Chapter 7
Ulrich shook himself crossly. He'd morphed, his shirt was pretty much history, and it had started raining. Blood was soaking into his fur.
It was warm.
He would have preferred a normal, cold rain.
This is just fantastic: I'm drenched in blood and looking for a vampire to keep them from going berserk. Talk about insanity.
The worst of it was, the longer it took to find that vampire, the more likely it was that they'd have already gone berserk by the time Ulrich found them.
I'm going to be really angry if that vampire stayed home from school today and I've been running around Kadic for nothing…
Suddenly a shriek threatened to pierce his skull. He whirled and saw someone dashing towards him far faster than even Ulrich could run. There was too much blood everywhere for Ulrich to identify him – beyond that it was indeed a he – but he was clearly a vampire and clearly already berserk.
How did I get roped into this, again? Ulrich swung in a wild attempt to knock the vampire off-balance. Not only did it not work, but the vampire tackled Ulrich to the ground and held him there, unsheathing fangs.
Desperation surged through Ulrich. If those fangs locked on his neck, he wouldn't be able to get the vampire off except by killing it – and return trips didn't reverse deaths.
Dude, you're stronger than a vampire! Ulrich thrashed as hard as he could and managed to flip over, pinning the other guy to the pavement. Even from this new perspective, Ulrich couldn't recognize the vampire; his features were distorted by the unveiling of his bloodthirsty nature, and there was blood all over his face.
The vampire shrieked at him again, straining up in an attempt to stab his fangs into Ulrich's neck. Ulrich brought his head down on the vampire's with a hard crack, and the inhuman nightmare slumped back to the ground.
With a sigh of relief, Ulrich got up and carried the vampire to the first place he could think of that would be empty: his dorm. Once inside, he considered the two beds in indecision before finally dumping the vampire on the floor. Locating a roll of duct tape, he sealed the window with it and rendered the doorknob unable to be unlocked from the inside. Then he returned to full human and got a new shirt out of his drawer. Just as he was about to pull it on, though, he hesitated at his own smell.
Right: shower first.
Ulrich wandered towards the showers. He hadn't gotten more than halfway there, though, when he heard something that didn't sound right. Slowly he turned his head this way and that, trying to place the sound. It was a scraping, and it seemed to be coming from behind him…
Ulrich turned around. Coming up the stairs was a huge crowd of kids that he would have sworn were human, but were equipped with fangs and claws and had gotten horribly pale with the most demented Xanafied eyes he'd ever seen. All of them were drenched in blood.
"Oh no, oh man, you've got to be kidding me!" Ulrich howled, dropping his shirt and backing up.
Of course: how long did it take before that vampire found him? There was plenty of time for him to have drained of blood every kid who was still outside, and he wouldn't have bothered making sure that he left them somewhere that they wouldn't get this Omen rain in their systems. He'd turned half the school into Xana's undead army, by the looks of it.
One of the new vampires – what do you know, it was Sissi – leaped for Ulrich, who abandoned human form and lunged in his own turn. He was cornered here, and had to get back out of the dorm.
"There are twenty-five Kankrelats around the next corner," the Elder observed dispassionately from the monitor.
"Seriously, this guy?" William commented over his shoulder as he readied his sword, "He scares me."
"I'm with you," Odd agreed. He was riding the Overbike this time with Aelita behind him. "I mean, Jeremy never sounds so…cold."
"Will you guys just shut up?" Yumi demanded, leaping off her Overwing to claw her way through about half of the Kankrelats before vaulting back onto her vehicle. She hadn't had time to turn back before the virtualization had activated.
Aelita blew up the rest of the Kankrelats with a super-sized Energy Field. She was clearly not happy, and Yumi knew why: when Aelita asked her where Jeremy was, the only answer she got was a terse, "He'll be fine, just focus!"
Yumi knew she'd have to give Aelita a more complete answer later – assuming there was a later, of course – but now was a really bad time for Aelita to be worrying about her boyfriend.
Not like Yumi even considered herself to have any right to criticize Aelita, given how worried she was about Ulrich.
"There are Wraiths by the tower…" Elder Akem observed.
"Of course there are," Yumi growled.
"…And a human is there as well."
Odd's head dropped. "Oh, no, please."
Yumi grimaced in sympathy. When Xana had destroyed every sector except Carthage, they'd considered themselves in need of another warrior and Odd recommended his on-again-off-again girlfriend Samantha. Unfortunately, that had been their downfall the next time Xana launched an attack on Lyoko's core.
They reached the tower and saw four Wraiths. Standing in their midst was a black girl on rollerblades – literally, the wheels were razor-edged – with axe blades on her outer wrists and a tail almost the size and shape of the Overboard. She could give both Ulrich and Yumi a serious run for their money; no one else even came close in speed or maneuverability, especially not Odd with how guilty he was about all of it.
"Focus on the Wraiths – and I'm especially talking to you two," Yumi shouted over her shoulder as she gunned the Overwing forward, pointing two fingers back at Odd and Aelita. "Samantha is my problem!"
The next few minutes were a disaster, in all honesty. They all lost their vehicles within the first thirty seconds, and Odd was devirtualized in another fifty-five. The only good news was that they'd managed to kill two of the Wraiths with their vehicles in kamikaze maneuvers.
Yumi, meanwhile, was barely surviving a deadly dance against Xana-Samantha. It was all she could do even with her enhanced speed to leap away from four whirling blades, and she couldn't risk getting her claws close enough to land a hit.
If Odd ever gets over what happened to Sam, Yumi thought wryly, he'll make a joke about her being a food processor, or a salad shooter.
William suddenly went down, although he'd managed a Pyrrhic victory in taking with him the Wraith that had killed him.
Yumi leapt to a rock and looked around for Aelita…
She stayed still too long. Samantha spiraled up the rock and slashed Yumi up.
The last thing Yumi saw as she disappeared was Aelita entering the tower.
A/N: Sorry this took so long; personally, I find this chapter a slight disappointment, but the next one will be better!
