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 and FP7ETDP43
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
"The Lyokowarriors return to the Desert Replika, only to stumble when Odd's bad luck begins affecting the others."
Episode 60: Superstitions
(Based on Hard Luck)
Today was a good day—Ulrich could feel it. He had just taken a refreshing shower with hot water (for once), and he was confident that he had gotten a decent grade on yesterday's history test.
Wearing just his boxers and a pair of sandals, and carrying his toiletries bag, Ulrich returned to his room. But after opening the door, he stopped just inside and looked at the scene that awaited him in surprise.
Odd, his roommate, was standing by his open closet, throwing all sorts of clothing items all over the room and muttering to himself as he rummaged through it for something. He was only wearing his boxers and long-sleeved pink undershirt.
"Hey, Odd? If you're trying to clean up your side of the room, you'd better find another system," Ulrich quipped.
The clothes-throwing stopped. "There we go! I found it!" Odd exclaimed, slinging his white pants over his shoulder. He then replied to the brunette as he sat down on his bed, "That's not what I'm doing, genius! You know I don't like cleaning. I just don't want to be late for breakfast!"
"So you can steal all the croissants?" Ulrich asked as he sat down on his own bed.
Odd began putting his pants on.
"Well yeah!" the blonde replied. "But also to make Sam and me official! Where are my shoes?"
Ulrich just smirked and pointed under Odd's desk, where his shoes were lying. "You just have to follow the stink."
Now fully dressed, Odd smiled and went to retrieve his shoes.
"You're pretty wound up today," the brunette commented. "You sure this morning is the best time to talk to Sam about your deep feelings for each other?"
The blonde sat in his desk chair to put his shoes on, "Of course! She met Kiwi last week, and he really took a liking to her!" Being a dog person, Sam already liked Kiwi, but Odd wanted it to go both ways.
Ulrich raised an amused eyebrow, "And that's a sign that Sam's the one?"
"Of course it is! Kiwi knows a good match when he sees it!" Both shoes now on, Odd stood up and picked up his bag, "So today's the day!" While swinging his bag over his shoulder, however, he accidentally knocked his roommate's hand mirror off the desk and onto the floor, causing it to shatter into many pieces. "Whoops," he gave his roommate an apologetic smile, "sorry about that."
"I'm sorry for you," Ulrich joked. "That means seven years of bad luck." Honestly, he could care less about that mirror. It wasn't a present from anybody, nor did he really have any use for it.
"Ulrich," a sly smile came over Odd's face, "are you superstitious?"
"What? You're not?" the brunette commenced the teasing.
"Are you kidding?" Odd replied. "Not a chance! Get real, good buddy! Four-leaf clovers, rabbits' feet, horseshoes—they're all for old ladies!" He walked up to the door and grabbed the handles, before sighing happily, "In fact, I can feel it: today's going to be my lucky day!"
He then opened the door, only to be immediately faced with an angry Jim.
"Della Robbia! I'll bet you think it's really funny filling my shoes with goat cheese, huh? Well, you just earned yourself eight hours of detention!"
Odd frowned, "But it wasn't me, Jim!"
"Well, if it wasn't you, then who was it?!"
"I'm not a snitch, Jim, but you might want to check out Nicolas and Hervé."
"Thanks for the tip. That's gonna cost you four hours of detention for selling out your classmates." The man turned and walked away.
Odd turned to Ulrich with a pout, "Can you believe that?!"
"I told you, Odd," Ulrich tried hard to hide his amused smile. "Seven years of bad luck."
"Forget it!" the blonde exclaimed. "There's no such thing as luck, much less bad luck!" He then left, closing the door behind him.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
But detention was just the start of the unfortunate string of events that plagued Odd throughout the rest of the day. It continued when Odd finally slipped in line for breakfast after being held up by Milly and Tamiya looking for one of their classic scoops.
Rosa gave him an apologetic look, "Sorry, Odd, but I guess you're outta luck."
"Not even one croissant left, Rosa? What am I supposed to eat?!"
She held up a piece of toast, "How 'bout some dry toast?"
He scoffed, "As if!" He then sighed, "Just give me some hot chocolate to drown my sorrows in."
"Sorry, I can't do that either, Odd. The machine is on the blink. Never happened before in all the years I've been working here."
He frowned. Could this day get any worse?
That's how he got stuck with his pitiful breakfast. He set his tray down on the table the others had chosen. He sat down, but didn't touch his food yet, only crossing his arms, visibly upset.
"Tea and dry toast, Odd?" Yumi asked, concerned but also looking amused. "Are you sick or something?"
"No, not yet," Odd bitterly retorted, "but after I choke this down, I will be!"
He ignored the resulting laughs from his five friends.
"Okay, everyone," Aelita cut in, now serious, "here's the plan: after today's classes, we're returning to the military base and destroying the Desert Replika's supercomputer once and for all. I don't think it should be too complicated." As Odd took a bite of his toast, he noticed Sam walking past, side-by-side with Azra Ürgüp. "That is, as long as XANA doesn't have any nasty surprises up its sleeve."
Odd's face lit up when he saw his dark-skinned beauty, "Ah, just who I was waiting for! Sam, my good luck charm!"
