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~~~!
"The gang heads out to destroy the Mountain Replika, while Odd gets a great idea that quickly becomes a stupid one."
Episode 56: Kiwodd
(Based on Dog Day Afternoon & Canine Conundrum)
Ulrich and Odd returned to their dorm after succeeding in their late night mission. The tower had been deactivated in record time (thank goodness Jérémie could fight now), and no one but them had encountered XANA's attack (possession of various factory equipment), so there was no need for a Return in time.
Despite how fast Jérémie was this time, however, it was still concerning that XANA's attacks were increasing both in frequency and intensity.
All Ulrich wanted to do was collapse onto his bed and sleep the rest of the night away. He didn't care that he wasn't wearing his pajamas; he was so tired...
But that hope was ruined when he opened the door to his and Odd's shared dorm. Odd grimaced as the duo was met with a mess. Kiwi was sitting next to Ulrich's bed, which had been wrecked. There were feathers all over the floor from the brunette's now damaged pillow, the sheets were half off the bed, and one of the drawers was open.
"Ugh! Come on, I don't believe this!" Ulrich groaned, annoyed, before marching inside the room. Ignoring Kiwi's bark, he motioned to the mess, "Odd! What did we agree on about your dog?!"
"Don't be like that, buddy," Odd shot back, ready to defend his dog. "He's cooped up all day. He was just getting some energy out."
Ulrich's shoulders dropped in disappointment, "You've got to be kidding me. Maybe if you trained him to behave better, this wouldn't happen so much!"
"And you've got to be kidding me!" the blonde grew angry. "I refuse to submit my oldest and first friend to such torment! He doesn't deserve it!"
"You think training a dog is torture for that dog?!" Ulrich just threw up his hands in defeat. "You know what, I'm sleeping in Jérémie's room tonight."
As he walked to the door, Odd asked, caught off-guard, "Wait, what? Why?"
Halfway out the door, the brunette was fuming, "Well, I can't sleep in a torn-up bed, now can I?!"
He then closed the door, but didn't slam it (people were still asleep, after all...hopefully). But his anger made his point clear.
Odd was now sulking. He turned to his dog and asked, "You're not that bad, are you? Of course not. You're a delight, my little diggity dog!"
But as he went to sleep, in his still-intact bed, he glanced over at Ulrich's torn-up, empty bed. As the night went on, he felt more and more guilt at the unfairness of Ulrich's stuff always getting torn up by a pet that he didn't ask to live with.
Hopefully, things would look up in the morning...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
They did not, actually. Yumi arrived at school the next morning to her friends having somewhat of an argument with Odd, to her surprise, and Jérémie, William, Ulrich, and Aelita looked annoyed, borderline angry. What happened? Did Odd do something last night? Assumedly, after the attack? Because everything was fine when they parted ways after.
"There was no need to get carried away, Ulrich," Odd was saying as the Japanese girl approached the bench they had claimed. "I would've let us share my bed if you just asked nicely."
"That's not the problem, Odd," Jérémie, sitting next to Ulrich, immediately defended.
"He's right," Aelita cut in, she and William standing behind the two sitting, both of their arms crossed. "Ulrich not being able to sleep in his own bed should be a red flag! He shouldn't have to room with Jérémie because he has no choice!"
Ah, so Ulrich was unable to sleep in his own bed last night, so he instead bunked with Jérémie. Why? What happened? And why was Odd getting the flack for it? A prank maybe?
"By the way," William interjected here, "you're welcome for me telling Jim that the destruction was caused by a prank of mine gone wrong. You owe me for taking the fall for you."
"Thank you, William," Ulrich quickly cut in, though not taking his eyes off of his roommate. "If Odd won't say it, then I will."
So whatever happened to her just-a-friend's bed was not William's fault, despite what they told Jim, but rather Odd's. Why? What did he do?
She finally decided that observing had gotten her enough intel. She announced her presence, "Morning, everyone. Now let me try and guess what the problem may be here. No seconds in the lunchroom? A prank that backfired?" She briefly shot a knowing look at William here. "Sam trouble?"
Ulrich narrowed his eyes in anger, "Worse. Kiwi."
No wonder. "Ah. Say no more." Everything made more sense now. That's why it was Odd's fault.
"Hey!" Odd immediately turned to face her, now regarding the Japanese girl as some sort of traitor. "Oh, come on! He's not that terrible, is he?"
"Do you wanna bet?" Ulrich hissed. "This isn't the first time he's ruined my bed! He's done that ever since you and I became roommates! Do you think I like the idea of sleeping in wet sheets every time you forget to take him for a walk?!"
"Well, put yourself in his paws," Odd meekly defended, unable to deny any of the brunette's points. "The poor little thing's locked up all day."
"He's your pet, Odd!" Ulrich shot back. "You're supposed to walk him!"
"The poor thing!" Jérémie mocked, annoyed. "Ulrich's not the only one, Odd. The majority of the books in my room are ones from the Hermitage!" From his parents. Translation: they were very valuable to him. "How do you think I feel whenever I see that he's chewed up another one?!"
"Hey, paper makes Kiwi sick!" Odd frowned. "Maybe if you didn't leave your beloved books all over the place and finally get a bookshelf! Right, Aelita?" He glanced up at his cousin, hoping she'd back him up on this.
But she didn't. "No, not 'right'! What about my stuff?! Is it because I leave everything around that Kiwi steals it?! I practically spend my life digging through the campus grounds looking for things that should never be buried. Last week, Mr. Roulier found me digging up my pencil case, and now, he must think I'm some sort of nutcase!"
Odd was taken aback. With each grievance that was filed, he began to see that his friends were not joking. He turned to William, for his overall two-cents, whether it was support or another grievance, though he was hoping for support (and it must've shown on his face).
"Don't even think about it," the elder boy was stern and immediate in his response. "Kiwi loves to play with my records so much that the cashiers at the music store in town know me by name at this point. And my parents are becoming concerned as to why I spend most of my allowance on records and not school supplies!"
Odd hung his head in disappointment. Again, it wasn't a joke. Their grievances were perfectly reasonable, and there was no hint on any of their faces of them kidding just to mess with him.
"Look, Odd," Jérémie attempted, calmly, "we're really sorry. We love Kiwi and we still love you, but this is the last straw. Something needs to be done to correct his behavior. He needs to learn that it's not okay."
Odd, in response, raised a finger into the air, "Objection, Your Honor! Before sentencing, my dog has the right to a lawyer." He turned to Yumi, his final hope, with a begging gesture, "Yumi," he took her hands, "you're an animal lover." He released her hands and covered his eyes with his arm, upset and making that known. "You've gotta help me defend my little diggity dog."
Said girl scratched the back of her head, inwardly debating it, "Well, I wouldn't mind...but after what he did to my new shoes just last week? Sorry," she crossed her arms, "but that's a solid 'no'."
The others chuckled.
Odd sighed, admitting defeat, "Fine, I'll work something out." He then crossed his own arms. "But you're wrong, all of you! Kiwi is not a nuisance! He's a living being who has amazing, untapped potential, and I happen to have a fantastic idea on how to prove it."
"Uh-oh..." Ulrich murmured. He knew from personal experience that Odd's ideas were a little crazy, almost out-of-this-world.
"I motion that we take Kiwi to Lyoko!" Odd revealed his idea.
Aelita raised an unamused eyebrow, "Why?"
"Well, because our natural talents are multiplied on Lyoko," her cousin explained, a small, hopeful smile on his face. "Imagine Kiwi and his sense of smell. He could sniff out monsters from kilometers away, getting rid of the need for the holomap! And he might even be able to sniff out Jérémie's parents on the network!" Said boy in blue immediately tensed up at the mention of the people he sorely missed. But Odd didn't notice, only finishing with, "How about his claws? They'd be pretty efficient weapons, right?"
