Warrior’s RedemptionChapter 9:Shadow of a Shadow of a DoubtPart II
At lunch, (approximately four hours ago), our heroes (Sans Bass) had been discussing why XANA was bothering to go to all the trouble of draining the city of power, with explanations ranging from “Using the power as a superweapon, just like before,” to “Causing us to get sick without power and running water.” However, one thing was certain: discussing it would get them nowhere. And so they had made the decision to sneak off after school, when they would be less likely to be caught (due to the lack of power in buildings, it was easier to get hurt or have looters come in and try to hurt someone, so security had been ramped up greatly.)
And so after fifteen minutes of jogging through the park, climbing into a sewer, riding along the thin sidewalk alongside the river of god-knows what, and into the factory, everyone was on the floor of the factory.
Odd reached out and hit the button to summon the old freight elevator.
It didn’t come.
After waiting for a minute or so, he felt compelled to say, “Hey, what’s going on! Why isn’t it coming up?”
“Well, the power’s out, so it’s probably not running.” Stated Yumi.
“But how come XANA and Lyoko still work? Don’t they-”
“No, Odd.” Came Jeremie’s voice. “Lyoko has its own internal nuclear battery. That’s why the power’s staying off, instead of flickering on and off repeatedly.”
Ulrich gave Jeremie a strange look. “Care to explain how you came to that conclusion, Einstein?”
Jeremie nodded. “Well, if XANA turned off the power, she’d shut herself off. Then the power would come back on, because XANA wouldn’t be turning it off anymore. But then XANA would turn back on and shut the power off again, and so on and so on…”
“Can we just deactivate the tower already?” Aelita interrupted.
Yumi looked at Aelita, a little shocked.
“You feeling okay?”
Aelita looked at the hole where the elevator was supposed to be.
“The last time I went to Lyoko, I was beaten up and nearly killed by XANA. I… if it wasn’t for Bass…”
Odd placed a hand on her shoulder, grinning cheerily.
“Don’t worry, Aelita. We won’t let anything happen to you.”
He took his hand off and mimed blasting something with it.
“And if she tries anything, I’ll give her a Laser arrow between the eyes!”
Ulrich rolled his eyes before beginning to climb down into the abyss. The rest of the gang quickly followed him down into the hole and into the scanner room and lab.
Jeremie, with the practiced ease of one who does this every day, quickly typed in the codes with the following words:
“Scanner, Aelita. Scanner, Yumi. Scanner, Ulrich. Transfer, Aelita. Transfer, Yumi. Transfer, Ulrich. Virtualization!” he then turned his attention to Odd. “Scanner, Odd. Transfer, Odd. Virtualization!”
One by one, the four heroes turned into wire frames and dropped to the slippery ground of the ice sector in the middle of a platform ringed by gigantic ice boulders and mini-waterfalls.
Jeremie spoke into the com set, “Okay. I’m doing a scan of the area… the tower is thirty two degrees north by northwest, about twelve monsters between you and the tower, and Bass is heading towards your position. He should be there right about… now.
As Jeremie said this, the former messenger of darkness floated down to land directly behind Odd, looking angry.
“Well, it’s about time that you guys showed up. XANA’s doing something weird, and I don’t like it at all. I can’t contact your news networks and see what’s going on at all…” his voice trailed off. “How bad is it on the surface?” he finished.
“Pretty bad,” Jeremie admitted after a moment. “There’s no power, so a lot of our society that relies on electricity for basic necessities like food, water, and lighting. There’s cases of looting and robberies, not to mention disease.”
“In that case, we should probably get moving.” Ulrich stated practically, drawing his sword from it’s sheath.
“Right, as I said, the tower is north by northwest. Take the first left through the system of caves over there. Be careful.
“What, us, act recklessly? Why, I never! Such an accusation, Jeremie. How dare you!” Odd cracked, and grins spread on the faces of the warriors.
And with that, the force moved out. Across the thin walkway, they dashed as fast as they could, until the first branching of the walkway, when they turned left onto a path that lead directly into the core of a mountain.
For a long way, the tunnels got narrower and narrower, and eventually, there came a point where the Lyoko warriors had to go single file for a while before it became wide enough to go as a group again.
Odd turned to his left, looked at Bass, and opened his mouth.
“No.”
“But-” Odd protested.
“No. I know what you’re thinking. I won’t just ‘Blast our way out.’”
“Bu-”
“Because that could cause the mountain to cave in on us. No.”
As if XANA was waiting for an opening like that, the tunnel started to rumble.
With a series of thundering crashes, the ice of the cave began to fall to the floor. Bass, acting quickly, grabbed the nearest person to him and threw them out of the way, then dove after them, barely dodging blocks that would have hurt, even for him.
Soon, the dust cleared, and there was a calm for a few minutes. Then Bass groaned and lifted his head up off the ground.
