Sorry about the chapter mixup for a bit there. Big Bug is another episode I find only ok, but better than Logbook.
Chapter 8: Big Bug
It was another day at Kadic Academy. Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, and I were all walking together. I was telling them a story about something that happened at All Region tryouts last year.
"Yeah, and the best part was that when Caleb ran up to the gingerbreadman decoration, he tripped! And I got it on camera!" I said, laughing. The others started laughing as well, until we saw Sissi with ger cronies and Milly and Tamiya.
"Hi, how are you?" She asked, though it was most likely only meant for Ulrich.
"Well what do you know? It's Ms. Conceited in person." Odd said, making me grin.
"Nobody asked you, creep!" Sissi said, sending a glare at Odd. "So, Ulrich, when are you going to stop being so shy and finally tell me how you feel about me, huh?"
"You're wrong: I'm not shy. Not at all." Ulrich said, folding his arms with a smirk. "I'm just allergic to anyone who's stuck up. And in that category, you win, hands down."
"Yeah, you're making my allergies act up with your conceitedness!" I said, faking some coughs. Everyone laughed, even Nicholas and Herb.
"I'll bet she's been telling you how nobody can resist her charm. She's right too! Just take a look at the two nobodies she's always hanging out with!" Odd joked. Nicholas growled and attempted to walk up to Odd, but Sissi stopped him.
"Take it easy."
"Wow, you outght to be a dog trainer when you grow up." Ulrich joked, making me give him a confused look.
"She can grow up?"
"Go on, laugh all you want! Show your friends how clever you are! But I see the way you look at me when they're not around." She said, then walked off with her cronies in tow.
"I think she's hallucinating." Ulrich said. Yumi looked over at Ulrich, making me roll my eyes.
"Just admit that you two like each other already!" I thought.
"Oh no! Speaking of dogs, I have to go feed Kiwi!" Odd realized.
"I'll go with you." Ulrich looked over at the two of us. "Either one of you want to come?"
"I'll see you later, I promised Jeremy I'd stop by and see him." Yumi said.
"I'm sure Jeremy wouldn't mind an extra visitor." I said, then began walking to Jeremy's room with Yumi. We walked up the stairs to the boys' floor and knocked on Jeremy's door.
"Jeremy?" Yumi asked.
"Hi Yumi, come in." Jeremy replied, not looking up from work. Yumi and I both walked in.
"So, what're you up to this time, Einstein?" I asked. He looked up at me,looking slightly surprised that I was there as well.
"I'm working on a new program. Sort of a catastrophe alarm system." Jeremy explained. "The idea is to rate nonnatural disasters on a scale of 1 to 10. And once I got it finished, I'm going to get it on every website, or information network if you like, and anytime the systems registers a disaster higher than 5, it automatically informs me."
"And then what?" Yumi asked.
"It's the surest way fir me to identify a possible XANA attack."
"Wow, that's cool." Yumi said, not really paying attention. Jeremy and I looked at one another with smirks.
"What's on your mind?" Jeremy asked.
"W-well, it's Ulrich.." She stammered. "I wonder... Do you think he likes Sissi?"
"Sissi? You're kidding!" Jeremy replied, leaning back ing his chair.
"He'd have to be as brain dead as her ti even think about that for even a millisecond!" I exclaimed.
"Y'know, I never would have believed it, but you're really jealous, aren't you?" Yumi shot Jeremy an offended look.
"What!? You're kidding! How could you think for even a minute that I could be jealous of that dimwit!? That is ridiculous!" Jeremy and I simply shrugged at each other.
Elsewhere
"The trains aren't stopping anywhere! What's going on?" A woman asked.
"I have no idea, but there's some kind of eye on the monitor!" The man tried hitting a few buttons, but nothing happened. "The trains switches aren't responding! The trains are out of control!"
"Have you contacted the conductors!?"
"Most of them. The problem is that trains 3611 and 9432 are completely automatic!" The man exclaimed frantically. "And they're on a collision course and I can't stop them!"
"They're freight trains, no passengers. How long before they collide?" The woman asked.
"26 minutes." The man answered. "But the 3611 is a special convoy train carrying a load of highly toxic chemicals!"
Jeremy's Room
"Just one last adjustment, and then the program should be ready." Jeremy said, then finalized it, and sent it out. "There, now there's nothing left to do except wait until XANA rears his ugly head." Suddenly, a news report flashed up on Jeremy's computers.
"A powerful virus has infected all of the country's main computer systems just a few minutes ago." The three of us looked at each other with a worried glance. "The infrastructures and infected are very numerous, and very vital. They include communication, banking, and all subway systems along with all air traffic control. The most imminent danger however, it the probability of a major train crash. For more information, here's John Swamp." They cut away to man standing in front of a bridge.
"Thank you, Ellen. Yes, as you heard, to freight trains are on collision course, and one of the trains is carrying highly toxic chemicals, which if spread into the atmosphere, would cause an environmental catastrophe!"
