Well, I've got double the reviews of my next highest reviewed story, which is fantastic! Anyway, onto the chapter!
Pretty Hate Machine
Anger acts on my instincts.
Chapter 8: The Backs of the Bruised
Then, there were four. Four warriors who could fight XANA, four warriors who could defend Earth from his attacks. But there used to be five. Ulrich had fallen from their ranks and transformed into a possessed slave of XANA's. He left them battered and bruised, with Yumi feeling devastated, Odd recuperating from a blade that pierced his stomach on Lyoko, and Aelita was knocked unconscious. Only Jeremie seemed fine, but yet, he had to decide between saving Ulrich and working on the multi-agent system.
He gazed at the screen. He had already thought of ideas to cover for Ulrich's absence from school. Fortunately, since his house was destroyed three days ago, he thought it would be best if there were no Ulrich clone around the school, considering how much the William clone did dumb down William in the eyes of the students. However, Jeremie couldn't use that excuse forever, so he had to make a clone eventually.
Suddenly, a message window popped on screen. Jeremie quickly realised it was Franz Hopper, and called the rest of his conscious members to the Supercomputer. While Yumi and Odd headed over there, Franz had said, 'I'm sorry to hear what happened to your friend.'
Jeremie quickly responded, 'Thanks. I'm glad you're here now, because I'm not sure what to do with the programs and what to prioritize first.'
"Jeremie, is it Franz Hopper?" Odd enquired from behind.
Jeremie jumped slightly and answered, "Yeah. It is. I'm hoping he would provide an answer to our dilemma."
'Let me take care of freeing Ulrich. I think I can complete a program that destroys the antibodies in Ulrich's body in two days at best,' Franz declared.
The group were surprised to see Franz take care of Ulrich, especially when assisting with the multi-agent program. Jeremie recovered from the shock and typed up a question to Franz.
'Two days? How?'
'Simple. Ulrich wasn't possessed by XANA via Scyphozoa, he was possessed by antibodies, designed to corrupt his mind so he can fight against you. The only way to be possessed by XANA antibodies is to receive it directly from physical part of XANA, even though XANA is xenomorphic.'
'Wait, you're saying that Avikar was a part of XANA?'
'It's the only way. Ulrich left XANA no choice once he stepped into the scanners several times. His immunity is too strong to receive it indirectly, so XANA needed to give him a direct injection. Anyway, these antibodies are easy to get rid of; you simply create ones that destroy those antibodies so Ulrich can regain control of his body. Since I created XANA, I know how to create a counter program to remove these antibodies.'
'I guess that leaves us no choice. I'll continue working on the multi-agent program and see how far I get with it.'
'Right. I'll send you an update on it once I've made some progress. Good luck and stay on your guard, XANA will try to seize this opportunity.'
'Good point. And I hope that programming will be completed in two days.'
Franz went offline, leaving the three teenagers to their own lives. However, it was difficult to know where to begin without Ulrich around. But Franz's final words did make them feel incredibly edgy about the near future.
A groan escaped Aelita's mouth, causing her to wake up. She quickly realised that they lost the fight to bring Ulrich back before Avikar had full control of him. She then found out that she was sitting down, resting on the back of the wall. Her friends were all staring at her with relieved looks on their faces.
"Aelita, thank God you're okay!" Jeremie exclaimed, running up to her.
"What happened?" Aelita enquired, slowly standing up.
"Ulrich's possessed, and your father's working on the program while I'm working on the multi-agent system," Jeremie answered.
"Why aren't you working with my father on it?" Aelita asked.
"Your father insisted that he'd complete that task. He said he could do it in two days, so it won't be long until we get Ulrich back," Jeremie reassured.
"Ok. So, what do we do for the time being?"
"We head to class and find an excuse for Ulrich's absence," Odd stated.
"Don't worry, I got that figured out," Jeremie responded.
Most of the students at Kadic Academy were sleeping soundly at night, even after being told that Ulrich Stern was with his parents to support them through their devastation, and to see it for himself. However, the students who told Mr. Delmas the news could not sleep a wink, knowing the real truth behind the news.
In Ulrich's room, Odd kept on staring at Ulrich's bed, while patting Kiwi, who made soft whimpers every now and again. It appeared that Kiwi was also affected by Ulrich's absence, sensing that something horrible happened to him. Odd kept his deeper emotions on the matter inside, needing to remain strong for his pet and others.
Aelita was tossing and turning in her bed, trying to get her mind off Ulrich. But it was impossible, especially imagining what terrible things were happening to him while under the influence of XANA. She opened her eyes, just realising that she had shed tears. She wiped her face, but kept staring at the ceiling, thinking about how they could save their poor friend.
Jeremie was used to pulling all-nighters and keeping himself awake. However, the feeling wasn't the same. Knowing that Ulrich wouldn't spot the keyboard markings on his forehead when he fell asleep at the computer made Jeremie miss him already. He then began to wish that he could work on the program to free Ulrich from Avikar, but he knew he would be in Franz Hopper's way, and hoped that Franz could complete it in the time stated.
Suddenly, an all too familiar beeping noise came from Jeremie's computer. It only had meant one thing. XANA was on the move. He was attacking at night, forcing the warriors to either wake up from their rest or making them spend more of their energy until they were physically exhausted.
Jeremie called up his friends immediately. Odd answered. Aelita answered. But Yumi didn't answer. Jeremie assumed that she didn't answer or… she was the target for the attack. Odd opened his door, signalling him to hurry. Odd and Jeremie ran down the corridor, hoping the attack wasn't going to be too bad.
Then again… XANA always had a catch to his attacks.
