"The tower!" William yelled, the red glow of the activated tower penetrating the blinding whiteness of snow.
The three, arms locked, paused to gaze momentarily at the extraordinary sight, or lack of for that matter.
"Aelita, go ahead. William and I will cover you." Yumi said, a laser flying past William's head.
Aelita nodded and ran forward towards the tower only a few feet away.
"Well, that was easier than I thought it would be." William said, turned to block shots with Yumi.
Suddenly, Jeremy's voice boomed through the sector. "Aelita, watch out!"
Behind them, William and Yumi heard a massive crash as the ice behind them broke, shaking the ground violently.
"Jeremy..." Yumi said, getting back-to-back with William for protection, "what was that?"
"Kolossus." Jeremy said softly, hardly loud enough for them to hear it, yet that name chilled them to their core.
They turned back to where the aurora of red had previously been, but it was now impossible to see, blocked by a massive shade of grey and black ahead of them.
Their jaws dropped as the blizzard let up instantly, but their jaws fully detached when they realized the total of what surrounded them.
They stood on a thin platform of massive length and minimal width, a cluster of thirty Hornets at their flank, and an unthinkable three Kolossuses ahead of them, one behind the tower and the others on each side of the tower.
The Kolossus to the right of the tower had his arm buried in the ice, having previously swung down onto Aelita, devirtualizing the angel.
"Well, what do we do?" Yumi asked, looking over to William.
The Scottish boy lifted his sword with both hands, prepared for battle as best one could be.
"We fight!" He yelled, running towards the Kolossus's arm, Yumi close behind him.
—
"Odd, wake up! We can't stay here with Sissi firing on us!" Ulrich said, proceeding with CPR to no avail. He pressed against Odd's chest one final time before he decided it was futile.
He picked his friend up by his chest and threw him over his shoulder. His legs had to momentarily readjust for the extra weight, but he would be able to carry him a fair distance.
Ulrich began walking towards the exit, but realized that was a mistake when Sissi fired in front of him as he walked. It was then that he realized what was happening, why X.A.N.A. didn't just fire at him and end it all, why he waited; he was toying with them.
Ulrich dropped Odd carefully on the floor behind him, making sure he wasn't in the direct line of fire.
"Hey, X.A.N.A.!" Ulrich yelled, an emotionless Sissi looking back at him, her image distorted by the electricity's yellow hue. "Why don't you just fire and end this? Why don't you just do it?"
Sissi grinned and raised her arm towards him. "Silly boy." She said, her X.A.N.A. fied voice deeper than hers, a slight echo noticeable as well.
Ulrich stood as a cover to Odd, wondering if he had made the right choice. He didn't have much time to wonder, though, as Sissi released a massive blast of energy at him, the most powerful X.A.N.A. had ever used on Earth.
Ulrich stood through the excruciating experience, his muscles tense, his body rigid. He lasted for five proud seconds before falling over, only getting one second to see his friend's face before he passed out himself.
—
"Yumi, I need some help over here!" William yelled, jumping off the shoulders of the middle Kolossus, swinging his blade into a massive cloud of Hornets, destroying more than half of them.
"One second!" She yelled, repeatedly attempting to have both her fans hit the individual targets on the left Kolossus.
William ran as fast as he could, jumping towards the arm of the right Kolossus with his sword leading the charge. Upon impact, the force pushed the unequivocally powerful beast's arm into the side of the middle Kolossus, causing him to rock back noticeably.
A connection went off in William's head; he knew exactly what must be done.
"Yumi, I've got a plan!" He yelled, getting her attention as she ran over to him. "Follow my lead." He said, again hitching a ride on the arm of the right Kolossus. He then jumped from it onto a Hornet, attempting to control it.
After a few seconds of adjustment, he was able to roughly steer it in the direction he pleased, Yumi just now mounding a Hornet herself.
"Okay, now fly between the two Kolossuses on your side as I'll get my side. If this works, the middle one shouldn't be a problem anymore." William directed, flying between the right and middle Kolossus.
As they each flew between the powerful creatures, the Kolossuses each tried swinging at them much as people would swat at flies buzzing near them. William's plan worked perfectly as the swings of both the left as right Kolossus accidentally hit the one in the middle, knocking it onto its back in a slow and belittling process, the monsters own power used against them.
"Great job guys!" Jeremy said, Aelita and Franz watching behind him. "One down, two to go!"
"I think this'll be a little easier than that." William said, assessing the probability of his new strategy actually working. "Jeremy, how long does it take for you to deactivate a tower after one of us touches it?"
"Not very long, only a couple of seconds."
"Okay, I've got an idea that just might work. Yumi, head straight for the tower, I'll handle these two giants myself."
"You sure?" Yumi asked, flying her Hornet closer to him.
William nodded. "Sure as Odd loves food."
That sealed it; Yumi headed for the tower, dismounting from the flying bug, destroying it with her fan, and running the final stretch for the tower.
William flew in front of the faces of both Kolossuses, then landed himself a fair distance from the tower. He had attracted the rage of the creatures as they simultaneously slammed their sword arms into him, cutting him as a chef would food for a meal. Although this meant his devirtualization, it gave Yumi just enough time to deactivate the tower before X.A.N.A. could react.
"Return to the past, now!" Jeremy yelled, the white sphere engulfing them, then the school, then the theatre Odd and Ulrich lie in nearly dead.
—
"How could we let him get this far?" Jeremy questioned, pacing back and forth in the factory. Both Franz and Aelita were in the room with him, Franz at the computer and Aelita standing near Jeremy.
"X.A.N.A. has quadrupled his power in a timeframe of only months, and he doesn't show any sighs of slowing down." Franz said, standing up from the chair. "If we don't defeat him soon, he could become an impossible foe for us to beat."
"How are we going to deal with this? With the amount of power X.A.N.A. now has on Lyoko and on Earth, he's becoming hard to counter." Aelita said.
"We'll just have to work harder to develop a new extermination program." Jeremy said, pushing his glasses up. "I just hope we can work hard enough to beat him... I sense we are almost out of time..."
—
Odd and Ulrich sat on their beds, the day having quickly passed by both of them. They stopped Sissi from getting the picture of Yumi and William and Odd decided not to go to the concert, claiming the band wasn't worth hearing twice.
"I'm sorry, Odd." Ulrich said, looking at his friend from across the isle between their beds.
"I already told you it's fine, you don't have to apologize to me. We're best friends, and none of your emotional jealousy freak outs could ever change that." A grin appeared on Odd's face. "But, if you really want to make a grand apology, you can give me your breakfast tomorrow."
Ulrich laughed at the thought, then moved to turn his lamp off. "Good night, Odd."
"Hey, can't blame a guy for tryin'" Odd said, getting under his blanket.
—
"No... no..." Jeremy muttered, rolling around in his bed, sweat dripping from his face.
"No... AELITA!" He yelled, sitting straight up as he violently exited his dream.
He breathed heavily as he though over this repudiative dream.
'This makes six days in the last two weeks...' He thought, picking up his glasses from the floor, placing them in his face. 'Well, if I'm up I might as well work.' He though, moving over to his computer for another night of no rest, using work as a way to escape his nightmares.
The only problem was, his nightmare would soon find him again, only this time he wouldn't be asleep.
End of episode 11, and man, was it dramatic. Sorry for being late, so to apologize, I made this a little longer than usual. Make sure to review if you have any comments! Thanks to all you guys for over 14,000 views, I could never have done all this without you!