Aelita was straight forward in her answer, "No, Odd. He's too much of a loose cannon. Bring it up again once he's better behaved, though, and then we'll talk, okay?"
The warning bell rang, interrupting them.
Odd's shoulders sank in disappointment. "Fine." She did have a point.
The six proceeded to head their separate ways—Yumi and William to music class, Ulrich and Jérémie to history class, and Aelita and Odd to gym class. On the way to the gynamsium, Odd suddenly got an idea.
"Hey, cuz, we're still going back to the Replika today, right?"
She raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but responded with a slightly amused smile, "Of course, we are. Trust me, the intervention just now doesn't change that. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, nothing," he quickly replied. "Just making sure."
She didn't respond to that, just choosing to go about her day like normal, and so did he. He didn't share his idea with her, though, or anybody. Not because of lack of trust or anything.
He just wanted it to be a surprise.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Later that night, the six Lyokowarriors ran across the bridge before jumping down using the ropes. Odd held up the rear. As he waited for the others to free up a rope, Kiwi stuck his ears out of Odd's drawstring bag and quietly barked.
"Shh! Quiet, boy!" the boy immediately whispered. It was supposed to be a surprise.
He was, naturally, the last to slide down and join the others in the lift. Once he was inside, Yumi pressed the down button, making the machine descend to the factory's lower levels.
William raised a curious eyebrow in his direction, "Hey, Odd?"
Odd turned to face him, a happy smile on his face, "Yeah? What's up?"
"Why do have your bag with you?" the elder boy asked. "You won't need it to destroy a Replika."
The Italian quickly waved it off, "Oh, don't worry, it's just some snacks. Come on, you guys known how hungry I can get."
The others shrugged, knowing the truth in that. Inwardly, Odd sighed in relief. That was a close one. Again, he wanted his idea (his new one) to be a surprise.
They dropped Aelita off at the lab first. While she set up the tools they would need for destroying this Replika, the other five headed down to the level below, arriving at the scanner room.
Ulrich, Yumi, and William were virtualized first. It surprised everyone when Odd had volunteered to go after them with Jérémie. He was often the one most excited for these Replika missions, so they had expected him to be jumping to be first in line.
But Odd just shrugged when they asked him why, citing that in order to tame Kiwi, maybe he first needed to tame himself. Despite it being an excuse, Odd filed that away for later. He didn't want the others to hate Kiwi, after all. He wanted them to get along.
Now, it was his and Jérémie's turn. The young genius entered the scanner first, "I'm all set, Aelita."
"Roger that," the pink-ette replied, as she closed Jérémie's scanner doors. "Odd? You good?"
The crazy-haired blonde was kneeling next to the scanner he planned to occupy, holding his bag in his hands, "Hold on! Don't rush me! I'm getting a quick snack!"
Once Jérémie's scanner was closed, Odd smiled and let Kiwi out of his bag. The dog started making a small growling noise as the boy tucked the animal in underneath his hoodie, before climbing into the scanner.
"Okay, I'm good to go, Princess!" Odd said, amidst Kiwi's growling and rustling.
"Um, Odd? Is that...you making that racket?" His cousin sounded concerned.
He began to panic, "Uh, yeah! My tummy's rumbling!" It was getting rather difficult to keep Kiwi still underneath his shirt. "Would you believe it? I'm still hungry!" He wished she would hurry up and virtualize him.
He heard her stiffle a giggle or two, "Don't worry, Odd. If you're quick in destroying this Replika, you'll be able to dive into your snacks soon."
The scanner began to warm up. He could feel the whirring of the machine begin to increase all around him. Lowering his voice into a whisper, he told Kiwi, "Don't worry, my little diggity dog. Once you're on Lyoko, you're gonna be a big star. Then, the others won't complain about you anymore."
"Transfer Jérémie, transfer Odd." His scanner doors closed. "Scanner Jérémie, scanner Odd." As the scanning bar spiraled upwards, Odd cringed, hoping this was a good idea, hoping that it would work exactly he expected it to. "Virtualization!"
His world turned to white as he felt his body turn into pixels. Then, all of a sudden, he couldn't feel Kiwi's weight against him anymore...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Virtualization!"
Jérémie and Odd both appeared within the air above Sector Five's Arena, before landing in front of Ulrich, Yumi, and William—all of whom were waiting for them.
After standing, Odd immediately glanced up at the sky, as Jérémie turned to the other three. "You ready? Hopefully, we'll actually reach the Replika this time."
"We'll try our best," Yumi replied. "No promises, though."
Ulrich noticed his roommate's sky-gazing. "Waiting for something there, Odd?" The others all turned to where the samurai was looking, and walked up to him.
The cat motioned to the sky above them, "Get ready for a big surprise, you guys!"
They all waited for a few seconds, but nothing happened.
Yumi leaned in to Jérémie and whispered, "What exactly are we waiting for?"
The elf just shrugged. He had no idea.
"Well," William asked, "what is it?"
"What's wrong, Odd?" Aelita's voice cut through the tension. "There's nothing on my screens."
Only then did Odd snap back to reality. Apparently, it hadn't worked. Kiwi had not arrived, and it would very likely be that he wouldn't. Unless he was invisible or something, but that was unlikely.
"Uh, nothing," he rubbed the back of his head and turned away. "I-I was just kidding."
The others just collectively either shrugged or rolled their eyes.
"If you say so," the pink-ette replied. "Now, head for the Skid hangar. A Replika awaits destruction."
The five promptly went through the passage that had long since been opened. Thank goodness there was no timer. They reached the lift quickly, and boarded it.
As it took them up to the hangar, Odd scratched behind his ear in an animalistic manner, before worriedly looking around. No bones about it; something had gone wrong. "I hope I didn't mess up," he muttered under his breath.
Unfortunately, William heard him, "What are you talking about?"
"Nothing," Odd quickly replied. "Just talking to myself."
After boarding the Skid, they emerged out into the Ice Sector, before diving into the Digital Sea. Jérémie took off once the ship's rotation was complete and Aelita had entered the coordinates from that Replika, the one they had tried going to the day before yesterday. Hopefully, today would see them actually make some progress.
They were a few hundred kilometers away from the hub, when Odd heard something. Not within his Navskid. Outside where the harmful water was. He immediately looked up and out his window, "Guys, I hear some kind of noise!"
"It must be your stomach or something, Odd," Jérémie replied, looking at his radar. "Everything's calm."
"Yeah, are you sure?" Yumi cautiously asked the cat. "Because the water's blue. We've established that XANA's presence in the network is what turns it red, right?"
"That's right," William quickly agreed. "And if you look carefully outside of our windows, the water is still blue."
Yep. Nothing but blue. The color of calmness. Besides, Aelita would've warned them too, being able to see everything on the holomap.
Maybe he was just going paranoid...
"Incredible! He's right!" Aelita exclaimed, however. The cat quickly perked up upon hearing this.
"What?!" Ulrich asked, surprised.
"He is?" Yumi (understandably) wanted confirmation.
"He is," Aelita replied. "Three Kongres just appeared next to a hub, but for now, they're at the other end of Lyoko's network. I think you guys are safe for now."
Jérémie blinked in surprise, "And you could hear them all the way from here, Odd? Wow..." And they were under water, where sounds tended to travel not as far as they did above the surface (that's why whale sounds were so loud).
"I'm keeping an eye on them, just in case," Aelita informed her friends, "but for now, just continue on towards the Replika."
"Okay," the elf replied, tilting the joysticks forward ever so slightly, increasing the Skid's speed by just a small amount. Just in case.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The Skid emerged from the water and greeted by the familiar sight of purple mountains against a light indigo sky—the Mountain Sector. Or rather, Replika. This was XANA's copy of it, not the real deal.
