Chapter 5- The Decoy (09.13.07-09.15.07)
Odd dodged another laser shot. The Megatank closed shut, and then rolled toward him like a bowling ball. He shifted his weight quickly from foot to foot. Just as the Megatank was a few meters away, Odd jumped out of the way. The Megatank tumbled into the Digital Sea.
“How’s it on your side, Odd?” said Jeremie’s voice.“Okay, kind of,” Odd replied, with a glance at Yumi still fighting her Megatank. “We’re two Megatanks down, so it shouldn’t be that hard.”
“We’re going to send Ulrich and Aelita back to you guys,” Jeremie said. “There wasn’t a bug. XANA is using the Lyoko supercomputer as his host supercomputer for the Replika. Lyoko is set to be destroyed in two hours because of an activated tower, and the scanners, and me, will lose the connection to you through the Network.”
Yumi finally destroyed the Megatank. Odd froze, half of the way to help Yumi, who lost her balance in shock. “There isn’t any back door out of this?” Yumi asked.
“Unfortunately, nothing but the obvious,” came Franz’s voice, “to us and XANA. We have to deactivate the tower.”
“We’re going to Detranslate Ulrich and Aelita back to you,” Jeremie said. “And we’re still working to restore your DNA sequence codes. XANA has destroyed them.”
Ulrich and Aelita reappeared beside Yumi and Odd. “Jeremie, isn’t it kind of weird that XANA didn’t do anything to stop us from getting Detranslated back to Earth?” Ulrich asked.
“No, it isn’t,” Jeremie replied. “XANA let you get back to Lyoko because if you don’t succeed in deactivating the tower, all of you will be eternally virtualized. And if you’re devirtualized…”
“Okay, okay, I get it,” Ulrich said. “So we just have to deactivate the tower?”
“Yep. And in the meantime, Franz and I will work to repair your DNA sequence codes. So by the time you deactivate the tower, we can safely launch a Return to the Past to restore Lyoko and get out of this mess.”
The Overbike appeared, along with a restored Overwing and Overboard. “Odd and Aelita, go and deactivate the tower. Ulrich and Yumi, stay and protect the Skid. The tower is just northeast of your position.”
“Got it, Einstein!” Odd called, jumping on the Overboard. Aelita jumped on behind him, and they flew away.
---
Another red exclamation point appeared on the screen. “Ugh,” Jeremie said. “Nothing works. Franz, is there anything else we can try?” There was a pause. “Franz?”
Jeremie turned. Franz was rubbing his head in thought. “There isn’t. That’s the problem. Unless…”
“Unless what?” Jeremie asked.
Franz opened his eyes. “Unless the activated tower had something to do with the…” Franz’s eyes widened. “Of course. Of course. The activated tower must have overwritten the system error.”
“Uh…Franz…we already know that,” Jeremie replied, wondering if Franz was losing it.
“No, you misunderstood me,” Franz said. “The activated tower, regardless what the attack is, must draw power from the supercomputer. That could be the reason why the system error was overwritten. And the opposite could work, so that means…”
Jeremie’s eyes widened. “So if we activate a tower on Lyoko, then we can overwrite the error?”
Franz shrugged. “It’s an idea. I’m not sure if it will work.”
Jeremie immediately started typing. “It’s work a shot.”
---
As Odd and Aelita flew across the Forest, Aelita spotted a tower. She glanced at it, but as she was turning away, she immediately snapped her head back to it in shock. “Jeremie, are there any other activated towers on the Replika?”
The response didn’t come immediately. “Huh? Another activated tower? Why? You’re not near the activated tower yet.”
Odd looked at where Aelita was pointing. He gaped. “Einstein, we have a problem here.”
---
Jeremie quickly ran the Super Scan. The window refocused after a few seconds, displaying a tower glowing red. But in the top right corner was the number 41.
Jeremie and Franz gasped. “Odd, it looks like Aelita was right,” Jeremie said. “All the towers on the Replika are activated.”
“This definitely cannot be good,” was Aelita’s shocked reply.
---
Jeremie pressed the Enter key. “Okay, let’s see if activating a Lyoko tower will work.”
A Super Scan window appeared, indicating the activated tower on Lyoko.
Jeremie immediately began typing. “Now, let’s see…system log…errors…” Jeremie gasped.
Franz sighed. “XANA must have known that we would try this. It looks like he activated a script to speed up Lyoko’s destruction if we tried to activate a tower on Lyoko.”
Jeremie groaned. “Well, this time XANA’s really got us. Aelita, PLEASE hurry up!”
“We’re almost at the tower,” Aelita replied.
Suddenly, a radar window appeared, showing a ton of red dots moving in on Aelita and Odd. Another radar window appeared showing a solid blue dot moving toward the Skid, Ulrich and Yumi, along with five other dots.
“Just when I was about to say that things couldn’t get any worse,” Jeremie said.
---
Ulrich and Yumi quickly got back onto their vehicles. In front of them, five Krabes and a line of smoke raced toward them.
“I’ll handle William,” Ulrich responded to Yumi’s unasked question. Yumi nodded, and the pair of them sped toward the incoming group of XANA’s warriors.
---
“Ouch!”
“Odd!”
Odd fell off of the Overboard onto the path below him. The Manta that had shot him hovered over him. Aelita quickly turned back around to Odd.
