Chapter 2: Deactivating Tower No. 1
In the Desert region, with sandy brown colored ground and a yellow-orange sky, Ulrich and Yumi were sitting on top of Ulrich's ground-matching dome.
"Hey, look." a male warrior pointed to the sky behind the female warrior. "It's Aelita."
"I wonder if she has found any towers yet." said the female warrior. Aelita landed next to the girl.
"Hey Yumi. Hey Ulrich." Aelita greeted.
"Hey." Yumi and Ulrich responded. "Did you find any towers?" Yumi continued.
"No. They're very tricky. They must only appear to you at certain times." Aelita began conversation.
"Why do you say that?" Ulrich asked.
"I flew over what I thought was the whole Arctic region, but couldn't find a single one."
"Yeah, now that you mention it," Yumi started up, "I didn't see a single tower on the way here from the mountain region."
"And why wouldn't you? Didn't Jeremie say that there were ten in each region?" Ulrich started in.
"That's wierd."
"Well maybe Odd will have found something." Aelita hoped.
"I doubt it. He's probably on his way here to see if we've found one." Ulrich assumed. The three of them gave a little chuckle. Sure enough, Odd was hovering at them on his board. He stopped next to Ulrich and jumped off.
"Thanks for the ride, Jeremie." Odd spoke as he landed.
"No problem Odd." Jeremie said blankly. Odd turned to the three others.
"So what are you guys up to?"
"Nothing. I spent about an hour flying around my region looking for towers." Aelita informed.
"Any luck?"
"No, you?"
"As a matter of fact, I did have some luck."
"What?" Ulrich was ashamed, but Odd didn't know what it was all about so he just brushed it off.
"Yeah, it's in the forest region. It's yellow, so I'm assuming that Ulrich has to be the one to deactivate it. Am I right Einstein?"
"That's right Odd. According to my computer." Jeremie reassured.
"Well, let's go deactivate it." Ulrich stood up, along with Yumi. Aelita was already standing and had her wings out.
"Uh, guys we can't go." Odd delayed them.
"Why not?"
"Because it's not activated."
"That's wierd." Yumi chimed in.
"I thought so too. But when I headed for it, I didn't think so any more."
"Why? What happened?" Aelita wanted to know more. Odd began telling them how he fought the X.A.NA. ray.
"...and Jeremie saved me from falling into the digital sea." Odd finished. "Which I'm very grateful." Odd said as he turned to the sky.
"It was really nothing." Jeremie sounded flattered.
"A X.A.N.A. ray? Aren't those supposed to be in Sector 5 and Sector 5 only?" Yumi recalled.
"I thought so too, Yumi. So I started scanning Lyoko for any sign of an entrance, or for the ray, an exit, and I found it at the very south of Lyoko where the Arctic and Mountain regions collide. X.A.N.A. must have detected my scanning because it closed up when I was checking on it." Jeremie informed.
"So we don't have to worry about it right now. Good that leaves more time for..."
Jeremie interrupted Yumi. "Oh no, the tower has been activated. I don't know what the effects are but I don't want to find out. Quick guys..."
Yumi cut him off this time. "We're on our way. Program the overweight and the..."
"Got it." Jeremie read her mind. After a few seconds of silence, Jeremie broke it. "There you go." Right in front of Ulrich materialized a one-wheel yellow motorcycle, and to Yumi's right, the overweight. Aelita had kept her wings out from when they were first going to go. Ulrich and Yumi jumped on to their respective vehicles. Yumi's started moving right away.
She circled around to Odd's other side, "Lead the way." she insisted.
"Okay, follow me." Odd hopped on the hoverboard and took off west. Yumi followed shortly after, then Aelita. Ulrich twisted the handle of his vehicle and followed Aelita. While Odd, Yumi, and Aelita traveled through the air, Ulrich chose to remain on the ground for the majority of the ride, hovering from platform to platform, avoiding winding paths. "Over there!" Odd shouted from ahead and pointed at the tower. He flew over the ground toward the tower. Once again he was thrown back, this time off of his vehicle, making it disappear. Aelita tried to fly past Odd's point of failure but her wings contracted, so Yumi stopped to where Odd was laying on the ground, propped up by his elbows.
"Are you alright?" Ulrich asked as he parked his bike by Yumi's overweight.
"I think so." Odd shrugged it off and stood up.
"Odd, you just lost 20 life points. You have to be more careful." Jeremie demanded.
"Don't worry so much Jeremie. I'm fine. I still have eighty more."
"Don't be so sure. You lost five for each run in with those forcefields, two for your brilliant launch, and eight for hitting the hoverboard."
"So that makes what? Thirty? I still have seventy then."
"Forty, actually. So you only have sixty."
"Okay, I will. Let's... whoa!" Odd and the rest of the warriors jumped to the sides of the two foot path. Yumi and Ulrich were on one side and Odd and Aelita were on the other. There was a red transparent wall between them. It collided with the vehicles, destroying them, and continued on.
Odd turned her head to the source. She saw a grayish-silver ball that had extended at the center to make itself look like an oversized pill. "Cannon!" This was the source of the attack. "Go after it."
