Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners, particularly the characters taken from the animated series, Code Lyoko and the television series Star Trek. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Jeremie and Aelita were lost in a swarm of enemies. It seemed like their entire existence was running, shooting, stopping, shielding and running again.
The Hornets and Krabes quickly turned into Creepers and Megatanks. And they didn't just attack in singles and pairs, they attacked in dozens. Jeremie fired bolt after bolt of green energy, instantly destroying whatever target he hit. When one of the monsters fired back, he raised his shield and stopped the blow.
Aelita was by his side, using her own weapons. Earlier in the summer, she and Jeremie had worked on an offensive weapon for her, an energy field. She could generate a ball of energy and cast it at any target, taking it out instantly. Some experimentation found that she could also use two energy orbs as a kind of shield, though they didn't know how effective it would be.
Now, however, Aelita's energy field was composed of the same green energy that Jeremie's energy bolts were. And even though she was utilizing the persona she always had on Lyoko, she was also equipped with the same shields that Jeremie had.
"Look out! On your right!" Jeremie suddenly called out.
The pink princess looked right, just in time to see a Megatanks beam cutting straight at her, horizontally. She instantly brought her shield up to block the blow. The moment the beam touched the shield, it shattered like glass.
"I've never seen them do that before!" Aelita exclaimed.
"You would have to figure that they would learn something sooner or later," Jeremie replied, "let's move on."
"Target Borg are directly ahead," came the voice of the Collective, "no further resistance detected; advance and secure targets."
The two Lyoko Warriors looked ahead and saw the Waytower from the Forest Sector to the Mountain Sector. Directly in front of the tower were their targets, two Borg.
When their adversaries noticed their approach, one of the drones entered the tower, while the other began laying down suppression fire. Both teens shielded themselves from the bolts.
"WARNING! Sector destabilizing!" the Collective suddenly said.
"What? What's going on?" Jeremie shouted back.
"The Forest Sector is beginning to delete itself," came the reply, "the drone that entered the tower entered some kind of erasure program. Withdraw immediately from the area, and prepare to be removed."
Now, the effects of the Borg's action was being seen. The tower vanished, and the drone that was inside dropped to the ground, before disappearing. The one guarding the tower vanished too. Then, all of the ground surrounding the tower started to vanish.
"C'mon, 'Lita! We gotta go!" Jeremie shouted.
"Man, I'm really on my game today!" Odd exclaimed as he destroyed his twentieth Krabe.
He and Suzanne had been wading through an ocean of Krabes, Bloks and Tarantulas for what seemed like an eternity. Mrs. Hertz had quickly caught on to the way the game was played, and was snapping off shots like she had been doing it all of her life. She had gotten confident enough to fire at one target, then turn and shoot the next one before the first target had even been hit.
"I must admit, I've never done anything like this," she marveled, "I'll have to try one of those video games you kids are going on and on about sometime."
"Who knows, maybe we can talk Einstein into letting you in the gang," Odd said as he blocked a shot from three Creepers who had caught him in a crossfire."
"Target drones ahead," said the Collective, "be advised; the Forest Sector has been deleted, due to the actions of the drones in that sector. The probability is high that the sector will be deleted if the drones believe they will be taken. Use caution in your approach and be prepared for extraction at any sign of instability."
As they drew closer to their objective, the monsters seemed to get even thicker, if that were possible. Now, instead of the larger monsters like Krabes, they were being attacked by waves and waves of Bloks, Kankerlats and Hornets. Both warriors were almost continually firing at targets, their shields flaring whenever they received return fire. A lucky shot got through and devirtualized Odd; but a millisecond later, he was right back in the same position, firing again.
Their quarry was stationed in front of the Waytower between the Desert Sector and the Mountain Sector. As they approached, the two Borg began firing at them along with the other monsters. The mass of incoming fire was so great, Odd and Suzanne couldn't even return fire. They just kept advancing, their shields flaring at full power the entire time. When a monster touched one of their shields, it was instantly destroyed.
The two were finally close enough to see the Borg's faces. Suzanne fired on them while Odd protected their back from the monsters they just waded through. Suzanne scored a hit on one of the drones, causing it to vanish. The other turned and immediately entered the tower before the woman could hit it.
"One drone secured," the Collective said, "WARNING! Sector destabilizing! Prepare for devirtualization!"
Odd and Suzanne disappeared before the Waytower did.
"Eyaaahhhh! Take that! And that!" Jim exulted, "what, you want a piece of me?! Take that!"
