Code 3: TERROR
Jeremy woke up after one of the first peaceful nights of sleep he had in a long time. He had pleasant dreams for the first time since his Zaber-centric nightmares. He yawned and stretched as he put his glasses on.
"Glad you had a good night's sleep..." Zaber muttered, his head buried between two pillows and covered with his blankets and bed sheets.
"You didn't sleep well?" Jeremy asked him.
"You talk in your sleep."
"I do not." In response, Zaber held up a cassette player, and pressed the play button. Loud mutterings in Jeremy's voice began to play, most of which involved Aelita. "Hey give me that!" Zaber held it up above his head, out of Jeremy's reach.
"We'll make a trade, I'll give you the tape when you buy me some earplugs." Zaber plopped back onto his bed face first into his pillow.
After two consecutive attacks, Xana had gone silent. A month had passed without a single murmur. It was the nearly the end of October, and while things were no longer as intense, Zaber and Jeremy still occasionally butted heads, but the others tended to stay out of it. They had both acquired a sort of silent respect for each other, but they still clashed in logic and personality in every possible way. Whether they we're going on about Jeremy's sleep talking or arguing over some stupid minor thing, it always escalated and was rarely resolved.
It was the day before Halloween, and most of the school was gearing up for festivities. Zaber sat on his side of the room, rock music blasting. Jeremy sat at the computer, but was struggling to type while still plugging his ears.
"Will you turn that down?" Jeremy asked.
"What?" Zaber replied, unable to hear him.
"I said turn it down!" Jeremy shouted back. Zaber turned the volume down to a bearable level and frowned. There was a knock at the door, and Zaber answered it. Odd walked right in.
"Hey Jeremy! There’s a costume party for Halloween next week... but I don't have a costume. Any chance you could get my cat-suit off of Lyoko for a day or two?"
"Odd, the scanners are highly sophisticated technology for battling the ultimate evil. And you want me to use them to make you a free Halloween costume?"
"Yeah. That about sums it up." Odd said while nodding.
"But... if you could bring his costume AND it's powers to the real world, couldn't that help us the next time Xana sends monsters to the real world?" Zaber said as he cocked his head.
"Oh, you're one to complain! You're the only one who already kicks butt in the real world just as easily as on Lyoko." Jeremy responded to Zaber's comment.
"Still doesn’t change the fact that you guys are pathetic without your powers.” Zaber muttered as he picked up a can of soda sitting on his nightstand and took a swig. Jeremy said nothing in response to this, unable to come up with a good comeback.
"Um, hello?" Odd interrupted, as they had forgotten he was there. "So can you do it or not Einstein?" Jeremy pondered for a moment.
"Well... I suppose I could... it would just be difficult, dangerous, and time-consuming."
"OK! I'll talk to you tomorrow about picking it up, thanks!" Odd said as he walked out of the room in a rush.
"Wait, Odd! I never said I'd actually do it!"
"Should have said that sooner then." Zaber muttered.
"Well... Odd will have to come up with a different costume because I'm not doing it."
"Wimp. I could probably even do it."
"Are you implying that I can't do it?"
"Yes." Zaber opened a programming window linked to the supercomputer on his laptop and began to type.
"Oh... I'll show you!" Jeremy opened his laptop and began to furiously program. Zaber was however, not actually working on the program in question, but rather something completely different. He had just pretended he was to motivate Jeremy to take on the project. He smiled smugly as he turned the music up again.
The next day after classes Jeremy, and Odd went to the factory and Jeremy loaded the program.
"So are you sure this is gonna work Einstein?"
"There's no reason it shouldn't. I wasn't able to transfer your laser arrows into the program, but you're claws, tail, and the rest of your costume should be materialized onto you. The only problem is that the only way to get the costume off is to come back to the scanners."
"Well that's not a problem." Odd smiled as he stepped into the elevator. A few seconds later he stood in a scanner. "Fire it up!"
