To the readers
I appreciate any comments on the story.
Notes
[] are used to indicate stage directions
All dialogue follows a "Speaker: dialogue" format
{} are used for author comments.
CONTINUE
[The elevator was far below when William entered the shell. She looks up just to see him reappear in human form and-]
William: Excalibur!
[The energy wave slices through the discs functioning as sides to the elevator, but stopped, resisted in midair as the wave slammed into Jingu Bang, now in its staff length, braced, and stabbed into the cracks in the elevator. The wave flexes and dissipates around Naja and the weapons.
The sides of the elevator go clattering down the curved surface of Carthage outer shell.]
[Just then the elevator decelerates and stops. The connector of the elevator to the wall changes directions at an intersection, then takes off horizontally. But not before William lands on the elevator, pinning Naja between himself and the open air, the background of the interior shell of Carthage rushing behind her. He winds up to strike, but she dives off the elevator and passes straight through the wall. William is instantly meters past her and growing with each second.
The camera follows Naja even when she's not visible above the surfaces of rooms. She's swimming the dolphin stroke through the rooms' floors the walls and ceilings of them visible above her, but the floors and underside of objects pitch black nothingness. Then she comes to the center of the sector, the arena dome identifiable around her, but as her form blinks between transparency and its opaque version rapidly and growing faster, she's still inside solid structure after a few seconds.]
[The abnormal ninja looks around, the white arrow on her back mostly turned from white to faded grey. The remaining white at the tip of the arrow was fading fast. Then it completed drained up.]
? LP: 38 - 36 - 34 - 32 - 30
[Naja looks around and swims to the side and bursts out of the wall, clumsily rolling on the bridge the Second squad {they were with Naja for the successful key activation} took to reach the labyrinth. Naja looks back to the wall, but where there should be a slit into the arena it's instead just more of the Carthage metal with circuit pattern running through it.
A song voice in the air ends.]
Aelita: Yeah, figured you couldn't summon the transporter if there's no open space.
[Naja turns to see Aelita posing. She has an energy field ready.]
[Naja instantly defensive stance. Aelita doesn't fire, a smile touching her lips. Naja is confused. Then the shadow covers Naja. Naja looks up to a see a cube of metal descending on her. Naja barely dodges by throwing herself forward toward Aelita. When Naja rolls onto her feet, THEN Aelita fires the energy field. Naja blocks with her spikes partially extended and gripped like tonfa, they get blasted out her hands anyway.]
Aelita: She can't phase now! Everyone! She's vulnerable now.
[Aelita charges up an energy field and tries to slam it down into Naja. Naja grabs and redirects Aelita's arm, so it bounces energy field against the Carthage metal, flying off to the side. She elbows Aelita in the face.]
Aelita LP: 130 - 126
[Aelita is going for another hit, trying to just punch Naja in the face. Naja stumbles back evading her and almost falls off the bridge. Aelita goes for a spear {you've seen Ulrich and Yumi use the move how many times against a specter}, trying to wrap her arms around Naja's waist and take both of them off the bridge. Naja knees Aelita back up in the chin stunning her.
Naja lands a follow up kick and then a series of hooks and jabs before Aelita remembers to put up her guard.]
Aelita LP: 126 - 123 - 121 - 119 - 117
[Aelita tries to make another energy field, but Naja kicks interrupts with a kidney shot to her side.]
Aelita LP: 117 - 113
[Aelita tries a lan fa kick and Naja steps with the kick, slightly to the side and catches it, reversing the Aelita's earlier play and throwing her off the bridge. Naja bends down to scoop up her weapons just as Aelita flies back up on her wings. Naja takes off toward the labyrinth.]
Naja: Extraction A is compromised. Moving on to Extraction B.
[She dashes back into the labyrinth, past an intersection with the camera viewing her from the side. She runs past a hallway that leads onto a tower, puts on the breaks, then reverses course back into that hallway.]
[Aelita catches up to her and fires an energy field just as she slips into the tower the energy field uselessly hitting the side.]
Aelita: Oooh, one second sooner. I've got the timing of a kankrelat today.
[Ulrich is twirling his new karambits, small curved blades and handles in one continuous arc with a finger ring on the end of each one. Taking out a second karambit from the holder on his back, he spins them by their finger rings, tosses them up in the air and trades them between his hands. He spins around his finger perpendicular and release them at just such an angle, where they arc up, hang in the air for a moment before-]
CLINK
[-the handles touch each other and bounce off each other. He super sprints, snatches them out of the air, and attacks.
