William stood on the roof of the Science Building, looking off into the void, a pair of binoculars over his eyes. In all directions, he could see nothing except the vast blueness of cyberspace, full of eerie floating light blue screens. He couldn't get used to this crazy alternate dimension, or whatever it was. The only break in the void was the huge four leaf clover shape of the place known as Lyoko, the alien's homeland. Waiting for them to attack again was a very tense activity, as he scanned the empty space for any sign of movement.
The kids and teachers of Kadic had done everything they could to prepare for another attack. They had made weapons, crude weapons, but ones that would prove to be useful nonetheless. All of the people at the school had garrisoned themselves inside the buildings, barricading the doors and windows and making places they could attack the aliens from. People were stationed at all of them, ready for anything. All that there was to do now was wait.
William's eyes narrowed, as he saw several green specks appear in the distance and move towards them.
"How many do you see?" Asked Sissi, who had come up next to him. "Is there any danger?"
"Of course. There seem to be... oh no... it can't be."
"What?" Asked Sissi.
William watched as more and more specks started to appear. "There are more this time. A lot more. An entire fleet!"
"William..." Said Sissi, her back turned to him, her eyes wide. "I don't think those are the ships to worry about."
"What do you mean?" Said William, turning around. "What other ships are there to worry-" He stopped short. Not more than fifty meters from where they were standing, a flying saucer was hovering in midair, cannons charged.
"C'mon!" He shouted, grabbing Sissi by the arm and rushing her down the stairs with him. The flying saucer fired, blowing a hole in the roof. It then flew over the building, so that it was hovering over the soccer field. Three more ships hovered over to join it, and together, they landed, one of them crushing Yumi's house beneath it. It was fortunate that they had thought to take Hiroki into the school with them, or he would have been crushed.
Hatches in the sides of the saucers opened, and the monsters started marching out. They started marching toward the school, charging their lasers. Inside, William was running through the halls, calling to everyone to prepare. He stopped by a classroom where Jim, Mr. Delmas, and Mrs. Hertz were fiddling with a strange electronic device they had made.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"Trying to contact someone!" Said Mrs. Hertz, a little annoyed that they weren't making progress. "If we could just find some help from our world..."
"Hello?" Said Mr. Delmas into a microphone. "Can anybody hear me?"
In the lab, Jeremie was startled to hear Mr. Delmas' voice coming out of the computer's speakers.
"Can anybody hear me?" He repeated.
"Mr. Delmas?" Said Jeremie, confused.
"Jeremie! Where are you?"
"I'm on Earth."
"Earth! How'd you get there?"
"It's a long story, sir. Don't worry, my friends and I are doing everything we can to bring you all home."
"Well, whatever you do, it had better be quick, young man. Those accursed UFOs are back, and there are far too many to fight this time. We can barely hold off the aliens attacking the school right now."
"Ok. Sit tight, and don't give in. We'll do everything we can."
Jeremie cut the connection. "Everything we can. Which isn't much at this point."
Ulrich and Aelita were hiding behind a large rock in the desert region. The path to the tower was blocked by a solid phalanx of 18 kankrelats, backed up by a very mean-looking tarantula.
"We don't have Yumi's telekinesis to get us through this time." Said Aelita disappointedly.
"Ugh." Said Jeremie. "Don't panic, you two. I'm sure there is a way around this." He turned to Yumi and Odd. "The school is being attacked again, and Ulrich and Aelita are trapped in a stalemate with Xana's monsters. Could things get any worse right about now?"
He got his answer in just a few seconds. The non-natural disaster alert system Jeremie had programmed months ago booted up and began to broadcast the latest news.
"Good afternoon. This is reporter Alice Sherman reporting live from downtown. What began this morning with the local boarding school and a nearby house in the suburbs has recently begun to spread, as street lamps around the city spew out tons of digital black smoke, engulfing entire buildings and then disappearing along with the people inside. Pandemonium has broken out as the city begins to vanish, and the police are having a hard time evacuating the rest of the populace."
