Virtual Enhancements

The girls run in a direction that's 90 degrees clockwise from the one they took last time. They head to a woody sector.

Yumi: By the way, what was the first thing you gave me?
Aelita: A protection layer. With it, the creatures that XANA's spawning shouldn't be able to harm us directly.
Yumi: Wow!
Aelita: Besides, if for any reason, the layer is overcome and you end up exposed, you'll be rematerialized immediately, so chances of you getting hurt are reduced to zero.
Yumi: Sounds convenient! Why didn't we use them last time?
Aelita: Because it didn't exist last time. This shield was implemented just a few hours ago.
Yumi: I understand. I feel more protected now, thank you.
Aelita: You are, for sure. Nevertheless, we have to be careful: today we face some new creatures and we don't know their tricks.
Yumi: Okay.

The girls venture into the woods. A few steps ahead, they notice a moving object. It's shorter than the girls' avatars; its form is completely cubic, with the exception of four small legs similar to the Kankrelats', and four domes that bulge from each of its lateral faces, similar to eyeballs, but with a curious symbol drawn on them. The girls hide behind a thick enough tree.

Yumi: (whispering) *Did you see that?*
Aelita: (also whispering) *Yeah. Must be one of those new monsters. I hadn't seen one of them before.*
Yumi: *I see.*
Aelita: *We must keep going, time is of the essence.*
Yumi: *But we risk that it sees us. Do you have any idea of how to go on unnoticed?*
Aelita: *A pretty clear idea. Give me a minute.*

Aelita kneels and opens her mouth. When she does it, Yumi hears her companion's voice sing quietly, but as if she were inside her head. Aelita keeps singing for about ten seconds, after which she closes her mouth. Yumi hears a sound of stones moving close to them, a bit behind.

Yumi: *What was that?*
Aelita: *Yet another one of this morning's experiments. You don't have this though.

The cube that the girls had seen moves towards the noise that Yumi heard.

Yumi: *The cube got distracted! Did you do that? How?*
Aelita: *I attached a program to myself that lets me instance small objects in Lyoko at a certain distance from me. I created a few rocks so that they made a bit of noise.*
Yumi: *Wow, cool! And are there powers for us as well?*
Aelita: *We've been testing a few things, but you don't have anything attached currently. Maybe next time.*
Yumi: *I'll eagerly wait the moment to acquire one!*

The girls keep heading forward cautiously, until they notice several bloks in the direction they're heading. Some wander serenely, while some remain in one place. The girls take cover once again.

Aelita: *There are too many. The same trick will distract some, but not all of them.*
Yumi: *You could send some to one side, some to the opposite side, and we face the ones remaining.*
Aelita: *I'm not sure if it's a good idea to expose ourselves this soon. I'd rather leave that as a last resort.*
Yumi: *Okay. I'll think about something else.*

As they discuss, Jeremie arrives to the computer room and turns on the microphone.

Jeremie: (low voice) Aelita, Yumi, do you copy?

Yumi startles when hearing Jeremie's voice, loses balance and drops to a side, ending up being seen by a blok, located about fifteen feet from their hiding spot.

Yumi: Oh no, oh no!

Aelita pulls Yumi towards her and gets her back to their hideout. They start hearing metallic steps heading towards them.

Aelita: For crying out loud, Jeremie! Now the bloks know where we are.
Jeremie: Oh no, I'm so sorry, Yumi!
Yumi: What now?

Jeremie displays the holomap on the right monitor.

Jeremie: You have to get out of there! Your best bet is to run uphill to your eight o'clock.
Aelita: Understood! Yumi, follow me.

The girls get out of their hiding spot and head in the indicated direction. Jeremie types furiously.

Ulrich and Odd help Jim and Delmas monitor Kadic's students, who are still inside the dorms building. Odd holds a fire extinguisher in his hand.

At one moment, Nicholas and Herve cross their path. They look at them with unfriendly gazes, but keep heading to meet with the rest. After a few seconds, the flow of children stops.

Odd: Looks like that's all of them.
Ulrich: I'd wait a bit longer, I haven't seen Sissi yet.
Odd: Wasn't she with her father?
Ulrich: (looking at Delmas at a distance) She's not. I'd go investigate, it wouldn't be good if something happened to her.

The boys look up the stairs. No movement can be seen or heard.

Ulrich: Let's go take a look. (prepares to climb up the stairs)
Odd: Wait a moment, Ulrich!
Ulrich: What's up?
Odd: Are you aware that she probably wouldn't do the same for us?
Ulrich: Yes…
Odd: And that she'll probably keep messing with you despite it, or even because of it?
Ulrich: (impatient) Yeah, anything else?
Odd: (raising his shoulders) Fair enough. Let's go!

