Jeremy continued clattering at the keyboard, first calling up everyone's vehicles, and then checking the status of Lyoko's Heart.

There was no sudden appearance, not a single monster. Not even William was anywhere to be seen, and it unnerved Jeremy. Something was horribly unnatural in this attack, he could just feel it.

"Jeremy, I can see the tower, but we're not getting to it soon." Aelita called.

"How many monsters can you see?" He asked.

"Only a few."

Jeremy checked the screen. "That's...weird." He muttered. "There's a lot more from where I can see them."

"Maybe they're just invisible." Odd chuckled. He swerved across a boulder and shot an arrow at a Blok. He missed by a few centimeters and it grazed the corner of it's build.

"Just keep an eye out for anything stra- look out!"

Odd looked out in front of him but saw nothing. His Overboard shuddered under his feet, then abruptly exploded into streams of data. He crashed to the ground below, rolling to a stop. "Jeremy what happened?!" He yelled, jumping up to his feet.

There was no answer. Instead, the air hissed and spattered, a hint of Jeremy's voice breaking through the system.

"...et...NOW!...eave!" His voice was distant through the crackles, distant and really urgent.

The ground shook violently, and Jeremy's voice rang clearer through their ears than the most brightest crystal.

"MOVE OUT THE WAY!"

The ground began to collapse at Odd's feet. He hopped from the broken material and onto the closest boulder embedded into the earth. Ulrich skid to a stop on his Overbike, motioning for Odd to hop on. Odd jumped off the boulder and landed behind Ulrich, and they rode past, gaining a few feet towards the tower. Looking back, a good large section of the ground had been torn apart, leaving a large gap before the next platform. Odd wouldn't have been able to jump over even if he wanted to.

"What is it?"

"I don't know." Odd said. "Hey Jeremy, is everything alright?"

The air fizzed and died, carrying Jeremy's voice away.

"Jeremy? Can you hear us?"

Ulrich pulled out his Katana from it's sheath. "I don't think we'll be talking to Jeremy anytime soon."

Looking ahead of them, Yumi defended herself against the remaining Blocks protecting the towers, just managing to throw her fans while jumping across the lasers that struck the ground. She turned to face them after she caught a fan when it missed a Blok by a corner.

"Something's wrong you guys."

Ulrich tossed his Katana at the Blok. It exploded into vanishing streams of data, only to be replaced by another. It began turning on it's axle rapidly.

"Is that what you mean?" He asked. The Blok suddenly stop turning and fired, aiming at Yumi. The axle twisted, unformulated by the sudden standstill. The Block broke off, firing at Yumi at an angle.

The laser missed by a long shot, fortunately leaving Yumi with the chance to strike at the exposed target.

Unfortunately, the awry laser struck Ulrich in the abdomen, and he immediately began to deconstruct into the devirtualization sequence.

He couldn't exactly see himself traveling through the mainstream, but at the same time, Ulrich could. It passed through his subconscious in a flash, the maximized size of the copper wires trailing through the computer, the flashes of data as it scanned his digits multiple times to accept his prints.

The trip always left him gasping for breath, because holding it seemed like a necessary step for the process. He felt the compressed air in the scanner stabilize around the chamber, and he fell forward, grabbing at his midsection in pain.

Before he could hit the floor, he felt himself fall into someone's arms, said person muttering about his weight. Looking up, Ulrich was glad to confirm it was Jeremy.

"We have a problem."

Suddenly, the pain didn't seem to register to him as much as the cold sense of dread invading his gut. Jeremy helped him up, leading him to the ladders by the scanners.

"I've lost contact and the elevator's jammed. I need you to stay here and try to listen in on most of the activity."

Ulrich stepped on the first rung of the ladder, following Jeremy as he sped up before him. "And what are you going to do?"

Jeremy kept climbing until he reached the main room, looking back down and reaching out a hand. "I need to go back and find my laptop. If it's not damaged, we have a shot of helping the others."

Ulrich took Jeremy's hand, using the extra force to climb up the rungs quicker. He placed the panel over the small space. "Let me guess, don't touch anything."

Jeremy nodded. "Not unless I tell you to." He ran towards the elevator, typing the code into the keypad and standing back when the doors disengaged ports and began to peel back with a hiss.

"I thought you said the elevator's jammed." Ulrich said.

Jeremy said nothing as the elevator doors opened completely, exposing the empty shaft inside. He turned to face Ulrich with a small smirk. "I did." He nudged along the shaft, climbing onto the rusting blue ladder by the wall. A few rungs up and he looked at the beams.

"I really hoped I wouldn't have to do this again." He muttered as he continued up the shaft.