"I thought you didn't believe in that stuff," Ulrich teased.
"Hush!" Odd retorted, before calling out, "Hey, Sam!"
She and Azra both turned around, "Yeah?"
"Let's have breakfast together," he proposed, now standing in front of her.
"So you can start drinking hot chocolate through your nose again?" Sam teased. Behind her, Azra looked unimpressed.
"Uh, no," Odd shrugged. "The machine's busted, so I didn't get any this morning. I was hoping we could talk about something really important."
Before Sam could reply, Hervé and Nicolas came up behind Odd.
"Hey, why did you tell Jim on us?" Hervé demanded. "You're a snitch, Odd!"
"Not only that," Nicolas added, annoyed, "but it was your idea to put goat cheese in his sneakers." He amusedly giggled at the memory, "Which was incredibly funny!"
"Yeah, that wasn't a nice thing to do, Della Robbia!" Hervé vowed. "Just wait! We're gonna get even with you for that someday. You'll see, you traitor!"
They then turned around and left. But the bad things just kept coming.
To add insult to injury, Sam's reply was an awkward, "Sorry, Odd. I already have plans. Azra's teaching me Turkish so I can talk to one of Papa's business partners when I go home next weekend."
Azra's deadpan expression remained on her face, "Hervé is right, you know. Letting them take the fall for you wasn't nice at all. Mankafa!"
She and Sam then walked away as well, in the opposite direction, leaving Odd by himself.
He sat back down with his friends, put down at so many bad events in a row, "Man-what?"
"Dork!" Aelita couldn't hide her laughter. "That's the word for 'numbskull'!" She winked at him, "Well, Odd, I guess you just had your first Turkish lesson!"
Odd just looked sadly at his tray. Today just wasn't his day...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Later that afternoon, the Lyokowarriors were back on the Desert Replika. Aelita had just activated the tower the Skid was moored to, and the others were waiting for her to prepare the Translation program.
"Walking under a ladder is like asking for bad luck," Ulrich said. The group was discussing superstitions, to Odd's ire.
"In Japan, people avoid anything to do with the number four," Yumi added, "because it sounds just like the word for 'death'."
"Interesting," Jérémie commented from the main cockpit. "Y'know, spilling salt is considered bad luck."
"So are black cats," William added, "because of their supposed ties to witchcraft."
Odd smugly cut in, "And I tell you that the only thing that'll bring you all bad luck is talking to Odd about dumb superstitions, 'cause you'll get is being laughed at."
"You think you're smart," Ulrich barely held back his laugh, "but I'll bet by the end of the day, you'll be crossing the street to avoid those black cats! Better start carrying a rabbit's foot!"
Aelita was shaking her head with amusement, though it remained unseen by the others. "Okay, guys, that's enough. Time to focus. Odd, Yumi, William, you guys ready for Translation?"
"Ready!" Odd and William replied simultaneously.
"Any time you are!" Yumi added.
"Good! Then here we go. Translate Yumi. Translate William. Translate Odd."
Odd closed his eyes, waiting to be teleported to the military base. But when he opened his eyes, he found himself still in his cockpit. "Well? Go on!"
Yumi's voice came in over the comm, "Hey, Aelita, I think we've got a problem. William and I made it, but...where's Odd?" So it was just him? What was going on?
"He's still in his Navskid!" Aelita replied, sounding confused herself.
"I don't get it!" Odd exclaimed, looking around frantically at his display panel. "I didn't do anything!" He didn't touch any button he wasn't supposed to, as far as he knew. He just let Aelita do her thing, like always.
"I don't get it either," Aelita replied, dumbfounded. "The Translation failed for the first time!"
"I guess it's bad luck," Ulrich quipped, slightly smug.
Odd narrows his eyes in anger, "Ulrich, save your dumb jokes or you'll have the bad luck of being forced to eat ten kilos of dry toast!" He finished his sentence by punching his open palm.
"What do we do now, Aelita?" Jérémie asked. "You want me to go?"
"No, you've got plenty to do dealing with the Replika," the pink-ette replied. "The superscan has just picked up an activated tower. I'll send Ulrich."
"Just say when," the samurai said.
Aelita did, "Translate Ulrich."
The Translation was successful, as a few seconds later, the others heard William greet the brunette on the other end, "Hey, Ulrich! We're over here!"
"Where's Odd?" Yumi asked.
"Stuck on the Replika. Disappointed?"
"No, not really," the knight was brutally honest.
As was the geisha, "Same. He's really bad luck today."
"Hey!" Odd snapped. "I can still hear you guys, y'know!"
Yumi giggled, "Sorry." A pause. "As deserted as ever, I see."
"That's good news," William replied. "Lead the way, Yumes."
"Watch your step," Aelita warned the trio. "If a tower's been activated, you can be sure that XANA's planning to counterattack."
"How about giving us the coordinates so that we can go and deactivate it?" Jérémie suggested.
"Due west from your current position."
Odd pumped his fist, "Let's go!" At least, he could still help Jérémie reach the tower. That was enough for him to remain optimistic.
"Disembarking," Jérémie announced, right before he and Odd teleported out of their respective cockpits and onto the ground below, Odd in a crouch.
