"Guys, guys," Odd nudged the others as the elevator door closed and they headed for the scanners. "What do you get when you have a-a pirate, a witch, a vampire and a victim all in one elevator?"

"A bad joke?" Ulrich grumbled.

"No—"

"A tough crowd?" Jeremie asked from the lab, just as the elevator door opened.

"Pfft, well you can say that again," Odd stepped into a scanner with Ulrich in the other one.

"Are you ready? I'm starting the virtualization prossess," Jeremie cracked his knuckles and stretched his hands, prepaired to type once again, one of the codes most familiar to him.

"Yeah, all set Einstein," Odd assured.

"Huh, guess its not lady's first," Yumi shrugged.

Ulrich replied sternly, "No." Just as the scanner closed.

She turned to Aelita with an expression that asked, 'what was that all about?'. Aelita just sighed and shook her head.

"Transfer. Scanner. Virtualization." Following these classic utterings the cool quartet found themselves in the arena, having almost forgotten the eerie feeling that sector five reeked of.

Jeremie adjusted his microphone. "Aelita, I've programmed you with a code sequence that will upgrade the shield, but it has to be inserted manually."

"Ok," she nodded.

Not another word was spoken as they headed through the corridor, following the faint glow that lit the cobalt-blue sector.

They continued through the suspiciously quiet sector, they hopped on the elevator, hitching a ride to the interface platform. As they ran out, staring into the celestial dome and watching their vehicles materialize, their view of it was not abstracted by anything, not a single monster.

Yumi opened her mouth but it was Ulrich who spoke first:

"This is too easy, yeah, we know," he said, giving Yumi a bored look, like she should get a less obvious catch-fraise.

Still not quite understanding what had gotten him so wound-up, Yumi just cocked an eyebrow and mumbled, "That isn't what I was going to say." But nobody really heard her, and they all hopped onto their rides.

"Jeremie, is there anything on the screen?" Aelita hopped on behind Odd and they took off, circling around, just to be sure.

"No, nothing," Jeremie scratched his head and checked again. "Wait! Wait! There's something coming your way! Look out!"

"From where? We can't see anything," Yumi glanced around again to no avail.

"I'm going to guess THEY'RE our welcoming committee," Ulrich spotted a flock of mantas coming their way.

"Flying mantas," Odd scoffed. "How original can you get." It was more a statement and less a question.

"And look who's leading the pack," Yumi was of course referring to William, surfing on the leading manta.

"Alright, nothing like a little diving practice," Odd wore a determined face as the gang avoided a close collision and weaved through the mantas with little room to spare. The overboard was quickly looped back around, boosters firing up as Aelita hung on for dead life.

It was obvious that she wasn't a fan of his driving, and kept telling herself that she should have ridden with Yumi. Unfortunately, she had come to this deciscion a little too late.

"It's all yours Aelita," Odd made room so that she could shift to the middle of the board, and as he jumped off courageously he yelled, "Don't scratch the paint!"

As he landed on a manta, Aelita wobbled and momentarily lost control, but in a second she had found her balance again, and was speeding around with an energy field in hand.

"Hey William, dull crowd don't you think? Ha-ya!" Yumi's fan was going straight for him until his sword materialized out of black smoke. William deflected the fan, sending it back at her, and despite her despirate dodge attempt, the overwing had been hit and was going down. Luckily, Yumi was able to jump back to the platform where the interface was.

Ulrich, meanwhile, had attracted the attention of most of the other mantas, and Aelita started picking them off, while he kept 'em busy. Odd in the back ground looked like he was trying to tame a wild crocodile, straddled on its back, with claws inserted.

William had jumped off his manta, deciding instead to attack Yumi head-to-head, sword already drawn. The manta soon joined the group of them that followed Ulrich, two of which had already been annihilated by Aelita.

"Ouch!" She was hit by a laser and lost her balance, the overboard tipped dangerously, but again Aelita was able to steady herself.

"Careful! That's twenty less life points," Jeremie cautioned. "Leave the risk-taking to the others."

Suddenly, Odd and his new ride looped around and two mantas shot each other simultaneously. One exploded at the expense of the other, the one Odd had been hitchhiking on.

