"Diary of Jeremie Belpois, March 8. I haven't gotten very far with finding a way to virtualize the guys into Sector 5; I keep coming up to dead ends. XANA's been quiet for over a week now. It's unusual, but it's given me time to work. The last time XANA launched an attack, all he did was activate a tower and then deactivate it. That's happened twice, and since then, nothing. Other than that, no new updates. Jeremie Belpois, signing off."
Jeremie tapped a button on the keyboard and the video window disappeared. He leaned back in the large, yellow chair he so frequently occupied and let his eyes rest for a moment or two.
A high-pitched beeping sounded and made Jeremie sit straight up, his eyes popping to life. An automatic activated tower scan then ensued and came up with a blinking red winner. Jeremie's hand instinctively reached for the cell phone in his pocket, but stopped. He sat tensely in the chair (an automatic reaction after dealing with XANA for so long), waiting for the screen to change. He patiently sat for two whole minutes, and when he was satisfied that the activated tower was there to stay (until the faithful warriors arrived, that is), he pulled out his phone and pressed the speed dial programmed for Aelita. There were just two brief rings before he heard her voice from the other end.
Jeremie answered, "Aelita, we may have an emergency. There's an activated tower."
"What? Are you sure it's real this time?" Aelita said above the ruckus of the cafeteria.
"Oh, it's real, all right," said Jeremie, already bringing the familiar virtualization program to the screen. "XANA's finally woken up."
The sounds of scraping chairs and sliding trays filled the lunchroom as Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita had the unfortunate pleasure of watching Odd scoop every last bit of his second helpings noisily into his mouth.
"Could you be any louder, Odd? I don't think everyone can hear you," said Ulrich, sitting back casually in his seat.
Odd merely stuck out his tongue in response and continued eating. Aelita gave a soft chuckle and shook her head. "Really, Odd, I don't think there's any more food left."
Odd looked at his tray for a moment before turning to Yumi, whose almost empty tray was still on the table in front of her.
"Uhh, Yumi? Are you…?"
Yumi gave a sigh, though Odd knew she was not really upset. She slid her tray to her left so it sat beside Odd's, and he happily picked up the roll she had not eaten.
"Oh, Ulrich, dear!"
"Oh, great. Are you kidding me?" Ulrich rested his head in his hands and waited for the annoyingly familiar person to catch up with her equally aggravating voice.
Sissi Delmas reached the end of their table, where Ulrich was fortunately sitting near the opposite side. She carried her lunch tray in her hands, which was empty except for a pool of leftover gravy; on her face was a rare, wide smile.
"What do you want, Sissi?" Ulrich asked as her two goons, Nicolas and Hervé, arrived behind her, standing as close as she'd allow without turning around and smacking them.
"And whatever it is, please make it quick so you can leave us alone," said Yumi. She wore an aggravated frown and deliberately spoke to the table as she addressed Sissi.
"Well, someone's in a sour mood," said Sissi, speaking only to Ulrich. "What's wrong, Ulrich, dear?"
"What's wrong is you won't leave me alone," Ulrich pointedly stated.
"Sissi, why don't you go look for a couple more brain cells to keep the one you have company?" Aelita chimed in, rather unexpectedly.
Sissi, slightly surprised, turned to Aelita and gave her a sneer. "Don't take your anger out on me, Miss Einstein, just because Jeremie would rather be on a date with his computer than here with all of you." Aelita simply folded her arms and repeated Odd's reply from earlier and stuck her tongue out. She even offered a small 'nnnn' sound to go with it. Everyone at the table openly grinned and chuckled. With that, Sissi gave a loud 'Humph!', turned on her heel, and marched away.
Yumi shook her head and watched Sissi's retreating back for a moment, before turning back to her friends. "Why doesn't she see what a giant pain she is?"
"Well I sure hope she realizes it soon. She drives me nuts," said Ulrich.
