The Boy in the Computer

by SepticAbzies

A new school year begins and the gang is back at odds with XANA. / Jerlita Roleswap AU / Current Episode: Sabotage / S1-2: Done, S3: WIP

26. 25: Attack of the Zombies

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.

Beta read by swordsdownforreview

!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!

"Hans Klotz, Kadic's psychologist, takes note of Jérémie's high GPA, as XANA takes inspiration from a certain genre of cheesy horror movies."

Episode 25: Attack of the Zombies

(Based on Plagued & Attack of the Zombies)

As tenth grade class quietly sat at the library tables, either studying or working on homework, Jim sat at the main desk, overseeing Study Hall. He was currently passing time by looking through a magazine filled with pictures of buff men and woman, looking at them with silent envy because he knew getting muscles like theirs was impossible for him.

At one of the tables, next to the double doors that made up the library's entrance, Aelita and Ulrich sat on one side with Odd and Jérémie on the other. Ulrich and Odd seemed to be preoccupied, leaving the two Einsteins to their own devices.

The pink-ette was working on her math homework, and she looked up to see Jérémie casually reading yet another book on robotics. "You're already done with your homework?" she asked, her voice at a whisper.

Jérémie looked up from his reading, smiled, and nodded his head in confirmation.

Honestly, it didn't surprise her at all that he had flown through it. He was, after all, one of the smartest kids at Kadic, if not the smartest.

Ignoring Ulrich and Odd rustling around, setting up books to create a couple of boundaries, Jérémie softly admitted, "Y'know, the library is my favorite place to be in."

"Because of all the books?" she asked, her voice just as quiet.

The blonde shook his head, before correcting her, "Because of the silence. It makes it easier to concentrate."

She winked, "And so as to not miss the match point."

The two glanced to the side, turning their shared attention back to Ulrich and Odd. The two had set books up to create a makeshift tennis table.

The two roomates playfully glared at each other, before Odd held up a crumpled up piece of paper they were using for a ball. He served, hitting it over to Ulrich's side, who hit it back.

"Hey, quiet!" Jim called out, but he didn't look up.

When the ruckus didn't stop like he told it to, he then glanced up, finally seeing what the issue was. Ulrich and Odd were having a paper tennis match, and they had gained quite the audience. Jérémie and Aelita weren't the only ones watching.

The two continued to hit the paper ball back and forth, until Ulrich hit it rather high up in the air. Odd jumped out of his chair to catch it. He succeeded, but Ulrich barely managed to hit it back by leaning his chair farther back just to catch it. It weakly fell over the center book barrier, giving Odd no time to counterattack.

"Game, set, and match," Aelita announced, motioning Ulrich as the winner.

"Yeah!" Ulrich pumped both of his arms into air, cheering.

"Don't worry, Odd," Jérémie reassured the purple-clad blonde who was faux-pouting beside him. "You'll get him next time."

Ulrich's chair, however, was still tipped back, and his celebration just made it lean back a tad too far, making the poor boy fall backwards to the ground. Beside him, Aelita winced at the impact.

As Ulrich recovered on the ground, Jim approached him.

"Ulrich! Is that what you call studying?!"

Ulrich just sheepishly laughed.

Jim continued, this time addressing the entire class, "In case no one told you, this is not the schoolyard! You are all here to work, okay?! And work means silence!" Aelita was giggling into her hands, as Ulrich used the table as a crutch to set himself back into his chair. Jérémie was hiding his amused grin behind his robotics book. "You hear me?! No more games from now on!"

Behind Jim, one of the library's double doors opened.

Thinking it was a student, Jim growled, "Alright! If that's the way you want to play, then I can play just as hard as you can, my little friends!" He turned around and grabbed the person by their ear, "You! Two hours detention! I'm–!" He cut himself off, seeing that the person whose ear he grabbed was not a student at all, but the principal Mr. Delmas himself. Jim immediately let go and stood at attention, clearly embarrassed, "Sorry about that, sir. I, uh..."

Both adults ignored all the students in the room trying their best and failing miserably to hide their snickers.

Once the laughing had died down, and Mr. Delmas had forgiven Jim for the mistake, Jérémie had turned back to his book. The principal approached him and cleared his throat, "Mr. Belpois, would you please come with me to my office now? I need to talk to you. It's very important."

Jérémie nodded and closed his book, before standing up. Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd all stood up with him, to Mr. Delmas's intrigue (why were they afraid to let him out of their sights?), only for Jérémie to softly reassure them, "I'll be fine."

Only then did the three sit back down in their seats.

Once the principal left, with Jérémie in tow, Aelita turned back to Ulrich and Odd, with an eyebrow raised in confusion and interest. What was going on? Was he in trouble or something?

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

It had been one hour and almost forty-five minutes since Jérémie had gone with the principal. Study Hall was over now, as was Yumi's music class. Since they weren't at their usual bench waiting for her when she got out, Yumi called Ulrich asking them where they were.

All Ulrich told her was to join them in front of the administrative building.

So now, here she was, having just been filled in on what was happening, about how Mr. Delmas had called Jérémie into his office personally during Study Hall.

"What could the principal want to talk to him about?" Yumi asked, once she heard the full story. She stood, propping one of her feet on a step of the building they were waiting in front of them. The other three were sitting down on the steps.

Ulrich shrugged, as Odd replied, "Lots of things, but given how he's a goody two-shoes, it's highly unlikely Mr. Delmas wants to discuss any disruptive behavior or him missing detention or something."

Yumi was quiet as a frightening possibility came to mind, "Maybe..." She swallowed and forced herself to continue, "Maybe the principal knows the truth...about where Jérémie really came from...and his cover story has been blown already..."

"That's exactly what we're afraid of," Aelita quietly confessed.

"There's also the possibility that he's been kidnapped by XANA," Ulrich cut in.

"The superscan would've told us by now," the pink-ette reminded her friends, her grip on her shoulder bag resting at her side tightening. "It's been dead silent so far."

"It may be nothing. We could just be overthinking this," Odd tried to calm the tension. "And worst case scenario, we can go back in time."

"It won't do us any good, though, if we don't know where things went wrong," Yumi replied.

The door to the administrative building, next to them, opened, and the four teens glanced over, expecting to see Jérémie. Except it wasn't.

Instead, it was Mr. Delmas, having emerged from his office for another errand. "Schaeffer, Ishiyama, Stern, and Della Robbia, what are you four doing here?" He clearly wasn't expecting to see them out here.

"We're waiting for Jérémie," Yumi answered, being the only one brave enough to speak. "Is he in trouble?"

"No, he's not in trouble at all," Mr. Delmas replied. "And I released him from my office thirty minutes ago. Did he not come back to you all?"

The four all shook their heads, becoming increasingly concerned about their fifth.

"Interesting," the principal muttered. "I thought he would. Whatever the case, no, Mr. Belpois is not trouble. The news I had for him was actually very good, but he didn't react to it very well. He seemed upset when I let him go."

"Don't worry, sir," Aelita stood up, her bag in hand. "We'll find him."

"I know you will," Mr. Delmas replied. "When you do, please ask him to reconsider his stance." Before any more questions could be asked, the man left, heading towards the campus.

The four teens, now left alone, shared a concerned glance with each other.

'Reconsider his stance' on what?

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Aelita got an idea on where to find Jérémie, which she checked by searching for the location of his phone from her computer. She was right.

He was at the Hermitage.

Despite not knowing or understanding why, lately he had the tendency of running away to this house whenever he was overloaded with emotions or he had a particularly bad nightmare. Now was no different.

