Eighty-six. There were exactly eighty-six Towers on Lyoko. Each surface Sector had twenty Towers that could be activated at will as well as a Way Tower, while Sector 5 had only two Towers. The Superscan was always vigilant over every single Tower, always watching for the next X.A.N.A. attack. But even as the Superscan checked every single Tower in the span of less than a minute, X.A.N.A. was just as fast. X.A.N.A. was an AI, and being a machine allowed inhuman timing and precision. Jumping from Tower to Tower across all four surface Sectors, X.A.N.A. narrowly trailed the Superscan, activating them and deactivating them before the program could catch his activity in the next pass, before finally settling in the Ice Sector.
The Superscan, useful as it may be, was no good to Jeremie if its alert on his laptop was canceled by a spectre while the bookworm did what he did best, filling out sheets of classwork limited only by how fast he could write the answers.
Odd, meanwhile, did what he did best himself; he had parked himself on the couch in front of the Rec Room television, Game Boy in hand, glancing between the screens.
"Buy the new X-Treem Sugar Blast Sweeters!" abruptly shouted a man with impossibly spiky hair while offensively bright flashes of orange, green and purple filled the screen behind him. "Sweeters are the most x-treem candy you'll find! One suck and you'll forget the rest of those so-called sweets!"
"Someone's marketing team is stuck in the 90s." Odd scowled, reaching to change the channel.
"In ze boîte, only on Gulli!" He immediately changed the channel again.
"Stupid," He changed the channel again, getting bored, but not leaving the couch. He could have been outside, but TV was something he had missed while at Kadic Academy before the Rec Room had been built.
"You ought to pick a channel," said Ashanti from the computer in the corner as she continued to type her paper up. Tomas sat on the floor beside her, writing away in his own notebook.
"But there's nothing good on!" Odd groaned back.
"Then just put it on something educational and learn something," Tomas cut in while spinning his high fantasy tale, finishing off his description of an elven warrioress and ending the paragraph.
"No way! I have to learn enough during the day," Odd snorted before leaving the TV on a cartoon and turning to his Game Boy once more.
"Learning is a good thing, cretin," Ashanti laughed while she waited for her paper to finish printing. "Learning also is going to score us a Subdigitals concert, if Kimi's mom actually follows through."
"They've played here before, you know. Aelita was their opening act."
"Oh, trust me, I know," Ashanti replied, chewing on a curl of her hair while she read over her work. "That's why I just had to talk to her when I transferred here and saw her around. I love music."
"You know, we used to have a band, me and Ulrich and Yumi. I wonder if we should start it back up and recruit more people? What do you play, Ashanti?" Odd mused while he continued to play his game.
"I'm a violinist. I tend to really enjoy slow, relaxing music, but I love a high energy bop, too," she replied while she neatly slid her paper into her bookbag, satisfied with it.
"Oh, that might not work as well with our vibe. What about you, Tomas? Do you play anything?"
"Not really, I'm a theatre kid, remember?" Tomas answered, having slid his notebook into his bag and gotten up to leave. Another Sweeters commercial blared on the TV, interrupting Odd's cartoon, and the three of them briefly turned to look at it before resuming what they were doing.
"Well, we were into that for a while too. We performed every year, but it kind of sucked because..." Odd trailed off, stopping himself from mentioning that X.A.N.A. had a habit of crashing every performance. "Ulrich hates theatre. But me, I like to film my own indie movies. You should see the one where Sissi becomes our local Godzilla, she totally thought I was filming her for some kind of glamorous role until I showed the movie to the whole school!" he laughed.
"That's not funny, why would you do that to her?" Ashanti scowled, pressing her lips into a thin line.
"Because we weren't friends yet," he replied with a shrug.
"So you bullied and humiliated her like an ass?" Tomas frowned at Odd as he and Ashanti circled the couch to leave. "What'd she ever really do to you?"
