Jeremy worked frantically to find answers as to Odd's disappearance. He scanned for his code again only to get the same result. "How is that possible." Jeremy said aloud. "It doesn't make sense, my program shouldn't have done this." Jeremy was again frustrated with himself. It was at times like these that he doubted his ability to fix the problem, that he wasn't good enough.

He had been working for five hours now and had nothing to show for it other than a few inconclusive tests and scans. He banged his hand on the keyboard in frustration. "I can't get it! I just can't do it!" Jeremy yelled as though someone would hear his frustrations. He laid his head on the keyboard, quickly falling asleep, having exhausted himself working.

—

Aelita walked out of her last class of the day and noticed her friends all grouped around the vending machines. She walked towards them and upon her arrival overheard the end of a random conversation between Ulrich and William.

"Nah, " William said, a careless expression on his face, "the cafeteria's soup is always warm on Fridays and cold on Tuesdays."

"I'm tellin ya William, it's the other way around. Cold on Fridays and warm on Tuesdays." Ulrich replied.

"Hey guys." Aelita said, breaking the back and forth argument between Ulrich and William.

"Hey Aelita, " Yumi said, tired of listening to them bicker, "have you heard from Jeremy since we left the factory?"

"No, I was actually on my way to see his progress. You guys should probably come too in case he needs us on Lyoko." They all nodded in agreement, Ulrich's gaze moving over to William, gazing at him. This gaze wasn't a gaze of evil, of hate or even of anger, but something much more: acceptance. Ulrich didn't trust William as much as he would the others, but he knew now that they had made the right choice letting him in. Had he not joined when he did, who knows how many times X.A.N.A. might have defeated them in the last few weeks since William joining the group. 'I don't completely trust you, " Ulrich thought, 'but I guess if this is how it's gonna be, I don't have any other choice.'

They made their way through the forest and down into the sewers, talking the whole time about classes, projects and some of X.A.N.A.'s more recent attacks. They were concerned for Odd, but all of them figured Jeremy would be close to a breakthrough given all the time he has worked.

"So, what were you guys arguing about before I joined in?" Aelita asked, pressing the large elevator button, causing it to descend.

"Don't get him started." William said, a smirk on his face. "He just won't give up."

Aelita and Yumi giggled as Ulrich gave William a bold look, although it didn't intimidate him a bit.

"Jeremy, " Aelita said as the elevator doors opened with a slight creak, "how far are you on a..." She stopped speaking when she heard the blond let out a loud snore.

"Is he..." Yumi began.

"Asleep, yeah." William finished. Aelita walked over to Jeremy and kissed him softly on his cheek. "Wake up Jeremy."

Jeremy lifted his head slowly, his eyes unprepared for the light. "Ugg... What happened?" He asked, his hair slightly out of line from sleeping in such an awkward position.

"It looks like you fell asleep on the job there Jeremy." Ulrich answered.

"Speaking of jobs, how much progress have you made in determining what happened to Odd?" Aelita asked.

"Well, I was only able to determine what fragments of code were where. I tried creating a harvester program to gather all fourth or so fragments, but nothing worked." Jeremy's voice progressively became quieter and said with less effort as he spoke.

"Don't worry, Jeremy, we know where he is, that's a start." Yumi said, breaking the internal struggle between Jeremy's mind and his lack of confidence temporarily. "Could we just go to each tower and get the fragments?"

"No, I thought about that, but only Aelita could collect a fragment through the terminal. If it comes down to it that's what we'll do, but that would take hours and the fragments may get distorted along the way." Jeremy replied, shooting down her idea.

"What if I go on Lyoko and gather Odd's major codes while you stay here and re-program the smaller ones." Aelita suggested.

"That's actually not a bad idea. It would cut our time in half, just about. Why don't all of you go ahead to the scanners and I'll send you to the first major fragment?" Jeremy asked.

No answer was provided, but it wasn't needed as all four of them made there way down in the elevator. When the doors slid open they all walked into their own respective scanners.

"Scanner Yumi, scanner William, scanner Aelita, scanner Ulrich."
"Transfer Yumi, transfer William, transfer Aelita, transfer Ulrich."
"Virtualization!"

Their minds were sent through the insulated cables and transferred into code. The process was completed in mere seconds, an easy task for a computer of the supercomputers caliber.

All four of the Warriors fell to the surface of the forest sector with a light thud. William landed on one knee, his sword holstered on his shoulder.

"Where to Jeremy?" William asked, standing up from his falling stance.

"It should be within sight to the north." Jeremy said, looking over the monitor. "Aelita, there are only four major fragments that I can't program myself, one in each Way-Tower. Once we get all four and I finish programming the smaller pieces, we should be able to out Odd back into one piece."

"Ok, let's get moving." Ulrich said beginning his sprint towards the tower. They reached the tower in under a minute having run quickly there.

Aelita entered the tower as the others stood guard by the entrance. She levitated to the second platform and began working on the terminal. "Jeremy, I'm sending you the file."

"I got it Aelita, great job." Jeremy said. "One down, three to go." Just as he said this, a beeping noise erupted from the speakers of his monitor. "Umm... Guys, we have a problem. Three hornets on their way to your location, be carful."

"We see them Jeremy." Yumi said, preparing her bladed fans.

The hornets flew at the Warriors in a triangular formation, rotating positions continually. Ulrich did a run-and-jump at the formation of hornets, aiming his blades at the monsters. He was shot by the bottom left Horner with a purple laser just before his blades hit it dead center, destroying it.

"Jeremy, what was I hit with?" A concerned Ulrich asked, fearing the worst.

"I'm not sure, let me check." Jeremy said through his headset, looking for any clues as to what happened to Ulrich. "It appears that you were hit with a poison laser. You will gradually lose life points over time until you reach zero."

"Well, I guess it could be worse." Ulrich said.

"Ulrich, duck!" William yelled. Ulrich hit the ground as William jumped over his body, swinging his blade into one of the two remaining hornets. "I think that makes us even." William said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Yeah, I guess it does." Ulrich replied, keeping his emotions to himself.

"Watch out!" Aelita yelled as she exited the tower. A Hornet flew right above them, hitting William with a normal laser blast. Yumi threw her fans at the Hornet, the first one missed but the second fan hit with extreme precision.

"Thanks, Yumi." William said walking over to her.

"We got all we needed here, just three more towers to go." Jeremy said, his voice containing hope for the first time today.

Thanks for all the support, it's because of you guys that I work so hard and post daily. Thanks!