Odd pulled out both Aelita and Jeremie from the manhole, setting foot on the long bridge to the Factory. They were all exhausted from this arduous day and wished it ended right at this moment. They were still feeling the effects of being down one team member in Ulrich, who they greatly miss already. But they had to tough it out.
Jeremie took the lead as the trio sprinted towards the Factory, determined to finish the day on a high note. Despite his body telling him to catch up on two nights of lost sleep, Jeremie shrugged off his tiredness.
Suddenly, he hit the brakes on his footfalls and instinctively moved his right arm up. His worse fears had been confirmed. Odd and Aelita stopped seeing their friend's arm, wondering why their genius friend blocked their path.
They spotted two silhouettes, one was dangled over the edge of the bridge, struggling and kicking in an attempt to escape. The other figure was like a statue, unfazed of the struggling person it was holding over a deathly height. Quickly, they realised who those people were, however, they wished they didn't know who they were.
"Stop it, please," Yumi pleaded, her eyes growing smaller as her life was hanging on by a thread.
Her brown eyes focused on a hand grasping her dark shirt tight, while her hands held on her attacker's left arm. Out of each time that her life was in jeopardy, she never felt as scared as she was at this moment. She never thought never thought she would be confronted by her first and closest friend like this.
She was caught between a rock and a hard place, knowing she would die from hitting the surface of the water from that height, yet she couldn't bring herself to hurt him. She was torn inside from… facing Ulrich Stern, a victim of Avikar's possession.
Showing no emotion, he gazed at his captive, wanting to drop her to her watery death. But his grip remained on her shirt, knowing that he might gain something incredibly valuable from XANA's cause, even against his own will. It seemed that XANA values progress over human lives.
With his sense of hearing heightened, Ulrich turned his head, spotting XANA's enemies. They looked immensely shocked at the sight they were seeing, which he could exploit to XANA's advantage. The possessed Lyoko warrior smirked at his friends, then slowly pressed his tongue on the top of his lips and slowly moved it to the other side of his mouth, tasting victory already.
"Belpois," Ulrich called in his distorted voice, "It's good to see you again."
"Avikar, you have no right to make my friend call me by that name!" Jeremie barked.
"Are you trying to make me drop-" Ulrich stated, loosing his hold on Yumi's shirt, where Yumi felt herself fall momentarily. She was only stopped by his fingertips, which held her weight over the river. In a sudden reaction, she held onto his arm tighter to release her escalating stress, "-our friend to her death?"
The trio were almost as terrified as Yumi was, not only because she was almost fell to her death, but it was Ulrich, the one who cared about her the most, was doing this against his will. They didn't want to witness one close friend killing another, knowing what they've been through together. They knew exactly what XANA was doing, but they couldn't do anything to stop it.
"Speechless? I'm glad you understand what I'm capable of. Either I drop Yumi or… You give me Franz Hopper's location," Ulrich declared.
"What!" Jeremie exclaimed, "What makes you think I know where Franz Hopper is?"
"Simple. He contacts you. When I get ahold of what he contacts you with, I'll just use that to track him down in the network. Now, if you give me access to the Supercomputer, I'll spare Yumi's life," Ulrich proposed.
Odd was going to rebut on Jeremie's case, but Aelita covered his mouth before he said anything. It was their duty to protect the Supercomputer, as it was the technology that allowed them to travel to Lyoko and back.
But was it worth one of their friend's lives? Not only that, whatever decision Jeremie made on behalf of the group would lead to major repercussions from XANA. Jeremie couldn't make such a decision to sacrifice a friend's life, even over an object he spent more time with.
As Jeremie opened his mouth, Yumi ordered, "Drop me Avikar! I dare you to!"
Aelita gasped in disbelief. She couldn't comprehend why Yumi would allow it to happen. However, Yumi showed no fear and struggled even more to escape Avikar's grasp. Ulrich grinned evilly, and focused his attention onto Yumi.
"Is that your wish?" Ulrich asked.
"Of course it is! Drop me!" Yumi shouted.
"Yumi, it's not worth risking your life for him!" Odd warned.
"Too true Odd. And besides, the old Ulrich is too weak to come to surface. I've locked him up tight, and even if I drop you, there's no way he'll be able to rescue you," Ulrich added.
"Ulrich would push me off the edge of a cliff if I asked him to. C'mon, prove to me you have more balls than the old Ulrich!" Yumi encouraged.
Ulrich growled, extremely annoyed that Yumi was so insistent on dying than allow Jeremie to go through the agonising decision between life and death. He wanted Jeremie to suffered for all he's done to him, and to force him to give up all he worked for. However, with her recent actions, he desired to kill Yumi moreso than XANA's mortal enemy.
The possessed warrior further removed Yumi's shirt from his left hand, leaving Yumi quite literally, hanging by a thread over the river. She could drop down at any moment. Jeremie was now terrified of the high possibility of Yumi falling and hitting the surface of the water, which was essentially her landing on concrete.
Fear was now creeping up within Yumi. The unpredictability of slipping out of Ulrich's grasp was up to gravity. However, she refused to hold onto Ulrich's arm, determined to see this through. The rest of the group could not comprehend why Yumi would still let herself be perilously close to death.
Ulrich kept his focus on Yumi, watching her put her life on the line for him. He attempted to wrestle free of the hands of the program controlling his actions, but in his weakened state he could not escape. He looked over at his nemesis, Avikar, who was at the control panel, smirking slightly at his recent achievement.
Avikar had each Lyoko Warrior right in his grasp. Ulrich was trapped, Yumi was dangling over her death, and the rest of the group refused to do anything to hurt Yumi. It was perfect. Nobody ever froze each individual hero in their place. Even XANA couldn't do anything to put his enemies in this position.
