Disclaimer: Code Lyoko is copyrighted by Moonscoop.
I only own Lila and Mia. Mary is owned by AeroJester203. Kayori is owned by decode9.
This chapter was written by me. It was edited by AeroJester203.
Author's Note: Hi everyone, happy Halloween and happy two year anniversary! It's been two years since me and my editors started this fanfiction. I am happy with the way things have been. I am glad that those who are sticking around, continue to enjoy reading the fanfiction. With seven chapters left (sorry, didn't check the math error in the last chapter. How embarrassing.), there's only so much left of season 3. Personally, I think all of you are going to like season 4 once we get to the season.
Enjoy!
The Pretender
POV Mary's
"Believe me Mary. I know that by now," Lila says through the speaker. There's a short pause, but then she adds, "I have to get going; I hear Aelita coming back. Have a good night Mary."
"You too, Lila," I say before ending the call. I put the phone on the table, glancing at my hand in the process. Lately, my skin has become much healthier. I am less pale and feel more full of energy, but I am still incapable of activating certain powers.
"That… was bizarre," I comment.
Bizarre? Why? Future Xana inquires.
I cross my arms in thought, "What did she mean when she said she knew by now?"
Perhaps she's grown up about the laws of time travel. Perhaps she understands now about its consequences, Future Xana surmises.
I bite my thumb, thinking about it.
"No, that's not it," I say, letting go of my thumb. "There's something else that we're missing."
Perhaps. However, we didn't tell Lila about how all of her father's adventures with his friends played out, Future Xana reminds me. We did leave more than a few things out when you were posing as her father, Mary, but told her the most important details.
"I know…" I sigh. "At any rate if she has a secret to tell me, she'll tell me in time. Now then, about my progress?"
Yes, you've been doing well, both physically and mentally. Your abilities seem to be back, but for the powers such as generating electricity or neutralizing my current self's attacks… it's concerning. You're still weakened in those areas. Your ability to transform into other people is convincing, however—you've improved greatly. Go on, look in the mirror and do it again.
Getting up from the chair, I look at the mirror and my features disappear into white smoke before reappearing as Sissi with all of her usual apparel. From there, I transform to Lila, and then Aelita. Finding no flaws in my transformations, I look at myself while I'm still Aelita and smile.
Two days later
Inside the girl's bathroom
POV Lila's
Aelita, Sissi, Mia and I are our brushing our teeth.
"So, who do you think – out of all of us – defeats the most monsters?" Mia asks in between brushing.
Sissi spits out her toothpaste and answers, "Well it's not me, that's for sure. Not with my powers." She turns the faucet on, letting the toothpaste drain down with the water before turning it off. "What about you three? Who do you think has defeated more monsters?"
Likewise spitting out my own toothpaste and washing it away, I think for a moment before turning off the faucet and
"In all honesty, I think Aelita has," I surmise.
"I think I'd agree, right Aelita?" Mia asks.
Aelita takes out her toothbrush and spits out her toothpaste, "Honestly, that's very nice, but I'm not sure. It all comes down to statistics. I have no idea who has defeated more monsters on Lyoko."
"Lyoko?" Kayori asks, just coming into the bathroom in her pajamas with a change of clothes and a towel. As well as other supplies in her shower caddy.
"What's Lyoko?"
All of us are stunned by her.
In retrospect we probably shouldn't have been talking about that here… We need to get better at that, I think.
"It's a uh, a video game," Mia explains coolly. "One that my father is developing. We're all testers to see if teens our age will like it."
I sigh internally, Nice save.
"How come you never told me about this, Lila?" Kayori asks. "That sounds kind of cool, to be honest."
Sissi speaks up, "We had to sign these papers that sort of by law told us we couldn't tell others. I forget what they're called."
"Nondisclosure agreements?" Kayori asks.
"Yeah that's the term. Right Sissi?" Aelita asks. She then adds, "It's meant to be a secret, like your father told us. Right, Mia?"
Mia chuckles nervously and Kayori looks at us curiously.
Afterwards
Downstairs in the stairwell
We're waiting for Ulrich by the stairwell in our dormitory. Looking up, we see that he's smiling as he walks down the stairs.
"You look happy for a change," Odd comments as Ulrich reaches the bottom of the staircase. "What did Johnny want?"
"Just to talk," Ulrich answers.
I raise an eyebrow at the vague answer,
"About?"
"Oh, he's totally flipped out over Yumi," he replies when he arrives to join us.
Aelita smiles, "That's adorable."
"Yeah, it's like a cute little crush," Sissi agrees, showing how she changed considering she laughed at Milly's crush on Ulrich before. Then she turns to Ulrich, "What did you tell him, exactly?"
