I tried hard to update this last night, but I ran out of time. Oh well, it's here now. Before I get on a tangent and reveal the rest of the story, I'm going to stop myself. So, read the story, quick, before I ... (tangent again)
(Ulrich P.O.V.)
I hobble to my feet, trying to stay conscious. That last hit really hit me hard, I'll bet anything my arm is broken. I turn around to see Yumi behind me in the clearing. A car races past her, she barely managed to get out of the way.
"Yumi!" I yell out, but there's nothing I can do. With a broken arm, I'm practically useless.
"Ulrich! Take Jeremie and Aelita to the factory! There's…" She has to stop to jump out of the way of another speeding car.
"There's no time! Hurry and go, you can't help me here!" She yells. Figuring I have no other choice, I hobble the rest of the way to the edge of the trees. Yumi is trapped by the cars, she can't make it here to the safety of the trees. I begin to jog as fast as I can, and I manage to catch up to Jeremie and Aelita.
"Xana picked a good one this time. You can't stop a speeding car." I say.
"You're right." He replies as we run across the bridge. We quickly enter the factory and go down to the control room where Avery and Odd are waiting.
"Ulrich, what happened to your arm?" Avery says, quickly running over to me. She stares at my left arm which I'm cradling against my chest.
"Xana took control of four or five cars, he used us as a driving course. One of them clipped my arm as I jumped out of the way." I say.
"Can I see?" She asks. I try to lift my arm, but I can't. It hurts too much. So I use my right arm to lift it gently towards her. She looks at me with careful eyes.
"I'm going to touch it gently, tell me if it hurts." She says, and I nod. She gently puts her hand around my arm and squeezes slightly. I feel uncomfortable, but it doesn't hurt.
"Yah, but not too bad." She looks it over a little bit, squeezing in a couple more places. Pain lances up my arm as she squeezes my wrist.
"Yah, it hurts there." After a moment, she looks up at me.
"I'm not a nurse, but I don't think your arm is broken. Your wrist is probably broken though."
"I'll live." I say, taking it back.
"Hey guys, the scanners are all warmed up and ready." Jeremie calls from the computer. I move to step into the elevator with everyone else, but Avery stops me.
"You're no good to us hurt. Stay here." She says and hits the button. Before I can respond, the door closes and the elevator drops.
I walk over to where Jeremie is sitting, and my arm is throbbing.
"…virtualization!" Jeremie says, hitting the enter key. I lean on the back of his chair, using it to prop up my injured arm.
"Okay, you guys are in the ice sector. I'm sending your vehicles." He hits the enter key a
gain, and sits back in his chair. He bumps my arm slightly, and I pull it away in pain.
"Oh, sorry Ulrich. Here, we need to make you a sling…" He trails off. Thinking quickly, I pull off my outer shirt and hand it to Jeremie.
"Use this." Jeremie takes it and ties the arms around my neck, cradling my injured arm inside it. Jeremie turns back towards the screen.
"You guys have two tarantulas to deal with. Work quickly, I don't know how it's going with Yumi."
"Okay Jeremie." Avery's voice replies. As I watch the dots that represent my friends get closer to the enemy, I can help but think:
This isn't good…(Avery P.O.V.)
Odd is flying above me on the overboard, giving cover for Aelita who's on the overwing. I'm riding down below them on the overbike, keeping a lookout for any other monsters.
"You guys have two tarantulas to deal with," Jeremie's voice says inside my head, "Work quickly, I don't know how it's going with Yumi."
"Okay Jeremie." I reply. I see the two tarantulas up ahead. They're standing slightly apart, both guns positioned and ready.
"Odd, let's make these count." I yell upwards.
"You got it Avery." He yells back down to me. He takes off to the left, I go to the right. Aelita slows down but follows me to the right. I move to the right of the tarantulas, and Odd tries to draw their attention on the left.
One opens fire on Odd, missing him completely. The other begins firing at me. I dodge a couple, but just barely. One of them hits me on the shoulder, making me swerve. I quickly screech to a halt and take off in the opposite direction.
I jump and do a flip, landing sideways on the bike. I fire one single shot, and it flies straight towards the tarantula's head. Just before it hits, the tarantula manages to fire one shot.
