Chapter 14

Chapter 14

A Blaze of Glory

"Well this is utterly inconvenient."

"Hey, Jeremy," Brad said as he pulled out his hammer. "That web site I told you about comes to mind."

Jeremy pulled up the window. "Fighting the Anax dragon. Maybe this isn't a coincidence." He quickly skimmed through. "Maybe this can help."

Back in Lyoko, the fight had begun. Xana was using his claws and tail to try and slash through the closest group while shooting fireballs at those further away. Everyone was spending all of their time simply trying to dodge and couldn't get in any hits.

Jeremy interrupted for a moment. "'Have the tower mage place a barrier around the dragon's midsection. This will prevent it from using its tail and wings in the fight. Also have her create several smaller barriers for protection.' I think that's referring to you, Aelita."

Aelita waited until it looked like she would have a clear moment, then began her song and fell to her knees. A blue wall rose from the ground, holding Xana in place while sealing off his tail.

"Now it gets tricky," Jeremy continued. "Aelita and Kreilin have to do some kind of spell called Rise of Phoenix while the rest of you fight."

The specified persons moved behind a wall and sat Indian-style. Aelita and Kreilin began to chant as Jeremy read off the words. "'Deep from the ash of death arise—Holy beast of fire and skies.' Whatever you do, don't stop repeating."

Nothing happened. Aelita stopped. "Is something supposed to happen?"

"Not yet. Just don't stop."

Carl teleported up to Xana's head and did a spinning slash. But Xana moved his head with incredible speed and shot a fireball back at Carl, who teleported to safety. Yumi and Odd were unloading everything they had at the large mark on Xana's head while everyone else was moving back and forth under, slashing and bashing the chest. Xana was once able to score a hit on Ulrich. Half of his points dropped.

Xana pulled his head back and spit out a dozen large fireballs.

"Scatter!" Brad screamed. Everyone ducked behind walls for protection.

"You're not doing enough damage," Jeremy called. "The head is weaker, so aim for that if you can."

"Bottom of the ninth, bases loaded," Brad said softly.

Odd looked his way in confusion. He was holding his hammer at the end and was tapping the ground lightly. "What are you talking about?"

"One homer to win," Evan called back.

Brad pulled his hammer back over his shoulder and Evan "pitched" him an Ukemi. Brad swung and connected. The Ukemi soared up into the air. "And it is going…going…" Xana weaved his head to one side, but not before Evan ruptured the projectile. Xana let out a screech of pain. "GONE!"

Jeremy watched the life meter drop a bit. "Nice hit."

But Evan wasn't watching. Xana swung his massive claw and sent Evan flying. His body vanished.

Aelita and Kreilin were continuing their mantra. Slowly, a single white orb appeared and began to circle them. Aelita almost lost focus, but remembered Jeremy's instructions: "don't stop." She closed her eyes, so as not to be distracted again.

The battle wasn't going well. Odd and Yumi had both been taken out by stray fireballs, while Brad had been slashed by Xana's claw. Each death produced another rotating orb.

Ulrich and Carl were doing better, though. Carl was scoring many hits on Xana's head by throwing his shurikan one way and then hitting the mark as Xana attempted to dodge. Ulrich was able to run up Xana's legs and leave long gashes along the chest. Until, when Ulrich tried to repeat the maneuver, Xana shook, throwing Ulrich to the ground. Before he could recover, Xana crushed him beneath his foot.

Jeremy chanced a look at Aelita and Kreilin. There were now five orbs circling them. And they were…glowing? Aelita, Kreilin and the orbs were all giving off a bright orange light.

There was a scream. Jeremy turned back to find Carl being bath in fire. Xana must have finally found his tactic. "Oh, no," he said to himself. "Hopefully this phoenix thing will help. If it doesn't, we won't be able to go back in in time to stop the meteor."

The orbs, now giving glowing brilliantly, began to spin faster. As they did, Aelita and Kreilin rose up into the air and turned to face Xana. He screeched and blew a breath of fire, but it parted around them, diverted by some unseen force. The two continued their chant, growing louder as they rose higher. Eventually they stopped along with the orbs.

The orbs began to swell and grow. They molded and formed into human-shapes and became transparent. Jeremy looked closely and let out a gasp. The orbs had formed into Ulrich, Yumi, and the others, only their bodies were now made of pure fire.

