Chapter 5: The Rescue…
They traveled for a short time and everything was eerily quiet, except for the sounds of the vehicles.
"XANA has to know we're here by now." Ulrich said through clenched teeth. "Why hasn't he attacked?"
Jeremy's voice came to them in a rush of words, his panic evident. "Guys, there's a large group of monsters ahead. I'm estimating at least 30. Give me a minute and I will have the breakdown."
"It may be wise to continue on foot from here on, if we wish to retain the advantage of surprise." Kurama said.
"Oh he knows we're here, but for some reason he's ignoring us." Ulrich retorted.
"I think Kurama's right Ulrich." Yumi said.
"Yeah." Echoed Odd. "We're sitting ducks on this board."
Eyeing Kurama, Ulrich snarled. "Alright, but I want to leave the vehicles ready for a quick getaway."
The gang jumped off their vehicles, setting them up for a rapid escape.
They ran towards the trees, each hiding behind their own, but still within talking distance. Looking past the trees into the clearing, they saw the monsters. All types of monsters were present. There were hornets, crabs, blocks and even a mega-tank. They were gathered in a semi-circle around a scipizoa that held Aelita in its tentacles. The back half of the circle was open. The monsters had the scipizoa's back to the digital void.
"Guys, I have the breakdown." Came Jeremy's voice.
They all ducked back behind their tree.
"My count was a little off." Jeremy said.
"How many is a little." Quipped Odd.
"I counted 37." Stated Kurama, the rest just stared at him, bewildered.
"You counted them all in that brief glance?" Yumi breathed.
"Kurama's right, there are 37 of them, including the scipizoa. But the strange thing is…." Jeremy was cut off.
"The other monsters are trying to attack the scipizoa." Ulrich stated.
Jeremy continued. "Yes, they seem to be trying to get Aelita away from it."
"Jeremy, has Aelita memory been erased?" Yumi asked.
"No." Jeremy said. "What I think happened, at least what the computer can tell me, is that the scipizoa somehow got damaged. That must be why the others are trying to get her away from it so they can destroy it. XANA must have been trying to take care of it himself and didn't launch an attack until we decided to do something. What do you see exactly?" He asked.
"Too far to tell." Ulrich answered.
"But Aelita does look unconscious. We need to get to her before they go too far." Yumi said.
"Yumi's right, we need to get her before they all fire at once and it 'and' her goes over the edge into the digital void." Odd stated.
"I will sneak around to the far side of the clearing and make a distraction. Then you three can sneak in to save Aelita." Kurama suggested.
"You can't do it alone." Yumi countered.
"Yumi's right…and besides, you would be cut down in seconds." Ulrich said.
"Oh, you might be surprised." Kurama said with a hint of a smile ghosting his lips that made shivers run up everyone's back.
"How do you destroy these things?" He asked.
"You need to hit the symbol on their body." Yumi answered. "However, the mega-tank's target is on the inside making it hard to get to because it's only visible when it opens to fire."
Kurama only got to nod his understanding, before he could ask anything else.
Odd cried. "Guys, enough small talk…their heeeereeee." Looking past him, they could see a swarm of hornets streaking their way.
"Time for action!" Ulrich cried as he drew his katana and rushed at the fast approaching creatures, Odd and Yumi were quickly on his heels.
Kurama raced after the trio while reaching behind his ear to pull out a rose. "Rose Whip." He called as the whip formed. It struck dead center on the symbol of one of the hornet's head, exploding it into a shower of triangles before fading. 'That felt good.' He thought.
Flames burned up Kurama's leg as a bolt hit him. "Ouch." He cried.
"That took 10 life points Kurama." Jeremy said to him.
"And if I lose all my life points." He asked.
You'll dematerialize and return to the pods." Came the answer.
"Comforting to know." Kurama said, still striking at the hornets, which now knew he was a threat and were dodging his whip.
Looking around, Kurama saw Ulrich battling two hornets that remained out of reach of his sword. Yumi just caught her fan, from a missed throw at one. Odd cried out as two simultaneous bolts hit him.
"Odd, you only have 20 points left."
Kurama looked past the gang towards the main group of monsters. A huge orb was beginning to roll towards them, followed by 10 blocks.
'We can not win this fight. I must get around them and get to the girl, without them hitting me.' He thought.
He began sprinting away from the fight while calling on his spirit energy and a white mist appeared before a silver fox with five tails began running through the battle ground.
"Kurama, where are you? You dropped off my screen." Jeremy called.
Kurama tried to call out to Jeremy, but only a 'yelp' escaped his throat. 'Oh well.' He thought and continued running.
"Do any of you see Kurama?" Jeremy cried.
"No." They all said in unison.
"But Jeremy, there's a silver fox with um….let's see…one…um…two…FIVE tails." Odd said, as he watched the spirit fox go bolting across the field, dodging around the monsters.
"If I can't see him then maybe the monsters can't either." Jeremy said then added. "If you can hear me Kurama…go for it."
Kurama watched the large black ball, apparently the mega-tank, roll towards Yumi. It opened to reveal an eye held by connective tissue. The eye began warming up, obviously getting ready to fire. It fired a red wall of sorts that disintegrated everything in its path. Before it closed, Kurama ran right through it and dropped a seed. It would not be opening again.