"Here are your vehicles," Aelita said, as the Overboard appeared. Odd became confused, however, when he saw the Overwing appear as well.
"Um, Aelita, isn't Jérémie getting on the Overboard with me?" the cat asked, getting to his feet.
"About that, dear cousin of mine," the pink-ette replied, "seeing how your day's been going up to now, I'd prefer if you two travelled separately."
Jérémie just sent Odd an amused smile.
"You all are such lame-o's!" Odd insisted, angry. "I tell you, everything's cool!"
Suddenly, he froze in place, his image flickering as if he was bugged up. Jérémie's smile promptly disappeared as his eyes widened with surprise.
"Are you seeing this, Aelita?" the elf asked. "His avatar just bugged up!"
The glitchiness wore off, letting Odd move again.
"What's going on?" Jérémie asked.
Odd just huffed angrily, turning away and folding his arms.
"I have no idea," Aelita replied. "I'll check it out. You guys just get going."
Odd and Jérémie got on their vehicles and promptly set off.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The base was fortunately still abandoned as Yumi led Ulrich and William past the gatehouse. She pointed to a structure on their left.
"Freight elevator over there," she told them. "It'll take us downstairs."
The trio began running in that direction, with a security camera actively following their movements. They arrived at the lift in no time, and Yumi pressed the button.
As they waited for it to ascend to the surface and the doors to open, Ulrich asked, "Random question, but which monsters do you guys like fighting the least of all?"
"The least?" William replied. "Probably the Kongres. They move too fast."
"The Kankrelats," was Yumi's answer. "I really hate fighting against big bugs, blegh!"
"For me, it's the Megatanks," Ulrich said. "How about the–?"
There was suddenly a noise like someone, or something, being Translated. Yumi and William both had a front row seat, while Ulrich's back was to it.
Yumi cut him off, "Kankrelats!"
"Yeah, I know," the samurai replied. "You said that already."
"No, behind you, Ulrich!" the knight summoned his Zweihänder, as Yumi held up a fan. "Kankrelats!"
Ulrich turned around, only to see that they were right. A Kankrelat had appeared behind them, and another joined it, appearing out of thin air via the same way they themselves were Translated. He quickly unsheathed his katanas.
Yumi stood in front of both boys, her twin fans at the ready. As the Kankrelats scuttled towards them, a third one appeared. One of them fired, and the geisha blocked the shot with one fan before throwing the other. It hit its target right in the eye, making it vanish like it was being De-translated.
The other Kanrelats advanced and opened fire, as Yumi caught her fan. Fortunately, the lift door opened behind them.
"Hurry up!" William called out.
The trio rushed inside the lift, and Ulrich hit the button with his elbow, closing the door just before the Kankrelats reached them. The lift began to descend, and the trio could finally relax.
"I wish XANA had sent us a few Krabes instead," Yumi confessed.
"I'd have preferred Hornets," Ulrich replied.
"Creepers," William finished, before pressing a finger to his earpiece. "Aelita, do you read us?"
"Loud and clear. Anything wrong?"
"Yeah," the knight explained. "We just found out why XANA activated a tower. It's Translating Kankrelats our way."
"Got it."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Jérémie?" Aelita's voice cut into the Replika duo's journey. "The Fantastic Three have some unwanted visitors at the base. You have to deactivate the tower fast!"
"We're on our way," the elf replied. He pointed up ahead, "I can see a canyon in the distance."
"Tower coordinates confirmed. It's in the center of the canyon."
"Gotcha!" Jérémie said.
Flying beside him, Odd shrugged as if it was no big deal, "You see? Everything's cool. All this bad luck stuff is nonsense and superstition is for lame-o's. I told–!"
A shot to his shoulder cut him off. The two glanced behind them to see three Hornets flying after them, immediately opening fire upon seeing their targets.
An unimpressed Jérémie asked, "You were saying?"
"Oh, them? They're no problem! Watch this!" As the Hornets kept shooting, Odd performed a loop to get behind them. He shot a single Arrow, destroying one, before flying between the other two to rejoin the elf. "See? Piece of cake!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
When the lift opened, William stood in front of the trio, his Zweihänder acting as a shield. Behind him, Ulrich and Yumi both had their own weapons out. The hallway in front of them was empty, but it always paid to be careful.
They stepped out into the hallway. "The coast is clear in front of us," Ulrich muttered.
Yumi turned around in time to see a Kankrelat appear in the lift behind them. "But not behind us! Look!"
The monster stepped forward, charging its laser, while a second appeared behind it. Yumi backflipped to dodge a shot and threw a fan. One of the Kankrelats balanced on two legs, however, to shoot the fan away. Seeing this, Ulrich jumped up and caught the fan on its return, before throwing it back, hitting and destroying a Kankrelat.
"Nice one, Ulrich!" Yumi exclaimed as she caught the fan when it returned to her.
The second Kankrelat charged its laser and fired at William. The knight simply blocked the shot, deflecting it back and destroying the monster.
"Let's try to buy some time," Yumi suggested.
"Good idea," William admitted, as the trio backed up a bit before running down the hallway.
They soon turned a corner, with more Kankrelats not far behind them.