Ulrich stopped short of placing the headset by his ear. He turned the the elevatorless hole. "What you mean again?!"

Jeremy's voice barely echoed through to him. "Couldn't hear you. Gotta go. Need laptop to save day, 'kay Bye!"

Ulrich turned back to the supercomputer rolling his eyes and stopped mid roll. The screen was wonky, random blips of light shining in one direction, and sections of sectors morphing and melting into various monitors. There was nothing to be heard through the headset except hiss and static.

"Wow." Ulrich stuttered. "Jeremy really has his work cut out for him."

Jeremy struggled to climb up the rungs of the ladder with surprisingly little issue, even despite the injuries inflicted on his chest. Maybe the first time climbing up the ladder helped him gain some stamina, even though he was almost killed.

Jeremy smiled softly with a trace of nostalgia, while most was just the hope of being alive.

Oh the thrill of proving X.A.N.A wrong just by breathing. The memory brought most of the slow climb up to quick finish, and Jeremy found himself sprinting back past the tunnel and into the empty gym room.

Jeremy stopped halfway through the gym, his sneaker's squeaking to a stop. He looked around, particularly at the bleachers, feeling an unsettling set of eyes watching from close and far.

He shook himself and continued, walking out of the eerily empty room and continued towards the wreckage of the east sector of the school. If his laptop was anywhere, it should be there.

He crossed the grounds as quietly as he could, not that it mattered. Even as he walked through the grounds, everything was devoid of life.

The scrambling students that cried for his safety? Gone.

The reporters? Who knew they existed?

It didn't even look like the teachers were around either.

Jeremy surveyed the wreckage of the school from a distance. He searched along the ground, hopefully eyeing the rubble and concrete for a single trace of his bag. He continued along the wall and stared up at the same floor he was hanging off of.

"Oh." He muttered. He calculated the distance of the floor and the wreckage (at least thirty feet adding what was left of the basement) and the multiple variables of him injuring himself vastly. The chances of him surving (adding the fact that he already did) didn't really equal the other outcomes.

"Oh." He said again.

Unnerved, he walked towards the dorms of the other side of the school, his wavering hope for the laptop's survival slowly unraveling. By the time he had reached the hallway were his dorm was, he became so dejected he didn't realize the bulky form walking towards him.

"Guy's? Can you hear me?" Ulrich asked tentatively into the mic. The static continued on for a few seconds and jumped into silence.

He hopped in his seat. "I can't hear you guys, can you hear me? Jeremy went to find his laptop."

"Well I guess that means we can just wait here for him to get back."

Ulrich almost tore his ears right off his head with the headset as he jumped off the chair and whirled around. "ODD! Can you at least warn me when you're going to climb up here?"

The blond raised his hands in retaliation. "Hey. I tried." He said. "But you didn't respond so I thought something bad happened."

Ulriched groaned and gestured to the supercomputer. "Something bad did happen Odd! Look how messed up this is!"

Odd took a spare glance at the screens at recoiled. "I hope the girls are okay." He said.

"It's pretty obvious that X.A.N.A's behind this, so we gotta hope that Jeremy can pull through with his laptop." Ulrich said.

Odd stared at him. "Wasn't Einstein's laptop destroyed?"

Ulriched shook his head. "Even he's not sure what happened to it. So I'm guessing there's a fifty percent chance the laptop survived."

Jeremy was sure of himself that there was little to no chance the laptop could even function properly if he could find it. He had undoubtedly dropped the bag after he fell, making the chances the laptop survived minuscule.

He sighed. Such was the luck of Jeremy Belpois.

He looked up as was searching for his exact door when he collided into someone. Hard. He fell to the floor with a thud, his chest pain searing his flesh a little more sharply.

Something grabbed his arm.

"Jeremy my boy, I barely saw you coming. Why are you still here?"

Jeremy stammered as he faced a large brown suit and fuzzy greying beard.

"Sorry, Mr. Delmas, I was just going to look for things in my room."

"That's no good Jeremy, the entire school's been evacuated. You can't stay here." The principal bent one knee and stared at Jeremy at eye level. "At least just grab some of you belongings and I'll escort you out."

Jeremy nodded. "Alright." Jeremy searched through the principal's thick rimmed glasses, searching for any telltale signs of X.A.N.A's possession.

His eyes were clear and a touch of paternal instinct shined slightly in his dark Maroon orbs.

Pulling out his key, Jeremy unlocked the door and made his way towards his desk, already calculating the necessary items he needed for a makeshift laptop.

A glint of light from his left made him look to his bed, almost crying out for joy when he saw his laptop poking slightly out of his dusty otherwise safe bag's flap.

