Warren walked through the gates of the emense building's coartyard.
"new school, new place, same stupid life." he mumbled, looking around while running a hand through his dark blonde military haircut. A man with a red workout suit and a "weed whacker" style haircut came toward him.
"Welcome to the school, you must be Warren." the guy said, his speaking more like a drill seargents bark. Warren stood straighter and nodded. the man looked at the five boxes, two suitcases, and backpack that were with the kid. "you want any help with that?"
"sure. just dont drop any of them, i prefer my stuff intact, and they are heavy." warren said, as the guy tried, unsuccesfuly to lift one of the boxes.
"what do you have in here? Rocks?" the man asked, looking at warren. "oh by the way my name is Jim."
"no not rocks, i just have a lot of books. i like to read." warren said, walked over to the box that Jim had tried to lift and broght it straight off the ground. "Now i was told that i get a room of my own here by my dad. is that true?" Jim nodded, and then motioned for him to follow him.

A few minutes later Warren had all of his boxes in the empty, one-person room. He sighed, “Well it is better than nothing,” he said to empty air. He walked into the room, leaving the door open to circulate air, and started to move boxes around till he found one in particular. He opened it and took out three thick CD cases and a small, red, tabletop boom box. He plugged it in and put a CD in, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat started to play, and Warren started to hum along with the songs.
He started to move other boxes around and unpacking them, putting books and notebooks in neatly stacked piles.
“Are you going to just stand there and watch or are you going to help me out?” Warren asked the two boys that had been hovering in his doorway for a few minutes. One was a kid with a spiky blonde and purple hair and a baggy purple outfit. The other was just a bit taller than the other and had flat style brown hair and a baggy green and yellow outfit. The one with the purple outfit came in and started to look at the books that had been unpacked, while the other came in and leaned ageist the wall.
“I’m Warren who are you?” Warren said, starting to pull stuff out again.
“I’m Odd and that is Urich, so where did you did you come from?” the guy in the purple shirt said, his voice high, like he was often hyper.
“Lincoln Nebraska. My parents moved here for the job opportunities for my dad. He works for a company that protects the rights of the disabled.” Warren replied.
“That is cool. So why have you as a boarder?” Odd asked, handing Warren books from the box he had.
“To keep me from killing my sister. She is four years younger than me and drives me absolutely nuts.” Warren said, and then laughed. “But then again it might have been to keep my dad from killing me. We aren’t on very good terms right now and I cant stand being near him for a long time.”
“Yeah family is like that some times.” Odd said, pulling the last of the books out of the box. The other guy Urich was looking through the notebooks that had already been unpacked. He picked one up, and started to look at the cover.
“Hey does this place have a choir program?” Warren asked, pulling up a new box, and opening it.
“Yeah but neither of us are in it so you will have to find out who teaches it.” Odd said, pulling out more books. “You have a lot of books, you read a lot?”
“Yeah and I also write stories of my own and use some of the stuff as bases for them.” Warren said.
“That’s cool.” Urich said. “Hey where do you put your stories up?”
“The Pendragon site, it is a forum for the book series. You ever hear of it?” Warren asked, “I have most of the books, in case you want to read it.”
“Jeremie might like it, maybe Aelita too.” Odd said, pulling out the last of the books from the box.
“That will do for now I will unpack the rest later, thanks for the help.” Warren said, looking at his watch. “6:37, we have to wait practically an hour before they start to serve dinner. You know anything to do around here besides do homework?”
Urich laughed, “Yeah there are. Hey come on, we’ll introduce you to Jeremie and Aelita.”

The trio had just been walking a little bit when a girl with long black hair wearing a pink outfit with a red skirt, followed by two boys, walked up.
“Urich, can you help me out with the algebra assignment? I don’t understand it.” She said, her voice with a hint of a whine to it. The girl was just a bit taller than both Odd and Urich but was just about three inches shorter than Warren.
“Well who is this?” Warren said, he didn’t like preps and this girl had the radiance of a total prep. She is probably one of the popular kids Warren thought, seeing that she has two little lapdogs following her. One was dark haired, wearing a green shirt and khaki pants, and had a real bad acne problem; while the other one was a blonde and had a blue sports jersey with shorts, and looked like her muscle man.
“Sissy this is Warren, he just moved in as a boarder.” Odd said “Warren this is Sissy, Nicolas, and Herb.”
“Ok I can understand Sissy and Nick, but who names their kid Herb?” Warren said, sneering.
“Watch it.” The boy in the green shirt snarled.
Warren crossed his arms and popped his neck “Make me. I’ve been dieing to get some frustration out.”
“Leave him alone Herb.” Sissy said. Then turned to Warren. “And if Herb is that bad what kind of name is Lauren? I thought that was a girl’s name.”
“It is Warren w-a-r-r-e-n. It means defender,” Warren said. “Not to mention it is the name of a saint.”
“I guess that we’ll see you around, Warren.” Sissy said, and then moved off. Herb gave Warren a nasty look before following her.
“Well that was fun.” Warren said, looking at the other two.
“Why did you do that?” Odd asked
“Don’t you feel it?” Warren asked, “That girl is used to getting her way, and she knows it. If she doesn’t get what she wants she starts bugging someone so she can. Am I right when I say that she knows someone powerful here?”
“Yeah her dad is the principal.” Urich said.
“Well that explains a lot. Preps are all the same, they get what they want and discard the rest. So has she been bugging you for a while now?” Warren asked.
“Yeah, she has, and I know that she has a thing for me.” Urich said.
“And you have your eyes on someone else, don’t you?” Warren said, amused.
“Well…Um…. yeah I just haven’t…. erm” Urich stammered.
“Gotten the courage to ask her?” Warren supplied.
“Well aren’t we going to see Jeremie? Come on!” Odd said. They moved off again, even though he tried to hide it Warren could tell that Urich was blushing.
“Don’t worry I tend to see things as they are. Some people try to hide it but I can normally tell.” Warren said, and smiled “Helped me every now and then with friends, they cant find the words and I can help them, like this one time for instance; one of my friends had this problem with their parents and couldn’t find the words. If you ever need to just dump stuff come and talk with me. I bet I can sort things out for you.”
“Thanks.” Urich said. They turned a corner and Odd made a beeline toward a certain room, knocked, and then entered, Warren followed. Inside it was basically the same as Warren’s room except for the three computers at the far side of the room. There were two kids at the computers, one a girl with shocking pink hair in a pink and white hooded sweater, while the other was a boy with sandy blonde hair and a blue turtleneck.
“Hey there Einstein!” Odd said as he entered. “This is Warren, he just moved here as a boarder. Warren this is Jeremie and Aelita.”
“Nice to meet you two.” Warren said, extending a hand for them to shake. Jeremie took it first.
“Nice to meet you. So where did you move from?” Jeremie asked
“Lincoln, Nebraska. My dad got a job in the city and since the house is so far away he thought that I should stay here.” Warren said.
“That’s nice. So what classes do you have?” Aelita asked.
“Haven’t gotten my schedule yet. By the way have you ever sung in a choir?” Warren asked.
“No I haven’t.” Aelita said; sounding confused.
“Well if you want to try come and talk to me I think I have some songs that might be for you. From the sound of your voice I would guess that you are probably a soprano, but you could have some alto. Oh, I’m sorry, that is the choir guy coming out. I have been in several choirs and cant help but listen for new people to sing with.” Warren said. “I have a large selection of both instrumental and vocal pieces. And if you need a baritone, just call me. Just don’t ask me for hard rock or for rap I dislike them both and have only one or two tracks of that type that I just skip over.”
“Oh, ok.” Aelita said.
“Hey what is for dinner today? I haven’t eaten since breakfast.” Warren said.
“Um, I think it is the Salisbury steak, but I’m not sure.” Odd said.
“Ok that sounds good. So, um… who has read the Pendragon series?” Warren said. The others nodded. “Alright, it ok if I show you the Pendragon home page it was made by the writer of the series. And the forum’s pretty cool; there are all sorts of discussions about the books. Not to mention there is a place where you can write your own stories, I go there a lot because I write a lot of stories. If you want to read them just let me know and if I need to do anything be sure to tell me.”
“Sounds cool what is the site named?” Jeremie asked sliding up to the computer.
“The-pen-dragon-adventure-dot-com.” Warren said as Jeremie typed it in. the site came up and warren backed off as the others came up to look at the site. “My name for the forum is metrunui1.” He stood back for a bit letting them explore when all of the sudden the computer started to make this alarm sound. “What the…. What is it.” The other four shared a look. “Your hiding something from me… aren’t you?”
“We don’t have the time to explain right now. But we have to go.” Jeremie said.

“Fine. But you’re going to have to spill afterward.” Warren said, Aelita nodded. The four took of out the door.

