The Return of Lyoko
AN: Chapter 4 *le gasp* I'm being productive. I'm writing these chapters in advance (It's 12/19/11)
Disclaimer: Nope. What makes you think I'd own it?
-Chapter 4: A Talk and A Walk-
Before the friends knew it, it was 4:45 PM and it was time to meet up with William as Jeremy had arranged. Slowly, each of the couples regrouped and stood in the middle of the courtyard.
"Hey guys!" William called and walked over.
"Alana, William. William, Alana." Odd introduced quickly.
"Hello." Alana politely said.
"Hey." William replied. "So Jeremy, what's this about?"
Jeremy looked around at the large crowd of people (no classes, what else is there to do?) and motioned towards the forest. They all began to walk. Once safely out of hearing, Jeremy began.
"I assume you remember Lyoko and XANA?"
"How could I forget?" He shuddered. "I had nightmares for weeks afterwards."
Jeremy nodded. "We have information that shows XANA isn't the only virus and Lyoko isn't the only digital world. And we think XANA is making a return."
"Who, what, when, where, why and how?" William effectively summed up his questions.
"I have a virus similar to XANA and a network of allies who experience the same thing. They reported our viruses making a return." Alana took the who.
"Báis and XANA are making a return, then all of these viruses are sinking together." Yumi stated with a tinge of fear.
Odd answered when. "We need to hop into Lyoko soon to see what damage there is. We might be able to stop it but we have no timeframe."
"This is happening all over the world." Ulrich put in.
"Like the viruses, we need to team up to stop this. Alana worked for 5 years to defeat Báis. This will take a while, but I think we can do it." Aelita said with a slight pleading tone.
"Just return to Lyoko with us once and make your decision. We will have to train you though, we don't want any mistakes." Jeremy said.
William digested this all. He simply nodded. "To the factory?" He yelled with quiet enthusiasm.
"Yeah!" Odd yelled and raced down the ladder to the sewer.
"We don't need to race this time. Let's just walk." Ulrich said calmly.
"Uh...No!" Odd grabbed his skateboard and raced down the sewer. Alana reached into her backpack and pulled out her own skateboard and started racing Odd.
Jeremy sighed. "I almost missed this."
The gang laughed.
Alana and Odd were walking along the bridge. They had slowed their pace for a minute and Odd took her hand.
"I can't wait to show you the factory. You'll love it!" Odd called excitedly.
"You've seen one abandoned factory, you've seen millions." She laughed.
His smile fell for a moment, only a moment before he dragged her to the entryway and to the ropes.
"Lemme show you how it's done." Odd backed up and took a running start, gripping the rope and sliding down to the entrance of an elevator.
Alana looked at the rope in slight fear. She looked around and chose the much safer ladder. Before she could go down Odd raced up the ladder and rejoined her.
"If you're scared, I'll go with you." He said softly, seeming much unlike himself, reminding Alana of the night by the lake.
"Please?" She asked so softly and weakly that he strained to hear her. Slowly, he leaned in to kiss her. Their lips were centimeters apart when they heard, "Hey Odd, where are you guys?"
They quickly climbed down the ladder and appeared in the elevator before anyone noticed.
"We're waiting for ya slow-pokes!" Alana yelled happily. Odd laughed and took her hand once more. When he figured he had a moment to spare, he kissed her cheek quickly before William and Jeremy appeared.
In a few moments, the door was closing -with maximum occupancy- and was heading to Jeremy's computer room.
Ulrich glanced at William then took Yumi's hand. Yumi blushed and squeezed his hand. William was so wrapped up in his conversation with Aelita, Jeremy and Alana that he didn't even notice.
The doors to the computer room opened with a whoosh.
The seven teens walked into the room, Alana for the first time, William with a vague familiarity and the others with an overpowering rush of memories.
Jeremy went through the steps in a daze. Before they knew it, the platform of the computer rose from the floor. Jeremy pushed a few more buttons and the compartment housing the lever was opened.
"I hope I don't regret this." Jeremy whispered so softly not even his ears could pick it up.
He turned around and faced is friends. "I've already activated and deactivated it. Someone else deserves a turn." He said then looked around the room. No one seemed willing to do the honors.
"Are we ready for this?" Alana asked of all of them. "Are we ready to accept whatever challenges come with this? Are we ready to save the world?"
Her words hit each of them and the responded with confidence.
"Ready." from Yumi.
