Sorry it's been so long since I updated. I haven't been doing so good with that... I hope you all forgive me. Thanks to all those who gave me a 10 (or higher) even though I don't believe I deserve it. I definitely welcome all critisism or flames. I've always done that. So for you anonymous reviewers who just like to flame people for things they did wrong, go ahead. I like critisism. Usually. I'm rambling again! This chapter starts out a little slow, but it does get a little better towards the end.
(Ulrich P.O.V.)
Odd and I were working on our homework in our room, well at least I was. Odd was sitting on his bed listening to headphones the entire time.
"Odd, aren't you going to do it at all?" I ask him, exasperated.
"Why bother? I'm going to get an 'F' on it anyway." He says and begins humming to his music so he doesn't have to listen to me. I grab a blank paper from the desk and crumple it into a ball. I begin talking to him, even though I know that he can't hear me. Actually, I don't want him to hear me.
"Odd, if you say 'what' when you realize I'm talking to you, I'm going to nail you with this paper ball." I say to him and smile. He looks at me strangely and pulls off his headphones.
"What?" Like I promised, I hit him with the ball. "Hey! What was that for?"
"Hey, I warned you."
"No you didn't."
"Yes I did, you just couldn't hear me."
"Oh shut up Ulrich." He says and turns around. Just for the fun of it, I hit him with another ball.
"You do that again, and we're going to have a war on our hands." He says without turning around. So of course, I do. This one nails him in the head, the next nails him in the face just as he turns around.
"Alright, this means war."
"Bring it, I have all the paper over here." I say, and he frowns. After a long and vicious battle, he ends up with his face stuffed in the carpet, me sitting on top of him triumphantly, and three paper balls down his shirt.
"Lucky little…." He says through the carpet just before I push his face back into the carpet.
"Haha, I win. I'm gonna go see Yumi now, I'll see you later." I say and get off of him.
"Give her a nice looooong kiss for me, would you?" He asks mockingly, sitting up.
"Ah shut up Odd, you're just jealous because the girl I love loves me back." He frowns again.
"That wasn't funny Ulrich." He says in all seriousness.
"Lighten up Odd! Geez, you act like you actually had a relationship and she dumped you."
"Oh shut up." He says. I don't mind teasing him, because I know the truth, and eventually Odd and Avery will be together.
"Come on Odd, go talk to her. Have fun. Stop acting like it's the end of the world because you're not with her." I say and help him up. I refrain from laughing as the paper balls fall out of his shirt.
"Oh fine. But just because you told me to."
"Good boy." I open the door and walk outside. "Oh, by the way, be on the lookout for anything suspicious. Xana hasn't attacked in a long time."
"Oh come on Ulrich, you and I both know that Avery's firewall prevents him from doing anything." Odd says and walks out of the room. Not more than three seconds later, a ball of energy nearly cuts my ear off. I whip around to see Theo standing at the end of the hall with his hand raised. His hand is glowing orange.
"Um, Odd? I think that qualifies as suspicious." He nods.
"Yah. You stall Theo, I'll get everyone to the factory." I nod and he runs off.
(Odd P.O.V.)
I nod to Ulrich, and we take off in separate directions. Theo stares for a second, then runs after Ulrich. I hear a sickening thud, but I keep running.
Ulrich can handle himself… I hope.
I race down to Avery's dorm and throw the door open. Luckily, she isn't doing anything private, just sitting on her bed.
"Odd?" She looks at me. I notice that her eyes are red and puffy, she has been crying. But there's no time right now.
"Xana's attacking, we need to go now!" I say, and she stands up.
"Let's go." She says. We take off running towards the factory. I pull out my phone and call Yumi, telling her to meet us there. I also call Jeremie and make sure he's picking up Aelita. We arrive at the factory, Yumi is already there. Jeremie and Aelita show up a couple minutes after we do. Jeremie steps off at the control room, Avery, Aelita, Yumi and I go down to the scanners.
"Okay, let's send the warriors first." Jeremie says through the speakers. I step into one scanner, Yumi into the middle one, and Avery across from me. Aelita settles herself down to wait.
"Transfer Odd, transfer Avery, transfer Yumi." The familiar bright light bursts into the scanner, nearly blinding me again. I close my eyes to shut it out.
"Scanner Odd, scanner Avery, scanner Yumi." Wind begins to blow all around, making my shirt flap against my chest and my hair fly everywhere.
"Virtualization!" Jeremie yells. The wind blows harder, and then I don't feel anything. After a second, I open my eyes and see the familiar landscape of the desert sector falling around me. I land on all fours, like a cat as Avery and Yumi land beside me. A minute later, Aelita drops out of the sky and lands beside me.
"Okay guys, the tower is due north. It looks like just three crabs heading your way." Jeremie says from nowhere.
"Only three crabs?" I ask disappointed, "That's it? I can take on three crabs by myself!"
"Well, that's a good thing. It makes it easier for Avery's first mission." I slap myself on the head.
"Of course! How could I have possibly forgotten? Initiation!" I say loudly. Aelita and Yumi look at me strangely.
"What initiation?" Avery asks, mildly interested.
"We've got to see how many crabs you can take out by yourself before you're devirtualized! It's kind of like a test of your powers. Initiation to the group!" I say, grinning like mad.
"Odd! That's mean! We didn't have to do that!" Yumi says.
