Chapter 5
No title at this time
POV change= 3rd person.
As the brake lights disappear into the distance the lyoko crew goes back to Odd's side.
Jeremie breaks the silence, "Don't you think you were a little hard on him back there?"
Ulrich looks livid, "Why, should I have gone easy on him? He hurt my best friend! You think I was hard on him, I should have killed his sorry ass."
Yumi cuts in, "What if he did that to Aelita? Would you still be thinking like that?"
"Did what to Aeilita?" Jeremie shoots back "Had an eating contest with her? There is no physical damage to Odd and the only thing that makes it look like something wrong is that he's asleep outside of history class." Just then Aelita spoke up.
"I agree with Jeremie. There's nothing wrong with him. He's just out."she says
"Of course you agree with him." says Ulrich
"What's that supposed to mean?" Aelita asks angrily.
"Nothing, Sorry, I'm just upset about Odd." he says and plopped down on the edge of the bed.
"Why are you upset about me?" asks Odd from behind Ulrich.
"Because of what Roger did to you. Now we don't know how long it's gonna be before you wake up and... Wait a second. Odd your awake!" he realizes and everyone gives Odd a big hug. "You jerk, how long have you been awake?"
"Since 'Don't you think we were a little hard on him?', you guys don't like to let a guy sleep do you?" he answers wearily.
"Oh, well, just so you know, we took care of Roger. He won't bother us again."
"He never bothered anybody the first time!"
"What?"
"You think I was out because of him? That's completely wrong. I ate too much, threw up and passed out. He didn't do anything. I guess he's the one who brought me upstairs. then you kicked him out? Good job guys. You gotta go apologize to him right now." Odd explains. The gang looks sheepishly at him. Odd peirces Ulrich with his eyes, "Well, go."
"We can't." says Jeremie.
"Why not?"
"He kind of drove off, really fast. I don't think he's coming back."
"What did you do?"
"I kind of punched him... in the face." Ulrich says quietly.
"Well that's just great, now we have to go find him."
"How?. We have no way of tracking him." Just then Jeremie speaks up, "I think I know how." and leaves the room followed by Aelita. He comes back a few minutes later, "I hacked his desktop and got his cell number. Follow me." They all get up and follow Jeremie to his room where Aelita is at the computer, typing. "She's running a tracing program to find the general location of his cell. Wherever the cell goes is hopefully where he is."
Aelita turns around, "I've got a lock. He's somewhere near the river, in the area of the factory. Jeremie, I put this program on your laptop so we can see if he leaves."
"Thanks Aelita. Ok, lets go. We need to find him fast."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Parked on the street, next to a river, near an abandoned factory sits an old puckup truck with airhorns. It's sole inhabitant is sleeping on the passenger side. The windows are down and the owner is nowhere in sight. A cellular phone sitting on the dashboard lights up and displays the message: Roger, we're sorry, please come back.
A dark figure watches the street from a high vantage point above the river, unseen on this dark and moonless night. A couple walks down the street and turns a corner, chatting away with no worries. A heavy fog rolls in off of the water.
Ten minutes go by without a single movement, when suddenly a group of people emerge from a side street and head towards the factory bridge. The figure watches them cautiously. Jeremie says, "I'll see if the supercomputer can find him more acurately." as he walks into the factory, followed by the others. Ulrich stops outside of the doors to the factory, unnoticed by the others who continue there voyage into the old abandoned structure. He walks to the side of the bridge and leans over a bit, squinting down the road, straining to see something through the fog. "That looks like Roger's truck." he says to himself.
The dark figure sees an opening and swoops down upon the unsuspecting teen, sending him tumbling over the edge of the bridge straight towards the concrete foundation below that the factory sit's upon. A voice from the distance yells, "Ulrich!" and a large hand reaches out and grabs the boy by the wrist as he dangles helplessly above the hard surface below. The one who saved the boy falls over and starts sliding towards the edge of the bridge, his leg get torn up by a loose bolt sticking up from the deck. He screams in pain but doesn't let go of the boy who punched him in the face less than an hour ago. As he reaches the edge his steel toe boot catches on the same bolt that cut up his leg and he jerks to a stop. The bolt creaks and snaps, sending both of the teens towards the hard concrete. He let's go of Ulrich with one hand and wraps his arm around a support beam on the side of the bridge. His shoulder makes a sickening crack as his descent is ceaced abruptly and he screams but doesn't let go out of the pure instinct to survive.
"Ulrich I can't hold on. Climb up before we both fall."
"Where did you come from Roger?" Ulrich says, as he begins to climb slowly, grabbing onto Roger's shit and then his neck.
"I was following you." he says through clenched teeth as the support beam digs into his arm. His arm slips and his one hand is now the only thing holding both teens. "I"m slipping, go!" and shoves his free hand up under ulrich's shoes sending him up onto the deck of the bridge. This act also has the unfortunate result of making him slip all the way off and dissapear into the fog. He doesn't scream on the way down, he just closes his eyes and prepares for the impact. Ulrich looks down after him and hears a loud crack, a thump and the loudest, most pain filled scream he has ever heard in his life. "ROGER!" He shouts, listening for a response. A tear forms in his eye and he runs into the factory, slides down the rope and dashes to an exterior door. He bursts out onto the foundation of the factory and looks around frantically. "ROGER, ANSWER ME!" His request is met by a cough and another scream. He hurries to the source of the noise and looks over his battered savior, the left leg is at an odd angle and his chest is colapsed it looks as if his spine has snapped also, there is blood pooling around his head. "Why did you do it Roger? Why did you save me? I never even trusted you."
The response is slow in coming but the message is clear, "You're my friend, and I'd do it again if I had the chance, besides you've got something to live for, this is probably the only useful thing I've ever done." Roger sputters. He then reaches up and touches Ulrich's shoulder and says almost inaudibly, "Goodbye, friend." and his head falls back onto the concrete, eyes open and staring at nothing at all.
"no, no, nononononono NO!" Ulrich screams and slams the ground with his fist. He then seems to have a revelation, He pulls out his cellphone and places a call. the other end clicks and Jeremie is heard, "Where have you..." Urich inturrupts, "No time, launch a return to the past now."
"Why?"
"Just do it Jer, before it's too late! Roger's dying!"
"What?!"
Ulrich yells into his phone, "DO IT NOW!" and hangs it up. A few seconds later, a bright light englufs the world and the group finds themselves in the lab a few hours in the past. "I hope we were fast enough."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A couple miles away an old but nice looking red Ford F-150 swerves off the road and crashes into a wall, The driver is motionless. groups of people gather around as an ambulance arrives and removes the driver from the vehicle, loads him up and drives off. Some police take the luggage and the dog from the truck and put them into thier cruisers. A tow truck arrives and hauls away the battered vehicle.