"You did let him down gently without laughing at him, right?" Jeremy pointedly asks.
"You're kidding," Ulrich replies with a smile. "I wasn't going to pass this up. I told him to follow her 24 hours a day. Everyday, nonstop."
"Well, that's not cool at all Ulrich," Mia chastises.
"Yeah, you know Yumi hates being followed around," Aelita adds, putting her hands on her hips. "She'll probably tell him to get lost."
"So what if she does?" he asks.
Ugh. Ulrich, I swear one thing I regret is not making you learn better manners, I think.
"You know Ulrich, you can be a real jerk sometimes," Jeremy comments.
Ulrich points at himself, "Hey come on. It's just a little bit of hazing. I got hazed when I was in the seventh grade."
"Hazing, huh?" Odd asks, starting to walk out. "It sounds more like jealousy to me. I don't believe it; you flip out even when Kiwi looks at Yumi."
"Hey, don't forget Yumi and I are just friends, and that's all!" Ulrich calls as we follow Odd. I open the door, and we start leaving.
Even when he's clearly jealous, he can't admit that he likes Yumi, I think while shaking my head.
Inside the cafeteria
Kayori and I sit down with our trays. I'm actually pretty happy about today's breakfast, since they're serving pancakes.
I never actually had a chance to eat pancakes before… I think.
Taking my utensils, I start cutting into my pancake.
"So, this Lyoko game business, is that why you and your friends have to cut class a lot?" Kayori asks. "Why I don't get to be with you a lot sometimes?"
I look at her and nod. Using the fork, I take a piece of the pancake and I'm about to eat it.
"Do you think- um, maybe you can ask Mia's dad and see if I can help out with testing the game?" she asks hopefully.
"I've always wanted to test out a video game."
I'm a bit shocked by what Kayori has asked. Part of my pancake falls off the fork and back to the plate.
"Um… I'm really sorry, Kayori but I can't answer that. I don't have that kind of authority," I reply. Which is true—for letting her in on Lyoko, I need the whole group's approval.
"Oh…" Kayori trails off in disappointment. "That's okay, then."
She shrugs and picks up a fork, cutting into her own pancake. I pick the piece that had fallen and take a bite out of it, my eyes widening at the sweet taste.
"Wow, that's really great!" I exclaim after swallowing.
Kayori looks at me curiously, "Well, yeah, they're pancakes. Pancakes are great. It's kind of a known thing."
"This might be hard for you to believe, Kayori, but that was my first time I ever tasted a pancake," I tell her.
Her eyes widen, "Are you serious?"
I nod.
"But… why? If you don't mind me asking?"
Oh, you know, I grew up in a dystopian future. Only had so many foods I could eat, and pancakes weren't one of them, unfortunately, I think. As if I could tell her that out of nowhere.
"I had food allergies when I was little. One of those allergies was being allergic to pancakes. I kind of grew out of them for some reason," I lie.
"That's interesting," Kayori replies. I can't tell if she believes me or not, but she doesn't press further.
By the vending machines area
After class
We had all taken a history test, Odd and Aelita currently getting drinks from one of the vending machines.
"I think I got question two right," Jeremy says. "I said that China stretched over the large river valleys of Eastern Asia. Like Huang Jo, Cheng Se Cheng, and the Siquanhe."
Aelita turns to me holding her drink, Sissi, Mia and Odd, who also his drink.
"What about you guys? How did you do with question three?" Aelita asks.
"I'd, uh, rather not talk about it. I'm not really good with history," I admit.
Mia speaks up next, "Me, on the other hand, I think I did pretty great on all of the questions. Odd, Sissi?"
"Oh, I still have a long way away before I can have grades as good as you guys," Sissi replies with a head shake. "Odd?"
"Question three, right? Simple. I said China was the most populated country in the world with a billion people per square meter," he replies confidently. All of us laugh at that absurd answer.
I might stink at history, but even I had a better answer than Odd, I think.
Suddenly looking sheepish, he asks, "You mean I got it wrong?"
"I guess I was right not to trust your stats, huh?" Ulrich asks. He laughs again.
Hearing a crow squawk, we look up to see one flying over us. It sits on top of the arches, where a lot of other crows have gathered.
"Hey, guys," Ulrich says. "Have you noticed all of those birds? Kind of bizarre."
I nod, looking at them as they squawk, "Yeah, I noticed them. They kind of give off a weird vibe," I say.
"Tell me about it. Did you ever get a chance to see Alfred Hitchcock's film, The Birds?" Mia asks me.
I shake my head, "No, why?"
