Hey everyone!!! Sorry I haven't updated in ... months. I've been short on time and had major writers block. This isn't the best update I've done, but it's what I've got. Review, and tell me what you thought.

-LS1114

Chapter 12 – Carthage's God

Jeremie was typing rapidly on his laptop while Aelita worked on her computer, also typing magnificently fast. They had to find a way into the Internet soon, otherwise XANA could attack and they would fall to the mercy of an evil computer virus.

Hmm, imagine a world run by a super psychopathic power-hungry maniacal computer virus!!!

Yeah, you'd be typing away as fast as possible too, decoding things, re-entering data, and re-organizing the information stored in the massive data banks of the supercomputer, too.

"Anything useful yet, Aelita?" Jeremie asked, glancing at Aelita.

"Not much, I have only decoded fifteen out of seventy-five codes needed to get another piece of the internet passage unlocked," Aelita replied with a sigh.

See, Jeremie discovered a passage into the Internet, but it's blocked by thirty virtual walls, that each have anywhere from fifty to one-hundred codes to crack.

After working for five hours, Jeremie and Aelita have been able to unlock twenty-three virtual walls.

"Yes! I de-coded another set of codes! That's twenty-four walls down, six more to go!" Jeremie shouted, a little louder than he should of, since someone in the next dorm room over shouted at them for the noise.

"And I've cracked about half of the codes for this wall before it's destroyed!" Aelita announced.

"Okay, so here's the plan," William said, pointing to the paper in front of him and Odd with a highly devious plan scribbled among it. "We'll need a love note from Ulrich to Sissi, written in what looks like his handwriting. Got any ideas? I'm not much of a handwriting forger, I can barely write in my own handwriting, let alone try to copy his handwriting."

Odd's mouth twisted into a devilish smirk. "I think I know what we could use, Ulrich has a stash of hidden love letters to Yumi, we could choose one, get a really good eraser, and write Sissi's name on it instead," he suggested.

"Eh, it could work, but it's got its flaws. What if he has only ones referring to the specifics of what he likes about her? He could have said he likes her black hair, which won't fit Sissi, he could say that he likes how she dresses, which certainly doesn't fit Sissi at all. We'll have to raid his stash of love notes and go through them all."

"All of them? He has about a million!"

"Hey, you want them broken up, right?"

"Well, yeah, I do," Odd replied. "They're too different."

"Yeah, and if we want them to be broken up, and fast, it'll take some effort, Odd," William said, gesturing to the plans atop the desk. "That's something I've learned in my many failed attempts to end their relationship, and before that, even their friendship. But somehow, someway, they end up becoming closer and closer, even though I seek to pull them apart."

Odd's old curiosity started coming back, or it never disappeared, one or the other. "How many times have you tried to end their relationship?"

"Their relationship, seven; but I've tried to end their friendship, oh, say, a hundred or so times since middle school. All have failed, of course."

"Well then," Odd added, "let's try not to let this plan fail."

Later that night, Ulrich and Yumi were curled up on the couch watching a movie at her house. Her parents were away at a friend's party all night long, and Hiroki was staying at a friend's house that night, so they had the entire house to themselves until morning.

Having stayed up late last night fighting Xana, Yumi was over-tired, having trouble keeping her eyes open while watching the movie.

One minute, Ulrich and Yumi would be laughing at the movie, or in conversation, and then the next minute, Yumi would be falling asleep in Ulrich's arms.

Sometime around eleven o'clock, Yumi and Ulrich both fell asleep before the end of the movie, in each other's arms.

It was somewhere around three in the morning when Ulrich awoke, starting to loose the feeling in his foot that had been caught by Yumi's sometime in the night. "Yumi," he whispered, trying not to startle her. "Yumi," he repeated again.

"Mmm?" she muttered, waking up and rubbing her eyes. She looked at Ulrich who patted her on the shoulder.

"C'mon, Yumi, let's get you up to your bed, you'll never get a good's night sleep here," he told her, as she sleepily stood up and slowly headed to the stairs. Once in her room, she collapsed from sleeplessness on the unturned bed sheets. Ulrich merely chuckled, and lifted her head, pulling down the sheets, and then lifted up her feet, sliding the sheets out from under her. He carefully placed her feet under the covers, and pulled the black blanket around her, tucking her in as if she were a little child.

