Note: I do not own Code Lyoko or any characters regarding it. I simply modify and add my own characters to the story. All original ideas regarding Code Lyoko thus belong to Moonscoop, Taffy Entertainment, France 3, and Canal J.

Chapter 6

Killer Ghosts

The following day was rather stressful, aside from Carly getting enrolled at Kadic. Ulysses was wondering how he would destroy HADES in the final fight, and the rest of the group was worrying about him and the encrypted message sent by HADES to relay the last details of the final fight. Not to mention Ulysses, Carly, and Xana had the displeasure of meeting the brain-dead leech Ulrich had mentioned, Elizabeth "Sissi" Delmas, the principal's daughter, but Carly more so because she was told by Mr. Delmas himself that she had to share Sissi's room with her, and she was not happy.

"So you must be the spoiled brat I've heard about from Ulrich," said Ulysses when Sissi came up to the group with Nicholas and Herb during break, "And you two must be the nobodies she's always hanging out with."

Herb attempted to attack Ulysses, but being skilled in martial arts, he had Herb pinned to the ground in one second flat.

"Nice attack, Herb," Sissi said sarcastically, "And you're a good one. Crying over something you want."

Ulysses remembered the previous night, him having dreams of his brother disappearing into digital cubes and pixels. "FYI, not my fault," said Ulysses, "I was crying because I had a dream of my little brother getting killed by something. And I know you cry when Ulrich refuses to go out with you."

Sissi growled and picked Herb up off the ground and they all left.

"Imbecile," said Ulysses.

"I think you got her there," said Yumi.

"If you think that's her worst," said Carly, "You should have seen her when I was settling in!" She began explaining the whole scenario to them.

A few hours ago...

As Carly was settling in, Sissi was being completely argumentative against sharing her room.

"Why did Daddy have to stick you with me?" she complained.

"Isn't it obvious?" said Carly as she rolled her eyes at Sissi, "There aren't anymore empty rooms that I can use."

"Why can't you stay with one of your weirdo friends instead?" Sissi went on.

"You just said it," Carly groaned angrily, "Your father told me to share this room with you. Have you no brain?"

Sissi muttered something under her breath, but Carly managed to catch some of it, something that had to do with her nationality.

"What did you say?!" growled Carly.

Sissi didn't answer.

"Do that again," Carly threatened, "And I'll split your lip, or worse, report you to your father!"

Sissi left Carly alone after that.

"...and that was what happened," Carly finished.

"And I though she could only be so bad as to blackmail people," said Ulysses, remembering the incident Ulrich had told him about in which Sissi had stolen his diary and planned to use it for blackmail, "But I never figured she could be bad enough to insult one's nationality. Now I know to stay away from her indefinitely."

"No kidding," said Xana, "She just snuck into my room when I was out, and I kinda went berserk when she started arguing with me."

Xana explained that Sissi had snuck into her room and was looking through her things. Xana said that she screamed angrily at Sissi to leave her room and slapped her face so hard it left a mark.

"...Luckily I didn't get any detention," said Xana, "Apparently her father doesn't believe that she was hit."

At that moment the bell rang and they headed straight to performing arts, the class Odd was best at. Odd went on and on about his school comedies and videos such as Natural Grandeur and Break, Break, Break Dance! while Ulysses focused more on drama, horror, and Shakespearean literature. Ulysses never noticed it, but ever since the school year began, Xana had never been able to take her eyes off of him, especially when he acted a scene from William Shakespeare's Macbeth.

The class after that was Language Arts, which Ulysses was best at since he was also a writer. The assignment was to write a poem, and Ulysses wrote a poem called The Fall of Icarus, focused on the story of how Icarus flew too close to the sun and fell while his wings were destroyed. After he had finished and sat down, Xana started writing her poem, which she was going to give to Ulysses at the right time.

In the middle of class, however, Ulysses felt the electrical surge in his brain and Jeremie's laptop set off the alarm of the super-scan. HADES was making them miss the rest of class. They knew that they had to leave, but they had to have a good excuse. Ulysses had a great idea. "Oh, God. Ma'am?" said Ulysses in a tone that sounded like he was having a pounding headache.

"What is it, Ulysses," asked the teacher.

