First Attempt at Destruction

Karen

Kind Bronze told them about something in the cafeteria. Dark-Gold was extremely mad at Strong Bronze, and he asked Little Brown to do something for him. Little Brown agreed. That night, they went to the factory and…blue.

That night, Strong Bronze, Little Brown, and White were in the boys' cave. Small Brown opened a box for his rat creature, but instead pulled out a cord with a jewel on it! He looked at the cord with a miserable expression.

I opened my eyes. "Why is Yumi mad at Ulrich?"

Aelita spoke up from the other side of the room. "I have no idea."

Jeremie told us that his teleportation program to the Replika's world was successful, and we were going to test it tonight. I only understood half of what he said, but it sounded good.

After the talk, I got to overhear Ulrich and Odd.

"Now that's what I call being snubbed! What did you do?"

"I don't know. She hasn't spoken to me in two days!"

"You mean since her birthday?"

"What? That was her birthday?"

"Yup! I hope you wished her happy birthday, she's very sensitive about that."

"Aagh, I completely forgot! She'll hold that against me for weeks!"

"Don't worry, just get her a present and she'll be back to you in no time!"

"Uh…I have detention after class. I won't have time."

"I'll do it. I already have some shopping to do for me and Kiwi."

"Really? Thanks."

I smiled. Suddenly, I figured I knew why Odd had such a miserable expression when he pulled out the cord: he had given Ulrich the wrong box! That, at least, is something I knew I could help him avoid.

Ulrich

That night, we ran to the factory. Karen, Odd and I were lagging behind a little.

Odd dug into his bag, pulled out a small box, and gave it to me. "Here you go."

"What's in it?"

"A surprise! I guarantee that Yumi will forgive you!"

Suddenly, Karen took the box from me! "Wait a minute," she said. "Odd? Give him the other box and take my word for it."

Odd hesitated, then pulled out an identical box and gave it to me.

Karen nodded. "Good boy. Here." And she gave the first box back to Odd. We slid down the cables and joined the others in the elevator.

On Lyoko, we were beamed into the Skid and we took off.

"Replika, here we come!" Odd, of course.

"Can you make him shut up?" I asked.

"Why? He's really nice, unlike some people." Yumi. Why can't she just drop it?

"Amazing! They're actually talking to each other!"

"Shut up, Odd!" We agreed on that, at least.

Aelita opened the door, and we came up in the Replika. It looked just like the forest sector at Lyoko. She docked, and Jeremie activated the tower. He beamed away Aelita and Odd…

"Uh, Jeremie? It didn't work; I'm still here."

"It's normal. I forgot to tell you: this time, I'm only teleporting Aelita and Odd. You, Karen, and Yumi have to guard the Skid. Who knows what Xana's going to do."

"You should have told us. We could have drawn lots."

Aelita

We appeared in the middle of a jungle, still dressed like we are in Lyoko. Odd thought it was amazing, while I simply accepted it. Okay, okay, I thought it was impressive also.

To make a long story short, we found the factory, where Xana-possessed people were manufacturing enormous spiders, and finally found the supercomputer. However, we disappeared before we could destroy it!

"Jeremie, what happened?"

"William deactivated the tower! You have to get out of there!"

So, I flew the Skid out of the Replika and headed home.

Karen

Back in the lab, Aelita was stressing about cybernetic spiders. "We must figure out what Xana's going to do with them!"

I patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, Aelita. We'll go back to the Replika and destroy the supercomputer then. But first..."

Then Odd made a wisecrack about sleeping for a few years.

On the bridge, Ulrich gave Yumi the package. "Happy Birthday!"

And - aww, isn't that sweet? She gave him a kiss on the cheek!

Aelita looked sad, though.

"You're thinking about your birthday, aren't you?" Jeremie asked.

"Well, that's one of the things that I can't remember."

"In that case, all you have to do is choose a day."

"Can you choose for me?"

"OK."

Then there was silence for a minute.

"Well? What day?"

"No, I won't tell you. It's a surprise!"

I joined Odd and Ulrich in their room.

"Thanks for doing some shopping for me, Odd," Ulrich said.

"Oh! That reminds me. I hope you did the right thing giving Yumi the other box, Karen."

I just grinned.

Odd opened the box and... "Hey! You did get it right!"

Ulrich and I just laughed.