His shot hits my bike just as my energy blast hits its head. I tumble to the ground, skidding and rolling before I finally stop.
I turn to look at the other tarantula, Odd is having a tough time with it. It's not giving him an opening. I fire, but the shot goes high.
At the same time I did, Odd shot too. I can't see very well, but it looks like my energy ball collided with Odd's in the air. Immediately, a large explosion fills the glacier, completely destroying the tarantula. Unfortunately, it also rocketed Odd off his board, he's flying high towards me.
He collides with me, and we go spinning head over heels with each other. We must've tumbled for at least ten yards, laughing the whole way, before we finally skid to a stop. When we do, I'm on bottom and Odd is lying right on top of me, propped up by his arms. His face is mere inches from mine, and he's blushing like mad. I realize my own face is burning up as well. We lay there, staring into each other's eyes because we can't look away.
His face slowly lowers until it's almost touching mine. I close my eyes, waiting for his lips to connect to mine. I've been dreaming about it for so long…
"Guys! More monsters!" Jeremie yells at us. My eyes immediately jerk open, as do Odd's. He was just mere centimeters away…
"We're on it Jeremie." Odd says, getting off of me. He quickly stands up, giving me a hand up as well. We walk out to the center of the large glacier, but there's no monsters around.
"Jeremie, where are they?" I ask.
"I… I don't know. One crab started to appear, but then it devirtualized itself. Almost as if Xana changed his mind." Jeremie says.
"Well, when he does send them, we'll be ready." Odd says.
"Aelita!" I yell out. Aelita quickly comes out from behind a large mound of ice on the overwing. "Go for the tower! Now!" She takes off towards the still distant tower. I look at Odd, and realize he was staring at me. When I looked at him, he quickly looked away.
"Uh… Odd. We should probably go follow her." I say, and he nods his head.
"Let's go." He says, and we take off running. We jump onto another glacier, and I notice something strange.
"This one is a perfect circle…" I say, slowing to a stop in the middle.
"It is…" Odd says, looking around. Suddenly, at least thirty monsters appear in wireframe around us.
"It's a trap!" Jeremie yells. The virtualization seems to be taking longer, maybe because Xana is loading so many at once.
"Avery, when I tell you to, shoot one blast straight up. Then get down as far as possible and put up your shield." Odd says calmly as the first crabs begin to drop.
"Got it." I say. None of the crabs have fired yet, they seem to be waiting for something. Soon the last crab is virtualized and drops into the circle. They all begin to charge their lasers at once.
"Now!" Odd yells. I quickly shoot one blast up into the air and drop down. I feel Odd lay back against me as well, we both put up our shields at the same time. We now have a perfect purple circle covering us.
Exactly the same as the one before, an explosion goes off right above our heads. All the monsters are either destroyed by the force of the blast, or pushed off the edge of the glacier.
Odd lets down his shield and stands up, giving me a hand as well.
"Odd, that was genius!" I yell, hugging him. I feel myself blush as I bury my head in his chest, but I really don't care. He hugs me back and we stand there for a couple seconds. Suddenly, Odd jolts forward. I catch him underneath his arms, but his body has already vanished into wireframe. Behind him is a crab that must've been knocked onto a neighboring glacier by the blast.
"You know what?" I ask it, my temper growing out of control again.
"I've had just about enough of you!" I yell. It charges up its laser, preparing to take me out as well.
"I'm tired of you always taking Odd away from me!" I yell again. I let out a scream, letting out all my fury at once. I feel myself leave the ground, and I hover in midair. Suddenly, a blindingly white blast emanates from my body, the third explosion today. The crab and the newly formed three tarantulas are all incinerated, and I feel extreme pleasure from that. My anger dissipates, and I feel my feet hit the ground again.
I can't stand, my legs are too weak. I can't find my balance, and I hit the ground hard. As I feel the coldness of the ice seep into my body, I look back towards the tower just in time to see Aelita enter it.
Then, everything goes black.
This chapter was... (doing word count) about 1600 words long. Not bad, I've done better. But I think I'm going to make the chapters a little bit longer after this...
Anyways... review people! Tell me what you think!