Nothing is What It Seems: A Code Lyoko Story

First Battle in Weeks

Chapter 5: The First Battle in Weeks; General POV

      “It’s about time something exciting happened!” Odd exclaimed as him, Ulrich, Aelita, and Jeremie ran to the factory, where they would meet Yumi. “X.A.N.A.’s been so quiet lately I almost thought he was surrendering!”

      “I don’t think that’ll happen anytime soon.” Jeremie responded. “Unfortunately.”

      “I hope Lacey’s going to be okay on her own.” Aelita mused. The pink-haired girl had just thrown a lame excuse over her shoulder as she rushed out the classroom.

      “I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Ulrich assured. “Besides, this is important.”

      “Yeah, saving the world for the billionth time is way more important than helping your brand new roommate to her next class.” Odd grinned.

      “Not helping.” Ulrich told his friend as Jeremie lifted the manhole that led to the sewers.

***

       “I think they’re heading there right now.” Lacey whispered into her phone.

      “And you didn’t bother to follow them?” Lacey’s X.A.N.A.-fied dad questioned.

       “Look, it’s only my first day handing out with them. “Lacey began to explain. “I need to gain their trust before I can go with them.”

       “You know what needs to be done, so do it.” Lacey’s father’s possessed voice came back before Lacey heard the phone click.  

      ***

      “Transfer, Aelita. Transfer, Odd. Scanner, Aelita. Scanner, Odd. Virtualization!” Jeremie watched as the two images appeared in the screen, “Ulrich, Yumi, give me a minute to program the vehicles abd then I’ll transfer you two. Odd and Aelita need a bit of a head start.”

      “That’s fine, Jeremie.” Yumi yelled from where she was in the scanner room.

     “Yumi,” Ulrich broke the awkward silence. “About that dance—“

      “Who did you ask, Ulrich?” Yumi questioned.

      “No one!” He quickly responded. “Not yet, anyway.” He gave Yumi a small, yet shy smile. “Has someone asked you?”

      “Well—“ Yumi was interrupted by the ground shaking. Or, rather, the whole building. “Jeremie!” she called up to her friend after the ground stopped shaking. When there was no response, the Japanese girl and the German boy looked at each other before heading back into the elevator to check on the blonde boy.

      When they got up there, Jeremie was lying on the floor, unconscious. His headset was laying on the keyboard, waiting for someone to pick it back up. Ulrich and Yumi bent down next to their friend. Yumi checked for a pulse and nodded at Ulrich when she found one. She quickly got up and grabbed the idle headset to communicate to her virtualized friends.

       “Guys, is something wrong?” Aelita asked.

       “Yeah, keep us in the loop!” Odd added.

      Yumi looked back down at the unresponsive Jeremie, who was being tended to by Ulrich. “Jeremie looks like he got hit by something in the head.” She replied. “He’s unconscious, but I think he’ll be alright. In the meantime, I’ll try to finish programming the overboard. As soon as I figure out where Jeremie was before he was interrupted, that is.” Yumi began studying the screen.