Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko.

Author's Note: Just so you know, I reeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllyyyyyyyyy didn't want to put this chapter up. Honestly, this chapter sucks but I don't have the heart to get rid of it. I still don't like it, though. Just a warning.

Chapter Five: Under the Bridge

Tamiya snarled as she tore away, bare handed, at the monsters that had killed her best friend. To say that she had no weapon would be inaccurate, though. Over half of her body had been destroyed, leaving her with deadly mechanical limbs. Both her legs and one whole arm were robotic. Her right hand was gone, but the rest of her arm was still flesh. She had been changed from a mere reporter to a killing machine the day her friend died and she almost did.

Nearby her, Tania and Emmanuel operated a large cannon-like weapon. Emmanuel reloaded the small missiles into the large gun and Tania aimed, shooting down as many of the larger enemies as she could.

A small group of children watched this battle from a distance away. They were Sissi, Yumi, Ulrich, Jeremie, Aelita, their Odd, and our Odd. They were on a mission to end this all forever, to end the fighting, to end the bloodshed.

"Let's go," Sissi commanded softly, a part of her glad to try this again.

"Never thought we'd have Sissi on our side," Yumi muttered quietly to Ulrich so only he could hear. "Much less lead us." The boy nodded, smirking. It was a few moments before she decided to speak again as they tread through the woods, not taking the now unsafe passageway through the sewers. "Jeremie seems a little clingy to Aelita, don't you think?"

The boy looked over to the two geniuses. The Asian girl was right. Jeremie watched the area around him with alert eyes, making sure he could see Aelita at all times. They all noticed his unusual behavior, but only he, Sissi, and the current dimension's Odd knew why. The others hadn't seen the mess Aelita's alternate was in.

Sissi suddenly stopped, very alert. There was a low rumbling and it was getting closer. "Hide!" she hissed at the others. The group dived to the sides, hiding behind trees and under rotting, hollow logs. Almost immediately after this, a large mechanical creature lumbered by.

It had a humanoid shape, without a head. It was armored and bulky, and its arms ended in large machine guns. It had only one large red eye in the center of the XANA mark located on its chest. It growled as it passed slowly by, oblivious of the fearful children it towered over. It continued on its way, heading toward the battle they had left behind.

They all stayed hidden for a moment, listening to its fading footfalls, before a collective sigh of relief was heard. Quietly, afraid that it would hear them and come back, they regrouped. They started toward the factory once more, wary of any more visitors.

"Now do you know why I didn't want to take the sewers?" Sissi commented as they continued. "If we were down there, we wouldn't have any place to truly hide."

OoOoO

"I never noticed before, but it looks kinda different at night," our Odd commented as they all stared out at the factory, isolated in the middle of the small lake. They were standing underneath the bridge, near the waters' edge. Shades of creatures unknown could be seen walking along the rooftop, patrolling to be sure no one like them would come near.

"See those?" their Odd pointed up to the creatures. "They patrol only at night. They can see only in the dark, but there's a flaw." He looked at the dimensional visitors. "They cannot see if what they're looking for isn't moving. It works a lot like peripheral vision. Last time, we thought we could get past them, but it turned out we couldn't."

"Okay, so I have a question," our Odd asked, poking the boy on the side. "How are we supposed to get over there? Cuz that giant thing we saw earlier, there're two of them in front of the doors."

"That's why we're underneath the bridge, duh," Sissi said, sounding irritated. "There's a way inside from under here."

"Fine then, jeez," the boy muttered.

The girl sniffed defiantly and walked over to the start of the bridge, still underneath it, until she could touch the bridge's underside. She reached up to a bar, and they could see that there was a whole network of bars underneath it. She pulled herself up, ending up between the bars to support her, and a small hollow space that traveled the length of the bridge.

"We'll have to go there this way," she told them as they approached her. "The entrance is too high for us to swim to."

"We have to crawl through all this?" Ulrich frowned, crossing his arms. "Isn't there another way?"

The girl's glare softened, obviously still having affections for the boy. She shook her head. "There isn't another way, unless you can fly and do so quietly."

She started crawling along the bars, her pants muting what would have been loud clangs from her metal leg hitting the metal bars. Their Odd climbed up after her and started following a ways behind her. The others glanced at each other before also climbing up and following.

"Don't fall in the water," Sissi told them. "They'll hear the splash."

