Glow: I feel extremely evil at the moment, so i'm going to leave you with another evil cliffie! Muhahaha!
Viv: And please leave more persuasion for her. She needs to work more on the next story some more. PULEEZE!
Glow: Oh yes, this story is complete. At least I'm done typing it. And yes, I am withholding it from you to make you suffer!
Verdana: Ignore her, she is feeling exceptionally evil right now. - whisperes- I'll try and sneak in the next chapter sooner than she'll post it. I know she intends to wait at least a month to give you the next chappie. I'll give it next week.
Glow: -narrows eyes- what are you telling them?
Viv: Now, now. It's not nice to make the readers suffer.
Glow: -glares at Viv- you need to all shut up then and let them read this chapter!
Chapter 19: Welcome Back
Odd felt the painful bolt hit him. Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a problem, but this time he knew that he wouldn't be showing up in a scanner. He closed his eyes, in an attempt to block out the pain. After what he deemed was a long enough time, he opened his eyes, wondering if that was what it felt like to just stop existing. He saw that he was in a scanner. He tried to stand, but tripped and went reeling out of the door. He landed at the feet of The Shadow's associate. "Oops." he muttered. Enrico smiled and threw Odd into a huge cage.
From that vantage point, Odd watched all the rest of the gang show up and get tossed in the cage. He counted off everyone but Verdana and OSTA. "Lousy virus he probably ran and hid to save his own skin." he mumbled to himself. The scanner lit up once more. Odd prayed that it wasn't Verdana. It wasn't. It was the Shadow.
"Enrico, get me the purple boy. And make it fast. She might show up at anytime." he said nervously as he messed with something on a nearby workbench.
"Pardon me for asking, oh great one, but why that one? Surely one of the others would work better." Enrico ventured.
"Because I want to use him! And anyway, she reacted strongest when that one went." Verdana's brother snapped.
Odd knew he should feel more scared than anything, but he felt happy. - -"reacted strongest." Does that mean she likes me? I hope so!- - he thought with elation. Enrico turned his back on the cage and scanners to go help his master. - -Come on Verdana, come save us, please!- - Odd thought as he eyed the scanner hopefully.
In Drongar
Verdana shot SIRS with an energy stream, a green one. She was trying to heal him of the new programming. Amazingly, the gamble paid off. The old SIRS was back. "You tricky little virus. I should have known." Verdana commented.
"Well, you know me, always finding ways around the rules." he shrugged it off.
"You should get a move on. I'm getting rid of this place once I get my brother." SIRS nodded. Verdana created a portal to Lyoko. "You can wait for us, I mean me, in this world. Just don't infect or mess up anything or I'll have to destroy you." A single tear formed in her eye. She knew that her friends wouldn't be coming back. SIRS leapt through, with one last wave.
Just then, Tron flipped off the roof. "Well, looks like my bounty is gone. And I suppose I have you to thank for it, eh?" Verdana shrugged. "Well, I think I'll be going now. Perhaps we will meet again some other time, under better circumstances." He pressed a button on his watch. It created a portal. "Oh, and I am so sorry about your friends." He turned and walked through. The portal disappeared a millisecond later.
"Oh this is all my fault!" Verdana dissolved into tears. The remote fell from her belt and hit the ground. "Exit point located." A female voice said. Verdana jerked her head up. "What the hell? There are no scanners connected to this world." Her eyes grew wide as she put the pieces together. - -My brother just showed up out of nowhere, the voice thing he did was like what Jeremy does in Lyoko, it all fits. That was just a test to see who I liked best or something like that.- - she thought. "My friends are still alive!" she shouted to the nearly empty village. "Now, I just have to go get them!"
OSTA stepped out from behind one of the houses and looked around at the bodies scattered around. They belonged to CHEV and her gang. With an almost inaudible gulp, he spoke. "I'll come with you! You'll need all the help you can get." He stood next to her.
Verdana nodded at him, picked up the remote and pressed a series of buttons. Right before they left the virtual world, Verdana glanced at her watch. It had emerged and was flashing. - -Did he, did my brother, save them by getting them out of the world?- -
In the Shadow's lair
Odd watched with fading hope as the scanners stood silent and dark. Enrico turned back to the cage. At that exact moment, two of the scanners started to glow. Odd knew who it was. He shouted "Hey, estupido! (That was the only word he knew in Spanish. Big surprise, huh?) Is that your ass? Oh, I'm sorry it's just your huge chin. Oops, that's not all you chin is it? It's you face, ain't it." The rest of the gang tried to shut him up. Tormenting their captors was not high on their list. But Odd's plan worked. Enrico was totally focused on Odd and did not see or hear the scanners open. Verdana and OSTA both stepped out. OSTA ran and slammed into Enrico, knocking him off his warpath. Then he proceeded to beat the man up. In the real world, OSTA had black hair with orange streaks. His skin was very tanned and Mexican looking. Odd thought that was strange, but shrugged it off. He had a purple triangle in his hair, after all. Verdana went past and Odd waved. "Oye, Verdana, over here!" he called out to her. She didn't hear him, but charged her brother. Odd sighed. - -You know, it seems like we always rely on Verdana to rescue us. Maybe it's time we started to help ourselves. We're wearing her out.- - With that thought, he reached out his hand to try and reach the keys.
