He Who Calls
Chapter 7
"Milo!" exclaimed Ulrich as he walked into his room. Milo's whole body was lit up from electrocution. He was floating a tenth of an inch off the ground. Ulrich ran over and tried to pick him up, but the shockwave stunned him, too. He fell next to Milo, his hand lying on Milo's arm.
"All right," said Jeremy. "I'm sending you. Virtualization!"
The figures dropped onto the Desert Sector.
"Where's the tower?" asked Odd.
"It's somewhere to the northeast. I can't pinpoint it. But there are some tarantulas headed your way. Thankfully William's not with them. He must be at the tower."
The tarantulas had sat down and were firing rapidly. Three of the things, thought Yumi. Milo must be on his way out. I hope Ulrich found him okay.
The Tarantulas were still firing. Odd had already been hit once. Aelita had activated her wings and was soaring overhead. She threw down an energy field, splattering one on the ground.
"Got one," she said.
"Keep up," yelled Odd. He fired three arrows at a tarantula, all missing but one finding the mark and annihilating it. The other tarantula shot Odd two more times, and he vanished.
"They got Odd!" Yumi hollered to Aelita. Then she threw a fan and finished off the last one. They ran to the tower. William jumped off the top of it and landed safely. There were no monsters with him. He charged at Yumi. Once again they ran to the edge of the sector. Yumi smiled. Aelita was in the tower and she was being held at sword point. Perfect. Just as he was about to push her over, she ran forward, impaling herself on his sword and returning to the real world. Aelita's handprint wrote the words: Code Lyoko. And the tower was deactivated.
On the real world, Milo and Ulrich fell to the ground. Ulrich was able to get up, but Milo was still unconscious. Ulrich checked his heart and pulse. He was alive, but just barely. He should be able to recover with some rest. Ulrich phoned Jeremy.
"He's alive. He nearly died, but he's alive. I'll give you the details later."
"All right," said Jeremy. He hung up. Odd had been watching the battle silently. Yumi and Aelita just came up. "Milo's alive. He's the closest anyone's come to death in a while, but he is alive." There was a mutual sigh of relief. "We better go up and see him and Ulrich."
After everyone had checked to see if Milo was okay, they left. Except for Aelita.
"Hi," he said. He was lying down. "What's up?"
"Not much," she lied. "I was just wondering… Would you like to go to the dance with me?" He smiled.
"Sure. I'd love to. As long as you don't mind going with a twelve-year-old." She smiled at that.
"Of course I don't mind. And they said you were a genius."
Later that night, Odd walked up to Aelita's room and knocked on the door. She opened it in her nightclothes, rubbing her eyes.
"Odd?" she asked. "It's the middle of the night. What do you want?"
"Will you go to the dance with me?" The words spilled out of his mouth.
"Oh," said Aelita, looking down. "I'm… already going with someone."
"Who asked you?" Odd said, trying to mimic casual conversation, though he was almost crying.
"No one."
"You just said you were going with someone!"
"I asked him, Odd."
"Who?"
"Milo," said Aelita. "I'm sorry. I didn't know." But Odd was already walking away, no longer holding back tears.