A/N: Here is the next installment of my Jerlita Roleswap AU. Hope you all enjoy it~
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko in any way, shape, or form.
Note: Remember, any episodes not mentioned either as the inspiration for a chapter or just in passing are not part of the AU, mainly because the roleswap makes them useless, and those only mentioned in passing are just filler and/or would be the same no matter who has what role.
Special Announcement: On my DeviantArt page (same pen name; 'SepticAbzies'), I recently uploaded four pictures of this AU. Go check them out, and if you want me to draw a scene from this AU from chapters already posted, go ahead and PM there.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
"Ulrich receives a love letter from a secret admirer. Who is it from? And why does Sissi seem to know something?"
Episode 7: Love and Betrayal
(Based on Swarming Attack)
A tower in Lyoko's Forest Sector gained a red halo.
Meanwhile, a hornet flew through an open window of Kadic's Science Building, landing on a microscope.
Out of nowhere, a black spectre jumpscared it, engulfing it before it could fly away.
The microscope's computer began sounding an alarm, as it detected an anomaly in the hornet's body as XANA was gaining control over it, but since nobody was in the room, no one was there to notice.
The hornet then flew out to its nest, intending on spreading XANA's new means of attack to its fellow insects and infecting the entire colony.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
On the other side of the campus, Ulrich was waiting out the rest of breakfast hour in his dorm, studying for his upcoming history test that Friday. His father was beginning to hound him for his grades again, and that was the last thing he needed.
After all, he already had his hands full with the secret that was Lyoko.
Just then, he heard footsteps walk up to his door. He turned his head towards that direction just in time to see a piece of paper get slipped underneath the door. The footsteps sounded again, but this time, they were running away.
Closing his book with suspicion, he got up and opened his door, asking, "Hello? Is anyone there?" He looked around, only to find nobody in the vicinity.
Not even a hint as to who it was.
He looked down and saw the piece of paper. Picking it up, he noticed that it was a letter. He opened it and started reading.
He was immediately surprised by its contents, "What?!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"It's great that you're making progress, Aelita!" Yumi congratulated her pink-loving friend, who was blushing at the praise. "Soon Jérémie will be here with us in no time!" She had just given them an update on Jérémie's materialization.
"Yeah," Odd agreed. "Just imagine all the things he's gonna learn when he gets here! He's gonna be amazed!"
"I think about that all the time," Aelita's blush grew a darker shade of red. "I can't wait for that day to come." She then shook her head to clear it, "But, listen, we need to start coming up with ideas for a cover story. We can't just tell people that Jérémie is a human that was trapped inside of a supercomputer."
"True," Yumi agreed.
"Don't worry, cuz," Odd said. "We'll think of something. For now, just keep telling people that he's your pen pal." Because that wasn't too far from the truth.
Yumi turned her head when she heard footsteps approaching them. She immediately smiled when seeing it was their fourth member, "Hey, Ulrich!"
"H-Hey," he softly replied. Strange, coming from Ulrich. He usually wasn't so bashful around Yumi. He was her first friend and could confide in her for anything. So why the sudden change in behavior?
Just then, the bell rang, signaling the start of classes.
"Okay, Aelita and Ulrich! It's time to work up a sweat!" Odd said, before waving at their oldest member. "See you later, Yumi."
Odd and Aelita walked off towards the gymnasium, and Yumi moved to go to her first class of the day (which was Physics), only to be stopped by Ulrich grabbing her arm, "Yumi, w-wait! I...I, um... are you okay?"
She raised an eyebrow in slight confusion, "Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"
"N-No reason!" Ulrich replied, looking like he wanted to tell her something but had just chickened out. "I, uh, just wanted to know. See you later!"
Yumi watched him run to catch up with Odd and Aelita, before she shrugged and walked off to the Science Building.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jim's lesson today was football (what Americans referred to as 'soccer'). There wasn't really a game going on, just students in duos practicing kicking and catching. Odd and Aelita had teamed up, and Ulrich watched Aelita just barely catch Odd's kick, before turning on his back, and staring at the sky.
There was an uneven number today, due to Naomi N'Guyen spraining her ankle, so Jim let Ulrich join Odd and Aelita.
But to be honest, he didn't really feel like doing any physical activity today. His mind was on something else: the letter he got, what else?
"Ulrich, I don't know how to tell you this, so I'm writing it down. I've always admired you. I've been wanting to tell you for ages, but I didn't have the nerve. Also, I wasn't a hundred percent sure, but now I am. I love you. Signed, Yumi."
The letter was a love letter, from Yumi, his best friend. If he closed his eyes, he could hear her giggle reserved only for when she was truly happy.
"Ulrich! Watch out!" Odd's sudden, panicked-sounding voice cut through his reverie.
