Transformation

Karen

White and her wing of friends were getting a great deal of amusement out of Small Brown's hard luck. Then they went to the factory and...blue.

Then they finished the day without any other surprises.

I opened my eyes and stretched out on my bed, clutching my hands on the pillow. Then I heard a distinct rip.

That…couldn't have been right. I opened my hands and looked at them.

And that's when I got the shock of my life. My hands were claws! "Aelita?" I turned towards her. "Am I the only one seeing this?"

Aelita looked at my hands in shock. "I see it, Karen. What could have caused that?"

I sighed. I hadn't wanted to tell her about the kiss, but… "On Lyoko yesterday, when I destroyed William? Before he disappeared, he…kissed me. I think Xana gave me a virus when he did that."

Then it was Aelita's turn to sigh. "We've got to tell Jeremie."

"No, I'm afraid I just don't trust him enough for that." Then I laughed ruefully. "This is worse than when Odd merged with Kiwi, isn't it?"

Aelita said sternly, "This isn't supposed to be funny, Karen." But she was starting to smile, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

I pulled on my oversized sweatshirt. It would hide my arms, anyway. I was scaled to my shoulders.

Odd was having some pretty bad luck during breakfast. According to Ulrich's comments, Odd had broken a mirror.

Later on Lyoko – well, actually, it was another replica – Jeremie zapped Yumi and Ulrich to Earth. He had tried to send Odd, but somehow it didn't work.

"Hey, Jeremie, how about I go along? I haven't been zapped yet."

"Well, why not? Teleportation Karen."

Ulrich

I saw Karen drop in. She looked even more amazing on Earth. "Over here, Karen!"

She ran over. "So what's up?"

Yumi answered. "Since you're white, we'll have to move quickly."

Karen pretended to sulk. "Why don't you just say because I'm the most obvious and get it over with?"

We ran to the factory and Yumi activated the elevator. As we were waiting, I asked, "Hey, Yumi, I never asked you this: what monster do you like fighting the least?"

"That's easy: the Kankrelats. I just can't stand fighting big bugs. Ugh!"

"Yeah. I most hate fighting the Megatanks. Karen?"

"William."

I smirked. William had devirtualized her twice before she could best him. "Good for you, but we're talking about – "

Yumi interrupted me. "Kankrelat!"

"Yeah, we know, you already said – "

"No, I mean over there – Kankrelat!"

Xana was sending us some monsters to play with!

Yumi's fan got one, and Karen threw a fire ball and an ice ball for the other two, but more showed up. We got into the elevator and I hit the button with my elbow.

Yumi complained as we went down, "Couldn't he have sent us some Crabs?"

I retorted, "I prefer Hornets. Jeremie?"

"What?"

"I know why Xana activated the tower. He's sending us some Kankrelats!"

We whapped a bunch of those guys in a room with an assembly line – I even got to use one of Karen's ice balls!

Then Jeremie told us that one had to go back and fight William, because Odd was gone and Aelita was chasing the tower.

Karen suddenly went chicken! "I'd better not." No explanation at all!

I suggested, "We could play for it." So we went rock-paper-scissors with Yumi, and it was two scissors to one paper – Yumi.

She was de-energized, and Karen and I went to find the computer.

I found it – but there were a bunch of Krankrelats in there! And according to Jeremie, the tower couldn't be deactivated!

After waiting for a little bit, I heard Jeremie call me back. "Hey, Ulrich, I bet you're still waiting for some good news?"

My head popped up. "Hey, yeah!"

"Sorry, don't have any. You and Karen are on your own, the tower's still active, and you're probably going to get a bug that I don't know how to fix."

"Great. Is that it?"

"No. Either you two hurry, or one of you beam back right now, because some Tarantulas are attacking the Skid."

Karen groaned. "We don't have time to go to the Skid, wake up again, and beam out again to fight! Let's do it, Ulrich. You do all the fighting, and I'll make sure you don't get sneak-attacked."

I opened the door, saying, "Okay guys, are you ready to rumble?"

I lunged in and destroyed most of them – I think Karen got the last one. Then I started flickering, and Karen lunged for the supercomputer.

I think my sabers hit it first, but I'm not sure. I know that Karen came out of the scanners at about the same time, so she must have let it destroy her.

As the elevator came up to Jeremie's level, I heard Jeremie's voice. "And another replica bites the dust."

I came in with a big smile. "Who's the man this time?" I stopped next to Odd. "Well, Odd? What do you say?"

Odd's answer: "Luck. That's what I say."

"I figured you'd say that."

Behind me, Karen sighed. I think she said "Boys."