"OK, beginning process. Transfer: Odd. Scanner: Odd." He began to activate a different program at this point, clicking and dragging a file off his disk into the supercomputers hard drive, and then dragging the file into the virtualization window. "Applying skin… now." Odd felt a sharp sting for an instant, but the pain disappeared quickly. He felt as if his entire body had been submerged in freezing cold water for an instant; and the scanner doors burst open as normal feeling returned. He looked down at his hands, which we're now covered by clawed gloves. He looked down near his feet and saw his familiar swishing tail.
"Yes! Einstein, I could kiss you but I'm not that kind of guy!"
"Well, I‘m very glad your not that kind of guy, Odd.” Jeremy replied sarcastically. “Now we had better get back to the school before someone realizes that we're missing." Jeremy said as he removed his headset and headed for the elevator. Odd came bounding up the ladder with his catlike agility.
They arrived back at the school an hour before the party, and they all met in the courtyard. Ulrich had made a samurai costume much like his Lyoko one, but he had created it the old-fashioned way. Yumi was wearing a kimono. Zaber, Aelita, and Jeremy had decided not to wear costumes,
"Odd, if you knew Jeremy was going to let you get your costume off Lyoko, why did you let me spend the last two weeks making mine the old fashioned way?" Ulrich asked him.
"I thought it would be funny!" Odd replied with a grin. "And besides, now I'm a shoe in to win the best costume contest!"
"That's what this was all about? A contest?" Jeremy said, angry at the amount of work he had put into the program when all Odd wanted was to win a contest without doing any work.
"There's a cash prize... and if I win you can have it all, OK?" Odd calmed Jeremy. "Now come on, I don't wanna be late."
In Jeremy's room, the computer went off with an alarm. There was an activated tower. But the tower was not in Sector Five. Rather, the tower appeared to be floating out in the open void where the Ice Sector had once been. A specter shot out of the computer and ran along the power lines towards the school. They had just arrived at the party when Jeremy was notified of the alert on his cell.
"Talk about crappy timing." He muttered. "Tower time again."
"Xana always has to pick the most annoying times to attack." Yumi muttered.
"I'm not going anywhere! You guys can handle the tower right?" Odd said as he continued to bounce wildly around the room.
"Why should you get to enjoy the party?" Ulrich muttered as he grabbed Odd by the arm and tried to drag him out of the room, but Ulrich could scarcely take two steps before he bumped into Sissy, who was dressed in an uncharacteristic black flowing robe.
"Ah... Ulrich!" Sissy exclaimed as she knocked Ulrich to the ground and tried to kiss him.
"Sissy! What's wrong with you?" Ulrich said as he strained to keep her at bay.
"Just what's going on here?" Yumi glared at them both.
"THAT is wrong on six different levels." Odd said as he walked off towards the food table.
"Amen to that." Zaber added as he followed Odd. In the end, Aelita and Jeremy just stood there, dumbstruck at the turn of events.
"You don't think they actually FORGOT about the tower do you?" Aelita asked him.
"It wouldn't surprise me." Jeremy answered as he slapped his hand on his forehead. They walked over to where Ulrich, Yumi, and Sissy were involved in confrontation.
"Ulrich, what are you doing?" Yumi demanded.
"I have nothing to do with this!" Ulrich exclaimed as he was pinned on the ground trying to fight off Sissy. It was then that he saw the mark of Xana in her eye as he let out a gasp. "Yumi! It's not Sissy, it's a specter. Or she's possessed, I don't know which!"
"Either way I've always wanted an excuse to do this!" Yumi said as she kicked Sissy off of Ulrich with great force. As she helped Ulrich up, Sissy faded out and began to transform.
"Well, that's a specter all right..." Aelita said. "We've got to deactivate that tower." The specter began to then rapidly grow in size. A few seconds later, the other students in the room began to notice what was happening and one of them screamed. The specter was now a giant, twenty-foot long snake that was also roughly five feet in diameter. Odd and Zaber seemingly showed up again out of nowhere.
"Odd and I will try and handle this thing." Zaber said to Jeremy as he loaded his revolver. "Get to the factory and get rid of that tower."
"This is even uglier than the usual specters!" Odd said, as he held out his arm and aimed at the snake. "Laser Arrow!" Nothing happened. "Oh yeah... no arrows... well, good luck with that Zaber, I'm going with..."
