The flying saucers circled the mountain again, and proceeded to blast their cannons against the mountain's decaying sides once more. Inside, Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita looked fearfully up at the walls and ceiling, as the holes in the sides of the mountain got bigger.
"Jeremie, what do we do?" Asked Ulrich. "Come back to Earth?"
"I don't think that's a good idea." Said Jeremie. "Don't worry. I'll think of something." He typed furiously at the computer, trying to look at the situation from all angles. He found the route they could have entered the mountain with if they had not gone in through the hole the saucer made. But it wasn't going to do them much good now.
He looked at everything inside the mountain to see if there was anything they could use, but there was nothing but the three kids, their vehicles, a whole lot of rocks, and... the tower. Could they take refuge in it? He wondered. He checked some statistics, and it turned out that when the mountain collapsed, the falling rocks would simply crush the tower and anything in it.
Meanwhile, the flying saucers were lining up another attack. They fired, and rocks started falling from the ceiling, smashing to pieces around them.
Aelita was also wracking her brains for a solution, and while searching her digital memory, she discovered an virtually ancient protocol process for the towers. She turned to it slowly. It was still glowing blue innocently, or as innocently as a weapon of Xana could look. She thought about it a little more, ran the scenario through her head once or twice, and then finally spoke her mind to the others.
"Jeremie... I think I may have found a way out."
"Well, don't just stand there!" Said Odd. "Tell us what it is!"
"Well, there are only four passage towers on Lyoko. One in each sector. But there is a code I can use to turn any of Lyoko's neutral towers into a passage tower, at least temporarily. But it takes a very large amount of energy to use. I'm worried that it may crash the tower's program."
Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita looked at each other. The mountain shook again, and this time more rocks fell.
"We don't have very many other options, Jeremie." Said Ulrich.
"Ok. Get yourselves and your vehicles into the tower. Aelita can then start up the program."
They went into the tower on their vehicles, and then parked them on the central platform. Aelita walked up to the center of the tower, and floated upwards. She landed on the top platform, and then nearly lost her balance as the tower shook with the direct impact of a very large boulder from the ceiling. She touched her hand to the interface in front of her, and it asked for a code. But instead of typing "Lyoko" she typed the keyword "portal". In a matter of seconds, the screens showing the tower's data started swirling in chaotic patterns around the sides of the tower. They started to fizz in and out of focus, and then for a few seconds the inside walls of the tower faded and fizzed like a broken television set. Outside, the blue glow faded in and out of focus.
"The tower is becoming very unstable, guys!" Shouted Jeremie. "And those flying saucers outside aren't helping!"
As he spoke, the saucers fired again, and this time the peak of the mountain caved inward and fell with a crash in the center of the cavern. The tower now seemed to be pulsating, its center bending inward and outward.
"Let's go!" Shouted Odd. "Before this crazy place goes completely to pieces!"
Aelita floated down from the top platform. They all mounted, and then flew over the edge of the platform and into the cyberstream, heading fast for the desert. The opening from the tower closed after them, and the tower's incredible stress was alleviated. If the tower had any feelings, it would have been happy, but not for long, as the flying saucers lined up for one final attack.
They fired, the lasers slammed into the sides of the mountain, and with an incredible groan, the mountain's sides finally caved in. A giant cloud of dust and rock rose from where the mountain once stood, and when it cleared, the pilots of the saucers saw nothing but a giant pile of rubble, the smashed tower somewhere beneath.
"You dimwits!" Shouted the automaton captain to the crews of the ships. The automatons were the only ones of Xana's monsters who conversed using human speech. "Xana is going to kill us when he finds out about what we did to that tower!"
"Whatever, dude." Said one of the automatons. "We destroyed them, right?"
"Ok. fine. Whatever. Lets just go help the other ships in the attack on the school."
The ten ships flew off to catch up with the others, hoping that some of the "fun" would be left for them. They had no idea that the kids had once more slipped out of the monster's grasp. But Xana himself did. He had watched the whole thing on his computer screen.
"Stupid automatons." He said to himself under his breath. "Two towers down, three to go. And two are in the desert, where they are headed now. Hmmm... then it would be best to concentrate my defense on the last tower, the one in the ice region." He pressed a button on the computer, and began to speak to the Frelion on the other end.
"Listen up, you! It's time to mobilize the troops and prepare them for action. Send the army to the ice region to guard the tower, and make it snappy!"