1. Chapter 1 by Stonecreek
2. Chapter 2 by Stonecreek
Undercurrent
Ulrich was surrounded. He hated being surrounded. Especially since there were three of him. He scowled.
"A little help over here?" Ulrich queried as the ring of Blocks started closing in.
"All in good time, buddy," Odd quipped as he arrowed an errant Kankrelot.
""Kinda busy here..." Yumi trailed off as the Kankrelot she just missed with her fan nailed her in the leg.
"You're down to 20 life points, Yumi," Jeremie's voice intoned. "And will someone help Ulrich out?"
"You don't have to be pushy about it," Odd grumbled. He took a parting shot at the trio of monsters left around him before scampering off towards the tower. He flashed a grin at Aelita hiding behind a rock as he passed. Leaping towards the encircled swordsman, Odd aimed and readied to fire. The Blocks, showing some foresight, turned as one and shot the newcomer. Odd never made it to the ground before he was devirtualized.
"I guess it's the effort that counts," Ulrich mumbled before posturing his multiple selves in defensive crouches. The ring of Blocks kept coming, and outside of Odd, they had not fired a shot. He risked a glance at Yumi, now having to clean up Odd's group of Kankrelots after finishing with hers. His heart beat faster. She would never be able to reach him until it was too late. Turning back to the monsters, he grinned and said, "Who wants to be the first to die?"
Strangely enough, one Block stepped forward from his brethren.
Ulrich tried not to let his surprise show. "I always knew you guys were dumb, but this takes the cake." Ulrich raised his katana and plunged it into the heart of the Block, his grin growing as the blade hit its mark. The grin faded, however, when he tried to pull the katana back.
"It's stuck," was all Ulrich had the time to say before the Block exploded. Due to their close proximity, the rest of the Blocks followed suit, one by one engulfing Ulrich in a circular wall of explosive debris.
Yumi's fan sliced through the last Kankrelot just as she caught the flashes of light out of the corner of her eye. Rounding quickly, she sprinted over to the smoking rubble. Ulrich was not there. "Jeremie?" she cautiously asked.
"He's been devirtualized. No worries," he responded.
Aelita clambered out from behind her hiding spot and beelined it to the tower. She phased in, and Yumi sighed. The white light took her.
XXXX
"Ulrich, are you OK?" was the first thing out of Yumi's mouth.
"Fine. Just sore, is all," was Ulrich's reply.
"So, which is worse," Odd started playfully. "A ring of blocks exploding, or getting crushed by a falling pillar in sector 5?"
Ulrich winced. "They both..." he trailed off, rubbing at his eyes. Jeremie looked at his watch.
"I guess we should be getting back. Can you make it, Ulrich?" the blonde said.
Ulrich fought off a yawn, the adrenaline surge of a finished battle doing nothing for his overwhelming sense of weariness. "The day Odd has to carry me back is the day I..." his head lolled to the side, and Ulrich was out for the night.
"Dead weight is so much worse to carry," Odd grumbled half-heartedly as he picked Ulrich up. Yumi got Ulrich's other side, and they slowly made their way out of the factory. Jeremie and Aelita disappeared ahead of them, unencumbered by the weight of a teammate.
Ulrich stirred slightly as he made contact with the fresh air again, but soon grew still again. Yumi spared a glance down. Ulrich's face was weary even in a state of rest, but the eyelids were darting to and fro, a sure sign of a dream. She encircled Ulrich's limp wrist in her free hand checking his pulse. Her eyes widened.
"Odd, check Ulrich's pulse," Yumi ordered. "I think something's wrong." Odd did as he was told.
"It's normal, Yumi," he responded. "So, what's up?"
"Nothing, I suppose." She checked again, just to be sure, but Odd has quelled her momentary bout of uncertainty. "I thought Ulrich's pulse was racing. It could be he's dreaming..."
Odd sighed but made no other verbal response. 'Sure, his pulse will race - when you're around, Yumi.' Odd thought. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes and readjusted Ulrich's weight as the campus got closer.
"So, we can't just sneak in," Odd broke the silence as the gate loomed. "What do we do?"