However, one thing that did disturb him was that Yumi could see through his plan and attempted to lure the 'real' Ulrich out. Fortunately for Avikar, he did have a contingency plan just in case it did happen. The hands pinning Ulrich down into place also drained whatever energy he had left so that Avikar could have more control to manipulate his body. Not only that, Ulrich would expose more of his energy to try to save Yumi, allowing the hands to absorb more energy to maintain control of his body.
"Let Yumi go! She did nothing to you!" Ulrich barked, struggling further against the arms holding his biceps.
"Nothing? She pushed my body into the Digital Sea! You're the only physical body I have, boy!" Avikar snapped back.
"Then maybe you shouldn't have been so careless with your own body while you were possessing mine!" Ulrich retorted.
"Either way, this turned out better than I expected. I'm controlling your body, your girlfriend is dangling over her death, and your friends are stuck in one spot! I got you all exactly where I want you!" Avikar shouted.
Ulrich growled as Avikar returned to controlling his body. He wished he could break out of those arms and beat the crap out of Avikar. But those arms were draining his energy, making his attempts weaker and weaker. There wasn't much he could do in his position.
He looked over at the screen, where Avikar was controlling 'his' view. 'He' was staring at Yumi, who was trying to catch her breath while dangling violently over the river. He was afraid that Yumi could drop at any time, not to mention that it appeared that he was the one who killed Yumi. That thought Ulrich couldn't live with, even though he wasn't in control of his body.
Then, his thought about his friends, imagining how they would feel seeing him holding Yumi over the edge of the bridge to a twenty metre drop to the water's surface. They would be trying to figure out ways to take him out while saving Yumi, but if that plan didn't work Yumi would die. It all ended the same; Yumi would die unless Jeremie allowed his possessed body access to the Supercomputer.
Ulrich closed his eyes, filling his thoughts with Yumi. She was about to die, and there was nothing he could do, except remember the good times they spent together. He reminisced the times he saved her life, where he would run like his life depended on it. Then, in a moment, he would grab her wrist and held on, like his life depended on it. She would look up and into his eyes, and would smile the most beautiful smile from the most beautiful girl he's met in his life.
Suddenly, he felt elevated. Happy. Positive. When was the last time he felt that? The last time was when the principal announced that there was a long weekend coming up. However, that positive feeling was very, very strong. Almost euphoric. Euphoria… now when was the last time he felt that? Then he realised, Yumi was the reason why he felt that way.
He let the feeling overwhelm him, finding new strength he never knew that existed within him. This inner strength forced him to open his eyes, and stare at Avikar with a new resolve. He lowered his centre of gravity, his target in sight. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins with the thought, 'I'm going to break your rules, asshole.'
From the corner of his eye, on the screen before him, Yumi began to fall. Ulrich knew there was only a matter of time until she was going to fall. And it was happening. At this moment. There was no more time.
Ulrich mouthed two words and bolted, snapping the hands holding him in his spot. Avikar heard of his hands' destruction, but he was too late to retaliate. Ulrich knocked him out cold. Immediately, he spun around got his hands all over the controls.
Quickly feeling his uncorrupted nerves, Ulrich dropped down to the concrete bridge. As he fell down, he reached for Yumi's wrist, hoping like his Lyoko form, he would be fast enough to catch her.
Then his hand grabbed that wrist, and he'd never want to let it go. Yumi looked up at her unexpected hero, relieved that he overcame what was controlling him. She thanked him with a smile. The smile he was expecting as his reward.
"It's good to see you again," Yumi stated.
"You too," Ulrich began, shocked that his voice was back to normal, "Let's get you up here."
Ulrich pulled up Yumi over the edge of the bridge, with Yumi assisting him by using her free hand to pull herself up. Seeing that Ulrich appeared 'normal', the rest of the group approached the duo as they stood up.
Jeremie found it hard to believe that Ulrich was back to normal. Franz Hopper did tell him that he could remove Avikar's hold on Ulrich with antibodies, and being a genius, he would rarely be wrong. However, Jeremie hoped Franz Hopper was incorrect, as they would have a team member back on their side and they could focus on one major program instead of two.
"Wow! Ulrich, speak to me! Are you really back?" Odd asked excitedly.
"I… guess. My voice is back, and I'm not attacking you all against my will," Ulrich answered tentatively.
Noticing Ulrich's uncertainty, Jeremie made sure he kept his distance from Ulrich. There was no way of anybody telling if Avikar was still within Ulrich or not. Aelita could see Jeremie's hesitation, and received the same vibe from him. Ulrich breaking free of Avikar or XANA's grasp out of sheer willpower just seemed too easy.
Ulrich felt uneasy as well. To set himself free after a couple of hours of possession was too good to be true. Even though he enjoyed William's absence from school, he began to feel sorry for the poor guy. To be controlled by XANA for a long period of time must had impacted on William in some way. However, how come Ulrich could remember the pain, when William could not?
"Well Ulrich, we can make sure Avikar's presence is gone just by scanning you for any trace of XANA. If there's still some of him left I'm sure Franz Hopper has some antibodies he could give you," Jeremie reassured.
Antibodies. Ulrich remembered that was the last word he said before getting possessed by XANA… or Avikar. It brought up the one cold fact in his mind. A fact that Avikar told him seconds before he lost control.
"Unfortunately; you don't have the antibodies to fight him."
Suddenly, Ulrich felt like lightning had struck his head. He clutched his head, groaning in pain. The rest of the group were immediately concerned for Ulrich, but Jeremie had a bad feeling that Avikar's hold on Ulrich wasn't severed.
Unexpectedly, he travelled back into the depths of his mind, finding out he was on the floor instead of the control panel. He looked up, immediately realised Avikar must have come to and was going to take control of his body again.
