Disclaimer: Code Lyoko is copyrighted by Moonscoop.

This chapter was written by me. It was edited by Blackcat8539. It was also edited by Discordant Night.

I only own Lila. Mary is owned by AeroJester203.

Vertigo

Sector Five

Arena Room

POV Lila's

The Transporter Orb opens, dropping us in the Arena room. The Transporter Orb leaves, as the floor and the room starts spinning.

"Welcome to Sector Five," Jeremy greets.

"The wall is going to open up any second now," Yumi says. We continue to look at the spinning room.

"And when it does, we'll be ready," Sissi replies determinedly.

"I take it you got some good symbols?" I ask her.

"Yup sure do!" Sissi beams. "The last time I used this, Lady Luck failed me. But I'm ready this time!"

The floor and room stops spinning, and the wall opens up.

"Let's go!" I say. We start running and run into the doorway. Running passed the doorway, we reach the second set of walls. The walls open up, in a brick formation.

"Three minutes to find the key, go!" Jeremy urges.

We race down the steps, and -surprisingly- reach the new room quickly.

With the rooms always changing in this place, it's hard to know where to look for the key! And I hope my vision comes soon otherwise we're going to be sitting ducks! I think worried.

The floors start rising as certain walls reposition themselves.

"Uh oh, the doors are in the wrong place," Odd says.

The floors having risen fully, we see five Xana Bots positioned high up on each floor.

"And here come our old friends: Xana Bots. You know these little pests are-" I begin, but then my eyes start fluttering.

POV Sissi's

As Lila goes stiff with her vision, I shout. "Defend Lila! Odd and I got them!"

Ulrich and Yumi are about to object but they nod and take cover for Lila. Aelita runs with them, as Ulrich and Yumi guard the two of them. Ulrich draws his Katana, Yumi takes out her Tessen Fans out, she opens them. Odd runs over to me and starts cocking his paw, readying his Laser Arrows.

The Xana Bots start charging their lasers, but I quickly begin conjuring my spades. A blue light flares from my bracer and I generate three spades.

Holding up my hands, I thrust them forward and let the spades fly quickly at three of the five Xana Bots before they have a chance to release their lasers. The three Xana Bots explode.

"Laser Arrows!" Odd exclaims, firing off two Laser Arrows at the remaining two Xana Bots. One of his Laser Arrows hits the fourth Xana Bot's target eye, and it explodes.

POV Lila's

I shake my head and see Ulrich and Yumi are guarding Aelita and me. I see Odd's Laser Arrow miss the last remaining Xana Bot, as it dodges it and restarts in charging its' laser.

"I know where the key is! I'll get it!" I exclaim.

"You only have two minutes left, hurry!" Jeremy urges.

I head to the spot where I saw the key in my vision, heart pounding when I suddenly hear more fighting going on. It seems the last remaining Xana Bot is on the offensive.

"Quickly Lila! More Xana Bots have arrived!"

I keep running, pushing myself to run faster, and I finally find the floor that leads to the key.

Concentrating electricity to the soles of my feet, my lightning bolt glows. I let the charge build-up beneath me, then jump. Soaring through the air, I reach the top of the floor and land on it.

I press myself firmly on the floor before running to the key, and press it into the wall, at the same dispersing my powers. It glows, accepting my success, then forms into the Xana symbol.

"Nice work Lila!" Jeremy praises. "Watch out!" I look to see the floors and walls are returning to normal, and just as they do, a Xana Bot flies my way.

Quickly taking out my hunter's knife from its sleeve, I charge it with electricity. My lightning bolt glows. The electricity flows through my gauntlets and then into the hunter's knife. The Xana Bot fires at me, and I grip my hunter's knife in both hands, reflecting the laser at the Xana bot.

The Xana Bot explodes as the laser is returned in full force, striking it in the face. The floor fully descends a few seconds later, and I disperse my electricity. Sheathing my hunter's knife in the hidden sleeve of my quiver, I race to catch up with the others.

Taking a quick headcount, it seems Odd and Sissi were both devirtualized during the fight. The four of us that remain all nod, then head towards the open door.

Afterwards

At the elevator area

Reaching the edge of where we usually wait for the elevator, we hear it approaching.

"Now!" Ulrich exclaims. The four of us jump down and land on the elevator safely. It rises to bring us to the entrance of the Celestial Dome.

Afterwards

At the entrance of the Celestial Dome

The elevator fixes itself to the floor and we all race to the door. The door opens up, and we run on the bridge. Aelita runs past us as the data interface pops up. She starts touching the data interface and reaching her, I can see she's moving files.

