Chapter 6: Sector 5…
As Kurama ran to catch up with the others, he found himself amazed at this new sector of Lyoko. He'd not been to all the regions of this virtual world, but this one seemed so different from the ones he had.
"What is this place?" He asked Odd as they ran.
In a spooky voice Odd said. "This is where XANA lives."
"Hurry guys…two minutes and counting." Yumi's voice called to them.
"What is she talking about?" Kurama asked as they came to a stop behind the others. They all had stopped in a big crystal looking room. It was huge and everything looked the same bluish tint as the room they had just come from. The only way Kurama could describe it, was if he could be in a diamond, but that might not describe it right. A glacier maybe, but without the water, that didn't sound right either. 'A crystalline maze.' Youko thought back.
"Do you see it?" Ulrich asked no one in particular. He was scanning the labyrinth, composed of planes, cubes and rectangles in a never ending wash of bluish crystal.
"What are we looking for?" Kurama asked again, a hint of anger in his voice.
Odd spoke up. "We need to find the 'key'."
"That does not help…what does it look like…and what does this 'key' have to do with this place." Kurama tried again to get some answers.
Aelita was standing a few steps away from the others, but she had heard Kurama.
"It's a security system, if we don't deactivate it, we will be trapped and have to wait for rescue ourselves." She said.
'That does not sound like fun.' Kurama heard in his head. Starting to look for himself, though still not knowing what to look for, but hoping he would recognize something that was out of place, he asked. "Where is it usually?"
Odd jumped up on one of the hundreds of ledges. "It could be anywhere…it is never in the same place twice." He said.
"Wonderful." Kurama muttered.
"Guys…coming up on one minute." Yumi said.
After having looked up and around, Ulrich decided to look down and sure enough, there it was.
"Over there." He yelled and pointed.
"Where?" Odd and Aelita said as one.
"Over there…look down…in that corner." Ulrich said, pointing before flat out starting to jump and maneuver his way to it.
There was a rumbling in the walls and ground, the whole place started reconfiguring. Kurama watched as a pack of creatures that looked like large snakes with arms, popped out of the walls, there were five.
Ulrich's terrain had change and now he was heading more up.
The creatures started firing.
"Heads up…Creepers!" Odd yelled, just as they opened fired on the boy.
Urlich managed to dodge a few, but was hit and almost fell off the ledge, he managed to hold on and hull himself up.
"Aelita hide here." Odd said, pushing the girl down in a pocket that had opened when the room had shifted.
"Okay." She jumped down and made herself small.
"Time to rumble." Odd cried out and took off, immediately firing his laser-arrows, hitting one.
Kurama went into action. Reaching into his hair, he pulled out two roses while jumping in front of a couple of creepers. Throwing the roses, they turned into deadly darts and piercing one, right in the head, caused it to explode. The other fired.
The dodging and firing continued, Kurama taking his fair share of hits.
"Odd, watch it…only 40 life points left…Ulrich, only 20…Kurama 10…" Yumi's voice was heard.
"This ain't a walk in the park you know." Odd said, doing a flip and calling his laser-arrows, hitting another creeper.
They were down to two of the creatures, when the room shifted again. One was closed off, one wasn't.
Kurama took out the last one with his rose-whip and landed in front of Aelita, who had come out of hiding when the room started reconfiguring.
"He got the button." Odd said, panting, trying to catch his breath.
"Yes but he's been de-virtualized." Yumi voice said softly.
"Looks like it's just us." Odd said. Apparently finding his breath, he took off on another pathway that had appeared.
Kurama and Aelita followed on his heels as he went through yet another opening. Kurama slid to a stop, his eyes wide. He was looking into a void of space, standing on the edge of oblivion.
"What is this place?" He said softly.
"No time, lets move." Odd said and then jumped on a moving platform.
"Wait!" Kurama yelled as it sped off, with Odd on it.
"It will be back in a second." Aelita said and sure enough they saw it coming around the corner.
"Jump!" Odd yelled to the two and they both leaped, landing hard on their knees.
"Where are we going now?" Kurama asked, helping Aelita up.
"Where ever it takes us." Odd said.
The platform stopped, it had been moving in a side ways motion and they heard gears moving, before the platform started going up.
'This is just too weird.' Kurama thought to himself. 'There is no way I am going to be able to describe this to Hiei.'
The elevator came to a stop at a platform that was connected to the sphere, or so Kurama thought. It all looked the same to him.
This platform had a podium on it, which Aelita ran to.
"Yumi, I'm going to tap into the computer, give me the controls. I'll see if I can find Jeremy." Aelita said, calling up an image screen.
"How do I do that?" Yumi asked.
While Aelita explained, Kurama and Odd kept a look out for more of the creepers.
"Aelita…hurry up…the mantas….." Odd said, studying the walls.
Kurama did not like the sound of that.
"Got it." Aelita said, her fingers moving quickly over the panel.
As Kurama scanned the area, a panel opened at the other end of the platform along the sphere and a scipizoa came floating out. He let out a soft gasp as he realized it was carrying an unconscious Jeremy in its tentacles.
"Jeremy!" Aelita gasped, she had stopped what she'd been doing and fell to her knees, her small hands clutching her chest at the sight of the boy she cared about.
"Aelita! Aelita…give me the controls back…hurry." Yumi yelled.
Kurama took off running to the creature. He had dealt with one of these things before and knew what to do.
"Here we go." Odd said, watching as the fox took off running as he moved to Aelita, grabbing her and placing her small frame behind him, protecting her, so she could work.
Calling his rose-whip, Kurama took off all the tentacles holding the boy and just managed to catch the boy before he hit the floor, however, before Kurama could land, Jeremy faded.
The scipizoa went back into the opening.
"Yumi!" Kurama yelled, looking at his empty hands.
"Hold on." He heard. "He's here…I'll go see if he's all right. In the mean time get out and get to the tower."
"How do we get out?" He asked as Odd and Aelita approached him. Odd shrugged and a moment later they heard.
"It would be best to go back to the arena where you were." They all smiled as they heard Jeremy's voice.
"Welcome back Einstein." Odd said.
"Jeremy." Aelita's voice was soft.
"I'm fine…you need to get to the tower. You two get her out and I'll have Yumi met you in the mountain region to deactivate the tower."
"Got it." Odd said, heading back to the elevator.
They made it to the arena with no problems. "One orb ride to the mountain region please." Odd said as they came to a stop.
"Calling the transport orb…Scipio." They heard Jeremy say.
"Not again." Kurama muttered, not looking forward to the ride as the sphere arrived and engulfed them.
"One bumpy ride to the mountain region as requested." They heard Jeremy say as they arrived.
Both Kurama and Odd's stomachs did a flip and each placed a hand on their belly.
"Long time no see." They heard as Yumi appeared.
"Let's go." Kurama said and they all took off for the activated tower.
End Chapter 6