"Oh no you aren't. I can't fight this thing by myself!" Zaber yanked Odd back. The serpent lunged and the group was split between Yumi, Ulrich, Aelita, and Jeremy and Zaber and Odd. The larger group fled the room and headed for the factory. The serpent doubled back around on Odd and Zaber's side and lunged open mouthed at Odd.
"Ah! Shield!" Odd's shield appeared on his arm as the creature tried to bite him. He stood with his shield holding back the beasts' upper teeth and his feet holding its jaw in place. "This really sucks!" Zaber ran up behind Odd.
"Hold still and brace yourself Odd, this is gonna get nasty!" He said as he aimed over Odd's shoulder down the snake's throat. He could see the faint outline of its uvula. A gunshot rang out, and the serpent expelled sticky green fluids as it threw up. Both of them were hit with the fluids and knocked back several feet.
"You had to make it throw up?" Odd muttered as he wiped the goo of his face.
"You'd rather I let it eat you? Its throat will be too sore to swallow anything for a couple minutes." Zaber threw off the black jacket he usually wore, and now wore just his red sleeveless shirt, but the fluid stained it, making it a darker shade than usual. The snake was still writhing in pain, but it was quickly recovering.
"I suggest we run away. Quickly!" Zaber said as he bolted for the door.
"Right behind you!" Odd said, bounding after him on all fours. They got about a hundred feet away from the building when the stone wall exploded and glasses shattered as the snake burst out of the building and into the open.
The second group had arrived at the factory, and immediately set up for Lyoko. But when Jeremy sat down at the console, he discovered the tower was not in Sector Five. He found the coordinates of the tower, it was suspended on a platform in the middle of the digital void.
"This is weird guys... but a tiny area has appeared in the center of what used to be the ice sector! That's where the tower is!"
"That's certainty different." Aelita said as she stepped into the scanner. "But we have to deactivate it just the same." Jeremy nodded and began to launch the process.
"Transfer: Ulrich. Transfer: Yumi. Transfer: Aelita. Scanner: Ulrich. Scanner: Yumi. Scanner: Aelita. Virtualization!" The three of them materialized onto a stone platform. The platform was a perfect circle with a red tower in the center, surrounded by a dark dome through which nothing could be seen. Several boulder size rocks dotted the landscape. The monster that awaited them however, was like nothing they had seen before.
"Hey Jeremy, what do you got on this new monster?" Ulrich asked. The creature resembled a centaur with out a head or neck. Attached to its torso were four arms. Two of them resembled the legs of Tarantulas, the other two limbs were like giant cleavers from the joint down. The entire creature was a dark blue in color, and bore no visible Xana mark. Jeremy scanned what information he had on the creature.
"It called a Rider. It's got a lot of LP, I doubt you'll be able to kill it without hitting it's weak point."
"And where's it weak point?"
"Wherever the eye is. I can't tell from my screen."
"Well we don't see an eye either." Yumi interrupted them as she bounced some energy bolts off of her fans.
"You've got to find that eye then!" Jeremy urged them.
"Aelita, we'll distract it, try and sneak around to the tower." Ulrich urged as bounced back several more shots. He ran ahead and tried to slice it with his sword, but the two cleaver arms blocked his strikes. As the two of them continued to fight the creature, they could not find it's weak point, or even damage it. Yumi was knocked down by two laser blasts from its cannon arms. The creature ran over to her on the ground with surprising speed.
"Yumi!" Ulrich yelled as he tried to run to her, but he couldn't catch up with the rider. The rider reared up on its hind legs, it's front legs flailing. Yumi grimaced, but looked up and saw a white Xana mark on the creature's underbelly.
"Ulrich! It's weak..." She pointed up at the mark, located on the creatures underbelly, but was devirtualized by trampling before she could finish her sentence. Ulrich used the momentum he had gained from running to catch up with the Rider and burst into a super-sprint. Before the creature could turn around, Ulrich braked quickly and slid near the ground under the creature, his sword drawn.
"Impact!" He stabbed the creature right in the Xana eye, and it exploded, but Ulrich continued to skid for several feet.
In the real world, Yumi took the elevator back to the lab.
"How are they doing?" Yumi asked.