"I've connected Jeremy," Aelita informs.

"Come on Aelita! We've got to get the data before the flying Mantas come," Jeremy says.

Looking up at the manta's hatch, Aelita continues using the data interface. "The Mantas are about to hatch. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Now!"

The three of us look at one another and then look up at where the flying mantas would usually hatch.

"Hey Jeremy," Yumi says slowly. "I don't see any flying mantas."

"Yeah... me neither," I add.

"Strange, I can see them on my screen. Stay on your guard, they may come from the other end of the sector."

Heeding Jeremy's word, the three of us start looking for any sign of the Mantas. Out of nowhere, a laser is fired from behind us as Yumi is thrown to the floor, part of her chest begins sparking.

Quickly turning behind, Ulrich takes out his katana as two more Xana Bots have begun to charge their attacks.

I try to take my hunter's knife out of its sleeve, but the Xana Bots fire their lasers at Ulrich and myself. I'm thrown back from the impact of the lasers, losing my hunter's knife, and Ulrich tries using his Katana to reflect the lasers but is having difficulty doing so.

Yumi and I are bombarded with another round of charged lasers as we try to rise. Instead, we fall back down and disappear into a cloud of pixels.

Back inside the scanner room

Inside the scanner

The scanners doors open, and I nearly fall out of it but Sissi catches me quickly. Yumi is able to stay on her feet. Sissi helps me up to my feet as Odd and Yumi run over to me.

"You okay Lila?" Yumi asks.

"Yeah, those Xana Bots' lasers are pretty powerful. Especially at such close range. And thanks Sissi, for the save," I say.

"No problem. That's what friends are for," Sissi smiles.

"Speaking of friends, how's Ulrich and Aelita doing?" Odd asks Jeremy.

"They're making their way out of Sector Five now. They almost had an issue, but they made it," Jeremy replies.

"An issue? What sort of issue?" I ask.

"The Mantas I detected on the monitors earlier arrived… except they were capable of releasing mines," Jeremy's cringe is audible even in his voice.

"Mines? Well, that's new," Sissi comments.

"Yeah. Anyways, Ulrich and Aelita are now on their way to the Forest Sector. They'll be back soon, so head on up," Jeremy says.

"Gotcha," I say. The four of us make our way to the freight elevator.

Afterwards

Inside the lab

All of us are now in front of the computer's screens as Aelita and Ulrich have already returned.

"Well, these are codes from subsystems," Jeremy points out. "I crafted them three weeks ago." He looks at his monitor, then widened his eyes as he typed away furiously, "Hey, yeah! This one looks like the source code to a virus; I might be able to use it. If the virus inside you Aelita is anything like this one, I might be able to free you from Xana."

"You mean… like soon?" Aelita asks hopefully.

"Yeah," Jeremy replies with a smile.

I nod, barely able to contain my excitement. "That would be great."

"Okay, we're out of here," Odd says, grabbing Ulrich by the arm. "There's a big climbing competition today; got to practice."

Ulrich pulls out of Odd's grip, crossing his arms, "I already told you, I'm not doing it."

"Really? Why not?" Yumi asks, confused.

"Yeah, it shouldn't be too much of a problem for you Ulrich," Sissi says.

"'I'm not doing it okay?" Ulrich says in a huff.

Sissi and Yumi look at him curiously.

"At least come and watch me," Odd says pleadingly.

Yumi walks over to Ulrich and puts her hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Ulrich. For once Odd has found a sport where being scrawny is a plus."

"Hey, I am not scrawny," Odd defends. "I'm svelte; it's not the same."

"Not too sure about that Odd. You look pretty svelte to me," I say jokingly.

Odd looks at me as he makes a mocking kind of face. "Haha, very funny."

Inside the gymnasium

Upon entering the gym I glance at the rock wall, Odd and Herb are climbing on it. They seem to be talking, probably making fun of one another as they go up. I watch Odd as he quickly climbs to the top of the wall and stands up. He lifts his arms in victory.

"I'm the king of the world!" he exclaims.

Herb loses his grip and falls down on the mat.

Giggling slightly at Odd's enthusiasm, I get to work on the laptop. I start typing in any numbers I can think of, that will equal eight digits.

Typing them in, I wait for something to happen.

Looking at the laptop, nothing happens. Using my pen, I write down the number, so I can keep track of it. I enter another number in it and repeat the process.