He ducks under ninja R's swings and slashes the ninja on the back. The ninjas turn to face him with their blade. Ulrich parries twice ninja R's slashes, flips the kurambit to lock the arm of the last swing in place and brings his other curved knife up and twists down and out with it. The weapon POPS out of the ninja's hand and goes flying into the void.
He SLAMS his foot into ninja R's knee, grounding him. Uses him as a foot stool and flings a karambit at ninja S behind him. Nails the headshot.
DRRZZZN
The unarmed ninja R tries to swing at him, Ulrich brushes his arm past, controlling the swing with pressure from the kurambit and performs a single arm clinch, twirls underneath its arm stealing its remaining sword from it.
Ulrich loops the finger ring against one of the ninja's pinkie finger and twists forcing the avatar's hand to stretch and twist to its limit and then the rest of its body followed. The yellow speed suit holds the green aberration at an awkward pose over the void of eternal sphere of screens below. Ulrich gives the barest nudge and ninja S was falling off the balcony toward the bottom of the celestial dome.
He immediately dashes up and jerks the DMA card out of the console interrupting the transfer.
Ulrich admires his new toys. The ninja sword he stole starts to dissolve its green texture showing the green wireframe underneath. It fades to a blue wireframe before rending back it's texture looking like his normal saber.
Ulrich: Huh, same type.
He sheaths them just in time to see Odd fly by on his vehicle. Ulrich hops on the overboard and grabs Odd's waist.]
Odd: Feel the wind in your hair darling. We're on top of the wor-
Ulrich: [rolls his eyes] Shut up and drive.
[A Nightcore version of No Plan B by Manafest starts up]
[Naja is in a tower walking toward the exit.]
Naja: I take it Bravo team didn't accomplish their objective.
Deck Hand 2: Negative. Are you in a position to take out Objective giant purple plunger?
Naja: I'll try.
[Naja's legs poke through the tower black organic parts.]
VSHUR
[Naja is nailed in the side with a fan just as most of her exits the tower in Carthage that is suspended in mid air and only suspended by its wire roots.]
Naja: LP 110 - 100
[Naja falls out of the tower, and with nothing to grab onto, falls toward the foggy hard kill zone of Carthage below the tower.]
Naja: Jingu Bang.
[Shoots one of her hand spikes into the ceiling to stop her fall, then immediately starts shrinking it to raise her up to the level of the platform where Yumi is standing.]
[Leaps from the weapon's handle as Yumi braces her bostaff to lance and stop Naja mid air. Naja bats it aside as she extrudes her second spike into her own staff. Naja spins up her staff around into a whirlwind and unleashes it. Yumi flips her staff vertical to block the hit.]
CRACK
[Surprised by the weight, her staff breaks in half from Naja's and it smashes into her ribs sending her skidding back.]
Yumi LP: 180 - 155
[Instantly Naja is through the room's only exit.]
[Naja emerges onto the intersection with the black cross hatching on one wall. Naja begins to take a running leap toward the area the elevator would travel and leaps.]
Laser ARROW!
[Naja takes a metal slug to the chest and lands back on the gangway.]
Naja LP: 100 - 95
[Odd flies down on his overboard with Ulrich and continues firing. Does a U turn and flings Ulrich off the back of the board on a flyby.
Naja jumps back from his attack.]
[Three avatars run in from the door. Yumi whips out her fans. William drops out of smoke. Aelita remains hovering in the air with some energy fields ready.
Naja stands off against the 5 virtual warriors and slides the tip of the hand spike preemptively out of her wrist sheath.]
Odd: Future flash.
[The flames appear around his left eye again.]
Odd: Wait. [stopping Aelita about to attack] You're first attack isn't going to hit.
Aelita: So a trick shot.
[Aelita projects a energy field. Naja dodges past it. But camera continues to show William waiting to intercept. It slams into his zweihander, then he slips back a meter from the knockback.]
WRRZZIT
William: Energy Field Blade beam!
[He releases a pinked colored blade beam. The energy whistles and is more mist than beam. Naja blocks it with her last spike…]
BURZINGINGING
[…Gets hit in the back with a shower of laser flash arrows.]
Naja: 95- 89 - 83 - 77 - 71
Odd: How are those toothpicks not breaking!?
Ulrich: You invaded our world [feints with his sword and shoulder checks Naja with super speed]
Yumi: After you blackmailed and threatened us! [Naja deflects one fan as the second one connects]
Naja: 71 - 61
William: You're the ones who wanted the smoke, so you'll get the smoke. Cinder BURST! [holds out his hand and blasts a cone of glowing cinder buckshot as Naja starts to recover. Her weapon flies out of her hands.]