"Mostly just trying to poke around in our business and to force Ulrich to like her," Odd answered casually while he played.
"So you bullied her for wanting to be your friend. I see!" Ashanti shook her head, deeply disappointed.
"Well, she used to blackmail us and stuff to try to force us to include her! Sissi wasn't so innocent," Odd protested, realizing the corner he was backed into.
"I guess. Obviously once you stopped being ugly to her she stopped being ugly to you," Tomas sighed before the two slipped out the door. The girl in question was just walking in as they left, and they smiled at one another with quiet greetings.
"Sissi might have stopped behaving ugly, but she'll always look ugly to me!" Odd crowed.
"Endive," growled Sissi from the doorway of the Rec Room, thumping Odd's forehead as she passed by.
"You're doing fine, William."
"It's just not perfect yet."
"I think if you chase perfection forever and never stop to accept what you already have, you'll never be happy."
Kin-ming stood beside William's computer desk, watching him sitting in front of his easel and filling in brush strokes on a certain portrait of a raven-haired girl. She held a long strand of hair, twisting it along her fingers.
"Was that supposed to have a double meaning?" William asked without a pause, his hand never faltering.
"It could, but I didn't intend it that way. But if I'm being honest, I can't help but think you should consider if all the effort you've put in is really worth it." Kimi pushed herself off of the wall. She crossed the room to pick up a rather suspicious photo of Yumi walking along Kadic's courtyard. The young Japanese girl wasn't looking at the camera in the photo.
"What do you mean?"
"We're high school students, and I don't think you'll meet your love of your life here. After all, think of after you graduate. You'll probably go to different colleges. Is putting all your energy into a relationship you haven't even secured worth your time?" Kimi continued thoughtfully.
"Nothing says I can't try to make it last," William rebuked, actually stopping to look at her now.
"But you can't make something that you don't even have last. Even if it's something you do have, it might not last no matter what you do. Like for me, Odd was not my forever guy and he wasn't ever going to be. But I'm grateful for the experience." Her voice took a breathy tone. "And boy, is Odd experienced."
"Ew," William said flatly, turning back to his portrait and resuming his work. Kimi's eyes lingered on the suspiciously-taken photo of Yumi and she pursed her lips before setting the photo down.
"I just wonder if you need to reconsider chasing Yumi, that's all. But, that said, you're a wonderful artist. I might have to commission you sometime. Do you play video games? Because I really want some kind of merch, maybe Justin Bailey because I love the pink and green..."
"One project at a time," William laughed, "But I'll definitely take any money you throw at me."
Aelita, meanwhile, stood anxiously at Jeremie's door, pacing back and forth in front of it, unable to bring up the nerve to knock.
"Oh, hi, Aelita." She turned at the greeting and saw Tomas coming out of the double doors to the stairwell.
"Hello, Tomas," she replied, smiling cordially. "Looking for Varric?"
"In a little bit. I'm gonna try to plan our hang-out so I can finally tell him," he answered, smiling shyly. "What about you? Isn't Jeremie in his room?"
"He is. I'm just nervous," she admitted, letting out a sigh, "we had a fight and I'm going to try to talk him into moving past it."
"That's good, I hope it goes well. I guess we both need to just work up the nerve to spit out what we're feeling." He began walking, passing her as he headed to his room. "See you later, Aelita."
"You're probably right. Good luck, Tomas," Aelita agreed. Surely Jeremie was able to hear them speak and knew she was there now, she was right in front of his door. She held her hand up but hesitated again, taking a deep breath before knocking.
"Come in."
"Jeremie?" She cautiously entered, and he took one look at her before turning around with a scowl. "It's time to be adults and communicate, Jeremie."
"I have work to do."