Without warning, the Lyoko gang flew forward at high speed, each brandishing their weapon. With deadly precision, they began demolishing Xana. He tried to turn and claw, but his blows passed right through their bodies.

Jeremy checked Xana's heath meter. It had dropped from 71 to 38 in seconds.

The Lyokians retreated back to their former position and the Regalians moved forward. They repositioned themselves into a triangle, with Carl on the top, Brad below him and left, and Evan below right. As each drew their weapons in turn, they glowed a brilliant white. They changed into a dramatic offensive pose. "ULTIMA TRI-FORCE STRIKE!"

All three charged at once. Xana seamed frozen in place; he didn't move as all three Ultima weapons hit his skull at once. The resulting explosion was so great that Jeremy had to turn his eyes away from the screen.

When he could look again, everyone was in their original position hovering in mid-air. But one person had joined them. Between Aelita and Kreilin now hovered France Hopper. Jeremy sat wide eyed.

The fire-bodies again remolded and flowed into Hopper's body. "PHOENIX STRIKE!" Hopper's body released a brilliant fire that expanded into a large flaming bird: the phoenix. With a mighty "caw," it flew to Xana and struck once with its talons. Then it disappeared.

The large dragon let out a deafening howl, an enormous gash running from snout to skull-tip. With a mighty crash, it collapsed, shattering the wall around it. Aelita and Kreilin softly landed on the ground. As they opened their eyes, Xana's dragon form melted into a cloud of digital information and vanished.

Jeremy sat motionless. A message flashed on his screen: "Materialization Complete," but he didn't notice.

Finally, Aelita asked, "Uh, Jeremy, what happened?"

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" he shouted in his excitement. "You don't remember any of it?"

Aelita looked puzzled. "No. Last I remember was saying the chant. Then I open my eyes and Xana's vanished."

"It was awesome! There was this phoenix, and everyone came back, and Hopper…"

"Whoa, boy," Ulrich said from behind him. "Don't we have a job to finish first?"

Jeremy regained his composure. "Oh, right. Both of you need to deactivate the tower at the same time. That should start the separation process."

Aelita and Kreilin entered the tower, flew up to the higher level and entered their codes: "Lyoko" and "Virtua." The tower's red hue faded. A white light flowed from the base of the tower and expanded along Carthage's surface until the entire sector seemed to be covered. Then the light flowed outward, into the other sectors. Jeremy's computer immediately did another shut-down/reboot. When the system was running again, Regalis was nowhere to be found. When he checked the status of the meteor, it was completely frozen. The mission and threat were over.

"You're sure you don't want to stay?" Jeremy asked.

Everyone was in the main computer room. Carl had announced that he was going to going to give up fighting with the gang. "I'm sure," he said. "I think I've had enough for a while. I just want to relax."

"At least we can count on you if we need help," Odd chimed in.

"That's for sure."

Ulrich walked over to Yumi and pulled her aside. "Hey, Yumi, I've been thinking. If you don't want to be my girlfriend, I'm fine with that. It's just that I…"

Yumi pushed a finger to her lips. "Ulrich. Shut up."

To his surprise, she leaned forward and kissed him. A moment of shock gave way to passion and he returned her kiss. His entire career at Kadik was worth it for this one moment. Yumi took the kiss deeper, finally realizing that this was what she wanted.

Jeremy turned around one last time. "The return to the past is ready. Going so far back, it may not protect our memories."

"Fine by me, I won't remember anything anyway," Carl said. He gave Odd one final handshake. "Be good to me on the other side."

"We will," Jeremy and Odd said at the same time.

Jeremy hit "Enter." "Return to the past, now."

Yumi and Ulrich didn't even notice anything that transpired between their friends, engrossed as they were in each other's love.

Yumi walked into her class and took her usual seat by William. She noticed a new guy in the back corner. He was typing something into a small palm pilot. She leaned over. "Who's the new kid?"

"No one really knows," William told her. "Ever since he got here he's been typing on that thing."

She nodded and got her things ready for class. As she did, she couldn't help but think of the dream she had last night. She and Ulrich had a deeply passionate kiss. She let out a small smile. It was the best dream she had ever had.

Special thanks to my two good friends that were the inspiration for the Regalis gang.

And thanks to you readers! Without you, I probably wouldn't have finished this at all.

NOW PUSH THAT BUTTON AND SEND ME A REVIEW!