“Is that guy psychic? He figures out stuff just by looking at people!!!” Urich said, running with the rest of them toward the forest.
“I don’t know but he could mean trouble for us. Especially if he finds out about Lyoko.” Jeremie said, pulling out his cell phone and pressing in numbers. “Yumi, XANA.” He said then listened for a second then hung up. “She’s coming come on lets move.” BAM!!! Jeremie stumbled as he dodged a fireball aimed at his chest, then the thrower stepped out of the shadows, and it was Sissy. She had a feral look on her face as another fireball emerged in her hand. Jeremie barely dodged the next fireball, and started to run toward the others who had not noticed him fall. Unfortunately Sissy was faster, and easily out ran him, blocking him off from the others. As Jeremie watched, ready to dodge the latest fireball, a kid came flying out of nowhere and tackled Sissy, pinning her to the ground.
“Looked like you could use some help.” Warren said struggling to keep Sissy down. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold her! GO!!!” Jeremie took off leaving Warren to struggle with the possessed girl. The others were waiting when he got to the manhole.
“Where were you?” Aelita asked, as he climbed down into the sewers.
“XANA got to Sissy, and I now owe that new kid. He is holding Sissy down right now, and had saved me from being roasted.” Jeremie said, picking up his scooter.
“Well at least we know that he is handy to have around. Even though he is really creepy.” Odd said.
“What about me?” Warren said, walking out of the shadows. The four looked at him like he had two heads. “I think that I knocked that Sissy girl out, she managed to get me off her and then she tried to fry me and I smashed her into a tree, so she didn’t get up, and then came to see if I could help anymore. WHAT???”
“No time just follow us.” Odd said. The five ran through the sewers following a well-known path, at least for most of them. They emerged into daylight under a bridge, and standing just a little farther down the bridge stood Sissy.
“No way. She beat us here?” Warren said, settling down into a street fighter’s crouch.
“We have to get past,” Aelita said.
“Ok, I’ll keep her busy… this is going to be fun.” Warren said, and then charged at Sissy. She threw a fireball at him, and it scorched his shoulder. Aelita gasped. “GO. I’ll be fine!” Warren yelled and brought up his knee into Sissy’s stomach. The four ran past him into the large building.
“That guy’s brave.” Aelita said as she got into the elevator.
“That or he has a death wish.” Urich said.
“Yeah but either way we need to thank him for saving our hides.” Odd said.
“Lets focus on getting the tower deactivated first, then on thanking him.” Jeremie said pressing the button to activate the elevator. The kids waited with learned patience as the elevator made its way down the chute. Jeremie got out first, and went to his seat at the super computer, while the others went down to the scanners.
“Ok guys you are going to be in the mountain region, so be ready.” Jeremie said over the speaker system set up in the scanner room. The three stepped into the scanners as Jeremie started the virtualization sequence.
Outside Warren was starting to get tired, the girl seemed to be running on batteries. No matter how many times he had hit her she just kept on coming. He dodged another one of the endless fireballs that she threw at him…and then ran up to slug her again only to have her shove him back with inhuman strength. He hit the railing of the bridge and started to see stars. “I will not black out,” he said to himself as the edges of his vision started to turn dark. He tried to stand up, but wasn’t able to. Right before he passed out he saw a kid in black coming toward him, but then again everything was black.

Yumi was used to the constant calls from Jeremie or the others, it got that way when you had been doing it for over a year. She could also go to the factory in her sleep if she needed to, she had memorized every step of the way.
But what she wasn’t used to was seeing another kid fighting a XANA possessed person. As she ran to the factory she noticed Sissy and a kid that she didn’t know fighting, seeing how Sissy could throw fireballs she had to be possessed by XANA, the other kid seemed to be pretty good, Yumi could see a few spots where the fireballs had hit him, leaving a charred hole in his shirt. As she got close the boy tried another attack only to be repelled by Sissy and slam into the railing of the bridge, and not get back up. Sissy started to walk toward him summoning a fireball to each hand, but before she got to the boy Yumi kicked her in the back, sending her into the river below. Yumi picked up the unconscious kid and started to carry him into the factory, once she had him in the elevator she took him down to the control room. When she got there Jeremie was totally absorbed in the computer screens, and only glanced at her.
“Jeremie! Give me a hand here!” She said, now having to drag the boy into the room. Jeremie jumped up and ran to her.
“Wow he really does have a death wish!” Jeremie said, helping Yumi drag Warren over to the wall.
“You know this guy?” Yumi asked, shocked.
“Yeah he just moved in as a boarder, but anyway the others need you on Lyoko.” Jeremie flinched as a blast of sound came from his headset. “Go Odd just got blasted, he is coming out now. He’ll take care of Warren.”
Yumi nodded and headed to the elevator only to have it open as she got to it, reveling a very familiar face. Yumi tensed as it opened, having been jumped too many times by XANA possessed fiends for her liking, only to see Odd, leaning ageist the back of it.
“Hey there.” he said, breathlessly. Moving forward slowly.
“We have something for you to do other than watching the screen.” Yumi said, moving past him. Warren was starting to wake up.
“Ok just hurry, they are getting creamed out there.” Odd said, going to sit by Warren. Yumi nodded as the doors closed, and went to the scanners.

ON LYOKO:
After being materialized into Lyoko, Aelita looked around.
“The tower isn’t that far from your currant position, North by northwest,” Jeremie said. “And here are your vehicles. Aelita, the overwing is for you.”
“Alright Einstein, we’ll take it from here.” Odd said, hopping on his hover board.
“Be carefull. We don’t know what XANA has planned for us this time…” Jeremie said as the group took off in the direction of the tower. They were unaccompanied for a long time when out of nowhere, two groups of hornets came along. “Watch it guys.”
“No problem, Aelita get to the tower.” Odd said, leaving the other two to fight the creatures. The other two took off, heading along the road to the tower. Odd turned to the hornets “Alright, lets go.” He said then let loose a couple of laser arrow shots, destroying one of the hornets, unfortunately that left five. Three of the hornets turned and followed Urich and Aelita, while the others took a few shots at Odd. “I got one, and now three are heading off toward Aelita.” He said to Jeremie. BAM a laser blast hit him in the arm. Ignoring the words of caution from Jeremie, Odd shot off a few more laser arrows at the incoming creatures, and missing on all of the shots. “Uh-oh” he said as he tried to fire off a few more shots, only to discover that he was out of ammo…
Meanwhile, Urich and Aelita were moving toward the tower, when Jeremie gave them the warning about the hornets; they grouped tighter together, still without the tower in sight.
“Jeremie how much farther to the tower?” Urich asked, speeding along, watching for the incoming hornets.
“Just a little farther and you will be able to see it.” Jeremie said, “By the way I think that you were right about Warren, he does have a death wish…Yumi just brought him in and he is a wreck. It looks like he took three fireballs and a beating too.”
“Ouch, I don’t envy him in the least.” Urich said, flinching. “But you have to admit, that guy can stand a lot!” The two burst out of a bottleneck area only to have their vehicles blasted out from under them, making them both fly to the ground. Hovering over them were several hornets, all waiting for them to get up… the group had learned a long time ago that even XANA had a code of honor, and as soon at the two would get up the hornets would start to let loose. Jumping from his position Urich dispatched one of the hornets. “Aelita get to the tower!” he yelled dodging and blocking laser fire. Out of thin air came a blazing fan, which struck a hornet and destroyed it.
“I’m not too late am I?” Yumi asked as she joined the fray. The two kept a tight line of defense around Aelita, blocking shots and attacking when possible; doing so they slowly made their way toward the tower.

On Earth:
When Yumi went down to the scanners, Odd went to look at Warren, who was waking up. Warren had three, still smoking holes on him, one on his right leg, and two on his arm, he had also gotten a collection of cuts and bruises.
“He looks like he was mugged.” Odd said, taking account of all that had happened to Warren. Warren opened his eyes, which were unfocused. “He’s awake.”
“Ow.” Warren said, and shook his head. Suddenly he sat up, “Where is she? Where am I?”
“Whoa. Slow down. Jeremie we need to get him to the hospital.” Odd said.
“I can handle myself, I don’t need to go to the hospital.” Warren said, pulling up his shirt and ripping it into strips, which he tied tightly to the burns and bigger cuts, all the while looking around him.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” Odd said.
“A bit, the burns are the worst though, but I think that I’m not feeling all the pain that I should be feeling.” Warren said, leaning against the wall.
“Why did you do that? You could have died.” Odd said, watching Warren tie the scraps of cloth around his arm.
“Because I did, I don’t run off on people when they need my help, especially with friends.” Warren said, and flinched.
“I'm going to use the return to the past program, that way you don’t have to be in pain at all.” Jeremie said. “But unfortunately you wont remember any of this.”
“And you will?” Warren asked, Odd nodded. “Then I expect you to remember that you owe me, and I still expect an explanation on all of this.” Before any of the others could respond the elevator door were blown open, literally, and standing there was Sissy. Warren jumped to his feet, wincing, and charged toward the possessed girl, not hearing Jeremie say something, and then a flash of white light came from the computer.

