New and Improved
Chapter 9: Return, Interrupted
As Ulrich approached the school, he noticed that a Creeper and a Tarantula were on the grounds. He picked up his pace. Oh man, he thought, I sure hope nobody's been hurt. As he went by the garden shed, he decided to go inside to look for anything viable for use as a weapon. To his delight, he found a rake with edges sharp enough to be dangerous, some garden shears with long handles, and a pitchfork. Why the school needed a pitchfork, he didn't know; not that he cared about it. He took up the weapons and hurried as fast as he could towards the courtyard. When he got there, he noticed Odd and William coming out of the doors, ready to face the two enemies.
"Odd!" cried Ulrich, waving his hand above his head. Odd turned and waved back.
"Ulrich," he yelled back, "it's great to see ya! Now hurry!" Ulrich hurried over and handed Odd the rake and William the garden shears, keeping the pitchfork for his own use.
"You guys ready?" asked William eagerly.
"Oh, you bet," said Odd. "Charge!" The three warriors ran towards the two monsters. The Tarantula opened fire upon the three boys, forcing them to leap out of the way, hence stalling the charge. The Creeper also opened fire, and the boys rolled in opposite directions to get out of the way. Oh boy, thought Odd, this isn't gonna be as easy as I thought.
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Jim glanced around, as the monsters revealed themselves from behind the rocks. The Kankrelots charged first, coming at the three team members from all sides. Yumi threw both her fans towards the coming onslaught, taking out several enemies, before her fans returned to her. Aelita stayed close to Jim and he created a large ball of electricity and threw it at the Kankrelots coming towards him, essentially destroying most of them. The problem was that the enemies kept replenishing themselves. For each three Kankrelots destroyed, two Bloks appeared in its place, and one Krabe appears for each two Bloks taken out, and there were Tarantulas waiting in the background for the proper moment to strike. The enemies seemed endless, and to make matters worse, they kept getting closer, essentially taking life points away from Jim and Yumi in the process. Aelita also lost a few, having been struck by a stray laser. This made it impossible for her to use her abilities, as she did not have enough life points available to do so.
"Jeremie, we're in trouble," said Jim frantically, "is there anything you can do?"
Jeremie shook his head. "I'm sorry Jim, but there's nothing I can do. It seems XANA's finally won."
"Oh, come on, Jeremie," said Yumi. "It's not over yet, there's gotta be someway out of this."
"I understand that Yumi," said Jeremie glumly, "I just haven't been able to figure it out yet. Just hang in there, OK? I'm doing all I can!" Jeremie typed and typed, trying to do something, but to no avail. Unless his friends managed to miraculously pull something off, they were doomed, as was the rest of the world.
"I've had enough of this!" yelled Jim at the top of his lungs. He roared, creating a colossal ball of electrical energy at his fingertips. "Yaagh!" He thrust the ball of energy into the ground, thus causing a powerful explosion that rocked the entire sector. The force of this explosion destroyed nearly all the enemies. Panting, Jim dropped on one knee, then collapsed to the ground and was devirtualized, having exhausted his remaining life points.
"Oh no, Jim!" cried Aelita. She put a hand over her mouth in shock.
"Get behind me, Aelita," said Yumi quickly. "Thanks to Jim we can beat these things, so stay close." Aelita nodded and crouched behind, peeking out from behind Yumi's kimono. Yumi brought her fans in front of her face, preparing for battle.
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Jim stepped out of the scanner and made his way to the computer room. Jeremie turned his head. "Jim," he said. "That was a brave thing you did back there."
Jim put his hand on the back of his neck. "Ah, it was nothing," he said.
"Don't be so modest. You may have saved us from defeat."
Jim smiled. "Ah well, anyway, what should I do now?"
"Well," said Jeremie thoughtfully, "I send Ulrich back to the college; you should probably be heading that way also."
"All right then, I'd better get going. Tell Yumi and Aelita that I'm OK."
Jeremie gave Jim a thumbs-up. "Sure will Jim, now get going."
Jim gave Jeremie a two-fingered salute and rushed back into the scanner, making his way out into the forest. Jim heard the sounds of the carnage that was taking place. He didn't know this, but the sounds were closer than they had been a little while back. The monsters were making their way back to this part of town. Jim stopped by the garden shed. He noticed a couple of javelins were in there. Huh, he thought, I thought I put these back with the rest of the track and field supplies. No matter, these will make do as weapons just fine. Jim took them both and jogged towards the school.
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Yumi struggled against the monsters that approached. She threw her fans, taking the Krabe that remained. Now only a few Tarantulas continued to fire upon her. She flipped and twisted, avoiding as many of the laser as she could, blocking the rest with her fans, all while protecting Aelita. Aelita watched in awe as Yumi fought bravely against her foes. It was as if nothing could touch her. Aelita had seen Yumi fight well, but nothing like this. Like a blur of black and red, Yumi raced around, taking down enemies while avoiding their attacks at all costs. Once it seemed that Yumi had the attention of all the monsters, she cried, "Aelita, go, now!" Aelita sprinted towards the tower.
"Jeremie," she whispered, "do you think you could materialize me an Overboard? I don't think I can jump the whole way, and I don't have enough life points to change the terrain."
Jeremie gulped. "I'll do my best Aelita. I don't know if I'll be able to, since XANA managed to dematerialize them before."
"I have faith in you," said Aelita softly. When Aelita said this, Jeremie felt a surge of confidence come over him. I can't let her down, I won't Jeremie began to make several keystrokes as Aelita ran towards the edge of the plateau.
"Jeremie," said Aelita, "now!" Aelita leapt up into the air, stretching towards the edge of the terrain where the tower was located. Jeremie gritted his teeth. Sweating, he pressed the Enter key.
"Jeremieeeee!" cried Aelita as she soared through the air. She wasn't going to make it. "Whooooooaaaaaaa!" To her and Jeremie's relief, Odd's overboard appeared beneath her. Aelita landed on it and held on for dear life as she flew towards the tower. The single remaining Tarantula snarled and turned in Aelita's direction and prepared to fire.
Finally, thought Yumi. She heaved her fans towards the monsters, striking it in precisely the right spot, causing it to explode. Yumi caught her fans and sighed, relieved. There were no monsters in sight now. "Aelita," Yumi shouted, "hurry and deactivate the tower!"
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Jim reached the school and heaved his javelins and the monsters. "Take that, you foul things," he shouted. A mistake, as the Tarantula whirled around and shot the javelins out of the air. Uh oh, thought Jim. The Tarantula charged its guns and prepared to fire.
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Aelita had just reached the upper platform of the activated tower. She walked toward the center and placed her hand on the screen. "AELITA" was spelled across the screen, then the word "CODE" appeared, with a flashing cursor beneath it. She typed the word "LYOKO."
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Jim covered his face, anticipating where to jump when the monster fired. It hesitated and Jim wondered why. Suddenly it and the Creeper slumped to the ground and exploded, splattering icky goo all over the place. Jim smiled. They did it, they deactivated the tower! Jim began to laugh, it was finally over.
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"Tower deactivated," said Aelita. Jeremie leaned back in his chair and breathed a sigh of relief. It was over. Yumi's voice came through to his headset.
"Jeremie, you gonna return to the past?"
Jeremie thought a moment. He made a few keystrokes. "Return to the past—huh?" The computer started beeping and Jeremie stared at the red exclamation point that was flashing on the screen.
"What's wrong, Jeremie?" asked Aelita as she stepped out of the tower.
Jeremie put his face in his hands. "This is bad, very bad. I can't return to the past!"
"WHAT!" exclaimed Yumi and Aelita.
