Code 8: DECEIT
Winter break passed with no events of Xana interruption, and Jeremy made great strides on Aelita's reconstruction. Aelita and Jeremy, who had officially made their "boyfriend - girlfriend" status official, received much heckling from the rest of the school, but still enjoyed their holiday.
School restarted, and Zaber began to pester Jeremy.
"Why can't I have a vehicle?"
"I'm busy with Aelita's reconstruction..."
"You can't take ten minutes a day for a week and make me a vehicle?"
"No."
"Come on..."
"No!"
"I WANT A VEHICLE DAMN IT!"
This progressed for almost a week, and Jeremy finally broke down and programmed a pair of "Overskates" for a very smug Zaber, who clearly felt he had won the argument. The next morning, before school, Zaber went to Lyoko to test them out. They materialized on his feet, and looked no different than his normal shoes accept for having wheels.
"A little sloppy Jeremy..." He muttered, but quickly changed his mind when he began to move, as his speed increased exceedingly. At top speed, he matched Ulrich's super-sprint, except in a zigzag pattern rather than straight.
"You we're saying?" Jeremy said with his arms crossed. "In the Ice sector the wheels automatically become skating blades, and in sector five the wheel's are magnetic, so you'll be able to hang upside down from the celestial dome to get to the core of Lyoko."
"You the man Jeremy! Let's get back to the school and... hold on. Jeremy, there's a weird monster here. What you got on it?" Zaber said. Jeremy looked at his display.
"It's definitely a new monster... it's got 400 LP! Zaber, I'm devirtualizing you right now. You can't beat that."
"No way. My LP still full… what’s the arm in a little target practice…“ Zaber dashed forwards and shot off one of the diagonal plateaus like a ramp, where he got a good look at it for the first time. It reminded him of a praying mantis. It had eight skeletal like legs that supported its lower body. It had a scorpion like tail, which could be used for shooting lasers. Its head bore six red eyes, but no Xana mark, Zaber figured it was just trickily hidden like with riders. Its two front arms were like swords or laser energy, able to deal a large amount of damage with a casual swipe. Zaber fired a repeated hail of shots from both Styx and Phelegytheon, all of which struck the beast, but seemingly had no effect. It looked up at him and a seam opened in it's neck, revealing numerous rows of sharp teeth and emitting a fierce sound. It reared it's tail and fired several blasts at the falling Zaber, who took the blasts, unable to change is path while falling. He cut off the blasts and hit the ground with minimal LP remaining. Before he could stand up, he felt a stab in his back, and he was devirtualized off of Lyoko, the creatures laser arm had passed right through him. The creature reared up on its hindmost legs, swinging it's saber arms wildly, and emitting it's fierce cry once more.
"So how much damage did I do to the Assassin anyway?" Zaber asked Jeremy an hour later.
"About 80 points. Phenomenal most of the time, but nowhere enough to kill it." Jeremy said. They had all gathered in the cafeteria and we're quietly discussing this development. If Xana sent the Assassin after them during an attack, they needed a plan to slay it.
"Are you sure it didn't have a weak point anywhere?" Yumi asked.
"I didn't see one, and Jeremy ran a full analysis afterwards and couldn't find one." Zaber said.
"Short of sniping at it with Energy Fields, gunshots, and laser arrows, I don't see anyway to beat it. Besides, its lasers have a better range than any of our attacks." Aelita said.
"Well, there's no point driving ourselves crazy about it now. We'll figure this out later, but we have to get to class." Ulrich said as he walked out.
"Yeah, I've got a field trip to the zoo today for Biology. I'll meet you guys at the factory later, OK?" Yumi added and walked out.
The day passed as normally as possible until about noon, when the tower alert went off again, for the first time in two months. Jeremy quickly dialed the others after ditching his current class along with Aelita. Zaber met them halfway to the forest tunnel.
"Ulrich and Odd are gonna be a little behind, they're having a harder time getting out that I did." He told them. "Did anyone let Yumi know?" He asked.
The zoo trip was simple. They we're to carefully watch a specific animal, take note on its behavior, and do a report. Yumi groaned in boredom as she watched the gorilla from behind the glass. All it had done all day was sleep, which meant she would have a very hard time writing a report. Her phone rang, and she answered quickly.
"Yes Jeremy?" She said.
