Chapter 9: Fear

Aelita is running in Lyoko alone as she sees all of the shadows around her chasing her along the ground.

"Please, leave me alone!" she calls out as the shadows continue to pursue her and she continues to run.

Then she looks in front of her to see a giant form of Shadow from Team Sin and he says. "Now I am going to have fun with you, nice and slow."

"No, just leave me alone!" she cried as she tried to back out but sees many other shadows coming out of the ground and has her surrounded.

"And why would I want to do that?" he replied as the darkness consumes her and she shoots up from her bed and screams in terror.

"Aelita! What's wrong!" her roommate asked in shock.

"Aelita started to breath normally as she sees that her hands are shaking. "I'm sorry Yumi," she replied. "I just had, a bad dream."

The next day early in the morning, Team Kiwi is training in the Private Lyoko Training Area that has been reserved for Lyoko Championship Teams in the hotel.

But it isn't going well for the team, the team doesn't seem to be working together as Aelita keeps looking around and is too distracted by it.

"Guys look out. Three Flying Mantis's are coming right at you!" Jeremy calls out to his teammates as they are on their vehicles traveling in the Desert Region.

Then the Mantis's come from twelve–a-clock as they shoot their lasers. The team dodged the attacks and now has the Mantis's following them.

Then Aelita looks back at the Mantis's and then looks down to see their shadows as all of a sudden, her eyes widen in fear. "Odd, please speed up."

"I'm going as fast as this board can go, but I will get rid of those for you," he replied as he aims his arms at the Mantis's and fires.

He hits them a few times but not in the eye as they start firing back. He was able to dodge some of the attacks but then a few lasers hit the board and it disappears.

"Guys, could use some help back here!" Odd cries out as the other two turn around to help.

Yumi throws her fans at one of the Mantis's and Ulrich hits another with his sword. The two were destroyed but one of them was able to fire right at Aelita twice and she devitalized.

Jeremy looks at the screen to see it say Game Over and the team comes out of the pods. "Come on team, we are probably going to be in the tournament tomorrow. You know that we automatically lose if the Deactivator is devirtualized."

"We know Jeremy," Ulrich replies. "That's a basic rule."

"I'm sorry Jeremy," Aelita replied. "I'm really tired. I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Come on Aelita, I will help you to bed," Yumi said as the two girls leave the room."

"We will get back to this later when Aelita is better," The team's Controller replies as they all leave in their own directions.

Now with Ulrich as he is walking to the gym of the Hotel as he sees Sword Hunter with her back to the wall. "Hey there samurai, so are you ready for some more training?

He just looks away and she adds. "Let me guess, still having romance trouble? I'm going to guess you have it for your Goth teammate, am I right?"

Ulrich flinch from this comment. "Why would you care?"

Sword Hunter giggles. "Come on tough guy, you can tell me. I can keep a secret," she said with a sinister grin.

Now with Yumi as she is with Aelita in their room, Aelita is lying on her bed as Yumi says. "I hope you can get some sleep, you don't want to worry Jeremy."

Aelita blushes. "Yeah."

She then falls asleep as Yumi leaves the room.

Maybe I should talk to Ulrich, and figure out why he seems so distant. He is probably at the gym.

She thinks as she walks down the hall.

Now she walks out of the Elevator and turns the corner just in time to see Sword Hunter making a move on Ulrich. Her hand clenches into a fist as she stomps off.

Now with Sword Hunter and Ulrich as the member of Team Sin says. "Now after that, Yumi will be all yours."

"Are you sure?" Ulrich asked.

"Oh yes, your not the first relationship I have helped with," she giggled. "Have fun big boy."

Now with Yumi as she walks off to the main entrance of the Hotel as she thinks.

I can't believe him, first with Sissy and now with Sword Hunter. Sometimes he makes me so angry I could...

She thought until she heard a familiar voice call out to her. "Yumi, hey Yumi!"

She snaps out of it and looks to be in a state of surprise. "William, what are you doing here?"

William walks up to her and says. "I came because I wanted to cheer for you in your next match and you know love makes me do crazy things."

Her cheeks grow a faint shade of pink. "I see."

"So, did you get my flowers?" he asked as she nodded in reply.

"Hey I know I just got here, but if you want I can buy you lunch," he offers, as just then, Yumi sees Ulrich coming out of the halls and replied.

"I would like that."

Then they walked off before Ulrich could see where she was (Misunderstandings, so much fun).

Now a little later with Jeremy and Odd at the food court and Odd is devouring the food and they are watching the small TV.

"Not even a challenge in the Lyoko Tournament today, Team Project wiped the floor with Team Shadow. At this rate, Team Project will come out on top once again (sorry person that I took the character idea for Team Shadow). And the next teams to face off are Team Hyper in the Forest Region VS Team Kiwi in the Mountain Region."

"Well, it looks like Team Project really lives up to their title," Odd commented. "If we face them, it will be a problem."