Jérémie steered the ship above the narrow walkways between the various platforms, before finding a tower, "Tower in sight, Aelita!" It was perched on a small, circular platform connected to a larger, similar shaped one, with its halo being the neutral white. Once he had positioned the Skid so that it was facing the twer, he tapped his hand on the touchpad. "Docking!" A pink beam of swirling energy connected the ship to the structure. Smaller wisps of pink light appeared around the tower and began floating around. "Skid, secured."
"Roger that," she replied. "I'm activating the tower for us." About three seconds later, the halo turned to green. "You guys ready?"
"We're all set," William replied.
"Alright, here we go. Translate Ulrich. Translate William. Translate Odd."
Said cat's Navskid suddenly disappeared from his view and was quickly replaced with the view of the real world. William and Ulrich on either side of him, the trio glanced around at their surroundings. Where had the Translation sent them this time?
They were standing on the walkway on top of a large dam.
"Ulrich, William, Odd?" Aelita's voice sounded in their ears (through an earpiece). "You guys read me?"
"Yep, loud and clear," Ulrich replied. "We made it. But we don't know where we are."
"I do. The map I have here says you guys are in Canada."
"Neat," was William's response. "Have you downloaded the floor plan? This is our first visit."
"Yeah, just now," the pink-ette explained. "According to my quick research, this place is entirely automated. You shouldn't encounter many people. Maybe some engineers to fix the machines, but judging by the schedule I see here, it's unlikely."
"We'll be sneaky," Odd reassured her, "just in case. Now, tell us the way to the supercomputer. We've got a job to do."
"Roger that. First things first, you've gotta get inside. The door you're looking for is at the other end of the walkway you're on."
Said door was indeed on the opposite side. It wasn't a hatch, but rather a proper door that was immediately at the top of a set of stairs, much like the door to the roof of the science building at Kadic. However, the walkway narrowed near the center. It was just a brief stretch, but it clearly would require balance.
Ulrich and William were doing just fine, but Odd—the one with a feline avatar, one that emphasized balance—was having some issues.
He was wobbling. It wasn't so bad at first, so they all shrugged the strangeness off as a cause of the wind due to the elevation. But they farther out they got, the worse his issues became.
Odd never had trouble balancing himself. Whether it was on Earth or Lyoko, he was never known as clumsy. In fact, whenever he tripped (whether by accident, or someone made him), he never fell flat on his face (except whenever XANA's spectre was wailing on him, of course). He was just able to quickly catch himself—a underappreciated talent of his until Lyoko came into his life.
So, it was surprising that he was having issues here.
"Odd, come on!" Ulrich called out. His roommate was in front of him, showing very out-of-character behavior. Was balancing connection to his emotions or something? Was he acting this way because of this morning with Kiwi?
The cat was alarmed, "I-I can't seem to keep my balance! W-What's wrong with me?!" Interesting. If Odd didn't know either, then maybe it was psychosomatic or something.
"We don't know!" William, behind the samurai, replied. "Was it all the snacks?"
Odd wasn't given a chance to answer. The moment William asked that question, the wobbling increased and the cat fell over the side. He managed to catch himself using his claws, but he wasn't able to hold on. Fortunately, he bought himself enough time for Ulrich to catch him by the wrist before he could fall to his death (or De-translation, rather).
Ulrich said nothing as he pulled his roommate up, before setting him back down on the narrow walkway. But he did not let the other boy go, instead escorting him all the way to the other side, where the door they needed was—to safety.
Only when they and William were able to relax did anyone dare to speak.
"You okay, Odd?" William asked. "What was that all about?"
"I-I don't know!" the cat anxiously exclaimed, looking down at himself. Things were just getting weirder and weirder for him.
First, his plan to smuggle Kiwi to Lyoko didn't work. The dog did not appear in any way, shape, or form when he and Jérémie did.
Then, he heard three Kongres arrive in the Digital Sea from the other side of Lyoko's network, a vast expanse of space.
And then, he had balance troubles, when he normally wouldn't be. That walkway shouldn't have been a problem for him. He's balanced on thinner things, for crying out loud!
Not to mention, whenever he scratched his ear, he did so...almost like an animal...
There's no way he could've been... Oh, no!
Odd Della Robbia may have lapses in judgement from time to time—this brilliant idea of his was clearly one of them—but he's not stupid. This was when it clicked for him, the reality of what had actually happened, the consequences of his actions.
"Is something wrong?" Aelita asked them.
He should've listened to her.
"No biggie, 'Lita," Ulrich replied, helping Odd to his feet. "Odd just misses his snacks, and the hunger doesn't seem to agree with him."
Odd didn't correct them, even though he had a chance to, and probably should have. But he didn't. How would they react to the revelation that he'd been an idiot? Again? When it was bad enough that they were already pissed off about their issues with Kiwi? That his lapse in judgement here was because of him wanting to resolve those issues?
How would they react to him being fused with Kiwi thanks to his own stupidity?
Instead, he said, "Sorry. But you guys know I'm just clowning around, right?"
Ulrich and William both rolled their eyes, as Aelita amusedly replied, "If you say so." She then turned serious. "Now, the door is locked, but one simple strike from any of your weapons will break the lock."
The samurai unsheathed a katana and used the hilt to smash the lock, "Done." The door promptly swung open, revealing a cold, metal staircase. It was also dark; there was very little light.
"Great job. Now head down three flights, and tell me when you reach Level C."
The trio proceeded to get to work. They had a supercomputer to find.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"Yumi, Jérémie? I'm back to you guys now. How's it going?" Aelita asked the other two.
Said warriors were standing guard at the base of the tower that the Skid was moored to. Both were constantly surveying their surroundings. Jérémie's visor was connected to the holomap the same way his old goggles were, but this Replika was XANA's territory, its version of the Mountain Sector. It always paid to stay on guard.
"Everything's quiet so far," Yumi reported, a hand on her hip. "But that could easily change. How's it going on the Translated end?"
"The Fantastic Three are officially inside the facility. A snag was hit, though, when Odd almost fell off the narrow walkway leading up to the door." The pink-ette sounded, and was, concerned about her cousin.
"Odd lost his balance?" That caught Jérémie's attention, as he briefly glanced up at the sky. He then shared a surprised glance with Yumi. "That never happens."
"Yeah, Odd rivals me in the balance department," Yumi added, agreeing. She was the team's gymnast, after all. "He's a cat, for crying out loud. Is he okay?"
"He's fine." The pink-ette didn't sound very assured, though. "He tried to shrug it off as being hungry, but...I'm not convinced. I'm keeping an eye on him."
Her concern was completely justified. Odd had been acting strange ever since this morning's intervention about Kiwi.
"Please do." Jérémie was just as bothered by this as Aelita was.
"I will. In the meantime, you two have a job to do. The superscan has just picked up an activated tower on the Replika."
"Meaning XANA's officially gone on the offensive," Yumi recalled. "Let's go deactivate it before the guys run into too much trouble."
"Roger that," the pink-ette replied. "Here's the Overwing for you."
It promptly appeared in front of them. Yumi climbed on, before turning back to the elf as he was about to activate his wings. She winked, "Wanna keep me company?"
Jérémie just smiled, before boarding the vehicle behind her.
"The tower's direction is 24 degrees northwest."
"We're on our way," Yumi replied, before taking off down the path, leaving the Skid tower behind.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
William carefully opened the Level C door, his Zweihänder in hand and up in a position where he could easily use it as a shield. Aelita's warning about the tower had the trio on edge, and the door had no windows, so they couldn't see what was waiting for them.
Currently, that was nothing but gray metallic walls that they assumed were common with facilities like this.