"It's a dumb movie. The heroes get attacked by birds," Odd comments, seemingly understanding the reference. He looks at the crows that continue squawking, "And besides, it wasn't even that scary."
One of the crows flies off the top of the arches and towards us. It gets close to Jeremy and starts sparking with purple electricity! While being shocked, he tries to shake it off and it flies away.
"I saw the sign; it was in their eyes. It's Xana," Jeremy says.
Thinking about the far more obvious sign, I roll my eyes and mentally add, That and the fact you were just shocked by a crow!
Looking at one of the crows its eye pulses with the Xana symbol. It phases out and screeches loudly in a distorted tone before returning to normal. A lot of the crows start flying towards us.
"Hurry, they'll peck away at us until there's nothing left!" Sissi urges. "Let's go!"
Odd tosses his drink into the nearby trash can, but it doesn't go in.
We start running away from the crows after us, Aelita screaming as we go when she ducks under one swooping down at her head. She loses her drink in the process. One of the crows shocks me a bit from behind, but I manage to keep my scream down to a pained groan and elbow the bird away before noticing that Ulrich is under attack too, shouting in pain as another crow zaps him.
I try to fight the crow off and it flies away. We start running faster, catching up with the others.
"I take it all back!" Odd says. "It wasn't a dumb film after all!"
"Odd, me and you need to lure them onto one side," Mia instructs.
He shakes off his worry and nods, "Right. You guys head to the passage!"
Mia and Odd stay behind, while the rest of us continue running.
In the woods
At the manhole entrance
Ulrich pulls the grate off, and Aelita goes down the ladder first. I go down after her, followed by Sissi, and then Jeremy.
"Odd, Mia, come here!" Ulrich calls.
Aelita, and I get to the bottom of the ladder and reach the ground. Sissi gets to the bottom and lands on her feet. Jeremy continues climbing down. Ulrich starts climbing down, leaving the entrance open. Odd slides down first and Mia quickly closes the grate on her way in, right in time to prevent the crows from following.
Afterwards
Having taken our riding equipment, Jeremy and I kick our feet on the ground to speed our scooters along. Aelita has borrowed Yumi's skateboard since she's not here. She is easily keeping up with the rest of us.
"Unbelievable, I forget to check the superscan for a few hours, and bang! A Xana attack," Jeremy grumbles.
"Don't worry, everything will be just fine once we get the tower deactivated," Aelita says, trying to reassure Jeremy.
We soon reached the end of the tunnel and put our riding equipment to the side. Odd takes out his cell phone and dials a number on speed dial and puts his cell phone to his ear.
"Who are you calling?" Sissi asks as Ulrich starts climbing up the ladder. I can hear Odd's phone ringing since I'm close to him while waiting to go up.
"Yumi," he answers. Then he perks up, "Yumi! Good, I'm glad you answered. Look we were attacked by a big flock of birds; they may come after you."
There's a short pause and I look up to see Ulrich push the grate up a crack, taking a peek outside. Odd ends the call and puts his phone away.
"Well?" I ask, calling out to Ulrich.
He motions for all of us to start climbing up.
On the bridge
All of us are on the bridge now, and I slide the grate back into place. We look at yet another group of crows that have taken over the bridge.
"I don't believe it," Odd says, surprised.
Aelita breathes in and then out, "We've been through worse. And besides it's not every day we have such a big audience."
She starts slowly walking in between the crows that have lined up. After a pause, I carefully follow at a matching pace.
"Aelita… are you sure?" Sissi gingerly asks.
"I'm sure Sissi," Aelita replies without breaking her stride.
Even though I'm not looking back, I hear Odd offer, "Here, take my hand."
I can't really see what's happening behind me, but I hear the others starting to walk. All of us look at the crows as we walk, that continue squawking.
This reminds me about the time when Mary had to shoot electricity at rats on the bridge, so that I could get to the factory. I have got to ask Future Xana one day why he used animals so much, I think.
One of the crows starts squawking in an almost demonic tone. We continue walking, and none of the crows make a move on us. Looking at the crows higher up, their eyes glow red. The symbol of Xana displayed within.
"New plan; head for the elevator," Ulrich urges without breaking gaze with the birds. "See ya later."
"I'll help too," Mia says.
Odd speaks up, "Sissi, if you want to, go on ahead."
"Right."
At the slight pause in conversation, I glance back just in time to see her give a quick kiss on the cheek to Odd. She nods to the rest of us moving forward, and we start running.
"Over here!" Odd calls defiantly to the crows. "We're waiting!"
Inside the factory
Reaching the inside of the factory, we jump to the ropes and swing on them to land near the freight elevator.