They found him in the child's bedroom, the one that had been turned into a makeshift hospital room. The room's window was a bay window, and Jérémie was sitting in its alcove, looking out the window and up at the clouds in the sky.

"Jérémie?" Only Aelita dared to speak first.

The blue-clad blonde did not move his head or any part of his body to acknowledge them, his eyes remained fixed on the world outside of the window, the world beyond this room. The only sign he gave was, "Hey, guys."

As Aelita sat down in the alcove across from him, Odd asked, "What happened? Did Mr. Delmas find out about your false identity?" That was their biggest fear, despite the principal himself admitting that the news was actually good.

"No," Jérémie confirmed Mr. Delmas's side of the story. "But it's just as bad."

The principal said, and Jérémie (sort of) admitted, that it was not bad news at all, but actually good. Yet, Jérémie's reaction seemed to suggest otherwise.

As she, Ulrich, and Odd gathered around the two Einsteins, Yumi asked the blonde, "Then what's the problem?" Silence. "We can't help you if we don't know what's going on."

Jérémie did not take his gaze off of the clouds, but his frown deepened, before he relented, "The principal went on and on. He said that Hans Klotz, the school psychologist, has been 'observing' me for quite a while now. He thinks I'm..." he sighed, "an overly gifted student."

Then Mr. Delmas was right. "Is that all?" Odd asked. "That's great news, Jer! We were worried the principal had found out about the factory or your false identity somehow."

Jérémie wasn't celebrating with them, though, which meant it went deeper. "It's worse than you think. Mr. Klotz has decided that I have to take all kinds of tests tonight to determine what my IQ is."

IQ...Intelligence Quota...so this guy thought Jérémie was smart enough for those fancy psychological tests used to evaluate someone's intelligence?

"And?" Ulrich urged, needing Jérémie to continue. There was obviously more to the story than that.

"And if the tests show that I have a really high IQ, the guy is going to see to it that I get sent to another school," the blonde finished.

The others immediately reacted in shock. "What?!"

"Hold on!" Odd exclaimed. "You mean he's going to send you to a school for, like, future Einsteins?!"

"Yeah..."

And now they understood why Jérémie had reacted the way he did. This was clearly a bad thing, despite people who didn't know about Lyoko and the truth seeing it as good.

"You're right," Yumi admitted. "It is just as bad. Without you, we can't shut XANA's towers down, and it will be able to do whatever it wants!"

Jérémie finally turned to them, allowing them to see the tears in his eyes, both unshed as well as the dried ones on his cheeks, and just how upset he was by this, "It's not just that. I don't want to leave here because of you all! You're my friends!"

"And we don't want you to leave either for the exact same reason," Aelita reassured him, as she placed a comforting hand one of his knees.

"Right," Odd agreed. "And let's not panic just yet. I mean, Mr. Klotz can't force you to change schools, right? That requires the permission of one's parents, something you do not have."

"Easier said than done," Jérémie replied, turning his attention back to the clouds, a clear sign he'd gone back to sulking. "I brought up that very excuse, and he told me that it's because I have no parents that he's going out of his way to do this. At that kind of school, I'd be entitled to a big scholarship, whatever that means, and he believes it's an opportunity I cannot pass up. Trust me, I used everything I could think of to change his mind, but he refused to listen to me!"

Seeing he was getting upset, Aelita scooted closer to him as Yumi sat on his other side. Both girls wrapped their arms around him to comfort him.

"Don't worry, Jer," Ulrich vowed. "We'll think of something."

They had to.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

The ground of the Desert Sector shook with pulsations. They led to a tower just beyond a canyon. No one was around to see its halo turn to red...

On Earth, in Ulrich and Odd's shared room, Kiwi slept peacefully on his owner's bed. However, his rest was interrupted by a rattling noise.

He looked up in time to see Odd's desk lamp shaking, and slowly got to his four paws as he watched a black spectre unscrew the lightbulb of the lamp. It emerged from the object all the way, before gently setting the bulb down on the table, making sure not to break it and draw any attention to itself.

It then turned to Kiwi, who immediately began growling at the intruder. This guest was not welcome here! Go away! Go away! Pretty soon, the growl turned into a full-blown bark.

Unfortunately, the little dog was no match for this spooky ghost, as it easily engulfed him.

Kiwi whimpered in pain as he tried his best to struggle, only to be quickly outclassed.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

It was sunset now, and classes had been over for the last two hours or so. The gang was in the courtyard, leaning against a wall. Odd had shared his idea the moment he received it.

"What's wrong with that plan?" He asked, defending his idea against the others' doubts. "Jérémie messes up on the tests, and Mr. Klotz will think he's a total moron. Nobody will ever know, and he's home free!"

"The problem, Odd," Aelita stressed, "is that tests like that are full of all kinds of trick questions. So, if you want to mess up and make mistakes on purpose, you have to be very clever about it." She vaguely recalled her father, Waldo, admitting to taking such a test, on the requests of his own parents (Guenther and Annaliese Schaeffer), and revealing that he was a certified genius.

"It also has to be believable," Jérémie softly added. "Otherwise, Mr. Klotz will just keep asking questions."

"I think Odd's idea has some merit," Yumi confessed. "After all, Jer, you're one of the cleverest kids I know."

A tiny smile finally appeared on Jérémie's face at the compliment.

"Thank you, Yumi," Odd replied. "Sorry, Jer. We know how much you hate failing tests, but this time, you're going to have to take one for the team."

Jérémie sighed, "Well, okay. I'll do my best to flunk. But I can't promise anything." He then grabbed his bag from the group's feet, as it sat next to the wall, and walked away towards the library.

The others could only worriedly watch him walk away.

Whatever reverie they were lost in was broken when someone called out, "Yumi!" The four turned to who had spoken, and saw Yumi's brother Hiroki waving at her.

The Japanese girl remembered what time it was, "Oh, it's time to go home. I'll see you guys later. Keep me posted, okay?"

Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita waved at her as she left, before heading to the cafeteria for dinner.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Mr. Klotz's face broke out into a smile the moment Jérémie entered the library, "Ah, Mr. Belpois! I wasn't sure you'd show up. I'm glad to see you've reconsidered your stance."

The last time they saw each other, they were with Mr. Delmas in his office. Mr. Delmas had seen how upset Jérémie had gotten the more Mr. Klotz pressed the issue, and had made a compromise by telling Jérémie to meet Mr. Klotz at the library instead of going to dinner if he wanted to go through with this.

"Well, I haven't, actually," Jérémie softly replied. "I still have the same reservations. Mr. Klotz, sir, I'm fine with waiting until I'm about to graduate. For now, I'd really like to stay here with my friends."

"And I understand that, Mr. Belpois," Mr. Klotz replied. Part of the boy's heart lifted with hope, only for the man's next sentence to tear it down. "However, as an orphan, with no known family to speak of, there's good reason to assume that you won't get as many chances that students with parents will." The man then sighed, "If you insist, we can talk more about your options once the test results come in, but said options will depend highly on those results."

Meaning if his IQ was high enough like Mr. Klotz was thinking it was, then he would send Jérémie to that school for gifted children without second thoughts.

Mr. Klotz was actually a very nice man, Jérémie thought. He looked out for the students, usually on the watch for any mental issues that might arise, as was his job, but he took said job very seriously. He cared about the students and only wanted them to succeed. It was no different with Jérémie here.

The problem, this time, was that what Mr. Klotz wanted was the exact opposite of what Jérémie wanted.

The boy softly sighed as well, "Okay."

"You're willing to take the risk?"