A few minutes later Warren had all of his boxes in the empty, one-person room. He sighed, “Well it is better than nothing,” he said to empty air, but having a severe case of da’ja’vu. He walked into the room, leaving the door open to circulate air, and started to move boxes around till he found one in particular. He opened it and took out three thick CD cases and a small, red, tabletop boom box. He plugged it in and put a CD in, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat started to play, and Warren started to hum along with the songs.
He started to move other boxes around and unpacking them, putting books and notebooks in neatly stacked piles.
“Can I help you guys?” Warren said turning around to see five kids standing there.
“Yeah Warren, we thought that we should help you out with unpacking.” One said, a girl with a pure black outfit said.
“How’d you know my name? He said. Inviting them in, the kids filed in, closing the door behind them.
“We’ll explain in good time. For now lets just get your stuff up,” the kid with the wild blonde and purple hair said.
After getting all of his stuff up Warren looked at the group of kids that had helped him, they were loose and trusting in their body language, but still had a protective stance, but the girl with the pink hair, Aelita, was the most interesting, she was loose but seemed to be afraid, like she was waiting for something bad to happen.
“Isn’t dinner at seven?” Warren asked, leaning back in his chair smiling, the others nodded, “ Does anyone know what is for dinner tonight?”
“Yeah it is Salisbury steak. And tomorrow for breakfast it is chicken fried steak.” Odd said.
“So how did you know who I was and where I was?” Warren asked.
“We know because of something that is better to show you than tell you.” Jeremie said.
Warren looked at his watch, “Well we got about fifteen minutes till dinner, so if you can explain all of it in that much time go ahead, but if it takes longer then wait till after dinner.” He said.
“Then lets wait till after dinner, so why do you have so many CDs?” Urich said, while Warren picked up a folder of CDs and started to flip through it.
“I’m a music person, I find that when you have music you can express yourself no mater what mood you are in.” Warren said, pulling out a CD and putting it in the boom box. He fast-forwarded it through a few songs and then the song Carrying the Banner from the Newsies came on. “Like now I am in a good mood, so I choose a piece of music that suits my mood… If I have something on that sounds depressed or angry, just leave me alone for a bit and I will eventually calm down. Why don’t we go down to the cafeteria that way we can be there when they start?”
“That sounds good,” Jeremie said, getting up along with the others. Warren turned off his boom box and picked up the book Eragon.
“Did you know that they are making a movie out of this book?” Warren asked.
“No I didn’t. Have you read the second book?” Urich asked.
“Yeah I have, but if people haven’t I don’t really want to discuss it and ruin it for people.” Warren said.
“Fine by me.” Urich said, shoving his hands into his pockets. The group walked out of the boarding house and into the courtyard. Lots of kids were working on homework, lying in the sun, or just standing around talking with friends. One group, with three kids, in particular started to move toward Warren’s group. At the head of the group was a girl with a bright pink and red outfit.
“No Sissy I will not help you with your Algebra, I want to get in and eat.” Urich said, even before she had opened her mouth, she stopped for a second, looking shocked, and then stormed off her toadies on her heels.
“Nice.” Warren said, smirking. “I wish I was psychic, that way I could tell when there was a pop-quiz in any class before it happened.”
“He’s not psychic, he just knew she was going to ask that, we will show you why after dinner.” Aelita said.
“Fine by me.” Warren said, and then looked up just as the cook unlocked the door to the cafeteria. “Lets eat.”
Though Warren ate more than the other five he was still done before all of them. He had gotten seconds before they had barely started.
“How can you eat that fast and keep it down?” Jeremie said after Warren got a third tray.
“A: I learned real fast at my old school that it was best if you don’t taste the food, and B: I like Salisbury stake.” Warren said, and then shoveled down the food, while the others laughed. “I mean it, some of the food you expected to come alive and eat you instead of the other way around.”
“Sounds like you were in a pretty low class school then.” One of the toadies that had followed that one girl, Sissy around, said.
“Public school food is like that, they get it from the government.” Warren said, after looking at the guy.
“So you go from a low level school to this. Probably a bit more fancy than you are used to.” The boy continued.
“No my school wasn’t low level but the activity level of the acne stuff you use is.” Warren said, straight faced, continuing to eat. A few seconds later the chair was pulled out from under him, “Bad choice kid.” Warren said, standing up to see the chair in his hands.

Odd smiled wryly “Looks like you get another chance to help us out in twenty-four hours.” He said and then he started toward the door with the others. After they had gotten out of the school bounds they ran to the manhole. When they got to the factory Jeremie set up the supercomputer and looked around.
“There seems to be a good amount of activity in the Desert region. XANA is pulling out the stops this time.” Jeremie said. Odd was down by the scanners with Aelita, Warren was with Jeremie, watching the door to the elevator. Jeremie scanned the other two into Lyoko and watched them go along….
“It doesn’t seem like XANA is really putting up a Earth front.” Warren said. Suddenly Jeremie looked up, there was a phone call coming in.
“Hello Urich what’s going on?” Jeremie asked.
“XANA took some guy that was visiting the school and he is trying to keep us from getting to you. So we might be a while.” Urich said
“You don’t know this guy right?” Warren asked.
“No we don’t.” Urich said
“Then you will have no bad feelings on beating the crud out of him, right.” Warren said, smiling wryly. “You can just say that he was mugged and you found him beat up.”
“You know I have been wanting to get some stress out…nice idea.” Urich said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“What? It was just a suggestion.” Warren said. Jeremie gave him a look that looked half amused. Then he flinched and turned back to the computer.
“Odd be careful you only have ten life points left.” Jeremie said.
“I have things under control here.” Odd said, and then Warren noticed the red dot that came up behind one of the green ones. Next second the green dot was gone.
“NO! Aelita is by herself.” Jeremie said. Warren grabbed the chair he was in and turned Jeremie to face him.
“Plug me in.” Warren said, “I will help her.”
“What? I haven’t gotten all the date for a basic ID on Lyoko for you.” Jeremie said.
“The thing has a randomization thing for characters right?” Warren said
“Yeah… it does.” Jeremie said, thinking for a second and then said “Go I’ll see you on the other side.” Warren took off toward the scanners, Jeremie walking him through it step by step on what to do. Warren felt odd as the process was happening, like he was being pulled through a tube that was too small for his body to fit through.

ON LYOKO:
Warren materialized just a little away from where Aelita was, and looked himself over. He was wearing a black, ninja-like outfit and a mask over his mouth. The cloth was tight fitting and yet loose in some way. The color was a rich India ink black all the way down, including the boots that he was wearing. The mask was a metallic piece that Warren probably could pull off if he needed to, but he didn’t just yet. He looked at his belt, though it was more like a sash, and there were two knives, thick and just about as long as his forearm. The grips felt like real leather and looked like a pair of snakes crawling up to the hilts, and at the hilts they split off and there was a head at each end of it. “Nice.” His voice sounded odd, muffled, it had to do with the mask probably.
“So what do you think?” Jeremie’s voice said.
“I think that I am starting to like being in this group. Where is Aelita?” Warren asked, pulling out both knives and holding them in a ready position.
“Just a little north from where you are at. Hurry she needs help.” Jeremie said, and somehow Warren knew which way was north. He quickly moved in that direction and found Aelita cowering from laser blasts behind a rock. Warren came up behind the creatures and sliced the things open right by the odd symbol that XANA had on all of his creations, they exploded and then disappeared.
“Looked kinda like you needed some help.” Warren said, helping Aelita up. Aelita smiled, and took the hand. “Now where is this tower that we need to get to?” Warren asked Jeremie. Jeremie gave them a directions and Warren followed them, Aelita right behind him. Suddenly after getting out of a canyon like area Warren burst straight into a semicircle of monsters.
“Warren careful about those Roaches, don’t let them get to Aelita.” Jeremie said, his voice tense with worry.
“Don’t worry Jeremie I have an idea…Aelita I want you to go back a bit.” Warren said, blocking the laser blasts with his knives. Once she was a good distance away Warren pulled off the mask and said loudly “Hello!!!” and shockwaves came out of his mouth and struck four out of the five roaches, sending them flying backward where they rammed into a large rock, and exploded.
“Whoa.” Odd said, and the voice rang in Warren’s ears.
“Got…that right.” Warren said…he was out of breath, a price of the power. The last roach hesitated for a second and then started to fire lasers again. Warren blocked two, but because he had used the power the third blast hit him square in the chest. To Warren it felt like a hammer blow after recovering he raced forward sending his daggers through the roach from both sides, and it exploded. Warren rocked back, and gave the thumbs up sign to Aelita, who ran past and entered the tower.
“Good job Warren, I’m going to bring you back now.” He heard Jeremie said before the feeling of being sucked through a too small tube came back. After a few seconds he heard a hiss as the door of the scanner opening. He fell to the floor, feeling like he had just run several miles nonstop.
“Welcome back.” Jeremie said Odd and Aelita behind him.
“Just give it a minute or two and you will get better.” Odd said.
“Thanks.” Warren said, already feeling the sick feeling passing.
“Now lets get back to school and help the others.” Jeremie said.
“Yeah sure…just let me catch my breath” Warren said.

Over the next two months Warren fell into a good friendship with the rest of the group. XANA had attacked seven times and had been driven back each and every time by the combined efforts of the group. Warren learned a lot of stuff from the efforts of everyone, improving his math skills with Jeremie and Aelita, improving his swordsmanship with Urich on Lyoko, learning who everyone was with Yumi, and getting new jokes from Odd. Life was going real well, except for the handful of verbal fights with Sissy’s group.
The training was especially fun, at Warren’s suggestion Jeremie made “Shadow” copies of the monsters that XANA normally put against them, as practice targets. It took a while but eventually they were able to go onto Lyoko and Jeremie would give them situations to solve. Some times he would time it and others he would set it up different each and every time. Warren and the others enjoyed this because this was fun and helped them out when they got onto Lyoko. Sometimes Jeremie put them into situations that required a group effort and if you lost a specific person you failed. He even once had a Person verses Person trial to see what would happen if people were put ageist each other, as often happened when XANA managed to make a good copy of people…in mock fights. Warren got especially close to Yumi, but not close enough to be FRIEND friends, Warren knew that Urich was the person she wanted. Yumi always had the time to talk with him when he just wanted to vent at someone…or just wanted to talk. Yumi, like Warren, tended to show her tough side more often around others than her softer side. Warren understood that it was sometimes hard to do so and they would get together in the park sometimes just to discus what was going on in their lives… sometimes Yumi would tell him stuff that she wouldn’t tell anyone else, even the others in the group; Warren would listen and give her suggestions on what to do.

