Chapter 8: Back on Enemy Turf
Jeremie, Aelita, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi, on the vehicles, were fast approaching Lyoko. The far off four leaf clover shaped world was getting closer, and before long they were able to distinguish features of the landscape, and the many softly glowing blue towers, as well as the red ones, sharply standing out among them. As they approached, the floating blue screens of the void became less distinct, and soon the dark blue of the void was replaced by the light blue of the Lyoko sky. Before long, they were landing on the edge of the forest region.
"Ok." Said Jeremie. "Can you devirtualize me, Ulrich? I'll be more useful back on Earth."
Ulrich swung his sword at Jeremie, and the next thing he knew, he was stepping out of one of the scanners.
"Whew! It's good to be back." He said. He took the elevator up to the computer room, seated himself at the computer, and put on the microphone.
"Jeremie!" Shouted Yumi to the sky. "Are you there? Answer me!"
"I made the trip safe and sound, guys. I'm localizing the towers now." Jeremie checked the super scan. "The first activated tower is right there in the forest region. 25 degrees north, 50 degrees west."
"We're on it." Said Yumi. The four of them hopped back on the vehicles and sped off.
"Do you see any monsters?" Jeremie asked.
"Nah." Said Odd. "They must be all gone, seeing as we destroyed so many of them back at the school."
"You wish." Said Ulrich. "Look." He pointed ahead. The activated tower was ahead of them, glowing red as always. It was being guarded by four Bloks and a Megatank. But they didn't seem to be alert.
"They don't seem to be paying much attention to their surroundings." Said Aelita.
"Perhaps they didn't expect us to escape the school." Ulrich said. "They must be wondering why that sent them to guard this tower, seeing that there was nothing to guard against." He smiled. "Why don't we go over there and give them a little surprise?"
The Bloks stood around, looking around lazily. The Megatank was tightly closed, the eyes on its armor closed in something close to sleep. The laser arrow that seemed to appear out of nowhere and imbed itself in one of the Bloks startled all of them. The Blok blew up, and while its teammates were still looking at the debris in bewilderment, Odd and Yumi charged out of the trees. Odd fired another arrow, and Yumi threw her fans. The other three Bloks, as a result, were as swiftly defeated as the first. The Megatank opened up and fired, but Yumi and Odd dived out of the way before it could hit either of them. Ulrich, who had up to that time been hidden, super-sprinted out of the trees and stabbed the Megatank in the eye before it could close up to defend itself. It blew up.
"Well, that was easy." Said Odd. "You can come out now, Aelita."
Aelita walked out of the trees and into the tower, levitated up to the top platform, and entered the code.
"Nice work, guys." Said Jeremie. "Four more to go."
Aelita came out of the tower and went over to them.
"We should be more careful from now on." She said. "Xana knows now that we're here on Lyoko, so he's sure to be guarding them more heavily."
"Right." Said Ulrich. "Jeremie, where's the next tower?"
"Let me check..." Said Jeremie. "Ok. Mountain Region, 15 degrees south, 18 degrees west."
"Lets go." Said Ulrich. The four of them went back to where their vehicles were parked, got on, and took off, heading for the passage tower.
Xana was in his control room, looking at a big screen showing what was going on at the school. The kids were barricading themselves inside the buildings, making weapons from silverware, stockpiling rocks to throw and buckets of water to dump on the monsters to short circuit them, etc. Xana smiled a little, seeing their efforts as futile. But his smile quickly turned upside down when he saw a big red exclamation mark appear on the computer screen.
"What?" He shouted at his computer screen. "What is the meaning of this?"
He started typing on the computer, and the view changed from the school to the forest region, where he saw the kids speeding along on their vehicles.
"What? They escaped?" He growled to himself. "I don't know how, but this problem must be dealt with immediately. General!"
The Scipizoa drifted into the room and stopped by Xana's side.
"Notify the monsters guarding the towers that trouble is on the way. From the looks of it, they are currently headed for the Mountain Region. See if you can get any more spare troops to guard the towers, and ready the flying saucers for another assault."
The Scipizoa bowed and began to leave the room.
"Oh. And you know what to do with Aelita if you can catch her."
The Scipizoa signaled assent and left the room, eager to fulfill its master's orders.
It drifted towards the huge garage where the flying saucers were stored, gathering together behind it the monsters it passed. When it entered the room, it ordered the monsters to spring into action, and soon they were pouring into the room and boarding the saucers.
"As much a I hate to admit it," The Scipizoa thought to itself, "Xana can be a little naive sometimes. If the kids are on Lyoko, the best thing to do is to carry out the rest of the attack as soon as possible."
It stared out at the monsters boarding the UFOs, and then watched them rising into the air and flying out of Sector 5.
"Two ships was not enough. So lets try fifty."