He opened his eyes just in time for a football to hit him directly in the face.
His vision was blurry for a while when he opened his eyes, after the pain had passed, but he could see blurs of pink, purple, and red. Aelita, Odd, and Jim quickly took their places as his vision cleared up, all three of them with worried expressions on their faces.
"Ulrich, are you okay?" Aelita asked him.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd and Aelita were assigned by Jim to escort Ulrich to the infirmary, and all three of them were excused from gym class for the rest of the day (so they had all changed out of their PE clothes). Yolanda had given him an ice pack after seeing no clear damage had been done. He'd be fine, but just in case, she said before producing an ice pack from the freezer near her desk.
Yolanda had left to file an incident report with the principal, to tell him it was just an accident. Hervé had kicked the ball in the wrong direction without meaning to (which was expected, given how bad he was at PE), and Ulrich wasn't pointing any fingers.
As the brunette held the ice pack to his nose and forehead (where the ball had struck him), he groaned, "Uh, stupid ball..."
"Hey, Ulrich," Aelita softly spoke up, "don't take this the wrong way, but your playing today was kinda weird."
"You weren't even participating at all," Odd corrected her. "What happened?"
"My mind wasn't on the game, lay off," Ulrich told them.
Aelita immediately looked worried, "Family problems?"
"No, nothing like that," he calmly told her. The others didn't really know about his home life, but he wasn't exactly subtle about much he hated it.
"Then tell us!" Odd sat down next to him on the bed. "We're not gonna lay off until we know what's going on!"
Ulrich believed him. Having been the blonde boy's roommate for the better (and sometimes worse) part of two years and almost four months, he knew Odd in and out.
So he sighed, waving a mental white flag in defeat,"Fine. It's just that... well, I got this letter from a girl. The kind of letter a girl sends when she's..."
He trailed off, but Odd picked it right up, clapping in glee and excitement, "He's in loo-oove!" he sang. "Hahahahaha! Ulrich's in loo-oove!"
Ulrich immediately protested, "No, I'm not! And that's the problem, I don't know what to think! What's more, I can't even manage to talk to her about it..."
"And can you tell us who the lucky lady is?" Odd asked.
Ulrich's response was automatic, "You gotta be kidding! I'm not telling anyone! Least of all, you! And one more thing, not a word to Yumi. I don't want this to get around."
Odd looked disappointed, but Aelita's smile was gentle, "Don't worry, Ulrich. We won't tell a soul."
"Thank you, Aelita," Ulrich replied, as Aelita sent Odd a pointed look that told him to 'chill out'.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd and Aelita were in the cafeteria, eating their lunch while also looking around for possible suspects for Ulrich's secret admirer. Or rather, more accurately, Odd was, while Aelita got dragged down the rabbit hole.
"Milly or Tamiya?" Odd guessed, his eyes on their table.
"Tamiya, maybe," Aelita replied, as Johnny and Hiroki approached the two girls' table and sat down. "Milly, no. Something tells me that she's flipped for Hiroki now." The two were inseparable ever since Hiroki had asked Milly to the prom.
Odd kept looking, "Claire? Sandra?"
"Too young," Aelita repled. "And they're both a little too...uptight." That was the closest word she could think of.
"Then it's Emilie!" Odd exclaimed, spotting said girl in the line to get food. "It's gotta be Emilie!" Aelita raised an eyebrow in both suspicion and confusion. "Don't give me that look, cuz. I'm an expert with girls. Emilie's pretty, she'd be the smartest girl here if it wasn't you, and she's the outdoors type. She's the one who's flipped for him!"
"Oh yeah?" Yumi's voice nearly made Odd and Aelita jump out of their seats. They hadn't heard her approach. "Who is Emilie flipped for?"
The two cousins shared a knowing look, remembering the promise they made to Ulrich. "I-It's Jim!" came Odd's quick excuse. "Emilie's crazy about Jim!"
"Jim? You're kidding!" Yumi's face immediately broke out into an amused smile. "Well, they say that love is blind!" Yumi then felt someone's presence behind her. She turned to see Jim right there. "Oh, uh, hi, Jim."
"Hello, Miss Ishiyama," Jim smiled, before walking away, and Yumi breathed a sigh of relief.
Jim didn't seem to hear her.
All while Odd and Aelita were trying to suppress their giggles.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich didn't go to the cafeteria for lunch. He instead went to the park, taking Kiwi with him to give the dog some fresh air.
Ulrich sat down at the base of a tree, reading Yumi's letter, as Kiwi ran around nearby. He couldn't stop reading it, over and over.
Kiwi walked up to a tree and lifted his leg to do his business. However, when he looked up, he saw something that triggered in him a response that made him start barking.
