Hey everyone, the good news is the hotel I'm in at the moment has internet, thus I had spare time and wrote another chapter. I hope you all enjoy.
Yumi looked worried as ever, she didn't have a clue on how to get out of the dinner without the others noticing, plus they had to at least get Aelita to go with them.
"I'm not feeling well." Kasey said putting her napkin to her mouth and standing up. Yumi saw her chance and grabbed Aelita.
"Excuse us, we'll make sure she's ok."
"Is she going to be alright?" Artur asked, looking at Odd.
"Yeah, she said she's been fighting the flu," Odd covered quickly, "I'll go double check." He said rushing off to the factory.
The two American's started wondering what was going on. Chance leaned over to Millie, "I think something's up, do you know about this?"
Millie froze, she knew she couldn't tell Chance, but he was so nice and she thought she could trust him. 'No I can't tell him.'
"I think she's just sick, why do you ask?"
Chance looked over at Jesse who nodded, they both knew something was up. Chance was about to ask again when a giant mechanical crab burst threw the cafeteria door and opened fire with its laser.
"What the hell is that?" Chance yelled as he tipped the table over, dragging himself and Millie behind it.
"Ok, well…ummm…there's more to all of us than what I've told you so far.
"Obviously!" Chance said as another blast caught Ivan in the shoulder as he dove behind the serving line.
Artur ran to his brother who groaned that he was ok. The two hunkered down trying to figure out what to do.
"The only way to kill these things is to jab something into that eyelike symbol on top."
"You know this how?" Chance asked as his mind raced for a logical reason that he was being shot at by an overgrown crab.
"I'll explain later, I need to get to the factory."
"Alright, you go and I'll…" Chance was cut off as Ulrich ran towards the crab. He jumped up off the table and landed on the crab. The crab shook viciously trying to rid himself of the human pest, but Ulrich stabbed down with the steak knife he had and jumped off.
"Now what?" Jesse yelled, and the crab exploded sending pieces flying in all directions, causing Jesse to duck back behind the table for cover.
"We go to the factory." Ulrich yelled, and everyone except Jim and the cafeteria lady followed. They were busy hiding in a closet and still didn't know that it was safe.
The small group arrived at the factory in no time, and they all crammed into the elevator.
"When this is all done you have to explain yourself." Vladimir said.
Ulrich nodded and smiled at their gasps when the door opened and they saw Kasey sitting in the operator's chair.
Jeremy rushed over and Kasey jumped out and ran for the scanner with Millie close behind.
"Odd, Yumi, Aelita, how are you holding up?"
"Jeremy?" Yumi asked in surprise as another three hornets dove towards her.
"Yeah, everyone's here, so we have some explaining to do later."
"Never mind that, we need help, Odd has been hit more times than I can count, and I'm not doing too well either."
Jeremy groaned and quickly scanned Kasey and Millie in. The two dropped into the mountain region just as a blast from a block hit Odd and he disappeared.
"Jeremy we need help now!" Yumi yelled at the blonde operator.
The three hornets turned and Yumi dodged and deflected their lasers, but didn't notice the crab that was charging its laser to her side. She turned at the last moment and cringed. The crab never got the shot off as an arrow streaked across the sky and impaled the crab. Yumi dove to the side as it exploded.
"Just in time!" Yumi said smiling as the other two girls rushed forward.
Everyone stood behind Jeremy watching the screen hoping that nothing would go wrong. Their hope was shattered as they saw red dots form all around the girls.
"Jeremy!" Kasey screamed, "We need more help, we won't last long, and Aelita will be toast."
Ulrich ran for the scanner closely followed by Chance.
Ulrich turned around, "You don't have to come, it could be dangerous."
"I'm in the French army, as a volunteer, a little danger doesn't worry me."
Ulrich smiled and pointed at one of the scanners, "Hop in."
Chance gave his smug smile and jumped in, the doors closed and his face changed to a look of worry. He was lifted into the air as he was scanned and virtualized, and the last thing the group in the control room heard before he disappeared to lyoko was a muttered, 'Shit.'
Chance came down hard landing on his knees instead of his feet. Ulrich gave him a hand and the two rushed off towards the others.
