Chapter 29: I Suck At Poems
woooohoooo two chapters in one weekend AWWW YEEAAAHHH *ahem* anyway, please please PLEASE review this chapter! I wish to hear what all of my readers think of it PLEASE REVIEW THIS CHAPTER! There will one more chapter after this, so be prepared to see the ending *sniffs* I WILL NOT CRY! enjoy!
When Yumi and Aelita heard the gun shot, they started to run over to the direction of the noise, and the second gunshot only made them run faster. When they got to the scene they were shocked to what they discovered. Emily was in tears, and Mason was on the ground bleeding from two gunshot wounds. Mason was barely breathing. One gunshot was in the heart region while the other was in the side.
"Oh my god!" gasped Yumi.
Mason beckoned Yumi to come closer, and she did what Mason asked of her.
"Max is a virtual created by XANA, and his mission is to get rid of Apollo who contains important information on the super computer. Max pulled a gun on Apollo and tried to shoot him, but I got in the way just in time for Apollo to escape," wheezed Mason very quietly to Yumi.
"Hold on Mason, we're going to get you help! Let me call Jeremy." said Aelita.
"Wait! Don't do that. I think Max can use his powers to tap into the phones. he's now a deadly force not to be reckoned with," said Mason very weakly.
He beckoned Yumi and Aelita over and made them lean their ear over his mouth for he could barely talk.
"Jeremy and the others are locked somewhere in the factory. I don't know where Apollo is, but you need to free the others and then go find him," whispered Mason wiping the blood off his mouth.
"Mason, you could die at any moment!" cried Aelita.
"The bullet didn't puncture my heart, it just went into my body," said Mason patting the area where he was bleeding.
"How do you know that?" asked Emily.
Mason slowly stuck his hand into his chest pocket and pulled out a blood stained pocket watch. It was the same pocket watch Emily had gotten him for Christmas. The pocket watch had a hole through it where the bullet had shot through. Mason then lost hold of the pocket watch, and it landed in the blood stained snow.
"The other bullet got one of the two last parts of fully functioning lung I have left," said Mason gasping for air.
"We need to get you some help," said Yumi walking away.
"NO! Yumi, you and Aelita must go fix this! Free the others and get to Lyoko," coughed Mason.
"You could die!" said Yumi.
"I know that, but fixing this mess is top priority right now," coughed Mason, "Now go!" barked Mason pointing towards the factory. "I have faith in you," he said.
Yumi and Aelita did what Mason had told them to do, and headed straight for the factory with tears in their eyes. Meanwhile Odd and Ulrich had woken up and Jeremy explained the situation.
"What are we going to do Jeremy?" asked Odd.
"We just have to hope someone gets here soon!" said Jeremy trying to breathe.
The ventilation was sucking out all the oxygen from the room, and leaving the warriors little to no time to try and escape. Yumi and Aelita soon got to the factory, and they started to scream out for Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremy. The boys heard their cries and started to bang on the door saying "OVER HERE!"
"Aelita do you hear that?" asked Yumi.
"Yes, it's them!" said Aelita running over to find the door they were behind.
"Aelita, is that you? Thank goodness you're here! I need you to open the door for us." said Jeremy.
"Yes, right away Jeremy!" replied Aelita typing in the code for the door, and causing it to unlock.
Jeremy, and the other got out and took long breaths of fresh air. Jeremy when went over to Aelita and gave her a hug.
"Thank you Aelita and Yumi, without you we could have been done for!" spoke Jeremy with relief in his voice.
"Mason told us where you were because Apollo told him," said Yumi with tears in her eyes.
"Yumi, what's wrong? Did something happen?" asked Ulrich.
Jeremy looked at Aelita who also had years in her eyes. At that moment Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremy knew something had happened.
"Ulrich, Mason protected Apollo, and Max shot Mason twice," said Yumi.
Ulrich's eyes widened at the horrifying news. Ulrich looked over at Odd and Jeremy and nodded.