He took risks all the time, against XANA mostly, but this time, it was way scarier. This time, he might actually be taken away from the only people he's ever known.

But he nodded in confirmation, "Yes, sir."

"I'm glad to hear it," Mr. Klotz said, before motioning Jérémie to sit down at the nearby library table. As the blonde did so, the man began explaining, "Now, to start off, I'm going to give you a QCM. It's a test in which you–..." The realization dawned on him. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sure you already know!"

He did. QCM translated to 'Multiple Choice Test', but to make his following flunking seem more realistic, Jérémie decided to fake stupidity.

That was why he put on an innocent face and answered with, "Who, me? No."

Mr. Klotz's face fell a bit, "O-Oh."

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

A couple weeks ago, Milly and Tamiya had discovered that it was perfectly within the rules to take your shower during dinner. After all, classes were over, so you wouldn't get in trouble for being in the dormitory building during a specific time frame. They were glad they found this out because while everybody else was in the cafeteria, it meant that the shower rooms were empty, which meant plenty of hot water to use.

Today, they were on their way to the showers, dressed in their respective bathrobes (Tamiya's a lavender color, and Milly's modeled after a white rabbit) and holding their toiletries bags, when they turned a corner and found their path blocked by a small dog.

It was Kiwi, Odd's dog. He was just sitting, staring at them, as if he was waiting for something.

"What's he doing here?" Tamiya asked, motioning to Kiwi.

Milly softly gasped in realization, "If Jim sees him, Odd is going to be in big trouble."

She may have been a reporter always looking for a scoop, but she was an honest reporter, not looking to get anyone in trouble. Besides, Odd having a dog was not a hill to die on. Every student who lived in the dorms knew about Kiwi. After all, it's difficult to hide a dog that barks and gets the zoomies in your room all the time. However, most were fine with his presence, while those that were cat people tolerated him. The only one who had an issue was, understandably, Ulrich, Odd's roommate, but even Ulrich kept his mouth shut.

Besides, Kiwi was a cute, delightful soul who always knew when you were feeling down about something.

"I'll take him back to Odd's room," Tamiya volunteered.

Milly agreed, "Okay. I'll meet you in the showers."

The two then went their separate ways. Milly entered the girls' shower room, as Tamiya hung back.

She walked up to the dog, not seeing the strange symbol in his eyes. "Good doggy. Come on. It's time to go back to your room now." She reached out her hand to the growling dog, before Kiwi barked loudly and then bit her outstretched hand. "Ow!" she yelped.

Tamiya immediately took her hand back, wringing out the pain, only to suddenly feel dizzy. The room was spinning, and she held her hand in her hands in a vain attempt to ease her sudden headache. She closed her eyes to help brace herself against the pain. Did that dog have rabies or something?

But when she opened her eyes, they were completely glazed over with a milky white color.

Meanwhile, a completely unaware Milly had reached the showers. She turned the shower on and let the water hit her, sighing in relaxation at the (rare) hot water pouring on her skin, enjoying the sensation while it lasted.

She began humming to herself as the door to the shower room opened. When she heard this, she asked, "That you, Tamiya?"

No response, except a moan.

Concerned, Milly turned off the water and turned to the entrance of the shower area, only to see Tamiya standing there, her skin unnaturally pale green and her teeth and fingernails sharp, one second before she attacked Milly.

Milly screamed in fear at her friend's appearance, before grabbing Tamiya's arms to defend herself. After a short struggle, Milly through her friend to the ground and got to her feet, grabbing and putting on her rabbit bathrobe as she ran out the door.

Milly shutting the door behind her was probably the only reason Tamiya didn't come after her.

No, that wasn't Tamiya. Her friend would never attack her like that.

She had to tell somebody, and quickly.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

As Rosa cleaned up the kitchen, done for the night, Odd put down his empty tray, having just finished his ravioli and licked the tray like he always did. Evidently, he was still hungry, though, as he immediately started eyeing his cousin's untouched pudding.

"Are you not going to eat your chocolate pudding?" he asked the pink-ette.

"I'm saving it for Jérémie," was her response.

"I wouldn't hold your breath, 'Lita," Ulrich gently told her, seeing her concern. "Dinner hour will be over in ten minutes."

Aelita mentally debated whether to keep waiting for the blonde genius or to let Odd have it. Knowing Ulrich was probably right, she waved a mental white flag in surrender, "Fine. Go ahead, Odd."

Odd's expression immediately broke out into a grin, and he reached over to grab her tray from her.

As he began eating her pudding, she asked, "But isn't that your fourth one?"

"Odd is like a cow," Ulrich reminded her. "He has more than one stomach." The pink-ette giggled.

Odd quipped, "All the better to pig out with, my dear," with his mouth still filled with many spoonfuls of chocolate pudding.

The mirth between the three as well as the peaceful silence of the cafeteria were both interrupted by a scream sounding from outside.

"Help me!"

The students still inside the cafeteria turned to the entrance in time to see Milly bursting through the doors, dressed in her rabbit bathrobe and bare feet, with her hair down and wet. She was breathing hard and she looked frightened, like someone had just attacked her.

"Tamiya came after me!" she cried. Odd and Aelita gasped in shock. Tamiya attacked Milly, her best friend? "She looked so strange and-and her eyes were completely white!" she stuttered out, as if she was still processing what had just happened. "And they were horrible! She looked like Dr. Shrank!"

Dr. Shrank was the psycho brain surgeon and main narrator on 'Hospital of Horrors', a television show that told a different horror story each episode.

"Smells like XANA, doesn't it?" Ulrich whispered to his two friends, rightfully suspicious of Milly's story.

Aelita swiftly took out and opened her laptop, "I'm launching the superscan."

Meanwhile, Rosa came out from behind the counter, ignoring the cleaning she still had to do in order to comfort the poor girl. "Calm down. It'll be alright. You must've had a bad dream."

"No!" Milly protested. "It wasn't a dream! It was real!"

Aelita's laptop began sounding an alarm, a familiar one. "Activated tower," she quietly reported. "Let's head for the factory."

"I'll call Jérémie," Odd whispered back, as he pulled out his phone.

Ulrich also speed-dialed a number, "And I'll let Yumi know."

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Yumi's phone rang as she was eating dinner with her family. She picked up quickly, "Ulrich?" Her father's eyes were suddenly on her when he heard the name she spoke, as were Hiroki's. She ignored that and instead focused on what Ulrich was telling her. "Okay. No problem."

She hung up the phone, the call ended, and Hiroki immediately started teasing her, "So that was Ulrich again? Are you sure he's not your boyfriend?"

"Yes, I'm sure he's not my boyfriend!" Despite her genuine annoyance at her brother's teasing, it would actually give her a nice excuse to leave the table.

Sure enough, he kept teasing her, singing, "Yumi's in loo-ooove! Yumi's in loo-ooove! Yumi's in loo-ooove!"

"Hiroki, leave your sister alone," Takeho scolded his son.

Feigning annoyance (but not really), she stood up, shouting, "You are such a pain! Thank you for the meal, Okaa-san, but I'm going to bed now! Good night!"

She left the kitchen and dining area and headed straight for her bedroom, making sure her storming off seeming legit. And it was. She was tired of Hiroki teasing her about Ulrich.

But the moment she closed her door, she immediately headed for her window, and climbed down the tree that was planted outside of it.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

As he waited for Jérémie to finish the tests, Mr. Klotz was distracting himself by fiddling with a Rubik's cube. Jérémie tried his best to ignore the disruption (and how easy it actually was to solve it) and jotted down his answer to a question, before moving on to the next.