They all climbed up on the underside, Aelita in the center for safety. Jeremie ended up being the last one to climb onto the bars.

OoOoO

It was a long, grueling process that was going to take one or two hours. Our Odd was having a little bit of trouble since he had to carry Kiwi, but Jeremie was quite a ways behind the others. He wasn't used to exerting himself for long periods of time, not being very into sports or exercise. His shins and arms were becoming very sore from having to put his weight on such uncomfortable objects.

He stopped for a small break, not truly able to relax due to his predicament. He panted quietly, dropping his head on a bar, his neck feeling sore. He could feel the gun, heavy in his pocket. He found out that there was a failsafe, and it wouldn't fire if just anything pressed the trigger. It would only fire if a human hand pulled the trigger, or at least a living, warm being. He still felt apprehensive about it being in his pocket, though, but he had nowhere else to put it.

He gritted his teeth and pushed himself back up, feeling his muscles protest. He continued on, not even halfway across the bridge. Sissi was already over halfway, and going at an even pace. Left hand, right knee, right hand, left knee, this was pretty much the mantra that went off in his head to help him ignore his sore limbs.

He could already feel bruises, especially on his shins. Eventually he had to avoid placing his legs on the bars in certain ways. He pressed on, though, taking short breaks here and there.

OoOoO

Jeremie watched as our Odd, the one who was directly in front of him, climbed into an opening to the factory a ways ahead of him. He had ended up lagging way behind the others, and he could hear Sissi's whispered complaints about this. He shook slightly as he continued on in the uncomfortable and stressful positions, trying to ignore the irritated girl. He felt a bit self-conscious as the others all watched him, none of them on the bars anymore.

He pushed himself suddenly, starting to go faster. His muscles burned in protest but he gritted his teeth, ignoring it as best as he could. He stumbled a little, having gone a bit too fast too suddenly, and let out a muted shout as his bruises were hit. He was lucky his voice didn't work just then or he would've alerted the monsters directly above him. He hung on tightly to the bars, shutting his eyes tight and staying still as he waited for the pain to fade away.

"Come on, Jeremie," Yumi whispered to him loud enough so he could hear. "You only have a little ways to go."

The boy simply stayed still, though, exhausted and breathing heavily. "I…" the boy whispered back, finding that for some reason his tongue wasn't working right. "... tired…" It sounded more like "tide" but she understood what he meant.

"Just a little ways to go," she repeated, reaching out her hand as far as she could in a way to reassure him.

The boy lay there for a moment before steeling himself and pushing himself up, his muscles feeling like fire. He crawled forward, repeating the mantra in his head. When he was close enough, he reached a shaking hand up and grabbed onto Yumi's. She held his tightly and began to pull, helping him forward.

He was finally at the entranceway and Yumi and Ulrich, being the second and third ones to reach the edge, thus better rested, helped him climb out. When he was finally inside, he immediately dropped to the floor breathing heavily and grateful to not only relax, but to finally straighten his back. He heard Sissi mutter something, probably an insult, but he decided not to care.

Now that he was near the others again, he could see that they were quite tired too, and didn't feel as bad anymore. Aelita knelt down to him, worry in her eyes.

"Are you okay?" she whispered.

Still unable to speak very well, the boy nodded.

OoOoO

Author's Note

dances Yay! I got to prolong Jeremie's pain! Sorry for those of you who like Jer, but I like him too. That's why I like to hurt him. I get such a warm and fuzzy feeling when I see or read about my favorite characters in pain, mental or physical, especially when I'm the one who wrote about it.

Guess what? The story gave me another surprise, almost knocking me off my chair in stupefaction as I learned about it. Just so you know, the bridge thing I wasn't planning on either. Originally, I wanted them to somehow get in from behind, but I wasn't sure exactly how to do that. I kinda made the factory almost impenetrable any other way by accident. ; In some ironic way, they entered the factory via the bridge, like they always did. They just crossed the bridge differently is all.

Oh, and about those characters in the beginning. You may recognize Tamiya, but I'm not sure if everyone will recognize the other two. They are not characters I made up, but actual characters from the school. Tania has long, reddish hair and is in the same grade as Jeremie, Ulrich, and Odd. Emmanuel has black hair and is in the same grade as Yumi. This is just in case you didn't know. The two of them might not even appear again anyway.

I dislike this chapter with great intensity.