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~~~!
"Wanting to make sure Jérémie keeps living his new life, Aelita begins to experiment with new programs."
Episode 26: Marabounta
(Based on Marabounta)
Ms. Hertz's lesson today was on ants. She had brought in an ant farm that the local zoo had lent them for the day, which the entire class was currently surrounding.
"Ants are social insects like termites or bees," their teacher was explaining. "A single individual is incapable of any personal initiative. All of the decisions are made by the colony. Ants receive a few simple orders such as search for food, mark the path leading to the food, and follow a marked path. As a result, we might have the impression that each ant is rather clever, when in fact, this has more to do with a collective intelligence."
"You mean that an army of Sissis could be intelligent?" Odd quipped, sending a playful wink at Sissi to show it was just a joke. "That's pure science fiction!"
The rest of the class began to laugh, as Sissi jokingly shot back at him, "Like you're any smarter, bird brain." She didn't mean anything by it; it was just friends teasing each other.
"Settle down, please," Ms. Hertz gently ordered, turning everyone's attention back to the glass cage that housed the ants. "As I was saying, thanks to their numbers, they manage to accomplish some fairly difficult tasks such as finding food, digging networks of tunnels, or defending themselves against an attacker. It would seem that ants can even wage full-scaled wars between different colonies."
Out of the corner of his eye, Jérémie saw a familiar twinkle appear in Aelita's eye, the kind she got whenever she just came up with an idea. He made a mental note to ask her about it after class.
"What about killer ants?" Ulrich asked. "Do they exist?"
"Well, yes," Ms. Hertz gave off a little chuckle, "but only in movies, Mr. Stern."
The class laughed at him, giving Sissi a break, which made Ulrich huff in annoyance.
Ms. Hertz continued, "However, there are, in fact, army ants that destroy everything in their path. And it's true that you'd best stay out of their way."
"And, uh, do any of those filthy bugs live around here?" Sissi nervously asked. The last thing she wanted was to run into those. No one could blame her.
Their teacher gave them all a reassuring smile, "No, fortunately. They live in South America. Down there, the phenomenon is called 'marabunta'."
Sissi let out a huge sigh of relief, "Phew! I'm glad I live in a country where there's no danger!"
Odd, Jérémie, and Ulrich all exchanged a knowing smile with each other. Ironically, France was the country most in danger thanks to XANA. Well, first France, and then the entire world. But still.
The bell then rang, signaling the end of class. As the students went back to their desks to retrieve their school bags, Ms. Hertz reminded them all of today's homework.
But Aelita didn't move. She continued to study the ants, intrigued, as they continued moving throughout the glass cage. One of them moved its antenna, making her smile.
Jérémie tapped her shoulder, bringing her out of her own head. When she saw him, Ulrich, and Odd standing there, her bag in Odd's hand, she felt a small wave of embarrassment.
"You okay there, cuz?" Odd asked her. "Class is over now."
"Y-Yeah," she offered her friends a smile, as she took her bag from her cousin. "Sorry, I lost track of time."
The four left the classroom together.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Later, at lunch, the five sat together. Odd kept stealing bites from his cousin's plate, but she never noticed, being too engrossed in her own thoughts.
"Saturday's my favorite day," Odd admitted. "No school in the afternoon!" Today was Saturday, which meant no afternoon classes.
"I like Sundays better," Ulrich countered. "No school at all." Odd hummed in agreement, as Yumi smiled at their banter.
Jérémie, meanwhile, was focused entirely on Aelita. The pink-ette still hadn't noticed that Odd was stealing her lunch right from under her nose. In fact, she seemed to be trapped in her own head. Again. Worried, he asked, "You okay, Aelita?" Hearing someone say her name brought her back to reality. Once her green eyes were on him, he continued, "What's on your mind?"
"Périn's notes," she confessed. "Last night, I was able to decipher a small part of them. It was really interesting. In it, he was talking about a multi-agent system. It's a computer model that follows the principal of an anthill. What happens is–"
Odd immediately cut her off by making a buzzing sound with his voice and making an X with his two index fingers, "Eh, eh, eh! Ms. Hertz already bored us to tears with all of that ant stuff. Don't you dare start now."
Ulrich and Yumi began to laugh with Odd, only for all three to stop when Jérémie gave them all a dry, unimpressed look, before finishing the explanation the pink-ette never got to finish, "A multi-agent system behaves very much like an anthill. Interesting observation, Aelita. Is that what you were thinking about all during class?" He meant to ask her that earlier.
"Yeah," Aelita smiled, inwardly feeling grateful that Jérémie was willing to hear her out, at least. "I think, this time, I might've found a way to weaken XANA. Let's meet up at the factory after lunch. I'll explain everything there."
"Can we postpone it for about an hour or so?" Jérémie asked. "I have to finish my Italian homework first, but once I do, I'm free to help you with the coding."
"No, no, that's okay," came Aelita's frantic answer. "You focus on your homework." She turned to Odd.
"Sorry, cuz," Odd shrugged. "I'd love to, but who do you think is helping Jérémie with his Italian homework?"
Jérémie's troubles with Italian were nowhere near his issues with phys. ed. class, but it was still noticeable how he was struggling to keep up with a language he wasn't used to speaking. Odd, fortunately, was great with Italian, given how his father was Italian and his family lived in Italy.
Aelita glanced over at the eldest of the five, "Yumi?"
"Sorry, I'm gonna have to take a raincheck," Yumi smiled softly, hoping her friend would understand. "Jim is taking some of us to the pool right after lunch, and I promised a friend I'd go with them." She stood up from her chair with her tray in hand and walked over.
Ulrich watched her the entire way, eyeballing how she immediately walked up to William, who was standing next to the cafeteria entrance. And the German boy frowned. William was obviously that 'friend' that had invited Yumi to join him at the pool. It seemed innocent, but Ulrich did not trust William to not pull any moves on Yumi. The last thing he wanted was to give his rival an advantage. He didn't have any plans for this afternoon, until now.
"What about you, Ulrich?" Aelita asked, noticing how her brunette friend's attention was entirely on William. "Are you doing anything later?"
"Yeah, I gotta be somewhere."
"Where?" the pink-ette asked, unimpressed because she already knew the answer.
"The swimming pool," Ulrich replied, before standing up, and picking up his tray and leaving the cafeteria. He passed by Sissi on the way, who in turn watched him leave.
Aelita rolled her eyes. That boy was way too obvious with his jealousy.