"John, is there any way of preventing this disaster?"
"None at all, for the simple reason that they are both computer operated and impossible to control at this time. It'll take a miracle to stop them both in time. The authorities are considering an evacuation of the nearby population." Jeremy turned the news report off.
"You two try to contact Ulrich and Odd, I'll head over to the lab and prepare the transfers." Jeremy said. Yumi and I both tried calling Ulrich and Odd, but they wouldn't answer for some reason.
"What's going on with them? C'mon, one of you has got to be able to answer!" Yumi said, trying to call Ulrich again. I sighed and put my phone away.
"It's obvious that they're more focused in something else." I realized. "You go and find them, Jeremy and I will head to the factory."
Lab
Jeremy and I walked out of the elevator and into the lab. He ran over to his chair and put his earpiece in.
"Aelita, do you read me?" Her face appeared on the screen.
"Yes. I was working on your latest materialization program." She answered.
"Forget it for now, there's no time. We've got a big problem." Jeremy said. "Have you noticed anything?"
"No, but I'll go have a look around." Her face disappeared from the screen as Jeremy called Yumi.
"Yumi, were you able to get hold of Ulrich and Odd ?"
"No, they've shut their mobiles off. I'm out looking for them." She informed us.
Campus
After checking their dorm, Yumi walked outside to find Ulrich and Odd sitting on one of the benches. Ulrich grinned at her.
"Oh, Yumi! You got here to late, you missed a great show!" He said, oblivious to the attack.
"Sissi's got herself a boyfriend, though boy isn't quite the right word for it." Odd said.
"Hey, for your information, I've been trying to reach you for 15 minutes. Thanks guys." Yumi said in an annoyed tone. "XANA has just launched an attack. He's taken control of two freight trains and sent them on a collision course, and one of them is carrying toxic chemicals."
"Ok, I read you! It's urgent!" Ulrich said, trying to calm her down.
"Hey, you there!" Jim shouted from behind. Odd turned around and gasped when he saw Jim carrying Kiwi.
"Oh no, no, no! As if we didn't have enough problems!" He muttered.
"It seems you've forgotten the rules here at school! Pets are not allowed!" Jim shouted, holding up Kiwi.
"Yeah we know that Jim, but you're not going to make a big deal out of a little dog, are you?" Odd asked.
"That's for the principal to decide, follow me!" Jim grabbed Odd and began leading him to the administration building. Sissi looked at Ulrich, a devious smile in her face.
"You're an even worse pain in the neck than I thought." Ulrich said. Sissi simply winked and walked away. "How could she do such a thing!?"
"She got her revenge, but we can't worry about it now." Yumi pointed out. "C'mon, there are too many lives at stake!" Ulrich nodded, and they ran to the boiler room.
Factory
Jeremy didn't want me going to Lyoko without any backup, so I was forced to wait in the lab with him.
"The situation remains unchanged, the two freight trains are completely out of control. Armed forced have begun to evacuate people in the immediate area. Now for other news around the country, the capital is in a state of total gridlock. Huge traffic jams are creating total chaos, and the police are totally swamped, and unable to help. And since all alarm systems are out, there has been a tremendous amount of looting."
"Got anything new, Aelita?"
"Yes I do, Jeremy. I've picked up some pulsations, and it seems that the activated tower is in the desert. I'm on my way!" She disappeared from the screen. We heard the elevator open, and saw Ulrich and Yumi approaching us.
"Hey, where's Odd?" Jeremy asked.
"He's in the principals office, because Jim found out about Kiwi." Jeremy sighed.
"Ok you three, get ready for immediate departure." We bodded and climbed down to the scanner room, then each entered a scanner. "Transfer, Ulrich. Transfer, Emily. Transfer, Yumi. Scanner, Ulrich. Scanner, Emily. Scanner, Yumi. VIRTUALIZATION!"
The three of us landed in the Desert Sector.
"Everything's cool Jeremy, the transfer was successful, no problems." Yumi reported.
"And Aelita's here." I said.
"Ok, great." Jeremy responded. "And no monsters in sight."
"Any news from Odd?" Ulrich asked.
"No, not yet. I'll try to contact him." We took off running in the direction of the tower. I looked over at Ulrich.
"So, how did Jim find out about Kiwi? You guys have dine a pretty good job at hiding him, so what happened?"
"We uh, decided to play a prank on Sissi by using Kiwi. I guess she told Jim about him as revenge." Ulrich replied. We stopped not to far from the tower.
"The tower is there." Aelita said, pointing at it. Yumi looked around.
"No, that's too easy." She said, suspicion painting her tone.
"Yeah." Ulrich agreed. "Looks like a real XANA trap. Hey Jeremy, do you see anything on your screen?"
"No, nothing. Not even a single monster." Jeremy replied. I looked around, my staff ready for battle. "Alert! You're surrounded by four monsters!" Jeremy suddenly exclaimed. Ulrich stopped us from moving forward. He unsheathed his katana, but we didn't see any monsters.