"Just go to the guard station, tell the guard we found Ulrich passed out, and we'll take him to the infirmary," Yumi said matter-of-factly.
"Been thinking this through, have we?" Odd gently chided. He rasped his knuckles on the gate, and the guard soon came. A quick explanation by Yumi and the guard let them in with orders to go straight to the infirmary.
"That excuse never gets old," Odd said while walking down the hall.
"Shh!" Yumi hissed. "It's past curfew." Then she reluctantly cracked a grin. "Yeah, it works every time."
Yolanda clucked her tongue when she saw Ulrich. "Did another errant soccer ball knock him silly again?" she said, knowing Ulrich's visits to her office usually were the result of something along those lines.
"We don't know," Yumi said. "We found him like this just before curfew." Yolanda retrieved some smelling salts from a cabinet and held them under Ulrich's nose. Sputtering, he sat up, looking around and realizing he was in the infirmary. He also got a look from Yumi that plainly said, "Stay mum." So Ulrich docilely followed Yolanda's instructions as she checked him over.
"He seems to be OK, but he should go to bed right away. It's probably just a case of over-exertion." Smiling, she sent the trio on their way, with a reminder to Yumi that she should be heading home when she was done helping Ulrich.
Yumi and Odd managed to get Ulrich up the stairs and safely into bed, out like a light once again as soon as he hit the pillows.
"Hey, thanks for your help, Yumi," Odd offered.
"Anytime. I better get going before Jim catches me here. We can fill Jeremie in on everything in the morning." With that, Yumi waved and left.
XXXX
Ulrich awoke early the next morning. The sun beat fiercely on his closed eyelids, staining his vision crimson. He thought about yelling at Odd to pull shut the drapes, but decided a sleep-deprived Odd was not something he felt like dealing with at the moment. Cracking open tired eyes, he sat up in bed and looked at the room's lone window. The drapes were securely in place over the panes of glass. So why, Ulrich mused as he lay down and closed his eyes again, would the red not go away?
Temper, temper, Ulrich!
I still don't own Code Lyoko. Pity, that. Now on with the next chapter.
After the luxury of a longer-than-usual shower, Ulrich went to wake Odd up. There was going to be blueberry muffins for breakfast, a treat Odd surely wouldn’t want to miss. “Time to get up, Odd.” Ulrich intoned as he entered the room. Seeing no result, Ulrich placed his hand on Odd’s shoulder, shaking him. Still nothing. Ulrich subconsciously tightened his grip and shook again. Before Ulrich realized he’d done anything, Odd was lying on the floor in a heap, having been forced out of bed.
“What’s going on?” came the hurt voice from under the pile of blankets. Kiwi came over and burrowed underneath the mass of linens, emerging with a disheveled Odd in tow. Seeing Ulrich, Odd scowled. “Next time, let the alarm clock do the work. It’s far gentler.” With that, Odd stalked out of the room. Ulrich shook his head as he got dressed. ‘Why’d I do that?’ he thought. And now Odd was mad at him, and with good reason. Ulrich decided to right things at breakfast.
But at breakfast, things weren’t really any better. Ulrich grimaced as he sat down with his food. Odd stuck up his nose haughtily in the air before eating, never sparing Ulrich a glance. Jeremie and Aelita ate quietly, obviously trying to stay out of harm’s way. Yumi sat down as Ulrich began cutting into a sausage. Noticing the tension, she simply began eating, not saying a word, though focusing primarily on Ulrich. He was murdering his food, slicing apart the links with unchecked gusto. Ulrich noisily chewed his food and slammed his juice glass down when finished with it.
Yumi broke her silence at that. “Something you want to talk about, Ulrich?” He just shook his head an ingested a muffin whole. Yumi decided it’d be better to turn away at that point, lest she lose her appetite. She felt Ulrich get up next to her and saw him stalk off out of the corner of her eye.
Ulrich made his way to the tray drop-off window and thrust his tray forcefully through. “Have it!” he said before exiting the cafeteria no more cheerfully than he had entered it. Rosa sent him a withering glare as she cleaned the remnants of Ulrich’s meal off her apron.
“Ok, what’s up with Ulrich?” Yumi questioned the remaining group members at the table. Jeremie and Aelita shrugged, but Odd spoke up.