Ulrich folded up the letter and placed it in his jacket pocket when he heard Kiwi start barking, before they quickly turned into whimpers. Kiwi walked over to Ulrich and collapsed in the brunette's arms.
"Kiwi?" Ulrich noticed two red marks on the dog's side. "Who did that to you?" Odd was going to kill him for letting Kiwi get hurt.
He immediately turned his head when he heard the sudden buzzing or hornets' wings, and out from the trees came a dark cloud, a swarm of them.
"Come on, Kiwi! Run!" Ulrich exclaimed, as he and the dog began running back to campus.
Fortunately, he wasn't stung, but Kiwi had more red marks. When the two reached the campus, Ulrich was still catching his breath as Kiwi walked up to him and collapsed, now trembling at the pain.
"Kiwi!" Ulrich knelt down beside the dog before scooping him up in his arms.
He had to tell Odd.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita and Odd attended to Kiwi while Ulrich stood by the door, keeping watch for any teachers and students who didn't know Kiwi was here (pets weren't allowed at Kadic). The three were in Odd and Ulrich's shared dorm, waiting for Yumi to return.
"He doesn't look well at all," Odd softly observed. "Do you think we'll have to take him to a vet?" he asked Aelita.
"Hopefully not," Aelita's voice was gentle. "I'm sure he'll be back on his feet in no time. I mean, back on his paws."
A knock came on the door, and Aelita opened it by a fraction to see who it was. "Ah, Yumi. You're here."
Aelita opened the door a bit wider, as Yumi held up a white-colored paper bag. "I brought the pills and anti-venom compresses." Yumi being a day student had its advantages. Bringing medicine for Kiwi was one of them. Being a year older and in a grade above them also held advantages.
"Great, come on in," Aelita let Yumi inside, closing the door behind her as Yumi handed Odd the medicine.
"There you go, Kiwi," Odd gently told his beloved dog, as he placed a compress over Kiwi's stings. "This'll make you feel better."
Ulrich snuck a glance at Yumi, who was watching Odd patch up his dog. He grabbed her wrist, saying, "Uh, Yumi. Come over here, please." Once over on Ulrich's side of the room, Ulrich continued, "I, uh, wanted to tell you something."
"I did too," Yumi was smiling. "They say Emilie's in love with Jim!" Ulrich's heart fell a bit, but confusion quickly placed the hurt. "I swear it! Odd told me all about it! I'd better go now. I've got class. See ya!"
Once Yumi had left, closing the door behind her, Ulrich turned to Odd and Aelita in confusion, "What was that all about?"
"What?" Odd asked. "You told us not to tell her. We had no choice."
Aelita was shaking her head, "I told you to keep your observations to yourself, Odd." She turned to the third person in the room. "Ulrich, Mr. Delmas needs to be told about the nest, before the hornets hurt anybody else. Don't worry. We'll take care of Kiwi."
"Right," Ulrich easily agreed before leaving the room, closing the door behind him as well.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich had gone straight to the principal's office, and when he told Ms. Weber about the nest, she had quickly buzzed him in.
"And then I heard this buzzing coming from the trees," Ulrich was wrapping up his story, keenly aware that he was leaving out Kiwi (Odd would get into trouble if Mr. Delmas found out about Kiwi). "I think there might be a nest up there."
"Thank you for the information, Mr. Stern," Mr. Delmas told him. "I'll take care of it."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Mr. Delmas had sent Mr. Roulier to kill the insects with an insecticide. Ulrich had rejoined with Odd and Aelita in the courtyard.
But then, they and the students all heard a scream. Mr. Roulier came running onto campus from the park, a dark cloud right behind him. The man turned and sprayed the swarm, but the insecticide had zero effect on them.
Students all around them began to flee as the swarm began stinging their groundskeeper, but Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita remained behind.
"Take care of Mr. Roulier," Ulrich told the other two. "I'll try to lure them away!" Then he ran, succeeding in getting the swarm's attention, while Odd and Aelita quickly ran to Mr. Roulier.
Once the two cousins had dragged him inside the cafeteria, safe and sound, the two set their groundskeeper down, seeing red sting marks all over his body (at least, where skin was visible).
"We have to get him to the infirmary," Aelita told Odd.
"What about Ulrich?" Odd asked, glancing outside.
"He'll manage," the pink-ette replied. "Somehow..."
Elsewhere, Ulrich was still fleeing from the hornets as they chased after him en masse. Just as they were about to pounce on him, Yumi tackled Ulrich to the ground.
"That way!" she exclaimed, pointing in the direction of the Science Building, right before grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him along with her.
Meanwhile, the swarm turned around and headed back for them once it realized where the two were going.
Yumi, once again, tackled Ulrich to the ground, them landing inside the Science Building, and she slammed the door shut with her foot.