"I think something ought to be done about her," Odd said, with a mischievous grin on his face.
"Odd, what are you…" Ulrich said, knowing that whatever his friend was planning wouldn't have good consequences.
Odd, still holding Yumi's uneaten roll in his hand, turned around in his seat and took aim.
"Odd!" Yumi exclaimed.
"Hey, Sissi!" he called out.
She turned around and, seeing who it was, gave an annoyed and uninterested, "What?"
Odd's reply was simply, "Catch!" The biscuit was launched into the air and came down squarely in the middle of the large glob of gravy still sitting on Sissi's tray. The brown, liquidy substance splattered Sissi's forearms and the front of her pink top. She let out a screech and her tray clattered to the floor.
Aelita, Yumi, Ulrich, and the rest of the lunchroom let out gasps, but ultimately couldn't hide their laughter. Odd was nearly in tears as Sissi shook with fury. "Odd, you little rat!" she yelled. Before she could do anything else, however, a voice boomed from a foot behind her.
"Hey! What's going on here?" Jim demanded, looking from the vicious and messy Sissi over to the table where Odd sat with his friends, who had managed to conceal their amusement for the time being. He took a few large steps to the table and stuck his fists on his hips.
"Hello there, Jim. How has your day been?" asked Odd cheerfully.
"Don't give me any of that, Della Robia. Now I want some answers! Who did this?" He pointed at Sissi with a meaty finger.
"It was Odd!" came Hervé's squealing voice. He stood next to Sissi, whose arms were crossed and expression was aggravated. Hervé, however, looked thoroughly pleased to come to Sissi's rescue and have the chance to complicate Odd's life, or any of his friends' lives after all the grief they've caused him, and of course, Sissi.
"Della Robia, why am I not surprised?" said Jim, stating the question more than asking it. "You're spending the rest of lunch with me. Let's go."
"B-But-" Odd started, no longer smiling.
"No 'buts'. Now get up and follow me, come on." Jim beckoned for Odd to stand up and waited with his arms folded.
Sissi, who had stuck around to see Odd get his punishment, gave her hair a small toss behind her shoulder, stuck her head up high, and hurried out the cafeteria doors. Hervé and Nicolas, looking slightly dumbfounded as usual, followed Sissi out of the lunchroom, leaving her forgotten tray on the floor.
Standing up with a frown on his face, Odd stopped in mid-chair-pushing-in when Aelita's cell phone sprang to life in her pocket. He stalled and fidgeted as much as he could as she held the phone to her ear and said, "Yes, Jeremie?"
Ulrich and Yumi were also alert, and were all listening intently, but discreetly, to Aelita's tone and reactions to piece together the parts of the conversation they could not hear.
"What? Are you sure it's real this time?"
Odd was now pretending to tie his shoe, with an impatient Jim waiting a few feet behind him.
"Della Robia, let's move!" Jim called out.
Odd had no choice but to stand up and walk behind Jim to the other end of the cafeteria. As he left, he heard Aelita saying into the phone, "Ok, we'll be right there," and promptly, "It's an activated tower," to the others still at the table. He chanced a look back at his friends and gave them a nod; they all gave a confident nod back. Odd stood for a moment behind a chair at Jim's empty table, ready to be the silent look-out.
The small, green peas and pile of potatoes on Mollie's tray sat untouched as she leisurely picked apart her bread roll. Apart from the incident she'd witnessed involving gravy and the unfortunate (and loud) principal's daughter that took place just minutes ago, things around Kadic had been noticeably quiet the past few days. She'd been doing a good job keeping up with her schoolwork, and, when she had a moment or two to breathe-right now being a prime example-her mind would wander back to that startling stony face and those sharp, quiet eyes…
Three figures were caught out of the corner of Mollie's eye and she glanced up in front of her, raising her head slightly. Aelita, Yumi, and (she felt her insides grow hot) Ulrich were hurriedly making their way to the doors that led out into the courtyard. The strange thing was that they all wore similar expressions: powerful, determined, and slightly cautious.
