Hey guys! I've got some bad news... My computer crashed and I lost Microsoft word D: (along with a lot of other things) but fear not! I've downloaded a free (legally free), similar version called OpenOffice, ya know, the one FF suggests? So the story will continue! YIPEEE!
EDIT: welp, I got Microsoft starter soo… everything's fixed XD
A few days had passed and the group was recovering from the impact of Sonic's absence. There've been a few XANA attacks, but nothing serious, they haven't had to do a return to the past since Sonic's leave. Though the XANA attacks have been minor, it's exactly what's gotten Jeremy and Aelita worried. He called for a meeting for the small group of friends, Amy being the only one who was absent.
"I'm sure you all know why you've been called." Jeremy looked over the group in his room as he spun around in his chair. "These XANA attacks are starting to worry me… They've been small scale, and have caused little to no damage to the school or outside world. He hasn't put up much of a fight in Lyoko either."
Shadow looked over the group, "Not to mention the fact that we've lost sonic… it would be a perfect time to implement an attack, considering we've lost a valuable member of the team." His eyes scanned the room.
"Shadow's got a point." Ulrich stood up, "and so does Jeremy." He looked to Yumi. They both looked away from each other.
"Not only that, but this XANA now has the capability to overshadow one of us… considering he's done it to Amy already, it's only a matter of time until Tails or one of us is taken over…" Shadow grunted, "Things aren't going our way…"
"I hate to bring this up now, but have you or Jeremy made any progress on sending us home yet Tails?" Knuckles looked hopefully.
"Jeremy and I found an old scanner and have been modifying it, but haven't been able to test anything with it yet, nor have we had the chance to see if it even works…" Tails sighed, "Sorry…"
Knuckles smiled, "It's ok tails, don't worry about it."
Something in Jeremy's mind clicked, "hey… Where's… um… Amy?" He asked looking around.
Shadow, Knuckles and Tails looked down at the ground, "She hasn't been taking Sonic's leave very well…" Tails said, "She's been going to her classes, but she seems like a zombie when she walks around to her classes."
Jeremy rubbed his chin, "Could she be possessed by XANA?"
"No." Shadow shot. "I've seen her like this before, it was for a short while, but it was a moment when she had thought sonic was gone… as in… deceased."
(Flashback)
"Heh! Is that all you've got up your sleeve Egghead?" The blue hero smirked, "I think you're starting to lose your edge!"
"Oh contraire you blue Idiot…" The doctor hit a red button and clamps stuck to Sonic's feet.
"H-Huh?" He struggled to get his feet free, "Oh no, this is bad!" He growled and looked up at his adversary.
"It's been fun sonic, but fun has to come to an end sooner or later…" The doctor laughed, "GOODBYE SONIC!" He hit another button and the base began to explode, while the doctor left through the Ceiling.
Amy, Shadow and Tails had been watching outside, watching the base and the fight, after sonic requested to fight eggman alone. They watched it begin to explode, and with no sonic in sight, they feared the worst. Amy had curled up on the ground, trying to hold in her tears. Tails looked over to her and tried to hold his own tears back. Shadow sighed and looked at the base with a saddened look.
A bright light behind them caught their attention and there stood the blue hero, standing tall and proud. "Heh… it'll take more than that to kill me!" Sonic smirked and watched as his two friends ran over to him. "It's ok guys… I'm fine… I used a chaos emerald!" He pulled a blue one out.
(End flashback)
Jeremy looked over to his new friends and frowned, "I'm sorry… well…" He began changing the subject. "I suggest we start investigating what XANA's up to…" Jeremy hit a few Keys on his computer, "what…" he turned around with wide eyes. "Wh-What?"
Odd stood up, "What's up Jeremy?"
"A tower's been activated! How did it get under the radar?" He hit a few more keys, "urgh… now's not the time to worry about it, let's head to the factory now!" Jeremy got his backpack and the group ran out of the hallway, running by Jim.
"Hey! You Kids slow down!" He shouted.
"Sorry Jim!" Odd shouted as they turned down the hallway.
"I swear, I don't get any respect around this place…" He continued to patrol the hallways.
They arrived shortly at the factory as Jeremy jumped into his chair. "OK, here's how we're going to do this. Odd, Aelita and Knuckles are going to go to Lyoko. The rest of you will go to the surface and make sure XANA isn't causing any trouble…"
"Right." Yumi said, as her and shadow left.
