It had only taken Odd two and a half minutes to get to the factory, which was pretty average, all things considered. Despite this, Jeremie was in a super sour mood when the svelte boy finally arrived.
"Aelita had to transform without you. You've got less than three minutes to locate that Mothware. Get to the scanners, she needs your help." he had ordered.
Odd didn't bother trying to make a witty remark. He knew it wasn't the time. At least, not here in the factory with Jeremie.
As he stood in the scanner, he realized he had no idea where Jeremie was sending him.
"Hey Jeremie, where am I going?" he asked politely.
"To the Mountain sector. The tower you guys need to access is right at the edge of the map. Lyokobug is already on her way there." Jeremie's voice echoed from overhead.
"Transfer Odd. Scanner Odd."
Odd closed his eyes, bracing himself.
"Virtualization."
He felt a rush as his body converted itself into energy, racing through the many wires of the supercomputer, until… he felt himself stop. There was an abrupt halt as his body materialized into thin air. Then Lyoko's gravity hit him, bringing him down to the rocky ground of the Mountain Sector.
Though he had just arrived, the purple catboy found he wasn't alone, as upon landing, he was immediately hit with a laser from a nearby cheeky Kankrelat.
"Ah, the welcoming committee! I was expecting you!" Odd said as he backflipped to avoid getting hit by another round of fire, "XANAMOTH, always so considerate about making us feel at home."
Cocking his hand like a firearm, Odd aimed for the pesky insect in front of him.
"Laser Arrow!" he shouted, firing his own round of ammunition.
The Kankrelat sidestepped two shots, but wasn't quite fast enough to avoid the third. Odd watched as the poor thing spun around before promptly exploding in a heap of stray code.
"I almost feel sorry for the little guy." Odd commented, stroking his virtual hair back, "Being sent all on his lonesome to deal with Odd the Magnificent? Eh, that thing never stood a chance."
"Odd!" Jeremie's voice yelled over the intercom.
Odd nodded, starting to run toward his target.
"Yeah, yeah Einstein, I know. I'm on the clock." he sighed.
"No Odd, there's another- " Jeremie started.
As Odd ran, a Cube crawled out from behind a large rock, firing a giant ring at the unsuspecting boy from behind. Odd only had time to turn around and see the ring, inches from him, ready to devirtualize him.
…but it never got the chance.
A red and black spotted yo-yo wrapped around Odd's left arm, pulling him up and away from the incoming fire. If one were to witness the event in slow motion, they would see the ring blast, barely missing the feline's tail as he flew upward into the sky.
Up, up, up Odd went, until eventually gravity had its way again and brought him back down. Odd floundered like a fish out of water, before "gracefully" face planting onto the ground.
As Odd laid there, sprawled out onto the ground, he heard a familiar voice that made his tail stand straight up.
"I thought you told me cats always landed on their feet!" the voice cried.
Odd pulled his head out of the indent it left in the mountain rock to see Aelita, clad in red with black spots all over. She had face markings too, similar to a mask, covering the top of her bright green eyes. Her singular earring matched her yo-yo, which was still wrapped around Odd's arm. It was in this particular form that she had taken up the name Lyokobug, courtesy of Odd's incessant need to name everything he found cool.
"I would've caught you if I had known you were going to do that!" she said, obviously concerned.
Odd immediately shook himself off and stood up. He didn't like to make her upset, and he REALLY didn't like breaking her trust. The girl always took everything to heart. It was for those reasons, despite his joking nature, she was the one person he never played practical jokes on. It just wasn't funny when she was unhappy.
"Don't worry, Princess." he reassured, brushing himself off. "That was just the ol' Della Robbia landing style. We… er, like to add a little pizazz to our falls."
Lyokobug raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Pizazz? I don't think I'm familiar with that word." she said thoughtfully.
"If you two are finished chatting, Ulrich and Yumi are trying to prevent a citywide disaster!" Jeremie's voice piped up. "The tower is just up ahead, hurry!"
Odd, catching the urgency in Jeremie's voice, quickly took Lyokobug's hand and started to run to the tower with her.
"I'll tell you about it later." he whispered to her as they ran along, squeezing her hand affectionately, "...but first, let's go save the world, okay?"
Lyokobug smiled at him and nodded back. Odd might've imagined it, but it felt like she squeezed his hand back.
There wasn't much trouble getting to the tower. A couple Hornets here, a few Kankrelats there. The real problem was their time limit. Aelita had transformed into Lyokobug almost four minutes ago, which meant they had one full minute to use the tower, find the Mothware in the school's electrical grid, and destroy it.
Or rather, Odd had one minute to destroy it. Aelita had to stay in the tower to enter the codes, so he was going to be pest control for today.
"Are you ready Odd?" Lyokobug asked as she typed something on the screen in the tower's base. "As soon as you transform, I'm going to transfer you to the grid."