"Ulrich just beat it. Aelita should be at the tower by now though… Aelita, where are you?" Jeremy asked.
"Jeremy! He's here! It's William!" Aelita responded.
"What?" Jeremy and Yumi exclaimed in unison.
"But Xana is controlling him. He's guarding the tower. I can't get in." Aelita answered them. William was wearing his evil costume that he acquired when he had been trapped on Lyoko, but several other aspects had changed. His eyes, of course, bore the Xana mark, but he now wore black metal spiked wristbands. His sword was even larger than before, it was now a foot-wide and as tall as he was when it was stuck in the ground. The blade was black, with a line of golden Xana marks across the blade running vertically from hilt to tip. He slowly walked towards the rock that Aelita was hiding behind. He raised the blade over his head, and the rock was cleaved in two, and then disappeared all together. "Jeremy!"
"Ulrich, get over to the tower! William's there and he's attacking Aelita!" Jeremy yelled.
"William! But how?" Ulrich said as he broke into a super sprint towards the tower. William did not speak, he only raised his sword over his head to attack Aelita. Ulrich blocked the blow at the last possible second. "Aelita! Run!"
Meanwhile, Odd and Zaber continued to flee from the giant snake.
"Next time Jeremy materializes something, I want my Overboard!" Odd yelled, tired from running so much.
"Stop whining and run!" Zaber said, as he quickly turned around and fired a hail of bullets at the snake, a few of which struck it in the eyes, and the creature flailed madly. The two of them ducked around a building and caught their breath. But out of their sight, the specter changed shape again. Zaber stood pressed against the wall, and then quickly ducked out of cover with gun in front of him. But the snake was gone. He turned around to see two Odds rolling on the ground, trying to claw each others eyes out. The specter had taken the form of Odd, and the two we're completely identical. The clone even copied the real one's dialog and movements at the exact same time.
"Zaber! Help!" They both shouted. Zaber couldn't tell any difference from his distance. He had one bullet left. He didn't want to risk killing the real Odd, but he had little choice. His hand shook furiously as he took aim at one of them, staring at the eyes, trying to tell which one had the eyes of Xana. He thought he'd finally had found the one, and fired. He had aimed at the right one, but the fake moved the real Odd into the path of the bullet. Odd was knocked to the ground, his shoulder bleeding.
"Odd!" Zaber shouted as he tried to run to him, but the clone intercepted him, he felt a sharp stab his chest. The clone's clawed hand lifted him into the air with surprising ease.
"Laser Arrow." The clone said as three arrows shot from its wrist and ripped straight through Zaber's torso. Zaber's eyes glazed over as he hit the ground, blood dripping from his back. The clone bore an evil grin.
Ulrich and William did battle for several minutes both moving with equal speed despite the size of William's sword, but William was far stronger. In the end, Ulrich's sword cleaved in half. William's face broke into a contorted smile, as he raised his sword once more.
"Sorry... you lose." Ulrich grinned. Aelita was mere feet from the tower behind William's back. William let out a yell as he flung his sword like a giant knife at Aelita. Aelita entered the tower and the sword impaled into the tower where she had entered it. She quickly climbed to the top of the tower. In the real world, the specter walked slowly up to Odd, who was clutching his bleeding shoulder. The clone took aim at Odd's heart, and terror spread across Odd's face. Aelita entered Code Lyoko, and the clone froze in place. William disappeared in a black cloud.
"Return to the past now..." Jeremy launched the return in time, as the white light engulfed Odd and Zaber.
After the return, Zaber and Jeremy once again sat in their room. Jeremy still sat at his computer, but Zaber lie in his bed asleep. The room was deathly quiet compared to the last time. Odd never showed up to beg for a costume this time. Jeremy was programming something. How close the two had come to death this time frightened him. Figuring out a way to defend themselves in full in the real world was now a necessity, as the attacks were escalating more and more every time. While he was becoming more and more accustomed to working with Zaber, the dream still worried him. Almost two months had passed since the first time he had the dream, and there had been no sign of any behavior from Zaber that might lead to the events of his vision.
"Perhaps it was just a dream... perhaps." Jeremy thought.
Code 3: TERROR ... END