Noticing, however, that neither Odd nor Jeremie were with their friends, Mollie turned her head around to where they had come from, but found their table to be completely vacated. She did, however, catch a shock of blond and purple moving a bit to her right, and she swiveled the other way in her seat to see more easily.
Odd pulled a chair out in front of him and stepped to the side to sit down next to a grumpy-looking Jim. He wore a calm, confidant expression, but held the seriousness of some important job tucked into the corners of his bright eyes. He gave the door that his friends had just exited one last look, then went to sit in his chair and face front. As he brought his head back around, though, his eyes moved over the cafeteria and its chattering occupants; but his eyes met, very briefly, with one of the few silent dwellers. Mollie's face was alight with curiosity, and she had about a million paranoid questions buzzing about in her head like angry bees. Odd could obviously see that Mollie was sitting in a twisted position, not at all casual or natural; she was half facing him, half the wall. She didn't want to seem strange for this particular arrangement, but before she could do anything (in that split second this was all happening, mind you), Odd simply turned his head forward and slipped into his seat.
Slightly frustrated, Mollie also turned back around in her chair and merely stared at her food once more. She, too, gave the lunchroom doors one last look before she stood up and walked her tray coolly to the garbage cans.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
The soft sound of Jeremie's nails drumming against the arm of his chair was the only noise in the large, echoing chamber that housed Lyoko's monitor until he heard a distant rumbling coming from somewhere above his head. As the rumbling grew louder, he straightened in his seat and picked up his headset from its perch on the keyboard. The large gears on the front of the elevator creaked slightly as they turned and meshed. The doors slid open with a resounding hiss, and a soft mist crept from the opening between the floor and the door. Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi exited the elevator and made their way to the large monitor where Jeremie had begun typing away on the keyboard.
"No signs of a XANA attack, Jeremie," said Yumi as the worn metal doors behind her hissed back into place.
"Hmm. That's a little strange," Jeremie said, following Yumi with his head as she joined her friends surrounding the back of the large chair. "But where's Odd?" he asked her, looking at the three, not four, members of their little group of heroes.
"He couldn't come. Got tied up with Jim in the lunchroom," Ulrich answered instead. Jeremie swung his head around to his right to look at his friend. His expression said more, but Jeremie didn't need to hear it vocalized. He internally gave a sigh, knowing that Odd had gotten himself into some sort of mischief and now had to pay the price.
"Well then, no use just waiting around. Head for the scanners," Jeremie decided, and Yumi led the way back to the elevator.
"Virtualization!"
Three soft 'thuds' were heard along with the slight scratching of shoes against sand. A light dust was kicked up and gently dissolved into the virtual air of Lyoko. Ulrich stood straight and scanned his and his friends' surroundings, automatically checking for monsters or anything else that would send them off their path to wherever the activated tower lay ahead. Fortunately, he saw nothing but desert surrounding them on all sides. The clearing they were in was fairly large, and ended about 50 or so yards behind them. In front of them, the edges of the clearing dented inward slightly to form a wide, long pathway heading for an immense wall of smooth, sandy, desert. The land curved around the far away barrage, giving a way of access to the next segment of the Sector, but it was lost from their view. The clearing, the path in front of them, and the base of the tall barrier was adorned with the large, pointed gray rocks that so frequently made themselves at home throughout the virtual world.
As Aelita and Yumi got to their feet, Jeremie spoke to them from the open Lyoko sky. "The tower is due northeast, 66 degrees."
"Mind calling us a taxi?" Yumi playfully asked.
"Coming right up."
The forms of two great masses of virtual machinery solidified in front of Yumi and Ulrich. The latter immediately straddled his Overbike, his need for speed beginning to become restless at the sight of the smooth-riding vehicle.