Naja LP: 61 - 16
[Naja avatar sparks again.]
[The gang start kicking the crap out of Naja. Ulrich slides in and leg locks Naja as Yumi jack knife kicks her in the temple taking her to the ground.]
Naja LP: 16 - 10
[Pathological Liar by Atom Music Audio starts playing at the 2:30 mark]
Naja: Control I'm using the key.
Deck Hand 1: What? No! you just need to buy a little more time.
[Naja holds out her hand and something materializes in it.]
[All five Lyoko Warriors send an attack her way: Aelita energy field, Odd arrows, Ulrich hurls a karambit, Yumi her fans, William a blast of smoke. Everyone's attacks combine into a smokey, crackling, mass of particles.
Yumi catches her fans as they return to her.]
William: We got them, right?
[An eye appears on Ulrich's chest. A crystal with black eyes around it. Naja pops into existence there with the point of a spear through Ulrich's torso.
The spear was made of Lilac crystal and every facet of it was outlined in pink energy. She gripped it by the azure crosshatch grip in the center leaking pink light from its creases. The crystals grew from the grip, becoming wider toward the head and the bottom. Slanted transparent crystal tungs jet off the curve of the leaf spear head. The blade was decorated with a slit pupil black eye ringed with energy.]
Ulrich LP 90 - 0
CRRSSH
[Naja backflips off Ulrich's devirtualizing avatar, cartwheels over and picks up her dropped flagpole size staff and shrinking it as she rolls back onto her feet.]
[William materializes behind her bringing his giant sword down onto her back. Naja holds up her hand and the spear disappears from Ulrich's disintegrating avatar and reappears in a flash over her shoulders. William's weapon bit into it and Naja folded a tiny bit, but she was otherwise smiling.
Naja retaliated with her senbon stabbing upward, William releasing his sword to dodge. Naja pirouettes and yeets the spear across the platform, Odd backflipping over it and landing on all fours. William shoots motes of smoke at Naja while calling back his sword with his other hand, but she just disappears into the floor.
Odd: [with future flash flames around one eye] Oh no, this gonna hurt.
[Everyone is looking for Naja to reappear. She appears on the ceiling, lengthened her spike out into a staff and shoves it down through Odd's back.]
Odd: DAARGH
Odd LP: 150 - 0
CRRSSH
[Odd can't get back up, the spear cracking the texture and revealing the blue base color of the avatar underneath before he's devirtualized. Naja summons the spear again. She points it at the giant spike in ceiling next door she had saved herself with-]
FLASH
-It's in her hand, shrinking down to a manageable size.]
Yumi: What is that thing? It's breaking all the rules.
[Naja narrows her eyes.]
Naja: Hmm, I thought you guys had one.
William: Since when do you guys talk?
[Aelita runs up to smack Naja with the giant energy field she had been charging up.
Naja drops her spike onto the ground. It's sticking up at an angle. She points her spear at William. The same symbol that appeared on Ulrich appears on him. Naja disappears in front of Aelita at the same time she reappears in front of William.]
William: Super smoke.
[Him dropping into a puddle on the ground saves him the slash from the spear. But-]
Naja: Jingu Bang!
[The spike on the ground where she left it strikes out and grows into a staff through Aelita's body. Yumi telekinetically shoves the point of the spike away from Aelita so it shoots under her arm.]
[Cut to the scanners where Ulrich is just stepping out.]
Ulrich: What just happened?
[Before Jeremy can answer, the second scanner opens up with Odd.]
Odd: I'm not even mad. I'm just confused.
[William hits Naja with a sulfur shot while she's recovering, and launching himself into a swing of his zweihander as she's floating upward helpless.]
Naja: Jingu Bang
She uses the extension to push herself diagonally upward. William's zweihander CLINKS off the thin weapon. As the levitating effect of the sulfur shot ends, she settles on the end of her weapon above the three of them. She listens to something. Then she raises her spear and points at William to make her point.
Naja: [crude French] Among all on these worlds, I, Naja, stand above them all.
[Then takes a swan dive to the mist below. Her avatar breaks into a wireframe and she's gone.]
DRRZZZN
[William looks down dumbfounded.]
William: After all that! And she quits?!
Aelita: Guess they called a retreat.
Yumi: They broke enough and invaded us. Maybe that's all they wanted to do.
Jeremy: No, I think it's much worse.
[Cut to one of the ninjas in the desert sector, frantically running out of a tower, tripping as it breaks through the tower wall resistance, and then scrambles back up and makes a mad run toward the ships. There's the sound of something hitting the ground behind it.]