Warren was in his room, a vast array of sheet music in front of him, and his CD player bringing the music of Pachelbel’s Kanon into the room. He was enjoying his weekend day. It was a little to hot out to really enjoy the day but with the window open as he had it his room was wonderful. Someone knocked on the door and Warren looked up. “It’s open.” He said, the door opened and there was Aelita. “Hey, how you doing?”
“I’m doing ok.” She said. “My history teacher is getting to be a pain.”
“School takes its toll on people…”Warren said, and then looked back to the sheet music. Aelita came over to look at it with him.
“I still can’t understand how you can listen to this music and still understand what you are reading here.” She said, picking up the first page.
“It takes practice…and the ability to multitask.” Warren said.
“I can understand that…’Where go the boats’ huh?”
“Yeah it is for choir…I’ve done this song before, and we were also doing the song ‘My Heart Will go on’ from the titanic movie. The joke was that we should have sung this before we did that one…”Warren smiled and said, “Where go the boats? straight to the bottom that is where.” Aelita smiled.
“Jeremie and I wanted to know if you wanted to come and see the mall for a bit, just to scan.” She said
“I wouldn’t have thought that you guys were really into going shopping.” Warren said.
“We’re not, Jeremie just wants to go and get some parts for that computer that he is building.”
Warren shrugged. “Why not, I could see if they have any good books out or if they have some reasonable music for sale.” He went around the room gathering his wallet and a small list of books that had interested him. Aelita walked out of the dorm with Warren heading to the front, where Jeremie was waiting for them.
“Good you came…I wanted to talk to you about some of the math stuff we were talking about yesterday.” Jeremie said.
Warren groaned, “Can you give it a rest Jeremie? It is the weekend and I had been looking forward to another day where I could just relax and NOT think about school.” He said, Jeremie laughed.
“Yeah I think that it can wait for a bit…lets go.” Jeremie said and then started walking toward the mall. Along the way they debated about what book was more realistic, ‘Rules of the Road’ or ‘Hope Was Here’. When they finally arrived a the mall they split up, Warren going to look for new books and music, the other two for the computer parts. Warren browsed the isles, looking at some of the RP books, a few of the manga books, and several chapter books. In the end he settled for two chapter books and a RP book, which took up a good amount of his money, but he would enjoy them. After getting the books he went to the meeting place that they had set up, and waited for the others to get there. He had just seated himself with one of the books when they came up…carrying the bags of parts.
”What happened to you guys? Get lost?” Warren teased.
“Yeah we did, lost in deciding which type of hardware to get.” Aelita said, Warren laughed. “So what did you get?”
“The three-point-five version of the Dungeon Master’s manual, a Circle of Magic book, a copy of the Quillen Games, and a copy of House of the Scorpion.” Warren said, walking with them toward the door.
“Didn’t you already have a copy of the Dungeon Master’s?” Jeremie asked
“I have version three, and this is the latest one here.” Warren said. “It has more information in it about stuff than the last one did.”
“Oh, ok.” Jeremie said as they got outside…the mall was minorly crowded, as usual; it was the weekend after all. They had to maneuver around people a good amount of the time…and then ran smack into Sissy and her group. Though people glared at each other, they didn’t start a fight here, they didn’t want to be kicked out of the mall. Warren and the other two moved past quickly and started back to the dorms. The trio split up when they got to the stairs and Warren went to his room to organize his new books, while Jeremie and Aelita went to her room to work on the computer. Warren got to his room and settled down to read some of the updates that they had put into the Dungeon Master’s Manuel…when he heard something, like electricity crackling…and made a connection…
“Oh sh!t…” was all that he got to say before a shadow covered his body, and his mind

Jeremie and Aelita worked hard assembling the computer, using some old parts and some of the ones that they had just bought.
“Warren has come a long way from when we first met him.” Jeremie said.
“Yeah, he was so withdrawn that it seemed like he didn’t want t be around people,” she smiled “Now he is one of the most outgoing people I know, other than Odd of coarse. In that Intro to Music class he talked me into taking he is a teacher’s assistant; you should see the way girls look at him behind his back.” She burst into giggles. “They talk all the time on how cute he is and are always asking me questions about him cause they know that we are friends.”
Jeremie gave her a look “Has any of them asked him out yet?”
Aelita nodded, “This one girl did a while back but Warren said ‘I’m not ready for any real relationship with anyone here just yet. Sorry’”
“That sounds like Warren…he has never really liked a whole lot of attention.” Jeremie said.
Aelita sighed “Yeah it is…but at sometimes when he sees us or Urich and Yumi he gets this ‘lost in sorrow’ kinda look in his eyes. Yumi has noticed it too.”
Jeremie gave her a startled look “I haven’t noticed that.” He said and Aelita rolled her eyes in the typical ‘boys’ gesture that some girls give when a guy has said or done something particularly stupid.
“I sure hope that Warren enjoys his birthday surprise.” Jeremie said, changing the topic. They had figured out that Warren’s birthday was just a small amount of time away, and decided to make him something special. After all Yumi was getting him a cell phone, so that was not on the list. Urich and Odd had chipped together and had gotten him a huge stack of books, mainly RP ones that were not D&D.
“Yeah me too… I know that he will enjoy the stack of books that Urich and Odd got him… he loves to read those things constantly.” Aelita said, checking certain parts over to see if they should use them.
“Yeah that is right…he loves those books as much as he loves music.” Jeremie said, Aelita laughed, and then went back to putting together the computer PC. Right when they were about to screw the top on Jeremie’s computer started to beep. “What now?” he said, and then pulled it out…there on screen was a flashing red tower. “Get Warren, XANA is back for more.” He said and Aelita took off. Jeremie called the rest of the group and then started to the factory.
Aelita joined him a few seconds later. “He isn’t in his room, he probably went off to do something…and didn’t expect to get called.” She said.
“Ok, the rest of the group is coming as soon as they get the chance. Lets see what XANA is throwing at us this time.” Jeremie replied as they ran to the manhole that covered the way to the factory. They managed to get there in reasonable time, and then waited. Odd showed up chipper and ready for action…the others didn’t show up.
“Odd you and Aelita go to Lyoko and see what you can do if anything at all.” Jeremie instructed and then started to type on the supercomputer. The other two nodded and headed down to the scanners. As they scanned onto Lyoko Jeremie got a little worried about the other three. XANA normally attacked one of the others in the group in some way, maybe the others were being held up by what XANA had put up against them. Odd and Aelita got onto Lyoko safely and started toward the tower, meeting a few small monsters along the way. Suddenly Jeremie got a call from Urich.
“Jeremie, its Warren! XANA has gotten……………” the line went dead, but Jeremie had gotten the picture. XANA had possessed Warren and was using him to get to the group.

Urich and Yumi had been window-shopping in town when they had gotten the call, they were used to it by now. Urich wasn’t really into shopping but if it meant that he would get time alone with Yumi, then he was game. They had been strolling down the roads, stopping here and there to look at some stuff, and talking. They didn’t do this very often before but when Warren had come they had gotten closer because of Warren’s advice. When they got the call they headed over to the riverside and from there to the factory. When they got there they saw Warren standing on the bridge, hands behind his back, waiting for something. The two started toward him when he turned, and then his body rippled, like you see when your TV is messed up… a thing that they saw all too often.
“Oh, no.” Yumi said, nervously. She had seen it too, and knew what it meant. In that second Warren lashed out, starting to fight both of the kids at once. They had all been practicing together so Yumi and Urich saw most of what Warren was about to do by the movements that he made beforehand, but it was the same on the other end, so they hardly even dented Warren’s defense. They tried all sorts of combinations of moves but none of them worked. Eventually the two started to tire, but Warren was still as energetic as ever. Slowly, ever so slowly he started to get through holes in their defenses. Urich was able to slip away for a few seconds to call Jeremie and actually got most of the message across before XANA/Warred smashed his cell phone. It was now apparent that XANA was winning the fight; Urich and Yumi were not doing so well. Warren was fighting Yumi for a second and then switched to Urich so fast that Urich had no idea what was coming and got kicked straight in the head, knocking him flying, he hit the wall of the factory and slumped to the floor, out cold. Warren then turned to Yumi who stood in shock. Warren started to walk toward her and then stopped for a second, as if there were two people fighting for control of the body, and then continued to walk in a jerky, half controlled way. Yumi tried her best to get out of the way of Warren’s attacks, but then was backed into the wall of the factory. Warren grabbed her by the throat and then slammed her up against the wall high above the ground. Yumi let out a half frightened, half startled squeak. She looked deep into Warren’s eyes and saw something that she didn’t see a lot, the eyes were shifting between XANA’s symbol, and Warren’s blue. He’s fighting XANA’s control! She realized starting to gasp for air. XANA/Warren drew back his other hand and made a fist, about to swing.

ON LYOKO:

Odd and Aelita materialized on a large slab of ice, overlooking a great open area with lines of ice along them. The looked around for a second, trying to see any monsters. There were none, at least for now.
“You know the first time that I came here I was awestruck…this place is amazing.” Odd said.
“Yeah I guess that you are right.” Aelita said as a purple, hovering surfboard-like thing materialized in front of them. Odd jumped onto it with Aelita behind him. They went a while and met a few blocks but thanks to the training that they group had done Odd hit both on the first shot at them.
“You’re getting real good Odd.” Aelita said. Odd smiled and went a little faster on the board. Soon they came up near the tower only to see two tarantulas… odd thought about the ways he could get passed them. Suddenly he got an idea that was sure to work, or he thought it would. He quickly explained what he was going to do to Jeremie and Aelita.
Aelita smiled mischievously, “Looks like you really were paying attention to Warren in those simulations after all” she said and then dismounted the overboard, just outside of the blast radius of the tarantulas. Odd flew up and then started to dive at one of the tarantulas, firing three quick shots at the other, all found their mark and the tarantula blew up…the first one started to rapidly fire at Odd, but was too late. Odd jumped off the overboard just before it hit the tarantula square in the head, and blew up. Jeremie started telling him that it had been a wonderful idea.

ON EARTH:

Yumi waited for the blow to come, her eyes closed. She felt the minor tingle in the air that always happened right before they went through the time reversal. She opened her eyes and was startled to find Warren’s fist about an inch from her face. “Perfect timing Jeremie” she thought. She felt the grasp on her neck relax a bit and then a brilliant white light emerged from the building.