The knight stepped out into the hallway, "All clear. For now."
Ulrich felt comfortable enough to follow him, both of his katanas out. "Let's hope it stays that way."
Both of them prepared to sheath their respective weapons, only for Odd to stop them, "Don't. Stay on guard." He began sniffing the air the way an animal would. "The outlets smell weird..."
William raised a curious eyebrow. "How do you know that?" First the balance issues, and now this? Something was off with his friend, but he didn't know what.
"Trust me," was all the cat said, before he began sniffing the air again. He walked forward, stopping at an outlet. He sniffed. "Nope, not this one."
"The supercomputer," Aelita cut in, "is down at the opposite end of the hall. I hope you guys enjoy taking long strolls."
"Whether we do or not," William replied, as Odd continued to sniff the outlets, "we don't have a choice." He then began to express confusion when he and Ulrich saw Odd get down on his hands and knees, as if that could give him better search parameters.
"Um, Odd, are you sure you're okay?" Ulrich asked. Because he was one-hundred percent certain that his roommate was having an off day of some kind. "If this is about this morning's intervention–"
Said roommate cut him off, still crawling, "It's not. I promise. I'm not upset at all; you guys are right." And he meant it. He needed to discipline Kiwi somehow, and he would.
That dog was his very first friend, thus his oldest friend. Well, that was a lie; there was Aelita, who he had known his entire life, but Kiwi was still the oldest in age (dog years). But the others—Ulrich, Yumi, William, and Jérémie—were his newest friends. They and Kiwi had one thing in common: they all understood Odd on such a deep level that it made the boy curious at times as to how they could read him so well. The last thing he wanted was for them to sour at the thought of each other, whether it was Kiwi disliking the others, or the others disliking Kiwi. That was the reason he had attempted to bring Kiwi to Lyoko at all.
Again, obviously a mistake, but his reasons weren't malicious in any way.
"Okay," Ulrich carefully replied. "It's just..." He sighed, "We're just worried, because you're not acting like yourself today."
"Yeah," William agreed. "You can't really blame us here for being concerned."
"I'm fine, I promise," Odd replied, turning back to his friends with a smile.
However, it quickly turned into a frown as he quickly faced back in front of them. He began to growl, of all things, as he got up off his knees up to his feet, with his hands still on the ground. The position he was taking seemed very much like an animal on the defensive.
Sure enough, a door a couple meters down began sparking dangerously with purple-colored electricity before it quite literally blew away. The now damaged door slammed against the opposite wall, making a loud sound. William and Ulrich both tightly clenched the hilts of their weapons, both glad that Odd had (somehow) sensed that they weren't as safe as they initially assumed.
Three workers (all wearing dark jumpsuits and safety equipment like gloves, work boots, helmets, and goggles) emerged from the now open doorway and out into the hall where the three teens were.
Their goggles were clouded, so the eyes weren't visible. But the eye of XANA was, as it flashed bright on all the lenses.
"Aelita, we found the pupose for that tower," William relayed. "XANA's possessed three workers."
"'Civil engineers' is their proper name," she replied. "But that's weird. According to the schedule I downloaded, there are no repairs or operations on the slate for today. And it was updated just this morning."
"Maybe their visit was last minute," Ulrich suggested. "But whatever the case, XANA's controlling them. Tell Jérémie to take care of that tower pronto."
"I will. You guys just be careful. To get to the supercomputer, you need to go through them."
William sighed, "Of course we do."
The three engineers immediately opened fire, shooting electricity blasts at all three of them. William blocked two of them with his Zweihänder, but the third managed to slip past and hit Ulrich in the shoulder. The samurai fell to the ground, his wound flickering, and the cat saw red.
Odd ran up to the enemies on all fours, barking like a dog would, and tackled the center engineer—the one that had hurt Ulrich—to the ground. He growled at the man, before glancing up at the other two and doing the same to them.
Ulrich, still on the ground, raised a curious eyebrow at the situation, but William took advantage of it.
"Watch out, XANA! He's mean! Push him too hard and he'll bite you!" the knight exclaimed.
XANA, intriguingly, was showing its fear through the three it had possessed, assumedly because Odd's behavior wasn't normal, thus unpredictable. It didn't have time to react, though, as Odd barked and leapt to the ground between the other two workers, who scrambled away to avoid him.
"Let's go!" he called back to his two friends, before running down the hallway on all fours.
William and Ulrich were hot on his heels. The knight fired an energy slash at their enemies to hold them back, before calling behind him at the flickering trio, "Sorry, gentlemen! We hate being tailgated!"
As the three Lyokowarriors continued their trek down the long hallway to the supercomputer, their weapons now sheathed.
Odd turned a corner, and the other two followed. Around this corner was a room filled with boilers. The double doors automatically closed behind them, thus giving them a chance to rest.
Leaning against a wall, Ulrich called out, "Aelita!"
"Everything okay?" she asked.
"No, Odd's acting really weird!" Ulrich replied, urgency in his voice. What was wrong with his roommate, his friend?
"You mean you only just noticed?" the pink-ette sarcastically retorted. "Hang in there. Jérémie and Yumi are on their way to the activated tower."
Odd stood on his two legs, as if suddenly remembering he was a human and not an animal. However, he wore a worried expression and started rubbing his lower back.
"Come on, Odd! Get real!" William exclaimed, watching him. "What's wrong with you?"
The cat didn't respond to the knight. In fact, it didn't seem like he even heard William at all. "Oh, no, this is getting worse and worse...I don't believe this...!" He then began trying to take his suit off by looking for a pants zipper.
"Woah!" Ulrich exclaimed. "What are you doing?!"
"Trying to take off my suit," Odd meekly explained. "I need to check something."
Ulrich groaned, "Ugh! Stop!"
William was hiding his face with both hands, "Yeah, cut that out! Check what?"
Odd looked over his shoulder at them. He looked scared. "It's, well, I-I've got this...thing in my backside. I think..." he finally turned around to face them, "I-I think..." he glanced down at the ground, ashamed of something, likely of what he was about to say, "I think I'm growing a tail..."
Aelita was the one who replied, "What are you talking about? You mean other than your cat tail?"
Odd was sheepish as he explained, "Y-Yeah...a dog tail. I, uh...kinda smuggled Kiwi into the scanners with me earlier..." 'Kinda'? More like 'definitely'. "That's what was in my bag, actually, not snacks..."
William and Ulrich just stared at him in shock—everything made so much more sense now. Of course, Odd would do something that dumb, but they were still surprised.
Meanwhile, Aelita sighed, "Stand by, I'll check things out. Just keep your pants on, Odd."
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Aelita spent the next fifteen seconds going over the scanner logs, as the Translated trio continued to wait and the Replika duo continued their trek to the tower. Odd had smuggled Kiwi to Lyoko, like an idiot. It made her annoyed, knowing that he didn't listen to her very clear 'no' to his notion of bringing the dog into the scanners. But she had a feeling, an inkling suspicion that wouldn't go away...
Once she found it, she grimaced, "I knew it. Guys, we've got a, um...slight problem."
"Define 'slight'," Yumi said, from the Replika, as hers and Jérémie's respective arrows moved closer to the tower.
"Yes," William added, from the dam. "Explanation, please."
"Well, the data from my scans indicates that Odd absorbed Kiwi during virtualization. That's what happens when two beings share one scanner."
"What?!" There was immediate outrage from the others.
"Odd, how you could be so dumb?!" That was Yumi, her worry coming out as anger. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe Aelita had a valid reason for saying 'no'?!"
"It wasn't to spite her, I promise," Odd quietly defended. "But yeah, I agree. It was a stupid decision."
"Yeah, fusing with your dog?" Ulrich joked. "That's ruff, good buddy."