Ulrich and Odd climb up the stairs and head to Sissi's dorm.

Ulrich: Sissi!
Odd: Hey, Sissi!

No answer. When they reach her door, Ulrich knocks. Still no answer. Ulrich opens the door and Sissi is inside, asleep on top of her bed, with her earphones on. The diskman that's connected to them is on the bed, releasing smoke. The bed cover has turned black around the diskman. There's a strong smell of burnt fabric.

Ulrich gets close to Sissi and takes her earphones off. Sissi wakes up immediately and looks around.

Sissi: Huh, what…?
Ulrich: Sissi, you have to get out of here!
Sissi: (frowning) You… You came back for more, huh?
Ulrich: Sissi, there's an emergency going on and everyone else is at the courtyard. We have to get out.
Sissi: You weren't happy with humiliating me in front of your friends and now you come to my room to try it again. Well, I won't abide!
Odd: Sissi, your diskman is frying! We're telling the tr…!
Sissi: (stands up and noticeably heightens her voice) Shut up, you twerp! You and your dog are first in my unwanted list, and last in my trusted animals list. Now scram before I call my dad!

The diskman opens suddenly and the CD that was inside gets shot like a frisbee towards Ulrich. He covers his face with his arms, and the disk grazes his left forearm.

Ulrich: Agh!

Sissi's bed sets on fire around the diskman. Odd reacts quickly and fires the extinguisher over the device. The fire doesn't manage to spread.

Sissi: Oh no, Ulrich! Are you okay?
Ulrich: (clenched teeth) Yeah… I'm alright…

Ulrich's arm has a wound where the disk grazed. It's superficial, but it bleeds.

Sissi: We have to take you to the infirmary! Come, I'll help you.

Sissi wraps her arm under Ulrich's arms.

Sissi: Let's move! You too, Odd.

Yumi and Aelita hide beneath some bushes. No bloks are directly around them. Jeremie keeps typing something.

Aelita: Jeremie, we need directions.

Only the sound of Jeremie's typing. No answer.

Aelita: Jeremie!
Jeremie: Oh, sorry! Uh… go south.
Yumi: Which way's south?
Aelita: (indicating downhill) There. C'mon.

They run for about half a minute, until they discover a blok right in front of them. They don't manage to hide before being seen.

Aelita: Jeremie, we've been spotted!
Jeremie: (still typing) Sorry, sorry… Uhh, you have to go east… No, west, west…
Aelita: (bothered) Hey, Jeremie, we're in trouble here, we need you to focus.
Jeremie: Yeah, it's true. (the typing stops) Look, I think there's a large set of rocks to the west. If you can somehow get rid of the blok you're facing, you may take refuge there.
Yumi: Honestly, these bloks look quite clumsy. Aelita, leave it to me.

Yumi faces the blok. The latter tries to tackle her with its body, but Yumi steps aside to dodge it. Taking advantage of her movemet's inertia, Yumi spins and kicks the creature in its back. The monster crazily spins its head before trying to tackle again. The attack succeeds and Yumi's thrown against the mountain, but manages to stand up quickly. As the blok prepares to charge a third time, the girl pushes it downhill. After a couple of dirty crashes against the ground, the blok blows up.

Aelita: Wow, impressive, Yumi! Where did you learn that?
Yumi: Oh, I haven't told you that I practice martial arts.
Aelita: I can see you've been practising for a while now, you managed quite well against that cube.
Yumi: Thanks… But let's not wait any more time. Let's go to the rocks Jeremie mentioned before one of these spots us again.

The girls walk for half a minute, until they spot the set of rocks. In its center, there's enough space for them to hide without being seen from the outside.

Aelita: Jeremie, we're here. Can you give us a report of our surroundings.
Jeremie: (stops typing once again) Uhh… Let's see, there are no bloks near your current location. A path heading north and then north-west could be a possibility for when you try it again.
Aelita: Let's go immediately then, there must be about thirty of these creatures by now. Can you confirm, Jeremie?
Jeremie: (types a couple of lines) Thirty two, to be exact. But wait a minute, I've been processing something that'll be useful to you.
Aelita: We cannot wait for much longer. How much more do you need?
Jeremie: One more minute.

Aelita sighs.