“Oh, nothing much. I just got a rude awakening from Ulrich this morning.” Leaving it at that, the gang finished their meals and started on their way to class.
“I wonder where Ulrich went off to?” Aelita said as they walked down the hall.
“To sulk, you mean,” Odd tried to joke, but it fell flat.
“Isn’t that him up there?” Jeremie gestured further down the hall. As they all watched, Ulrich strode off to class briskly, not noticing (or perhaps caring about) the students in his way. Ulrich boldly moved elbowed them aside as he continued plowing his way to first period. The rest of the gang picked up their pace, hoping to do some damage control. Muttered grunts of pain and varied curses were heard as they picked their way through those left in Ulrich’ wake.
Yumi finally got a hand on Ulrich’s arm as he reached the classroom door. Turning, Ulrich practically snarled, “Let me go!” Yumi studied Ulrich closely for a moment. His eyes, it seemed to her, did not match Ulrich’s actions. Distracted, Yumi barely time to react as Ulrich pried her hand off his shoulder. Wincing, she looked at the others as they came up.
“You’ve got your own class to get to,” Aelita said. “We can handle Ulrich.” Yumi nodded imperceptibly and was off. The rest made their way into the classroom and sat down. Ulrich was already seated at his spot, brooding.
“You’re being irrational, Ulrich,” Jeremie said.
“And scary,” Odd chimed in. Ulrich pretended not to hear.
As class started, Ulrich tuned everything out. Today, it was like he was seeing himself (a hideously malformed version of himself) from outside his body at times. Ulrich knew he’d been a royal pain to be around all morning, and yet was powerless to stop himself. He didn’t like what he’d seen, and was sure the others felt the same.
Seeing Ulrich spaced out, Odd, Aelita and Jeremie started whispering about his strange behavior.
“Where did all this anger come from?” Odd asked the other two. “He was all worn out last night. We had to carry him back, for pity’s sake!”
“It doesn’t add up,” Jeremie mumbled. “Why would he be any different today than yesterday?”
“Could he be sore and cranky?” Aelita asked.
“Sore and cranky Ulrich is usually a quiet Ulrich,” Odd said. “He’s not one to just vent his problems and issues like this.”
“But that’s just it – what is his problem?” Aelita asked. “It’s clear he won’t tell us.”
Conversation stopped for a moment as Mrs. Hertz called on Jeremie to provide an answer. He stood and did so, sitting back down with a half-smug look on his face. “Anyway,” he started. “At lunch, we should try to get some information out of him, any at all. And as civilly as possible, too. We don’t want him even more riled up.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to find myself suddenly sprawled out on the floor again,” Odd bemoaned.
“What?” Jeremie and Aelita almost forgot to keep their voices down.
“This morning, Ulrich decided he’d wake me up by shoving me out of bed.” Odd pouted. “I could’ve hit Kiwi when I fell!”
“Well, you are a deep sleeper,” Jeremie informed him. “He could’ve done it as a last resort.”
“But, again, it’s just not like him,” Aelita trailed off, and they all turned to study Ulrich covertly some more. They weren’t the only ones. Mrs. Hertz had picked up on Ulrich’s lack of attention to her lesson and was calling his name repeatedly to the class’s snickers. Odd poked Ulrich in the side, flinching back as he did so, not wanting to be in punching range. Ulrich snapped to attention.
“Ulrich Stern! Would you please pay attention in my class? I don’t take kindly to having to repeat myself. Now, why don’t you answer this problem?” Mrs. Hertz finished sternly.
“Sure.” Ulrich replied agreeably. “And why don’t you go to hell?”
The room fell silent. Aelita clapped her hand over her mouth, and Odd was stifling his laughter in a similar manner. Mrs. Hertz was furious, clutching the edge of her desk so hard her knuckles turned white.
“Insubordination! Principal’s office! NOW!” Mrs. Hertz screamed. With a banshee-like scraping, Ulrich got up from his desk and left the room, slamming the door behind him. Conversation picked up again, and Mrs. Hertz tried to restore some order.
“Something tells me that by lunch, it may be too late,” Jeremie said.