"Listen, I will go find Apollo and try to subdue Max, everyone else needs to go to Lyoko fast and deactivate the tower before worse comes to worse," said Ulrich letting go of Yumi's hands.
"Ulrich be careful!" said Yumi.
"You too Yumi," smiled Ulrich running off.
Meanwhile in the forest Emily was looking at Mason who was slowly letting go.
"Mason?" said Emily.
"Yeah?" asked Mason.
"I'm scared will you tell me a poem?" asked Emily with tear stained cheeks.
"Why a poem?" coughed Mason.
"When I was little my parents used to tell me a poem when I got scared, and I was wondering if you would do that," said Emily.
"Oh.. umm…..well …..let me think of one… I got one," calmly spoke Mason.
"Will you tell me the poem?" asked Emily.
"Yeah sure, ready to hear it?" asked Mason.
Emily nodded her head. Mason tried to sit up a little bit, but he was in too much pain to do so. He slid back down onto the ground.
"Here," said Emily holding Mason so he could sit up against a tree. She was soon covered in blood from the wound, and she kneeled down and looked at Mason.
"Okay here it goes: Roses are red, Violets are blue, I suck at poems, the end," smirked Mason trying to be funny.
Emily gave a cute little chuckle which helped, but only a little bit. She then sat next to Mason, and leaned her head against his shoulder.
"You can't die," said Emily with fresh tears running down her face.
Ulrich was running through the forest trying desperately to find either Apollo or Mason. When he got to a large rock, and stopped to breath. Then, he heard a voice come from the rock.
"Apollo is that you?" asked Ulrich peering over the rock.
Apollo popped his head out and saw Ulrich, and was never had been more relieved to see him and jumped over the rock.
"What the hell is going on Apollo?" asked Ulrich running with Apollo.
"When XANA created Max and I, we both were given files that needed to be scanned on the scanner in order to destroy all of Lyoko for good, but I wasn't under XANA's influence. Before I was materialized, my file system became corrupted, and now I pose a threat to XANA, but now that XANA knows this, he's made Max activate and try to destroy me before I can damage XANA's virtual aka Max. XANA's purpose for Max was to whenever XANA got full complete power over the super computer to get rid of you guys, but I think Jeremy found out before that time came," explained Apollo.
"So could you be activated then?" asked Ulrich.
"No, like I said my files were corrupted so, basically, I'm kind of like what you guys first thought of Aelita, a materialized virtual being," explained Apollo.
"Oh, listen," stopped Ulrich.
Apollo and Ulrich stopped in their tracks and took a minute to breath before Apollo turned around to hear what Ulrich had to say.
"I'm going to find Mason, you need to go to the factory and tell Jeremy this important information, understand?" asked Ulrich.
Apollo nodded and headed over to the factory. Meanwhile, everyone had just been virtualized onto Lyoko, and were awaiting coordinates from Jeremy. The group was virtualized into the forest sector, and getting on their assorted vehicles.
"Here Aelita, take the Overwheel," said Jeremy virtualizing Mason's vehicle onto Lyoko.
Aelita got into Mason's vehicle, and clenched the handles. She pressed forward on the handles and it caused the Overwheel to move in the direction she wanted.
"Okay guys the tower is d- Apollo?! What are you doing here?" gasped Jeremy.
"Apollo?" asked Yumi looking at Odd and Aelita.
"Listen I need to get into the scanner now! I'm the only thing that can stop this XANA attack," said Apollo.
Apollo began to explain his and Max's purpose for being on earth, and Jeremy nodded.
"Okay, guys Apollo will be joining you on Lyoko you have to led him to the infected tower in order for him to delete Max's data files," replied Jeremy.
"What, but then what will happen to Apollo?" asked Aelita.
Apollo was silent, "Whatever the price is in order to maintain order, I will happily pay it for Mason's sake," replied Apollo with a smile.
Jeremy nodded and motioned Apollo to go to the scanners. Meanwhile Max had come back to the factory to find that the three warriors he had imprisoned in the room had escaped. He made a angry noise and clicked the button on the elevator, but Jeremy saw on the security cam that Max was in the factory and disabled the elevator as soon as Apollo got out.