Odd wasn't amused, given the grunt he made in response, but William chuckled. Aelita just shook her head with a tiny smile on her face. Her cousin deserved all the bad jokes right now.
"Is it serious, doctor?" Yumi asked her, slightly angry but still worried.
"Pretty much," the pink-ette replied. "Right now, his human brainwaves are still dominant, but if we don't do something fast, he'll be stuck with the mind of a dog for the rest of his life."
As mad as she and the others were, they could lecture him later. Right now, his mental state took priority.
"Do you think you can use the scanners to separate them?" Jérémie asked. It was the quickest solution.
"I'm already on it." She was typing in rapid-fire commands as she spoke. "The scanners fused them in the first place, so it should work. Now, we've wasted enough time. Odd, I'm going to De-translate you. Ulrich, William, you guys continue on to the supercomputer."
"Okay," the last two replied simultaneously.
"Wait!" Odd called out. "Can't I eat before I go back?"
"Wanna eat dog food all of your life?" Ulrich asked, barely hiding his chuckles.
Odd's response was an annoyed bark.
Aelita just rolled her eyes, "Anyway, once you're safely back on the Replika, I'll restore each of your two DNA sequences, which should then return to their original molecular state once you're devirtualized."
"Um...what was that?" Odd asked, confused by the technobabble.
William sighed.
But Ulrich was more productive, "If I've understood correctly, you—dog man—go into your kennel on the Replika. She unscrambles you and dog's DNA. You and dog come back separated in the scanners."
Aelita smiled, "Yep, you've understood."
"You're very clever, you know," William said to Ulrich.
It was Odd's turn to sigh, as he relented, "Okay, 'Lita. I'm ready."
"Roger. De-translate Odd."
His ID card turn from 2D back to 3D, indicating that the transfer was successful. She watched the holomap as she disembarked him from his Navskid to the ground at the base of the Skid tower.
"It's like I've got the hiccups," he said. "This—ruff!—gonna take long, Miss Einstein?"
"I can't tell you in dog years," she replied, continuing her work on the DNA unscrambling. "It's pretty complicated. So don't distract me, okay? A-And don't go anywhere. Just protect the Skid, but be careful. If you get devirtualized before I'm finished, you'll be stuck in a fusion with Kiwi forever!"
"Gee, thanks. I feel a lot better now. Ruff!" But he obeyed. His arrow remained in front of the Skid tower.
"Just stay there, Odd. I'll be finished soon," she tried to reassure him.
"Yeah, yeah. Sit, stay, roll over. Good doggy..." He sounded as if he was about to take a nap.
But Aelita chose to let him. It would be much easier on her to keep track of him that way.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
"The supercomputer is to your left on the other side of those double doors," Aelita told Ulrich and William as the two cautiously emerged out into the hallway. It was strangely empty; the three possessed engineers were nowhere in sight. "I'll be mostly focused on the DNA unscrambling now, so I may not respond right away."
"It's okay," Ulrich replied. "Odd needs you more. I'm sure we can manage just fine on our own."
"Thank you. Good luck." And then Aelita went silent.
The samurai turned to William, "Let's go."
The knight nodded in agreement, before the two resumed their trek to opposite end of the dam, where the supercomputer was located.
"I wish we could help somehow," William muttered.
"Me too, but we have a job to do."
The lights around them flickered, causing them both to halt in their tracks. It went dark for just one second, but when the lights came back on, the three possessed engineers were standing right in front of them. Out of nowhere, they had managed to catch up with the two.
How? There were no doors anywhere! No vents either! Or anything out in the hallway like boxes or closets!
"'Sure we can manage just fine on our own', are you?" William sarcastically asked his mission partner.
"We can," Ulrich chose to remain optimistic. "We just need to get through them to get to the supercomputer."
"How? We're outnumbered."
Hmm. Good point. It was three versus two now. They didn't have Odd and his unpredictability on their side anymore. That was probably why XANA had knowing smirks on its victims' faces.
William made a choice before Ulrich could. "Go." The command was quiet.
"What?" That alarmed the samurai.
"I said 'go'," the knight replied, whispering, unsheathing his Zweihänder. "Destroy the supercomputer. I'll hold them off."
It was the only way past them, at least for the time being. William was right, Ulrich knew. He just didn't want to leave his friend alone. But they had to destroy the supercomputer. Taking out the Replika was more important.
"Okay," he whispered back, unsheathing his twin katanas.
The engineers all attacked first. William managed to get behind them, side-stepping numerous attacks in the process, before using his weapon to block three blasts. Behind him, Ulrich managed to slip away.
The samurai kept his katanas in hand as he ran down the hallway, just in case. He was hoping he'd find the supercomputer soon.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd was lounging at the base of the Skid tower, lying down as he used his hands as a makeshift pillow. He shifted occasionally, as though he was settling in for a nap. He probably wouldn't be able to actually sleep, due to this being world being virtual, but he was bored. Nothing was happening...
His ears suddenly perked up, picking up a sudden intrusion on the Replika. He lifted his head in that direction, "Uh-oh! Aelita, do you see what I hear?"
"Ouch!" she replied, as he got to his knees. "Three Bloks just showed up. Better hide! If they're after you, that's a chance we can't take!"
"They could also be after the Skid!" he protested. "I'll lure them away!" He then started running on all fours, taking cover behind a large rock.
His cousin paused for a second, "Okay," before accepting his compromise. She then swiftly offered her own, "I'll call Yumi for back-up."
He didn't protest to that. He could use some company right now.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The activated tower was on a summit at the end of the pathway the Overwing was traveling down. The path just ended, leaving those on foot very little ways of getting up there. But Jérémie and Yumi had the Overwing, plus the elf's wings, so they were fine.
As they neared it, Aelita spoke up, panicked, "Yumi, Odd's in some major trouble at the Skid tower! He needs your help!"
Yumi frowned, "Um, I get the feeling you forgot about the activated tower."
"No problem," Jérémie cut in. "I can take care of it myself. Odd needs your help more than I do."
The geisha paused. That was true. He no longer had his Creativity as his sole means of defense—he now had energy manipulation and a pair of wings on his side. Still, leaving him by himself was never something the others felt comfortable doing.
"Okay," she relented. Because he was right about Odd. "Just be careful, okay?"
Jérémie offered her a smile, "I always am. Good luck." He then activated his wings and leapt up into the air.
"You too," she replied, as she turned the Overwing around.
While Yumi headed back to the Skid tower in order to assist Odd, Jérémie continued on towards the tower, easily using his wings to climb the summit. When he landed at the top, he de-summoned his wings as he checked out what was waiting for him.
Of course, the Clone, wearing the Aelita mask while sitting on the head of one of two Tarantulas.
Said Clone smirked when it laid its orange eyes on him, "Ah, there you are, Jérémie. I've been waiting for you. Go!" It pointed at him.
The two Tarantulas began to advance.
"Um...A-Aelita...?" Jérémie asked, getting to his feet, ready to, in the very least, defend himself.
"Be careful," was her response. "You're on your own. The rest of us can't help you."
Right. Yumi was on her way to help Odd, who was currently guarding the Skid tower. Meanwhile, Ulrich and William—the ones who needed this tower deactivated—were busy hunting for the supercomputer. And as the cherry on top, the Skid wasn't a relay for virtualization (yet), so Aelita couldn't send herself. Besides, she needed to work on the DNA unscrambling anyway, so 'couldn't' here (for her) had two meanings. Nor was fighting this supposed secret-member-of-their-group's job; it was instead protecting their secret(s).
So Jérémie was alone.
"I'll try my best..."
One of the Tarantulas (the one the Clone was not sitting on) got on its hind legs and began firing at him. He promptly leapt into the air to avoid the shots, before throwing a handful of daggers (five) at it. He landed safely on the ground as the monster exploded behind him.