"I'm starting to get a migraine," said Ulysses, "May I go to the infirmary?"

"Yes, you may," said the teacher.

As he walked by Xana's desk, Ulysses whispered to her, "Blank their memories."

Xana heard him. She activated her power and sent several specters to possess everyone.

"We have to follow him," said Xana, "They won't remember a thing when I let go of them."

The group rushed out of the room, Xana last, and ran after Ulysses. They headed toward Franz Hopper's classroom to warn him, but they arrived too late. Franz's classroom door was open and Franz himself was on the floor unconscious.

"Daddy!" exclaimed Aelita as she rushed over to Franz. She checked his pulse. "He's still alive!" she exclaimed, "But what happened to him?"

Carly came to check. "His heart's still beating, but he's not responding," she said.

Ulysses thought for a moment before he said, "He must have had his physical energy drained, which can only mean one thing! Phantoms!"

"Phantoms?" asked Carly.

"HADES has managed to block our detections for too long!" exclaimed Ulysses as he ran to the window, "The length of the obelisk activation has allowed him to create Phantoms, ghost-like creatures that can steal physical energy!"

"That can't be good," said Ulrich.

"If it can't be restored to them within an hour," said Ulysses, "The people who had their energy stolen will die!"

"We have got to get to Wakusei and fast!" exclaimed Jeremie.

They ran out of the school, but before they could get to the gym, Phantoms blocked their path.

"Head for the park and don't let them touch you!" yelled Ulysses. They ran for the park with the Phantoms following them. Aelita managed to throw a few energy fields to stop the Phantoms in place. They all managed to get to the warehouse and into the computer lab safely. Ulysses activated the super-scan as soon as they got out of the elevator. "The activated obelisk is in the wetland sector," said Ulysses.

Just then, Jeremie's laptop's alarm went off to alert another super-scan.

"You've got to be kidding!" said Ulysses.

Jeremie opened his laptop. "HADES has activated a tower on Lyoko as well!" he exclaimed.

"Great," said Ulysses, "Alright then, Xana, Aelita, Odd, you go to Lyoko to take care of the tower, Jeremie will stay here with us to get this obelisk out of commission."

"Good thinking," said Xana, "But how much time do we have until the people who have been attacked by the Phantoms die?"

Ulysses activated a timer and looked at it closely. "Forty minutes," he said, "That should give us enough time to deactivate both the tower and obelisk, but Franz can't help us on this one and the tower is sure to be heavily guarded, so take caution."

Xana and Aelita nodded, and Odd left with them for the factory, while Jeremie prepared the transfer to Wakusei. The wetland sector was like a swamp at sunrise, the paths were dry land surrounded by digital water and overgrown with thick grasses and deadwood. After she was synchronized on Wakusei, Carly checked out her new outfit, a Chinese Shaolin Monk's robe and her weapon being her staff from Lyoko.

"Alright Jeremie, where's the obelisk located?" asked Ulysses.

"The obelisk is just east of you," said Jeremie, "But be careful. I'm reading monsters around the paths."

"Damn it," said Ulysses, "HADES has programmed in the Syrins for us. As soon as you hear them singing, shut your ears or else their song will drag you into the digital swamp."

"Will that permanently synchronize us to Wakusei?" asked Yumi and Carly together.

"It won't because the digital swamp is part of Wakusei, same as the sea on the ocean sector," said Ulysses, "It will only desync you back to the warehouse." Ulrich, Yumi, and Carly all gave sighs of relief. Ulysses called out, "Jeremie, are Xana, Aelita, and Odd at the factory?"

"Not yet," said Jeremie, "They will get there soon though."

"Good, because I don't want to know what HADES has planned for that tower," said Ulysses.

They started toward the obelisk. They were about to cross a land bridge when the Syrins appeared and started to sing. Everyone shut their ears tight and Carly, while keeping her ears closed, concentrated a massive energy field and compressed it, causing it to explode, taking out all of the Syrins around them.

"Good job, Carly," said Ulysses, "You're a natural on Wakusei."

"Thanks," said Carly.

"Now let's get going!" said Ulrich, "We've got an obelisk to shut down!"

Meanwhile, Xana, Aelita, and Odd had reached the factory and activated the self-virtualization process. They were virtualized into the ice sector.