Both of their concentrations were broken by Jérémie's blue-colored cell phone ringing. Jérémie turned to it, seeing it sitting where Mr. Klotz made him place it, and its screen was lit up.

The caller ID read 'Odd Della Robbia'.

But before the boy could move any of his hands, Mr. Klotz placed his hand over the phone (but not touching), "Not yet."

"But, sir, that might be important," Jérémie attempted. It was likely Odd calling him to warn him about XANA being on the prowl or something similar.

"After the tests," Mr. Klotz reminded him of the rule all students had to follow, "you make all the calls you want."

Jérémie's stomach sank in sudden fear. Something bad was about to happen, he just knew it.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Milly was inconsolable. Seeing how shaken up the girl really was, Rosa started thinking the girl may be actually telling the truth, "I think she's serious. Sissi, go get your father please."

"O-Okay," Sissi replied, becoming afraid herself. What if Milly was right?

"Don't worry," Ulrich reassured her. "We'll go with you." Behind him where Odd and Aelita all three standing and ready to go. Sissi smiled, grateful for the company; all of them knew how to fight, so she no longer felt so scared to leave the safe haven that was this cafeteria.

In reality, Ulrich's suggestion was just an excuse for him, Odd, and Aelita to leave for the library. Jérémie hadn't picked up when Odd called him, so they'd probably need to come up with an excuse to let him leave Mr. Klotz's sights.

The four left the cafeteria, and they immediately saw Jim walking around underneath the arches.

"Hey, Jim!" Sissi called out, and Jim just stopped, halting in his tracks and now standing there like a creepy statue. "There's a problem with Milly Solovieff, and we could use your help. Jim?"

But as she got closer, he turned around to face her, growling. He had pale, sickly green skin, sharp teeth and fingernails, and whitened-out eyes, just like Milly had described Tamiya.

Sissi shivered at the sight of him and screamed when he reached out for her, only to quickly find herself behind Ulrich after he grabbed her back collar and pulled her away to safety.

"Stay behind us, Sissi!" the brunette boy warned her.

Aelita turned to the four's right, and gasped, "Over there!"

There were more zombies heading towards them. In the group marching towards them were Pierre François, Paul Gaillard, and Tamiya herself, looking just as how Milly described her. Milly was right...

"On our left too!" Odd alerted the others.

On the group's left was another trio of zombies, Tristan Brossard, Naomi N'Guyen, and Caroline Savorani.

On top of being scary, they were people they knew and went to school with that had been turned into zombies.

"We're surrounded!" Sissi cried out.

Zombie-Naomi lunged at them, only for Ulrich to knock her out with a front kick.

But before he, Odd, or Aelita could find an opening, Sissi began pulling on the backs of their shirts, "We have to retreat! We're not safe out here!"

Sissi opened the door and pushed the other three back inside the cafeteria before closing the door behind herself.

Their return was immediately noticed.

"Hey, what's going on?" Rosa asked, curious as to why they had returned so soon.

"Oh, nothing," Odd casually replied. "We're just surrounded by zombies, ma'am."

Rosa seemed to have trouble processing that, "Zom–...ohh...", because she very quickly fainted.

Fortunately, Christophe M'Bala caught her with a chair.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Mr. Klotz and Jérémie had been hearing moaning and groaning for the past five minutes. The boy had a lot of practice tuning out distractions like that, but the man apparently hadn't.

"That noise is unbearable!" the psychologist complained, before he stood up and marched up to the window, where the noise was coming from. He opened the window and called out, "Would you pranksters stop with this racket–"

But then he cut himself off, before gasping in shock. Jérémie, concerned, got up from his own seat and rushed over to see what the problem was. Once he saw what was outside, he also gasped.

Zombies. Lots of them. All of them looking like their fellow teachers and classmates.

He knew it. There was no reason for Odd to call him this late and during an important test if it wasn't an emergency.

"XANA..." Jérémie breathed, before turning tail and running towards the library's double doors.

But he didn't get very far out of those doors, due to Mr. Klotz grabbing the back of his collar. "You are not going anywhere! It's too dangerous! We need to barricade the door in case they find us!"

Jérémie was breathing deeply, his adrenaline pumping throughout his system, "But, sir, I have to go!"

He had to deactivate the tower.

"If you go out there, Belpois, you'll be eaten alive!" Mr. Klotz protested, before pulling the boy back over to the table they had been occupied. As he forced Jérémie back into his seat, he muttered, "Seriously, they look like Dr. Shrank!"

But Jérémie, genuinely confused, raised an eyebrow and asked, "Who's Dr. Shrank...?"

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Milly pointed at all the zombies pounding on the door and windows, trying to get in. "There, you see?! I wasn't dreaming!" But she was still scared. Sissi saw this and hugged her close. Grateful for the support, Milly immediately hugged the elder back.

The zombie hoard outside suddenly retreated.

"I bet they'll be back with reinforcements," Hervé worriedly put his two cents in.

Rosa regained consciousness here. As she sat up, she heard Nicolas respond to his nerd friend, "Well, the problem with the living dead is that you can't kill them. After all, they're already dead." It wasn't a joke; he was being completely serious.

Hence why Rosa fainted yet again after hearing this.

William was pacing back and forth as he was on the phone with the police, "Zombies! That's right, like in 'Out of the Tomb'! He-Hello?" They had hung up on him. He growled in frustration, before calling them again. Once they picked up, he got right to the point, "Yes, it's me again! And no, I'm not kidding! Send a car to the school! We're all trapped in the cafeteria because we're surrounded!"

Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita were sitting down at a table, trying to come with a plan to get out of here, seeing as how Sissi had inadvertently ruined their first attempt.

"I hope Jérémie's okay," Aelita quietly confessed, concerned, as she lowered her phone from her ear. "He's still not picking up."

"His phone must be off," Odd told her. "Anyways, Yumi's probably already at the factory and wondering where we are."

Ulrich nodded his head at the back door that lead to the dumpsters outside, "That's our way out. Let's go, before anybody sees us."

The trio quietly stood up from their seats, seeing that everybody else was preoccupied with watching the windows for the zombies.

But right as Odd touched the knob to the door, William called out to them.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?"

"Um, outside," Aelita's quick thinking was about to save the day, "so we can find more survivors and maybe even some reinforcements for ourselves."

"No way. It's too dangerous."

On second thought, the day wasn't saved just yet.

"That's our problem, William," Odd replied. "We're willing to take the risk." He then turned around to open the door, only for William to stop him by grabbing his shoulder and pulling him away.

"It is my problem," William explained. "As the oldest one here, at least the oldest who's awake," he sent a brief pointed glare at the passed out Rosa, "I'm the one responsible for everybody else. And my orders are for everybody to stay here and wait for help."

"Your orders?" Ulrich asked, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

"Yes, my orders," William confirmed. "I don't want the zombies to get any of us. Besides, there's strength in numbers, so the more people here, the better. If they attack the cafeteria again, we'll need as many of us here as possible."

"William, please, let us go," Aelita attempted diplomacy again.

But he ignored her and turned to the others, "Anyone who tries to get out has to get past me first. Understand?"

Nicolas glanced back at the few people still in the cafeteria with them, as Aelita, Odd, and Ulrich all shot death glares at the back of William's head.

They were stuck here. They still needed to make sure Jérémie was okay, before they could even start making their way to the factory.

"Great. Just great," Odd darkly muttered as Aelita folded her arms in anger. "William thinks he's Bruce Willis. That's all we needed." The last thing they needed was William thinking he was humanity's savior, which was Bruce Willis's most commonly portrayed character archetype. It was annoying on a good day, but right now, it was enraging.