"Aelita?" Ulrich called out.
"What's up?"
"Any news? It's getting rough here!" the samurai replied.
"Hang in there," the pink-ette told them. "Jérémie and Odd are on their way to the tower now."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Two left," Jérémie told his partner. "That's one for each of us."
He and Odd promptly split up.
"Here we go!" Odd exclaimed.
The two Hornets split up to follow the two teens. One of them started shooting at Jérémie. He glanced over his shoulder and threw a cluster of daggers. The Hornet, however, flew up and easily avoided the attack.
Odd zigzagged to avoid his Hornet's shots. He finally stopped and turned to face the monster, anticipating its attack. The Hornet tried to tackle him, but when it got close, Odd flipped up into the air and let it pass underneath him.
The Overboard flipped upside-down in the same movement. The cat caught onto the back end of his vehicle and fired an Arrow, hanging off the back of the moving vehicle. The Arrow hit its target, destroying it. He then flipped the Overboard back around and landed on it again.
"Who said I was jinxed?" Odd boasted, before suddenly snapping into a rigid, upright position. His image began flickering again, with only his tail remaining unfrozen. "But...but..."
The Overboard went into a loop. As soon as he was upside-down, he fell off the vehicle, screaming as he fell. Still unable to move, he crashed into the ground and was knocked unconscious as a result.
Jérémie quickly arrived on the Overwing, the Hornet right behind him as he circled around his friend. "Odd, are you okay?"
The Hornet stopped and turned its attention to Odd, who remained motionless on the ground, his image flickering.
"Odd, what's going on?!" Aelita cut in, frantic. "You lost half your life points just now!"
"It's that stupid bug again, Aelita!" Jérémie told her, right before a shot destroyed the Overwing. The elf's wings automatically activated before he could fall very far.
The Hornet turned back to Odd, with Jérémie racing towards his friend to help.
As a laser hit the ground beside him, Odd finally, yet slowly, came to and lifted his head up. "Wha...what's going on?" he asked, groggy.
The Hornet flew in front of the cat and shot him in the face, devirtualizing him.
"No!" Jérémie growled in frustration—he was too late—before he sent out an energy wave. The monster was immediately destroyed, unable to dodge the wide dispersal of the attack. "That'll teach you to zap my friend down!" He then turned around and headed back towards the canyon. "Aelita, I'm heading for the activated tower."
"Okay, make it fast," Aelita replied. "The Fantastic Three have a huge bug problem."
"And what about the program bug?" he asked her. "Do you know what's causing it?"
"No, not yet. It might be a virus or some made-by-XANA thing," she attempted to theorize, "but whatever it is, I'm not having any luck with it."
It was faint, but both could've sworn they heard Odd angrily yell out from the scanner room, "There's no such thing as luck, you got that?!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Three Kankrelats walked along a hallway. Two of them turned a corner and went down another hallway, while the third stopped and looked into an open doorway on the opposite side. After a moment, it turned and followed the others, not seeing anything.
As it turned out, the Fantastic Three were inside the doorway the monster just abandoned, hiding on either side of the door (Ulrich and Yumi on one side, William on the other), out of side. The just-friends pointed at William, who nodded, before pressing the button, closing the door. Now safe, the trio turned their collective attention to the room they had chosen to take cover in.
"What's going on in here?" Ulrich asked.
It was the assembly room that Yumi and Aelita had stumbled upon during their last visit. Only this time, the machine was inactive. Unfortunately, due to needing to abort the mission, they never got answers.
"That's what I said the first time Aelita and I came here," Yumi commented as the trio descended the stairs towards the assembly line.
"It looks like some sort of factory assembly line," William said.
"Yeah, but what do they assemble here?" Ulrich wondered. There were dozens of large circuit boards lined up along one of the conveyor belts. "I was too busy being chased at the time, but I think the Mountain Replika's dam had something similar..."
Yumi was looking at a computer terminal nearby, next to one of the belts, "Looks like we might find the answers after all. This looks like a control terminal."
"Check it out, Yumi," Aelita cut in. "Something tells me that you'll gain some good intel on XANA's tactics here."
"Roger that," the geisha replied, before beginning to type away at the terminal.
Ulrich turned around to watch the area behind them, "What's going on with the tower, Aelita?"
"Jérémie should be deactivating it any minute now. Just some pests to get rid of first."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie flew inside the canyon, weaving around the rock columns that lined his path. Two more Hornets had appeared, coming up behind him and giving chase. They opened fire, before one of them collided with a column and exploded. The other one fired at the elf as he weaved through the columns at high speed.
Jérémie flipped over, so that his back was to the ground, and began forming a dagger, "Keep sticking to me like glue, XANA, and you'll find out real quick the consequences of doing that."
However, the energy stopped forming when his image suddenly started flickering green. He looked down at himself in shock, unfortunately taking his eyes off where he was going.
This caused him to painfully bounce off of a column, then a rock, then the canyon wall, before finally hitting the ground, his wings now gone.
As he collected himself, he heard Odd ask, "You okay, Jérémie?!"
"Yeah, I'm fine," he groaned. "It was just a rough landing." He glanced up and saw the tower not far ahead of him. "Guess I've gotta go the rest of the way on foot..."