Then next morning the group gathered outside the small building that held the soda machines, all except for Warren.
“I don’t know where he is…I tried his room after we got back but he wasn’t there.” Aelita said; sounding worried.
“Hey Aelita don’t you have him in your fourth hour class?” Yumi asked.
“Yeah he is the teachers assistant.” Aelita responded. “You want me to talk to him then?”
“Just tell him that we need to talk about what happened. Tell him that we will meet him in my room after school.” Jeremie said. Aelita nodded as the first bell rang, and the group split up heading to various classes. The whole group was on edge… Warren was not one to mess with and they didn’t know how this affected him. When fourth hour finally came around Aelita hurried to the class, which was Intro to Music. Warren was sitting in the corner going through sheet music that the teacher had brought out for one of the other classes. Before she got to him she nearly ran into a small fifth grader that was getting her folder.
“Hey watch it.” She said, pulling out a pamphlet on music theory.
“Sorry.” Aelita responded. As the bell rang Aelita grabbed her own folder and went to sit down, she had decided to ask Warren to come to the factory as they were getting ready to end class. About halfway through class one girl, the one that Aelita had run into earlier went over to him and then tapped his shoulder.
Warren turned around “What is it this time Kim?” he asked sounding minorly chipper.
The girl, Kim was twitching a bit and blushed “W-w-warren, will you go out with me?” she asked.
Warren’s eyes blazed, not with anger, but sorrow. “I’m sorry Kim I’m taken.” He said, a hint of the sorrow that was in his eyes creeping into his voice.
The girl turned a darker shade of red… “Taken? By whom, Aelita?” she asked
Warren smiled minorly “No, Aelita isn’t my girl, but I am still taken.” Warren turned around to finish putting up the music that the teacher had him working with.
When he stood up Kim was still there, and though she was a head and a half shorter than he was she still towered in anger and hurt. “I don’t know what you are pulling but I’ve noticed you… you look at other couples and you get this look, like you are lost…I just thought that you needed someone to be with so you wouldn’t feel that way.” She said, most of the class watching now, and the classroom was completely quiet.
Warren noticed the class watching “I’m sorry but I already have someone.” He reached under his shirt and brought out a chain and on the end of it was a silver ring with a wavelike pattern on it. “My Girl has this same type of ring, and we have sworn to marry each other as soon as we can, I just miss not being around her.” Warren stuffed the necklace back into his shirt, looking farther away then he ever had before, and picked up his bag. “Now I have Chemistry to get to…excuse me.”

“Can you believe it?”
“Wow, I wish my guy was like that.”
“It’s just a shame, he’s so hot.”
“He said that he’s going to marry her?”
“My girlfriend has been complaining that I am not like him!”
Whispers followed Warren the rest of the day, and he hated it. It wasn’t just the talk; it was how girls looked at him too, as if it was his fault that they were single or something. He managed to get through all his classes, and other than seeing Aelita in Intro to Music; he didn’t see most of the group, which he appreciated. He went straight to his room after school, and flopped on his bed. After a few seconds he sat up a bit and reached under his pillow, then pulled out a picture frame with him and a girl in the picture.
“You have no idea how much I miss you.” He said, seemingly aiming it at the girl in the picture. He just sat there for a bit staring at the picture. There was a knock at his door and a letter shoved under it. Warren got up and picked it up, it was from his parents. Warren shook his head and put it on his dresser, unopened, then went to look at the picture again. He would leave it for later. The less that his parents were involved in his life the better for some things.

The morning about five days later Aelita was waiting for him in the cafeteria. Warren made a flick of his fingers at her, as if shooing her away. Aelita nodded, but looked a little disappointed, and went out the door. Warren had told the group that he wanted out for a bit, at least till he had himself back together again, and they understood. Most of the time the entire group left him alone, but Aelita seemed to be trying to get him better so he could get back in the fold. Unfortunately, it just ticked off Warren after a bit, and he had asked her to leave him alone. After he finished breakfast he noticed Jim hanging out near the front gates.
“Hey Jim, what’s up?” Warren asked, unlike some of the other kids he had actually gained a good friendship with the teacher.
“New kid coming in, you don’t mind giving her the tour? I have some stuff that needs planning.” Jim said. Warren nodded and waited around; it would get him out of a few classes at least. “Ok then, you have a piece of spare paper that I could use right?” Warren reached and grabbed one of his doodle notebooks and passed it to Jim, along with a pen. Jim wrote him a pass that would get him out of the first two classes, and warren went and showed it to his teachers and when he got back he saw a person that made him freeze in his tracks.
The girl was just a little shorter than him with minorly curly black hair that she had in a pony tail, and lightly bronzed skin. She wore a white T-shirt and jeans that had what looked like a design of light green vines growing up the seams. Warren smiled for the first time in days “ALEISHA!!!” The girl’s head snapped in his direction, and she ran to him and hugged him hard, he hugged her back.
“Warren it is so good to see you again.” The girl, Aleisha said, through Warren’s shirt.
“Yeah it is, but what are you doing here?” Warren asked, enjoying the odd but nice feeling of her skin on his. The feeling was always there when she was real close to him or touching his skin.
She drew back a bit. “My dad got a job transfer here. So they thought to just send me here. Your parents said they had sent you a letter. Did you not get it?” she asked.
Warren nearly laughed. “I have it unopened on my dresser…I don’t really want any contact with my parents at this time. Aliesha smiled and stepped back, at this time Warren noticed that Jim and about seven kids were watching them, including most of the Lyoko group. Yumi and Aelita gave him a knowing look, they could tell, Warren winked at them. “So Jim said that you were moving in here and I was to give you a tour of the place.” Warren said and then picked up two of the three large bags and started toward the dormitories, Aliesha following right behind him.

Odd sat down at the table, and to his surprise, a girl he had never seen before came and sat just across from him.
“You new here?” Odd asked. The girl nodded. “So, did anyone give you the tour yet?”
“Not yet but I hope that I will get it soon enough.” She said, eating her lunch.
“Oh that is too bad, this place is amazing…maybe I should show you around after lunch?” Odd said.
The girl looked up at him and gave this tomboy-like smile “Maybe, maybe not.” She said, “Depends on if my body guard lets you come along.”
“You won’t need a body guard if you come with me.” Odd said, and mentally crossed his fingers.
“Glad you have met my girlfriend Odd.” Warren said coming up from behind Odd and sitting down next to Aleisha. He turned to her when he saw a small blush go into Odd’s cheeks. “Don’t tell me that he was hitting on you!” he said, turning to Aleisha.
“I actually would have been disappointed if he hadn’t.” Aleisha said, winking at Odd, and pouting prettily. Warren groaned and hugged her shoulders, he had missed being around her, she always had some way to make him smile.
The rest of the group joined them soon and introductions were made so everyone knew each other. Warren could tell that Aleisha would become good friends with the entire group, just as he had. Warren smiled and pulled Aleisha into a hug, this year might not be so bad after all.

Warren’s day went past quickly, especially with Aleisha at the school. It had been the best surprise that he could have ever gotten.
“I had thought that I wouldn’t see you till summer” Warren said.
“As soon as I found out that I was going to be coming here I wanted to start packing right away, even though it was about a month till we were going to be here.” she said, holding Warren’s hand.
“I missed you so much, some of the girls asked me out while I was here, and in the end I showed them the ring.” Warren said.
Aleisha smiled and pulled up her left hand, showing the silver ring on her finger. “I wear mine all the time, I don’t even take it off. Where do you have yours?” She asked. Warren pulled out the chain that the ring was on, Aleisha smiled. “You know the biggest reason that I am happy that I am here?” Aleisha asked, drawing closer to Warren, he shook his head… “Cause I can do this.” She said, and then kissed him, and to Warren it seemed to go on forever. A pleasant shiver ran down his spine as the kiss deepened, and felt the same going down Aleisha’s back. This kiss was amazing, packing the longing of months into seconds…it was like being charged with thousands of volts of electricity for Warren. The very air around them seemed to shimmer with the emotions that they were giving out.
“EEWWWWWWW!!!” an explosion of sound made them burst apart and look. There was a small group of boy scouts and their leaders, who had apologetic looks on their faces.
“Let’s go somewhere else Aleisha…I don't know if we will run into anyone else out here.” Warren whispered, taking Aleisha’s hand, and then walked toward the school.

One day later:
“Well, what do you think so far?” Aelita asked Aleisha, their rooms were right next door to each other and they had become friends right off the bat thanks to Warren.
“I think that I will enjoy myself here, I already have friends here, I probably will like the teachers, and Warren’s here.” Aleisha said, putting up a poster from the Pendragon series.
Aelita smiled “Yeah, he is real cute, you should have seen the girls staring at him…it was so funny!” she said and then giggled at the memory.
Aleisha looked at her with a wry grin “I would have paid to see what the reaction was when he showed that girl the ring…it would have been priceless.” She said, and Aelita laughed. Aleisha had found out about the incident the day before.
“Hey Aleisha. What would you get Warren for his birthday?” Aelita asked, and Aleisha stiffened.
“Our birthdays are about two weeks apart…but I am still not sure what to get him just yet.” Aleisha said. “You getting him anything?” Aelita explained what the group was getting him, including about the newly completed computer. “Wow, that is a lot…I might just get him a few new CDs that he doesn’t have just yet. I'm kind’a short on cash.”
“We all are at some times.” Aelita said, handing a strip of tape to Aleisha, who took it. “We all have some things that we want to get, but for some of us we just can’t get that thing...and it is hard a lot of the time.” Aelita’s voice took on a sorrowful tone for a second at the end.
Aleisha finished putting the poster up and turned to Aelita “You want to talk about it?” she asked.
“Not right now…I need to figure some stuff out first.” Aelita said, looking at her feet.
Aleisha turned around and looked Aelita in the eye “If you ever need someone to talk to I will be there.” She said.
Aelita nodded, “I think that you will understand soon enough.” She whispered, too softly for Aleisha to hear.

Warren was walking through the mall with Aleisha, after all it was her birthday, and he had decided to take her on a shopping spree. She had really dressed up in a white cotton shirt with a light blue sweater and a light blue skirt with a light honey-yellow tracery around the bottom of it. Warren had a white t-shirt and jeans with a faded denim jacket that had a picture of three chain links it the theater masks on each side of the links and in red the words “Lincoln High School” on top and the words “The Outsiders, March 16-18 2006”. They went from place to place, buying CDs, books, posters, and other things. He was having the best time ever, especially with Aleisha there with him finally. They even had lunch there, at a Mexican restaurant named Impala’s Memories, which actually had true Mexican cuisine, an oddity for this area of the US. They had just come out of a shoe store when suddenly there was a loud sharp sound, and Aleisha put a hand to her stomach. When she pulled it away it was red, blood red, and a splotch of red was on her shirt, and spreading.
“No…” Warren whispered. He caught her as she started to fall, but his limbs felt like they were made of stone…and his joints felt like they were rusted in place. He looked up and standing there was a shadowy figure, he couldn’t make anything out but the eyes, with XANA’s symbol in them. Warren looked back to Aleisha, but her skin was cold and pale, and her eyes were empty and dull.
“NO!!!” Warren yelled as he sat bolt upright…in his bed at school. He looked around for a few seconds, unsure of where he was and where Aleisha was. This was the third night in a row that he had had this nightmare, and it always seemed to get worse. Once he had calmed down a bit he looked at his clock, it was 4:58…and school started in practically four hours…and he wasn’t going to get any more sleep. Warren sighed and pulled out a book that he had by his nightstand.