"You thought you could take back control that easily?" Avikar asked mockingly.
"No. But at least I stopped you from hurting Yumi and my friends," Ulrich responded.
"Well, for the time being. So, can I have control of your body back?"
"No!"
Ulrich launched himself at Avikar, aware that his friends were still in danger of getting overwhelmed by him once he was possessed again.
"Ulrich, what's wrong?" Yumi asked, putting Ulrich back in reality.
"Stop the XANA attack now! It's the only thing that's keeping me possessed here!" Ulrich commanded, gritting his teeth.
"But you're not possessed now, you must be-" Odd started.
"He's going to take over me again. I'll run away from the Factory to buy you more time!" Ulrich shouted.
"Good idea. We have to head to the Supercomputer now; we might have a chance to free Ulrich!" Jeremie exclaimed.
"But we can't leave Ulrich here!" Yumi retorted.
"Yumi," Ulrich spoke up, his voice sounding weaker, "I'm sorry, but you have to leave me behind. If I can buy you more time by getting away from the Factory, you can stop the XANA attack… and he may lose control of me. Please do me that favour."
Yumi hesitated with her answer, desiring to stay with Ulrich as long as she wanted to. She couldn't stand to let Ulrich suffer alone especially with all the horrible memories and what activities Avikar did to him. However, she had to respect Ulrich's wishes, fearing that her presence may make him lose control of his body quicker than if she wasn't there.
"Alright. Stay strong," Yumi replied.
Ulrich nodded, but then grunted. Pain erupted through his head. He couldn't remain here for much longer. He faced away from the Factory and began distancing himself between the Factory and himself.
The group took it as their cue to rush into the Factory. They ran as fast as their legs could carry them. Ulrich was giving them time to deactivate the tower. Time that could free Ulrich of XANA's possession if they were lucky enough. And even if they don't get Ulrich back, Franz Hopper was working on something that would save their companion, relieving them on focusing on the XANA attacks and the multi-agent program.
Jeremie remembered how close he was considering giving the possessed Ulrich access to the Supercomputer just to save Yumi's life. He was thankful of Ulrich's efforts of rescuing them in the situation, and needed to use the opportunity given to them to stop XANA in his tracks.
Yumi on the other hand smiled slightly, glad that Ulrich came through for her when he did. He saved her life for the third time, and she had to repay him. She was going to perform the absolute best on Lyoko for him. To give him a chance to break free of Avikar's possession, she wanted to take down as many monsters as she could so Aelita can deactivate the tower quickly.
And nothing was going to stand in her way.
Jeremie virtualized the group to the Desert Sector of Lyoko, where the activated tower was. He wasted no time to program the vehicles in the digital world, allowing Odd and Yumi to have speedy transport to the tower. Aelita activated her wings immediately once she was digitalised, also indicating that she wanted to end this quickly.
Without any lame jokes from Odd, who understood the urgency of this mission, they sped off to the South. Accelerating at full speed, the trio was determined to free Ulrich without the need of Franz Hopper's program, knowing XANA was too cocky letting his new servant out into the real world. The group needed to seize this opportunity.
It was the first time every one of them were so focused on deactivating the tower. Jeremie barely spoke, only to make sure they were heading the right direction. Apart from that, nobody said a word to each other. It was eerie to Jeremie, who was sitting at the Supercomputer, yet he could understand their urgency, because he felt it as well. Plus, they all wanted to prove to Franz Hopper that they didn't need his help.
With the tower just appearing over the horizon, the group grew excited that freeing Ulrich from Avikar was only moments away. Although, that did force Jeremie to ask himself a few questions. Where were XANA's defences? Where was the Kollosus? Did XANA rely too much on blackmailing him to get access to the Supercomputer? And most importantly, why did XANA believe that he only needed Ulrich?
Abruptly, the Supercomputer alerted Jeremie to monsters in range of his allies. Jeremie quickly identified the monsters. Hornets. Three of them. At least that answered one of his questions. However, he saw no other monsters. It clearly looked like XANA was depending on Ulrich only for this attack.
"Guys, there are hornets right behind you. One of you hang back while somebody escorts Aelita to the tower," Jeremie ordered.
Not giving anybody anytime to respond, Yumi quickly drew out one of her fans and tossed it behind her. Like a boomerang it curved around, taking out the hornets one by one. From the corner of her left eye, she noticed the fan returning to her. She grabbed it as she heard three explosions behind her, confirming that the hornets were taken out.
"Well, it looks like we don't have to worry about that anymore," Jeremie stated.
"Yeah. You know I'm glad it wasn't the Kollosus," Odd responded.
"You just had to mention that, didn't you?" Aelita enquired.
"What if it did appear? What then?" Odd retorted.
"Speaking of monsters appearing, there are some near the tower now! And it's not the Kollosus," Jeremie announced.
The trio looked down from their vehicles, which were hovering towards the tower, spotting around five tarantulas guarding the tower. The tarantulas noticed their opponents coming their way, and began firing from their two frontal legs.
Odd placed more weight on his front leg, dipping the Overboard down. He plummeted towards the ground, while spinning around in mid air. He hoped that he wasn't going to be hit by one of those lasers.
Once he felt that he was close to the ground, he stopped spinning and put more weight on his back leg. The board was horizontal, and he could see his enemy clearly in front of him. He aimed for one of the tarantulas shooting at the girls, as it was a very easy target to eliminate.
Suddenly, a laser pierced his belly. He was shot back off his board, slamming his back on the desert ground. Odd sat up, crossing his arms over his chest, activating his shield. They were clearly targeting him and his Overboard, as a barrage of lasers were surrounding him. He underestimated how much XANA wanted to defend this tower, and his monsters' intelligence.