Jérémie looked over his shoulder and saw the Hornet catching up with him and opening fire. He started running, zigzagging to avoid the lasers.
"Aelita!" he cried out. Hopefully, she saw the bug.
"Yes, Jérémie, I saw it," she replied. "The bug seems to have an effect on you, too. Better deactivate the tower fast, before you get devirtualized like Odd!"
"I'm going as fast as I can!"
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Ulrich! William!"
"Yeah, we read you," Ulrich replied, he and William still guarding Yumi's back-side.
"Listen, Jérémie can't deactivate the tower just yet," she informed them. "He's been affected by Odd's bug, too."
"Hey, it's not my bug, okay?" Odd defended himself, irritated.
"Sorry," the pink-ette struggled to hide her amusement, "it's just my name for it until we figure out exactly what's going on."
"It better be, because I've got nothing to do with this mess, you hear? It's just a question of chance."
"Did you say 'chance'?" Ulrich immediately teased. "What do you know! You're not becoming superstitious, are you?" Beside him, William failed to suppress his snickers.
Yumi cut in, "I figured it out."
The two boys walked back over to the terminal, where Yumi was. "Well?" William asked.
"I think it's an assembly line for motherboards and electronic implants," she told them.
"'Electronic implants'?" Ulrich asked. "For what exactly?"
"Well, to control those spiders, for example," the geisha said.
William immediately shuddered, "You mean those cybernetic creatures in the jungle lab?"
"Exactly what I mean," she replied.
Ulrich hummed, crossing his arms. "Makes sense, but the big question is...what XANA's planning to do with all of them."
"Believe me, I wish I knew the answer," Yumi commented.
"Well, knowing XANA," William added, "it can't be anything good."
The terminal screen suddenly changed, drawing their attention. The eye of XANA appeared on the screen...
"Speak of the devil..." the samurai muttered.
The conveyor belts started moving, and a Kankrelat came out from behind a corner, while two more appeared on the opposite side of the room. All three got their weapons out and prepared to fight. A Kankrelat started shooting at them, while another one appeared above a conveyor belt.
Ulrich stabbed it in the eye, destroying it. "Guess you're just like Odd! Not your lucky day!"
Another Kankrelat shot William in the leg. He quickly retaliated by stabbing it in its eye, destroying it.
A third Kankrelat jumped down the stairs towards the two boys. They both rolled to either side to avoid, ending up lounging on the ground. The monster then jumped onto the conveyor belt and rode it towards Yumi.
Yumi flipped away from her Kankrelat, dodging its lasers. She threw her fan and destroyed it, before getting hit in the shoulder by the remaining monster and falling to the floor. The Kankrelat moved along the conveyor belt towards her, only for Ulrich's katana to suddenly fly down and impale it.
The geisha stood up and took the katana out of the conveyor belt. "Thank you," she softly said, as she tossed it back to the samurai, who was riding the conveyor belt towards her.
He caught it, smiling, before jumping down next to her. She smiled back and bashfully looked away.
"Anytime," he replied, his voice almost in a whisper.
The knight was giving them both a knowing look. "Okay, you lovebirds. You can flirt later." The two promptly blushed in response. "We've got a supercomputer to find."
"And I can help with that," Aelita cut in. "I just located it. Head for the southernmost end of the room."
The trio turned in that direction and spotted a large doorway on the other side of the room.
"Okay, we're on our way," Ulrich said.
They jumped over the conveyor belt and ran for the door.
"What about your end?" William asked the pink-ette. "What's the latest?"
"Pretty bad news," she solemnly told them. "The Clone just showed up on the Replika... and if you ask me, it's not just a friendly visit..."
It didn't take them long to find their objective. This place wasn't a maze, so it was a direct route.
"Aelita, we're coming up to the supercomputer room," William whispered, before sticking his head out into the hallway. "Down there."
He led the other two over to the door, currently a set of double doors that were closed.
"The supercomputer will have to wait," Aelita said. "First, we've gotta solve the Clone problem!"
"We'd love to," Ulrich said as they came to a stop in front of the door. "Got any suggestions?"
"We don't have any choice. One of you has to be De-translated to keep it from entering Code: XANA into the Skid tower."
"Okay." Ulrich turned to his two partners, "What do we do, guys? Which one of us goes?"
William held up a fist, "We can always play for it."
Ulrich and Yumi both shared an intrigued and amused glance, before agreeing with his suggestion by holding up their fists as well.
"Paper, scissors, rock!"
Ulrich and William both chose scissors, while Yumi chose paper.
It was the knight's turn to share a knowing glance with the samurai. "Scissors cut paper, don't they, Yumes?" the brunette asked her.
Yumi just sighed. Typical. Just her luck.
"Get ready, XANA," she then declared. "We're good, Aelita. You can De-translate me."
"De-translate Yumi."
"Good luck, guys," she told the knight and the samurai as she disappeared.
"You too," were Ulrich's last words, before the military base faded from her view.
Then it was darkness, as she faded back to consciousness.
"Yumi, wake up!" Aelita's shout woke the geisha up completely. She was back in her Navskid. "The Clone's coming!"