Jeremie buried his face in his hands. "Looks like things can get worse."
On the outskirts of Lyoko, more landmasses started appearing, along with the buildings and people that were on them. Wild screams were breaking out from these buildings, as they floated aimlessly through the emptiness.
The saucers stayed in the distance, holding off on attacking the new arrivals.
"Odd." Said Yumi. "We have to go downtown and find someway of stopping Xana from virtualizing any more people, before the entire city is at his mercy in the void!"
"Got it. Jeremie, stay here and monitor the situation on Lyoko."
The two of them ran to the elevator and got in, rising up to ground level. they ran out of the factory, heading back to where the school used to be. It wasn't long before they witnessed the spectacle that was putting the city into a panic. In the outer suburbs, they saw specters emerge from several street lamps and form a cylinder around a large house. There was a flash of light from inside, and the specters and the house vanished.
"Looks like Xana is using the specters as gigantic scanners for buildings." Said Odd, breathlessly.
"Great. Now how do we stop it?" Asked Yumi.
Odd looked around. He was a little surprised to see a car in the middle of the road, its door open and the engine still on. Its owner had recently abandoned it in order to flee the specters. Odd ran over to it and got behind the wheel.
"Odd! Are you crazy? You don't know how to drive!"
"It's okay. I intend to crash it anyway."
He looked around, and saw more specters emerge from another street lamp a few blocks down, which promptly began to engulf another house.
He stomped down on the accelerator, and the car shot forward. It rammed into the lamppost, and it toppled. The specters coming from it pixilated and began to vibrate back and forth in an agitated manner, before fizzing out of existence. The specters that had emerged from other lamps had formed a cylinder around the house, but it was an incomplete cylinder, and when the flash of light came, the specters disappeared, but the house did not, as the "scanner" wasn't closed. Odd gave a thumbs up sign to Yumi.
She ran over to the car and got in the seat next to Odd.
"Let's go." Said Odd. "There are plenty more specters to bust around here."
"Are you sure you can handle this thing?" Said Yumi, indicating the car they were in.
"Of course! I play a lot of racing games on my video game systems."
Before Yumi could reply to Odd's last statement, they zoomed off, the car swerving this way and that. No policeman was going to stop him for traffic violations or lack of a license for that matter in the current situation.
"I've got an idea." Whispered Ulrich to Aelita. "Follow me."
The two of them snuck around the rock, keeping out of sight of the monsters. He peeked around the edge. The monsters' eyes were all still fixed on where they thought the two kids were hiding. Ulrich picked up a rock and threw it over their heads, so it clacked against a boulder on their left. Instantly, all the monsters turned to see what had caused the noise.
"Hold on, Aelita!" He shouted, grabbing a hold of her arm. "Super sprint!"
He dashed out of hiding, holding Aelita by the arm, as he ran forward far faster than any normal human could. The monsters couldn't turn back and fire at him and Aelita fast enough, and in a few seconds the two of them were behind the monsters. They ran for the tower, as the monsters made an about face and started to chase them. Lasers fired after them, but the monsters couldn't go fast enough. Aelita dashed forward into the tower, while Ulrich stopped at it and turned around to face the incoming creatures.
Surveying the situation, he saw that there was little chance of defeating them the usual way. Instead, he sprinted over to a very large boulder perched on its side, held in place by a small stone. He smiled at the monsters for a second, then hacked the small stone out of place, and the boulder toppled on its side, crushing all eighteen kankrelats. It just barely missed the tarantula which turned to Ulrich and started firing angrily. Ulrich blocked the shots with his sword, then sprinted up and stabbed it in the eye. It gave a final screech, then blew up.
Meanwhile, Aelita was inside the tower, deactivating it. Ulrich, Jeremie, and Xana watched as the tower turned from red back to blue.
"Four down, one left." Sighed Xana to himself. Well, the last tower has a very nasty surprise guarding it. Far nastier than those ten saucers or the sandstorm." He smiled to himself. "Very soon Aelita's memory will be in my clutches!"