As the ropes gradually swing back into place, we hear wings flapping and see the same flock of crows from the bridge chasing Odd, Ulrich, and Mia who slide down the ropes after us. The three of them are screaming on the way down as the crows appear to be attacking them. Aelita and Jeremy are the first to get inside the elevator, Sissi stopping to look at Odd and the others, scared for their safety.
Taking her hand, we run inside the freight elevator and Jeremy presses the red button. I let go of her hand. The hangar door starts closing.
"Ulrich, Odd, Mia! Hurry up!" he calls.
Ulrich, Odd, and Mia land on the ground floor. They start running to us as the hangar door continues closing. Jeremy bends down and puts his hand under, trying to stop it. I get down to help him, and we manage to slow it down.
"Faster, faster!" Jeremy urges.
Odd is the first one to roll through the gap, followed by Ulrich and Mia who are just barely able to slide under. We let go, and the hangar door fully closes in time for the crows' beaks to strike as they try to get in. The freight elevator hangar door has more than a couple of bumps in it, making me wonder how much Xana can reinforce a host if regular beaks are doing that kind of damage.
The freight elevator starts going down, letting us get some time to catch our breath, even if we're not out of the woods yet.
"I took out five of them, how about you?" Odd asks casually. Either he was trying to lighten the tension or getting a kiss from Sissi gave him a confidence boost.
"If you're trying to cheat, don't forget that the birds aren't part of the test," Ulrich replies with a wry smirk. "Only monsters sent out by Xana count."
Aelita takes out her cell phone and presses a number on speed dial before putting the cell phone to her ear.
"Yumi's all on her own, I hope she's okay," she says, concerned.
"I just hope we get out of this attack," Sissi confides with a shudder. "Those crows are creepy."
I look at Sissi, concerned, Does she have a fear of crows for some reason?
Aelita ends her call and pockets the phone again, "She didn't answer."
"Don't panic. I'll virtualize you in the vicinity of the activated tower," Jeremy reassures. "And then I'll call Yumi."
The freight elevator comes to a stop and the doors open. Jeremy walks into the lab and I press the button again to go further down.
Afterwards
Lyoko's Desert Sector
Sissi, Mia, and I are virtualized onto Lyoko first. Opening our eyes, we drop down and land as usual.
"Now for the others," Jeremy says.
"I'll do this now - better safe than sorry," Sissi says, holding up her bracer. "Lady Luck!"
The slots on her brace start spinning, Mia and I watching them with her. They come to a halt, the first slot showing the spade symbol. The rest of the slots are blank.
"Spades only today, then? Well it's a good thing there's no Joker symbol to weaken my spade ability. But I really do wonder what sort of symbol will show up in that fourth slot after all, the third one was wind..." Sissi trails off in thought before shrugging. "Maybe I just need the right situation for the fourth symbol to appear on the final slot."
Looking up, we see the others virtualizing. They land safely, and Jeremy materializes our vehicles in front of us.
"The activated tower is south-southwest in a crater," he informs as we start running to our vehicles.
"Start up the stats program, Einstein!" Odd exclaims, jumping onto his Overboard. Ulrich and Sissi climb onto their respective Overbikes, and Aelita gets on with Sissi, wrapping her arms around her waist. I get onto the saddle of my broomstick, and Mia gets onto her Overboard.
"You're going to cry when you see the results," Ulrich mocks.
Mia is the first one to take off, tilting her Overboard with her weight to go faster. Kicking my broomstick into the air, all of us then take off following Mia. Sissi revs up her Overbike and passes all of us.
"I doubt it, buddy. And besides, I don't cry when I get bad grades, do I?" Odd asks.
"If you did, you would have drowned in your tears ages ago!" Ulrich retorts, revving up his Overbike and speeding up. We pass by some tower wires and continue driving along the path.
"You can start earning your points now. Xana's sent you a big welcome party of Krabs," Jeremy informs.
I urge my broomstick to go faster, trying to catch up with Sissi and Aelita.
"Let's go Ulrich! I'll leave you the claws!" Odd exclaims, leaning forward again and pushing his Overboard to go even faster. Mia does the same, and she opens her pouch. She takes out two kunai, and closes the pouch.
Seeing the crater ahead, I take my hunter's knife out of its sleeve, getting ready.
"May the best man win, and that's me!" Odd exclaims, flying high into the air before diving straight towards and into the crater. "BANZAI!"
"Odd!" Sissi calls, only for it to be too late. She rolls her eyes and revs her Overbike to catch up, "Ugh! I swear, you and your competitiveness!"
She speeds off towards the crater and this causes Aelita to yelp, "Sissi, be careful!"
"I don't see anything!" Odd calls out from within the crater. Almost immediately after, we start hearing laser fire. We all push our vehicles to go faster.