"Let's do this." from Ulrich.
"XANA is going down: for good." from William.
"And every other virus." from Jeremy.
"We have to save our friends and our family." from Aelita.
"Nothing's standing in my way." from Odd.
"Nothing's standing in our way." Alana corrected.
"Let's pull it together." Aelita announced. One by one, they each touched the lever.
"On three." Said Jeremy.
"One." They all said together.
"Two."
"Three!" The lever was lifted up.
The room filled with light. The room was also filled with the pressure from the weight of what they've just done.
Not a single one of the seven teenagers regretted pulling that lever. They each knew that despite the dangers, they needed to do it.
The time has come to return to Lyoko.
"Aelita, Alana and I will go to the scanner room." Jeremy announced. "Odd, Yumi, Ulrich and William can split up and go around the factory to see what needs to be done."
"Hey, on holidays we can stay here. Those of us who aren't visiting family, I mean." Odd added.
"Yeah, we can make room for dorms." Ulrich said, surprised by Odd's idea.
"Hey! How hard do you think it would be to just move in here? This isn't far from school... For the next week, we have no one to report to. They aren't monitoring us. We can stay here!" William announced.
The others looked at him and shock and began to consider it.
They began to discuss it. In the middle of Odd talking about where they would house the food, a familiar beeping came from Jeremy's laptop.
"XANA!" Ulrich, Odd, Jeremy, Aelita and Yumi said in grave unison.
"Aelita and whoever else wants to, go to Lyoko and get tower." Jeremy announced.
Ulrich and William went to accompany her as the others stayed in the room. Jeremy took his seat and typed furiously.
As soon as the three were in the scanners, Jeremy began the familiar saying, "Transfer Aelita. Transfer William. Transfer Ulrich. Scanner Aelita. Scanner William. Scanner Ulrich. Virtualization." He said it like a mantra; a once forgotten mantra.
Alana noted all the keys he pressed and all the similarities between his computer and the Glen's. She longed to be virtualized yet held her ground and asked Jeremy more questions.
Jeremy was answering a question when he yelled in frustration. "Alana, Odd care to join them? XANA activated another tower."
"What does he need the energy for?" Alana asked, remembering why towers were activated.
"Who knows?" Yumi asked.
Alana and Odd rushed off the scanner room.
Alana stepped into the cylindrical tube. It closed around her and she felt the familiar coolness of being scanned.
"Transfer Alana. Transfer Odd. Scanner Alana. Scanner Odd. Virtualization." Jeremy said in the room above.
Alana could feel her molecules becoming pixels and being shifted and reformed into this new world. She materialized into thin air and dropped to the ground in an ungraceful plop.
Odd lifted her up. "You alright?" He asked.
She nodded. "Forgot about that part." She laughed. She looked down at her outfit. Same as it always was. A dark green dress that oddly resembled poison ivy with ivy woven in her mass of hair. She felt the magic in her fingertips and longed for an enemy to arrive.
She then took a moment to look around. They were in a forest region.
She heard Jeremy's voice in her ear. "Ulrich, William, Aelita. The tower is approximately 200 meters away, North by north-west. As soon as the tower is deactivated, go to the forest region; Alana and Odd are waiting. Alana, Odd your tower is south-east of your location. Or follow the enemies."
Alana nodded and said, "Jeremy. Look at the top page, first codes of the packet I gave you. Those should be of use."
And then, her and Odd ran.
"Triplicate!" Ulrich yelled as his selves battled the Bloks.
William was fighting off some Krabs as best he could. Aelita was making a mad dash to the tower. By the time all of the monsters were destroyed, Aelita had deactivated the tower. Jeremy had quickly transported her to the forest region.
Alana and Odd seemed to be holding their ground. Aelita took a minute to observe Alana's fighting abilities.
Long green vines materialized in front of Alana and forced a Blok to the ground. Odd was standing there shooting arrows at another Blok. Aelita remembered what was going on and flew (thank you, wings) to the tower unscathed.
The tower was quickly deactivated.
Jeremy checked the time. They still had 30 minutes 'til dinner. Not bad, not bad. And the most damage any one person had received was 10 life points from William.
The five warriors entered the room.
"Time to head back? I'm starved!" Odd yelled triumphantly. They all agreed and began the long walk back to Kadic.
No one was prepared for what they saw.
AN2: cliffhanger. I'm just the worst, aren't I? Reviews?