The holomap warned him just as Aelita did the same, "Watch out!"
Jérémie glanced behind him, only for his virtual stomach to plummet in fear as he saw XANA-Aelita fast approaching him while riding the second Tarantula.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The three Bloks scuttled along the pathway not far from where Odd was hiding. The cat was thankful that they had actually avoided the Skid and instead went to find him. However, he suddenly jolted and put a paw on his chest as though having a violent hiccup.
"RUFF!" He immediately covered his mouth with both paws. "Whoops..."
The Bloks stopped, having heard the sound. Odd cautiously peeked over the rock as the monsters moved in his direction. Having no choice, he felt, he stood up and fired three Laser Arrows at them, only for all to miss. He ducked back behind the rock, shielding his head as the Bloks fired in his direction.
"Come on, Kiwi!" he cried. "My front paws aren't just for running, you know!"
He ran away on all fours, the Bloks just a few meters behind him. He then jumped up and flipped upside-down to face the monsters, firing a single Arrow at them. He was immediately hit by a laser, and he cried out as he was thrown backwards.
His Arrow ricocheted off a rock and a tree—both lining the edges of the path—before hitting an eye of the left-most Blok, destroying it by pure luck (as Odd considered). One of the other Bloks was knocked off-balance from the explosion, but managed to stay upright.
Odd started running again, and the two remaining Bloks pursued him, firing their lasers.
"Odd, if you get hit just one more time," Aelita frantically told him, "you'll be fused forever!"
"I'd like to see you in my place here!" he replied, still running and very stressed.
"Hang in there. The unscrambling's almost finished!"
So he had to buy some time. Getting an idea, he stopped and turned around. XANA was once again put off by the protective dog-like stance he was taking, his unpredictability. Odd barked, then growled, and barked again as he jumped up on top of one of the Bloks. And his plan worked. After all, XANA wouldn't be brave enough to shot at itself just to get to him.
The cat-dog hybrid hung onto the Blok as it spun in different dirrections, trying to knock him off. He aimed and shot two more Arrows, but they both missed the other Blok by a wide margin. The Blok he was crouched on top of started spinning at high speed.
"Quit spinning, will ya?!" he asked it.
He then jumped and landed on the other Blok. It started spinning as well, but he jumped off fairly quickly. He landed and briefly glancing back at the monsters, before running off again on all fours, under fire once more.
Odd quickly reached a rock in the middle of the path and promptly jumped over it, using it as cover. "'Lita, where the heck is my backup?"
Aelita wasn't the one who answered.
"Right here!"
Odd peered out from behind his cover in time to see Yumi come flying in on the Overwing, throwing both of her fans as she did so. One hit a target, destroying it, while the other flew in front of Odd's face, blocking a shot that he didn't know was coming for him.
The geisha then used her telekinesis to redirect both fans towards the last Blok, destroying it as well.
Odd sighed in relief as Yumi hopped off the Overwing and ran over to check on him. The relief quickly turned to excitement (thanks to dog moodswings) and he suddenly pounced on her the way a dog would at their owner the moment they walked through the front door when coming home.
The force knocked her to the ground. She was surprised at first, and he could feel his tail wagging in happiness, before she gently pushed him off. "Sorry, but I did not consent to that." She got a look on her face that suggested she just got an idea. "Sit, boy!"
Odd immediately sat on the ground.
"What do you know," was Yumi's slightly bewildered response. "That actually worked."
"Please have mercy..." he muttered. She now had power over him. He trusted her to use it wisely. Sort of.
But despite the order and how Yumi had given it, Kiwi nor Odd felt any sourness towards her. Kiwi was still happy to see her, and Odd would still call her one of his best friends.
Again, his friends were right about discipline. It needed to happen, but now Odd was no longer dreading the training he would have to do. It wasn't torture. It was Kiwi learning things. A new experience for him.
And that made Odd optimistic. He knew what to do now, what needed to be done, and how to do it. And he now had the confidence to do it.
Yumi, in response to his plea, just giggled, "Don't worry, I will." She then offered a hand to help him up, which he took. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he replied. "Thank you for the assist. I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold out."
"No problem."
"Odd, I've got it!" Aelita cut in here, this time sounding relieved. "I've reconstructed your separate DNA sequences. Now, I just have to load it into the scanner's memory...Done. Three seconds and you're back to normal. You just have to devirtualize yourself."
Odd shook his paws as he sighed in relief, "It's about time! My paws are really killing me, and XANA wouldn't let sleeping dogs lie."
Yumi summoned a fan, "I'll take care of it."
He turned to her, his arms outstretched, "Don't miss, Yumes, okay? I can't wait to be my old self again."
She just smiled, lifting up her fan. She was about to strike when...
"No, wait! Abort, abort!"
...When Aelita's alarmed exclamation stopped them.
Odd glanced up in confusion, "Huh? But why?"
"What happened?" Yumi asked. "A last minute bug?"
"Sorry, I didn't delete the old DNA data from the memory," the pink-ette explained. "If he had devirtualized right then, it would have bugged. But don't worry, we've be back online in two wags of a dog's tail! It's not a complicated thing to fix."
"I should hope so, Princess," Odd replied.
Yumi's confusion turned to understanding, and then to concern, "Hey, Aelita, how are the others doing?"
"William and Ulrich are still trying to find the supercomputer," came the update. "They haven't contacted me in a while, so I don't know how much trouble they're in. Jérémie, though, is in a bit of a jam. He could use some help."
"I'm on my way," Yumi immediately said. She turned to the friend beside her, "Odd, go back to the Skid tower. Maybe hide inside it just in case."
"What?!" he quickly protested. "No! My friend is in trouble!"
"Just until Aelita finishes the unscrambling," the geisha tried to reason.
"She's right," said angel cut in. "It doesn't matter how you devirtualize, just that it happens until after I give the 'okay'. Understand?"
Odd reluctantly sighed, "Yeah. I understand. Good luck, Yumes."
The geisha just gave him a reassuring smile before taking off on the Overwing. Meanwhile, he began trudging back to the Skid tower.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich, at last, reached the end of the long hallway. He turned left, the direction Aelita told him the supercomputer was in, and he entered a large room. Against the back wall, in the dead center, was a large machine, with blinking lights of numerous colors.
The supercomputer.
Unsheathing his twin katanas, the samurai began to approach it, ready to destroy it.
But he was forced to stop in his tracks when he saw three black spectres emerge from a nearby outlet and all reform as none other than the three 'possessed' civil engineers.
"Aelita? XANA didn't possess anyone, actually," the brunette said. "You were right. The schedule wasn't lying."
"They're polymorphic spectres," the pink-ette finished. "Hang in there! William's on his way to help you!"
All three fired electric blasts at him, one right after another. Ulrich blocked all of them with his katanas, until one hit him in the chest. As his wound flickered, though, the spectres didn't let up. They continued to attack. When another hit Ulrich's leg, he knew he had to lure the spectres away from the supercomputer.
He quickly stood up and ran out of the room, this time heading straight into the opposite right (the right one). In there was a rope hanging from a beam on a catwalk above his head. He climbed up it, swinging up onto the catwalk.
He ducked out of sight just as the spectres entered the room. He began crawling along the catwalk, hoping that maybe he could sneak back into the supercomputer room.
Only for the sound of the metal creaking underneath his weight to alert the spectres of his position. All three of them looked up at the direction of the sound, the eye of XANA flashing within the lenses of their goggles.
The center one pointed up at him, "Up there!"
Ulrich promptly ran off, away from the supercomputer room, unfortunately. But he had an idea.