"I understand that, but the fact of the matter is that we need to move past what was said. You didn't even show up when he attacked Thursday morning and people almost died. X.A.N.A. is a real threat to humanity and he isn't going to wait for us to make up, so I think we should both be adults and put aside our frustration long enough to talk it out." Aelita draped her arms around Jeremie's neck from behind and went to hug him, yet he pushed her aside briskly. "I'll start. I need you, Jeremie. I wouldn't care that I hurt you if I didn't. When you said you wished I never existed, I was hurt too, but that doesn't excuse what I did and said. I apologize for my part in this."
"You're absolutely right. It doesn't," Jeremie agreed, standing up and turning to face her. He pushed his chair in, and Aelita looked at him expectantly. "But, I did hurt you first, regardless of whether you hurt me back. We can call it even and try to forget it ever happened." Jeremie clenched his hands into fists. "I'm also sorry I said what I did."
"I'm sorry I did what I did," repeated Aelita. Her eyes misted as she sprung to hug him. "Thank you, Jeremie. You were the first face I saw. You were the first person I spoke to. You were the first person I thought of when I came to Earth. When I need someone to help me, you are always the first person I think of." She kissed him on the cheek. "I love you, Jeremie."
He froze, then broke into a crooked, awkward smile. "I love you too." Jeremie kissed Aelita on the cheek, lingered for just a moment, then pulled away. They held hands gently, and both were blushing.
"Really?" It was so hot all of a sudden, the walls seemed to be closing in, and Aelita's face was ready to explode, yet she was absolutely elated.
"I'm not sorry I found the Supercomputer. My life would be different for the worse if I hadn't." He leaned forward and kissed her cheek again, making both blush even more. "I love you too, Aelita. I'm lucky I found the Supercomputer."
"My life wouldn't exist if you hadn't found it. So I'm more than happy you did, Proxy-Pie," Aelita cooed, then kissed Jeremie, this time on the lips and a little longer than the lingering kiss on her cheek. A moment later, they both pulled away, faces flushed ever deeper.
"I love you, Aelita," Jeremie breathed. It felt great saying it. He couldn't believe how mad he had been but he had realized it wasn't her fault. She was just trying to find her father. He would have done the same.
"I love you too, Jeremie." They hugged each other and enjoyed the warmth and comfort both brought to the other.
Tomas waited silently in the Kadic courtyard, thinking. Ideas on how to explain his feelings swam in his head as the object of his thoughts approached.
"Good afternoon, Tomas," Varric greeted, and Tomas looked up to see the handsome young man standing in front of him.
"Hey," the younger boy choked out, smiling awkwardly.
"What is it that bothers you?" Varric asked, taking a seat beside him on the bench.
"Bothers me? What do you mean?" Tomas replied, turning to face him.
"You have been behaving oddly. Not that you are the only one, but you wanted to talk alone, so I assume that something bothers you," the tall Russian explained. Tomas could feel his face heating up.
"Well, I guess..." he trailed off.
"What is wrong?" Varric asked one more time, brows furrowed in confusion.
"Can we talk alone about it?" Tomas sighed, looking up.
"We are talking alone now."
"I know, but I want to plan that excursion I wanted to go on, and we can talk in private then."
"Okay." Varric leaned back, stretching his arms before resting them across the back of the bench and kicking a foot up to rest on his knee. "What did you want to go do?"
"I don't know, something exciting? Maybe laser tag, if that's okay," Tomas murmured, trying to focus on anything except Varric's body.
"Laser tag is very fun. I'd like that," Varric agreed, smiling. "The question now is when?"
"Well, I have a few things I need to do today since it's Sunday, and winter break is in a week, so how about Saturday, right before break?" Tomas suggested, smiling with relief.
"That sounds good to me, I cannot think of any reason that I would not be able to attend. Saturday it is!" the tall Russian agreed, clapping a hand onto Tomas's shoulder briefly.
"Great! I'm going to go ahead and head back to my room, I need to do some laundry now that we have that sorted out. Nice talking to you, Varric!" Tomas announced cheerily, standing up and giving a small wave before walking away.
"You too, friend!" Varric replied, waving back. His smile lingered as he leaned back into the bench. "At least one person is starting to act a bit more normal."