"Nice try you virtual, but it's going to take a lot more than angry button pushing to fix the elevator," snickered Jeremy.
Ulrich was running as fast as he possibly could to try and find his friend. He then heard heavy breathing to his right, and headed in that direction. He eventually got to where Emily and Mason were and was and was horrified as Yumi and Aelita were. Mason was barely hanging on for life, and Emily was keeping him upright.
"Mason!" gasped Ulrich kneeling down on one knee.
"Ulrich, we need to get Mason out of here," cried Emily.
"No Emily, if we move him, he'll just loose more blood. We have to get someone here to help bandage Mason," said Ulrich to Emily.
"Okay Ulrich, you and me need to get Yolanda, or someone with first aid," said Emily.
Ulrich gave Mason a whistle, and Emily put it around his neck.
"Blow on the whistle, and we'll come running," said Ulrich.
Mason gave a weak nod, and saw Ulrich and Emily take off. Then, Mason saw something gleaming in the snow. Mason laid down on his stomach and pulled himself over to the object. It was the gun used to shoot him, and Max must've dropped it chasing after Apollo. At the factory, Jeremy saw Max look at the elevator and just walk away.
"Hm, knowing XANA, he wouldn't give up so easily," replied Jeremy accessing all the security cams.
Jeremy saw Max leaving the factory, and immediately became concerned with what Max was planning.
"Guys, we need to pick up the pace, it seems that Max, or um XANA, is up to no good," warned Jeremy to the Lyoko warriors.
"Okay Jeremy, but there's one problem, there's a bunch of monsters and there's also William said Odd.
"I'm in the scanner room!" shouted Apollo getting Jeremy's attention.
Jeremy did regular procedure, and then transported Apollo to Lyoko.
"Okay guys go meet up Apollo, and hurry!" commanded Jeremy calling Ulrich's cell.
When the Lyoko warriors got to where Apollo was, they were shocked not to see Apollo in human form, but as a glowing blue sphere.
"Hey guys!" said Apollo.
"Wow, um Apollo, you look…..cool?" said Odd.
"Well, whether or not he's looks cool, he needs to get to that infected tower, time's against us at this point," said Yumi to Odd.
"Mhm, now we just need to think of a strategy," said Aelita.
Ulrich heard his cell phone ring, and he saw the contact as Jeremy. He answered his phone, and put the phone next to his ear.
"Hello Jeremy? What's wrong?" asked Ulrich a little stressed.
"Max has left the factory area, be on the lookout for him. What are you doing Ulrich?" asked Jeremy.
"Well, I'm with Emily at Yolanda's office," said Ulrich.
Suddenly the door barged open, and Emily had a large first aid kit. Ulrich went with Emily to go where they last saw Mason. When they got there the only thing they saw was a trail of snow covered in blood leading out into the woods.
"Where did he go?" asked Ulrich.
They heard a noise behind them, and when they turned around, they were staring straight at Max who was now holding a industry nail gun which was aimed at Ulrich and Emily. He gave a smirk as he flickered, and the eye of XANA beamed in his eyes. On Lyoko the warriors finally had a strong strategy as to get through all the monsters.
"Okay guys at the count of three, ready one…..two….THREE!" yelled Odd driving off on his Overboard getting the tarantulas' attention.
"HEY BIG, FAT, AND UGLY OVER HERE!" mocked Odd zooming of in one direction in the forest causing all the tarantulas to go follow Odd.
Meanwhile, Yumi ran up to William to get his and the Krabs' attention. Yumi threw one of her fans, and hit a Krab on the eye of XANA, causing it to self-destruct. Yumi then dodged the other Krab's laser, as well as the vicious swinging of William's sword. Odd then turned around in his Overboard and shot down one tarantula. He then began to go around a second time, when a tarantula shot at Odd's overboard, causing it to disappear underneath him. Odd fell to the ground with a 'thud' and got up quickly enough to get a good shot at the other tarantula. Unfortunately though, the tarantula was far too quick, and shot Odd causing him to devirtualize. Odd then appeared out of the scanner, breathing heavily.