"Oh my God!" Chance said as he saw a swarm of hornets attacking Yumi, Kasey and Millie. Ulrich rushed forward and helped block, but it wasn't good enough, Yumi took two shots to the chest and disappeared. Millie was hit and thrown back against a boulder.
Chance rushed forward and helped her up off the ground.
"Aelita you have a small opening before they come around for another pass, go!"
Aelita jumped out of hiding and ran for the tower, Ulrich close behind. Kasey was running backwards firing arrows at blocks and crabs as fast as she could. Two blocks fired at the same time and caught her in the head from both sides. She was materialized and Odd stood outside the scanner to greet her.
Millie smiled at the sight of Chance, "So I guess this is what you look like in the virtual world huh?"
Chance looked confused until he looked at himself. He was covered with a dull gray armor (think clone trooper armor in star wars without the helmet) from his boots to his shoulders. Strapped to his back was a large rifle with a scope.
"Well you aren't exactly the same either." Millie looked at herself and grinned. She liked her lyoko look. Millie's lyoko powers had turned out quite amazing. She wore regular looking clothes, but her whole outfit and her tended to blend in with the environment when things got bad. She could almost become invisible.
"Guys cover the others." Jeremy yelled breaking the two out of their trance.
Chance ran to a boulder and sighted in on the hornets swooping down. 'Just like training' he told himself. He pulled the trigger and a laser shot out with deadly accuracy, destroying one of the ten hornets. He sighted in on another and smiled as his laser had the same deadly affect. He went to shoot another, and a blast caught him in the side. He turned to see Millie fade into the background. She must have drawn her guns and opened up on a crab because a barrage of lasers leapt out at the crab destroying it.
"Sorry, I…I should have seen him." Millie said, reappearing next to Chance.
"It's cool." Chance said rubbing his side.
Aelita made it to the tower and deactivated it before the hornets got any more shots off at Ulrich. The binary code crumbled and a white light appeared. Jeremy hit the return to the past and they all disappeared in the light.
"So explain yourself?" Vladimir said as the truck pulled into Kadic.
Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremy gave the others a quick rundown of what happened, along with an explanation of Xana and Aelita.
"Wait a minute, you're telling me that your girlfriend is a computer program?"
Jeremy smiled, "no she's human, just…she was trapped in a computer."
The truck pulled to a stop and Jeremy remembered on last important piece of information.
"Guys, everyone else will remember what happened except those like Jim who weren't with us. So Ivan, remember that to him you have never met and you never played basketball."
Chance laughed, "This is too weird for me, I'm just going to enjoy the next two days."
"Three days." Odd corrected, "We went back in the past remember, we still have three days."
"I'm confused."
"Not hard to do." Jesse laughed and dodged a dirt clod that Chance threw.
The girls came out of the building again and all gave their hugs and kisses. It wasn't as dramatic since this was the second go around. The main difference was that Millie walked right up to Chance and gave him a hug.
"Glad you made it back." She said.
Chance smiled, "I thought I'd try one more day and see if I could avoid the giant crab this time."
Millie smiled and led them all back to their previous rooms.
Nic and Sissy walked away again, but this time they had more to talk about.
"I never thought that was what they'd been doing all this time." Sissy confessed.
"Yeah I know it's pretty crazy stuff."
"I'm going to help them when you guys go back. I…I was asked to join so I think I can help, should be interesting at least."
Nicolas laughed, "It's what you always wanted right?"
"Yeah, I just wish you could stay with us."
"I'll be back soon enough."
The next three days went by fast and no one was ready to head back to base. Most everyone said their emotional goodbyes. The guys all jumped into the truck that had come for them and waved one last time.
"Where's Chance?" Jesse asked.
"There he is!" Odd laughed as the truck pulled away.
Chance was seen giving Millie a goodbye kiss and then sprinting towards the truck.
"Wait, dang it!"
The driver slowed down and Chance jumped up into the back and was dragged in by his comrades.
"Just had to give her a kiss?" Jesse teased.
"Yeah, I did, is that ok with you?" Chance said a little defensively.
The others laughed and Chance soon lightened up. They were heading back to war. They all hoped that they would one day return, but they knew the chance of all of them making it back was slim.
Well, I feel it may have been a little rushed but I hope you enjoyed it. Please review, I want to thank everyone who has faithfully read and reviewed thus far. Thank you all very much. That's all for now.