Yumi stepped onto the waiting platform of the Overwing, which lowered toward the sandy ground with her weight and bobbed back up like a cork in water. Aelita hopped up behind her and lightly placed her hands around the other girl's waist for balance and safety. Yumi gripped the Overwing's handlebar and urged it forward, Ulrich already having revved up the Overbike and sped before them.
All was quiet for the moment, save for the humming of the vehicles, as Jeremie spoke to his friends once more. "I think I'm seeing some monsters heading your way. Be on the lookout."
"I'd say it's about time. Things have been getting boring around here lately," Ulrich said. Yumi simply shook her head, following a bit behind him as Aelita smiled.
The unpredictable layout of Lyoko turned and parted far ahead of them, and the orange-tinted void above them was as vast as the nighttime sky. And from that sky came a buzzing pack of five determined Hornets, swooping down on the trio as soon as they were in sight.
Yumi glanced back at the sound of the approaching monsters and surged forward right next to Ulrich. "Here come our guests," she said to him, pulling a compacted fan out from its place in her kimono. She glanced back at the Hornets once more to take aim before whipping the fan behind her back and up into the air. Aelita dutifully dodged Yumi's swinging arm and turned her head to follow the fan to its target. It passed the lead Hornet on its left, the monster having darted smoothly to the right to avoid the sharp blade. The fan arched back to its owner, Aelita ducking once more to avoid being hit. Hearing the blade cut through the air, Yumi stuck her hand up over her shoulder and the fan neatly fell into her grasp. She tucked it away, frowning at the failed attempt.
To their right, two Hornets who had broken away from the pack were closing in on Ulrich. He cocked his head slightly both directions, hearing one Hornet on his left and one on his right. The two flying monsters closed in simultaneously as Ulrich abruptly put the brakes on his Overbike. The Hornets passed over him and stopped, seeming confused, but Ulrich was already re-accelerating and before they could pull back, he drew his gleaming sword from its sheath and thrust it into the air, cutting clean through one of the hovering Hornets. It exploded into tiny pixels, which quickly faded from sight as its companion hurriedly left to find the others. Ulrich gave a small, satisfied grin.
The four remaining Hornets droned loudly above and just behind Aelita's head as Yumi kept a steady pace on the Overwing, dodging the monsters' frequent lasers as best she could. One lucky shot, however, sliced the tail end of the Overwing, giving it a healthy push forward. The smooth gray vehicle flickered feebly, then disappeared altogether. Both girls fell through the platform that was no longer there, letting out small shouts of surprise.
Landing on their feet, Yumi and Aelita took off running while the Hornets continued to fire after them.
"Well this is just great," said Yumi as she reached behind her back once more, this time revealing both her sharp fans.
"The tower isn't too far now," came Jeremie's voice.
Yumi whipped her arms out behind her and released her weapons with a small shriek of attack. The razors flew towards the small flock of Hornets, one missing its target, but the second hitting a monster directly in the large Eye of XANA that rested on its head. The three remaining Hornets began firing their glowing red lasers at the girls once more.
Ulrich rode up to Aelita's side and halted the bike next to her, bowing his head slightly and gripping the brim of an imaginary ten-gallon hat atop his head. He gave her a half-smile, which she returned with a happy full one. She swung a leg over the Overbike and settled behind him.
Yumi understood the silent communication between her and her fellow fighter, and she slowed her pace and turned around to face the monsters alone. Ulrich started the Overbike's engine again and sped off in the direction of the tower with Aelita, who turned her head to see the Hornets slowing to a hover above Yumi's head, still firing their lasers. Yumi brought her fans up close to her body and deflected the lasers with sharp accuracy. She whipped her arm out and released a sharp fan, getting hit in her shoulder. She gave out a small gasp, but kept defending herself with the fan in her left hand. Her trusty weapon sliced through a Hornet and returned to her. There were two left now, and on a gut impulse, Yumi turned around and began running further into the desert in the direction that Aelita and Ulrich had sped off in. The Hornets continued to chase her and fired continuous lasers, missing most of the time. 'A moving target is harder to hit' was Yumi's philosophy.
