"Here we are." Said Aelita, as they flew out of the passage tower in the desert after their narrow escape from the hollow mountain. "We made it safe and sound."
"Ok. There are actually two towers in the desert. They're actually fairly close to one another. 45 degrees north, 15 degrees west, and 45 degrees north, 10 degrees west." Jeremie told them.
"Then this should be a piece of cake!" Said Odd, doing a backward flip on the overboard. "Let's go!"
As they sped along the plateau, Xana watched them over the screens. He saw them approach a point roughly half way between the two towers, so that they would have to double back when they deactivated the first one. It was the perfect place to set the trap he had planned. Smiling evilly, he typed some codes into the computer, and then pressed the enter key.
"I see the towers!" Shouted Aelita, pointing to one, then the other, on opposite sides of them in the near distance. "And no monsters yet"
"No monsters..." Said Ulrich. "But what's that?" He pointed into the distance, where they could see a tannish cloud billowing. As they watched, it started getting closer, and before they knew it, the towers, and everything else, for that matter, disappeared into a blinding sandstorm.
"Oh no, I don't believe it!" Shouted Odd, shielding his eyes from the blowing sands. "I can't see anything!"
"Don't worry!" Said Jeremie. "I'll guide you."
"Hey, Jeremie," Said Yumi, who was still standing next to him. "Don't make them get too close to any edges. Remember what happened to me the last time Xana made the landscape invisible."
"I'll try, but the towers are at the ends of narrow bridges. It'll be close."
"Ok. Just keep flying straight. There's no danger of falling yet. You're heading for the left tower."
They flew as Jeremie directed, which surprised Xana a bit. At first he thought it had just been chance, but when he thought about it a little more he smacked himself in the forehead for forgetting. He typed in some more codes, and sat back with a snicker.
At the factory, the screen with the holomap suddenly went fuzzy. It went in an out of focus a few times before the display went completely blank, being replaced with a red Lyoko eye with the words "HaHa! Losers!" Printed underneath.
"Huh?" Said Jeremie out loud.
"Do we change direction now, Jeremie?" Asked Odd.
"Umm.. I don't know! It looks like Xana corrupted the holomap somehow!"
"Great. Guess that means we're on our own." Said Ulrich.
They sped onward in what they thought was the right direction, but there was no way to tell for sure. And when they heard the sound of a laser firing in the sky behind them, they knew that their troubles had just begun. Ulrich looked behind him, and just barely saw a dim image of a large buzzing shape through the clouds of dust.
"Frelions!" Shouted Ulrich to the others. "Watch out!"
The three monsters flew up and around, then came back at them with a new volley of laser fire. Unlike the kids, they could see perfectly through the sandstorm with infrared. Ulrich, Aelita, and Odd dodged blindly, only able to avoid being hit through sheer luck. One of the lasers hit Odd in the arm.
"Ow! That hurt!" He said.
"80 life points, Odd." Said Jeremie.
"Well, what do you want me to do?" There's no way I can hit them thro-"
He was cut off with a sudden vision. He saw Ulrich and Aelita on the overbike, heading straight, then, after 20 seconds, making a hard left to get to the tower. He could see that the sandstorm was still blowing, but it seemed strangely transparent, and he could see everything clearly. With a sudden jolt, it was gone. He turned to see three lasers hit the overwing, causing it to flash and dissapear. Ulrich stopped the overbike.
"Get on, Aelita!" He shouted through the roar of the winds. Aelita did not hesitate to obey.
"Ulrich, listen!" Shouted Odd. "I just had a vision! You have to take Aelita straight onwards for 20 seconds, then make a hard left. You'll make it to the towers without running into any obstacles or monsters."
"But what about you?" Said Ulrich.
"Well... I wasn't in the vision. I wonder what that means?"
It soon became clear exactly what it meant. One moment, Odd heard a rolling sound behind him, the next, a megatank laser appeared out of nowhere, taking him and the overboard out in one blow.
"Odd! No!" Shouted Yumi. His card flipped over and disappeared from the screen.
Ulrich, following Odd's instructions exactly, drove ahead for twenty seconds, and then made a hard left. He saw lasers from the frelions landing around him and Aelita, but none of them hit. They both were startled when the endless blowing sands suddenly gave way to the blue insides of a tower.
"Go on, Aelita." Said Ulrich. "I'll go back outside and deal with our rude guests." Aelita nodded, and walked to the center dot, where she was lifted into the air. Ulrich went back outside, where once again his visibility was reduced to zero. He jumped to the right to avoid a blast from the megatank, which he still couldn't see. Meanwhile, Aelita was landing on the top platform. She entered the code. Outside, the sandstorm stopped instantly. Jeremie's holomap also came back online.
"There you are!" Said Ulrich triumphantly to himself, seeing the three frelions hovering above him and the megatank in front, its metal halves separated to expose its target. It was getting ready to fire.
"TRIPLICATE!" Ulrich shouted. He and the two clones jumped up into the air, running the three frelions through. He shouted "Fusion!" As he landed, then dashed up and stabbed the megatank, which promptly blew apart.
Jeremie leaned back in his chair, and let out a relieved whistle.
"Way to go, Ulrich!" Said Yumi into the microphone. Odd was just stepping out of the elevator, and hadn't seen what had just happened.
"Hey, everything okay?" He asked.
"We're all set." Said Jeremie. Aelita came out of the tower on the overbike. She gave the driver's seat to Ulrich, and they sped off for the second desert tower.