Later that afternoon, as the sun made its way across the sky, Odd was making his way out the Kadic gates and heading into town, thinking of hitting up his favorite magazine stand to see what kind of movies might be playing.
A car passed him on the sidewalk, windows down, and he could hear the advertisement playing on the car's radio, "Sweeters! One suck and you'll forget the rest of those so-called sweets!"
"Wow, they really are desperate," Odd murmured, hands in his pockets as he strolled down the sidewalk. He passed a standing sign that advertised Sweeters, glanced into the windows of a nearby video store and saw commercials for Sweeters on the display televisions, and came up to the magazine stand and saw Sweeters ads plastered on the glass there as well.
"What's the deal with these Sweeters things popping up everywhere today?" Odd chirped as he approached the stand's attendant, then leaning on his elbow against the magazine rack.
"Heck if I know, kid. Got a bunch of marketing stuff for them this morning," the man replied brusquely and with a frown. "You gonna buy something today?"
"Yeah, some Sweeters," answered Odd, pushing off of the rack and rounding the corner to the nearby convenience store, where Sweeters posters plastered the windows. Upon walking in, his jaw dropped at the Sweeters that lined an entire aisle by themselves. "This better be some good candy!" he muttered to himself as he reached for a bag.
Once he'd paid for the Sweeters and left the store again, Odd's curiosity got the better of him and he tore the orange, green and purple bag open. He took a Sweeter in his hand, inspecting the sugar-dusted gummy, before gingerly setting it on his tongue.
"Wow! Mega-wow!" Odd exclaimed as he swallowed the little multicolored sphere whole before burying his hand in the bag and popping several more into his mouth. "Incredible!"
He wolfed down the rest of the bag right there before turning around, darting back into the store to buy more.
Ulrich knocked on the door belonging to Varric and Ludek, and the latter of the two opened it, gesturing for him to come in.
"Where's Odd?" the wiry redhead asked as he closed the door behind his visitor.
"I figured he'd be here. What about Varric?" Ulrich replied, turning around.
"Weight room. He decided to sleep in this morning so he missed his routine, he said he'd join us later," Ludek answered, shrugging. "I haven't heard anything from Odd. D'you think he's alright?"
"He should be," Ulrich murmured, pulling out his phone and glancing at it. No alerts or anything of that sort. "It's fine. We can play without him."
"That works," agreed the redhead. He picked up a 360 controller and tossed it to Ulrich, who easily caught it and turned it on while Ludek sat cross-legged on a pile of clothes on his bed. They were just about to begin a match when someone knocked at the door before opening it, and they turned to see Odd staggering in, arms piled up with bags of Sweeters.
"Did you go buy all those today?" Ulrich marveled at the colossal stack, which was as high as the tip of Odd's hair.
"Sure did!" Odd replied cheerily before dumping them all onto Varric's pristine bed. He then plucked a bag from the pile and tore into it.
"Those are so bad for you, dude," Ludek said, gaping at the sheer magnitude. "How much did you spend on those?"
"Only a little over a hundred euro," Odd answered, spewing sugary dust as he spoke and chewed at the same time before tearing open another bag and smashing the contents into his mouth.
"Only a hundred? What is wrong with you?" Ulrich said, absolutely blown away. "You must've cleaned out the whole store buying that many! How could you be so stupid as to think you needed all of those?"
"You're not going to be scrawny for long eating like that, and not in a good way," Ludek agreed.
Odd made a muffled, indignant sound as he finished the bag he'd just opened and started on a third. "I'm not scrawny, I'm svelte!"
"Whatever. You better move all those to your room because Varric will be pissed if he comes back and sees what a mess you've made on his bed. He gripes at me for my side of the room on a daily basis," replied Ludek with a roll of his eyes.
"No way you're putting all those in the middle of our room either, Odd," Ulrich cut in. "Find a place for them."