Delmas followed his gaze. "Ah yes. I found that by the rubble when you were lifted away from the wreckage."

Jeremy gawked. "But how? There's little to no way this could've survived." He strapped the bag onto his shoulder. He grabbed a few things from his desk and tapped a randomn key on his keyboard. The computer whirred to life, booting up slowly and brightening.

Suddenly, the monitor let out a loud groaning sound and stopped two thirds through the process, shutting down with a flash of sparks and gentle smoke off the tower.

Jeremy sighed. He had known X.A.N.A would aim to destroy his precious computer. He seemed to be taking more steps than usual.

She would be missed.

"Come on Jeremy." Said Mr. Delmas. "We wouldn't want to be caught up in the mess."

Jeremy stopped. "Oh my god." He turned to the principal. "Was anybody else caught in the collapse?" He asked anxiously. "Millie. She had a class besides mine. She always stays after school. Is she-"

"Calm down Jeremy." Delmas had put his hands on Jeremy's shoulders. "I made sure everyone was gone."

Jeremy felt his skin go cold. His breathing slowed. A pain hit Jeremy in the chest, but he understood it wasn't from the wounds on his torso. It was the adrenaline rush, a sudden stab of fear in his heart.

He looked aside and out the door. "I think we should leave the building now, sir."

Delmas tilted his head a bit unnaturally for the boy's comfort. "Without getting a few things?" He said. "Shouldn't you pack some stuff first?"

Jeremy blinked, unable to react properly. "Like what?" He whispered.

Delmas looked up at the closet. "You might need some clothes, since the school's evacuated. Some personal belongings." His eyes scanned the wall. "Your...plans."

Jeremy chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah, that much doesn't matter."

He made his way towards tne door, when it suddenly slamed closed right in front of him. A hand snaked around the collar of his sweater and hoisted him up in the air.

"You're right." Delmas' voice was doubled and warbled, his physical strength heightened immensely. "What matters is that I make you regret ever turning on that computer."

"What are we supposed to do?" Odd asked.

"I don't know, Boy Blunder told me not to touch anything unless he said so." Ulrich mumbled the last bit, pouting slightly in annoyance.

Odd pulled out his phone. "Why don't we just call the 'Boy Blunder' for some info?"

Ulrich sat up from his seat. "You know, that might have been the best idea you've had all day."

Odd tapped into his phone. "I will take that as a compliment."

Jeremy felt his head crack with pain as soon as he connected with the wall. He stumbled up from the ground, coughing into his hand.

"When did you possess Mr. Delmas?" He asked.

X.A.N.A chuckled, his warbling laugh resounding with emptiness. "I did it when you were distracted by your dear mother."

Jeremy backed up to his door. He tried the handle and cheered inwardly as it turned. "And the reporters? The students?"

"I didn't lie when I said the school was evacuated. They were so...stubborn."

Jeremy threw the door wide open, bursting out of it with desired freedom. The meager two steps it took to leave the room was savored temporarily as he was snagged back and hoisted by the door.

"We can always stop you X.A.N.A.." Jeremy said. "There's always Aelita and the others to take you down. "

X.A.N.A laughed. "Do you honestly believe that I would actually be defeated by you children time after time again?

Jeremy waited fearfully for the bolts of electricity that would usually stream through X.A.N.A's hands, but instead the vengeful A.I started to curl each finger around Jeremy's neck.

"I've let you pretend to be a hero, just so I could leech more power off of every return to the past you've ever initiated."

Jeremy struggled to remove the hands constricting his breathing, but the transparent staticy hands were clamped to his throat like solid steel.

"I just bade my time, waiting for you to make one stupid mistake, and you did. You set me free."

Jeremy spoke with what little air he had. "We can put you back."

X.A.N.A smiled, distorting the principal's face into a grotesque mess.

"You'll be dead before you can even try."

Jeremy's vision swam, he could barely see past hist fumbling hands as they scrambled for almost nothing in particular. The echoing warbled laugh of Delmas' possessed form rang through Jeremy's muddled brain, and all he could think about was the fleeting breath of fresh air should he be able to break away from the steel hands.

Jeremy barely noticed that X.A.N.A had dropped him, until the air began to start registering to his brain.

His unfocused eyes caught the blury form of Delmas, and he leaned closer to Jeremy.

"I can kill you all at any given point of time." He said. "Don't expect this to be a spare moment for survival."

Jeremy felt his mouth open as he forced his addled brain to generate any retort. But his body fell slack as X.A.N.A pushed him from the door, and lost all forms of consciousness when he proceeded to walk out his dorm.

I'm sorry. I don't have my laptop so I couldn't type as fast as I wanted to.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and please leave a review.

Have a good 4th of July