Each time Jim shouted, he fired at a target. Each time he fired, the monster was destroyed.
"Ah, Jim; do you remember doing anything like this before?" Yumi asked him as she fending off her own attackers.
"No! This is so cool, I think I'd remember it if I'd done this before!" was the reply.
The two were being assaulted by just about every monster in Lyoko, including flying Mantas. the large avian fish would fly over the two, dropping their mines down from above. Their shields held, but it was hampering progress.
Yumi's fans were whirling all around, trying to take out the airborne targets. Keeping track of each fan was difficult, but deep in the back of her mind, something helped her out.
Jim just stood and fired at whatever approached from the ground, oblivious at being shot at. Each time a bolt would hit, his shield would flare up at the last instant, deflecting the shot. He was a maniac, living out every little boy's fantasy of shooting all of the bad guys and never getting hurt.
"Be advised," the Collective called out, "The Desert Sector has been deleted; proceed with caution."
Suddenly, and opening presented itself. Yumi guided two of her fans in and hit one of the Mantas, destroying it. As it perished, it rammed into another Manta, pushing it into the mines it had just laid.
"Yeah, girl! That's the way to do it!" Jim shouted, "my old Sargent told me, 'if you get two with one shot, ya done good!'"
Just as he finished his praise, a flurry of fire came in and devirtualized him. An instant later, he was right back where he was before.
"Whoa! Better watch myself next time," he said, turning his attention back on his attackers.
Even though Yumi and Jim were more or less pinned down where they were, Yumi's fans gave them the ability to press their attack forward. The airborne enemies had been cleared away for the moment, so now the Japanese girl could concentrate on the Borg. She directed her weapons to swoop down upon them. She managed to hit one, devirtualizing it, while the other deflected the blow and made for the tower it was standing before.
Yumi knew what the drone's tactic was; if it couldn't hold the Sector, it would enter the tower and delete it. Yumi directed her fans to swoop down and around the drone, keeping it away from the entrance. The Borg responded by firing at the impediments, destroying one of them.
"Jim, can you hit that drone?" Yumi shouted, "it's about to delete the Sector!"
Jim took careful aim, because the distance was so far, and fired. He caught the drone square in the back just as it was about to enter the tower. It devirtualized half way through.
"Alright! We saved one!' Yumi shouted.
Jim was about to join her when the Collective called out, "WARNING! Sector destabilizing! Prepare to be devirtualized!"
"Damn!" Jim said just before they vanished, "all that work and they delete the place anyways!"
Ulrich and Dr. Janeway were negotiating their way across the ice to their objective. Unlike the others, these two warriors had yet to meet any resistance.
"I don't like the feel of this," Ulrich said, "we should have run into something by now."
"I agree, something's up," Janeway said, "status update!"
"Three drones have been secured," said the Collective, "three sectors have been deleted. Current projections indicate that the drones will delete the Ice Sector without delay."
"Why are they deleting Lyoko," Ulrich asked, "we can get directly into Sector Five without the other sectors, right?"
"That's right," Janeway said, then adding to the Collective, "analyze current quantum memory utilization. Query: how much memory was freed by the deletion of the other sectors, and how is that memory being utilized."
"Current utilization is unchanged. Quantum memory released by the deletion of the other sectors has been rerouted to support Sector Five. WARNING! Sector destabilizing! Prepare for immediate devirtualization!"
"Hmm," Janeway said as they devirtualized, "they're not even going to fight us anymore."
Janeway's eyes snapped open in his alcove. He reoriented himself, stepped out, then took stock of his surroundings. The others had left their alcoves just as soon as the connection to Lyoko broke. Jim was regaling Suzanne and the others with his adventures in Lyoko. The rest, other than Yumi and Ulrich, stood around listening to his stories. Yumi was again pressed up against the gestation chamber Ulrich was in. Ulrich, surprisingly awake, was pressed against the chamber from his side, trying to get to his other half.
"I guess the old maxim is true," Janeway said, "'no plan survives contact with the enemy."
"So now what?" Jeremie asked.
"Now, we face them in Sector Five," Janeway replied, we've got three of them, so that leaves six left to secure."
"Six against six; that's better odds than I thought we'd have," Odd said.
"Actually, it's not six against six," Janeway said, "remember, they've got XANA on their side, and it can control just about everything on Lyoko. They tried using what was there to stop us and that didn't work. Now, they're going to probably reconfigure things to give them a better playing field for when we next go after them. R & R for a few minutes, folks. Jeremie, we need to do a little more scouting before we go back in."