"I have a place. My stomach!" Odd shot back as he dumped the contents of a fourth bag directly into his mouth.
"So you plan to just eat all of those tonight? You're going to get super sick," Ludek said incredulously, setting his controller aside and raising an eyebrow.
"I don't care, I'll get fat and die of Sweeters! I'll be going happy!" proclaimed Odd while adding the fourth bag to the growing pile in the nearby trash bin and ripping open a fifth.
That night, Odd rolled over, eyes wide open. His stomach growled, and he let out a quiet, dissatisfied moan before inching himself over the edge of the bed, sliding open one of the storage drawers on the bed and reaching into it before pulling out a bag of Sweeters. He then tore it open and dumped the contents down his throat before reaching for another.
"Odd! Put the damn candy away!" Ulrich groaned, sitting up in his bed and glowering at Odd for the noise.
"Just a couple more bags, I'm hungry!" Odd protested between chews. He gulped his mouthful of candy and reached for another bag.
"No!" Ulrich hissed, reaching out with his leg and pushing the drawer shut. "You have had more than enough! Go back to sleep!"
"I can't if my stomach is screaming at me!" shot back Odd as he opened the second storage drawer on the bed and retrieved two more bags from there. Ulrich made an exasperated noise and crashed back into his pillow before taking it from under his head. He then put the pillow over his head as the crinkling bags continued to ensure he wouldn't be sleeping until Odd had stopped.
"I'm surprised X.A.N.A. didn't attack yesterday," Aelita said to Jeremie quietly as the two left Ms. Hertz's class the next morning.
"I am too. He's been attacking just about every day since, well, since we caught you," Jeremie agreed hesitantly.
"You don't need to be sheepish about what happened," she assured him, "we're past it now."
"Well, still. Maybe we should go by the Factory and work on getting all of those programs restored, at least, and we'll be there if he does attack," he mused as they walked.
"We'll go after class, then," Aelita agreed with a smile.
"Let's see if we can get that program working that we used to create a clone of you without you having to use your Creativity," Jeremie suggested as he typed away, looking over paragraphs of code on the interface screen. "After that, all we'd need to restore is the Skid and the stuff related to it."
"Sounds good to me. I'll go to Lyoko so we can see what happens!" Aelita announced, turning to head down to the Scanner Room.
"Virtualization!" Within moments, Aelita fell from the sky of the Forest Sector and landed in a crouch on the ground. She gasped as she looked up again.
"Jeremie, I feel pulsations!" she shouted, her eyes following the trail of the reddish-pink rings that were near-invisible to anyone but her.
"Activated Tower found," Jeremie said as the Superscan appeared on the screen and beeped at him. "He was waiting for you to go to Lyoko, I bet. The Tower is in the Ice Sector, so go ahead and go to a Way Tower so you can get there, but don't leave it once you do. It's almost definitely a trap. I'll call the others and have them get here."
Jeremie then pulled up the phone window and tried calling Odd, but the window almost immediately blinked red as soon as Odd's ID Card appeared beside the window. "Straight to voicemail? Uh-oh," Jeremie murmured. He tried calling again, but again the call failed. Then, he tried calling Yumi, and this time the phone actually began to ring.
Odd was, in fact, running out of the corner store again with more Sweeters candy stockpiled in his arms when Jeremie had tried calling. A black-haired man in a suit, whom Odd did not recognize, passed him on the sidewalk, then turned around with a grin.
"So, kid, you like the new candy?" said the man, gesturing to the massive stack. "I'm the head of marketing for Sweeters in the Paris area. Glad to see we've got such a big fan."
"You bet! Know where I can get more? This place is all out now!" Odd replied, a wild glint in his eye as he smiled back at the man.
"Afraid not, our warehouse actually just got robbed this morning so we're having to wait on a new shipment. Say, do you recognize these children?" The man pulled a sheet of paper out from his inside pocket, unfolding it to reveal photos of Yumi, Ulrich, William, Jeremie and lastly Aelita.