Sissi turned to the trio and softly spoke to them, "Sorry, but I agree with William. He's just concerned about everybody's safety."

"That doesn't give him free reign to be the boss of everybody else," Ulrich growled out.

Sissi shrugged, "Well, leaders don't always have the freedom of being nice," before walking away.

And to make things worse, Sissi was on William's side.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Yumi arrived at the factory without running into anyone or anything. She took the elevator down to the lab, only to find it empty. She was the first one there.

"Fantastic," she muttered, as she exited the lift.

She double-checked the monitor to confirm that no one was on Lyoko, and when seeing that the virtual world was occupant-less (minus an activated tower being protected by three Krabes), she leaned back in the chair, deciding to wait.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

The trio had no choice but to explain why they had to leave, the complete truth. Maybe if he heard it, William would understand and let them go. Maybe Sissi would be convinced to their side, who then convinced William. Hopefully.

"A supercomputer?" William narrowed his eyes in disbelief, "that lets you go into a virtual universe where you have to battle an evil enemy called XANA?"

"Uh, yes," Aelita stammered out, hearing how crazy it sounded as William repeated it all aloud. "I admit, when you put it that way, it does sound a little weird...but it's the truth. If you want to stop these zombies at the source, Odd, Ulrich, and I have to get to the factory right now." She crossed her arms to emphasize her standing her ground.

William sighed, "Look, I'm sorry, but I don't believe you. So we're all staying together."

"So you'll abandon Jérémie and Mr. Klotz, who are trapped in the library?!" Ulrich demanded.

"There's no guarantee that they're still human by now!" William shot back. "I understand that Belpois is your friend. He's my friend too. But it's too dangerous to take any risks."

He then turned around and left them alone.

Aelita huffed, frustrated that their last ditch attempt had failed. They told him everything, and he still refused to let him go.

William's only saving grace in their minds was the fact that he genuinely thought he was protecting everybody.

Odd leaned over to Ulrich and Aelita and whispered, "Plan B. I'll distract him and you two take off." His roommate and cousin both nodded, and took a step back as Odd walked up to William. "Hey, Bruce Willis, where in the script does it say that you're the one who's gonna save the world?!"

"Nowhere," William admitted. "I just want all of us to get out of this unharmed."

Aelita reached for the knob of the back door, as Odd vehemently shot back, "You've gotta stop watching those superhero films! They're getting to your head!"

Everyone was focused on William and Odd's argument, but Hervé heard the click of a door opening. He turned around to see Ulrich and Aelita about to leave through the now open back door. Aelita immediately put a finger to her lips, silently pleading with Hervé to not say anything.

But Hervé was on William's side, so he turned back and called out, "Look, they're getting away!"

The following was a blur to Aelita. One minute she was about to rush out of the door before William could catch her, and the next she was on the ground with William towering over her. She wasn't sore; he had just pushed her away from the door, but she still felt shaken up for some reason (probably because William was a friend).

Ulrich and Odd both literally growled in anger and launched themselves at William, only for Sissi and Nicolas to hold them.

"Lay another finger on her, Dunbar, and I'll make sure you're the one on the ground next time!" Odd sneered, surprisingly not struggling against Nicolas's hold on him. No one touched his cousin the way William had.

"They're right, William," Sissi softly, yet sternly told him, holding back Ulrich. "You didn't need to push her."

William was breathing deeply, as if trying to catch his breath. He held his hands up in surrender, "Sorry, Aelita, but it's for your own good. We're all staying here, and no one is going anywhere. You'll all thank me when we get out of this safe and sound."

As Odd and Ulrich both knelt next to Aelita to make sure she was okay, the pink-ette shot a death glare at Hervé, before mumbling to her two friends, "Safe and sound, huh? That remains to be seen..."

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

A police car was parked outside of the Kadic's front gates, having responded to William's multiple frantic calls.

They glanced around the campus, seeing it empty.

One of the officers called out, "Hello? Anybody here?"

Michel Roulier emerged from the treeline, looking and feeling exhausted. He just wanted to go to sleep. He had been working all day. "Yes?" he asked the two cops as politely as he could.

"Uh, good evening," the female police officer said. "We got a call alerting us about an attack, by, uh..." she briefly trailed off, not knowing how to word this without sounding insane, "a hoard of zombies?"

"Zombies?" Mr. Roulier raised an eyebrow in a mixture of both confusion and surprise. Someone called the police about some zombies of all things?

"As crazy as it sounds, yes. Zombies," the male officer, the female's professional partner. "You haven't seen anything suspicious going on around here on the campus, have you?"

Mr. Roulier was completely honest as he calmly told the two cops, "Um, no, but I haven't been out of my garden shed since classes ended. As far as I know, everything's normal."

The female cop turned to her partner, smug at her supposed victory, "I told you it was just a kid's stupid prank." She turned to Mr. Roulier. "Thank you for your cooperation. Just in case, call us and let us know if you do see something." Mr. Roulier nodded in agreement, as the female cop turned back to her partner, "Let's go. It's time to get back to the station. We're not getting paid overtime."

Mr. Roulier merely shrugged and turned back towards the campus. He just wanted to go to sleep.

But on his way to the dorms, he ran into Jim, who was wandering around aimlessly. "Hey, Jim!" he called out. "You heard this thing about some...zombies? That's completely nutty."

Jim, however, turned around when he heard the word 'zombies', revealing his zombie-like appearance.

Mr. Roulier gasped in shock as Jim and the other students and teachers began surrounding him.

Looks like it wasn't actually a prank call, after all...

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

As Mr. Klotz kept a close watch on the window, the library doors having been barricaded with large stacks of books, Jérémie reached for his phone, but paused. Mr. Klotz was looking at him, only to shrug.

"Go ahead. Try to see if you can call for reinforcements."

Jérémie nodded, before grabbing his phone and turning it back on. On his screen were notifications of seven missed calls, one from Odd, five from Aelita, and the last from Yumi.

In his hand, his phone rang again, his caller ID reading 'Yumi Ishiyama'. He immediately picked up, "Yumi?"

"What in the world have you guys been up to?!" she asked. "I've been waiting for you guys at the factory!"

"Haven't you heard?" Jérémie asked. "It feels like one of Odd's cheesy zombie movies come to life over here. I can't leave. I'm not allowed to. It's probably the same with the others."

"You have to escape somehow," she urged him. "You're the only one who can deactivate the tower."

"I know. I'll try my best," he replied.

Yumi was quiet, before she seemingly made a choice, "I know you will. I'm on my way to help you. Hang in there."

"I will," he said, before hanging up.

Jérémie slipped his phone inside his pocket before grabbing the pencil he was using to take the tests with, and when Mr. Klotz turned back to the window, he quickly ducked under the table.

He couldn't see Mr. Klotz's reaction, but he could hear silence until the man shakily called out, "B-Belpois?" Jérémie didn't answer him. "Mr. Belpois?" Silence. "That's insane. You couldn't have just disappeared out of nowhere!"

Jérémie threw the pencil into the nearly empty bookshelves. Like he suspected, Mr. Klotz quickly scrambled over to investigate the sound. While the man was in the midst of tall structures that blocked his view, Jérémie emerged from under the table and ran towards the window. He quietly opened it, and prepared to jump down from the second story.

"Belpois!" Mr. Klotz cried out.

"Sorry, sir," the blonde said, before jumping, right in time to avoid the man catching him.

As he ran towards the manhole cover in the park, he heard Mr. Klotz call out, "Get back here, Belpois!"