She glanced at her hand, where there was a few red marks. She hadn't been stung. It was only a scratch due to landing on the ground at a fast speed, but Ulrich called it out, "Hey, are you okay?"
"Don't worry, it's just a scratch," she sent him a smile. "I'm more concerned about Mr. Roulier."
She was on top of him, and he was just now becoming aware of that fact. His face was turning red, and he could feel one of his eyebrows twitching.
"Y-Yeah," he stuttered out. "M-Me too."
She warmly smiled and got off of him. Standing up, she glanced outside the doors made of windows. "It looks like the coast is clear." The two saw the swarm inch its way back into the trees. "Let's go see if Odd and Aelita need any help."
"R-Right," he stammered, before getting to his feet as well.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich and Yumi found Odd and Aelita outside of the infirmary. The two (possible) lovebirds approached the two cousins for an update.
"Well?" Ulrich asked.
"Mr. Roulier was lucky," Aelita explained. "Two more stings and..." She trailed off, letting the others' minds finish the thought.
"Yeah," Odd added, not finishing her sentence either, "but he's still not in great shape. Yolanda's calling the hospital."
"And the principal has also been told," Aelita relayed. "He called the firefighters to get rid of the nest. Now, I don't know about you guys, but–"
Odd cut her off, "But, you think it's XANA. Come on, cut it out. Hornets' nests have always been around, and accidents like this happen all the time."
"You're right, Odd," Ulrich put his own two cents in. "But so is Aelita. These hornets were after us, and nobody else. Besides, the insecticide Mr. Roulier was using usually works. But not this time."
It was Yumi's turn to voice her opinion, "I say we check it out. We can't be too careful concerning XANA."
"Alright, I'll check with Jérémie," Aelita replied.
"I have to go back to class now," Yumi told the other three, "but keep me posted, okay?"
The other three nodded at her, and Ulrich stood there with a lovestruck expression as he watched her walk away.
"Sorry, Aelita," Odd apologized. "But I really don't think you'll find anything."
He and Yumi have ended up in that position before, Ulrich recalled, tuning the other two out. Many times, usually when sparring.
"Do you realize the damage these bugs can cause?" Aelita asked Odd. "There are thousands of them! If XANA really is behind this, then we have a very serious problem!"
But this was the first time he ever realized how close it brought them together. Physically, that is.
And it was definitely because of that letter.
"What do you think, Ulrich?" Odd's voiced sliced into his reverie.
"Huh, what?" Odd and Aelita were both looking at him with mild concern. They were talking about something and wanted his input, but he wasn't paying attention to a word they were saying.
"Hey, Ulrich," Odd asked, "you wouldn't happen to have a crush on this secret admirer of yours, would you? Hmm?"
"Yeah, you could be right," Ulrich shrugged, fully aware of the blush on his cheeks.
A girl cleared her throat as she tapped Odd's shoulder. The trio turned around to see a pretty angry-looking Emilie. "What's all this about me being in love with Jim?!"
Aelita and Ulrich both winced at the loud smack that sounded when Emilie slapped Odd's cheek.
"Start that rumor again and even your dog won't recognize you!"
Aelita and Ulrich couldn't contain their laughter as Emilie stomped away.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita was in her dorm, her door closed, as she called out to their missing fifth, "Jérémie? You there?"
His interface popped up on her screen, "Of course. Where else would I be?" Besides Lyoko, that is. "Everything alright on your end?"
"No, not really," Aelita admitted. "We've got a problem, and we think it might be XANA. Have you noticed anything?"
"You mean pulsations?" Jérémie asked. "No, everything's quiet. At least, here in the Ice Sector, they are. If you want, I can check the other Sectors."
"Please do," Aelita replied. "In the meantime, I'll run the monoscan."
A few minutes passed, no word being spoken, as the monoscan flashed by wireframes of numerous towers on her screen.
"The Mountain Sector is clean," Jérémie told her. "I'm entering the Forest Sector now."
Right then, the monoscan showed an alert for an activated tower, "I found it! Jérémie, the tower is in the Forest!"
"Okay, I'll try to find it before you guys get here," Jérémie told her before logging off.
Aelita reached for her phone and dialed Odd's number.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Yumi hung up from Aelita's call, Ulrich in front of her. The two were in the hallway between classrooms in the Science Building. "Looks like we were right," she told him. "Let's go."
Yumi turned to leave, but Ulrich stopped her by grabbing her wrist. "No, no, wait, Yumi! I wanted to, uh...tell you something. It's about your, um...about your letter."
"Huh?" Yumi's expression read clear confusion. "But–"
"No, let me finish," Ulrich cut off, ignoring the gut feeling that he probably should've let her speak in that moment. "You said in the letter that... that you had certain feelings for me, and...I wanted you to know that...that I feel the same thing for you. There, I said it!" He let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't easy for him to talk about his emotions.