She opened her eyes and looked around. Sure enough, the Clone was approaching the Skid tower, wearing its Odd mask. She disembarked herself, appearing in the ground between the Clone and its target (the Skid).
XANA-Odd immediately stopped walking when it saw her, before donning a death glare.
"Yeah, I know," she said. "It's irritating to see you too, XANA." She promptly opened her fans.
The Clone took a breath. She threw both of her fans. XANA-Odd blocked one with its shield before dodging the other.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich and William, in the meantime, decided to take their chances. Ulrich opened the door to the supercomputer room, with William in the middle of the frame holding his Zweihänder up as a shield. The room was full of pipes and glass cases.
And ten Kankrelats.
"Oh, wow!" Ulrich exclaimed, as they opened fire.
The samurai quickly ducked behind the door frame and pressed the button to close the door again, but he was a little too late. In that short timespan, one shot had knocked William's weapon out of his hand and two more after that De-translated him.
Now, Ulrich was all alone. Great.
"Aelita, the supercomputer room is infested with Kankrelats and William's been De-translated!" he exclaimed. "What's holding Jérémie up?!"
"He's just about ready to enter the tower."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
That last Hornet flew threw the canyon, as Jérémie hid himself behind a rock column. When it passed by unaware, he formed an energy bow and destroyed it with an arrow. Sighing in relief, he made one last break for the tower.
"Aelita, the passage is finally clear!"
"Great! Don't waste any time."
While he was running, though, he started glitching again. He stared at his hands in horror as he started to devirtualize. He was so close! Just a couple meters away!
With one last burst of speed, he was halfway devirtualized when he phased through the tower wall. Immediately collapsing onto the walkway to the first platform out of exhaustion, his avatar re-virtualized, giving him his complete form back.
"Jérémie! Are you okay?" Aelita asked, clearly worried. "You were almost devirtualized just now!"
But he didn't respond.
She and Odd both took notice. "Jérémie?"
"Jer, say something!" the Italian boy called out.
He couldn't. He was currently out cold.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Ulrich? We've got a problem!" Aelita called out, audibly stressed.
He was leaning against the wall just outside the closed doors of the supercomputer room. "What's wrong? Things can't get any worse, can they?"
"Jérémie made it to the tower, but he was affected by the bug right as he entered it," she explained. "He was halfway through being devirtualized, but the towers on the Replika seem to be as much of a safe haven as they are on Lyoko. He's fine, but he's currently out cold for the time being. That being said, I think you're on your own with the Kankrelats."
"Look, I know I'm good," Ulrich stated slowly, "but there are at least ten of these creeps. Since I closed the door, there may be more now. I could go down on this, and that'll blow the whole mission!"
"Try to hold out until Yumi's finished her combat," the pink-ette advised. "If she beats the Clone, she can come back and give you some help."
"Roger," he replied. A pause. "Will Jérémie wake up?"
"I hope so. In any case, the tower seems to be protecting him from the bug. For now, at least..."
But he was in the tower now. There was still hope.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
William himself was also unconscious in his Navskid.
Just outside, XANA-Odd looked around, hunting for Yumi among the rock columns that surrounded the Skid tower. Seeing no movement, it cautiously advanced, constantly checking its surroundings. Behind a nearby column, Yumi shifted her stance.
It could sense her digital signature in this area. It knew she was here. But unable to see her, it clenched a fist in frustration before leaping up to the top of a column, where it had a better view of the area. Still unable to see her, it placed its hands on its hips, and its tail flicked back and forth in annoyance.
Behind it, Yumi jumped up onto a column not far away and threw a fan. XANA-Odd saw it coming and turned around, but the fan struck its torso anyway.
The geisha's smile faded when the Clone jumped to another column, closer to her, and then another, rapidly making its way toward her. In response, she took out another fan and threw it at the Clone, striking it just as it landed on a column. The force knocked it off, and it landed on its back on the ground.
XANA-Odd slowly sat up and shook its head. It looked up in time to see the column it was just knocked down from slowly begin to tilt towards it. It started to get up to run away, but it was crushed by the column, disappearing in a red flash and a puff of smoke.
From atop her column, Yumi released her telekinetic hold, buckling a little from fatigue.
"Great job, Yumi! That was awesome!" Aelita exclaimed. "Get ready for another Translation. Ulrich needs your help."
"Okay," Yumi replied, as she looked down. "Oh! No, hold on!" She looked at her hands, as her image flickered. "I'm all bugged up!" She started devirtualizing. "Too late!" She disappeared completely.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd looked at the screen, concerned, as Aelita exclaimed, "I can't believe how jinxed we are today!"
Yumi emerged through the trap door from the scanner room, frustrated, "What is this dumb bug, anyhow?!"
"That's exactly what I'm about to find out," the pink-ette replied, bringing up her cousin's digital profile and studying the data from her following scans. "It's a Mandelbug!"
"A what?!" Odd asked in confusion.
"A bug in the virtualization software," Aelita explained, getting increasingly worked up the longer she spoke. "And the causes are so complex that its behavior seems totally chaotic! And with no way to tell if the behavior is really chaotic, or just seems to be, it's impossible to differentiate it from a Bohrbug or a Heisenbug!"