Jeremie stared at the screen, biting his nails at Odd's critical damage. He took a lot of punishment from the attack, and hoped Odd could find some way of preserving himself on the virtual world.
"Odd! You've lost seventy life points!" Jeremie alerted.
Yumi saw that Odd was in danger, and threw one of her fans to finish off one of the tarantulas. She knew it wasn't great to leave Aelita unguarded. At least though, it was going alleviate Odd from protecting himself against three barrages of lasers.
However, the fan was deflected by laser fire. It was quickly obliterated before Yumi's eyes, leaving her with less attacking options. Odd on the other hand, quickly stood up and sprinted towards the tarantulas, firing his own barrage of laser arrows at the distracted tarantulas.
In the spray of arrows, the arrows found three of their targets. The three unfortunate tarantulas exploded, while the other two now aimed for Odd. There was a huge opening in XANA's defences.
"I'll deactivate the tower," Aelita declared.
Aelita dove down to the tower, firing energy fields at the last two tarantulas. Due to their lack of mobility, they were easily destroyed. Yumi looked down from the air, believing that despite a few little mishaps, it was way too easy to deactivate the tower. She instantly grew worried for Aelita as her feet were almost touching the ground. It was too suspicious that XANA would let off too easily.
Aelita deactivated her wings once she hit the ground running. She rushed to the tower, desperate to save Ulrich from possession. This tower deactivation was the second most important from materializing her to Earth, knowing that she had the power to save one of her friends.
"Mould!"
All of a sudden, the earth beneath Aelita's feet rose up and constricted itself around Aelita's limbs. Once it was around Aelita's main limbs, it froze like cement, trapping Aelita in front of the tower.
Odd scanned the area for the attacker, knowing he must be nearby to put Aelita in that position. Instinctually, he ran towards Aelita, feeling that the mission would be jeopardised if she was going to be devirtualized right then and there.
Once he was in front of her, he looked around the area again. He needed to know where the attacker was before attempting to free Aelita. He didn't want to be cheaply devirtualized while helping another teammate.
"Jeremie! Can you see anyone around the tower? Other than us?" Odd demanded.
"No, not at all. It's really strange. I'm sure Aelita is in danger," Jeremie stated.
"Aelita's in huge trouble. Can you try to eliminate the earth around her arms?" Odd enquired.
"I'm happy to do that myself, Odd. Just keep an eye out for whoever did this to me," Aelita ordered.
"And I'll try to improve the sensory on the radar so I can identify who did this," Jeremie declared.
Odd felt defeated that there was no better option to find this enemy. He proceeded by looking behind Aelita, seeing no one in sight. Odd realised that the enemy was very determined to stay hidden from them for as long as he can.
Yumi was puzzled. She was surprised that from the air, she couldn't see who did stop Aelita in her tracks. Yumi began to feel that this event was even more sinister than when Aelita was running to the tower.
Aelita focused her energy to set herself free from the earth around her limbs, closing her eyes. She opened her mouth, letting an angelic voice disrupt the silence in the air. The environmental prison flashed, with its digital structure showing within. An indication her creativity was working.
Soon enough, the earth's hold on Aelita dispersed. However, Aelita was exhausted from setting herself free. Odd spun around, and grabbed her hand, to keep her from falling down. Odd told himself she had to keep on going on until she deactivated the tower. They could set Ulrich free as well if they hurry.
Abruptly, Aelita was picked up off the ground, heading in the direction of the Digital Sea against her will. Her eyes darted, trying to see who was forcing her away from the tower. However, there was no one in sight. Just some invisible force which had its grip tight on her.
Odd pivoted and quickly fired an arrow in Aelita's direction. He realised who was causing all the trouble and why that person remained transparent on Jeremie's radar. Simply because the attacker was invisible. Odd also had suspicions that the invisible person also caused Aelita to be captured by the changing environment.
The arrow struck something above Aelita's body, causing that person's camouflage to flash. With each split second, the attacker was slowly being revealed. Odd could easily track the enemy, and shot another arrow, hoping he'll let Aelita go before he reached the Digital Sea. The second arrow hit the intruder's arm, forcing him to let go of Aelita.
Aelita hit the ground rolling, to cause little or no life point damage to herself. She looked up at the enemy, who spun around, revealing his identity. He had short dark hair, wore a white shirt, black cargo pants and very distinguishing jet black eyes. Aelita had a bad feeling confronting this man, as he already recovered from Odd's attacks.
She quickly glanced back, trying to see where Odd was. However, she noticed a large boulder flying towards an unsuspecting Yumi. Aelita couldn't help but to shout her a warning, hoping she could hear it.
Yumi turned her head and immediately focused to deflect the boulder. She moved her left hand across her body, sending the boulder in a different direction. Taking care of that problem, she looked down, spotting the attacker. But the enemy wasn't the foe Aelita was facing.
This opponent was female with long wavy brunette hair, wearing a fiery red long sleeve shirt underneath a long waistcoat of a similar shade of red. She also wore black pants and sneakers, along with a blue plated shoulder pad on her left shoulder. The only thing she had in common with her comrade was her jet black eyes.
Jeremie stared in shock at his screen, wondering how two other human individuals could possibly be on Lyoko, let alone side with XANA than humankind. Then it hit him. They were constructed by XANA, and they were out to delay his friends as long as they could.
"Who are you?" Aelita demanded, scurrying as far as she could from the man.
"We're XANA's agents. We are directly under Avikar's command, so I'm sure you knew who he is," the man answered, advancing closer to Aelita.
Aelita quickly got up to her feet, searching for anybody that could protect her from the man and possibly the woman's attacks. Fortunately, Aelita knew Yumi had the woman covered, but was unsure where Odd was.