He was within 20 feet of the scipizoa, when Jeremy screamed. "Oh no, Odd's been taken out and there's snakes in the pod room." A few seconds later, Kurama heard Jeremy again. "I know Ulrich, but you need to cover Kurama."
Nearing the scipizoa, Kurama could see the extent of the damage. Two of its long tentacles were mere stubs and arcs of lightning raced across its skin. Half of its globe shaped head was blackened. It held Aelita in several tentacles, like a mummy.
The fox raced up the nearest crab and using its head like a spring board launched himself at the creature. He hit the scipizoa square in the chest, knocking it back some, closer to the void. Biting the tentacles holding the girl, he managed to get it to let her go and she fell to the ground listless. As soon as Aelita hit the ground, the remaining monsters, that had not gone to fight the others, started firing at the scipizoa. Kurama jumped down and grabbed the girl by her shirt, pulling her to the safety of the trees. He placed her down and turned just in time to see the scipizoa fall backwards over the edge, into the digital void.
Changing forms, Kurama picked up Aelita and ran around to the other side of the battle field, using the trees as cover. When he was on the back side of the fighting, he stopped.
Still holding the girl in his arms, who was clad in pink, he looked her over for injuries and noticed her elf like ears. She moaned and her eyes fluttered open. "Hello there, are you alright." He asked after she focused on him.
"What! Who are you…where are the others?" She asked in panic while taking her small hand and pushing on his chest in an attempt to get away.
"It's okay…they are a little busy right now, so I'm here to help." He told her and looked around the tree, trying to spot Ulrich. What he ended up seeing were three Ulrich's in a triangular configuration around a block. He just watched in amazement as the creature attacked two and the third one, obviously the real one, jump up to ram his sword in its eye, causing it to explode.
Kurama smiled. "Ulrich." He yelled, getting the fighter's attention. The boy ran over, dodging blasts to get to his side. "She's okay. Go now and Yumi and I will distract them so you can get to your bike and then to the tower." He told him.
Ulrich took Aelita in his arms and giving a sharp nod, took off in the direction of the vehicles in 'super-sprint'.
Kurama avoided a few blasts aimed at his head and took a deep breath while drawing his rose. He heard Youko in his head. 'Here we go.'
He fought with everything he had, but they kept coming.
He noticed Yumi, who was holding the monsters off as best she could. "Hang in there a little longer. Ulrich's getting her to the tower." He yelled.
Yumi looked over to him with a weak smile on her lips. He could tell she was exhausted, but she was still holding her own. She blocked a few blasts that pushed her back, but she maintained her balance and threw a fan, taking out a crab.
The fighting continued and he managed to take out several himself before being surrounded, the blasting intensifying until he could not longer block them.
The last two things Kurama remembered were a sting to his back and Yumi screaming his name.
a)a)a)a
The pod opened and Kurama leaned out, grabbing the edge of the door to keep from falling. He felt like he'd been slammed back into his body and felt nauseated, with no coordination and blurry vision. With his body tingling all over, like it had been asleep, he made his way to the two forms laying on the floor next to the elevator. That's when he saw the snakes all around the area.
Calling his rose whip, he grabbed the two unconscious bodies and cleared a path while along the way dropping seeds that grew to hold the snakes back. Getting in the elevator, he dropped the two on the floor before pushing the button.
When the door opened to the computer area, Kurama picked up Odd and making sure he was fine and that the snake bites were not poisonous, laid him on the floor outside the door. He went back and picked up Jeremy, making sure to close the door to the elevator so the snakes would have a harder time getting in. Jeremy jerked in his arms and woke up.
"Mr. Mina…Kurama, what happened?" He asked.
"I found you down in the pod room and brought you back here." The red head answered. "The snake bites you have don't appear to be poisonous." He said, placing the boy on his feet, but holding his shoulder.
"Odd!" Jeremy yelled, seeing his friend laying on the floor, still out.
"He will be fine. There's a slight bump on his head and his bites are not poisonous either." Kurama informed.
"I need to get to the computer. Is Aelita safe?" Jeremy asked and got a nod from the red head. "Is she on her way to the tower?"
"Yes, I got her away from that creature and Ulrich's getting her to the tower. Yumi and I tried to hold the others off, but as you can see, there is only her now." Kurama informed.
Jeremy went to walk towards the computer, but fell to his knees. Kurama grabbed him and picking the boy up, walked to the computer and placed him in the chair.
"Thanks…I'm sorry. You may not remember any of this." Jeremy said, typing as fast as he could.
"What?" Kurama said with surprise in his voice.
"Usually no one but the five of us remembers the events that took place. Again I'm sorry." Jeremy said and closed his eyes with sorrow.
"You said 'may not' that 'usually' means 'may'…why?" Kurama asked.
"Because you have been to Lyoko and that may change things. It's really hard to explain and we don't have time, Aelita's in tower and getting ready to deactivate it."
"Jeremy, if I do not remember, you will still remember my secret." Kurama said and received a nod. "Then I am trusting you to keep my secret and I swear to keep yours if I remember any of this…thank you for a once in a lifetime adventure." He turned to the computer screen when he heard.
"Tower deactivated."
Jeremy looked to Kurama. "Thank you for everything and we swear…return to the past now."
Kurama's world went blank.
End Chapter 5