Yumi raised an eyebrow, "Huh?"
Odd blinked before smiling. "Couldn't be any more clearer!"
Aelita didn't believe him. "Really?"
Her cousin's expression fell flat, "Of course not!"
The pink-ette just sighed, but before she could start thinking of a simpler explanation, someone else beat her to it.
"It's an extremely unusual problem," Jérémie weakly translated from the tower, "and Aelita doesn't know how to fix it yet."
"Oh! Well, why didn't you say so?" Odd shrugged, satisfied with that.
Yumi quickly stepped forward, "Jérémie, are you alright?"
"Not really," he replied. He sounded as if he just wanted to sleep. "It seems as though this stupid bug can't affect me inside the tower, fortunately. But I was almost devirtualized, so I'm not exactly all here yet. A Mandelbug inside a supercomputer as complex as ours can have dastardly effects..."
"Does that mean you might not be able to deactivate the tower?" Odd worriedly asked.
"I don't know. There's only one way to find out, but I need to get my strength back up first."
"I hope it works," Aelita softly cut in. "If not, then Ulrich's on his own with those Kankrelats."
"I know," was all Jérémie said.
The angel's attention was diverted to an alert from the holomap. Three monsters were approaching the Skid tower.
"Oh, great!" she muttered. "That's all we needed right now."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"William, wake up!"
The knight was startled awake by the sound of the pink-ette's voice. "Huh? What?" Once he took a look at his surroundings, the memories came back. He was De-translated by the Kankrelats. Judging by how the Replika was still intact, Ulrich hadn't destroyed the supercomputer yet.
"Three Tarantulas are converging on the Skid," Aelita explained. "You're the only one who can take them out."
"Roger that."
Outside, the trio of monsters walked over to the Skid tower and set themselves up. Before they could fire, a nearby rock column fell down and crashed in front of them, blocking their path. They turned in the direction of where it fell from, only to see William standing there, with Zweihänder in hand and having just sliced it from the bottom.
"Oops, too soon," he quipped. "Sorry, I meant to crush all three of you with that."
The three Tarantulas opened fire on him. The knight quickly assumed his ball of light form. Using it, he snaked up the back of the middle one, reformed back into human form, stabbed its eye, before jumping off and landing behind them to avoid to resulting explosion.
"C'mon!" he taunted the other two. "You want me? Come and get me!"
He began running away, and the two began to chase him.
Mid-run, however, William began bugging up like the others before him. Unfortunately, there was no tower right in front of him to jump into, so the end result here was devirtualization.
"Are you kidding me?!" were his last words before his wireframe disappeared.
Seeing this, the two Tarantulas made their way back to the Skid tower, before setting themselves up again and opening fire at the submarine.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Ulrich?" Aelita cut into the silence yet again, "I bet you want some good news."
The samurai was in the same place as before—he hadn't moved—but he was now sitting with his back to the wall. "I'd love some."
"Jérémie's awake, but that's as far as it goes," she explained. She took a quick deep breath first before beginning, "To make a long story short: you're still on your own because both Yumi and William have been devirtualized, the tower's still activated and we're not one-hundred percent sure if Jérémie can deactivate it, and you're probably gonna get the bug I can't fix."
Great. Fantastic. "Is that all?"
"Uh, no. XANA also sent in some Tarantulas to take out the Skid," she finished. "So it's now or never."
"Roger," he replied, getting to his feet. He opened the door back up, coming face-to-face with those ten Kankrelats. "Hope you guys are ready to rumble!"
The monsters turned to face the samurai as he ran inside the room, the door closing behind him.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
William had joined the others at the monitor by now. On the screen, the quartet watched as Ulrich's green dot darted around the map of the room, full of red Kankrelat dots.
"Woah! Did you see that?" Odd asked, excited. "Unbelievable! He just knocked off three of them in a single hit!"
"But how did he do that?" Aelita asked, awestruck. "He's only got two katanas!"
Another red dot disappeared. "Incredible! There goes another one!" William exclaimed.
Yumi looked over at Odd, "He's on a lucky streak today."
Odd glared back at her, but stood down when he saw Aelita's knowing stare aimed at him. He groaned and looked back at the screen.
"Go on, Ulrich!" William encouraged. "You can do it!"
Meanwhile, Jérémie's yellow arrow began ascending towards the second platform...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
JEREMIE_
CODE_
Ulrich leapt across the room towards a group of three Kankrelats, avoiding a laser. He landed right next to one and slashed it, destroying it, before flipping over the shot of another. Getting behind them, he destroyed the remaining two.
"And that's that."
However, five more Kankrelats appeared, all surrounding him.
LYOKO_
Only for them to all disappear as if they were being De-translated.
Ulrich breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Jérémie!"
He had done it.
"Now's your chance, Ulrich!" Aelita told him. "Get rid of the supercomputer!"
His legs started flickering. Oh no, the bug!
"Hurry! Before you're devirtualized too!"
The samurai stabbed both katanas into a part of the supercomputer that had the eye of XANA built into it. As the computer fizzled with electricity, Ulrich collapsed and cried out as he gradually disappeared. Huge bolts of electricity flew from the supercomputer before it exploded in a bright flash.
