A/N: Sup, peoples.

Chapter 12

What does X.A.N.A want?

Odd smirked as the monsters came into view. He brought up a visual feed of what was happening and smirked at it, fully aware that his bird was watching.

"You cocky bastard." Ulrich mumbled as he looked at the live feed. Odd turned to him.

"Hey! I'm a cocky bastard with class." His smirked widened as the three hid behind another conveniently placed boulder, "So, what's the plan?"

"I'll stay here with Aelita until you two have either been de-virtualised or there's only a small amount of monsters left. You and Ulrich will attack and take down as many of them as you can; but don't worry, I'll be using my fans to take a few of the out from here as well." Yumi said as she went badass-soldier-mode. The two boys nodded and charge out from behind the boulder and attacked. Just as Odd released the claws from beneath his gloves he heard that beautiful voice.

"Be careful, Odd." He wasn't sure if the other's heard it but nonetheless he continued to attack the monsters. They were mainly Creepers and Bloks (23 of each to be exact). There were a couple of Mega-Tanks and a . . .

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?" Odd yelled as he dodged a wide read laser encased in a thinner white one. His gaze shot up the apparently latest addition to X.A.N.A's monsters.

It was a light blue in colour and was a sort of egg shape on two front legs and one back. It had a circle on its front which Odd assumed the laser had come from. It looked more mecha than orga (more machine than organic tissue) and seemed to have a faint crack down its centre, about two millimetres wide. If Odd looked closely he would have noticed the red pulsation in the crack, but he didn't, there was no need at that very moment.

"I have no clue. I didn't even notice it until you gave us a live feed, Odd." Jeremy replied as he typed furiously.

"Holy shit." Raven mumbled so quietly that Odd almost missed it. Emphasis on 'almost'. Odd was about to shoot it but stopped.

"Where's the eye!?" He whispered before dodging another laser, "ULRICH! I COULD USE SOME HELP OVER HERE!" Odd continued to shoot at the Creepers and Bloks (for Ulrich had already destroyed the Mega-Tanks) while dodging lasers. The blue thing seemed to aim for him and ignore Ulrich.

"I'm a little busy, Odd!" Said boy glanced at his friend to see the majority of the remaining monsters (which was around 25) swarming toward him, not shooting per-say, but keeping him occupied.

It's as if X.A.N.A wants to single me out. But why . . . Odd thought as he ducked and shot a laser arrow at another Blok. He whipped around when he heard a Creeper powering up to shoot him, aimed and . . .

Crud! Outta ammo. He thought and got ready to run behind the Creeper and scratch him from behind. He needn't have bothered though, as a pink-ish red blur swiped through the Creeper and flew back behind the giant boulder. Odd jumped out of the way of yet another laser.

"Be careful, Odd! I've hacked into a data file concerning the monsters. One blow from whatever that thing is and it's game over." Jeremy stated rather loudly, having noticed the dilemma of Ulrich being ignored by the new foe.

"Got it." He said as he dodged another laser (all the Creepers and Bloks left still flocking to Ulrich).

"Oh, and one other thing. X.A.N.A seems to have formed a sort of protective skin, around its body but couldn't do it completely, so, if my calculations are correct, the logical thing to do is aim for the crack." Jeremy said again as more typing could be heard. Odd nodded and dived behind a rock big enough to hide him if he curled up. He leaned out from the side slightly and aimed for the crack in the new monsters protective shell. Then he remembered.

"That'd probably work, Einstein, if I wasn't out of ammo." He growled slightly.

"Already done." The sight-impaired boy said knowingly. Odd huffed slightly as he perfected his aim and fired. The arrow managed to embed itself in the cracked surface of the monsters protective skin.

"Nice shot." He smirked as he was praised by his bird.

"Thanks, Rae-Rae." His smirk never faulted as he slowly stood, Ulrich and Yumi had totalled all the Bloks and Creepers, and Aelita was already melding with the tower. The blue thing (now that Odd thought about it, the thing sort of looked like a blue Turret) started to shake before exploding in a burst of flames. Odd ducked as a metallic plate flew in his direction, landing beside him. He picked it up and turned it in his hand. On the inside of the curved plate was X.A.N.A's symbol but it was glowing a faint red instead of the usual white.

Why red? What do you want X.A.N.A?

With Sissi (time of the attack) . . .

"Where the hell is she? I swear to God, if she's with Odd . . ." Sissi growled under her breath. She, Herve and Nicholas were sitting at their usual table.

"Uhh, maybe she went to her room to fix up her makeup." Nicholas said in an unconvincingly dumb tone. Sissi gave him the death glare.

"That's the thing; Shy doesn't wear makeup in any shape or form. What you is what you get with her." She lied through her teeth, but the boys didn't know that and certainly didn't need to know until the appropriate time came.

"Looks like Della Robbia's little gang aren't gonna show either." Herve said through a mouthful of food, Sissi's eyes widened slightly as she looked over at the empty table to her across the room.

"Hmm, I wonder . . ." She mumbled, her mother's side of the family had a secret, she knew. Shy was a part of that secret and whenever Sissi asked Shy what the secret was, Shy would just say that she wasn't allowed to tell; not even when her hair had started to shine purple. It hadn't always been iridescent, it used to like hers; pure black but a bit wavy. Shyanne's eyes hadn't changed, although they kept going the same purple her hair shone.

Maybe she's let Odd in on the secret . . . no way, she wouldn't trust him to that level. Not yet. She rested her head in a hand, Maybe the secret's got something to do with Uncle Trigon. Aunty Arella doesn't know that I know about him. A sly smile came to her face, Shy told me, Aunty Arella, Shy told me all about your little affair with a demon.

"Uh, Sissi?" Herve said nervously. Said girl looked up at him, "Is something wrong?"

"No, everything's absolutely fine."

I know not what the fuck-eth I'm saying-eth.