Chapter 5: Amnesia

With a spiraling feeling of despair Ulrich realized just how hard Mark had hit his head when he fell.

"Oh, um, sorry for nothing, really," Ulrich said. "Come on. Come with me."

Mark looked at Ulrich funny. "Why should I come with you? Should I trust you?"

"S-sure you can come with me," Ulrich stumbled to find an excuse. "Because we, uh, need to go see the nurse,"

"Why?"

"B-because….uh, because you fell and scraped your chin…?" Ulrich's sentence, which he meant as a statement, came out as a question.

Mark shrugged it off. "So? Don't I always go home with some sort of scrape?"

This surprised Ulrich. "Uhh…"

"Hey, have you seen Adam? Or Max? We're planning a surprise party for Leslie…" When Mark said the girl's name, a strange look came to his eyes.

"No I haven't seen…" Ulrich started to say. His cell ringing interrupted him, and he answered by click a button in his ear piece.

"Where are you?!?!?!?" It was Jeremy, his voice angry and worried.

"I have a…dilemma," Ulrich sighed. "Mind if I bring a guest?"

"OF COURSE I MIND!!! GET OVER HERE!!" Jeremy yelled. Ulrich cringed.

Ulrich sighed as he heard the click at the other end. Jeremy had hung up.

Ulrich looked at Mark, sizing him up.

As long as he won't remember this, it should be fine, Ulrich thought.

That was his first mistake.

"Put your books down; come on."

***

"Jeremy?" Yumi's voice broke the deathly silence that had fallen over Lyoko.

The gang had been moving slowly, in a cluster, dodging behind trees and rocks, trying to reach their destination. The activated tower.

When Yumi had spoken, the group was taking refuge beneath a large hollowed out tree. The roots came down in a strange way, crating three openings. The top was only a hole.

After reaching the underside of the safe place, they discovered that they were not so safe after all. Krabes and Kankrelats had them surrounded, forcing Aelita to use her only power to alter the terrain and cover the three arches and top of the tree.

Now they were hiding, and Aelita's power was slowly being drained from her virtual system.

"Yes?" Jeremy's reply was impatient.

"Is Ulrich back yet?"

"No."

"He's not feeling very talkative," Yumi muttered.

"I know how he feels," Odd replied, slumping in the corner.

Aelita said nothing, but her head dropped a little closer to her knees, showing her strain.

Yumi walked over to her, not quite sure what she was doing. She placed a hand on Aelita's middle upper back. Then, closing her eyes, Yumi drew small circles in the air wither her left hand.

"Woe!" Jeremy cried, causing Odd to look up, alarmed. "The enemies are retreating! And Aelita is regaining her strength!" He paused. "Are you doing that, Yumi?"

"I…I'm not sure…" Yumi said, stumbling backwards, away from the kneeling girl.

"Let me run a scan….I knew it! You guys are developing new powers!"

"But…how?" Yumi asked. But she kind of already knew the answer.

Everyone answered at the same time.

"Franz Hopper."

***

"I don't recall the nurse's office being in the middle of the woods. And I would know."

"We're almost there," Ulrich tried his best to ignore Mark. It wasn't working. How ever, with each sentence, Ulrich became more curious about the boy's past.

"Nearly there," he muttered again. Now he stopped, and leaned down.

Mark watched curiously as he opened the sewer lip, the glanced back at him. "Down here." He began to climb down.

Mark peered down the dark hole.

"The sewer? Cool."

***

Jeremy heard the elevator swish open.

"Finally," he said spinning his chair to face Ulrich. "You're…."

Jeremy stopped talking when he saw that Ulrich wasn't alone.

"Hey! Nice computer." Mark spoke up. "Where am I anyways? Which brings me to the question…Who am I?"

"Jeremy? Who's there?" Odd asked. He thought he recognized the voice, but it was hard to connect to a face.

"Ulrich…and the new kid."

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yes, I know that this chapter was WAY shorter than the others. Live with it. I liked the cliff hanger.

~Elena Forest