Another day, another XANAMOTH attack.
This time, the nasty AI had hacked into the school's electrical system and was using it to play Zeus. Yumi and Ulrich had stayed behind for casualty control and Jeremie, who had skipped lunch to work on Aelita's materialization program and was already waiting at the factory. So today, it was only Odd.
The scrawny boy barely made it off of campus, nearly becoming fried chicken via a vicious bolt of lighting coming from a nearby streetlamp.
"Whew!" he whooped, full of adrenaline, "XANAMOTH may be evil, but he sure knows how to make a killer light show!"
Odd knew there was no one around to cringe at his terrible pun, but he liked doing them anyway. According to the Della Robbia principle (something he completely made up), it was imperative for him to crank out at least three bad jokes per day, to lift the spirits of doomed teenagers tasked with saving the world on a weekly basis.
Just as he was getting up to check if XANAMOTH's attempt at cooking him had ruined his clothes, Odd's phone started to ring. When he picked up, he heard Jeremie on the other end, obviously impatient.
"Odd, where are you right now?! Aelita can't wait forever!" the nerd boy said.
"Relax Einstein, I'm on my way right now." Odd reassured as he made his way toward the manhole in the park.
As he ran, a mischievous thought popped into his head. Try as he might, for Jeremie's sake, he couldn't resist.
"I'd never be late for my private date with the Princess. How rude do you think I am?" he teased.
"Odd…" Jeremie warned, with a bit more annoyance in his voice, "This is serious! The Mothware XANAMOTH implanted has given up on trying to fry us individually! It's started powering up to take out the entire city block! You need to get over here!"
Jeremie paused for a second before adding:
"..and try to stay focused on the mission this time."
Odd rolled his eyes in amusement. He was only teasing, but it seemed like everytime he brought Aelita into any conversation, Jeremie became a little less friendly with him. It didn't matter, practically everyone else knew he was just a huge flirt.
Despite his best efforts, Odd could never keep a girlfriend for more than a week. Every time he found someone, Ulrich and Yumi were already placing bets to see when the inevitable breakup would occur. He told himself he preferred it that way, that such events kept his life interesting, despite his heart saying otherwise.
If there truly was a girl out there who could love Odd Della Robbia for real, she probably wasn't on Planet Earth.
It was on days like this that Aelita wished she was on Planet Earth.
Running from XANAMOTH's Hornets is never fun, but it's even less fun when you can't fight back.
"Jeremie!" she shouted, while dodging the laser fire raining down from above. "I really need to transform!"
"Not yet Aelita!" Jeremie's voice echoed back. "You can only stay in that form for five minutes. Remember, if anyone's been REALLY hurt, we're going to need the code Miraculous to bring them back! You can't enter that into the tower unless you're Lyokobug!"
Aelita knew that. Aelita knew that better than anybody… but she also knew she couldn't run much further and the Hornets were gaining on her.
"Jeremie, I don't think I'll be able to put in the code Miraculous AT ALL if I'm devirtualized!" she yelled as she leapt into a rock pile to avoid enemy fire. After taking a minute to catch her nonexistent breath, Aelita shook herself.
"Where are the others?" she inquired.
"Odd should be here by now. What is taking him so long?" Jeremie griped, seemingly more on edge than Aelita was.
Aelita could still hear the sounds of Hornet wings flapping to and fro, but she couldn't decipher where it was coming from. Slowly peeking out from around her hiding rock, she realized her buggy entourage was nowhere to be seen.
"Um… Jeremie?" she whispered, "What happened? I can't see the Hornets anym-"
Mid-sentence, a sharp painful blast from behind sent Aelita flying from her hiding place. Turns out they had been waiting for her, grouped up below the rocks, just out of the poor girl's line of sight. Jeremie's voice racked with worry, yelled from his seat back at the factory:
"Aelita! You only have 20 life points left!"
Aelita, wasting no time, jumped to her feet and started running again.
"I have to do it, Jeremie." she pleaded, "If no one comes, I still have to deactivate the tower. XANAMOTH cannot be left alone with access to send out more of his viruses!"
Jeremie, sitting alone in the factory with growing anxiety, considered Aelita's words. It was true that leaving XANAMOTH with access to a tower was dangerous. The longer he had it, the more time he had to power up and send out another piece of Mothware. However, he couldn't ignore the fact that those viruses could operate on their own without XANAMOTH's help, AND continue to cause chaos even after the evil AI's tower is deactivated. Without the Black Cat Program, the Mothware in the school could still annihilate everyone, including Yumi and Ulrich. Even with all that, they didn't really have many options left.
Jeremie took one last glance at Aelita's profile as she lost another five points to another Hornet blast.
"Jeremie?!" she yelled.
"Do it." he conceded.
Aelita stopped in her tracks, turning to face her attackers. Raising her right arm to the sky and bringing it to her heart, she said two special words, activating the most miraculous program of all.
"Spots on!"