"OK you three, get ready!" He hit a few keys and began the usual routine. "Virtualization!" He said hitting the enter key.
The three hit the ground and stood up. "Ok Jeremy, we're in." Aelita told him looking around.
Jeremy looked around for the activated tower, in the mountain section. "There doesn't seem to be any monsters… but, be careful guys, this could be a trap like last time." Jeremy scanned the screen for monsters.
Shadow, Ulrich and Yumi walked around the school looking for anything out of the ordinary. "Hmm… See anything?"
"Nothing." Yumi answered sitting down. "Guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens…" She sighed. Ulrich walked by her, contemplating whether or not to sit next to her.
Knuckles, Aelita and Odd walked down the slim mountain path, watching for any monsters that may come their way. There were rocks around them, plenty of places to take cover, or a place for monsters to hide.
"You guys, five hornets and four bloks coming your way!" Jeremy shouted.
Sure enough, they were surrounded. Knuckles looked to his right, "Hey, over there! Let's take cover!" Knuckles pulled Aelita over as Odd followed behind a rock.
Odd looked up as the hornets were firing at the rock, it slowly breaking. "Hey, I've got an idea!" Odd began explaining his attack plan to knuckles and Aelita.
"Wow Odd, that's a great idea!" Aelita complimented with a smile.
Odd smirked, "ready? GO!" He shouted. Soon Knuckles jumped from out behind the rock and ran over to one of the Bloks, Dodging its lasers.
"heh… RRRAAAAGGGHH!" He grabbed it, spun around and tossed it towards a hornet; they collided as the hornet exploded, and the Blok fell below and smashed into another hornet, both exploding on impact.
Knuckles ran towards the other two bloks and smashed them into each other with his extreme strength. Odd jumped out afterwards and over to Knuckles, who grabbed his legs, spun around yet again and tossed Odd towards the hornets.
"Laser arrow!" He shouted firing two arrows and landing on the third one. "Laser. Arrow!" He shouted firing several into the hornet as it exploded. With no land below him Odd began to fall, but without hesitation Aelita grew her angel wings, flew over to Odd and grabbed him.
"Wow guys! Nice team work!" Jeremy smiled, "Head to the tower!" He said hitting a few Keys.
Meanwhile, the ground had been trembling for a few minutes so the group stood up and watched. "Something's coming… get ready!" Shadow said.
Vines from underground burst and wrapped around Yumi's leg. "Agh!" She tripped and was beginning to be pulled underground.
"Yumi!" Ulrich shouted grabbing her hand. "I…I got you!" He held her hand tightly.
"SPEAR!" A voice echoed as a beam of yellow hit the vine, releasing Yumi.
She wiggled her leg out of the dead fine and stood up. "Thanks shadow… thanks Ulrich." She smiled at him. Ulrich couldn't help but blush.
"No time for messing around…" He readied another beam in his finger. "These shouldn't be too hard… Just little twigs…" He smirked, ready to fire again.
Suddenly, large vines burst from the ground again and wrapped his arm. "Gah… what!" He struggled to get his arm free when a vine wrapped around his torso. "GACK!" He struggled to get free once more.
"Shadow!" Ulrich shouted, he looked around, trying to find something he could use as a weapon. "ah hah!" He found a metal pipe that was from underground and grabbed it. "Let him go!" He ran over to shadow and swung the metal pipe with all his might and cut the vine that was holding his torso. "HAH!" He twirled and cut the other vine holding his arm. He jumped out of the way as shadow turned around and Fired his deadly chaos spear at the vine.
"This is going to be harder than I thought…" Shadow growled as he looked around, vines grew from all sides. Ulrich grabbed another pipe and handed it to Yumi. They were both standing next to shadow as he readied himself. "rrgh… CHAOS!—"
"AGGH!" Knuckles shouted being sent flying away as a mega tank rolled into him. He flipped and landed on his knee.
"Knuckles, that was twenty life points! Be careful!" Jeremy warned.
One more came from behind them. There was a mega tank in front and behind the group, Odd had his spears ready while knuckles did his best with his fists. The mega tanks began to charge up their attacks and fired. Knuckles and Odd dodged with ease. But the mega tanks quickly discharged and rolled quickly towards them both and they both held out their hands to grab them.