William was still here, right? Aelita would've told him if his partner was De-translated by force. As long as the spectres focused all on him—Ulrich—then William would have the room and time to take out the supercomputer.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Jérémie had no choice but to run away from the Clone, if just to buy himself enough time to think of a plan or gain more ground. A few meters away from the edge of the platform, he turned around and balled his fists, ready to fight back.
XANA-Aelita quickly caught up with him, still perched on the Tarantula.
The elf formed, in his hands, a cluster of energy shuriken, before throwing them. The Clone, however, combined two Energy Fields to block them all.
"No!" came Yumi's cry.
Both Jérémie and the Clone turned in time to see her swoop in on her Overwing. With a battle cry, she jumped off her vehicle, letting it collide directly into the Tarantula's body. Said vehicle was promptly destroyed, but so was the Tarantula. XANA-Aelita quickly jumped off before the monster exploded.
Yumi landed on the ground in front of Jérémie and offered him a quick smile.
But he didn't return it, "Behind you!"
The geisha promptly turned around, throwing a fan in the process. However, XANA-Aelita easily ducked it before hitting her with a large Energy Field. Yumi cried out in pain as she was devirtualized.
"No!" Jérémie's fear multiplied when seeing this. Now, he was definitely on his own.
The Clone retained its Aelita mask as it looked at him, chuckling evilly.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich's mission to occupy the spectres led him to an machine room, lined with multiple assembly lines. He didn't have to time think about how or why, but many of said assembly lines were active, with machine parts containing the eye of XANA on them at that.
But again, he didn't have time to question any of it. He'd have to do that later. He was being chased.
The samurai ran up onto a conveyer belt that wasn't active, the spectres not far behind him. He jumped to the ground and was cut off by one, so he turned and crawled under the belt instead. The other two came straight for him. Spotting a piece of rope on the ground and picked it up, pulling it tight. The two spectres quickly tripped over it and fell to the ground, flickering from their injuries.
The remaining spectre shot a bolt of electricity at a piece of machinery above Ulrich's head. It broke and fell straight towards him, but he moved out of the way in time, before jumping off the last spectre, knocking it down.
Fortunately, that jump was high enough to get him onto the catwalk continued from the previous rooms, but it didn't put him out of range from the electricity bolts. He was hit by one in the back, knocking him down, but he quickly picked himself up and resumed running away, though the resulting flickering of his back slowed him down a bit.
"Hold on, Ulrich!" Aelita told him. "William's on his way!"
"No," he replied, softly. "Tell him to focus on the supercomputer instead."
The pink-ette went quiet as she digested that, but she seemed to understand the sacrifice he was making. "Okay."
The catwalk ended up leading to an office, likely for the person who ran the dam or filed all the paperwork or something, but it gave Ulrich a place and a chance to hide.
He quickly entered the room and quietly closed the door behind him, before leaning against the door. After a couple seconds of rest, until the flickering of his back stopped, he pushed a nearby heavy, metal cabinet over the door to barricade it.
As soon as he did, loud bangs were immediately heard from the other side, both against the door as well as the windows. All of the office's blinds were closed, and the windows remained intact, making Ulrich assume that they had been reinforced.
He moved away from the door and hid in the corner. Hopefully, he could come up with some kind of plan—fighting or escape—by the time the spectres found their way through.
Elsewhere in the facility, William was running down the main hallway, mentally apologizing to Ulrich for failing in his mission. Aelita hadn't contacted him about the supercomputer being destroyed yet, so he assumed it was a failure.
"William," came the pink-ette's voice, "Ulrich's currently trying to occupy the spectres so that you don't have any obstacles to destroy the supercomputer."
He was? Despite the fact that it had not worked previously?
"I won't let him down," William decided, before picking up his pace.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd was pacing on all fours on the first platform inside the Skid tower. "Aelita?" he cautiously asked. "H-How are the others doing?"
"Things could be better," the pink-ette was honest. "Ulrich's being chased by the spectres so William has clear access to the supercomputer, Yumi's been devirtualized, and Jérémie's alone fighting the Clone."
"What?!" His eyes widened in fear and concern. "You mean everything's falling apart and you want me to chew on a bone or scratch fleas while I wait around and do nothing?"
He quickly exited the tower on all fours, phasing through the wall. On the other side, he slid to a stop before listening carefully. He cupped an ear.
Far away, he heard Jérémie form something with his energy powers.
Odd quickly smiled before running off in that direction. He had to help Jérémie, who will help Ulrich and William both by deactivating the tower. He had to do something.
"Odd, no! I'm not done yet!" His cousin cried out in protest. "It's too dangerous! Do you hear me, Odd?"
He did, but he ignored her. His friends needed him.
When hearing nothing but silence in response, she let out a quick stressed exhale, "You're about as obedient as Kiwi!"
He took that as a compliment.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Ulrich continued to hide within a corner, one close to the door, as said door rattled. Suddenly, the lock was destroyed by a bolt of electricity and the door blasted off its hinges, creating a large cloud of smoke.
When it cleared, the spectres were glaring directly at him. He quickly dove out of the way of the following blasts, leaping over the desk, and promptly hiding underneath it. He didn't want to hide back, only dodge the attacks. He had to avoid being De-translated, at least until William managed to destroy the supercomputer.
The three spectres levitated three cabinets within the room and threw them all at him. The fell the ground with loud bangs and shook the floor. Ulrich shielded his face.
He wished William would hurry up. Or Jérémie. Whoever succeeded in their mission first—it didn't matter.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The Clone morphed into its Yumi mask in a bright flash of orange, before throwing a fan at its target. Said target managed to dodge it, but the maneuver just pushed him even closer to the edge.
Jérémie glanced back and began to panic. He had his back against the wall, or more accurately, against the Digital Sea below. His feet were teetering dangerously on the edge of the platform.
He glanced back at XANA-Yumi before forming a trio of daggers and quickly throwing them.
The Clone easily dodged them, though, before using its telekinesis to lift up a nearby rock and throw it at the elf's face.
His attempt to dodge the sudden attack was successful, but it made him lose his balance. He cried out as he fell backwards off the edge and to the Digital Sea below.
"Jérémie! No!" Aelita cried out, dismayed.
The Clone walked towards the edge, still as Yumi. But when it looked down, Jérémie suddenly flew up in front of it, using his wings. He flew straight for the tower, leaving the Clone behind.
However, in a flash of orange, it morphed back into Aelita, donning its own wings, and took off after him.
Jérémie landed and made his wings disappear a few meters away from the tower. He took off in a sprint, only for XANA-Aelita to suddenly landed in front of him. He was once again cornered, and it clearly knew that, given the smirk it gave him, before morphing back into Yumi. It readied both fans to attack him, having a plan that involved its telekinesis...
"Ruff, ruff!"
XANA-Yumi turned to the sound of the barking, only to be tackled to the ground by Odd. Both fans landed on the ground nearby with a clatter as Odd took up a dog-like defensive position, barking and growling at the Clone.
"Odd, no!" Aelita worriedly protested. "The DNA data isn't finished yet! Odd!" But she continued to type in commands.
Jérémie blinked in surprise at the sight, but didn't question it, instead making a break for the tower.
XANA-Yumi cartwheel over to its fans, grabbing them both, just before Odd pounced at it.
"ODD!" Aelita cried, as both her cousin and the Clone were both devirtualized. In that moment, she pressed the 'enter' key.
Meanwhile, Jérémie entered the tower at a sprint, not bothering to see the outcome of the fight.
They both hoped with all their heart and souls that they weren't too late...
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Odd emerged from a scanner. The sight he was greeted with was a concerned Yumi.
"You okay?" she asked, placing both hands on his shoulders.
In response, he wordlessly turned to an adjacent scanner—currently closed and in use. She also turned towards it, just as worried.