Odd stood up and started running toward the tower. “Go on!” he shouted to Aelita. Aelita turned the Overboard around and continued toward the tower.
“Einstein,” Odd said, irked, “a heads-up next time would be nice.”
“Sorry, Odd,” came the reply. “We’re trying unsuccessfully to overwrite the system error. But the main reason XANA can overwrite it, and not us, is because he activated every single tower on the Replika. We can’t top that.”
“So what are you trying to do?” Odd dodged another laser shot and shot a laser arrow at the Manta tailing Aelita. It missed.
“We’re trying to overwrite it manually. But it’s useless. The only way to overwrite it is to deactivate every single tower, and by that time Lyoko will be gone for good, along with your only way back to Earth.”
Before Aelita could respond the Overboard started fizzing. It had been hit by the Manta. Aelita landed with a thump on the path. “I thought we had two hours, Jeremie!” Aelita exclaimed, standing up. Odd finally caught up with her.
“Activating a tower on Lyoko sprang a trap set by XANA,” Franz responded. “We now have 45 minutes.
Aelita and Odd groaned. “That’s a tower every minute!” Aelita exclaimed. “I can’t go that fast!”
“And that’s why we’re working to tweak the error slightly. If we can reset the supercomputer while the Replika is set to be destroyed instead of Lyoko, we can beat XANA.”
Another laser shot that barely missed them shook Aelita and Odd out of their thoughts. They started running toward the tower once more. Suddenly Aelita stopped. “But if the Replika will be destroyed, then shouldn’t we head back to the Skid so that we can get out of the Replika?”
“We’re trying to alter the algorithm, but so far there’s nothing,” Jeremie replied. “Just in case we don’t succeed, go and deactivate the tower. The tower in front of you was the first activated tower on the Replika, so it may have some significance.”
Odd turned around. “Go, Aelita,” he said, “I’ll cover you.” He began shooting at the Mantas. Aelita nodded and ran toward the tower.
---
Yumi blocked another laser with her fan. They were three Krabes down, but William was making things a lot harder. Ulrich was fighting him to her right, leaving her to fight the remaining two Krabes.
Yumi jumped up and threw her fans. They met their marks, and the Krabes exploded.
“Yumi, Ulrich?”
Yumi caught her fans and looked up. “Yes, Jeremie?”
“We need you to pilot the Skid over to Aelita and Odd,” Jeremie said. “We’re trying to destroy the Replika, so we need all of you in the Skid, pronto.”
Ulrich finally devirtualized William by throwing his sabers at him. “But how can you destroy the Replika without destroying Lyoko first?”
“Jeremie and I are trying to alter the algorithm of the program XANA is using to keep the system error overwritten,” came his father’s voice. “But we may not be able to do it. We only have 45 minutes, thanks to a trap XANA set for us when we activated a tower on Lyoko.”
“Ulrich, you’re piloting,” Jeremie said, hitting the Enter key. Yumi and Ulrich instantly reappeared in the Skid, Ulrich in the cockpit.
“Aelita and Odd are northwest of you,” Franz said.
“Got it,” Ulrich said, taking a grip on the joysticks. “We’re on our way.” Ulrich pushed a few buttons, deanchoring the Skid from the tower. Ulrich pushed the joysticks forward, and the Skid zoomed away.
---
Aelita entered the code. The interfaces lining the sides of the tower sped down. “Tower deactivated.”
Aelita ran out of the tower. Odd was fighting down the last Manta. “Come on, Maria, just a little closer…” He finally hit the XANA eye. “Yes!”
“Odd? Aelita?” Franz’s voice said. “Ulrich and Yumi are coming with the Skid. We need you in it as soon as they arrive. We found the solution. Jeremie is going to restart the supercomputer.”
The Skid ground to a halt in front of the tower. “Teleport!” Ulrich said, pressing a button. Aelita and Odd disappeared. Ulrich also disappeared, reappearing in his NavSkid.
“Okay, Dad,” Aelita said, taking hold of the joysticks, “we’re ready!”
---
The door to the supercomputer room opened. Jeremie rushed our. “Franz, are they ready?”
“Yes, they are,” came Franz’s voice. “You can restart the supercomputer.”
A small panel opened at waist level. The power switch appeared. Jeremie grabbed it and pushed it down. After a minute, he pushed the switch back up.
“Good job, Jeremie,” Franz said. As Jeremie turned back to the elevator, the panel closed shut, and the supercomputer glowed as if nothing had happened.
---
The Forest Sector was disappearing. Aelita quickly put the Skid into a dive into the Digital Sea.
The Skid whooshed out of the Replika entrance gate just in time to see it explode behind them. Everyone cheered. “Great job, guys!” Franz said.
Suddenly a Super Scan window popped up. Yet again the number 41 was in the upper right hand corner. “Uh oh,” Franz said. With the only virtual world being Lyoko, the 41 activated towers could only be in one place.
The door opened. As Jeremie walked back into the lab, Franz turned to him. “We have a major problem.”
Jeremie took a look at the screen and retched. “The Replika had a single purpose,” Jeremie said, the realization making him stare in shock. “To block the main XANA attack. Going after the Replika gave XANA time to take his victory.” Franz nodded, unable to believe that XANA had finally won.
---
All of the towers on Lyoko glowed red. And the sky on Earth suddenly turned reddish black.