If anyone remembers this chapter from my first write-through of this, it used to be in Morgan's POV. Now it's in Ulrich's POV. You'll see why later ;) Or not, idk.
And so for that whole week we were locked in this stupid impasse. Every day Yumi and I would show up for our exams and then retreat. Morgan wouldn't follow us, but every day we learned of more and more mysterious deaths in the city. People were also starting to talk about an army of robots making their way across Asia. They were peaceful, but would get rid of any obstacle in their way. So far nothing had been able to stop them. They were the robots from Siberia...the ones we never destroyed. Morgan must have rebuilt the Replika and taken control of the robots. She didn't go directly after us, but she was causing mass hysteria...we were running out of time.
Breathing heavily, I knocked the secret knock on the door to the bunker. After a few moments, Aelita opened the door.
"Hi Ulrich, what took you so long? Yumi's been back for a quarter of an hour." Aelita asked, concerned.
"Jim tried chasing me down...had to throw him off the trail before I came back here." I answered, walking in. I had to run pretty fast. I sat down on my bed to catch my breath some. That was the other thing. People were looking for us. We were missing but sometimes some of us showed up to take a test. It was only a matter of time before someone found us...and knowing our luck, it would be Morgan that found us.
"How's the multi-agent going, Einstein?" I asked.
"Nearly finished. It's a bit of a rush job but...it should get the job done." Jeremie pushed his glasses up. He hadn't slept, at all. "Uh, Odd?"
"I'm on it." Odd got an energy drink from the fridge and tossed it to Jeremie. He caught it and drank it down. This couldn't be healthy...but he could rest up after Morgan was dead. That was what he told us any time we asked if he wanted some rest.
Stacey would go on supply runs in between shifts. When she picked up food for her family, she would also pick things up for us, mostly energy drinks for Jeremie and whatever other stuff we needed. She didn't exactly have a lot of money to spare, and neither did we, so she got the cheapo stuff. She was working really hard, I really appreciated what she was doing for us.
This week we were all getting along better. Since Yumi and I actually got out of the bunker every day, we were less stir crazy, at least. William's walk to Kadic calmed him down. Aelita was a little more anxious than normal, but then who wasn't?
Then I heard beeping...coming from Jeremie's laptop. I hated that noise. Well no, I didn't hate it. It meant I got to play hero, but, ever since Morgan got here, playing hero had become a lot less fun and a lot more dangerous.
"Uh-oh, Morgan's on the move." Jeremie looked up from his laptop.
"Any idea what the attack is?" Odd asked, pausing the game he'd been playing.
"If she needs a tower for it, it's gotta be something big." Yumi said. Jeremie shifted uncomfortably.
"She activated...my tower. Look's like Sissi's switched sides." Jeremie said. I rubbed my temples. This happened every single time Jeremie activated a tower! There had to be some way to protect it, huh? Well, maybe he just hadn't had the time.
"So, we have a big bad Sissi on our hands. Hey Odd, it's just like your movie, uh..."
"Natural Grandeur." Odd finished for me. "And there's no way this'll live up to me artistic genius!"
"We have time for that later. If Morgan's possessing Sissi's clone, she's probably attacking the school. A lot of people could be in danger, we don't have time to waste." William said, standing up from his bed.
"Right." Jeremie closed his laptop and put it in a bag to take with him. "William, you and Ulrich go protect the school. The rest of you are headed to Lyoko for your last mission."
"You say that every time, Einstein." Odd said. Jeremie rolled his eyes.
"Alright guys, let's move out." I said. We all headed for the door.
"Take the gun. If Jeremie doesn't get them, you can." William called. "And then boom, return to the past and it's like nothing happened...right?"
I nodded, took the gun out of Taelia's backpack, and put it in my pocket. I didn't bring it with me when I took finals because I was afraid of getting caught. I would get in so much trouble if I was caught on campus with a gun. Now was different. Jeremie would be right at the Supercomputer. If things went south, he could launch a return to the past right away. One way or another, Morgan was going to die. I sort of hoped I would be the one to do it.
So we ran all the way to Kadic. The bunker was actually closer to the Factory than it was to Kadic. When we got there, it was...chaos. A raised stage was set up in the main courtyard, with balloons and streamers and chairs in front. They always put this up Friday on finals week for a graduation celebration. The chairs were a wreck, all knocked over. Streamers were on fire, balloons were popped. Everyone ran around like ants that just got their nest stepped on. And in the middle of it, Sissi, emotionless, lightn ing flying from her fingertips.
It sort of reminded me of Xana's older attacks, before he started targeting us specifically. A lot of his earlier attacks were just to cause mayhem. He spread the attacks out as far as possible and tried to hurt as many people as possible. I wasn't sure if that meant anything...
"Let's try getting everyone to safety, first. One stray bullet and we might get someone innocent." I called out to William.
"Got it!"
We both decided that the best place to gather everyone would be the gym. It was hard to gather everyone, they were all scrambled, and screaming. I would catch one and tell them to hurry to the gym, they could make a barricade and be safe there. I lost track of William all together. Where was he? Probably off doing the same thing I was in a different part of the school. Sissi ran to whtever was the most crowded spot at the time and shocked them. There were students lying on the ground, badly hurt. We would definitely need a return to the past after this one, which sucked because then Morgan would get even stronger.
