Chapter 13: Don't Do It!

The overbike and the overboard screamed across the sky, heading east through the United States, while Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd worried about what Xana would do when he got back to France.

They also worried about the second part of Canto's warning.
"So, tell me, who are these Yakanomere again?" Odd said. "I'm not sure I understood what they told us."
"For the last time, Odd," Ulrich said, "Your dad and the others theorized that the Zethians Xana mentioned put the Grail on Earth to hide it from their enemies; and these Yakanomere must be them. We don't know exactly how they will know if the Grail is activated, but they will know somehow. That's why we have to stop Xana from using it at all costs, or we'll have an alien invasion on our hands!"
"Oh. I see." Odd said, confusion vanishing into enthusiasm.
"You'd better." Yumi said.

They flew in silence for a while, passing over Washington DC for a second time without a thought, and then were over the Atlantic.
"Yumi..." Ulrich finally said, "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes, Ulrich. Why?"
"Well, I don't want to see you die... again."
She laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry. We'll get through this." She smiled. "But thanks for caring."
Ulrich gave a warm smile back.

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Jeremie pounded the keyboard in frustration. "I don't believe this!" He screamed.
"Calm down, Jeremie." Aelita said from beside him. "I'm sure there must be an explanation."
Jeremie groaned as a red exclamation mark reappeared on his screen, while the computer beeped incessantly.
"I just keep getting the same error message. It says that the return to the past cannot be activated because the tower has not been deactivated. But there are no activated towers now!"
"Look, the problem is in there somewhere. We just have to- Hey! What's that?"

Jeremie turned to see what Aelita was pointing at. It wasa screen showing what one of the factory's security cameras was seeing; to be specific, it was the one displaying the roof of the factory. Something was flying in from the west.
"Its the overwing." Aelita said, as soon as it got close enough for them to see it clearly. "But who is that on it?"

The overwing landed on the roof of the factory, and the figure on it stepped off. As soon as he turned so that he was facing the hidden camera, both of them knew who they were looking at.
"It can't be..." Aelita said.
"Xana must have used the Grail to give himself a body." Jeremie theorized. "The jerk." He added.
"But what happened to Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich?"

Jeremie quickly dialed Ulrich's cell phone with the computer.
"Ulrich, are you there? Answer me!"
"Hi Jeremie. Everything okay?" Ulrich's voice came back.
"Listen, are you aware of what happened to Xana?"
"Yeah."
"He's on the factory roof right now. What do we do?"
"He's at the factory? Okay. Don't move. Whatever you do, don't go near him. We'll see what we can do."
"Okay. In the meantime, I'll see if I can fix the return to the past trip."
"Don't bother. I can't explain how, but we'll need to get rid of Xana for it to work at all. Talk to you later."

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Xana looked around him, smiling to himself. The factory had a good view of the main part of the city in the distance.
"So many humans, so little time." He said to himself. "Where should I start? Maybe I'll vaporize that boarding school they love so much. Or that house Ishiyama lives at. I believe her family should be at home right now, no doubt wondering where their daughter is. I wonder if I can take everything out at once?"

His cravings for destruction were interrupted by a humming sound, and turned around to see the overbike and the overboard landing on the roof. Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich got off, readying their weapons.
"You three never give up, do you?" Xana said, cocking his head.
"Listen, Xana." Yumi said. "I don't know if there is any sense of sanity in your head that I can appeal to, but you must not use the Grail. The Yakanomere can destroy everything; including you, and if you use it, they will come here."

"Fool. Do you really think I'm going to fall for that? You three have meddled in my plans long enough. I will destroy you now."
Xana whipped out his staff, fast as lightning, and fired three bolts in succession. The kids jumped out of the way, and the bolts missed them, slamming into the wall of the structure that housed the roof access staircase. Yumi pulled out a fan and flung it at Xana, who knocked it aside with his staff, then fired a blue stream that froze her in place near the edge of the roof.

Yumi tried in vain to move her feet, and, seeing that she could not, threw her fans again. Xana blocked, then whirled around to block again as Ulrich swung his sword at him. Ulrich started to force him back, swinging his sword, trying to find a hole in Xana's defenses. Xana slammed the globe at the end of his staff into Ulrich's face, then flung him back. Ulrich skidded to a spot near Yumi, then got up.

Xana stared at them for about half a second before he felt a sharp pain in his back. He turned around to see Odd, who waved at him before firing a rapid-fire stream of arrows, and Xana couldn't move fast enough to block them all. Three hit him in the chest, and he doubled over in pain.
"That's for what you did to Yumi!" Odd called.

Xana's reply was simple. He fired a giant ball of electricity at Odd. Odd got caught in it, and let out a wavering cry as he was electrocuted. He fell to the ground, smoking slightly.
"Ow." He said.
Xana smiled evilly for a second before realizing Ulrich was charging at him, renewing his attack. Xana parried the blows with his staff, only to feel a pair of fans smash into the back of his helmet, which started buzzing with released electricity.

Xana fired at her, but even though her feet were frozen to the floor, she was able to duck. He aimed lower, but the blast was deflected by Ulrich, who had ran in front to defend her. The deflected blast ricocheted off a metal banister, then hit Xana in the side.
"Ha!" Ulrich shouted triumphantly.

Xana was furious by now. He was getting the feeling that he was severely outmatched here.
"Enough!" Xana said, holding up a hand. "I surrender." He dropped his staff.
Yumi and Ulrich made eye contact, and both of them saw the skepticism they shared.
"You're kidding, right?" Yumi said.
"But of course." Xana said, whipping out the Grail.

"Uh oh." Ulrich said.
"Uh oh is right, Ulrich." Xana said, a big grin on his face. "I am well aware of the Grail's power. It will burn through your puny sword like tissue paper." He aimed the red end at them.
"Plus, I know how to use it, unlike Yumi."
"Don't do it Xana! The Yakanomere!" Yumi shouted desperately.
"I won't let you hurt her." Ulrich said. "Not again." He moved to shield Yumi with his body, and held up his sword to block.

"You are a naive fool, Ulrich!" Xana screamed. "This thing will go right through both of you and still destroy the entire city! Do you really think you can stop me now! DIE!"
He pressed several buttons, and aimed.
He didn't see Odd rushing from the side. He pushed Xana to the side, both of them falling to the ground, just as the Grail fired.

The deadly red beam of light missed Ulrich and Yumi by less than two centimeters. It flew off into the distance, passing between two of the tallest buildings in the city, heading north.

It landed in the English Channel, far away from any boats or either shoreline.

Then, it detonated.

It was as if half the nuclear weapons on Earth had gone off at once. A gigantic cloud of superheated steam rose miles into the air, and the flash of light would have fried the eyeballs of anyone who looked at it. When the initial explosion died down, there was a soft rumbling, and a sphere of exotic energy slowly grew. It was slightly pink, and crackled with blue electricity. It reached ten miles in diameter before slowly dissipating. The whole thing could be seen as far away as Iceland.

For the first time on Earth, not a single human moved a muscle in Europe. No one could do anything except stare in horror at the far away explosion. Even from where they were, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and Xana could see that it was tremendous.

A light wind blew from the direction of the explosion. It had originally been stronger than a hurricane wind, but it had died down by the time it reached them. For one, terrible moment, there was stunned silence.

Then, panic erupted.

And in the calm of space, a pulse of strange energy, one that had originated at the point of detonation and spread outward in all directions, flew through the endless vastness, faster than light. It didn't take long for something to pick it up.