"Jeremie, we're in Lyoko," said Xana.

"Good," said Jeremie, "Can you see the tower?"

"Yes, Jeremie, we're very close to the tower," said Aelita as she pointed toward it.

HADES' activated tower had a dark blue aura surrounding it, but oddly enough, it was guarded by some of Xana's own monsters.

"That miserable thief!" said Xana angrily, "Stealing my creations! I'll show you, HADES, that I too have a few tricks up my sleeve."

Xana then created three Creepers and a Scyphozoa to fight off the other monsters, which were a Megatank and two Tarantulas; Xana had planned to siphon the activated tower's data with the Scyphozoa to see HADES' next plans.

On Wakusei, Ulysses, Carly, Ulrich, and Yumi had gotten in a load of trouble as they had to face large winged creatures called Volturs, giant vultures which threw razor feathers as projectiles. Carly petrified the Voltur facing her by sealing it in stone using her creation ability, Ulysses used pyrokinesis to set his Voltur on fire, and Ulrich and Yumi worked together to get rid of theirs.

"HADES is really trying to protect this obelisk," said Jeremie, but suddenly he let out a gasp of terror as he saw the security camera, "Oh no! Guys, hurry up! The Phantoms are inside the building, and they'll be here soon!"

"Damn it, HADES!" exclaimed Ulysses.

Xana had managed to make communication signals between the virtual worlds because she heard every word. "We'll get the tower on Lyoko deactivated soon enough," she said through the signal, "But HADES stole control of my monsters, so it may take slightly longer."

"Alright," said Yumi, "But try to get it done fast! We're in danger here!"

On Lyoko, Xana controlled the Scyphozoa to wrap around the activated tower and it soon began stealing the incoming data. Remarkably, the tower's data was stolen in a few seconds. "Alright, Aelita! The tower is clear for you!" said Xana.

"I'm almost out of arrows!" exclaimed Odd.

"Hang on, Odd!" said Jeremie as he loaded up the Lyoko interface and activated the reload program, "I've loaded up to a hundred arrows for you Odd."

"Thanks, Jeremie!" said Odd.

On Lyoko, HADES had sent Hornets to attack Xana and Odd, while Aelita had managed to get into the tower. She scanned her palm and entered Code: LYOKO. "Tower deactivated!" said Aelita as the data fell down the tower wall.

Jeremie looked at the security camera and was surprised to see that the Phantoms had frozen in place. "Alright guys," said Jeremie, "The Phantoms are frozen with the tower on Lyoko deactivated. Now all that needs to be done is the obelisk."

"Jeremie, how much time do we have left on the timer?" asked Carly.

Jeremie looked at the timer and said, "One minute!"

On Wakusei, Ulysses had to face the Calibos again after defeating the Volturs and a Polifemos. "HADES!" yelled Ulysses, "You fail again bit-brain!" Ulysses jumped into the obelisk and typed in Code: WAKUSEI. "Obelisk shutdown!" he said as the obelisk rebooted, "Alright Jeremie, activate the Retrotempus program!"

"Good job, guys!" said Jeremie as he typed in the code, "Retrotempus initiated!"

The Retrotempus program sent them back in time to that morning at 8:35am, and they were visited again by Sissi and her gang of course. "Morning Ulrich, and weirdos," she smirked.

"Well, well, well," said Ulysses with a smile on his face, "The conceded ape returns."

"Who asked you, freak?" Sissi remarked rudely, "So, Ulrich..."

She couldn't finish her sentence because Carly interrupted her by saying, "Oh shut up, 'princess', no one cares."

"You know Sissi," said Xana, "Whenever we see you, we come down with a serious case of who-gives-a-damn."

Everyone laughed at Carly's and Xana's remarks. Sissi stormed off in anger and Herb and Nicholas scowled before following her.

"I'm glad she's easy to get rid of when all of us are together," said Ulysses.

"All of us say the same," said Ulrich.

The bell rang at that time and they once again went to performing arts, Ulysses still not noticing Xana looking at him, and Xana thinking about what she should write in her poem for Ulysses.

So Xana appears to have a thing for Ulysses, but how does he not notice? Things seem to be looking up for our heroes for now, but HADES has only gotten started, and what will he have planned next? Find out later on...