"Wait, no way! Those are my buddies! Why would they steal the candy?" Odd's jaw dropped, and he leaned over to peer at the photos, trying not to topple his pile.
"Well, if you know them, you might want to recommend to them that they bring the candy back, or better yet, call the police with their location," the man said gravely as he slid the photo back into his suit jacket.
"I know exactly where they'll be. I'll find them after I drop these off," Odd promised, turning to jog off but stopping and looking over his shoulder at the man again. "Is there a reward?"
"Of course! Free Sweeters for life," said the man with a wink.
"Got it!" Odd bounded away, pile of Sweeters in tow, as quickly as he could without spilling any. The man laughed in a distorted voice once Odd was around the corner, and dissolved into a black mist, disappearing into a nearby streetlamp.
Yumi was the first to pull herself out of the manhole by the bridge to the Factory, climbing to her feet and waiting for Ulrich and William to come out next. Much to her surprise, out of the corner of her eye she saw Odd was sprinting down the street, making a mad dash directly toward her.
"Odd? You're alright! We thought you were the target of the attack when you didn't answer anyone's calls!" Yumi said with relief as William pulled himself out of the manhole.
"Candy! Why did you steal it?" Odd shrieked as he approached, not slowing down one bit.
"Candy?" Yumi repeated, wrinkling her nose with confusion. "I didn't steal any candy."
"What candy?" William agreed as he stepped into Odd's path, blocking Yumi.
"Nobody stole your stupid Sweeters!" Ulrich shouted as he began to pull himself out next.
"Don't insult my Sweeters, you criminal!" Odd screamed shrilly, changing course slightly as he came ever closer.
"What's wrong with you?" Yumi cried as Odd lunged once he was close enough, tackling Ulrich onto the concrete of the bridge. Ulrich grunted and held Odd's face away, examining his eyes for X.A.N.A.'s mark. Although there was none, his eyes were bloodshot and his pupils impossibly constricted.
"Give me the Sweeters!" Odd hissed, trying to claw at Ulrich's face.
"Get off of him!" William shouted as he and Yumi knelt to try to pull Odd off of Ulrich. As much as the two pulled, they couldn't get Odd to stop thrashing under them.
"Just get into the Factory! I can whup Odd any day!" Ulrich ordered as he struggled, before finally squeezing his legs under his attacker and kicking Odd off as the other two reluctantly began to run down the bridge. "So Odd, your Sweeters went missing?"
"Mine are safe! The man said you traitors stole the supply. Give them back!" Odd spat like an animal, breathing heavily and growling.
"I assure you that none of us want your stupid candy, Odd!" Ulrich said firmly, but holding his arms out, ready to defend himself.
"Don't lie to me!" Odd howled, leaping at Ulrich again. The martial artist was ready, though, and he grabbed Odd by the shirt, let himself fall backwards, and used the momentum to fling Odd over the edge of the bridge and into the Seine below.
"Cool your head off, Odd," Ulrich panted, "we have work to do." With that, he ran into the Factory.
"Virtualization," Jeremie finished as Yumi and William formed and landed on Lyoko in the Ice Sector. Once they arrived, Aelita pushed out of the Way Tower nearby and gave them a wave as she ran over to regroup.
"We're all here, Jeremie," Yumi announced, looking up and into the sky.
"The Tower is east of your position. But don't get going just yet, the elevator is running. I'm guessing Ulrich made it," Jeremie ordered, holding the mic of his headset.
"Watch out, Jeremie. If it's Odd, he might attack you. We don't know what was wrong with him," William warned, crossing his arms.
"X.A.N.A. must have done something to him," replied Jeremie as he pulled up the security cameras. Thankfully, though, it's Ulrich." He watched the screen intently, both to see if Odd was following and to see where Ulrich went.
"I'm here, Jeremie!" Ulrich called up as the elevator door opened and he walked into the Scanner Room before stepping into the middle Scanner.