Seeing that she would be all alone, Jérémie told the pink-ette, "Aelita, if we postpone the meeting for another hour, I can help you with your idea. I don't mind."
Aelita immediately slapped on what she hoped was a reassuring smile, "It's okay, Jer. I don't mind dealing with it myself. If you all have other things to do, I won't stop you." She then drank the rest of her water, before standing up with her empty tray in hand. "I'll see you later."
She left the cafeteria, leaving behind her cousin and a very confused Jérémie.
Odd gently elbowed the blue-clad blonde's ribs to catch his attention, "You know how stubborn she is. C'mon. The sooner we finish that Italian homework of yours, the sooner you can learn how to play video games."
Jérémie smiled in response, before following Odd out of the cafeteria as well.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita retreated to the lab, leaving a few books and magazines on ants sitting on the factory floor next to her school bag.
She was currently sitting in the lab chair, one of those books resting on her lap.
"Okay, here we go," she cracked her knuckles, before getting to work.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
William, in his black swim trunks with red stripes on the sides, walked onto the diving board. His hair was wet and getting naturally curlier as a result, as he glanced at Yumi, who was sitting on a bench on the side. He just wanted to make sure her eyes were still on him–she was beautiful in that black one-piece swimsuit of hers–and smiled when he noticed he still had her attention. He then dove into the water like a champion.
Ulrich, in his dark green swim trunks, watched this happen, scowling and crossing his arms when he saw his rival's flawless dive. He turned to a smiling Yumi, seeing her clapping for William's dive as William himself swam up to her and began leaning on the edge.
Fed up, Ulrich took the stairs for the high diving board. Every so often, he glanced back at William and Yumi happily chatting away as he climbed those stairs.
Meanwhile, Sissi stepped out of the girls' changing room, wearing a pink-and-yellow-colored two-piece bikini. She looked around for Ulrich, who she overheard was planning to go to the pool just to keep an eye on Yumi and William. After a couple of seconds, she found him approaching the high diving board.
"You should come swim," William was telling Yumi, before he seemingly sensed someone's eyes on them. He glanced up to face the person, only to see Ulrich standing on the diving board. "What do you know? Ulrich's about to dive." He turned back to Yumi. "Shall we watch?"
"Of course," Yumi replied, not taking her eyes off of Ulrich. Part of her was surprised. He didn't tell her that he was planning on coming to the pool today; just the opposite, in fact, as he had claimed he wasn't interested.
So what changed his mind?
Ulrich looked away from Yumi's gaze and held out his arms, ignoring how everybody was watching him now. Um...was the high diving board always this high above the ground? Where did this sudden dizziness come from?
He tightly shut his eyes, trying his best to ignore the memories of navigating a gravity-impaired science classroom that had chosen, for some reason, now to pop up.
Something deep in Yumi's gut told her that something was wrong. She didn't know what it was, though, nor did she had time to figure it out as Ulrich jumped off the board, only for his foot to slip as he was landing, causing him to fall headfirst towards the water.
"Ulrich!" she cried out in utter worry, as her friend face-planted into the water below.
Sissi gasped in shock. Something had happened up there with Ulrich, but she wasn't entirely sure what it was.
Ulrich's world was filled entirely with chlorine-filled water as he sunk to the bottom of the pool. He was still dizzy, his entire being feeling disoriented despite his attempts to prevent it up on the diving board. He didn't trust himself to not flail wildly and make it worse while he felt so strange. So he just let himself drown.
Just then, a boy with familiar messy black hair came into view, and a hint of dread filled his gut. Ulrich had very little choice but to let his savior be his savior, dragging the brunette back to the surface.
William tried his best to lift Ulrich out of the pool, grateful when Yumi used her (surprising amount of) muscles to pull the unresponsive brunette out of the pool and onto the concrete pathways on the side.
"Out of the way! Let me through!" Sissi tried pushing through the crowd that was now surrounding Ulrich, trying to see what had happened.
Her shouts alerted Jim.
"Is he okay?" Emmanuel asked, he and the other classmates concerned.
"I don't know, but he doesn't look good!" Julie replied.
"We've gotta call for help!" Maitena said. "He looks like he needs mouth-to-mouth!"
Ulrich found enough strength to just barely open his eyes as Sissi pushed past Julie and Maitena.
"Mouth-to-mouth?!" Sissi exclaimed. "Out of the way!" Ulrich was her friend; she'd do it.
But she immediately halted when she saw Yumi already at Ulrich's side, already in position to make Ulrich breath again. Sissi couldn't help her jealous glare as she watched Yumi take note of Ulrich's current pulse.
Before the Japanese girl could take note of Ulrich's breathing, to see if there was a lack thereof, Jim came bumbling in, "Let me through!" He pushed past the crowd, in his bright blue-and-green swim trunks. "I've got a first aid certificate."
Jim ushered Yumi out of the way, kneeling next to Ulrich himself. He pinched the boy's nose before giving Ulrich the air he needed. Sissi was among those who looked away in disgust, before Jim pulled away when Ulrich started coughing.
"There you go," Jim smiled, relieved his student was alright. "Good thing I was here, huh?"
As Ulrich continued to cough, expelling the chlorine-filled water from his lungs, he caught a glance at the amused glances on William and Yumi's faces.
Was Jim giving him CPR their prank or something? He wasn't faking it! The dizziness, the bad memories, the lack of energy afterwards–those were all real!
"Are you okay?" Yumi asked him, concern clear on her face, with a hint of amusement still.
No, he wasn't. The physical effects of almost drowning aside, he just embarrassed himself not only in front of Yumi, but a lot of his classmates as well. It didn't help that William was the one who saved him; the last thing he wanted was to owe his rival his life. And Jim...what else could he say?
He resorted to giving her a short answer, "I'm fine." He turned to Jim, who was still hovering close by. "Could we, maybe, go see the nurse?"
"Absolutely," Jim said, seemingly not knowing that Ulrich was actually asking just to have an excuse to leave. "I have to take you to Yolanda anyways. School policy."
Good. Whether he asked or not, he would be leaving. That's all he wanted.
Yumi watched the look on Ulrich's face turn into a glare in her and William's direction as Jim helped him to his feet. William must have seen the glare as well, as he turned to Yumi, his confusion nonverbally asking her to explain why Ulrich, their friend, was suddenly angry at them.
