Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

Prehistoric Fire

Disclaimer: Don't know when I last did this, so…yah. I don't own Code Lyoko. Several of the monsters used are also not mine (thanks for those are at the end of this chapter). I do own Brad, Carl, Evan, Zen, Kreilin, Regalis, and all related plots and bla, bla, bla, you know the rest.

Ulrich wiped the last of the sleep from his eyes as he stepped into the scanner. The sudden rush of virtualization was like a bucket of water, pulling him into complete alertness. When he finally completed the trip, he landed in a strange land that he had never seen before. All around him was steaming rivers of lava and a few geysers. The ground was sloped, reaching up to a peak that spewed lava and fire. "Welcome to the volcano region," a voice said behind him. Ulrich turned to see Brad and Kreilin step out of a tower.

"It's a good thing we can't feel anything," he said. "It seems like it would get very hot here."

"Yes, and it's also very dangerous, so we better get moving." Brad headed up the incline.

"What was that about?"

"The monsters are really dangerous here," Kreilin said. "You'll see what I mean in a little while. And watch your step."

"Do you think we'll make it to Sector 5?" Ulrich asked while stepping around a small piece of vibrating earth.

"Not sure. Brad still has all of his life points and I'm recharged, so it is a definite possibility. But it would be more likely that we will meet Sarah again."

At that moment, several loud roars rose into the air. Ulrich scanned the mountainside, searching for the source. "I hope you liked 'Jurassic Park'," Brad called. He picked up his pace, running up the slope.

"What's going on?" Ulrich asked.

Three red T-rex's charged over the hill. Each stood several meters in height and had two Xana marks, one on the neck and one between the eyes.

One of them charged. Brad suddenly veered off course and ran toward the charging dino. "What are you doing?" a very confused Ulrich screamed.

"You take care of this one," Brad screamed over his shoulder. As he approached the massive creature, he dropped on his back and slid right under the waiting jaws. Sliding past the tail, Brad pushed himself up with his elbow and kept running; the dino didn't turn and continued toward Ulrich and Kreilin. It opened its jaw and let out a roar. Ulrich leapt to the side, causing the rex to just miss his bite.

Kreilin, who also dodged, placed his hand on Ulrich's blade. "Use this." He uttered a few words and the sword ignited into a bright flame. "They usually don't like this one." The dino turned and came back at them.

Ulrich experimentally swung his new flame sword. Much to his surprise, the fire from his sword extended as he swung, creating a large fire whip. The T-rex reared and came to a halt several yards away. As he stopped swinging, the flames returned back into his sword. Ulrich eyed this new weapon with interest. His parents had once taken him to a rodeo, but he wasn't interested at the time; now he was thankful for that trip. Adjusting his grip, he sent the whip flying and let out a large crack next to the dino's head. It roared again and took a step back. "Now for the kill." He concentrated and entered his combat trance. Everything slowed to a crawl. Ulrich knew that his life points would already be draining, so he'd have to work fast. He threw the whip in a straight bullet-shot. It struck the dino's head dead-on. But just to make sure he did the job right, Ulrich flicked his wrist, causing the whip to flip a little and leave a gash over the Xana mark. He flicked the whip a few more times before retracting his whip and letting the world return to its normal speed. The huge dinosaur gave a last death shriek and toppled before exploding.

When Ulrich turned, Brad was already waiting. "Nice work. I don't think I've seen the fire whip used like that." He nudged his head up-slope. "We best move before more dinos arrive."

More did arrive, but they were quickly defeated. Brad had an interesting way of fighting them. He would slide under the jaws and throw his hammer up into the Xana mark on the neck. Before long, they cleared this sector and were on their way to the next.

Jeremy looked ahead to the map marked "City." Three red blips were positioned halfway to the tower. "Do you think we should tell them?" he asked Carl.

"Naw. They'll see 'em soon enough," he answered, a sullen expression across his face.

Ulrich, his sword back to its original state, stepped onto the paved street. All around were tall buildings of brick and metal. Wide streets created blocks and in the distance he could see floating platforms that held more buildings, each connected by a long bridge.

"The tower is in the center of the next platform straight ahead."

"Thanks, Zen." They all started to run, eager to finish their work. They hadn't gone thirty seconds before they ground to a halt.

In the center of the road stood Sarah, flanked by two tarantulas. "We can't let you go any further."

Brad fidgeted at seeing his old friend. Ulrich placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You can sit this one out if you want."

"No." He brushed off Ulrich's hand. "I need to do this alone." He reached back and pulled off his hammer. "Stay back." Without turning he went into a full-on sprint.

