Flashback(Ulrich P.O.V.)

We go upstairs to find Jeremie looking over an unconscious Macas, Yumi and Aelita looking at him concerned."He's okay, he just passed out like all the others who were possessed." Jeremie says matter-of-factly. "Can you help me with these knots? You tied them really tight."
"Wow, he must have put up a really good fight." I say, and kneel down next to him. I untie all the knots that bind him (It took a while, there was a lot). As I finish the last one, Macas opens his eyes.
"Ow my head…" He says.
"Hey man, you okay?" Odd asks, leaning over and giving him a hand up.
"Yah… but what happened? I mean, I'm here looking at the coolest computer ever, and then Ulrich, Odd and Yumi come in. The next thing I know, I feel someone inside my head telling me to kill you guys. I resist, and then I wake up here." He looks at everyone in turn.
Oh boy, here comes the interesting part…
End Flashback(Macas P.O.V.)

"Hey man, you okay?" Odd asks, leaning over and giving him a hand up.

"Yah… but what happened? I mean, I'm here looking at the coolest computer ever, and then Ulrich, Odd and Yumi come in. The next thing I know, I feel someone inside my head telling me to kill you guys. I resist, and then I wake up here." I look at Ulrich. "You mind explaining?"

"Jeremie, I think maybe you had better handle this." Yumi says when Ulrich doesn't say anything.

"Where should I begin?" He inquires.

"Maybe you should start with Aelita." Odd says.

"Okay then… The first thing you should know is that Aelita hasn't always been human." Jeremie begins.

"What, was she part wolf or something?" I joke. No one else laughs.

"No, she was virtual. She was a digital being from a virtual world known to us as Lyoko." I let this sink in…

Aelita is virtual? How can this be possible? And Lyoko… this is really creepy. First I draw Aelita as a virtual being… then everyone else in a virtual world I labeled 'Lyoko'? Too much of a coincidence.

"Wait a second…" I grab my backpack and take out my notebook. I quickly flip to the picture of Aelita. "Did she look like this?" I hold out the picture. They take it and stare.

"Where did you get this?" Aelita asks softly.

"I drew it. But I felt weird when I did, like I was drawing something I knew."

"So strange…" She murmurs, and looks at the picture again.

"Well, something wrong happened on Lyoko. A virus named XANA infected it, and he is trying to take over our world." Jeremie continues.

"How can he do that? He's stuck in a virtual world, it's not like he can do anything from there."

"Somehow, he can control systems in the school. From there he can assimilate other things. He can even possess people." Yumi adds.

"The only way we know if someone is possessed by XANA is if they're acting weird, or we can see the XANA symbol in their eyes." Odd says.

"Wait a minute… XANA sounds familiar." I say. I take back my picture and look on the back. Sure enough, there was that weird symbol I labeled 'XANA'.

"Is this his symbol?" I say and show them the picture.

"How do you keep doing this? There is no way you could have accidentally drawn Aelita and XANA without knowing something." Ulrich says.

"I told you, I just drew it. I never knew anything about Lyoko, XANA or Aelita beforehand."

"Well, the fact is, XANA succeeds in attacking usually around three times a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. The only way to stop him is to have Ulrich, Odd and Yumi protect Aelita from monsters as she tries to get to a tower on Lyoko. They go into scanners and are uploaded into Lyoko, they fight in real perspective. When they lose all their life points, they are devirtualized back here. When they are virtualized, they get special weapons and powers to aid them. Ulrich has-."

"Wait don't tell me. I already know." I say.

"Don't tell me you drew this too."

"Yah, I did. Let me get it…" I take the notebook and flip to the next page. I hand it back to Ulrich.

"Ulrich's a samurai, he has a sword. Yumi's a geisha warrior, she has fans. Odd is a catboy, he has some kind of arrow."

"They're called laser arrows." Odd says, and looks at the drawing.

"I swear, I had no idea this was real. I was just doodling the other day, and I ended up drawing this."

"Damn, next he'll be drawing his own character." Odd says.

"Uh…" I shuffle my feet slightly.

"Don't tell me, you've already drawn you own character." Ulrich says.

"Uh… yah. I figured 'why not' so I did. It turned out pretty good too." I flip to my last drawing and show it to them. They look astonished, as usual.

"Ulrich, does this look familiar to you?" Jeremie says incredulously.

"Yah, it does…"

"What are you talking about?" Yumi asks.