Odd held out his arm as he was sprinting at the Cannon. He was running in front of Aelita with Yumi to his right. Yumi pulled out both of her fans and opened them. Ulrich pulled out both of his swords and they glowed a light blue. Yumi chucked both of her fans, left then the right one. The left fan bounced of the beam and she caught it, putting it back. The right one was headed right for the symbol, which the beam wall was coming from. It was no use, the fan was too wide. As it was about to slice up the eye, it bounced of the beam and hit the metal on the monster, then came back to her like a boomerang. She caught it and put it away.
"My fans are no use." She stated as she stopped a few feet in front of Ulrich. She bent her knees a little bit and pushed off of the ground. She sailed through the air, doing a back flip over behind Ulrich, just barely avoiding collision.
"My turn." Odd pursued. "Laser arrow." The arrowhead zoomed right toward the eye, but the radiation from the beam destroyed the arrowhead. Two Blocks came out from behind the Cannon, one on either side. Odd stopped in front of Aelita and turned to face the Block on the left of the Cannon, then plunged himself into a backflip, copying Yumi. "Laser arrow!" Odd pressed the triangle twice on his wrist before he felt himself land right in the path of the beam. He shattered like Aelita's alarm clock. He found himself inside his dome. He tried to run out the exit but steel bars appeared, blocking the exit and the windows. "Come on, this isn't fair."
"Odd!" Yumi shouted angrily. She watched Odd's arrowheads, one right after the other, shoot deep into the eye of the Block, causing it to explode. "Way to go Odd." Yumi complimented him to herself. She turned her head toward the second Block. It looked like it was a tripod. It was three-legged, but the legs looked like crab legs. The legs came out of what looked like a large block of cork. In the center of the front and back side of the block was what appeared to be an eyeball with the symbol in the center of it. Again she pulled out her fans. Not paying any attention, she held the left one out too far, and her hand was thrown back, releasing her fan, sending it flying through the air,spinning her around, and knocking her over the edge. Before she plunged into the sea, she grabbed on to the ledge with her left hand. She glanced over at the Block, which was charging up it's beam bullet, and whipped the fan as hard as she could at it. Her other fan that she had put into the beam had come back, which she caught in her right hand. She watched as she the fan collided with the beam bullet. The bullet disappeared, and the fan was sent sailing down under and out of sight. "Come on, you stupid Block."
"Yumi!" Ulrich's attention was caught by the collision of the firearms, and he stopped.
"Keep going Ulrich." Yumi demanded as she whipped her only fan at the eye of the Block. "Come on, come on." she cheered quietly. "Yes, direct hit." The fan had gained enough momentum to go in one side of the Block and all the way out the other side. It came sailing back to Yumi who caught it. As she was putting it away the Block exploded. She managed to pull herself up by swinging her legs to the side, grabbing the ledge with her feet.
On the other side of the beam wall, farther up ahead, Aelita opened her left palm toward the Cannon. A reddish-orange ball appeared in the air near her palm. "Energy beam!" she shouted as she moved her arm as if to throw a baseball. The ball got ever so close to the eye, but, like Yumi's fan, it was to wide and just bounced off of the wall and disinegrated. "It's up to you Ulrich!" Aelita shouted as she came to a halt.
Then, from out of nowhere, Yumi's fan that had gone astray, clunked the Cannon in the back of it's metal coat. The Cannon was distracted and stopped its beam wall.
"Super sprint!" Ulrich shouted as he sped up. He zoomed past Aelita and in less than a second, he pierced the eye of the Cannon with the length of right sword. He extracted the sword and sheathed both of them. He did a backflip, as Odd and Yumi had done, but turned so that when he landed, he was facing Aelita and Yumi, avoiding the percussion of the explosion.
When the Cannon was destroyed, the tower was visible to Aelita and Yumi. "The tower, Ulrich!" Aelita urged. It was glowing read.
"This is my tower X.A.N.A.. Super sprint!" Ulrich shouted once again. He stopped at the foot of the tower. He stepped into the side of the tower where the black tar-like skirting was. Blue waves, as if you had dropped something into the water, went in all directions as Ulrich disappeared into the tower. On the inside walls was binary code all they way up them. A walkway led to the center of the tower. He walked into the center, the flooring lighting as he continued toward the middle. When he reached the middle he stopped.
"What's going on Jeremie?" Ulrich asked as he felt himself lifted off of the floor and raised up.
"Just wait, Ulrich." Jeremie didn't really help him. He floated just above and over the platform and was dropped on it. He walked to the center of it and a holographic touch screen appeared. "Now place your right hand flat against the right side." Ulrich did as he was instructed to. He saw the word "CODE" come across the screen as his handprint disappeared.
"What's the code Jeremie?"
"What else? It's Lyoko."
"Oh. Easy enough." A digital keyboard appeared near the bottom of the screen. L-Y-O-K-O. Ulrich entered the code. "Tower deactivated Jeremie."
"Great job guys. Now Odd can come back out." Jeremie applauded the band of warriors. "Return to the past now."
All of Lyoko flashed a blinding white. The four warriors were instantly placed back in their personal domes to start the day all over again.