The boy turned around, but didn't stop running, "You're safer inside, sir!", before turning back to face where he was running.

On the way, he ran into Yolanda Perraudin and Ms. Hertz, or at least, the zombie versions of them. He halted in his tracks, but they left him alone, stepping to the side and let him pass. He took this chance and continued running.

If he needed any more proof that this was all XANA, he just got it. Only XANA would refuse to attack him despite having a clear shot at him.

His path caused him to run by the cafeteria. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a few students taking shelter in there, among which was a brief flash of a familiar shade of pink. He stopped in his tracks yet again just to get a better look at what the pink belonged to.

Just as he feared, it was Aelita. Beside her was Odd and Ulrich. All three of them noticed him staring at them. Did they need help? What should he do?

His phone rang again, and he picked up quickly without looking at the caller ID, thinking it was Yumi, "Yes?"

"Don't worry about us, Jer." It was Aelita, calling him from inside the cafeteria. She must've seen his reluctance to leave them behind. "Just get to the factory."

Before he could respond, he heard a rustling on the other end. Inside the cafeteria, he saw William trying to wrestle Aelita's phone from her grip.

"Don't you dare, Belpois!" he heard William shouting amongst the tussle. "Get inside the cafeteria, where it's safer!"

First Mr Klotz, and now William. Who was next? "Sorry, but I can't. If I join you there, everyone will be in much bigger danger."

He then hung up and continued running towards the park passage.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

"Sorry, but I can't. If I join you there, everyone will be in much bigger danger."

William tried to respond to that, but he was ultimately unable to, as him trying to wrestle Aelita's phone from her, and her trying to keep it from him, unfortunately resulted in Aelita's phone dropping to the ground, damaged and no longer usuable from the impact.

Aelita rolled her eyes at him, "Gee, thanks."

"Why did you tell him to leave?!" William rounded on her, the second best option in his eyes. "It's safer here inside the cafeteria!"

"None of your business, Dunbar," Ulrich quickly came to Aelita's defense. "And you're one to talk, given how you wouldn't let us go out to check on him and Mr. Klotz in the library."

"Because I thought he would be smart and not run outside during this kind of crisis!" William retorted. "Clearly I was wrong!"

"Shut up!" Sissi cut in, justifiably upset at all of this in-fighting. "We have more pressing issues! The zombies are back!"

Everyone turned back to the windows and saw that she was right. The cafeteria was once again surrounded by the hoard, with more zombies than last time.

Odd peeked through the blinds to observe the situation, "It's horrible. They're coming from all sides." As he turned back to William, he heard a strange panting sound to the side. He diverted his attention to the sound, and smiled when he saw the source, "Look, it's Kiwi!" The tiny dog was sitting there, staring at them intensely. "He found us. See how smart he is? Hey, my little diggity dog!"

Aelita and Ulrich shared a concerned glance with each other. How did Kiwi get inside? All the doors and windows were locked.

As Odd bent down to pet Kiwi, Milly became scared again, realizing something, "Odd, wait! Your dog! He was in the hallway when Tamiya got zombified. Stop, Odd!"

Odd knelt down at his dog's level, asking, concerned, "Kiwi? Hey, boy, it's me. Why so tense?" He held out his hand, only for his own dog to bite him. "Ow!" Odd immediately took his hand away, standing up as he shook his hand to get rid of the pain, "Kiwi, what's wrong with you?!" The Kiwi he knew would never bite him.

But then he saw the weird symbol in his pet's eyes.

"Oh no..." he muttered in realization. "XANA..."

He suddenly felt an incoming headache, and as he held his head, the dizziness quickly set in. When he opened his eyes, he was no longer the Odd everybody else knew, his skin now green and his eyes completely white.

He was a mindless machine, striking at Aelita, his own cousin, when she rushed up to him to make sure he was okay.

Fortunately, William quickly sprung into action. "Quick, tie him up!" he ordered as he, Nicolas, and Christophe wrestled Odd to the ground and sat on him to keep him in place as Hervé and Tania Grandjean quickly ran to the kitchen's supply closet to grab some rope. Meanwhile, Milly refused to let go of Sissi, who did not loosen her hug one bit.

Kiwi used this commotion to sneak away. This fact did not escape Aelita.

In no time at all, they had Odd all tied up to the railing that marked where the food line was meant to go. Zombie Odd struggled against his restraints, which included a napkin over his mouth that acted like a gag to keep him from biting anybody.

Aelita, shaken up by what had happened to her beloved cousin, tried one last time to convince William to let her and Ulrich leave, by telling him the truth.

"So you're saying that Kiwi is possessed by this XANA?" William asked.

The pink-ette refused to take her eyes off of her zombified cousin, "As hard as it is to believe, yes. He is. And now, he's stalking us from the shadows, waiting for the right time to bite the rest of us. What's more, we're surrounded by an army of the living dead. Please, William, you have to let Ulrich and me go. We have to help Jérémie."

But William grabbed the front of Aelita's jumper, clearly fed up with their insisted excuse, "Listen, if you go out now, you could very well end up a zombie yourself, you idiot! I'm getting tired of hearing about your pathetic science-fiction plans! Cut it out with all this factory and supercomputer stuff!"

Ulrich silently, yet angrily, grabbed William's wrist and pulled him away from Aelita. Once the pink-ette was safely behind him, he retorted, "So a zombie hoard attacking us is perfectly reasonable, but a virtual world, at this point, is too much to believe?" The German boy's anger now became more pronounced, "Aelita's too polite to place the blame on you, but I'm not. If you had just let us leave when this all started, then Odd wouldn't currently be a zombie!"

William didn't grace that with an answer, only shrugging them off and focusing on what to do now.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Jérémie breathed a mental sigh of relief as he approached the manhole cover, sprinting as quickly as his legs would go.

On the ground in front of the passage were the zombified, now out-cold bodies of Anais Fiquet and Emilie Leduc.

Yumi aimed a kick at the zombified head of Yolanda, and then Mr. Fumet, both of whom went down as Jérémie reached his friend.

"Finally!" she cried out when she saw him. "C'mon, let's go!"

She kept watch as he uncovered the passage and climbed down, before she quickly followed.

They couldn't afford to mess around this time. They were the only ones who could fix things.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

As Ulrich peered out of one of the cafeteria's windows, Aelita tried her best to ignore her groaning, zombified cousin. She couldn't standing seeing him like this. That was not her cousin, but an empty shell.

Instead, she joined Ulrich at the window, and saw what he was watching carefully. The zombies were huddled together in the near distance.

"What are they doing?" Aelita asked, as Sissi hugged Milly a little tighter.

"If you ask me, I think they're preparing for a final assault," Ulrich replied.

Hearing this, Milly began to cry in fear. Sissi bent down to her level, calmly reassuring her, "It's okay. We'll get out of this."

Ulrich's phone rang, and he quickly picked up, "Yes?"

"It's Yumi. Jérémie and I have made it to the factory. Hang in there for a few more minutes, okay?"

"We'll try our best," Ulrich promised. "Don't drag your feet, okay?"

"We'll try our best," Yumi gently shot back at him, before hanging up.

As Ulrich slipped his phone back into his pocket, Aelita asked him, "They made it?"

"They made it," he reassured her, knowing how comforting it really was, evident in how she finally let slip a smile. "Now, all we have to do is survive."

The pink-ette nodded, before the two turned back to the window, both of them placing their full trust in their friends.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

A few stray zombies lurked around the park, their minds numb to their surroundings as they waited for their orders from their AI overlord.