“I just don't understand, he has been acting like there is something that I shouldn’t know…and he is normally so open with me.” Aleisha said, toying with the mashed potatoes that came with the dinner, Warren had finished early and had gone to talk with his Chemistry teacher about an assignment problem. “I mean, before I could talk with him about anything, school, parents, dreams…all sorts of stuff. But now he seems to have a lot on his mind, and doesn’t want me to know about it.”
“He’s probably stressed out right now, I mean quarter Finals are in less than a week.” Odd said.
“Yeah, plus he hasn’t seen you in ages, so that is putting more pressure on him.” Aelita said.
“I guess you’re right.” Aleisha sighed. “I just wish that he was more open with me.”
Aelita put her arm around her, “I know that feeling.” Aleisha smiled.
Jeremie nodded, “He has a lot on his plate right now, I don’t really know how he is taking it.” He said.
“Well I hope he can tell me soon enough…” Aleisha said. Jeremie’s computer started to beep franticly; he pulled it out and took one look at the screen.
“Actually I think that we can show you.” Jeremie said as he and the entire group got up. Aleisha got up and followed them, wondering where they were going.

Warren was in his room, working on some Chemistry homework when the door burst open…there stood Odd.
“XANA again?” Warren asked, getting up. Odd nodded, Warren smiled. “Well looks like I get to have some time to beat the sh!t out of our cybernetic friend. C’mon lets go!” he said and then hurried out the door.
The two hurried along and were joined by Urich after a few minutes, and they all headed toward the factory.
“Haven’t seen you a lot Warren how you been?” Urich asked
“I'm doing better than I was before.” Warren said…the group had gotten so accustomed to the attacks that some had started small talk on the way to the factory.

Aleisha was amazed; she never would have guessed that these kids were in charge of saving the world from an artificial intelligence! It was insane, even that Aelita girl was actually a computer program!
”You guys are insane! This has to be a prank!” She said, looking around the room “Whoever is taping this come out! I know you are there.”
“This isn’t a prank. Just calm down, the situation is under control.” Jeremie said, he was the last person in the room with her…the rest of them had gone back into the elevators.
“This better not be a prank, or you all will regret it.” Aleisha said, coming over to look over Jeremie’s shoulder out of pure curiosity. On the screens was a jumble of data streams, a digital area, and a few things that looked like cards, but they had pictures of Aelita and Yumi on them. Suddenly she heard the sound of the elevator door opening and looked up, there stood Odd, Urich and… “Warren? What are you doing here?” she stammered, running over to him.
“My job.” Warren said in a business like tone. Then he turned to Jeremie “Nothing is happening that I can tell just yet, but I am going up top to see what I can do to slow him down if he sends anything our way.”
“Odd and I are going down to the scanners to see what damage we can do to XANA’s plan.” Urich said.
Aleisha grabbed his arm, looking at him scared. “What is going on?” she asked, her voice tinged with fear. She had never seen him in this sort of fervor about something before.
“Nothing of dire importance…just wait with Jeremie and you will be fine.” Warren said and kissed her quickly. “We will all explain after this is over, I promise you.”
She drew him closer and kissed him long and hard. “Stay safe.” She whispered when they separated, still hanging on his arm.
“I always am. Stay here, normally this place doesn’t get hit.” Warren said and then walked over to the elevator. Just when he was about to press the button to call the thing the doors burst open. The kid inside leapt out of the elevator and attacked Warren.
The boy was just a little shorter than Warren was, and had wild black hair. He was wearing a black shirt over a red long sleeve T-shirt, with jeans that were rolled up past military looking boots. Aleisha didn’t recognize the kid but apparently Warren and Jeremie did, because she noticed that Warren was using most of the disabling techniques that he knew…not most of the harmful ones that he would have used if he didn’t know the person. Jeremie was practically screaming into the microphone that he had clipped to his ear.
“XANA has William, Warren is taking care of him though.” She heard Jeremie said

Warren ended up overpowering William and pinning him to the ground and sitting on him…looking minorly bored.
“You’d think that XANA would try something different, other than the same moves over and over again.” Warren said, looking at the kid that he was sitting on. “I mean same opening, same middle game, Checkmate.”
“Yeah I know. It is kind of funny that he is the super computer AI and he still can’t come up with something that will actually work on us. The group is at the tower.” Jeremie said, “We won’t use the time reversal, just take him back and say he passed out in the lunchroom.”
Warren shrugged “Sounds cool.” He said then turned to Aleisha. “So what do you think of what we do?”
Aleisha smiled. “It’s insane, but fun from the stuff that you say. I’m in.”
Warren smiled, and Jeremie looked up from the computer. “You can get off him now, she is in the tower…” Jeremie said and the kid stopped struggling and went limp.
Warren immediately got off him and stretched. “Now to get back to the real world.” He sighed…and waited for a second for the rest of the team. They arrived just a little bit later, looking tired, but alive.
“Welcome back everyone.” Warren said, watching the rest of the group recovering from devirtulization. “Now who is going to help me carry William back to school?” Urich came up and they made a seat for him out of their arms and then left for the school.

Warren sat on one of the benches that lined the courtyard…Aleisha lying on him, just relaxing and talking. Because it was almost summer it was an extremely nice day and it felt good just to sit and bask in the sun. The finals were about to start and they had been studying for ages, with the help of Jeremie and Aelita…who knew almost every subject by heart. Warren had actually set up the entire group on meeting in Jeremie’s room to study for the tests…and everyone was involved in the studying. When he wasn’t in class or studying for finals he was with Aleisha, he was spending a LOT of time with her.
“Well look at this. Isn’t it the worst thing that you have ever seen?” Came a sneering voice.
“Shove off Herb.” Warren said, without turning around, he had memorized the sound of Herb’s voice long ago. Aleisha raised her head a bit…and rolled her eyes when she saw Herb.
“He’s just jealous Warren, he knows that he could never have a girl as good looking as I am.” She said sounding a bit tired, closing her eyes and resting her head on Warren’s shoulder.
Warren snorted with laughter. “Yeah your right.” He said and pulled her closer to him. “Now run along Herb before Sissy decides that she would rather hang with Urich rather than you.”
Warren heard Herb shuffle off after about a minute. Warren knew that he had been thinking of hitting him, and didn’t care. Aleisha shifted a bit on his shoulder and Warren could tell that she had fallen asleep. Warren sighed contentedly and let his head fall back to rest in the sunlight.

Aelita found Aleisha resting in her room, Warren working on the Algebra that the teacher had assigned. They had Warren’s CD player in the corner playing a tune that Aelita didn’t recognize; it was a light techno song that had a soprano singing.
“Your arms are my castle, your heart is my sky, they wipe away tears that I cry. The good and the bad times we’ve been through them all. You make me rise when I fall!”
“Hey Aelita.” Warren said, looking up just a bit. Aleisha opened her eyes a bit, looking up, and then closed them again.
“Long night?” Aelita asked, without opening her eyes Aleisha nodded. Aelita noticed that she was silently mouthing the song along with the CD.
“I’m personally not surprised, she has been studying like crazy.” Warren said, not looking up from the work. “So how are you doing?”
“I’m doing real well, I just came to hang out.” Aelita responded “Jeremie is at the factory, working on an ID for Aleisha, Odd is somewhere, and Urich and Yumi wouldn’t want to be disturbed right now.”
Warren smiled, “I can understand that.” He said and then put down the book that he was using and got up and stretched.
Aelita went over to Aleisha and sat down next to her. “You guys have been through a lot of stuff…” she said.
Aleisha turned toward her, opening one eye a bit. “So have you…” she said, sleepily.
Aelita laughed “You know, that is the same thing Warren said.”
Warren nodded. “It’s true, I did say that.” He said, “You know I have some cash that is burning a hole in my pocket, what do you girls say to me taking you out for lunch?”
“Sure.” Aleisha said, getting up and stretching.
“That sounds fun.” Aelita said.

They ended up going to the Golden Lion by the mall, a locally owned burger joint, it was a bit crowded but it still was good. Believe it or not, after a few minutes of sitting in the small restaurant the song that Warren had been playing in Aleisha’s room came on. Warren and Aleisha shared a look and they both started to sing along. People looked at them in wonder, as they were able to sing the entire song without missing a single note and staring into each other’s eyes the entire time. When the song finished several people burst into applause, some just smiled, they could tell.
“Have you ever tried Karaoke competitions?” asked the guy at the counter. Warren and Aleisha shared a look and nodded. “Would you be interested in being in the one that is this Friday?”
“Why not? Finals will be over for the week and we can have everyone come.” Warren said, and gave Aelita a questioning look, as if asking if they should do it.
Aelita nodded “I would love to see that. I bet it would be the best thing that we could do after finals.” She said. Warren turned back to the guy and held out a hand and he handed a pamphlet to him that had the information for the competition on it.
“Hope to see you two there. The prize for this week is $20 for second place and $50 for first place. We have several music fanatics come each and every night.” The guy behind the counter said.
Warren smiled, “We plan on it…see you Friday!” he said, walking over to the table with the girls. They got their food just a bit later, freshly made.