"Goodnight," he whispered softly in her ear, kissing her forehead. Glancing one last time at the clock, the numbers revealed that it was three-fifteen. He had to get back to the dorms, for two major reasons. One, Jim usually does periodic check-ups in the early weekend morning to see who's in their dorms and who's not, and because Yumi's parents were going to be getting home sometime that morning as well, and he didn't know exactly when. He could just picture the reaction that Mr. Ishiyama would have if he found Ulrich in his house this late and he would like to avoid that by whatever means necessary.

Ulrich quietly walked down the stairs, knowing that Yumi's stairs squeaked a lot, not wanting to wake her up, slipped on his shoes at the front door, and headed out.

Odd was searching through a six-inch high pile of love letters never sent when he heard someone turn the dorm room handle. He shoved as many as he could back in the shoebox, attempting to then shove all of the shoeboxes back under Ulrich's bed when Ulrich walked in unsuspectingly.

Ulrich knew exactly what Odd had in his hands when he analyzed his room. "What are you doing with those!?" he questioned angrily.

"Uh, . . . oh, these? I ... need them for a school project ... that's due ... tomorrow," he stammered, trying to come up with a good lie. Ulrich was not fooled, of course.

"Odd, we're in all the same classes; I would know if there's a school project due tomorrow, so stop the horrible acting and tell me what you're doing with those!" Ulrich's head filled with angry, raging thoughts towards his friend, or supposed friend. He wondered how Odd even knew about those; he thought they were safely hidden.

"Alright, I was just ... curious?" Odd stated, although it sounded more like a question. "I wanted to know what you wrote ..."

"Well you can forget about getting those letters. They aren't meant for anyone to see them except me. Why do you think I never sent them? Stop your curiousness and get into bed, Jim might come around for a late-night inspection to see who's in their dorms and who isn't, and if you're not in bed asleep, I don't want to get into any trouble because of you."

"You're the one who snuck out already," Odd told Ulrich.

"I didn't sneak out."

"Then where have you been? Not on campus, I'm sure."

"Yeah well, I was at Yumi's all this time. I went to her house before curfew, and, well, why am I telling you this? It's none of your business whether I went to her house or not. Good night," Ulrich yelled angrily.

"'Night," Odd echoed, annoyed with his roommate.

Aelita and Jeremie had been working on destroying the digital walls blocking the access to the internet for hours, destroying all but two of the thirty. Around midnight, Aelita recommended that they stop for the night, get some sleep, and carry on in the morning.

Aelita woke up early that morning, took care of her morning shower, and headed over to Jeremie's room afterwards. She tapped on the door three times softly, and Jeremie opened it.

"Hi Jer! Ready to get back to destroying the walls?" she asked, excited that they'd finally be able to go back to Lyoko very soon.

"Yeah, of course! I destroyed one of the remaining two, but I can't destroy the last one. I figured I'd wait until you came, maybe you'll be able to figure it out?" he told her, with a smile, closing the door once she stepped inside.

"Alright, I'll try." Jeremie and Aelita sat on the bed, and Jeremie balanced his laptop so that he and Aelita could see.

"Hmm, this one's definitely tricky," Aelita commented, pointing to a code. She strummed her fingers on the bed, concentrating hard for about a minute or two, staring intently at the code. "Aha!" Aelita said, sitting up. "It's equal to 78,659, because if you do ..." Aelita trailed off, explaining how the code equaled that number.

"Ok, thanks, Aelita. I stared at it for probably five, ten minutes this morning, trying to figure it out. By then I was fed up with it, so I figured you might be able to decode it, and you did! Anyhow, let's crack the rest of the codes."

It took about another hour and a half to crack the rest of the codes that made up the last remaining wall. After the last code was cracked, the wall disappeared, and Aelita and Jeremie were ecstatic.