I really wonder why this laptop wasn't better protected? Someone purposely put it in Franz Hopper's locker. It's not a coincidence, it's as if they knew about Franz Hopper, or at least knew about Lyoko. But how? I think. I type out another number. With no luck, I record the number I've just entered.

I look at the rock-climbing wall and see Ulrich and William climbing on it. Ulrich suddenly loses his grip. He cries out and falls onto the mat.

Yumi, Sissi, and Odd immediately go over to him.

Closing the laptop, I put it and my notebook in my bag before running over to check on Ulrich.

"Are you okay?" I ask, reaching him.

He looks at me and replies, "I'm fine."

He gets up abruptly and walks off.

I turn and spot William who climbs back down and lands on the mat.

"What's his problem?" William asks.

I shrug in reply and William walks away.

Jim calls out, "Alright everybody, that'll be it for today! You can grab your things and leave!"

Immediately, Odd grins in excitement.

"Cool!" he exclaims, "if gym class is ending early then that means we can grab lunch!"

Yumi remains silent, a concerned frown is fixed on her face as she stares after Ulrich's retreating back.

"What's wrong Yumi?" I ask her.

"Do you guys think… Ulrich has vertigo?" she asks hesitantly.

"What's that?" Sissi inquires curiously and we all start to get our things, not quite sure how to explain it to her easily.

Inside the cafeteria

Yumi, Ulrich, Odd and Sissi have all changed out of their gym clothes. They're in their regular day clothes now and we're sitting down at our usual table. Herb and Nicholas are sitting across from us on another table by themselves.

"Ulrich, there's nothing to feel embarrassed about," Yumi says, unable to let the incident from earlier go.

Ulrich is looking out one of the windows in the cafeteria. He ignores Yumi, still clearly upset.

Sissi and Odd both have a lot of food on their trays. They clearly like their mashed potatoes.

In comparison, I'm eating rather light today. A few carrots with just a handful of mashed potatoes and some tea.

"Do you think he'll be fine?" Yumi whispers to me, still obviously worried.

"Yeah, I'm sure he will be," I reply just as quietly, almost believing it myself.

"Hey, Stern!" Herb calls out to him, getting up from his table. Nicholas follows closely behind.

Ulrich looks at him and sighs.

"What do you want Herb?" Ulrich asks as Herb and Nicholas reach our table.

"You think you're so popular now, having Sissi at your table, right?" Herb asks jealousy clouding his tone.

"I'm not in the mood for this Herb," Ulrich replies, clearly exasperated.

Not getting a desirable reaction from Ulrich, Herb changes targets.

"Hey Sissi, why don't you hang out with us anymore? Nicholas and I never get to see you these days," Herb complains.

Sissi tilts her head, clearly annoyed at the situation.

"That's right," she states, "because I'm hanging out with them now. Besides, you could always hang out with Emily LeDuc. I hear she's a bit lonesome ever since Cameron Jones left the school. She hasn't talked to any other boys."

I think that maybe Sissi was being a bit harsh but all thoughts of sympathy for Herb and Nicholas disappear as I look over to Emily. She's sitting at a table towards the back of the cafeteria and appears to be alone.

I take a sip of my tea.

"She hasn't?" Herb asks, anger diffused with the new topic of conversation.

"No. From what I hear, she really liked Cameron," Sissi replies.

I'm shocked by the news and choke on my tea. It goes down the wrong way.

"Lila, are you okay?" Odd asks. Nodding despite the discomfort I take a fresh gulp of tea. Thankfully, it soothes my throat and I sigh in relief.

"I'm fine," I manage.

I hadn't known that Emily had liked Cameron. Feeling a bit guilty about forcing Cameron to leave the school for his own good… I wish I had known Emily liked Cameron. If I did… maybe I could have had Cameron stay here, but… no, I've got to believe the choice we made for him was for the best, I think.

Herb looks at Emily and then looks at Nicholas.

"What do you think?" he asks his blond friend.

"We can ask if she wants to hang out with us, but we probably shouldn't push our luck," Nicholas suggests with a shrug. Herb nods and turns back to Ulrich.

"Truce?" Herb asks.

Ulrich thinks about it for a moment before nodding.

Herb and Nicholas head over to the table Emily is sitting at.

"Hey, Sissi. Is what you said true about Emily? Did she really like Cameron?" I ask.

"It is, yeah. She was pretty jealous that you always got to hang out with him," Sissi replies.

"Oh, I see," I mumble.

"Oh man," Ulrich says, an annoyed groan following his words.

"What's wrong Ulrich?" Yumi immediately asks.