"Jeremie and I thought it would be a good idea to have an extra profile. So Jeremie and I started creating one. It was designed at first to be a backup for me, so that I could go to Lyoko twice. It looked basically like this."

"Now that is weird." I say. "Wait a minute, if XANA is trying to rule the earth, why not just shut him off? I mean if he's so much of a threat, just turn off the computer."

"I would if I could. Aelita started out as a virtual being, but I managed to materialize her and bring her here. I thought that then maybe we could shut off XANA. But right before I did it, XANA infected Aelita's computer code with a virus, connecting them. So if we shut off XANA, we kill Aelita. I've been working on a anti-virus, but it's extremely hard. And it doesn't help that XANA is getting stronger."

"How does he get stronger? I mean, you don't just get a computer upgrade out of nowhere."

"Sometimes when XANA attacks he causes massive destruction. It's at these times when we return to the past." Ulrich says.

"You can go back in time?" It's my turn to be incredulous.

"Yup. Anytime XANA destroys something, we just go back in time to a point where nothing is broken. No one else remembers it either. Except for us, and now you." Odd says.

"Everytime we return to the past, the supercalculater increases in power. So everytime, XANA gets stronger." Jeremie continues

"What do you say we have a little trip to Lyoko? XANA just got shut down, so he won't wake up again for a while. We would have some time without monsters." Yumi suggests.

"Good idea. Macas can use the new profile." We all head to the elevator except for Jeremie, who gets on the computer. We step inside and go down another level. The door opens to reveal three long vertical tubes, all golden with open doors.

"Alright, let's have the guys go in first." Jeremie says over the speakers. Ulrich, Odd and I choose a pod each and step inside.

"Does it hurt?" I ask before I step in.

"Nah, just watch out for the landing." Odd says and steps inside. I step in and hear Jeremie's voice again.

"Scanner Odd. Scanner Ulrich. Scanner Macas. Transfer Odd. Transfer Ulrich. Transfer Macas. Virtualization." I see light blast me from every angle, so I close my eyes. Then wind blows all around me, blowing my hair at odd angles. I seem to rise about a foot in the air… I feel uncomfortable at first, then nothing at all. Then I open my eyes to find myself falling; I quickly readjust and land hard. I stumble, but manage to keep my balance. Ulrich and Odd are already there.

"Wow, you're the first one to land on his feet. Nice going." Odd says. I stand up and take in my bearings. I am in some kind of desert, nothing but flat plains and a few plateaus around. No plants, just dust. I reach down to touch it, to make sure it's real, and watch in amazement, as I feel nothing.

"I can't feel it."

"Nope. In Lyoko you only have two senses, sight and sound. It's kinda weird at first, but you get used to it." Ulrich says, watching Yumi and Aelita appear in the air above him. First they're just wireframe, then they fill in with hair, clothes and everything. Everyone looks just like my drawing. Odd is a purple catboy, surprise surprise, Ulrich is wearing yellow samurai clothes, Yumi is your standard Geisha and Aelita looks exactly like my drawing depicted her. Aelita falls and lands nicely on her feet, but Yumi falls weird. She was virtualized horizontal, making her fall sideways. Luckily though, Ulrich was there to catch her.

"Hey Yumi, how's it going?" He says and puts her on her feet.

"Oh, not much. Thank you." She says and give him a kiss.

"Sorry Yumi, I hit one too many keystroke during transfer." Jeremie says apologetically.

"No problem, I had my knight in shining armor to save me." Yumi says and Ulrich blushes.

"Macas, because it's a new profile, I don't know what you have. You're going to have to figure that out on your own."

"Well, I have the same sword I had in my drawing." I pull the handle off my belt. It's just a handle, but I push the button and the beam springs to life. It's blood red, about three-and-half feet long. It's completely weightless, the only thing keeping it from floating away is it's lightweight handle, which is about a foot long and narrow. It to is blood red. The beam gives off a slight aura, casting a faint pink glow on my hands and chest. The blade itself is transparent without being transparent. If it wasn't glowing red, it would be completely see-through. I look myself over; I look almost exactly like I did in my drawing. Except in color. My shirt is dark red, with a lighter red vest covering it. My pants are loose and comfortable, without restricting movement. My pants are the same color as my shirt. My boots are extremely comfortable, they're more like sturdy tennis shoes. They are jet black with a narrow red stripe running down the middle. They don't have laces, just like my belt doesn't have a buckle.

"Sweet blade." Ulrich says.

"You said we had powers right? What do you have?" I ask them.

