Xana and Riya, The Hunt for Mizu

Xana and Riya, The Hunt for Mizu

Chapter 2

"I'll just sneak in here and…oh your all here and waiting for the next chapter, sorry for the delay but I am slightly lazy and had lost touch with the thing that makes me want to write i.e. school, now college. I hope I will always have something like this that will make me want to write, so without further stalling here's chapter 2"

As the team made there way through the maze of corridors that littered the blue planet, Riya was amazingly the loudest of the group everyone else was extremely quiet possibly through respect or fear it was a very fine line.

Andy was trying to move the surrounding areas but to no avail it appeared his powers has no effect unlike in the other regions of Lyoko, this was a worry as he would normally be counted on for the teams defensive strategy. Riya was still in her state of shock and inside her head she was alone moving about the regions of Lyoko calling for the others. As Riya moved she could feel an aura not to far from her; it felt familiar and kind like one that had protected her before but getting closer the aura felt cold and unwelcoming which Riya didn't like but she found a strange need to go further inward. Each step made her body feel numb and made the feeling worse and worse with each movement. Soon Riya spotted the shape that was making the feeling, a black cloud swarming around a person who was doing there best to fight it but appeared to be losing. As the last few swings of the persons sword were made, they fell and were covered by the cloud. Riya saw and felt the transformation that was taking place in front of her and watched as what she suspected was once human changed in a black humanoid shape with soulless white eyes.

The creature spotted Riya and rushed towards her, as it did she readied her bow quickly charged the shot and prepared to fire.

The rest of the group had managed to loosen some of the passageways around the blue planet by hitting keys that Emily had been pointing out to Grace. "so what is this place anyway" John asked finally breaking the cold dense silence, "it's called Carthage" Emily said also adding "and I'm amazed Jeremy never thought of using the vehicles in here it would have made things a lot easier"

"why are we here anyway" Kelly asked having a point that Mizu hadn't appeared and nothing seemed to be going on, it was true that Grace did want to pull them out and start on Xana's materialization but there was a shared curiosity between her and Emily that meant both wanted to explore further.

Xana's nerves were on edge though he kept a calm face, while Grace had been working on bringing him to earth he had been focusing on this new sector trying to learn what he could from data that had emerged with it's appearance. On thing he knew was that something was kept in this place something with the file name "The Sword" and what ever it was, he had been the reason for it, he guessed it was a creation of his from long ago. Not knowing what it's purpose was or what it was troubled him, the only information was that it required a lot of power to release from Carthage but after it was released what was supposed to happen, was it a weapon he could control or something completely different.

As the group moved around Carthage they eventually, ended up at a long single pathway that stuck out from the rest of the place and was the only area without much cover and only one way in or out, Emily told them to go ahead it was important that they accessed the panel at the far end. Getting of their vehicles and moving down the pathway with John and Xana holding Riya who seemed to be braking out of the shock that had come over her. Riya was able to stand up on her own but she didn't move unless someone pushed he gently, Xana went over to the screen that was at the end of the walkway and began working on it with the help of Grace and Emily.

While everyone was distracted with the information that was coming out of the panel along with Xana's explanations of each part, no one noticed that Riya was moving walking away from the group and heading back towards the sphere and was drawing her bow ready to attack what ever was there. It was at this moment that Riya's imagination and reality came together, releasing an arrow from her bow which struck the creature in her mind and in reality, something that was invisible.

Everyone turned as the arrow hit and a shout of pain echoed through Carthage, Riya fired again making the creature howl. Andy and John moved quickly and went in front of Riya with the rest of the team standing behind just waiting for the creature to move. When the creature just stood there and didn't attack they were close to dropping there guard if it hadn't been for Riya who still had her bow drawn and was watching the eyes of the creature. Despite it not having any pupils Riya could tell it was looking at her then it looked away, only for a second but Riya could tell. Knowing why, Riya span around making everyone duck and launched several arrows into the air above the panel the group had previously been using hitting another creature that had been invisible.

"we're trapped" Kelly said aiming her arms at each creature ready to blast either creature

"Andy can you do anything" John whispered hoping that Andy had been able to move things in Carthage

"no, this entire place is different compared to the other zones"

The two creatures kept still at both ends of the walkway trapping the entire group, as the backed up making sure that there were no weak spots in their defence, Riya could feel a peculiar aura close by that made her calm for a second slightly releasing the grip she had on her bow. As the place grew quiet with everyone worried about what would happen as neither creature had attacked. A short sound suddenly echoed through the entire place, followed by another and another, soon everyone knew what the sound was. Grace knew only a few seconds before everyone else who was about to appear and that was only because she recognised the symbol that had appeared on the screen.