"Odd, go into the forest right now! Ulrich and the others need you!" said Jeremy.
"Got it Einstein!" replied Odd heading out.
In the forest, Max held the nail gun at near point blank range against Ulrich and Emily.
"Why Max?" asked Emily.
"Get out of here, GIRL! This is between me and Ulrich!" yelled the Virtual body aiming the nail gun at Ulrich.
"Emily I need you to go find Mason," whispered Ulrich.
Emily gave a nod and started to head off in the opposite direction to look for Mason. Ulrich then prepared himself for a battle against the Virtual being. Odd ran through the forest and saw Ulrich.
"Ulrich I-," said Odd being pierced with extreme pain.
Odd fell to the arm clenching his arm in pain, the Virtual being had shot the nail gun at Odd. The nail then pierced into his arm causing a little bit of blood to appear.
"Odd! Oh now you've done it virtual boy. You hurt my friend, and you've almost killed another," yelled Ulrich getting into his Penak-silat position.
The Virtual gave an evil smile and aimed the nail gun at Ulrich. Ulrich attempted to get close to try and take the nail gun away from Max, but it was all for nothing. Max shot three nails into Ulrich's leg, causing him to fall down onto the ground. Max had two Lyoko Warriors where he wanted them, and possibly a third which was already on the path to death.
"I've finally got you where I want you," smiled Max aiming the nail gun at Odd.
"Exactly what I was thinking," coughed a voice behind Max.
Max turned around to see Mason hit him in the head with the butt of the gun causing him to fall on the ground.
"So you can be harmed, this is going to be good," smiled Mason holding the side of his chest, blood coming through his hand.
"Mason! Come on let's go!" said Ulrich helping Mason, but falling due to the pain in his leg.
"It's okay," smiled Mason falling to the ground.
Odd crawled over to where Ulrich and Odd were and took Mason's whistle. Odd blew the whistle as hard as he could for the whole forest to hear.
"Oh! Mason!" gasped Emily running towards the direction of the whistle.
In Lyoko, Aelita and Apollo were hiding behind a rock as Yumi tried to fight of William. Yumi finally got a good shot at William, causing him to fall into the Digital Sea. Yumi gave a thumbs up to Aelita, but she forgot about the other Krab that was behind her. The Krab shot Yumi, and made Yumi devirtualize. Aelita then came out and shot the last Krab, and made it self- destruct.
"Go Apollo! Go destroy the Virtual!" yelled Aelita.
Apollo floated over to the tower as fast as he could and went into the tower, and Aelita after him to disable it after Apollo was done.
"Are you sure about this, Apollo? This is a very large sacrifice for you," replied Aelita.
"What the cost may be, I have to sacrifice myself in order to help defeat XANA," explained Apollo floating up to the top floor of the tower.
In the forest, Max had finally gotten up and kicked Mason over to revel his stomach face upward.
"Mason!" gasped Emily dropping the first aid kit.
Max then turned around and aimed the nail gun at Emily. Emily gasped and took a step back.
"I warned you to stay away, but now you'll pay for getting too involved in private matters," barked the Virtual boy preparing to shoot the nail gun at Emily. Emily gave a scream expecting to be shot, but she wasn't. When she opened her eyes, she saw Mason, with one had on his gun wound, was trying to wrangle the nail gun from the Virtual.
"YOU STAY AWAY FROM HER!" yelled Mason kicking the nail gun out of the virtual boy's hand.
Mason landed a punch from his free hand and knocked virtual teeth out of the Virtual. Max landed onto the ground but his teeth quickly regenerated and he stood back up. Mason took out the gun, and began shooting at Max.
"DON'T YOU EVER, EVER, EVER TOUCH HER!" yelled Mason giving Max a bullet for every "ever" he said.