Sarah smiled. "Foolish." She raised her arms and two stone walls rose on either side of Brad and closed in. Brad rolled and was able to just escape getting smashed. Annoyed, Sarah tried raising a thick stone wall in front of him, but Brad simply used his hammer to smash it to pieces. He was quickly closing in, and Sarah started to get nervous. "Get him," she ordered her monsters.

They immediately began to fire round after round. Each one found a hit, but none of them slowed Brad down. "Xana, I thought you were evil. But using my own friend against me is just low." He was now a mere hundred yards from her.

Sarah began throwing boulders at Brad, anything to slow him down, but nothing stopped him. "He's not using me." When Brad didn't stop, she almost panicked. "You would kill your own girlfriend?"

He snapped. His raised hammer glowed a bright, hot white; and Carl swore he could feel the fire in Brad's eyes through the console.

He charged head-first through another wall. "You're…NOT…SARAH!" He brought the hammer down hard in an explosion of energy.

Ulrich had to close his eyes and crouched down to escape the wind that rushed past. After it was over, he looked up in shock. Brad, Sarah, and the tarantulas were gone, replaced by a crater that had taken out the streets and parts of nearby buildings. "Whoa."

"You're clear for the tower," Jeremy said after recovering.

Evan ran into the scanner room and found Brad sitting on the floor, still in the scanner. "You finally get things settled?"

"Yeah. I guess so." He didn't get up. He simply sat and cried one last time.

"I think you two should come on out. Xana is probably planning something big for Sector 5 and we will probably need all of us."

Everyone agreed with Jeremy's idea, so they all sat down to wait the twelve hours before they could re-enter. Jeremy also did some snooping and found a police report for everyone to watch for "a group of children who have gone missing from Kadic Academy." But no one worried; they would simply do an RTTP later.

Later that night, Ulrich sat at the computer playing a game of Go against Brad. Yumi had taught him how to play several months ago, and Brad happened to know the rules, so there they sat while everyone else slept. They somehow got on the topic of what had happened earlier. "I'm sorry you had to do what you did."

"Don't worry about me. There will be another one later." Brad placed a stone, capturing several of Ulrich's pieces. "Do you happen to have a girlfriend?"

Ulrich looked back at Yumi. "No. I don't."

"I've been able to write a program that will send you straight into Sector 5." Jeremy was giving them the final prep. Everyone had gotten some sleep and eaten. It was another ten hours before the meteor was expected to hit the planet, so they had plenty of time. "I've already scanned the area and the tower is located at the north pole. There is an elevator that will take you to it."

"What about monsters?"

"Strangely, there aren't any. At least from what I could see."

Odd gave one of those "lets go" punches. "Awesome. This is going to be a piece of cake."

"Every time you say that something goes wrong," Ulrich pointed out.

"Ha-ha. Let's just go."

Everyone loaded up and set off for the last tower.

The teams dropped in one by one. The entire gang was assembled in only a matter of seconds.

The spinning wall slowly came to a stop. ""The countdown has started," Jeremy told them. "The key is in the second room."

They all rushed through the first room and into the second. Carl teleported and pushed the button into the wall. A panel before them opened and a glowing white platform rose up out of the abyss. Carl appeared back with the group. "This it?"

"Yep."

They all stepped on and the platform carried them up and through an open ceiling panel. They passed through several rooms until it stopped before a door.

"The tower is in the room just beyond the door. But I can't figure out how to open it."

"Well, it's locked," Odd said after pushing it with all of his might.

Evan pointed high overhead. "There's an inscription. 'Two Become One—The Dead are Reborn.'"

"There are also two handprints," Ulrich exclaimed. Just at head height were two hand-shaped indents in the door, one on either side of the joining crack.

"Two become one," Jeremy repeated to himself. "We've already joined the two worlds to create just one. Maybe we have to do the same thing again. Aelita, you push on one side while Kreilin, you push on the other.

They did as he told. As their hands were placed, the indents glowed white and the door swung effortlessly. Beyond was a long hallway-shaped room about the size of a football field. The tower was in an alcove on the far side.

Odd stepped into the room. "So, we just stroll across and go into the tower. No sweat."

The room suddenly began to shake. "I knew he shouldn't have said that," Brad commented.

Out of the sky and large blue dragon fell, causing the ground to shake violently. It filled the space of half the room. Large wings prevented flight and a massive tail swung back and forth behind it. Its claws were easily the twice of the height of any of the friends and on the forehead was emblazoned Xana's mark. Red eyes set in shining scales glared at each of them in turn. "You may not pass!"

"Great. How are we supposed to take down THIS monster?"

"Um, guys," Jeremy said shakily. "That's not a monster. That's Xana."

Now is where I give thanks to everyone that has given me monsters to use. The pen name is after the monster. Any monsters not listed are mine and you must ask permission to use them.

Sniper: Masboy111

Snake: AngelofSatire

Worms: AngelofSatire

Dino: purpletail