She paused to look at Odd with a worried expression.
"…Will you be alright on your own?" she asked.
Odd stretched his arms and yawned in a nonchalant fashion.
"Of course, I will." the catboy reassured again, "You aren't worried about me, are you?" he added in a teasing manner.
Lyokobug, smiling a little, shook her head and pressed a button on her console.
"Whenever you're ready." she said.
Odd took a deep breath and stretched out his left hand.
"Claws Out!" he yelled.
On Odd's hand, a green paw print flashed into existence, glowing bright. The floor beneath him started to glow as well, rising him high into the tower. Neon green zeros and ones surrounded him, changing his purple suit into a darker, sleeker design. He could feel two black cat ears pop up on his head as he rose further.
Suddenly, shifting into a shard of light, Odd shot through the tower and out of Lyoko.
Even though his physical manifestation was that of a bolt of light, Odd was metaphorically grinning ear to ear.
"Alright." he thought, "Time to have a little fun."
Meanwhile, Kadic Academy was not having fun.
"Everyone stay calm." Mr. Delmas had said, trying to keep the children from panicking.
However, that was quite a challenge, seeing how it was apparent they were all going to die.
Due to the strong amount of energy coursing through the school, it was clear that the entire structure was due to collapse any minute. The exterior of the building was lined with electrical charge, meaning anyone who tried to flee would end up like Jim when he attempted to open the Gymnasium doors, crispy and unconscious.
Ulrich was currently busy with Sissi, who was clinging to his arm and sobbing like the overdramatic damsel in old American movies.
Yumi was with Ms. Phelps, trying to see if Jim was still alive.
"Is he breathing?" Yumi asked her.
"He took quite a shock." she replied. "If we can't get him to a hospital soon…"
Trailing off, Ms. Phelps turned to Yumi and shook her head.
"There's not much you can do to help me, why don't you go sit with others for now?" she recommended, trying to hide her worry.
Yumi did get up and walk away, but only to sneak off and hide beneath the bleachers. She needed to make a call. Punching in the number on her cell, she heard Jeremie pick up.
"Any news?" she asked.
"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Jeremie asked back.
"Both, but let's start with the bad, just to get it out of the way." she replied.
"Well, the Mothware is almost finished charging up a deadly energy blast. On top of that, Aelita had to transform into Lyokobug early, due to some unavoidable Hornets, so we have to destroy that thing in less than a minute if we want to bring anyone back." Jeremie announced.
Yumi bit her lip. Jim was in bad shape. At this point, they needed to use the code Miraculous if they didn't want to lose their gym teacher.
"What's the good news?" she asked.
"Odd Noire is already there. He just has to find the virus and Lyokobug can do her thing."
Yumi nodded, feeling a bit of relief, despite her current situation.
"Alright, anything we can do?" she asked once again.
"Er… try not to perish?" Jeremie answered hesitantly.
Yumi frowned, immediately losing the brief relief.
"Will do." she replied dryly. "Tell Odd Noire to make it quick."
Odd Noire was going as fast as he could. The inside of an electrical grid was not an easy place to navigate.
He could see the Mothware. The big butterfly-looking virus was latched onto a breaker, too busy with its current troublemaking to notice the cat person on the other side of the mainframe. Unfortunately, for Odd Noire, the school's mainframe was built like a maze, with plenty of electrical walls to keep him from just running over to the pesky virus.
"Odd, we have 30 seconds until that beast unleashes its final attack!" he heard Lyokobug's voice tell him from afar. "Do you have a plan?"
Odd looked around at the maze, then at the Mothware on the other side. The walls were too steep and smooth to try and climb, and he certainly didn't have enough time to try and hit the Mothware with a laser arrow from where he was.
Then he remembered something.
He had another weapon.
A stick, to be exact.
Not very useful to one without an imagination like that of Odd Della Robbia's, but for the boy? It was perfect.
"I do, actually." he said with glee as he took out a silver rod attached to his backside, "Pole vaulting!"
"What?" Lyokobug's bewildered voice asked, not being able to witness Odd Noire getting into an Olympic stance.
"BONZAI!" Odd Noire shouted, not giving any explanation for his previous statement.
With a running jump, Odd Noire stuck the stick into the ground. As he gained momentum, the pole extended, raising him high above the entire maze.
As he started to make his way back down, he reached out his left hand again, unsheathing his claws.
"Cataclysm!" he exclaimed, aiming for the virus' ugly face-like wings.
A dark aura surrounded his hand, ready to obliterate whatever it came into contact with.
Odd Noire's virtual heart leaped for joy.
He was going to do it.
He was going to be a hero.
He was going to destroy XANAMOTH's Mothware, save the day, and come out unscathed.
At least… that's what he thought would happen.