Just as the ninja reaches the block ship, it takes off, leaving the ninja to jump, grasp and fumble back and hit the ground.]
SWLYYNN
[A red blade exits the ninjas chest.]
[Get a view inside the ship.
It's a huge open box shaped space with two levels. There are ninjas up on the 2nd level are controlling the ship at stations. One in the command chair is throwing a throttle wide open. The ninjas who just ran in the doors on the side are in the hold on the ground floor looking around.]
RNEEEEEE
[They all turn to hear the sound of something charging up.
Suddenly the ship violently shakes and something, a red flash, hits the rear of the ship. The shields flicker and die and the ninja in charge of steering looks up at the screens with the blinking warning.
There are a few tense seconds. The ninjas look to each other. Show the outside of the ship, flying away from the plateaus toward the open digital sea. All the ninjas relax. One gives a thumbs up to the other. The ship is flying far away from everything and is above the digital sea. They are safe. They are safe.] {narrator in morgan freeman voice: They were most certainly not safe}
The red knife rips through the floor, from stern to bow, leaking the bright warm light of the desert sector sky into the gloom.
Rama: [taunting] You should have run faaaaasteeeeer!
[The ship lurches, halts and then is reeled back toward the plateaus. The thrusters are on full blast. The ninjas on the bottom level are all panic slamming their swords against the red knife, now wedged in the crack it made, trying to dislodge it. They can see through the crack, the plateau growing frighteningly larger. Then the blade twists and retreats and the ninjas are knocked from the acceleration onto the ground as the engine thrust take hold.
Then they hear the sound again.]
RNEEEEEEEEEEE
A red light bisects the ship horizontally down the middle-
Giant explosion
-and the hull crumple in flaming pieces.
[Cut to Rama sheathing his sword. He's not smiling. He looks kinda…bored. Then his eyes bulge and he's on the ground shaking in pain. He just lays there shivering for a few moments before he tenses up, relaxes and then stands back up.]
[Rama puts a hand over his ear.]
Rama: Yeah I did it. No, they sent one back with the IP address before I got here, and they had finished transferring the devirtualization relay code just as I walked up. Yeah, through the tower. Yes, they saw me enjoying the kill. [shivers] I hate these lines… because it makes me look ridiculous to any sane person!
[The elevator opens up with William, Aelita, and Yumi.]
Odd: The survivors return.
Yumi: Survivors is right. That's quite the nasty spear she had.
William: [notices Sissi] Oh hi. [looks to Jeremy] Any reason why she left all of a sudden?
Jeremy: I checked the logs. They got the dematerialization relay code for Lyoko. It looks like they were fishing for something else, but you cut them off before they made any progress.
William: What does that mean for them?
Jeremy: Well same thing for us when we visited the Cortex. Since they got a ship here and back, they have our IP address. They can find Lyoko where ever it is on the network and trace a path to it now.
Aelita: And since they retrieved our relay code they don't have to worry about their avatars being lost if they are devirtualized on Lyoko anymore.
Odd: But we cut them off.
Yumi: [bangs the wall] The tower!
Jeremy: Yep. [Brings up the Holomap] Between where Aelita met her and when she ran into Yumi, she cut through here.
Odd: But how's a tower gonna help them?
Jeremy: The towers are all connected and lead back to the core sector, [flashback of Naja on the second story of a tower plugging in a DMA card] they could send a handshake and pull files as if they were at the central console. [flashback of one of the ninjas uploading data to a card in the tower on the desert sector] It's a brilliant move. Any one of their ships could use their docked tower-
Ulrich: Ships? As in plural?
Aelita: There's so many of them this time. There's no way we could track down all the beacons they could place.
Jeremy: Oh, we don't have to worry about beacons this time. Not only would it not give a more precise location than the area around the school, but I also added a check into the super scan for anything that they might leave behind.
Yumi: Oh, so you thought one step ahead of them.
Jeremy: Hardly, I'm barely keeping up.
William: We're all not keeping up.
Ulrich: We had her five to one and she only left because they got what they came for. Simple as that.
Aelita: Tyron and his company are too big a problem to ignore any longer. I thought we would have gotten rid of them with sealing up their computer. Since he found a way around that, we have to find it and shut him down again.
Ulrich: And in a more permanent way this this time. Otherwise, he'll just get back up and try this again.
Sissi: [looking for a break in the conversation to interrupt] Do you guys do this stuff all the time?
Yumi: Yeah, except this wasn't us putting our best foot forward.