But Yumi's confusion remained. "Ulrich...I never sent you any letter..."
Wait, what? She didn't? Then, who sent him the letter? Who else could it have been? And why sign Yumi's name instead of theirs or leaving it anonymous?
All those questions were answered when the two heard Sissi's laughter from behind them, joined by Hervé and Nicolas's as well.
"That's gotta hurt!" Hervé exclaimed in between his laughing.
Her two cronies continued their cackling as Sissi adding, "Kind of embarrassing if you ask me!"
So it was Sissi. Of course it was.
His face red, this time out of embarrassment, Ulrich ran out of the door.
"How could you do that to him?" Yumi's quiet, yet anger-filled voice stopped Sissi and her cronies' laughter. "You claim Ulrich is your best friend, and yet you're the one who humiliated him." Yumi scoffed. "You are an awful person, Elizabeth Delmas. No wonder he doesn't want to be your friend anymore."
Yumi then turned and ran out after Ulrich, intent on comforting him, ignoring how Sissi yelled back with a correction, "It's Sissi!"
Really? Yumi thought. That's what bothers you the most about all this?
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita and Odd were already in the sewers, racing down the path on their respective methods of fast travel (her scooter and his skateboard), only for the two to stop in their tracks once they saw what XANA had in store to greet them.
Multiple nests of hornets surrounded the ladder. Insects were swarming those nests, waking up now that they sensed two people approaching them.
"Nice going, XANA!" Aelita sarcastically exclaimed.
"Aelita?" Odd asked, fear clear in his voice. "Any suggestions would be very welcome!"
"Uh, get away from here as fast as we can?" Aelita suggested the most obvious solution.
She and Odd began skating away from the nests, feeling from the massive swarm that was now chasing them. But another swarm of hornets, though smaller, cut them off.
"We're trapped!" Aelita exclaimed.
"Got any other ideas?" Odd asked her.
Aelita glanced at the sewer water next to them. She grabbed Odd's wrist and pulled him with her. "Jump!"
With no other choice, he followed her. The two were completely submerged, and Aelita pulled her cousin, as he coughed at the sudden plunge into the water, into a pipe on the other side.
As the two rested in that pipe, both completely soaked, Odd demanded, "This is your idea?!"
"Don't you ever pay attention in science class?!" Aelita retorted. "Ms. Hertz told us that insects are very sensitive to smells!"
"They're not the only ones!" To emphasize his point, he sniffed the air, and gagged at the smell of the sewer pipe. "Ugh!"
The two carefully watched as the swarm began flying away, XANA admitting defeat because Aelita was smart and right about a weakness of the hornets it was controlling.
Aelita got out of the pipe, despite Odd protesting, "Hey, wait! Are you sure it worked?!"
The pink-ette carefully observed the surrounding area, waiting for the hornets to return, but they didn't. "Looks like it."
Odd took that as an invitation to exit the pipe and join her. He marveled at the sight, how the air was now void of any insects and they were safe for the time being. "What do you know?"
"And that, dear cousin," Aelita told him, "is why you pay attention in science class."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd and Aelita exited the sewers, emerging in the park. The two looked up when they heard familiar, awful buzzing, seeing numerous hives in the branches. Hundreds of hornets danced around their heads as a familiar voice caught the two by surprise.
"Hey! What are you guys doing?!" It was Yumi. She was heading for the sewer passage when she saw them leave it.
"Come on!" Aelita exclaimed, as she and Odd began to run away from the nests. "We can't stick around!"
The two grabbed Yumi and pulled her along as they ran back to the dorms. With no choice, she followed them.
"There's a bunch of nests blocking the ladder to the factory!" Odd explained to Yumi.
"That's a problem!" Yumi asked, "How are we going to get past it?"
"Leave that to me!" Aelita replied. "But I need to get something from my room first!"
As they ran, Yumi sniffed the air around the two cousins and asked in disgust, "What's that smell?"
"Nothing," both cousins immediately answered.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Once Aelita had what she needed from her room (including her laptop), Yumi led them to where Ulrich was. Ulrich had ran to his and Odd's room, and refused to open the door for her. He had also locked it, clearly wanting privacy.
Fortunately, Odd had a key, and he had unlocked the door and let the two girls into the room.
"Hey, Ulrich," Aelita gently greeted, seeing how down and depressed Ulrich seemed to be. "I left you a message. Didn't you get it?"
"Sorry," he quietly apologized, "I didn't feel like checking it." Yep, he was clearly sulking about something, but only Yumi knew what it was.
Yumi knelt down in front of him, "Ulrich, I think we should talk."