The group was just about to go and pay for the food when a new guy came into the Golden Lion and went straight to the counter. The guy was just a little taller than Warren and wore a long flowing coat that reached beyond his waist. Warren saw him pass the person at the counter a small note, which the guy read and then turned pale. The person at the counter slid his hand down to the corner of the desk and then stopped when the guy pulled back the coat he was wearing and showed not one gun but two. Warren’s eyes widened and the guy gave him a look that said “do something and see what happens” and reached for one of the guns.
He only had time to get it out, “EVERYBODY DOWN!” Warren yelled and kicked at the guy, catching his arm so that the gun flew through the air, landing on the ground a little ways away. The following fight that ensued was short but no less amazing, the guy having just lost his weapon sent a haymaker at Warren’s head, which he dodged easily and then kicked him in the stomach. The guy doubled over and then came up with a cruel uppercut punch that sent Warren sprawling. He immediately got up and looked down the barrel of the gun that had been shoved into his face.
“WARREN!” Aleisha screamed, trying to fight out of the grip that Aelita and another guy had on her, keeping her away from him and the robber.
“Nice try kid.” He said, his voice like sandpaper, and then smiled evilly “But not good enough.”

“I ain’t goin to beg if that is what’chu want.” Warren said, pulling out the southern accent that he had gained in the two years down in Texas. He normally stomped down on it when it showed up but at some times he enjoyed having it, the accent wasn’t something that people really heard a lot of and it caught them off guard more often than not.
“What?” the guy said, looking startled, and then his face hardened into a steely look “You’ve been watching Criminal Minds too much kid.”
“Glad I’m not the only one who watches it.” Warren said, smiling
“Shut up!” The guy said.
“What are you going to do? Kill me?” Warren said, still smiling.
“I said SHUT UP!” The guy said, and then before Warren could react, he pivoted and shot at the crowd…there was a scream, and the guy got tackled by several people. Warren looked around to see if anyone got hit, and saw Aleisha in a pool of blood.
“Aleisha,” Warren said, trying to move toward her, but the air seemed to have turned to water, slowing him down. It seemed like an hour before he got to her. Her breath was coming in quick gasps and her face was pale, Warren grabbed her hand, gently rubbing it. “Please Aleisha, hold on.”

Blip………blip………blip………blip
“She will be fine, the bullet didn’t hurt her that badly, it was the shock that caused the most damage. She will have to stay with us for a bit to make sure that there will not be anything major when she leaves.” The doctor said, looking at the clipboard that he held. Warren heard this but it didn’t really register with him, he just sat there, holding her hand. Aelita stood looking at the doctor, actually paying attention to him as he listed off things that were probably going to happen. Aelita knew that Warren was too shocked to take any of it in at all. After the doctor had left she waited for a second and then went over to Warren, when he looked at her his eyes were red and puffy from crying.
“She will be fine Warren. Come on, let’s go back to the school.” She said, her voice pleading with him. Warren looked back at Aleisha for a second and then got up and followed Aelita back to the school, lost in a daze of sorrow. Several people approached them when they got there, mainly students, but Aelita sent them away, Warren needed some time to himself. She knew that he was completely broken inside because of what had happened, and needed time to put the pieces of his life back together.
When Warren got to his room he got out the CD player and the picture of him and Aleisha, then began to cry…

Next day:
“Man, he has it hard!”
“He did WHAT?”
“And now his girlfriend is in the hospital.”
Warren drifted through the day, only half there…his mind on Aleisha. Most people left him alone, but some just had to rub it in…
“So what happened to your girlfriend?” Herb’s sneering voice came in the courtyard. “Oh, that’s right, you got her shot.”
Warren gave him a look and then started to move toward the football field for gym class, Herb followed. “I heard that you had her shot on purpose cause you didn’t like her anymore.” He jeered.
Warren whirled, “Shut your trap before I shut it for you dunce!”
Herb smiled and crossed his arms; Jim was on the field and would probably stop Warren if he attacked him. “Make me. You’re so stupid that you ended up with your friend shot cause you just didn’t want to be with her anymore…”
He didn’t get any farther; cause Warren launched himself at Herb, already swinging. Jim noticed this right away and moved forward to break up the fight, but Yumi and Urich were already there, putting themselves between Warren and Herb.
“Get out of my way.” Warren growled, trying to get past them to get to the cowering Herb.
“No, I can’t say that he doesn’t deserve this but this is the wrong way to do this Warren.” Yumi said, her voice soft and comforting, like she was talking to a frightened animal.
“He deserves to have his head shoved into the ground for what he said.” Warren said, and then tried to force his way past the two.
“He deserves a lot of stuff, but this isn’t the time for this.” Yumi said, using the same tone as before. “Please Warren, calm down.”
“After what he said? Hell no!” Warren said, his eyes burning with pain and fury. Herb stood up and started to back away from Warren, who raced forward and shoved the other two out of his way. Yumi tried to grab one of his arms but missed, Warren sent a roundhouse kick at Herb’s head, which connected with a crack that everyone heard. Blood spewed out of Herb’s nose and down his front, and a few girls gasped. Herb flew a few feet and landed hard on the football turf, but his moment of bliss was cut short by Warren landing on him and started to punch him rapidly. After a second of shock Odd, Yumi and Urich rushed forward and pulled Warren off Herb.
“Oh…my…god” A girl said under her breath. Herb’s face was torn to pieces…both eyes swelling and turning black, and his nose spewing blood. Warren managed to shake Yumi and Urich off him and ran towards the forest.
Jim started to follow him “Let him go. He needs some time to be alone after this.” Urich said, and Jim nodded.
Yumi went over to Herb, “He’s out, lucky guy.” She said.
“Lucky? How can he be lucky after that?” a guy in the crowd asked.
“He isn’t in major pain. Trust me when you are on the receiving end of Warren’s anger you feel like you got hit by a train and then some.” Urich explained, remembering the fight that he had with Warren while he was under XANA’s influence.
“He should be happy Warren didn’t hit him in the chest, it would have broken ALL of his ribs.” Yumi said.
“Oh my lord!” a voice said, Yumi and Urich turned around to see the nurse running to Herb’s side, someone must have gone to get her. “Jim, help me get him to the infirmary!” Jim scooped Herb up in a fireman’s hold and ran off with the nurse toward the school.
Yumi gave Urich a look “We warned him, so don’t feel bad about him.” She said.
“I’m not worried about Herb, I’m worried about Warren.” He said.

Warren sat in the upper branches of a tree, finally calmed down. He sat there just rubbing his temples, trying to relax.
“Warren?” someone yelled below. He hopped down a few branches and looked through the leaves, there stood Yumi, Urich, and… “Why the hell is Sissy with them?” he thought.
“You know that Warren will probably not want to talk to you.” Yumi said.
“What Herb did was stupid, and he paid the price for that stupidity.” Ulrich said
“Herb didn’t keep his mouth shut. He said the wrong thing to the wrong person.” Yumi said.
“All I want to do is call a truce.” Sissy said. “We leave him alone, and he leaves us alone.”
“He might agree to that.” Yumi said, and stopped. “He’s here.”
“Where?” Sissy asked, looking around. She turned around, looking at the two who were smirking. “What? Is this some sort of joke?”
“You forgot to look up.” A voice said in her ear, and then clamped a hand down on her mouth, muffling her scream. Sissy whirled, and there was Warren, hanging by his legs in the tree like a bat. He crossed his arms, still suspended in the tree. “You wanted to talk to me?”
“I…I wanted to ask you if you would accept a truce.” Sissy said, stuttering over the words, she didn’t do this very often. Warren noticed also that she was slowly edging away from him.
Warren smiled “You’re afraid of me aren’t you?” he reached up and grabbed the branch that he had his legs to and swung himself off…landing solidly on the ground with his feet. Sissy gasped and took several steps backwards. “Guess that answers my question.”
“Warren you have pretty much the entire school afraid of you…all except for our group.” Urich said.
“Good, now they will know not to piss me off.” Warren responded. “So, how is Herby?”
“Broken nose, minor concussion, a busted lip, a black eye, and several other bruises.” Yumi said, counting fingers off as she named the injury.
“Well Sissy, tell you what, as long as Herb or anybody else doesn’t mess with me I will leave people alone, kay?” Warren said, holding out his hand for her to shake. She shrunk back from him for a second and then shook his hand.
“Okay Warren.” She said, her voice tense.
“Girl, cut it out, I’m not going to kill you.” Warren said, smiling and crossing his arms. He turned to the others. “See ya at school!” he said, and then jumped into the trees above him and took off for the school, disappearing in a flash between branches.
Urich chuckled at Sissy being so jumpy. “Come on, he is going to beat us back at this rate.” He said and then took off running toward the school, the girls not that far behind.

Jeremie looked around the small room and sighed “I’m sorry that you’re here Aleisha.” He said, and then went to the green chair by the bed. Aleisha was propped up on pillows, eyes closed.
“I don’t know if you can hear me or not right now, but you have one hell of a person fighting for you.” Jeremie said… placing the lilies that he had gotten on the nightstand. “Warren is great, the first day that he was here XANA attacked, and he ended up helping us out. He barely even knew the group and he nearly ended up getting himself killed. He took a total of three fireballs and a severe beating and still he didn’t quit. He just got right back up and kept fighting, it truly was amazing what he had done for us. Plus when Herb was talking trash to him about you getting shot, he just turned around and started wailing on him. He REALY does love you, and I wanted you to know how much of a great guy he is.”
Jeremie looked at his watch, and then felt a light touch on his wrist, and looked up. Aleisha was awake, her eyes just barely cracked, her hand on his wrist. “Keep talking Jeremie, I hear you.” She said, her voice dry, she coughed a couple times. Jeremie held her hand for a second and then let it go. “Thanks for coming Jeremie…I needed it.” She said.
“No problem, I’ll tell Warren that you were up.” Jeremie said. “Try and rest.”
“Thanks.” Aleisha said, then set her head back on the pillow, and instantly fell asleep.
“G’night Aleisha.” Jeremie whispered as he left.