Yumi: Are you alright, Aelita? You look a bit more stressed than usual.
Aelita: I'd rather talk later about it.
Yumi: Okay, you can count on me if you need anything.
Aelita: (looks at her, smiles mildly) Thank you, Yumi.

The girls wait for a few more seconds. Aelita shows signs of impatience, moving her legs and tapping a rock with her fingers.

Jeremie: There! Yumi, prepare to feel powerful.
Yumi: Always prepared for that!
Jeremie: Attaching program in 3… 2… 1… Zero.

Yumi starts levitating. Somewhat surprised, she looks to her sides, but then lets go. After a brief moment, she falls to the ground.

Yumi: What was that?
Jeremie: A little help to confront XANA's troops.
Yumi: Really? But I don't feel different, actually.
Jeremie: Are there any loose rocks in your surroundings?

The girls look around.

Aelita: I see one a couple of steps away, why?
Jeremie: Yumi, I want you to lift the rock that Aelita mentioned.
Yumi: (pointing towards the rock) That one? It's pretty large, probably a lot heavier than me.
Jeremie: That's right.
Yumi: Wait… did you just give me super strength?
Jeremie: Even better: telekinesis.
Yumi: Really? How cool! And how do I activate it?
Jeremie: Hmm, the program isn't completely made by me, so I'm not sure. Try focusing or something like that.

Yumi extends her hand to the rock, without touching it. She tries moving her hand slightly, closing her eyes, without success. Aelita sighs.

Aelita: Yumi, I think we should retake our path, we don't have spare time.
Yumi: Okay.

Before turning her back on the rock, Yumi moves to one side using her whole body while she looks at it. The rock moves a few inches in the same direction.

Yumi: Wait, wait!

Yumi turns to the rock, and starts taking steps that resemble a kata from Penchak Silat. Little by little, the object starts following the girl's steps. After thirty seconds, the rock is raised from the ground, as Yumi makes a step similar to standing up from the ground.

Yumi: Wooow!

Yumi stomps on the ground. The rock falls making a lot of noise.

Yumi: Whoops, sorry. I'm ready now.
Aelita: Let's go then.

The girls start heading north.

Jeremie: How did you do it, Yumi? Despite I knew what the program did, that was quite impressive.
Yumi: In the world of martial arts and weapons there's a lot of talk about thinking of external tools as extensions of one's self. Using that principle, I tried picturing the rock as an extension of myself. Looks like it worked quite well.

Jeremie: Sounds very interesting, it'd never have occurred to me to try something like that.
Yumi: Might be a good incentive for you to start learning martial arts.
Jeremie: (chuckles) I think I'll pass for the moment.

The girls keep walking for a few more minutes.

Jeremie: Attention: there's two blocks on your way ahead. Maybe it's time to test your new abilities, Yumi.
Yumi: Alright.
Aelita: Are you sure, Yumi? That'll leave you exposed, you know.
Yumi: With a resource like this, I doubt that I'll bee too exposed. Now, if you fear for yourself, I can go ahead on my own.
Aelita: No way! After all, together we'll for sure get further.
Yumi: Sounds fantastic.

The bloks that Jeremie mentioned appear in front of the girls. Both of the former charge.

Yumi: Let's see what you're made of, you overgrown bricks.

Yumi extends forward, then contracts. The rightmost block gets dragged towards her in an unnatural manner. The girl then steps to her left, extending both of her hands in the same direction. The blok raises from the ground and crashes against its companion, after which they both roll a bit on the ground. They manage to get up.

Aelita: My turn.

The girl starts singing, her voice creating the same effect as before, both in Yumi and Jeremie. A rock that's a bit smaller than the bloks is instanced over the leftmost creature. After being completely rendered, the rock falls over the monster below it, splatting and destroying it. As it happens, the second block charges against Yumi.

The Japanese girl performs the opposite movement from the one she did before, but she does the side-step a bit backwards. The rock that Aelita created gets dragged leaving a trace on the ground, and brutally hits the remaining blok, dragging it as well. After hitting a tree, the blok blows up and gets destroyed. The rock falls right next to the tree.

The girls look at each other and start laughing spontaneously.

Yumi: Wow, that was too cool!
Aelita: It honestly was. That was some display of skill, Yumi!
Yumi: Well, I've had some practice, haven't I? By the way, that last part gave me a few ideas to work as a team for when we need to clean up our way forward.
Aelita: Me too. Let's see what we can do.
Jeremie: Good job both of you! I'll pay attention to what you have in mind.

- END OF CHAPTER 14 -

A/N: If you've watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, you'll know where the inspiration for Yumi's power handling comes from.