Reaching the crater, we see Odd's Overboard get clipped by a laser and it starts to list towards the ground before he rights it. We get to the lip of the crater, and all of us stop our vehicles.
"So that's what you mean by style, huh?" Ulrich taunts. The Krabs continue to fire at Odd periodically, but he's keeping ahead of them. Still, he can't seem to find an opening to fire a Laser Arrow back.
"Go on, then, see if any of you can do better," Odd calls back as he dodges another salvo of lasers.
The four of us look at the seven Krabs that are lined up in a row within the crater. Mia dives in with her Overboard, now aware of the danger. She manages to get inside of the crater without an issue.
Sissi and Ulrich rev up their vehicles, and pass over the lip of the crater, Ulrich going airborne from the speed he traveled. Meanwhile, Sissi tilts her Overbike forward after crossing the edge and rides a swift but graceful meandering path down the curved wall towards the monsters. It was a good move to be ready for dodging laser fire, even though they were still focused on Odd and now Mia too. Ulrich lands roughly, but with no damage as he keeps speeding onward, and Aelita looks relieved that she had been riding with Sissi instead of him.
I urge my broomstick to fly down carefully, and it does so. Once we all reach the bottom of the crater, Aelita gets off Sissi's Overbike. Sissi then revs up her vehicle and takes off to join the battle. I use my broomstick to fly where the Krabs are and see Ulrich take his katana out of its sheath, apparently planning to do damage from the ground on his vehicle.
Using her Overboard, Mia flies over two Krabs and chucks her kunai at their heads. The blades miss one Krab, but the other sinks into the eye of Xana, making the monster explode. The Krab Mia missed turns and fires at her. She flies back to the ground where Odd and Aelita are and gets off her Overboard, taking out her whip instead.
Ulrich starts using his katana to slice through the underbellies of the Krabs as he drives between their legs. Sissi holds her hand up and summons her three spades. Hovering over the monsters, I begin charging my hunter's knife with electricity.
I get to the Krab that Mia missed and it turns on me next. Sissi thrusts her hand out and lets the three spades fly. Two of them sink into the symbols of the Krabs that Ulrich hasn't slice through yet, and the third spade misses the Krab I'm about to attack. Those two Krabs explode and Ulrich slices through his fourth Krab.
My lightning bolt amulet glows, letting me know I'm ready, and I jump off my broomstick's saddle, willing it to wait beside the crater in case I need it later. Gripping my electrically charged hunter's knife, I drop onto the head of the Krab and thrust it into the eye of Xana, shocking the monster. Channeling the electricity to the soles of my feet for jumping power, I manage to leap off it in time while taking my blade with me. The Krab starts to wobble unsteadily and then explodes as I land a distance away.
Ulrich slices through the final Krab and it explodes as he drives close to me and parks his Overbike.
"Ulrich, Odd, Lila, Mia, Sissi, Aelita. Can you hear me?" Jeremy asks. "Yumi's been hurt. I've got to launch a return to the past, but first, you've got to deactivate the tower."
"Got it," I say.
Sissi turns to me and says, "Lila, with me."
Nodding, I put my hunter's knife into its sheath and disperse my electricity. Getting onto her Overbike, I wrap my arms around her waist before she takes off and drives the vehicle down to where the others are at in a lower level of the crater. Ulrich catches up with us, and we see Aelita starting to run to the activated tower.
Another Krab comes out from behind the digital structure and it starts charging its laser. It fires at Aelita who dodges the laser and retreats to Odd and Mia.
"Leave him to me!" Ulrich exclaims, driving past us and off the edge into the lower crater where the others are. Sissi speeds up and we fly down too, reaching the bottom of the crater with a bump before continuing onward.
Ulrich slows his Overbike to line it up and then accelerates again. He unsheathes his katana and jumps off while it's going at full speed. He plunges his weapon into the symbol of the Krab, yelling,
"Impact!"
The Krab starts to shine with light from within, and Ulrich's Overbike passes underneath it as he jumps off again.
Ulrich lands on the vehicle and brings it to a halt a short distance away, seeing the Krab explode.
"Bullseye!" he exclaims with a fist pump.
Odd huffs, "That's not fair!"
A laser comes out from nowhere, and Ulrich is knocked to the ground as his Overbike takes the hit and is dematerialized from under him. Odd points and laughs, a laser nearly hitting him in the process as well.
I get off of Sissi's Overbike and I take my bow off its hook at the sight of two more Krabs, "Sissi, remind your boyfriend that we need to be serious right now."
"I know," Sissi sighs, readying for battle too.