“Odd?” he whispered, afraid of causing another cave-in. “Odd, are you there?”
A groan and a shifting cone-shaped object revealed that the jokester of team Lyoko was, while not unharmed, certainly not out of the fight just yet. Though he had taken a bump on the head, and he was now down forty life points, he was essentially all right and ready to fight.
Bass strained for a second and pulled his leg out from under an ice boulder, then began moving some of the larger chunks off of his weaker companion.
With a moan, Odd pulled himself out of the wreckage, swaying unsteadily on his feet for a moment before acquiring a sense of balance.
“Uhh…” he groaned, holding his side with one hand and clutching the wall with the other for support. “What happened?”
Jeremie’s voice crackled through the celing.
“XANA caved in the tunnel in an attempt to devirtualize Aelita and kill Bass.” He replied simply. “I can see it failed on both accounts, as Aelita’s still alive. She’s heading towards the tower as we speak with Ulrich and Yumi in tow.”
“That’s good to know,” Bass said, gratefully.
“Yeah, except for one problem,” Odd muttered glumly, looking around the room.
“What?” Bass looked at Odd quizzically.
“Do you see a way out of here?”
“… Crap.”
Bass’ cuss was totally warranted, as indeed, there was no way out of the cave they were trapped in. The smooth wall of the cave had them trapped in on one side, and the rockslide had trapped them in on the other.
Odd sighed. “Jeremie, we’re kinda stuck. Could you help-”
“Not now, Odd. Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita are in the middle of a swarm of monsters. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
Bass leaned back against the ice wall, fins keeping his head leaning forwards slightly.
“Does this situation seem familiar to you?” he asked Odd.
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ELSEWHERE ON LYOKO…
Ulrich slammed his Katana down onto the red Eye of XANA on the Krabe’s back, then flipped off just in time to escape the blast radius as the Krabe exploded.
He turned in time to see Yumi’s fans slice through a Blok and another Krabe, while Aelita blasted the head off of a Tarantula with her new energy manipulation powers.
“I think that’s the last one, Jeremie,” he reported to the sky, aware that Jeremie could hear him quite well, no matter how loudly he talked.
“Just in time, too. XANA’s activated another tower! Hurry up and get to the tower as fast as you can. I’ll try and materialize Odd and Bass, or at least get them out of that cave…”
“Got it Jeremie,” Ulrich responded quickly. “Any monsters?”
“Not that I can see…” Jeremie muttered as his hands flew over the keyboard like a master playing the piano.
Suddenly, and with barely a warning, a storm of electricity engulfed the screen, flinging Jeremie out of his seat and knocking him against the wall.
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IN THE ICE CAVE…
Bass and Odd were relaxing on opposite ends of the wall, resting and waiting to be brought back to the real world in order to escape.
Or, at least, they were, if they had not been startled out of their inattentiveness by a shrieking, wailing roar.
Two huge bundles of tentacles phased through the wall, snaring the two warriors before either could move or resist. As one, the tentacles glowed red as the bodies of two Scyphizoa followed the appendages through the walls, freezing the two before they could struggle.
Odd felt three pulsating mandibles pressed against his forehead, squeezing all thought and will out of his mind, pulping thoughts, wisdom, and anything that had been in there before.
In it’s place, Odd ‘saw’ a mental image of a flame. The flame was bright white, with multicolored bands crisscrossing their way through it.
Suddenly, an ooze climbed up the flame, blotting out the light with tendrils of darkness, until the entire thing was entirely black.
He was utterly alone. There was nothing there anymore.
With a whooshing noise, a massive purple flame exploded into existence, engulfing the area in a sickly light.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, three hot-pink lines appeared at thirty-degree angles to one another in the flame.
Another moment passed.
Then, the three lines expanded into hot-pink eyes, which seemed to bore into Odd’s very soul.
The flame opened its dark mouth, sickly black smoke leaking out.
“Welcome to the Darkness.” It rumbled.
Then, Odd felt as if he was dissolving, the familiar sensation of floating, then of waking up in the scanner tube, a cold sweat on his face.
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Aelita stepped into the Forest tower just as Ulrich disintegrated in a brilliant flash of light. She stepped briskly towards the center of the Eye-of-XANA platform, then began to sing. As she sang, she rode the current of energy to the upper platform of the tower, where she walked to the center, typed In her name, and completed the time-honored tower deactivation sequence:
NAME:
AELITA
CODE:
LYOKO
She glanced at the floor.
“Return to the past now.”
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XANA saw the bubble of time-alteration racing towards her.
She knew that her plan to suck the city dry of energy had failed.
A replicon, standing somewhat behind her, and hearing strange sounds coming from his mistress, glanced fearfully up at her to see if she was crying.
She wasn’t.
Her laughter, long and dark and full of sinister plots and plans, continued right up to the point where the bubble engulfed her.