Chapter 6: Dynamite and Laser Beams

Odd really hated Mondays. After being able to goof off on most weekends, he really hated having to go back to school and deal with things like how to find the equation of a line. But while Odd wasn't one to usually pay attention, today he found it utterly impossible. His mind was swirling with thoughts of the Grail, Yumi's backyard, and a newfound respect for science fiction novels.

Keeping the secret wasn't the hard part. He and his friends already kept plenty of secrets that they absolutely couldn't tell to anybody. Instead, it was a dreadful anticipation of what would happen in the near future.
"All right, class, you're dismissed." Mrs. Hertz said. They were the first words she said that had registered with Odd's brain today. He got up, numbly, and walked out of the classroom with the other kids.

"Hey Jeremie." He finally said. "What was Mrs. Hertz talking about today?"
"Um... I'll tell you later. We have to go to second period right now, remember?" Jeremie replied.
"Ok." Odd said, still numbly.
"Listen, Odd." Jeremie said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You've got to stop worrying. Its not like they're coming out of the sky and obliterating Earth's cities. This isn't War of the Worlds. Canto and the rest of his kind must be long gone by now."

"Maybe. But that warning was pretty ominous."
"I'm surethe Grail isin good hands. We can trust our government, right? Anyway, they don't have the key that was mentioned. The Sword, I believe it was called."
"I guess you're right." Oddsaid, crackinga smile for the first time that day.
"Right. What's the worst that could happen?"

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Several miles away from the city where our heroes live, there is a town called Murphy's Creek. With only one main road, and situated in the foothills of some high mountains, it was a very isolated place. One end of the main road went down to the city where Kadic was located. The other end went higher into the mountains, but nobody ever went up there because of the very threatening NO TRESSPASSING sign stretched across the road about a mile from town. Beyond the sign, the road continued until it hit the military installation where the Grail was being kept.

That night, while Jeremie slept, unaware that his superscan had once again been corrupted, and his friends slept, equally unaware that anything was going wrong, something strange was going to happen.

Mark Osloa, a self proclaimed UFO enthusiast, lived in Murphy's Creek, and often would stay up very late, camcorder at the ready, watching for UFOs. He had never seen one, and wasn't going to see one tonight, but he did see something unusual. Walking down the street, he was surprised to see some wires on the other side of the street break, seemingly of their own accord, and fall to the ground, electrical sparks flying.

Mark considered calling an electrician, but then noticed that the electricity wasn't sparking randomly. Instead, electrical energy was flowing in a circular pattern, and soon there was what looked like a large, circular, glowing hole right in the middle of the road.

He stared in horror as a massive shape rose from the ground. It was like a squat disk with six glowing eyes, supported by four spindly legs. Jeremie, Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, or Yumi would have recognized it instantly. It was a Krabe. Mark did not recognize it, but he raised his camcorder and started recording the scene while hiding partially behind a mailbox. The Krabe was soon joined by two more, and then several Kankrelats, then a tarantula, then two Bloks. More and more of Xana's monsters started pouring out of the glowing hole, and the procession started marching down the main street.

People raised their windows up, roused from sleep, to see what all the noise was, only to scream and shut their windows again, terrified by the robotic creatures marching down the street. At least 200 monsters made their way up the main street, out of the town. The lead Tarantula brushed away the sign without a second thought.

Alarms sounded in the military base, indicating that the perimeter had been breached, and waking General Dantam from his sleep. He rushed to command central, and stared with several other commanding officers at the creatures coming up the road, viewable over the hidden security cameras.

His first thought was that the aliens had come to retake their Grail. Well, they wouldn't take it without a fight!
"Block the road!" Dantam shouted. A soldier pressed a button, and some strategically placed dynamite blew, causing an avalanche that resulted in a huge pile of boulders right in the monsters way. The monsters stopped, but only for a second, as two Megatanks rolled into position and reduced the boulders to scrap in seconds. Then they continued up the road. They were in sight of the main complex by now.

Dantam gritted his teeth.
"Get all personnel armed and ready to move! We're going out there!"
A few minutes later, 200 armed commandos were standing outside the gates of the complex. The monsters stopped at the sight of them. The two sides regarded each other for two seconds. Thenthe monstersflew into the attack.

The first line of Krabes fired the lasers on their bellies at the soldiers, and then stooped down to let the row behind them fire. Kankrelats and Bloks scuttled beneath them, while Frelions flew over them, lasers flying like mad. The soldiers took cover behind anything they could, then returned fire. The bullets, for the most part, bounced off their heavy armor, with the exception of where they hit the targets by chance. One commando threw a grenade into the throng, and bits and pieces of monsters flew everywhere. Three Megatanks opened up and easily obliterated the barbed-wire gate, and the monsters poured into the compound.

Soldiers popped up everywhere, firing on the monsters, and more fell, but the lasers flying everywhere were quickly smashing the defenses to pieces, and they were starting to get the soldiers. Dantam stepped back as the lieutenant next to him was shot in the chest and forced backward, lying unconscious on the ground. A helicopter took off and fired a small missile at one of the Megatanks, but it was stopped easily by the Megatank's armor. A flying manta flew up behind the helicopter and released three mines, which smashed into it in three explosions that sent it crashing into the ground, blowing one of the barracks into non-existence.

Dantam leaned over the lieutenant. He was still breathing. Those things could kill them easily, so why weren't they?
He got his answer when he saw a Krabe press a claw to one of the fallen personnel, and electricity flow from the Krabe to the human. The Krabe stepped off, and the person got up, only now the pupils of his eyes were replaced with the same symbol that could be found on all the monsters. He picked up a gun and started firing on his former allies.

"We're going to need some backup." Dantam muttered. He took out a small radio, only to have it smashed to bits by a monster no bigger than the radio itself.
"Why you miserable..." Dantam screamed, and kicked the Kankrelat across the battlefield, where it shattered against the wall of a building. He turned around, hoping to get back to command central to radio for help, only to see a Krabe looking down at him. Dantam raised his gun, only to get shot with a laser. The last thing he saw and felt was electricity pulsing into him.

Without anyone to command them, the battle was quickly over for the remaining soldiers. Everyone surviving was possessed by Xana. Dantam, who was no longer in charge of his own mind, went down to the basement of the most secure building in the base, opened the vault, and took the Grail. Then all the surviving monsters and the possessed humans loaded into the transport helicopters and flew off, leaving nothing but ruins.

In a virtual world located in a factory several miles away, a tower glowed a malevolent red. The intelligence controlling it had one word on his mind:

Success.