Continued From Before……

(Chapter 5)

The next day, Ulrick waited outside for Yumi to get to school. A car pulled into the school area and parked. It just sat there for awhile, and then Yumi climb out. Ulrick was surprised to see her dad at the wheel. What surprised him more was that Yumi wasn't dressed as usual. She had on a pair of loose sweatpants, not her black pants, a long-sleeved, long shirt, and tennis shoes, instead of belly-shirt/sweater and boots. Ulrick waited until her dad drove away before walking towards her. As he came closer, he saw that she was crying again. It wasn't hard crying, just silent tears. Still, Ulrick was worried again.

"Yumi, are you ok? What has happened? Why are you dressed differently?" he asked, putting his arm around her back. Yumi jumped and winched. More tears of pain slide down her face. She pushed Ulrick's hand off her back, but gently enough to let him know that she was hurt.

Ulrick just stared as Yumi pushed his hand away. 'Is she hurt? What is wrong with her back?' he wondered. He tried to put his hand on her arm instead, but Yumi once again pulled away. 'Is she hurt all over!? What has happened?' Ulrick didn't try anymore to touch her. If she was hurt, he didn't want to make it worse.

Yumi walked away inside the school to their first class. She was never that early to class. Ulrick could tell she didn't want to talk, so he went to go find Jeremy and Od. He found them in Jeremy's room, talking to Aelita.

"Ulrick, thank goodness you're here. Xana has attacked again. I don't know what yet, but a tower has been activated. Do you know where Yumi is?" Aelita asked.

"Um, Yumi is in class, she didn't want to talk to me." He responded, hanging his head. He didn't know what happened, but he was determined to find out. He had to. Maybe he could help her, maybe understand her more.

"Hey, earth to Ulrick, you still here? What's the matter with you? Are you planning something?" Od said, laughing. "So, what do we do? How do we stop Xana, if we don't know what he's planning?"

"I'll keep an eye on things here if you do there." Aelita said. The bell rang and they had to go to class. when they got there, Yumi had on a sweatshirt! This caught all there eyes.

"Um I don't know if I should be asking this, but is Yumi feeling alright? Why is she wearing a sweatshirt, let alone sweatpants?" Od said. He shook his head and sat at his desk. The rest followed as the teacher came into the room.

"Good morning. How is everyone today?" she asked as she wrote on the board, POP QUIZ. Everyone groaned as she past out the tests. Ulrick glanced over at Yumi; she didn't make any jester of any kind. She just sat there with her face full of pain. She didn't even look at him or anyone for that matter. This made Ulrick even more worried for her.

The long day ended, and Ulrick went to find Yumi so they could walk home together, but when he spotted her, her dad pulled up with the car and Yumi got in. Ulrick sighed and walked towards Jeremy and Od. They were talking about Xana and LYOKO.

"I just don't get it. What could he be planning? I can't figure it out. There's nothing wrong with anything." Jeremy said to them.

"Nothing wrong yet. Xana is planning something, but he will show it sooner or later, and when he does, we will just defeat him again." Od said. "I don't know why he even tries to keep taking over stuff? We always beat him. When will he learn?"

"Well, he keeps trying because he will beat us someday; he's just waiting for the right day. We can't win all the time, although we have been for a while now." Ulrick said to Od.

Suddenly, there was a big crash. Ulrick, Jeremy, and Od ran to where it was heard. Some kids were already there, gathered in a circle around something. They pushed themselves to the front and found that there was a huge hole in the side of the cafeteria. Some kids where screaming while there were others on the ground.

"What happened here?!" Ulrick yelled to one of the kids. He saw people helping the kids on the ground. He knew it was from Xana.

"We don't know! There was this big thing. It was flying, and it shot and hit the cafeteria. It was huge and scary!" the kid said, whimpering at the thought.

"We have to go to LYOKO. It's Xana, I know it. Someone has to go get Yumi." Jeremy said, looking at Od and Ulrick.

"I'll go get her." Ulrick said running the way to Yumi's house. 'Maybe when we're going back she'll tell me what's wrong.' He thought to himself. As he drew nearer her house, he slowed down to catch his breath. He spotted Yumi and her father outside. He was talking to her, and as Ulrick watched from behind a tree, Yumi's father slapped her! She fell to the ground and hit the pavement. Ulrick gasped, but he calmed down a bit when her dad picked her back up hastily. Ulrick sighed a breath of relieve. 'He was just messing around. He didn't mean to hit her that hard.' He thought. Yumi's dad walked inside and Ulrick ran up to Yumi as if he had just arrived, "Yumi, come on, Xana has attacked again and we need to go to LYOKO right away." He told her.

Yumi nodded and stuck her head in the house, "I'm going to go back to school to do some extra work. I'll be home before dinner." She called to whoever was listening. She followed Ulrick down the steps and ran awkwardly behind him.

When they got to the factory, Od was already in LYOKO. They went down to the platforms and stepped in. Jeremy typed in the coordinates. "Scanner Ulrick, Scanner Yumi. Virtualization." He said. "Now, I've sent you to the polar region. There's an activated tower there and Od is helping Aelita. Hurry up though, they're in trouble." Jeremy informed them.

"Ok, Jeremy. We're on our way." Ulrick said, drawing his sword. Yumi took out her fan and followed Ulrick to Od and Aelita. They found them with a lot of those monsters around them. Yumi threw her fan and took out three of them. Ulrick drove his sword into one from behind.

"Thank goodness you're here. I'm all out of arrows. We still have a ways to go. come on let's go." Jeremy said. They all started running, Yumi falling behind. Aelita noticed and slowed down to let her catch up.

"Are you Ok? You're flinching in pain." She said, looking at Yumi's unlikely run. When Yumi didn't say anything, Aelita gave up for now. They could see the tower now, but it was guarded by more monsters. Ulrick swung his sword, but missed and got hit badly by two of them. "Ulrick, you only have 20 life points left. Be careful." Jeremy said to him, as Od almost got hit, saved by Yumi.

"Wow that was close. Thanks Yumi." He said. "Hey, watch out!" There was a new monster that none of them had seen before. It wasn't that big, about the size of a big dog. It pounced and hit Yumi from behind. She cried out in pain as she fell to the ground. It circled around her and placed its paw on her back as a threat.

Yumi cried out again, for she had new bruises and the stung very badly. The animal glanced at the others as if daring one of them to save her. The rest of the monsters hadn't attacked since the new animal had come. They just stood there also, waiting and watching. Then the animal took his paw off Yumi's back and started walking towards Aelita.

"You're the one I need. The one that can't leave." It said. The others stood in shock to hear it talk.

"Whoa, you can talk!?" Od said as him and Ulrick stepped in front of Aelita. "How can you talk? What are you anyway?" he asked, going brain dead.

"I can talk because I just can. I was made that way by Xana. I am feared by everything here. Why do you think the monsters haven't moved since I got here? Xana made me to beat you. He is tired of you always winning. It is time to let you lose now. That is why I'm going to take her," he said gesturing towards Aelita with his paw, "she's the one that can't leave LYOKO. The one Xana needs to take over both worlds. Muhaha. Now what are you going to do you little vermin's." he laughed and took a stride towards Aelita. Yumi threw her fan, Ulrick swung his sword, and Od jumped in front of Aelita. The attacks missed, but the animal was now angered.

To Be Continued

In the next chapter, Ulrick finds out something very scary about Yumi's father. How can he help him to stop? Keep reading!