"Yeah, and we better get to training soon. We have a match tomorrow." Jeremy added.

Then Odd finished with his meal. "Well, I'm going to hit the showers."

"That's all you are going to have?" Jeremy asked in shock.

"Sadly, because they have been reducing how much I am allowed to eat. See you later." The strange teammate said as he walks off.

Jeremy just pushes the food he has on his plate around as he sees Jamie from Team Project walk by with a young white hair girl wearing black on his arm and he asks to himself. "Huh, I don't remember seeing her at the introduction."

"Name, Mary Rogers, aka Bloody Mary because she wears black, age, thirteen, her father is the principal of Ad Tech High which is the school being represented by Team Project."

Jeremy then looks over to see Shadow leaning back in his chair doing the crossword on the newspaper. "She is currently dating Jamie Dagda for the past six months without her father's knowing because if it wasn't for the publicity that team brings to that School he would have it removed. He sent his daughter to make sure they aren't slacking off, little does he know. Now that I told you that, do you know an eight letter word for "in somebody's company?"

"How did you know that?" Jeremy asked.

"I thought you would have guessed by now, it's my job. I didn't get my nickname from playing Lyoko. Now are you going to answer that question, I'm almost finished with this puzzle."

"What are you talking about? What do you mean, it's your job?"

He folds his paper and replies. "Being a shadow, you are able to get into people's minds, by figuring out who they are, I can tell where they will go and what they will like. You don't know how many people hire me for my, talent."

"So that's how you have been stalking Aelita," Jeremy declared as he just chuckles.

"Well, it isn't considered stalking if you show up before them. But right now I am offering my services to you."

"You have done enough, just leave us alone." Jeremy said as he walked off.

"Tisk, tisk, tisk, you don't know what you are passing up. With my help you can be the best Romeo to your Juliet."

Jeremy seemed to flinch from that. "What do you mean?"

"I see you are intrigued, with my talent you can be the best boyfriend in the world to her and sweep her off her feet. Please sit down so I can answer all of your questions."

Jeremy has a suspicious look on his face as he sits down across from Shadow.

"Why should I trust you, you have been terrorizing Aelita," Jeremy accused as Shadow chuckled.

"Yes I have, and I'm not going to lye and say I didn't enjoy it. It was fun making her paranoid, I'm going to guess that she didn't get much sleep last night."

Jeremy's hand becomes a fist. "I wouldn't do that Jeremy, you don't want to have your Team disqualified, because there is still a Ceasefire."

Jeremy's fist relaxes as he asks. "Why should I trust you?"

"Two reasons, because I think your girlfriend will completely forget about the paranoia when you astound her with stuff she loves, and I won't charge you a dime for the work. Because I think what I did to her before was enjoyable enough."

"What will you do?"

"Nothing big, just find out what she likes and a few other things and then slip you the paper work right under the door of your room, good thing you have a single."

"No thanks, I don't want any help from you!" Jeremy said as he walked off.

"Then can you at least help me with is cross word, eight letter word for "in somebody's company."

"Together," Jeremy answered.

Now with Yumi and Will as they returned to the Hotel and Yumi says. "Thanks William, this was just what I needed."

"No problem Yumi," Will replied as he leaned closer to kiss her, but she just backed away.

"William, stop."

"It's because of Ulrich isn't it?" he asked as she replied.

"I got to find Jeremy, we have to get some training done before tomorrow's match."

She then walked off, leaving Will just standing there.

Now with the gang as they are once again in Lyoko's Mountain Region and they aren't doing so well. Now they come out of the pods as Jeremy lectures. "What ever is going on you need to put it to the side when we are in Lyoko. If we lose one more time we are disqualified."

His team is silent as he adds. "Well, let's get some rest. Hopefully tomorrow we will be ready."

They walk off back to their rooms as Ulrich confronts Yumi alone in the hallway. "Yumi, we need to talk."

"What do you want to talk about?" she asked coldly.

"I haven't seen you all day, I wanted to tell you..."

Because how evil I am, before he could confess his true feelings she snapped back. "Save it."

He seems shocked by her reaction as she continues. "I know about you and Sissy, and you and Sword Hunter. So save what ever you had to say to me and just leave me alone!"

She stomps off, leaving Ulrich completely stunned.

Now with Jeremy as he is doing some research on the next team and the region they will be on. He hears a knock on his door and looks behind him to see a folder slipped under his door with a note clipped to it.

He walks over to it and reads the note. Use it or lose it.

He opens the folder and is shocked to see the notes. A complete blueprint to Aelita: Favorite Foods, her weight, and even her shoe size.

How could he find out all of this in one day?

Jeremy thought as he was about to throw it into the trash but stops when he sees the back of the note.

Come on, at least give the Favorite Candy a try. She will love you for that.

To Be Continue

Will Jeremy use it, will Yumi and Ulrich ever get together, and will they win their next match with all of this going on? Read and review to find out.