"Do you know Ulrich?"
"Of course we do. We did his dirty work when we messed up his house and his father's office under his command."
"Was that all part of the plan to trick Ulrich?"
"Well… sort of. You see, he did want to command us of his own free will. And he did order us to kill one of our comrades in suspicion that he was betraying-"
"Ulrich would never do that!" a high pitched masculine voice shouted.
Suddenly, the man felt a sharp pain jolt through his right shoulder. He quickly clutched it with his left hand as he watched Odd Della Robbia stand between him and Aelita. He growled, annoyed at this interference.
"I bet you and Scarlet over there murdered your teammate just to trick Ulrich!" Odd continued, aiming at the man.
"You're smarter than you look. But at least we have you right where we want you now. Oh, and by the way, her name is Blaise, not Scarlet. And I'm Pascal. Sorry to meet your acquaintance this way, but I hope to see you jump in the Digital Sea after your princess plunges to her death! Camouflage!" Pascal yelled.
He disappeared from sight, forcing Odd to remain close to Aelita. Odd quickly scanned the surrounding area around him, but saw no indication of Pascal running circles around him. Aelita grabbed Odd's arm, not only for reassurance, but also to force Pascal of the immediate consequences for attempting to throw her into the Digital Sea.
Meanwhile, Yumi had her hands full with Blaise, who was taking chunks out of the desert sector and chucking them at Yumi. Yumi was dealing with the situation well, but using telekinesis was zapping her energy up fast, weakening her very quickly.
Jeremie, watching all this from the sidelines, saw no movement from his point of view. Their arrows on the radar remained still. Overhearing the conversation just before Pascal dropped out from the radar, Jeremie realised that Pascal's threat was real. That they had them right where they wanted, again.
Not only that, but it was only a matter of time before Ulrich would lose control of his body. The new enemies would delay the group for a long while, and their chances of saving Ulrich would be getting slimmer by the second. Jeremie crossed his fingers, hoping for some solution to arise.
At the edge of Kadic's forest, Ulrich was on his hands and knees, struggling to move towards the school. He could feel the swelling corrupt his head, aware that Avikar was winning the fight internally, and he couldn't keep his defences up for much longer.
He looked up at the school one last time before dropping on the soft grass. Avikar finally had knocked him out cold, but he could still delay Avikar from taking control of his body. It could mean the difference between saving his friends or having them killed.
Ulrich was pinned up against the wall, holding Avikar's arm. He struggled to escape Avikar's grasp, feeling the effects of taking blows at the control panel for the sake of his friends.
Avikar could not comprehend why Ulrich was protecting his friends like this. But desired to get his body back, and could tell he was going to take it soon.
"Before your body becomes mine again, I just want to know how did you tap into your Lyoko powers here?" Avikar enquired.
"You put my friend's lives in danger, and I'll make sure you'll pay for it," Ulrich answered.
"That's incomprehensible. But I'll make sure you won't interfere again, especially if I put your girlfriend in danger again."
Almost immediately, Ulrich blacked out with a powerful knock to his head. Avikar stared down at his unconscious form, smirking. Ulrich had been a major hinderence to his plans, but at least he won this important battle.
Weaker clones of Avikar appeared, dragging Ulrich's unconscious form away. The real Avikar slowly walked up to the control panel, marvelling that all this power was at his fingertips once again. This time though, he didn't intend to lose that power.
"Time to stop those pathetic humans."
Meanwhile, the Lyoko warriors have been sitting ducks, with Odd protecting Aelita from Pascal, while Yumi was deflecting the boulders thrown by Blaise. Although they didn't make any progress, they at least kept this mission alive to make sure they deactivate the tower.
However, Jeremie was getting nervous. He knew they were running out of time. He knew they were stuck on Lyoko either saving their own skin or guarding Aelita. And it was a huge setback. The longer they were in this situation, the more time Avikar could rush to the Factory and potentially kill Jeremie.
In a blink of an eye, Jeremie noticed a figure making a presence on the security cameras. He looked at the footage, seeing Ulrich speeding into the Factory. Jeremie's worse fears had come true. The possessed Ulrich was coming to the Supercomputer Lab fast, and there wasn't much he could do about it.
Jeremie immediately began locking down the elevator while shouting into his headset, "Guys! Hurry up! Ulrich's coming!"
"Have you locked the elevator?" Aelita enquired.
"Yeah, but that's all I can do to hold him off. You have to do the rest fast before Ulrich reaches the Supercomputer!" Jeremie warned.
Odd sighed. He knew there was no way he could think of a safe plan quickly enough to get everyone out of their awkward positions to launch an offensive charge. He couldn't afford to put the mission in jeopardy after what Yumi had been through. His duty was to prevent Aelita from being devirtualized or thrown into the Digital Sea, not leave her unprotected.
The feline spun around, and to his horror, Aelita wasn't at his back. He immediately turned his head to the tower, spotting Aelita sprinting towards it. He shouted her name and rushed after her, hoping he could reach her before something disastrous happened.
Blaise heard Odd's voice, and turned her attention to the tower. Aelita was entering it, and she had to intervene. Blade stopped her onslaught on Yumi and ran to the tower. Yumi telekinetically held one of the plates of earth thrown at her. She took a deep breath, focused, and hurled the earth plate back at Blaise.
While that was happening, Jeremie checked the surveillance again. To his surprise, Ulrich already investigated the elevator and spotted another entrance to get into the Supercomputer Lab. How he managed to discover it so quickly Jeremie had no idea. The genius noted to make sure that pathway was covered by something to prevent intruders from getting through.
Jeremie was shaking, as his friends were cutting it very close again. He hoped they thought of a plan to deactivate the tower in a matter of seconds.
