Ulrich was pretty cheerful the rest of the day. Jeremie, Odd, and Aelita were surprised that Ulrich was able to get over it so fast, but when they questioned Yumi on how she did it, she just shook her head, followed by a wink. So they decided that perhaps it was better to just let it slide.
Ulrich breezed through the required three hours of detention after school, noting that Herve spent the entire time as far away from him as the library's space would allow. Both Ulrich and Jim noticed this, but Jim just ignored him, while Ulrich gave an evil grin and made a clenching motion with his fist that made Herve cringe.
And so it went. By the time Ulrich came back upstairs from detention, it was dark out. Odd was lying on his bed, headphones over his ears, humming along to the tune of the song he was listening to.
"Shoot.", Ulrich said quietly to himself. "I'm going to be up half the night trying to finish all the work I have to do."
He was glad that Odd didn't hear him say it, because he was sure to make some smart comment about how it would be better to just skip it.
It was eleven before he was done. Odd was already asleep, the headphones still over his ears. Ulrich flopped on his bed, extremely tired, and closed his eyes.
He slept.
He dreamed.
Ulrich stood alone on a darkened street. He looked around him to see that the lampposts lining the street and the weird block buildings on the sides were breaking up and flying upwards into a black hole suspended in a chaotic sky. A large dark spot appeared on the ground in front of him, and slowly, horribly, the creature rose from it, all of its eyes burning with anger.
"You got lucky last time, shrimp.", it said. "Now, where were we? Oh yes... It's time to die, Ulrich Stern."
Before Ulrich could do anything, one of the twenty arms reached out and grabbed him, raising him face to face with its ugly head. Ulrich gritted his teeth and reached for his katana. It wasn't there.
"HAHAHAHA! You dare to challenge me?", the creature boomed. "Well, RING! RING! I say!"
"What?" Said Ulrich, not sure he had heard right.
"No, what I meant to say was RING! RING! RING! RING! RING!"
The monster's head abruptly turned into a cell phone.
Ulrich sat bolt upright in bed, sweating.
Odd's cell phone was ringing. Odd himself was stirring in bed. He groped along the floor for the ringing phone, and then held it to his ear.
"Hello?" He said weakly. "A Xana attack? Is that all you can think of as an excuse to wake us up at this time of night? Alright, Alright, we're on our way." Odd hung up, then dropped the phone on the floor. In a few seconds he was snoring again.
Ulrich got up and dragged him out of bed.
"What? Hey!", he shouted.
"C'mon.", Ulrich said, exasperated. "Who's the sleepyhead now, huh?"
After a brief ride to the factory, the two of them took the elevator down to the lab, where Jeremie was already typing on the computer. Yumi and Aelita were there with him.
"Any idea what the attack is, Jeremie?" Yumi asked.
"Not a clue. But I wouldn't wait for Xana to start whatever it is he's planning. Get to the scanners."
Ulrich, Aelita, Yumi, and Odd went back into the elevator and took it another floor down. As soon as Jeremie was alone in the room, however, a small cloud of black smoke emerged from the wires overhead. It settled on the floor in a puddle for a moment, and then rose upward, taking human shape. In particular, the shape of a certain smart boy with blond hair and glasses. The real Jeremie didn't have any time to shout a warning before the polymorphic clone knocked him out with one swift punch. The clone threw him in a corner, then formed ropes made entirely out of electric energy to bind and gag him.
Down in the scanner room, The four of them were waiting for Jeremie to give the OK, unaware of what had happened above. Soon they heard the clone's voice, sounding exactly like Jeremie's, telling them to get in the scanners. Aelita watched as her friends disappeared down the tubes, so to speak, and then got inside herself.
The clone grinned as Xana's plan was put into action, confident that this time, the kids' doom was sealed.