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.
Author's Chapter Notes:
The final chapter