One of the things that Ulrich wished he could change about the world of Lyoko was the lack of senses you could experience there. Speeding through the virtual desert with Aelita clinging faithfully to his waist, he could only imagine what it might feel like to really have the harsh wind hitting his face and the sand being kicked up beneath his bike's fast wheel. On Lyoko, the senses and feelings didn't exactly disappear completely, but it was nothing compared to the real world. He supposed it's probably more convenient, but having never ridden a motorbike in the real world, he had nothing to compare it too.
He was brought out of his reverie when he heard Jeremie's voice echo above him. "Watch out Ulrich, there are two Krabs coming your way."
Ulrich looked forward and focused a little into the distance of the large plain they'd entered. Sure enough, he could see two large, claw-like figures making their way toward him and Aelita. With the Overbike's speed and the Krabs' long legs, it wasn't long before he and the monsters had closed the distance. Once they were within firing range, the Krabs tilted their massive, flat heads and began shooting their red lasers. With the adrenaline of battle flowing through Ulrich's body (something that he could definitely feel on Lyoko), he quickly made a plan of attack. He tuned his head so that Aelita was able to hear him shout, "Jump!"
Aelita did what she was told, having full trust in Ulrich's battle plans. She put her weight on the right peg of the bike she had her foot resting on, pushed up and brought her left leg above the height of the seat, and thrusted herself off the side of the vehicle. Before she clamored to the dusty ground, she tucked her head to her chest and ended up landing and rolling on her shoulder, getting upright a few moments later.
She was not hurt, of course, but was a bit startled from the jump and the impact. She remained crouched on the ground and watched as Ulrich performed a practiced and successful technique. He revved the Overbike's engine, getting as much last bit of speed as possible. He aimed directly at the Krab on the right, which was currently charging up its laser for another attack. Unaware of what was happening, the monster continued walking forward to the speeding vehicle as Ulrich very suddenly leaned violently to the side and leapt from the Overbike much like Aelita had done. The bike fell onto its side, but continued skidding forward with the momentum it'd gotten moments ago and slid right into the Krab's gangly legs. The monster toppled forward and landed upside down. The force of both the vehicle and the ground's impact caused the Krab to devirtualize into dozens of tiny pixels.
With one enemy down and now forced to fight on his feet, Ulrich unsheathed his saber from his side and brought it up to his chest to deflect a laser that had just come his way. He let out a grunt as the force pushed him back several centimeters.
The second Krab continued to fire as Aelita quickly slouched behind a large rock for cover. She knew she needed to help Ulrich while she had the element of surprise on her side. Still a bit unsure of her newly acquired power, she peeked from around the edge of the boulder and could easily see the large, red Krab. It was slowly taking steps toward Ulrich, keeping up a steady line of lasers much more damaging than the Hornets' they'd faced earlier. Aelita held out her hand in front of her, palm facing upward. She concentrated slightly on her palm, feeling a small pool of energy accumulate there. Almost instantly, a sphere of pink, pulsing light popped from her hand and rested there like a beating heart. She lifted her palm up and out toward the Krab, the ball of energy remaining in her hand. Squinting slightly, Aelita aimed carefully and concentrated once more on both the weapon in her hand and the monster ahead of her. With some force and a small noise of attack, the orb shot from Aelita's open hand and into the air at the Krab.
Unfortunately, with Aelita's lack of experience with the new ability that Jeremie had been clever enough to program, the deadly ball missed its desired target and whizzed in front of the Krab instead.
Its attention grabbed, the Krab ceased momentary fire on Ulrich and turned instead to the rock which Aelita was only half hidden by. Seeing the more desirable target, the Krab started to make its way to Aelita and shot its lasers at her rather than Ulrich. Aelita ducked back behind the temporary safety of the boulder and saw red beams fly above her head and felt them come into harsh contact with the rock pressed against her back.