The mega tanks collided with their hands as they struggled to push them away. "Kn-Knuckles! I can't-keep them back!" Odd not having nearly as much strength as knuckles was losing the fight. Knuckles looked back at Odd and back to his mega tank, "Then this is where the road ends! RRRAAAAGGGHHH!" He threw his fist back and thrust it towards the mega tank, bursting through the mega tanks powerful dome. It blew up and Knuckles threw odd away.
"Knuckles! That punch cost 50 life points! What are you doing?" Jeremy shouted.
"Ending this NOW!"
Odd rolled away and watched knuckles launch another devastating punch to the mega tank, causing it to explode, and him devirtualize as well.
"Knuckles!" Aelita shouted.
"Don't worry about'em! Just get to the tower!" Odd demanded.
She sighed and nodded..
"Wh…What's this?" Jeremy looked at his radar. "Aelita! Watch out! There's a monster coming towards you!"
Aelita continued to run, "What is it Jeremy?"
Knuckles came up from the elevator and over to Jeremy. "What's going on?" He groaned.
"There's a new monster, but I don't know what it is!" Jeremy motioned for knuckles to look.
"WAAGGH!" Aelita screamed as she was smacked away from the tower.
"Aelita!" Jeremy shouted. A screen came up and said Aelita had just lost twenty life points. "Odd, Can you give me a visual?" Jeremy hit a few keys and began to see what Odd was seeing.
A blue foot hit the ground, as did another one.
Knuckles' eyes went wide. "N-No…"
"What is this thing Jeremy?" Odd took a step back.
"HAH HAH HAH HAAAH…." It laughed.
"I-It can't be! I-It's… IT'S METAL SONIC!"
Jeremy's eyes pupils shunk. "M-Metal sonic? What's that?"
"It's Sonic's Identical copy, in other words, you're fighting an evil version of sonic! Get shadow down here! He's the only one who can even stand a chance!" Knuckles grunted as he turned around and climbed up the ladder as fast as he could and began to run to the school.
"Time to DIE." Metal's engines roared as he sprung forwards past Aelita and to Odd.
"wh-what?—AAAGGHH!" He was grabbed by the throat and smashed into the rocky mountain behind him.
"Odd!" Jeremy and Aelita shouted simultaneously
Seventy life points were suddenly gone as Odd dropped to his knees. Digital rocks crumbled to the ground next to them. "a…aaghh…" Odd groaned as he looked up to metal.
Metal sonic laughed as he looked towards Aelita.
"This was XANA's plan this whole time, He wanted knuckles gone so he could unleash this monster!" Jeremy's mind was racing as he was calling Yumi. "Yumi! Tell shadow to get here immediately!" Jeremy shouted
"Jeremy we need him here!" Yumi shouted.
"Don't worry, Knuckles is on his way to take his place, but we need shadow NOW! Knuckles said Metal Sonic has come to Lyoko!"
Shadow's ear twitched as he heard over the phone. "This is bad… I'm sorry, but I HAVE to go… Chaos… CONTROL!" He shouted as he disappeared.
"Shadow!" Ulrich shouted as he disappeared.
"Don't worry, I'm here!" Knuckles ran in and smashed through the thick vines surrounding them.
"I'm here, send me now." Shadow appeared in the scanner room.
"Right…" He hit a few keys and began the process.
"hah hah hah haah…" his arm turned into a machine gun and aimed it at Odd's head.
"O-Odd!" Aelita shouted. The sound of gunfire was in the area as Odd soon devirtualized.
Metal sonic laughed once more and turned to Aelita. "Life form, has been terminated…" He began to walk towards her as she fell to her back and inched herself backwards.
"New target in sight… Subject: Aelita…" He got closer and closer to her as she inched farther backwards "Objective…. TERMINATE…." He said as his eyes glowed a dark, evil red.
"Chaos… SPEAR!" Shadow's voice echoed as a yellow energy smacked into metal's arm.
Metal turned around and saw shadow. "heh…."
"You'll have to get through me first you trash can…" The two dashed towards each other and clashed with force that rumbled the air. They had each other in a hand lock that neither seemed to be letting up. Shadow made the first move and thrust his knee into metal sonic, causing him to fly up into the air. Shadow grunted, his rocket shoes activated and flew up into the air after metal sonic.
Although this would be a great chance for Aelita to get into the tower, she was frozen by fear and astonishment as she watched the two duke it out. Jeremy was watching with Aelita's view as shadow and metal fought each other.
Metal launched rockets towards Shadow who dodged them with ease. He grabbed one and threw it back to him, which exploded, costing him ten life points.