But she just turned her head away in sympathy. She should've expected this to be a huge blow to Ulrich's pride.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
About an hour and forty-three minutes later or so, Aelita had completed the program. Now, it was time to test it out. The logical side of her brain was telling her to wait for Jérémie's input, but the emotional side was way too excited to see if it would work.
"Now for the moment of truth," she muttered to herself.
A couple of commands brought up the screen for the program. In the window, circles duplicated in a group that began to expand.
"Everything seems to be working." That was good. But the only way to make sure was to activate it. To do that, she needed to send it to Lyoko by the scanners. So she activated a modified version of the virtualization program. "Transfer prototype." After selecting said prototype, she scanned it, "Scanner." The window relating to the scanners' current occupation popped up, showing one of them in use via the green bars. "Virtualization."
On the holomap, a small black sphere appeared in the Forest Sector. The pink-ette hummed in delight. It was working. The holomap showed the orb growing bigger before spawning another and another.
"Yes!" Aelita cheered at her success. Her program was actually working! "Michel Périn, you are a genius!" She couldn't have done this without his notes. "XANA better watch out now!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd and Jérémie left the library and entered the dormitory building together. Now that Jérémie's Italian homework was done, they could kick back and relax for the rest of the day.
"I don't get it," the blonde in blue was saying as the two made their way to the room Odd shared with Ulrich. "I can barely string two words together!"
"Sei davvero pessimo in italiano, mio caro Jérémie," Odd replied.
The other blonde's response was a blank look, "...Huh?"
Odd just chuckled, "I said, 'You are really bad at Italian, my dear Jérémie'."
Jérémie merely shrugged, "If you're expecting me to protest, you're wasting your time. I didn't even get that."
Odd slung a comforting around his friend's shoulder, "Relax, Jer. No one is good at everything."
The blue-clad blonde simply smiled, before it faded as another thought, one more troubling, began to invade his mind.
The crazy-haired blonde quickly took notice, "What's wrong?"
"Why did Aelita turn down my offer to help?" Focusing on his Italian homework put it to the back of his mind, but now that he no longer had to focus on any homework, his confusion had returned tenfold. "She usually lets me, even asking me for my input."
"It's because she wants you to focus more on living your new life," Odd explained, understanding his cousin's reasons perfectly, "and less on worrying about you-know-what." XANA, he meant (obviously).
"I appreciate it," Jérémie was softly smiling, "but I don't think you-know-what gives me a choice. I'm the only one who can deactivate its towers, after all."
"Trust me, we know," Odd replied. "Aelita's just trying to give you as much of a choice as she possibly can." His arm still slung around Jérémie's shoulder, he nudged the other boy, suggesting, "Want to drop our bags off in our rooms before heading over to the factory to check up on her?"
"You have to ask?" Jérémie playfully shot back, and Odd's smile grew wider in response.
Since Odd and Ulrich's room was closer, they decided to stop there first. Odd opened the door, being greeted by Kiwi lying down on Odd's bed. The dog lifted his head and wagged his tail when he saw them enter.
On the other side of the room, on the second bed, lay Ulrich, who had an obvious glare on his face and was staring up at the ceiling.
"Oh, hey, Ulrich," Jérémie waved at him, as Odd knelt beside his bed and pet Kiwi's head. "We didn't know you were back already."
A worried Odd noticed Ulrich's mood, used to it at this point, "Something wrong, good buddy?"
"Nope," Ulrich thinly, vaguely denied, not taking his eyes off of the ceiling. "Everything's fine."
Jérémie glanced at the brunette, filled with concern for his friend, as Odd's phone started ringing.
Odd answered without second thought, "Hello? Oh, Aelita! What's up?"
"I have something amazing to show you guys! Can you meet me at the factory?"
"Sure thing," Odd replied. "We'll be there as soon as possible." He stole a glance at Ulrich, wondering what had happened at the pool for him to be sulking like this.
"Great! If you're still with Jérémie, let him know. I'm trying to get in touch with Ulrich and Yumi, but neither are answering me."
"Jérémie and Ulrich are both with me. Just worry about Yumi," the crazy-haired blonde hung up, before turning to Ulrich. "Aelita's called a meeting at the factory. You coming, Ulrich?" He knew Jérémie would be more than willing to tag along; Ulrich was the problem right now.
"I'm not in the mood," Ulrich sourly replied, his vocal tone confirming his words. "I'd rather be by myself." Seeing Yumi was the last thing he needed right now.
"Are you sure?" Jérémie asked, as he and Odd approached the door to leave. "It sounds important. We should probably all be there. Especially how the rest of us just blew her off earlier when she seemed legitimately excited."
"Leave me alone!" The brunette was almost shouting, and his outburst scared Jérémie.
"Okay, suit yourself," Odd placed his hands on his hips. "Both of you can stay here."
This finally caused Ulrich to look at them, anywhere but the ceiling, "Both of us?"
Odd opened his bag and let Kiwi hop inside, not wanting to subject his dog to Ulrich's sour attitude, "Yeah, you and your bad mood! I'd rather deal with my cousin's overly-excited-if-boring explanation about anthills over your sulking any day!" Odd then left, with Kiwi tucked safely in his green drawstring bag.
Jérémie lingered, "Listen, Ulrich, I don't know what happened, and I'm not going to ask. But something tells me you really need a reality check before your sour mood affects the rest of us."
He then left, closing the door behind him.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita turned to the elevator the moment the doors began to open. Out stepped Odd and Jérémie.
"Ah, there you are!" Aelita exclaimed, before putting on a look of confusion. "But...where's Ulrich? You said he was with you."
"He's sulking," Odd said as he knelt while taking his drawstring bag off his back and opening it, revealing Kiwi, who climbed out of the bag and started running around. "We don't know what his problem is."
"Whatever it is, he can keep it to himself with that attitude," Jérémie rolled his eyes. His gut instinct was telling him it had something to do with either seeing Yumi and William together or something that had happened at the pool. Probably both. Hoping Ulrich and Yumi didn't get into another fight, Jérémie turned his attention to the program shown on the monitor, "So, what do you want to show us?"
Aelita turned back to her program, and her excitement returned, "The Marabounta, a program of my own creation, inspired by this morning's lesson about the ants as well as Périn's notes on multi-agent systems that I deciphered last night."
"What does it do, exactly?" Odd asked, curious. Hearing his cousin rant was still preferred over seeing his roommate sulk.
"It's a multi-agent system that functions according to the same principal as an anthill," Aelita explained. "But instead of ants, we have these little spheres whose mission is to search and destroy XANA's monsters."