"Where are they? I don't see any monsters." It was at that point that four Bloks decided to make their presence known, and each fired a laser at us, all hitting on target.
"Magic Blast!" I exclaimed, and fired the spell at one of the Bloks, but missed. Yumi unfolded her fan and threw it at another one, but it leaned out of the way.
"Emily, Ulrich, Yumi, get out of there! You're losing too many Life Points!" Jeremy exclaimed as Yumi was hit once again.
"Great idea, but how do you suggest we do it? Sprout wings!?" Ulrich asked.
"There are a lot of rocks on your right, try to lose them in there?" Jeremy suggested. Ulrich looked at the four Bloks in front of us.
"Yumi, Emily, take Aelita away with you." He looked at us sternly. "I'll handle them."
"But, Ulrich-" Yumi began.
"Don't argue! Run!" He said, then jumped into the air and used his triplicate ability. "Go!" He yelled at us, and we took off. Ulrich ran up to one of the Bloks, and stabbed it with his katana right before it fired it's laser. "Impact!" He yelled, then another Blok took out his clones.
Back in the lab, Odd had finally arrived.
"Hey, did I miss the party?" He asked.
"I guess you could say that. Ulrich has the grand total of 10 Life Points left." Jeremy replied.
"What about the trains?"
"Eight minutes to impact, better get a move on." Odd nodded and went down to the scanner room.
Back on Lyoko, Ulrich was running away from the Bloks, then rolled out of the way to dodge a laser. He then jumped into the air, and stabbed the Blok. "Impact!" He jumped on top of another Blok and killed it as well. He was prepared to kill the last one as well, but the Blok used its freezing gel, which caught him off guard, and ultimately devirtualized him.
Yumi, Aelita, and myself saw that happen, and then the Blok took an interest in us.
"Run!" Yumi and I shouted. I attempted to fire a thunderbolt at out monster pal, but it missed. The Blok fired some more lasers, both narrowly missing Yumi. Then, it took aim at Aelita, forcing me to take another hit to push her out of the way. Yumi then used her telekinesis on a rock.
"Note to self: crushing Bloks is very effective." I thought.
"The coast is clear!" Yumi exclaimed, only to get devirtualized by a Megatank.
"Great, now XANA's pulling out the big guns." I said. I pulled out my staff. "Aelita, run!" I exclaimed. She did as she was told. The Megatank fired its laser, hitting me, and devirtualizing me. I fell out of the scanner in the real world. "Also note to self: I suck at killing Megatanks." Yumi and Ulrich extended their hands to help me up.
Lyoko
Odd watched as Aelita ran to the, and hopped along the rocks in synch. He hopped down and began running forward. Aelita stopped and looked back at the Megatank.
"Aelita!? What're you doing!? Get out of there, now!" Ulrich exclaimed. She fell to her knees and began to sing, creating a ridge in the ground. However, the part the Megatank was rolling on was higher, and since it was rolling at a high speed, it went over Aelita. In the lab, we cheered.
"I was sure she would do that." Jeremy proudly stated. We rolled our eyes at him.
The Megatank still wasn't down for the count, however, and it immediately took an interest in Aelita again. Odd ran up to her, and jumped behind her as the Megatank fired its laser.
"Laser Arrow!" He shouted, and fired an arrow, destroying the Megatank. Aelita then entered the tower.
Back in the lab, Jeremy, Ulrich, Yumi, as I watched as the two trains grew nearer and nearer to each other. I clenched my fist tightly as they were feet apart from each other. Then, they just stopped. We all let out a sigh of relief. The tower was once again deactivated. Jeremy then launched the return program.
"Return to the past, now!" We were engulfed in white.
Garden Shed
The five us were all hidden behind a bush in front of the garden shed.
"Ok, here she comes, start recording, Emily." Odd whispered. I hit the record button on my phone as Sissi approached. She walked up to the garden shed door.
"Finally, alone at last Ulrich, just the two of us." She said as she opened the door. She gasped when Herb fell on too of her. "Herb!? What the!?"
"Sissi, I love you too!" He admitted.
"What!?" Odd took a picture of Herb on top of Sissi. "Cut it out! Are you out of your mind or what!?" She pushed Herb off of her.
"But I got your text message! 'Meet me at the garden shed, I love you' Sissi!" Herb protested. Odd showed us the picture, which I filmed.
"We're gonna give Milly and Tamiya a real scoop." Ulrich said, grinning.
"I know who's making the front cover." I sang.
"Just keep dreaming, you creep." Sissi said. "In the meantime, I'm going to tell my father about this." She walked off, Herb following behind her, desperately trying to explain.
"That''s really such a shame. We've just seen the beginning, and end of a beautiful romance!" Yumi joked, making us all laugh. Then, Yumi and Ulrich looked at one another, and smiled.