Ulrich, no longer under the Krab's attack, planted his foot behind him in the sand. With his hand gripped tight around his sword's handle, he centered his energy and yelled, "Super Sprint!" Ulrich shot forward, his feet having no difficulty keeping up with his speed. Within a few seconds he was able to jump high into the air with ease and landed on top of the Krab's head. It stopped in its path, seeming confused. But before it had time to work out what was happening, Ulrich lifted his saber over his head and brought it down squarely into the Krab's large Eye of XANA with a loud shout of: "Impact!"
He leaped backwards off the monster as it exploded, and with the threat of XANA gone for the time being, Aelita came out from behind the slightly cratered rock.
Aelita gave Ulrich a smile of thanks and opened her mouth to speak, but was stopped short as she and Ulrich both received blows to their backs. They turned around to see Yumi approaching them, followed by two shooting Hornets.
"This is getting crazy!" Ulrich said to Aelita, who took a few defensive steps away from the monsters out of habit.
"Yumi!" Ulrich called to his friend. "Get Aelita to the tower!"
Yumi took advantage of a moment where neither of the Hornets were firing to launch a fan at one of them. It missed, and she retreated over to Aelita. The two girls took off running as Ulrich stood his ground in front of the monsters.
"Okay," he said, placing both of his hands on his saber's handle. "Now it's just you and me." Ulrich gave a determined smile and ran at the remaining Hornets.
As Yumi and Aelita raced to the tower, Yumi first heard and then saw still more red lasers being shot above her head and on either side of her. How in the world did they get past Ulrich? she thought, but assumed XANA must have just sent for reinforcements.
"XANA's not giving up," Yumi said to Aelita as they ran, and Aelita shook her head in agreement.
One laser hit Aelita right between her shoulder blades, sending her flying forward onto the ground. Yumi stopped to help scoop her back up, just as they heard Jeremie's voice from above them.
"Don't worry, you guys, you're almost at the tower!"
Sure enough, as the two rounded a small bend in front of them, a large, looming tower with a red ring of smoke sat in the middle of a large plain about a hundred meters in front of them.
As they approached the activated tower, the girls slowed their pace and Yumi halted in front of its brown base. She gave a small jerk with her head toward the tower and said to Aelita, "Go do your thing."
Aelita smiled and nodded, then turned away from Yumi and walked right up to the tower. She took another step forward and her foot melted through the outside wall, the rest of her body following. As she disappeared from view, Yumi stood outside and patiently waited for the tower's red ring to turn white against the desert sky.
Jeremie breathed a small sigh of relief as the alert window showing XANA's activated tower quieted and then disappeared from the screen. Satisfied with how smoothly things had gone, he proceeded to rematerialize Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi. He then quickly moved on to the next item on his mental checklist, pulling up Odd's cell phone number on the Supercomputer and connecting to it.
Once the dial tone clicked off and Odd answered with a quiet, "Hello?" Jeremie asked him how things had gone over on his end.
The heavy elevator doors slid open and Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita crossed the lab to Jeremie's chair as Odd replied, "Everything's cool over here, Jeremie. All XANA did was cause a few short circuits. Nearly scared Rosa half to death with one of them, but other than that, nothing."
"Really? That was it?"
"Yeah", Odd answered.
"Huh," said Jeremie, glad he hadn't bothered to set up the Return in Time program just yet. "Well if that's all, then I guess there's no need for a Return trip." His friends shrugged their shoulders. "Well then, we'll see you back in class, Odd," Jeremie spoke into his headset. He exited the calling program and made some final endings to a couple more windows set up on the various screens. He then swung the large yellow chair around and faced his friends. "All done here," he said with a smile.
The four students turned to the elevator and stepped inside, watching the doors close on the soft, blue glow of the laboratory.