"I know what you're going to tell me," Ulrich replied, before he standing up. "And I don't want to hear it."
Yumi got to her feet as well, "Tough luck, Stern, because it's something you need to hear. This is all because of Sissi!"
"Don't you think I know that?!" Ulrich snapped back. "B-Because of her, I'm confused. Every time I see you, I don't know what to think!"
The letter may have been fake, but his feelings for Yumi were real and they had just been unleashed. He had been okay suppressing them for the past two years, but that letter from Sissi suddenly brought them to the forefront.
"So just leave me alone, okay?" he finished, sulking in the corner of his side of the room.
Yumi remained silent and lowered her head, apologetic because she also held a part in Sissi's plan, whatever she was after. Sure, she was just an unwitting pawn, but Sissi had signed Yumi's name on that letter for a reason.
Meanwhile, Odd and Aelita shared a glance, as the purple-loving boy muttered, "He's losing it..."
Aelita merely shrugged, not really understanding what this was about, but sympathetic nonetheless. Apparently, Sissi had used Yumi for that letter somehow, and now Ulrich was being placed in a difficult position.
Much like her and her diary that Hervé had stolen. (Fortunately, Hervé made no move or given no hint about that incident or what he knew, and Aelita had rewritten her entire diary so it was now online and protected by a firewall Jérémie had helped her develop, but the group was still cautious.)
Ulrich turned to the two cousins, grimacing as if he was disgusted, "And what's that smell?"
Odd and Aelita were forceful with Ulrich than with Yumi, because they were tired of being asked that question, "Nothing."
Seeing their distressed expressions, Ulrich chose to drop it.
Just then, Aelita's laptop, in her shoulder bag, began sounding an alert. Aelita took it out, placed it on Odd's desk, opened it, and turned on the monitor. Jérémie's interface immediately popped up.
"Jérémie, you okay?" Aelita asked, as the other three gathered around.
"Not really," he replied. "I found the tower, but it's heavily guarded. I can't get any closer."
"Don't worry," Aelita reassured him. "We're on our way."
Jérémie logged off, letting Aelita close her laptop.
Odd was the last to leave the room, and as he closed the door, he called out, "Hang on a minute!" The other three stopped and turned back to face him. "The hornets have blocked the factory entrance, and I, for one, would rather stay away from that sewer water."
Aelita smiled, "Don't worry, Odd. I'm way ahead of you on that one. Why else would I come back to my room in the middle of a XANA attack?"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Once the four were in the sewer, and facing down those numerous hives that surrounded the ladder, Odd asked Aelita, "Well?"
Aelita, without speaking, reached into her bag and pulled out a CD case and her CD player, with her headphones attached. She placed the CD in the player, set it on 'repeat', and played the song on full volume.
It was a high-pitched song that the bugs immediately reacted to. They were flying away from the headphones, where the sound was coming from.
Aelita walked to the ladder and placed her CD player at its base. The ladder was now clear.
"Bingo!" Odd exclaimed.
"Again, Odd, that's why you pay attention in class," Aelita explained. "I mixed the song myself to emit ultrasounds at about 30,000 hertz. Like all insects, hornets are capable of perceiving–"
Yumi cut her off, "Fascinating, Aelita, but we don't have the time."
"Oh, r-right," Aelita blushed at the embarrassment, before she began climbing up the ladder, her high-frequency song still playing in the background.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Firemen littered the courtyard, having arrived as soon as they could. Students watched and waited for them to finish the job, that is, if they ever started.
The firemen were looking around the area, searching for the nest.
That's when the awful buzzing was heard, and an enormous black cloud emerged from the treeline. The swarm had gotten much bigger, as more and more nests had been formed since Mr. Delmas made that call to the fire brigade.
The students began screaming, and the firemen began ushering them inside the cafeteria. Once everyone in the area was safely indoors, they too took refuge there.
The cafeteria was now sealed shut, and one of the fireman took out his portable radio and spoke into it, "Headquarters, we've got a problem. We're at Kadic Academy, and the swarm is much bigger than we anticipated."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich was the last one up the ladder. As he reached the top, the song playing from Aelita's CD player sudden stopped.
Seeing this, Ulrich called up to her, "Aelita, your song isn't playing anymore! How come?"
"Um..." Aelita looked concerned. "I think the batteries have died."
"What?!" Ulrich exclaimed in sudden fear. That was the last thing he wanted to hear.
But the other three all called out to him, "HURRY UP!"
The hornets were returning now that they no longer heard the awful noise. Yumi reached down and pulled Ulrich all the way up and out of the sewers, with Odd and Aelita shutting the passage behind them.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita spoke into the controls, "Jérémie, we're on our way!" She addressed the other three down into the scanners, "I'm virtualizing you guys at Jérémie's current coordinates. It may be a rough landing. He's currently surrounded by a swarm of five Hornets."
