Jeremy sat in his room, his light off as he worked on his computer. He payed little attention in class today, his mind distracted by the horrid nightmare he witnessed last night.

He was working on a replacement for the Skid, something he and Aelita had discussed since day one of X.A.N.A.'s return, but had put off until now.

'If X.A.N.A. is using Replicas again, then we better get ready to take them out.' Jeremy thought earlier during one of his classes, setting this project at the top of his list, all the work helping to keep his focus off his dream.

He had been working for over two hours now when his computer alerted him through a prompted message.

"X.A.N.A..." Jeremy said, beginning to pull up the superscan. It showed an activated tower in the Desert Sector, Jeremy memorizing it's location. He began to pull his phone out of his pocket to call the others, but as he unlocked it the tower deactivated itself, the superscan reporting no activated towers.

"What could X.A.N.A. be planing this time?" Jeremy asked aloud, his mind turned blank with a lack of explanation.

—
"Odd, quit complaining." Ulrich said, looking at his with a hint of seriousness.

Odd looked over at his friend with hungry eyes, and a hungry stomach for that matter. "I can't deal with these new portions! First breakfast, them lunch and now a dinner that wouldn't even feel Kiwi." Odd expressed as he licked his plate clean, all traces of food removed from the brownish white trey.

A sudden bolt of pain fell upon Odd as though his mind had just exploded from the inside. He fell over on the floor, his chair filling behind him along with his plastic trey which clanked upon impact. He landed on his side, but with how badly his head was affected he was slightly out of it and unable to get up, his vision also greatly distorted. The whole table rushed over to Odd after they realized what was happening, trying to get him to move or get up.

Jim, who was just before enjoying a plump and juicy meatball dropped his fork and ran over to asses what was happening from across the room.

"Give him some room!" He yelled upon arrival, the children moving a few feet away from him. "Someone get the nurse!"

As two students ran for the infirmary, Jim looked Odd over, noticing his control-lacking state. "Odd, can you hear me?" Jim asked, hoping for a response. "Come on, Odd, speak to me!"

The room was silent other than a few small whispers in the back, everyone in shock.

"Do you think it's X.A.N.A.?" William asked, the others hardly hearing him in their shock.

"I don't know..." Yumi said, looking with horror at her friends situation. "... I'll call Jeremy."

Yumi stepped out of the cafeteria, pulled out her phone and dialed Jeremy's number.

*Ring* *Ring*

"Hello?"

"Jeremy, it's Yumi. Odd is really hurt in the cafeteria and we wanted to know if X.A.N.A. has activated any towers." Yumi had a sense of urgency in her voice, something Jeremy picked up in quickly.

"There was a short moment where a tower was activated a minute ago, but it deactivated by itself. I was just starting some tests to see if the scan was faulty, but I guess we have our answer." Jeremy said, looking over some code on his computer as he ended the scan he had just begun.

Just as Yumi was about to respond, Jim ran out of the cafeteria, his arms outstretched, carrying Odd in them. Ulrich ran out after him, quickly catching Jim as he ran towards the school's entrance.

"Ulrich, what's going on?" Yumi asked, Ulrich pausing to talk to her.

"Jim is running to meet an ambulance at the gate." Ulrich said, beginning to run again.

"Where are you going!" Yumi said, forced to speak loudly so he could hear her.

"He's my friend, I'm not gonna leave him. He needs me now more than ever." This was all Ulrich had time to say, but it was enough to leave Yumi with tears rolling down her eyes, Aelita and William walking up behind her.

"What did Jeremy say?" Aelita asked, just noticing Yumi crying.

"He said a tower was activated, but it deactivated itself." Yumi wiped her eyes, emotion not usually coming to her this easily, but with the mix of sadness and distress from Odd's injury and friendship from Ulrich, it was understandable. "We better go meet him in his room."

"Good idea. Hopefully we can find out what happened." William said, the group of three beginning to walk towards Jeremy's dorm, a crowd of whispering kids freely flowing from the cafeteria.

—

"Jeremy, what do you mean the tower just deactivated?" Yumi asked, the gang minus Odd and Ulrich in Jeremy's room.

"It sent me a message saying a tower was activated, then after I registered its location it just went away, no trace of it ever being activated." Jeremy replied. "X.A.N.A. could have caused something to happen in Odd in that time though, but I'm not sure how he could cause him to just fall over unconscious."

The room was quiet for a few seconds, William breaking the silence. "Remember during the whole flood thing, Odd had a really bad headache that wouldn't go away. Maybe X.A.N.A. has been causing this headache."

Jeremy looked over that the raven haired boy as though he were a genius. "That makes sense! X.A.N.A. somehow implanted a machine in Odd's head that, upon tower activation, causes the nerves in his brain to overreact, causing him to have a massive headache that only lasts for a few seconds."

"But how could a headache like that bring Odd tumbling out of his seat, like you said, it only lasted a couple of seconds." Aelita asked, not completely sure she understood what he was trying to convey.

"It's possible that he experienced a sharp, extreme pain, causing his body to go into shock, maybe worse. All I know is, we need to head over to the factory quickly so that if this tower is re-activated, we are ready to get rid of it." Jeremy said, getting up from his seat.

As he and the others walked out of his room, all they could think about was their poor friend Odd, praying for his safety.

Thanks for all the views, we are almost at 3000! This is so great! And all the reviews! I would like to give my first helper, by the name of Knux27. He has been here from the start and I find it hard to see the story being what it is now without his support! Read and review!