OSTA body slammed Enrico as he lay on the floor. The keys went flying out of his hands and Odd caught them. "Thanks man." he quipped and gave OSTA a thumbs up sign. OSTA nodded and smiled. Odd unlocked the door and let his friends -and himself- out of the cage. They decided to leave Verdana to take care of her brother and attacked Enrico instead.
Verdana was punching and kicking at the Shadow. He barely blocked her onslaught and his real world strength was quickly failing. She pushed him down on his back. But, instead of pushing the attack further, she stopped. She reached behind her head and pulled off the chip. She locked her jaw against the pain and ripped it out. Then she held her hand out over him. "Your little plan didn't work, Manuel. And now, you've broken your promise." With tears running down her cheeks, she defiantly crushed the chip to dust in her hand. Then she dumped it on her brother. Verdana turned around quickly. One of her tears fell and hit him on the foot.
The Shadow began writhing in pain. "Indevrigo, Indi..." he cried out in pain "I didn't mean it!"
Verdana swung back around, eyes flaming. "That's not my name anymore! Call me Verdana or nothing at all!" she screamed at him angrily.
The Shadow continued to squirm in terrible pain. It started in his foot, the spread to the rest of his body. Then, suddenly, after one last full-body burst of pain, it was over. He slowly stood up. But he was the Shadow no longer. All the black but in his hair was gone. He looked like Verdana, only older and a guy. He had some slightly baggy jeans and a white, long, T-shirt.
Meanwhile, the gang had trapped Enrico in the cage. They cheered and patted each other on the back. Ulrich and Yumi hugged, and so did Aelita and Jeremy (- -Finally!- - Odd thought). Jordan and Viv high-fived each other, as did Odd and OSTA. "Great job dude! That was so awesome when you body-slammed him!" Odd was recapping to OSTA.
"Oh, I know! But then, you caught the keys! It was like it was totally planned!" OSTA was saying. That was about all that Odd caught, because the next second he caught sight of Verdana's back turned to some guy in normal clothes.
"Hey," Odd said as he grabbed OSTA's sleeve without looking at him. "Hey, who's that guy over there?"
OSTA stared for about a minute. "It appears to be the Shadow. Though, I have to admit he doesn't look like the Shadow anymore. He looks like any normal person."
"Verdana." Manuel, formerly the Shadow, said quietly. Verdana straitened her back and spun around to face him. "You brought me back. I'm not sure I should say thank you, but it feels good to be how I used to be."
Verdana broke into a huge smile. "I knew you wouldn't break your promise to me! I hoped it would bring you back from the hole you'd dug yourself, and it did!" She grabbed his hand and led him over to the gang. "Guys, this is my brother, Manuel."
After everyone was done greeting the new and reformed Shadow, Jeremy mentioned something. "Not that I'd like to cut this short or anything, but we have a project that's due upon return. I think we all want to graduate and get to high school, and Yumi, I think you want to move forward too."
"An excellent point, Jeremy. Why don't we go back to Puerto Rico. Somehow, I don't think we're there anymore. This laboratory is underground somewhere, isn't it?" Verdana said happily.
"A good guess, but a wrong one. I took the system and moved it to Grandfather's undersea laboratory." Manuel said.
The group started to walk off, but Viv caught Verdana's arm. "One thing had been puzzling to me. How did my family get the crystal in the first place?"
Verdana looked really sad. "I gave it to them when they helped me find a home in the forest. I swear, if I had known that SIRS got out and was going to go after it, I never would've given it to them. I'm so sorry."
"That's okay. If you hadn't, I never would have met Jordan or the rest of the group. I wouldn't trade a moment of this adventure for anything in the world." Viv said, looking on the bright side.
Verdana smiled. "Now let's get back to the group and your crush." she teased. Viv turned pink. Then Verdana led her back to the group who actually hadn't gotten to far ahead. They were stopped by the cage.
"What do we do about him?" Odd asked, jabbing a finger in Enrico's direction.
"Oh, just delete him." Manuel said with a shrug.
"Do you mean kill?" OSTA said, a little unnerved.
"No, delete him. He's just a program." Manuel responded in an exasperated voice.
"Oh." Jeremy said as he ran to the computer console. He selected the program named ENRICO and clicked delete. Enrico vanished from inside the cage. "Okay, done! Let's go back to Puerto Rico, where we're supposed to be."
Verdana opened a portal. "Who's up for the express?"
Glow: And now you have it...actually, it wasn't that evil of a cliffie. There is one more chapter after this and I indend to keep it to myself forever! -laughs and exits the room-
Verdana: I promise, next week. Then look out for the next story! That will probably be the last...unless...youbegbegbegforhertocontinue! And I promise, less ranting and more story. It's very actiony too!