Max fell to the ground, but quickly regenerated shot off parts of his body, and he started to get closer, and closer to Mason. Finally Max grabbed the gun and aimed it at Mason's stomach. Max put his finger on the trigger on top of Mason's finger, and Mason tried as hard as he could to fight Max's finger off the trigger, but he was too weak and Max pulled the trigger.
"No!" cried Emily.
Another bullet shot rang out and Mason fell onto the ground with a brand new bullet hole in his stomach. He held his stomach, he was done. Mason sprawled out on the ground with little blood coming out.
"MASON!" yelled Ulrich he got and limped over to where Mason was.
Max suddenly was over Ulrich with the gun in his hand, and was about to pull the trigger, but he couldn't. Suddenly Max froze in place. On Lyoko, Apollo had imputed the codes for the deletion of the virtual beings. The screen in the tower turned black, and then green code scrolled down the screen.
"We did it Jeremy!" smiled Aelita.
"Let's just hope that Mason is still alive!" huffed Jeremy.
Max started to glitch, and then began to dissipate, Max made screaming sounds and tried to walk over to Odd and Ulrich with the gun in tow. In Lyoko, Apollo was beginning to dissipate as well, his Lyoko form started to form static and spin out of control.
"Apollo!" gasped Aelita.
"No, it's okay Aelita, I'll be fine…it's for the good of the world you know? It'll be all right!" said Apollo before he disappeared for good.
"We will never forget you, Apollo," sighed Aelita tilting her head down.
"Aelita HURRY UP DON'T FORGET MASON IS IN TROUBLE!" yelled Jeremy into the headset.
"I-I-I-I WILL GET Y-Y-YOU! AS LORD XA-XA-XA-XA XAAANNNNNNNNNNAAAaaaaaaaaa coooommmmmaaaaaannnnnnddddss ssssssssssssssssssssssssssss ssssssssssssssssssssssssssss s," yelled Max dissolving out.
Finally, the Virtual had self-destructed, and the virtual body turned into the spector, and then the spector disappeared. Ulrich, Odd, and Emily walked over to where Mason was. Mason was now bleeding out and his face pale.
"Mason!" they all screamed as they ran over to Mason.
Mason barely opened his eyes to see the three looking over him.
"H-hey," smirked Mason.
"Mason! You…saved me!" said Emily.
"Of course I did, you mean a lot to me Emily," said Mason raising his hand to brush the tears out of Emily's eyes.
"Hold on Mason, soon Aelita will fix the tower, and we'll return to the past, just like we always did!" said Ulrich reassuring more of himself than trying to reassure Mason.
"I don't think I'm going to make this return to the past trip Ulrich," coughed Mason starting to close his eyes.
"Mason, YOU CAN'T GO, WHO'S GOING TO HELP ME PICK UP CHICKS WITH TEACHING ME DIFFERENT LANGAUGES!" said Odd.
"Sorry, Odd, you'll have to ask someone else to do it," replied Mason.
Aelita stepped up onto the pad, and began her ascend into the top of the tower. Emily was holding Mason's hand with tears pouring down her eyes saying "You can't die!" over and over again. Mason slowly began to let go of Emily's hand. Ulrich had started to let tears stream down his face as well, all though he didn't want to cry. Mason was his best friend, and he couldn't bear to see him die, at least, not like this.
"Mason please hold on a little longer!" Ulrich yelled at Mason.
Aelita opened the screen, and typed in CODE LYOKO into the screen. As the tower deactivated, Mason's hand slipped out of Emily's. Emily's tears were now dripping onto Mason's face. Ulrich was crying too, but a silent, manly cry. Odd looked down in sadness, but he wouldn't cry. Emily was now heavily crying, and had her face in her hands, and shaking due to her heavy cyring.
"Return to the past now!" yelled Jeremy typing in the code and pressing the enter key.
The large bubble of light expanded quickly from the factory, and eventually encompassed the entire area. Lastly, hitting Odd, Ulrich, Emily, and Mason who was lying completely still on the ground. The sacrifices that had happened that night will never be forgotten by any of the Lyoko Warriors, this day would forever be marked in their memory as the day two kind souls sacrificed themselves for the common good of the world.