"Yumi, Xana's attacking."
"Well, I wish I could help but the Zoo's an hour away from the factory by car. I can't get there."
"It's alright, we'll make do without you." Jeremy said, nodding to Ulrich and Odd, who had just caught up to them at they we're descending the forest tunnel.
"Alright. Good luck, guys, and try to avoid a return if you can... I don't want to have to go through this boredom twice." She said, but when she turned to look back at the gorilla, she saw it was now fully awake, and was pressed up against the glass, it's hands scratching at the glass wall. It raised both its arms and with strength even greater than the typical gorilla smashed through the glass. Yumi could clearly see the mark of Xana had appeared in white over its brown eyes. Several people in the primate house screamed. "Scratch that Jeremy! Return to the past, ASAP! Xana's attacking the zoo!" She hung up and ran out of the building, but found herself no better off, as Xana had possessed most of predatory animals in the zoo, including the lions, tigers, bears, cheetahs, and hyenas, and their supplemented physical abilities had allowed them to escape from their usually confined areas. "This is just great..." Yumi said. She ran for the bathroom and stepped inside, pressing the transfer button on her mobile scanner.
The group emerged from the forest tunnel just in time to see a black ray shoot from the top of the factory and off into the distance.
"What was that?" Jeremy said.
"It's Yumi. She must have activated her mobile scanner. That's her character data getting beamed from the supercomputer. She must be in trouble. There's no time to waste." Zaber said, as he rushed into the factory with the others on his heels. They boarded the elevator, stopped a moment later to let Jeremy off at the computer floor, and then descended to the scanner room. Jeremy sat down at the computer and began the virtualization.
"The tower is in the forest sector. I'll virtualize you. Transfer: Ulrich. Transfer: Odd. Transfer: Aelita. Scanner: Ulrich. Scanner: Odd. Scanner: Aelita. Virtualization." The three appeared on the sector. "Transfer: Zaber. Scanner: Zaber. Virtualization." Zaber appeared in dramatic fashion, dropping with a flip. "Vehicles coming online right now. The Overwing is for Aelita." Jeremy said as he pressed a button. The three vehicles appeared, and Zaber felt himself rise up a few inches as the skates appeared beneath his feet. "Head north. I'll try and direct you to the tower.
It took almost a full minute for the character data to arrive at Yumi's scanner. She snapped her fingers as before and the rings of yellow light appeared around her hand. She activated the scanner, and drew her fans before stepping back out into the open. Most of the people had fled, and several possessed animals now roamed the walkways.
"Those guys had better hurry up..." She said, as she tired to avoid the attention of the animals. She tried to sneak towards the exit of the park, where she could bottleneck the animals and prevent them from escaping the zoo, but she had no sooner gone twenty feet when she found herself tackled by a black hyena. The mark of Xana in it's eye, it cackled maniacally, alerting a nearby lion and tiger to Yumi's presence. Yumi swiped at it with the fan like a knife, and it leapt back with a yelp, a gouge on it's face, as if it had been sliced with an actual knife. Yumi shook her fan, and few drops of blood dropped off it. As the lion and tiger pursued her, she ran towards the exit as fast as she could.
Finding the tower had been the easy part. When they arrived, they found a lone monster guarding the activated tower. It was an Assassin.
"So that's an Assassin, huh? Doesn't look all that tough to me." Odd said.
"If looks determines how tough something is, you'd be a weakling, huh Odd?" Jeremy said, referring to Odd being a giant purple cat.
"Oh! Burn!" Zaber said.
"Can it you three." Ulrich muttered as he eyed the monster. "Supersprint." Ulrich burst off in a rush towards the monster. "Triplicate! Triangulate!" Ulrich split into three clones and triangulated around the creature, slashing with each of the clones as he ran. Odd, Aelita, and Zaber all launched their ranged attacks at the creature. Jeremy watched on his screen as the small green orbs that represented the beast's LP drop with impressive speed. The Assassin reared up and slashed with both arms as it spun, wiping out all three Ulrichs, and the scanner burst open below.
"Watch out you guy's, those laser arms are one-hit knockouts." Jeremy relayed. The beast growled and shot three blasts from it's tail, knocking the others over like dominos. They took cover behind a rock as the creature scuttled down the narrow pathway towards them.
"Any ideas?" Zaber asked.