Odd: Usually we're amazing. Flying through the air, saving the day, and cracking one last joke right before the buzzer. But today…not so much. So come'on I've got to get going. Can we take a vote already?
Sissi: A vote about what?
Yumi: Are you interested?
Sissi: Um huh?
Aelita: Well as you just saw, we sortta need more help.
Ulrich: And you've wanted to join in on our group for the longest time.
Sissi: I thought you guys had a curse about newbies joining. I don't want to have this huge responsibility and William it.
William: [Looks accusingly at Aelita and Yumi] What did you tell her?
Yumi: [smirks] The truth.
Jeremy: Well, we've learned from those mistakes. It will be on a trial basis. We'll train you and you won't have to do anything you don't feel comfortable with.
Sissi: [offended] A trial? What I'm not good enough? [tones it down] Well I guess I could see what you're all about.
Jeremy: Great. All those in favor of letting Sissi be a probationary Lyoko Warrior. Raise their hand.
[Everyone does so. Aelita and Yumi are the first ones and everyone else follows]
Sissi: Lyoko Warrior? Is that final? Like has that been locked in place for a while now? Because I have some thoughts on-
Odd: Great. Congrats on your promotion.
[Odd takes off.]
[Match cut of the factory elevator door closing to the door of the rec room slamming open as Odd catches himself on the couch from his dash.]
Odd: Sorry. It was a robbery at my parent's house after a lightning bolt knocked out [interrupts himself] Um wait? What's going on here?
[Diva and Sam are just jamming out playing a song. Sam hits pause]
Diva: Yeah dude, we were just playing while you were gone.
Odd: So, you two are getting along?
Sam: Huh? Why wouldn't we. She likes music and sports.
Diva: And she likes art and making videos.
Odd: SO you're NOT mad we were hanging out?
Sam: Wait, you thought I was mad? Why?
Odd: [awkwardly taps fingers together] Because I have a rep with ruining relationships. And I wanted to change that. But I didn't want that to stop me from doing the things I like. So, I thought I could keep the different sides of my life apart.
Sam: You can have a part of yourself to yourself. That's totally fine. And I'm 100% fine with you hanging out with girls. [Odd looks really surprised. Sam clarifies] Because I'm obviously always number one to you. Duh.
Diva: [with a perfect smile] And I didn't invite her just to drive a rift between you two. I just want to have fun. I GENUINELY want to make everyone happy.
Naja steps out of the scanner. Instead of the bronze cylinders the LW use, this version is a trapezoid shaped chamber with green highlights. The doors split open along a seam and the halves fold back. She checks in with her team who have already gotten out of the VR avatar stands and are just in their black VR suit. Most have their helmets off.
Naja: [English] Great work there today team. Anyone have any problems with the gear?
Ninja R: [English] No glitches here.
Ninja T: [English] I had a bit of drift, but I already reported it.
Ninja S: [English] Thanks for the save against the samurai.
Naja: [English] Anytime.
Tyron: [English] Oberst NAJA!
[All the ninjas and Naja turn to see Tyron storming in from the door to the VR room.]
Tyron: [English] What were you thinking? How dare you use the key to the cortex without my express permission. And revealing it to the enemy!
Naja: [English] [salutes reluctantly] Sir, I was using resources to complete the mission.
Tyron: [English] You had already transferred the relay code.
Naja: [English] Sir, if the transmission were to be interrupted and I were to be devirtualized, I would have been lost with no way back.
Tyron: [English] You were to buy time to complete the transfer back to our server, even at your own cost.
Anthea: [English] You're forgetting, if Oberst Grand was lost, we wouldn't have any one compatible to even use the key, making it useless. She was guaranteeing you could use the key in the future, even if she revealed it.
Naja: [English] Sir I know there's no excuse for my actions, but I believe this allowed us to learn a crucial piece of intel about the enemy group.
Tyron: [English] …Eloborate.
Naja: [English] The enemy doesn't know that the key can be used this way. There may be more programs they don't have. We still hold the advantage.
Episode 19 end
AFTERWORD
No, Naja recalling her weapon to herself is not what Ulrich does in Evolution. I'm not considering that canon as it breaks the established limits weapons have in the original series and with no explanation to excuse it.
For the modifier's and damage.
Upper body : punch elbow = 2 LP of damage
Lower body: knee, kick = 3 LP of damage.
Damage from weapons and tools will usually be more than martial arts.
Getting a headshot on a humanoid avatar doubles damage.
LW's weapons have fixed damage amounts. Naja's weapons have different damage depending on their current form.