"So get ready to fight," Odd replied. "Got it."
One by one, Aelita brought up their ID cards, "Transfer Yumi, transfer Odd, transfer Ulrich!" Their three avatars began loading. "Scanner Yumi, scanner Odd, scanner Ulrich!" Once all three were finished loading, she pressed 'Enter'. "Virtualization!"
Three green arrows appeared on the holomap in the Forest Sector, and five red circles (symbolizing the five Hornets) immediately surrounded them. That was Aelita's signal to begin the self-virtualization, to send herself. After bringing up her ID card, she began the countdown.
She made it to the scanner with fifteen seconds to spare. The doors closed on her, and soon after, she felt the wind and then her body pixelize, before reforming on Lyoko.
A Hornet shot at her as soon as she landed. As Aelita held her shoulder, she turned to see Odd dodging one of their lasers and Yumi throwing her fan, only for it to miss. And Ulrich? He was just standing there.
While Jérémie was nowhere in sight. Her enhanced senses told her so.
Knowing that finding Jérémie was their top priority, she called out to her three friends, "You guys take care of the Hornets! I'll go find Jérémie!"
"Alright!" Yumi called out after her, as the pink-ette chose a path. "Good luck!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Sissi walked through campus, Hervé and Nicolas right behind her. She didn't let Yumi's words get to her, and she also remained blissfully unaware of the danger surrounding the other students.
"Talk about embarrassing situations!" she was saying. "I'm sure that Ulrich's not about to forget this for a long time. What a genius I am!"
She got no answer from either of her two lackeys.
"You could say something!"
However, just as she said that, the two immediately ran past her. She turned around to see what they were running away from, only to see a massive swarm of hornets flying towards her.
She screamed and started running as well.
In fact, she quickly outran them and made it to the cafeteria first, fortunately for Hervé and Nicolas, not closing the door in their faces.
As the three caught their breath, they turned to see, to their surprise, the other students and the firemen also in there with them.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Yumi blocked a laser with her fan. Odd shot an arrow from his fist, only for it to miss its target.
A Hornet fired at Yumi, hitting her in the back, as Odd was hit in the chest.
Yumi sat up, only to see Ulrich just standing there, to her confusion. "Ulrich, what are you doing?" she asked.
"Yeah, are your feet nailed to the floor or something?!" Odd agreed. "Don't just stand there! Wake up!"
But Ulrich gave no sign that he was paying attention.
One of the Hornets flew away in this time, and the other four began firing at Odd, who cartwheeled to avoid them, and fired another Laser Arrow, only for it also to miss.
The fifth Hornet was following Aelita as she ran down the green pathway. It fired at her, but she blocked the laser with two of her Energy Fields forming a sort of shield.
"Jérémie! Where are you?!" she called out.
On her left, she heard rustling. She turned her head in time to see Jérémie grab the ledge and pull himself up. "I'm here," he said.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Don't worry, I'm fine," he replied, as he got to his feet. "Sorry for the delay. I was chased away by the Hornets."
"Jérémie, watch out!" Yumi suddenly cried.
Before he or Aelita could react, the fifth missing Hornet suddenly dive-bombed and tackled Jérémie to the ground, taking away 20 of his lifepoints.
Aelita immediately knelt by Jérémie's side, as lightning emitted from his torso and as he endured the pain.
The Hornet circled around, clearly intending on attacking again. But Yumi threw her fan, and this time, it was destroyed.
"Finally!" Odd exclaimed, as Yumi caught her fan. He turned to their fifth, who was being helped to his feet by a worried Aelita, "You okay, Jérémie?"
"I'm fine," Jérémie replied through clenched teeth. "Getting hit by lasers is different for me. I actually feel the pain." Because of whatever was making sure he'd be permanently deleted if he lost all of his lifepoints. Getting hit by the lasers definitely hurt them, but it was quick, so the pain Jérémie was feeling right now must've been agony.
One of the four remaining Hornets shot at Aelita, hitting her in the torso. As she recovered, she turned to Ulrich, "Ulrich, please wake up!"
No response, and his eyes bore into his friends. Almost like a zombie. It was very disconcerting seeing this kind of behavior from Ulrich.
One of the four Hornets began flying forward, and Odd began running to meet it, ignoring Aelita and Jérémie calling out to him. The Hornet sprayed some acid, but Odd ran straight through it. He felt his body devirtualize as he fired one more Laser Arrow.
Odd didn't know it, but he succeeded in destroying the second Hornet.
A third Hornet zoomed in for an attack similar to the one that had taken off 20 of Jérémie's lifepoints, with its intended target also the same person. Seeing this, Aelita ran forward and shot three Energy Fields, one after another, at it. All three missed, but its laser didn't, hitting her in her chest and devirtualizing her as well.