Kiwi walked up to the books and magazines on ants and sniffed them.
"I get it!" Odd smiled in realization. "While the monsters are getting wiped out by your 'ants', XANA leaves us alone on Lyoko, right?"
"That's the idea!" the pink-ette replied.
"Awesome!" Now, Odd's excitement was genuinely starting to match his cousin's.
"Practical and simple," Jérémie complimented, but on his face was a skeptical expression. "But, what if there's a bug in the program? Don't get me wrong, creating and successfully activating such a complicated program within the span of a single day is a great accomplishment. But it's only been two hours. There's bound to be bugs."
"I knew you were going to say that," Aelita admitted. "And I agree. That's actually why I asked you guys to come here. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, but I was hoping you'd be willing to go to Lyoko and check it out."
"Absolutely," Odd immediately agreed. "I'd love to see it in action. If this thing really works, then nothing can happen to us!"
Jérémie glanced at Odd, then back at the program. He agreed with Aelita's caution, because he didn't trust this Marabounta just yet.
Seeing his hesitation, Aelita softly reassured him, "Don't worry. If there's the slightest problem, I'll pull the plug. I promise."
He paused, before finally nodding. As he joined Odd at the elevator, he took a deep breath. He trusted Aelita, knowing that his safety would always be her top priority.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Virtualization!"
The purple cat and the blue elf landed on a path in the Forest Sector. The Marabounta–whatever it looked like–was nowhere in sight.
"You guys are south of the Marabounta," Aelita told them. "Take the path to your right. Sorry, but you'll have to go on foot. I don't have enough resources to bring up the vehicles. Bug number one: running the Marabounta program takes up too much energy."
The two began to run down the path the pink-ette had pointed them towards.
She added, "And watch out for any monsters. With XANA, you never know."
The two continued to run, seeing nothing but green grass and trees, along with the yellow-colored Digital Sea below them.
"Krabe at two o'clock!"
The two slowly came to a stop, as they spotted said Krabe up ahead.
"Follow it," Aelita told them. "It's headed in the right direction."
The Krabe did not stop to attack them, which was already concerning. It was also going fast when compared to a Krabe's normal speed. After sharing a knowing glance, Odd and Jérémie raced after it.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jim had returned about fifteen minutes ago with news that Ulrich was fine. He was currently resting in his room now, as per Yolanda's orders.
Sissi sat on a bench next to the pool, using her pink towel as a blanket as she took a break from the water. As someone dove in, William walked up to and sat next to her. She played with her left foot as they sat in silence for a few seconds.
The two had bonded over telling Hervé off about bullying Jérémie when the blonde was the new student at Kadic. They knew about each other's respective crushes, but this was the first time it was obvious that they wanted to talk about them.
"Have you been crazy about Ulrich for a long time?" William finally broke the silence.
"Have you been crazy about Yumi for a long time?" Sissi gently shot back.
William looked up in time to watch Yumi dive into the pool. He sounded lovesick as he replied, "Forever..."
She didn't believe him, "I highly doubt that. You've only been at Kadic for four months now."
"Don't you believe in destiny with a capital D?" he asked. "Two people who have never met, but who are made for each other?" That's how he felt about Yumi. Ever the optimist, Yumi would fall for him eventually. It was just a matter of time. "Besides, Jérémie and Aelita are basically already married to each other, and they've only been together for four months as well."
"First of all, Jérémie and Aelita started off as pen pals about a year ago," Sissi reminded him. "Second, no, I'm not really into fairy tales or cheap, magazine-style romance stories. Believe me, my parents taught me that sometimes, relationships end in divorce." She wouldn't normally tell that to other people, but this was William, the only other person who could possibly understand her side of this specific argument. She continued, "I've had a crush on Ulrich since we first met in primary school. I just want to go out with him, but I also don't want to ruin my friendship with Ulrich or Yumi. They're great people, and they deserve to be happy."
Yumi broke the surface of the water, taking in a much-needed breath.
"We deserve to be happy too," William softly replied.
"I know," Sissi asked, "but could you really live with dating Yumi as she only ever thinks about Ulrich and never you?" If Sissi started dating Ulrich now, she knew that's what would happen. Ulrich would never stop thinking about Yumi, no matter who he was with or what he was doing.
"No," William quietly confessed. "That's why they need to talk things out first."
"I don't want to be hurt whether they do or not."
"Neither do I."
The two glanced at each other before softly smiling. Despite the pain brought on by this love square (if you could call it that), at least, they had a friend in each other.
Yumi approached, her arms around her to keep her body warmth in tact, as she had just emerged from the pool and was without a towel, "Hey, sorry to interrupt but, William, I need to head home now. I'll see you tomorrow."
"I'll head back with you," William stood up. "I still have some homework to do." He turned back to Sissi, "You coming?"
"Not yet. Daddy only let me go today if I stayed with Jim." And Jim would only leave once everyone else was gone.
"Okay," William shrugged, before heading off with Yumi.
Sissi didn't care. She wanted to be alone right now anyways.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Target dead ahead!" Aelita announced.
The cat and the elf came to a stop at the entrance of a clearing. In the clearing, the two saw a black sludge that had nearly engulfed the entire area.
"Marabounta spotted," Odd replied.
"Well? What's it like?" Aelita asked.
Odd and Jérémie watched the black spheres, all connected together, surround the Krabe. It tried to move, but it got covered entirely in the black sludge.
"It's terrifying," Odd confessed. "Horribly awesome, don't get me wrong, but, uh..."
Jérémie grimaced in sympathy as the Krabe disappeared into the black mess.
A Tarantula tried firing at the Marabounta to get it away, but the black sludge eventually engulfed its leg.
Four Hornets circled around a pillar of spheres, firing at it. The Marabounta exploded into a volcano of goo, destroying all the Hornets in one move.
A Megatank opened up and fired its big laser, with XANA obviously hoping its strongest monster would have an effect. It didn't. The Marabounta remained unaffected, as it engulfed the Megatank entirely and taking it inside the goo, making it explode.
"I'd never thought I'd live to see the day where I felt sorry for XANA," Odd commented.
"Can you show me?" Aelita asked.
"Yeah, I'll send you a visual," Jérémie agreed, before sending his current viewpoint directly to the supercomputer's monitor, as the Marabounta was crawling away to seek and destroy more of XANA's monsters.
"Wow, it's working even better than I thought it would!" Aelita confessed. She sounded impressed.