Blaise halted, realising she would be making a huge mistake charging after Aelita. She stopped the speeding plate in the air, making it drop down to the ground. Once it impacted on the earth, the ground shook. Odd hit the brakes to keep his balance, as the plateau began to tip to one side.
Odd reached out for the slope, with his claw digging into the earth, preventing him from slipping down into the Digital Sea. Yumi watched Blaise carefully, as she skidded down the new slope to the makeshift ramp that caused the slide.
When Blaise disappeared behind the plate ramp, Yumi prepared her attack. She thought it out quickly, imagining herself throwing her weapon at Blaise the moment she jumped from the ramp. She felt so confident that she had Blaise right where she wanted her.
Blaise rushed up the ramp and sprung up into the air. Yumi immediately threw one of her fans, watching it curve towards its target. Blaise smirked, swiftly spinning her body around. Twisting her body around, the fan narrowly missed her. Yumi was incredibly surprised, and threw her second fan to hopefully catch her while dodging her first attack.
Meanwhile, Aelita entered the interior of the tower. She immediately saw Pascal, grinning evilly at the guardian of Lyoko. Suddenly, he attacked with a high kick, aiming for Aelita's head. Aelita instinctively ducked, with her right arm high above her head.
Pascal's leg just missed Aelita's right wrist. However, that turned out to be a huge advantage. The kick just hovered over her star bracelet, inadvertently activating her wings. Aelita leaped up and began flapping her wings to pick up speed quickly.
Pascal jumped, in an attempt to grab her leg and to stop her from deactivating the tower. But he once again could not get a hold of Aelita. When he landed, he looked up, watching the girl fly up to the second floor of the tower. He punched the ground, frustrated that he couldn't prevent Aelita from deactivating the tower.
On Earth, Ulrich leaped down from the ceiling plane, landing on the floor of the Supercomputer Laboratory. Jeremie heard him land, and spun around on his chair just to make eye contact with his possessed friend. He would do anything to protect his friends still fighting on Lyoko, even to attempt to put up a fight against his friend.
He jumped out of his computer chair as Ulrich approached him. He was intimidated by Ulrich's height, build and his Xanafied eyes, but it didn't deter him to retreat. He knew he wouldn't delay him for long, but it could make a difference.
At the same time, Blaise focused her powers to remove the plate from the ground as she spun around. Then, using her momentum, she made the plate fly towards Yumi. With no time to drive the Overwing out of the range of fire, Yumi was instantly devirtualized.
Since the plate was removed, the plateau quickly stabilised itself. It became a flat plane, with no risk of anyone slipping down into the Digital Sea. Odd sighed in relief, glad that he wasn't going to fall into the Digital Sea. However, the thought of Aelita came to him. He sprinted towards the tower, hoping he wasn't too late.
Fortunately, Aelita was in the middle of deactivating the tower. She watched the screen display 'Code: Lyoko' on it. The data of the surrounding area descended, indicating to Aelita that the process worked. She proudly announced that the tower was deactivated.
However, Ulrich had seized control of the Supercomputer, typing on the keyboard at superhuman speeds. He grunted, then rushed to the ladder that lead to the scanner room. Jeremie picked himself up and ran to the Supercomputer, checking if he'd done anything hazardous to his projects.
Odd heard Jeremie made an exasperated sigh of relief while watching the smoke around the tower change from red to blue. Immediately afterwards, he sighted a disappointed Pascal running out of the tower. Blaise followed him, knowing they failed their mission. Disaster had been averted… for the time being. It was time for Odd and Aelita to return home.
"Everything's fine Einstein?" Odd enquired.
"Yeah, it looks like XANA knew he needed to keep ahold of Ulrich. So he activated a delayed virtualization to get him to Lyoko before he loses control," Jeremie answered.
"Damn it, I thought we were on time. At least we have Franz's program to fall back on. Anyway, are you going to bring Aelita and I home?" Odd asked.
"Sure- Wait. What about Yumi?" Jeremie questioned.
"I saw her get devirtualized. I thought you would know that-"
Jeremie ignored the rest of Odd's sentence and looked up at security footage. Yumi was resting in an open scanner, probably exhausted from her exploits on Lyoko. That set Jeremie to panic. She was in the least safe place of the Factory and Lyoko combined.
The genius ditched his headset and climbed down the ladder, hoping he wasn't too late. Odd called out for Jeremie to bring them back to Earth, but it was to no avail.
Yumi opened her eyes. She smiled, seeing Ulrich, unharmed, before her. His soft hazel eyes were telling her that he was grateful for the efforts she went through to save him. But she felt too exhausted to take a step out of the scanner.
"Ulrich, could you help me out?" Yumi enquired.
"Sure."
Then, she saw that smirk. That smirk Ulrich never had on his face. That smirk she saw when the possessed Ulrich ambushed her while in her bedroom. Only Avikar could move his facial muscles that way. With her body sore and tired and trapped in a cylinder shaped transporter, there was no escape.
Never had she felt more afraid in her life. Avikar was out for revenge. He could severely injure her. He could kill her. All while using her best friend's body to commit the crime. And this time, she knew Ulrich wouldn't be able to save her.
Ulrich approached her, growing in height and darkness. Yumi was cowering. She really was helpless, and there was nothing she could do to stop him from attacking her. He grabbed the collar of Yumi's shirt, lifting her by it only. It was like on the bridge, except she wouldn't have to fall far to hit solid ground.
She stared directly into his eyes, which had transformed into XANA symbols. She grabbed his arm out of her anxieties, struggling to free herself. His superhuman strength had clearly returned to him, and she was scared of the damage he could do to her.
