Chapter 9

Aki ran as fast as she could from the factory. She had to hurry or more people could get hurt. Ulrich passed her oh his skateboard and stopped, spinning himself around.

"Aki! Where are you heading?" He asked.

She turned towards him. "I'm going to go help Odd!" Aki stated.

"But it's dangerous." Ulrich said, though he didn't totally believe her.

Aki nodded. "I know, but I don't want to lose my new friends to this guy. Please help Jeremy and Aelita save them. And find Yumi. She's really nice, and I want to stay her friend."

Ulrich nodded, slightly surprised at how sincere Aki sounded. Aki really did care. There was no way she could be completely bad.

"I will. Be careful."

Aki smiled and nodded. "You too." She turned and continued to run.

Ulrich raced down and arrived by Jeremy. "I'm here. Any word on how Odd's doing?"

Jeremy looked at Ulrich. "He's on his way, wh-"

He was cut off by the ringing of Odd calling him. He pushed a button. "Odd?"

"Hey, Jeremy Uhm- I found Xana's monster- er rather, it found me. I'm going to be a little late... ... ... ... ...Wah!"

Odd had tripped and the line went dead. "Oh no! Odd's in trouble! You've got to hurry. While you're on Lyoko, I'm going to try and find where Yumi ended up."

Ulrich went into the elevator and arrived in the scanner room when something occured to him. He stepped into the scanner and was quickly virtualized onto Lyoko next to Aelita.

"Hey, Jeremy. You said you just found out about Odd now, right? You and Aki didn't know?" He asked.

"No. You were there."

"Strange. Aki told me she knew Odd was in trouble and she was going to save him." Ulrich responded, pondering.

"Strange... We'll figure it out later. Right now, you've got a tower to deactivate."

"And you've got to find Yumi." Aelita pointed out.

"Right."

Odd quickly scrambled to his feet and looked at his phone. "Aw, man! It's busted. I'm going to make you buy me a new one, Xana..."

He turned to see where to beast was and saw it was too close to him. They was to where to escape to. The dog raised it's paw and slashed ath Odd. He ducked and it broke the tree behind him in two.

"Woh! I'm sure glad that I wasn't there! You should be more careful!" Odd commented.

The dog sliced down at Odd and Odd rolled out of the way. "Heh. Heh. Not very friendly are you? No problem. I'll just leave."

Odd quickly turned and ran. He ran as fast as he could. The dog turned to see him run off and started after him. Odd turned and saw the school wall. He was trapped. He turned again and waited for the dog to come, but it didn't. He walked over to the corner and peered around. There was the dog, fighting to get someone off his back. Odd squinted to get a bett look and was shocked to see that it was Aki.

"Aki! What are you doing?" Odd yelled.

"Saving you! Hurry and get to Lyoko! Aelita's waiting for you!" Aki yelled back.

Odd took a double take. "Wait. You know about Lyoko?"

"Only what Jeremy told me. Now hurry, Odd!" Aki held on tighter as she felt herself raise off the dog and slam back down onto it, pain surged through her body.

"But-" Od began.

"Go! Or do you want me and everyone here to die!" She called.

"Er Fine! Be careful, Aki! Don't you dare die!" Odd yelled as she turned and ran.

Aki smiled. "I will."

She held out her hand and set it on the dog's head and it glowed. The dog slowly calmed down and laid down to sleep. She jumped off his back and looked at him.

"That definantly won't keep you asleep for long. Now to get Yumi before that jerkface does!" Aki turned and rand from the school, the dog already waking up.

Yumi opened her eyes and sat up. "Ugh Where am I?"

She looked around at the white room. She could see white walls, but the ground was gray along with the ceiling. It was enough to let her know she had somehow been virtualized into a small room.She put her hand on the wall and was relieved to see it go through. She closed her eyes and stepped through the wall. When she opened them again, she was in a town.

"A town? In Lyoko? An I really in Lyoko?" She looked around.

She took a few steps forward, but jumped back when a shot was fired in front of her. She jumped back and looked over to see an army of Crawlers. She pulled out her fans. A crawler shot at her again and shot her in the shoulder. She went flying back and cringed in pain. Somehow, the shot had hurt her. The crawlers got close to Yumi but quickly retreated. Yumi looked up and saw a hand reached out to help her up. She grabbed the hand and stood.

"Thank you. Where are we-" Yumi began until she realized who her savior was. It was the girlOdd and Ulrichhad fought the other day. She looked exactly as they said she would, the mask and all.

"In my villiage. Xana's trapped you here and planned to destroy you. Here, your just as vulnerable as me and Aelita. You loose all your life points, and your gone for good. What he injected you with that liquid, it was designed to withstand the time jump and sent you here when you were virtualized. You were the test to see if it would work, then he would do it to all your friends. Enough explanation, we've got to go before Xana finds out what I'm doing." The girl said. She was riding on a board that was alot like Odd's vehicle, but it had a handle was slightly larger. The handle had buttons on it.

Yumi looked at her. "Who are you? Don't you work for Xana? Why are you helping me?"

The girl sighed. "I'm Rika. I'm helping you because I want to. I may work for Xana, but that doesn't mean I want to, now hurry! Xana might find out soon."

Yumi nodded and hopped on next to Rika.