"Yeah, it's awesome and effective," Odd agreed. "But if you want my opinion, Miss Einstein, you've invented yourself a nasty piece of work. It looks like black acid."
"Sorry," Aelita let out a soft laugh. "But as long as it works, it doesn't matter to me what it looks like."
Jérémie watched another Tarantula being swallowed up by the black sludge, before finally speaking, "Aelita, I think I've seen enough. There are no bugs as far as I can see."
"As you wish, Prince Charming," the pink-ette quickly relented. "The closest neutral tower is southwest from your current position."
"Got it," Odd took the lead, before running in the mentioned direction.
Jérémie sighed, offering XANA a mental apology for its current pain, before turning to the direction of the tower Aelita pointed out. But he had to stop right away. The black ooze was surrounding him, creeping up on his feet. "Odd! Help!"
Odd immediately turned around and saw his dilemma before he had to ask.
"Odd, Jérémie, what's going on?!" Aelita asked, understandably alert when she heard the urgency in Jérémie's voice.
The purple cat didn't answer the pink-ette as he fired a Laser Arrow at the Marabounta. He cleared a path for the blue elf, who quickly ran away from the sludge. The Marabounta chased after them, Odd firing more arrows at it while they were running to hold it back.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Odd, Jérémie! Respond, darn it!" the pink-ette ordered. She had heard Jérémie call out to Odd, completely panicked, and now the two were running away from the area.
"Your Marabounta seems to have it in for us!" Odd finally replied. On the holomap, two arrows–one green, one yellow–continued to run away, heading towards the tower she pointed them towards.
"This isn't the time for jokes!" she told them. "Stop running! I programmed it to only attack XANA's monsters!"
But they didn't stop. "We wish we were joking, Aelita!" Odd retorting. "Program it some glasses or something!"
She typed in a couple of commands to let her see the Marabounta on the holomap, because before this point, they were separate. It worked, and now she could see clearly that the Marabounta was indeed chasing them.
"This can't be right," she muttered in disbelief. "Did you do anything to it?"
"No, except for firing a few Laser Arrows," Odd replied.
Aelita rolled her eyes, feeling an incoming headache, "That wasn't the smartest thing to do, you idiot. Now it thinks you're an enemy."
"He didn't have a choice!" Jérémie interjected. "The Marabounta was coming after me!"
"What?! How can that be?! Unless..." Aelita was in shock, before typing in some more commands to check on something. The window that popped up confirmed her suspicions. "Oh, Aelita, you idiot! It's my fault! The virus implanted in Jérémie is making the Marabounta confuse him with one of XANA's monsters! And now, it's also after Odd because he defended Jérémie!"
"Great, nice work, Miss Frankenstein!" Odd retorted. "I thought we had nothing to worry about!"
"I was wrong," she replied without second thought. "Just head for the tower. I'll kill the program." The Marabounta was dangerously close behind the duo as Aelita hit the 'enter' key...but nothing happened. "Oh no! No! No, no, no!"
"Whenever you're ready, Aelita!" Odd exclaimed urgently.
"I can't deactivate the program," she didn't want to deliver the bad news to them, but she had to. "The Marabounta's gotten away from me. It doesn't want to die. Now, it will submerge everyone and everything in its path, not just XANA's monsters!"
"Brief Ulrich and Yumi!" Jérémie advised. "Whether they're busy or not, they need to know!"
"Agreed. You two hang in there," she said, before bringing up Ulrich's number on her screen. But he didn't pick up. "Come on, Ulrich. Stop sulking and answer your darn phone!" But a few more seconds passed, and the call timed out. The call program closed on its own, and Aelita was seething, "Of all the days for that guy to be sulking! Odd, your roommate is unbearable sometimes!"
"Trust me, I know!" Odd replied. "But when he's sulking, there's really nothing you can do!"
Aelita just shook her head as she dialed Yumi's number. Hopefully, the Japanese girl was not sulking.
"Aelita?" Yumi picked up on the second ring.
"There's not enough time to give you all the details, so I'll make it short," Aelita told her. "My Marabounta is out of control and now Lyoko is in danger. Get here now."
"Maradona's done what?" Yumi asked, clearly having misheard the crucial word in that sentence.
"Marabounta," Aelita swiftly corrected her. "It's the program I was thinking of working on earlier." She sighed, stressed to the max, "I can't explain everything now. Just get here ASAP. Odd and Jérémie are in big trouble. Ulrich's at school, but I can't reach him. I don't know what's going on with him!"
"I do," Yumi immediately replied. "Don't worry. I'll get him and we'll be right over." She then hung up.
A grateful Aelita was now free to search for a solution.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd came to a stop after glancing behind him and not seeing any black sludge behind him and Jérémie. "Hey, Aelita, I think we lost your monster, but now we're kinda lost ourselves."
"Huh? Oh, uh, sorry, guys," Aelita apologized. "Between the Marabounta and Ulrich not picking up, my attention is stretched pretty thin right now. Go west. The Marabounta hasn't hit that part of the sector yet. In the meantime, I'll find a way to stop it."
"Don't blow it, okay?" Odd exclaimed. "I don't wanna end up as chewing gum!" The duo then started running in the aforementioned direction.
"I'm sorry," the pink-ette apologized again. "I'm trying my best to make sure that doesn't happen, though you should be okay, Odd. You'll just be devirtualized."
Which meant it was Jérémie that was the problem, though that went unsaid.
All they had to do was make sure Jérémie made it inside of a neutral tower, where he could use Code: EARTH on himself. Then Aelita could work in relative peace.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Yumi entered the boys' floor of the dormitory building and marched right up to Odd and Ulrich's door. She knocked, not surprised that there was no answer. She paused, knowing the possible negative side-effects of what she was about to do. Ulrich was upset, and while he was, he appreciated his space.
But their friends being in danger far outweighed the possibility of him hating her for the next few days.
So she opened the door and placed her hands on her hips as she glared at Ulrich, who was lying down on his bed, clearly sulking.
"I knew I'd find you here." No answer. "Aelita's been trying to call you."
"Yeah, well, if I don't answer, it's because I don't want to see anyone. Least of all, you."
She was surprised by his tone, and how it was directly at her, no less. All she had done was watch him attempt to dive. She didn't make him do anything. "Hey, if you want to make a fool of yourself in front of everyone, don't blame me. No one asked you to spy on me at the pool."