Suddenly I saw William out of the corner of my eye run up onto the stage with a megaphone, which I guessed he got from the gym. He took in a deep breath and talked as loud as he could.
"EVERYONE REMAIN CALM. IF YOU CAN HEAR THIS, MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE GYMNASIUM AND BARRICADE THE DOORS."
Students and staff turned and looked at him. William didn't really have any authority, but in a crisis, I think they were just looking for someone, anyone, to take the lead. So now that people were actually going to the gym, I could focus on getting the unconscious people there. The biggest person in the area was Mr. Delmas. Figures he was the first to rush to the scene. This was Sissi. It took some muscle, but I got him up on my shoulder. As I got close to the gym, Delmas regained some consciousness. He was still very out of it, though.
"Stern...Elizabeth, what's wrong with my Elizabeth..."
"That's not Sissi." I explained as I opened the door and set him down inside. "Stay here and rest."
I went back outside. The courtyard was a lot emptier, and now Sissi was staring me down. No more chaos to spread, so it was time to go for the main baddies, huh? Or...goodies? She slowly approached me, her whole body coursing with electricity. When suddenly, my phone rang. I checked the number, it was Jeremie. I picked up while still backing away.
"Jeremie?"
"Ulrich. Glad I got a hold of you. The scanners are unplugged and Morgan is giving everyone a hard time on Lyoko. I'm all tied up trying to get this multiagent running again."
"Yeah, ok, I get the picture. I'll be there right away." I said, and hung up. William was backing up with me. Sissi locked eyes with the gun and shot electricity at me. I had to jump out of the way but it still shocked me pretty bad. It really hurt.
"Jeremie?" William asked.
"Yeah." I said, getting up.
"You go, you're more experienced. Toss me the gun. I'll stay here in case Morgan decides to send anything else." William said. I nodded and tossed William the gun, then ran off for the factory. The area was filled with the sound of sirens. Police were showing up. That wasn't good. We would definitely need to return to the past...
I went to the factory. Nobody saw me on the way there, I checked. I slid down the rope and pressed the button to call the elevator. Or, rather, that's what I was gonna do, but the elevator button was smashed to bits, and the elevator itself was nowhere to be seen. It looked like the cable had been cut. Morgan really did a number on things, huh?
"Ugh..." I heard a voice from the elevator. I went over to check, Stacey was hanging from the edge of the elevator shaft. I was...really confused.
"Stacey, what are you doing here?" I asked, then I realized she was still hanging. I reached out to her. "Here, take my hand."
She took my hand and struggled a little bit, but managed to get on the solid ground. She took a minute to catch her breath.
"What are you doing here?" I repeated the question.
"Jeremie called me to help protect him here. Morgan snapped the cable on the elevator and beat me up pretty good too. Seems she was pissed I broke her laptop. Said she'd deal with me later and dropped me to the bottom floor. I climbed back up."
"Alright, come on." I helped her stand up. "I know a way around. Follow me."
I took her around to the room that opened up above the computer lab. I could hear electricity crackling and Morgan's laughter. I peaked into the room just in time to see Morgan throw Jeremie into a wall. I backed up, pushing Stacey with me. I found a loose pipe and picked it up. Just like my saber...except heavier...and not sharp...and more of a blunt object...ok, nothing like my saber, but it would work.
"Ok, here's the plan. I'll take care of Morgan. As soon as she's down, you go down the ladder to the floor below and plug in the scanners." I said in a really hushed and rushed tone.
"How do I know what the scanners are?" Stacey asked.
"Big tubes, can't miss em, one big plug in the back. Got it? Good. Let's go."
I went onto the beams until I was right above Morgan's head. She was standing near the Supercomputer. No I couldn't let her mess with the Supercomputer. I jumped down, swinging the pipe over my head down at her head. It made direct contact and she did that things spectres did when they got hit. She got all black and static-y and fell down. That gave Jeremie the opportunity to scramble over to the controls. Stacey was already downstairs, and from the look on Jeremie's face, she plugged in the scanners.
"Yes!" Jeremie cried out excitedly. He put on the headset. "Devirtualize yourselves now! I'm going to run the program."
I looked down at Morgan just to make sure she didn't pull one last trick.
"How...?" She mumbled.
"We had help from a friend." I smirked down at her. "Maybe you should try making some someday."
Morgan jumped up and tried to attack Jeremie, and I moved to defend him, but then Jeremie pressed the Enter button, and Morgan began to fuzz at the edges. She looked panicked, she looked in pain, and then she vanished into the Supercomputer. Yumi, Odd, Aelita, and Stacey climbed up from the scanner room.
"Did you do it Jeremie? Is she gone?" Aelita asked. Jeremie stared at the computer for a few minutes. It seemed like everything was going fine, but then the room started to get real hot...and sparks flew from the wiring.
"What's wrong, Einstein?" Odd asked. "Did the Supercomputer blow a gasket or something?!"
"Back up!" Jeremie yelled, and we all backed way up against the walls. There was a large electrical discharge, and the casing of the Supercomputer melted a little, and there was smoke, but then it settled, and we all looked at Jeremie.
"Yeah. We got her."
Time Elapsed Since Last Chapter: 4 days
Time elapsed since chapter 1: 3 weeks 2 days.
Show's over folks, Morgan's dead...Nah, there's more.