Aelita swung around just in time, catching Odd on the back of the board to avoid the void. As he got up he appreciatively said, "Sorry to drop in on you like this, Princess," he topped it with his goofball grin.

Aelita just smiled and swerved back around again.

On the overbike, Ulrich had almost caught up to one manta when it was joined by a couple others and together the trio started dropping flying mines all around.

"Uh-oh," Odd poked his head out from behind Aelita, and cringed at what lay ahead.

"Here we go!" Aelita might have jumped the gun just a tiny bit as she sped into the minefield, not looking back.

"Whoa! Who taught you to drive?!" Odd exclaimed, ducking and trying to not get in the way.

Aelita smirked. "You did."

"Oh, heheh. Right."

Back on the platform, William's sword came down on the level yet irregularly-shaped ground, just centimeters away from Yumi, who dodged acrobatically. Launching her fans immediately, she did get a hit on him, but not fatal. She caught them, and stepped back gingerly, finding her heel at the edge of the sector.

A little ways away, in the mine field, Odd noticed a manta that was trailing him and Aelita, and without thinking, fired at it. This started a series of unfortunate events, namely the triggered mines that began exploding one by one, sending Odd and Aelita high-tailing it out of there, to avoid more damage to the overboard. The latter soon sprouted wings, and took off.

Further down the field, where the mines had yet to explode, Ulrich had hopped up into the air, flipping above a manta and jabbing his saber into its XANA symbol on the way, he landed perfectly back on his vehicle. But it wasn't meant to be, not long afterwards, another flying beast came up from Ulrich's blind spot and almost shot the overbike.

"William, don't do this," Yumi had half her foot on the ground, half off, and was teetering dangerously over the digital sea-like substance that lay as sector 5's foundation. "Please," she knew it was probably useless but why not try it anyhow?

Mister 'dark side' himself was just standing, smirking evily at Yumi's predicament. And then he started to approach her.

She didn't know if she should feel ready for a fight or a flight. She tried reaching out one last time. "This isn't you. Snap out of it! XANA can't control you, so don't listen to him!"

For a minute, the real William was there, Yumi could see that from all the hesitation, but it didn't last long. Then, just when he was about to push her off the edge, a chunk of it broke off. Both of them started to fall, but Yumi was able to grasp onto a small ledge. It was the only thing between her and certain death—or more specifically certain permanent virtualization.

"Whoa!" She glanced down, watching William plunge into the forbidden void, and let out a small whimper.

Ulrich was unsheathing his saber when he heard Yumi's cries. "Help! Ulrich!" But instead of going to save her, he noticed Aelita overwhelmed by three circling mantas, and Odd no where in sight.

He revved the engine, zooming towards her and taking out one of the mantas in the process. Ulrich turned to her long enough to say, "Go on! I'll cover you!"

Immediately understanding, Aelita took off towards the hanger's entrance, slipping in with no trouble at all.

"Help!" Yumi called again, letting out a surprisingly girly scream as the part of the ledge broke off and she now hung by just one hand. "I'm slipping! Ulrich!"

As her fingers cramped and finally slid, a quick hand was in hers, and she hung on tightly. But when she looked up, it wasn't Ulrich who had come to her rescue, it was Odd.

"Don't worry," he assured, "I gotcha." With a groan and some effort, Odd pulled her up, and they both sat for a second, catching their breath.

Meanwhile, Aelita had entered the hanger, spotting the Scyphozoa with tentacles attatched, and went straight for the interface.

The jellyfish-like monster did not like this one bit, and quickly sped up sucking the skid's energy.

Aelita's hands flew across the window almost faster than Jeremie's fingers did on the keyboard. "Not this time," Aelita smirked and pressed a final button, making the system automatically update and force out XANA, leaving the Scyphozoa obliterated.

But, to their surprise, the silence was filled by a white haze and they soon found themselves going back in time.

A/N:

Thanks so much for the reviews! It really means a lot to me that you take time out of your day to read this. Btw, later chapters might've a bit staggered coming in just because the story planning is a little hectic at this point. Thanks!