Mia takes her whip out, and Odd is hit by an incoming laser. He tumbles to the ground and his chest starts to spark from the damage. Ulrich starts laughing, and the two Krabs make their droning growl as they approach. Sissi and I move to defend Aelita.
"Ulrich and Odd, would you mind concentrating?" Jeremy asks testily. "Do I have to remind the two of you that there's a tower that needs deactivating if you want to save Yumi?"
Mia swings her whip at one of the Krabs and paralyzes it with white energy. It slumps forward on its legs and Aelita takes the opportunity to summon her energy field to attack. Holding her hand out, she shouts, "Energy Field!"
The energy field flies at the paralyzed Krab and hits the eye of Xana, making it explode while Mia uses her whip again on the second Krab, paralyzing it with the same white energy. The Krab falls this time, and Odd takes the opportunity to cock his paw.
"Laser Arrows!" he exclaims and fires off two arrowheads at the weak point. The Laser Arrows find their mark, destroying the monster.
"Yes, thank you Mia! With your help, I've overcome my handicap and will now be able to temporarily catch up with my opponent, and-" Odd starts to brag, but he's hit by yet another laser that catches him off guard.
"No!" he screams. He's devirtualized in a cloud of pixels.
Ulrich Super Sprints over to the new Krabs that shot Odd, leaving a yellow trail behind.
"So long, Odd the mega-" he starts to say, but is caught off by a laser that nearly hits him. He takes the hit with his blade, deflecting the laser just in time.
"Pay attention or you'll be devirtualized like Odd!" Mia exclaims, clearly annoyed.
She runs past Ulrich and brandishes her whip. Using it, she swings and paralyzes the Krab with white energy. It slumps forward, and I nock an arrow before pulling the drawstring back. When I let go, the arrow flies at the paralyzed Krab and hits its target eye. The Krab explodes.
"Hey, no fair Lila! That was mine," Mia complains.
"Sorry, but we need to get rid of these guys sooner rather than later. Sissi, maybe you should activate your Lady Luck ability again."
"Right! Lady-" she starts to say but is hit by two lasers. Sissi is knocked off her feet and devirtualizes into a cloud of pixels.
"Sissi!" Aelita exclaims. She looks at the Krab and Ulrich is about to attack it, but she holds out her hand and summons her Energy Field. She launches it and hits the Krab, shocking it and its destroyed.
"No fair, Aelita! You cheated," Ulrich complains.
"I know, but you guys are just too clumsy," Aelita says. She winks at Ulrich and then starts running to the activated tower. I put my bow back on its hook. Aelita reaches the tower and slowly walks in, phasing into it. Mia walks over to us, and the tower's aura turns blue. Aelita emerges from the tower a moment later and rejoins us.
"It's all clear, Jeremy. You can launch a return to the past," Ulrich informs, looking up. Jeremy doesn't respond for some reason.
"Jeremy?" I ask after a moment of silence.
He still doesn't respond, and a few lasers nearly hit the three of us. We look up to see a swarm of Hornets incoming, and I grow concerned. Jeremy should have warned us about them.
"Jeremy! Do you read us, Jeremy?" Ulrich calls urgently.
Luckily, he hadn't sheathed his blade earlier, so he gets in front of the three of us and uses it to block the lasers. The lasers deflect away and Aelita holds out her hand to summon her Energy Field. It's sent flying at a Hornet and destroys it.
"Something's wrong, Jeremy should have responded," Mia says, concerned.
The remaining Hornets charge their lasers again and fires at us. We jump out of the way and Aelita summons another Energy Field to destroy a different Hornet. Trying to get a good aim at one of the monsters with my bow, I start channeling electricity to my gauntlets in order to power up the arrow. But then I hear the drone of the Scyphozoa.
"Someone-!" Aelita screams before abruptly being cut off.
Looking at the where Aelita was, the Scyphozoa has gotten a hold of her with its tentacles. I turn and shoot the electrified arrow at its head, but it only screeches lowly and doesn't let go. The giant jellyfish puts two tentacles on her head, which start glowing red.
"Aelita!" I call. I start running to free her, taking my hunter's knife out from its sleeve.
As I go, I channel more electricity to the blade so that it can cut through the tentacles more easily. My amulet glows, and my hunter's knife is engulfed with electricity. I hear more firing in the background.
"Guys, can you hear me?" Sissi asks, evidently having taken control of the headset earpiece. "Jeremy is out cold; I think the crows got in and attacked him. Odd is keeping an eye on him."
I finally reach Aelita and I'm about to charge at the Scyphozoa but it releases Aelita and retreats back into the cave it came from.
"Aelita…?" I gingerly call.