He made no sound as he appeared but he didn't need to Mizu was generating a fearsome aura that had everyone frozen, all the group could do was watch as he walked to the small point between being on the walkway and being inside Carthage. Riya slowly began to move making sure that Mizu did not see what she was doing. Focusing all her energy internally, Riya began making her self faster and stronger despite the draining on her life points that had begun.

Riya moved so quickly that no one realised she had gone at first until Mizu raised his sword, which had become a katana since last time, followed by the sound of Riya's sword which managed to cause a small crack in the blade.

The two creatures looked toward Mizu's position and had begun to make a move until Xana wrapped his sickle/scythe around the one next to the terminal, while John and Kelly blocked the other one to allow Riya more time.

Both creatures were amazingly strong and faster than any one expected, even Andy who could only watch as his team mates tried to keep the two monsters at bay, Andy kept trying to move the pathway to allow everyone to fight better. Since it was dangerous and they would be able to pull of better moves if the battleground was more suited to them.

Riya kept on assaulting Mizu hoping that she could break him in half for what he did to her mother but his power had grown in the same way that hers was being boosted by her own power. Mizu laughed knowing that Riya's attempt was terrible, his power had doubled and it would take more than she could create to even make him sweat.

Andy's attempts to move the platform were having an unexpected effect on the walkway, it was slowly breaking it, but Andy wouldn't stop he wanted to help his friends and was trying to do all he could but Mizu was watching and had already known what was about to happen.

Waiting for a break in Riya's defence, Mizu attacked and knocked Riya aside leaving her weak and unable to even move, then quickly moved to the walkway and slammed down his katana into a break and forcing energy into his sword to quicken the walkways collapse. Smiling as the group dropped toward the oblivion waiting below, Mizu turned and went to finish off Riya leaving both off his monsters to follow behind him.

Walking toward Riya, Mizu sensed a large amount of power being used and suddenly felt his monsters be hit painfully. Turning around Mizu saw the team floating suspended on a black cloud of data that Xana was generating while Kelly had launched powerful quills directly into the back of both of Mizu's new monsters.

"you're full of surprises today aren't you Xana" Mizu said slightly impressed

"me, I'm not the surprise" Xana said pointing behind Mizu

Mizu turned expecting Riya to be standing and about to launch an attack but he hadn't sensed her so he didn't expect what was about to happen. A fist was about three seconds away from his face when he turned toward where Xana had pointed. The fist slammed hard into Mizu and sent him flying backward a few meters.

"you know it's been a few years but you never do forget how to do the old tricks" Emily said surprising everyone as she had suddenly appeared in Lyoko wearing green all over with small parts of metal armour on her shoulders and over her hands. As Mizu tried to get back up Emily pulled her arm back and punched forward letting her arm stretch out and pinning him to the wall nearby.

"suggest we run, Grace figured it out the tower was faked, he wanted you here" Emily said moving to Riya and lifting her up ready to leave

"NEVER" Mizu shouted unleashing a large amount of white data forming a bigger version of his body around him

The team began running as fast as possible going through the maze of corridor hoping to out do Mizu, but no luck he crashed through walls and destroyed every inch of Carthage, Xana watched him carefully noticing a constant drop in the size of his body, realising what was happening.

"how close to the exit are we" Xana asked hoping to think of a plan to stop Mizu

"a few more feet but Mizu keeps trying and there's a good chance he'll pull something before you get out of there" Grace replied

"Andy try to move the ceiling" Xana shouted hoping that what happened before would have the desired effect

Andy began to move the ceiling and made it break apart forcing Mizu to try to dodge and weave out of the way and just like Xana's plan forcing Mizu to lose more power as he moved.

The team made it to the exit and was quickly devirtualized, all but Xana who had decided to stay in Lyoko to act as a first response unit to Mizu's attack.

As the team relaxed and made there way back to Kadic hoping to be able to rest after their mission only Emily noticed the group of people who were standing a short distance away all watching them leave. Emily knew that the thoughts on their minds would not be easy to change and they were extremely different to the kids she had grown up with.

"this is going to be trouble" Emily thought

End of chapter 2, man this took a long time to do, guess I'm not back to peak writing condition, but anyway the old team has returned and Emily is worried what's going to happen now

Stay tuned for chapter 3 "new against old, battle of the Lyokoians Pt 1"