Kiwi, the mastermind, walked up to the manhole cover and sniffed it. He then stood back as one of the zombies opened it...

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Yumi had called Ulrich to let him know that she and Jérémie had finally made it to the factory, while upstairs, Jérémie set up the virtualization timer for them both.

In no time at all, she landed on the dark orange ground of the Desert Sector, with Jérémie on her left. In front of them was the Overwing.

"Valet parking. Nice," she praised, as she ran towards her vehicle and hopped onto it.

Jérémie quickly hopped on as well as her passenger, "The tower is due north from our current position. Better hurry." He was wearing his goggles, so they had an extra margin of error.

Thanks to the speed and flight capabilities of the Overwing, the duo simply flew over the canyon in front of the tower and saw the foreboding structure in no time.

"Tower in sight," Yumi announced. That was progress.

Jérémie's eyes were on the three Krabes in front of the tower, "Welcoming committee also in sight." And they were fairly tough. "XANA played its cards right. It wanted me to come to Lyoko with the fewest bodyguards possible. That's why the zombies didn't attack me earlier."

"And why they did attack me," Yumi finished, remembering how she was ambushed by zombies the moment she emerged from the sewer passage to help Jérémie escape from the library.

"Exactly," he confirmed. "We need to be careful. XANA will try its best to devirtualize you in order to get me all alone."

"Is that really any different to how it usually attacks now?"

He shrugged, "Good point, but we still need to be careful. You and I are currently the only ones who can fix things."

Yumi circled around the tower, trying to come up with an angle of attack on the three Krabes. "I have an idea. Do you trust me?"

"Of course," Jérémie immediately answered.

"Alright, here we go," Yumi announced, before swinging around and flying the Overwing straight towards the Krabes. She apparently planned on pushing their way through.

This was suicide, Jérémie wanted to protest. If they didn't make it, he'd be all alone with the Scyphozoa. But he trusted Yumi.

The middle Krabe began to fire at them, with the other two quickly following suit. Yumi maneuvered the Overwing to dodge all of the lasers.

As they approached the Krabes, Yumi pulled out one of her fans and threw it when they got close enough. Her fan hit its target, and the middle Krabe was destroyed.

Yumi then flew high up into the air as she caught her fan, and the remaining two Krabes fired at her as she did so.

A laser hit Yumi in the leg, but she didn't falter. She continued flying away from the Krabes, and by extension, the tower as well. Jérémie worriedly glanced back at the monsters, one of which was now chasing them.

"One's on our tail," he stated, his vocal tone filled with uncertainty. "I hope you know what you're doing, Yumi..."

"Relax, Jer," she reassured him effortlessly. "It's exactly what I wanted."

One of the Krabes continued to chase them as Yumi approached the canyon.

The Krabe fired at them, before firing another shot, and another. Yumi swerved back and forth, weaving in and out to avoid getting shot. She glanced behind them as she entered the canyon, flying directly into the trench.

The Krabe fired again, and Yumi briefly glanced back at Jérémie, "Take my fan. Hurry!"

He trusted her, so he nodded, before taking one of her fans from her obi. As he opened the fan, the Krabe fired again.

Yumi flew the Overwing into a big loop, making it so that they were now behind the Krabe. When they got close enough to it, she ordered, "Now!"

Jérémie threw the fan at the Krabe's eye, and hit it dead on. As the Krabe exploded, signaling its defeat, he caught the fan as it returned and slipped it back into Yumi's obi.

Yumi was raising the Overwing as he did so, and the moment they left the canyon, Jérémie's goggles got an alert to a monster virtualizing next to them.

"Watch out!"

But his warning came a second too late. The monster fired at them, its laser hitting the Overwing, causing it to go out of control.

Yumi barely managed to hold on as they flew back down into the canyon, bumped into a wall, before crashing the Overwing into the ground. It exploded as the two collapsed onto the sand.

"What was it?" she asked, both of them still lying on the ground.

"A Kankrelat," he answered.

"Ugh!" Yumi groaned in frustration, before standing up with clenched fists, "Miserable little bugger!" She held out a hand to help Jérémie back to his feet, which he took. "We'll have to go on foot."

Once they were both standing, they took off towards the tower.

Apparently, during this time, the third and final Krabe had entered the canyon as well. It soon caught up with them and fired at their feet. Yumi avoided the shot by leaping out of the way. It fired again, and Yumi once again groaned in frustration.

It was not lost on her how these monsters were firing at her, deliberately missing Jérémie.

"Go ahead," she told Jérémie. "I'll take care of it."

The elf nodded, continuing his trek to the tower.

Meanwhile, the geisha hung back and began running up the wall. Once she got high enough, she pushed her feet back and landed on top of the Krabe's shell. Riding it as it continued chasing after Jérémie, she pulled out a fan and threw it, striking the Krabe's eye. She leapt off to avoid the resulting explosion.

Jérémie heard the explosion, but he didn't stop. He had to deactivate the tower before it was too late.

But when Yumi had caught up to him, she found him stopped, staring ahead in what seemed like shock.

"What's wrong? What's the hold-up?" she asked, as she came to a stop next to him, before looking at where his gaze was, only to go into shock herself.

The tower was gone.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

After Ulrich had gotten that call from Yumi, he and Aelita were much more willing to stay behind, to William's immense pleasure. Also, to his amazement, Ulrich had quickly taken up the leadership position, effectively stealing it from William.

"Come on, guys," Ulrich urged the rest of the group. "Be brave. This is it." He, Tania, Christophe, and Nicolas were all holding chairs, while Hervé and Aelita were both holding frying pans in each hand. Meanwhile, Sissi had not let go of Milly, mostly because Milly refused to let go of Sissi. William quickly picked up a chair as well, knowing he still had to protect the group.

Odd was still tied up.

The zombies were trying to get in, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that this was the final assault.

Rosa finally regained consciousness, "Oh, I think I'm..." She trailed off as she saw the zombies finally break the door down, and her eyes widened in horror. She then fainted yet again.

"Poor Rosa..." Aelita muttered, before focusing her energy and willpower on the zombies that were inching towards them.

Zombie Jim attacked suddenly, grabbing Tania's chair and pulling her into the hoard of zombies. Tania screamed, "Help!"

Aelita tried to rush over to grab her hand, only for William to hold her back, shaking his head. They couldn't help Tania now.

She was now a zombie, just like the others.

This wasn't working, Ulrich realized. They were just getting surrounded.

"Oh no!" Hervé dropped his pans in fear as a zombie clawed at him. He ran away, believing it was the best strategy.

However, the zombies easily caught up with him. They pushed him to the ground. He held out a hand for someone to help him, but no one was able to. He had no choice but to be turned.

Christophe was next, with the zombies surrounding him.

Zombie Jim broke Ulrich's chair before grabbing onto him and pulling him away from the group.

"Ulrich!" Aelita cried.

But she was too late. Ulrich was also turned, and once he was, he took advantage of Aelita being so close to him and tackled her to the ground as well.

Nicolas was next in line to be turned.

Soon, the only ones left were, ironically, William, Sissi, and Milly.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

The tower was gone. Not in the sense that it had been deactivated. No, it had just straight up vanished, along with the ground and cables attached to it.

Yumi glanced behind them, "Did we go the wrong way or something?"

"No. The holomap says so," Jérémie admitted, before taking off his goggles. Concentrating, he started to feel those familiar pulsations within the ground. They were leading to the area in front of them. "And my Second Sight confirms it. It's right in front of us. But how are we going to get to it?" Without the Overwing...

Yumi smiled when she gained an idea, "I can tele-transport you."