She turns to me, and her eyes pulse with the symbol of Xana as she smirks and summons her Energy Field. She launches it at me, and I'm too slow to dodge. The attack shocks me and I drop my knife as I devirtualize.
Back inside the scanner room
Inside the scanner
Opening my eyes, I'm back inside the scanner. The scanner's doors open and I sigh.
"Lila, if you hear me, we could use some help up here," Sissi calls from over the intercom. "Mia needs a vehicle to get to Ulrich who's chasing after Aelita."
"Right!" I exclaim, pushing through the fatigue of devirtualization to race to the ladder.
Inside the lab
Climbing out of the chute, I run over to Sissi, looking at Odd who is making sure Jeremy is safe along the way. Sissi takes the headset off and hands it to me as she lets me into the chair.
I put the headset earpiece on then adjust the might part and start typing. And then I remember my broomstick might be just outside the crater still.
"Mia, my broomstick should still be parked by the edge of the crater, just before I went into it with Sissi. Do you see it?" I ask.
There's a bit of silence, but then Mia exclaims:
"Yes I see it! It wasn't destroyed! I'm going to it now!" she exclaims.
Mia does so and I see her arrow going higher now. Ulrich and Aelita's cards pair up with a VS sign.
"I've got it! I'm heading over to Ulrich now!"
"I may not have my sword, but I can run," Ulrich taunts.
"Ulrich make sure you and Mia are able to defeat Aelita. If she gets into the nearby way tower-" I start to say but Ulrich interrupts me.
"I know!"
"Almost there!" Mia exclaims. But Mia's card pops up along with the Manta's card, showing that she's being held up by a battle.
"Lila, launch a return to the past," Ulrich urges. "You know how to do it."
"But I thought we were never supposed to do that while Aelita was under Xana's control," Odd points out.
I frown, "He's right, Ulrich, we're not supposed to."
"Okay, then at least try to program me a new katana," Ulrich requests.
"Ulrich, I'm not even sure if I can, but I'll try," I say. Never having heard of such a program, I type on the keyboard and open the source code to Ulrich's avatar to search for anything that might lead to a new blade.
"Okay, I think I got it," I say while entering a chain of keys as displayed in the code to activate a command I think will work. Sissi looks at me with concern as I press the enter key.
"Great job, Lila," Ulrich says.
Mia screams, and her card starts turning blue as her life points hit zero.
"Ulrich, Mia was just devirtualized. You need to figure this out soon and-" I start to say, but Sissi interrupts me.
"He doesn't need to be alone, though. You guys have gone in more than once, right?" she asks.
"Yeah, we have," Ulrich realizes. "Lila, send Sissi back in. If her Lady Luck ability can help-"
"I would, but I can't," I interrupt. "It'll take too much time for me to set up the new coordinates, and I can't virtualize someone so close to the tower."
Mia's card turns blue completely, and we hear the scanner open from the floor blow. The Manta card pops up again, along with Ulrich's, the red arrow also showing that it's going for him now.
It seems that Aelita's arrow is closer to the way tower and Ulrich is forced to fight the Flying Manta with his new sword. However, his symbol moves with an extra burst of speed, and it looks like Ulrich is able to get ahold of Aelita because both of their arrows are together now.
"Sorry, Aelita," Ulrich apologizes as their cards appear onscreen. Aelita takes a chunk of damage from her life points as he apparently slashes her. But new arrows appear, and Ulrich yelps as he's apparently forced to defend himself. Aelita's arrow slips away from him, her card disappearing to be replaced by a batch of Hornets' cards.
"These monsters are starting to get on my nerves!" Ulrich shouts. "Will you just buzz off?!"
"How are we going to get out of this one?" Sissi asks.
Odd looks at Jeremy, "It's time for some strong arm tactics."
"Whatever you need to do, do it quickly," I say while covering the mic to speak with him.
Odd pulls his hand back and starts slapping Jeremy's cheeks, forehand and backhand in sequence.
"Where are all these monsters coming from?!" Ulrich finally demands in frustration. "I wanted a higher score, but this is ridiculous! Didn't Xana take over that whole flock of crows? Where's he getting this much power?!"
At that question, it occurs to me that Xana had escaped from the supercomputer quite a while ago. But where that power comes from, I have no idea. Mary and Future Xana might know but I can't ask them now.
"How's he doing?" Sissi asks me. I shake my head in response with no answer as Aelita is getting closer to the way tower with Ulrich preoccupied with the monsters blocking his way to intercept her. Every time he destroys one, replacements seem to keep coming.
Mia finally climbs up the ladder and is now inside the lab. She walks over to us, "I did the best I could, that Manta knocked me off your broomstick, Lila." She sees Odd slapping Jeremy's cheeks and asks, "Is he still not waking up?"