Three days later

“Well looks like everyone is finally back together.” Odd said at lunch. Aleisha gave him a look that said ‘Shut up’ but Odd just smiled.
“Don’t even try Aleisha; he’s impervious to that sort of stuff.” Warren said, eating.
The group had assembled in the cafeteria for breakfast. It was Aleisha’s first day back from being back from the hospital. She had a ton of homework that she needed to catch up on but she was feeling pretty good, her side wasn’t hurting her that bad.
“Glad you’re back.” Aelita said; Jeremie nodded.
“Um, I got some news.” Jeremie said, and everyone looked at him.
“Good or bad?” Warren asked.
“Both,” Jeremie said, “I’ll start with the good news. Warren you remember telling me to look at the virus like a huge lock that needed multiple keys to open?” Warren nodded “I took a look at it, broke it down into sections, and you were right,” Warren’s eyes widened with shock, but most of the others looked confused.
“You have an Antivirus?” Warren asked, his voice strained with shock.
“That’s the good news.” Jeremie said, and the table erupted in a small celebration. Aelita looked overwhelmed with joy. “The bad news is that XANA is probably going to give us one hell of a ride cause of it.”
“Well that is to be expected.” Warren said, his face shining. “But this is the best news that we have had in ages. Do you have the antivirus on you?”
Jeremie shook his head. “I have it in my room… what we would have to do is put in part of the code, and go to each of the prime towers in each area and enter another part of the code. When all of the towers have been visited, I enter the last part and she is free.”
“Sounds fun.” Warren said, “When do we start?”
“Right after finals” Jeremie said, and then looked around the group “Unless people have plans.” Everyone shook their heads. “Then it is decided, Saturday everyone meets at the factory…and be ready for hell.”
“Bring on the fire and brimstone!” Warren said, and everyone burst out laughing.

Saturday

“You ready.” Urich asked, walking with Warren and Aleisha through the woods to the man hole that they used.
“No, who can be totally ready for this sort of thing?” Warren asked, for once he was nervous about this trip to Lyoko. “All we can do is try and be prepared for the worst.”
“You got that right.” Urich said.
“I just hope we end up doing this right.” Aleisha said. “I mean it is a one time only shot.”
“Don’t borrow trouble.” Warren said, touching the ring on his left hand.
The rest of the way they made in silence…all of them consumed in their own thoughts. When they got to the Control room they saw the rest of the group waiting, and the air was saturated with anxiousness.
“That’s everybody. Jeremie said. “So are we clear on who will stay and who will go and the switching details?” over the past week they had devised a strategy in opposition to XANA and whatever he might put against them, and everyone had been practicing like crazy, even Aleisha.
“We’re good.” Odd said, for once completely serious, he knew that if they failed that Aelita would be trapped one again on Lyoko and there would be no one to oppose XANA. The group exchanged good byes, which all hoped were not the final ones that they would give, and then split into their groups, heading toward their assigned positions.

Warren looked at Odd and Yumi, and nodded. “Be ready for anything.” He said, just out of habit, and they nodded.
“Starting Operation Freedom” Jeremie said through the intercom system, people got in their ready positions, ready for XANA’s wrath. Within about a minute of Jeremie starting the program five separate towers were activated and hell was opened. Within a short amount of time everyone was fighting off at least two people, and the group on Lyoko had to fight their way through a horde of high level monsters. It was absolute mayhem; but Jeremie was extremely good under the pressure, commanding movements on both fronts.
“Arctic Tower reached, heading to the Forest Tower now.” Jeremie announced over the intercom.
“Good.” Warren grunted and then shoved the XANA possessed fiend that had just pinned him off. He looked around, most of the group was doing ok, Odd and Yumi were fighting back-to-back, and were doing extremely well. Most of the possessed people were on the defensive a good chunk of the time. It looked like they were going to win this fight, which was a complete morale booster for him. Letting out an animalistic shout he charged at his opponent, engaging the guy with a complex series of moves.

One hour later:

“Jeremie, we’re fading up here.” Warren said into the intercom earpiece that Jeremie had given him. He saw Yumi take a severe punch from the person that she was working on. Thankfully, most of the people that had been possessed the group had knocked out or disabled in some other way. Odd was in the corner, trying to bind some of the more serious wounds that he had gotten when he was fighting. Warren leapt to the guy that had struck and hit him hard in the jaw, and feeling something crack, and blood started to dribble from the guy’s mouth.
“They’re nearly to the Mountain Tower, just give them a second.” Jeremie said.
”We don’t have a second Jeremie, we need some help now.” Warren practically shouted into the mike. The guy he was fighting leaped forward, shoving his fist into Warren’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him. The guy pinned Warren to the ground and pulled back his fist to punch him out.
THWAP! The guy went sprawling as someone kicked him off of Warren.
“Tag, you’re it.” Urich said, smiling. “Just one more tower and we’re done!”
“Thanks.” Warren said as Urich pulled him up. “You have fun up here.”
“You too, now hurry, their only taking one person at a time…tell Aleisha that she will be next.” Urich said, and then hurried to the guy who was getting back up.

On Lyoko

When Warren materialized on Lyoko he hit the ground fighting several Tarantulas. He managed to destroy three of them before they could react and then went over to where the rest were. He saw Aleisha fighting with three Tarantulas and a Super Tank. She had what looked like tight leather armor that covered only the top of her torso and her waist. She looked extremely hot, but what gave Warren chills was the pair of huge scimitars that she used with pin-point accuracy. When they finally got in close enough range to talk he saw that her face had paint on it that gave her a furious animalistic look. Her hair was pulled back into a long ponytail and the clip to it looked like solid jade. She looked like a shamanistic princess, with a dangerous beauty that seemed to permeate her entire being.
“Having fun?” Warren asked, and she smiled.
“This is better then anger management.” She said, taking out the super tank. “If only we could have a program like this for a VR game…It would be so much fun!”
“Let’s live thorough this first. Where is Aelita?” Warren asked.
“Here.” Aelita said, poping in and out between monsters, making them shoot each other.
“Ok. Jeremie, how far to the tower?” Warren asked.
“Just a little bit further…I’m going to be sending Yumi there in a second. Are you sure that you want to stay Aleisha?” Jeremie said.
“Yeah, I’m having a blast here. Send Yumi if you want, but I think that I will stay for now.” Aleisha said, slicing a Tarantula in two.
“Ok, let’s get moving. We got a good amount of ground to cover.” Warren said…then started to hack his way through the sea of monsters.
“You think that these would make good Halloween costumes?” Aleisha asked after a bit.
“Yeah, they would, you want to see if we can make them by the time October comes around?” Warren asked, the morale for the group was shooting through the roof, the tower was in sight and they were going through the monsters like a hot knife through soft butter.
“Um, guys there is something odd, you got a huge monster coming at you and I have no idea what it is.” Jeremie said, and the monsters in front of the group parted like the Red Sea did for Moses.
“Holy, Fucking, Shit.” Aleisha breathed, vocalizing what everyone was thinking. The creature standing before them looked like a huge Tiger, only with a more feral look to it. The teeth went past the gums and the claws looked like they could have cut through pure titanium. The shoulder of the beast was as tall as Warren was, and XANA’s crest was on it’s forehead, mixed in with the stripes.
The titanic tiger drew in a breath, and Warren gasped “MOVE!” he shouted and they scattered just in time as the tiger roared, and the place that they were just standing blew up in a flash of dust and smoke, leaving a wide hole in the data turf. “Aelita, get to the tower. Jeremie, we’re going to need some help after all, Aleisha with me.” Warren barked.
“I’m sending Odd and Yumi now.” Jeremie said, now thoroughly shaken. Aelita took off toward the tower, and Aleisha circled back to where Warren was.
“How do we fight this thing?” Aleisha asked, scared.
“I have an idea.” Warren said, keeping his eyes on the monster at all times. “Have you found out what your special ability is?”
“I have a feeling, but I’m not sure.” She said, and then sheathed her scimitars. “I’m going to try something…and hope it works.” She stood very still for a second and then smiled, “Got it.” She said, but her voice seemed layered, like there was more than one person talking at once and also her eyes were glowing. Then she held out her hands, palm out, and they started to glow a bright crimson. “天の殴打の火!” she cried out and an inferno of white hot fire surged toward the creature, obliterating it from their vision. When the fireball had disappeared the two looked up, and the beast was still there, but completely still and smoking. BAM the tiger exploded, obliterating most of the other creatures gathered around it that had not been destroyed in the fire. Aleisha smiled, then sank to her knees, and devirtualized.
“Warren, just defend the tower for a few more seconds and I’ll get you out of there.” Jeremie said.
“Take all the time you need.” Warren said, shocked. All of the monsters seemed to bow towards Warren, a symbol of defeat. Out of the wreckage of the tiger sprang a being with the looks of Urich when he was on Lyoko, he went toward Warren, drawing it’s sword.
Warren tensed, waiting for the attack. It never came, when the figure came close to Warren, it fell to it’s knees, offering up it’s sword. “Check and Mate.” It said, it’s voice metallic.
“You played well XANA, you were a worthy opponent.” Warren said, taking the sword.
“Thank you.” The figure said, and then disappeared, like it had been sand blown away in a wind.
Warren took one more look around, then closed his eyes, and devirtualized.

When Warren emerged from the elevator, the control room was the picture of celebration. Aleisha came up and hugged him hard. “YOU DID IT!” she said, her eyes overflowing.
Warren smiled and looked around “No, it wasn't just me, it was all of us!” he said, and then held out the samurai sword that he found himself holding when he devirtualised. “But this goes to Jeremie, the head of our operation, without him, this would have never happened.”
Jeremie took the sword and drew it “Wow.” He whispered as the blade caught the light. They all stood there for a second, mesmerized by the sight of the sword. They were all a little messed up, all of the kids had cuts and bruises, including Jeremie. They might have been beaten up but they were happier then they had ever been.