"Transfer Ulrich, Scanner Ulrich, virtualization," Jeremie rattled off as he typed, and Ulrich landed on Lyoko near the others. Not a second after, the vehicles formed.
"Which way, Jeremie?" Ulrich asked as he swung a leg over the Overbike.
"East," Jeremie repeated as the Yumi and William boarded the Overwing and Aelita stepped onto the Overboard, then the group took off for the activated Tower.
"No! Can't let them get away," Odd hissed to himself ferally as he climbed out of the river and onto the riverfront shore, shaking his head. "I have to follow them so I can get the Sweeters!"
"You're close to the activated Tower, and I haven't seen any monsters on the screen. We might have caught X.A.N.A. off-guard today after all," said Jeremie as he moved the map around, watching intently. He turned his head upon hearing the elevator running. "Uh, Ulrich, what did you do with Odd?"
"Threw him in the river so he could cool off," Ulrich answered, glancing at the sky, "why?"
"I hear the elevator running," Jeremie replied simply.
"Jeremie, you might want to run. Now," Ulrich warned as he stopped the Overbike, wondering if he should devirtualize himself.
"Wait, the elevator is going straight down to the Scanner Room. Maybe his little swim really did set him straight," Jeremie announced, watching Odd on the security camera.
"I'm here, Jeremie!" Odd called up, putting his hands on his hips impatiently upon stepping into the left Scanner.
"Transfer Odd, Scanner Odd. Virtualization," Jeremie said to himself while typing. Odd landed on Lyoko in the same place the others had initially landed. "The others have the vehicles so you're going to have to go on foot. Sorry, Odd."
Odd crouched down on all fours, paying no mind to Jeremie as he growled, "Candy!" and shot off in the direction of the advancing group.
"Monsters," Ulrich murmured, drawing a saber as a red wireframe appeared several meters away and formed the Valkyrie. "Monster, whatever. We'll handle it so Aelita can get through."
"Candy!" Odd howled, approaching the others at breakneck speed as they prepared to fight. "Give back the candy!"
"Odd! What are you going on about?" Jeremie shouted with exasperation.
"The Sweeters!" Odd cried back, almost at his destination. Ulrich either did not hear or ignored Odd as he jumped off of the Overbike, letting it skid toward the Valkyrie, then began to Super Sprint behind it to attack with his sabers.
Yumi, meanwhile, shouted and threw her fans, hoping to hit the Valkyrie from the sides if it tried to dodge. Instead, the Valkyrie shot into the air, easily dodging the Overbike, Ulrich's lunge and the fans.
"Candy!" Odd shrieked, vaulting into the air and letting loose with a barrage of laser arrows directly toward William, who had turned and noticed them just in time to bring the Zweihander up.
"Odd, what are you doing?" William roared in frustration as he sidestepped, avoiding Odd's tackle.
"Give me the candy!" Odd roared back, leaping again at William and trying to claw past the Zweihander that blocked him.
"Jeremie, Odd is going crazy! Materialize him!" Aelita shouted, beginning to panic. "Whatever X.A.N.A. did to him is affecting him here too, but how?"
"I'm trying, but there's an error. I don't know what's going on," Jeremie said quickly as he typed just as fast, trying to bring Odd in but failing repeatedly. Every time he tried, the ID Card simply flashed and a red exclamation point appeared beside it. "X.A.N.A. has done something major!"
"We have to save him! Energy Field!" She took aim and released the sparking orb, but Odd kept trying to tackle William, making the attack miss.
"Aelita, don't! If you devirtualize him by taking his Life Points I don't know if he'll come back," Jeremie warned as he continually tried to fix the errors.
"Then what do we do?"
"William has to keep him busy until you can deactivate the Tower," Jeremie sighed, seeing no solution.
"I don't know how long I can hold him off!" William piped up as he used his Super Smoke to appear behind Odd, dodging yet another pounce.