Odd shakes his head, "No, and that was his tenth slap. Don't tell me you need a real smash." He pulls his hand back further and slaps Jeremy even harder, knocking off his glasses in the process as he finally wakes up. I take the headset earpiece off and get off the chair.
"Odd, are you crazy or what?" Jeremy asks as he shakes his head clear and rubs the sting out of his face.
Odd chuckles nervously, covering his mouth with his hand. Running over to Jeremy, I pick up his glasses from the floor and hand them back to him.
"Thanks, Lila," he says and puts them on and fixes them to the bridge of his nose.
He sees that Sissi and Mia are here as well, and we help up before he runs over to his chair. Jeremy takes his headset from where I left it and puts it on.
"Ulrich, I'm ready for action again. Tell me what's going on—do you need help?" he asks.
"Too late," Ulrich replies. The monsters are gone, but the sector is beginning to disappear, Aelita going willingly with him now since Xana's gotten what he wants. As they're trying to outrun the disappearing landscape, he says, "Come on Aelita, this is no time to drag your feet! A materialization or return to the past would be nice, Jeremy, thanks!"
"It's all over," Jeremy says sadly. Odd puts his hand on his shoulder.
"For the Desert Sector, yes. For Yumi, I hope not. So move it," he urges and takes his hand off his shoulder.
He looks at Sissi, Mia, and I, the three of us nodding. Jeremy starts typing on the keyboard and then presses the enter key.
"Return to the past, now," Jeremy says. A big white bubble comes out of the holosphere and engulfs everything, sending us back in time.
Earlier that day
Inside the girls bathroom
Opening my eyes, I realize I'm back in the girls bathroom. The others apparently do too.
"What's Lyoko?" Kayori asks, holding her towel and a change of clothes. As well as other supplies in her shower caddy.
All of us look at her, not quite sure how to respond this time. Shame it couldn't have brought us back a few minutes earlier.
Later that morning
After class
By the vending machines area
I'm glad Yumi was okay in the end. And thankfully, I did a bit better on my test since we repeated the same day, I think. I should still ask Mary and Future Xana what to do with the increase of Xana's power. They must know where it's coming from. After all, they only told me so much. Not every single detail of my family's adventures.
Aelita has her drink again and so does Odd. Sissi is next to Odd and Mia is sitting on the garden ledge with Ulrich who also has a drink.
"Hey guys, I got the latest stats on the Lyoko battle," Jeremy informs, holding a stack of papers in his hand.
"Ready to eat your hat, good buddy?" Odd asks.
Ulrich chuckles and retorts, "You're the one who's not going to be able to digest this. I was there to the end."
Jeremy reads the stats and announces, "The Lyoko Warrior who's outclassed all of the others is… Aelita." He laughs along with her and they high five each other.
"I don't believe in statistics; they don't mean a thing," Odd complains. "That's not a way to determine a real Lyoko hero."
"Yeah, for once I agree with you Odd," Ulrich says.
I raise an eyebrow at them and remark, "It's because you two play with your targets too much. Aelita just destroys them."
"Ha! She's got you there, Odd," Sissi giggles.
"Yeah!" Aelita exclaims happily, and I smile as she continues celebrating with Jeremy.
"There is one thing I would like to know," Mia says, speaking up.
Aelita and Jeremy stop, and he asks, "Oh yeah? What's that?"
Mia looks at Sissi, "What was with that kiss on the cheek on the bridge?"
"Oh that… Well… I'm really terrified of the movie The Birds," she admits sheepishly. "Even though I like Hospital of Horrors, I watched The Birds at a really young age. I had nightmares because of it. The kiss on the cheek was for my comfort, I guess."
Odd can't help but laugh a little, and Sissi levels an annoyed look at him. I smile at them, They've really become a good couple.
Author's Note: Fun fact, I actually got a B to B+ on an English project with a classmate. Our movie project was based on The Birds. My teacher was surprised by how well our project back. This was a class called Critical Thinking (I think that was the name of it.) It was actually a really tough class with a lot of reading. But I did really well and my Professor was happy with my overall grade. I got in the class because I needed it, but didn't have any prerequisites... I always liked this episode because of The Birds. It's actually a really good movie, not really too scary if you're a young adult watching it.
Lila's thought of Mary shooting electricity at rats on the bridge is a reference to the Adventures of Lila Belpois chapter, Plagued. As mentioned previously, if you haven't checked out the season 1 filler saga, I highly recommend doing so.
Special thanks to AeroJester203 for such a great edited chapter!
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LyokoWarrior1994