"Spy on you?!" How she figured out his real reason for being at the pool, he didn't know, nor did he care. He couldn't let her know that she was right, that he was only there to spy on her and William. "You've gotta be kidding. I just happened to be there, okay?"
She scoffed, not buying his excuse, "Yeah, right. What an incredible coincidence!" She stopped her sarcasm as she continued, "Anyway, do you mind shelving your ego for a minute? Odd and Jérémie need us on Lyoko."
She shut the door, leaving him alone like he wanted, but he only scoffed.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd and Jérémie finally reached their destination. A tower was in sight, in the distance. But they had to stop again, gasping in shock as they did so. The Marabounta was completely covering the base of the tower.
"Aelita, bad news!" Odd relayed. "The Marabounta got here first. And without vehicles, the tower is completely unreachable!" If only they had the Overboard, Jérémie could enter the tower from above.
Jérémie began backing away in understandable fear.
"You two, hide somewhere!" Aelita told them. "I'll find a way to stop it. I promise." If she didn't, she could kiss her cousin and boyfriend (maybe?) goodbye. "And Ulrich and Yumi are on the way. At least, I hope they are..."
The Marabounta advanced towards the duo, and Odd immediately fired his arrows at it. Jérémie just stood there, knowing his power of Creation wouldn't do any good in this situation. The sludge would just climb over any wall he created. He could create a clone, but he doubted that would work, given how the Marabounta was a multi-agent system, meaning it had eyes everywhere. If only they were in the Ice Sector, where he could try freezing the Marabounta...
Odd backed away as he began firing from both paws, but every time he fired, the Marabounta separated only to come together again, making the arrows he had fired wasted. Jérémie glanced around, watching the black sludge creep ever closer towards him.
"If this goes on any longer, all of Lyoko will be destroyed!" Aelita frantically reminded them.
"Jérémie!" Odd called, and the blue elf blinked.
He was completely surrounded by the Marabounta, his only companion being a tree. Odd was more than a few meters away. The sludge was surrounding him and closing in. This was it. He had a good life, however short and confusing it was...
"Watch out!" Aelita warned. "XANA's virtualizing a monster at Jérémie's current coordinates!"
Odd groaned, "Perfect! Just what we needed!"
Sure enough, a Krabe virtualized and then landed in front of Jérémie. The blue elf took up a defensive stance, but the monster surprised him by holding out one of its legs. "What...?" The Krabe wasn't looking to attack, but to...
Jérémie made his choice within two seconds and tightly grabbed onto its outstretched leg, despite feeling awkward that he was touching a monster like this. The Krabe thrust its leg towards Odd, making Jérémie fly through the air and landing right next to Odd.
The purple cat briefly knelt at the blue elf's side to make sure he was okay, before the two both turned back to the Krabe, only to see it being swallowed by the Marabounta.
Unable to believe what he just saw, Odd exclaimed, "That's crazy! That Krabe just sacrificed itself for you!" As he helped Jérémie to his feet, he added, "I don't get it."
But apparently, Aelita did. "Of course! It's obvious!"
Two Bloks arrived on the scene, as did three Kankrelats. Odd aimed to fire at them, but they didn't attack the two humans at all. Instead, the monsters fired in the other direction, where the Marabounta was on the prowl.
"Hey, what's the matter with them?" Odd asked.
"Remember when XANA got that new battery and basically helped us save Jérémie's life?" Aelita asked. "The same thing is happening here. XANA needs Jérémie's memory, so it knows it can't let him die."
Jérémie summarized slowly, "XANA is...protecting me..."
"Exactly. Use them as allies to defeat the Marabounta. XANA can keep making monsters, but there's only so many of us." Aelita muttered, "Which I never thought would come in handy one day..."
Odd glanced back at Jérémie, who simply nodded. Seeing the elf's reassurance, the cat resolved to join the Bloks and Kankrelats in the defense line.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita turned to the elevator when its doors swung open for a second time. Yumi was standing here, her hands on her hips.
"At last!" Aelita breathed a soft sigh of relief. "But...where's Ulrich?" He still wasn't here?
"Alone with his pride," Yumi retorted. "Wanna tell me what's going on now?"
"Sorry, I can't. There's no time," Aelita turned back to the monitor, trying to search for a solution to the problem. "Head for the scanner room, but when you get to Lyoko, do not attack XANA's monsters."
Yumi raised a single eyebrow in confusion and intrigue, but didn't question it as she pressed the down button.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd fired his arrows in tandem with the monsters' lasers. He was relieved to know he was wasting a lot less arrows now that he had more fire power on his side.
"Virtualization!"
Yumi's avatar formed in mid-air, before landing next to Jérémie. As soon as she got to her feet, she turned to the elf, "You mind explaining the situation now? Aelita said that XANA wasn't our enemy this time." Behind Jérémie loomed another Krabe, which was ready to do what its predecessor had done if it had to.
"She's right," Jérémie explained. "Our enemy is the Marabounta." He pointed to the black sludge surrounding them and the monsters stationed with them.
Once she saw the black gunk, Yumi shouted in disgust, "Uwah! What is that horrible stuff?!"
"The Marabounta," Jérémie explained. "Aelita created it in hopes it would weaken XANA, but the problem is that it's confusing me for one of XANA's monsters due to my virus."
"And Jérémie can't be materialized because it's taken over all the towers!" Odd added.
Yumi looked at the tower in the distance, noticing how the black sludge was covering the base of said tower. Seeing this, she was much more understanding of the situation now. "So XANA is helping us protect you?" she asked Jérémie.
"Pretty much," the elf shrugged.
The geisha just shook her head, a hand on her hip, "The world has turned upside down today."
She ran up to the Marabounta and threw one of her fans at the ooze. Her fan hardly did any damage, and she caught it as she joined the defense line alongside Odd.
The situation was weird, yes, but her top priority was protecting Jérémie from the Marabounta. And to do her job, she had to let XANA's monsters live just this once.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Another knock came to Ulrich's door. The brunette sighed, before responding, "Yeah?"
The door opened, revealing that it was William this time, "Hi. I came to see how you were doing."
Ulrich immediately sat up, fully alert and now too tense to rest, "Yeah, right! When you have a good chance to humiliate the competition, you might as well go for it!"
"Woah, did I miss something here?" William asked in confusion. While Ulrich wasn't his favorite of Yumi's friends, William was too good a person to just let the brunette die. He wasn't expecting gratitude, but he did not expect this kind of attitude either. "What's your problem?"