"Maybe I should try and sneak around it..." Aelita said.
"Not wise. That thing can smoke any of us if we don't work together." Odd said. "Jeremy, LP!"
"OK, Odd, 60. Zaber, 60, Aelita 70, Assassin, 250." Jeremy relayed.
"We need a plan. If we can get it done around 80, I think I can finish it off."
"And how do we do that without getting killed?" Odd asked him. A laser arm cleaved the top half of the rock they had been hiding behind, and the tip of Odd's hair was sliced off with it. Odd rubbed his hand up where it had spiked and found that the top three inches of his spike had been sliced off.
"Run!" Aelita said, and the three of them leapt back on the vehicles they had abandoned earlier and took off in reverse.
Ulrich dialed Yumi. "Yumi, are you okay?"
"Not really." She said, as she flung her fan at a lunging tiger. "Are they almost to the tower?"
"We were at the tower, but one of those Assassins is blocking the way. Hold out just a little longer, OK?" Ulrich said as he hung up and walked over to Jeremy. "Yumi can't last much longer Jeremy, you've got to do something!"
"I wish there was something I could do..." Jeremy said. It was then a window popped up. It was an e-mail. Addressed from Franz Hopper. "No way!" Jeremy exclaimed. He read the mail, which had a picture of Hopper attached on the side in the form of an LYOKO ID card.
Well... it would seem that you are in a bit of a pickle. Xana's new monster is too powerful for you to kill on your own. If you need some assistance... enter CODE DEVIL.
Jeremy blinked in confusion and re-read the mail. How had Hopper contacted them anyway? And how did he know what was happening? Had he been watching them this whole time? Jeremy blinked and shook it off. Hopper had never acted against them before. Ulrich had finished the mail from over Jeremy's shoulder.
"Jeremy... this is really fishy..." Ulrich said skeptically.
"But... it's Hopper. He wouldn't do anything that would hurt us." Jeremy said.
"But... I mean... Devil? That's just too suspicious." Ulrich said.
"I know your suspicious Ulrich, but I'm going to try it. Guys!" Jeremy began as he switched the intercom back on. "I just got some unexpected help from Hopper! We might get through this after all." Zaber screeched to a halt so quickly that he accidentally wiped out on his skates.
"Wait, Jeremy did you just say Hopper?" He yelled while still on the ground.
"Now entering the code... DEVIL." Jeremy typed in the code and struck enter.
"Jeremy, wait!" Zaber shouted, but before he could continue, he let out a scream. Odd and Aelita, who had stopped when he had fallen, yelled to him.
"Zaber!" Aelita shouted.
"Are you okay?" Odd said as he approached him and tried to help him up.
"Get back! Augh..." Zaber said, pushing Odd back with one hand as he clutched his face with the other.
"Zaber, what happened?" Jeremy yelled through the computer. It was then Jeremy noticed his computer had begun to change. From the word devil on the screen, a red color spread through the screens, replacing the usual blue tint. The message from Hopper reappeared, and when the wave of red splashed across it, the ID card of Hopper was replaced with an ID card displaying a lone of Xana eye. "Oh no..." Jeremy said, horror sweeping across his face. Ulrich could not understand what had transpired from the computer screen, but common sense dictated.
"Code ANGEL saved Aelita's life. And you just entered it's polar opposite." Ulrich said furiously. "Why wouldn't you just listen to me!" Ulrich said, punching Jeremy in the jaw, knocking him out of his chair. On Lyoko, Zaber suddenly stopped groaning. He sat there on his knees, not moving. Odd tried to approach him again.
"Zaber?" He said, extending his hand towards him. Zaber looked up, his hair moved out of his face, revealing the pupils of his eyes replaced by blazing red Xana marks, but more disturbing was the massive, evil, possessed grin; like a malicious Cheshire Cat. He moved with a lightning speed, leaving a red after image behind him, like every other Xana possessed being, his hand clutched Odd's face, and in another instant he had slammed Odd on the ground, leaving a small crater in the pathway. A new gun, completely black in color and ornate with spikes appeared in his other hand, which he promptly pointed at Odd's head and fired.
"Odd!" Aelita screamed, as he was devirutalized.