"I forgot my phone back at the gym. Anyone want to go with me?" Ulrich requests. He gets up from the table.

"I'll go," I offer.

"Me too," Yumi says.

"You haven't really eaten that much today. You're sure?" Ulrich asks, directing his question at me.

Grabbing three of my carrots, I push my tray over to Odd.

"Here," I tell him, "you can have my leftovers."

"Cool! Thanks, Lila!" Odd exclaims, a grin appearing on his face.

"We'll meet you once Odd and I are done with our food," Sissi says, eying Odd's extra portions with a slightly envious glare.

"Alright," Ulrich says before turning around and heading towards the cafeteria doors.

I start munching on my carrots as Yumi and I follow him.

Inside the gymnasium

Reaching the gym, we see Jim just walking around. He appears to be holding Ulrich's phone.

"Hey, Jim!" Ulrich calls out to him.

For some reason, Jim doesn't respond. A little weary at his peculiar behavior, we slow down.

"Jim, are you okay? Ulrich's sorry for leaving his phone in here," Yumi says, trying to get his attention once again.

Jim stops walking. He throws Ulrich's cell phone over his head and Ulrich is quick to dart forwards and grab it. He catches it with ease.

"Nice throw Jim," Ulrich compliments him. He puts his cell phone into his pocket.

Jim turns around to face us. His head is lowered, but he looks up at us his eyes pulse with Xana's symbol.

"Oh no, not again!" I complain.

The last time I faced Jim like this I ended up getting detention. If we can contain the situation here, maybe there's a chance a return to the past won't be needed, I think.

"Yumi! Head to the lab. Call the others and have them meet you there. We'll take care of him!" Ulrich exclaims.

"Also, here Yumi," I say, interrupting her before she can head off, "take my backpack. I don't want Xana getting his hands-on MB's laptop. If we're lucky, Jeremy might have enough data from our last trip to sector five to make Aelita's antivirus work."

At least that's my hope. Then again… it might be too soon for Aelita to find the anti-virus, I think.

"Right! I'll use the shortcut here in the gym," Yumi says. She grabs my backpack.

"Okay!" Ulrich calls. Yumi starts running off. Ulrich and I wearily size up Jim.

"Let's go to the equipment room! There's bound to be something in there that'll help us!" Ulrich tells me as he turns around.

"Good idea," I reply, nodding in agreement.

I follow closely behind Ulrich as he starts running in the direction of the equipment room.

I grimace as I hear Jim's footsteps behind us.

Xana must be after us since he's not chasing Yumi, I think.

After finally reaching the equipment room, Ulrich grabs a broom. He places the broom in the handle.

"That might not work Ulrich; possessed people can easily break through the door since they're stronger than regular humans," I remind him.

"I know, but it might slow him down at least," Ulrich suggests grimly.

Looking around the room, I spot a few baseball bats. Grabbing both of them I throw one over to Ulrich. He catches it easily.

Going to the front door, we find the silence of no incoming possessed person, to be rather strange. Raising our eyebrows, I remove the broom dropping it to the ground. I open the door. Ulrich and I leave the equipment room, the door closes.

Looking around the gymnasium, Ulrich and I gasp as we see everything made of metal has been electrified, including our only exit from the building.

"This is not good," Ulrich admits.

"No, it's not," I agree as I reach into my pocket for my cell phone. I facepalm, realizing that it's not there.

"Ugh," I groan, "my cell phone is in my bag, which I just gave to Yumi."

"Good thing I've got mine in my pocket," Ulrich says.

He quickly pulls out his cell phone and dials a number. As the phone starts to ring, I walk closer to him. He puts the phone on speaker.

"Einstein it's us," Ulrich says into the phone when the ringing stops, "we've lost sight of Jim and he's electrified the gymnasium. We can't get out," Ulrich explains.

"Odd, Sissi and Yumi are almost at the tower. There was a slight, uh, hiccup with Aelita's new antivirus," Jeremy says hesitantly.

"What exactly do you mean by a 'slight hiccup' Jeremy? Care to explain?" I demand.

"You're not going to be happy," Jeremy says reluctantly, "but when I injected Aelita's antivirus, it sort of made her invisible."

"It did what?!" I shriek.

"I'm nearly done extracting it! Once the extraction is complete, Aelita can enter the tower and deactivate it. Odd, Yumi and Sissi are dealing with a Tarantula and some Hornets that are guarding the tower," he informs us.

"Jeremy," I say but I don't get to finish my sentence. Ulrich nudges my arm and gestures towards the doors.