"Aelita!" Jérémie and Yumi both called out.
Yumi turned to Ulrich, the one who still had all of his lifepoints, "Ulrich, are you with us or not?! I know you're unhappy, but there's no reason to be! Our friendship is stronger than that, and it shouldn't have to suffer from whatever Sissi's issues are! You can't let her dirty tricks break us up, can you?! So forget all about it! Please! We need your help!"
That's right. Yumi was right. The letter may have been fake, but his feelings for Yumi were real. She was his best friend, after all, and she always would be.
Ulrich unsheathed his katana, "Take Jérémie to the tower. I'll take care of them." With that, he ran forward, slicing through a third Hornet on the way.
"Finally, you're back!" came Odd's voice from the lab.
"It's about time!" Aelita's voice agreed.
He let Yumi and Jérémie run past him as the one of the two remaining Hornets focused their fire power on him. He blocked the lasers with his katana. He saw the second fly towards where Yumi and Jérémie were headed, and he used Super Sprint to catch up with it.
"Triangulate!" he called, he and two clones surrounding the Hornet as a yellow energy triangle connected them.
The Hornet kept looking around, trying to see a way out of this confusion. It flew up to one and shot at it. It disappeared, by the real Ulrich caught it by surprise, slicing it from behind. But his job wasn't done yet.
There was still one more Hornet to take care of.
At the tower, Yumi turned around, as Jérémie approached the steps to reach the base of the tower, when she heard the hum of wings. Jérémie turned as well, concerned, but Yumi urged him, "Go on!", as the Hornet came into sight. She opened her fan and stepped in front of him, covering him as he ran to the steps.
He heard Yumi throw her fan, but no impact, and then a laser firing, and he turned around in time to see Yumi devirtualize.
The Hornet turned on him, and he heard Odd tell him, "Get to the tower, Jérémie!"
Jérémie immediately turned and began climbing up the steps, as the Hornet charged up its laser. But it never came.
He heard Ulrich cry out "Impact!", and then an explosion.
As the blue elf climbed the rest of the stairs with no more interference, he heard Aelita say, "Ulrich, you're the greatest."
Jérémie felt his lifepoints regenerate themselves the moment he entered the tower.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
One of the hornets in the swarm surrounding the cafeteria found its way through an open window, and pretty soon, the rest of the hornets followed.
With the entire swarm inside the cafeteria, students and firemen alike all screamed in fear, trying in vain to hide behind and beneath something. Rosa attempted to pass out lunch trays to the students so they could defend themselves, but no luck. No one could see the lights or out the windows anymore.
JEREMIE_
CODE_
Sissi cowered in fear as the hornets began surrounding and attacking her.
LYOKO_
No one noticed that the hornets were now frozen in place, many of them still cowering in fear, but mostly because it was such a dense swarm that it was impossible to notice.
Many of them saw the white bubble engulf the area, but no one remembered that or being attacked by the swarm when the brightness faded.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Sissi knelt in front of Ulrich's door, the fake letter in her hand. But as soon as she moved, the door opened to reveal Ulrich standing there, looking as if he was expecting her.
Her face immediately turned red. She wasn't expecting to be caught. She stood up as she attempted to explain herself, "Uhh...uh, hi! I-I was just passing by, and I...hehe..."
"Is this for me?" Ulrich calmly asked, reaching for the letter. He opened it and began skimming through its contents, "Let's see now..."
"Well, it's a..." Sissi trailed off, losing confidence the longer Ulrich stood there.
She was caught off-guard by Ulrich smiling, "Look at this, Yumi! This says here that you're in love with me!"
Sissi turned to the side to see Yumi standing right there, right outside the door. The Japanese girl was smiling just as wide as Ulrich, "Am I now? That's news to me!"
"I, uh..." Sissi stuttered. She really wasn't expecting this to happen.
Yumi sent Sissi a gentle, knowing smile, "Well, that's a pretty embarrassing situation, don't you think?"
"I, er, this wasn't the right door!" Sissi barely managed to keep up her smile, as she grabbed the letter from Ulrich's hand, and walked away.
She ignored Yumi calling out to her, "It sure isn't! Why not give it to Nicolas? I'm sure he'd be delighted!", before she and Ulrich both started laughing.
She definitely was not expecting that.
How did they know?
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next Episode: 8 - Lights, Camera, Action / Ulrich has to deal with two separate headaches.
A/N: Fun Fact: This was the episode that made me start shipping Ulumi.
The English dub refers to the sport as 'soccer', but since this takes place in France, I am going to honor how the French call it 'football'.
Sissi's plan with the fake love letter will be addressed in the future. Stay tuned.