Just in time for the doors to open. "Kiwi?" Odd asked, uncertain.
When the smoke cleared, there sat Kiwi.
Identical relieved smiles appeared on both teens' faces. Odd crouched down and held his arms out wide, an invitation, one that Kiwi took. "Oh, it is my little diggity dog!" the Italian boy cried, literally and happily. The dog started licking his owner's face. "Aww, I love you too, buddy!"
Yumi just smiled before kneeling down to join them. Odd watched as she gently pet Kiwi's head, "Good boy, Kiwi. You did great."
And Odd beamed with joy.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
Another cabinet was thrown in Ulrich's direction. The desk was about to crumble, so he ran out from his hiding place under. He made a break for the exit, only to be immediately captured by one of the spectre's electric beam.
JEREMIE_
CODE_
The other two spectres combined their electricity together. Ulrich was helpless as they lifted him high up into the air, unable to fight back.
LYOKO_
Suddenly, all three spectres disappeared, turning back into black spectres that evaporated back into the electrical outlet nearby. Without their electricity, Ulrich fell back onto the ground. Despite him being a spectre, their attack took a lot out of him.
"Ulrich, the tower's been deactivated," Aelita's voice brought some clarity to the resulting cloudiness. "Are you okay?"
He slowly sat up, "A bit shaken, but not stirred. I'm fine. But what about William?"
On the other side of the facility, William took the left turn that Aelita had told him to take. Like Ulrich before him, he found himself standing in front of the supercomputer.
Smiling, he reported, "Aelita! I found it!"
"Great! Now get rid of it, pronto!"
William promptly summoned his Zweihänder before charging up an energy slash, and then firing it at the machine. Said slash immediately caused noticeable damage to it.
The supercomputer crackled with pink electricity for a brief second before then exploding. The blast knocked William backwards, making him land on his backside.
"Good job, William," he heard Aelita say. "De-translate William. De-translate Ulrich."
The knight felt himself being teleported back to the Skid. When he opened his eyes, he found himself back inside his Navskid. Outside his window, he saw the Replika begin to disappear in the distance.
"We did it?" Ulrich asked, also in his Navskid.
"We did it," Aelita replied. "But there's no time to celebrate, I'm afraid. Gotta get out of there before the Replika blows."
"On it," Jérémie replied, back in the main cockpit. He then pressed the white ignition button, before tilting the left joystick, just as the tower the Skid was just connected to began to disappear.
The Skid flew down to the surface of the water, and dove in. It exited the entry portal in horizontal mode and sped away. The gate, again, remained open as light burst from the seams of the Replika's shell until the whole thing was glowing a bright white, before it then exploded, leaving only some small pieces of debris behind to float downwards.
They did it. Another Replika down. And this time, it was thanks to Kiwi.
!~~C~O~D~E~~L~Y~O~K~O~~!
The next morning rolled around, and once again, Yumi found her friends confronting Odd about something. This time, however, it was around a tree and not on a bench, and no one seemed angry. It seemed peaceful. Ah, back to normality.
So, she walked up to them, waving in greeting, "Morning, everyone! Sleep well?"
Ulrich stopped leaning on the tree, "No, I didn't sleep a wink! I was worried out of my mind because Odd didn't come to bed last night!"
She raised a curious eyebrow, "Oh, how come?" She turned to mentioned jokester.
Odd shrugged, "I was just about to explain. I was with Kiwi in the park, training him. He took it fairly well, and now he's tired out. So, he should be pretty zen today. I'm sorry for my dog's behavior, all of you," he bowed here, Japanese-style, "but from now on, I promise that he will be much better behaved from now on."
"We sure hope so," Ulrich replied.
"And Odd?" Aelita cut in. "We understand and respect your motives for smuggling Kiwi to Lyoko," he had told them coming home from yesterday's mission, "but let's not have a repeat of last night, okay?"
"Agreed," Odd quickly relented. "Being fused with another being, a dog no less...it was weird."
Odd had turned out to be right, though. Kiwi had proved himself useful on Lyoko. Because the sensing of the Kongres, which outlets XANA had used to transfer the spectres within the facility, the animal-like aggressiveness against those spectres as well as the Clone—that was all Kiwi. Yes, Odd was still conscious, but near the end, when it was evident that Kiwi was beginning to take over, the dog proved that he cared about them, despite destroying their things whenever he was fussy.
"Weirder than you and Yumi swapping bodies?" Jérémie asked, out of curiosity.
"Yes."
The others chuckled, as Yumi approached her purple-loving friend, slightly worried, "Hey, Odd? Your pants. Look at them."
One leg of his pants had been chewed to tatters.
"Huh?" Odd glanced down at the sight before pouting, "Oh. Well, at the start of training, Kiwi maaaay have gotten a little antsy..."
"You sure it wasn't Kiwi up to his old tricks?" Aelita teased, amused. Beside her, Jérémie covered his mouth in a failed attempt to cover up his resulting giggle.
Odd continued to out, "Y-Yes, it was! It was the beginning of the training, so he wasn't used to the new tricks! But I told you, those days are behind him! Can we go to class now?"
The others just chuckled at him in amusement, but began heading their respective classes anyway.
Jérémie and Aelita both went off to Italian, while Yumi and William headed for Chemistry, and Ulrich and Odd for computer class. Since they were all headed to the same building, the latter four walked there together.
"You know, I think there's still a little bit of Kiwi in me," Odd quietly commented, as they walked past the cafeteria.
"What, you still got a tail or something?" Ulrich asked.
"God, I hope not..." William muttered.
"No! His sense of smell!" Odd explained. "Rosa and Gaston are cooking up some sublime chipolatas and broccoli for lunch today. Alternate choice: beef stew and Brussels sprouts." He paused. "Actually, that's a trait of Kiwi's that I don't mind keeping."
Amidst the trio's resulting giggles, Yumi commented, "Actually, I think that's the food lover in you talking."
"One more trait Kiwi and I have in common!"
The other three's laughs just grew, as a content Odd Della Robbia put his hands behind his head.
!~~~J~E~R~L~I~T~A~~R~O~L~E~S~W~A~P~~A~U~~~!
Next Episode: 57 - The Beauty of Kadic / Sissi hosts a beautiful pen pal from Iceland, whose attention-seeking ways drive all of the boys crazy and the girls jealous.
A/N: A Mountain Replika never appeared in the show, but there were plans for one, complete with concept of the location of its supercomputer (a large dam; it can be found on the .fr website). According to Sophie Decroisette, it was ultimately cut due to budget constraints. Since this is a fanfic, and I don't have such constraints (I write this in my own free time), I can add it back in. Since the original Kiwodd episode ("Dog Day Afternoon") was a filler, but I still wanted to add it somehow, the end result was this chapter. I know, not really groundbreaking, but it's not meant to be. It's meant to fill in a plothole from the original series (the missing Mountain Replika).
About your questions for the end of the story: I can't give any specifics due to spoilers (sorry), but I will say that I will start throwing wrenches into the story at around Chapter/Episode 62. One reviewer also asked me to keep at least one of Jérémie's parents alive and not make him suffer like canon-Aelita did. To that reviewer: Don't worry; how Jérémie's arc ends is actually one of the wrenches I have planned.
The attack mentioned at the opening of the chapter references canon's "The Trap". The activated tower on the Replika is (I guess) a copy of the one from canon's "Bad Connection". Yumi and Kiwodd's dynamic is inspired by "The Canon Dogventures of Yumi and Kiwodd" by a-queenoffairies on DA. And a computer class at Kadic? How is that possible? Remember when Sam was locked in the computer lab in the basement of the science building (reference canon's "Rock Bottom?", this story's chapter 14: "Critical Situation")? Yeah.