"We did it, Jer! We gained access to –" Aelita was interrupted by a beeping sound from the computer. When the duo watched the screen, a message appeared.

"Access to the internet will only be granted if you can destroy the last barrier. Good luck," Aelita read out loud, and her mouth hung open with disbelief after. "What!? Another wall?"

Jeremie looked closely at the screen, and as that message faded, another appeared. It consisted of a few words, and seven little dash-like lines under the words. "Carthage God," he read out loud. "What's that mean?Is it like a clue?"

"I guess so, maybe this wall can't be destroyed by cracking number codes; maybe this one gets destroyed by a password?"

"I guess so. Well, this obviously has to do with Carthage, but do you think it means Carthage the ancient place or Carthage as in the heart of Lyoko?" Aelita questioned.

"Uh, I don't know. Well, a god is someone who does something great, is a ruler, or ..."

Aelita interrupted. "I can't think of an actual god for Lyoko, the only ruler is Xana, and that's only four letters, not seven."

"Your dad did something great on Lyoko, he created it and protected you, but Hopper is only 6 letters, and Franz is only 5, so neither of those work either."

"It's got to be something involving the ancient city of Carthage, then. Now, I don't know that much about Carthage, just that it was founded in 814 B.C.," Aelita said, walking around with her hands behind her back, thinking.

"I know that it was founded by Phoenician settlers from the city of Tyre. I've never heard about a god from there, though."

"Think we should call a meeting with the rest of the group?" Aelita questioned, looking up at Jeremie.

"Good idea."

Everyone, including Odd, was inside Jeremie's dorm. Jeremie sat on the desk chair, and Aelita sat on the corner of the bed near the desk. On the bed were Ulrich and Yumi, with Odd on the floor.

"So, why are we here, exactly?" Odd questioned.

"Odd, we have a secret to tell you," Jeremie began his long speech introducing Odd to Lyoko, once again.

"Jeremie, I don't think we need to tell him, he can't help us anyway," Ulrich said, glaring at the boy in the center of the floor.

"I bet I could, Ulrich. Go ahead, Jeremie."

"Anyways, Odd, we know of this ... virtual world, and we fight in it, or at least all of you do, I just run the computer. We fight a virus named Xana, who tries to harm us in different attacks. We have been lucky enough to stop his attacks before anything serious has happened in the past, but ..."

"Jeremie! What do you mean nothing serious has happened before? Yumi almost died in one of Xana's attacks! Did you forget that? I almost lost her!"

"Sorry, Ulrich, I didn't forget that, of course not, I just meant that we haven't lost anyone before. But back to the explanation for Odd. So, we recently lost connection to Lyoko, and if Xana attacks while we can't get there, the world is in peril, and we can't save it this time. I discovered a passage through the Internet, but it was blocked by thirty individual virtual walls."

"Jeremie and I successfully destroyed all of the walls, but when we did, a last mega wall made itself known. This one can't be destroyed by figuring out a complex number equation," Aelita said.

"This one is solved by a word problem. We don't even have a true word problem, just the one clue of 'Carthage God,' and an answer of seven letters. We already ruled out the possibility of the answer being related to the Carthage that is the center of Lyoko, so the answer has to be related to Carthage as in the ancient city."

"We called this meeting to ask you all to help us do research on Carthage, to try to find the answer to the problem. If we succeed, then –"

"Melqart," Odd said, looking up at Jeremie and Aelita.

"What, Odd?"

"Melqart's the password, because in 814 B.C., the ancient city of Carthage was founded by Phoenician settlers from the City of Tyre, and when they settled it, they brought with them the city-god Melqart. Melqart. That's the password," Odd repeated.

"That makes sense! How did you know that?" Aelita questioned, as Jeremie imputed the password into the computer.

"I did some research at the library during a free period last week, and I found out that –"

"The code worked! Aelita, it worked! Odd, you did it!" Jeremie said, as Aelita looked at the screen.

"Guys, we did it! We gained access to Lyoko again! Nice, Odd!"

"Great job, Odd!" Jeremie said.

"It would have taken Aelita and I way longer than that to figure it out, so thanks, buddy!" Jeremie said.