"You're my problem!" Ulrich pointed at him. "I didn't ask you to save me!"
"What was I supposed to do?! Just let you drown?!" William asked, placing his hands on his hips. "No, let me tell you what your problem actually is. Me being around Yumi all the time forces you to ask yourself a question, a tough question that you can't really answer. Let me give you a piece of friendly advice: go and talk to Yumi, from the heart. Or else, one day, I will. Then, I really will be your problem!"
He then shut the door, leaving Ulrich alone once more.
Ulrich sighed, fuming as he looked away from the closed door. He absolutely despised whenever William was always right...
But he could always leave it to William to give him the kick in the pants that he needed.
Right now, his friends were in trouble. He had a crisis to help fix.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita was really testing her words typed per minute, the test she was required to take every week in computer class. She was the verge of letting the tears fall when Jérémie asked, "How are you doing, Aelita?"
"I'll never make it!" she groaned, face-planting her head onto the keyboard in front of her in defeat. "I'm really the biggest loser to ever walk the face of the Earth!"
"It's not your fault," Jérémie remained calm and gentle. "Honestly, I didn't expect my virus to be a problem either."
Wait... "Your virus?" Hold on. "Of course!" She just received an idea. What she had been attempting until this point was to try and use the Marabounta's own code against it, or try to fix certain codes to bring it back to her control, only to fail every time. But this idea could work...
She had to try, at least.
"Wanna fill us in, Aelita?" Yumi asked, before throwing her fans at the ooze in front of her, making them slide along the ground.
"Just keep up the defense," Aelita replied. "I'm working on something."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd firing, backing away as the Kankrelats fired with him. The Marabounta was making it difficult for them to fight back. As it got closer, the Bloks also backed away.
"Whatever you do, don't let it make any headway," Odd warned the monsters surrounding them. "It'll attack from the rear."
Yumi was right by his side, "You're a really good combat general, Odd."
"It's just strategy, you know," Odd reminded her. "And it's not easy, when the only thing stupider than one Blok is two Bloks."
Yumi laughed at the joke before throwing one of her fans. As she caught said fan, she turned to the lab, "Aelita, move it. Things are getting a bit out of hand."
"I'm doing my best, guys."
"We know," Yumi replied with a gentle smile. "We just want you to do it faster." In front of her, two Kankrelats were engulfed by the sludge and destroyed.
"You're in luck, then," Aelita replied, as Odd and Yumi had their backs to each other, watching each other's blind sides. "I think I found a way to destroy the Marabounta." Jérémie immediately felt relaxed. He knew Aelita could do it. "Odd, I inserted the codes for a deadly virus in the next Laser Arrow you fire. If you hit a sphere with it, the whole colony will be infected. But–"
A way-too-eager Odd cut her off, "No sweat!" He then pointed a paw at the sludge.
"Will you let me finish?!" Aelita interrupted him right back. "It will only work if you hit the first sphere, the one I transferred to Lyoko that created all of the others. It's at the heart of the Marabounta."
"Great!" Odd exclaimed. It was impossible to go anywhere right now without being devirtualized. "How am I supposed to reach the heart of the Marabounta? On a camel's back?!"
He heard a familiar whistling sound behind him, and he turned around to see the Krabe hovering over Jérémie kneel, offering the purple cat its services.
The geisha was just as surprised as the cat was, but the elf gave an encouraging nod. That's when they knew, for sure, that their faith in Aelita far outweighed the weirdness of this situation.
So Odd promptly climbed up on top of the Krabe's back. "Charge!" he ordered his figurative camel. "Aelita, would you mind telling me how to find the right sphere in all this mess?"
"I'll guide you," the pink-ette reassured him.
Odd felt a bit uneasy when the Krabe began to shake and slow down, being affected by the Marabounta it was now marching into.
Jérémie backed away, no longer having a giant imposing monster behind him to protect him. Yumi continued to help the Bloks and Kankrelats, all of them holding the defense line while Odd and the Krabe were gone.
Out of nowhere, his right leg suddenly began burning. He looked down to see that the Marabounta had that leg and was now snaking up from it to the rest of his body. Paralyzed because of it, he cried out in pain.
Yumi immediately turned around. When she saw the situation, she promptly ran over to him, throwing her fan. The strike against the Marabounta set Jérémie's leg free, and the elf ran away as soon as he was safe, passing Yumi on the way.
He rested when he approached the Bloks, who were still firing at the black ooze surrounding them. Kneeling, he checked his right leg, still feeling the burning. It was fading now, but it was painful as well as scary.
He then looked back to check on Yumi, only to see her being covered with the black sludge. Once she was completely covered, the sludge faintly flashed before losing its Yumi shape. The geisha was gone.
"Yumi!" he cried out.
"Don't worry," Aelita reassured him. "She's just been devirtualized."
But he didn't feel assured. The black sludge was just getting closer and closer, surrounding both him as well as the monsters fighting on his behalf. He backed up along with them. "Aelita..."
"Virtualization!" was the pink-ette's response.
Jérémie turned around in time to see Ulrich, now in his samurai avatar, land on top of a Blok and unsheathe his katana, before leaping off and striking at the gunk with such ferocity, it was slightly concerning and comforting at the same time.
It was about time he had shown up.
Odd was approaching his destination, but the Krabe carrying him was slowing down thanks to the ooze on its legs. He glanced down at his figurative camel nervously, seeing it was partially covered. He was running out of time.
"You're almost there, Odd," Aelita told him, making him glance up. "I'll give you the exact location of the first sphere."
He took aim at the one piece of the Marabounta that stood out to him. "It's okay, cuz. I think I found it."
It was a black sphere, like a bubble, that was floating above the ground, spawning more of the sludge over and over.
He took aim, reading the arrow, as the Marabounta had nearly engulfed the Krabe underneath him.
"You've only got one shot," Aelita reminded him. She didn't correct him, telling him that he was indeed aiming at the right sphere.
A few meters away, Ulrich and Jérémie were backing away with the monsters still alive. The sludge was way too close, and it was just getting closer.
It was now or never. Odd fired, hitting the sphere dead on. He cheered as a fireball emerged from the sphere and quickly overshadowed the Marabounta, and eventually the entire sector. As he was devirtualized due to being too close to the explosion (as was the Krabe he was standing on), he had the peace of mind knowing that it had worked, that Jérémie was safe another day.