"I don't have any weapons, but my power is pretty useful." Aelita says. She sings, just one note and immediately a large boulder appears out of nowhere and drops next to her. Yumi puts her hands to her forehead and a pink aura appears around her. The boulder lifts, does three cartwheels and lands again. Then three Ulrichs appear on top of it, and dash off in a burst of yellow light. They appear again beside me and fuse back into one.

"My power can be useful, but I can't control it. I have visions of the future." Odd said, looking pleased with himself. "I also consider extreme handsomeness to be my power." He says smiling.

"I think some people would disagree with that. They would think it would be more along the lines of extremely bad jokes." Ulrich says laughing.

"How would I figure out my power?"

"Everyone figures theirs out in different ways. I found mine out by trying to run as fast as possible. I ended up going even faster, giving me a supersprint." Ulrich says.

"I just thought about moving something and I had telekinesis." Says Yumi.

"I've had my power as long as I can remember." Aelita says.

"And I still can't control mine." Odd finishes. They look at me expectantly, trying to see what I would try. I concentrate, trying to think of what I would have. Then, out of the blue, I see an attack from Ulrich flash through my mind. I instinctively react, ducking down and sweeping my leg out. I actually tripped Ulrich just before he would have hit me and he fell over. Yumi, Aelita and Odd look amazed. Ulrich just lies there stunned.

"Is that your power? Amazing reaction time?" Odd asks.

"No. I actually saw the attack before it came." I reply.

"Hey, you can't steal my power!" Odd says, looking offended.

"I don't think I see the future exactly, I think I see what's happening just before it happens. Kinda like premonitions." I have another vision of Yumi taking out her fan and preparing an attack from behind me. She throws it hard and fast, but since I know she did it, I can dodge and use my sword to knock her fan off course, straight towards Odd. Luckily, Odd has cat-like reflexes and he dodges out of the way. The fan returns to Yumi.

"Wow, I actually saw you pull out your fan. I saw you throw it so I knew what to expect." I say, getting excited.

"Wow, what a cool power. I wish mine worked like that." Odd says.

"Ulrich, would you care to spar?" I say, bowing graciously.

"Why certainly." He says, returning the gesture. "Lets see how skilled you are with the sword." He takes a swing at my head, but I dodge, swiping at his feet. He easily jumps over it and we exchange blows. Ulrich is really good, he manages to block every attack I throw at him. Because I can see them coming, I can easily block or dodge. We both go on like that for about five minutes, until Odd gets bored. I see a vision of him aiming his laser arrow at me. I decide to take advantage of the situation, and maneuver into a certain position. Odd fires and I duck, making Ulrich have to quickly deflect. He falls back and I put my sword up to his throat.

"I believe that makes me the winner." I say.

"No fair, you cheated." He says back.

"How did I cheat?"

"Odd took a shot. You knew it was coming and ducked so it hit me."

"Yes, I agree. So how about we call it a draw, and go attack Odd for interrupting our match?"

"Now that's an idea." He says and races off to catch Odd, who was already running away as fast as possible. He even got Jeremie to materialize him an overboard.

"Well, I guess my power only goes so far. I never saw Odd take off like that." I say, turning towards where Yumi and Aelita were sitting watching the fight.

"Maybe you can only see attacks aimed at you." Aelita said.

"Nope, I just saw Ulrich tackle Odd. I see visions of every attack I guess." I look behind me and sure enough, Ulrich has Odd pinned to the ground helpless.

(Odd P.O.V.)

"Hey come on, it was just a joke!" I yell at Ulrich, who won't let me up until I beg for mercy.

"Come on Odd, there's only one way I'm ever going to get off you. You've got to beg."

"No way. I'm no dog." Ulrich gives me a punch in the arm.

"Oh come on, you know we can't feel anything here."

"You're right. I guess I'll just have to devirtualize you the hard way. Life point by life point."

"Okay okay! I give up! Please don't kill me… I'm BEGGING YOU!" I yell being overdramatic. "I don wanna die, I don wanna die…"

"That's better. I think I know now why I'm a dog person though."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Ulrich just gives me a mocking salute and runs off at supersprint. I grab my overboard and take off after him. Apparently, we're going to be devirtualized and they're taking Aelita to the tower. Macas has his back to me, walking along. He reaches behind his head as though scratching his neck.

Perfect, he let his guard down. It's payback time.

I quickly take aim and fire. Right before it hits him, his sword blade burst from his hand, deflecting the shot.

Damn.