The only one who hadn't said thanks to Odd yet was Ulrich, and he didn't want to. Yumi looked at him and scolded him. He frowned. After a moment of her scolding him, he felt guilty, and gave in.

"Alright, I've got to say thanks, Odd. Now if Xana attacks, we'll have a way into Lyoko. Great work, Odd."

"Aww, thanks, guys. It wasn't so hard; I just remembered it from past research."

"Haha, I thought I'd never hear Odd say that!" Ulrich chuckled.

Later that night, everyone was hanging at Yumi's house, watching a movie together, when a muffled urgent beeping sound commenced.

"What's that?" Odd questioned, stuffing his mouth with popcorn.

"Hey Odd, great timing earlier with the answer to that word problem, by the way," Jeremie commented.

"Why?"

"Because, that beeping sound was a Xana attack! Guys, we've got to go to the factory now!"

"Factory?"

"Odd, just follow us!" Aelita said. Yumi switched off the move and everyone ran out the door, and down to the factory.

Once inside, Jeremie rushed to the computer, and the rest of the group headed to the scanners.

"Alright, Odd, Yumi, and Aelita, get into the scanners. Ulrich, I'll materialize you after. Be careful during the trip there, this might be rougher than usual."

"Scanners?" Odd questioned.

"These tube-like things. Just stand in one and don't move. These take you to Lyoko."

"Wow this is like a huge videogame," Odd said, stepping into one, and turning around.

The trio dropped down into the Forest Sector. Moments later, Yumi was materialized.

Xana sent five Krabes, a swarm of Hornets, and three Bloks as a welcoming committee.

"Odd, use your paws as shooters for your laser arrows, and shoot the monsters in the symbol thing on their heads. If you do, they'll be destroyed. We have to find the tower, and have Aelita deactivate it before we can return, got it?" Ulrich asked, stabbing a Krabe with his katana.

"A – alright, I'll try."

"I'll handle the hornets," Yumi said, running off to them, as they were farther off on the path. She was taken by them to a section of path where it splits, and forms a circle, before reconnecting on the other side. The circle was large, but the path was barely large enough to fit two people on it. She tossed a fan at one hornet, and it destroyed it immediately. On the rebound, she sent up both fans, and successfully killed one hornet. The other fan hit a wing, and was sent astray. Not wanting to lose one fan, she tossed her other at a Hornet, and dived for the other one that was soaring down to her. While trying to catch it, she had to stand on the inner edge of the path she was standing on, and she couldn't quite reach the fan as it zoomed downwards.

She stretched more, but lost her balance. She plummeted down through the center of the circle, but managed to grasp the edge of the path. She hung there, holding on by only one hand, and memories of Saint Valentine's Day flooded her head again. On that day, she had been in the same position, suspended like this.

"Help! Ulrich! Aelita! Help me!" she called.

Down the path, Ulrich heard her screaming. "Yumi?" he questioned. "Aelita, I'm gonna go check on Yumi, she sounds like she's in trouble." Ulrich super-sprinted to where he heard her screaming, and stared in disbelief when he saw her.

"Ulrich! Help! I can't hold on for long!"

"Yumi, give me your hand," he told her, reaching out.

"I can't, if I let go, I'll fall. My other hand has my fan in it. If I drop it, I won't get it back!"

"Give me the fan and then give me that hand," he coaxed, as she tried to give her fan to him. Her body was becoming tired from her hanging on, and as she shifted her weight, her fingers slipped off of the path. Ulrich's quick reflexes grabbed her hand, as she gasped.

"Jeremie, dematerialize Yumi, quick! I can't hold on to her long!" Ulrich called to the sky.

"I'll try." Jeremie typed a few buttons, and then reported back to Ulrich. "Ulrich?"

"Yes, Jeremie?"

"Yumi's DNA is scrambled."

"What's that mean?"

"She can't be de-virtualized."

Thanks for sticking with me, once again! I promise it won't take me months to update again. Oh, and for all of you that want Odd back to normal, stick around for a bit longer. He's gonna return soon, there's a sneak peek into upcoming chapters.

Review, please!