"Run Aelita! If you get devirtualized, everyone's doomed!" Jeremy shouted to her as she leapt onto Odd's overboard and took off. Zaber's overskates had been destroyed when he had wiped out before being possessed, but he did a backwards somersault onto the back of the Assassin, which had finally caught up with them. The creature let him ride its back willingly, letting out another screech as it picked up speed. Zaber, still with the evil grin on his face, began to aim his gun at Aelita.
Jeremy slammed his console, something that he seemed to be doing a lot lately.
"DAMN IT! THIS IS ALL MY FAULT!" Jeremy said. "Aelita, I'm sorry! I got a message from Hopper saying to enter "Code Devil", and I believed it, but it was a trap! Xana sent it, and he used it to possess Zaber. I don't know what to do!"
"It's not your fault Jeremy! If probably would have believed it too!" Aelita said, but then yelled when she fell, her Overboard devirutalized by Zaber's bullet. She managed to land while rolling and kept running, as Zaber trained his weapon on her this time. At the Zoo, Yumi was having a hard time. She had been scratched up repeatedly by assorted large cats, and bitten in the arm by a jackal. She could feel her strength leaving her with every step, but she was near the exit. She groaned as she found herself thrown back several feet, the massive gorilla had her by the ankle. She felt herself raised over the gorilla's head, and then slammed down behind the gorilla onto the hard concrete. She screamed out in pain, several ribs broken; her Lyoko form shattering like glass as she lost consciousness.
Aelita fell to the ground, shot in the leg with one of Zaber's bullets. Zaber and his mount we're catching up with great speed. He leapt from the back of the assassin and landed on the opposite side of Aelita, boxing her in. Zaber reloaded the gun, still wearing the maniacal grin. He aimed the gun at Aelita.
"Aelita!" Jeremy yelled to her.
"Zaber... don't..." Aelita pleaded. Zaber snapped his fingers, and a black aura began to encircle his hand. An unseen force ripped Zaber's white glove to shreds, revealing a black Xana tattoo had appeared there. His hand began to merge with the gun, the entire limb was shortly encased in a black organic mass, with a massive cannon at the end. Massive black spikes shot from the back of his shoulder. The malicious smile broadened even more. White light began to charge at the tip of the "barrel". "Please..." Aelita said as she grimaced.
And then, somehow, something snapped. While Xana had complete control of his body, he regained some control somehow. His unmutated arm clutched at his mutated arm/cannon. The evil grin vanished as Zaber grimaced. When he opened his eyes again, one eye was normal, the other was still possessed.
"Aelita... run!" Zaber shouted, his voice disjointed as he slowly gained and lost ground against Xana in the landscape of his mind. Aelita jumped up and ran behind him. Zaber, regaining control one last time, redirected his mutant arm at the Assassin. "DEVIL ARM!" A great burst shot forth from his arm, a twelve-foot wide cylinder of light projected from the mutated black mass. The Assassin was imploded. The blast continued on and on down the line, striking the tower, and causing it to disintegrate. The tower was gone, causing the gorilla to collapse just it was about to slam its massive fist down on Yumi. The blast continued to stream for ten seconds, and then faded away, the black mass on Zaber's arm writhed back into the gun like a snake into a cave. He collapsed forward, devirtualized when he hit the ground.
"Return to the past now!" Jeremy shouted as he launched the program.
The return carried them back to the day before. Yumi was fine, but Zaber was unconscious, he lay on his bed in the room.
"I told you not to enter that code." Ulrich said to Jeremy, as they stood outside the room.
"You really are a genius with a J aren't you?" Yumi said, her arms crossed.
"I... didn't know..." Jeremy said. "I thought it was from Hopper."
"Well... you had better think before you do something this reckless ever again." Yumi said as she and Ulrich walked away. Aelita came from around the corner… she had been listening.
"I don't blame you Jeremy." Aelita told him.
"But... it is my fault..." Jeremy said. Aelita put her hand on his shoulder, as they both looked down, dejected.
"Let's go to dinner." She said. "I'm sure Zaber will be fine."
"I suppose..." They both walked down the hall towards the cafeteria. Inside the room, Zaber, who had not moved for an hour, began to toss, turn, and groan. He rolled out of the bed, his hands clutching his head, his face grimacing in pain. It all suddenly stopped, as Zaber took a single, deep breath. His eyes burst open, black Xana marks emblazoned on his eyes.
Code 8: DECEIT... END