Shadow had eighty five life points while metal had seventy. He didn't seem worried though.
Metal flew towards shadow and grappled his torso and flew straight towards the ground.
"Gaagh!" Shadow shouted. The duo smashed through the thin rocky ground the sector was made of and began flying to the digital sea.
"Goodbye shadow!" Metal shouted as he let go and smacked shadow with his feet towards the sea.
Shadow was flying uncontrollably towards the digital sea, but did a back flip and pushed energy into his boots allowing him to stop, hovering above the digital sea. He's just as much of a challenge as ever…
"Shadow, You've got sixty five life points left!" Jeremy told him, metal had only lost ten while shadow lost twenty when they crashed through the rocky earth. Shadow flew back up and stood on the thin rock that surrounded them.
He grunted. He's just as powerful as ever… He thought.
"Chaos… SPEAR!" he fired several at metal who dodged and flew to shadow and punched him in the stomach. "GAACK!" shadow grunted as five life points were lost, He was punched again in the face and took a step back, another five life points.
"RRAAGHH!" Metal launched his foot and kicked shadow in the chin, causing shadow to lift up into the air. Metal quickly flew above him and elbowed him into the ground.
"AAGHH!" he shouted as his body struck the earth.
"Shadow, those four attacks took twenty life points away! You're down to 45 now!"
Metal was beginning to take control of the fight as shadow was getting weaker and weaker.
"Shadow!" Aelita wanted to help but knew she was powerless to do so.
"Shadow, shadow… shadow…" Metal walked around shadow as he gasped. Just as he did with Odd Mecha's arm turned into a gun and put it to metals head. "Time to die…"
"Nooo!" Aelita shot a pink ball of energy towards metal, which hit him and caused him to miss his shot.
"RAAGHH!" Metal shouted as he flew towards Aelita, but was stopped short as shadow grabbed his leg and threw him into the mountain.
Shadow jumped up and grabbed Mecha with all his might. "Time to end this!" His body glowed red. "CHAOS… BLAASSTT!" The explosion was massive, the light blinded Aelita and consumed the area.
Smoke covered the area and shadow stumbled out. "Shadow!" Aelita said with joy. "is he gone Jeremy?"
Jeremy looked at the radar. "I can't tell, there's interference!" Jeremy continued to hit a few keys. "Shadow… You've only got five life points left…"
"I don't care… at least I got rid of him…" Shadow panted and looked up at Aelita.
"Wrong." Metals hand was shoved through shadows torso, he devirtualized soon after.
"N-NNNOOO!" He shouted as he disappeared.
"Shadow!" Aelita took a step back, and looked at the tower.
"YOU'RE NEXT!" He burst with incredible speed towards Aelita.
She screamed and ran as fast as she could to the tower. Just as metal sonic reached her, she ran into the tower. She was gasping, shaking with fear.
Metal laughed. "next time girl… next time…" Metal said.
"Code… Lyoko…" Aelita said as she placed her hand onto the floating console. She sighed, "that was to close…"
Jeremy hit a few keys, "Return to the past, NOW!" he hit the enter key and the white light consumed the area yet again.
The group was back in Jeremy's room, all of them a little shaken up. Shadow angrier than anyone else.
"I can't believe I just let myself get taken off guard like that…" Shadow growled.
"Don't worry, you were exhausted…" Aelita tried to comfort him.
"So I guess this means we can't go alone anymore…" Ulrich looked at tails, who shook his head no.
"XANA's got a new, dangerous ally… and from what we've seen, we're severely out-matched." Jeremy looked over to Odd who was saddened by how easily he was taken by Metal sonic.
"Don't feel bad Odd, if you had known he was coming as fast as he was you would have done a better job." Knuckles smiled at him.
"One thing's clear. We need sonic back as soon as possible, we're going to need him…" Yumi looked around, everyone agreed.
"C'mon. Let's get to class, we'll be late soon." Jeremy got his things, as well as the rest of the group. They walked out the door and went their separate ways to class.
Man, THAT was a LOT of fun! I LOVE METAL SONIC. Such a bad ass. XD Anyway, I guess you could say a season finale is coming up in chapter 12, some big stuff is going to go down, so get ready for it! After that, I'll be busy coming up with some new ideas, so PLEASE PLEASE, I'd LOVE to hear what kind of ideas you guys would have for this. For the moment, you'll have to wait and see what happens in chapter twelve: CHANGES!