"What?!" he immediately asked. "That's crazy! If you fail, I'll fall right into the Digital Sea!"

"You have a better idea?"

Jérémie deflated. She was right. There was no other way. So he sighed, waving a mental white flag in surrender.

"Okay. Go for it. I trust you."

He felt Yumi move behind him. There was a pause as she gained her concentration, before he was lifted up into the air. He knew this was something she'd done before; he didn't doubt her. But he slipped his goggles back on, to make sure something didn't sneak up on her.

After a few tense seconds, the same Kankrelat from before was alerted to have caught up with them.

"Yumi, behind you!" he called out, trying to warn her.

Once again, his warning came a second too late, as the Kankrelat fired at the geisha, hitting her from behind and breaking her concentration. Due to this, Jérémie began falling towards the Digital Sea, as Yumi fell to her knees.

But Jérémie didn't fall very far, as he was quickly caught by Yumi. One second her presence was gone, and the next, it was back and he was, once again, floating.

He breathed a sigh of relief, before using his Second Sight to see how far they still had to go.

Still a few meters...

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

The factory elevator doors opened, letting off its occupants in the scanner room. XANA-Kiwi was gritting his teeth, growling, as he made his way to the center of the room.

His zombie friends inched their way towards their planned positions.

All they had to do now was wait...

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Yumi blocked the Kankrelat's lasers from behind with one of her fans. Once she checked to see if Jérémie was still safely in her mental grip, she threw her fan behind her, only for the monster to lean away to dodge it.

Her frustration caused her to temporarily lose focus, as Jérémie began falling. "Yumi!" he called out to warn her.

Yumi turned back to the elf and refocused her energy, kneeling to get a better footing.

The Kankrelat fired again, hitting Yumi in the back. The geisha fell to her knees, and the elf fell towards the Digital Sea. Jérémie closed his eyes, waiting for the impact.

But it came quicker than he anticipated.

He landed on what felt like the sandy ground of the Desert Sector, rather than the water that made up the Digital Sea. What...? To double check, he felt the ground he had just landed on. Sure enough, there was still ground there. It was just invisible.

"It's one of XANA's tricks..." he muttered.

Amazed, Yumi leaned forward and touched the invisible ground in front of her in disbelief. "That dirty..."

Her insult was cut off by the Kankrelat hitting her in the back yet again. Jérémie watched in horror as he watched her devirtualize.

Once Yumi was gone, the elf watched the Scyphozoa emerge from the trenches of the canyon behind him. Just as he had feared, XANA was just waiting until Yumi was devirtualized.

He had to hurry.

He quickly got back to his feet and made a break for the tower, knowing the Scyphozoa was just inching its way closer. He hadn't felt the magnetic pull of those tentacles yet, but if he slowed down for whatever reason, it wouldn't be long before he did.

His Second Sight was telling him how close he was to the tower. Just a few more meters. The tower was still invisible to the naked eye, but he was letting the pulsations lead him.

Right as he was approaching the tower, a Krabe suddenly virtualized in the middle of his path. XANA was clearly trying its best to slow him down, knowing it was so close behind him with the Scyphozoa.

But it would never shoot at him, because it needed him with all his lifepoints intact in order to retrieve whatever it was after.

That was why Jérémie just kept running, dodging the Krabe by slipping by right underneath it, and finally entering the tower at a run.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Yumi emerged from the scanner and immediately collapsed on her knees. Hopefully, Jérémie would manage to dodge the Scyphozoa on his own. She tried her best.

Something then bit her leg, and as she held her wound, she turned back to see the source of her pain.

It was Kiwi, whose irises were flashing the sign of XANA.

No wonder the zombie virus spread so fast.

Yumi pleaded with Jérémie to hurry up as she felt herself turn.

JEREMIE_

Milly tightly clutched a frying pan to her chest, as Sissi and William both surrounded her, holding chairs to defend her and themselves. They were completely surrounded by zombies, and they were the only humans left.

Zombie Aelita lunged at Milly, who immediately cowered in fear, but the attack was halted by Sissi, who was using her bare hands to hold the pink-ette off. "Don't you touch Milly, you hear?!"

Zombie Ulrich finally released Zombie Odd from his restraints, and they both turned on William. If they were human, they would have noted the absolute fear on his face as they did so.

CODE_

The Ulrich and Odd zombies tackled William to the ground. As he struggled against them both, the Hervé and Nicolas zombies grabbed Sissi's chair and pulled it away from her.

Milly screamed as the zombies got closer.

LYOKO_

The zombies did not stop. They were still all able to move, still infected, but Kiwi was no longer possessed, he and the other zombies no longer able to infect others.

In the darkness of the tower, the only light being the interface in front of him flashing 'CODE: LYOKO', Jérémie then touched the interface again, bringing up the Return to the Past program. Hoping he wasn't too late, he entered the time coordinates and pressed 'LAUNCH'.

From the bottom of the tower, where the screens had fallen to, a white light suddenly flashed to life, before engulfing the entire tower, then all of Lyoko, and eventually, the entire world as well.

!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!

Time reversed to earlier that day. Instead of hiding in the Hermitage, Jérémie had instead gone to Aelita, before the two then regrouped with the others. As they sat on a bench in the courtyard, his friends offered up more ideas to help him flunk the test, as Aelita worked on what seemed like homework, but he reassured them that he already had it under control.

"So what's your plan?" Yumi asked. "How are you flunking the test?"

"I'm not actually going to flunk," Jérémie explained. "I'm just going to give answers that aren't mine."

Ulrich double-checked what the pink-ette was working on, "Wait, that's what you're working on, Aelita?"

She briefly glanced up, smiled, and nodded, before getting back to work.

"Yeah," Jérémie confirmed. "Don't worry. It's going to work. Thanks to the Return, I remember all of the questions."

Odd was pouting, "Why didn't you ask me?"

"Because it needs to be believable," Ulrich reminded him. "Remember?"

Jérémie added, "And Aelita is the only one among you that I trust not to make me look bad." The pink-ette couldn't hide her blush when he said this. "Er...no offense."

"None taken, Jer," Odd replied. "But you never know. You might be in for a big surprise."

The group watched Sissi and William walk by their bench, both of them offering the group a wave as they did so, which the group all returned.

"Good point, Odd," Jérémie softly admitted. "You never can guess a person's true colors, can you?"

Seriously, how good a Lyokowarrior would Sissi make? On that topic, would William make a better one? Or worse?

Did they even need a sixth at the moment?

That definitely remained to be seen.

!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!

Next Episode: 26 - Marabounta / Wanting to make sure Jérémie keeps living his new life, Aelita begins to experiment with new programs.

A/N: The main thing we see in this chapter is allies who try to protect our heroes or do something for 'their own good', only for them to be misguided (in this chapter, it's Mr. Klotz, Sissi, and William). William gets quite a bit of flak for the canon episode, when he actually was just trying to be responsible. Our heroes were being (justifiably) sour because he was keeping them from solving the problem, but in everyone else's eyes, the Lyokowarriors were the ones in the wrong.

Be honest: would it surprise you to learn that Waldo Schaeffer had to take an IQ test in the past, knowing the kind of genius that he is? I wouldn't, that's for sure. Also, Jérémie using Odd's answers would've made the psychologist ask more questions; that's why I picked Aelita (who is a genius in her own right) at the end there.

QCM is the abbreviation for 'questionnaire à choix multiples', which is French for 'multiple choice questionnaire' or 'multiple choice test'. For more info, check out the French vs. English translation differences page on the .fr website.