My eyes widen, and I speak into the phone again, "Uh, you might want to step on it, Jeremy. Jim's back with a few of our classmates. We'll be needing a return trip."

Electricity must not hurt them as badly when they're possessed. That must be how they've gotten in... I think.

Herb, Nicholas, Emily, and Jim stalk menacingly towards us.

"Right, we'll step on it!" Jeremy reassures us.

Hanging up, I hand Ulrich's phone back to him. He places it in his pocket and tosses his bag to the side.

We grip our bats tightly and glance at each other. Nodding once, we start running at our possessed classmates.

The first to lift their arms is Xanafied Emily, her hands channeling purple electricity. Sparks arc between her fingers, Ulrich and I leap to the side in order to try and get out of her path.

Emily focuses her electricity within her palms and blasts it as us, the gym bathed in purple light as each bolt narrowly misses us.

Ulrich and I dive out of the way once more, barely emerging unscathed as bolts of lightning strike the floor and walls around us, before sprinting onwards.

Xanafied Herb and Nicholas are waiting behind us; Ulrich and I silently agree to take on one each. I end up facing off against Herb. Without hesitation, I raise my bat to take a swing at him.

Herb manages to catch the bat and tear it from my grip, despite his scrawny figure. I duck just in time to dodge the right hook that he throws my way.

Ulrich isn't so lucky.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see him fly backward as Nicholas' fist connects with his face. I wince in sympathy but don't have time to linger on it as I find my lungs emptying themselves of air, Herb slamming his foot into my stomach.

I land on the floor, hard. A groan of pain escapes me, and I turn around to see Ulrich scrambling away from a bat-wielding Jim.

Things aren't looking good.

I hear shoes scuffle on the floor near me and I look up to see Herb raising my baseball bat.

I'm about to scream when Herb drops the bat. I hear Jim dropping the bat he is holding, too. Herb's eyes start flickering in and out before returning to normal. Looking over to Ulrich, I see the same thing is happening to Emily, Nicholas, and Jim.

Ulrich gets up and I do too and go over to each other. The four formerly possessed Kadic members render unconscious and collapse on the ground. Ulrich and I take a collective sigh.

A blinding white light engulfs the room, and everything disappears.

Earlier that day

Back in the gymnasium

Opening my eyes, I see that I'm back on the bench and my numbers are still, thankfully, in my notebook.

I look up to see Ulrich and William casually chatting.

"Huh?! Who told you that?!" William exclaims at something Ulrich has just said.

Ulrich looks over at Sissi, Herb and Nicholas. Sissi smiles. She looks at me and tells Herb and Nicholas something. As she runs over to me, I close MB's laptop.

When she reaches me, Sissi sits down on the bench.

"Hey, so Aelita is back to normal, Jeremy did his Einstein thing and made everything okay," Sissi informs me.

"That's good to hear," I say. I look at Sissi.

"Say Sissi… is it true what you said about Emily? That she liked Cameron?"

She nods.

"Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," I shrug, hoping she won't press further. Sissi can't help but look at me curiously. I look at her, and change the subject.

"Say um Sissi remember what we talked about the other day? About how me and Yumi went into your room, way back then?"

Sissi nods.

"I do. Why?"

"I just… I'm just really sorry," I sigh. She looks at me and smiles. "Lila," she starts.

"Like I already told you the first time. I get it and you don't need to apologize," she smiles.

I smile at her slightly,

"Thanks, Sissi."

Later

Inside Lila and Aelita's room

Going back to mine and Aelita's room, I see Aelita is on her bed. She sits up as I enter the room. Putting my backpack on the floor, I look at her.

"Lila, I'm so glad you're alright!" she exclaims.

"Of course I am, what made you think I wasn't?" I ask, trying to forget how close it had been this time, and I go to her bed. I sit down on the bed with her.

"When Yumi explained that you and Ulrich stayed behind at the gym, I started to worry. Jeremy and I were concerned we didn't make it in time," she admits.

"No, you did. Don't worry. Although, Xana possessing multiple people at once is new," I say focusing on the facts.

Aelita nods, "it is. Did Jeremy tell you I was invisible temporarily?"

I nod.

"Yeah, he did. How was that?" I ask her with a weary smile.

"It was… awkward," Aelita answers, then laughs lightly.

I look at her curiously, confused as to how it could be awkward.

Author's Note: A decision will be made soon on the Adventures of Lila Belpois's continuation. If you haven't voted yet, you can always check the poll on my profile.

As always,

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LyokoWarrior1994