get a good look at the new monster that came into play, it looks like a round sphere that opened up to reveal a weak point only a few seconds before it fires, AelitaR's voice echoes down from above them.

"That thing's called a Megatank, be careful against it, it's powerful and it's armored shell prevents most damage. The only way to kill it is to strike it while it's open and right before it fires, or shove it off an edge."

Odd grins and walks forward, challenging the Megatank, the other two step to the side and dash past the tank at full speed while it prepares to fight Odd. Odd's tail swishes back and forth as she aims her wrist where the weak point will be when it opens. Yumi hears the tank's weapon charge and then there's an explosion, a few seconds later Odd catches up to them coughing a little bit.

"I got caught in that blasted tank's explosion, I think it drained me of a few life points, could you give us an update, AelitaR."

AelitaR's voice echoes down to the gang.

"Aelita, 70; Jeremie, 100; Odd, 20, ten of your life points were taken when the tank blew up on you and forty of them were taken when it hit you as it blew up. Ulrich, 60; Yumi, 40. Aelita and Jeremie are at the tower, good job guys. You won before the buses killed anyone, good job, by the way, we aren't returning to the past after this one, no damage was done before you stopped the attack, I've reported it to Elazul and he's documented it in the archives. I want all of you to get to the tower we just deactivated, Aelita found something."

Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi all run as fast as they can go to the tower Aelita and Jeremie are waiting inside, just as they arrive Otritzi fades into view beside the tower and steps into it. The three friends follow shortly afterward.

(Otritzi)

Otritzi sees Jeremie and Aelita sitting beside one another on the edge of the platform, looking at a screen floating a few feet away from them. Odd, Ulrich and Yumi all appear behind him inside of the tower and he moves his wings out of the way to let the three of them past him so that they can see what Jeremie and Aelita are looking at. Otritzi speaks up first.

"So, what are we looking at you two?"

Jeremie looks back at Otritzi and says one sentence.

"The source code XANA uses to launch his attacks."

Otritzi and the others all look at the little window with a bunch of ones and zeros scrolling through it repeatedly. Otritzi finds his voice next.

"And what's preventing you from destroying it?"

Jeremie sighs and stands up, stepping away from the edge of the platform.

"It's protected by a firewall that only XANA can get past. That, and when it's deleted the tower activates, and glows red."

Aelita stands up and steps away from the edge of the platform, turning to Otritzi.

"There's another piece of code over there that activates the tower differently."

Aelita indicates a piece of code floating only inches out of Otritzi's reach if he stood on the edge of the platform.

"That piece of code allows me to activate a tower and affect the real world, I never knew about these two bits of code until Jeremie saw them and used his secondary skill, Examination, on them, that skill allows him to decipher and identify any bits of loose data floating around. Jeremie also spotted the source code for several of XANA's monsters, some I hadn't ever seen before, like this one."

Aelita reaches out her hand and a screen forms in front of her, she moves around several pieces of data and brings up a window with a picture of an orb with the XANA eye on it with several tentacles extending downward from the base of the monster.

"This critter's known as the Void Crawler, getting absorbed by one of these is like falling into the virtual sea beneath the regions, it virtualizes you permanently, Jeremie and I are working on a program to counteract that effect but it's going to take some time, if it all works out right I may be able to visit your world and meet my ACA counterpart face to face."

Aelita grins broadly toward her friends. She knew her fate was tied to Lyoko, just as all of the other keepers did. Not all of them were the same as this one though, many of the other keepers were skilled fighters, I'd seen one or two of them in the Canadian Lyoko Systems...the first systems group Otritzi hacked into from the Smith Center Lyoko System, he had been working on a way to use the Lyoko Systems as a way to transport himself to other Lyoko Complexes, but he hadn't had much luck.

Otritzi says his goodbyes and walks out of the tower, activating his return program, disappearing from AelitaR's screens and reappearing at in the Smith Center Island region. He walks up to a young girl who is leaning against what looks like a palm tree. Her skin is a dark tan color and her hair is an electric blue. He sits down beside her and sighs, she opens her eyes and looks at him.

"What's the problem, Otritzi?"

Otritzi looks down at her and smiles.

"Nothings wrong, Maggie. The Kadic Lyoko Defenders, you know...the newbies I was telling you about before I had to run, just found the bit of code that XANA deletes to activate the towers."

(AelitaR)

AelitaR enters several commands into the system and Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi are all rematerialized in the scanner room and the head back to school, they hadn't really missed any classes, but Odd needed to get back and feed Kiwi. AelitaR watched as Odd, Ulrich and Yumi all left. A noise comes from behind her and she turns around to see Jeremie head into the lounge of the Kadic Lyoko Complex. She enters the room and sat down beside him.

"Jeremie, why aren't you going back with the others?"

Jeremie looks over to AelitaR and smiles faintly.

"I wanted to stay and work on expanding your range, I also wanted to do a little more research on the Lyoko Systems and how they were made. Not to mention work on a contingency plan incase one or two of us get captured by the Void Crawlers or fall into the Void ourselves. We need to create a working Materialization program."

AelitaR admires Jeremie for his work ethic but knows it's not safe for a human to work so hard. While Jeremie is sitting in the lab working on his research Aelita goes into the Lounge and opens out the couch into a bed for when Jeremie finally falls asleep. She goes back into the Holo-Projector room and sees Jeremie leaning back in the chair at the terminal, scanning the screen, his eyes shining with understanding at what he's looking at.

End Chapter 5