"Just do your best," Aelita said encouragingly before deciding to focus on the Valkyrie. "Energy Field!" The monster leaned to the side, causing the sphere to fly through one of the semicircle cutouts in the side of its body.
"We can't touch it!" Ulrich groaned between attacks, but he couldn't even make the Valkyrie block an attack. Instead, it floated or twisted away from him constantly.
"Let's try this," Yumi spoke up, closing her eyes and beginning to glow a pink-white. She breathed deeply and pulled a jagged chunk of ice from the ground with her telekinesis. She then moved it behind the Valkyrie. "Ulrich! Now!"
The monster didn't have room to move and was forced to lift its bladed hands to block Ulrich's sabers. Unfortunately for Ulrich, it used this opportunity to fire a laser burst from its singular eye into his chest, sending him back to Earth.
"William, take the Valkyrie. I'll handle the pea brain," Yumi called, turning to Odd once her telekinesis was no longer needed. She threw her fans at the feral Odd as William broke away.
"Yumi, you can't destroy Odd!" Aelita panicked, watching the fans close in. "I need to deactivate the Tower first! If not, he might come back still frenzied, or even worse, not at all!"
"I know, but I can keep him distracted," Yumi replied as she summoned her telekinesis again, guiding the fans to curve down and block Odd's laser arrows.
"You aren't going to get the better of me this time, X.A.N.A.!" William hissed as he swung his Zweihander like a bat at the Valkyrie. It bent backwards, letting the blade pass over it. William kept turning, continuing the swing all the way around to make another swipe, this time aiming lower. The Valkyrie levitated into the air and came down on the end of the Zweihander as it had done before.
"Not this time," William taunted as he kept spinning and let go of the Zweihander, sending the Valkyrie flying over the edge of the Ice Sector.
"Now's my chance!" Aelita told herself, running for the activated Tower. She pushed into it without hesitation, then floated up to the second platform and walked the few steps to the panel. She scanned her handprint on it, and as she entered the Lyoko code, the binary screens fell around her.
"Tower deactivated," she announced as always. She pressed her lips into a thin line as she thought of the deranged Odd.
"Huh?" Odd groaned as he fell onto his face, having jumped at Yumi moments before. He looked up at her, confused, and asked, "Hey, Yumi, why are we on Lyoko?"
"Pea brain." Yumi answered simply, crossing her arms and scowling at him.
"What?" He frowned at her.
"Pea brain," she stated again, not moving.
"Jeremie, do we need a Return, or can you bring him back in now?" Aelita spoke from within the Tower.
"It still isn't working, I can't figure out these errors. I don't know how long it'd take to fix it," Jeremie admitted, typing away but making no progress.
"We can't keep him out of school for long without someone getting suspicious," Aelita murmured as she waited on him. "I think it's our only option."
"Return to the past now," Jeremie voiced his agreement by pressing Enter and letting the white bubble expand outward, rewinding time.
Odd was doing what he did best; he had parked himself on the couch in front of the Rec Room television, Game Boy in hand, glancing between the screens before reaching for the remote.
"You ought to pick a channel," said Ashanti from the computer in the corner as she continued to type her paper up. Tomas sat on the floor beside her, writing away in his own notebook.
"Actually, I think I should go outside and do something active," Odd admitted, setting the remote down and kicking his feet off of the couch.
"You? Active?" Tomas joked while spinning his high fantasy tale, finishing off his description of an elven warrioress and ending the paragraph. "Ashanti, this is a once in a lifetime moment. We should cherish it."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Odd held up his hands, smiling. "But I don't really want to sit around all day, so I should go find something to do."
"Like what?" Ashanti turned her head, glancing at him, before turning back to the computer.
"Well, I never have asked Sissi on a date before," he answered, grinning mischievously as he turned, stepping outside as his two friends bid him goodbye. He stretched his arms out and let out a content sigh before setting out.