"This," the possessed Ulrich hissed into her ear, sending tremors throughout her body hearing his distorted voice, "is for interfering with my plans!"
Suddenly, he dropped her to the ground. He grasped her shirt aggressively and violently heaved her out of the scanner. With the speed he pulled her out of there, she tripped the moment she made contact with the floor and landed on her shoulder. She gritted her teeth, not letting Avikar have a chance to have her beg for mercy.
Ulrich turned around, facing Yumi with a sinister expression. She knew he wasn't done with her yet. Attempting to get away from him, she tried sitting up. However, her shoulder was aching in pain, making her unable to get up as quickly as she would like to.
"Stop Avikar!" Jeremie's voice commanded.
Yumi was pleased that Jeremie noticed that she was in danger. At least, she was not going to get killed while one of her friends was around. She heard Jeremie's feet hit the steel floor, and looked up at him. He was drawing near Ulrich, and appeared very determined to protect her from any more harm.
"I never thought you would come down here after easily tossing you aside. But you are already too late," Ulrich declared, stepping back into the scanner.
"Then I just have to pull you out and let Ulrich reclaim his body!" Jeremie barked.
Jeremie reached out for Ulrich's shirt, hoping he would be able to use his remaining strength to get his body out of the scanner before heading to Lyoko. In spite of his efforts the scanner doors closed before Jeremie could get a fingertip inside the cylinder.
Hearing the scanner whir inside, Jeremie slammed his left fist on the door. He was so close to saving Ulrich; yet, a steel door was standing between him and his friend. They wouldn't need Franz Hopper's program if he was just a little bit faster.
Einstein turned around and ran to Yumi's side, hoping that she wasn't hurt too badly when she was brusquely thrown out of the scanner. Yumi sat up a little bit, feeling a sharp pain in her left shoulder. Jeremie asked for her permission to check the injury, which she allowed him to.
Jeremie pulled the collar of her shirt down enough to see her left shoulder. And all he could see was a large purple mark on left shoulder. He was slightly horrified to see Yumi bruised like this, but he had seen her in a worse state before.
"Yumi, this looks really serious. I'm going to get everyone back here to treat you. I'll try my best to get Franz Hopper to finish the program early to prevent something like this happening again," Jeremie stated.
"Alright. And thanks, for saving me," Yumi responded.
"You saved all of us first. I think we need to return the favour," Jeremie replied.
Half an hour later, Jeremie and Odd were speaking to Franz Hopper. They were figuring out what to say to him, picking their words carefully to hopefully get the information they wanted to hear. To finish the program to save their friend the next day.
Meanwhile, Aelita was wrapping a bandage around Yumi's left shoulder. Yumi was only in her light purple singlet to make it easier for Aelita to see the injury she sustained. The reason why she wanted a bandage to be wrapped around the bruise was to dampen her parents' and her brother's suspicions of keeping a secret from them. It was similar to what Ulrich did to them, and hopefully it would have the same effect.
Although relieved that this XANA attack was all over, she still felt horrible that she couldn't rescue her best friend in time. It was gut wrentching to think about what he was going through at the moment. And she was sure that Ulrich wasn't coping as long as Avikar still had possession of his body.
Jeremie and Odd jumped off the Supercomputer, with frowns on their faces. Yumi could tell that they couldn't convince Franz Hopper, despite what happened during the XANA attack, to have the program finished the next day.
Aelita just finished treating her injury when Jeremie called out for her name. It caught her attention immediately, but she was saddened to see Jeremie looked depressed about the situation.
"It didn't go as well, didn't it?" Aelita enquired.
"No. Franz Hopper said that even if he worked on it for the next twenty four hours, it would be impossible to complete," Odd answered.
"So, it means we have to keep our guard up tomorrow. XANA's attacks are getting more vicious and dangerous, and he seems determined to keep Ulrich on his side," Jeremie responded.
Yumi acknowledged Jeremie, finding herself feeling disappointed. She felt once again, afraid for her own life, aware of XANA's deadly attacks and his strategies. Tomorrow was going to be a long day for Yumi Ishiyama.
"Anyway, I'm looking forward to connecting my head to the pillow and getting some well needed rest," Odd declared.
"Good idea, we deserve the sleep," Jeremie replied.
The rest of the group agreed with the statement, and began their departure from the Factory. Odd was the least worried of a possibility of a XANA attack tomorrow, believing they could easily take care of it like all the other times.
Jeremie and Aelita were more concerned with the XANA attack. Having images of Yumi being dangled over the river over a deathly height by her possessed best friend left them worried about how brutal XANA would be in his next attack if he were to attack tomorrow. They hoped that he would not launch an attack tomorrow.
But Yumi was mostly scared of what could possibly happen on the next day. Avikar desired to have his revenge on her, and unlike some people who just give up so easily, he would not deter from his objective. That made Yumi petrified for her own life.
And if XANA were to attack the next day, abusing Ulrich's body, she wasn't sure if she'd come out alive on the other end of it.
Author's Notes: Wow, this is the longest chapter of Pretty Hate Machine. I'm glad this didn't go over 40 pages on Word or I would probably be considering cutting the chapter in half.
I hope the explanation about Ulrich being possessed by Avikar was enough. It can be confusing to get your head around, but then again, Avikar is one of XANA's agents so he does have some special powers.
Random fact: I handwrote most of the bridge scene, as the idea struck me during university and I was bored during one of my four hour breaks in between classes. I'm glad I did write this down too; otherwise the XANA attack would not have a lasting effect on Yumi in particular.
Yes, I had to have Blaise and Pascal make an appearance on Lyoko. Like the warriors they have their own special powers but obviously they would help XANA and Avikar if they're called to that duty.
So, I hope you liked this chapter, take the time to review it and look forward to the next one!