Once the fire ball dissipated, Ulrich opened his eyes to survey the scene. No black sludge. The Marabounta was gone. Relieved (and having been briefed on the situation by Aelita on his way here), he turned to Jérémie, who he was standing back-to-back with, "You okay, Jer?"
"I'm fine," the blue elf was smiling in relief. "And you?"
"I'm not the one whose life was in danger," the samurai gently shot back with a small smile. "Aelita, how's Odd?"
"Devirtualized and exhausted," the pink-ette answered. "But he and Yumi are both fine. We did it."
"We did it," Jérémie repeated.
Ulrich then pushed the elf behind him, readying his katana for a fight as he watched XANA's remaining monsters–a Blok, a Krabe, a Kankrelat, and a Tarantula–regroup. Jérémie took up a defensive stance, waiting for the monsters to attack them.
But XANA continued to surprise them, making its monsters not attack, but bow instead.
"W-What...?" Odd asked from the lab. Jérémie realized that his visual that he'd sent to Aelita's end earlier was still active, meaning they and Yumi could see the bowing as well.
"XANA's thanking us for our help..." Jérémie realized. He didn't know why or how he knew that, but him being able to notice human behaviors from XANA felt right somehow.
"Be careful," Yumi, from the lab, warned her friends, her blue elf friend especially. "Regardless of gratitude, it's still our enemy."
"Yumi's right," Aelita agreed. Ulrich remained stationed in front of Jérémie as the monsters left. "The Marabounta's gone, but our brief alliance only existed because XANA wants your memory at all costs."
As he and Ulrich watched the monsters disappear amidst the treeline, Jérémie sighed, "Don't worry. I haven't forgotten..."
It made him sad. XANA protecting him felt right somehow, even if he didn't understand why, but no matter how much sympathy he felt for XANA, the feeling would never be mutual.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The group exited the sewers about twenty minutes later. As Yumi covered the passage with the manhole cover, Odd addressed his cousin, "Next time you wanna play mad scientist, clue us in a little more first, okay?"
"Well, I really tried to, but you all had better things to do," Aelita reminded them. It was evidently her turn to sulk. "But you're right, Odd. This time, it was a big zero from start from finish."
"No, it wasn't," Jérémie gently reassured her. "XANA was scared, which is a win by itself. You just ran the program without testing for bugs first."
The pink-ette sighed, "You're right. I should've let you help me."
"I would've appreciated it," the blue-clad blonde admitted. "But I also appreciate you trying to give me as much of a choice as possible. I'll always worry about XANA. Being the only one who can deactivate its towers, that's inevitable. Regardless, thank you." He pressed a light kiss to her cheek, making her blush. "Your Marabounta program has merit, and we'll work on it together. For now, at least you have the peace of mind knowing that you found a solution to an unexpected problem. That's what counts."
Aelita smiled, taking to heart his encouragement.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd led the group back to the school. As they reached the courtyard, Sissi saw them and she immediately forgot about the magazine she'd been reading.
"Ulrich! You're back!" she exclaimed, showing her relief. "I stopped by your room to check on you, but you weren't there. Where were you?"
"In the park with my friends," Ulrich softly replied, refusing to meet anyone's eyes.
"A-Are you feeling any better after what happened at the pool?" she asked.
Ulrich grit his teeth, barely managing to avoid lashing out at the mention of the embarrassing situation he found himself in earlier. "Yeah, I'm fine now," he managed to say. He appreciated her concern, he really did, but he did not want to talk about it.
He then left for the dorms, the other four following him, leaving Sissi behind in the courtyard.
In the dorm building, as they approached the stairs, a thought came to Odd, "So what happened at the pool, Ulrich? Come on, out with it!"
Ulrich and Yumi both turned around together, and responded in unison, "Nothing!" The brunette boy didn't deserve to be embarrassed any more than he already was.
The two exchanged a smile and started climbing the stairs together. While doing so, he turned to her and asked, "Yumi...I...could we talk sometime? About what happened?"
She was softly smiling at him, "Of course. Whenever you're ready to."
They shared another smile and continued heading up to Aelita's room, with the pink-ette herself behind them.
Odd and Jérémie remained at the foot of the stairs, the latter looking intrigued at the wide grin now on the former's face. Odd turned to his friend, "Wanna hear the unencrypted version of that scene?"
Jérémie raised an eyebrow, "You know what happened?"
Odd shrugged, "I have a pretty good idea." He cleared his throat, before recreating the scene by imitating Yumi, "Oh, Ulrich! You're jealous of William, but it's because you love me! I just know it!"
Playing along, Jérémie took ahold of Odd's hands, imitating Ulrich, "It's true, Yumi. I love you!"
"Me too, Ulrich, I've always loved you!" Odd replied, still in the Yumi mood.
"Hey!" Ulrich's actual voice interrupted them. The two blondes turned to face him, who was standing at the top of the stairs, Aelita and Yumi with him. The pink-ette was trying and failing to hide her giggles, while the Japanese girl's face was beat red. "What the heck are you two doing?!" Ulrich's face was red too.
Jérémie raised an eyebrow in genuine confusion, "Is that not what happened?"
Ulrich and Yumi's faces only turned a darker shade of crimson, before they disappeared at the top of the stairwell, leaving only Aelita behind, who finally let her giggles free.
In the midst of her laughs, she managed to grind out, "Odd, you're the best worse influence on Jérémie! That was awesome!" She then followed the two lovebirds up the stairs and to her room, leaving the two blondes behind, still at the bottom floor.
Now alone, Jérémie turned to his friend, "Do you think they'll confess their love someday?" Meaning Ulrich and Yumi, obviously.
Odd smiled reassuringly, "Of course, once they make up their minds. In about twenty years."
Jérémie sighed, before following his purple-clad friend up the stairs.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next Episode: 27 - Vertigo / Ulrich has a secret, and Aelita finally completes Jérémie's anti-virus.
A/N: For those of you unaware, Marabounta is from the Brazilian word 'marabunta' (sometimes written without the O), which denotes a massive migration of army ants which devour anything edible in their path. Also, Jérémie admitting to XANA protecting him somehow feeling right will come up again later.
I changed Ulrich's dive from a simple slip to a hint to his vertigo, because it makes more sense given the context of the situation. Sorry for bruising your ego, Ulrich, but I had to. The next chapter will (obviously) explain why his vertigo didn't effect him in "The Cost of Pride".
The end scene is adapted from one of the canon episode's deleted scenes, and I honestly don't know why they cut it. It felt like a much more fitting conclusion to everything than what we were given in the episode.