"That's really mean for Avery's first mission!" Aelita pipes in.
"Actually, sounds like fun!" Avery says. Everyone, including me, does a double take.
"You really want to?" Yumi asks.
"You don't have to." Jeremie says.
"Yah, I want to do it. So I can know how good I am compared to you guys." She says.
"You know I was just kidding," I say, "Right?"
"Yah, I know. But I still want to do it. Who's got the record for the most crabs?" She asks.
"Ulrich does, with 7 crabs." Jeremie says.
"Okay, here I go!" She says. Jeremie sends the overboard, and she takes off. Yumi and I prepare to jump in at any time. We run up to a close distance, but not close enough to interrupt the fight.
The crabs come on strong, three in triangle formation. Avery immediately flies towards them, releasing two energy blasts. They both miss. A crab takes a shot, and in one hit, knocks out the overboard. I literally wince and turn to Yumi.
"Not exactly a great way to start off, is it?" I say to her.
"No, not really. But shut up and watch." Yumi says. I turn back and see Avery compose herself. The crabs open fire, and she dodges them all with cartwheels and flips.
"Woah!" I say to no one in particular. The crab prepares to fire, but before it can Avery shoots two more blasts. It hits two of the legs of the crab, seriously throwing it off balance. It fires and the blast hits one of the other crabs, which explodes. The last crab opens fire, Avery puts up her purple shield that looks exactly like mine. She then jumps onto the crab, but the crab wobbles around, trying to throw her off. She does a backflip off, firing three energy blasts in midair. None of them hit the eye, but the crab explodes anyway. She easily dispatches with the last crippled crab.
"Woah, nice job." Jeremie says. Yumi, Aelita and I run down to her to congratulate her. As soon as we reach her, I give her a huge hug.
"You were awesome!" I say and set her down. She backs away and looks at me, her eyes growing huge. She points a finger at me, it glows white, like she's going to shoot me.
"Hey, what the," I say backing away, "Avery? What are you-" She fires. The blast flies by my ear and something behind me explodes. I turn around to see the remnants of a crab, which must have just been virtualized, disappear.
"Watch your back Odd." She says smiling at me. Yumi and Aelita giggle.
"Okay guys, we do have a tower to deactivate. I think Ulrich might be in trouble." Immediately, Yumi stops giggling. Jeremie materializes vehicles, an overwing for Yumi and Aelita; an overboard for me; and an overbike for Avery.
"Avery, why the overbike?"
"I'm not much of a skateboarder." She says and we take off. We fly along, coming closer to the edge of the plateau. The tower is just over the edge, on the next one, or so Jeremie tells us.
"Um, problem guys." Jeremie says.
"What's that?" Aelita asks.
"About thirty blocks."
"Say WHAT?" I yell. Then I see them. A huge group of blocks, standing on the very edge of the plateau, ready to fire at us when we get close enough. They're all lined up in a row, just in front of the digital void so there is no going at them from behind.
"This is going to be difficult." I say. I fire a laser arrow at one, but it dodges it somehow.
"Any ideas?" Jeremie asks. Yumi throws her fan at the line, but the blocks shoot it, knocking it off course. The fan returns to her and she catches it.
"One." Avery says. She walks calmly towards the blocks.
"What, a distraction?" I ask.
"No." She says back. The blocks aren't shooting at her, they seem to be wondering what she's doing. Once about ten feet away, she stretches her hands out. She concentrates hard… and all of the sudden, a large white blast radiates from her fingertips, only going towards the blocks. They hit the blocks head on, knocking them all off the edge and into the digital sea. She turns back around and smiles at us.
"All clear Aelita." She says. Aelita quickly runs off towards the tower, while Aelita walks back towards Yumi and me. Suddenly, I see a tarantula come out from behind the tower and get in position to fire at Avery. I quickly extend my wrist and take careful aim.
"Odd? What are you doing?" Avery asks me, backing up. "I didn't hit you, don't hit me." Without responding, I fire three arrows, at least one of them hits the target and the tarantula explodes. I turn back to Avery and smile.
"You really think I would hit you? You just broke the record for the most monsters destroyed in one shot! That's like thirty-three monsters destroyed, and not a single life point lost!"
"I guess I'm pretty good, right?"
"Totally awesome." I say. Avery just smiles sheepishly. Suddenly, a white light bursts from the tower, quickly enveloping us all. The last thing I remember thinking before I fade into the white is:
Why did we have to return to the past?
Okay, first and foremost: I do not want to hear any bashing on how Odd was so mean to Avery in her 'initiation'. He was kidding, and Avery took him seriously.
Now that that is out of the way, let's see how many of you can guess why they returned to the past. Just let me know in a review. Just to state the obvious, you cannot say 'Theo caused havoc' because that's a given. Try and guess what Theo did and how Jeremie knew to return to the past. Anyone who guesses right or comes close will get a dedication.
I reserve the right to say what is close and what isn't.
Trust me, what Theo did is probably going to shock you. I might have to change the rating on this fic because of it. Yah, most likely I will. Sorry, but this story is going to get a little dark. And there will be some more adult themes. (Not lemons though)
The next few chapters are going to be a little confusing about how I placed who tells the story and at what point. I will try to add some helpful commentary along the way to help out my befuddled readers.
And now, a quote:
359. Peace hrough superior firepower.
Thanks for all your support!