Back on Replika, Jérémie emerged from the tower in a sprint, wanting to hurry back to the Skid before the place blew up. However, now that he was outside, he was no longer protected from the bug. He was promptly devirtualized mid-run...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
A window showed the destruction of the Replika, while both Ulrich and Jérémie's IDs unloaded from the system simultaneously.
"The Replika's disappearing, too!" Aelita exclaimed.
"What about the Skid?" Yumi asked, concerned.
The pink-ette started typing, "No sweat. Jérémie and I made a remote-control piloting program for emergencies just like this one."
On the holomap, the others watched as Aelita disconnected the Skid from the tower just as it disappeared. The ground also disappeared, making the two Tarantulas fall into the Digital Sea below. The Skid exited the Replika right before it exploded.
Aelita removed her earpiece, though carefully monitored the Skid on its solo journey back to its hangar on Lyoko. "Another Replika bites the dust! Great job, everyone!"
"Even though Ulrich was the MVP?" William asked, knowingly, as the lift doors opened.
"Hey!" Jérémie exclaimed, as he and Ulrich stepped out side-by-side. "I did my part too!"
"Yeah," the samurai agreed. "It was a team effort." He held out a fist in the elf's direction. "Good job."
"You too," the blonde bumped Ulrich's offered fist.
The brunette walked to Odd and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Well? What do you think?"
"You're kidding!" Odd playfully scoffed. "Nothing but luck, buddy! That's what I think."
"I knew you'd say that," Ulrich replied, amused, while Jérémie laughed in response.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The others (sans Yumi, who went home) were at their chosen table in the cafeteria, enjoying their dinner, when they heard Odd cry out quickly followed by something clattering to the floor. They glanced over to see their friend on the ground, his food having fallen off his tray and now making a mess.
"What happened?" William asked, slightly worried.
"What does it look like?" Odd replied. "I slipped!" He picked his tray up and put it on the table, still kneeling on the floor. "I guess I can't deny it. Ever since I broke that mirror, I've been jinxed..."
Aelita giggled, "Don't worry, Odd. Jinxes don't exist. You just have to wait for your luck to change."
"Yeah, the only question is when," Ulrich added.
Odd's eye became caught on something in the distance. He smiled, "Lady Luck might be smiling at me already." He ran over to where he was looking, and picked up a bright pink cell phone from off a nearby table. "Some girl left her phone behind. Maybe if I return it, then my luck will change!"
"What if it doesn't?" Jérémie asked, slightly skeptical.
"Then I'd still be doing some good," Odd shrugged, pocketing the phone. "If anything, it'll be a nice thing after having a bad day. I just have to wait for the girl to call me to get it back."
He then sat down and enjoyed what remained of his dinner.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
After dinner, the quintet were just entering the dormitory building, ready to go to bed, when the pink phone rang. Odd stopped and eagerly took it out of his pocket, and the other four stopped with him.
"It's a text, from an unknown number," Odd relayed. "'I'd like to get my cellphone back. Meet me under the arches right away.' I've gotta go, guys! This is my chance!" He then ran off, the pink phone in hand.
"Good luck!" Ulrich called out after him, teasingly but mostly genuine.
"It's already good! See you guys later!" Odd replied, as he ran out the door.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
As instructed, Odd walked along by the arches, the pink phone in hand. He stopped with his back to a column and sneakily looked around. He whistled. Someone whistled in response.
"Anybody there?" he asked.
Out stepped Jim Morales, "Yep."
"Oh, sorry, Jim. But you see," Odd explained, "I'm waiting to meet somebody, so if you don't mind..." In his hand was the pink phone, so while gesturing, he made it clearly visible to Jim.
The man smiled, "Ah, so it was you who found my cellphone!"
"Hm?" Odd looked at the phone in confusion, noting that the device and its wallpaper were both pink. There was a heart charm attached to it, and said wallpaper was covered in flowers, hearts, and stars. "Uh, you mean this is yours?"
"Yeah, that's right. Why do you ask?"
Odd just shrugged, "Because...I mean, uh...I mean, it doesn't seem like your style." He held the phone out to Jim anyway.
Jim took the phone out of the boy's hand. "I'm allowed to like pink, aren't I? You wear pink, too, underneath all that purple."
Touché.
"Yeah, but...still, a wallpaper with a heart and stars on it? Plus the heart charm? Isn't that a bit too much?" Odd quietly asked.
"Probably," Jim shrugged. "But the charm was a gift from my niece."
"Really?"
The man cleared his throat. "I'd rather not talk about it."
He then walked away, leaving a stunned Odd in his wake.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next Episode: 61 - Blue Planet / Odd begs Yumi to hide Kiwi at her parents' house for a dorm inspection. Meanwhile, Jérémie gets mail from an anonymous sender.
A/N: Apparently, "budala" is Turkish for the word "fool". The real Turkish word for "numbskull" is "mankafa". I've corrected that error here.
Not many changes to this one. It's the destruction of the Desert Replika, so I had to keep it in, but William is affected by the bug as well, and Jérémie actually manages to deactivate the tower. Small changes, I know. But again, the real wrenches will be thrown in starting at Chapter 62.